Thursday, October 25, 2007

~ Leopard has arrived ~

Visit Apple (before 26th 2007) and then have a close look at the above image. If you happened to spot the difference, then you know what I meant to convey. More on it after the official launch.

Monday, October 15, 2007

~ Nadaka ~

One of the best Indian Classical I have come across in the recent past. Nadaka, is not the name of a music group/band, rather the person himself.

"In Sanskrit, Nada is the origin of sound and Ka is the one who carries it within. Nadaka was born in Quebec, and learned to play the guitar at an early age." For more, read here or click on 'About Nadaka' over here.


You can enjoy few of his performances which are available on youtube. and let me know if you liked it.

Thanks Sudharshan, for introducing me to Nadaka.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

~ Quote of the week ~

'Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.'
Issac Asimov

~ Darfur: Sad But True ~

I had heard about Darfur conflict before, but didn't proceed any further in knowing what was the conflict actually about. Until last month, when one of my friend, Radhika, sent across this link. After visiting that, it shook me & think about the insane world we live in.

Even though it shocked me, didn't blog it then. I have practically given up following world affairs these days, because the main stream media is totally controlled by the governments for spreading their own hidden propaganda. Moreover, I don't know if writing posts / talking among friends, regarding it would make any difference to the situation in Darfur. But, I happened to stumble upon this video tonight which made me think once again about whether I can make a difference. I believe I could by creating awareness to the current state of affairs in Darfur, at the least, to those who visit my blog.

Monday, October 08, 2007

~ 6° of separation ~

It is very unlikely that you contact your girl through various degrees of connections. But , there are times in life when you need to depend on the 'Six degrees of separation'. This happened to be one of those situations, where I had to use the 6° to reach my love.

From wiki,

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

I happened to call her over the weekend, but she wasn't answering my call. Tried at various intervals for the next two hours, without much difference. Didn't know why she wasn't answering my calls, didn't want to buzz beyond the difference in time-zones.

Tried reaching her once i woke up at early in the noon (was up late night) yesterday. Called her on the mobile for don't know how many times, but everytime it was in vain.

1° - Decided to reach her on the landline (wanted this to be the last°) but ended being the 1° of separation. I chose it first, since she doesn't socialize on Sundays, was sure of reaching her. But, that never happened, no one seem to answer the call.

2° - Dad. Reaching her through her dad's number. (If you are thinking that her parents know about we going around, then you are wrong, they don't have a clue). By now you must have realised how much I love her and how
crazy 'm. This ° wasn't the best bet either, each time hearing an automated response saying cannot be reached.

3° - Her colleague, who also is her close friend. Didn't want to disturb her, who btw got married last week. Wasn't really sure if I could actually reach the newly wedded couple, still buzzed her. As expected, got a message saying switched off.

4° - Her cousin, who lives in the capital of India. My hopes were dampened, once she didn't answer the calls.

After 4°s, wasn't really sure of what was happening. I decided to complete the book I was currently reading 'All Things Must Pass: The Life of George Harrison', to take a break from being paranoid.

5° - My cousin. Gave her a buzz late in the evening. Asking her to check if she could reach her. She gave me the same response, that she wasn't answering the call.

After giving few more calls before I hit the sack, hoping she buzzes me once she returns form where ever she has been.

Woke up at 4 am today and there you go, thinking of various things which could have happened to her or her family. (The reason I mentioned her family, her dad had recovered from a severe accident couple of years). To end the early morning weird thoughts, I decided to run through all possible connections, common relations we had. After sorting them in ascending order, only thing which floated at the top was to call her workplace and find out if she had left any message.

6° - Workplace. You don't expect people to start at 8:30 am in India. Fortunately, at her workplace, they start at around 7 in the morning. This time around, I was sure someone would answer the call, the receptionist answered. Asked for her, hoping she would connect me to her extension. The lady said, she still hasn't checked in. In response, I instinctively asked her immediate reporting manager's name, whose name used to crop up during our conversations regularly. Then she connected me to her manager. I upraised her of the situation, she said not to worry, I will find out. I said will buzz her in another 20 mins. @ 5am, called her workplace once again, to get an update from her senior. Manager said, "
She isn't answering her". Which didn't make much of a difference to the existing situation. She added,"But, she had called up the workplace to inform she would be reporting late by an two hours. Once she reaches ofice, I will ensure she returns the call". I said that would be great & ended the call. Two hours to go & I wasn't getting any sleep, was just thinking about the programme which I once saw on Discovery Channel, which had aired some experiment on the 6° of separation between two individuals in the world.

So, I analyzing how many °(degrees) of separation I was from my own love & it turns out to be magical 6. Thats how this post originated. Am just waiting to talk to her :)

On a lighter note, wish Google had a service to find whereabouts of a person based on the enormous amount of online personal data which is available to them. May be it would happen one day, time would be factor. Great Idea! ?Google already has Location :P

I have managed to kill time by writing this post, now need to get ready & leave for work. Lets see how the day unfolds....

Have a good one!

Update:
Called her up, she happened to be @ work. She said,
couldn't answer the call on saturday, as she was very tired after a hectic schedule. On Sunday, she was busy with her cousins visiting them from Delhi & they were out for lunch in the afternoon. She was so very busy that she couldn't respond to the calls.

I happened to tell her that I had tried calling across various numbers, to each her. As expected, she didn't like me calling so many people. What she doesn't know is the fact that I have written a post about the whole stuff, am sure she would get wild if she reads this one ;)

Thursday, October 04, 2007

~ Formula 1:2007 ~


After being an ardent fan of Michael Schumacher & Ferrari all these years, I thought 2007 season would be one sided with Alonso taking the championship for his new side,The McLarens. Not to write off Ferrari, even though Kimi has the potential & experience, didn't feel he had the machine which would get him the championship. Half way through the season, Massa was performing well & winning the races for prancing horse. I thought Massa would be the Ferrari's hope for 2007 championship. Thats when Kimi Räikkönen, the Iceman, responded with back 2 back wins @ the French & the British grap prixs to close upon his team-mate & be a contender for the championship. Its never easy for any racing team, if the championship points are held evenly by their drivers.

If that was the case with Ferraris, things were only getting worse for McLarens. Alonso, having moved to the McLaren, probably thought (or may be promised) that he would be given the 'Numero Uno' driver status. Guess, McLaren would have honoured Alonso the status, if their rookie driver, Hamilton wasn't winning them races. No one, at least myself, ever expected such a brilliant performance from a rookie. Despite being the youngest double champion, Alonso never got any preferential treatment from his McLarens team; which seem to have upset the Spaniard.

With so much of competition among drivers, the spy gate brought new twist to the season. It became more exciting when Alonso threatened McLaren Boss, Ron Dennis, regarding the usage of the Ferrari’s confidential data to tweak the performances of their cars. The differences between Alonso and the McLaren team was/is no longer confined behind doors.

Just when Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese race, everyone thought the rookie would be creating history in Formula 1 in the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix. But, there comes yet another twist to this season's championship, 'Hamilton faces Japan win inquiry' & 'Ferrari accused in F1 spy twist'.

This season, post-Schumacher era, so far has had everything - best performances from the drivers, good competition, high drama & spy-saga - which in all could be made into an Hollywood movie ;)

One thing which I learned from this season is that there can be only one 'Numero Uno' driver in a team. The team needs to decide that & convey the same to their drivers, which would enable him to win the championship. Now, I understand why Ferrari had always adopted that strategy of honouring Michael Schumacher the 'Numero Uno' status. Otherwise it would be a nightmare for both the team management & the drivers, if there is no clear stance on the 'Numero Uno' position.

Lets see what the next two grand prix & the Japan GP inquiry hold for us, am sure they won’t be disappointing. Let the best driver win this season’s championship. My bet on the championship would be in the following order:
  • Lewis Hamilton
  • Kimi Räikkönen
  • Fernando Alonso

Whom are you betting on?

~ Swarathma ~


~ Swarathma: Performing @ Opus, Bangalore ~


One of the Indian fusion bands from Bangalore who play some good music. I happened to listen to their Kannada song called Ee Bhoomi & instantly loved the song. It has been ages since I actually listened to any song from my mother tongue. Didn't know that Swarathma had Hindi compositions as well, till I visited their re-vitalized website.

You can listen to their few of their songs here. The credit for introducing this band goes to Naveen, my college buddy, who occasionally strums his guitar & a wannabe musician.

Photo Courtesy: Suresh BJ