A window to my world ...

Beautiful lyrics and very well sung by Shaan Kuch kam Roshan hai roshani Kuch kam Geeli hain Baarishein Kuch kam lehrati hai hawa Kuch kam Hai Dil main khwaishein Tham sa gaya hai yeh waqt aise Tere hi liye tehera ho jaise ... Hmm hmm hmmmmmmm From the movie Dostana ... The movie too is fun to watch

At crossroads. Unable to decide what next. The best part of getting married is I believe is being able to offload a lot of decisions to your spouse and steer away from them -financial,organizational.Life should be simpler with responsibilities divided.When you have a very nice spouse who says --Whatever you say --well the onus is on you to make some decisions ,and there life gets tricky .Do you just take the plunge and leave it to time or continue to live in the comfort zone.Just thinking.

Another escape from the bustling noisy bangalore. Ragya,Shilpa,Guru and i set out to visit the Gaganachukki and Barachukki falls.It was a pleasant drive.We stopped by maddur's tiffany's hotel which served some very bad Mallige idlis . Kamat Lokaruchi is any day better for a breakfast on the Mysore road highway. Gaganachukki offers some breathtakings views of the waterfalls,but you cant play there and there is nothing much to do there. So we set out for the smaller Barachukki falls and headed into the water.Reaching right under the falls was a little tricky and fun. The feel of water hitting you with so much force is good . Playing in the beach is great in a way and under the waterfalls its a different experience altogether. We also visited Talakadu and it has so many stories associated with it,the whole masala with kings,queens and the queen's curse.Perfect for a movie.The local guide there took us to the Panchalinga temples.He showed us some excavations.It is said that a w

Lovely song from Yuvraj .. Love is in the air :) !!! The weather is so perfect these days ,as i travel from home to office in the mornings,i feel i should be out for a picnic ..

Our Gang with the guides Trek to Chandrakhani Pass The Timeless Taj Mahal So damn cold that brokeback mountain made sense ;) Krishna Janma Bhoomi : Mathura Temple When : Nov 8th to Nov 16th Places Visited/Touched : Vrindavan,Mathura,Agra,Delhi,Manali and a 3 day trek to the Chandrakhani pass over the Pir Panjal ranges in Himachal Gang of 4 : GuruDakshina,Arun and Deepa

A Friday Evening ... A Live concert by Shankar Mahadevan ,Free passes ,courtesy TOI Bangalore Festival I was there and had a blast !!! Savouring life's little joys bigtime...

Went thru Ravi's blog,Rashmi's blog,played crossword,played carrom Dont feel like reading the horoscope. Downloaded a nice song .Copied a nice movie from a colleague's system,attended another meeting that was a longer than routine monologue from my manager.Whatever he says is true though-but guess where all the energy comes from for talking at a stretch...it finally ended with him asking "Do i make sense" -- I wanted to scream --Of course you do --but who needs all of it .. Life's been rather nice inspite of the fever that got on to me on a holiday--what a bad timing. Chalo bye ...

I watched the movie Wall-E and it got me seriously thinking. Will our planet one day become a repository of trash ,gadgets and goods and finally be non-habitable .Every person uses up around 100 different electronic goods/gadgets over his lifetime (Eg. will change at least 15 mobiles ).Where will all this go?How will we be able to sustain all this development,need for extra fuel and power.Where are we going to dispose of all the nuclear waste ?Are we seriously giving thought to alternate means of power,recycling. Where are we moving towards in this rush for development and advancement.We have surely put ourselves in a self destructive mode. A hundred questions unanswered.Only time can tell.

Attended the Ganesh Utsav festival organized at APS Grounds Basavangudi last friday. It started off with soulful bhajans, then pooja by Sri Sri Sri Ravi Shankar [founder of Art of living] and then by an awesome concert by Pt. Shivkumar sharma and Rahul Sharma on Santoor.Santoor,[or the shat-tantra-veena meaning 100 strings] has been modified by Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma to make it suitable for classical music.There were 2raagas which were performed :Raga Rageshwari and Raag Mishra Pahadi,accompanied by tabla and Ghatam. I can only say that the whole experience was great,the artists wove sheer magic with the music they created and it left me wanting more.What an evening!! I am proud to be born in a country with such great musical diversity. Come to think of it,music is inseperable from our tradition.Our Gods are also associated with Music/Dance.Like Saraswati Devi with the Veena and Lord Krishna with the flute,and lord Shiva is called Nataraj,the king of dance .

Wont say much abt the story ... Fastpaced Great Cast Does not drag Crisply edited No faltu songs,no stupid parallel comedy Great performance by the best we've in the industry Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher Not preachy but has a strong social undercurrent Relevant to the times We need more such movies Do Watch it In the Genre of "Mumbai Meri jaan", "Aamir"

Loved watching "Rock on" at Belgaum...Here we can still get a balcony ticket for 35 Rs --And watching a movie in a small town theatre gives you a better movie experience than what even technologically perfect theatres wont in Blore.. The whistles when the hero enters,the hulla by the public,clapping when thers's a good dialog,junta booing at the theatre owners when the screen dims due to some problems: now thats wholesome paisa vasool...You dont have to think twice before shelling out like a 100 bucks for coke and some popcorn here. I never miss watching movies when i visit Bgm and although i want this place to develop ,hope the multiplex theatre concept does not catch on here. Coming back to the movie,well the best scene was when the "Rock band" ,to make up some extra cash actually goes and plays for a dandiya fest ...Do watch that scene.

I dont feel like coming to work ! I feel i should quit the company I had an argument with a colleague Wish they had an option in teamtrack which said "Dont feel like fixing" Life's become a war between me and the bug !!! Its not actually 'bout the bug,but more abt not having the motivation to work at all :) I simply dont want to work ... What i want to do in life is ... "Nothing" Yes as simple as that Laze around at home,watch TV,read novels,cook and be saitisfied ...heaven!!!!

Misty mountains At Byrant Park Pine forests Cycling around Lake kodai Boating at Lake kodai We had a fun filled weekend at Kodaikanal.It was drizzling slightly there and was not tooo cold,but was a l'll chilly in the evenings.We went boating,cycled around the lake,had good time with an astrologer.You can also try the horse rides here.The walk in the gardens was very refreshing with lovely flowers of different colours. Gang of Four : Priyanka,Amit,Guru and Dakshina When : August 1st and 2nd

Wireshark is still not good enough for dissecting SMB2.0. I saw a lot of "Unknown fields" in the packet captures. Netmonitor however shows more detailed packet traces for the same.Do use it . The summary itself gives a lot of info as below: 5 57.848633 192.168.12.32 WINDOWSVISTALAB SMB2 SMB2: R CREATE (0x5), Context=MxAc, Context=QFid, FID=0xFFFFFFFF0000003D, Mid = 235 6 57.849610 WINDOWSVISTALAB 192.168.12.32 SMB2 SMB2: C CLOSE (0x6), FID=0xFFFFFFFF0000003D, Mid = 236 7 57.999024 192.168.12.32 WINDOWSVISTALAB SMB2 SMB2: R CLOSE (0x6), Mid = 236 8 57.999024 WINDOWSVISTALAB 192.168.12.32 SMB2 SMB2: C CREATE (0x5), Name=F1024K@#8, Context=DHnQ, Context=MxAc, Context=QFid, Mid = 237 9 58.148438 192.168.12.32 WINDOWSVISTALAB SMB2 SMB2: R CREATE (0x5), Context=MxAc, Context=DHnQ, Context=QFid, FID=0xFFFFFFFF00000041, Mid = 237 10 58.149414 WINDOWSVISTALAB 192.168.12.32 SMB2 SMB2: C CREATE (0x5), Context=DHnQ, Context=MxAc, Context=QFid, Mid = 238 11 58.298828 19

1. You unconsciously start looking at sites and guessing the dimensions 30*40 / 40*60 You start looking at tiles and guessing if its a 2"*2" or 1.5"*1.5" ..Same for the rooms 2. The Times Property section becomes mores interesting than the Bangalore times page 3. You are more interested in home loans than ever before.You also finally start observing your bank balances to check if have the necessary 15% to pay the initial amts... 4. You start observing all hoardings/ads more than those of films stars/favourite stars 5. The architect in you comes alive.Each time you visit someone's home you think of "better" ways you would have planned the house and saved space. 6. You suddenly lean towards Vaastu Shastra and start thinking if your bad luck in office is because your cube placement is not compliant to Vaastu !!! At some time or the other you fall in this trap of searching a house.Peer pressure,fear of rising prices,relatives all around you telling yo

I just finished reading "A Prisoner of Birth" .I would highly recommend it to any Jeffrey Archer fan or somebody who likes reading fiction. Its an interesting plot,which'll keep you guessing,drags a l'll in the middle,but nevertheless ,holds your interest.Would place it in the league of Archer's previous "Not a penny less,not a penny more". I also read "The Kite Runner" : an emotional story set in Afghanistan,and which captures the pre-Taliban and the Taliban regime.Another must read . Another 5-hr read-and-forget novel is "The 3 mistakes of my life" by Chetan Bhagat,which was very disappointing after his previous "Five point someone" and "One night at a call centre".The author has tried to cash on the same formula.The medley of Gujarat riots ,cricket and romance did not gel well.The book will sell because of the popularity of his earlier two novels,but the reader would not look forward to any more after this book

Rites,rituals,religious conversion were some topics which kept haunting me all through.Spiritually this is the phase has helped me believe more strongly in my own religion/lifestyle and the fact that each religion is just another language you as a person communicate to God with.Each language(religion) has its grammar(customs/rules) ,but the end aim is the same,to convey your thoughts and your faith. So it should not matter to others . People lay so much emphasis on rituals and not on actual prayers,that the essence is lost . External form of worship is encouraged,which is good but its the mind which needs to be at peace and in sync with the soul within and all that is lost in the external show. I realized that i cherish tradition and hate rules. Dont make it a rule to pray in a particular manner and to worship in a particular way. I think all that should be left to individuals.I have never been an atheist/agnostic but keep imposing the rules and i'll turn into one for sure ...

  At Dhanush Koti : Living on the (l)edge On the way to Dhanush koti ... Kalyani Raya Gopura : The incomplete saga Guru Where : Melkote/Melukote Location : 150 kms from bangalore,35 kms from Mandya,3hrs to reach Route : Bangalore->Bidadi->Ramanagara->Mandya->Melkote When : 8th June 2008 Gang : Amit,Dakshina,Guru,Rani and Sudhi Places of interest : Yoganarasimha temple,Cheluvanarayana temple,Dhanush Koti Historic Significance : Very sacred place for Vaishnavites.It is said that Sri Ramanujacharya,the proponent of Vishishtadvaita, spent 14 yrs of his life here. Melukote is an ideal 1 day weekend getaway /picnic spot for bangalore dwellers. It has become famous after the song "Barso Re" from the film "Guru" was shot here. Thank you Rani for suggesting this place.Melukote is still a calm,quiet non crowded,unexplored place relatively.I hope it stays that way. Guru has mailed me the details and i am adding it here . Travel: ------- There are dire

A lovely read .. The entire article is at http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html Some excerpts from the talk "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. "

In a system with multiple interfaces when u come across the irritating problem that packets are going out from one interface and coming in from another ,the most intuitive thing that u would do is check the routes,check the cabling. Well,after spending some time doing all this,a friend suggested the universal MS panacea .. -- Restart ..So went ahead ..disabled and enabled the network interfaces and it worked magically ...felt good that it did but it defies logic..anyways ... Thats the way i've wasted quite some part of the day and this time will not be accountable in the "productive" hours to be spent on the project ..Bad

I was just looking at SMB2.0 ,Microsoft's own SMB protocol. There are significant changes in the protocol : the most popular features being 1. Support for sending multiple SMB commands within the same packet. This reduces the number of packets sent between an SMB client and server, a common complaint against SMB 1.0. 2. Support for much larger buffer sizes compared to SMB 1.0. 3. Increases the restrictive constants within the protocol design to allow for scalability. Examples include an increase in the number of concurrent open file handles on the server and the number of file shares that a server can have. 4. Support for durable handles that can withstand short interruptions in network availability. 5. Support for symbolic links. 6. Stronger end-to-end data integrity protection, using the SHA256 hash algorithm. 7. Improved throughput across networks that have disparate characteristics. 8. Higher scalability of the number of files that a client may open simultaneously, as well as t

Am back from a ver memorable and sweet weekend spent with my classmate from BE times.Veene and I went to meet Preeti at Hospet. Its almost 3 yrs since i met her and it felt very good. We visited Hampi and TB dam during the short stay.

The Charming Charminar !!! The Cat and the Bat at Ramoji Film City !!! :) Date: 16th,17th Feb Junta : Guru,Raghu and myself I'm just back from a short trip to hyderabad,which was actually meant to be an obligatory visit to my relatives,but turned to to be a very pleasant experience. On Saturday we visited Charminar,went through the streets lined with shops selling "authentic" pearls,bangles and the most colorful/gaudy/jazzy clothes for women.Its a different experience walking through the colourful crowded streets ,bustling with life with hawkers selling samosas,and channawalas and bangles and what have u ..And also the madina masjid besides charminar,retains the old world charm.You'll see hundreds of pigeons flocking there ,and over the minarets.Its all so beautiful in its own.When you visit Charminar,go there ready for all of the crowd,else u'll find it very irritating.Next we visited the Birla temple and the next day we went spent the whole day in Ramoji film

A lovely view of the Vagatore beach!! Sunset at Calangute beach !! my birthday cake!!! "She sells sea shells on the sea shore!!" "Raghu in true Goan style by the Aguada fort" "With Hari priya" This was one of my best birthdays!!Celebrated in style with friends and family in Goa... Date : 9th,10th February Gang :Dad,Hari,Dattu,Swapna,Ragya,Shilpa,Raghu,Guru and Dakshina!!

I had a rocking time at the Unity Concert,a part of Unmaad 2008,hosted by IIM bangalore, this weekend.It was so much full of energy and Veene,my brother and I had a great time.There were 2 bands performing :The Pakistani band strings and the Indian band called Mrigya.I liked the novel concept in one of the presentations by Mrigya in which there was a fusion of Rigveda chanting and reading the Azan .It sounded heavenly.Also besides the bollywood medly mix by Strings was very entertaining and had the entire crowd there joining in. So the count of my live shows have increased and I am looking forward to many more. [ Lucky Ali ,Hariharan,Kailash kher, Atif Aslam (Jal Band),Pankaj Udhas ,SivaMani ,and now Faizal(Strings)!!! )

After a lovely visit to Bgm ,meeting up with friends at Peenk's and Anand's wedding,some great time spent with the family coming back to office is nothing to look fwd to ! Ah ! i wish could spend all my life in Belgaum :Cleaner,greener ,peaceful and serene ,at home .. But I woke up in the bus to the sound of honking vehicles and knew -- yes I am closer to the much hyped 'IT city' /Garden City of India ... It's really a bad start of the day to wake up like this,then bargain and fight with the autowallah ,feel cheated and then u realize u also have to go to office .. The whole day in office ,i kept reflecting to myself as to is this what i wanted in life .Have we spent all our lives to reach here .Strangely this is what we wanted -well paid jobs in a software company ,living in bangalore -- now i have it all ...And i dont want it.. Deep in my heart i know i dont like it. They say that think carefully what u wish for --You may actually get it --Then there's no l

Trek Details : Junta : Ragya,Shivaji Guru and I Date : 19th Jan 2007 Route : Bangalore-Chikkaballapur- Papagni Math (base) - Skandagiri Peak Time to reach the base : 2hrs from bangalore Time of the trek : 2- 2.5 hrs from the base Level : Very easy Best time to trek : In the night What to watch out at the peak : A lovely sunrise , a Ganesha and Nandi Temple Available at the top : A small place where u can drink chai,coffee,have an omlette At Chikaballapur : Take a left turn towards Police station and drive straight for 1- 1.5 kms and take a left and go straight.Ask the locals for the Matha location.Vehicles can be parked at the Forest Department office located at the base.

Last Saturday we teamed up with the TreesForFree Organisation( http://www.treesforfree.org/ ) and planted 25 trees at Kasturi Nagar Blore. There were kids from the colony and it was lovely to see their enthu in planting trees . I felt really good after the activity and encourage all of you to do the same to keep our planet green and beautiful for ourselves and the next generations to come.

Date : 12th Jan 2008 PPl : Guru,his mom and me Places we visited :Srirangapatna ,Nanjangud,Karinji Lake,Chamundi Hills,KRS Dam,Mysore Palace

Sunset @ Marvanthe beach Sunrise @ kodachadri Date : 5th Jan and 6th Jan 2008 Junta : Rani ,Shivaji and Guru, Dakshina Route :Bangalore -Shimoga-Kodachadri Junction-Kodachadri-Kollur-Marvanthe-Kundapur-Bangalore I think its once in a lifetime that u get to catch the sunlight over a hill and sunset over the sea. At least for me it was a great SUN Day :We literally followed the Sun !!! :) For some logistics : We set out by the Friday night 10.30 train to Shimoga .Reached there at 6.45 pm; freshened up; and took a service bus to Kollur [Another 3 hours ]. [You can direcly go to Kollur as well,and travel by jeep directly to Kodachadri ]. We got down 12 kms before Kollur ; and this was supposed to be the starting point of our trek. .We had to walk for abt 4 kms along a Jeep track before we reach Santosh Hotel,passing by an eco village to the right and a school ; Quite tired by then ,we ordered Puttu < a difft form of idli > and meals ,along with some delicious butter milk .There ar