change..

change is something that i don't have a good opinion about. i've never liked change and i stand by it, but i need to learn accept it. it ain't that easy though. it happened at every phase of my life. i lose friends, i made friends. and i dont want to be no stupid when everyone and everything around me change. and hence i learn to accept change and bring this change in my blog template.

but still, i dont like to change.

PS1: this post means a lot more than what it actually says. i don't want to say it all, i hate change man. damn!

PS2: Happy New Year guys in advance.

moments to remember

to the gtalk n office mail,

n the ferrero rocher thru post.

those pizza huts and pani puri centers, 

n the choc donuts n hot choc fantasys. 

the bike rides on traffic filled roads, 

endless exchange of short messages,

n long conversations on vodafone

and the dumb me.. 

started unexpectedly and ended so quickly

that is life! thanks to bangalore

PS: No PS this time! And I know its a contradiction, so is life.. 

movies in the recent past

The list is not comprehensive though, here I go -

Bourne Supremacy - Loved the movie, but should've watched its prequel before watching this!

300 - There was a period when I watched this movie over and over everytime I had nothing else to do. Watched it again, and loved it again. 'No retreat, no surrender' 

Forgetting Sarah Marshal - Irritating but equally entertaining

Young Frankenstein - I shouldn't have watched this movie. My Halloween's day got screwed up coz of this one. Can't say more about this

Bourne Identity - Now am a fan of Matt Damon. Am not authorized to reveal more about Operation Treadstone.

The Gladiator - General Maximus Decimus Meridius stole the show and stole my heart with his acting skills. How can I not praise the background music (which I didn't observe when I watched this movie before)! Extrordinary!!

Bourne Ultimatum - this made me wait for the 4th part which happen to be in the making apparently. 

Step Brothers - I would give only 3 stars out of 10 for this comedy!

The Karate Kid - Motivating story of an underdog, Pat Morita is really charming. 

The Girl Next Door - Was searching for Elisha Cutberths movie which I loved when I watched some years back and ended up in this movie by the same name which was released in 2007. Movie based on a real story in which a teenage girl was physically abused, tortured and killed.

Artificial Intelligence - Director Steven Spielberg is famous for his creativity in science fiction and this movie just strengthens the fact

Wanted - Bullet curving madness and Angelina, oh my god she is just ......... (u know what i mean, fill the blank for urself)!

Troy - I've watched this movie N times, and watching it for the (N+1)th time still makes me love the movie. Eric Bana rocks in the movie

Toy Story I - I wonder how creative people get in making such movies. I'm not a fan of animation movies, but this one I just loved it. 'Buzzlight year: To infinity and Beyond'

Toy Story II -  Same as above

The Notebook -  Cute movie! This one made me wonder if I'm a sucker for romantic movies. 

My Sassy Girl - Ah! Jeon is cute, cuter, cutest!!!

Quantum of Solace - Not a typical bond movie. Bond gets emotional, which is not the case in general. And where are those crisp and sharp dialogues 'Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred' ?

The Departed - Jack Nicholson rocks, all in all a decent watch.

Karate Kid II - Loved this as well, this movie like the previous one is more about the relation between a teacher and a student.

Karate Kid III - My love for the previous two parts made me watch this, but this happens to be a desperate continuation. Not as good as the previous two, but still good!

Hancock - 'Call me an asshole one more time..' Will Smith is really an asshole to do this movie

The Passion of the Christ - Did Jesus really go through all that? :(

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benifit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Lol, what a movie

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle - Funny one! 'The universe tends to unfold as it should' to these two Asian guys who goes in search of their White Castle Burgers. 

Hard Target - Add 3 or 4 songs and it makes a perfect Bollywood movie!

Fight Club - Superb concept! 'This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time... If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?'

Edit 1: Forgot mentioning a few which I've watched very recently - The English Patient, Rocky I, Incredible Hulk, The Game Plan and Wall E. That lil kid Madison Pettis is really cute in The Game Plan. 

the little everything

the snow, the sunshine and the leafless trees

the darkness, the wind chill and the lonely paths

the pain, the happiness and the confused mind

the bad times, the good friends and the soothing solace

What was that

I was looking for a dead man who had been buried over a century ago. Searching the graph network of all the graves in the second depth-first method in decreasing order of the finishing times of the results of the first depth-first search, I visited all the vertices of that component graph in topologically sorted order. And then estimated the downstream nodes' delay as the flow of traffic information in the direction towards the moon from each of the nodes, and measured the experienced delay of the downstream nodes. Wait, am I to remember Floyd Warsall? Screw them, this is my world and I make my own algorithms. But, am I too civil to books? Is that a dead person who had not been buried at all? Is that a royal female mummy with a raised right arm. Is that Nefertiti? I dream a lot! 

PS: What the fuck have you done lately?

Friday Fun

Had loadsa fun today! In the chronological order - 

• Went to a group meeting where I met a few undergrad students from China who came on a exchange program to our university; took part in answering their questions and doubts. They weren't sure if they should come back to USA again either as an exchange student or for their grad studies. 
  
• Went out for lunch along with a group of international students. It was fun, tiramisu was yummy :D
  
  
• Skyped (conf call) with a couple of friends back in India. 
• Went to this Small World Coffee Hour program we have in our university and tasted Korean Food. Had Kimchi, Japchae, Rice Cakes and Kimbap. Good stuff, the Japchae is really cool. Its made of Sweet Potato, and it looked like those glassy noodles. Met lots of new people there, a few people indirectly related. (One lady was sister of my undergrad classmate, and a few others friends of friends...)
• Now I'm here writing all this stuff! Now I wanna have more fun and end the day, but goddamn final exams are coming. boo-hoo :(
  
  

Now thats my name in Korean :) :) Well, i've tweaked that thing a bit (removed my name which was in English).

The snow, the bloodshed and the mourning me

Right now, I am sipping my morning cup of coffee waiting for my parents to come online, so that we can say hi hello virtually. To my left, out the window, I see tiny flakes of snow falling from the sky making its mark on the entire ground. Its all white out there. Next time you get a chance to be in a place where it snows, you should take your time to observe the snow flakes. Their symmetry simply surprises you, they have these intricate projections as in the pictures of twinking stars have. Science has an explanation for this as well. 

My heart mourns for all those who have lost their lives and are injured in the ghastly Mumbai terror strike. For the past four days, I was continuously on the news websites reading news updates and watching live tv, praying God to end the massacre as soon as possible. It wasn't something one would really expect to happen. I don't understand where the world is going. Is killing scores of innocent people the only way the terrorists want to show their anger; is all that they can do in the process of acheiving what they want ?  Do they know how it will be like to get trapped in a dark room for a couple of days with armed people around them trying to kill them? Do they know the pain in not hearing from a dear one who is trapped in a place full of people throwing grenades with the sole aim of killing as many as they come across? Anyone fit to be called as a human being must be aware of all this; have they lost their human self? Now its the same in Pakistan as well, there is violence in Karachi with vehicles being torched and people being killed. Is violence the only answer to everything? I'm disturbed!

Yet another change in Gmail

Looks like Google has loads of updates planned for Gmail. It all started as a simple email client. Slowly, the look and feel of the UI were changed a couple of times, and later Google Talk was integrated into Gmail. A few days back video chat was also introduced into the google talk integrated in the gmail. And now its the themes. 

While some changes made me comfortable, some others were very hard for me to take. I love gmail for its simplicity - plain colors with no jazzy effects, cool and simple interface. And this themes thingy is hard for me accept. Loved the very first version of gmail. I somehow feel its losing its charming effect with each of these new features. 

Is anyone else with me, feeling the same? 

P.S. : Apparently, Google Labs is coming up with a new feature for Gmail with which we will be able to send text messages from our IM to mobile phones. Guess, this will be a  bit hit among the youth!  

My Two plus years at Bangalore!

My experiences at Bangalore had always been my favorite topic to blog about!!!

It all kick started with lavish life at Microsoft Research as a Research Intern! Trips, food, parties, xboxing, games, sports, kick-boxing classes (Thanks to Kentaro for those early morning and/or evening classes) and work as well. I had been to Bheemeshwari Fishing Camp, Ooty and Masinagudi along with the folks out there. All this in just a period of five and half months. I was just overloaded with all that then!

After a short break I was back in Bangalore, as a software engineer! That was like almost no parties, no games, very little fun and more work (most of the weekends as well). According to Murphy "Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse". So had to get back into action - joined guitar classes, planned trips, gave all forms of impossible reasons to skip work on weekends and what not! In this process followed Aamir Khan by adopting the principle "Be A Rebel" and got into a cold war with my Project Lead which lasted for a couple of months - it did show its effect on me which I shouldn't talk about now. ;) Murphy into picture again, he is everywhere - "Everything takes longer than you think". So did my guitar classes, it took me four months to learn playing a few basic chords (I'm still bad at playing them) and yeah I quit taking classes sadly, which I want to continue now. 

I had been to various places in and around Bangalore. I had been to Wonder La twice - once with my glasses on and I missed out most of the fun as I had to remove my glasses on all the rides and I missed most of the fun. So, when I went there for the second time I made sure to have my contact lenses. As matter will be damaged in the right proportion of its value, with all the fun I had wearing my contact lenses and enjoying all the rides, I got a sort of irritation in my eyes as well at the end of the day. Big deal! And then, had been to a couple of resorts as part of corporate outings or events. Went on rides to Nandi Hills and Devarayanadurga on motor bikes. I still remember how narrowly we escaped (I was driving and my roomie then was pillion) tripping down from my bike after suddenly coming across a slippery pool of mud. Had also been to Mekedatu. Hmmm, where else did I go?  Had been to those unending gardens of Lalbagh and fascinating Vishweswarayya Science Mueseum. I still remember how happy my dad was while watching some of those little and giant wonders in that museum. I could have been to more but, you see, things don't turn out in the way you want to. Had also set my foot in the kingdom of Mahishasura, you guessed it right Mysore. Had been to that city thrice and also visited ruins of Tippu's palace in Sri Rangapatna apart from other tiny weeny places around that city.

How can I forget sharing my experience of roaming around police station? One fine day, at 5.00 PM my neighbor called me up after my finding the lock of my house broke open!  My roomie lost a brand new DSLR camera and some dollars which was his earning from a recent onsite trip. All in all he lost 90-plus-k INR. Funny that the considerate burglar left the memory card of the camera for us. In pursuit of happiness after that sad experience, we watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" that day and slept late in the night (rather early in the morning :P). Apart from all this, Bangalore gave me a few great friends (who are great guides too)! Miss all the fun and all my friends now! 

We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams. The word Dreams make me feel slumbery now! Had travelled enough back in time, now let me catch some sleep and go forward in my time machine

Addition#1 - Realized, very late, that Murphy is everywhere with his laws. Better late than never!

Addition#2 (25th Nov) - Good that I quit my job, I can live longer now. 

All is good with me!

Remember, remember the fifth of November.

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why the gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot.

Ever after watching the movie V for Vendetta, I just remember this rhyme on every Nov 5th though I really don't know the very serious historical importance behind this. 

The Diwali event organized by the Indian students wasn't that happening despite the huge expectations. Nothing much is happening in life apart from the usual classes and homeworks. I was told more shouldn't be expected from the life of a grad student, and yeah now I feel thats true. And the other good thing is, I am happy with the way we are cooking and eating for dinners atleast. I happen to skip most of my breakfasts, eat some junk for lunch and that makes me crave for a good dinner. And wat else? 

• People say history is made with Obama winning the presidential elections. Congratulations to Barack Obama.
  
• Good bye Jumbo, you have contributed a lot to Indian cricket. We miss you. 
  
• And recently another Indian student studying in Seattle, USA was found dead. This makes me fear, the fear of how safe International students are in this country.

A quick question on the ending note: Are you feeling the effect of this economic recession on you? 

Diwali Time :)

Diwali Time again! It feels good to not lose the festive mood even in this distant land. I open my mailbox to find n number of emails from various people wishing me Happy Diwali. And majority of my friends' status messages in my IM client are "Happy Diwali". I open my Orkut and FaceBook accounts to see notifications in the status messages of many of my friends' accounts to 'Happy Diwali'. 

Adding to this, we have Diwali celebrations in our U by the Minnesota International Students Association on Saturday, Nov 1st. Hope it will be a colorful day (its truly gonna be, with all the desi girls dec'ing up in traditional dresses :P atleast hoping so). And yeah, we are celebrating Diwali in our own way with a Puja followed by Potluck. What more should I expect!  (Crackers ? Not sure about that though! When I say Crackers, its fireworks - not the crackers these people have with their soups - working in the dining services makes me very conscious of the words I choose).

Lo, Happy Diwali! And wish me the same :) Time to call my parents back in India and wish them. Have a safe Diwali people.

Pursuit of Happiness

What makes you happy? 

(a) A great mug of coffee (b) an ice cream (c) fried maggi at 2.00 AM (d) All the above

Science says 50% of a person's happiness depends on his/her genes (?!), 10 - 15% on status (health, social, marital, material etc etc) and the remaining miscellanious. Now I don't get this gene-connection, 50% dependency is huge!!! Is it something like this - if my parents are not happy then I end up being low? Aila!

Everyone of us will, atleast at some point of time, retrospect on what we are doing in life now! Am I doing what I want, am I happy? Am I really? Well, I'm not really sure. I really was never! If you haven't asked this question to yourself, then do that now! You might be happy, but are you happy with what you are doing in Life is my question here! Right now I'm in this distant land, away from my family and friends, not really sure about what I'm doing and how happy I'm with what I'm doing. Am I sounding confused? May be I'm, may be I'm not - wish I cud get some help from Heisenberg to resolve my uncertainity on all these things. Wish there is a way to calculate my Happiness Index (just the way we have it for countries - Denmark the happiest and India ranking 125th happiest in the world) on a daily basis, and in this way keep track of myself. Wish I do things that makes me much more happier in future. 

Tip: If all your approaches to be the happiest go in vain, follow the Eight-fold path and attain Nirvana as Buddhism says!

PS1: Denmark has also got highest suicide rates. May be this is in a way helping them to be the Happiest nation with all the sad people killing themselves leaving behind just the set of happy people to participate in the survey... lol

PS2: Dada struck the chord by scoring a century in the 2nd test and balanced the stuph for his infamous remarks. Happy for him! Way to go Dada.

Scribblings in a diary...

Felt very good after going for a short run in the evening, its a great stress buster. And I'm not bad either, could run 2 miles after 4.5 months long break. Watched Forgetting Sarah Marshalltoday, total fun movie. Struggled understanding things about low-duty-cycle sensor networks and challenges in broadcasting on these networks today in the group meeting. Looking for something more interesting. Tried the Veggie Reuben Sandwich with the Thousand Island dressing today. Its good, doesn't beat the chicken wild rice soup though. Mid terms coming up, need to study! But very low on motivation to study. Friday night, party time to the people here. Blokes out there in the fraternities are having fun with music, dance and what not. 

India is doing bad in the test match against Aussies. After all the hot comments against selectors and fellow team mates in the media, it will be fun to watch Dada scoring a century and setting things right for the Men in Blue (oops! its a test match, everyone will be in White). Gotta catch some sleep, am going to bed with this unanswered question in my mind since a few days - "What should I do if I lose my memory of past few months after I wake up in the morning ? The case as in I dont remember where I am, why I am here and I dont remember anyone here." Obviously my room mates will call up 911 if this is the case, and I know what follows next!

Edit1 (12Oct): The whole place is looking absolutely beautiful here with colors. I'm loving it!

All these need special mention

1. My Dell lappy, it runs almost the whole day. Poor thingy
   
2. CMU - Coffman Memorial Unit, happening place in UMN - TC campus. Had been to bowling alley inside CMU recently, and its really phun. (Thanks to GAPSA for pizzas and pop as well)
   
3. Stone-arch bridge and Lake Calhoun
   
4. Burittos from Chipotle are really yummmy
   
5. Bombay Bistro - yo place for unlimited desi food! (Thanks to Vishnu for the treat there)
   
6. Loring Pasta Bar - its a cool place. Should go there sometime with friends (Thanks to GAPSA again)
   
7. Homeworks and Assignments - which pretty much fills the life of a grad student
   
8. Dryer in our building. Troubled a lot by crashing down for almost a month
   
9. Nolte, place where I work! I go there every day during the week. Know what I do there - I make sandwiches, salads, paninis and stuff. This time its poor me! But its phun, I get to know food habits of American people - various dressings, cheeses etc.
   
10. Cubfoods, the place where we shop our groceries. Trip to this place is hell. Need to carry all the groceries back to home
    
11. Papajohns pizzas! its been quite some time since I had a pizza from that place. Should have it soon
    
12. I was away from home for the past 8 years (but was in India) and I used to call home atmost once a week. Now I video chat with all my family members atleast once a week.
    
13. Erie Street - Thats where I lived for around 3 weeks when I just landed in US. And thats where majority of my friends live

Is it good to end the post with 13 points? Whoa, I dont suffer from Triskaidekaphobia; I can go ahead!! 

It all happened!

He was sitting all alone in an abandoned shack near sea-shore in the Chind-do island of South Korea. Out of no where, a group of South koreans appeared and encircled that shack. They were all sporting black shades and clad in black tuxedos; to him they all looked identical for he always had difficulty identifying them and he strongly felt all South Koreans look the same. He was drunk, and that made it much more difficult. Without any delay, they started firing their .45 caliber pistols. They pretty much finished their task leaving him in that shack in a pool of blood.

PS: I know there is nothing positive in this post! 

Future Internet,my perspective

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page do not reflect to anyone in the University I study or my past employer.

Internet, which began as a project by the Department of Defense of the US government, evolved into a huge thing with the addition of thousands of smaller individual networks. a machine to be part of the Internet, it has to run TCP/IP protocol, should have an IP address and it should be able to send IP packets to other machines on the Internet.

The future Internet demands stronger human computer interaction with the increasing use of 3D Virtual worlds as the mode of interaction. The webcam integrated to the computer has to be so powerful and the underlying technology so advanced to be able to capture the facial expressions and body mechanics of the user and reflect it in the online avatar of him/herself. This demands improved multimedia applications with the world becoming more and more virtual through various applications like maps and all. Currently the wireless networks are in such a way that we can gain access to the Internet only if we are in the area of coverage. In future, the Network Service Providers will come up with something where in we end users register to an ISP, and the ISP will be able to provide Internet access wherever the user is (just the way, we use mobile phones). Every end device will be able to seamlessly connect to the Internet irrespective of the place, even if the end host machine is static or moving from a place to place.

The Internet will become more ubiquitous with every possible device around us having the power to compute and connect. With this we will gain better access to everything and everyone we want to. With this we can envision a change in the Home networks are also, in the way we access every device at home. Every home appliance like TV, fridge, washing machine, microwave, lights, fans, air conditioners and many other kitchen and entertainment equipment will have a processing unit and will act like a networking device in future, where in all these form the home network. We will have technology to access the devices in our home network through the Internet enabling us to control all of these devices securely from a remote place. With the availability of huge multimedia information over the Internet, the access of multimedia content over the Internet improves bringing a major change in the way we view cable tv. The usage of personalized tv channels comes into picture as the set top boxes become sophisticated enough to aggregate the multimedia content present over the Internet based on the tagging information and create video channels based on the interest of the end user (animation, comedy, sports etc).

With all these positive changes hopeful to be seen in the future, we get the bad effects too. Our increasing dependency on Internet makes it more vulnerable to increased possibility of cyber attacks. This demands more sophistication in the security point of view.

PS1: Please provide your views on this topic, which will enhance my knowledge!
PS2: This was written as a part of my course work.

Bengaluru for Mo-bike Enthusiasts!

Go motor biking and Explore Bengaluru. Its very interesting to find that number of hits to my blog increases as weekend approaches with the increase in the number of motor bike enthusiasts who google for road routes to places around Bengaluru like Nandi Hills, Devarayanadurga, Mekedaatu and so on! This shows the increase in number of people getting enthusiastic about going motor biking everywhere in the city.

But a very few people consider going to the places with in the city. Few of them which I'd been to just before coming back from Bangalore are - Tipu's summer palace located in the City Market area, Vishweswarayya museum located near Cubbon Park and Lalbagh . Tipu's "Abode of Peace" located in the hustle-bustle of KR Market area is definitely a place to watch with the wooden carvings in the durbar area reflecting Islamic style. Everybody must have heard about the Vishweswarayya museum and Lalbagh Gardens but people don't tend to go there. I suggest you these places are worth visiting!

Very few people have a clue about the four watch towers of Bangalore. These four gates were built by Kempegowda of Magadi dynasty marking the ends of the town of Bangalore up to which it was predicted to expand. The South tower is located on top of a hillock inside Lalbagh. The North tower is located inside KG Tower Park near Mekhri circle. The West tower is located in Chamrajpet near Kempebudhi lake. There is a Kali temple near that lake and this West tower is located on a rock behind the Kali temple. The last and the East Tower is located on one end of Ulsoor near the Gurudwara. Exploring all these towers on motor bikes will definitely be loadsa fun!

And for more info about exploring places by having rides on motor bikes, there is lotsa info provided by Prashant in Payaniga.com. Go mo-biking, have fun!

A New Beginning

Lotsa new experiences! What do I start with? Where do I begin? First and foremost thing is attending classes after a long gap of 2.5 years, it just reminds me of all the fun I had in good old days of undergrad. But classes here are much different, I find grandfathers taking the same class I take, may be its the 'Gnanam Param Balam' motto that they follow and polish their knowledge every now and then. A special mention goes to the babes out here - somehow i don't feel like calling them gals and addressing them as ladies makes it much formal, so lemme stick to the word babes. But whatever be it Desi gals are the best, last night I attended an Indian students gathering and there is this one cute desi gal who stole my heart. Couldn't stop staring at her until all my friends made fun of me.

The other day I was shocked when an American colleague of mine asked me "Who's your favorite actor in Bollywood?" When I asked how he knew about Bollywood, his answer was "Everyone knows about Bollywood, it makes large number of movies every year, isn't it!" I suggested him to watch Om Shanti Om when he asked me for a movie, because with all the reincarnation, flashy and colorful sets, dancing numbers and all it will give him a good idea of what Bollywood movies are. Americans have a general idea that Indians movies are full of dancing.

What else! Its Minneapolis. A cool place with generous and friendly people, they say its one of the safest places in this country. And at the same time people scare me with all their experiences about the harsh winters here. A few days back watched pre-screening of the movie Death Race, which deals with the extremely fictious state of this country in 2012 after the downfall of its economy. And also had been to Minnehaha Falls, Lake Calhoun and Mall of America here in Minneapolis. When I tell people that I had been to all these places, they say I pretty much covered majority of the places in this city.

PS: Yay, got my brand new Dell Inspiron y'day!! :D
PPS: Thats Stone Arch bridge across Mississippi river in the second pic.

My Journey

Subcontinent -> Land of Opportunities

Bangalore -> Minneapolis

Garden City (?) -> City of Lakes

Software Engineer -> Grad Student

Bagmane Tech Park -> UMinn Campus

Desi galz -> Galz of many nationalities ;)

Hope this transition works out great. Hope I will have lotsa fun here.

PS1: Bangalore was then called Garden City. But the traffic and pollution these days doesn't make the name Garden City suitable to it.
PS2: Minnesota, as they say, has more than 10,000 lakes in it.
PS3: Visited one, Lake Calhoun few days back. Its damn good.
PS4: River Mississippi flows through Minneapolis also. Went on for a walk on Stone Arch Bridge here which was constructed across that.
PS5: As of now it feels great here.
PS6: Miss you all people!

The Death

Previous - 'Pitiful State'

"Live my life too son!" Amidst the whirring sound of the fan in the otherwise calm room Sireesh was lying on his bed. Lying motionless. Though he could follow sleep wake cycles and was able to open his eyes, he could still not make any slightest movent. Those were the last words his father spoke to him from his death bed after the road accident. Dr. Harish never knew what was waiting for his son. Deep down his heart Sireesh was feeling very sad for what had happened to him. He was sweating profusely and his entire body went shaking for a few minutes and Sireesh fell unconscious for almost one complete day. After he woke up, he found a new bunch of bottles being injected into his body. Doctors were asking him not to think of anything, though they were not sure whether he would be able to hear what they were saying. He was gazing blank at the rotating fan.

"Ek do teen char band karo ye atyachar", he remembered the way he shouted along with his friends during the cultural programmes in his college days. And he remembered the way his father used to feed him food when he was little. His mother praising him when he stood class first when he was young and his teacher punishing him for forging his marks card when he scored less than what he used to always. His dying father and the incident which got him to this state, everything was flashing. Frames of all these incidents were flashing in his mind one after another. All this left Sireesh wondering "They say every moment of our life flashes in our mind just before we die. Am I dying?"

Sireesh started feeling sick. He could feel his stomach muscles churning inside. "Am I dying?" The question still remained unanswered. He felt the answer will be in affirmative which he strongly wanted not to be. He started thinking again "I am supposed to live my dad's life too, am I dying? Who will take care of my mom? How will she react when she finds me dead in my bed?..." He was in a conflict of thoughts and suddenly Sireesh was not able to keep his eyelids open anymore. May be it's time, he was dying!

Next - 'Meaning of Life'

Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna...

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai

aye watan Karta nahin kyun doosra kuch baat-cheet
Dekhta hun main jise woh chup teri mehfil mein hai
Aye shaheed-e-mulk-o-millat main tere oopar nisaar
Ab teri himmat ka charcha ghair ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Waqt aanay dey bata denge tujhe aye aasman
Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai
Khainch kar layee hai sab ko qatl hone ki ummeed
Aashiqon ka aaj jumghat koocha-e-qaatil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
Khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
Sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hum to ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe kafan
Jaan hatheli par liye lo barh chale hain ye qadam
Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Yuun khadaa maqtal mein qaatil kah rahaa hai baar baar
Kya tamannaa-e-shahaadat bhi kisee ke dil mein hai
Dil mein tuufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inqilaab
Hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aaj
Duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai


Wo jism bhi kya jism hai jismein na ho khoon-e-junoon
Toofaanon se kya lade jo kashti-e-saahil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai.
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazuay qaatil mein hai


PS1: I feel strong every time I go through this piece of writing
PS2: By-hearted more than half of this
PS3: Try reading after listening to this from the movie Rang De Basanti
PS4: Do let me know what you feel after doing this
PS5: Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai!!

One fine day

One fine day early at 5.30 in the morning with my iPod plugged I started my run on the roads of Jeevanbheema Nagar partly afraid of the stray dogs, a major problem in every area of Bengaluru. Those were the days when I was preparing for my 20K run. After a little warm up I started my run by entering into a near-by park where I can run without any apprehensions about the wild bites from stray dogs. And there is nothing quite like the cool breeze you feel on your face as you run early in the morning. After doing many rounds in the park, to break the monotony I started running on the roads around. I thought of giving up and reached back to the same park after one hour of continuous running where in I would have covered nearly 11 kms, but the view my eyes were offering made me run further.

That was a beautiful girl clad in black track pants and tee. She came out of her house, opposite to the park, just then and started her run. I was damn tired and it was really difficult for me to run, but my legs weren't feeling any pain. They were just running behind that girl. This way I ran behind her for around a kilometer and in order to avoid any misapprehensions from her side I overtook her and continued my run. Shez damn beautiful, thats all the description I could give you about her.

After five minutes, I heard a very sweet voice from my behind saying "Excuse me!".

I turned back to find her to sitting on the ground holding her left ankle. It was she who said 'Excuse me' and yeah she did call me. May be for some help. Whatever be it, the 9th cloud was occupied (obviously by me).

"Can I be of some help to you?" was all I said very courteously.

"I hurt my ankle."

"Let me see that... Are you new to running?"

"Yeah. I'm!"

And I helped her in removing her left shoe and sock.

"I guess its a minor sprain. A small massage near the ankle will relieve you of your pain."

She tried massaging herself but couldn't do properly afraid of the pain.

"Thats not the way. Can I help you out?" I said, partly eager. ;)

"Yeah, please."

How would I explain you guys that experience? As my friend says, its a life time experience.

After 2 minutes of ankle massage, "Any better?"

"Yep, much better!"

"Cool, try walking a bit. Let me help you", helped her in letting her stand holding by her shoulders. Was partly wondering if its all real.

"Thanks"

"Is it still hurting?" "Nope, much better now." "Able to walk?" "Ye I am"

"Thats cool. Do take care while running. Make it a point to stretch your leg muscles before running."

"Ok, I will. Thanks for the help."

I grinned and said "Anytime" and was about to continue my run to hear "Can I know your good name?" I could hear my heart beating faster and saying 'Ofcourse' 'Sure' 'Why not' out of sheer happiness but my mouth was not giving any answer to her. Finally with lot of difficulty, forgetting all the multiple answers my heart my giving, mumbled my name and made it a point to say "Yours?"

"Samhita Sharma"

"Thats an interesting and a very sweet name."

"Thank you!"

And we started running together for a while and took a break. Talked a bit about general things and then backed towards the park where her house was situated. She showed me her house from outside, thanked me again for the help, bade me bye and entered her house.

For the next 3 months she was my running partner. Every morning, we would run together and we would talk anything and everything, sensible and senseless, useful and useless. Later after that I could not find her coming for the morning runs. For the next one week she wasn't there. I started feeling a sense of void and was gradually losing interest in running too, because of her absence. During this time, I realized my interest for her and turned bold enough to enter into the house Samhita showed me the very first day we met. I was told that the Sharma family stayed in that house for past one year for rent and 2 weeks back the entire family moved to a different house, probably to a different city. Contacted the owner of the house to enquire about Samhita's father but little did I find about him.

Sad thing was we never spoke to each other about our personal lives. So I knew nothing about her apart from her beautiful face and her wonderful ideas. We never even exchanged our email ids. All we did was run together. Hope to see her some day.

PS: Purely a piece of fiction. Had never been so lucky to meet a girl like this.

Tale of Four Cities

CHENNAI
June 24th, 2008

In a plush a/c room filled with tensed people of all age groups waiting for their turn

Vee: Good morning madame! How are you doing?

VO: Hello sir, good morning. I'm doing good, thank you. Your documents please. Thank you!
Place your left index finger on the scanner sir.
Thank you!
How many backlogs do you have?

Vee: No backlogs madame.

VO: Whats your percentage sir?
Vee: Blaaaaah!

VO: What does your father do?
Vee: He is a business man.

VO: How many people work under him?
Vee: Blah.

VO: Annual Income? Bank balance?
Vee: Blaah, blaaaaah!

VO: Why did you choose this university apart from academics?
Vee: Apart from academics this university is blah blah blah in blah blah and blah.

VO: You may go now, your visa is approved.
Vee: Thank you madame.

**Five days before to that**

PSA
June 19th, 2008

Cousin: So when are you flying to US?
Vee: No dude, lotsa pending things. Visa is the main thing and that is yet to happen.
Cousin: Oh, okie!

June 20th, 2008

Fren: Flight tickets booked dude, send me the the money to a/c # blah blah.
Vee: Tickets booked before the visa interview? I asked u to block right, what if my interview gets messed up. *confused*

**Two weeks before this**

BANGALORE
June 6th, 2008

A typical corporate enivornment.

Mr X: Hey dude, you look so happy!
Vee: Ya man! Today is my last day here in this office.

Mr X: Oh, so where are you heading to?
Vee: Going for my Masters, in University of Minnesota.

Mr X: Thats good! Congrats buddy. So did u send the customary last day mail to everyone?
Vee: No dude, shall do that now. Thanks for the wishes.

After some 10 minutes...

Mr Y: Hey man, saw your mail. Congrats dude and all the best.
Vee: Thank you dude.

**After the day of my visa interview**

TIRUPATHI
June 25th, 2008

In front of Lord Sri Venkateshwara
Vee: Thank you God for all the support. Now that everything is done I'm totally relieved. Govinda Gooovinda!



P.S I: Wondering where is the city PSA? Write to me for more info!
P.S II: In the past 3 days, each day I was in a different state (TamilNadu, AndhraPradesh, Karnataka in order).
P.S III: Damn tired now! As promised I updated you with my current status and the reason for me being away from my blog page for the past few weeks.

Long Time!

Its been a long time since I've posted something in my blog page. I've been very busy since  a couple of weeks and added to that I didn't have proper access to the Internet. Have got lots to share but not right now. Shall update you soon.

P.S I. Right now I'm in Chennai posting this from my friend's MacBook.  

P.S II. Mac Book is ultra cool and super soft.

Tagged, for the first time!

Here is me filling up my first tag post.

The rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you - Satish Bolla, Intutius (Himanshu Geed)
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here I go -
1. I talk a lot. You might think what strange talking is, but I talk while sleeping and talk absolute nonsense (my roomies have never been successful in identifying the language I speak).
2. I go for a hair cut or take a head bath or do both when I am deeply depressed with something.
3. I dont eat sweets, infact I hate eating sweets (icecreams n chocolates are exception to this). Can't even imagine myself eating sweets. With all the sweet lovers around me, I get alienated in this aspect.
4. I am way too silent at home, and thats the reason why most of my relatives don't know me. Untill few years back, few of my relatives have even no idea of my existence. I guess my mom still believes me to be very silent with friends.
5. I have my 6th class science note book with all kinds of postal stamps stuck in it, and the book bulged out of shape. I still carry that book along with me wherever I go.
6. Whenever I watch a cricket match, the commentary just doesnt get into my ears even though the tv volume is at its peak. I just stare at the moving figures on the idiot box.

I tag -
Satish Polisetti, Kasha, Srikanth, Lava, Srikanth Kotapati, Enigma

Pitiful state

Previous - 'That Night'

Have you ever felt how it will be to get trapped inside a wooden coffin? Have you ever imagined your situation where you can see and listen what is happening around, but no one can hear what you speak or you are paralyzed to speak? Have you ever felt the pain of not being able to express what you feel or what you want to the people around you? Well, its not much different from a patient who is in Persistent Vegetative State, where in the patient can't respond to things around him, even with the slightest body movement.

On receiving utmost care and best treatment, ten months after that fateful night, Sireesh showed slight improvement. He would now follow sleep-wake cycles, occasionally blink his eyelids in response to his mother's words, who takes care of him. Doctors don't feed him anymore with the food pipe, his mother would sit beside him for hours and feed him spoonfuls of some liquid stuff along with the regular dosages of potions suggested by the doctors. But, the reason for his breakdown is still a mystery. He would stare at the ceiling of the room in which he rests, may be thinking and reminiscing about what happened that night. All he can do is think, but not tell about that night to the people around him. Had eyes got the ability to express completely, we would have known what happened that fateful night; but in this state Sireesh's eyes can only roll tears down his cheeks every now and then!

Sireesh was born to a doctor couple, Dr. Harish Ramanathan and Dr. Saritha got married with their parent's consent after falling in love with each other while doing their doctor practice. Dr. Harish died few years ago in a road mishap and since then Sireesh's mother took his complete responsibility, and she is terribly depressed with his son's pitiful fate for which the reason is still not known. Her only wish now is to see his son fit and completely healthy someday!

Next - The Death

I'm loving it.

Well its my current state, I'm loving all that I'm doing. Coz work wise I'm doing absolutely nothing. *big grin* And fun wise doing lots.

Enjoying the regular gym sessions in the mornings. Its making me a bit organized early-to-rise-early-to-bed kinds. And this Sunday, I participated in a 10km run here in Bangalore. The moment I heard about the event, I made up my mind to participate in it. And lemme tell you, I did the right thing. The energy at Kanteerava Stadium was damn high with Sunfeast hosting this 10Km run. This was my highest distance to run (though trekked 18kms along the banks of River Cauvery on a sunny day in Feb 2006 at Bheemeswari) and took roughly 1 hr 20 mins to finish it, not bad for a beginner I guess. My disastrous performance at the 5.5 Km IT run conducted as a part of Bangalore Midnight marathon last year (lol, I panted like hell after running for a half kilometer) made me motivated to participate a larger distance run with better fitness. We (Srikanth and me) practiced a bit by running 6 kms and 7.5 kms the subsequent day (without any major break in between) on the roads of CV Raman Nagar area, and had real fun on the day running along with people of different age groups and nationalities.

Some other worth mentioning things in the event: the live coverage by CNBC, that helicopter hovering above us to shoot the event, the occassional rides of photographers and camera men on mo-bikes, lotsa people waiting for us and cheering us all the way, those colorful cheerleaders by Mallya saab, all the wonderful fellow female runners, the water that tasted like nectar in the hot sun, those km marks which motivate us to complete the remaining run, and the congratulations after finishing the run.
And a big thanks to all the organizers and Bangalore Police people who made the event much smoother. All in all had lotsa fun, during the main event as well as during the practice runs :)

I love to watch a movie or sleep for hours at work. Today I was really really happy after watching 'There will be Blood' in office. Awesome movie, worth Oscars for the male lead role and the cinematography. Be happy, live long.

Update (23/05/08):
A Big thanks to Mallya Saab for all those wonderful free photos from marathon-photos.com. Otherwise it would cost us around £11.00 to get a download-able copy of each of our pictures.

Very True...

Rome was not built in a day!

Trip to Mekedaatu - Bad Timing but Great Fun

After much procrastination and many uneventful plans, we (7 of us) had finally been to Mekedaatu (/Mekedatu/Mekadatu) - The Goat's leap.

The Place -
At Mekadaatu, river Cauvery flows in a narrow ravine. Long ago, a goat was believed to leap across this ravine when it was being chased by a hunter and hence the name. But no normal goat can do that distance in a single leap, and there comes the mythologicial significance of this place - the goat that leaped across the Cauvery was believed to be Lord Shiva in disguise. Mekedaatu is around 90 kms from Bangalore. Sangama, the confluence of River Arkavati and River Cauvery, is the nearest place where people can go by vehicles. Depending on the water level, we should either take a coracle or cross Sangama by foot. After crossing Sangama, a 4 km trek or a ride in an antique bus will take you to Mekedaatu with its wonderful antediluvian rock formations and offer you the sight of breath-taking Cauvey flowing with unstoppable force. It is best to visit this place before or after monsoons.



The Plan -
It was mid April and we planned for our trip on one fine Sunday! So as to prevent ourself from becoming a victim of The Scorching Sun, we thought of taking a cab and starting at 7 in the morning. This would help us reach Sangama by 9.30 AM. Then we thought of taking a Coracle ride to cross Sangama and trek the 4 km journey or take the bus service available to reach Mekedaatu by 11.30 AM. Two hours at Mekedaatu will give us ample time to explore every nook and corner, and ofcourse for those kodak moments!!! Starting after lunch will help us reach our home back by 4PM. This is all about our great plan.

The Fall of the Great Plan -
All went well till the night before that Sunday, as we planned for Mekedaatu on that night itself. ;) The cab fellow said a big NO in arranging a cab at 6.30 in the morning and said that he could provide us with one only at 9.00 AM. It was almost 10 AM by the time we started and reached at 12 noon approx! After filling our tummies with the stuff we got there, we rushed to Sangama at 2PM to feel the Sun snickering at us (may be out of excitement that we couldnt avoid Him despite all our plans). It was so dumb of us to expect a high water level for a Coracle ride at Sangama in such a heat. The level was too low and we had to cross it by foot. After crossing, we purchased tickets for a 4-km jumpy bumpy ride in that antique bus service available to reach Mekedaatu. And then at Mekedaatu, we felt the real heat due to all those granite rock. All due to bad timing, planning the trip at wrong time of the year and going there at the wrong time of the day!


The Fun and the Thrill part -
Despite the heat and the cabbie playing the spoilsport, we had real fun there. The not so wide route offered occasional sight of small-lakes, coconut plantations, road-side small villages, farming and bridges which made the drive enjoyable. The view at Mekedaatu is one to cherish for lifetime. The wonderful granite rock formations with mysterious gigantic holes and the mad rush with which Cauvery flows will definitely leave one awestruck. A word of caution to all those who are planning to go there - be careful as its a binary state near that rocky ravine "alive/dead". The force of the flow will hypnotize you to take a dive into it the way historical goat did, with the slippery rocks justifying their role absolutely well in this task will get your colleagues an extra holiday. After heading back from Mekedaatu and the jumpy bumpy return ride (we couldn't even think of a trek due to the hot sun) we reached Sangama where we had loads of fun. We exhibited our swimming skills, slipped while walking on the slippery rocks and what not, had very great time which I couldn't put in words. All followed by the clicks of our cam. Although it didnt turnout the way we had planned, we enjoyed the trip a lot. After all what thrill would it be if everything turns out the way we plan... :)


Directions -
Reach Kanakapura first and then ask for Sangam/Mekadaatu from there. I know this is unfair on my part, but this time we had been on a cab and we really didnt bother about the directions.

Other Attractions which we didn't see -

• Lord Sangameshwara Temple at Sangam
• Cauvery Fishing Camp

Kya hai tumhaarey paas?

Last night Satish and me had a difference of opinion on some issue. We were having a row and out of frustration I yelled at him -

Me: "Hum dono ek hi jagah (BITS) se apni engineering ki shuruwat ki thi.
Aaj main kaha hoon aur tum kahan ho.
Mere paas Passion plus gaadi hai, motorola hand set hai, sodexho coupons hai, MS ka admit bhi hai.
Kya hai tumhaarey paas?"

After a brief pause, Satish answered in a hushed voice and made me shut up my mouth -
"Mere paas IEEE paper hai"

Congrats to my dear roomy GOD SatP :-)

Better Traffic Conditions for a Better City

With the increasing number of IT companies showing interest to set up their offices in Bangalore and other major cities in India leading to increasing number of people settling in these cities, the need for a better transport is increasing. Around 900 new vehicles make their way to the roads of Bangalore per day and on an average 2 people get killed and 18 get injured in road accidents. This itself talks about the huge need of improving the traffic conditions. But how do we do that?

A painful approach is by increasing the road taxes, parking fees, banning vehicles in certain areas and hours and forcing the people. The other is a much accepted approach by providing efficient alternatives to personal transport - metro rail, more buses and better connectivity to various places. The first approach will definitely be not received positively by the public where as the second one makes it a very costly and time consuming one. Apart from all this, new fly-overs, widening the roads, tagging more roads as one-ways etc will also help in achieving the aim, but the junta can reap the fruits of most of these trees only after a couple of years. And till the fruits are ready to be reaped, they have to struggle hard for their food! I mean, most of these will lead to congestion till they are ready.

The only one way where in we can see significant results without any side effects is by encouraging traffic awareness programs; they help a great deal in achieving a better and safer roads. Though we are all aware of traffic rules, we tend to break the rules. These traffic awareness programs can bring a change in our attitude. What else do we want if these programs make us follow the road rules safely instead of blaming bad roads, bad bus drivers and bad autowallahs for the accidents!!
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My 2 cents in spreading the word:
I post this in response to a topic provided by Blogathon India. Its an event where Bloggers discuss their ideas and raise their issues and concerns over certain aspects by posting articles on certain topics provided by organizers of the event. This is followed by discussion by readers commenting on the articles posted by Bloggers. The main aim is to make Cyberspace bring a change in various social aspects.

(Technorati tags: blogathonindia, blogathonindia1)

My Hump

dont freak out by luking at the title of the post, am definitely not gonna blog on what the title really means. :P nor am i gonna write about Black Eye Peas' My Hump, though that makes a really interesting topic because of its lyrics. This is about the road humps i face daily on my way from home to office. my home is just 2.5 kms away from office but there are 20 road humps, including the new one which was inaugurated yesterday. This number just considers the official humps and all those official and unofficial craters are not in the count. one will find all the varieties in this subset of bangalore humps superset. There is this one Belly Hunter where i can definitely take off and glide for a while had there been two aerodynamic wings attached to the body of my motor bike. and yes, I also have this rattle therapist where every bone of my body and every part of my bike shake. and some of the Sine Wave humps are under construction. good lord, i take this route around 4 times a day!!

myToon

I Blogger

• I Blogger want to increase traffic to my blog page
• I Blogger want more people to post comments in reply to my blog posts.
• I Blogger want readers to find my blog interesting and increase the average visit length
• I Blogger want a better Technorati rank
• I Blogger want my blog posts to be listed by all popular search engines
• I Blogger want many more fellow bloggers to link my blog
• I Blogger want more regular visitors to my blog
• I Blogger want hits from all parts of the world
• I Blogger want topics to post articles in my blog

Finally I Blogger want to be popular!

PS: This one will help you with the last point

Another Rant

Current Mood: + (will be *2 in sometime)

Finished reading Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Title made me inquisitive and read the book. Worth a read, nice book with a great deal of imagination into it. Guess Clarke is a man of vision for advancements in Space Study. Thought of bunking work today but didn't though I did nothing much here. Waiting for the dusk to take over. I have my train scheduled at 8.15 PM today; will be going to my hometown for 10 days (no Internet activity from my side for the next 10 days). And I'm very much excited about it, but at the same time something is bothering me. Whatever be it, hope I'll get over it very quickly.

Sweet Memories...

It was around 2 years since I had been to a 3-day holiday along with MSRI folks to Masinagudi and Ooty, and I remember each and every moment of the 'lab retreat' (as we call it) even today. Those early morning safari rides and long treks in the Mudumalai forest where the famous Veerappan troubled police people for years, cricket in the scorching sun, dumping Suri into the pool, Jonathan's injury while playing with Frisbee, sun burns after playing water polo for hours, early morning kick boxing classes by Kentaro with very few faithful students, unlimited booze and the late night boozing, Joseph's team topping the skit competition, dancing around the camp fire with live music played by Anandan & co, gals ditching Nimmy while playing Trust, the resort fella's prank to scare Sushma with a devil's mask, Pothi's prank on Adi, Pradeep getting high and dancing around the camp fire, yummy snacks cooked by Jasmit and Sushma late in the night, forming the human chain and occasional falling down of people while crossing Pykara Water Falls in Ooty, Jasmit's motivational speech (with an F word) to beat the other team while boating, Hari becoming Hari Sadu after the famous Naukri.com ad, Pothi's boasting about seeing a fresh tiger's poop after going for early morning trek, electrifying sessions of fuse ball, peeing from the peak of Doddabetta and many more. The list goes on and on and on. What an experience it was, I enjoyed every bit of it.

Know what, during my five and half month internship there, the work fun balance was not maintained. It was more fun, less work. Less work is because I didn't and I regret now. :P It was all great fun - the basket ball and cricket matches in the ground near by, those kick-boxing classes by Kentaro (Kentaro is God, in anything and everything), late night XBox-ing in the conference hall, and the most enjoyed carroms. Miss those days!

The picture speaks for itself

This one is for all my fellow MSRI interns. :-)

That Night

It was a pleasant night with cool breeze and full moon up above, the silence occasionally broken by the whistles of the patrolling watchman; a pleasant sight of the ever busy city. Dressed in his usual khaki shorts and black sleeveless tee Sireesh was on the terrace of his 11-storeyed apartment with the iPod plugged to his ears. But he was not his usual self that night. He was restless. Damn restless.

It was his usual routine to party hard on a Saturday night, and without any exception he followed his Saturday routine on that day too. With all the enthusiasm he danced in the Eleventh Cloud pub till 11 in the night along with his friends and then had some gala time at his friend's place. It was 12.30 AM by the time he reached his apartment and Sireesh was really tired. He tried to sleep, but couldn't. Something was bothering him. He then plugged his iPod, headed towards the elevator and went to the terrace.


Despite the stunning view of the city with all the sky scrappers surrounded by roads flashing with the street lights, Sireesh was deep occupied with his own thoughts. Suddenly Sireesh felt the iPod was not singing anymore, the sky pitch dark without any moon and the entire city dark without even a spot of light. Next morning, Sireesh was found unconscious near the terrace wall in a very awkward position. His face leaning, his hands clenching, finger nails scratching the wall as if resisting himself to jump from the top of the apartment. When rushed to the hospital, the doctors after many hours declared Sireesh to be trapped in permanent vegetate state, that is permanent coma.


Next - 'Pitiful State'

Harekal Hajabba, the HERO in the dark

Harekal is not another Rajinikanth. He is a 50 year old uneducated Mangalorean who makes his living by selling oranges in the bus-stop of Mangalore. Knowing the importance of education, he started a school in Newpadpu, a town 30 kms away from Mangalore. And this modest hero, who fights his financial crisis by selling oranges, also serves the school in an unpaid President post. The least we can do is know about him. Please read about him here: Harekal Hajabba

With all credits to the Sattva team I post the article here for all those who are not able to open the link above.

--

"Neil Amstrong once compared his small step on the moon to a giant leap for mankind. But these impossibly large small-steps occur here too. A humble uneducated orange-seller starts a school in Newpadpu, Harekal, unmindful of what a giant leap of hope and inspiration his story is for the rest of mankind.

The interview unfortunately must take place over phone, denying us a glimpse into the world Harekal Hajabba lives in. In his musical, Mangalorean dialect, he starts by telling us about selling oranges at the Mangalore Bus Depot for 35 years. And of tourists conversing with him in English, a language he doesn’t speak or follow. He tells us how these incidents made him aware of his own uneducated status and opened his eyes to the state of the school in his town, Newpadu, 30 kms from Mangalore.

The Zilla Panchayat-run school was about to be shut down for lack of building space. This was in 1998, when Hajabba, empty-handed but optimistic, approached the Panchayat for permission to re-open the school. With nothing to lose, they agreed. A couple of members even gave him some seed money to set him off.

In the year that followed, Hajabba managed to collect one lakh rupees and a 1 1/2 acre plot from the government. In 2000, the Zilla Panchayat High School re-opened in its new building. Dharmastala provided the school with teachers, somebody bought in the benches, the people in Newpadu began enrolling their children and the numbers grew. From a tiny group of 28, the school grew to accommodate 208 students.

Fortune smiled on the school when newspapers in Bangalore got a whiff of the story and began to write about Hajabba. From 2004, funds from various philanthropists began to trickle in. A company in Kormangala donated 20 computers, while Canara Bank built them an auditorium. The State recognised Hajabba with awards and Kannada Prabha, a Bangalore daily, chose him for their ‘Man of the Year’ award.

Today the oldest students are in the eighth standard, which includes, Harekal tells us with unblemished pride, his wife. Permission has been procured to start the 9th and 10th standard as well.

Despite the honour and attention showered on him, life has not changed much for this 50-year-old man. He worries over his wife’s sickness and daughter’s pregnancy complications. In between visits to the doctor, he makes time to scrounge around for funds to run the school.

But he is yet to miss a day at school. He overlooks the administration in his capacity as the President, every morning from 8 to 10. Since the post is non-salaried, the measly rupees he earns as an orange-seller is what feeds 5 mouths at home. When asked if the number we call on is his neighbour’s, discomfort enters his voice as he says yes. He doesn’t want to speak of his financial troubles anymore.

His gratitude at being featured is overwhelming. He wishes and blesses us profusely, before he hangs up, embarrassing us that he should even consider this act worthy of praise. For he is giant among us mortals, who gives away twice of what he has and takes half of what he needs. The pleasure, gratitude and honour, has been all ours."

Contact: School Development Committee, between
8 to 10.30am: 0824-2235964,
Evenings (neighbour): 0824 – 2235827