Finally a Tabla Concert?

    Thats the reaction people have been throwing at me. All because I had been to a concert by none other than Zakir Hussain.And it was the first one i went for  since i came to B’lore(if you discount a Jazz concert i attended with a free pass). Well firstly, i would be any day be  more interested in a classical instrumental event than say a Shaan/Himesh/Sonu/Rock etc etc thing. Doesnt mean i wont  like going to any of these(err.. okay.Except maybe a Rock thing.. ) . Just an order of preference.I understand Tabla somewhat and  enjoy playing/listening to the same ,though i must admit, i havent had a Tabla anywhere near myself since college. Thanks to Navin, i got to know about this charity concert by Zakir and was only too happy to rush off. It cost me 500 bucks, but i guess once in a while i can indulge myself. . Boy, you should have seen people rolling their eyes when i asked them if they would care to join! Well if you ask me , we should at least be proud that in many ways  Indian Classical music has crossed more boundaries than any of the popular singer/musicians can ever claim(ok.. maybe A.R.Rehman) . Its appreciated much more than any of us really comprehend. As it was, 30% of the crowd at the concert were Firangis and considering their population in B’lore relatively , it was more than i would have believed. The problem is , most of us believe its boring unless you understand it. To an extent it might be true,especially vocal music.Its not the partying kind of music but a soothing one. But considering just the instrumentals, if you relax and just sit with an open mind, trying to enjoy the rythm even if you dont understand the intricacies, i think most of us would like it. After all, rythm is something we can latch onto in any kind of music.

 Btw, they auctioned a jacket at the concert that was apparently worn by Shahrukh Khan in the movie Chalte-Chalte. Bidding started from Rs5. It finally went for 1.25 Lacs!! Holy MOG!

New year with the old routine…

 Its been some time since i could last write something. And that really sucked coz i wasn’t really short on time until recently. The year end was great; with  the gang at Mysore on the pretext of checking out Gom’s XBox but seriously, it had been quite some time since we got together. And of course, i got my chance to take my cam out for some really cool snaps. Those who didnt make it into one of them must really kick themselves(or get somebody to deliver the kick… ;P) . Next week on the New Yr eve was off to WonderLa, which is a pretty decent place to spend the day if you enjoy the topsy turvy rides, which Sujit and Mamu  clearly didnt.. ! But yeah , that was real fun with the guys.Since it was the New Yr eve, we got to watch the fireworks in the evening too! And of course, since everybody was out at home enjoying their ass off, i was really not in a mood to waste my day on New Yr.Made Manjunath get off his house with his roomies and off to Bannerghata National Park we were.. Not bad really, since you can catch a Volvo right upto the place. . Ah, and in other news, we got 2 new roomies, who are straightaway  wondering whether i really belong  to that house of ours. Not their fault.They’ve seen me home only 6-7 days in the entire month.Was mostly meeting ppl and cooking at Baba’s place.I can bet i saw Punnen seriously rubbing his eyes one day morning when he saw me getting outta my room. .

Meanwhile , Basanti and Akka flew off to Ooo S of A to take care of grumbling firangs 24*7. Already have news they’re doing night shifts!! Hmm… And guess what, the lady who used to give lectures on how shez averse to any type of cosmetics got herself 110$ of that stuff over there right away. Talk of “Phoren effect”… Shez also got herself a car thats way too big for her size, and plans to upgrade it seems! A “luxury” one, she says! Something wrong with that place. ;P

          Then started the bad part on the New year with ED meetings( “Employee Dialog” , they call it. Don’t ask me what i call it ) and the beginning of serious work at office again.News came that Dad too was detected with having high BP, though i really wonder why!! Anyways, things dont seem all that bright for now. My leave in April looks difficult. Damn!… But yeah buggers!  Wont let all this dampen the mood. It can always get better.( To myself: you better not grumble in the very first post of the year. Leave that to the one guy in Germany…  He’ll do that way better.)

Left high and dry.. :(

Its been more than a week since i have been blocked off from accessing any of my regular websites.And that would be orkut,wordpress, sports news and the like! And i’m hating it.. Grrr…!!! Earlier used to occasionally say hi to  buddies  scattered all over the place.Now cant even login into the messenger! i.e unless the firewall goes kaput.Dunno what made the guys do this suddenly. But damn!! it makes the day so much more boring, especially if you are done with your work and just want to relax for a little while! I cant even login and post anything on my page. !

Some lucky bums are still having it good though. They escaped the ban and are happily clicking around.Dunno how!

End of the wait.. :)

I finally got my Digicam. Its the Canon S3 IS Thanks to Anoop . Had been looking around for someone to get it for quite a while. Had tried to sound out everybody going abroad coz it costs around 34k odd here in India. U.S price around 18k( 400 USD) . Thats just for the cam.Memory card, charger and all will add up another 2.5k. I got it in 22k all included and am really glad . Though its really more than the initial budget which i had in mind while hunting for a cam. I thought i’ll settle for something within 15k all inclusive. But the more i searched, it became clear that i’ll have to compromise on what i want in that case. Since i prefer more of outdoor/nature shots, i didnt mind if the cam was a little bulky if it had the features.Basically i was looking for something like :

1. A resolution 5 Megapixel or above.

2.A high optical zoom(Was looking for at least 6x Opt. Zoom when i started searching. went up to 10x later ).

3.Option for both Auto and Manual mode settings.

4.Option to switch to a Wide angle/ Teleconvertor Lens.

5.Image Stabilization Feature

6.A reasonably good battery life.

 I had a few options with the above requirements. The one i liked best was the Panasonic FZ7(almost same size and features as that of S3IS) and the Panasonic TZ1. Also, the TZ1 is really sleek for all its features. I would have gone for that. The trouble is you dont have good after sales support for Panasonic in India and the spares are really difficult to get. Otherwise this one is a real winner. Then there were  Sony DSC-H2 , Kodak P850 etc. The Sony cam is great too. The Kodak models dont have Image stabilization and that goes against them when say, you are on a moving vehicle. So finally i decided to settle either for the Sony or the Canon model.In fact i was thinking of going for the previous version from the Canon stable i.e S2IS but it wasnt available. That would have come out cheaper. Have a look at the Canon S3 IS review. It comes with a 12x optical zoom with a wide angle option, 6 MegaPixel resolution, a LCD Screen that can be rotated, Image Stabilization, Option to switch lens(has to be bought seperately, of course…) and easy to use for both  layman and a  discerning user with its range of Auto and Manual modes. Added to that, an awesome video quality (records in 640*480 resolution with Stereo sound recording at 30 fps).Not bad for a Digicam at all !!In short, you’ll have a bit of everything without having to go for a very expensive camera.

The only cons for the cam as far as i found out are:

1.The video size is huge(its in AVI format btw). A MPEG4 support would have been better but i guess u’ll have to choose between quality and space.

2.Occassional focus problem at the long end of the zoom (only).Though this exists in almost all long zoom cameras, and mind you this is a budget cam giving you a variety of features.

All in all, i’m pretty happy with it and  glad i finally went for it. Had been too much of going through all the models..hehe.Will upload some snaps from it soon.Have taken some around the house and they have come out great but havent had the chance to go roaming and check it out to the fullest.Waiting for that!

Where the mind is without fear…

Where  the mind is without fear and the head is held high..

               Thats the first line of the famous poem by Tagore where he talks of his Motherland.And to think of it today. Its really a sad commentry on the way we have progressed as a nation.The law-makers are the law-breakers. The policemen are a terror. The common people are afraid to speak up.The younger generation dont give a damn on most matters.The very few who have an urge to make a difference a fast brow-beaten into submission. Who will bell the cat! Thats the big question.

          The thoughts suddenly came to me after Sibu Soren and Siddhu were held guilty of murder. Not for the first time are these Netas in the dock. But the worst part is nobody in the last 50 years ever got punished.Going away from the land is the option a lot of people choose to get rid of their frustration.. or maybe they call it chasing their  dreams.I really dont know.Some stay indifferent and leave things to destiny.Why cant we all fight for our dreams here… I just wish we all would not always take the easy way out and keep hoping for  somebody else to clean the rot.. just as we do when we throw our daily garbage out on the roadside and keep it for others to clean.If not, we stay indifferent to it.Its an extremely disgusting habit we have cultivated and unless the habits change, we are gonna remain in the same rut.  We have failed the likes of Tagore… and it really is a shame.

Birthday pangs!

Birthday celebrations have become painful.That is, for the person for whom the day is special.. I know! I have been party to the crime too.One of my buddies had the unpleasant experience of getting kicked royally on the day afterhis B’day! [Disclaimer:I wasn't involved on that day ;P]. And to top that, even some people he never knew came along to get rid of their Itch. Even i was on the receiving end not more than two weeks back. Boy! Those were some kicks i got.Was sleeping on my stomach for 3 whole nights.. grrr.. [ Have mentally made notes.The B'day calendar is getting ready. Hope i get to pay back each of them. Kisika udhar rakhna buri baat hai. ].Now after being on the receiving end, even Gomz has become a convert and is totally into the ritual.I guess some people are gonna rue their day, all along the year … hehe.

     So the point is that people are having quite a painful time on the B’days.Add to that the whole lot of parties he has to throw! [ Pangs and Arjun cant agree more, i'm sure ] I’ve wondered whether its good or bad.But so far have gone with it..hehe! But seriously the celebrations have changed over the years. For me, Birthdays were more conservative at home.The visit to the Temple, Mom cooking lovely food, wishes from friends and occasionally a small party at home.[If i were at home, that is]. At hostel, it was nothing more than some sweets at lunch and prayers in the morning. The kicks started in college along with the treats,but they were not the “Football Kicks”of today. :D And the treats were given in groups of 3 or 4. We were always short on money at college… .It started with a small pat on the back to a slap and then got upgraded to the football kick with the due run-up! The B’day boy was the centre of attraction, or more appropriately , the target of the attack.Held up in air and kicked from all directions.The people involved vying for the mantle of the Best Kicker[ not of the football , mind you! ]

I must say, it is reallyfun with friends coming together.And since college, the birthdays have been really special for me too.But i suppose, with the idea being to enjoy the day with our buddies,  we can do away with the football kicks.Ok, not totally maybe.But can at least make it enjoyable !

[ P.S- The proposal above doesn't apply for those whom i've got to pay back for the current year ;P ]

I told ya..

Its been a Mad Mad week as i suspected.Reached home at 10/11 every single day except thankfully on Wed, just coz it was a Holiday!! Just came to me that i’ve been so caught up with things that even my visits to the Loo were really really few! ! As of now, the days are gonna be the same for the next 3 weeks Hope i can find time to visit the loo more often ( ;P .. just to escape from my seat with a valid excuse) and also say hi to you buggers once in a while..

Premonitions of a Lousy weekend…:-L

Somehow i knew things would go wrong.. Just had a gut feeling.It started with the knowledge that i’ve to come to office on a Sat.Got duly confirmed when i was told on Friday that i’ll have a long day in office! As it eventually turned out, i finished the entire day at office and  returned home at 12:30A.m. Thus, started the lousy weekend!

      Got up at 7:45, Saturday Morning.Was supposed to be at office by 8:30. Totally forgot that the first bus is at 9:30. Damn!!..:@) <feeling like a pig> Hurriedly got up.Thought of mouthing some chosen adjectives, but then Pangs wasn’t there to appreciate ! And the other two were snoring away in dreamland, least bothered about my grumbling mood. Somehow it only helped in perfecting the scowl on my face! . I dragged myself to the BTM junction to get one of those BMTC buses which go to ECity direct.No Luck! Shouldn’t have even tried in hindsight.The signs were all there thrust in front of my face, but i still couldn’t recognize them… Anyhow i finally made it there by 9. The rest of day was spent cribbing further as i found all the other buggers away at home sitting online and having a good time.Well, at least they were telling me they’re having a good time.. Maybe they were having as lousy a day as me and couldn’t accept that. I hope so. .

 Anoop was in B’lore and gave me a call. I passed on the news. That was the first. Then repeated the same tale to Harsh(tried calling me over GTalk but couldn’t hear anything.. grrr…..) ,Arjun, Sujit, Leanne ( in a cyber cafe in B’lore on Sat morning!!!) and Limy. I think i had got that memorized at the end of it , and just so that it doesn’t sound that way to myself ( ! ), kept adding masala to the story.And so it went till i got bored of parroting my state of affairs for the day. That was the end of the LOSER’s Saturday.

Now, to cut the story short and spare you further boredom :Sunday was no better. Was waiting to watch the match after finishing some work and that too India lost. so much so for the “Favourites“. Crap! Anyhoo,am sure a lot of you  have survived/would survive through a similar ordeal. something to cheer me up with.  ;)  :D

Where is my paper!!… A la wherz my Sambhar. :D

The newspaper guy is absent for past 3 days! And its making me grumble…. . I suppose it has something to do with the fact that in school, our (refers only to my fellow souls in the Ashram) only major contact with the outside world was through the daily newspapers that were delivered at 7:30 in the morning.And we used to rush out fighting for it before we were forced to get ready for the classes.There was a TV kept in the hostels, but it was switched on only on Sundays and that too, to watch one of the numerous mythological rip-offs that were part of the Sunday morning routine in the average Indian household.It thus pushed me to spend hours poring over every line in the daily newspaper 2 times over.. ! In course of time the habit developed, so much so that even on my Board exam days, i spent not less than 1.5 hours going through it –  the duration made shorter because of the sole fact that it was near about the timespan after which my Mom’s patience snapped… ! And i was literally afraid that she would ask the delivery boy to buzz off. Of Course, since then i’ve had other options in the numerous TV news channels and the web but they have become repetitive and their daily “Scoops” and “Exclusives” are no better than the daily soaps which air 5 days a week with no progress and drive me to utter boredom in very short time. They have begun to put more emphasis on sensationalism than on the content and therein lies my major grudge.So, the fact remains that i love to get my hands on the printed edition every evening when i return home. I intend to make the newspaper boy appreciate that.. !!

I think i have the phone number of the agency.Will make a call today evening.

Whats in the title!

Well, the term “Gyaan Paapi” is  basically a slang used majorly among the Bongs.Meant for a sinner who dares to preach the others around! !