tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25970323124474294812024-03-13T22:24:55.408+05:30Broad strokes on the keyboardwritings about here, there and everywhere and about this, that and everything else...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-65079428548121933112013-08-30T15:29:00.000+05:302013-09-02T20:48:55.231+05:30Hello Baltics <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House of the Balckheads</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was not planned. Oh, Baltics was, Riga was not. My initial understanding of my itinerary was that I have to go to Vilnius at some point. A lot of time was spent reading up about Vilnius and Lithuania and learning from my colleague who lives there. But, Riga came up before that and there was an exciting meeting to attend and an interesting forum to speak at. The flight, mind you could be a little terrifying at the start. The planes which ply on these regional European routes are the smallest commercial planes could ever be. It was a small Bombardier this time, Air Baltic. Pretty stripped down budget airline with a rare direct connection between Warsaw and Riga. The airplane is so small that smoothness of the flight is totally a factor of wind and weather and plane's actual weight is a non entity. Anyways, I reached Riga, the small capital of Latvia in about 1 hour of flying. A beautiful tiny capital on the baltic sea, Riga is a delight for lovers of art-nouveau buildings and quaint cobblestone alleys.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Riga is only a small city, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in character and colour. You can travel everywhere by foot, and within minutes you’ll start to notice it’s a city that takes pride on skirting away from the norm. I didn't find the same generic shops, restaurants and bars that most major cities have bought into; instead every corner invites you to learn more about Latvian / Baltic culture, whether it’s one of the many restaurants offering potato rich Latvian cuisine, or one of the many shops stacked head-to-toe with books and vinyl records. In fact, this is the first capital city I’ve been to in which I just saw 1 (yes, just ONE) McDonalds sign.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was staying in the Old town area, so the first thing I did after reaching Riga in the evening was to stumble on the rough cobblestone streets, not once and not twice, but at least five times in a span of about a minute, simply because I was looking up at the buildings and not watching where I put my feet.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-5c484402-df3f-6034-bc24-8b36d7df2a43"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once that bout of clumsiness was over and I figured out how to walk again, I proceeded to spend a couple of hours, just walking, turning left and turning right, choosing random streets and lanes and just seeing where it would all lead me. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Riga old town is a colorful collection of restored historical buildings, which happens to contain the largest collection of German Art Nouveau architecture on the planet, a fact that, when read carefully, is quite an astonishing fact indeed. Riga and other baltic countries (Lithuania, Estonia) had a big German population until the Nazis arrived and sent them back to Germany. Riga also has a nice Indian restaurant, with a very corny name - ‘India Raja’. The food was delish and hosts nice (British, not Indian). British have become the biggest beacons for Indian food anywhere, if you go to an Indian restaurant and hear british people there, its bound to be good. They have a good palate for curry.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Lovely boats in the canal</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Cool colorful buildings where everywhere</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Bird's eye view of Riga and the daugava river</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qSUjQ1GOIo/UiBn3LrEOZI/AAAAAAAAa50/rBkQQrPE8J0/s1600/20130809_102441.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qSUjQ1GOIo/UiBn3LrEOZI/AAAAAAAAa50/rBkQQrPE8J0/s640/20130809_102441.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Freedom memorial</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Old town </span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next day was supposed to be all business and I attended a workshop which was almost all in Latvian. So, I basically checked email and wrote a blog post while smiling and nodding to the crowd. Such huge is the difference between Baltic languages that my colleague from Lithuania, which is just 400 km away couldn't understand a word either. The binding language for the Baltics is guess what? Russian. Yes, Russians pretty much ruled these lands till the 1990s until the USSR broke down. And, they are hated here. The baltic nations have one and only one foreign policy - ‘Do anything that pinches the russians’. I also learned that in order to get sovereignty and get the russian army to leave after USSR fell, Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians created a massive human chain of millions of people holding hands and walked to the russian border. Very interesting. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another great thing about the Baltics is the almost ubiquitous internet. Internet penetration is in the north of 80% and its incredible. When you walk into a restaurant, you are offered the menu and the password. I came to know of an interesting fact regarding this. When the Russians finally left in early 90s, Estonia thought of being a ultra modern state right away. They became the internet hub of Europe, leap-froged bureaucracy and became a totally e-governed state, almost completely paperless. Initially they even branded themselves as “e-Stonia”. High speed internet is almost a fundamental right here. Our 12% internet penetration suddenly looked a little low.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> That evening was spent dining with colleagues and partners at the ‘Biggest open rooftop restaurants in the region’, quite a place to spend an evening overlooking almost all of the city in every direction. Also, helpful was the fact that the days are really really long there, sun was yet to set at 10 PM. In the conversation, I discovered that Riga was a very important Hansa port on the Baltic sea.And, that explains the very ornate ‘House of the Blackheads’ (pic at the top). I had never before heard of the ‘Hanseatic League’. It was powerful commercial and defensive confederation of merchants all along the land and sea supply lines in Europe. Hansa cities and ports also had a very unique architecture, Hamburg used to be one of the most prominent ones. Luft’hansa’ - rings a bell?</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-5c484402-df40-ebbc-8fdc-b7d2a57ad801"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spent the next day in more meetings (thankfully in english) and then was invited to speak at the only startup accelerator in Latvia about Enterprise Technologies. A very enthusiastic, young bunch of entrepreneurs working on the next gen mobile apps and web based services. Roamed around the city again and it was wonderful. Riga is only around half a million people and although it has recently become famous as a party destination for piss drunk teenagers from western Europe (thanks to Ryanair), the city was very pleasantly not full of people. Very walkable and full of great architecture and beautiful little sights on every turn and corner. I particularly liked the two big churches in the small town, both in brick gothic and with very high watchtowers. One of the must dos in Riga according to tripadvisor was climbing the high watchtower of St Peter’s Basilica, I did that. I love vantage points, they give you a unique perspective of a place, they broaden your horizon, quite literally. The after a long ride on the elevator, which seemed to take ages I reached the top most part of the tower and the view was really breathtaking. That was infact the last thing I did in the city before heading back to Warsaw and I would consider it to be the highpoint of my visit (again, quite literally). </span></span><br />
<span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Impressed with how much of a unique culture, architecture and history this little country has packed in itself.Four months ago, I had not even dreamt of visiting Riga or Latvia and had a very very bleak idea of what the Baltic states are. But, having spent 3 days in this lovely city, I definitely understand more and what I had not even dreamt about is suddenly one of the coolest places I have seen. So much for four months.</span></span><br />
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<span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More later</span></span><br />
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<span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paldies!!</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com2Ljubljana, Slovenia46.056450899999987 14.5080702000000245.880177899999985 14.18534670000002 46.232723899999989 14.830793700000021tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-24481776578401631082013-08-09T10:41:00.000+05:302013-08-09T12:08:36.261+05:30The golden city of a hundred spires - Prague<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It might have been not more than 10-15 years since I first heard of Prague. It was a pretty unknown capital in the nineties, at least for people not from Europe. Capital of Czechoslovakia till 1990, no one would have dreamt of traveling to Prague because it was eastern bloc. The only reason we would ever quote Czechoslovakia during school was to check the other person's knowledge of its twisted spellings.<br />
But something happened after the iron curtain came down in the nineties and much like other cities of far more repute like Berlin, Prague reinvented itself as a destination of the alternative arts movement. All kinds of grunge artists, musicians, painters and writers started flocking to the city, which even the great (though a little eccentric) Franz Kafka called home. The whole metamorphosis of the city in this manner has been a tourism boon and Prague is suddenly on many travel buckets lists for people from all over the world.<br />
So, what were we expecting to find in the ancient capital of 'Bohemia'? Well, honestly a lot of heritage buildings, cobbled stone streets and hmmm,,,thats about it. We were a little skeptical because the over hyping of Krakow which everyone seemed to have done for us. Krakow was good, though a little dilapidated and crumbling. I guess maybe we missed the whole point of being in Krakow. But, to be honest it was just okay. The only highlight in Krakow was the Oscar Schindler factory and museum.<br />
Hence Prague was being planned with a high level of probability for a 'meh' kind of a reaction.<br />
We reached late in the evening and it was surprisingly warm. People with kids would attest and understand that if your kid behaves well during a flight and does not create embarrassing moments for you, your trip is half successful anyways. So, reaching Prague was good and we were looking forward to the next day of exploring the city.<br />
Susan Miller was correct, next day was a mini disaster. Sort of a day when you just want to go home and not even look outside the window. Prague was in the middle of a massive heatwave. It was 40 degrees there that day, totally not my idea of a place in Europe, absolutely not my idea of a day walking around the streets in hot, scorching sun. This reaction comes as a shocker to many, being Indians and also being exposed to the nastiness of the Australian sun people assume that 40 degrees might be a piece of cake for us. But, let me correct you, in India no one willingly ventures out in open sun say in June to 'enjoy' themselves. These kind of leisurely activities are parked till autumn or early spring. And, Australia thankfully has a wonderful cartel between sun and rain, so the day it touches a certain temperature in summer, rest assured you'll get some welcome showers in the night. So, being out in Prague that day trying to squint (to basically cut the amount of light entering and hence hurting your retinas) and look at all the gothic architectural marvels was excruciating. Oh, all this while we were taking turns in pushing a stroller with a kid and the poor guy looked tired and red like a slightly wilted tomato in all that heat. We had simply picked the wrong weekend to be here.<br />
So, after a quick stroll around the old town square (totally not enjoying it) we decided to just go back to the hotel and chill. Who remembers that sinking feeling one gets after spending the money and then realizing it just went down the toilet? I do, I do.<br />
But things have a way of working out, just when you decide to just screw it. We went for a boat ride on the Vltava river in the evening and although still hot, that was a good experience. We got another chance to see and thus appreciate the wealth of beauty that this city has. Prague has been a capital for most of the last 1200 or so years. At least a couple of Roman Emperors were based here and hence it was once a capital of the holy roman empire, followed by the Habsburg monarchy and their Austro-Hungarian empire. After the world war it became the capital of Czechoslovakia and we know the rest. But, since the city was around during the Romanesque period through to the Gothic and then the Renaissance, it has an imprint of all those periods on it. A good 70% of the building would still confirm to a more Gothic style of architecture though. A lot of famous landmarks, like the very well known Charles Bridge are named after, well Charles or Emperor Charles IV, whose reign was probably the golden era in Prague's history.<br />
The most amazing thing that strikes you while in Prague is the fact that there are streets and corners and building in the city which haven't changed fot the last 700 years. This city basically escaped WW2 untouched. Every corner of the city, believe me every corner has something to prove it. There are statues of Gods, sometimes just the busts and sometimes in full glory (read naked glory), which were amazing examples of workmanship. Possibly in every form of medieval architectural design style you know of, from gothic to baroque to renaissance. We saw the astronomical clock which has various urban legends around it, people still trying to figure out the hidden cryptic meanings of all the marking on it. The strange yet enormously beautiful <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4qhG6nndY">chimes and trumpet sequence</a> that the clock plays at top of every hour is a must watch. With elves and various figures coming out of small windows signifying a life and death philosophy. Tyn church is just across the big town center courtyard. The most original example of a gothic building you'll find anywhere, just beautiful.<br />
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Next day was reserved for the beautiful Prague castle or 'prazsky hrad'. This is one landmark which stands out in the whole city. Visible from everywhere, the castle is build on a hill. We took a tram which travelled uphill to one of the side entrances of the castle. You walk-in leisurely and as you take the first turn your eyes are greeted by something out of this world - Rising, as if from the pointed canopy of the trees, in front of the Prague castle is the cathedral of St Vitus, designed and commissioned in the 14th century by Charles IV, the then king of Bohemia and soon to be the Holy Roman Emperor. It is hands down the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life. It is something that dwarfs everything around it. Superb Gothic architecture and design and big scale beautiful construction. We went in and were amazed equally by the interior, the ornate stained glass windows and the unbelievably high ceiling. Breathtaking. Couldn't get enough of it. Strolled the various courtyards of the castle and also various side streets and alleys around it. This castle is also home to the President of Czech republic so had a wing which was pretty modern compared to majority of the structure.<br />
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Then we did, the opposite of what we had planned to do day before. We walked down the narrow yet very very beautiful street that leads to the rest of Prague through Charles bridge. It was an experience in itself. Almost pristinely medieval, this street is a must walk while in town. Small boutiques selling handicrafts and souvenirs, Kafka-esque art with existential theme and beautiful paintings of various parts if the town.<br />
Also feeling hungry since it was past lunch time, we were essentially looking for an Italian place to eat (the fact that you can always find some pizza and a couple of different pastas, this cuisine is godsend for vegetarians). But, surprise surprise, we saw 'Gopal vegetariansky restaurace'. This place was unique and superb, run by a Czech guy along with his wife. This guy is a ISKON follower, down to the last detail with a 'choti' and a 'hare krishna' kurta. Soft spoken almost to a fault, he welcomed us with folded hands, which even people in India have stopped doing. When asked for a menu he said, he has a set menu, a thali in a typical ISKON style with sabzi, daal, chawal and sweet. There comes a time while traveling when you are so sick and tired of eating out and that you just want something simple like daal chawal to eat. We were going through that time and Gopal was the perfect antidote. Simple comfort food is one of the most underrated great things in the world. We thanked him profusely for the amazing lunch (with folded hands, of course). Walked further down to the Charles bridge through the busy street with cafes and little boutiques selling all sorts of things. Facades which haven't changed in centuries and restaurant which have been around for decades if not more. Charles Bridge or 'karluv most' is one of the most recognized landmarks of the city, studded with 30 statues in baroque style. A walk across it ranked pretty high in my travel to-do list not long ago.<br />
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So, that was a superb end to our Prague trip after not-so-ideal start. Me and my wife both agree that Prague by far is the most beautiful city we have ever seen, there is a strange charm about this city which is different and unique. I have an inkling that Ljubljana or Paris might change our ranking of the most beautiful city a bit. A lot of travel coming up and I have some very interesting places in my itinerary. <br />
This blog is going to be a busy place.<br />
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More later.<br />
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Ciao</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com9Riga, Latvia56.9496487 24.1051863999999856.672694199999995 23.459739399999979 57.2266032 24.75063339999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-79893519038046891882013-07-31T15:31:00.000+05:302013-07-31T15:31:38.294+05:30Amazing quote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just wanted to post this,,,,thats it!!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0Warsaw, Poland52.2296756 21.01222870000003751.9184766 20.366781700000036 52.5408746 21.657675700000038tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-17383671933211508272013-07-22T14:10:00.000+05:302013-07-22T14:10:45.181+05:30European Summer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I think it was an year or two ago when I stopped making concrete plans, from smaller like travel to slightly more important like career. I am yet to regret it.<br />
A little less than a month before I was supposed to go, it became clear that I am going to skip the entire Australian winters and swap them out for nice European summer. I would have happily spent 3 month planning this trip but only had about 3 weeks till departure. Well, everything fell into its place and now I am in Warsaw with family for a 3 month gig on a totally different team and setup. This is one of those hidden wonderful things about Google, as soon as someone starts to plateau in their current role and needs motivation and a chance to re-activate some dormant parts of the brain, he/she could go on a rotation and learn completely new things and come back refreshed and recharged (throw a summer in Europe in this mix and things become more interesting).<br />
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Warsaw is not the kind of town which comes to ones mind when they think about Europe, honestly. London, Paris and Rome are more like it. But, Warsaw is amazing. It is this unique melting pot of east and west. This city was almost completely leveled in WW2. And, then came the Russians. Sometimes I have this pet research project I want to do, to find out if Stalin was in any way influenced by Alexander the great. He had an almost maniacal obsession with building a Soviet legacy in lands as far away as Cuba. Poland and other Eastern European countries were anyways his backyard. So, yes Warsaw, after the Russians were ousted in 1989 started to reinvent itself like the rest of Europe. One can still see the some parts of the city at this inflection point, where old Soviet style housing is giving way to glitzy glass corporate towers.<br />
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Since, its the first time we are in Europe and would spend at least a fourth of an year here, we were surprised by how different it is to what was in our mind. To start with, its damn beautiful, the street cafe scene is like none other and people really seem to love summers. We are put up in a nice apartment in the center of Warsaw and we are loving it.<br />
Here are my initial observation about Poland in general and Warsaw in particular:<br />
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1) Language :( For 3 days after we landed here, we had a hard time figuring out, what was going on. While asking for direction I had to stop and annoy 10 people on the street before running into someone who could say 'yes' or 'no'. Not many people speak English. It obviously is not the case in offices or other business but if you want to navigate around the city, you could only rely on your instinct (and/or google translate). All street signs, shop signs, labels, wrappers and advertisements are in Polish. The only english street sign I found was the one which said 'Road closed for Metro Construction'. Thanks, very helpful. At least 3 people at the supermarket took me to the toothpaste section when I asked for 'pasta' (only to find out later that pasta is 'makaron' in Polish).<br />
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2) I have seen many cities but none so homogeneously caucasian. Even in Delhi, one can find many different ethnicities. Sydney is superbly multicultural. Warsaw is the most ethnically and racially (even linguistically) homogeneous capital city I have seen. Three of us often stand out in a crowd very obviously.<br />
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3) 'Stare Miastos' or Old towns are beautiful. Almost all cities in central Europe have them, small or big. They are quite unlike the image of an 'old town' that forms in the mind of most Indians. These stare miastos are actually the heart of the city and something people are very proud of. Cobbled streets, old colorful houses, old trams and vintage charm is everywhere to be seen.<br />
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4) Summers. The only time (i have been told) one should even think of visiting Europe. And, rightly so. Though, I am not going to comment on winters and just how horrible they might be in these temperate lands, I'll definitely comment on summers and how beautiful they are here. The whole vibe of the city is of a big carnival, People seem to enjoy being out and in the warm sun. Streets are full of people till late and it helps and it only starts to look like evening by about 9:30 in the night and is pretty sunny till 8PM. Its beautiful flowers everywhere, which I think a lot of other cities in the world should learn from Europe. People bike, skate and just tend to linger on the street side cafes and restaurants.<br />
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So there, loving it here now. A lot of travel is scheduled for the coming 3 months. Some official, to places like Ljubljana (who would have thought) and some to more touristy, like Paris and Prague.<br />
Will keep updating here as and when I find time. Looking forward to the summer.<br />
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More late!!!<br />
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ciao.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Warsaw, Poland52.2296756 21.01222870000003751.9184766 20.366781700000036 52.5408746 21.657675700000038tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-52506252586317514502013-05-31T19:10:00.000+05:302013-05-31T19:30:12.530+05:3042 Days later..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It has been 42 days since I last saw what facebook looks like. And, it has been fantastic. For all of you who are worried about the enormous withdrawal symptoms, there isn't such a thing. I did not miss it even for a day.<br />
Then again, I did not even stick to the plan of writing blogs instead. I am actually writing after 41 days. So, what happend when I deactivated facebook? Let me fill you in.<br />
I deactivated on the 17th April and also deleted the app from my mobile and my tablet. I was worried that the weight of sheer boredom and muscle memory would be too heavy to resist checking the app on mobile for a 'just a little while'. Next morning started a little differently, instead of wasting time looking at other people's updates (or rather finding updates from the haystack of junk and spam), I actually read news. By the time evening came and into the next day I had completely forgotten my 634 'friends'.<br />
The real ones actually called to check on my sudden decision and genuinely agreed to all my rant.<br />
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42 days later I realized that in fact my will to be away from a useless activity which was clearly becoming a nagging addiction was greater than the pull that activity had on me. Its funny because the only reason I did not deactivate my profile earlier was because I never thought I would be able to do it. But, believe me when I say this YOU DONT MISS FACEBOOK. After a day or so, you just dont.<br />
I would encourage everyone to try it, its liberating and requires no rehab.<br />
I am actually planning to rejoin the service, which is as easy as signing back in. But, I wont do it without a big spring cleaning of my friend list. No one can have 634 friends, its impossible. So, how do I plan to go about cleaning it? I have come up with a method, it goes like this...<br />
...if I have ever in my life till now spent more than 5 mins talking to someone face to face in my timeline, they will stay in my timeline. For the rest, lets be honest, If we havent spoken in all these years for even 5 mins, what are the chances we are going to do so in the near future? Let me break this to you, 'close to none'. End of the day the only updates and photos we actually care about on facebook are from the people we secretly hate ;)<br />
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<i>-everyone who has ever called me 'dear' is going too.</i><br />
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<i>-you like your own pics? bye bye</i><br />
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<i>-oh, you like ending all comments with 'god bless'? Adios</i><br />
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<i>-football fanatic living in India and cursing everyone after a loss as if you are from the home counties? Take a hike</i><br />
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There would still be people who I would delete from the list, even if we have spoken for hours. The only reason for this would be: that you are a chronic spammer, and have been sending me 'bubble safari' and 'cityville' invitation everyday. Or, have been asking all your friends to like photos of dead soldiers or unwell kids. I am going to create an excel sheet (yes, I am that old) and keep track of how many spammy posts you make. If you hit the threshold of 3 posts in 2 days (I will be watching) you are out. So, DO NOT CLICK THAT LIKE BUTTON.<br />
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See you all there soon.<br />
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[most of this post has been written in jest. Please do not change your FB behavior and spam as much as you can (i hope someone falls into this trap)]<br />
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-more later<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-54261644445550426992013-04-17T07:39:00.000+05:302013-04-17T07:39:49.706+05:30Facebook fatigue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I joined on the 29th July 2007. It was still Orkut's territory in India and only a handful of known people were on facebook. I spent the better part of 2007 with just a bunch of friends active on the network. But, it felt good, it was way better than the social mess that Orkut had become. Only a few 'like-minded' people here and no open public scrapbooks and no more orkut's much hated 'who visited your profile' tool. This term wasn't coined back then but may be it was a case of Orkut fatigue.<br />
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Facebook hence started to flourish. Friends started joining, after initial throws of change management from scraps to likes and comments facebook started becoming a good place to spend time. I was sort of a power user myself, always signing up to receive the first changes like timeline or sponsored stories or more recently graph search. I was the early adopter, I also surprisingly never cribbed about changed designs or mobile versions. I was all in. Shared tonnes of photographs, became friends with absolutely anyone I remotely recognized, status updates by the dozens per week and always being 'on' whether it was the website or the apps on mobile.<br />
And, then I became sick of it all. There is a very popular saying in north india, whenever your day is panning out badly people say "Pata nahi uth kar kiski shakal dekhi thi?", which means "Dont know who I saw first thing in the morning today?". I usually wake up at 5:30 in the morning and the first thing I do after checking email on my phone is open facebook and then look at thousands of faces some known some not so much and other completely unknown and hence I cant put a precise blame on "who I saw first thing in the morning" if my day turns out bad.<br />
But, jokes apart facebook for me has outgrown the intended use periphery. I have 650 friends. Really?? Yes, last time I checked, it was 654 with 21 friend requests pending and about 55 followers. The intended use case for me was being in touch with friends, see there pictures when they share and generally being in the know of what my connections are doing. But, now those updates are just 10% of my timeline at any point of time.<br />
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<i>Hey people at facebook, why would I ever be interested in knowing if one of my friend's friend like Calvin Klein underwear or 50 shades of grey? Thats just creepy. I also never understood why I am being shown pictures of dont know who if one of my friends like them. Any rant about the amount of useless spam would be like repeating myself after gazillions of people.</i><br />
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So, I deactivated facebook today morning and also deleted the app from my phone and tablet. Bliss. I am sure, just like with every other addiction there are going to be withdrawal symptoms like 'sudden uncontrollable urge to see random photos and like them' or 'ask random people how fabulous their life is and where they had their last vacation' etc etc. But you know what, I am determined to kick this habit. I am going to use up that time to update here. Or, if nothing else play with my toddler son while at home. So much more fulfilling.<br />
Recently I asked myself - what I think would be the earliest images Yuri would have of me when he grows up? Scarily enough I saw myself lounging on the sofa browsing facebook on my phone. Screw you facebook, not any more.<br />
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More later.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-72643693369513152252013-01-14T06:46:00.003+05:302013-01-14T07:08:21.690+05:30If running was easy... :(<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Seriously, I hate people who seem to be born with lean genes. I mean come on, stop acting like you worked hard for it. All of us know atleast one person who falls into this 'elite' category. Someone who is loved and appreciated on face but is the target of all those cuss words we say while running on a steep incline.<br />
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To be honest, I used to be one till age 25 or so, eat what you like, as much as you like, take your motobike even if you want to travel 135 meters and..... still no flab, no extra chins, no jiggly-jaggly embarrassing upper body while walking etc etc. Just lean muscle, 12-14% body fat percentage, 21-22 BMI with some visible muscle definition.<br />
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And, suddenly one fine day something changes and you dont notice it, so you keep eating the way you do and taking your motorbike everywhere. But, suddenly your body has decided to shift gears from 'who gives a crap' to 'WTF have I been eating' and in 2-5 months (depending upon your daily food intake and average torso girth of your immediate family) you cant just run down the stairs without people noticing a 'bounce' in your shirt. DAMN EMBARRASSING.<br />
I still did not realize the gravity of this situation then and let it happen. It took almost 6 months and embarrassing name calling from friends and my girlfriend that I decided to join a gym and start running. Initial reaction: "Hah, I'll just start running from tomorrow morning, maybe run 4-5 kms each day at a good pace and in a week or two, I'll be back to my old self, easy". That weekend was spent in buying some high end running equipment and apparel, best running shoes from Nike, matching apparel, arm/head bands, separate earphones (who carries the sweaty ones to office? do you? gross). I looked like a runner, a pretty serious one at that, tomorrow we will see if I actually was one.<br />
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1) It took me mere 5-6 seconds to do the first 15 meters and 5-6 minutes to regain my breath.<br />
2) None of the usual morning walkers there had seen someone so professionally dressed for the task but totally miserable at it. (I could have been sponsored by Nike)<br />
3) The headband was probably a overkill. <br />
3) Thankfully the Canadian lady who used to run usually, did not come that day.<br />
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(I did not venture out to run for another week) <br />
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You see the point, right. Running is hard. To the uninitiated it looks like a slightly faster dumb activity of putting one feet ahead after the other, its not. Well it took me almost 8 months to justify the expensive running gear purchase, just about. By the end of one full year running I could manage 5 Kms without a couple of cardiac arrests. Achievement. This could have become a lifelong passion and lead to Marathons and Olympic golds but then you know how it is outside the daydream world. Too happy with myself and my new found old physique, I stepped off the running bandwagon and onto the pizza/garlic bread/paranthas one. I was sure, now that I've figured out running I will just start again, when ever I want and then viola lean again. Wrong, idiot, moron.<br />
It had taken me almost 6 months to first gain weight, it took me 2 now. Once the body discovers its elasticity of expansion, its hard to restrict it to normal, sexy, Brad Pitt-ish parameters. And, then began my on sometimes, off often love affair with running. In the meantime I've discovered some smart ways of masquerading the michelins at my waist and 2.1 chins with strategic clothing patterns, color combinations and tactful use of facial hair.<br />
I usually wake up at 5:30 AM, run 5 Kms four times a week clocking 27-30 mins per run and currently weigh the lightest I've been in the last 3 years. Not that I love to, I HAVE to. What with all these tailored shirts and size M t-shirts I've bought recently, I actually cant afford a size jump now, or for atleast 6 more months. I am screwed.<br />
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Only if running was easy... :(<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-14002559932720891652012-03-22T05:38:00.000+05:302012-03-22T07:15:28.496+05:30No impossibles here..One of the most amazing qualities of the human mind is the ability to analyze a situation. Sharpened by years of experiences good or bad, curated by education and learning, our ability to analyze something can act as our sixth sense and also sometimes substitute intuition.<br />
But I have come to realize in all these years that my mind has had this ability, that it also is the biggest hinderance to creativity and following your will.<br />
I have been and still am a realist, my mind for some reason can come up with all the pros and cons of a situation almost instantaneously and that I think has hurt my ability of free thinking, my creativity and to some extent my imagination. I realized that I have utter disgust for Harry Potter, Twilight series and even Lord of the Rings, all of them examples of massively popular cult fantasy fiction. On the other hand I am totally smitten by Espionage thrillers and non fiction. Its not bad at all and I am sure there are many who would have such choices. Why its bad in my context is because I have stopped appreciating the fact that people who wrote these fantasy books have copious amounts of imagination so vivid that they have created new worlds and universe' altogether. All I keep telling myself when I hear someone talking about works of fantasy literature or movies is "its not possible". I like Spy fiction because everything that happens in there is totally possible and work of a super analyzing, logical brain.<br />
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Being too much of a realist and logical thinker is a bad thing, very bad thing. We create limitations for ourselves because we over think and over analyze. Whenever I think of leaving everything else and become a traveling photographer (who doesn't want to be one?), this thought is hit so hard in the belly by my over analyzing brain that it shudders to even think of returning for a good 3 months. Within seconds I come up with questions like 'where would the money come from?', 'what if you fail?', 'what is the plan B?', 'what do Shveta & Yuri do in the meanwhile?', 'will my phone work on the mountain?', 'where will I sleep?', 'what if there is no vegetarian food?' 'would twitter work there?', 'can I do without watching the next episode of Homeland?' etc etc. End result - NOT POSSIBLE!! keep doing what you do, don't try to be a superhero. I am not saying that I don't have imagination at all, I have it and quite a vivid one at that. I keep thinking about the possibilities of alternative life decisions, what if I had become a GIS scientist like I wanted? What if I had thrown the care to the winds and studied Art and literature? What if my mind in all these years and during all these decisions didn't tell me 'NOT POSSIBLE'? What if..?? All these bouts of imagination last for 3 minutes may be 5 and then they are blurred so badly by logic and common sense that it becomes hard to hold on to what could have been possible.<br />
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Whats done is done, I cant change many things around now (there, I said it again), But I can still curb my mind's over-analyzing habits and natural bent towards saying 'Not Possible'. The slow but steady work is on and I have an unusual and interesting teacher who is helping me get there. He is just 6 months, can barely crawl, just started eating solids and is teaching me one of the most important lessons of my life. Yuri knows no bounds. His mind is free, he has just started sitting up but wants to stand, reach out to the highest thing in the room and is not frightened of falling in doing so. I am sure most of the parents know what I am talking about and would have experienced this. I am a first time dad and this is the first time I am discovering the world of possibilities if everyone started thinking like a child.<br />
Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?, where parents teach their kids stuff and teach them worldly wisdom? It is, right? But, I am amazed that it took a 6 month old to teach me whats possible for a uncluttered mind (and I am in the 30th year of my life). He wants to hold everything, claw his way up to a standing position, reach out to the farthest thing and is not limited by the fact that he can barely just sit yet. (And the over thinker that I am, I am already worried that as soon as he grows up, he would start thinking about the pros and cons)<br />
But for now, I am totally loving my lessons everyday. Loving the realization that life should be lived with more space for possibilities that limitations, and how important it is to keep your head clear because it doesn’t matter how bright the road ahead is if your head is always cloudy. <br />
One long, boring, evangelistic post later, I think I am wiser than I was a few months ago.<br />
And yes, thanks for the lessons little buddy. Thanks for making me understand, for the first time in my life why William Wordsworth said "The child is the father of man". I don't know if I would ever be able to teach you something as important as this thing I learned from you (something that everyone of us can learn from children). But still, I guess I owe you one.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Sydney NSW, Australia-33.873651 151.2068896-33.8868345 151.1871486 -33.860467500000006 151.22663060000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-29138433342777315692011-09-12T08:56:00.000+05:302011-09-12T08:56:05.625+05:30Breakfast in New York, Lunch in London.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It is a warm spring day in New York. I am walking on this beautiful tree lined street which has cafes on both sides. Everyone I pass while walking has a welcome smile (i noticed atleast 3 of the 5-6 girls that I passed, looked exactly like my wife). Wondering how could this be, I continue walking, almost in love with the balmy day and the nice feel-good vibe. I have almost made up my mind that this is the place I am going to spend the rest of my life in.<br />
The cafes on kerb all smell of fresh coffee and mouthwatering baked delicacies. I decide to have breakfast. I order coffee (which strangely tasted like tea) and also start eating the dish which I cant remember what it was. The pleasure of having this breakfast equalled the one I used to have while gorging on Aalu parathas as a kid, with Chai and pickle. This breakfast was almost the same, very nostalgic. I finished my breakfast and started walking. Now, this part of New York looks more like Palampur or Kasauli. I also seem to know the roads better.<br />
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I dont know why but I am hungry again, I remember having had this awesome breakfast a short while ago. But I am hungry now and I start looking for a place to have lunch. And, how powerful is the human thought, I notice that there is a restaurant far ahead, rather a 'dhaba' and I rushed towards it. It is a very typical small town dhaba, complete with plastic chairs and smoke bellowing from the ceiling chimney. As I was walking towards this place I also noticed that there are no highrise buildings in sight on this street. Its just a road with trees on both sides.
I reached the dhaba and felt totally at home, I do no longer feel the de-riguer sense of being a newbie in a strange city. The hosts are friendly and I could hear a faint hindi film song in the background. Dont know what song it is, is it a Kishore Kumar song? or has it suddenly changed to Backseatboys?. Frankly I cant tell. All I am concerned about right now is food. I order daal, tandoori roti and a gravy, fresh onions cut into rings and lassi. As I am waiting for the food to be served, I am wondering how quickly has London changed from a bustling metropolis a few blocks behind to this quite street with a dhaba. I see no one on the streets, they are totally empty. Oh, it struck me, they all are empty because 9/11 has just happened and I imagine people running and buildings falling not far from here. Ok, now it makes sense, this street is empty because all the people here in London are busy running away from falling WTC towers. Lunch is served, WOW am I loving it? Hell yes, never thought London would be this easy for a vegetarian. This city is awesome. I am totally enjoying this lunch, Daal is rocking, spicy and thick and potato gravy is like nothing I had ever had before. I finished my lunch and noticed no one here asked for any money from me. Oh, ok they would probably charge my card. Ok, makes sense, they would charge my card.
As I walked out of the dhaba another lady walking on the road smiled at me. C'mon this cant be happening, even this lady looks exactly like my wife........<br />
<br />
.......Next station Town Hall followed by Wynyard and then Milson's Point. My bag slipped from my lap and was about to fall when I noticed the person sitting next to me stood up and left. Looking around with just one eye open, I realize this indeed was my stop. Wiping drool off my face, I hurriedly leave the train on to the station. F@#k, I had fallen asleep on this goddam train. This is not New York (which suddenly changed to London), this is Sydney. I am not a tourist, I go to work everyday. Oh, this is probably the lost sleep at night working overtime here on train. I had a breakfast of cereals and not Aalu parathas. I am hungry.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com2Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8689009 151.2070914-34.2908004 150.5753774 -33.4470014 151.83880539999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-57394646998081822872011-08-23T09:01:00.000+05:302011-08-23T09:01:04.937+05:30Pack your bags mate!!!! Lets do some OZ!!When I move, it usually happens because of inertia. With 'move' I mean the physical equivalent of a move. The amount of laziness in my day to day life can be used to make atleast 3 people super lazy (if you use the lame 'amount of money that x has can feed y number of...' analogy). That said when I realized that within a couple of months of moving from one job to another (as if this was not too much), I would be moving to a completely different country, lock stock and barrel !!!!! I lost much of the meagre 8+ hours of sleep that I usually get each day.<br />
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Its not easy, I can tell you with first hand experience. There are so many moving parts to this process which are not visible on the surface and absolutely anything can go wrong and frustrate the crap out of you. In my case it was the Visa process. Believe me I didnt even had to apply for it, Google hired some agency to do it for me. But the whole retarded process of waiting for it is like the 80's hindi film songs where the lead pair is running towards each other in slow motion. That is really irritating, everyone knows they would end up hugging and kissing each other, then why the slow motion. Just do it. Well, even I knew my visa is going to come but they took 6 weeks just to put a stamp on it. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-loBaELRr334/Tk5CN8KyhLI/AAAAAAAAC84/yaEIsEvY_WE/s1600/6-trv.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="264" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-loBaELRr334/Tk5CN8KyhLI/AAAAAAAAC84/yaEIsEvY_WE/s320/6-trv.gif" /></a></div><br />
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I took that in my stride, visa came, everything is fine, done and dusted. Now the grind starts. This time there is no red tape to blame, nothing you could probably get done by slipping a quick note to the God while praying each day. This was the stuff that me and Shveta had to accomplish within a week : Pack the stuff in the house, send it back to Bilaspur, sell my car, Some shopping here and there, paying the bills, meeting everyone, go back home meet parents, probably attend a wedding, find a international courier to send stuff to Sydney and last but not the least if there is time left, get some rest/sleep etc. This is where the 'move' thing comes. I am constantly in Inertia of Rest, as Newton would have called it. The Escapist inside me, who tries to puts everything off till the last minute is a full-time employee of mine. That procrastinator is my personal assistant, he cancels all the meetings and important decisions till about the 11th hour and also is efficient enough to provide me with excuses for doing that. I never had any complaints for him (though my wife hates him), hence I never found any grounds to fire him.<br />
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But this time because of peer pressure and pressure from the Board of Directors (read wife) he has to be fired. It pained my heart but it had to be done. So, my days during the process became something like this : wake up at 6, try to go running, cajole my mind out of it, sleep till 7, start calling packers and movers for quotes, go to market- do random stuff, start packing everything according to the guidelines created by Shveta, Shopping time, review the to-do lists, sleep, wake up in the middle of the night - think about what the hell is going on. Now repeat this for atleast 15 days and you have a recipe that takes you to a mental asylum and not the sunshine country.<br />
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I dont know how but all this stuff was wrapped up too, all in a week's time. Though super hectic but still fun. The moment we buckled up in the plane to fly for Sydney from Delhi, I started missing India. Remember the feeling of sending a mail and then thinking "Shit!! Can I unsend it and think about it a bit"? I had the very same feeling, I kept telling Shveta that we are going to come back soon. Already little sad about leaving India we overcame the sadness by criticizing the bad service and seats on the plane (apparently an instant mood-uplifter for most Indians: Criticizing). Soon, we were loving it, our sadness was transformed into sheer displeasure for the service, even after flying business. Halfway through the Journey, that feeling was already gone, replaced by hunger and pain from stiff necks. Loved the second leg of the journey though, amazing proactive service and great food. One Tip: If you wish to travel International in the near future, make sure you travel with a Pregnant lady ;). They take really good care of them in the skies.<br />
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Sydney gave us a cold and wet reception, almost like a snob neighborhood kid who is not happy to see you because he thinks you are here to take his toys away. Thank God for the fact that we were going home to my sister and could anticipate some nice hot India food. That kind of cold and wet weather makes you a hell lot homesick. We thought its not going to be easy settling in. Boohoo, we were missing India.<br />
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Its been more than 1 month since that day. I feel settled in, Shveta feels at home and summers here are just a month away. Sydney is beautiful, has these pockets of calm and chaos,old and new and makes you a friend easily. My next project is finding a nice place to call home, I keep improvising my shortlist all the time.<br />
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All this while I am trying to keep pace with the city, catching trains on time, brisk walking to office and enjoying being orderly and disciplined. In this 1 month I have already figured out the train timetables for Sydney, learned how to make coffee in the coffee machine at office (designed to make people quit drinking coffee), can almost decipher the meaning out of an Australian English conversation, got a hang of the driving rules and have come to terms with life without honking and jumping queues. But Still, sometimes when I wake up in the morning, all I crave for is 'The Times of India' to kick start my day.<br />
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Ciao<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-38820691360325310632011-08-16T10:16:00.000+05:302011-08-16T10:16:46.213+05:30What really is Independence day??This is probably the first time in my life that I was working on the Independence day and loved it. Well, I am not trying to sound too NRI-ish here because 1) I am not 2) I really loved it, for a change.<br />
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Its amazing how our brain remember things and words only because there is a story or picture associated with them. For example When someone says Bat, and Indian would definitely think of a wooden Club used to play cricket and not the flying fox. Whenever I read or hear 15th August, It reminds me of a Holiday and a couple of Nationalistic sounding songs. I am sure like most of my friends in India, I would have been more excited about the whole 15th August thing this time because it was a long weekend. Seriously thats the only thing we care about these days, long weekends. Go for movies, dinners, plan out a trip to the hills, drink and when you come back load the pics onto facebook. Album title 'Independence day weekend' and yeah make sure that our profile pic is replaced by the Indian Flag till atleast 17th August. Thats Independence Day.<br />
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I remember the last independence day and also a couple of them before the last. The most patriotic thing I did last year was buy a small Rs 5 Indian Flag at the Traffic light in Delhi to put up on my Car's dash. I didn't put it there eventually but, hey I atleast bought it. And also an Independence Day may be an year before because I felt terrible at not having an Indian Flag like everyone else to put on my office desk, though I had diligently put one up on my Orkut profile.<br />
In Sydney this time, I came to work yesterday. Spent the whole day working and in meeting and went home after a good productive day. It was kind of liberating because I didn't have to prove that I care about Independence day by buying flags. <br />
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I think we are the worst generation that India has seen since Independence. We are a generation of Armchair thinkers and Twitter Revolutionaries. We are the ones who put the most flags and start the most number of public conversations, and do nothing. I think we have wrongly started to assume that words written on Twitter or expressed on a blog like I am doing are impacting a change and would eventually make India a better place. It saddened me to the core reading the headlines on Indian dailies this morning. Someone who tried to do something and not just pretend like we do, had been arrested and disallowed. Numerous updates on this have been posted to twitter since morning and if you are following the right people, the story has already been converted into jokes. And pay attention please, its only 16th August today and most of the DP flags are still there.<br />
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Just because we posted it here on blogger, tweeted on twitter, shared on Google+ and updated on Facebook, many of us believe we have done our part. <br />
India probably needs a huge 'Cleaning up the mess' drive. I don't know how but I know who would do it. Its eerie to even try and work up a similarity with events that happened in Egypt and rest of the middle east couple of months ago.<br />
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I have nothing more to add here, would go back to my happy existence and pretend to ignore whats happening on the streets of Delhi today. Let me read some technical articles and not think of the rot thats crippling my country.<br />
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I am sure this was a good blogpost that I wrote, I am sure most of you who read this would be nodding your heads. And that exactly is the problem, we have started mixing the real world with the virtual. We have convinced ourselves that since we wrote/read the patriotic article on a blog and listened to some patriotic songs on Youtube, thats exactly the amount of patriotism we require these days.<br />
I am not against being social on the net. In fact I am the most ardent fan of the things I just described here as bad. My only request is that if you find a Patriotic article on twitter, Facebook or Google+, go ahead and share, But don't stop there.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Pyrmont NSW, Australia-33.8695456 151.19454040000005-33.8764616 151.18808390000004 -33.862629600000005 151.20099690000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-65276621041985609162011-08-16T08:19:00.001+05:302011-08-16T09:12:28.085+05:30Googling GoogleMountain View is not the kind of town which could give the first time visitor any indication of its importance. Like many other small towns on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Real_(California)">El Camino Real</a> it has a old world charm and laidback persona. <br />
But this little town has been the center piece of my imagination for a longtime now, only because Google Inc, the organizer of world's information is headquartered here. I used to form pictures of this town in my mind when I first heard that Google is HQ-ed here and they were of a Space age city with lots of fancy cars and super cool technology. I must say I was taken aback. The only indication that Google may be around here for any first time visitor is the ubiquitous 'GoogleWifi'.<br />
I reached Moutain View near noon after a very annoying and tiring 13 hour flight with the worst service one could imagine and all I could think of was a hot shower and hot Indian food (though still imagining about the space age town).<br />
Believe me Mountain View or MTV (as it is known inside Google) looked different and beautiful partly because of the un-hurried vibe but also because I saw an Indian restaurant right across the street from my Hotel. Waaah, my day is made, took a shower in record time and gorged on some south Indian delicacies.<br />
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Next day was big, figuratively speaking. Had been planning this day for many years, What is it like to be at the GooglePlex? Are all those Youtube videos true? What is to be at the heart of where it all started?<br />
11th July 2011 answered most of these for me. Googlebus was there to pick us up in the morning and wow it had wi-fi. The campus is enormous and nothing like what used to play inside my head (space age, flying saucer like vehicles and robots all around). Rather its such a cool and leafy surrounding. Brick buildings housing different teams and google bikes like the ones in the Pic below for transportation. I was sold yet again, isn't one of the reasons why we love Google is that its so simple and friendly? These google bikes made me love the place a bit more (would have been a different feeling if there were cars or buses). Our training was happening in a building that was a little removed from the real 'Plex', so the first lunch time cycle ride to famed 'Charlie's Cafe' was the real thing. I wanted to see everything and also take a pic of everything like a 5 year old in Disney Land for the first time. A dedicated Indian 'Namaste Cafe' didn't disappoint a bit either.<br />
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Took numerous trips around the campus on the lovely cycles in the after hours to see all the landmarks at Google. From 'Stan the dinosaur' to Space Ship One and the Giant Android to the Google Store. I loved the vibe of the campus, everyone is friendly and helpful and you run frequently into guys who look exactly like the ones who come to your mind when you think about words like 'nerd', 'engineer', 'geek' and 'hacker'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SY-miHJgtKw/TknSpS8bJzI/AAAAAAAAC8g/XvpNsnUZCdc/s1600/IMG_0344.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="239" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SY-miHJgtKw/TknSpS8bJzI/AAAAAAAAC8g/XvpNsnUZCdc/s320/IMG_0344.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iB0eXYR6veQ/TknSxmgzakI/AAAAAAAAC8o/f0hrlHnUTvI/s1600/IMG_0359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iB0eXYR6veQ/TknSxmgzakI/AAAAAAAAC8o/f0hrlHnUTvI/s320/IMG_0359.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ailXAd9xYQs/TknS7P6AmzI/AAAAAAAAC8w/KcE1EfcPFqY/s1600/IMG_0361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="239" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ailXAd9xYQs/TknS7P6AmzI/AAAAAAAAC8w/KcE1EfcPFqY/s320/IMG_0361.JPG" /></a></div><br />
One of the evening social events that was on schedule was a 'Bowling Social'. I had thought we would be put in the Googlebus and transported to some Downtown bowling alley in MTV or Palo Alto. On the evening of the event we were rather asked to take the cycles and go to another building. Whatt????? Google has an on-campus bowling alley aswell?? yeahh, it does and how cool is that. I would have totally made that place my 'Adda' if I was working in MTV. The Bowling Social without doubt was fun with the team from Dublin beating the shit out of everyone.<br />
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Didn't realize it was almost a week since I had come to MTV, last day here was a friday. Another big day figuratively speaking. I had been imagining this day as well, for sometime now. Why? because friday at Google means TGIF. Yes, the weekly event where no matter how big or small you are in the company, its your chance to be in front of the Big shots and ask questions. I went there early and took the TGIF equivalent of a Balcony seat. It was 5 PM and who did I see walk past right next to me, yes Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Whoa, disbelief (the celeb gazer that I am). Larry was quite 'dressed up' which in Google terminology means wearing a jeans and a polo. But the interesting part was Sergey Brin, in shorts, a sweaty t-shirt and socks, yes you read it right, socks no shoes. Whoaa..whats happening?? Aren't these guys the founders of one of the most recognized companies and oft-used web service in the world? worth $38 billion each? And where are the airs and the Charisma? Well, there is none. Engineers at heart these guys are the closest you can get to the Billionaires who behave like normal human beings. My respect for this company's culture of openness and coolness just went a notch up. <br />
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As I was walking out of the event to pack for my flight back to Sydney, I realized Google is not a company, its the 'zeitgeist'. Its the way people in my generation think and behave and express themselves. Google is tuned to that wave length, it knows why and what we are. And, I was here at Google, attended TGIF, heard Larry and Sergey standing right next to me crack self-deprecating jokes and ate at Charlie's Cafe. It had finally happened.<br />
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I went back to the hotel, packed and left for San Francisco International for the flight back to Sydney, proudly wearing a satisfying smile and my Google T-shirt.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1Pyrmont NSW, Australia-33.8695456 151.19454040000005-33.8764616 151.18808390000004 -33.862629600000005 151.20099690000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-62779292213119120602011-06-05T12:41:00.001+05:302011-07-24T09:41:09.855+05:30On the PlatformHow quickly loyalties change, really. Till about 2 years back I could not even fathom myself using any other phone than a Nokia. With peer pressure and reluctantly last year I got on to the Blackberry bandwagon, was hooked and could not imagine myself going back to Nokia again. This year the iPhone happened. I havent ever sweated so much for a single piece of gadget, as I did for the iPhone 4. It has me in love till now and suddenly Blackberry seems so year 2000s (oh, you dont have angry birds and Talking tom on your BB?, ok)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-54d85GegVjc/TespeFfdGqI/AAAAAAAAC04/ooEM7SQIoiE/s1600/nokia-cell-phone-for-sale-with-camera-attached1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="279" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-54d85GegVjc/TespeFfdGqI/AAAAAAAAC04/ooEM7SQIoiE/s320/nokia-cell-phone-for-sale-with-camera-attached1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Its amazing how fast new platforms are coming and how quickly they come in the reach of ordinary folks like me these days. I still remember vividly from school days when Game Boy was something only boys with NRI relatives used to have, or in college in Palampur when having a camera in your phone made you an instant hit in the University (Hey, I am friends with the guy with camera phone. Can I come ahead in the queue?)<br />
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Jokes apart, Its actually becoming tough to form loyalties here. Just got a gadget from office the other day and now testing yet another platform, Android. This time its a not just a phone I am playing with but rather a 'over grown' phone Samsung Galaxy Tab. I know I am an Apple aficionado but errr.. Android is damn cool.<br />
I have avoided using the term OS (Operating System) here because its not just about the OS anymore. Like the Symbian days when only Nokia phones were easy to operate, all others like Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and Motorola sucked big time. That was the age of the OS, you had to live and die with whatever the OS had to offer.<br />
Unlike then, this is the age of Platforms. Apart from the features you offer to the customer inbuilt, what else is on offer in your device through the larger ecosystem of developers is the thing that really matters. I am of the opinion that the mobile phone revolutions is not happening because of the devices but because of the Apps.<br />
No matter how useless they are, like talking tom or (my wife's favorite) Angry birds if you dont have them on your mobile phone, sorry but you are missing something. Gone are the days when employers had to be cautious about employees wasting time on the internet on games or chatting. Now they have to closely look at the devices in everyone's hands, sending out tweets and texts or twitpic-ing sleeping co-workers in board meetings. <br />
Give yourself 1 year and be ready to see these new platforms ruling our lives, from real-time traffic updates on maps to spying on cheating husbands. The age of dumb phones is over, smart phones have started controlling our lives. The reason we would see a huge activity in this area is partly because of Android. The open source/open standards platform that is bringing the cutting edge apps, which till recently were only meant for so called Apple Snobs, within reach of everyone. Android has everything that Apple's iOS has and still your eyes dont pop out when you see that shiny little tag with a barcode. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KmX7p8LyYCU/Tesp1VYOlwI/AAAAAAAAC1I/yW-SwiUPFRQ/s1600/nielsen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="285" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KmX7p8LyYCU/Tesp1VYOlwI/AAAAAAAAC1I/yW-SwiUPFRQ/s320/nielsen.png" /></a></div><i>(Click on the picture to enlarge)</i><br />
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See <a href="http://www.phonearena.com/news/Nielsen-says-that-you-want-an-Android-phone-not-an-Apple-iPhone-or-a-BlackBerry-model_id18430">this report</a> for yourself to see where its headed.<br />
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So, after I complete this Android testing exercise, who knows may be my iPhone would be listed on eBay. I dont know, its one relationship where the more you shy away from being committed the better it is.<br />
Apples, Blackberries, Androids all coming our way with much high velocity its better we be welcoming.<br />
And, yeah sorry, there is also this 'Mango' from Microsoft. But, right now I am not saying much about them because apparently they just woke up.<br />
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ciaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-28523695364599355472011-05-24T13:55:00.069+05:302011-05-25T08:38:51.980+05:30The lifestory of a photograph...<i>Story behind some of the best pics I have clicked<blockquote></blockquote></i><br />
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All of us travel for different reasons. These days most of the times it is for getting away from the madness that our lives have become. Pressures of workplace, weird bosses, weirder boyfriends/girlfriends and just breaking the rut are most often the primary reasons.<br />
I travel, so that I would be able to click photographs. A vertically stacked existence, that is living in highrise apartments only gives you an opportunity to click either neighboring buildings or if you are lucky and your neighbor has a beautiful daughter....you know what I mean..<br />
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I dont count myself as a black-belter in photography just as yet, but one thing is clear I am not a shutterbug. I am more of a thoughtful photographer who thinks before he presses that little chrome button. I probably wouldnt have 1000 photographs from a 2 days trip, I would have just a handful but with a story behind each (Ya ya I know I am great).<br />
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Here is a collection of some of these pics, handpicked from my collection. Which according to 'me' deserve the space here with a story. Click on the pics to enlarge them.<br />
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Here is why they were clicked :<br />
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<i>On the face of it HongKong is a concrete jungle. Still, the city has a deep connection with history and a remarkable human touch. An old man trying to catch fish in the middle of this urban behemoth is just that face of this city. On being asked if he caught any, the answer was "the fight is on"</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FTUnFcFmV9M/TdtQ1xfLxrI/AAAAAAAACz8/Uay61-tO-gg/s1600/DSC_0348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FTUnFcFmV9M/TdtQ1xfLxrI/AAAAAAAACz8/Uay61-tO-gg/s320/DSC_0348.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i><a href="http://broadstrokesonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2009/06/buddhism-question.html">A deep respect and liking for Buddhism</a> makes me visit a lot of monasteries and take a closer look at the life around these temples and the large tibetan settlement in Himachal. A lot of people were in the prime of their youth when they left everything that was theirs to settle in a land thousands of kilometers away and start afresh. Its been years since some of the old people came to India, long enough to feel at home here, still a longing for that native land and a hope that they would return someday, seems to linger in these facial lines.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4li_NBKk0fg/TdtRGwWKczI/AAAAAAAAC0E/VdJhc6yKoDI/s1600/DSC_0629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4li_NBKk0fg/TdtRGwWKczI/AAAAAAAAC0E/VdJhc6yKoDI/s320/DSC_0629.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>I was in my hometown of Bilaspur, and attending a 'Jagran' at the local temple. I kept thinking 'why I was even carrying my camera'?. I clicked no pics there and I only planned to be there for an hour or so. I left at around midnight. When I reached the temple parking, a stunning view caught my eye. With nothing but the wall to steady my camera, this pic was captured. A surprisingly long exposure does justice to the meanders formed by a seasonally drying Gobind Sagar, the hills on the other side of the lake and the magical moonlit night. Sometimes you dont, but the camera knows that it has to be with you.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-Xn8-VMnCU/TdtRR2Xo6pI/AAAAAAAAC0M/MaHmBn3m9j8/s1600/P6100062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-Xn8-VMnCU/TdtRR2Xo6pI/AAAAAAAAC0M/MaHmBn3m9j8/s320/P6100062.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>I reached sydney on sunday and it was cold and wet. It kept raining for 4 consecutive days. With limited time at my hand I was getting anxious if the rain would ever stop and if I would get a chance to see the quintessential sydney. After a week of waiting for the sun, I finally started for the city to see the 2 most recognized modern monuments in the southern hemisphere. Getting off the train I caught this first glimpse of 'The Harbour Bridge'. Spellbound, I clicked this pic from the train station, while I was being pushed by my sister to atleast get out of the station first. I love the perspective. This pic was also selected by Schmap's Sydney guides as one of the featured pics of the Sydney CBD.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9sp0Je0q6Y/TdtRgtXYWLI/AAAAAAAAC0U/iuCawbFoe50/s1600/DSC01208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9sp0Je0q6Y/TdtRgtXYWLI/AAAAAAAAC0U/iuCawbFoe50/s320/DSC01208.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>One of the most adventurous trips I have ever done was the one that is chronicled in this blog under '<a href="http://broadstrokesonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2009/06/journey-through-himalayas_4917.html">Journey through the Himalayas</a>'. A perilous 2000 km journey through some of the most inhospitable terrains in Himachal qualifies as adventurous not just because of road conditions or the fact that it was done on motorbikes. But, it was done without a backup plan. There was no plan B, if anything went wrong, we would have been royally ..(you know what). This journey had rewards, like the one captured in this photograph. Seen here from the roof of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Monastery">Key Monastery</a> is the valley of Spiti river. The reward just justified the effort.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J83s5FPWNRU/TdtkYuPqAaI/AAAAAAAAC0c/w7eLkqrSQrk/s1600/DSC_0107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J83s5FPWNRU/TdtkYuPqAaI/AAAAAAAAC0c/w7eLkqrSQrk/s320/DSC_0107.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>Did I not just mentioned that I love bridges? When I got to know that I would be traveling to San Francisco for a training, the only thing on my mind was The Golden Gate. After a full day touring the bridge and capturing numerous pics from various angles, I met this guy. He was calm, looked me in the eye and didnt move until I clicked some pics of his. He just dwarfed one of the most famous bridges in the world. The hero of this pic is the Seagull and not the monument I went to San Francisco for.<br />
</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4G4i0fFCdjw/TdtuPrpgSUI/AAAAAAAAC0k/aB0BThmUBNs/s1600/DSC01348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4G4i0fFCdjw/TdtuPrpgSUI/AAAAAAAAC0k/aB0BThmUBNs/s320/DSC01348.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>One of the stops in <a href="http://broadstrokesonthekeyboard.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-5-16th-june-2009-kaza-chandratal.html">Journey through the Himalayas</a> (link to the post) was planned to be at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Taal">Chandratal lake</a> or the 'Moon Lake' as its name suggests. We made the 8Km journey from the main road on foot, which at 4500 feet was asphyxiating to say the least. Reached Chandratal and were greeted by a Snow Storm, which would have killed us if it was not for the local Gaddis who saved our lives that day. This pic is of the morning after, signs of the clouds and the storm from last night could still be seen. But, can someone even imagine that a lake so serene and calm could have taken 2 lives? Chandratal, the morning after it almost killed me. Lovely.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yo2jirISM-0/TdtxI951LMI/AAAAAAAAC0s/ZzzHch0iPFI/s1600/DSC_0025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yo2jirISM-0/TdtxI951LMI/AAAAAAAAC0s/ZzzHch0iPFI/s320/DSC_0025.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<i>Being a small town guy, I love all the aspects of being brought up in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilaspur,_Himachal_Pradesh">Bilaspur</a>, an inconsequential small town in a corner of well known Himachal Pradesh. Clicked this pic from an angle which I hadnt seen, even after being in Bilaspur for almost 3 decades. There is no story behind this pic, still it is in my opinion one of the best I ever captured. The quintessential Bilaspur at dusk, complete with the lake, the town and the adjoining hills.</i><br />
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These were just the few, though I have a huge collection of my self proclaimed best photographs, will keep clicking more and more with a story in my mind. Click on the pics for a larger view. <br />
You feedback would be appreciated. As far as photography is concerned, Less is more for me because again, I am not a shutterbug, I am a thinking photographer and every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph. If it were, they would have more to say.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-62190266513008606812011-05-20T21:14:00.001+05:302011-05-20T21:15:16.846+05:30In India's very own Palo Alto<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cBc6usssCfc/TdaLY6pyM0I/AAAAAAAACzk/mPH1QBMeWdk/s1600/p114610-Bangalore-Bangalore_Skyline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cBc6usssCfc/TdaLY6pyM0I/AAAAAAAACzk/mPH1QBMeWdk/s320/p114610-Bangalore-Bangalore_Skyline.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Delhi lives upto its reputation without fail. For a flying time of 2 and half hours, you spend 2 hours stuck in traffic on delhi roads and 2 more hours waiting for the 'Air traffic' to clear. But not complaining much, the new domestic terminal 1D is a treat, with lots of options for eating and shopping, the time on the airport just flew by.<br />
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Landed in bangalore at 00:30 hours, and my'o'my was Bangalore awesome?? Hell yes it was, 19 degrees compared to Delhi's 40, I found myself shivering and totally loving it.<br />
Bangalore feels like homecoming, not only because the temperature mirrors that of Himachal, but also job wise. It is India's Silicon Valley and anyone working in Tech can relate to the city. More so for me, because I started my career here.<br />
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But, what a city this is? really. Any corner you turn has a piece of India's IT industry right there, from glass and steel buildings to laptop carrying junta filled roads, it is India's quintessential IT city. But, what makes this city so live-able is the weather, always hovering around a comforting 25-30 degrees. Delight for anyone coming down from delhi. Walking on the streets is easy as well. As if the early spring like temperature was not enough, the roads are lined by enough Jacaranda, Bauhinia and Magnolia for the sun rays to even try making a sweat.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bp5jSqu_xuU/TdaLhjc-zHI/AAAAAAAACzs/OJTy8IXQyog/s1600/bangalore-techie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="219" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bp5jSqu_xuU/TdaLhjc-zHI/AAAAAAAACzs/OJTy8IXQyog/s320/bangalore-techie.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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I have 2 more days in the city and since shopping and Mall-hopping is something that least interests me, tomorrow morning would start with a search of authentic South India breakfast. Original south indian filter coffee (especially the one served in tiny steel tumblers) has also been alluding me for a while, thats on the to-do list for sure.<br />
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The 4-5 odd months that I have spent here earlier, were mostly spent in getting a hang of the new job and hence a lot of bangalore monuments are still not ticked off from my list. Ulsoor lake is one of them. Dont know if I would get time but I am keen on going to Ulsoor and Bangalore palace. <br />
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I hope I make the most of these 2 remaining days here. Right now after a heavy dinner, time to bask in the amazing breezy, cloudy weather here. More Later.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-56226148482638087112011-05-17T13:15:00.002+05:302011-05-17T16:50:12.581+05:30A few changes here and thereChanged the layout and the color palette of my blog, the older one was cool but kind of gave me a feeling as if I am sitting in Prague and writing for some Grunge art magazine (Not that I mind doing that).<br />
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Now the thread has some lively 'summer-ey' feeling. Everything is bright, Osama is dead, life is good, I am shedding weight and good times expected ahead. This was the basis of this change.<br />
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Also I have added a cool 'Follow me on twitter' link here (such a pile on, i am)<br />
Now all you have to do is click on that link and land on my twitter page, I am already 1200 wise tweets old and I am sure you cant wait to read more of me. So, just follow me on twitter.<br />
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I would have added a 'connect with me on facebook' button as well, but if you ask me, frankly thats too much marketing and also I am kind of done with Facebook now. My interest is waning and twitter seems like the right medium.<br />
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Also I have monetized the account, so now you would see ads on my blog. My adsense dashboard tells me that people have already clicked on them and I have made $0.19 in the process (my retirement fund is coming up). <br />
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Well so this is about the changes I have made here, I was used to the earlier layout but then as Jack Welch said "change before you have to", I think it was time.<br />
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So, Welcome to the bright, sunny and happy "Broad Strokes on the Keyboard" everyone.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-90780278077344357282011-05-14T12:45:00.001+05:302011-05-14T12:46:00.053+05:30Poor man's Formula 1I ride daily in a F1 Car. For all you F1 fans, yes its exactly the way it seems on TV, cars zooming past each other, then another driver trying to show a deadly maneuver on a tight curve and yes the adrenaline is there too.<br />
In delhi though they are not allowed to be in varying colors, they usually are in white with a yellow number plate.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qpFbSslY6rg/Tc4rAwRQlVI/AAAAAAAACzc/yHalR6HO9pI/s1600/cab.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="199" width="253" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qpFbSslY6rg/Tc4rAwRQlVI/AAAAAAAACzc/yHalR6HO9pI/s320/cab.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
A cab picks me up from home daily for office and back, only yesterday my cabby pulled a maneuver off, which we only get to see in formula 1 chicanes. On a tight corner he saw a car that had passed him a couple of kilometers ago (and he was still holding the grudge), he almost instantly made up his mind to show that guy some of his skills, as the other car was about to go into the corner, he sped from the direction of the corner between the other car and the divider and almost forced the other guy to brake abruptly, took the lead and was now race leader.2-3 screams and chosen hindi pleasantries later he hit the straight road. still eyes firmly on the rear view to check if the other guy is planning a revenge. I just survived a mini heart attack.<br />
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Delhi is a great city, with roads which are in top notch condition for almost 10 months in an year, its a drivers delight. Why I do not compare it with drag racing?? Simple, if you are driving all day in bumper to bumper traffic, its not easy to speed. Here skill is the real winner, how you piss off 5 other drivers and take the lead is what counts.<br />
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On one particular occasion while driving on a single road with no divider, two F1 cars coming from different direction came so fast at each other and my cabbie braked so hard 0.0002 seconds away from collision that i was thrown to the front of the car by impact. On giving a nasty inquisitive look to the cabbie and expecting a 'Sorry Sir', I was rather told that its the other drivers fault as he apparently was at 140 Kmph compared to my cabby's 137 kmph. I instantly tendered an apology.<br />
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If you have been driven around Delhi roads in some of these white colored formula 1 cars, you cant have missed the last nano-second brakes, coming at 80 kmph and suddenly braking 0.001 meter away from the front vehicle, incessent honking, choicest hindi gaalis for the driver who does not oblige by clearing the way for your cab and also stoping the car in the middle of the e-way because the cabby's 'Bua' just called to check if he has gained some weight or not.<br />
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I suspect that Delhi has just one school from which these guys graduate in their driving degrees. Because everyone seems to have the same skills, same language and similar hate for anyone who tries to pass them.<br />
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The only difference from F1 here is that unlike the F1 cars which are high maintainance and need some work and service every 10-20 laps, these cars are service free, the recent one I sat in, was last serviced in 2007 and was still in top-notch condition (the fact that i had to assist the driver in changing gears and also had to push the cab once, are a different story all together)<br />
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All in all, I no longer watch the boring F1 races on sundays or go about wishing in front of my friends as to 'How cool it would be to riding those cars', I believe in taking matter in my own hands. 4 years and a dozens on 'oh f#@k, i am gonna get killed just now' moments later, Formula 1 has lost its charm.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-67001096003383785132011-05-10T13:39:00.001+05:302011-05-10T14:51:33.128+05:30The World without OBL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-39ZeAwCzU8k/Tcjt9Y9di_I/AAAAAAAACzU/kgncKmnwTeE/s1600/osama7eleven.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="283" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-39ZeAwCzU8k/Tcjt9Y9di_I/AAAAAAAACzU/kgncKmnwTeE/s320/osama7eleven.gif" /></a></div><br />
Oh, so they did it finally. And in a very Hollywood-ish manner. Choppers fly into a compound carrying the elite Navy Seals team 6, a swift 40 minutes raid and end of Osama Bin Laden. What??? Thats it??? No more of Osama from now on???<br />
These are real voices in my head, having lived in an age which was largely defined by 9/11 and Al-qaida, these are very relevant questions.<br />
I have rather already started missing him (not that he didnt deserve to die, he did, rather much earlier).<br />
But OBL has left a huge void in this world obsessed with Good Vs Evil stories. No, the world has not become a safer place after he is gone, not by any stretch of imagination nor we would see any leniency in Airport checks (thats what we really care about). Rather the World is now without a face it so loved to hate. Now, all we are left with is a World which is as dangerous for normal people as it was with Osama still alive, but no one to curse for it.<br />
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Osama was that respite, he was the favorite punching bag for dont know how many people. Whatever was going wrong in the world could have been blamed on him without much noise.<br />
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On a personal level, I have spent a hell lot of time reading Spy thrillers and intelligence non-fiction to suddenly realise that the Holy Grail for spies around the planet has been found and killed.<br />
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May be they should have caught him and kept it to themselves, may be this way they could have still legitimized a couple more wars.<br />
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And for less mortals like us, we could have still lived in fear and awe (as we do now) but someone to curse for it.<br />
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Now waiting for someone in the fashion industry to come out with OBL t-shirts like the ones featuring Che Guevara and Nazi Swastika.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-87445139949429511342011-04-18T16:10:00.001+05:302011-05-14T12:52:06.650+05:30Gooooogle.....Ahhhh,,,,,phewww......(and many such expressions later..) Google finally happened.<br />
I am writing this post in the official capacity of a Googler (though right now technically I am still a Noogler)<br />
<br />
I have been a kind of silly, nerdy and annoying kid growing up in my small town. Since there was nothing much to do there apart from playing cricket, riding bicycles and studying, one of my favorite time pass was - Asking questions.<br />
Some of my family members would happily vouch for the fact that they didnt want to be around me most of the times when I was on my question asking spree.<br />
Whys, Whos, Whats, Whens and Hows ruled my day.<br />
I wanted to know everything about everything that was going around me.<br />
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Years passed by and internet happened and I was in love, not with email (or with the numerous seedy websites I had heard about),but with the whole Idea of internet.<br />
I used to wonder how can someone come up with this revolutionary idea of information on demand. But still if I had questions, they were to be answered by Family, friends or magazines.<br />
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My peers heaved the final sigh of relief when the questions stopped, not because I had stopped being inquisitive, but because something had happened in faraway Silicon Valley which changed many lives forever.<br />
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Google was born and believe me I havent asked a proper question to any living being since then.<br />
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Everything that I ever wanted to know was surprisingly there. Google has been iconic since then, even before I graduated with my Business Masters I had dreamt of working for someone like Google.<br />
Why?? was it the perks and coolness stories that I had read??? --NO<br />
Was it because Google has been on top of all Best employer list the world over?? --NO<br />
Was it because of the money Google puts on offer?? --NO<br />
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The only reason I wanted to work for Google was because this one company has changed the life of a inquisitive young boy long before it became cool or had the legendary cash everyone talks about. It was because Google is different, It was because Google says "Dont be Evil" and also because Google is going to change the world we live in (and I surely dont mind the perks, benefits, the coolness and the money though)<br />
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Thanks for hiring me, Google - looks like I have just clicked on "I am feeling lucky"<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-19405665809657099152011-04-17T10:53:00.000+05:302011-04-17T10:53:01.335+05:30iPhone could be a great posting tool tooThis is my first post in months, i have no excuses this time. Work, marriage etc etc have all been previously exhausted. The truth is i was plain lazy and though I am a writer of no interest to anyone (apart from my wife), I am having a serious case of writers block. There are a thousand things i would have loved to chronicle from 'Umreeka' to Hongkong to food to gadgets but I was lazy enough to tap fingers on keys.<br />
<br />
Now that I have become accustomed to typing on my iPhone, this is my first post from the mobile device.<br />
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I promise they wud keep coming.<br />
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CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-87101181886351063822010-11-24T13:00:00.000+05:302010-11-24T13:00:43.023+05:30I am Back !!!!!I am Back, though this time not with promises of writing frequently but just because I wanted to write.<br />
Completed 1 year of being married, and it has been such a wonderful fun journey that I did not realize we are a year older as a couple.<br />
This past one year has also been a serious roller coaster journey work wise, there have been days and weeks that I felt like a champion and still other when I felt like being down in the dumps. Being a thorough fatalist it has been relatively easier for me to comprehend the happenings as a handiwork of benefic and malefic planetary positions :) <br />
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But there is this one question that keep coming back to me in search of answer, which I have still to come up with.<br />
"Would I ever be able to live the life that I have always dreamed about"<br />
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I am not complaining, i am living a good life, just that I wanted it to move in another direction.<br />
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Lots and lots of introspection coming up in next few days, just to determine where I am heading.<br />
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<i>Hope to see a direction, hope I find the lighthouse, Hope someone hold my finger, hope there is a crystal ball.<br />
<b></b></i><br />
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ciaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-40551458324077001462010-02-17T13:40:00.000+05:302010-02-17T13:40:09.038+05:30Phhewwww.....Aloha 2010Haven't i said before "i am the most happy" when i am writing.<br />
Though my blog entries do not prove so, and that does not mean i was not happy October 2009 onwards.<br />
What it means is "where was the time?"<br />
<br />
Ever since I got married and changed the Job, i an yet to see a weekend, when i had those hours to myself to write. Haven't yet happened (i m blogging from office).<br />
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But determined to reverse it, for good.<br />
Will be writing, about the wedding, San Francisco, Hong Kong and else.<br />
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Stay tuned.<br />
<br />
ciaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-59008458887490332682009-10-26T14:11:00.002+05:302009-10-26T14:32:53.399+05:30Whats keeping me busy..???Well, It has been ages since i last put my fingers on the keyboard. So, it actually feels very nice to be writing something.<br />Last 3 months have been nothing less than very very eventful for me, both personally and professionally. Faced a lot of situations where i was supposed to make some very crucial decisions (I hope i exercised good judgment)<br /><br />Well to come to the point, One of the most important decisions in my life has been taken, that of getting married (which could also be written as - losing freedom or 'end of life' in some parts of the world), but to make it easier for everyone I have written getting married. Its happening and its happening now. On the 4th of November of this year my marital status would change. I cant say i am not excited, I am, totally excited. More so because in 6 years of having a girlfriend, all i wanted to do was get married to her. So, its happening now and i don't want to take anything away from the occasion (though for someone as fiercely independent as me, I simply do not know, how to react to this situation.<br /><br />Ok, that was the nuptials part, now comes the professional front. Change of job....yeahhh,, the kind i was waiting for,,it just popped in front of me from nowhere and I grabbed it with both hands. So now I have a New Job, New House, New Car and within a weeks time, a New(obviously)Wife and and and a new relationship Status - "MARRIED".<br /><br />Looks like my hands are already full with the stuff that I have accomplished and also the stuff that has to happen.<br />For sure blogging and writing would have to take a backseat for now.<br /><br />Will write back in a few days,,,,by then i would be a different person...<br /><br /><br />ciaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-91395821082590990892009-09-03T22:48:00.001+05:302009-09-04T02:28:55.343+05:30One cool vid (keep speakers on)<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/4a9ffa613a14440d/46928cc51133af17/d58b547d/-cpid/2fd1a9b746abf719/-/-/-EMH/240/-EMW/432/widget.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597032312447429481.post-91617682636749558362009-08-02T13:29:00.005+05:302009-09-03T22:51:18.587+05:30Just Did It<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lZXmrfLO5WE/SnVK0jHkv0I/AAAAAAAACP0/zSnaMVlSPqE/s1600-h/bald6.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lZXmrfLO5WE/SnVK0jHkv0I/AAAAAAAACP0/zSnaMVlSPqE/s320/bald6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365276797722476354" /></a><br />Jason Statham, Vin Diesel and Bruce Willis have always been regarded as the ‘tough’ guys, the guys with the most natural ‘do-not-mess-with-me’ looks. They bomb cities, destroy distant planets, almost kill bad guy gangs with bare knuckles and most of the times save humanity from evil forces. But never do we the audiences get a whiff that it is staged, these guys are so natural. What makes them so natural? I think it has a little, if not much to do with the looks – THE BALD LOOKS.<br /><br />Many will start questioning, since when did I become such a fan of the bald looks that I am dedicating a post to it? Well, my answer is, the transition just happened.<br />Seven years of seeing your pate being more and more visible and shiny day by day was excruciating, for the lack of better words. All possible rituals were followed. From oiling before sleep, to applying beer and yoghurt and I can just imagine the situation in which my roommates used to be because of the stench. I rubbed my finger nails against each other to the point of almost wearing them off. I scheduled haircuts depending upon the moon movements and I also endlessly searched google for some magic potion to avoid hairfall.<br /><br />But now that I am grown up and a bit wiser with much lesser hair, i realized that the only way to be happy and free of any tensions is going all the way.<br />So, on the fateful day of 27th July, Sunday, I surrendered myself to the grinning barber, and his razor.<br />Till he carved out a Broadway on the centre of the thinning forest I was apprehensive, almost gave up the idea and could feel beads of sweat on my brows. It took almost 10 mins for him to show me the shining glory. And was I impressed?? Damm yes..i was. <br />It was a perfect shave, my scalp so fair it could have given any Caucasian a run for his money. I was looking good, much better than I had imagined and I was confident enough and ready to flaunt it. The reactions from those I met varied from surprise to shrieks.<br />Office the next day was fun, few people couldn’t recognize me at first, and questions on the purpose of this look and my mental state were raised. <br />But, the one person who matters the most to me is very happy, loving it and feeling proud of the ballsy move. That person is myself. Now, I don’t care what people think, since I got it done, I faced no expert comments on ‘stages of male baldness’ and possible remedies.<br />I am happy, feeling almost Bekhamesque with his oft bald head and enjoying the fact that its so low-maintenance.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lZXmrfLO5WE/SnVLGMvt-CI/AAAAAAAACP8/imC6lC6F-Ik/s1600-h/beckham1R0905_468x550.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lZXmrfLO5WE/SnVLGMvt-CI/AAAAAAAACP8/imC6lC6F-Ik/s320/beckham1R0905_468x550.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365277100954482722" /></a><br />So, I have found a great amount of satisfaction by as they say, facing the demons. The thing I have been so scared of historically, has given me a new shot in the arm. May be the reason is that I did not let the enemy storm my territory but I met it halfway. That’s so heartening. So, this is the way forward, even if not for always but yes a great alternative.<br /><br />Aah the feeling of moving your hand over your head, till recently a luxury, I thought was reserved for people having great hair. Thanks friends for so many comments on my new ‘shining’ pics.<br /><br /><br />CiaoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18202550488925513115noreply@blogger.com1