Necroscope

Has anybody heard of the Necroscope Saga, by Brian Lumley? Its a set of 13 books, falling in the vampire genre of horror-fiction. Its a story about Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope. I quote from the website:

"The journey is one involving a man known as Harry Keogh, Necroscope, and his life, death, and undeath. Not to mention the lives and deaths of all he touches from the past, present and future."

I got introduced to the Necroscope books way back in school, in Jamshedpur, when I used to frequent a lending library. I used to read a great many horror books, mainly Stephen King and Dean R Koontz. BTW, Stephen King has a fantastic series called "Dark Tower", but more on that another time. The first book I read was the Necroscope (which is book 1), and I was totally blown away. Its a fascinating book, dark and brooding about this master vampire, Thibor Ferenczy whom Harry has to destroy. I've been hooked since that first book. Hook, line and sinker.

I read the three books that the library had, couldnt get my hands on any more. The world moved on and so did I; I forgot about the Necroscope until I chanced upon Necroscope a few years ago in Gangarams, in Bangalore. It was a slightly damaged copy, the last they had (or, I suspect, the only one they had), and I bought it off them at a 10% discount. Hah. Little did they know that I would have paid anything to have that copy. Then started my search, in varous bookstores, but nobody had even heard of this author, forget stocking his books.

A close pal was returning from the US a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him to keep an eye out for the books. Luckily he found some on the net, and in a second hand store. A week ago, I finally got my hands on THREE books. Parts 2, 3 and 5. He'll get me the rest next time, and I can't wait. I've haven't even started reading these three books, I'm hording them. I'm mentally drooling. For a biblomaniac like me, its almost like abstinence before marriage!

Photoblog: Indian countryside? - 1

Did u think that this is a photo from the Indian countryside? Huh. You'll be surprised. Until last month it was raining everyday in Bangalore. A huge vacant piece of land behind my apartment had turned into a swamp. And that's where I found this buffalo wallowing in the mud, enjoying a bit of the afternoon sun.

Photoblog: Indian countryside? - 2

Caught my buffalo with mynas taking a ride on it.

M connected to the net

I got myself a brand new CDMA WLL telephone yesterday. By Tata Indicom. Didnt have to pay one paisa for the connection. The connection, instrument, data cable, STD/ISD whatever the hell else all came free since I was a "corporate customer". I tried Reliance before that, but they wanted a lot of money for setting up a connection, so told them to take a hike.

I wanted this only for the net connection. The speed right now sucks big time. Its averaging 30 kbps, but last night I got 80 kbps. Sigh. Its so goddam slow, and I've been spoilt rotten by all the super fast surfing I've been doing from the office. But at least I'm connected to the net. Its feels great to be able to get connected instantly, anytime. Never got the time to check out the stuff I wanted to at the office.

Cheers to the new improved online version 2 of me.

Rangashankara and other stories

I've been busy. Yeah, well, I know. I say that every time, but this time I've been really busy. Ok ok. Don't hit me.

The theatre festival at the new theatre in town Rangashankara has started. It was built after a lot of struggle by Arundhati Nag. My gf works there, so I've been associated with it closely. I attended the inaugural of the festival on 28th October. Then been watching some plays there, notable among them Ismat apa ke naam, by the Motley group (mainly Naseeruddin Shah and family), which was absolutely fantastic. Its a set of three narrations, with no "acting", and its amazing how the narrators kept the audience riveted for nearly 2 hours.

Another fantastic play I watched was "Ek thi nani" by Lahore's Ajoka Theatre. This has Zohra Sehgal and Ujra Butt. Zohra is 92 and Uzra is 87. They performed in Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, then came down here for a single performance. This was a historic event because this is Zohra Sehgal's last performance, and this was the first time a Pakistani group was performing down south after Partition. Zohra was very ill the night before, and on the day of the play as well. My gf had gone to pick her up from the hotel, and it seems she could barely speak. And if I didnt have this inside information, I never would have suspected it from her performance. People gave her a long standing ovation.

My IIMB semester is about to come to an end next week. I cant believe I have to submit so many reports and stuff next week. Lets see. On 20th I have 3 end term exams. I gotta submit three (!) project reports on 20th. This week I have to complete a project I am doing with an NGO Hippocampus. We are a group of 3 doing a Requirement Analysis as part of one of our subjects. And gotta study for these bloody exams this week too.

Next week a prospective client from Israel will be meeting us for three days. Sigh. So its gonna be talk talk all day, and at night take the guys out for wining and dining. When will I get to study this week??

My Diwali was so sad, it sucked. I had 5 days holiday from office. I've spent most of my holiday either attending classes, or working on some report/project for submission, or in office. Today is the last day of this long weekend, and I spent it in office. Sigh.

Buying a car is easy...

..but keeping it is bloody tough. I cant believe the amount of money I am spending on petrol. Its shocking. I nearly had a heart attack the other day when the newspapers announced that the government was planning on increasing the price of petrol. Mr CM, have a heart. Thank God that they didnt hike the price.

And the roads are full of SOBs who insist on overtaking from my left. Suddenly, there'll be this two wheeler who cut in front from the left; how I've managed not to hit anybody so far must be because of divine intervention. Jolly good that I know how to drive, I pity any first timer on B'lore roads.

I bought a Sony CD/MP3 player for the car on Saturday. It rocks. Awesome sound... now the travel doesnt seem so bad ;o)

Long time no blog

I cant believe it, I haven't written a thing for more than a month!!! Ever since I have come back from Israel, I've been caught up in a whirl wind of activities. Balancing work and studies and personal life is getting very tough. IIMB has totally fucked me. The profs there believe in sucking every last bit of my time. If I'm not working I'm studying. I dont have a life anymore. Hope it is all worth it in the end. Then I might look back on these days fondly and say "this was such fun". (Yeah, like pigs have wings and can fly.)

Ok. Been thinking of buying a car from a long time. Finally I have done it. I started more than a month ago with the Alto. Was very sure that I all I could afford was an Alto. Then upgraded it to a Zen a coupla weeks ago. Till then I wasnt even thinking of a Santro, thought it was too expensive. Then a week ago, came to know that a Santro costs the same as the Zen, and started thinking seriously of the Santro.

Finally, it came to a showdown between the two cars and the Santro won. So today I have booked a Santro through my company. It will be delivered on Saturday. Amazing, huh. There's royal treatement for corporate customers. I'm getting some freebies thrown in for free as well as a 20k discount. Cool, huh?

Shalom!

Here's me reporting from Israel again. I was supposed to arrive via Istanbul to Tel Aviv from Delhi. At the last moment there was some flight fuck up, and I was routed through Bombay, Amman then Tel Aviv. This was amazin, the flight was much much shorter and best of all, I got to travel Business class on Royal Jordan airlines. It sure beats the shit outta Economy :)) They really pampered me. I had champagne and a royal breakfast at 3:30 in the morning, an hour outta Bombay. They gave gifts, and what not. Wow.

Been having really long days here, going blah blah from morning till late evening. Then they take us out for dinner everyday. So every night, its wine and a chilled out dinner. Lovely. There are some amazing laid back places here, the restuarants have atmosphere.

Yesterday we went to a place called Chiara in Herzelia, near Tel Aviv. Theres a marina there, surrounded by many restuarants. Its was heavenly. It was a full moon night, and the setting looked so romantic. I missed my gal. Sigh.

Check out some snaps...



In front of Chiara.



Another view of the Chiara.



Its a huge place, with malls and restaurants surrounding the marina.



View of the Marina in the center. It opens out into the Mediterranean sea.



The Marina was full of boats and yachts.



Oh! That's me finally.

The moon has shrunk...

... since the last time I was here writing a post. The last coupla weeks have been totally sucky. Whew. Been really busy with work and studies.

I'm about to finish the first semester of my MBA course, and I have two exams coming up. The first is tomorrow, the second on Saturday. In fact, Saturday looks like an action packed day. Exam from 9am to 1pm. Then lunch. An introductory class for the next semester from 2pm to 4pm. Then I have to rush from IIMB to the airport to catch a 6pm flight for Delhi. Then a 4am flight from Delhi to Turkisthan (Istanbul). Then on to Tel Aviv.

Shud I say "baap re baap"?

The stars fade away

Its almost morning, and the stars are about to fade away. The pale morning sunshine will burn them away. I've been working straight 20 hours. Hmmm. Dont even dare to ask me why. Lets just say its not by choice, its under duress. Some great crisis in the office and we have a half a million dollar deal hanging if something is not resolved tonight. Sigh. All too often I find myself in such positions. Why me? I'm paid very highly, so I have to deliver the goods. Cant tell my boss to fuck off, after all he ensures that I get big bucks here. Is it worth it? I dont know. Money makes the world go around, but at what cost? I'm losing my peace of mind, trying to figure out how to make things alright. Now I'm leaving, to sleep for a while, and maybe come back to the office.

Oh! And I havent managed to get things working. So tomorrow when the shit hits the fan, your truely will be splattered all over.

Life of Pi

Last time I was in Haifa, one of the guys there at the Israeli firm I was visiting had recommended very highly Yann Martell's Bestseller "The Life of Pi" to me. He said it was about this Indian boy "Pi Patel" who was ship wrecked on a boat with a Bengal tiger, and it sounded like an interesting read.

I forget all about the book, until I found myself checking out the small book store at the Central. I found the book there, bought it, then read it straight through.
Its a wonderful piece of fiction, a rollicking story about young Piscine Patel, the son of a zoo owner in Pondicherry. In school, everybody called him "Pissing" Patel, until finally, pissed off, he introduced himself as "Pi Patel" in high school and the name stuck. In anticipation of hard times, the family decided to move to Canada, animals and all on a ship. The ship gets wrecked in a storm, and Pi finds himself on a boat with a zebra, a hyena and a... Bengal tiger!

Once again, this book slipped my mind, until yesterday I read about Manoj Night Shyamalan, the ace director whose claim to fame is the eminently watchable "Sixth Sense". Manoj is about to make a movie on this book.

Here's a movie I'm looking forward to.

When you're strange - 1

Something I had written all of six years ago:

Emotions are the basis of life. Without emotions man is just an animal, a savage. Intellect, learning, education, wealth, status, everything is just a farce. A man devoid of emotions is like a ship's sail without wind, like a skydiver without his parachute, like the morning without the dawn, like the night without the moon. Faith can move mountains but emotions can build them.

In today's materialistic world how many of us can claim to have an iota of emotion left in us? To be emotional or sentimental is considered to be weak , to be without manhood. What a wrong notion this is. People with feelings are the strongest people on earth. These are the people who can feel. They are not senseless because they believe in the very basis of life. These people are sensitive, sensitive to the world around them, sensitive to other' s feelings and emotions, they care for the world and are their brothers' keepers. These are the people who make up the true brethren. These are true men who can balance materialism with feelings.

I am told so many times to forget feelings and sentiments, leave them behind in my quest for knowledge and learning, to forget about such trivial things or at least keep romanticism under control; which is another way of telling me to become an unfeeling brute. Yet I am convinced that this is the only salvation for mankind, which is fast forgetting values. Not the kind of petty, shallow emotions which rule our everyday life, and our actions. Not the kind that make us act in anger or fear. Not the kind that make us act in ways that hurt or harm. Not the kind that teaches man to fight, kill, maim, burn, wage war. But the other kind of deeper, truer emotions that every one of us should cultivate. The kind that heal, that teach us to love, to work for the greater glory of God and mankind. The kind that makes us gentle, thoughtful, disciplined, temperate. The kind that let our thoughts and emotions soar like birds, to daydream and be lost in contemplation and meditation.

So gentle reader, what do you choose? The path to material wealth, riches, exterior pomp and show or the deeper, truer, emotional upliftment of the heart and soul. The choice is of course yours. You may dismiss this as some poor misguided, romantic soul's silly words but someday you' ll know better.

That day I shall have won a great victory.

PS: I used to write strange stuff.

The heart of love

Does it profit me to gain the whole world?
Satisfaction is but a fleeting emotion, I want to to be satiated
Fill me up with love, until my cup of joy spills over
That I might share with you
That I might show you a glimpse of what is mine
Leave you jealous, wanting more
I laugh
I cry
I die a hundred deaths
And then, born again, maybe I learn to love.

Time is but a beginning
Of the end
When I know what love is.

The music flows gently
I hear, but I cannot listen
Like the heart that loves, but does not care
Like the soul that prays, but does not believe
Like the mind that thinks, but does not meditate.

My thoughts scatter like scared gazelles
Leaping across the universe of my mind
Why do they flee?
Be still, I tell my mind.

I mouth the words of a prayer
They are a litany to be repeated
When I ask God for more
Trust, I tell my soul.

And what of my heart?

I long
I sigh
The notes fall softly
If I can learn to hear
Can I learn to love?
Can I?

Autoricks overturning??

Hell! When was the last time you've seen an auto rickshaw overturning right before your very eyes? Here's a story from one who has... not once but twice. Its quite a majestic sight, almost like the movies where a car might go cartwheels, only not so dramatic.

The first happened on bright, fair, Wednesday morning in front of the Symphony Software building. I was on my way to the Passport Office, when suddenly, in front of me an auto took a fast turn into the main gate of the company, and tipped over the other side. Phaaat! I skidded to a halt behind it, and with others rushed to help.

As if that was not enough, I saw another first hand! I was on my way home late evening yesterday. It had rained mightly, and the road near the flyover in front of Citibank (road, what road?) was awash. Mind you that the potholes here are bigger than small ponds. An auto beside me swing on to the side of the road to overtake a car, and then it just topped over on its side into this huge pothole full of dirty water. I braked in the middle of the road, and again rushed to help. Others came running too. But we didnt seem to have much luck pushing it upright, and the water was all around. After a few minutes impatient people were honking coz my bike was holding up the only lane, so I left the auto and pushed off.

I think there's a message for me in there somewhere, but danged if I know what.
Moral of the story? Auto ricks are dangerous 3 legged creatures, ridden by drivers with delusions of grand prix grandeur. No wonder our foreign clients look at them in wonder, and ask dumb questions like "Isnt it dangerous?". Phooey, say I to that. We drive around at breathless speed on roads full of shush, without helmets, zig zagging all over the road, overtaking, undertaking (well, whatever), without any semblance of road democracy, all on two wheels, and we have the gall to question the third wheel. Phooey.

Anyway, next time you travel by an auto (as Ekta does everyday), do keep your friends close, and your enemies, ur... auto-drivers closer. Dunno what good that will do, but it sounded like good advice.

Passport hangama

On Monday I had the priviledge of visiting the Passport Office for more than 4 hours. I have a special passport for Israel, which had been issued to me for all of 1 year. This passport is about to expire, and I need to travel to Israel again. Off I went to the Passport Office to enquire about the procedure of renewing this passport.

Now if you have ever had the good opportunity of visiting Bangalore's Passport Office, you'll sympatise with me. If not, all I can say is "Good things come to those who wait". Anyway, I digress.

First stop: a long snaking enquiry queue, which wound it way along the wall to the outside into the compound. Took 2 hours to reach the counter, first standing, then playing musical chairs.

Armed with the info, I hit the next queue, even longer than the first at Counter 4 "Misc services". I was the second last person in this queue, and I finished in 2 hrs. By which time my stomach was crying for attention. Ok, now food!

I need this passport urgently, and these guys want to post the passport to me after a week. So I wanted to know how to come and collect it myself. Simple, they said. Get a letter from the company, get an appointment with the Asst Passport Office, and voila, it'll be done.

Wednesday, the saga continues. This time its a 1 1/2 hour wait in another long queue for getting an appointment with the APO. By now, the gentle reader will appreciate that the Passport Office is a wonderful place, well ordered, working smoothly like a well oiled machine. Finally, had the appointment with the APO. I was overjoyed, mission accomplished. Now a quick hello to the APO and off I go to work. My mouth drooling at all the work I can accomplish at the office now.

Upstairs, there was another (you guessed it) queue at the APO's office, but a small one. And this queue really crawled. My previous visit to the APO, when I was getting the Israel passport made on Tatkal, was very quick. This took me all of 3 hrs. The reason was soon obvious, this guy was getting calls right and left, and we could hear him talking on the phone. What a pathetic little bugger. And there were people who kept dropping in to visit him.

I was getting really pissed. The next time 2 guys came to meet him, I showed them the end of the queue. They were throughly astonished. Then one said in a threating voice, that they were government officials, and I should not question them. (How dare I? Bad Cheetah!) Imagine the cheek of these bastards. They said they'd come to meet the APO, and taken an appointment. They said they were not here for a personal visit.

I said that I'd taken an appointment to meet the APO personally, and ask him his "haal chaal", maybe invite him for dinner. Me and my big mouth. I saw that my brand of humour was not tickling them, so I went back to the comfort of my seat. Then bitched till my turn came. The APO, surprisingly, was very efficient. He took a few minutes to hear my story, and said that the passport would be ready tomorrow.

I raced off into the sunset, ur.. office, my little "panga" all forgotten in the delight of getting the passport so fast. God bless the APO.

10 dys vacation

...from Blogger. Forced by work. Ekta, there is only one commandment of life. All work shall be squeezed out of you. If in doubt, refer to the above commandment.

I'm in depression from not blogging, from not telling my mundane story to the world for the last sooo many days. Sigh. Life sucks, like gravity. Like a whole lotta people. Anyway, I digress. I've been really busy, what with a gruelling prospective client visit, and crisis after crisis in the office. The only bright spot this week was that this prospective client signed up, after 3 days of technical and business talks. So I'm off to Israel again. More power to me. In all this work, I've missed my MBA classes today. Shit! ANd I'll miss two days of classes when I'll be travelling. ANd I cant even say NO!

I left office today morning, after a stretch of 22 hours, completely bushed. Slept (?) all morning, woken up first by the maid, then by some girl selling flowers, then by the painter, then by the garbage collector. Fuck! Then had lunch, and back to the office.

Now, m leaving. Hope I dont have to come this weekend, but there are many problems and few assholes who want to take them all up. One of them, being me. I suck. So I'm going home. To sulk, and study for tomorrow's MBA class. Bah.

Beatles on my mind

Been listening to The Beatles yesterday. I've got a huge collection of their songs, and I'm a big fan of their music. Though I'm not from the Flower Power mood of the sixtees/seventies, but I really dig this music. Its groovy, baby. Serious music lovers may not really appreciate their music. You may think its outdated, but I think their stuff is timeless. While they may have sung a lot of inane numbers, some of their songs are sheer poetry, and some are real gems.

The ones that I love are "There's a place", "A taste of honey", "Please please me", and sooo many more.

For poetry, you just cant beat "Across the Universe". Check this out:

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
Are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

Get the complete lyrics here.

And a real gem is "Imagine". Its a slow song, almost like the blues, and an imaginative (?) song. :)) Check this out:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Get the complete lyrics here.

Happy listening!

Moving House

As if my IIMB classes were not enough to do over the weekend, I shifted houses yesterday. I mean, not that I decided to shift all of a sudden. Had been thinking about it for more than a month. Then finally decided to make the move. Made my current house owner very sad. I've moved into a lovely apartment. I've a big bedroom to myself now. Ah. The pleasures that money can bring :) M happy. Its got a balcony, with a sweet breezy in the evenings.

Moving house is a pain, pack all the stuff then unpack. Settle in, put all the touches on the house that makes it personal, and a home. I packed up on Staurday night, then moved on Sunday. Finished moving in the afternoon,then spent the rest of the day arranging the stuff. Its back breaking work, but I'm so happy with the results. AH.

Flora and Fauna at Pompei Valley

These photos were taken by me on 4th June, 2004 on a Plantation called "Pompei Valley" in Coorg. I use an Olympus Digital camera, one of the best mid range cameras Olympus makes.



After a long struggle, I cornered these two ducks at the edge of the pond and got close enough to photograph them. This series of photos shows them getting into the water.




A grasshopper cleverly hidden between the tall grass.




A Dragon fly coloured like a tiger at the pond side, alighted on a stalk of grass. I had to wait a long long time before I got this one. This is an absolute beauty.




An orange dragon fly, praying on a broken stem of a small plant.




A Hibiscus flower in full bloom taken in Macro mode. I love the colour on this one.

How to get a photo put on a Blog

To start with, lemme say that its tough to get a photo put in my blog. I got a bee in my bonnet many days ago about Hello. Its been much talked about here. But it doesnt work from behind a corporate firewall. Sigh. ANd Blogger doesnt host photos on its free service.

So what do I do next? I started hunting Google for free photo hosting website. Found them by the spades, but most of them were very shady. Finally settled on WeBlogImages. You can upload photos there, and hotlink from your blog on Blogger to it. That's cool.

So, I did that. But finally I've hit this link on Blogger help. It talks about Photoblogs, just what I need. Why could I have found this help article earlier. Now lemme go throught the photo hosting sites it talks about. Sigh. Life sucks.

Hmm... a novel personality test

Here's an interesting personality test I took. I found it on riverblood's page here. It seems to be fairly accurate; I gave it a 4 rating, on scale of 0 to 5 for accuracy. Hmmm, am I like this? Duh.

Its a Cattell-16-factor test. You can take the test here. Its free! Other tests are at Similarminds.

Cattell's 16 Factor Test Results Warmth |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Intellect |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Emotional Stability ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Liveliness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Dutifulness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Social Assertiveness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Sensitivity |||||||||||||||||| 58% Paranoia ||||||||| 30% Abstractness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Introversion ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Anxiety |||||||||||| 38% Openmindedness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Independence |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Perfectionism |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Tension ||||||||| 30%

Orkut problems

Sigh. Why does Orkut have so many problems. Is it because it is a beta site? Must be, cant be any other reason. Its a amazing networking site. Simply the best. But I wish it wouldn't fuck up ever so often. And its been agonizingly SLOW, the lowest that a server can fall ;o).

Cant seem to get any work done on it. A separate thought, does anybody do any work on Orkut?? Huh. I only raise questions that I cant answer. There's a specific problem right now. I'm started the Loyola School community there, but suddenly its not showing me this community under my Communities tab. I got such a scare, maybe its been deleted or something. So I did a search for it. And found it, and it still shows me as the moderator. But now it suddenly shows the number of members as 3. Weird. Hope its some temporary problem, and Orkut is up and running tomorrow...

About a bird

On my way to work today, I stopped at a traffic junction which was manned by a traffic policeman. It was a mundane sight, one of the roads was being let through by the policeman, and others were waiting for their turn. As I looked on, suddenly the policeman left the middle of junction and plunged into the oncoming traffic. He started diverting vehicles from some spot on the road, all the while scolding and berating the drivers. It was such a strange sight, and I was trying to figure out what the cop was doing. Then it was clear: There was a crow on the road which wasn't flying away, and the policeman was going to rescue it.

All the traffic came to a standstill, while the cop first tried to shoo it off the road. The bird was evidently injured, because it started hopping slowly for the side of the road. Then the cop picked it gently, and put it on a wall at the side of the road. Traffic started again with a roar. But my story is not ended yet. Somehow, other crows knew that this one was injured. As I watched on, some other crows landed beside this one, and petted it with their beaks, touched beaks with it (were they kissing? are crows social birds?). Then as if in slow motion, the injured one began to topple over, and the other two lunged for it and caught its wings with their beaks! It hung there for a few seconds with one wing held in the two crows beaks and body hanging below, then it slipped and fell on the ground.

Dimly I heard honking behind me; I had been so absorbed in this little birdy saga and now I was holding up the traffic behind. Guiltly I moved on, but my heart was with the injured crow. Did it manage to get back home safely (wherever home is for the bird)? I dont know, but I like to believe it did.

Again many days later

Shhesh. Just dont find myself hauling my ass here to write some words of wisdom from my life. Been more than a week since i returned from Coorg, and I havent written a thing about it. Sad Sad, bad boy. Who? Just me. Oh. talking to myself again. Naughty. I'm stuck in the office and its late, 10pm. I should be home right now, waiting for my cook to come and make hot piping food. But here I am, since I returned from my brief vacation, I've been stuck with lotsa work everyday at the office. Late hours, story of my life. Sigh.

Lemme write a bit about my wonderful vacation in Coorg with my gf. We had such a marvellous time. We left here on the 3rd June in the morning at 9am. By KSRTC bus, from Bangalore to Madikere, via Mysore. It was a very comfortable journey, and we reached in the afternoon at around 2:30. We were booked into a private resort in the middle of a lovely plantation, called Pompei Valley Resort. Check out the flora and fauna at the resort here.

We rested on the first day, then spent the second day (4th June, 2004) roaming around the town. Its not a modern town, somewhat shabby, but very quiet and peaceful. The views are not spectacular, its not very cold, but for all that it was kind of quaint. Unfortunately, the weather was not very conducive to sight seeing, it kept drizzling on and off, but for all that we had great fun.

The next day, on 5th June we hired a car and roamed around all the tourist sight seeing places in a 100 km radium around Madikere.

Many days later

Havent posted for quite a few days. I'd been travelling in South India, to a lovely place called Madikere, in Coorg district of Karnataka. We returned yesterday night from there. Right now, I'm at a cafe near home. Havent been to the office coz my gf is not well. Been checking my office mails all afternoon, got tons of them. Its a lovely evening outside, and is turning out to be a very pleasant evening.

Gotta write stuff about the trip tomorrow. Right now, m too tird to do that.

ANother dAy, anoTHer DollaR

ho hum. another day. m sitting in my office, hard (ly) at work. pounding keys, and creating words. words which no one will read. until i'm rich and famous and then these words will be sold or millions of dollars. heh heh heh. and pigs will fly. but India is a land of snake charmers and fakirs. and pigs do fly here. anyway, i will not be deterred. i will write glorious words, create things of beauty which are joys forever. to me.and if you happen to chance upon my blog, do drop me a line. i'll know someone out there read me, before i'm rich and famous. ah. such dreams.

today's a friday. the weekend starts, has already started probably. sonsidering i've not done much work snce morning. life is good these days. not so long ago, i used to be horrendously busy throught out the day. work, work and more work. always fire fighting. meetings, discussions, mails, blah blah blah. this week has been peaceful, might as well enjoy is while it lasts. suddenly, my boss is gonna be asking me about the status of a hundred different activities i'm responsible for, and then the shit will hit the fan.

Stephen King had an excellent saying about this in his book Dream Catcher. Its called SSDD (Same Shit Different Day). And that's the way life goes.

oh! the perils of bloggin

I was reading the Creative Tutorials at Blogger, and followed How not to get fired because of your blog to this article. Scary article.

I've been reading all the Blogger Help. Lots of information here.

There was a time when I would have been more than ready to start with a new template, much customised for myself. I would have spent many nights over it, tweaking the look and feel until I get it just right. Now, its a different story. There's no time for these little peasures of life. Now, I selected the best looking template (at least to me), and used it. The written word is more important, so there.

lazy afternoon

Hmmm. Its 3:12 pm now. I've gone back to blogging from my mail. Its easier than doing it on te website. For the record, I've been a member of Blogger since 2001, only I never blogged beyond the first few days when I had registered. Now I feel the need to write my records on the net for future generation to read as part of their school texts. heh heh heh.

Anyway, as I was saying. What was i saying? I'm from B'lore, India. I've rediscovered Blogger and now I'm gonna be active on it. More power to me.

Trying out the formatting

This is where I start doing more experimentation with formatting on Blogger. Its a lazy afternoon at work and I have lots of things I'd better be doing than this. But for now, its hard to resist.

Its 3:10pm. Damn. wanna go out for a fag. WHere are my fellow smokers?

trying out Hello next

Actually, this is the best part. Blogging by mail. I could write anything from anywhere and have it blogged on Blogger. Whoever thought this one up is a genius. Now I've got Hello too, lets see how that works.

posting via e-mail

Now I'm trying this from my mailbox. Hail Blogger. Blogger rules!!

Blogger: Dashboard

Well, just got the Google toolbar, with the integrated Blogger. This is super cool. Just trying to see if it all works jim dandy. Probably will.

this than and the other

Why would I want to post anything on blogger? I dunno. I'm a member of orkut, of BBC h2G2 (which is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), and I'm not very active on either one of these... hmmm.