Grit, Grace & Gusto: June 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

Monday, June 23, 2008

I've been reading a lot on the Law of Attraction and it's various sub-laws, over the last few months. In order to get myself in-sync, I've even tried meditating. But I guess you really need to learn the basics from someone who's well-versed in the subject. I've been meaning to approach someone for the same. As the law might have it (Heh!), I found myself at the Art of Living, International Center, Bangalore.

Spent the weekend attending one of their courses. Liked what they had to offer and absolutely enjoyed the tranquility of the place. I think I'm going to find myself visiting this place more often.

Ofcourse, there is the occasional irritation of having to see people flock in dozens to touch Mr. Ravi Shankar's feet or seek his blessings (arrgh..), but that's for a fraction of a second. Look around and understand what he's trying to communicate, and none of that irritation persists :)!

*Photo courtesy - Discover Bangalore

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Food for thought - 4

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

- Randy Pausch, Professor, Carnegie Mellon

(w.r.t road-blocks one faces)

Friday, June 13, 2008

Finally - Once

After a long, LONG wait, I finally manage to get my hands on this movie. A simple story, repeated a million times over maybe; and told in the most beautiful way! Icing on cake - the music!

"how often do you find the right person?!... once"

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Mystery solved

Rains are such joy. Hot pakoras, steaming coffees, warm quilts and couches...*sigh* absolute BLISS! Oh and there's the hot water bath! Although, for a few days now, the hot water faucet's been gurgling out some weird stuff. Last few days I've been seeing a lot of feathers in my bucket! While I didn't want to admit, at the back of my mind was a thought that maybe - just maybe - I'm dealing with a...! (Hey, I'm just really good with my imagination, so don't squirm!) I let the thought pass. And the feathers. They kept appearing. Today, I found a leg. With claws. One leg. (I told you my thoughts turn to reality! )

We spent the whole morning cleaning tanks - underground sump, cold water tank, hot water tank... and nothing... phew. There was not a single piece of evidence that it was a bird. But I swear I found a leg! So we decided to drain all pipelines. And nasty as it may sound - bit-by-bit, degenerated chunk of flesh kept finding it's way out through the hot water faucets. YUCK!

Now, the big mystery is - how did it find it's way into the water?! No tank is open. All have solid covers - metal or stone ones. There's absolutely no way some stupid bird flew down and got caught! The verdict?! - BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply & Sewage Board).

And the verdict was unanimous.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Suggestions Required

Santosh's dad sent him a list of books. He's trying to figure out which ones he should buy for his old man. I've read just one from this list - A Beautiful Mind - and was hoping you guys might suggest some from these -

Fermat's Last Theorem - Simon Singh
The Code Book - Simon Singh
A beautiful mind - Sylvia Nasar
The Man who loved only numbers - Paul Hoffman
The Victorian Internet - Tom Standage
Fingerprints - Colin Beaven
Can Reindeer fly? - Roger Highfield
Mendeleyev's Dream - Paul Strathern
Snowball earth - Gabrielle Walker
The fifth miracle - Paul Davies
Strange beauty - George Jonson
The Cogwheel Brain - Doron Swade
The making of the atomic bomb - Richard Rhodes
Chaos - James Gleick
Flatland - Edwin. A. Abbott
A Mathematician's apology - G. H. Hardy
Our final century - Martin Rees
The surgeon of Crowthrone - Simon Winchester
The Pahntom Tollboth - Norton Juster
Roses In December - M. C. Chagla
Artificial Intellegence and Natural man - Margaret. A. Boden
Dimensions of creativity - Margaret. A. Boden
The Philosophy of Artificial Life - Margaret. A. Boden
Swami Rama - Swami Ajaya
The Traditions of The Himalyan Masters - Pandit Rajamani Tigumant
The Emperor's New Mind - Roger Penrose
Theories of Everything - Joh. D. Barrow
Don't You Have time to Think - Richard Feynman
Narrative - Fredrick Douglars
Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro - Samuel Ringold Ward
The Fugitive Blacksmith - J. W. C. Pennigton

Monday, June 9, 2008

Classics

HBO featured a 'Top 10' tear-jerker's list. 'The Notebook' stands at the number 2 spot. I hadn't heard about the movie, but that's not what I'm writing about. So I download the movie and 30 minutes into it, this song plays in the background. It's one of my favorites and it goes well with the movie. Here it is -

Hope you like!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

More Lists

Another one from Deepti -

Wings
The Broadway Melody
All Quiet on the Western Front
Cimarron
Grand Hotel
Cavalcade
It Happened One Night
Mutiny on the Bounty
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
You Can't Take It with You
Gone With the Wind
Rebecca
How Green Was My Valley
Mrs. Miniver
Casablanca
Going My Way
The Lost Weekend
The Best Years of Our Lives
Gentleman's Agreement
Hamlet
All the King's Men
All About Eve
An American in Paris
The Greatest Show on Earth
From Here to Eternity
On the Waterfront
Marty
Around the World in 80 Days
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Gigi
Ben Hur
The Apartment
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Tom Jones
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
A Man for All Seasons
In the Heat of the Night
Oliver!
Midnight Cowboy
Patton
The French Connection
The Godfather
The Sting
The Godfather Part II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Kramer v. Kramer
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Gandhi
Terms of Endearment
Amadeus
Out of Africa
Platoon
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances with Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country for Old Men

Bold - the ones I've watched.

Not bad eh?!

Update: (June 9th) Two more classics suggested by Smini -

Mackenna's Gold
King Solomon's Mines

Friday, June 6, 2008

Flavours

Yesterday was refreshingly different. To begin with, it marked 3 years of my return from the U.S of A. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem so long!

The first half flew by engrossed in work. It's amazing how some results can make you feel on top of the world! Spent the afternoon watching some high-budget, poor-performance movies (and they make plenty of those in LA!). Evening was a teaser with a slight shower and a beautiful, beautiful rainbow! It was so enchanting, I didn't want to run upstairs to get my camera! For those who missed it - Rajesh has a snap of it. The spell of rain lasted barely 20-25 minutes. This was followed by anxious neighbors comforting a fellow resident, whose house had been robbed in broad daylight (that's a rare thing in this part of town), a murky discussion - over phone - with someone terribly confused, an enlightening conversation with Baba on some old Marathi music, some physical assault on a cold-infected brother (muhahaha), preparing Rasam, having dinner and another lethargic movie!

Life's good. It's so bloody amazingly good :)!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Let's hear it for Obama

With Step-Father, Mother, Step-Sister - Barack Obama

...or should we wait until November?

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Calling it a day

I absolutely long for Friday nights. Not 'coz the weekend's a respite from all the week's work (I work 6 hours, 7 days a week; so no weekends for me), but because Ujji comes home for the weekend. And it's fun when he's around. Of course, that only means a drop in the number of hours I can put in on these days. Which I then have to make up for on Mondays and Tuesdays. Normally, these aren't bad either. This week has been an exception.

Work has been K.R.A.Z.Z.Y! Yes, that bad! Two continuous 16 hour days with barely a breather between. I'm so pooped... *phew*...

Gonna slump into that bean-bag and watch a couple of movies with a steaming cup of coffee and nothing - absolutely nothing - to eat. My stomach feels like it can go without food for a whole week! That's something I've gotto stop doing; crunch time and my routine's pretty much - Food-Laptop-Food-Laptop-Food-Laptop... If I repeat the word 'f.o.o.d' again, I might throw up!

So that's that. TV, here I come.

Monday, June 2, 2008

I MISS THIS SHOW SO MUCH

I SO need to go get the DVD collection for these!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Maa-Baap ka PYAAR

We had dinner at India Gate on 100ft road, Friday night. Lovely dinner. Good drinks too. Aai ofcourse, always avoids drinks (not that she drives after that; she'd probably cause more damage without being drunk - Baba's words). So on our way out, I was busy messaging someone, my brother was picking up some extra saunf and Baba as usual, is way ahead. In that split second when all this is happening, my brother and me hear a THUD!, turn around and see Aai on the floor!

Apparently, she didn't realize there was a step and was happily thanking the manager for his services (my mom). So anyways, we helped her up, massaged her ankle and walked out. The first thing she can come up with - "Maazha mhaataaraa kuthey gelaa"?! - rather irritated.

Baba was holding the elevator for us, he went - "Buddhi padli-re-padli"! - with a BIG grin!

If there's anything I enjoy more than stand-up comedy... it's my parents addressing each other. One helluva couple!

Why I love the Internet

Years ago, there used to be this add on TV. Well, I don't quite remember the add. Or the year. All I remember is the background score - "I'm in the mood for love". Now basically, this is a really popular number with over 2 dozen artists recording it in their respective voices. And I'm looking for this one particular artist, whose voice plays in the background of that particular add. So I go hither-tither looking for this track, with no name for the artist, no add details and no year (nice)... and I find this -

I'm in the Mood for Love

Now, I'm not sure THIS is the artist or THE VOICE in the background of THAT particular add. But hey! it's close - real close!

Grit, Grace & Gusto