You will be missed

I am sad; I had been following Lalita's blog for a while now and just realized she had passed away. I couldn't figure out when, but it's of little consequence. Those who are thinking 'what's the big deal' haven't been here. LM, you will be missed. Your readers adored you, and are missing you.

LM, I know you never subscribed to the 'yeh dil maange more' philosophy, but I feel sad and deprived. Deprived of not having shared even an opinion on your blog, of not picking your brains even once, of not having tried either.

You went beyond the horizon, and it's not an irony that my feelings are best summarized in the same poem of yours; I can't resist quoting it here.

And so
We went on dreaming,
Searching.
When truth stood stark before our eyes
We said this is not the truth we seek,
This is not the light we want.

And so
We never spoke
Letting things lie
Each of us commanding

Willing things to die.

This is not what I wanted but I realize I have little control. I am just sad, annoyed and angry at the cruel world we live in.

You are the one who made me look at trees and birds from a different perspective. I can't even figure what all I picked up just reading you.

Adios lady, from someone who will be fan, always. May you rest in peace.

On the right side

For once, I find myself on the same side as Javed Miandad.
It's time for BCCI to shrug off its monopolistic tendencies.

Railways to nominate OG as a World Heritage site

It's a proud day for all Oak Grovians - Indian Railways have decided to nominate Oak Grove as a World Heritage Site to UNESCO.

More here.

दुश्मनी

कभी ख़ुद से इतनी दुश्मनी कर मेरे दोस्त, कि तेरी रूह भी तुझसे ये पूछे
कि तू इतना ज़ालिम क्यूँ है?

Lost maps

The Indian government, apparently has lost the original maps of Nagaland. More here

Well, IMHO, it may not be that bad a thing. Think of it, if all maps of the world, counties, states, cities were to be lost, burnt, shred and deleted (from electronic media). It wouldn't be that bad a thing. I can foresee an end to a lot of fight over petty regional and border issues. What's your take?

Origins of Cricket

I always thought the Brits introduced this game to the world, but this is a little over the top for me even as a die-hard fan of the game.

May be The Vatican will send a team to the next ICC event!

भारत अनोखा राग है

Kisi patthar ki moorat se

An old memory refreshed. I recall hearing this first on Rangoli over a decade ago. And the lyrics somehow suit the ambience mood today.

yoodleeyoo

Today is Kishore Kumar's birth anniversary.



Apparently, this is his most viewed song on you tube.

Kitchen Catastrophes

A Sunday morning is a good time to do something that you haven't don'e for a while, and with such a noble idea I venture in the kitchen to make myself some tea. Nothing exotic, as simple as a cuppa could get. And while the stuff heats up, I decide to checkout the Sunday TOI and it absorbs me for a while; until I nostrils smell something weird and I realize that a disaster has struck. I rush to the kitchen, and it's full of smoke. Open the windows, turn on the exhaust and in a minute, I get a clear view of what would have been a hot cup of tea. The white sprinklings, I realized are ashes while the rest of the stuff is charred red label tea and a coat of soot all along the wall.

This is the second time in less than an year that I have done something like this. The last time it happened, I was distracted by an email I was in the middle of. And it was a bigger disaster in terms of magnitude and set off the fire alarm. I was in Nashua back then, and was boiling water to cook some Maggi in a thin aluminium saucepan and realized the horror only when the alarm went off! The aluminium thing or whatever

remained off it (the thin sheet of metal had melted away and deposited on the plate below the heating layer) was terribly hot to move around and place it anywhere else. Still I tried and molten aluminium dripped over the vinyl floor and wooden kitchen top. Finally, it was time to clear off the smoke and get the alarm to stop blaring. Portions of floor and kitchen top were charred by the molten aluminium and I ended up losing some of my deposit for the apartment.

Let me tell all the sceptics that I am not that bad a cook, and most of my stuff is palatable. Ok, swallow-able, if there is anything like that.

The only respite is that there have been no fires yet. I hope to keep that record intact.

Left - Red hot ashes.
Top - Ashes and the charred remains.

A multi-billionaire! Not anymore

Check this out

Edit: Make that a trillionaire. I never knew such words existed! Even m-w.com was stumped!

The Search

बंजर है सब बंजर है -
बंजर है सब बंजर है
हम ढूँढने जब फिरदौस चले,
तेरी एक तलाश में....

Thus end all meaningful searches of my life..

(फिरदौस - garden)

Edit - The poetry is Gulzar's, in case someone had a khujli.

Pajamas to assist swing

Debut for high tech pajamas - courtesy the tech savvy Kiwis. More here.

The cleft stick

What a sham!
It would be really funny but for the situation that stares us in our faces today.

the first showers..

जब घुंघरुओं की बजती हैं बूँदें, अरमां हमारे पलकें न मूँदे...
and then...
महफ़िल में कैसे कह दें किसी से, दिल बंध रहा है एक अजनबी से.

How weather evokes strong memories of the yore. On the drive back home from work, the heavens opened up and the-already-drenched-me had to take a break at a road side tapri where this song played.

Is mod se jaate hain

Gulzar, RD, Lata and Kishore... Need I say more.
Bad poetry from me. But check out what I am talking about - an absolute lyrical marvel.

Firefox 3 - Do your bit

Pledge here.

xkcd unplugged

Here is it.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from. And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi. Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics... Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Ramadoss quarantined

I am sitting in my office and writing this; although I have lot of work to do. Why? The honorable Supreme Court of India just reinstated the ousted AIIMS director, Dr. Venugopal. Frankly, I feel Ramadoss is Sreesanth of the union cabinet; always in the news for wrong reasons.

Check this out:

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bitter-pill-for-ramadoss-
venugopal-reinstated/64826-3.html

Some Poetry on a dull Wednesday evening

Just in case you haven't come across this yet.

Another microsoft gem..

This is what MS has been up to. I somehow suspected it has always been the case, but here is ample proof.

"We understand that the main problem is online web sites that find security holes so as to be able to run code locally. Code that runs locally used to be able to damage your system because it ran with the highest privileges. So - rather than block up the security holes - Microsoft have decided to clamp down on all local web page active content so that the user has to agree to various dire warnings before letting it run."

More on http://www.phdcc.com/xpsp2.htm

A classic case of solving the wrong problem.

The unseeded Frenchman from Le Mans

When was the last grand slam final so engrossing? Federer-Nadal contests are almost folklore, but this one beats them all on just going by quality of tennis on display. The last contest that comes close can only be the US Open final few years back when Federer beat Agassi. As Vijay Amritraj and Alan Wilkins in the commentary box concede, they haven't seen the tennis ball being harder than it has been today,

Thanks JWF for such a wonderful Sunday. You may not win today, but you definitely belong here. Keep those volleys going, you remind me of pistol Pete when you play them. And don't let that smile vanish from your face! As for Novak, may you win many more.

The last time when neither Federer nor Nadal played in a Grand slam final was Aussie Open in 2005. And since then the tennis world has bowed to the greatness of one man, who has been pronounced the greatest ever by the pundits. And now, we see a new world order emerging.
There are two more reasons to watch tennis; and another one in Ana Ivanovic who went down to Sharapova yesterday. They have done almost all they could do to put Serbia on the world tennis map.

P.S. Novak wins it 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. The presenter rightly calls the contest 'Gladiatorial'.