Reminded of kamakura, Japan!!

This morning's supplement of "The Hindu" took me back a couple of years. It reminded me of my visit to kamakura, a buddhist place in Japan.

'guess it was November 2004. It was the first time I was out of home during Deepavali. Co-incidentally the article has come today while we are celebrating Deepavali :). I had been to Japan for a few days on official work. I remember how excited I was; after all it was my first trip overseas. I had hoped I would get a good feel of Tokyo & Japan; & of life outside India!!

Sadly, it was work allthrough. The days would start early but end late. Finally, just before the day we left Japan, I coerced Arun, my collegue for a outing. We searched around the net for information and finalized, with the limited time we had with us, on travelling to kamakura. We wanted to try a ride on bullet train but unfortunately didn't have enough time!! :(

Kamakura is around an hour's train ride from Tokyo. It's a beautiful town, very clean I must say. Its a place full of temples & shrines. The major attraction being a Buddha statue. The statue stood poised exhibiting serenity & peace, qualities we have come to associate with Buddha naturally.



We took quite a walk in the town & enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks to "The Hindu" for reminding me of it. :) I called up Arun immediately & shared bits of our time there together.

As we talk of Japan, we(me & Arun) can't forget how we landed ourselves in trouble the last day while we were on our way back to India. That's when money made us realize what it is!!! We had dollars, we had international cards and good backups; but none would help us!! What an experience..!!! Now we chuckle over it, but then?!!.. 'will write on it sometime!!

Kudos to ISRO!!

Yet another milestone for ISRO!!

The Chandrayaan-1 mission is reported to have gone every bit as planned so far and is expected to be a success. Congratulations to ISRO & the people who made it possible. It indeed is a maverick achievement for ISRO (& hence for us Indians) to have indigenously planned, developed and executed the mission so well.

Kudos to the scientists involved. I am eager to see things as successful over the next two weeks in the mission's journey towards the orbit around moon.

A(nother) gem of a movie!

You will like this; said my brother, as he passed on a set of CDs of "Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara". I was pleased. It was a movie I had wanted to watch but for various reasons missed.

The movie made for a wonderful watch. The cast has done a splendid job. The screenplay is brief, good and natural. while the movie itself is about the psychologically affected professor and his thoughts, I got really impressed with the character of Trisha. The character very well paints the emotions and helplessness of a daughter as she holds on her commitment to her aging father amongst indifferent siblings.

I am thankful.

I am very happy. A worrisome little period has ended for me.

My brother seemed to have a few health problems. The doctor had kept him on medications for almost 2 months. Yesterday, the final MR spectroscopy proved good for us. The signs I was scared of had vanished from the reports and the doctor confirmed he is perfectly alright now. Thank goodness.

But these things happening in my life always leave me with questions. My mother went through a tough time a few years back; strong lady that she is. Thankfully, my brother has come clean and we didn't have to go through a lot. But then, as these things happen, I do not understand if I should fret and feel sad that they are happening; or should I be happy I have the required resources, financial & otherwise, to take care of the same!!

As strong I push myself to be, I do not want to be in such a situation any more. The three weeks spent in the hospital while my mother was operated on are still alive in my mind. The images from the ICU still linger. Those kids..almost just born..I saw while I accidentally stepped into the children ICU instead of where my mother was..oh god..wonder how they could take take all that.

I am thankful for everything I am provided with. 'wonder how I could have handled these if my life hadn't turned out the way it has!!

Rock On!!

Watched "Rock On" recently. It is one of the best I have seen in recent times. Though the story revolves around a rock band, what I liked best was the way the relationships are shown. I admire the subtlety with which the film portrays the life threads of the members of the band.

The film wonderfully made me rethink on one thing we all seem to repeatedly do; get lost in things that happen in our lives. Whoever said "to err is human", that seems really true. Here and there thing happen in life which we wish had not. But then, once done, what does one do? The situation becomes more difficult if one feels he contributed in someway to it happening; willingly or not!!

Such things sure stay on for life, hurting mostly. I guess, one can only try to move on. If one is totally responsible, one can, at most, ensure such a thing doesn't repeat. When there are two or more contributing to it, may be they can try talking to each other to get it out of their minds. But, what if others are not party to it? May be they don't realize they partly contributed to it!! Then again, I guess the only option left is to ensure such things do not repeat from self!!

On a side note, I would like to see many more such movies; the kinds we can relate to as individuals.

A hike up an hill & Verna drive!

As usual, had met my best pals, P, N & J over dinner a few days back. We friends have known and spent time with each other for more than 10 years now. We turn nostalgic every time we meet recollecting and joking around our hostel life. S, J's wife has joined the club since their marriage. She must be appreciated for the ease with which she has got used to our group and become part of it.

It was during this dinner that she talked of a trip!! Well! As usual we talked and then got back to our busy days at work :)

It was her again last Wednesday!! mailing all of us and luring us on the trip. As usual, none of us lazy boys replied!!! Luckily, she didn't give up. She kept on mailing and insisting on the trip. Finally, thanks to her, we decided on going to shivagange, a hilly place around 70KMs from Bangalore.

So, we set off, early on Saturday morning, on N's new Verna. We couldn't believe the traffic was that horrible at 7 in the morning!! But then, once off the city, we were in for a very good drive. We had our breakfast at Kamath and then J took over the drive towards shivagange.

The place is good for those interested in climbing. Its quite an hike up and steep in between. We had a whole day with us to spend. It took us some time to motivate J to complete the hike all the way to the top though!! Below are a few shots from the place.

Another highlight was that I drove the Verna back all the way from there to my home. The car is too good when it comes to handling. It is amazingly stable on road. What I liked most was the smoothness of the gear box. My swift takes some effort on my part when I change gears; but for Verna, a single finger could do the trick :). It was very comfortable in the heavy city traffic on the way back too!!

That's the top!!





That's our group!!

From 'Gandhi!

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

Action expresses priorities.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

- M. K. Gandhi

Information management, everybody seems on it!

Stumbled upon a new Microsoft research initiative today; The Research Desktop! As can be guessed, the objective is to help researchers(read information gatherers :)) organize their search for information through the world wide data (sic, for web) and the results achieved for better management and collaboration. There is a nice video showcasing the product prototype here.

It's amazing how the problem has shifted; from that of collecting information to managing!! Information is not a big deal today at all; thanks to the internet. But making one's way through the info-mass available? you bet!

The gap between information, personal & otherwise is dropping & a lot of tools have come to help us better manage the same. Research desktop is a new initiative in that direction. Gleefully, I am into development of a tool to manage personal information (personally on the public domain :)). Smart desktop is another product which is soon going to integrate with the product I am currently working on. Feels nice to be developing something that is going to help self, off the shelf. :))