Adieus 2009

2009 was being quite eventful for me. Since then, all years passed me in a series of packs, each of which contained repetition of  similar experiences and memories. Like 12 years of school days, 4 years of college and then first 2 years of my job. 2009 had a lot of events happening in my life,  exactly saying, a series of fortunate events.

2009 began with myself nurturing my marriage dreams. I was already engaged to my sweetheart by then and was on looking a new turn of life.

At the same time, I was establishing myself in my new company in a new role at the break of 2009. It was my first jump after I begun my IT career. I was quite enjoying the change. A sort of freedom from a hefty work life to a balanced work life(It's still the same, don't know till when). In the professional aspect, this was the most cherished year of my career so far. May the years ahead bring in more better experiences.

I married my darling of my life on March. It was the sweetest moments of my life ever and I am thankful to 2009 for blessing me those moments.

I used to blog on blogger.com in  a very inconsistent way for a long time. I switched to wordpress.com and that change was quiet good for me as a blogger. During the period from August to date, I wrote more blog posts than I wrote in last few years. Blogging became a passion for me. I made good acquaintances in the blogging world. Chitz, Narayan, Carol...the list continues.

After marriage, I reinvented my passion towards Guitar. I went regularly to the classes for quite sometime. Again, the work held me and I got to include the same in my new year resolution to continue the lessons in the same flare for at least 3 months from now.

And now at the last hour of 2009, I realize that one more year being added to the life. I am thankful to God for that. A year full of happiness, sorrows, victories, losses, pain and joy. What would be life without all these? Like a blank canvas without colors.

The road keeps on coming back to me and I no longer walk alone....

Adieus 2009.

Highs and Lows of 2009

As usual, another year is ending and few things are to be collected and remembered. A few of them below:

• This year Indian Law announced that gay sex between consenting adults would no longer be unlawful.


• Whole earth talked about the Copenhagen Summit. It's time to go green...Not with envy...But with environment.


• heart-throb of millions...the original pop icon moonwalked into history.


• Irony at its best...With Obama's one foot in war and other in Nobel award ceremony.


• Indian slums and cinema met the dream destination of Oscar Award.


• The saddest phenomenon of H1N1 that took many lives and more than that spread a panic all over the world's veins.


• The loveable cute and simple characters used in Vodafone advertisements took the entertainment world by storm.

Life, Death, Life

It was very calm. I was never used to such calmness. But I didn't feel unusual either. May be the nature is sleeping. How could I know?

I strolled around. It is a lazy early morning and I wasn't in a mood of hurry. My appetite signalled me that I must get a snack soon. My eyes wandered around. It was just me and me alone. I couldn't even see any other living thing anywhere near me. Am I the only one in the world now?

As these thoughts are filling my mind, I saw something edible near me. At first, I felt it as an illusion, but as I was lurking forward, I realised the truth. The truth that I found answer to my appetite. I rushed to gulp down my starter and....

I cannot phrase it. All I could feel is the excruciating pain spreading through all my nerves. I felt as if the pain was pulling me from above. In that extreme sense of pain,my eyes went still. All of a sudden, I felt numb. All my senses stood still in the flood of memories rushing inside me.

It was my birthday yesterday. In my community, I am now a fully grown hunter. But the growth from the innocent childhood to savage hunter brought in me a lot of unwelcome changes. I found pleasure in defying those principles, that were once taught by my mother. I found myself right in questioning rather than believing. If it wasn't my arrogance, I wouldn't have come so long during the morning strolls. I was so proud of my daring self and my strength.

I felt all those doings are haunting me together. All the pain returned to me at once and my mouth felt wide open. But, I couldn't open my mouth as I wished. I felt as if my mouth was clamped together. I knew,amidst the pain, that I am pulled up slowly and steadily. The surroundings around me began to dim in the bright light, that was getting stronger by each second. My mother always used to tell me not to wander towards the bright light. She told me, no one returns from there and it's the light of the death. And I started to believe that I am going to die.

Suddenly I felt as if someone has peeled off my skin. It was very hot.I felt like my skin will  melt, if I was held there any longer. Another frightening thought passed through my mind. Even if I am going to die, it ain't going to happen sooner enough.

The death isn't inevitable. It's for all.Like a cup of last rejoice. Only question is when and how. And here I am, entangles in the chain of prey and predator. As these thoughts drowned me, I felt as if I was picked up.

Ohhh....Another wave of pain and my jaws were once again free. Though pain was filling my senses, I enjoyed the momentary realization of freedom.

Again, I was put on the wet floor. I knew that I can't stay without breathing for long. Every living cell in me demanded for oxygen. I can feel wind on my skin. But, I couldn't get what I needed. I wondered how these big creatures around me,of whom mother has warned me a lot, breathed. With everything around me blinding and life closing in, I had a sudden urge to live. An unconditional will to live in the righteous path.

Urge for one last chance.

I was shaking all over. Life was unwillingly leaving me. My body was hitting hard against the ground again and again. My tail was still waving in the air. i could hear the crushing sound of waves near me. In that last second of life, I pushed myself towards the sound of the waves.

I felt to merge myself with water in that moment of life. I was swirling for a moment and splash. I felt the coldness of water on my skin. The comforting wetness and the cold feeling of life returning to me was unbelievable. My wet gills filled me with oxygen of which I was deprived off for a very long time.

And I live again.But not the life I lived so long. A new life, a new beginning. All say life teaches, but for me

Death was the teacher.

Malabar Diaries - I

Travelling has always been my passion. And with every opportunity, I pack my goodies and set off to a new land and new experiences. This time, it was a bit different. It was a new start for the rest of the tours that I am going to have in my life time. I had this trip with my sweet wife. It was a new experience to me, since I was always a loner when it comes to visiting new places.

[polldaddy poll=2436514]

My trip map included Kannur, the Land of Human Gods and Kozhikode, where trade never ends. It was a wonderful travel and a lot of sweet memories. It is going to a downpour of memories in my blog for the next few days.

For the name, 'Malabar Dairies', I am obliged to Chitz, whose bengal diaries inspired me to conjure Malabar Diaries.So, let's start the trip.

I left Trivandrum for good on a Wednesday night. The night travel in train is really a day saver. Get to your seat, have a good sleep and wola, you are at your dream destination.

I too woke up to the  welcome note of Pazhayangadi Railway station. It is 5 stations after Kannur main station. It was where I set foot on the land of Political gang wars and the land of Living Gods. Though the first point suits more to the outlook of Kannur now, but still it is the Land of living Gods or 'Theyyams'.

I had my lodging at my family friend's home. I had been there before too, but never with such extensive plans to tour Kannur. So, I mark this as the first visit of Kannur. I have acquaintance with this family, right  from my childhood. As I have mentioned before, my father was an army man and I have travelled and stayed with him in the army quarters for a few years of my childhood. It was in there, I met this family. They were our neighbours. And now, that child friendship had grown high to a good bond. So, that was the real cause of the trip. To visit them with my family, alias, my wife.

There were a lot of first observations I got about Kannur. The population density is low. There are a lot of vacant lands, which is quite a strange view for a city dweller like me. The most common material for construction is the rock-cut bricks, which is readily available in the area and also cheap. There are a lot of bake houses. More in number than any other city I have visited. I think the people in here, likes to have a lot of snacks and bites.

The very day afternoon, I went on to visit St.Angelo's fort, popularly known as 'Kannur Fort'. It is the first military fort I have visited. Build by the Portuguese, expanded by Dutch, and reinforced and used to curb Indian mutiny s by the British. I had a calm nostalgic feeling wrapping me, right from the moment I saw the fort. More of the fort and pics on my next post.

Avatar : Movie Review

Disclaimer : Contains no Spoilers.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had the first taste of 'Avatar'. In Indian Mythology, Avatar means 'Incarnation'. And  for me, James Cameroon's Avatar is a new incarnation of movie industry.



As expected it was a house full show at Sree Padmanabha. I sailed through the crowd to buckle my seats. Even before the action flared, I had a good spectacle of the iMax 3D technology on the run. The ads of 'Christmas Carol' were awesome. I have seen 3D movies before. But not something like this. I felt as if I am standing near to the camera and having the reels viewed in real life perspective.

Avatar is a new evolution of motion technology. It's uncomparable to the conventional 3D technology. Along with the technology, Cameroon's awesome story, the bright and vivid colors of Pandora are breath-taking. With this movie, he has also addressed the lost bond between the nature and humans.

I would full marks for all aspects of the movie. Storyline, Graphics, action, heart touching moments, and Climax. It is a very fine mix of all.

I don't want to give any hint on the story at this point. The movie is a treat and is a must watch.

So excited for "Avatar"

Having a movie ticket and a 3D glass on your pocket is nothing less exciting. I am all geared for experiencing the new Cameroon flick "Avatar". I had to reserve 3 days ahead to get ticket. The box office collection going good and with legend of Cameroon following Aliens, Terminator 1-2 and the epic Titanic, the movie is another block buster.

So, let me buckle up for the matinée and do return for the movie review.

Few words I love most

When I was quite small, at least 17 years ago, I had a diary in which I used to collect all those that interested me. Today, when I was rearranging my goodies, I had my hand on it. First flip led me to this page. I don't remember how many times  I have read through these words. I always to read this to pull together the broken hope sand courage in me in those small days of failure.

A weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

paraphrased from Ralph Walsh Emerson

You have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.

Ogden Nash

Whoever said, It’s not whether you win or lose that counts, probably lost!

Martina Navratilova

People are far more interesting and successful when they are less concerned about been normal, and more concerned on being natural.

Michael Nolan

A man who works with his hands is a laborer;

a man who works with his hands and brains is a craftsman;

but a man who works with his hands and his brains and his heart is an artist.

Louis Nizer

Shoot for the moon. Even if you lose you will land among the stars.

Les Brown

The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well being of the community – these are the most vital things education must try to produce.

Virginia Gilder sleeve.

Going down to the END

The United States Government has often been criticized for refusing to cut down carbon dioxide emission by American factories and automobiles.

Pileup of such carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is held responsible for the average rise in global temperature, which we often mention as Global Warming.

Today, America is responsible for most of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. American cars, along with American factories, put out more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the other countries of the world put together.

Now, it appears that the global warming is hitting hardest in America’s own backyard. Average temperature in Alaska have risen by at least a degree every ten years, for the past thirty years, with the highest increases happening in winter. Such increases in temperature are very damaging for Alaska.

This is the melting parts of the permafrost, which covers most of Alaska.

Permafrost is never more than a few degrees below freezing point.

Thus, even a small rise in average temperatures could bring it close to melting. The most common problem due to this is huge holes on the surface called thermo karsts.

These holes form, when the surface collapses after buried chunks of ice melt. It is costing Alaska millions of dollars,as roads and other property gets damaged., when the ground suddenly disappears. And if countries do not cut down carbon dioxide and other green house emissions, other parts of the Arctic and Antarctic icy wastes could be the next in the line.

Micro Blogging

Thoughts are invaluable. Once, people were so filled with thoughts that they searched for methods to scribe it down, so that it could be read later. As time passed by, people thought that their ideas and thoughts must be easily sharable. In a form that all could understand. This resulted in the creation of alphabets, languages and we started talking and writing. Ever since, we wrote stories, dreams, accounts, history, discoveries no matter what. we written down everything and anything. We started enjoying reading it too. Without which, there wouldn't be any libraries , I guess.  Writing was the basic of being a human. Life starts when we starts to speak, and as we learn to write, we start to understand the world. In this busy life, we never thought that the schooling is the first mission that parents entrust the children to know the world and first thing we do in schooling is to learn reading and writing(learning to respect etc. etc. are there, but I meant the basics).

Writing is transformation of thoughts. As we write, our thoughts transforms into words, it then get engraved to the paper as letters. When a third person reads it, the same letters are transformed into the very thoughts, the author had and fills the mind of the reader. Amazing, right? If the words can take you to the same scene that went through the mind of the author, we call them legendary. Those authors stand beyond time. The legends like Shakespeare and Wordsworth still live through their works.

Do we write today? Ever since the computer has evolved, the world of writing has changed a lot. I would rather say, the world has changed miles in last 100 years than it had in last 1000 years. With the discovery of machinery, the humans were no longer tied to human time and speed. machines worked faster and now smarter. So, we are in a process of running fast and writing is still a pure humanly process that requires time to scribe and think what to scribe.

With the evolution of type writers, writing no longer remained the smooth rotation of fingers on paper, but rather straight key strokes. Hand writing wasn't a limitation, but just choice of fonts and the font size. Arundhathi Roy completed her Booker prize work 'God of small things' in her type writer. I believe J K Rowling might have completed the latter versions of Harry Potter in her laptop. But still there was scribbling the thought process to the machine. Along with these, there was another positive evolution that even I am utilising to the at most: Blogging. Ever since the evolution of blogging, no one has to write to editor of some newspaper or magazine and wait to see whether his work published or not. Anyone can blog and find readers for good blogs. All has the freedom to express views and opinions. I would say, Blogging has reinvented writing in modern times. if I take my case, if there wasn't any blog, I would not have filled in these thoughts out in here. Blog helps me to write when I am free; between my work or during a lazy afternoon. But otherwise, I wouldn't have found time to make a daily dairy entry or an article writing.

Right now, I am concerned about the new concept evolving in WordPress. The concept of microblogging.



WordPress has released an api for twitter which will allow to blog via twitter. I just wonder, what such a blog would read. Even twitter has gone far beyond its mission goals. Initially, it aimed at broadcasting your current status updates to the friend circle. Now, it is filled with all sorts of messages, personal chats , ads whatever imaginable. And this feature is really going to decrease the quality of blogs in WordPress.com. In due course of time,word press blogs will have  increased number of posts like :

"I'm on my way to office"

"Wow, great traffic Jam"

These will be the future popular blogs in WordPress. Latest trends I found in WordPress is that people has started searching wordpress for quality article, information etc. The number of hits on my blog post "410 years of Globe Theatre" is a very good example. I created that post 3 months ago and even today I am getting 30-40 hits everyday for that post through searches. It's not the post count, but information and good writings are the one people seek. Micro Blogging will surely increase the post count, not the quality.With the micro blogging getting more popular and WordPress appreciating it, it would be a misery for quality words to come out. And if the micro blogging picks the line, I believe the days of online blogging or I would say digital writing will soon be doomed.

Knowing

I have always been a fan of Nicholas Cage. And his 2009 release ‘Knowing’, interested me initially only because of his presence. I didn't find much boom for this movie in the IMDB rating, but I decided to watch it.

The movie began with a flashback. Set 50 years ago, a school has its students prepare notes for a time capsule which is supposed to be opened only 50 years later i.e. 2009. This very  idea came from a nerd looking girl. The girl itself generated a sense of interest and Gothic ambience in me. Few things about her remained unanswered till the end of the movie and this kept the interest in the movie going. The strange look in her eyes, the suspense she created by writing a sequence of numbers for the time capsule instead of a picture as told by the teacher : All in all,the movie had substance in the beginning.

Year 2009 : Introduces Nicholas Cage, an expert mathematician and professor ,who was interested in the magic of numbers as well as a caring father,who loved his son more than anything in this world. When the school opened the time capsule, his son gets the letter written by the girl 50 years ago. Then the movie rolls with Cage deciphering the numbers to date, death count, latitude and longitude of the place of major disasters in 50 years of history. To his interest, the girl predicted in her numbers, all the major disasters between 1959 to 2009. And for 2009, she had the date, but the death toll was scribbled as ‘e’, which is apparently infinity.

The appearance of men from outer space created a fantasy feel to the movie. But still, the D day animation with sun flares melting down the earth was a marvelous work. Also, an air plane crash was filmed with absolute geniuses.

The movie captivated me for its theme, the music that blended well with the theme and the excellent graphics used in the movie, which looked so natural.

The only con I felt was the landing of the children(I havent mentioned entire story, since it's a worth watch) in a heaven like planet with the tree of knowledge in the centre. I just realized that the aliens left the earth children there to have a new beginning.

A start over….

A winter memory

Misty mornings, cold days, chilly evenings and the frosty night. This is my sweetest dream of a windy day. As of now, it is not possible in Trivandrum, my home city because of the famous maritime climate, I always wish to wake to that beautiful dreamy winter morning. I believe that when wishes remain as dreams for long, it starts getting sweeter and sweeter. And for my snowy winter morning, its is the sweetest dream of mine now.

I have never experienced snow fall in my life time yet. The mesmerising white blanket is too adorable for me. I wish to play in that freaky soft white sand of frozen water. In my childhood days, I have experienced a hail stone night. It was a party day in the army camp, where I used to live with my father. There was no sign of rain in the evening. But all of a sudden, by around 8 in the night, I felt like stones were falling from the sky. Soon, all found out that it was big pieces of ice that was falling. Though that was not so good experience to boost about, it was and is only my frozen experience with nature.

Tips to improve Alexa Rank

Alexa Rank is measured by the level of traffic your web site receives from the number of people who visit with the Alexa toolbar installed. Alexa rank has become a defaulto to measure the net worth of a website.

Alexa is a subsidiary of amazon.com and is been unofficially approved as the worth measurer of a website. I just found a cool article by dosh on Alexa rank improving and thought of sharing it. The main steps that could be taken toimprov ethe Alexa Rank is :

• Install the Alexa toolbar


• Put up an Alexa rank widget on your website.


• Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar


• Get Dugg or Stumbled


• Optimize your popular posts

Perfection

Certainty is not a constant. We often dream about a perfect day, a perfect solution, a perfect future. But how often we come across something so perfect? Have we ever anticipated a future event to be perfect? It gives more clarity, if I say, you felt it perfect once it happened to be perfect.

Perfection is a soul decision of our minds. When we consider some events so badly, we never feel that to be perfect, once we gain it. But if we wish something and that just happens,it seems to be a lot much perfect. I always believe that attitude is the soul decision maker for a perfect result. The way we outlook the decisions made, the actions caused, and how we believe it surely has an influence on the end event.

Volvo Cruise in Trivandrum City

Kerala State Transport Corporation started the Low Floor Volvo Buses for city service. The people have welcomed it with surprise and wonder. The hi tech buses, with fully air conditioned, automatic doors, LCD displays etc was something new for common people. I was awaiting a chance to have an opportunity to take a test ride. And the fine day came last monday.

As usual, I was getting ready for office. And I found that the tire of my bike was punctured. My bike never gave me up, but this day was dreadful. I managed to reach office along with a friend. I did have an exact plan for journey back home. And suddenly, the volvo came to my mind. I decided to test it out.

I planned to take the volvo from Technopark whose arrival time was 5:15 Pm. When the enquired the security by 5 Pm, he informed me that the volvo @ 5:15 has already gone. Oops, the volvo engine and the comfort drive is really boosting the KSRTC drivers. He told me, however, there is another bus by 5:45 Pm. So, in order to avoid missing that bus too, I went on and started waiting at the bus stop quite early. But it turned out to be a long wait. The orange LCD board appeared before me 15 minutes late. And I was waiting for a total of 45 minutes. Thanks for the inconsistent service again.

vola, the automatic doors opened in front of me. Cool, I stepped inside the bus. I would rather say, just walked. The floor was barely a feet above the road. The interior of the bus was designed at two levels. The back half of the bus was at a higher level. The doors were automatic and was controlled by the driver. Fm music was streaming and the LCD screens within the bus was displaying ads and messages.The ambience was great and I enjoyed the first feel about the ride very much. I took a seat next to the conductor.When the bus started from Technopark, the bus was full to the seating capacity.

The fare was extremely high compared to the normal bus, but that was expected. It costed me Rs 34 for a full ticket to East Fort. As the bus winded through the city, I noticed something interesting. There were only a few people who were boarding the bus. Bus only stopped for those who were exiting. The common folk just watched the bus with wonder, but with no intention to enter and pay a high fare for the AC comfort. They were accustomed to the ordinary City Bus service. I felt that the majority of the income for these Buses come right from the IT people from Technopark. No wonder that all the 4 routes of these Volvo buses passes through the Technopark, the IT hub of Trivandrum.

On half way past, a guy along with a child entered the bus. To my laugh, he was enquiring the conductor when the bus will return to the spot from where he boarded. It was sure that his intention was to try out the bus rather than a journey. At last I reached my destination. My review on the bus is simple. Good comfortable travel at a reasonable price. But I wonder in a city of commons, how long this bus can run profitably, just with the collection of IT guys.

Tests and T20: Big difference Boys

After the charismatic win in the Test series, The Indian Cricket Team approached the T20 match against Srilanka with much enthusiasm. But they should have been aware that their recent records in T20 was much bitter. After T20 world cup win in 2007, the records were not so good for the team. The team hasnt won a series in that form of cricket since then.

The lose against the Srilankans wasn't much of a surprise for me. Even after gruelling test series, Lankans kept the spirits high and went on to do their job. I believe that they have gone through the past history of Indians in T20 and have capitalized on it. On the other hand, Indians failed to understand that being No 1 in test playing Teams wont help them to win T20. Though all are forms of cricket, T20, one dayers and test has its own style, when the ball meets the willow. I wish Indian team understands this fact and put on a better show in oncoming matches.

US Army in Pakistan?

We were on a lot of speculations for the last couple of months. The annihilation of Taliban and Al- Qaeda in Afghanistan led to the migration of terror centre to Pakistan. Together with the local militant groups, they became a national terror to Pakistan itself.

Pakistan and Terrorism is not a new chapter. Ever since the independence of Bangladesh, Pakistan has been creating and nourishing militant groups, funding them with money and weapons and infiltrating them to Kashmir. Their aim was to breed religious riots and breakup the secularity in the minds of common man.And finally a separation of the state, as that happened in 1947. This dream of Pakistan was never fulfilled. And as it is said, now Pakistan is terrorized by their own snakes.

In this climate, the address of Obama has much significance to the future of Pakistan. He has made clear statement that it is the responsibility of the Pakistan to eliminate the internal militant groups. Upon failing, there could a direct interaction of US in this regard. The intervention is none other than the landing of US troops in Pak soil.

There is another alarming situation warned by US Intelligence. The weak internal security of Pakistan may allow the militants to get on the nuclear weaponry. And if any such scenario occurs, their first and foremost sweet target will be India.

And when it comes to Pakistan, the experiences were always being bitter for India. The final count down of terrorism in Pakistan must be watched carefully. There is likely and undeniable possibility of insurgence across Pak borders to India. We should not open borders to these religious murders and disturb the peace in our lands.

The fate of Pakistan is decided by its past. Let them realize at this point that destruction is to them who dreams the destruction of neighbors.

2012 : An Awakening

I saw the movie “2012” last week. The visuals were amazing. The hard work of all the graphics and animation engineers have paid off. But beyond that spectacular visualization of the D-day, there are few messages that the movie is trying to convey.

The end : How it would be? We have been living and planning future for generations to generations. In that run, we have always considered earth as a constant factor. Something that was there, is present and will be there. What if the earth gets sick? How will we get affected. Humans have researched pathology and discovered many viruses and cures for them. Its all based on the concept that human body is a living entity and all that hinders its life or growth is a bacteria or virus. Now if earth is a living body, what are humans? It’s plain that we are the most devastating virus for earth. I would like to comment the words from the movie Matrix.

I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we … are the cure.

This could be considered from a earth’s perspective. If earth finds a way to completely remove its destructing pathogens, I believe it’s the end of human race. From school days, I have heard a story of birds sitting on buffaloes. My mother told me that the birds eat away the worms on the buffalo’s skin and from the surroundings. It’s the reason that buffalo doesn't get mad at the bird sitting on its top. I think its already late to have the humans behave to earth as the bird so that both can co-exist in this centuries old equilibrium. But as the saying goes,

Better late than never….

Bhavan's Vidya Mandir: A shame on human ethics

School is where we learn how to treat fellow humans, how to show respect and manners to elders and those who are suffering. My blog is about a school, which I visited yesterday and had the worst of the experience in my lifetime.

The school I am mentioning about is Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, elamakkara, Ernakulam. It is one of the schools in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan group of schools. And I also came to know the schoolis famous for its reputation, fees and the quality of teaching.  Let me explain the situation to the readers and allow the readers to collect their thoughts.This will help to explain my views rather than justifying it.

The school hosted the public exam for 'Corporation Bank' clerk selection. And I was accompanying my wife, who was also a candidate. This school was the only venue for Kerala state. So, the number of candidates and the parents accompanying is imaginable. I met candidates from almost all districts of Kerala. The exam was scheduled for 9:30 Am. I reached the school by 7 Am, since  it was too far, and at a place I was not sure off. So, I went to the school straight from the Railway station. This was the case with most of the candidates. Majority of them, who travelled long distances, reached very early.

The scene at the school was like this: Gate closed and chained. The candidates and parents straying on the road. Since the school gate is right on the road side, all that I could do was stroll on the road. As time kept on running,candidates were flooding the road. Still the gate remained closed. By around 9, road was so filled that cars and bikes had to swim through the road. Still, the gate was closed. By 9:15 am, security told that the candidates could enter the school campus. I think all the balloons of emotions burst at that point. The parents asked the security guards, what a kind of school is this? The exam is supposed to be for another  2 hours and till then all are supposed to stand in the sun. And we are told that it's the principal's order.Then voices began to raise. Police also arrived at the scene. And later, after so much fuss, all those who accompanied candidates were allowed to rest at the school bus park and adjacent areas, by tree shades or by concrete railings.

Let me ask a few questions to the people reading this? Is this the right kind way a school should behave? I saw a guy with his 1 year old boy in his hands and standing in the sun, while the kid's mother just entered the school premises to attend the exam.The school have a vast campus and the exam was conducted in some building in the inner blocks. Why can't they allow the people to rest some where close to gates from the beginning itself? Is this a kind of culture, a school should reflect. Making people suffer and setting an example. If this is the way, they are behaving to strangers, I wonder how students in that school are punished and taught morals. It's a shame to the entire school. The best thing they could have done is to open 2-3 class rooms near tha gate in the morning itself and allowing the parents to rest there right away. Instead, they reflected their hideous culture to the society.

What is the impact of this school on me? Too simple. I would never even think to send any of my kids to any school under Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. I posted this, because I want public to know about this incident. It may seem rather too unimportant, but I feel a School is a holy place which should strive by example, not by cannibal behaviour.

And the award goes to

I was searching around each nick and corner of my mind to find some effective topics to blog about. But myself being a little idle minded right now, decided to take an award.

Let me honour the sponser of the award first: and its chiz a.k.a Chithira. This is for you Chitz..

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I am being awarded by Chitz as

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rules,directly from Chitz's rule book

1. Tell 7 things about yourself that nobody else knows.
2. Pass on this award to 7 other people.
3. Comment on their blogs to let them know that they are tagged.

As per the rules here are 7 things that no one knows about me..or which i think most of the people don't know..

1. I wanted to be a surgeon when I was young.

2. My latest hobby is learning Guitar.

3. I feel awkward when asks me money for lent.

4. I wrote my first love letter at the age of 13.

5. I like to relish chicken kababs.

6. Its difficult for me to control my personal anger.

7. I could not pronounce the alphabet 'F' correctly for a very long time when I was young. I used to spell it something like 'phuuuuuuu'.

And here goes.I am presenting this award and tagging the following fellow bloggers..

Carol , Narayan, Govind

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, at the end of the harvest season, is an annual American holiday to express thanks for one's material and spiritual possessions. The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day often is called the holiday season. Most people celebrate by gathering at home with family or friends for a holiday feast. Though the holiday's origins can be traced to harvest festivals that have been celebrated in many cultures since ancient times the American holiday has religious undertones related to the deliverance of the English settlers by Native Americans after the brutal winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served at Thanksgiving meals. First and foremost, baked or roasted turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these primary dishes are actually native to the Americas or were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived.

Thanksgiving was originally a religious observance for all the members of the community to give thanks. The tradition of giving thanks is continued today in various forms. In celebrations at home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace. Found in diverse traditions, grace is a prayer before or after a meal to express appreciation, to be thankful for blessings, or in some philosophies, to express an altruistic wish or dedication.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spiderman Tabs

I was searching for this for a very long time. Ever since, I heard that in spiderman 2 , played by a older woman in the movie singing to the heart

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong? Listen bud
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead.
Hey there! There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of the night,
At the scene of the crime,
Like a streak of light,
He arrives just in time!

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Wealth and fame, he's ignored
Action is his reward.
To him,
Life is a great big bang-up
Wherever there's a hang-up,
You'll find the Spiderman!

And the tabs for its orginal guitar note was something I was searching for. And at last I found it. Here it is below, just in case that any of the blog readers may be looking for it

E|----------|----------|----------------------|
B|----------|----------|----------------------|
G|-------14-|-12-------|-------14-14-12-------|
D|-12-15----|----15-12-|-12-15----------15-12-|
A|----------|----------|----------------------|
E|----------|----------|----------------------|

E|-------------------|------------------------|
B|-------15-13-------|------------------------|
G|-12-15-------15-12-|-------14-14-12---------|
D|-------------------|-12-15----------15-12---|
A|-------------------|------------------------|
E|-------------------|------------------------|

E|--------------------------|
B|--------------------------|
G|-19-18-12-12-10-12--------|
D|-------------------15-12--|
A|--------------------------|
E|--------------------------|

I could not help posting this

Call it poetry or comedy; funny or hilarious. But this is the first piece of literary work scribbled down by my 'bachelor' younger bro. Cool thoughts..

Again and again, again, again

Again and again, again, again

When I was single, my pockets were jingle

I want to be single again

I married a wife on then

I married a wife on then

I married a wife

the pain of my life

I want to be single again

My wife - she had fever on then

My wife she had fever

I hope it wont leave her

I want to be single again

My wife she died on then

my wife she died

the joy of my life

I want to be single again

I married another on then

I married another

She was worst than the other

I want to be single again..

Sachin - A Legendary Life

Some people live and die. They doesn't leave much behind to remember. But some live, such that others live to become like them. We call them Legend. In their life time, they are living heros. An icon without replica. Today, my blog page pays homage to the legendary cricketer , my countryman, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.





Achievements and talent are beyond barriers. May it be in arts, literature or sports, there is always an exceptional performer. He stands above the limits of time and character. Sachin, in his 20 years of cricketing career, redefined all that was written in the history of cricket. to his name.

Speaking more about him is just replicating history. So, let him play on and on... and the cricket rolls with him.

A MileApart

He was staring at her. His eyes were locked with her eyes. he could see her that were transfixed on him. He felt like it it keep on looking at him, even if he closed his eyes forever. In her eyes, he saw his entire life winding out again.

Those eyes.. years flew behind him. He was standing at that lonely corridor. He was waiting. he knew she will be coming this way. It was in her he felt his dreams coming true. His aspirations to build life revolved around her and he was waiting. Waiting to her that she will make his life. But he was confused. How will he tell everything in his mind to her, when she is accompanied by her usual ring of friends. he hated them for not giving him his space, for not allowing to make his heart opened out to her. Still he waited with hope. And now he could hear the faint music of her anklets. he always enjoyed that. When she walks, he felt the music of her anklets drives him to another world. And he waited with his eyes transfixed to the end of the corridor from where he could hear her coming. Something stuck him hard. he couldn't hear the usual chitchat and the  noise that her friends made? Ss she coming alone? Does she knew that He was waiting for him? His heart pounded fast.

He couldn't believe his eyes. There she comes. A few books were pressed to her bosom, eyes fixed on him, she was walking straight to him. He was stunned. She stood in front of him as if she was waiting for him to speak out. He felt like if he doesn't speak now, it isn't going to happen forever.And in that empty corridor of the college, he laid his life in front of her. She heard everything with utter patience. Her eyes gleamed as if she was waiting to hear this for a very long time. And thus,she stepped her foot into his life.

Life -  A long life of togetherness. They enjoyed every moment of it. At times, they were afraid that new life born into their world will take away their love. But they were wrong. The bond they made went stronger and stronger and build a life and gave life to their two children. They lived their life, caring them and watching them make their own life and fly away. They weren't sad about it. After all, they flew once to live their life.

All their life, her eyes spoke to him and it does today too. These long years of life hasn’t taken that youth of the young girl who decided to share her life with that man who loved her more than his life. And their she sits – right in front of me. Her long jet black hair gave place to white silver lines. her cute cheeks were crumbled by the sagging signs of old age. But still her sweet eyes stared at me, asking me what was in my mind. I shouted out to her, that I still love you more than my life and want you more than ever. But no sound came out of my mouth. Lying in that hospital bed, and watching her beside me, and realizing that the life is bidding farewell to me, I saw her hand right next to my hand. It was a inch away, but I felt it like miles. I couldn't life my hand to touch her. My eyes looked at her with all the love in the world. As always, she knew my heart. She laid aside me, with her head resting on my shoulders and her hand tied across me.

I felt the warmth of life leaving my body. But my soul could feel the warmth of my love that followed me even at the very end.

Hi all, this is my first feeble attempt towards scribbling my imaginations. Please let me know your valuable inputs as comments.

A Long Break

Its been a quite while since I have shouted out on my Blog. I was kept away by a hefty schedule, that required my attention all the way. I had a lot of broken sleeps which were consumed by picturesque dreams, but I didn't have the bandwidth to scribble it down.

Last couple of weeks didn't have much for me except the work. I used to read my fellow blogger sites. I enjoyed Chitz’s home coming scribes, Naru’s Bangalore tales etc. An important turnout in these weeks is that I became a facebook addict. I had a facebook account for a while, but never used it much. But the work sequence demanded a break and I fell for the facebook application – Farmville. It is a runaway, a virtual farm where I ploughed, seeded and harvested. Though sounds silly, I really loved the community feature that the application provides and the graphics and its overall design. I didnt try any other FB application in the fear that I may become addicted to that too. So, I limited my addiction to farmville alone.

Advocacy on capital Punishment

Ever since there has been life, taking life existing in the animal planet. Animals show their pride and power to the group by defeating the challenger which often involves in the death of the opponent. Humans challenged and won battles over land, kingdoms and women. There too, the victory went to the side of most killings. The one who was able to finish off the enemy soldiers was the winner. In the barbarian society of our past, death was considered to be a brave deed among nobles and war chiefs. In that society, fighting for something we love and honor and giving life was a martyr act.

I remember the famous phrase - "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once", from Shakespeare . The ideology was clear. The death is an inevitable end. When and how to hug it was the choice given to each and everyone. The choices decided whether one will be hailed as a warrior or coward. between these principles, The choice to live and die through a beautiful life. I agree to the facts that the history reminds of many a situations where swords were taken to make sure a beautiful life to the future. But how can I justify my soul, thinking about hundreds of souls who were lined up in front of  guillotine, waiting for their turn to have head separated from their body. Yes, I am speaking of the French revolution. The family and related men, women and children of aristocracy were beheaded. The faces of children watching the piles of heads, and waiting to have their heads to be part of that pile, is the most animus behaviour of  humans. Well, the cruelty that  peasant of France had to face from the ruling families were brutal and unexplainable. But, the punishment to that cruel deeds is again a capital punishment? How could the children be part of the greediness of adults?I would have suggested on emptying that rise of anger and revenge on the aristocracy by the propaganda must be handled in a more justifiable way in history.

To prevent the scarcity and wastage of bullets, two men were tied together side by side and were made to stand on a bridge railing and one was shot on head. The other was supposed to die by the drowning by the corpse weight. Wondered by the Logic? Well, this was implemented by the withdrawing German soldiers from Poland. How can you justify this?Oops, I am going off topic. Let me rephrase. My question is how death or killing be the criteria to prove the worth or punish an offence. I believe humans are on the highest point of social civilization. Though not the entire population, but the governing body of majority of the countries have the mentioned quality to understand the logic. The logic of deciding the death sentence as the ultimate justice. i just wonder , if that logic change for the entire human race by a blink, how many billions of Dollars could be saved for humanitarian purpose?

Another concern of mine is the judicial capital punishment. For most unforgivable crimes, capital punishment are awarded. WOW, I liked that term awarded. An award for the cruelty of a life time, or cruelties of a life time. May I ask? Is this punishment the best award could give to such poisoned soul. Based on the crime they have committed, death is the most satisfying end to their dirty life. I believe in those cases, Judiciary must forget the humanitarian concern to animal souls. Well, the question that so called white hearts in society may ask is in that case, what is the difference between  them and us? well, giving capital punishment is same as the age old power proving techniques. the best punishment that could be given to any convict is denying him/her all that he likes, that he/she could have enjoyed if there were not convicts. This life long detainment will let him think about his past and criticize his present.

If you have watched the movie "The Shawshank redemption", you may remember the words of the character Red, played by Morgan Freeman at the time of his parole interview.

" There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. "

St Jude School and Memories - Part 1

Many say I am bit nostalgic about past. Yes, I am. I feel proud of all the memories I have. I believe, without memories, whether good or bad, the very existence of human race can be challenged. The memories are the key to our past, the cradle of our present  and hope of our future. And the school life has given me a lot of memories to share. Today, I am onto my first school : St Jude School, killipalam.

[caption id="attachment_291" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="St Jude School and Church"][/caption]

I joined St Jude school at the age of 4. The very first days of  the world experience outside my mother's safe hands. I had my kinder garden for one year, before I joined St Jude. That was in Gandhi memorial pre school. At those days, I was quite afraid and cried a lot in the early days. I still remember the very first day at Gandhi memorial. My uncle dropped me to the school. At first, I was very excited about the prospect of joining the school. The excitement was generated in me by my mother who gave all the dreams of new friends, teachers, games, cartoons etc. But when Uncle left me in the school compound and the grilled door shut between us, it was too much for me. I joined the chorus of my classmates, crying at the top of my voice: My uncle still mentions about that scene quite often.

But when I joined St Jude, I was more matured enough for not crying on the very first day. But I knew the pain in holding that mild weep between the breath. I don't remember much about the LKG or the lower kinder garden. All I remember is standing for the morning prayers and the after noon sleep on the bench. I was very curious then. During the morning prayers, when all stand, I used to turn and watch everyone's faces. I was eagered to know how each one of them hold the hands during prayer. I wondered why everyone has their own way of prayers. Some folded their hands, some drew cross on their chest. Then, I didn't know the boundaries drawn by religion. I didn't knew I was not born as a human, but a caste and religious symbol. I didn't know that more than recognising myself as a boy or girl or by my name, I was also identified based on the caste and religion by the so called society.

During my UKG or the Upper Kinder garden, I remember the name Jijo, who was the guy who sits adjacent to me. During the after noon mandatory sleep hours on the bench,we used to do all the kind of nasty stuffs possible without detection of teacher. We used to draw under the desk, play with pencil box, all I could remember off. Another stuff, I remember of that year is the small space in the wall at the entrance of the school. During the disperse at the evening, we form a queue at the school entrance. Near the door, there is this tiny space which could easily fit a small kid. I used to hide there till 2nd standard while standing in the queue. I enjoyed myself contained in that small space. After that, I no longer fit in that space. I also remember now, the Ayahs or the care takers in the school, who served the milk from our milk bottles in the colourful plastic glasses kept at school during the interval. But I prefered to sip my milk straight from the milk bottle, sent to me by the father who was in army then.

With the entry of Ist standard marked a new begining in the long path of my education. Keep reading the rest in my next blog post.

When is it better to be sorry than safe?

Music brings back the memories

Music has a charm. It could make you dream, remember and fantasise. This is the main reason, that for every celebrations,entertainments and amusements, we have the back ground score ticking, The essence of music fills the gap produced by the silence. And the melody that fills the air, just takes us through to another world.

We hear different songs, genre everyday. But some music heard at a right moment in life stays hibernated in the memory, for a very long time. When that song or note is heard again, your time just leaps to that very first moment. I had the same feeling today, when I heard the album'Colonial Cousins' in the morning,



When I was 13 years old, I heard this song for the first time. Till then, all songs I used to hear was malayalam songs and often the rocking MJ and 'Air Supply'. But the english songs never caught my attention. In Colonial Cousins, Hariharan and Lezzie Lewis has made good blend for Indian classical music, western beats and a well written lyrics. The teenager in me was caught up in the electric guitar notes, the natural sounds used in the album and the sweet lyrics. When the feeling of love blossomed in me for the very first time , I had the song "Looking to your eyes" from this album humming all inside my heart. I dont what was my interpretation of love at that age,but all I felt was I cared for someone at that time. But It took me to get more matured to understand that love is a mutual shared feeling than a one sided drama. I will go into it at a later post-"The first feeling of Love". But for now, The songs of colonial cousins, dragged me back to the childhood and now cherishing the sweet memories through the melody that flowed from the cassette player of my uncle to my little heart years ago.

Desert Flower - Waris Dirie

I came across a biographical article by Waris Dirie - 'Desert Flower'. Waris Dirie is  a supermodel whose was born in Somalia. The short story just gave me chills. For the first time in my life, I came to know about the age old cruel practise in african countries among the women, the infibulation. It is exactly the opposite to the male circumcision followed by the muslim community.

I was purely melting away, reading the pain and the agony faced by Waris in her childhood. the path that made her grow to the top of the society, made her voice so loud and clear to tell the world about her past, the past, present and still the cruel future every human female born into the wild cradle of Africa. I was touched by her childish ignorance, the sudden exposure to truth, reality. The mutilation leaving a life long impact, that gets reminded when she goes for a piss everyday. I am aware of many cruel rituals that was a part of human society from over centuries. But when the rituals are just for pain and agony, that too done by parents to each of their female kid as part of their life goal, it is more bitter and unacceptable.

The practise called infibulation is based on the foolish wisdom in Somalia and surrounding african countries that there are bad things between a girl's legs, a woman is considered dirty, over sexed and unmarriageable unless those parts--the clitoris, the labia minora, and most of the labia majora-are removed. Then the wound is stitched shut, leaving only a small opening and a scar where the genitals had been.

It chills my nerves with the very mention of it. Even today, it is followed in most of the uneducated families in Africa. And based upon the living and economic standards of the state, it accounts for majority of the population. I just wonder why the government didn't ban such practises yet. In India, there was an age old ritual called 'Sati'. In this, a widow was burnt alive along with her husband's pyre. It was cruel and inhuman denying the right to live. The India Government has  banned 'Sati' and has declared it as a Criminal Offence. A similar act should be enacted in all places following this custom. Educating the mass is another prospect. But, I too wonder, what education can bring in, when people in those countries are starving for a day's food.

What makes me tick

The factor of going on is not a simple one. We do everything for something.  Each act of every individual has a reason. Something, that just gets you going on.

There are many examples for it. My parents lived for my family. Their cause for each day was to see their sons in a better life than they lived through. Some live for passion. Like the painters, musicians, artists etc.  Some live for revenge. Some live for dying. Some live for each day's food. Some live to kill, and some live not to get killed. So, what makes me tick?

My life has always been a cycle of determination and achievement. I have pressed my self on many of the desires and pushed me quite hard to get to it. My motivations are always based on my thirst for achievement. Sometimes, it was all sheer luck and blessings. Sometimes, it just happens. I was never able to explain the action, but the result was always my achievement.What I believe and understand from my life is that when I am devoid of something in my life, either taken away from me or just not provided to me, it's gets to my wishlist. Sooner or in years, I have always succeeded in accomplishing those dreams. And those achievements has always made relish me with it with a sense of proud.

so, the clock that ticks me are my dreams. I dream, but also work on achieving that dream. Often I picture in my mind, the scenes after I achieve that dream. That makes me feel more and more boosted up on walking in my dream path. What about you? What makes you tick?

Tea wakes me up in the morning

Everyone has a startup gear. And for me,  it's the hot tea right in my favourite cup. I am a lazy morning wake and I need something to push me from the lazy hangover to the start of the day. And the tea does it.
Most of the days,I sleep late. So, the morning is quite tired and sleepy. And the first cup of tea makes the required boost. And after that, sometimes, a few pull ups on the kitchen, makes me pumping with energy.
So, that's my day break. I am sure all of you have something of the sort to start the day.comment me and let the Bloggerville know.

Pazhassi Raja : History retold

Yesterday, I went for the movie "Pazhassi Raja". Released in 4 theatres in the city, this big budget film, narrates the story of Pazhassi Raja, a hero and warrior from northern kerala, who raised his voice and sword against the plunders of English East India Company. He is one of the first to proclaim that, " People who came to trade cinnamon and pepper has no right to pass laws in our land".

A bit history about pazhassi Raja: When Kerala was ruled from Mysore by Tipu and Haider, their officers used to collect taxes directly from the farmers bypassing the land lords, but the British changed this and decided to collect taxes directly from the Kings and Nair Lords. The amount fixed as tax by the British was unreasonable and people did not have the capacity to pay that much. Faced with revolts from people, the kings were unable to collect the taxes.

After Tipu left, the British ignored Pazhassi Raja and gave the land to his uncle on lease. This insult also helped in triggering the revolt. Pazhassi Raja stopped collecting taxes and this upset the British. Since the king was popular, they could not do anything but stop collecting tax for a year, but to add more insult, they extended the lease given to his uncle for another five years. On June 28, 1795, Pazhassi Raja challenged the British by stopping all tax collection and giving refuge to people who were considered revolutionaries by the British.

This was followed by Guerilla warfare tactics launched from Wyanad rain forests by Pazhassi and his army harassing  the English company. finally the fire power and the dirty tactics of British company had him killed. But he lived through the history of India's Struggle of independence as  a great martyr.

Overall, the film did justice to the history. There is no hypes or added up romance to promote the movie. The characters are strong and did their part extremely well. The sound engineering by the Oscar Winner Rasool Pookutty  out stands. The script by the great malayalam writer M T Vasudevan Nair and the eminent cast and the production team made the movie an epic for sure. There are few shortcomings in places, but I should vote for the good things in the movie and the intention of retelling an history to the modern world, where we often forget the value of freedom, free will and independence.

Earthquakes are no fun

I have read and seen news of many natural disaster around the world. I had shivers seeing the extent of calamities that was spread around the globe in a natural disaster prone area. But there are none the same to me, except the earth quake. Ask me why? Because I have experienced it and still shiver on the thought that if it was a major shake,I wouldn't be describing it here now.

You might have read about the mild earth quake that occured in trivandrum, a couple of days back. I was in my home, working on laptop. I felt like a jet was flying low, the table shook with a slight rumble. I never realize that it was a earth quake, until I saw the TV news a moment later.
But still, left me a shiver that, I was in middle of a natural calamity that just didn't turn catastrophe.

Work took the toil

Happy Diwali to all my bloggerville neighbours.

Two weeks of hefty work, I cannot explain the last couple of days in more simpler words. I was away from everything and anything except work. I could hardly check even my blog. I was aware of my friends commenting on me, and I was happy that they do visit frequently on my blurbs.

So, here I am, back to self. There are a few updates on the last two weeks. Though the work took me completely, I had few things work out for me. One is I got my habit for working out again as a routine. Then, I got to dust up my Guitar and started tuning it again, that too after a long time. I felt very happy and relaxed moving my fingers on those favourite frets. I took my old notes and started tutoring me up again.

This is all for the weekly topics. I will back in full swing from oncoming week, blogging and burbling on anything and everything that passes through my mind. Keep in touch !!!

Like it at the very first time

There are quite few things in life, that we start liking from the very first time. Things like, the very first ice cream you enjoyed when I was kid, The very first friend in school, the very first song i sang, the first kiss, the very first...the list is long.

Why do we like some things for granted? and those things, we tend to get or repeat forever in life, without even having any special joy in doing it, but we just does it. For me, first liked things gets me back to the very memory of it that  I enjoyed it. AAh, the very first times!! I just knew the name Ice cream, and letting it melt down the tongue was an amazing feeling.And some things takes us for surprise. When we get it for the first time, we never except it to be a great one, but it surprises us to believe so. And we keep on enjoying it. What you guys out there, liked it for the very first time?

Comment me :)

Gandhi Jayanthi

We celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October as the birth anniversary of our ‘Father of the Nation’ Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi, also known as ‘Bapu’. Born on the 2nd of October 1869 in Gujarat. Mahatma Gandhi has an invaluable contribution in India’s freedom struggle. He always believed that non-violence and honesty are the best strength human can possess. Mahatma Gandhi was interested in everything that concerns the society and mankind. He led his life that confirmed to his preaching. Gandhiji ‘s morality and his doctrines of non-violence and love for needy have become a beacon of light for the world.

Technology That Empowers Me

There was a time when wheels were a technology. Fire was a miracle. And universe was a mystery. These are examples from time immemorial. As time passed, we watched more and more technological advancements with wonder , rejecting most of them at the first impact, but soon learnt to adapt it in daily life. And we even didn't know, how they merge to become a  part of our lives.

It would be surprising to say in today's time that once we feared technology more than God. It was something like defying the  path laid down by God. History even reveals the murders committed by churches, temples and other religious groups against those defied religion and believed and laid theirlife for science.  Many of our scientists were considered as devils or worshippers of devil. Most of the inventions took a long time to get implemented in daily life. That is somewhat different from today, where the technology invented a day before and is  shipped to our homes within a week.

Could we think of a technology free day today? Away from alarms, cooking gas, electricity, mobiles, paper and to  all sorts of man made things you can imagine of. Well, if you are stern enough, you may do it on a camping day. But not a routine busy office day. Because without technology, we can't even move a second in the clock, oops again the technology.

Let me rephrase my thoughts? Are we addictive to technology, dependent of technology, or are we enslaved? Interesting to think huh? Most of the techie guys have either a home computer or laptop. But still we find some pleasure in making a twitter update from the GPRS enabled mobile. How many of us can sleep without a fan or air conditioner running in the bed room? Can we live a day without lights? What if we wake up one day and hear that all reserves of crude oil has just disappeared from the earth's surface? Shocking , really? This was the same feeling I had, when I was trying  to grasp the reality. The reality is we have no alternatives for all the technologies that we have today and we are just living the days over and over with the hope that it will last forever, undisturbed. As Tim Robbins quotes in the movie ' The Shawshank redemption' -

"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things, and good things never ever dies"

Books I want to write

I have been a busy blogger, always finding something to blah about. But, i always dreamt to be a serious writer for once in a life time. That is when, I wish to write my own biography.

I am not a famous personal. I am just a living being in this planet earth with some space in brain to think,understand and spit our thoughts. That is what I have  and doing in my 'Pieces of my thoughts'. My ambition as a writer is to scribble down the memories from the beginning of my life to almost the end. A saga of life. I don't know how it is with others, but for me, I have a very vivid memory of my childhood right from very early age. When I try to remember the old fading pictures from my memory, all comes in their order with more and more clarity. I always enjoyed reading. What could be of more pleasure than jotting down my own life and reading it at a later point. I feel it really thrilling. What the fellows of 'Bloggerville' think about it? Let me know !!!!.

410 years of Globe Theatre

The Roman invasion marked the beginning of Theatres in London. The theatres build by Romans were demolished with their decline. After that the entertainments were held in church squares, market places etc. In the sixteenth century, travelling Drama groups were formed all over the country. James Burbage, an actor in one of these drama groups marked the beginning of theatres in renaissance London.

[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="239" caption="James Burbage"][/caption]

Burbage was a talented actor and soon to be the lead of a drama group. According to the law passed in Britain in 1572, the moving drama groups must be parented by a noble, and it is by his/her name the drama group must ne known after. Else, the owners and the actors were punished severely. By this law, Burbage sorted the parentage of Lord Chamberlain and the drama group soon became famous as the 'Chamberlain Men'. As the 'Chamberlain Men' became widely accepted, another celebrity came forward to parentage the Chamberlain Men - Queen Elizabeth herself !. As a result, the drama group Chamberlain Men became widely popular as 'Queensmen'. Queen's parentage was a boon and confidence factor for Burbage who was by then thinking of a permanent theatre for his group. In 1576, he build a theatre at  Shoreditch. The theatre was known as the ' Tudor theatre '. In 1596, the theatre was moved to Black Frayers.

In 1597, James Burbage passed away. His son, Richard Burbage took the path laid off by his father. At those times, all Shakespearean  dramas were held at Black Frayers theatre. By then, the land lease with the owner has been expired and it was required to move the theatre to a new place. At that time,there was two groups between the dramatists. Chamberlain group(Queens), that includes the Shakespeare and the Admiral group. Admiral group had a theatre called 'Roseplay house' to stage their dramas. So, the building of a new theatre became a matter of proud for Shakespeare and his mates. But the funding for theatre construction was not that easy. Atlast every one decided that, Richard will make 25% investment in theatre and rest of the fund will be collected by the others in the group. In 1599, at Southwark, on the banks of Thames river, the construction of Globe Theatre was completed. The Globe theatre became  as famous as Shakespeare along with his dramas.

[caption id="attachment_245" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Globe Theatre, London"][/caption]

The architecture of the theatre reminds of a modern football stadium. The centre is open and stage is designed as if projecting from the centre, with green room behind it. There is a main door from here to the stage, along with two side doors. The theatre is fully made of wood. In its 3 floored design, it had the capacity to accommodate 3000 audience. The main achievement of the theatre was that fact that it was able to attract audiences from all levels of society.

The inaugural play of Globe theatre was 'Julius Caesar'  in 21st of September 1599. There was enough advertisement and along with the its purpose for hosting their Drama, the theatre also served the monetary requirements of Shakespeare and team.

Richard Burbage was the major share holder of the theatre and also the main actor. It's widely said that Shakespeare created characters with Richard in his mind. The best comedian actor at those times was another share holder of the theatre, William Kemp, along with Robert Armin. The main actors include, John Hemming and Henry Condell, wholater comprised all Shakespearian works and published 'First Folio'. In between, Shakespeare also shared stages at times along with the his writings. The ghost in Hamlet, The Adam in ' As you like',The Duke in 'Merchant of Venice',  Escalus in 'Romeo and Juliet' are the characters lifed by creator itself.

In 1613, the Globe theatre was consumed by fire. It was during the act out of 'Hentry VIII', co written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Though it was reconstructed and performances were started within a year, after a long 30 years, the theatre was completely dismantled in 1644.

[caption id="attachment_246" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="New Globe Theatre, London"][/caption]

Starting from 1987, a 10 year long hard work has lead to remake of old Globe theatre in its original design, very near to its old location itself. Today on 21st of September, at 41oth anniversary of the first drama in Globe theatre, lets remember a man who spilled life into many characters in his life time, and made a standard of his own in the history of modern English Literature.

Lousy Weekend

Tiring weekend in last couple of months. This is how I would explain the weekend so far. The weekend began by an accident that peeled off bit of my skin on hands and legs. It happened on friday evening. I was coming back from office and was about 100m away from home. I was so happy then, with the thought that I am reaching home early, that too on a friday evening. I was much excited, as I saw my home out there. Suddenly,as if from no where, from one of the side lanes, a biker jumped in front of me  and I pressed on brake with all my might. Later I understood that it was the worst thing to do a gravel road, that too wet by an afternoon drizzle. I was thrown off bike, slide a little on ground, peeling my hand skin. I was thanking God,  that I wasn't supposed to spend the weekend in the hospital, and for getting me out with much less impact than it has to be.
I went to hospital by night, had the wounds dressed and a shot of tetanus injection. But there are not the amazing things to blog about. By around 6:45 pm, my city shook mild marking 3.8 on richer scale. I was watching a movie on laptop. There was a booming sound, as if a jet was flying low. Then, the table and other furnitures start vibrating with a buzzing noise. The quake was so mild that, i had to watch the news then  to know that it was actually an earth quake. Again thanks to God that it went mild and no further tremors happened.
After that spooky friday, came the saturday. I didn't have much planning for saturday, but it ended up with three movies.
"Underworld", "Outsourced" and "Bowfinger" in three phases. All were great movies and It was a film day in my life after around 4-5 months.

The 15 most toxic places to live

I read a shocking tribute to Mother nature in MNN. Man's encroachment and attrocities to nature has always been peek high. We always close our eyes to this reality, the reality that we are killing nature every moment. Some of the extremes are captured by images which are listed below. The images really shows the gravity of the situation.

[caption id="attachment_219" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Citarum River, Indonesia"][/caption]

The Citarum has been called the world's most polluted river. Around five million people live in the river's basin, and most of them rely on its flow for their water supply.

[caption id="attachment_218" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chernobyl, Ukraine"][/caption]

Chernobyl is the town in northern Ukraine home to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Once home to more than 14,000 residents, the town remains mostly uninhabited and unsafe today due to extensive radioactive contamination.

[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Linfen, China"][/caption]

Linfen has more air pollution than any other city in the world. Sitting at the heart of China's coal belt, smog and soot from industrial pollutants and automobiles blacken the air at all hours. It is said that if you hang your laundry here, it will turn black before it dries.

40 years of Internet

With the dot com boom, internet has substantially evolved as a part of life for majority of world's educated population. From 2000 to 2009, we have seen 360% hike in internet users.And more importantly,internet has changed from its early essence of holding information and sharing to a mass community to a gathering place where people interact , share and get together on different and common causes. The online communities like facebook, Orkut, Spaces are the places which I am talking about. Moreover, the internet application are on the row. If you take Firefox browser, there is add ons for anything and everything. The number of standalone applications which doesn't interact with the internet is quite rare. The mobile devices are all now streamed with internet so it makes us always plugged in, messaging and blogging on the run.

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="40 years of Internet"][/caption]

Also, a new life has begun in internet space. A life in front of PC. I am not talking about long hours spend on  blogging, chatting etc, though it does has made a change in techs life style. It's about the virtual life that the internet provides. If you check the sites like www.there.com or www.cyodine.com/virtual life, you can see an entire virtual world in front of you. It will let you create a virtual identity of you and will let you live in a virtual world. Something like 'living in your dreams'. Many of the losers in life or the beginners just get lost dreaming in these virtual worlds. All they lost in life( not all, but at least a lot of them), all that they wish to get in their life will be in front of them behind the screen. This is one of the dumbest application of internet I have ever seen. exploiting the human ability to dream and making money through ads.

There are yet many downfalls of internet like porn, exploits for messaging by terrorist groups, identity theft , credit card frauds etc, but still internet has begun a new age of technological advancement. It is good to read along  that, Internet is celebrating its 40th year of birth this month. It had a silent start as a non commercial project for securely transferring data from one computer to another. It was a military project which later evolved as the largest virtual web of computers around the world.

For every inventions, man has found two faces. The same applies to internet also. But, when I look into the best side of it, I see that internet is allowing me to post my ideas to public, and not writing letter to editor of some news magazine and waiting with the hope, my article will printed someday. The Google always answers me like a God father whenever I am out of words. Gmail,yahoo etc is keeping me in touch of my friends, for whom I may not spend money to call on phone, but always ping on the chat window to know about their day.The freedom, the internet provides is of immense potential. When used properly, it will prove to the Technology that man kind could ever be proud of.

How it feels to be a donor

I felt like I am still a human to the core yesterday. To me, what it stakes to be a bit of humanism remaining in the heart in these times, is to have a mindset for a selfless donation. I realized the same after having the first blood donation of my life.

I don't know why I haven't donated my blood before? May be I haven't got any opportunities or as the saying goes, "There is always a first time". And now I have crossed the barrier. How I feel? Really amazing.  It feels like I have become part of a noble cause. As we know, blood could sometimes become a life saver. Based upon the today's requirements, our blood banks are still not able to serve all the needs for blood. There is always shortage for rare groups of blood. It is not required to put up a lot of brain to understand why there is scarcity of something that is readily available.

In India, majority of population still have old thoughts regarding blood donation. Elders teach the kids that blood donation could make you weak and fragile. A little more educated families will say that at extreme times, like when a relative is in requirement of blood, the donation can be made. Many of these speculations are based on ignorance. so, as a 'Bloggerville Donor', I am citing some common faq's regarding blood donation, There are mostly known ones and nothing new, but as a responsible citizen, I like to spread the message.

Q:    Who is a healthy donor?
A:     Any person within the age group of 18 - 60 years with a body weight as minimum 45 kgs, and having hemoglobin content as minimum 12.5 gm%.

Q:     Does a donor need to do anything special before donation?
A:     The donor should eat at regular mealtimes and drink plenty of fluids.

Q:     How long does the donation take?
A:     The procedure is done by skilled, specially trained technicians and takes three to eight minutes. However, from start to finish (filling form, post donation rest etc) the entire process should take upwards of 35 minutes.

Q:     Does the needle hurt the entire time?
A:     There may be a little sting when the needle is inserted, but there should be no pain during the donation.

Q:     Does the donor suffer from any harmful effects after donating blood donation?
A:     Absolutely not, rather a donor after having given blood voluntarily gets a feeling of great pleasure, peace and bliss. Soon, within a period of 24 - 48 hours, the same amount of new blood gets formed in the body, which helps the donor in many ways. His own body resistance improves, the circulation improves, and he himself feels healthier than before.

Q:     Does a donor need to rest after donating blood?
A:     Yes. The donor needs rest, preferably lying down, so that the amount of blood that has been donated soon gets poured into the circulation from the body pools in a natural way. The donor should take it easy for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Q:     Can a donor work after donating blood?
A:     Of course! Routine work is absolutely fine after the initial rest. Rigorous physical work should be avoided for a few hours.

Q:     What special diet should a donor follow after giving blood?
A:     After resting for a while a donor is given some liquid (fluid) to take. It may be a cup of coffee or milk or fruit juice alongwith a few biscuits or fruit. The donor needs no other special diet. A routine balanced diet is adequate. The donor's blood gets replenished within 24 - 48 hours.

Q:     How long will it take for the body to replenish the blood?
A:     The body replaces blood volume or plasma within 24 hours. Red cells need about four to eight weeks for complete replacement.

Q:     How frequently a donor can donate blood?
A:     Three months time between donations is a very safe interval.

Q:     Do any diseases debar a donor from giving blood?
A:     Yes, if the donor has suffered from any of the under-mentioned diseases: -

• Fever: He should not have suffered from fever for the past 15 days.

• Jaundice: A donor should not have his blood tested positive for AUSTRALIA ANTIGEN.

• Blood transmitted diseases: Like Syphilis, Malaria, Filaria etc. debar a donor from donating blood till he is treated and is free from them.

• Drugs: If a donor is taking drugs like Aspirin, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetics, hormones, corticosteroids etc., he is unfit to donate blood.

• AIDS. No person having HIV positive can be allowed to donate blood.

Q:     Are there any other benefits of blood donation?
A:     Yes, blood donation is a noble, selfless service! It gives the donor a feeling of joy and contentment. Also this is an expression of love for Mankind, as blood knows no caste, colour, creed, religion or race, country, continent or sex.

Signs Of Life

Life is an amazing phenomenon. Science no matter of its superior advancements, has never been able to create life. It signifies how beautiful and ethereal, the life could be. Life from its atomic level to the massive creature level, has always amazing me with its uniqueness, adaptability and its thirst for survival.

Evolution chain has placed humans at the top of life chain. Man has become unique and conqueror because of  the single control point called brain , which has evolved over any other living being. But,we never look at the other life forms that add beauty to the geneology of earth. The wide variety of colours, designs, patterns that plants and other life forms have created is nothing compared to the races of humans created on the earth naturally. All designs the humans could impart, the colours that are filled are artificial  or man made. The truthfulness of nature was always not there in human creativity.

Humans were always quested to find other life forms in a different habitat than earth. The quest still going on with space explorations. The scientist had welcomed the evidences of life being once present in Mars. But, let me ask you, just a simple question. How can we rule out a possible existence of a superior race than humans existing light years away from us and watching us? Though it brings chills, if is not a possibility that we can just rule out.

The only word I have to my fellow humans is that, when we advance, think about the centuries old other life forms too. All evolved on this cradle for a cause. If we continue to destroy them for our cause, what will happen if some highly evolved utopian alien makes us their bio fuel, some thing similar to the movie ' The Matrix'. Just have a thought about it.

You've got to go on this ride

Disney has always been for the kids.I was just thinking, if Disney ever starts to grow up, and bring in some rides for the adults, what could it have as special? The breath taking cruisers and spinners are there, but for the adults, it could be a beer bath pool or more crazy like a hard core rock concert at the highest point of the ride, These are all I could think off, without getting myself nasty !!!!!

Music sounded better on cassette..best yet to come

How many of our next generation will know that there existed an audio media called cassette players right between the gramophone records and the CD/DVD era. I still remember hearing my first songs in a cassette player when I was 6. It was my Uncle's home made Stereo system with cassette player which produced an amazing output. It was then, that I had started to enjoy the magic of music. My heart swam through the voices of colonial cousins, shook along with the MJ and floated with the beats of Enigma, The malayalam melodies didn't interest me then, since I was not that grown to understand the beauty of words in the lyrics. Then came the CD, which I didn't use much, since I got ,my computer by then. I had songs ripped from audio Cd's stored in my pc, because buying audio cd's were expensive then. Soon, mp3 evolved and I am still jogging with it at 320kbps quality. There is much better encoding available, but I prefer this version, due to the ease of download. Storage is not an issue now, since hdd space is beyond the limit.

Is the current format of music is the best? I never think so. Music has evolved much since its origin, and the humanity's unstoppable urge to preserve the music at its very best quality will create more technological advances than we ever imagined.

It took a few times before I liked Matrix

There are quite a lot of movies that needs repeated viewing to get the essence. For me, one of the most remembered one is the movie - "The Matrix".

The concept of Matrix has been very new and the story was far beyond my imagination, When I first saw that movie, I was dumb stuck. All I could enjoy was the cool action sequence, nothing with the story. Second time, When I watched the movie, I started to get the cream of Matrix. Then.I don't remember how many times, I have watched the sequel again and again, due to mere passion. But, each time, I saw it, more and more I enjoyed the dialogues, visual effects and the cool Stunts. But I must say, apart from the first movie, none of the other movies in the sequel kept that quality. The matrix II was also good, but matrix revolutions never got me through. The way the sequel ends has never been upto the expectations.

My favorite teacher is Asha Teacher

There was always something special about Asha teacher. During School days, she was the most respected for some students and for some, she was most unexpected evil during the most unexpected hour. Because she always drops in the middle of our troubled moments with the thin stick she used to carry. I still remember, she never used the stick much. But, it was her mighty tongue that really went right through our hearts. Her sound stands above all. She stills have that mighty sonority !!!!

Asha Teacher was always calm, happy faced and more importantly had the command of obedience among the students. I can't recollect even one student of any grade disobeying her words. Though some hated her, even they did respect her from their heart. But at the time, we were kids, she was content and insisted on discipline. She had the strict habit of making us talk in English. Though we rebelled against it at our very best in those times, I still believe that her effort is what made the base for us to speak the language in the way I do now,

I won't say she is the best teacher in the world. But she always had her own way of looking at things. Otherwise, how come she would have discovered in me a good speaker? I was good in writing at my school days, but was very reluctant to come out in front of audience to speak up.It was she, who made the first attempt to make me participate in a elocution program. Though the first attempt was an unforgotten tragedy for me, it laid the seed in me to improve upon myself.

After we completed schooling, my classmates and myself used to visit the school often. Each time, I met her after the school life,I sensed the love she had for the students more and more deeply. I understood from her that being an acceptable teacher is a simple logic: Love the students and teach them as a mother. Who could teach you better than a mother? And best teachers in our life always stand equal as our Mother.

Amazing Chain Reaction

I have seen videos of many chain sequences using domino or equipments. The most awesome example is the award winning ad by Honda. Today I just crossed over an entirely different concept of creating the chain reaction.

Fire -  an uncontrollable element of nature has been tamed by a group of guys to create an awesome sequence of fireworks. The 4 minutes of video just caught me to the seats. Here it is, watch it and you will surely admire the hard work and the creativity behind it.