I am sorry for not updating my Digital Diary for so long.

I hate to give my work as excuse because I firmly believe if we make an effort to take some time out of work we can surely do anything and everything we think of doing. I promise that I’ll make it a point to post regularly from now on. This is the first time that people have been demanding my next post. It is cheerfully encouraging to see people waiting to read my next post. I will try my best and keep up with your pace.

The awards have been flowing in even though I have not been a regular here. Thanks a lot for all the encouragement and support. These awards are as big as Oscars for me.

Proximity Award (Awarded by Smita):

Thanks will be an understatement. This award comes with a small write up as well. Here it goes;

This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
What more can I say about this award!? Here comes the tough part now.

I pass this award to;

• Preeti
• Chandan
• Archana
• Vivek
• Apar
• Sakhi
• Nidhi and
• IHM

Kreativ Blogger (Awarded by Archana and Vivek):

If there is anything creative in my blog that should be my template :). Thanks a lot for the award. This award will now act as an inspiration for me to write something creative. Blogging is not just about writing. It is about creating something new every time. So this award goes to everyone on my blog roll and to everyone who is making an effort to write a blog.

Now for some Cricketing action;

If you are a cricket fan you would know that the last 10 days have been a golden period for test cricket. If the Indian run chase made me think about writing a post, the South African run chase made me sit up and write. What an awesome run chase it was!? Is it because the well oiled engine called Australia is running out of steam? Or is it the never-say-die attitude of South Africa that helped them pull off such a tremendous win. Only time will tell. But nevertheless it will be match to remember for decades to follow. Same is the case with the Indian run chase. It is one of those matches that will be telecast on TV time and again as a classic match. I am so glad to have witnessed it live. I would like to congratulate and thank the Indian and South African teams for taking test cricket to a new level.

Another accomplishment that any Indian cricket fan would have taken notice of is Rahul Dravid’s century. I was more relieved than Dravid himself. It was disheartening to see him in such a pathetic state. With this innings, he has not just managed to silence the critics; he has made sure he has zipped up their mouths for another season. I just could not understand what was there for him to prove. If there is anything left for anyone to prove in the current Indian Cricket team it has to Harbhajan Singh. Anil Kumble’s shoes are turning out to be to too big for him to fill. Dhoni will not be able to shield him for too long. The so called critics want a scapegoat and I am sure the turbanator is slowly turning(doosra'ing') out to be the right candidate.

That was the cricket update. Moving on to Christmas celebrations;

If I could trade one of the thousands of festivals we have with a festival from a different religion it would be Christmas any day. It has a certain aura around it. Christmas brings with it lots of fond memories. This was one of the festivals we celebrated in school with great enthusiasm. We used to decorate our class rooms, decorate Christmas trees, play lots of games, exchange small gifts, cut cakes and the best part about this whole celebration was the holidays that followed. Now when I am working in an IT organization, all I get is a day off. The office is decorated alright but no one seems to be enthusiastic about the whole thing. This has not left me disappointed though. I have my own plans for Christmas. I will be watching the first-day first-show of Ghajini with my family and will probably be lunching out after that. And since there is a sale going on in every nook and corner of Bangalore I might do some shopping as well. So, What are your plans? How are you planning to celebrate this festive week?

1.  Go offline in Orkut - But this solves only half the problem. You will not be able to remove people that Orkut obliged adding. Moreover, you will not be able to chat with people you really wanted to chat with. You will be offline :( 

2.  Sign in to Orkut -> Go to settings -> Chat Tab -> Uncheck all the check boxes and save changes. This will remove all the people Orkut had added without your permission. 

3. Do not sign-in into orkut :)

1. It is now very easy to find an Orkut friend’s Gmail ID and add him or her to your Google talk List. 

2. Chat and Scrap without having to switch between browser windows.

Before you get into any sort of confusion or conclusion, this is neither a movie review nor a discussion about the size-zero girl Kareena Kapoor. I will be talking about my first ever blogger get together(Not exactly the first meet because the first blogger I ever met was Preeti during her book launch) with Oxy who is probably four or five sizes more than our very own size-zero girl :)

Here are the awards;

I wanted to write a post on the Mumbai Terror Attacks but I was in a complete state of shock and could not express what I felt. Moreover I have nothing left to write because great writers and great bloggers have already written everything about it.

It is now the time of post-mortem of the entire episode when facts and secrets are dug out from the dead bodies of the terrorists. It is also the time when every secret agency claims that it had warned India about the attacks. Every citizen of India has lots of questions in his or her mind but I don't see any person who has the answers to all of them. So it is time to find our own answers. Why do we always wait? I think that is how we are taught in schools. We always ask questions and wait for the teacher to respond. It is that time of our lives when we have to change and act.

I came across a lovely poem (written by famous lyricist Prasoon Joshi) that more or less sums up what I wanted to convey;

Nahin aaney doonga zindagi ko aasani se patri par

Nahin utarney doonga usey keechad main,tedhey medhey raston pe

Nahin sookhney doonga deewaron par laga khoon

Halka Nahin padney doonga uska rang

Is baar Nahin banney doonga usey itna laachaar ki paan ki peek aur khoon ka fark hi khatm ho jaye

Is baar ghawon ko dekhna hai gaur se thoda lambe wakt tak

Kuch faisley aur uskey baad hausley kahin toh shuruat karni hi hogi

Is baar yahi tay kiya hai!

My heartfelt condolences go to all the martyrs who played a big part in digging us out of the hole that we had dug for ourselves (The blasts just made it easy).

I would not like to put the entire blame on the politicians here because they became our leaders only because we voted (or not voted) for them. Please use your power, your vote judiciously and choose a worthy leader instead of moaning later.

I reached a milestone last week. The “five thousand hits” milestone. I wanted to celebrate it in style but this whole episode made me sad and I could no longer celebrate it. But since life has to move on, here I am, proudly displaying the number of hits on the left side of the screen. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my readers from the bottom of my heart for making it possible. With each comment and each post I have improved and I would have been just another unknown blogger (Google finds me now:)) in this big wide blog world without you all. Thanks again!

Here we go again! Here are my first impressions on the music of Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Two most anticipated movies of the year. I am carrying on from where I left.

I finished my work quite early today and have been listening to new movie songs that I loaded on to my Zune this morning. I have been listening to songs from the movies Fashion,Golmaal Returns and Yuvvraaj. 

I loved my old template, I really did but I think I loved it a little too much. I got bored! So here's presenting to you, the all new, the trendy, the cool, Varun's Digital Diary :)

In case you have still not noticed, I have changed my blog template :). The dictionary meaning of change is 'Become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence'. That is exactly what I have tried.

Changing templates is one BIG task. Believe it or not, it took me an entire week to zero-in on this particular template and modify it according to my needs. The search for template was no less than a treasure hunt. Even though I had the best tool in business (Google) for my hunt, the filtering process took a long time.

Here is a little erudition that I would like to share about template changing;

- Create a new blog to test your templates. Never ever make changes to the existing one. You can always delete the new one once you succeed in changing the template of your old blog.
- Make sure you have enough space for all your widgets.
- Make sure the new template supports all your widgets.
- If you are particular about the number of columns as I was, the search becomes a lot easier. I searched for a three column template.
- Make sure the colour of the template you select is soothing to eyes.
- Learn basics of HTML. It really helps.

Few links that helped me a lot in my search are listed below;

- Link 1
- Link 2

I have had to compromise on the width of writing space but then compromises are a part and parcel of everyone's life.

I have shuffled my widgets around and have managed to add a new picture. The movie, 'A Wednesday' inspired me to light this candle. It is a candle lit for all those poor souls who lost their lives in bomb blasts.

There are few awards that I have proudly displayed under the candle. It was awarded to me by Smita. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her. It means a lot to me. Thank you. :)

Coming to the most important thing now, Please don't forget to comment on my new template.

The collage sums up Preeti's 34 Bubblegums and Candies Bangalore Book Launch. It was an amazing experience. I had always seen Book launches on television or had always read about it in the newspapers but to be a part of such a book launch was indeed amazing.

The launch started with a crossword employee introducing the author and the guest of honour. Mr. R.K. Mishra of Lead India fame was the guest of honour. I had always read about him but it was wonderful to hear him speak.

The book '34 Bubblegums and Candies' is based on true life incidents. The title might sound a little peculiar but here is what the author has to say about it.

"Because, there are incidents that make you ponder and make you want to think and may be re-think. Like chewing a bubble gum. Then there are others, spiked with doses of humour that make you laugh and leave you a feel-good sensation. Just like eating a candy." (Excerpt from http://34bubblegumsandcandies.com/)

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday and Ramzan (Eid) gave us (me and my parents) an opportunity to visit Kerala's Wayanad District last week. The district headquarters, 'Kalpetta' is around 280 km from Bangalore. The route we followed was Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Bandipur National Forest - Sultan Bathery - Kalpetta. There are few other routes as well but this one is the best of the lot. The condition of roads in this route are better than the other routes.

The best part of the trip was the drive and I am glad that I got to do the major chunk (Around 750 km) of it. We drove through the straight four lane highways, dense forests and through the curves and bends of the Western Ghats. If one loves driving or is a car enthusiast one must drive on these roads. I managed to test the upper limits of the Santro's to its limits. Not sure which screw or nut of the Santro has gone loose now :D

Day 1 -

Pic: Elephants enjoying a dip.

Pookot or Pookod Lake - Is a pristine fresh water lake enclosed by hills and has a walkway which goes around it. One can go paddle boating here but it was closed by the time we entered.

Distance from Kalpetta: 14 km
Entry Fee: Rs. 10
Paddle Boat: Rs 30 for 20 min
.

Pic: Pristine and placid lake

Pic : My mom and I on the walkway

Day 2 -

Banasura Sagar Dam - It is India's largest and Asia's second largest Earth Dam. There's a speed boat (a fast motor boat) that takes one around the dam. The trek from the entrance to the dam is quite long and tiring. One can hire a jeep to cover this distance.

Distance from Kalpetta: 24 km
Entry fee: Rs. 10
Jeep: Rs 50 for a round trip. (Max 10 ppl)
Speed Boat: 250 for a 20 min trip (Max 5 ppl)
View from the boat: Priceless :)

Pic: The Dam and its Gates

Pic: Ye Hassen Vadiyan, Ye khula Aasman

Kuruva Island- 950 acres of evergreen forest on the tributaries of east following river Kabini. The island is uninhabited. Rare species of birds, orchids and herbs can be found here. The road leading to this island is in quite a bad shape.

Distance from Kalpetta : 40 km
No Entry fees
Boat: Rs. 20 per head (Required to cross the river. One can swim across too.)















Pic: Mom and Dad














Pic: Land across the river is Kuruva Island

Day 3 -

Soochippara Falls - The road leading to this waterfall is amazing. Tea estates adorn both sides of the road. The trek to the waterfall is exhilarating as well as exhausting. One can get down the mountains quite easily but the slope is quite steep and the climb back up is very tiring. I did not want my parents to get down with me. My mom agreed to it but my dad didn't. He was extremely pleased when we finally got to the waterfall.

Distance from Kalpetta: 23 km
No Entry Fees
Jeep: Rs. 100 for a round trip (From the entrance to the stairs.)















Pic: Picturesque Tea Estate

Pic : Soochippara Water Fall

Pic: Thrilled Dad

There are lots of other places we skipped either due to the distance or lack of interest . I'll list them out here so that it can help the people reading this post.

- Edakkal Caves: Neolithic Caves
- Chembra Peak - 1200 metre mountain climb
- Lakkidi - A chain of Trees
- Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary - 45 km from Kalpetta
- Pakshipathalam - 17 km Trek
- Neelimala View Point - Supposed to be good
- Sentinel Rock Waterfalls - Not very good
- Tholpetty wild life Sanctuary - 70 km from Kapetta

Wayanad is not a hill station. The weather here is more or less same as every place. It becomes cool at nights. One or two pairs of jeans, t-shirts and a comfortable pair of shoes should do the trick. Food used to be a problem in Kerala when I had visited it four years back but it is no longer a problem. We now get all kinds of food sans coconut oil too.

Like every good things come to an end, so did our trip. The trip to God's own Country was exciting, rejuvenating and truly a trip to remember. The pristine glittering waters, the drive, the picturesque tea estates, the time spent with my parents are some of the things that will be etched in my mind forever.

I was out on a short afternoon stroll in the blogosphere when out of nowhere a tag hit me. The assailant’s name is Aparna. She is a pioneer with a wicked smile - Muhahahahhahaha. She has started a tag and has started to pass it to any person who dares to even come close to her blog. There’s one good thing about this tag though. It’s the rules. We can set our own rules and play along with it. The tag was quite simple as there were not many questions to answer.

What do you do when!?

- You see a man (or woman) making a pass (trying to woo / flirt / impress) on a woman (or man) you like?

The girl would slap me if I try and object it. Girls love all the attention they can garner and I dare not take that away from them.

- Someone you like, is not attracted to you?

I’ll try doing an Item song. ‘Zara Zara Touch Me Touch Me Touch Me’ :)

- You are attracted to someone, but both of you are in two different cities?

I’ll take my chances as long as the city she is living is reachable by a local call :)

- You are reading a book, and your best friend wants to borrow it and can’t wait for you to finish reading, ‘coz he/she has been looking for it for all their life?

If that is the level of his or her desperation, I will definitely have to hand that book over. A friend in desperate need is a friend indeed :)

- You help plan his / her career, and then, they go on to achieve it, leaving you behind, alone…

Aree oye!! Sun to… Apne girl friend ko bhi saath leja…

Rules:

-You cannot tag me back on this one!
-You can create your own rules, as long as the above rule applies!
-Rules added as a late thought in the comments section does not hold!
-Tag Aparna whenever you get a chance!

I have this habit of reading British newspapers online since the day I've come back from United Kingdom in February. Yesterday was no different. If you are a gossip lover stop reading Mumbai Mirror, Mid-Day and start reading British news papers. Among all these unwanted gossip news, there was one rare article that stood out. It was about an 'Upside Down Rainbow'.

Here is the article that followed;

Astronomer Dr Jacqueline Mitton captured the freak rainbow near her home in Cambridge. Normal rainbows are made when light penetrates raindrops and re-emerges out the other side in the same direction. But, the inverted types, known as circumzenithal arcs, are caused when sunlight bounces off ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up.

"The conditions have to be just right: you need the right sort of ice crystals and the sky has to be clear," said Mitton. "We're not sure how big an area it was visible over, but it was certainly very impressive," she added. A spokesman for the Met Office confirmed the inverted rainbows are occasionally spotted in British skies. "It is convex to the sun and is formed by refraction in suitably-oriented ice crystals and may show vivid rainbow colouring, as in this case," he said.

There was also this e-mail forward I got from one of my friends last evening. The forward talked about a rare rainbow called the 'Fire Rainbow', also called circumhorizontal arc being caught on film last week. But a little googling and a little research told me that it was caught on film alright but it was on June 3, 2006 in Northern Idaho and not last week as claimed by the e-mail. Given below is the picture of that beautiful natural phenomenon.


Clouds have to be cirrus, at least twenty thousand feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees from the observer.

Well, we all know about the strange ways of nature. The fire rainbow looks like a canvas coloured by God himself and the upside down rainbow looks as though the nature is smiling with happiness.

Vimal has tagged me with his ‘love is everywhere’ tag. I would have never written about love unless someone provoked me to it. Now that I have got the provocation required, get ready to find some answers :)

RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by them.

RULE #2: Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

I was one of the few privileged people who sat alongside the Big B himself and watched “The Last Lear” when it was showcased in London Film Festival “LAST YEAR”. I even shook hands with the legend. It was ‘a dream come true’ for me. I stayed in Bombay for more that two years but never managed to catch a glimpse of him but my seven month stay in London bore fruits.

'The Last Lear' is undoubtedly Amitabh Bachchan's best movie ever. He will sweep away all the awards this year unless the 'Khan'dan can do something about it.

It's the story of a seasoned thespian Harish Mishra (Harry) who lives with his live-in girlfriend (Shefali Shah). The movie starts with Harry in Coma. The film shoot has taken its toll on the old man. The co-star is truly worried but the director of the movie does not want to meet the ailing actor and is busy preparing for the movie premiere.

The story takes shape in flashback but keeps meandering around past and present.

A young impatient film maker played by Arjun Rampal (Siddharth) tries to woo Harry out of his retirement from stage into films. The interaction between the film-maker and the stage actor produces some of the pleasing and best scenes of the movie.

Harry meets Shabnam (Preity Zinta) on the sets of the movie. Shabnam is a lovable character though her husband in the movie thinks otherwise. He does not like the name and fame that his wife gets out of her movies and is very jealous of her.

Harry initially thinks that there is lot of deception in movies and performing on the stage was grander than performing / acting in movies. Impressed by Siddharth's moviemaking ability and professionalism he slowly adjusts himself to the movie sets. The bond that Harry's young live-in girl friend and Harry share is portrayed beautifully as well.

There are few questions that might remain unanswered. Why this title? What happens to Harry in the end? Will he come back from his coma? How did that accident occur? Why Siddarth does not visit the ailing Harry? I would have loved to disclose everything here but I do not want to spoil your movie going experience.

The silver mane gives Big B yet another look. He looks good though. Arjun Rampal has proved he can act and I have no comments to make on the other actors. Rituparno Ghosh has made sure that he gets the best out of all his actors. Big B has brought the characters of Shakespearean plays back into life with his impeccable dialogue delivery. I cannot praise the dialogues enough because those were written by the master himself :)

I give this movie four and a half stars. I have not given it a five because there is always room for improvement :)

I have tried hard not to disclose the story. Make sure you don't miss watching it.

Break - 1

I have been allocated a new project called 'Meteor' and have been put into two day training. The training is going on really well but I have decided to enjoy my breaks too by writing something whenever I get one.

The new cubicle allotted to me is really good. It's very close to the entry and exit door, the rest room, the cafeteria and most importantly the fire exit :). The people around here recognize me unlike the old cubicle where I sat all alone. It’s a good feeling when somebody smiles at you early in the morning and wishes you good morning. Gives you a good start.

Break - 2

The training that I am attending is a financial training. It's a training about financial and accounting aspects of a telecom billing world. People in my organization have waited for almost 2 years to get this kind of training but lucky me, I am attending it the 2nd day I got into my project. I always wanted to get a degree in commerce but feared that it would take me no where and followed the crowd who were jumping into the world of Engineering. I have no regrets about the decision as it has done a world of good to me and has given me a lot of good friends along its way. Finance is a domain one can learn any time one wants irrespective of his or her educational background and since the term ‘finance’ is so closely associated with money it always amazed me. The words 'assets', 'liabilities', 'expense' etc never fail to astonish me. Break - 2 was a lunch break. The menu for lunch was two chapatis (6 inch radius) with chatni and a sabji. It was a welcome change that I enjoyed thoroughly. Resorted to chapatis instead of a meal because I did not feel like having anything heavy during training. Sleep factor you know!! I fall asleep in almost all my trainings unless I find an interesting trainer or some activity that can keep me awake.

Break - 3

The activity or exercise that we did was certainly refreshing. Never drowsed off and most importantly, I managed to complete it with only two minor mistakes. I am feeling like an expert already. Bring on the account books!! :).

Final - Break

The day finally comes to an end. I was playing with Alice in our very own wonderland for most of the last session. Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day. I’m looking forward to it. Hope you enjoyed reading this piece during your break :)

It was just a 45 min drive from the new Bangalore International Airport but it gave me enough time to introspect on various things ranging from importance of relationships to a country's Infrastructure. I had been to the airport to drop my cousin sister and her family (husband and 2 beautiful kids) who had come to India from USA after a gap of four long years. One might ask why they had come anyway. If you've gone through my earlier posts, I had mentioned something similar. Even though we talk on phone everyday, see the other on a web-cam or write emails regularly the feeling that you have one meeting someone in person is simply out of this world. Something which is very hard to describe in words.

She was here in Bangalore for only 15 days but managed to visit all her relatives in their own backyards. It was great to see the love, the affection and the warmth she had for all her cousins and relatives. One reason could have been the gap after which she came to India. But broadly speaking, don’t we tend to forget people as days, months and years progress? So what had made her to come to India? Had she forgotten how we looked? Did she come here to remind us that she existed? Did she come as if to apologize that she didn't come earlier? These were the stupid questions that flashed momentarily in my mind but I knew immediately that the answer was a big NO. She was here because she respects relations; she visited everyone at their own homes because she knows the importance of spending quality time with each individual.

Without boasting any further about my cousin, I just want to stress upon the fact that relationship is one thing that bonds every one of us every where. So please start respecting them and give them the importance they deserve. It could be any relation under the sun. Even your dog shares a relation with you. 'Deserve', why do you think I used this word? I am a firm believer in giving back what I get. I respect people who respect me, I adore people who adore me and ignore people who ignore me. It could probably be one reason that I can still count my friends using my fingers but then I don't really care. I am happy with what I have.

Let me speak about the Bangalore's infrastructure now. I know I have picked two topics that are no way related to each other but then I’m just going with my brain and my eyes. Just writing what I felt and what I saw.

The new Bangalore International Airport is truly an engineering wonder. It takes you to a new world altogether. It’s like one of the episodes of Alice in wonderland. Makes you wonder whether it's really Bangalore. Placed a little distance off the Bangalore - Hyderabad highway, the structure has come up beautifully. Cars coming in from 6 lanes, Colorful taxis queued up for the passengers to arrive, hep coffee shops, subway sandwiches and not to mention the amber sodium vapor lamps that light up the entire airport.

The only complaint people have about Bangalore whilst flooding it is the infrastructure it lacks and the never-ending-always-growing traffic. I am glad that it has come up with a new international standard airport which gives us sure signs that it is definitely headed the right way with respect to infrastructure but am not sure what it's doing with respect to traffic because given an opportunity, I would have killed few drivers and two wheeler riders on my way to office today. I’ll probably vent out my frustrations in posts to follow. Until then, ride safe and do keep in mind that you are not the only one riding on the road.