My Hero

.. 20-20 world cup winners,No.1 team in test cricket, IPL Trophy, ,.. & now the wold cup !! His performance has SHUT UP every1 who had ever written him off, wanted him to be sacked questioned his decisions or called him a FLUKE.. DHONI is an analyst par excellence, shrewd manager of talent. He will remain one of the BEST captains cricket will ever produce .. & his humility & grace in victory is seen in the way he happily let his team mates bask in the glory while he himself slipped into oblivion retaining his trademark coolness & composure. Could anyone have imagined that a few years ago that this erstwhile ticket collector from Ranchi would change the face of the game..Love u Dhoni-u inspire me.. U r my mentor..

Can't explain this feeling within me...

Did you ever fall for someone you know you shouldn't?
Try hard to fight your feelings, but you just couldn't?
You fall deeper with each passing day,
But try to hide it in every possible way.
He's only a friend, and nothing else--
That's the lie you keeping telling yourself.
You keep on saying he's just a bud,
But deep inside, you're falling in love.
You get so giddy when you meet his eyes,
But keep reminding yourself it isn't right.
A simple glance turns into a stare,
But you pretned that you don't care.
It's "not right" for you two to be.
Is that why you hide it so no one can see?
But how long will you pretend?
Keep lying that he's just a friend?
Perhaps your feelings you can never show.
Perhaps it's "wrong" for him to know.
Your friendship can't be risked over this,
So being his girl is an impossible wish...

Perceptions of Life

My career has always been one of my top priorities. I continue to work hard on my career. But sometimes I do feel that for all the hard work I put in the results I get could be much better. There are people who don’t put in half as much work that I put in, plagiarize others work, make the best possible use of sweet talk and use many other shortcuts to get there work done. So what should I do about it. I obviously cannot stop them from doing what they do. So should I also feel that all the work I am putting in is meaningless. That's when I remembered one of the great Quotes of Rancho from '3 Idiots'..

“Never try to be successful, pursue excellence
Success is the by product & the result
Excellence always creates Success & it is a process of continual improvement
Never run after success
Let it happen automatically in life”

I then realized that I work for works sake. I enjoy being a designer & I work without any expectations of money or fame. After all these five years, I can now say finally become a Purist! It is not about the marks, its all about the self satisfaction I get when I create my baby. And believe me this has worked for me in the past one year. When you work on anything with utmost passion, It gets reflected in your work. And I am happy that today, most of the professors think highly of my work.

But then again, my colleagues aren’t too pleased about it. For every single praise I get from my superiors, there is lot of backbiting and gossip aiming to malign me. It used to disturb me earlier. But now, I just pity them. Whenever I see someone doing better then me, I get influenced by them and try to emulate their qualities. I now feel that I better now as I no longer feel depressed due to the loneliness induced by others, whom I earlier called friends. The positive part is that I could finally separate the wheat from the chaff and get to know the people who are true to me.

Its not the quantity of friends that matters. Its their qualities that matter. I don’t feel the need to change myself for anyone’s sake. Neither do I feel the need to conform to the trends. If people accept me the way I am , its good. If people don’t, its even better. Ultimately, each one of us is fighting his or her lone battles. It’s my passion that remains my ultimate driving force.

South Canara – A Tropical Paradise in every way

It’s been a while since my last post. I finally found the time and urge to blog about after a refreshing trip to Karnataka. With lots of spare time on my hands owing to the ongoing vacations, I now begin to write my most detailed travelogue ever.
A family vacation is what everyone looks forward to.. But I had second thoughts about it.. My disinclination was mostly based on my exhaustion than anything else. I was fresh from the month long bombardment of exams and juries and all I needed was some time to unwind before commencing on any journey. My family practically forced me to join them and thank God they did. It would have been extremely unfortunate to have missed it.
I was wrong about the trip right from day one, I half expected it to be a sort of pilgrimage but it was in fact a delightful blend of fun & relaxation. The best part of the trip was that there was absolutely no planning involved as we had just decided to go the previous night before departure. With no booking whatsoever, we just went with the flow as we explored one location after another.
Our first stop was the coastal temple town of Udupi. We reached there in the morning & the ride there by bus was quiet pleasurable. There were these quaint little cottages with mangalore tiled roofs surrounded with lush greenery on all sides Some even had the backside of the cottages directly facing the sea. All that was required was a hammock tied between two coconut trees and Voila! you have your own house cum Beach resort. If a person ever gets bored of the sea (If at all such a thing is possible) there are always these thickly forested hills running adjacent to the sea side .With such abundant natural beauty, it is obvious that any person would fall in love with the place.
We visited the Shri Krishna Temple & set off by car to Kollur travelling across the Mukambika Wildlife Sanctuary and then to Shringeri travelling across the dense Agumbe Forest where it was dark even during mid noon time as the sunlight had to trickle down through the dense vegetation.
We also had a delightful drive across the Kudremukh Wildlife Sanctuary (Kudremukh being the highest peak of Karnataka) & then continued our journey covering many important spiritual locations before finally reaching Mangalore.
Mangalore was nothing similar to what I had in mind. It is a hip & vibrant city filled with classy hotel and malls. Our favourite pastime was to keep an eye on the continuous flow of visitors going to the mall from our hotel room window. I sort of felt that people did more shopping there then in Mumbai. Some parts did however retain the old world charm, with their winding irregular streets & mangalore tiled houses. The food there was simply superb & the pricing was nominal too.
The journey from Mangalore to Hassan took around 4hrs.Hassan is home to one of the most exquisitely carved series of temples in India. The temples of Halebid & Belur are famous all over the world with many foreign tourists streaming in at all times of the day. Then, there is also the gigantic monolithic statue of Gomateshwar in Shravanabelagola.
The terrain and the climate slowly started changing as we journeyed from the flat & dry plains of Hassan to the Mountainous & misty terrain of Coorg. We made a stop at Kushalnagar in Coorg District which is home to the Golden Temple situated in the SOS Tibetan village. We then crossed Madikeri to reach Talacauvery- the starting point of Cauvery river. We were welcomed by the Fog slowly creeping into the landscape & enveloping the Mountains above & the valleys below. Water is said to sprout from the spring in Talacauvery thrice in October. On our way back, we covered all the vanity points in Madikeri, including Omkareshwara temple which is built on the lines of a mosque.
I guess I so Karnataka at its best. I realized that there were so many pristine & scenic locations that a normal traveler may be unaware of, but I would prefer it to remain that way. The best guide a person can ever find is his own curiosity. That’s why I don’t usually prefer package tours. The satisfaction I get out of exploring a place on my own is much more than blindly following the tour operator & seeing what he wants me to see.
Some of the high points of the trip are:-
• Authentic Udupi food.
• Being mistaken for a Naxalite at the army security checkpost at the start of the Horanadu forest due to my attire (I had covered my face entirely to protect myself from heat & strong wind)
• A fox crossing our path while driving through Agumbe forest.
• Sipping hot piping tea in the middle of a tea plantation in Horanadu.

An interesting incident took place when I was returning from the trip via Chennai. It happened while the train was passing through Andhra .It made me want to go back to my roots so badly. Watch this space for more….

Matrix

The Matrix trilogy has always been an all-time favourite. It is an action , sci-fi movie deeply rooted in symbolism & philosophy. I found these religious interpretations of certain tracks of the movie definitely worth a mention..

The Matrix Revolutions: Symbolism


Symbolism of Names


Rama Kandra We meet Sati's father Rama Kandra in the Train Station but we first see him in Reloaded in Le Vrai Restaurant. He's being hauled off in this scene and we can assume this is tied to his negotiation with the Merovingian to get Sati out of the mainframe. Rama Kandra, (usually Ramchandra) was an incarnation of Vishnu in Hinduism. He destroyed demons in his quest to rid the world of evil.


Kamala Sati's mother Kamala is another name for Laksmi which is the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune.

The Rama Kandra family are tied closely to the themes of Hinduism in the Matrix. Bernard White, who played Rama Kandra told Cinescape magazine that he had a copy of the Bagavad Gita with him all the time during filming. He also did a live performance of the Bagavad Gita in L.A. and urged Matrix fans to see it because it's a 'great spiritual inspiration for the Matrix films'.


Club Hel The club that the Matrix crew visit to learn how to find Neo obviously stands for Hell. The Merovingian rules the 'underworld' here like Hades from Greek mythology. Hades was also the character who stole Persephone and forced her to live with him in Hell.


Trainman Programs are smuggled in and out of the Matrix by the Trainman. He built the Train Station program and the Merovingian controls what goes in and out.


Symbolism of Music


Navras
by Don Davis (found on the Revolutions Soundrack)


Navras plays over the closing credits of Revolutions, and the words of the main chant are taken from the Upanishads.

This is what you hear:

Asato ma sad gamaya,
tamaso ma jyotir gamaya,
mrtyor mamrtam gamaya.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.


Which translates to:

Lead us from darkness to the light,
Lead us from knowledge of the unreal to the real,
Lead us from fear of death to knowledge of our immortality.
Peace, peace, peace.


And if that doesn't symbolize the entire Matrix Trilogy, I don't know what does.

Dilbert- 'The Architect '

A Tribute to Michael - My King

It’s been barely a month since my grandma passed away & I already have another reason to mourn. I reached home today morning and got the most shocking news about the demise of my most favorite artist, performer & Icon. About a month ago, I read an article in the newspaper about ‘Michael Jackson slowly dying’. I never really realized the true seriousness of the news until now. It’s surprising how much we take a person for granted when there’s time & we miss the person dearly when is just too late.
I spent my entire day watching his songs on VH1 (They were having a Michael Jackson tribute all day) when I came across a very special song which took me back in time. I was still a two year old kid when I first saw Michael in his hit single ‘Thriller’ when my Dad was watching it. My Dad was & still is a big fan of Michael Jackson. I loved that song so much that I used to run to the TV every time it was aired. Again, I used to run out of the room seeing the scary zombies in the video & still continued to listen to the song from the door.
I always felt that Michael has been one of the most misunderstood people. He was taken advantage of right from his childhood. His father kept cashing in on his in-born talent throughout his childhood. His first performance was at the age of four, so complete burnout at the age of 50 was inevitable. In his career spanning 46 long years he has never ceased to amaze the people. He was a star right from the the beginning, this can be seen in the early performances of Jackson 5, where he outshines all his elder brothers.
The most extraordinary character of his songs is that each one is so different & ingenious. Each song is a gem, unique in its own way. I possess all of his records, the earlier ones in the form of cassettes. I would have liked experience at least one concert of his though. I missed the golden chance when he came to Mumbai the last time. Though he was aware of his waning health, being the showman that he was, he wanted to give his one last concert, his swansong in July. Unfortunately, his dream remained unrealized.
Over the last decade, Michael’s name has been synonymous with controversy. He was dragged in & out of court for countless reasons which I am not interested in mentioning. Sure, he had his quirkiness but that doesn’t make a person bad. I guess everyone was after his money. These issues overshadowed all the good causes he relentlessly worked for and propagated. He had addressed many core issues in his songs be it Poverty, World Peace, Equality, Racism, Aids Awareness, Support for African victims & the Environment. He has in fact donated millions of dollars for these causes. He helped to make the world a better place.
With his demise, one of the greatest music eras has come to an end. He has made the most momentous contribution in the international music world & his greatness can never ever be matched by any artist in the times to come. I salute this man & I will always remain his biggest fan all my life.
P.S- This posting got delayed by a day thanks to the crashing of the web world yesterday due to the tremendous traffic yesterday.