Celebrations and a loooonnnnnggggggg chat

25th Feb 2005
Pinxx, Manipal Center, Bangalore
All of Tarka, sriram, jayashree, ravi and me!

Nice(?) dinner with the small group, celebrating the first year of
of Tarka and the release of SimplEX, maiden product offering from
Tarka.

Two Surprises at the venue:
a. Pinxx turned out to be an continental joint
b. The Presence of a blr magician, to entertain us with a bunch of his magic puzzles

Sriram(?), Ravi(?), Me and Murthy, solved one puzzle each, after a mug of beer!
Funny thing, our brains were so rusted, i had to take out a paper and draw out the solution,
before solving the puzzle. (forming a T of 4 broken pieces)

Ended up with a western/continental platter of dishes for dinner (Whew, man, isn't it
stupid to taste westernized indian food, paying a western bill, sitting right in heart of
india???) As usual, it can happen ONLY in india.

We had a nice time later that evening, me and sriram, stayed back and what started
as an usual discussion went on and on, across various topics well over midnight.
it was almost 1am, by the time we said our byes.

A Good small get together, which proved to energise me for the next few days. :)

Oh My God!!!! Oh My God!!!! Somebody Lend me a hand please.... *rofl* (trying to steady myself!!!)

Don't you know bernd? BERND? Huh, if you dunno about him ALREADY, you don't deserve to know anything further!

"All Indians are my brothers and sisters ..." - Pangs of a poor Dude!

Yeh bi mera india! Read on...

A Different Time, A Different Place

Its almost another month, since i've updated my blog.

and this new one month has taken me to new places, with new happenings and new situations!!!
This trip to london came up quick and after a few nail biting moments, i got my visa stamped, on
one single page left out in my passport (getting an additional book would have taken atleast another 10/15 days
which would've meant the cancellation of this trip!), and with the invite letter arriving just after a weeks' delay,
(by then, the i'd almost given up the prospects of making this trip at all!!!)

And man, i get the visa, a day earlier than expected - and with a quick re-scheduling of the tickets,
was lucky enough to get them confirmed for the next day - and i did leave the next morning - dirty, quick and
fast!

and what a start it was!!!
I Got Sick..., just the night before - undigestion and throwing up... terrible feeling!!!

Pushed thru the trip, in the morning, with mum and dad terribly worried!
by Gods grace, thankfully, things started improving... over the days.
Thanks to all the medicines mum had packed up, and the first two days of starved stomach, with
a lot of prayers!

Man, being sick could have such unpleasent effects! whew!
both physically and more mentally!

But again, it was great time to be in london again, after almost an year and a half.
:)

More on the london adventures later...

The Weekend

it was after quite a while, that i've done this...
two movies out in the theatres - in consecutive days!!!

Our (me, venu, anand and kamal ) target was to watch 'swades'.
but after our futile efforts to get the tickets at cauvery, over the counter and
shunning to pay double for the price, in black... we ended up hopping theaters
to sangeetha and to rex. And it being a saturday and it was already 5 when we left
cauvery, we just couldn't manage to get the tickets!

What the heck, i decided that since we were out for a movie, we will get to watch one.
what if its just not 'swades'?!!!

So, cuz of me putting my foot down, we ended up going for 'ocean's twelve'!!!
Oh man. what a turn off!!! Pathetic - it was such an expensive blunder, the director hoping it to be an
intelligent plot!!! ewww. waste of time and money!
just barely escaped getting beaten up from my friends, for choosing that one!

Well, what the heck - since we had actually wanted to watch 'Swades' - we decided
we'd do the same on sunday!!!

and whew, i just got a bit more than normally absorbed by that movie.
hats off to asuthosh gowarikar - a very professional movie, great screenplay,
good casting if not to match that of lagaan and last but not least - Gayatri Joshi :D

But, man, inspite of the beautiful - gorgeous gayatri joshi - the movie had left a profound impact ...
of what we (me first) have done, doing and will do for our country...

not to say that we get to see enough of the heart wrenching scenes - and to hear the happenings -
of suppression, poverty and much more!!!

for some unknown reason, i had just put myself in the shoes of mohan (SRK) in the movie, asking myself
what have i been and what have i done ... apart from my thoughts and good will to the betterment of
my country!!!??

Nope, this wasn't the kinda josh after a patriotic movie... but more of a knife of guilt slicing through.
this was kinda fuelled with my and anand's earlier discussions on the same line...

i want to make a difference, to try and to act, in whatever possible small ways, and i'd be glad the
day i can watch the changes in this country!!!

Focus!
Clarity of Thought!
The Power of Direction!

Importance and significance of these are better realized than said!
A Must have attributes for a leader - and for route to peace.

Today was kamal's birthday... and its almost a month up since his marriage...
had been to his home, for a nice memorable evening.
A Hearty Dinner, with a prelude - cake cutting... turned
interesting with a naughty bunch of candles which kept springing back to life
every time he blew 'em off and this continued for awhile until he won - finally
blowing off the candles!

And unknown of the next surprise awaiting - piece of cake on his face,
from his wife.!!!

We'd been watching his marriage album and the CD,
and it was a nice evg, with loads of laughter and life.

and not to forget, is the care and affection we folks stand
to receive from his mom and dad - mom, especially!

Its a great feeling and there are but far and few left out there, in this date...
like 'em!

in my life - i've been gifted in more than one ways - inspite of the hardships, which
includes the care and affection from two warm hearted women,
my aunt and kamal's mother! :)

FlipStart - First Looks

AWESOME!!!!
A Must Have - When are they gonna release this beauty commercially???
Hats off to Paul Allen.
Vulcan

More of my p800.... :)

Thats my p800. Well, Not Exactly mine, pity i ain't able to get a shot of my own p800 - hence borrowed this pic from Sony Ericsson. :D - Well, its all the same. Mine is just a bit more cute and sexy. lol.

It Happens ONLY in India! Queue for McDonalds at Forum, on a sunday afternoon.

Here i am folks....
mmm, Should i say back with a bang after a break of a month or so?

More importantly, what brings me rushing back to my blog,
is Google!!! (Not even my new Sony Ericsson p800, gave me such a kick
as to jump on to my blog to brag about...lol)

yes, the Google Labs, has released
the desktop google, which allows me to run a google search
on my own desktop...

Got to be envied the way google's moving ... to its heights?
Its irresistable not to use Google Desktop.!!!

man, and the ideas, talk about google... its igniting a spark within...
to carve a niche for oneself!

Whew! oh man, i certainly do envy the folks at google! lol.

Just installed the Desktop Google and the initial search
results are pretty impressive.

What next google?
Search into Hetreogeneous databases?
or not but to think a bit futuristic...
a VR Google?
Google to search your brains - sorting and sifting out info. of lost pointers
with a bio mind searching google?

mmm ... one day perhaps!

Folks,

Check this out!!!
Bloggers Blogging Their own company info... heading to bite dust.

Friendster fires developer for blog

Microsoft fires contractor for posting pictures on his Blog

Whew!

Life Begins at 80 ... on the internet

The World's first multinational eBook

Sathya's Marriage

Witnessed a friend ending his bachelorhood and tying the knots.
Oh boy, and what a significance it has!

Was a jubilious moment, feeling happy for sathya...
though it ended up evoking some strong emotions, within myself.

watching the ceremonies at close hand got me off foot, evoking emotions, and the long since buried memoirs!

Glimpses on my own past, swishing past in the mind, in a fleeting moment.... in turn, leaving an effect ... still lingering as i type this!

call me names, but the basic instinct was to retreat from
the scene...
Fear of facing myself / realities? i don't know!
well, am not interested to dig deeper to analyse myself!
nor does it bother me about the coming tmrw.


Emotions, Emotions, Emotions.
The gift of a twin edged sword - of boon and curse???

reminds me that am still a toddler, learning the ways of life - and to face / wield this
twin edged sword and to experience the process itself, not of the
outcomes but of facing / wielding and of handling this gift.

Sathya's Reception...

Yesterday was sathya's reception!

I Made up my mind to attend this marriage, willingly,
which am doing after quite a few years.

it was a nice feeling, to watch a friend get married.
it was also a reunion of sorts, for us friends - venu, anand, kamal and myself.

was meeting kamal after a few years, (yes, a few years!!! just to think about
the days in college, when our daily routine was to gather at his home)

times have changed a lot, and ppl alongwith, especially it has a certain toll on me,
as a person, if not physically (me looks almost the same, i was years back, give and take a few inches of height).

yesterday was sorts of good and sad put together.
good that we friends met and were together for the night, chatting and
watching movies, exchaning stories - pulling legs - while the sad
part was to watch anand, breakdown into tears, turning senti - in a sudden
moment, as we were talking - not that i've seen him even once in tears all thru
the past 10 years.

I Just could visualize and share his anguish, whilst the only thought that was
running in my mind was, "hey look, come to think about realities of life,
(posed optimisms set apart) it had been and still is my prepetual struggle, to
divulge my pains and fears with anybody at all, even for a moment of solace, leading
me at times, to the brink of breaking down but to pull myself back to a
composed calmness and put up a normal face to others, whilst to watch similar
things taking its toll on anand - that for a moment, made him broke down !!" Call, it
c'est la vie and continue, but, had never expected that with anand!

The most hard working and deserving of all of us friends, still suffering.
sad but true.
a brave soul shouldering the burdens of his family, the "responsible" man - since
he was 18, and always with a smile on his face - sacrificing his time and pleasures of youth along with the small joys of life on the hard grounds of reality = "His Realities".

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will"
- so said shakespeare.

well, we did cheer him up and that was a whole different excersie ;o)

a memorable day, in its own ways!

A CEO @ 17!!!

Shocked i was for a moment when i read this...
Boy CEO

What an accomplishment! whew!

7:00 pm

On the Balcony and Puffing away smoke rings...

All in a minutes' time....
No. of Motor cyclists passed by - 40
No. of Four wheelers - 20
No. of Autos - 10

aw, thats a 4 : 2 : 1 ratio...

bangalore is no more a garden city, but a traffic city!

How would you import a DLL written in Delphi to VC++?

Our Sri aka Quixote
(as we are going to find more and more sightings of this name /
character, let me coin an appropriate Nick.... mmmmm : Quixote [Don] is what crosses my mind immediately, but anyways, am going to get booted up once he gets to read this! :D)

A. Try to do things in the simple way as done in Delphi

B. Oops!!! That Failed! Arrrgh. Missing Something.

C. Google

D. Aha, Found the culprit! Whoosh, in my good heavens! How many Steps to be followed for a simple thing. :o(

E. Yikes!!! i hate this - VC++ is a pain in the butt - first, generate a static Lib for the Dll and a Def file and a Header file and .... AAAAAARGGGGGH. [And that beats the whole purpose of a DLL, if it has to be compiled static!!!]

F. Argue with me on using static libs against loading it dynamically!

G. Proceed with creating Static Libs, Defs, more Googling and more ARRRRGHS [Never listens to elders! ;o) ]

H. Finally, get back to use Dynamic Load Library!

I. Sheesh!!!!

J. Oh No. Another bottleneck. Braces this time. VC++ Compiler gets confused if i don't dress up the typedef for a function pointer with proper braces. What a Dumb Compiler.

---

K. At last, its working.

L. Nothing like Delphi :D - PEACE!

Einstein!

During our 4'0 clock coffee break - walk, we had this discussion about relativity,
which led to einstein and his relativity theory. (which itself was triggered by a chain of totally unrelated thoughts - courtesy : tea, caffine, smoke, girls passing by and our [me and sri] off the beaten path thought process :D )

Unfortunately, my simple demonstration of relativity with sri, (without all the complexities put forward by einstein), back fired on myself - me ending up kicked and beaten. :o(
(Oh don't ask me what i did to Sri, its Relative!!!)

Since and hence we could demonstrate the theory of relativity, without all the
equations and blah blah blah of einstein, we indeed become better instances of
modern day Einsteins. :D :D

well getting back to our story,
the most interesting outcome of all this excercise is ...

Dear Sri = Einstein!!!

ask why???

Sri Plays Violin - So Did Einstein! :D :D