Blog 083 - Blah

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon

"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvellous! HaHaHa!"

It has been a long time since I wrote something over here. The weather in Bangalore has become pleasant and hill station like; Chilly breeze and afternoon drizzles. My office terrace cafeteria on 11th floor is a wonderful place (if you leave aside the food.) overlooking the football stadium but still something is a miss and it will take a lot more than a blog post to figure out…

Chasing Numbers – An x percent hike, a magical y percent score in that damn expensive exam and a bull run with a z percent increase in those crazy scripts.

Numbers matter but it becomes a rather strange proposition when your entire life is defined by rise and fall of numbers. I always wanted to buy an aquarium of my first salary and three-and-a-half-years at work and I still haven’t been able to buy it but at the same time I end up spending an x amount bidding for a so-called profitable IPO which, in the end I didn’t get any allotment either.

And the DSLR keeps getting appended to my to-buy list.

And I end up picking money-management over happiness?

Crazy.

Bad Procrastination – There have been pictures to click, exams to be taken, blogs that should have been written and so many wonderful things that should have have been done (the softbox experiment is still incomplete...) and I managed to keep myself away from all of these.

The very reason I shifted to Bangalore was to move away from a comfortable life and here I am satisfied being comfortably numb or have I become happy with this mnc-corporation type of life?

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way…

Coelho, Erich Segal, Floyd and Photography – I admit this has been the saving grace. I wonder how empty life would have been without these.

Resolutions - December is here with her task to wrap up the year. I love making New Year resolutions and have been making resolutions right since my school days. For year 2007 I had written myself an entire document (maybe, I was missing pspl style documentation :P), objectives 2007. I know it sounds stupid and I did not end up doing most of the things. This year I plan to keep it short and post it as a prime numbered blog post.

I am already excited about 2008. I would be starting the year with a week long vacation to Pune. Azhar will be in Pune for a month long vacation. It has been so long since we last met and will be traveling to Mumbai to meet PG.

Will take the most expensive exam of my life in Feb. And the three figure score that I receive will clear up a lot of things and if not it will at least mark an end to my post graduate examination stints.

Phew! It is has been a long boring post and to end it with a Floyd phrase –

And everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Listening to – Brain Damage/Eclipse ~ PF ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSi02uccrc

Blog 031 - K750i and random thoughts

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation

Past few months have been weird; since I stopped calling dentist or rather she stopped taking my calls. And since then my k750i has been everything – a FM radio receiver, a media player, an appointment scheduler, a camera, a notepad, a camcorder but a mobile phone.

I love my k750i (Sony Ericsson k750i). It is one of my most prized possessions. And I am enjoying the new role, ‘The 2 Mega Pixel Life’. In fact I wanted to name my blog, ‘The 2 Mega Pixel Life’ and capture moods of Bangalore but then decided against it. ‘Animated Emotions’ suits me rather well.

I still love to capture the moods of city, life and faces. Some of these pictures can be viewed at - http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepluginguy/

Some k750i facts –

Around a 1,500 photos clicked using K750i were uploaded on Flickr yesterday.

Around 213 users.

k750i is ranked 2 among Sony Ericsson camera phones.

k750i on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/k750i/

Sony Ericsson on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/

Blog 023 - On Travel, People and Patience

‘One hour at a Railway Station’

I loved writing such essays during school days. Anxiety, Last good byes, Bon Voyage, Fear of a new place, Eye contact with a beautiful stranger, the train pantry cars and the list goes on and on. Perfect recipe for 10 on 10 essays.

Do I still love visiting a railway station? Well, I don’t know. At least, I did not like waiting for my train on Bangalore railway junction. Dirt, crowd and hassles far away from things written in my school essays.

Last week, I spent a lot of time traveling. Bangalore to Pune, Pune to Surat and so on. But this time I had different observations. One’s that can be ignored at once but I feel like writing a blog on it as I have nothing more exciting to do.

On Travel

I like traveling by rail. It is so different from air travel. It is fun to see unknown regions slowly give in to known places, as anxiety turns to joy. Starring out of the window till it becomes pitch dark and nothing can be seen at all. Standing by the door and letting the cold wind hit me. The sensation is awesome the numbness caused by the wind and along with it the fragrance of a new place, emotions raring to fly as swift as the wind, inspirational!

Air travel is boring, 35,000 feet above is too high to feel anything the small blocks of land below look the same. Beautiful air hostess and their phony smiles. It reminds me of beautiful things left behind and now can’t even be seen as everything appears same, small blocks of blue, brown and green.

The only good part is the cloud formations. Pure white, it reminds me of those fairy tales. Jack and the bean stalk, a whole new world waiting outside the atmosphere.

On People

Travel presents an opportunity to witness a panorama of people. Beautiful and ugly, tall and short, rich and poor, people ready to fight and people ready to tell their life story to kill those aimless moments of time. People who abide by law and people who love to abuse it.

Yes people who love to abuse it. There are instructions all over the place, ‘Don’t smoke in train’, ‘Use a dust bin don’t litter around’ Rules are for safety, for good. And yet every time they are broken and ruptured. And then you see people who complain that the country is going to the dogs!

I don’t understand people or maybe there are some hidden rules written somewhere that I have not seen till now.

On Patience

Instant coffee, ready to eat, broadband connections, it is a fast and furious world. Seconds are precious; millions are made in seconds and lost in milli-seconds.

So am I right in expecting people to wait on their seats when an announcement has been to remain seated? Am I right to get angry when someone cuts the queue whereas I have been waiting for my turn? Am I right to expect people to stop when the light is red?

And am I right to stick to my values and my beliefs and risk to lose it all?

End on an optimistic note.

As flight 6E 105 landed, Bangalore looked beautiful glittering in gold and neon lights. The curves of roads visible from a few thousand feet above full golden lights. Reminded me of Bono’s voice singing, ‘oh you look so beautiful tonight’

Plane landed. Beauty disappeared. It took me around an hour to reach till commercial street from airport on same roads that looked like glittering gold from a few thousand feet above and cost me RS 110/-. Auto rickshaw meters untouched and rules yet again abused…

Blog 019 - Radio Ga Ga - Part I

I'd sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
And everything I had to know
I heard it on my radio
Radio.

Incoherent thoughts on the FM scenario in Bangalore…

A home theater system, a DVD player, a set of CDs/DVDs, a pair of cool t-shirts, a chance to meet to a RJ, tickets to a concert and a luxurious flat in New Delhi. If this does not appeal to you then how about questions like do you care? Are you a patriot? Your one vote could make someone win a fortune...

Text/SMS your response to xyz

No I am not endorsing any products nor is my blog post trying to do so. It’s just that for past 2-3 months I have been cruising along through the Bangalore FM frequency range. And it’s weird that all the FM radio stations trying to woo the audiences have tried everything from SMS marketing, to sleek slogans to celebrities endorsing the brand name but good music.

When I tune in to the radio, I want to listen to GNR sing, Mark Knopfler play the guitar, the mesmerizing voice of Bono and to the enigmatic Floyd and not to win a DVD set or listen to a RJ propose on behalf of some Romeo in oblivion to a Juliet residing in his dreams.

Crap. It doesn’t make sense, does it?