Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Merry Christmas everybody! For this christmas I got to watch a gem of a movie. Taare Zameen Par. The directorial debut of Aamir Khan. No first time hitches. No fancy camera shots. Just a simple and superb work. The star of the movie is the kid who plays the protagonist Ishant Avasthi. Speechless is the word to be used for his performance. Kudos goes to all the actors and the perfect casting made the movie makers. Music is awesome. I haven't enjoyed the work of Shankar Ehsaan Loy this much this much for a very long time. The story is something everyone can relate to at least some level. Pressure on kids to be assembly made products. Lack of genuine affection (rather lack of display I think). Artwork in the movie is absolutely amazing. I can babble on and on, but I think the movie has had a profound impact on me at a personal level. Not many movies have been able to do that. I hope Aamir does more movies like this and I am sure he will. Hope this movie gets all the recognition it des...

Death... A sudden aberration to a lovely life? A sudden relief from a wretched life? Anyway its gonna be sudden. Just heard Dream Theater's Pull me Under . A beautiful song about death. The ending is fascinating. It stops while the song is in full play. You have to listen to grasp it! "Every breath you take is one less to your last..."

I have decided to write more. For that I have to move beyond the usual crap I dish out every month! This time a website review. Just for you! I am a news freak. I read a lot about all the useful and useless stuff. I browse through the rss feeds in Google Reader, visit news sites (usually ibn), get my daily fix of digg etc. Not that I assimilate everything, its rather in the moment thing. I do recollect stuff if really required. Personalised news is something I like. Google News does provide a bit of that, still I think its not cool enough. What do I want from such a site? a) Personalisation (duh!) b) Ability to save certain stuff for future reference. c) Great interface. d) A degree of coolness! Digg provides the facility to view the stories you dugg. But the navigation is a mess and its a big pain to go through all that. Google Reader lets you star the stuff you want. But still it has got something missing. Enter Tiinker ! Tiinker is a personalised news service which constantly learns...

The biggest incentive working in Technopark for me is the environment. The lush green surrounding always calm me whenever I am stressed out. There are so many birds around that I hardly know the name of many. I don't find them even in the rural areas! I don't know whether there are any true villages remaining in Kerala. Anyway, lets come back. There are so many mongooses here. Practically unafraid of us humans. They often come near inquisitively. I like them a lot (Reminds me of Riki Tiki Tawi!). But also I get an irrational fear about snakes when I see them. May be because on days I sit late, I take a short cut to the main road. Through an unlit kacha road with a canal nearby. I am just drifting on and on I guess. I am deeply disturbed by the latest plans by the Technopark authorities. They are planning to cut a large number of trees to build a new parking space and construct yet another road. Good plans on that parking, its a big issue. But I just can't accept the fact th...

Aah! The irregular blogger is back! For the umpteenth time! So how ya doin? Me been watching Friends (the sitcom) back to back for around 2 months now! Apart from that nothing much happening. Work, home, nightouts once in a while, second show movies, booze parties once a month, other than that just thinking the head through! Decided to decide upon something I want to do next year. Thinking of studying something. Has to do something! :-D

Howdy Blog? Its been a real long time! Updates coming soon!

John Lennon One of the best singer-songwriters ever...Atleast for me! (Sorry John, you are not my favourite Beatles though!)

Typing as I go on May make no sense on its own When you are burning through You wish the time just flew... Feeling so alone... Forlorn... Repentance they say will make all right, But for me its nothing but left... What do I do now? Whats mine is not with me May not be again... All that left are the memories... Memories of laughter... The pleasure... The pain... The parting...

Yay!!! India won!!! A thrilling tournament has come to an end and our boys won a crunching game. Pakis played well, infact I thought we were a goner with those sixes in the end. Misbah is a great player in the making and Pakistani bowlers were exemplary. Gambhir should have won the man of the match. Irfan Pathan bowled well, but Gambhir's batting was really good. He, Rohit Sharma and Misbah showed the world that 20-20 is not just about slogging. They played really good cricket shots. None of the sloggers lived to tell the tale to be frank. Dhoni is showing amazing character and in time he can be a great captain. Aggressive, but not in the irritating way Ganguly was. Are these young boys ready for big time? Hmmm...I think they should be introduced little by little, rather than completely thrusting them into the big scene at the expense of our senior players. My 2 rupees. The biggest thing that I saw. Something I thought would never happen. My father was watching the game intently. L...

Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi to all of you out there! Just wanted to share a cute picture I got as forward yesterday. Made me laugh eventhough things were pretty grim at office.

Read this wonderful entry from the Life hacker feed. Got me to ponder quite a bit. I was on autopilot for many years. Sure, I was traveling through life with my eyes open and my hands on the wheel. But it seemed as if I was heading toward some pre-determined destination that had been chosen for me by others. In addition, it seemed that whenever I turned the wheel to guide me toward this destination, that there was no conscious thought behind my actions. That really sums up our life these days. Life predetermined. When something goes awry we are very much disturbed as if our world has ended. Our spirit seems to have lost its quality. Mechanical life takes the sheen out of our spirits. Enough mambo jambo. Lets get to the questions to determine whether my life is on autopilot or not. 1. You know exactly where you will be in 5 years (and it depresses you!) Actually, I have no idea where I will be 5 years. I have got to an excellent start as a Technical Writer and without reservation I can...

Getting a little too lazy these days...No work and No play makes Rockus a very dull boy. Got tagged by Freebird . I guess I should be doing that now. 1.Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it. Hmmm...got a couple of scars invisible to others. Got a nasty 8 stitch just above my eye, in my eyebrow infact. Not visible until closely (very) observed. I got it on June 12 1991, when I turned 7 years old. I remember the date exactly. It was my birthday and the day of general elections. I went to vote with all the members in the family that morning. After the small cake cutting and all, I walked into a dark room. My aunt was sleeping on the floor. I tripped and banged my head against the edge of a cot. Started bawling and bleeding. I was taken to the hospital where they told to take me to the eye hospital. The doctor was sleeping. Considering that, she did a great job. The scar is invisible, unless I shave my eyebrow of... :-P 2.What does your phone look like? Like a truck went ove...

On August 15th, I woke up and fired up my mail. Was really surprised to see a scrap by Rahul Easwar. If you don't know who he is, please google. I was even more surprised to see this as the scrap heading. SAD INDEPENDENCE DAY I checked out the blog he had mentioned and was horrified to be frank. It had the pictures of the great artist MF Hussain. The pictures of the nude hindu Goddesses. I had seen one of the pictures earlier and was not very affected. After all, artists should have freedom of speech. But after seeing the entire collection, I have to say that Hussain deserves all the flak that he is getting and more. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. One should be able to speak ones mind without fear and should be able to create things one like. Freedom is a right. Creativity is a power that not everyone has. As it is said in Spider Man, "With great powers come great responsibility." You can say that these Gods and Goddesses are just mythical fairy tales and pictur...

Wake alone in the hills With the wind in your face It feels good to be proud And be free and a race That is part of a clan And to live on highlands And the air that you breathe So pure and so clean When alone on the hills With the wind in your hair With a longing to feel .. Just to be free Is it right to believe In the need to be free Its a time when you die And without asking why Cant you see what they do They are grinding us down They are taking our land That belongs to the clans Not alone with a dream Just want to be free With a need to belong I am a clansman .....freedommm Its a time wrought with fear Its a land wrought with change Ancestors could hear What is happening now They would turn in their graves They would all be ashamed That the land of the free Has been written in chains And I know what I want When the timing is right Then I'll take what is mine I am the clansman And I swear to defend And well fight to the end And I swear that I'll never Be taken alive And I kno...

I have been thinking up a lot of things to write, but when I finally get around to do it, I simply forget! Should find a cheap and mobile writing system! :-P Life is going as it is. Excited about a new project we cooked up last week. Other than its just the same old dull, boring story. Onam is here. It comes every year. Without fail. (I may be writing a little weirdly. Been reading the Hitchikers Guide to Galaxy series of novels. Blame Douglas Adams!) Went for shopping with my mother. The table has turned folks! This time yours truly have to buy clothes for the entire family! By family its not just me and my parents. Hmmm...lemme take a count: 4+4+4+2+2+2+1=19 plus or minus 1. The list includes ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and children of all ages! So I am set back by 70% of my salary this month, with several bills pending payment. Its all about family. Its worth every dime I spent. :-)

After a considerably long period of time, my house is being painted. It all started with the door. One of our front doors (we have two! :-P) has been a dead state for some time now. Finally, after a seamlessly endless debate and my threat to try my strength on it, forced my father to hire some carpenters and make a new door. The new one was made. But now the front doors looked a world apart. So we painted the other door as well. Now both the doors stick out and became quite an eyesore to a not so gracefully aged painted walls. Thats *not* pretty much the backstory on the decision. Earlier also we had been discussing the painting thing and my parents sort of decided to do the painting when I get married. After seeing me ROTFL upon hearing this and my constant sneer and contempt when potential ladies are thrown in our conversation, must have made them decide the painting has to be done now. So yours truly is quite relieved to say the least. No one will blame him for not allowing his pare...

Happened to read Silverine's post regarding the placement time in Kerala and about a relative being to unhappy that her daughter was placed only at a company in Technopark . I was appalled after reading the comments predicting doomsday for those staying in Kerala. Granted there are not many companies as we can see in Bangalore or Hyderabad or Chennai, but it is totally unreasonable to say that there is no hope for the Kerala IT sector. I work in a software product company in Technopark and I see a lot of things happening. To equate the political system with the IT sector in Kerala is total rubbish. The government can and should do a lot of things, but in spite of the minimal support the fact is that we are developing. En route to office, travelling through the bypass, I see the sprawling lands taken up for the new Infosys campus. There are rumors of some dispute regarding the land allocation, but it will be coming up in the near future. There is a small bit of land taken up for the...

I was browsing through my old archives and found an old music tag that I had done. Name your top 10 most played bands on Last.fm and then answer some questions. My top ten list has changed considerably since then and I think its interesting enough (at least for me!) to do again. The 2006 June list is shown and the 2007 list is shown below. And the tag too! The List as on June 2006 Name your top 10 most played bands on Last.fm 1. The Beatles -235 2. Led Zeppelin -144 3. AC/DC -138 4. Jethro Tull -110 5. Metallica -100 6. The Doors -92 7. System of a Down -91 8. Guns N' Roses -89 9. Paul McCartney -86 10. Black Sabbath -80 The list as on June 2007 Name your top 10 most played bands on Last.fm 1. The Beatles-1168 (retains the number 1 spot!) 2. The Doors-551 (jumps up 4 spots from number 6) 3. Led Zepellin-533 (marginally loses the number 2 spot) 4. Iron Maiden-337 (new entry) 5. Cream-324 (new entry) 6. Coldplay-264 (new entry) 7. Pink Floyd-246 (new entry) 8. Jethro Tull-208 (goes...

Couple of additions to the blog! Couple of new widgets from Last.fm . One list my top artists of the month and the second is a music player playing the songs I have playlisted. Player can either play the songs in their entirety in a shuffled mode or you can individually select the songs. In the latter event only a 30 second clipping will be played. Only a few soft songs has been selected for your auditory pleasure ;-) No hard rockers or heavy metal stuff! And oh yeah! I turned 23 a couple of days back! So happy birthday to me! Rock On...

It was about time... Rockus looks like a brute and at times down right menacing! Someone who rides a H.O.G or a J.C.B ! :-P Reality...He has ridden/driven: 1. Suzuki Samurai at the Age of 15 (4 Yards) 2. Honda Activa at the Age of 21 (40 Yards) 3. Maruti 800 at the Age of 8 (400 Yards...if you count holding the steering as driving :-D) The Ek Karod ka Sawaal! What? Why? Why not? (granted there is three...but the booty is large enough to justify it!) 1. He doesn't like meddling with others stuff... 2. He didn't have time for driving classes... 3. He was just plain lazy to learn since he couldn't afford to buy a bike... Now... Staring at a Bullet (with apprehension and a pair of very scared parents!) P.S: In short, I started taking driving lessons and doing quite ok. Just hope the pedestrians feel the same too! :-P

Just sitting here screaming on top of my voice along with Ozzy Osbourne (Paranoid is the song fyi) makes me wonder...how my neighbours are standing this unearthly sounds at this ungodly hour??? People are strange...me, you, everybody... I always wondered, how easily some people make conversation and drag on for hours...and here I am, just able to converse enough to save my life! Its a crappy feeling sometimes...still...people are different... I used to be very worried about the same thing when I was younger. Thought of myself as a loser and was too shy to do anything...I have changed over the period of time and feels pretty smug about myself these days! Even then I couldn't feel reminiscing about the days when I hear "How soon is now?" by The Smiths...A remarkable song indeed... This is a video from Youtube featuring a sitcom called Charmed. Apparently Charmed features a cover version of the song and people decided to do one with the original song...Anyways enjoy the grea...

First of all, my sincere apologies to a particular girl whom I named in my blog in a not so great context (albeit some 18 months ago...) If the lady wishes, I will take down that particular section...Anyway thanks for visiting my blog! And thank you for not taking it negatively... I was a young and restless brat then! Now I am older and wiser! :-P Couple of lessons learned here... 1. Don't name strangers in your blog thinking they don't exist! 2. Blog is a permanent record...A mark left is a mark left.(atleast for me...) P.S: If you have no idea what I am talking about...the better!

Hmm...This place is familiar! Wait a minute...its my blog! Haven't been posting for a long time now...I swear I will be back in action. Was plain lazy all these time...For now enjoy some snaps from my Kumarakam Trip couple of weeks back. Mr.Money in the Bank! Thats our boat... Boat needed a live mast... Hot Blazing Sun...Luckily we had plenty of beer! Your Truly... Lots of scenic visuals like these...most of the time we were too drunk to enjoy it :-P Anchors out! Pit stop to buy some Naadan Kallu! :-D The Famous Karimeen! Enroute to Kallushaap! End of the Day...A glorious one...

Just went through the movie Shatranj Ke Khiladi ( Satyajit Ray ) came upon the following dialogue. Very Amusing and Educational to say the least! :-P Some British Officer: Also dresses up like a Hindu God, I'm told. His Junior: Yes, sir. He also composes his own operas. SBO: Doesn't leave him much time for his concubines......not to speak of the affairs of state. Does he really have 400 concubines? HJ: I believe that's the count, sir. SBO: And 29 muta wives. What the hell are muta wives? HJ: Muta wives, sir. SBO: That's temporary wives. HJ: Temporary wives. - Yes, sir. A muta marriage can last for 3 days, 3 months or 3 years. Muta is an Arabic word. SBO: -And it means temporary. HJ: No, sir. SBO: - No? HJ: It means, enjoyment, sir. SBO: Oh! Oh, yes. I see. Most instructive. Powered by ScribeFire .

Performance Evaluation! Disillusioned after the grades! Backstabbing! Team Politics! Inter Team Politics! Looking up new jobs! Waiting for the raise to come! Tempers on the rise! And an unaffected guy looks on... Welcome to the month of April! When you discover the painful realities... Welcome to the Corporate world.... Powered by ScribeFire .

Okies...I have stopped bitching about 'Time'...either its crawling or flying...How would 'Time' feel? I have to consider its feeling also!:-P Enough PJ...lets jump into the pool...err...the topic! The first time I heard about Technical Writing was during my early college days...at that time I was totally disillusioned with a normal IT job and was looking into management. Deep down inside, I knew I was a techie and the conflict was always there. I searched around for freelance jobs and found some creative writing jobs or rather a website( Chillibreeze ) were one could quote for projects and get the job done. It sounded interested and I applied. They told me to do a write up on .net of all things! Being an open source aficionado it was a killing blow. Still I managed to write a very decent article and I was successfully placed in their pool. Next came the biggest block. I didn't have regular net connection and couldn't quote the projects on time. Also, there wer...

Not been posting anything for a while. I know I know! And didn't intend to do anything today also! Just been reading my posts and sort of felt a little guilty for not writing anything. Not exactly anything...I have been working on my first novel! In the kiln for over 5 (or is it 6?) years now! Finally started writing it after a long speech about what I was about to do and all with a friend...wrote a couple of pages and it sucked! Wanted to do a rewrite, but never bothered...I guess I need to have more control and focus... Anyways, back to business! Whats news? Apparently the new budget has come out, Indian cricket team left (leaving?) for the Caribbean to get that elusive cup, people are dying, people are being born...Life goes on just like that... Seems like I just cannot handle the pace of my life...its just too slow with obviously nothing great happening...then again I am not Indiana Jones to go on perilous adventures and make out with great women! :-P Ideas are there...but they...

Yippeee! After searching far and wide...I finally found a pic of my Dad's old bike...Jawa! Ofcourse, the colour was black...but the make is the same! The design is also the same... Lots of memories associated with this machine...too bad we sold it for 1000 bucks! Enjoy the picture!

The gates...gone through these for 14 years...bustle of people around...saw my last class teacher walk by...what to speak? Many familiar faces...waited for a friend to come...No sign of him. Saw a good friend after a long time... "Left Hyderabad. Looking for a job here. After this have to go to the Hindu job fair", he said to me. How we have changed! Seems like it was yesterday, when we were inside this compound wall, aspiring to become pilots, police and what not! Now...our lives are governed and dictated by the whims of people who sit thousands of miles away... As we entered the gates, Kichu said to me, or rather to himself, "How many times have we walked here?" Countless...the surroundings have changed..the buildings have changed...grounds have gone...trees cut down... But the path hasn't changed...concentrating only on the path, I can see myself... Me as a kid in LKG, with my Father, on the long walk to my small classroom... Me as a small kid, coming in a li...

Today is the World Hugging day! Been pestering a friend to give me something to write...after a lot of coaxing and cajoling and sighing...she finally said, "write about hugs day thoughts (good riddance!!!)" Yup...so I am writing...or rather trying to! What is there in a hug? A good feeling...don't know what...but still a good feeling... Warmth...thinking about the times when my mother used to hug me... Support and consolation....the time when me and my cousin hugged when my grandma died... Feeling of elation and joy...the time when we hug after winning a tight game of cricket... Feeling playful and pseudo"evil" (complete with the fingers ala Dr.Evil!)...when I bearhug my friends... Touch is such a powerful instrument...it speaks a universal language. Understood by all animals and even plants I daresay! One of the best touch? A Hug! Happy Hugs Day! P.S: I started writing this on 21st January! Its 12:01 AM on 22nd now! :P

It seems my life is being sucked into a quagmire...me of all people, suffering a never ending torture... University has screwed me again, this time with a big spade! My exam was preponed mere days before happening and I had no clue! Yeah, yeah! Call me a dumb ass! But still it was not supposed to happen! and an unfair revaluation rejection... So, whatsupwiththat? Likelihood of losing my job...I would be really glad if I lose that big raise that everybody is looking forward, rather than the job. TBMS has been running through my vain for the past 4 months and it would be great loss...for the company! :-P End of the road? Not quite...another offer may materialize (just may!) or I would have to go and teach some new kids what technical communication is all about for some 8 months or so! Not that I am not fond of it, but the pay will be a pittance...once hooked to money...you can never get the kick off! With my experience it would be arrogance to speak about money...still...talent=money in ...

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold And she's buying a stairway to heaven And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed With a word she can get what she came for Woe oh oh oh oh oh And she's buying a stairway to heaven There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure And you know sometimes words have two meanings In the tree by the brook there's a songbird who sings Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven Woe oh oh oh oh oh And she's buying a stairway to heaven There's a feeling I get when I look to the west And my spirit is crying for leaving In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees And the voices of those who stand looking These words...strike a chord with me... Welcomed new year with this song! Usually my new years eve is at Father's club. Pretty boring affair with no friends around. This time was adamant not to go. Also, the fact that I had to go to office today on ...