After a long gap, we went to a trip. Last time it was Konkan and this time its Mulashi Dam. Paresh was the reason why we went for an outing otherwise we do not usually roam around on weekends. And that's really bad because since we left VIT, there are hardly few occasions when we friends have spent some time together. Seems that everyone is so busy in their work that we forgot to relish some small moments of happiness . First rule of going to a trip is don't plan it, because if you plan well before time, reasons start coming from people and then the whole purpose of the trip goes futile.
So, as usual we did not plan it. We gathered to Vaibhav's place and decided to go to Mulashi Dam on Sunday. We did miss Tejas, BD, Vikya, Moonchacha, PM,Sachya as almost all of them were present in Konkan Trip. After a hour of riding, we reached to Mulashi. I was planning to go further to Tamhini Ghat but there was not enough petrol in my bike so we stopped. We parked the bikes in a nearby hotel and went out to see the beauty of nature. We had two digital cameras with us which were sufficient to capture some small wonders . After hanging around for some time, we went for lunch. The hotel was very good, especially good for family outings. They had a big chess boards placed over there which has big pawn, king, rook, bishop, queen and knights. My friends sat around the board and posed a highly thoughtful avatar as if they were playing against Vishwanathan Anand. Being a nice friend and an Orkut lover, I took their photographs so that they can flaunt their styles. All except me and Mukul everyone was tired because of a long journey or might have over eaten and needed a small nap. I don't want to waste time in sleeping so went out with Mukul to see few more places.
It was around 5/6 PM when we left for Pune. In all it was a wonderful trip. We had a great time together and enjoyed it very much. There is always something in nature that has a power to refresh your minds and helps you start a new day with new spirit. This trip was no exception.
Click Mohsin's post and Paresh's Post for some more details of the trip.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak
Remember Aamir's dialogs from 'Rang De Basanti' ? It refers to Aamir's reaction that one day all of his friends depart from each other to find their own ways.
Ek Din Ye Kuch Nahi Rahega... Life De Ishaaron Pe Nachte Jao, Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak...
I am experiencing this harsh reality today. I belong to a small town called Nagar and have got my intimate feelings with the city. People call Nagar as the Biggest Rural City because of its lack of advancements. Some of them even say that its not a city at all as Nagar could not fulfill the basic criterion of being a CITY. But I feel that there is something worth in Nagar which I could not find anywhere in the world. The worth things include my family, friend circle and the festival of Sankrant.
Unfortunately Pune do not celebrate Sankrant with zest. In Nagar you will see lots of thing happening on Sankrant. In fact, from the month of December, the skies look multicolored. Boys play kites all the day. And believe me, its not just a game, it is a ritual. I remember, making a manja ( A sharp thread using which you fly kites), the art of making a manja is called as manja sutavane in Marathi. Few days before Sankrant, you do following things in order to make sure that you own one of the best manjas and you rock on the day of Sankrant.
1. Find the best thread in the market
2. Gather initial stuff required to make manja, e.g. tyre tube ( when burnt, used for heating), a sticky thing called shiras ( using which you apply powdered glass to the thread), Aloe-Vera ( you intend that your manja is smooth enough to cut other manjas) , powdered glass ( preferably of tube, and you don't buy it from stores, instead you break the tube-light and mill it down to turn in a smooth powder). A big iron tin ( in order to heat the shirash so that it acts as a glue)
3. Find a big ground and gather few of your expert friends, go to that place to prepare a manja.
4. Once that is done, bring new kites.
5. On the day of Sankrant, do not, I repeat, do not go to you home for whatever reasons, you are supposed to be on the field ( be it your terrace or ground) to enjoy the lovely world of kites. In my case, my mother comes to the terrace and I have my lunch there only.
This whole procedure takes a lot of time and needs lot of enthusiasm and interest. I could not find time to do this when I was in Pune during my Engineering and started buying Bareli manja, to spare myself from the above ritual.
Today is the first day in my life where I am not in my home town amidst my friends playing kites and that's why I feel devastated. I enjoyed Sankrant more than any other festivals including Diwali and today I am not present to catch the glimpses of a great festival. Believe me, I have never felt so bad about myself. I could not find time out of my office schedule for whatever reasons and hence could not go home. One of my friend Sanket, who is in Japan currently shares the same feeling. My job is the reason why I am not in Nagar today. I have never thought that this day will come when I need to adjust my priorities so early, I am just 24 years old and like every small child, have a right to enjoy this game. But my stringent and always demanding job does not allow me do it, I envy my friends who work for a small printing press, marketing firms, and some still doing their studies.
Aamir said it right... Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak.... :-(
Ek Din Ye Kuch Nahi Rahega... Life De Ishaaron Pe Nachte Jao, Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak...
I am experiencing this harsh reality today. I belong to a small town called Nagar and have got my intimate feelings with the city. People call Nagar as the Biggest Rural City because of its lack of advancements. Some of them even say that its not a city at all as Nagar could not fulfill the basic criterion of being a CITY. But I feel that there is something worth in Nagar which I could not find anywhere in the world. The worth things include my family, friend circle and the festival of Sankrant.
Unfortunately Pune do not celebrate Sankrant with zest. In Nagar you will see lots of thing happening on Sankrant. In fact, from the month of December, the skies look multicolored. Boys play kites all the day. And believe me, its not just a game, it is a ritual. I remember, making a manja ( A sharp thread using which you fly kites), the art of making a manja is called as manja sutavane in Marathi. Few days before Sankrant, you do following things in order to make sure that you own one of the best manjas and you rock on the day of Sankrant.
1. Find the best thread in the market
2. Gather initial stuff required to make manja, e.g. tyre tube ( when burnt, used for heating), a sticky thing called shiras ( using which you apply powdered glass to the thread), Aloe-Vera ( you intend that your manja is smooth enough to cut other manjas) , powdered glass ( preferably of tube, and you don't buy it from stores, instead you break the tube-light and mill it down to turn in a smooth powder). A big iron tin ( in order to heat the shirash so that it acts as a glue)
3. Find a big ground and gather few of your expert friends, go to that place to prepare a manja.
4. Once that is done, bring new kites.
5. On the day of Sankrant, do not, I repeat, do not go to you home for whatever reasons, you are supposed to be on the field ( be it your terrace or ground) to enjoy the lovely world of kites. In my case, my mother comes to the terrace and I have my lunch there only.
This whole procedure takes a lot of time and needs lot of enthusiasm and interest. I could not find time to do this when I was in Pune during my Engineering and started buying Bareli manja, to spare myself from the above ritual.
Today is the first day in my life where I am not in my home town amidst my friends playing kites and that's why I feel devastated. I enjoyed Sankrant more than any other festivals including Diwali and today I am not present to catch the glimpses of a great festival. Believe me, I have never felt so bad about myself. I could not find time out of my office schedule for whatever reasons and hence could not go home. One of my friend Sanket, who is in Japan currently shares the same feeling. My job is the reason why I am not in Nagar today. I have never thought that this day will come when I need to adjust my priorities so early, I am just 24 years old and like every small child, have a right to enjoy this game. But my stringent and always demanding job does not allow me do it, I envy my friends who work for a small printing press, marketing firms, and some still doing their studies.
Aamir said it right... Tim Lak Lak De Tim Lak Lak.... :-(
Monday, January 07, 2008
Taare Zamin Par
... And I kept saying that Indian Film Industry is not trying out new things, the 'bollywood' fails to make a movie which gives a social message, I must confess, that Taare Zameen Par is THE MOST emotional Hindi movie I have ever seen. Going forward one step, I will say that it tops the hall of fame Hindi Movie list.
Yesterday morning when I went to see this movie, I was aware of the storyline and the plot. But the way, it is presented is just awesome. The fragility of Inoo's little world, the imaginative mind which accepts no bounds and compares 3 * 9 with Earth colliding with Pluto. The innocence and originality that you see in his drawings and imaginations truly mesmerize the audience. The harsh and competitive world which continuously burdens a child's beautiful world with cutting competitions, never satiated greed of success, the unending pursuit of gaining materialistic achievements are portrayed with an absolute reality. Perhaps the most important aspect of the movie is the wider range of the audiences that it covers. Keeping the Dyslexia as the reason behind Inoo's lack of grasping things, the story ends up giving a great message which everyone should take into consideration. Every child is special, the tag line, proves it all.
Aamir keeps up with his 'the perfectionist' image and does not give room for a single mistake. From the beginning till the end, the movie focuses on the central character. Aamir himself take a position of a 'maker' than that of an 'Achiever'. The most appealing point is the intensity of Inoo's feelings. Meri Maa is sung and presented in such a perfect way that tears roll on our chicks and heart cries out with a grief. Look at the music and lyrics, Adnan Sami's song when a drop of paint falls on Inoo's cheek and the ecstatic feeling we see on his cute face is beautiful. The scene of Inoo's hug when he wins at the drawing competition shows that all feelings can not be expressed in words like Thank You! ...
I have never cried so much in the theater before,and must admit that this movie is the milestone in the Indian Film Industry and has shown that people still appreciate human emotions more than anything, as sometimes tears convey more than what words can ever say...
Hats off to Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary.... Hope Aamir will come up with some more fantastic creations wearing his 'Director's' hat.
Yesterday morning when I went to see this movie, I was aware of the storyline and the plot. But the way, it is presented is just awesome. The fragility of Inoo's little world, the imaginative mind which accepts no bounds and compares 3 * 9 with Earth colliding with Pluto. The innocence and originality that you see in his drawings and imaginations truly mesmerize the audience. The harsh and competitive world which continuously burdens a child's beautiful world with cutting competitions, never satiated greed of success, the unending pursuit of gaining materialistic achievements are portrayed with an absolute reality. Perhaps the most important aspect of the movie is the wider range of the audiences that it covers. Keeping the Dyslexia as the reason behind Inoo's lack of grasping things, the story ends up giving a great message which everyone should take into consideration. Every child is special, the tag line, proves it all.
Aamir keeps up with his 'the perfectionist' image and does not give room for a single mistake. From the beginning till the end, the movie focuses on the central character. Aamir himself take a position of a 'maker' than that of an 'Achiever'. The most appealing point is the intensity of Inoo's feelings. Meri Maa is sung and presented in such a perfect way that tears roll on our chicks and heart cries out with a grief. Look at the music and lyrics, Adnan Sami's song when a drop of paint falls on Inoo's cheek and the ecstatic feeling we see on his cute face is beautiful. The scene of Inoo's hug when he wins at the drawing competition shows that all feelings can not be expressed in words like Thank You! ...
I have never cried so much in the theater before,and must admit that this movie is the milestone in the Indian Film Industry and has shown that people still appreciate human emotions more than anything, as sometimes tears convey more than what words can ever say...
Hats off to Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary.... Hope Aamir will come up with some more fantastic creations wearing his 'Director's' hat.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Folklore.org
My friend Mohsin, 'stumbled upon' a link called, folklore which narrates some anecdotes about development of Apple's original 'Macintosh' computer and the crew which developed it. There are total 118 stories, I have completed reading few of them and believe that all are enchanting.
We are living in a much simpler world of computers these days. When we scroll our mouse nicely and easily to read something on the monitor, plug in head phones to listen to songs, press a key on keyboard to see a character printed on screen, we did not appreciate the efforts that are behind implementing this magic. We must thank those legendary software programmers and hardware engineers who simplified initially cryptic world of computers so that an average person can use it without knowing the internal intricacies . After reading some stories, we understand the challenges those people faced while making a full-fledged COMPUTER with the optimized use of hardware and smart programs communicating with that hardware. It involved right from developing a small kit which has a limitation of addressing 64K of memory( which is solved by using cascaded memory banks) , a graphics routine which shows a Scrooge McDuck sitting on a large pile of dollars saying 'HELLO' to the user ( remember those were the days when GUI was in its nascent stage, and 'Look and Feel' concept was very new ) and many more challenges. Those were the days when people worked hard to increase Apple-2' s 192 scan lines to Macintosh's 256 scan lines. There were times when people need to put in extra intelligence to pull up extra bit from a stream of 8 bits in order to increase the bit density by using group encoding technique instead of FM encoding. The stories also depict the 'cult' work culture at Apple. The developers there enjoyed playing Nerf Ball after lunch and even went out to play a video game at the nearby restaurant in the lunch time. Like every work place, there were some sad events of firing from the job, some encouraging moments like promotion, words of appreciation. In all, those stories are so real yet look like so dramatic and interesting that the reader wants to be a part of Macintosh Team.
In all a worth reading link...
We are living in a much simpler world of computers these days. When we scroll our mouse nicely and easily to read something on the monitor, plug in head phones to listen to songs, press a key on keyboard to see a character printed on screen, we did not appreciate the efforts that are behind implementing this magic. We must thank those legendary software programmers and hardware engineers who simplified initially cryptic world of computers so that an average person can use it without knowing the internal intricacies . After reading some stories, we understand the challenges those people faced while making a full-fledged COMPUTER with the optimized use of hardware and smart programs communicating with that hardware. It involved right from developing a small kit which has a limitation of addressing 64K of memory( which is solved by using cascaded memory banks) , a graphics routine which shows a Scrooge McDuck sitting on a large pile of dollars saying 'HELLO' to the user ( remember those were the days when GUI was in its nascent stage, and 'Look and Feel' concept was very new ) and many more challenges. Those were the days when people worked hard to increase Apple-2' s 192 scan lines to Macintosh's 256 scan lines. There were times when people need to put in extra intelligence to pull up extra bit from a stream of 8 bits in order to increase the bit density by using group encoding technique instead of FM encoding. The stories also depict the 'cult' work culture at Apple. The developers there enjoyed playing Nerf Ball after lunch and even went out to play a video game at the nearby restaurant in the lunch time. Like every work place, there were some sad events of firing from the job, some encouraging moments like promotion, words of appreciation. In all, those stories are so real yet look like so dramatic and interesting that the reader wants to be a part of Macintosh Team.
In all a worth reading link...
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
31st Dec.
So much of hoopla and hype... New year comes and goes as always and we do not let 31st Dec. go away without boisterous merrymaking. What's so special about 31st? Is it another reason for revelers to booze off? Is it another 'marketing day'? Is it a day for making resolutions ( and in my case, never try keeping them)? Is it a day to see celebrities flaunting all the way? Is it a day of retrospecting 'all that happened' in last year and hoping to perform better in the coming year? What is it exactly?
I went to see few of my friends yesterday who came from Bangalore and had a chat with them. Being a person who likes to eat variety of food and also love to see people celebrating, as usual I went to Fergusson College (FC) Road and Jangli Maharaj (JM) Road. Had some food in a Maharastrian Restaurant and then went on walking to see the 'glimpses of crowd'. This is undoubtedly ONE OF THE REASONS of being there at FC and JM. Missed some of my old friends very much as they are either not in India or Pune. Somehow this 31st was much boring than earlier ones, may be because I am doing the same thing again and again. No special places to go with special people, no fun as such makes it a stereotyped 31st. It would have been far better if I would have celebrated it at my home in Nagar. At least I might had a chance to eat some special recipes of my mother. It is really fun watching Marathi Programs with her on TV. I missed it very much this time. We were planning to go for a movie but people did not turn up on time and plans went awry.
So, in all a boring 31st Dec, but I pray that this new year will come with lots of surprises and with much of the fun....
Wish you a very happy new year!!!!
I went to see few of my friends yesterday who came from Bangalore and had a chat with them. Being a person who likes to eat variety of food and also love to see people celebrating, as usual I went to Fergusson College (FC) Road and Jangli Maharaj (JM) Road. Had some food in a Maharastrian Restaurant and then went on walking to see the 'glimpses of crowd'. This is undoubtedly ONE OF THE REASONS of being there at FC and JM. Missed some of my old friends very much as they are either not in India or Pune. Somehow this 31st was much boring than earlier ones, may be because I am doing the same thing again and again. No special places to go with special people, no fun as such makes it a stereotyped 31st. It would have been far better if I would have celebrated it at my home in Nagar. At least I might had a chance to eat some special recipes of my mother. It is really fun watching Marathi Programs with her on TV. I missed it very much this time. We were planning to go for a movie but people did not turn up on time and plans went awry.
So, in all a boring 31st Dec, but I pray that this new year will come with lots of surprises and with much of the fun....
Wish you a very happy new year!!!!
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