French connection

Something interesting happened in train to Chennai today. Mom dad and I were travelling and a French lady 55 years old was looking a bit lost and seemed to be asking for directions. I offered to help her with directions and spoke in French. I know a bit. She was very thankful. She works for orphanages and and NGO based in Coorg and she is in Chennai to teach English to some slum children. Next week she is going to Dharamshala.

She was in Bangalore for 1 week and I helped her find her coach C1. Once I moved to my coach and the train moved away I was wondering if all was well with her and called on her mobile phone number which she had shared with me. But she was on wrong train and so had changed trains.

She had a tough time, not knowing the language but her spirit was good; she was smiling ; enjoying the experience.

Some coolies charged her a lot of money 100 Rs to go to the train platform; 100Rs to change to another train from platform 7 to platform 1; and then 100Rs in Chennai platform again; she was upset but was laughing
I have invited her over for dinner with mom and dad tomorrow evening

Would we ever do this; at 55 move to another country; look for impoverished areas there; and then help them
not knowing their language; suffer the corruption and then laugh and move on. This is human spirit -
to endure and persist.

I admire it and appreciate it.
That is my story.
P.S On a lighter note when she was boarding the train I mentioned the TGV (train de grande vitesse) capable of moving at 300km/hr in France. She rolled her eyes comparing it to Shatabdi train which move at a top speed of 100km/hr. It was funny to see her expression.

snake!

Yesterday Balaji, a colleague of mine and I met at the Krishna Temple on CMH road and 80 feet road intersection in Bangalore. We usually meet there around 8pm. Something interesting happened. There was a cobra snake that was coiled up in the shoe rack of the temple and it had its hood open. It was pretty intimidating to see the snake up close and personal at 4 feet away. A few well-meaning volunteers had gathered with tongs and wanted to put the snake inside a jute bag. I had learnt from watching Discovery Channel that this exercise is fraught with danger. Since the snake has the infra-red sensory pits it can thermal-image the handler outside the jute bag with a high degree of accuracy and one must be extremely careful of this. The volunteers had a plastic pipe into which they were planning to cajole the snake into. That might work only if it mellows down.

There is something about witnessing the hissing strike posture of a cobra that curdles the blood. One's primeval fears are materialized. One wants to run but the legs dont oblige. One is transfixed by the spectacle marks as the serpent sways. A mesmerizing toxic beauty. One is enchanted and transfixed. And when the head strikes one has scarcely a split-second to move. and should the strike land, one has 5 minutes of euphoric dizziness and agonizing helplessness. The neurotoxin shuts down the diaphragm so respiratory system grinds to a halt. Lack of oxygen to the brain and limbs makes one feel life ebbing away. The heart desperately compensates by beating at 200 beats per minute - more than 3 times its usual rate. And finally it gives up. The last 10 seconds one can only surmise the last thoughts as the brain accepts the inevitable fact - slowly sliding into a spiral of inky black oblivion.

dad's birthday

Tomorrow is my father's birthday. He turns 68. Am planning to get him a surprise gift - a PeterEngland or AllenSolly dress shirt 42 size white color which is his favorite. Will step out during lunch hour and purchase the shirt.

tick tock

Today I ran for the first time this new year on nike+. I did about 3 km in Bangalore Indira Nagar Defence colony in the morning. This was after I went to Malleswaram for my usual Tue, Thur Sat 6am guitar class. I plan to keep these 2 activities (running and guitar) going steady for this year. I wonder how I can squeeze in my Talwalkar's gym routine which is currently suffering. I used to go to the gym in the mornings at 6am but now that seems difficult with the guitar classes and running routine. I could go in the evenings if I head out of work at 5:30. Will try that today and see how that works out. If that works out well I might actually keep an hour for gym work-outs in the evenings. 6:30 to 7:30pm daily.

Time is running fast - tick tock!

awesome Sunday

In the last fortnight of this new year I have made many changes to my life. I bought an electric guitar and started taking guitar classes at Malleswaram in Bangalore with a guru called Seshadri. Yes! am learning carnatic music on the electric guitar. Am  signed up on the nike+ running program and am posting my runs on facebook site which is fun too. I have also started talking with a few people regarding publishing some of my short stories.

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday. Avinash Shaunak and myself played soccer in the morning at Sarjapur road and then hung out at the Garuda mall after lunch where they got some temporary tattoos done. This was a lot of fun. then we went down to Kalmane coffee and had some awesome filtered coffee. We aimlessly wandered around the mall which suited me. We headed back in the evening and did some clothes shopping. I picked some real nice t-shirts and dress shirts from Max retail outlet and then we also met up with Balaji Nerella from our office after 8pm and we all went to Croma, the electronics store to check out some discounts and deals. Namdhari was next door and Balaji did some grocery shopping. That is his favorite place to do shopping for groceries since one gets some niche products (some imported) which ones does not get in other outlets.

We all decided to then head out to Mamamia for some sinfully delicious ice-creams; Avinash had chocolate and I Shaunak had his favorite blueberry flavor and I had Praline and Nuts. The ambience was good and the presentation of the ice-creams was awesome! Highly recommend to everyone.

I went home and my head hit the pillow and I fell asleep with a smile on my face. I wish to fill my life with more such days!

16th october

I share this birthday with another quixotic person of his times Oscar Wilde, known for such quips as 'I am not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens'
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Oscar_Wilde

I was listening to Lynyrd Skynryd's Simple Man and Sweet Home Alabama on youtube. A good friend mentioned this band a few months back and I had almost forgotten them and just today was curious to find out how good their music is. The band has great quality. Great vocals, great groovy rhythm.... just loved it.

Simple Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_aTjXObs

Sweet Home Alabama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHsDa9_HSlA

Was also listening to Simon and Garfunkel. Their album Bridge Over Troubled Water came out in 1969 a year which is just so significant for many world events; moonshot being one of them. The number from the album
Sound of Silence is very popular, if the viewership count on youtube website of 3 million views at the time of this blog posting is any indication.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VflKiZzb4h4

I might have a few birthday resolutions; to gym daily, and remind myself to live free, and live free of fear and make everyday count.

march madness

Greetings!
Dont ask me why this Mar 13th has been the first posting of 2010. No postings in Jan and Feb. Not that it has not been eventful. Hardly that. Looking back, I remember being extremely busy with a Samsung Annual Day celebration where I helped in organizing and participating in our department's Fashion Parade. We won the first place amongst 8 other departments and it gave us a great sense of accomplishment. Personally I realized that I could really inspire people and guide them towards a goal something I did not know I was capable of. Here some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27572036@N07

I did watch a movie at Forum mall movie theatre - Up In The Air. George Clooney was suave and gave a stellar performance. The story of a man who spends a lot of time travelling on his job and is detached emotionally is quite interesting.

I am going to visit Chennai for the first time this year on 20th March. Would be nice to reconnect with sister and brother-in-law. Looking forward to that!

The weather is warming up and I am considering purchasing indoor plants and also join swimming. Might also consider joining Jazz dance again after I dropped out in February. Am also thinking of upgrading my home audio system.

I have started collaborating with a very interesting group of individuals on some startup ideas. We have been having weekly meetings on fridays at 11:30pm IST and 1:30 US East Coast Time. So far this has been going on well. This has been on since feb 1st week and the energy is very positive! More on this later :)

While I was thinking of how to title this posting which is the first for March and also the first for 2010 (MMX in Roman Numerals) I thought of 'march madness'. I also thought of Lewis Carroll's character March Hare in Alice in Wonderland. There is one dialogue between March Hare and Alice in the story where the March Hare says "if you know where you are going you have a much better chance of getting there". There are many clever witty and absurd quips that March Hare makes which makes an interesting read. I will leave the readers with this:
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0012245/quotes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Hare

So that's that.
Adios amigos!
-Prabhakar