Hi,
Some time ago (when this was blog was hibernating) I saw . I loved the movie. Performances, editing, direction, music and storyline was really good. Though its a flop, people will remember this as a classic. Sudhir Mishra has done a very good job. I always loved his movies. Is raat ki subah nahi was the first one that I remember. I remember talking my friends into watching an unheard of film with no star cast. After the movie everyone was thanking me. :). Culcutta mail was not as good but I dint hate it. Chameli was also ok although a bit slow. But chameli music score was good. So is HKA music. I dint notice it when I was watching the movie because I was totally into the story. A couple of days ago a friend reminded me of a song from the film. I got the song and been listening to it over and over.

Go on.. give it a try.. its called "Bavra Mann" by Swanand Kirkire.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Last weekend I was in Bangalore. I spent the weekend at the place I used to call "home" for last one and a half years. I packed all my stuff. Took some of it with me back to Hyderabad. Everything else will arrive here in Hyderabad tomorrow and with that I will be broken off from Bangalore.

I enjoyed in Bangalore. Work was good. People were excellent. My "Home" there was a nice quiet place and had a homely feel to it. I surely will miss it. I was a little sad when I left the place for good. But such is life and you have to move on. And after all I have moved to a place which is closer to my REAL home. So I am sure everything will be as good as Bangalore if not better.

I have shifted to my new place in Bangalore. This house is HUGE. Located in center of the city. It is very convenient for me because its at a walking distance from my office. Next few days will be spent in setting up the place and buying essential stuff (buckets, hangers etc.).

Looking forward to my stay in Hyderabad.

And for Bangalore, So long and thanks for all the fish!

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Last night I, with few friends, went to a place called . Someone read about this in the local newspaper and we ended up there last night. There were indians deressed up as arabians with that-funny-looking-ring on the head. There were huge TV screens playing arabic-belly-dancer songs. And there was some Arabic food with weird names. Frankly, I dint like the food much.

In the end, everyone agreed that real belly dancers would have made a good impression.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,




Isnt this cool? Some "Graciela Tidwell (seapk@yahoo.com)" sent this to me yesterday. Stupid Gmail had put it in the Spam folder. I wish I had this information before I spent four years and a lot of money for a degree. Anyways, better late than never. In about two weeks you all will address me as Dr. Rumplestiltskin.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

I confess I am a gadget freak. That does not mean I buy gadgets. I think, read, dream about them. And I would buy all of them if I had enough money. I have been planning for a for sometime now and would have bought one in next couple of months but now I have decided to wait for Mactel machines.

Another cool gadget I have been dreaming about is . I found this one at some months back and I still want one. The idea behind the gadget is really new and cool. In a nutshell, this thing tracks your sleeping pattern or something and wakes you up when you are most awake.


I-WANT-ONE!

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,


Last night I saw

I am damn impressed. Chris Nolan is one amazing fellow. He has brought batman to the real world.

This is a prequel (everyone wants one these days!) to the earlier batman movies. It tells the story of young Bruce Wayne and how he became the Caped Crusader. Previous batman movies went for the comic book look with funny angles and contrasting lights. This one has more real world look which I preferred. These days, everyone wants to give a "human face" to superheroes ala Spiderman. But this movie is much much better than Spidey I & II.

Nolan's Gotham is more like a normal real world metro, polished on the surface but rotten to the core. His Bruce Wayne is young, confused and angry for revenge. Movie is kind of slow at the beginning but picks up the pace at the right time. It is not at all boring but in the end 2 hrs and 20 mins without an interval is bit too long for me.

Christian Bale carries the role well with his George Clooney looks. He has a millionaire brat's look and batman's body. Michael Caine's Alfred is absolutely fabulous. I will certainly remember his "Newwa" for a long time. Morgan Freeman and his bat gadgets are special attractions. The New Batmobile is a bit heavy but not bad at all. Gary Oldman is lieutenant Gordon (soon to be commissioner) and Katie Holmes is (new Tom Cruise girl!) Rachel, Bruce's girl.

There are no fabulous super villains here. Unlike last three movies, this movie is about batman and not about jokers, penguins, cat women, riddlers, two-faces, Mr. Freezes. But Liam Neeson does a good job there.

I was just surprised when Alfred calls him "Master Wayne".. shouldn't it be "Master Bruce"??

Conclusion: 4 and a half stars.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

my dear, my dear
it is very clear
your eyes have stolen
my mind, i fear
my dear, my dear, my dear...


my eyes, my dear,
are not mind-stealer
you must have lost
your mind somewhere
my dear, my dear, my dear....


HOWZZAT ????


Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Today's Pune Times Su-Doku puzzle is :

3 9 - - 6 - - 4 1
- - 8 9 - 1 3 - -
- - - 2 - 4 - - -
- 1 - 3 - 7 - 5 -
- 3 - - - - - 6 -
- 4 - 8 - 6 - 2 -
- - - 1 - 9 - - -
- - 3 5 - 2 6 - -
5 2 - - 8 - - 9 4

And the solution (done by me program) is :

3 9 2 7 6 8 5 4 1
4 6 8 9 5 1 3 7 2
1 5 7 2 3 4 9 8 6
8 1 6 3 2 7 4 5 9
2 3 9 4 1 5 8 6 7
7 4 5 8 9 6 1 2 3
6 8 4 1 7 9 2 3 5
9 7 3 5 4 2 6 1 8
5 2 1 6 8 3 7 9 4

Hopefully its correct.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

For last couple of days I was in Pune. I reached there on Saturday morning and was on the way to Lonavala by 9. Couple of friends got together and decided to goto Lonavala just like good old days. One of us insisted on having breakfast at RamKrishna and the other one insisted on Kamat's. For those who are uninitiated, these are couple of famous restaurants. After that we had no plan in mind (as usual) and just kept driving until we somehow reached a place called Lion's point. I had never heard of this before. It was a beautiful place and I dont know if I could find my way back there again. We were there just by chance.

The road took us to the entry of Amby Vally. The drive was good and the weather was not bad. Some of us were sad because it was not raining. We traced our way back and found ourselves back on Mumbai-Pune Expressway. On the other side of the road we saw a US Pizza joint near a petrol pump (or gas station, depending on your geographical location). Everyone was very hungry and hogged a lot. After some time it started pouring like hell. It was really cool. Had a very nice time with the old gang.

For next three days I was absolutely at home and down with bad cough. I took the opportunity and and read Star Wars: A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back again. Cool stuff. I dont think I will ever get bored of these fantasies.

Recently Pune Times has started with a puzzle called Su-Doku. Its totally addictive. Sort of like Mine Sweeper. It is not entirely deterministic just like mine sweeper. I kept on solving these stupid puzzles and today when I finally had access to a computer I wrote a program to solve the deterministic part of it. Nondeterminism will take brute-force and backtracking which is kind of boring. Actually, not boring but a bit tricky :). I will need some time to do that. I am not atall satisfied with my raw code. I will rewrite it and post it here if I am satisfied.

One more thing. Bangladeshis killed Aussies. English killed Aussies. This was by far the most satisfying thing that happened in a long long time.

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Posting this because I feel like writing now. This is kind of addictive. You start writing and you don't want to stop. I think this would be a big problem for professional writers. Many times I feel that some book boring because the author dint know where to stop. I don't have that problem because I don't care if this blog gets boring. Hell, I don't even know if anyone is reading this. This is the thing. BLOGGERS DON'T CARE. I blog because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel that I am doing something constructive and creative which is a good illusion to have. And even though I know that its not true, I will believe in it anyway. This is the best thing about being human. You can believe in two entirely contradicting theories. I remember reading about this human quality before. I don't remember where. Was it . Oh yes! I took a detour and searched the online 1984. This human quality is called Doublethink in Newspeak. I am entirely for doublethink. It makes life easier. I am idealistic as long as it doesn't get very difficult. In Pune when I see students or people from north India I generally think "These people are ruining the city!" but when people here or in Bangalore look at me and say the same thing I think "Oh! These south Indians are so narrow minded". That's doublethink for you. All you have to do is think that you are the most important person in this world and doublethink comes naturally.

Blog is just one of the things that makes you feel that. :)

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Almost a year ago I was looking for a place to stay in Bangalore. It took me some 2-3 weeks to find. (All that is well documented in this blog. You can check it up in May 2004 archive at your own risk).

Its been 2 days since I am looking for a place in Hyderabad. I did not know any broker here. Yesterday morning one of my friends (Oh, what would I do without them!!) called me and told me that he knows a guy who wants to rent out his place. It turned out that this place is at walkable distance from my new office (we will shift in the new office soon). Today morning I went and saw the place. Its HUGE and in-budget. It is perfect. I will share this place with two other friends from Bangalore.

That was easy. I had planned this home-hunt for the weekend. Now I have a free weekend. That means I am going to Pune. I like this city better than Bangalore already! :)

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

Movies I saw in last couple of months :

1) Parineeta.
2) Star Wars Episod III
3) The Ring 2
4) Schindler's list (on vcd)
5) Mr and Mrs Smith
6) Bunty aut Babli
7) .. and some more.

I saw Parineeta last week in Mumbai. Movie is well made and pretty good. Except melodramatic climax, everything looks ok there. Reccommended. I will give it four stars.

Star Wars! Almost 5 stars!

Ring 2 was stupid and was not scary atall. 1 star (that too cause I am a nice guy!)

Schindler's list is the first movie I watched on VCD. And it turned out to be (as I knew) very good. All thanks to Smriti's VCD player. Enjoyed it a lot. :)

M&M Smith is an OK movie. Nothing great about it. Guys go to see Angelina and girls to watch Brad Pitt and thats it. 2 stars.

B&B was the same story. Guys for Rani and girls for Abhishek. Almost 3 stars (would have been 2 and half without Ash item song)

Thats all folks.


Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

If I say I am posting this after a long time, that would be an understatement. This blog is almost dead. Thats because I was damn busy for last couple of months. I was not doing anything but I was busy thinking about things. I have found out that taking decisions is the most difficult thing in the world. Especially when you have to choose between two good things. And then at the back of your mind you kind of know that eventually either of them is going to sound stupid.

I left Adaptec some 2 weeks ago. That decision was pretty simple. Three days ago I joined a startup called Server Engines in Hyderabad. This decision gave me sleepless nights. I had other offers from good companies. I had offers from companies from three different cities. Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore. In the end I just made a decision to come to Hyderabad. Let me rationalize this for a moment

1) It is a startup and the people have a good reputation.
2) I will be working on the same product for some time and then will move to the next version.
3) I was sick and tired of Bangalore.
4) Hyderabad is closer to my home town.
5) Last but not the least.. money is not bad either. :)

Looks pretty ok.. but I could have rationalized for the other choices also. So in the end only time will tell if this decision was right. Till then I am planning to resurrect this blog. I will try and post atleast one entry daily.

Yours Sincerely,