Go India!!!

We won!! Yes. We did it. We beat Pakistan(again) in a Cricket World Cup match. Cheers to Indian Cricket Team and Sachin Tendulkar…

Yesterday, on the occasion of India vs Pakistan cricket match, semi-final, I bet at least 90% Indians were watching the match. In my city, Pune, the roads were empty. Hotels, restaurants were empty. Roadside vendors of Vada Pav and other junk food saw a profit like never before. Nobody had their dinner till the match was over.

We realized how hungry we were once the match was over and Sachin Tendulkar was announced Man of the Match. So we got our bikes on the road at around 11 PM and we were surprised….. we were surprised by the sheer size of crowd on the road. Nearly everyone was out of the homes, celebrating, busting crackers, shouting, dancing. Road was full of guys raving their bikes with loud horns, flags of India, shouting, cheering.

We joined the bikers… we went shouting cheering honking in the night. At one place, where MacD is located (everyone was suddenly hungry like us ), the crowd was double of what I had seen earlier. Police were trying to control the traffic. Normally, at 11 PM , the roads are empty. Yesterday, it was traffic jam everywhere. And Police weren’t really stopping anyone or monitoring the bikers. They were just trying to prevent any accidents from happening.

I am really glad I lived to see this day. India has won before, but I do not remember feeling like this.. May god bless Sachin Tendulkar his wish of winning a world-cup for India. Amen.

I fly

I just wrote a poem. Yes… not that it is any good.
But I am happy I wrote it.
Its been long since my last poem.
There were days when I used to think of writing a lot of poems and I had written few also (in Marathi).
Then somehow I stopped writing them and after a few years I completely forgot about it.

And today, while posting a pic on my photoblog, I searched for something to post along with it, something that suited my view of the photo, and I could not find anything. So went ahead and wrote it myself. I hope at least someone likes it. Someone who inspires me every moment of my life.

Here is the link to that post: I fly

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abundance

This is last moment submission… I am not sure if this qualifies… I was unable to find any suitable scene to fit in this category… rare we see abundance of anything…. and when I found a suitable moment, I did not have a good camera… This one is taken with my mobile camera… not sure if it gives the feel of what I was looking at. Consider school kids with similar colourful uniforms standing together to form color bands in their group…

I also have a top view of this formation, taken from 7th floor of my office building, I will update this post later….

 

 

 

Getting Bored? The Mini Internet Guide

Getting bored? Need Timepass?

Then go and sleep. Best timepass in the world. And its healthy too…….

Can’t sleep? Well then go outside, check out some girls/boys (chicks/hunks) and come back………

Still bored? Then go turn on that idiot box…..

No? Then find a good funny/serious/fiction/whatever book and start reading……….

You don’t like books? Uh-ooh…… Then I will suggest the worst option!! Start your computer!!!
You don’t think its worst option? Nearly all elders and some of the younger gen will agree with me. If it’s not the worst, then it’s not the best either. Not even a better or good option either.

Gaming, chatting, browsing, again chatting, social networking, blogging, tweeting, chatting again……… is it really worth your time? Except the time you read good articles and gain some knowledge or share some knowledge, do you really think all the time you spend on your computer or say internet is much useful?

Alas, if you have really decided that you want to spend your spare time on futile things on internet, then read on…..

Things you can do with Internet!!

Watching Videos :

If someone says video, first name that pops up in my mind is Youtube (http://www.youtube.com). Youtube is a video sharing site where millions of users upload videos and let others watch them. It has many features like Channels, Commenting, Favorites, Friends etc. You can spend a whole day on browsing Youtube without getting bored. There are many video sites available. You can see the list here on Wikipedia.

Use the search, tags, categories, channels etc to browse through videos. Nearly all sites have these features. If you want something different, then try “Ted, Ideas Worth Spreading” website.

Random Surfing on Internet:

There is another way of random surfing on internet. Stumbleupon!!!. It uses a simple concept of “click a button and see something interesting”. Don’t like what you see then click that button again. Each time it will open a new page/website, photo, video, article, game, animation, news, music and lot more. It is most addicting thing on the internet and helps lazy users to do lazy timepass.

Look at nice pictures:

Visit Yahoo’s baby Flickr.com and browse through hundreds of millions of photos. You will be amazed what people are capable of capturing in camera.

Also have a look at LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.

And Google’s latest Art Project,  a collaboration with some of the world’s most famous museums, with the goal of empowering people to discover and view more than a thousand renowned artworks online – even when they’re unable to travel to visit each museum.

Will list more was of spending quality time on internet in other posts.

Cheers.

Use Google to find Movie Showtimes for theaters in your city

Want to find movie timings and do not have access to bookmyshow or similar sites in office? You should simply use Google and visit http://www.google.com/movies . I wrote this post long ago and I think this is still a valid service from Google. Check it out.

Use Google to find Movie Showtimes for theaters in your city.

Movie: Schindler’s List

Movie: Schindler’s List
Year: 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/

The movie Schindler’s List is one of the great movies which can be found on every ‘must see’ list on the internet. And I do agree with it. If you are a movies fan, or you just like to watch good movies occasionally, then you should surely watch Schindler’s List.

This movie is a true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, who initially only cared about making money, and later saved nearly 1100 Jews from being killed or tortured till death during World War II.

The plot of movie is straightforward and sticks to the true story. Oskar Schindler owned a factory where he used to have Jewish people as labors. He saw the way Jews were treated by Nazis and started helping them. His factory became a refuge for Jews. He spent all money he can to protect his factory and the people who worked there. Finally he managed to move nearly 1100 Jews to Brněnec (German: Brünnlitz) (currently in Czech Republic) and save them till the war was over.

 

The actor Liam Neeson plays role of Oskar Schindler and Ben Kingsley plays Oskar’s  right hand and accountant Itzhak Stern. Both are great actors and these characters in movie can be counted as one of the best roles of their life. Director Steven Spielberg has done a great job and every actor has been at his best.

The movie has a lot of scenes where horrifying treatment of Jews is shown. I recommend not to watch this movie with kids.

I am making my own list of Must Watch movies and this movie is surely on the list.

Cheers.

(No) Wind of change

Warning: Stupid Rant Post!! Rant!! Rant!! Read at your own risk!!

Prologue (You can skip this grayed part and jump to main text below)

Sometimes, I just feel like standing alone, looking at the Sunset, taking the evening breeze on my face….. Today was one such day or you can say, such evening ….

I went up on the terrace of my company building, alone. It was nearly empty except two guys standing in a corner smoking, chatting, having their evening tea. I chose the extreme corner away from those people, towards my dear Sun who was spreading soft evening light on the landscape. Sunset always moves me. I always end up thinking about past, present, future, life and all such crap. Today was not different.

Thinking/musing sessions like today’s sunset trip to terrace bring out the worst and the best cooking inside my mind-pot. One very common feeling I keep getting is ‘being lonely’. Yeah, the usual stuff. People leaving me, me leaving people etc etc. And as if it was not enough, things started going haywire in my professional life. Opportunities eluded me, they just slipped out of my hand just like sand slips from your hand when you to hold on too tight. So, I decided to stand in front of the mighty Sun, looking at the spectacular sunset and just sort out what is happening with me……

I was standing on the terrace alone, looking at the setting Sun. For first time, I realized how far I can see from there. I tried to take in the whole landscape and noticed something else in the process. Exactly opposite to the Sun, on the East horizon, I saw the nearly full moon coming up. While somewhere in the west, I saw a kite floating in the air. I looked up and found a eagle, flying alone, high in the sky, so high that it looked a little bigger than a moth. Cool, I thought. At least for the moment, I was part of the great loner’s club.

Eagles fly and hunt alone. Sun and Moon have no friends, and no choices . And the kite, the kite is the poorest of all. It has no control on its own life. Someone literally controls the strings of his life. It is at the mercy of the wind and the controller of the string. Normally, I would have tried to relate my own life to one of these things and felt bad. But this time it was different.

I realized how good and simple my life is (right now). I do not have any problems from any side at the moment. I have a good job (and sufficient salary), good health for family, a lot of good friends, good (and some pretty )colleagues etc etc. There is nothing that can be counted as bad. Only thing that I have to do is: not to think about things I don’t have or I can’t have. It is that simple.

As soon as I arrived on this thinking station, I stopped thinking and started actually looking at the beautiful sunset. There was no wind at all for some time which I had not realized. The moment I thought about wind, there came a soft breeze of evening air. Somebody must be listening to my thoughts. I said goodbye to the Sun and welcomed the moon. The kite was still floating in the air and there was another one alongside it. The eagle was gone, he must be heading back home. I took the cue and descended the stairs.

Sunsets always set me thinking. This time, it diverted me from excessive thinking. I was hoping for some change in my life, something new. I still am hoping for it. But now I don’t want wish for a wind of change, I just wish for simple breeze and some rain.

Cheers.

If I Could Work from Anywhere, I'd Live in… Karad, my home….

I would like to work from my… you guessed it, my hometown. But why? Read on to find it out.

Most people will answer this question as “My Home(town/city)” or some hill-station. I am no different than anyone else. If I am given the luxury of choosing my own work location, I would choose this: At my Hometown, Karad (Maharashtra, India), in a room with glass walls, built as a home office, customized to have all gadgets I can get my hands on, on the terrace of my current home.

But why in Karad, why not Pune, or some hill-station?

First of all, its my home, there is no other place I love more than that.

Second, my mom will always be close by so there will be plenty of food at any point of time. Plus you can be sure about being woken up at time you need to be up. All moms are capable of waking up any sleeping kid at any time they want without giving you chance of shouting back .

Also its a really nice quiet place. My home is on the boundary of residential area and farms and fields. So on one side of the house, you can see all types of homes and on the other side you can see all types of trees, fields, birds (and snakes, quite frequently).

Most amazing thing about the landscape in the photo is, it keeps changing colours throughout the year. The shade of green in above photo is seen in Monsoon. As the winter comes, every colour gets more n more rich and dark. All fields have newly planted crops or most of the crops reach the point of harvesting. Its the best period of the year. Summer makes things look little dry, rough and black (the color of earth) but there is always a cool breeze floating around to please you.

Technologically, there are no problems for working from my home town. We are afterall a town with premier education institutes and a rapidly developing industrial area attached. Also my town sits on a National Highway so no transportation problems. Only Air-travel is the problem, which would be solved soon by our dearest and closest city Kolhapur.

So in the end to sum it all, I just wanna go home to my mommy and stay there

Cheers.

Neil Simon’s the odd couple II

I was just surfing channels on tv and found this movie ‘Neil Simon’s the odd couple II’ was being aired on AXN. Just out of curiosity, I kept watching. And ended up watching the whole movie. At some jokes, I laughed so hard, I don’t remember laughing like that in a long time. Not since last year when we were watching ‘The Hangover’.
Though the movie is simple, it surely makes you laugh. Now I am gonna get first movie of this series.
Tomorrow I am going to watch ‘Back to future 1, 2 & 3′.

Cheers.
Sudarshan.

Enter the android

This is my first post from the new and awesome android phone I got  few days back. There is whole world of new possibilities to explore now. But I am already tired of the delicate touch screen. No worries though as slowly I am getting hang of it. Surely in no time I will be typing as fast as I used to on normal phones.
Did I forget to mention the name of my new phone? Its LG Optimus one P500. It has android 2.2 froyo. There are a lot of preinstalled applications from manufacturer. Most of apps are useful and fun except few stupid ones you can’t remove. So far, apart from irritating touch keyboard, I am very happy with my new purchase. One word of caution for people planning to buy this phone, battery is not good. If you like to keep your gps and wifi on all day long, well, you can’t do that with this phone. I don’t think it will last whole day that way. Simply put , the battery is as bad as any other android phone in this (cheap) range. So be ready for frequent charging.

I wanted to write more on this but my patience with this keypad is running out.

Cheers,
Sudarshan

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