Moi Dossier

Emotional quota

2011-01-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

Everyone has a certain emotional quota - a certain amount of emotions/feelings that they can genuinely feel/experience in a given time.

Our emotional quota can sap by over-working and being workaholics.

I thought of the concept of emotional quota as I observed that

as we grow older, we tend to :

1) Make lesser new friends.

2) Lose touch with old friends with whom you had closer contact.

3) Less likely to fall passionately in love maybe.

This probably happens as we tend to re-invest and prioritize our exhaustible quota of emotions towards our close family, new relations and friends.

The earlier generations who had more time and not as over-worked as the current generation had a higher degree of socializing through family and community gatherings, offering food to the poor etc, than our current FB generation which would rather harvest cherry blooms on a virtual farm.

The finiteness of one's emotional quota is no free pass to absolve oneself from the guilt of lack of empathy for a co-worker, country men, fellow human beings, animals, environment. It shouldn't be an excuse to miss old reunions, marriages, family get-togethers.

Rather the awareness of something called emotional quota and the consciousness of a dipping emotional quota should point to a certain unaddressed imbalance in your life and activities.

Going to MountainView - A grand exciting experience awaits..

2008-01-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

An old post i hadn't posted for a long time :) :
Hello everyone,
I am going to MountainView tomorrow.. thought I will record this experience.
First time travelling out of the country.. not as anxious as my parents are .. but excited nevertheless..
Big step they are saying... everyone... hoping it goes safe and well :).

Hmm.. travelling to a big and beautiful country.. a whole range of experiences are awaiting me.. hope I can savour each one of them in the right spirit..

so far its been kindergarten style living :)
no mom in the morning to spoon-feed me breakfast when it gets late.. or dad to buckle my shoe lace when Iam packing my bag :) ..
those were the good times.. what lies ahead can be even more diverse and fulfilling(fingers crossed :) )..

Need to be responsible and alert and take care of myself and the people around me..

Am looking forward eagerly to this new world.. face it with courage and boldness... and enjoy its challenges and beauty.. Time to grow out of sweet and tender childhood.. and take the first tiny steps towards manhood :D .. Afraid I was of the cold bad world.. so was too scared to grow up I was maybe.. but then again it is probably made up of people most of whom are a lot like me.. so should be fine :) ..
Adulthood is not just about loads of responsibilities and worries, and dreams withered in the face of "reality".. I hope.. but a phase in which the strength we gained in all our fun studies and play.. will help us build a reality which is as beautiful as our dreams :)

Taare zameen par :) - every child is special

2008-01-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

Taare zameen par - phew .. blew me away :) ;) (- smiley for a smiling face with a tear drop falling down :D ) .. what an awesome movie.. watched it at friends' place and then again with family today evening.. cried both times when the song Tujhe sab kuch patha hain na ma played - ( yeah sometimes everyone cries..thankfully no one acknowledged it..smart guys :).. ) This is one of those movies which truly made you have that tear in eyes half-smile half-worried kinda emotion on your face :) .

I capture in words the emotions and story told in the movie.. better thing is that you go to the THEATRE ( yes I am pretty sure I will probably watch it in PVR again.. maybe.. ) and watch the movie and yeah I had an excellent DVD pirated print of the movie got from some CD shop... but the lots of interruptions of someone ringing the doorbell... phone calls and comments in the middle of movie.. without all these the movie would have even more superb :) .

Its about parenting and children.
Makes me wonder how f****d up the education system is in India.. rather the evaluation system is .. it is so oriented towards meaningless repetetions over and over again.. and vomit it on one final doom's day.. and the truly gifted are so frustrated with this that they end up "not doing well " in this f***ed up evaluation system. What's the point of judging a student on how well he has mugged up Brilliant tutorials for 2 or 3 years and gotten into the elite "IIT".. or knows all the numerical value answers to the physics problems in the CET..
And finally these tremendously high-potential guys are labelled as non-hardworkers or pseudo-perenial prodigies or some such crappy fancy term..anyways debate over the Gifted and the Hardworking in some other post .. :)

so about children again.. when i was watching the movie .. I suddenly got nostalgic about my school days.. gosh! then I immediately realized that to be nostalgic about your childhood actually meant that I am no longer a child.. scary realization indeed.. :).. anways I thought of making a list of things which I did/din't do as a child which I or probably people in my age group do now / or don't do now..
1) Worry about "future", career, MS
2) Number of best friends made per year has gone down drastically man.. gosh.. I think a very high percentage of the people that I can list on my "best friends" list are from my childhood.. interesting..
3) Take a photograph and then immediately look at it and crib that you looked better when you were "young" :D.. i have seen some girls do it and even some guys.. including me.. that weird look on their face when they look into that picture.. I look better than wat this picture has captured / I used to look better than this picture has captured / or maybe just plain Iam getting fat - which is the case with me :)
4) Cry publicly - i guess guys reach that age/stage much much earlier than girls maybe because of some pressure to "be a man" or something.. sometimes situations drives you to tears.. but you no longer do it in public not even in front of your mom :D.. but maybe in some storeroom or bathroom :D..
5) You came across a problem in school or college which you thought your mom or dad will definitely not know how to solve and hence is not worth telling them..
6) When you started taking these "become responsible" advices seriously :)
7) When there was truly and absolutely no doubt in your mind that God existed - as you grow older i think sometimes..that faith is shaken and we tend to need some convincing.. sometimes from ourself.. sometimes from close ones that he does exist..
8) When the painting and debate competetions' certificates .. or any certificate that you got was just a recognition of the immense amount of fun you had.. and not worry about putting it in some dumb resume that you is going to get you into some "elite" educational institution or company .. which sadly might end up in you not enjoying and having fun there either..

I hope I can do something to protect and build an environment for all children to nurture and blossom. If all parents can dedicate half as much energy that they put into training their offsprings for surving in a "cold bad competetive world" into making the world "warm and beautiful" - and helping the children see all these wonderful things that still exist it would be great i think... maybe save the environment, less pollution is also good thing..

oh man its getting late in the night and have a bit of a headache.. lemme close this post here :).. do watch the movie - Taare zameen par
until next time
tc

Near death experience.. :D and also about Jonathan

2007-12-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

Today was quite an eventful day indeed.. the day started off pretty normally.. was in office all day until evening.. my left leg continues to pain due to the severe sprain i suffered on the dance floor in the discotheque Fuga.. and no I wasn't there at Fuga out of my own .. what do you say.. effort.. naah.. mmm.. one word for - (me wanting to be there).. but because my company had booked the place for a company holiday party...
and yeah I was there twisting and turning to the music when I sprained my leg... a week after it pains still..

And yeah coming back to my "Near death experience"!.. when returning home from office today .. instead of using the back seat like I usually do I sat in the front.. and unlike all days, today I didn't buckle up my seat belt.... and I blissfully dozed off in the car... I can't remember what I was dreaming about I am pretty sure I was dreaming something..

Anyways I was woken up suddenly, by the harsh shreiks of the breaks and sliding of the tyres.. but the cab didn't stop and went and hit hard into the big MaxR Mahindra goods jeep, which was ahead of us , waiting at the median to make a U-turn. I think the jeep's number is KA 01 B 2189....

I didn't immediately realise what happened but in the two streaking instances I saw my driver's face, the Mahindra's driver and us moving hopelessly fast the jeep.
And it happened and we rammed into it. Curse my long legs, my knees hit against the dashboard of the car and I jumped of my seat and my head hit the roof of the cab, rather just above that thing just above the glass, which is used to avoid the sunlight... and I pressed hard against my sprained foot..

For a few minutes I was too dazed and just couldn't get out of the car.. while my driver got out after a minute or saw inspected the mangled bonnet. Then he pulled the Mahindra driver out of his vehicle and gave him a blow. Lots of people gathered and a long typical road-side argument.. the threatening to call the police( which did happen this time.. although I din't wait that long to see what happened).. and each one placing the blame on the other continued..

I finally managed to get myself out of the car.. inspected my left foot that was now paining .. and as I was sympathizing with it for the repeated blows it has been taking in the past few weeks.. reached home with my cab-mate who managed to call a friend and arrange for our journey back home..

Anyways.. I had taken the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" .. i thot I remembered the name of the book as Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.. i knew it was about a seagull .. but had always imagined it to be a very big book..a novel with a story about some man who's spirit was like that of the high-flying sea gull or something.. but it turned to be a very tiny book.. (i managed to complete it before the 10 to 10 30 soap opera stopped playing in our living room across my room :) ).. It talks about a flock, not too unlike our own here in India.. where high-fliers are always outcasted .. as being too "ambitious and insensitive" to the ways of the normal god-fearing folk. And how happiness is found in being fearless and pursuing your "call" for perfection :D...

Some interesting quotes/thoughts/words from people around me, that I came across in the last couple of days, which struck me are: (This being simple facts I have heard before, somehow had a "wow that's true" effect on me!)
1) Doing something regularly is one of the most difficult things for most people.
2) Many a great talent have been lost not due to lack of intelligence or skill, but due to lack of will power.
3) Reputations are not built on something you are going to do - Ford.. i think ( wordings maybe inaccurate .. the quote is courtesy: my college notice board)

k enough of gnaan / bakbak for today..
until next time
chao

A neat economics page - Economics for dummies

2007-12-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

Economics for dummies - http://www.strom.clemson.edu/becker/prtm320/economics_primer.html

A VTU-book summary of the above article is provided below :) - I recommend to read the original article, although the summary below was written more for a quick lookup kinda thing for terms and definitions.

Oppurtunity costs - the cost that one has to pay
eg. Loose sleep before the exams to gain more marks.
The decision is made by the student to choose marks
over a night's sleep.

Simple common sense econ. questions
What to produce?
How many to produce?
how to produce it?
How to sell or distribute it?

characteristics of a Market economy -
Economic freedom
Economic incentives
Competition
Private Ownership
Limited Govt. - its fuzzy to me what this means

Factors of production
Land Labor Capital -
funny that software industry requires so little of all three
that's why grad student in garage rooms can bring down s/w
empires :D - (see the movie AntiTrust if your anti-big-corp kind)

When price goes down, demand goes up - Law of Demand
When price goes up, supply goes up - Law of Supply

Equilibrium Price - the point of intersection of the graphs:
i) demand vs price - usually based on law of demand
ii) Supply vs price - usually based on law of supply

If the "total demand" goes up.. that is a product becomes very
popular and people are ready to buy it at all prices ( reasonable
"any" price limits) then the equilibrium price shifts.. this i think
would be in favour of the seller
eg. Land in Bangalore.

Inelastic demand and inelastic supply
Inelastic demand - demand doesn't change with price
eg. demand for food,
Inelastic supply - supply cannot increase even though prices
are very high
eg. antique items

Catch situation : (My daydream and not backed by data proof )
Pseudo inelastic supply and creation of inelastic demand
(my imagination eg. not backed by data... but that's what
Blood Diamond movie of Leonardo seemed to say)
eg: In case of diamond demand in USA - the advertisements and
movies have created the image that whatever the cost the bride
should get a big diamond for the wedding. By having popular
ad jewels like - diamonds are a woman's best friend.. woman going
gaga over a big diamond ring from a suitor.. or admonishing the
suitor when she is presented with a non-expensive or even a non-diamond
ring - Thus, essentially creating Inelastic demand

To have dual advantage, the now inelastic demand has to be matched with
a possibly pseudo inelastic supply for long enduring high (very very high)
profits. So diamonds are projected to be very very rare entities.. (although
the movie projects that the diamond cartel creates artificial scarcity by
hoarding diamonds, thus creating the pseudo inelastic supply)

To clarify, I have nothing against the diamond industry.
In fact, i think the economy is structured in such a funny way that
if there is too much supply of rare items - such as gold, diamonds, now petrol..
it would be disastrous to the economy.
So, i think( and I am no expert), pseudo or non-pseudo inelasticity in supply/demand
it should remain intact.

GDP - "final" value of all goods and services in a country.
A house, for example, would only have its own value included in the GDP, and not the lumber, brick, wire, glass, cement, and shingles that went into building it.

Market structures
Pure competition - egg producers
Monopolistic competition - pc manufacturers, USB drive
Oligopoly - automobile industry
Pure Monopoly - Microsoft maybe with complete control over its OS..
some pharmaceutical companies..Since monopolies hurt consumers by not
providing people with any choice of where to go, the government often
breaks up monopolies.

Types of businesses -
Sole propreitorship, partnership, corporations

Stocks and Bonds -
Stocks - part owner of the corporation, and hence you gain/lose when corporation
whose stocks are bought gains/loses
Bonds - pay back of money with some interest irrespective of how the corporation
is faring, hence safer.
Bearer bonds - like currency notes.. can be transferred easily.
Registered bonds - the corporation gives the money only to the person who
bought it( or the person to whom the bond was registered to), at the pre-stipulated date.

Stock Exchange - A stock exchange is a place for businesses to sell stocks,
pieces of ownership of the company, and for people to buy and sell stocks from
each other.
When a stock can be sold at a higher price than it was bought at, it is called a capital gain. - and I think this is taxed by the govt.

Common vs. Preferred stock
Common stock - last in line for dividends, variable dividend but can vote for company directors
Preferred stock - first in line for dividends, fixed dividend rate but can't vote
In short, common stock holders bear the greatest risk, because they are last in line for dividends, and their rate of dividend can drop.

Bull vs Bear
People are optimistic and invest in stock market is raising - Bull market
People are pessimistic and investment in stock market is dropping - Bear market

Buying on margin
Person buys stock with borrowed money. I think we should study how Warren Buffet does it.. I don't know if he actually does it but he is some kinda of economics wizard.. known to be the smartest man in any room :)

Inflation - the cost of goods and services in the marketplace all go up at once
Demand-pull inflation - more money with people so they can buy more, so prices go up
eg. The case with software engineers and normal ppl stayin in the same city of Bangalore or Bengaluru, whichever you prefer.
Cost-pull inflation - the goods become more costly because the resources required to produce the goods have become scarce leading to increase in price of the products
eg.. don't know any..

In general inflation hurts people, although it helps people who are in debt, as they are essentially paying less money back then then borrowed.

Optimize(F(formality, informality)) ??!!!??

2007-12-19T07:31:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

Its ridiculous how it is so difficult to be "yourself" when you so absolutely need to be "yourself". "Oh honey don't get tensed, just be yourself". We've all heard that million times, but then why does it get so frigging difficult ??!!

How difficult can it be for YOU to be YOURSELF???!!!

I have faced this difficult a million times and in my many daydreams, i concocted a "theory" about this situation. Well its just a theory and I have no way of actually validating it. You can see for yourself if its valid in your case :) .

The theory goes something like this :

I have a theory actually in regard to this "Being yourself" thingy..
I think every person has his/her own F(formality, informality) balance. This could probably vary with time, age, certain experiences in life, people you have in your life at the moment, books/movies/tv series you have been watching lately...

Whenever we meet a new person, i think we kinda unconsciously gauge the F(formality, informality) of the person.
Not only do we subconsciously "judge" someone by their F(formality, informality) but we become overly conscious of our own F(formality, informality), and depending on our own prejudices we try to change our F(f, i) to either influence the person to either like us or to dislike us. That's when we kinda tend to not be "ourself". I think...

Usually the "being yourself" part is tough in your teen age period. Normally, "teen - age phase" would occur to people in the years range 15 - 20.. but with soooo much difference in the way we grow up..
Family lifestyle
Living with family/ living with friends in hostel
Economics
School/College
the "teen-age"/ "being yourself dilemma period" can vary quite a bit in terms of years-range for different individuals.. especially if you are in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore (or Bengaluru which every you prefer) which has the most complex combination of characters.

Some people are good at quickly optimizing their F(f, i) based on their surroundings... I used to always wonder when I was in college if that's what it takes to be managers.. hehe.. although after being at work I have realised this is entirely false. But still how is that some people are able to give the best first impression and bowl over the most varied bunch of characters they meet. Aren't they being dishonest/ "not being themselves" when they so frequently change their F(f, i, a few other random things) and make a person "perceive" and judge them favourably.

I think PERCEPTION is predominant in the initial hand-shaking phase between persons. In a difficult volatile no-time age as ours, I think perception has come to matter more than it ever was. The whole F(f,i) holds good only during this initial perception phase.
Some people who are always on the edge to impress and be lovable by everyone - are always in the "not yourself" mode. I have acted like this in quite a few number of occasions when I was too "trying to better" than myself for the occasion and I am very sure now it never actually works.

Well the point is we all kinda tend to gauge/manipulate each others F(f,i,xyz), but eventually its who we are that truly matters in others' perception/judgement of who we are... i think .. unless you are the kinda person who are always in the "not yourself" mode .. or the unfortunate case where you are in a situation where you are judged by people who go by your hand-shaking-F(f, i) with strong first-impression prejudices...

Being proud of yourself is what matters. Everyone is unique in their own magnificiently beautiful weird ways and Being yourself can come only with knowing yourself and being proud of it :)

Moms will be Moms :)

2007-12-19T07:24:00.001-08:00

Two of my favorite songs :)

(Blogging again)... Failed starts...

2007-12-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

Phew the last post was in october.. can't believe time's flying by so quickly :( .. when i think of the number of "starts" I have started and ended up discontinuing it really is scary.. Thought I will make a list of all the starts which i didn't persevere for too long( whatever i can remember at the start of my mind right now... )

1) Blogging
2) Going to gym - in 1st puc.. after 2nd puc... 2nd semester of engg... maybe 5th sem again... FYI - have started gymming again in Fitness Grove .. continuing although a bit irregularly.. have lost 4 kgs :D
3) Long list of entrance exams -
3) IIT JEE - din't write the test
4) AIEEE - din't prepare for an hour .. got a lousy 960 something state rank
5) AFMC
4) Jogging in the morning - a couple of times in engineering and a few times after work started
5) Waking up before 7 in the morning - have tried my entire life, have been very few momentous of moments when I have succeeded.. have early meeting tomo so will try again tomo :)
6) Not end up being dumb in the effort of being smart in the presence of "stranger" girls :D - maybe started trying sometime in the beginning of engineering.. failed miserably everytime :P
7) To stop daydreaming/yawning while pretending to listen very seriously to an "interesting" conversation - again this unfortunately, usually, most probably has happened when a girl was talking :( ( :D )
8) Shave regularly - i love the beard and stubble look(no time in the morning, already late for college/work).. but apparently the preferred sterotype is that of no moustache/clean shaven white guy :/ .. duh.. so yesterday and boring
.....
oh ya 9) CAT attempt - 3rd year of engineering
10) Try to be "practical", "smart", "worldly wise", "outsmart or be outsmarted", "blah blah bull s**t", - Iam 22 and supposed to be OLD enough to be all these things.. to b grown up.. (sheesh never gonna be successful in this start for sure, but then never say never again)..
11) Apply pimple cream every day - every morning and evening for your entire "living" life.. c'mon that is too much to ask again.. but still trying..and failing and trying again..
12) To take care of hair fall - again long list of medicines to be taken.. i think this din't even take off.. after a broad forehead does give me a "worldly wise" look :D
13) Using mosquite net everday..
14) Not have too much sweets - to be "abstemious" - yeah as if anybody can do that when you are in Google .. heheh
15) Be financially wise - have tried a few times in engg and after i started earning to keep track of how much money is in my pocket.. how much money goes in and out .. spending/pocketmoney/earning lately.. but no success yet :(
16) Winning over "my lady" :D - tried a few times in engg.. was a bloody mess :D
17) .. can't think of any right now... will update when i remember more.. and trust me there are definitely lot more

.. ok I guess the point is I have failed at so many ( many many )starts.. but when I look at myself today and I not doing bad in life :) .. lots of unexpected successes came off these .. infact almost all of my "rewards" were from what I learned from this I think.. I don't really know the details what caused what .. or what i learnt from one failed start that helped me in another effort.. but never to stop trying even though you suck sometimes at persevering in all your crazy starts..

New year is around the corner again :D .. lots of new resolutions and starts :) ..

k then until next time
chao

"Nice" guys also get fired

2007-11-07T05:20:00.000-08:00

Wrote this draft 2 years ago :
"""
Its a weird experience to see the ever-smiling nice guy being shown the door. Yes, for the first time I saw the process of someone getting fired.

I was reading "Straight from the Gut" by Jack Welch, and I saw first hand how tough the competetion can be to big companies like GE, which can lead to firing of workers in thousands. The Japanese and Chinese companies mounted tough competetion which led to tough decisions. The No.1 or No. 2 strategy adopted by GE was very interesting and for the first time made me think of big corporations as ambitious and successful"individuals". Only a successful and competetive corporation making profits can be useful to society was the point made by Jack Welch. This is in alignment with Mr. Welch's thoughts of accepting reality as it comes, and not turn away from it.

wow I can't believe that people can just be shown the door just like that
"""

April 3, 2009
Lot of vendor cuts happening in the company. Everybody was positive saying we need to stay healthy. Many FTs said "Its fine to cut vendors". Some full-timers have also started getting fired now from some departments, although in very small numbers I think. It hasn't touched engineering yet thankfully,(or has it? .. I am too ignorant about these things.. need to spend more time reading all these *-announce mails). but I am not sure for how long the raging winds of financial recession/depression are gonna transfer the sparks of doom to our doorstep.

Wow Words - random lines and quotes

2007-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Unpublished post start sometime in 2007.. some additions now(oct, 09) and posting it

Golden words recorded :). Whenever I come across words or quotes- when I read a book or a email forward or an SMS or just a simple realization bulb going off in my head, random thoughts which invoked a strong reaction or feeling - I will try and put them here :). Just to ensure that I don't forget those memorable words :D.

The closer one gets to realizing his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.
People are just people everywhere, doesn't matter where they are.
When you can't go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.
The concept of exhaustion keeps getting redefined every year...

Reading the Alchemist

2007-10-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Unpublished post from sometime in 2007... plus some more additions today(oct 09)

I bought Paulo Coelho's Alchemist today.. had heard a lot about this book.. many orkut communities just for this book.

Somehow didn't find anything great.. probably I read it at the wrong age or something. Its probably a book that you read when you are in 12th.

I think every book appeals to you if you read at a particular age.. When I read Ayn Rand's FountainHead and Atlas Shrugged, I was totally numbed by its awesomeness. Haven't read a book like these two.. they had such a strong influence on me...

WoW I love dancing :-)

2007-10-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer : The thoughts expressed in my many blogs are entirely my own and do not have reflection of anyone or anything else. They are thoughts of a floating mind :D and can change completely and drastically from day to day.

On 20th October, I wrote :
Dancing is a life saver :) - its an oasis of happiness. Just like on oasis quenches the thirst of travellers in the desert, dancing fills you with soo much joy, so unbelievably fantastic that its impossible to know what is causing what - you are dancing because you are filled with joy or whether you are joyful that you are dancing :D . I recently joined the famous Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts - a place where one of the fun things you learn is dancing besides whole lot of other cool things. I can't believe that I missed out on dancing for soo long. I never danced before because I always thought I was not going to be good at it. Now I think it was so stupid - imagine shying away from being happy because you are not "good" at being happy.

Today Dec 22nd:
The show went well.. there were performances on stage :
Maujha Maujha from Jab we met.
One the technicals - full dress rehearsals on stage, watched by performers and instructors and feedback on how to perform on stage is given
2 more shows in front of a jam-packed audience at Ambedkar Bhavan, Sadashivnagar. Its a big hall..
apart from these lots of practise shows in the basement in front of other dancers. There were lots of batches from different SDIPA centers. Majority of the batches were similar to mine - Adult beginners batch.
Quite a motley crowd it was.. lots of "old" people, middle-aged people :) .. at first I was shocked at why they were dancing wearing funny dress at their age.. but then immediately I was ashamed at my own reaction, to seeing something which is not the norm, but not abnormal. On the contrary, many husband & wife pairs danced on stage with a lot of energy and seemed to have a lotta fun.
The batches also included lots of professional choreographers and wannabe SPB ites. SPB - Special Potential Batch is a batch comprising of the most promising performers on that day's show and are trained in a disciplined environment. The goal is to make these dance junkies fit and ready to be professional dancers.
My batch had a good mix of never-danced-before to people who had some stage experience and it was the perfect blend for the Adult Beginners' batch. The dance shows went really well, although I injured my left leg my stamping on some hard object.

I have been injuring my left dance a lot while dancing nowadays :D . The other day me and my colleagues were dancing on the dance floor and inadvertently my friend pushed me and I had really terrible twist of the ankle. It is (yeah still on...) wrapped up in crepe bandage and I have been hobbling around in office and at home. Its amazing how you tend to want to walk and move around more when you have a leg injury. I had experienced the same thing when I had fracture to my left hand, when my urge to use my hands and keep them active was much more than usual..

Another batch is starting soon.. and all my friends are planning to join it again.. hope i can do it again and have more fun :)

Choti si aashaa :) Trying to make a difference

2007-10-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

October 13th and 14th is the World Clean up Day. As part of this occasion me and my friends from college marched upto Lalbagh with trash bags and gloves. We had a lot of fun spreading awareness about the negative effects of plastic. We asked everyone to use the dust bins that have been provided in the garden.

A little Lal Bagh wiki for people who are not from Bangalore :-) -
Lal Bagh is a well known botanical garden in Bangalore, India. It was commissioned by the ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali. The Lal Bagh Gardens are based on the design of the Mughal Gardens. Hyder Ali commissioned the building of this garden in 1760 but his son, Tipu Sultan, completed it. Lalbagh is a 240 acre (971,000 sq.m. - almost 1 sq.km.) garden and is located on the southern part of Bangalore. It holds a number of flower shows, especially on the Republic Day (26th January). The garden has over 1,000 species of flora. The Glass House, modeled on London's Crystal Palace (now re-modelled with a different layout), is the center of attraction. Hyder Ali laid out these famous botanical gardens and his son added horticultural wealth to them by importing trees and plants from several countries. The Lalbagh Gardens were commissioned by the 18th century and over the years it acquired India's first lawn-clock and the subcontinent's largest collection of rare plants. The garden also has trees that are over 100 years old.

The garden surrounds one of the towers erected by the founder of Bangalore, Kempe Gowda. Hyder Ali decided to create this garden on the lines of the Mughal Gardens that were gaining popularity during his time. The park has some rare species of plants brought from Persia, Afghanistan and France. With an intricate watering system for irrigation, this garden is aesthetically designed, with lawns, flowerbeds, lotus pools and fountains. Most of the centuries old trees are labeled for easy identification. The Lal Bagh Rock, one of the oldest rock formations on earth, dating back to 3000 million years, is another attraction that brings the crowds.

It indeed was a unique experience. Back in the school days, sometimes as part of the P.T. class, we were made to pick up plastic and other trash lying on the school ground. Trying to make an attempt to clean up a big park such as Lal Bagh definitely seemed like a very ambitious idea. My friend Kaushik came up with the unique idea that we should do some community service as part of the World Cleanup day. So, both of us went about asking our friends if they'd pitch-in in this effort. Amazingly, they were very very enthusiastic about the event and came up with lots of suggestions and ideas. My friend Aruna who has some experience working with a few volunteering organisations was part of the effort and her experience made a huge difference in synergising our efforts. The whole bunch of 9 people(see pic below) from P.E.S.I.T - our alma mater set out to clean up LalBagh on October 14, on a sunny sunday morning.

Apu, Aruna, me, abhi, ashwin(back row) My3, Pavi, Kiran and Kaushik (front row) . Me with a bunch of trash bags in the next pic.

The surprising part of the whole initiative was that we gave empty bags to lots of people asking them to help us by filling trash in those bags, and they were very eager and happy to contribute. They did a great job. It was heartening to see so many people be part of this drive and spend their Sunday collecting plastic covers and help clean this beautiful park.
It was a very fun-filled and satisfying experience ! :-)

"Masala News" on prime time

2007-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was watching the Headlines today channel while having dinner at 9... The program was Grand Stand discussing in length about the apparent crush that cricket's new pin up boy Dhoni has on new Bollywood Dream girl aka Deepika Padukone... It was also reported that Dhoni personally asked Shahrukh Khan for special screening tickets of "Om Shanti Om", the debut film of Deepika Padukone.

During this whole news piece, the songs from OSO was being played in the background with the anchor speculating whether Dhoni really has a crush on Deepika. Very diverse views on this most important subject at hand were discussed. I was confused whether this news gig was promoting - a) the incredibly stunning Deepika who from the initial reviews seems to have done a good job on her debut, - or
b) Dhoni who did a splendid job leading India to a historic and famous victory in the T20 World cup held in South Africa. or
c) The film Om Shanti Om - the venture by Shahrukh Khan, which has been directed by Farah Khan, a well known choreographer in Bollywood who has worked closely with the King Khan in a number of his box office hits.
All in all, there is no denying the fact that all 3 factors definitely need and deserve all the publicity and media attention.

But the way in which the news combined these 3 things to serve up "Masala News" at prime time was really distasteful. The way in which opinions of people strolling on the road were televised and broadcast - whether Dhoni & Deepika make a good pair or should it be Rani-Dhoni jodi -makes me wonder to what spectrum of viewers is the program catering to. A person's choices in their personal life is theirs' and theirs' alone and its absolutely of no relevance to some distant third person. This holds true even for the most worshipped cricket badhshahs and coveted bollywood begums. It is indeed a sad state of affairs that a News channel is irresponsibly telecasting such programs as "News" when all it has people passing comments on things totally irrelevant to them. This makes me wonder now if the "bland" diet of half-hour Doordarshan News is what I am longing for.

A greater degree of social responsibility and awareness has to be exercised by the news media.

My First post

2007-10-02T02:41:00.001-07:00

First blog :) Watch out for more :)