I did it ..not sure how ...

I won an award I won an award.. Not sure for what but who cares.. I won an award ... Yahooo.. lets open the soda bottles, bring on the belly dancers .. its time to party ....

India .......hah

Ooops....

An interesting article...

Teaching Mom and Dad the facts of modern life by Bruce Cameron..

The line "Maybe we should call your sister "had me in splits....

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Thu thu ...

She says hi and all I did was smile .Oh! that was because I had just stuffed my mouth with those biscuits .. no not the dog biscuits.. those creamy ones re...yummy .All I could do was bat my eyelids.. I hope she understands Morse code..

bat bat stare bat bat haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii bat bat

Books I read .....a few days back...

White star : James Thayer Two snipers in a dual where only one survives. Yep,this book provides plenty of excitement for action fans. "Owen Gray is a New York City district attorney and the adoptive father of three orphaned Asian children. Previously, Gray was the premier marine sniper in Vietnam, where he was credited with 96 kills. The past is mostly forgotten, though, at least until a Mafia chieftain standing with Gray in front of a courthouse is killed by a sniper. Days later, a petty crook is shot through the head while Gray is walking with him toward a waiting police van. Unbeknownst to Gray, the sniper is a figure from his past who nearly drove him to suicide. What starts as seemingly random violence on the streets of New York is actually an invitation to a deadly duel between the world's two best snipers. " Luciano's luck : Jack Higgins An okish sort of thriller for 16 year olds, 2nd WorldWar story ...too mild for me. Currently reading Rat Trap : Craig Thomas There was relief at Heathrow when the damaged British Airways 707 touched down safely. But something was wrong. The pilot wasn't answering the control tower's radio call - and the authorities soon found out why. An armed hijacker was on board the plane, together with five accomplices and a bomb. The hijackers wanted a terrorist returned in exchange for the lives of the aircraft's passengers and crew. The exchange could be made safely. Until the prisoner escaped...

What's it like ?

Bangalore is cold, rainy and gloomy ....*sigh One of my colleagues is in high spirits he says its "Romantic weather " eeeeeew.... Its the kind of weather in which you just laze around... hot coffee..garam garam pakoda's...soulful music in the background... a good book ... What's it like in your part of town ?

Almost anything is easier to get into than out of.

I recently read Ken Follet's " The Third Twin ". Steve, the hero of The Third Twin, is troubled when he finds he has an identical twin who is a murderer. He's led to examine himself and he worries that he is like his brother. He asks, "Do my genes make me what I am? Or is it my upbringing and my environment?" Its similar to SP's question.... http://prashanthsriram.blogspot.com/2005/07/burnt-eggs-and-genetics.html Hmm… *********************** Anand accompanied me to SP road on Saturday.( Sajjan is in Hyderabad and the latest news is that he sold his color TV and bought a brand new.. yep a brand new Black and White TV.Do they still make B&W TV sets?) What and where is SP road ? Its opposite the TOWN Hall, near the city market.A few years back (approx 10 yrs), this lane which has like 300 shops, was known to sell all types of Electronic components, from resistors to Television sets. Now, its the main center for Computers and Computer peripherals. A haven for PC assemblers.Some shops are known for their quick service.You give them your dream PC configuration ( Example : P4 3.2 GHz, 512 Ram , 80 GB Barracuda ,Intel Motherboard ,DVD combo etc... ), they'll assemble it in 15 mintues and even install the Operating System. SP road is “the place” for techie geeks . I wanted to buy Kannada DVD's for my BIL, the original ones and not the pirated ones. I was really surprised when I learnt that the Kannada film industry had released just 13 DVD's. The Kannada film industry churns out approx 300 films every year. So, for the past 30 years, the industry also known as "Sandalwood" has released around 10,000 movies. And only 13 DVD’s? And guess what!! they are not in 5.1-surround sound. *sigh. After searching high and low ( It seems only 1 shop out of 30 odd shops sold Kananda DVD's),we went to this shop called "Ganesh Audio", which has the reputation of selling the latest and oldest Kannada movies/music. I asked the vendor if he had Kannada Dvd's, He said yes and showed me his collection, which had just 13 films. I told him that I wanted to buy the entire collection. He was surprised and thought I was joking. :) The amount came upto Rs 1500/-, which is pretty cheap when compared to what Sri pays in US, ( Psst he pays $10+ for a single DVD).The manager even gave me a discount. We then roamed around aimlessly and spotted a shop in which the boys running the store were busy selling VCD's and DVD's by the dozen. It was a wholesale shop, which meant that you had to buy VCD/DVD's in bulk; surprisingly it had a CCTV (security hmmm) .We asked him if he had the latest English and Hindi DVD’s. As we wanted just a couple, he directed us to the "Other shop " which was in a "patli gali ". What we saw mesmerized us. It was an open courtyard with a small shop, similar to a " pan-beeda shop". In front of the shop was a teenager sitting on a wooden box ,sorting out DVD's from a huge jumbo sized cardboard box. I’m sure it contained like 500 + DVD’s. To his left was a huge rack of CD’s, customers picking up their favorite films so casually that I thought I was in one of Food World's outlets, shopping for groceries. We had found "the mother lode “,"the NEST ", the main source of pirated DVD’s. The pirated DVD's here cost as less as Rs 80/-. We were too stunned to speak. We just stood there like a pair of geeks staring at the " scene " that was unfolding before us. Anand bought a Tamil movie and we hastily made our way back to civilization,which was the main road. Anand was disappointed that he couldn't snap a pic or two. Yeah right and have them beat us black and blue. *********************** I've stopped watching films and can't wait to get my hands on the latest books. The ones I still haven't devoured are... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy >>> grr can't seem to find it... A recently released book which has Nehru's letters to Gandhi..( What's it called ???) The Half-Blood Prince... >> Who dies ?? Currently reading Jack Higgins " Luciano's Luck ". **********************

Dumbledore's death in the style of Dan Brown

If you have read The Da Vinci Code... you'll know why I posted this... Uhahahaaaa

Courtesy http://books.guardian.co.uk/ and Nadia Hossen Mamode .

Renowned wizard Albus Dumbledore staggered up the stairs leading to his office. He lunged for the nearest portrait he could see, Phineas Nigellus. It was empty; Phineas Nigellus was away, probably visiting another portrait. Grabbing the frame, the hundred-and-seventy-plus wizard heaved the portrait towards himself, until it tore from the wall and Dumbledore collapsed backward in a heap beneath the portrait. As he had anticipated, Phineas Nigellus rushed into the portrait Dumbledore lay a moment, gasping for breath. He crawled to a place to hide, the portrait still with him."What is it Albus?" asked Phineas from the portrait. "Are you trying to remove my portrait from your wall?" On his hands and knees, Dumbledore spoke softly. "I need your help Phineas. Voldemort will be arriving shortly. He has my wand. I am going to die. Find Harry Potter!" Within seconds, Phineas was gone. A voice spoke. "Dumbledore, you should not have run." Only few feet away, Voldemort was staring at him. He was tall and thin, with a snakelike face white and gaunt. His eyes were scarlet and slit-pupilled. Voldemort aimed his wand at Dumbledore. "When you will be gone, I will be the only one to know the truth about Harry Potter's parents." Voldemort was taking a dead aim at Dumbledore's head. Dumbledore closed his eyes. He regretted having lied to Voldemort. When he would be dead, the secret would be lost forever. "Evita Peroneus!" echoed. Dumbledore's eyes flew open Voldemort looked at his wand then at Dumbledore's head. A silvery liquid was pouring out. Dumbledore knew this curse. My mind. Cruelly, he was losing his mind literally and death would soon follow. Voldemort was gone. Alone now, Dumbledore knew that he had to act fast. I must pass the secret. When Harry Potter arrived, he saw Dumbledore dead in Da Vinci's "The Vitruvian Man" position.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives. ~Anatole Broyard

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Please note typing and sending an email is not the same as writing with a black HERO pen, filled with blue ink, on a plain sheet of paper. The other night (now that my DVD player has sniff sniff. *sigh) I was eating dinner or was it supper (Supper is the last meal of the day, right!! but what about those snacks I eat at midnight?) and watching this local serial. A scene where the granddaughter writes a letter to her family and the Grandpa is reading it out aloud, amused me. All the family members are listening intently and so is my mom. I found this hilarious, not sure why, but it did and I pointed this to my mom " Hahaaa... they are still writing letters, can't they just use the phone or the internet " .I shake my head ... I was still in my " Ping you've got mail " mode. My mom has this "far off" look and says " Hmm.. I remember when I was newly married, I used to write home regularly and you know all my friends and neighbours would gather around my brother as he read it aloud. I would always make it a point to include everyone's name in it. " Mom was born and brought up in Mangalore and had to move to Bangalore after marrying my Pop. I wonder what she wrote in those letters. This was in the year 1973. Maybe something in the lines of ... "Bangalore is beautiful and the climate is very cold. We have to wear woolen sweaters to stay warm (Mangalore has a tropical climate).I saw a double decker bus today and my husband takes me regularly to the cinema (Yep it was called cinema in those days. I think she would then write about the latest Kannada film that she saw). The other day we went to Cubbon Park and had our photo taken .Will send it soon.We went to this place called MG road, ate Masala Dosa's and saw an English film. The film was so boring , it had these weird guys fighting with color color tublelights." (Star wars * sigh). Maybe should ask her what she really wrote……

Nahiiiiiiiiiiiii....

My Norcent DP-313 DVD player went "kaput" . * sniff . It was a gift from my sis and bil... sniff. So my options are : * Get the latest DVD player , one which can play AVI and MPEG4. * Get this repaired ( I think its the lens).

My quota of luck just got replenished :)

My weekend was sort of hmm ... how do I put it? .. monsoonish... well that's because I ended up getting drenched :) . Achoo ... Achoo.. I get a lot of weird reactions when I talk about my soul sister. I was taken by surprise when Dee said that it was "cute " and now she wants me to find her one. Now how in heaven's name am I going to find her a soul-bro? I mean traveling to Africa to find that special Elephant which likes apples. Uff ..It’s difficult but not impossible. :) Saturday: Got up at 6 am. I mean why waste your weekends sleeping. ... So I watched Harry Callahan deliver this dialogue. I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six shots, or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth in all this excitement, I've kind of lost track myself. But, being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya punk?

Want to listen to it download it from here >>> http://www.filmsite.org/wavfiles/dirtyharry.wav

I was hooked and ended up watching: The Dirty Harry series, which included: Magnum Force ,The Enforcer,Sudden Impact and the Dead Pool. Then had to rush to Sajjan's house .. it was Anand's birthday party.. a huge cake even RB couldn’t finish it.yummmmmmmmy .. It was raining so we watched the movie Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983).We just loved the Mahabharata scene. Naseeruddin Shah takes over the role of Duryodhana and says "Maine Draupadi ka cheer-haran ka idea DROP kar diya hai" Dushasana played by some sidey actor says “ areh yeah tho script main nahi hai “. Akbar makes a grand entrance in Mahabhratha and immediately the background changes. Oh God you have got to watch it, mast time pass. Hey I passed by Anil Kumble's residence, its huge and I even saw his brother.. that software dude Dinesh Kumble.Sajjan says that Anil has a huge underground GYM ..hmmm ... On the way back home got completely drenched. Mom was furious. I mean I can't help it if it’s raining in the rest of Bangalore and not a drop in our area. grrr. Sunday: Got up at 8. That’s because I was watching " The House of Flying Daggers " the previous night. Cool special effects, amazing fight sequences and a very good storyline .I just loved the background score. Typical Chinese film. Oh and I watched Kelly's Heroes, Heartbreak Ridge and In the line of Fire. Check out the post on Brahma Kamala ..... Damn I couldn't smell those.. and it seems you are lucky if you see it bloom and I saw 6 bloom. Thanks to Anand for the pics . More pics here

And the best part is that the flowers grow from the edge of the leaves. hmm …

"Life is a paradox, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't"

This is one of my Fav paradoxes. A lil girl from Australia sent it to me last year. Read on.... According to the principle of indifference, if we have no good reason for preferring one truth value over another as regards a particular proposition, we should assign a probability of 1/2 to that proposition. This principle is open to many forms of abuse, the most popular illustration of this being the life on Mars paradox, which is presented below in the form of a dialogue between A and B. A: What is the chance of there being some form of life on Mars? B: I have no good evidence for or against, so I will answer 1/2. A: OK. Now what's the chance of no animal life on Mars? B: Again, I must answer 1/2. A: And the chance of no non-animal life on Mars? B: Again, 1/2. A: So the chance of no life (ie. no animal life and no non-animal life) on Mars = 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4? B: Well, yes, I suppose so. A: But then the probability of some life on Mars must be 1 - 1/4 i.e. 3/4? B: Wel...that seems to follow, all right. A: You agree then that 1/2 = 3/4? B: Now hold on a minute! What went wrong?

Fishers in northern Thailand netted this huge catfish in the Mekong River on May 1. Nearly nine feet long (2.7 meters) and as big as a grizzly bear, the behemoth tipped the scales at 646 pounds (293 kilograms). Experts say the fish, which belongs to the species known as the Mekong giant catfish, may be the largest freshwater fish ever recorded. >> Natgeo.

The art of saying good good-byes.

Read this in the 1994 edition of Reader's Digest. In any walk of life, dealing with partings positively and optimistically is not just a matter of good form : it is a way to make the last impression as memorable as the first. "In a remote village in Central America the word got out among the peoples of the region that one of the American missionaries that had served this country for many years was about to return to the US to live out the remaining years of her life. The nationals desired to honor her for her years of service with a public time of appreciation. News of the event went to all parts of the country in which the missionary was known to the people. One very old and very poor man walked to the ceremony over mountainous terrain for 4 days to bring his gift to the missionary. The gift consisted of 2 coconuts, but it was all the man had. The missionary recognized the man as coming from the remote village in the mountains. "Brother, I cannot believe that you would walk so far to present me with this gift," said the missionary to the man. His response "Long walk part of gift." Did you know that Good-Bye is a contraction of the common parting phrase "God be with you ". Bye Dee. May the force be with you.

Hay bhagwan, meri jaan le le, aur munni ki jaan bacha de.

How many of you watch those Saas Bahu serials ?? No one ... Yesterday I was watching this serial called KavyaAnjali ( psst the main dude is called Kavya...eeewwww ). Anjali is throwing a party and surprise surprise.. Parvathi aunty from Ghar Ghar ki Kahani makes a special appearance. I check the big clock ( it's 57 years old and Made in London) its still 9 :40 pm.Wait wait .. enter that other lady .. her name is Pallavi in Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani but plays Mandira in Kyunki Saas . I was so confused I actually scratched my head. My mom who was kneading dough for chappathis .. explained that they are were all interconnected and that the characters from one serial jump or make special appearances in the other serials.Its like that book which had Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys teaming up. My mom thought I was interested and went on to explain why Pallavi was trying to kill Parvathi aunty. Fortunately I fell asleep, dreaming of Anjali .....

To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

I'm tired . Had a hectic weekend which included calling "n" number of people , buying birthday gifts and a whooping 20 movies . Saturday I watched the "War of the Worlds" . What can I say go watch it. Evening we planned on getting some DVD's. I ended up buying 4 DVD's. 20 Clint Eastwood Classics which included The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,For a Few Dollars More,Where Eagles Dare,Hang 'Em High, Unforgiven, In the Line of Fire , Absolute Power ,The Rookie , Heartbreak Ridge,The Enforcer,Dirty Harry,Magnum Force , Fistful of Dollars , Escape From Alcatraz ,Million Dollar Baby. ( That's all I can remember ) . Now I have 27 Clint Eastwood movies. OMG. WHAT WAS I THINKING .. Vc shakes his head, the things I do. Swapped " bride hunting " stories with friends ..never knew it was so difficult and complicated :( Watched " Where Eagles Dare " an old movie , I still remember reading the book in the year 1989. Sunday : Roamed around a lot !! played cricket for 15 minutes. Had to pick up presents for Sajjan and my cousin sis and ofcourse book tickets for the movie DUS. Sajjan was late ( wonder what he did with the watch we presented last year ? ) and we missed the " Dus bahane song " .grrr...A weird couple sat next to me and their conversation was hilarious. They came in at 2.45 pm and asked me when the film started I said 2.30 . The uncle turns to the aunty and says " See because of you we missed 15 minutes ". Got to hear all the latest ring tones in the Theatre. The film was okish.. time pass.. The line " Will he kill him now " uttered by a small kid in the backrow was hilarious. After the movie we went to eat Pizzas.. I tried the "Borwnie with ice-cream".hmmmmmmmm.. slurp.. Oh as I said earlier I talked to so many people .. : A radio jockey :) Madz,Kirthi, HOH ,Bee , my sis ,BIL.. I even talked to some chick...alas it was a wrong number. SP,will call you soon. How come no-one remembers the song "lambi judai" from the Subhash Ghai film " HERO" ??? My only regret was not being able to meet Soumya ,ofcourse to pick up the Audio CD's .

To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.

If you are a blogger read this .. it's interesting :) Ten Reasons Why Blogging Doesn't Matter I plan to enjoy the weekend ..but plans are but plans :) The secret source of humour itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humour in heaven. ~~Mark Twain:

Cheers..hic..hic...

Yep My blog is a year old.... It all started because my brother in law said the one word which made my eyebrows touch the ceiling, no not Aishwarya but the word Free. When Sri started his blog (currently its dying a slow death) , my sister suggested that I start one too . She wanted me to write about what I did during weekends and keep her informed about all the weird things that happened in my life ( believe me a lot of weird stuff happens :) ). I asked my BIL and he said it was free and simple .So I started off mine with this post http://vinodc.blogspot.com/2004/07/new-era-in-blogging.html I really liked this pic Perchance to dream http://photos1.blogger.com/img/220/1287/1024/perchance_to_dream_b.jpg and of course my all time fav : the Christmas Decorations. http://vinodc.blogspot.com/2004/12/merry-christmas-to-all-my-friends.html and no I cannot choose between all those Ash pics... haiiiiiiiii.... Cheers to all the people who visit my blog !! Hic Hic Hurray !! Whether we wake or we sleep, Whether we carol or weep, The Sun with his Planets in chime, Marketh the going of Time. ~Edward Fitzgerald

I'm throwing a party for Sajjan's birthday and all are invited but please bring your own spoons :)

May everything happy And everything bright Be yours on your birthday From morning till night. And then through the year May the same thing hold true So that each day is filled With life's best things for you! Have a Happy Birthday Sajjan.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will. Ronald Reagan

Blog of the week

This morning I saw these 2 little girls waiting for their school bus. The school bus soon came and they were immediately involved in an animated conversation with the conductor. Suddenly one girl gave a shout of joy and to my amusement did a little skip and a dance. Turns out their school was closed and had declared a holiday for some reason.I think I heard her shout " No school!! No school!! Yipeee”. This got me wondering, what if my conductor said something like " No office today “, what would I do? Would I be overjoyed? Hmm infact I would just grunt and go watch a movie or play Badminton or read a book. How I miss my school days!! * sigh ================================== Well imagine this scenario. A group of boys and girls stand next to a traffic cop and are waiting for him to help them cross the road by stopping the traffic. He's helpless as its rush hour and the volume of vehicles is too high .He waits patiently for an opening. The kids get restless. One of the boys, a little kid, shouts " One.. Two... Three.. Go ". What do you think the cop would do :) uhahahahhaha ================================== SP knows how to make the reader ponder. Must learn from him. ( Vc bows) . is-diversity-in-taste-contradiction In this post he writes "..is it fair to think that someone doesn't have good taste just because there is no particular type of music he likes? I think yes. " This got me thinking ... what type of music do I listen to? I listen to all types of music from Pundit Ravishankar's Instrumentals to the flute recitals of Pandit Hari Prasad, to Nelly, Kelly and Jenny, old Hindi numbers like Mohd Rafi's 1965 track. "Pukaarataa Chalaa Huu.N Mai.N Galii Galii Bahaar Kii Bas Ek Chhaa.Nv Zulf Kii Bas Ik Nigaah Pyaar Kii Pukaarataa Chalaa Huu.N Mai.N " Does this mean I have no taste in music? No individuality? Eeeew this guy is good. art-is-symbolism.html Check his comments. And then he pens this post lemmings-to-sea.html. You almost think that this guy is nuts because he speaks about the forbidden truth which we are obviously not ready to accept .Right ? Wrong , because in the last paragraph he says "I personally disagree with most of it. " Now you are stranded. Well atleast I am.