Trip to Mumbai

I have gone to Mumbai last weekend on an official trip. It turned out to be quite an action-packed weekend. Entire Friday and Saturday were spent on official work, and not very adventurous. It has been fun but nothing special during this period.

The actual adventure started on Sunday, when me and Deepak went sight-seeing around Mumbai. Deepak turned out to have very keen eyesight. He pointed me to some very rare sights. We got complete view of basters at a couple of places. (FYI, a baster is a extremely skilled person who sews garment with long loose stitches). Then, we saw this person who(se) gave lace that was of finest quality.

Our flight back to Bangalore was scheduled for 6:30pm. We reached by 5:30, much ahead of time. But, there was a final twist in the tale. The flight was rescheduled a couple of times, and we ended up missing the flight thanks to Jet Airways not updating the status on the displays. We had to pay Rs. 500 extra and get into a flight at 9:30pm.

If you are wondering about what is fun about basters and lace, think twice. The words which are in bold and italicised are anagrams.

Shantaram: A compulsory in any bookshelf

I have just gone through half of this 950-odd page beast, and it finds its place to my bookshelf (see the side bar). A gripping tale concocted by Gregory Robert that leaves one spell-bound, or should I say book-bound.

The story is about an escaped convict, Lindsay, who finds his destination in the slums of Bombay. He settles in the slums and runs a first-aid center there. He gets involved with mafia, and later the Afghan rebels. He also falls in love with Karla, a Swiss national who settled in Bombay. He is christened 'Shantaram' by the motherly Rukhmabai, and hence the title of the book.

A definite read for anyone. It scores 5 out of 5 with me.

The Latest Craze

The latest fad in town is running in a marathon. There has been a spate of marathons in India. Believe it or not, Bangalore hosted two marathons: A Full Marathon in May 2005 and a Half Marathon in December 2005. I wonder what caused this sudden interest in marathons?

As I see it, people run in marathons for following three reasons

1. Give something to the society
2. Running is good for health
3. Just for the heck of it/Doing something different

One doesn't need a marathon, if the reasons are the first two. If it is the third, I don't see the person running for several times.

I checked the Marathon Calendar to see the international scene and found that there is a marathon almost everyday somewhere in the world. So, Bangalore is just catching up with world. I am unclear in my mind, about where I stand with the idea of a marathon. But, one thing is sure. I will never run in a marathon.

Life of an Injured Man

Thanks to the accident, I am forced to go around with a crippled gait. I got my dressing changed yesterday. The doctor informed that the stitches will be removed next Tuesday. Waiting for that day eagerly.

It has been quite an experience during the last few days. It is not possible to pass anywhere without drawing some sympathetic attention. Right from my house-owner to the security guards at the office, they have something sympathetic to say. I have no doubt about their good intent, but for Gods' sake, I have an injury which will be fixed in a week. Also, there are lots of jovial requests to play Table Tennis at office. Thanks to my injury, I realized that Rajesh, Jude and Deepti are capable of handling TT racquet.

There have been something positive about my injury. I took a break from office today, and what a time I had. I got to watch the brilliant batting by Pakistan amassing 353 in their quota of 50 overs.

Messrs Karma strikes

I had quite an eventful day today, which turned me into a strong believer in Karma.

I started the day at a Workshop at office. I walked out of the workshop in an hour, as my eye was watering continuously. I fixed an appointment with an opthamologist. With sometime left for appointment, I decided to go home. On reaching home, I realized that I forgot the key. Left with no other choice than going back to office. I was waiting to cross the road before my house (on my bike), when someone speeding on a bike rammed into me. He inflicted a single wound on me (leg), which had to be stitched.

Now, what do you call this, if not Karma.

కర్మణ్యె వాది కారస్య
మా ఫలెషు కధాచన
మా కర్మ ఫల హెతుర్ భూర్మ
మతె సంగొస్త్వకర్మిని

The above block is an excerpt from Bhagavad Gita, which means "Your only duty is to work without worrying about the fruit of your work"

My First blog in Telugu

I have tried to create a keymap in Windows for Telugu, which is my mother-tongue. Telugu has a complex grammar and I had some fun using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to create a Telugu keymap. I finally managed to create one, which was not working correct all the time. I then found this cool software, which does an automatic trans-literation while I am typing in English. I got that installed, and here is my first blog in Telugu. The software can be downloaded from Aksharamala. It comes with keymaps for several Indian languages.

నా బ్లాగ్ కి ఆహ్వనం. (It means "Welcome to my Blog")

New trends in language

There are new trends set in english usage with the increased popularity of SMS (related to messaging, not the person who sits next to me at office), and chat. I donot follow half the stuff in these messages.

I have been witness to this conversation recently

Person 1: Hey, Catch you at the movie
Person 2: I won't be able to come
Person 1: Gosh! That is bad
Person 2: What is Gosh
Person 1: Gosh is just something people use to express their feeling. It is something like shit