"If you are a young musician I can only tell you one important thing, practice, practice and practice... play your scales.. " - Ray Manzarek.

I did not know who is this fellow until I saw the interview, he is the keyboard player of the great band called Doors.

There is a nice video interview of his at:
http://msnbc.com/modules/take3/dec/default.htm?s=4&p=3

Whats the deal with Sania? (in the same tone as Seinfield says.. Whats the deal??)
I mean come on. whats the deal with her? She wins, she is on cover page, she loses she is on cover page. She is playing some tennis tourney in some part of the world.. she is in the news.. she is resting in Mumbai, still she is in the news..
So whats the deal with Indian Media and Times of India? And hello Indian Express.. you too? I believed atleast IE was a better newspaper.. but no.. they are in the same line as ToI. Why do they give so much attention to her?? She looks good and is even better a tennis player.. and has made India and Indians proud.. but come on.. not every day do I want to see my newspaper with the same news..

Once, in an TV interview Nana Patekar said, "Naseeruddin Shah is truly the superstar of millennium".. I think the movie Iqbal just supports his statement. Naseerbhai.. u r simply superb.. and awessome performances by Shweta Prasad, Pratiksha Lonkar, Girish Karnad, Yateen Karyekar and Shreyas Talpade.. not to forget Nagesh Kukuoor for such a simple yet beautiful movie. Iqbal, is a very good move, a must see. Because all the actors actually live the roles. Sometimes all that we see in the movie looks too good to be true.. looks as though this is a "Real Fiction". This is a story about a deaf and blind person, who is possessed by Cricket, a loving mother and sister truly supporting him in his endeavor making us forget that he has any physical disabilities. This is also the story about a coach, whose present is taken over by his past, and how he transforms to reinvent himself. The story is not about only cricket.. but the triumph of human spirit over all the odds and evils. Very much like Lagaan or Black or movies of that kind.
One will be just overwhelmed by the way Naseer has embodied his character.. how effortlessly he carries himself, and does some cool dialogue delivery.. like when he bowls first ball.. right on spot and then says to himself "Lagta hai waqt ke deemak ne muze abhitak khokla nahi bana diya.." the line taken v v well from Sholay.. He is also entertaining in the scenes with Iqbal's sister, with Iqbal.. actual all over in the movie. And at the when he says to Girish Karnad.. "Badi muddat se muze ye baat kaee lognse ye keheni thi.. mere papa se, aap se...Go to HELL".. and there was a big applause in the theatre at this time..
Overall Iqbal is a nice experince.. and it has a nice soundtrak too.. "Aashayein" is my favorite.. hope I can play that song on guitar soon.

While I was on my way to work.. I saw something very unusual, the scene we see in only movies. A girl was doing tight rope walking.. she could be only 10-12 years old. The setup was ready.. a man was playing some drum like thing.. Not many spectators watching. There was one young girl in the spectators who was doing the video shooting on her mobile phone, because where do you get to see this thing these days? I was thinking.. how much these people must be making? And this is not an easy job at all.. everytime they have to risk to earn some money.

I saw the Manipal college ad video, based on Summer of 69... its awessone. Its so different.. and a story in itself.. on the background of a nice campus and beautiful landscapes. The song 'Summer of 69' is modified in such a way that it suits the mood perfectly. And the storyline... and that touching ending.. maan gaye jisne ye video banaya hai. A must see..

I am working late in the office after a long long time.. something I used to do pretty regularly some time back.. this is the first time infact after I have moved to the new office location, where my cube is next to the window, where the noises of the road are so loud and clear.. I could be alone on the floor, except the security.. good part is I can play my musik without someone having to tell me to keep it low.. and I guess my room cleaning old friends will appear soon.

Why do only drunk people lose their wallets? And if they lost all the money how come they left some for drinking.. Such fellow met me yesterday.. evening time. I was shopping something. There, this guy started talking to me.. first he asked me for a ride to the place he was saying. He was looking ok, speaking good English, was 'smelling'. I said ok, I will drop you.. Then he said he needed help.. financial help because he lost his wallet, which had fair amount of money and and ATM card. And then he explained me as how he called up the bank helpline and how he went to the bank office and how they do not cooperate. He said he wanted some money to 'follow up'. I was like.. sorry sir, I can drop you home, but cannot pay you.. even as a friendly gesture (his words), for it is uncomfortable for me to help this way. He tried to explain as how he has to approach his relatives for money now.. just continued on.. Somehow I got rid of him.
But how come people drink when they lose all the money? I could not ask him this..

NakTee chya lagnala yenar nahit itki vighna mazya MBA assignments karayla yet ahet.. Its been a long time that they are pending, and I am escaping to work on them under the excuse that "Work expands with time". So finally, I had to take some time out off my busy schedule, so, yesterday took half day off from office to do some assignment work and ran to home.. But was too tired, so thought it won't hurt to sleep a bit. A bit of sleep got over by a phone ring.. my friend, Adi, called saying he had come to Pune. Thatsit.. nothing holds more priority to this. So spent the whole evening with him. Atteneded his friend's marriage with him, of the person I did not know :) Afterall friend's friend is your friend.. And this is not the frist time I am attending friend's friend's wedding.. I am getting used to this.
And in the last, I had to drop him to bus stand on JM Road, with just 15 minutes left for the bus departure. There is some construction going on near E-Square signal, so avoid it took the Model colony way.. and I got lost. The roads I took in Model colony took me to univ road, where I did not want to go to... we were late. Fortunately the bus had not left, Adi cursed me a lot while driving.. thats all he could do.
Anyways.. the half day off I took got over at 11 in the night.. very little I could work on the assignment work.

I read a novel "Shala" by Milind Bokil. Its one amazing book. Its a book about the school going kids.. 9th standard class. It happanes in a semi-urban kind of area.. some 25 years back. The author has captured that time very well.. and what I liked the most was the typical marathi medium school. Some things about the school are so universal that it was history coming back for me, and for so many times.. I kept thinking that thats my school. and there are my friends.. calling people even the closest of your friends by last names.. and then those crushes.. and making pairs of teachers.. making fun of the teachers.. getting hit by teachers.. teasing the classmates by the names of the girls.. man.. thats so much common. I could identify the characters in the book to real life people as such. Thats what my friend told me when he recommended me that book.. that you will like it.. those were the days..

These days I am reading a novel on Mirza Ghalib "Katha eka shayarachi" (story of a shayar) by Indumati Shewade. This is written on life of the arguably greatest urdu (and persian) poet. The author did five years of research and created this piece of work, filling in the gaps in his story but keeping the history unchanged.

Ghalib's life was marked by misery and incompleteness. He never got the monetary wealth. He never bought his own house. None of his seven children survived. His parents left him at early age. He got married at an early age in a noble family, but his wife was not very fond of his poetry. She loved him, but he never got the appreciation from her for his work, which a poet would always search for. He then fell into love with a dancer who would sing his gazals, but their story remained incomplete, because of her death.. may be it was meant to be so.

Regardless of how much or how less wealthy he was, he had extravagent habits, suited to only nawabs. He was blessed with the poetic acumen, but also was very sarcastic and arrogant; that kind of arrogance suits to only a genius. He ran into debts, and probably never got out of it.
God gave him myriad of problems, and a heart of a poet. And every time he went into trouble, he came up with a master piece in the poetry.

I have not read much of his poerty, as Urdu is not very known to me. But his work, whatever small I have read is strikingly romantic, rueful at times, arrogant and beautiful. He never let the romanticism of his character go, no matter what he faced in his life. Its just impossible for me to believe that such person actually existed.
The book does not have much of his poetry.. here is one I liked..

Meherbaan hoke bulalo, muze chahe jis waqt
Mai gaya waqt nahi, jo wapas na aa saku.

Saturday 5th March, 2005. I went to see one of my idols.. Mark Knopfler. It was a lifetime experience.. I was just lucky to be there. He is so cool.. This 56 year old guy, who talks the language of music.. and man.. he talks it so well. No gimmicks.. just plain and mesmerising music. "Sultans of Swing" was the highlight of the evening.. actually the entire show was too good.

One year back, I played tennis with my friend Adi and lost to him 6-0. Today I gave it back to him.. 6-2. :). Quite remarkable achievement for me!

The tennis seems to be ending soon.. I hope it does not. For the first time I was on time for tennis, just to know that the current coach is ending his sessions on Gymkhana. Looks like he is moving to other court. It seemed like we had a nice group got together here, which will split soon.. which is really sad.
On second thoughts.. this is what AB says.. on his philosophy of life, which is a phrase by his father:
"Mann ka ho to achcha, aur na ho to aur bhee achcha."
Kyoki, jo aapke mann ka nahi hota hai wo Ishwar ke man ka hota hai, aur wo kabhibhi aapki burai nahi chahate.
(Its good if things happen your way, but its even better if they don't happen your way).

I was listening to music.. and suddenly I recalled some beats, sounded really familiar, and I knew they are a part of some song, (just like a deja-vu ?). But could not identify, because I could not recall the tune, just the beats. When I searched thro my collection.. I got it. Good, it didn't take me long. It was "While my guitar gently weeps". Such a relief.. Hmm.. I have some spare time on my hand until IBM releases that fix pack.

Laws of the bus journey:

• If there are more than 1 buses waiting for departure, yours will leave later. If you change the bus then the earlier will leave first, in that case yours will be the last one to leave.
• If you find a neat looking seat, its got 'sticky' floor.
• If you want a break in the journey, the bus will either not take a break, and when it takes a break you aren't in a need for it.
• The fellow passanger next to you will occupy most portion if the seat, and if that person sleeps, you have to be awake to escape from his usage of your shoulder.
• If you catch a sleep, and if the bus takes a break, you will be woken up by others (mostly by people on the station) because they want to know where this bus is heading to, or inside the bus because you are on aisle seat. You will be shaken and then woken up.
• If there is a noisy child, its in your close vicinity.
• If you don't have the exact change, then neither does the conductor have it. And you will be the last person to get the change (if you are lucky), in normal cases you have to ask for it, and chances are that he will tie the change up in between you and some other fellow, so that you have to hang around with that fellow to get your share.

I just love this bus journey!

Yesterday I flew kite.. don't remember what was the last time I did it.. I had a 'kata hua patang' with its own 'manja'. I was on a roll. Was successful in clearing the skies, cutting 2 kites, did not leave any chance for the competition. I had my friend (abt 5 years young) assisting me, holding the chakree. I had an easy first prey. He just walked into my area and got cut off. I had to borrow some manja from my assitant, for my kite to compete with a higher kite. Again successful.. but this time my friend started troubling me because he also wanted to fly the kite.. Then we had an argument on whose part of manja has cut the competition, his or mine. Kids just don't give up!!
I realized what I missed for so many years.

Our on-site manager came in our office today. He got 2/3 packs of chocolates.. The moment everyone got mail that chocolates are in the pantry, everyone rushed. Upto this point everything is fine.. Then comes the most disgusting part. Most of the people started taking hands-full of chocolates.. No shame at all.. I asked some of them why do u want so many?? 'For my kids' or 'For my friends' were the answers. Will these people go and buy chocolates for their kids/friends only because they like? I don't think so. They took as much as possible only because they are free. "fukat te poushtik"!! Ok.. you can take 1 or two extra.. but picking up pockets full of them.. means you are greedy. All of these are well paid professionals, highly educated and all... but their conscience does not stop them from this greedy behaviour.
I feel.. my be I am wrong, because I was in minority.. no point in teaching them lessons of morality. I am happy that our on-site manager was not there to see this stuff.

I played tennis and was chatting with a my tennis partner afterwards. He is out of job.. for some time. He has done engineering, and worked for some time but lost that one and now is looking for a job. Its a horrible thing.. job search. People who are doing it and who have done it only know what it feels like. And then everyone asks you, did you find something, where all did u apply and finally they will tell you that u will get it. You don't know what to answer them. If they know you right, they won't ask this question. But still some people ask!! And everyone knows that they will land up in a good 1 eventually (if they think otherwise, they should stop thinking), and its a only matter of time.. but this phase is worst. Its pity that well learned people like engineers are unemployed. Although the education is highly underrated in India, because of so many people, a degree holds value.
btw.. speaking of tennis, it seems like my forehand has finally started goin well.. :))

My bike's RC book is missing. To get a duplicate copy, I have to get a report from police that it is missing. So 2/3 weeks after lodging a complaint, I got that report, finally. But had to bribe the police to get it. I went to police chowki nearby, evening time. Told the hawaldar.. 'Saheb, RC book missing cha report pahije, far diwas zale chakkar martoy'. Hawaldar told me to sit in the corner, because he was busy chatting with his buddies, so I sat next to criminal looking fellas. Police station is not a very good place for work, only two types of ppl come there, either police or criminals, generally speaking.. the Akron police station is much better and stronger looking place, ours here is too shabby, old haweli types, typical sarkari office. (I had gone there only for getting the towed car back with my friend, not for any other business ;-)). so.. our saheb told me 'tu far diwas chakkar martos, apala kaam lawkar zala pahije, tyasathi 2/4 rupaye gele tari chaltil. pan mi tula tuza report deto.' (indicating he needs money). after half hr wait, he managed a clerk write a report for me. and he took the report copy in the hand.. and before he handed it to me
saheb: fee dyawi lagel.
mi: (yacha andaz alach hota, pan cheheryawar ashchryache bhav anat) fee???
saheb: ho.
mi: mala mahit nahi kiti dyayachi aste.. (how much)
saheb: tumhi kiti anle ahet? (how much u got?)
mi: ..
I gave him 50 bucks, as he asked me. He gave me the report. I paid him for doing his job.

Today's was another grumpy morning.. when I woke up I realized it one more time that I have to redo my last 2 day's work today.. thanks to the intelligient sys admin's mistake.. And when I was about to get shower, I realized that there is no water. Apparantly due to the water tank cleaning activities going on in the apartment. Thats a nice start of the day I said.. 1 pan goshta manasarkhi hot nahi. Skipped the bath and got ready and went to work. This was probably the first day I went to work 'parosa'. Coming to think of it now, I think its a good idea not to have bath... like everyday. We give too much attention to useless things like bath. Just get ready, dress well, apply a lot of perfume and u r ready to go. Noone can make out that I am special today.. Waise ye dunia to sirf baharke appearace ki taraf dhyan deti hai.. ;-)
Writing a log was on my mind since a long long time. Today I made my debut. Hello World!!