My Travelogues....

Ahoy Mates....

Needed some place exclusively for jottin down my sashays...

hence this new blog... My Travelogues

Hope yaal enjoy reading it as much as I njoi travelling and writing about it....

Happy Travelling....

Visit of The Apes

Oh ya.... The apes did give us a visit ..Early in the morning at 7.30 ... on a weekday...

1st sighting:

Well to imagine that one cud see a monkey in the bang middle of a city like Nagpur is something that i wudnt have believed until it actually happened... & Thankfully my mate Ashish had his digicam handy with some useful zoom lenses that helped us catch this rogue in a chip ...

Well this new flat that we moved to recently has an amazing, small terrace with a Jaamun tree overhanging... & This Jamun tree was what attracted the 2 black faced monkeys commonly called Langur...

We were at first wary of going too close lest it attacked so we preferred to watch n shoot it from inside our house... A long tail n a black face .. the monkey was living upto its name, innocently plucking Jamuns (black berry) from the tree and eating it while keeping a watchful eye on us...

Well we managed to sneak closer to it, gaining courage with every snap we took and at one point Ash was at the edge of the terrace with the primate at a distance of 5 meters ..

At one time, he was in a playful mood... lying down on da tree branch, staring at us n da camera... Dats da one below...






hmm... here are some more of da pics






















We were delayed to for work dat day but the experience was amazing... Just having nature so close to ur daily life is a nice thing... :-)

Cheers..
~KK

Go To The Mattresses … (With Sarkar)

That’s what Clemenza says in Mario Puzo’s Original classic “The Godfather” … am stressing on Original bcoz there are many adaptations and inspirations that have been made into movies …. & One among those many is Sarkar …. Ahem…

When u see Sarkar, the first thing that comes up on screen is a note by Ramu(a.k.a Ram Gopal Varma) saying it is inspired from Godfather… Inspiration is fine but then he forgot to mention how he changed that inspiration into a bad one by having a pathetic screenplay and failing to cash in on the thrill that is abundant in the original…

AB sr. and AB jr have turned out classical performances, where Bade Miyan is gr8 as Sarkar… His talent comes out in all the scenes. Bunty has also done a good job. Hats off to them both… But otherwise the movie as a whole is insipid and lacking the tang.

Ramu has changed the story to suit the Indian audience… Put couple of bimbettes who are grossly misused… With the same story, he could have done a much better job so that the thrill is maintained as was seen in the original. For eg. In the scene where AB jr. & his assistant are caught by the villains and are going to be killed, he could have directed the movie in a way so that the fear wud hv been visible in AB. Jr’s eyes.. But it wasn’t upto the mark…

The reason why I am disappointed is that I have read and seen the original Godfather many times over. So there is bound to be an automatic comparision when a similar scene is shown here and when there is disappointment then obviously this wud be my reaction. I’m sure those who saw both the versions wud have been disappointed with Ramu’s stuff. But again a whole lot of people have never seen or even heard of the original. So Sarkar is and will do great…

Alas! For what it could have been…

Shifting Pain !!! :p

Oh no no no.. dis aint any post about a chronic pain ... But about the pain that is part n parcel of shifting houses... :D

I shifted yesterday from our company guest house which was a haven as it was free to a rented place ... which is another haven but a paid one ;-) But yes it is a kewl place... & best of all its fully furnished at no extra cost for us ... as its my boss's house .... :)

Our shifting (Our meanin my roomie Ash & myself) pain was not as much connected with the amount of luggage as it was with the time at which we had to do it... Since it had to be done b4 9.30 am (thats when we hv to b at office... No rahu kalam probs here ..) we had to get up at 7 am ... that was followed by the hurried stuffing of dirty clothes & other dumpable things intp the bags ... This was a torture for me somewhat since I hadslept at 2.30 am (wat was I doing ,.. dont ask) so it really screwed up my sleep clock which had lost 2 & half hours from its daily schedule...

But once we had dumped all our luggage at the new flat we were visibly relieved... ready to hit the offices, back to the daily chores of cuking up documents & convincing fellow mates to do some constructive work while self indulging in doing... nothing !!! :)

This flat where m now based is a small, cozy place with 2 rooms et a kitchen & a balcony & a small terrace for ourselves... Best is that both da balcony & the terrace have dence trees overhanging.. which brings in the nature rite in to our place... & personally.. I love it when I hear squirrels n birds chirping.. cuckoos & wood pigeaons .. Gives an illusion of being in the wild even though we r rite in the middle of the city... .

Well .. the weekend's here & I hope to njoi some nice F1 racing and movie watching whilst settling in to our new sanctuary !!!

~Karthik "KK"

Paheli.... Different or Full of C*** !! ?? !!

Happened to catch Paheli 1st day, last show on friday... & believe me it's a mix n match of some amazin technical aspects of film-making coupled with some very illogical cr***y happenings ... A very slow movie to start off with most of the 1st half getting u into a go-to-sleep mode :D
Later on in the 2nd half, we do have some kinda pace which is useless if u have already fallen off to sleep :D

Ok..Points to appreciate in the movie... Some amazin camera work by Ravi Chandran.. who has been there & done that... with count-less hit movies in Bollywood as well as down south... So accolades to him... & Amol Palekar has done a fine job with SRK... The King Khan at his best playin out a role.. (this may be largely bcoz he's producing the movie - Red Chillies Entertainment.. Where were the chillies :O )

Rani Mukherjee... wat to say of her..she is back to her normal ways post Black.. (4get B&B...dat was even cr***ier... )

The most indigestible part... the heroine gets herself impregnated by a Ghost... gosh... how unromantic.. & this friendly ghost unlike the others (Casper, Black Beard's ... ) can be tickled by humans ... woah baby.... Out for a toss goes Mr. Bhoot's reputation .. lol ..

And one more highlight of the movie is the camel race... Hey Amol.. Y o Y did u have to put this in the movie .. ???

Big B comes on for just 5 mins but he is classic... & also good to see Juhi , Sharvari (from bindhast-marathi), Dilip Prabhavalkar... All popular in the Theatre & Marathi movie circuit...

Nyways.. if ur a Die hard SRK or Rani Mukherjee fan..then yes do go to see the mooovie... else dont spend time solvin this paheli... u'd be better off solvin a Mid-Day crossword instead .. ;-D (No offence King Khan... mayb ur Red Chillies need more spice the next time .. :D )

THE SERENDIPITOUS VICTORY…

I am sure Schumi also doesn't disagree with this coz the truth is that he tasted victory when he least expected it & in the most bizarre manner possible. And if I could speak for the millions of Tifosi (Da official word for Ferrari fans) even they hadn’t expected Schumi to lead the race from start to finish… then again, Michael Schumacher has always been, arguably, the luckiest soul in Formula 1 racing for the past 5-6 years. And that was shown yesterday… again!!!

Michelin, the culprit at the bottom of it all, somehow managed to make a blunder in their tyre settings and ended up having a tyre, which was deemed “dangerous to race”. The only hitch was that 7 teams out of 10, i.e. 14 cars out of 20 were using their tyres. Talk about monopoly eh! Michelin, after Ralf Schumacher’s accident on Friday, found out about this glitch on Saturday. They could have reported it immediately to the FIA(International Automobile Federation) officials. Instead, they waited until Sunday morning for reports to come in, 3 hours before the race was about to start, to bring this out in the open. According to them, the tyres were not safe under race conditions and race distance at the high speed turn 13 on the Indy circuit, which the cars traversed at 200-mph. Their solution was, to slow down the cars on that turn…
And that was easier said than done… FIA & race officials responded with a curt “Sorry, No way Hosé”!

Since all options were rejected, the Michelin drivers just took the customary warmup lap & returned to the pits to their respective dens... What a sight that was... ! A black day for F1 racing, especially in the US where they are , naaah, I shd say, They were trying to get a share of the large motosport following... But alas .. Its hit red flag now...

All said & DOne... M a Ferrari & Schumi fan.. so m happy atleast he is within striking distance of Alonso, da leader in the points table right now... Hope for some upward revival for La Team Scuderia !!!

And also much more to cheer about as an Indian, for Narain Karthikeyan - The fastest Indian in the world .. :D HE earned hi first points of the season, points which he wudn't have got if all the players had been in the fray... points which are precious few for a weaker Team Jordan...

& this also might have cheered the dissappointed Indians who spent hundreds of dollars in going to Indianapolis to watch the deafening roars of 20 mean machines fighting each other....

Lots more to look forward to in the forthcoming races.. so hope to post some more positive writes as a Tifosi .... !!!

Cheerio ~ * ! * ~

We Dont Need No Education !!!

We don't need no education …
We don’t need no thought control …

Pink Floyd

Must be dream lines for every student who’s studying for his exams… They are, at least for me. Exams have always been a harrowing experience for me… Smooth at the end when I get my results but rocky when am giving them… touchwood!

But today, I find myself at such a juncture in life that I don’t feel too good… wondering why??? Its because I am done with all the exams, well at least I am done with all formal education that one can hope to get… Bachelors in Engineering, Masters in Business Administration, spiced up in between, with a Diploma in Computing…it ain’t that much if you compare it to some of the qualification collectors out there but more than enough for me.

I just finished with my MBA from Pune University – PUMBA, as it is famously known… The last exam schedule marked the end of a period in my life, which was one ride that I loved going on… School was fun, Junior College was a picnic, BE was more fun and MBA was all of the above… Something that I would cherish all my life…

It wasn’t always smooth since it had its share of troughs and crests. The petty arguments with dad, the tenshun of placements, the souring of relationships and the flowering of others… Fact is that the negatives were outdone by the positives: the bonds shared with friends, the joy of seeing old school friends getting married, the total time pass done at the various canteens laced around the PU campus, the discussions at OC(Open Canteen) over various topics right from politics to business strategies to movies to teachers to da fave of them all – Gurls !!! ya ya ya… Discussions about the opposite sex took new meanings and attained new heights when they were discussed in the OC’s and IC’s (Open Canteen & International Canteen in Pune University campus) lol…

Well now that phase of life has passed by leaving behind memories to be cherished and it is time to move up the ladder to some serious stuff… so that those classroom learning’s could be put to test - only to find them fail in the actual real world scenarios and thus learn the practical aspects ;-)

Agreed Education is over but the learning will not end here… as the cliché goes!!!

Best wishes & here’s to “Waaaaaakh all the way to the top”, Cheers!!! ;-)

Somewhere Out There...

Somewhere out there Someones saying a prayer That we'll find one another In that big somewhere out there ---Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram

And so this song goes, a Grammy award winning composition by Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram. "...in that Big Somewhere Out There!!!" So is there really someone saying a prayer out there in this wondrous place around us… Is there???

In today’s world where even a beggar is so busy hauling in the moolah in his own unique way, who would find the time & patience to go praying for a person who is personified only in your woolgathering. It would be like trying to catch the smoke from a freshly lit Cuban – visible yet out of reach, odorous yet untasted…

But the fact remains that even in this manic pandemonium, one is longing for affection and warmth at every stage in life. Be it as a toddler, a kindergarten kid, at school, in college, at work or in your everyday personal and social life. This quest for warmth is what drives us to dream of that special someone who would make us feel wanted;

And when your search zone is the whole wide world, from Mumbai to Kyoto, from Aden to San Diego, one certainly needs more than a google search to zero in… why even google doesn’t give you the best search result on the first page. So the “Big” in the lyrics would actually turn out to be “BIG” in reality, which is put in a beautiful way by the writer.
Here’s to hoping that all find their “special” person, one to whom we can say, “You made my day!” every single day…!