Abhimaan

True to it's name, the movie Abhimaan was all about ego and how it mars relationships.

This Hirishikesh Mukherjee movie was brilliant in all aspects.

It had wonderful performances by the lead actors and the character artists - the mellow Jaya Bachchan with her all-expressive-eyes (gosh! just watch piya bina, looTe koi man ka nagar, tere mere milan..and you'll know what I am telling), and Amitabh Bachchan's perfect MCP act! (how I hated him in the movie ;-))

What makes it even more special are the songs. I just love the way the songs transition with the tone of the movie. Romantic (teri bindiya re), peaceful (nadiya kinare), melancholic (ab to hain tumse, tere mere milan), sad (piya bina) and fun (meet na mila re, looTe koi man ka nagar) too! SD Burman's melody and Lata Mangeshkar's rendition creates the magic that makes Hindi cinema (no, not bollywood) what it is.

Go ahead, listen to the songs. You will not be disappointed. Oh! Watch the movie too! :-)

Nanha sa gul khilega angna

Within the matter of a day, a new relation got added. I am now a maami of a cute little baby boy. :-) and it feels wonderful!! (pauses to do a small raise-the-hands-and-sway-from-right-to-left routine) Eagerly awaiting the pics now.

Congrats ka and anna!! Here's wishing the kid and you guys a lifetime of happiness!! Have fun.

Baby's first

Gosh! Time sure flies..my second nephew is growing up so fast! He even sent out a mail to me last week!

This is what it says:

G3XF7ZSAASEeSAZSZAQS


Oh, did I mention that he is all of 7 months now!!! ;-) Where is a baby-language dictionary when you need one.!

to be or not to be?!

With the uncertainty that life is, you never know how much of 'life' one gets to live! You might be the center of the universe one moment and the next moment..poof! You are gone. With that will be gone your thoughts, dreams, relationships..

Keeping this in mind, is it really ok to live the way we want to?

Do what you want to do, be what you want to be. Make your own decisions without considering external factors or people, no matter who they are.. parents, siblings, spouse, children? Even though such decisions end up hurting them. If you live this way, then, when you die, people might not shed a tear, might not remember you for long...? But do we really go through this life to be remembered 'nicely' when we are gone?!? To hear people say - 'Oh! He/She was such a good person' 'Rest in peace' blah blah, and the worst part.. you wouldn't even be alive to hear it!!! ;-)

On the other hand, we get a weird (couldn't find a better word) satisfaction giving away a few things/ambitions/dreams for the people who mean a lot to us. Not to forget, if others too act selfishly, where would we stand??! That thought is scary.

Uff..I can go on and on re-visiting both sides of the coin. Maybe the trick is to find a fine, delicate balance.

That's it!! a fine balance!!! (Few people, 2 actually, would rather say that the halo has made its official re-entry!)
Hmm..where should I start looking?

Mausam ka haal

N: No mails today, wassup?
M: Blue sky :)
N(taking a whole min to understand!!): Soon you'll see thunderstorms and lightning!! ;-)

jab saamne tum aajathe ho..kya jaaniye kya ho jaata hain

chaahatha yeh kahenge..sochatha woh kahenge
aaye woh saamne toh..kuch bhi na keh sake bas
dekha kiye unhe hum


Jagjit Singh and Asha Bhonsle's soulful rendition, lovely lyrics, soft music from the album 'Khwahishein'.
Listen to it here.
Watch it here.

Skanda's rules of classification

A typical conversation with my 3 year old nephew, say, while watching animal planet. (Can be equally applied to any other show on any other channel too!)

Skanda: Adhenadhu?
Me(or his mom): Tiger
Skanda: Tiger kacchatte?
Me: kacchatte
Skanda(watching the tiger stalk a deer): Adhenadhu?
Me:Jinke
Skanda: Jinke kacchalla?
Me: kacchalla

I flip the channel to Cartoon Network..

Skanda(pointing to a book, that Tom the cat, is reading): Chikkamma, adhu?
Me: Book
Skanda: Book kacchatthe?
Me(Eh?): Kacchalla (Notice, I tell something that he is not expecting, usually whatever he asks, that should be the answer!)
Skanda(assertively): Kacchatthe!!!
Me: ok kacchatte!

So, according to Skanda, there are 2 types of people/animals/things etc in this world.
One that bites and one that doesn't.
Simple ain't it! :-) Aahh..to be as innocent as a child again!

Tranquility

Nature's symmetry

These were taken at Ranganthittu on a cloudy Sunday morning. Added some shadow to the images to make the flowers stand apart. I liked the end result and kept the images that way.

Revisited..

..the joys..

.. the sorrows..

.. the fights..

.. the teasing..

.. the senseless debates, which at that time felt oh-so-important..

.. the various bahaanas for bunking classes**..

.. the fierce arguments for increasing the internal score-cards..

.. the last-minute exam preparations..

.. the aching, loving and broken hearts..

.. the awesome days spent here!!!!!





..revisited on friendship day.


**yeah, was still studious enough not to bunk without a valid reason!

The three musketeers

Glimpses of Belur

Khul ke muskuraale

chooDaaye hum woh galiyan

Moved to a new building today after 4 years at SA (Bannerghatta road). The new place is ok in terms of facilities but the cubicle design is pathetic, too much noise and disturbance! Hoping to get used to this new place and direction!

In other things, is there anyone out there who, like me, thought of Auzaar while watching New York???

yaadon ka mausam hain...

jaane kyun... khwaabon ka mausam hai, aur main hoon
mausam hai, aur main hoon
jaane kyun... yaadon ki shabnam hai, aur main hoon
shabnam hai, aur main hoon
yaadein... laayi hain... khushiyaan bhi, aansoo bhi
jaane kyun... ik aisa sangam hai, aur main hoon
sangam hai, aur main hoon

This beautiful song from Veer Zaara was unfortunately not picturized or was removed from the movie. It has a soulful and melancholic feel which makes you sad, but in a good way!
Ideal song to listen to on a cloudy Friday morning...

Listen to it here, only if you are not feeling sleepy!!!
(Why this disclaimer? you'll know when you listen to it ;-) )

...and then there was headphones!!

Listening to conversations around your cube is fun.
Sometimes..blocking all that out is much better!! ;-)

door gagan ki chaaun mein

Sunehri

Childhood

Reminds me of this famous Jagjit Singh song.

..magar mujhako lautaa do bachapan kaa saavan
woh kaagaz kii kashti, woh baarish kaa paani

Woohooo!

Our product and its engineers got a special mention at the vSphere 4.0 launch at VMWare's Palo Alto headquarters today! :-)


John Chambers shared the stage with Paul Maritz and not only thanked all the engineers, from VMWare and Cisco, for their efforts but also came up to the few who could attend (restricted number of passes!) and shook hands with each one of them, close to 20, in between his talk!

Feeling elated to see the recognition our entire team got for the hard work we have put in for the past 2 (ok...nearly 2) years! Congrats to the whole team and way to go!!

N1kv rocks!!! :-D

baaton baaton mein

Some songs have a monologue or dialogue exchange at the start or in between antharaas, which is more powerful than the song itself. Who can forget Amitabh Bachchan's 'main aur meri tanhai' in 'yeh kahan aagaye hum' or Sanjeev Kapoor's and Suchitra Sen's dialogue exchange in the song 'tere bina zindagi se koi'.

Then there are other songs, let alone dialogues within it, which come and go away so silently that most of them would not know they exist! One such song, from Veer-Zaara, which comes during the opening credits of the film, has a monologue by Yashji (Yash Chopra of course! :) ). I find it, and the song and the music, very peaceful, hopeful, nostalgic and nice...

Listen to it here: Kyon Hawa

ek din jab savere savere surmaye si andher ki chaadhar haTaake
ek parbat ke takiye se suraj ne sar jo uTaaya....to dekha..
dil ki vaadi mein chaahat ka mausam hain
aur yaadon ki Daaliyon par
anginat beete lamhon ki kaliyaan...mehekne lagi hain..
ankahe ansuni aarzoo..aadhi soyi huyi aadhi jaagi huyi
aankhen malte huyi dekhti hain
leher dar leher mauj dar mauj behti huyi zindagi
jaise har pal nayi aur phir bhi wahi
haan..wahi zindagi..
jiske daaman mein koyi mohabbat bhi hain koyi hasrat bhi hain
paas aana bhi hain door jaana bhi hain
aur yeh ehsaas hain
waqt jarne sa behta huya..jaa raha hain..yeh kehta huya..
Dil ki vaadi mein chaahat ka mausam hain
aur yaadon ki Daaliyon par
anginat beete lamhon ki kaliyaan mehekne lagi hain..



Do you have any such favorites?

When...

will people realize to let go.. of things.. of fixed notions.. of expectations.. of people..

khil rahi hain kali kali

Free..

.. to walk again without pain!

Kahin dur jab din Dhal jaaye

Loved the colors and the cloud formations in this one.

Sunshine and Shadow

Cherry blossoms!!!

..very pleasing, to the eye and the mind.

Of Bricks and Stones

The resort (Club cabana) had an open air theatre. Loved the architecture of it. It was pretty peaceful there, with a nice wind, lots of trees and birds chirping. Sandhya and I had a nice time chatting. :-)
Pics follow.







The water rides and attractions there were pretty good too. There was a jacuzzi, few rides and a wave pool. The best of the lot were the small huts in front of the pool. Ideal place to take a nap on a hot afternoon!

A few abstractions follow!

Yeh kaun chitrakaar hai

Our team from office went to Club Cabana yesterday to celebrate a successful release! As most of the badminton, TT etc. courts were occupied, Sandhya and I went around the gardens experimenting with the camera. Ended up discovering many options in the camera I never knew existed! :-)

As usual a lot of macros and flower/nature pictures followed. The best part - my first snap of a drongo! :-) Had seen loads of them on the electric wires by the road, during the drive to bagalkot/hampi, but could not photograph them. The resort had a lot of birds, but could capture only this.

Pics follow.

The drongo (not sure what the exact name is though)

Splash of colors follow




now for a white (read serene) break



Followed by shocking pink! The unmatched bougainvillea, of course!



More colors

hari hari vasundhara pe
neela neela ye gagan
ki jiske baadlon ki paalki
uda raha pawan

dishaye dekho rang bhari
dishaye dekho rang bhari
chamak rahi umang bhari
ye kisne phhol phool pe
ye kisne phhol phool pe
kiya singaar hai
ye kaun chitrakaar hai
ye kaun chitrakaar
ye kaun chitrakaar hai

Thus sang Mukesh. True isn't it?

Glorious Ruins

Well, that's Hampi for you. Watching the sun set over these ruins is an overwhelming experience. The end of a rich and prosperous era retold day after day after day...