random notes of a morning

# A very bad and scary dream wakes me up early.
# RJ Vasanthi Hariprakash isn't doing morning show anymore.
# Trees chopped at CMH road for Metro work. A sad sight.

Take heart, shri.

the kite runner

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is the most heart-wrenching, appealing tale I have read in recent times.

It has mixed emotions in it, in every sense. It has the innocence of childhood, real sorrows of the world, there are relationships, a lots of them, strong ones and weak ones.

I liked the vivid imagery it pictures about the happy-life at Kabul pre-Taliban. I could get the picture more clearly as I have lived in Iran, and those Persian phrases which pop-up in the book were familiar because of the Persian I had learnt back in Iran.

This book has some amazing twists in the story. And they are handled wonderfully well. It also has strong characterizations, even the smallest of character is shaped well, they sure are going to live in your head for long time even after you put down the book.

Well, it's a sad book. Because world isn't fair to all people.

toastmasters speech - 4

I did my fourth speech at Toastmasters club last Sunday. Speech objectives and guidelines for this speech is titled 'working with words', which means the speech should use good, simple, easy-to-follow language; it should also use literary devices like similes, metaphors, alliterations, and dyads and triads.

Keeping all this in mind, writing this speech is quite tough, specially for me as I am a technical writer; I am always expected to write in simple language and avoid flowery words.

So, I came up with this over-the-top and exaggerated type of subject for this speech, which gave me scope to achieve the speech objectives. In my speech I tell my audience how I fail to come up with a speech.

* * * *

1, 2, 3... Full stop!

It was a nightmarish nightmare. It was like desiring to see John Abraham in your dreams and dreadingly getting Shakti Kapoor instead. It was like finding a desert all of a sudden amidst western ghat's evergreen rain forests. It was like getting to know that there won’t be masala dosas served in Bangalore’s darshini outlets anymore.

I was dejected, disgusted, and devastated. I had fallen short and failed, no matter how fervently I tried. The news gave me bigger shock than the one Rahul Dravid would’ve got when he got to know that he was dropped from the one-day series against Pakistan! No matter how hard I tried to hide the fact, it kept popping up in my mind… just like Amitabh Bachchan’s ads pop-up in every other TV channel no matter how hard and quick you press buttons of your remote control.

Toastmasters, the fact is... I am... a 3-speech toastmaster. I couldn't come up with one more speech! I just couldn't write a speech no matter how hard I tried! It looked like I could anything else... I could look as good as Deepika Padukone; I could make more news than Rakhi Sawant; I could even grow taller than Husna Ayesha[1], but... I couldn’t come up with one more speech! I was, I am, and I will be a 3-speech toastmaster! I could even bear a 21-day fast, but not this tormenting truth!

It was tough to take terms with the truth! All the fun and frolic in my life faded away. The otherwise-evergreen factors in my life - enjoyment, excitement, entertainment – their existence evaporated. Whenever I went, whatever I did... this fact that I'm a 3-speech toastmaster hit me on my face all the time, like Himesh Reshammiya's voice. I started feeling more miserable than 'Sanjay Saawariya Bhansali'! I no longer could enjoy pan-fried noodles at mainland china – the tempting tasty thing I love more than my life.

Even coffee didn't give any kick! My days were as miserable as days in office when the vending machine was out-of-order! Roar of a tiger I heard at midnight during a trek didn’t interest me either, it only indicated that even an animal could get more vocal than me. In the menu cards of restaurants I kept searching for words to use in my speech. Even a movie at gloriously grand gold class didn’t bring down my grimace.

Well, you might want to know what I did to overcome this problem. Ask me what not I did! At times I took a crystal clean white sheet, wrote the title of my speech on top... underlined it, made a flowery box around it, overwrote it using another color pen... and I wrote the lyrics of ‘dard-e-disco’ underneath!

Some times I would come up with a great opening, write it enthusiastically... but then my mind would go as blank as Rani Mukerji's world in the movie Black. It felt like Sehwag, hitting fours and sixes in the first over, and then getting out cheaply at gully in the second!

Someone once told me ‘you can get a speech topic everywhere, even in a casual conversation with your friends’. So, I started watching for words when my friends spoke to me. Soon my friends started avoiding me; they said I was worse than an irritating LIC agent!

I searched for ideas in every nook and corner of my world. I started looking for one-liners and anecdotes in the hoardings instead of enjoying a Milind Soman or a Kunal Kapoor picture! I suspected my own sanity when I realized that I was looking for vocabulary even in a Shahrukh Khan interview in TV! Newspapers, magazines, movies, and even Ekta Kapoor serials... I desperately searched everywhere for inspiration... in vain!

Friends, I have to live rest of my life with this fact that I'm a 3-speech toastmaster, just like Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi live with an Aishwarya Rai... sorry, Bachchan dump. They say ‘failure is the stepping stone for success’. But for me, this failure is like an elevator stuck midway while I’m in it. I can only take heart to say that this horrendous truth is a humbling experience. On the face of this earth, I am going to remain a 3-speech toastmaster.

* * * *
[1] Husna Ayesha is a tall girl among the audience.

* * * *

Speech was very well received. People appreciated the references and examples I used from the world of cinema, cricket, and food.

My mentor had warned me that this speech doesn't have a 'message' or a 'take-home value', but I argued with him saying I want the speech to be fully entertaining, not preachy at all. My friend Smitha rightly points out that 'message of this speech is that every speech need not have a message'. And I so agree with her :)

gifts

ScienceWoman has promised that she will send a gift for me. I'm pretty fascinated about this; with the idea that someone I haven't even met is going to send a gift for me all the way from the US.

You can get a gift too. here's is how:

Within 3 months, I will send a tangible, physical gift to each of the first five people to comment here. The catch? Each person must make the same offer on her/his blog.

I feel this is very interesting chain. Hope you find it interesting too.

greenish encounter

I am lazy to write another trekologue, but here are few pictures from my weekend trek at BR Hills.


This one is my favorite, the lonely tree.

Dew drops on web..

This is where we stayed.

Shot this from behind the window mesh of the house, i feel it's a cool picture.

* * * *
BR Hills is in the border of Karnataka-Tamilnadu, in Chamarajanagar district. This was Veerappan's core area when he was alive, so this particular trekking route is now called 'Veerappan trail' or 'mystery trail'. This forest has diverse wildlife. This region is famous for Soliga tribes, natives of BR Hills area, and Dr. Sudarshan, who worked for the welfare of Soliga tribes.

everything "ok"

I am in kinda trance, having watched Om Shanti Om(OSO) on first day. It's sheer magic. Die-hard critics might not be impressed, but who cares. This movie is for people who are enthu about bollywood, people who can enjoy the fun, people who love SRK, people who love drama. In short, it's for people like me and Farah Khan.

This is the biggest movie I've ever seen. It's way too big! It celebrates bollywood, be it 70s, or 2007. Having set the reincarnation theme in backdrop of bollywood, Farah gets every right to pay tribute to, and make fun of bollywood. The beauty of the movie is she does both the things in very very agreeable way. It's star-studded; literally all stars of bollywood are shown on screen, from Manoj Kumar to Vidya Balan. It's a joy-ride, only way to sit thru it is to enjoy it.

I liked the way today's stars made their appearances in the film. The award ceremony sequence in the movie is a definitely a laugh-riot, thanks to Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan. Akshay's 'Return of the Khiladi' is the most enjoyable part of the movie. Farah doesn’t even spare SRK in her leg-pulling session, his movies are mocked too, watch out for 'Phir bhi dil hai NRI', and 'Main bhi hoon naa'.

The much hyped title song is worth all its hype. 31 stars together in a song, it's feast for a bollywood buff! I wanted to count the number of actors in the song, but lost count half-way thru, entire crowd in the cinema hall was cheering and whistling thru the whole song. I specially liked Shilpa Shetty, Tabu, Sanjay Dutt, Mithun, and Rani Mukerji. Most of the girls are clad in sarees, look stunning.

Coming to performances, Deepika Padukone is one of the great things in OSO. You can’t stop yourself from letting out a 'WOW!!' each time she comes on screen in a new costume. She is gorgeous. But the good news is she acts well too. As a yesteryear superstar, she's all elegance and grace. She doesn’t have much of screen time in the second half of the movie.

Shreyas Talpade is neat. Arjun Rampal is too good-looking to play bad man. Kiron Kher is over-the-top and filmy, but that's intended. 'Maa ka dil kehta hai' sequences between SRK and Kher are way too funny.

Rather than saying that SRK was great, I would say he was super-funny. He's good in both the parts of the movie, playing a junior artist in first half, and playing a superstar in the second. Dard-e-disco is eye-candy, the scene just before the number starts is real fun but! The way today's directors and actors are made fun of, and 'dard bhara item number' are too impressive.

One of the flaws of OSO might be that you take it too lightly, but that’s one of its strengths too. You might not feel much for SRK's pain, and Deeplika's death. But it's done in such a way that Farah doesn’t want you to feel for the story of the film, she just wants you to enjoy it rather.

Real best thing in OSO is Farah. She's too creative about everything in the movie. Her 'main hoon na' was like a masaledaar, rich meal. I was wondering if she'd any juice left in her after such a blockbuster, but she proves me wrong. Her passion for bollywood is clearly seen in the movie, and her audiences love it.

You'll get the pun in the title of this post if you've seen the movie, but anyways I mean it in its plain meaning too. Deewangi of Om Shanti Om is here to stay.

volga - ganga

Though I am tempted to write another post on SRK after watching him on TV at HT Leadership Summit, I'll hold that for a while... and I have something equally interesting!

I read a book called 'Volga Ganga', and I am in hangover of that book ever since. Author of the book, Rahul Sankrityanaya, is 'most widely traveled' scholar, wiki says. And that's good enough reason for me to respect him :)

As the title suggests, the book is about the Euro-Asia region, the area between rivers Volga and Ganga. To put it simply, it's about the so-called evolution of human race in this region. If you wonder why I am getting sarcastic about evolution, that's what the book did to me.

It starts with a leaf of life set in Volga banks at 6000 B.C. Then it covers the times after that, seeing the human race evolved, forming communities, having a ruling system called 'ganatantra'(democracy), discovering gold, forming kingdoms, fighting, introducing the concept called 'God', birth of Hinduism, origin of Vedas & Upanishads, birth of Islam, the commercial development, times of Budhdha, Kalidas, and Ashwagosha, times of Moghals in India, East India Company's rule in India, the freedom struggle in India, and so on.

If that sounds like a plain-boring series of historical info, it's not quite that. This book might change your understanding about all these things, specially your pride about the culturally-rich, ages-old civilisation of ours, and the 'Sanaatana Dharma'. This book throws light on the origin of the concept of God, and why it was done. And also about the caste-system in India, and the reason behind the origin of Vedas.

This book is written in episodical form, taking some fictitious characters of each era in the background of historical developments of that time. I found it extremely interesting.

I read the Kannada translation of the book. I guess it was originally written in Hindi. There must be a English translation too.

chak de khan!

After long wait, I finally got to watch 'Chak De India' this weekend. While it was irritating that I couldn't lay my hands on movie tickets for 'chak de India' for quite sometime, I was happy that the movie is doing well in box-office. It really deserves to be a hit movie!

I was totally lost in the adrenalin rush 'chak de..' gave me, I expected it in a well-made sports movie. But.. when the rush calmed down, and while thinking about the movie, my satisfied mind thought about Shahrukh 'Kabir' Khan's awesome performance. When I come to think of it now, it was totally his movie.

'Chak de..' isn't a typical hero-oriented movie, it's a team-work just like the effort the hockey team in the movie puts in. Actresses who played hockey players also did a good job. I only know them by the characters they played - Preeti Sabarwal, Komal, Vidya Sharma, et al. It seems it was very difficult task to cast the actors for this movie, as they wanted hockey players who can act.

Coming back to SRK, he truly rocks the show. It was typical SRK style, yet very different. This stubb-bearing, strong-looking, yet vulnerable look of Khan really really made him look believable as hockey team coach.

At the end of the movie, there is a moment where SRK does 'meri taraf dekho Vidya' act, while the goalee Vidya is about to face the penalty corner stroke of the opposite team. Somehow it reminded me of 'palatke dekh Simran' act of DDLJ.

I just got glimpses of 'dard-e-disco' six-pack Khan! lllove it.. all the way SRK! Waiting for Om Shanti Om.

toastmasters speech - 3

I did third speech at Toastmasters club yesterday. The project guidelines are - to speak with sincerity and conviction, and to inform/inspire the audience. I took the speech title from my blog name!

* * * *

Silly little things

“Hey, you are looking very happy today. Did you win million dollars in the casino last night?” Pulitzer Prize winner humor columnist Dave Barry’s friend asked him one day. For which Dave replied, “No, I saw a beautiful painting of a butterfly this morning, and guess what… when I was seeing the painting a real butterfly came flying over and sat on that painting of the butterfly! It was a million dollar sight; I don’t think I’ll ever get to see such sight again. That’s why I am happy.”

Friends, Could I ask you to close your eyes for a moment and picture that scene of a butterfly sitting on a butterfly painting? Does it make you happy?

Well, it made me happy too. There are quite a few things which make me happy. Like listening to a Gulzaar song, a walk in the drizzling rain, fragrance of flowers, glimpse of a cute kid in a passing car… the list goes on and on. I am a big fan of Oscar Wilde, who said “I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”

One of my friends says I get a glow in my face when I see food!! I accept that I’m a sinner when it comes to food, but if it’s food that makes me happy… so be it! If you ask me to name the most divine thing on earth, I might just say - rum-n-raisins ice-cream at corner house!

As the famous credit card ad goes, ‘there are some things money can’t buy’. How true!! I remember this one particular incident wherein I’d got set of metallic glittering-color gel pens. My flatmate liked them so much that the whole day she sat writing using those pens like a kindergarten kid, trying one color after the other! It was such good a sight that it’s stuck in my heart forever!

Talking about my friend turning into a kid, I got reminded of kids. Have you ever fed a kid? While eating they insist on seeing things like kaaka, doggie, and most favorite of all… chandamaama, the moon!! Funny, we forget to enjoy these things when we grow up!!

Because we think that we have to be serious, and not silly!! Try doing some thing silly at times. Live life unconventionally! Let rules not rule our lives. 'Consistency is the only refuge of unimaginative', I quote my guru Oscar Wilde again. Take an off on a Monday and go for a movie, go for unplanned trips, try glass noodles in the Chinese restaurant instead of that regular fried rice next time!!

Small things… small things hurt too. My friend built a big house by taking massive home loans, and paying EMI till the end of the world! I said fine… as long as it makes you happy it should be ok. But my friend was rather gloomy on the evening of the grihapravesh day. I asked why, she said 16 guests told her the house wasn’t according to the vaastu, and 27 of them didn’t like the color of the paint of the house! Simple thing... but it hurts!

In fact small things hurt more than big things. Don’t believe me? Try sitting on a mountain peak and then try sitting on a needle held upwards, and tell me which one hurts the most!

Well, while talking about small things and big things which hurt, I should share with you my philosophy for life! I know it doesn’t go well with my image to have a loaded thing life philosophy for life but still..

I believe... “Whatever happens in life, happens for good”. My belief only got reinforced when I read an article about the survivors of the 9/11 tragedy. As we all the know blasts at twin towers happened early in the morning, at around 8.45 am. All those people who had silly errands to finish and thus got late to work that day were the one who were saved that day!

A CEO survived because his wife refused to drive their son to the kindergarten, and he had to drive kid to school. Another guy is alive because he had gone out to get donuts. One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t work that day. One spilled coffee on her clothes so had to go back home to change. One’s kid threw tantrums on the breakfast table. One’s car wouldn’t start, one missed the bus, one didn’t get taxi. The best of all… one was wearing new pair of shoes that day, and developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at the drugstore to buy a band-aid. And… that’s why he is alive today!

Imagine… all these things are little annoying things otherwise. We get irrigated when we get struck at traffic, when the children take long to get ready, when we can’t find the car keys… next time when you get frustrated on such reason, just think… it could be a life-saving reason!! I would rather live with a blister on my foot all thru my life than dying!!!

'Angels are able to fly because they take themselves lightly', said someone. Some people have this heavy thought that they are important... as if the whole world is on their shoulders! I have even seen people who think that “being busy” is a status symbol! Life’s all about stopping for a while and smelling the roses, they say. But I like this poet who said “I have never read a poem lovely as a tree”!!! Aren’t trees as beautiful as roses?

When you get stuck at traffic you might talk about poor governance, infrastructure development failure, lack of fundamental facilities, corrupt system, urban pollution, and demerits of living in IT city. But I prefer to listen to my favorite RJ Vasanthi Hariprakash every morning when the auto rickshaw moves at snail's pace. I enjoy listening to her soooo much that I have started loving traffic jams!

* * * *

In spite of being called 'good speech', my speech didn't meet the guidelines fully. This part is quite tricky. I will have to redo the speech.

my wishlist

Saw a wishlist on someone's orkut profile the other day. That got me thinking of my own wishlist, so here goes a pictorious one :)