| Hello Sir/Mam, |
Nothing beats a trip into the heart of Nature, and that’s exactly what we did. After ‘years’ of deliberation and planning we had finally decided on a location. Goa, Coorg, Pondicherry you name it we had planned it. In the end it was Hogenekkal falls, a beautiful water fall on the Kaveri River 150 Km off Bangalore. On a beautiful Saturday morning, after a wholesome breakfast @ Udupi Garden, we set out. Neither the delayed start nor the imminent threat of rains could spoil our spirits. The journey turned out to be as much fun as the destination. The journey brought us some unexpected but pleasant surprises as well. We all realized that the pangs of corporate life had managed to suppress the treasure trove of talents that our team possessed. Led by Sasi, the whole team grooved to some wonder full tracks and ‘composed’ scores of new songs along the way. It also took a lot of effort and cajoling to get Rama show some moves, but it was well worth the effort. Contrary to popular belief in the team, the impromptu decision to celebrate Mittu’s birthday on the way wasn’t all that impromptu. The ‘impulsive’ decision was triggered off when the cake was found under a set of bags, beautifully out of shape. So, we stopped on the way, 3 hours out of Bangalore and in the middle of nowhere and had a wonderful birthday celebration. Though most of the cake ended up on Mittu, we could all manage to find a piece. I am sure Mittu is forever indebted to us for the wonderful party and the birthday bumps. Hogenekkal turned out to be a great place. Thanks to the rain Gods, the weather was perfect for a coracle trip. After much bargaining we finally got into the coracles and away we went. For those of you who havn't heard of coracles before, they are small lightweight circular boats that can seat up to 6 people, including the oarsman. Basically they are large jittery pans that leak frequently and miraculously push the limits of buoyancy to stay afloat. Initially, we lazed along the river taking in every bit of the breathtaking scenery and the fine mist of water that emanated from the waterfall. To our delight, our oarsman maneuvered us directly into one of the many curtains of falling water. Next we went into some amazing spins in the boat which left most of us dizzy, but was a lot of fun. Our next adventure was on land where we overcame slippery rocks and difficult terrain to reach another part of the waterfall. Though the short trek was tiring, it was well worth the effort as we got to discover the best part of the waterfall which even included its very own mini rainbow. The best part of the trip was to come next. Our coracles dropped us off on an island-of-sorts that had a mini waterfall on a stream of its own. The whole team jumped in and had a lot of fun just challenging the force of water. While some got into aggressive splash fights, others were content just lazing away in the stream letting the strong current give them a soothing massage. Not to be forgotten are the highly enthusiastic but mildly successful attempts of Samrat to go upstream that showcased the grit and determination that we Infoscions are known for. We wrapped up the day at a wonder full tea stall. I am not sure whether it was exhaustion or the taste of river water that we had gotten used to, but the tea was out-of-this-world. Some of us also found delight in the fresh fish that is fried in the local stalls. Though majority of us did not know swimming and the concern of staying afloat in a leaky pan was primary, we all came out very soaked but extremely happy. The trip back home saw no let down in enthusiasm as songs and dances set the bus on fire (not to be taken literally). On a whole it was a rocking trip that will be remembered fondly.PS: For all those people wondering what a Life team or an 'Infoscion' is: This is my (ex)project team at Infosys. Folks who work at Infosys are called Infoscions.
This is about the onslaught of the soaps or 'serials' that millions of Indian households have come to consume in alarmingly large quantities.
Recently, as I channel surfed my way back and forth across channels 1 through 40 (yes there was 'nothing' on TV worth watching... seriously!!) I happened to catch a glimpse of these programs. You'll never miss them if you know what to look out for:
- painted faces (including the guys.. lips stick et al )
- shot in nauseatingly soft focus video
- the average ratio of women to men in every screen is 10:1
- faces usually found in various states of frozen expressions
- their names contain an amazing number of 'K's
Now, that you know how to identify the threat, let me take my point further. I came across one on channel 34. The whole family seemed to be huddled up in the vast palatial hall. One very stone faced lady seemed to be accusing another of crimes against humanity while the other defiantly looked on. What struck me the most was that, after each word the actress screamed, the screen would freeze and would be followed by a "DDDDSSSSSSSHHHH" sound. I am aware of this sound effect technique they used in the 1980's. But, here for every word, the sound effect would kick in. Moreover, I realized to my horror that this was repeated for every person on the screen for every word. The funniest part was the myriad expressions of the actors- all frozen while the camera did amazing maneuvers around their still faces.
Soon I realized why these were called mega-serials. The lady on screen had taken a whole 15 minutes to scream out her sentence, one precious word at a time. I had just lost 15 precious minutes of my life that could have been devoted to world peace, saving the human race or better still watching porn. To take things into my own hands before I could waste any more time, I jumped to channel 38. I nearly fainted... A similar set of females donned the screen. They stood frozen with one trying to slap the other while the other blocked. At the same time the camera did evey possible maneuver it could in the X,Y and Z coordinates. This could easily make even the overly frozen Dhoom 2 scenes pale in comparison. Suddenly, not only were the sound effects repeated in hypnotizing monotony, the camera decided take the liberty of doing the same with every other persons in the room in the same manner. I blacked out...
Folks, the attack of the 'K'serials is upon us..
Rise my fellowmen and fight for your sanity !!
Folks, say hello to my brand new tech blog -> http://cijal-tech.blogspot.com . I think I'd keep this site free of my geeky misadventures and focus more on my general ( non-tech ) thoughts.
PS: Please note that the site is still in beta, and have very few articles.
Folks check out the Apple iPhone announcement happening live... Its soo cool, I think I'm choking with excitement !!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/live-from-macworld-2007-steve-jobs-keynote/
Got a broad band connection recently and don't know what to do with it? Other than P2P filesharing and videos heres something that you should not miss at all. Podcasts.
What are Podcasts?
They are just audio files that you can download and listen to. Most of them give you a radio program feel and are available on nearly any and every topic you can think of.
Want a more comprehensive take?? Check out Wikipedia.
How to get Podcasts?
Try out iTunes or just Odeo. Not enough ? Google it.
Listening to Podcasts
You can listen to it from flash based web players as on Odeo or download it on to your system and use your favourite mp3 player. Better still transfer it to your portable mp3 player and listen to it on the go !!
My favorite Podcast?
TWIT - A weekly podcast thats the best round up of all the tech stuff that goes around.
I just installed Ubuntu ( Kubuntu ) on my laptop today and it blew me away!! It detected everything I had on my laptop. And guess what, my touchpad works better here that in windows. I inserted my bluetooth dongle and Wala !! A message box shows up saying bluetooth found; in no time I was transferring files with my phone.
Its been quite a while since I got my hands on Debian based OS and well this was worth the wait!!
Unfortunately, as with most Linux distros ( except Debian ) after the initial honeymoon period, some of the real bugs start showing up and spoiling your happiness. Lets see what happens here.
Will keep you guys posted when my honeymoon ends !!!
UPDATE: The honeymoon has ended. I just tried to update my system with a few new languages and now my X server wont start up i.e. I'm stuck up on the command line. Dont have time to try to fix this one yet, so I'm back with the Devil (Win-doooze).
Well lets just say, that I pushed by Edgy Eft a little too far.
A few days back, I was informed via email that we were to undergo a security audit of our PCs soon by an external auditor. Attached with the mail was list of 'safe' software that was allowed. As expected all the softwares that I usually use were not included in the list ( firefox, iTunes et al.).
As I made up my mind to break myself from the shackles of corporate slavery, I gathered a small group of rebels. We would beat the audit. As the rebellion gathered momentum.. I got yet another mail.
I was one of the internal auditors selected to audit, 10 PCs in my vicinity to make sure they were safe and secure.. All the my collegues with whom I had so enthusiastically shared the secrets of deciept in were now bang in between me and my duty. I was the law, and they were sidestepping it. The freedom fighters had become terrorists!!
I had been trapped. There was no escaping. They had played a game, and they had won. I uninstalled with a heavy heart the software closest to my heart, Firefox and went on to dutifully do the same on my collegues PCs.
It had been done. I accepted my fate with muted resistence.. I had become the tie wearing, nauseatingly caffeinated corporate zombie that I had always loathed. This cubicle inmate bowed his head in self pity, as he shamelessly typed 'slashdot.org' in the IE address bar.
We live in a cynical world.. a cynical.. cynical world !!!
