Hot off the presses

In most parts of the country, people drive on the left of the road.
In B'lore, we drive on whats left of the road.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my namma Bengaluru (as it will be called from 1st Nov next year). Old adulterated wine in new bottle say I.

Photoblog: Parrot in LA

Parrot, originally uploaded by ZeHawk.

The sheer colors of this parrot are dazzling. Caught it in Disney downtown in LA.

November update ;)

Had a quiet Diwali, didnt burst a single cracker. After all, why burn my hard earned money, right?
Completed 5 years at Wipro. Damn, I'm o-l-d.
Completed half my MBA, another half to go. Doesn't misery ever end?
My car is 1 year old. And 20% depreciated, sigh!
Completed 4 years in a wonderful relationship and nearly 11 years knowing liklasa. Touch wood.
Got a fab hike at work. More money for us to blow ;)

B'lore roads!

For people who drive to office everyday (like me), B'lore roads are hell. Roads are pathetic, potholed, cratered like the face of the moon, with ditches every now and then, filled with every sort of 2/3/4/5 wheeler vying for the same piece of so called road. It's crazy. Imagine the fact that I stay 14 Kms away from office (BTM Layout to E-City) and it takes me an hour and a half each way every day in my car. The same stretch takes close to 15 minutes without traffic.

This is unimaginable loss. Take the number of hghly paid people who are on that road each day, multiply by the loss in productivity, the extra fuel burnt, the extra wear and tear of idling vehicles, the effect on moods and tempers, the time not spent with family or in leisure, and we are talking about a substantial economic and social loss.

Do we care? Does anybody care? Does the police care? Those poor suckers are busy treating the symptoms, not the cause. They are outnumbered by bad tempered drivers and the massive volumes of traffic. They lack scientific means and measures of traffic control. (Any police force in the world which thinks a breathe-analyzer is a nose stuck inside the mouth is neanderthal to say the least.) What about the educated company-wallahs? They sit inside their corporate busses or vans and read the newspaper, or gossip about the day, or sleep while their drivers run amok on the roads and scare the heebie-jeebies out of all the rest of the poor folken like me.

Downtown Disney!!!

Downtown Disney is a small area nestled between the two Disney resorts in Anaheim, California. Its a beautiful, cozy place filled with shops and restuarants. We were there yesterday and had a ball! We reached there in the afternoon when not much was happening, and we flitted in and out of half a dozen shops without buying anything. Towards evening the place magically started filling up, and by late evening it was crowded and chock full of people. There were live performances, and a huge huge crowd at the House of Blue. The atmosphere was amazing, the evening a bit chilly, but cozy under the gas burner where we sat at Tortilla Jo's sipping wine and later enjoying a good dinner.

Happened to catch some fine performances by Drew Tretick. Of course, I had never even heard of him, or his music before. I mistook him for a (very talented) street performer. He plays the violin and his music was impeccable. It was enrapturing. I took some photos of him and even made a couple of videos of his performance. He is awesome. Turned out that he's an internationally recognized star!

Performing for the audience at Downtown Disney.

Signing an autograph for a young fan.

Photoblog: Speedzone

Dragsters at the Speedzone, originally uploaded by ZeHawk.

Dragsters off to a flying start at Speedzone in LA.

Around the world in 80 days?

Its strange. Did my stars every foretell that I would be travelling to so many cities around the world, see so many places, meet so many people? I'm in LA now, a beautiful city indeed. I've photos from all over the world... San Francisco, Haifa, Cairns, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Singapore, Istanbul, Boston, Taiwan.

Every place has a unique culture, a unique look. Be it the summer holiday look of Cairns, the fast-paced-sky-scrapered look of Chicago, or the colonial look of Singapore, the laid back look in San Francisco, night-life look of Tel Aviv or even the boston-brahmany look in Boston.

A toast to more such travels.

Photoblog: Dark Tower

Taipei 101, originally uploaded by ZeHawk.

Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, seen in the distance like the proverbial dark tower. Completely dominates the surroundings. Reminds me of Stephen King's Dark Tower...

Photoblog: Fishy business

Fishy business, originally uploaded by ZeHawk.

I ordered what seemed to be a nice portion of fish on the menu in a very upscale restaurant in Taipei. Got served this humungous, smelly fish. I just had to take a photo...

Being ill...

.. is no fun. Do people like being ill? Is that a good excuse to stay at home n chill out? Wish it were so. I've had fever and a horriby sore throat for the last few days. Havent been able to eat (drink?) anything except soup and liquids. M sooooooooooooooo hungry. And yesterday I travelled from Bangalore to Taiwan for a week of meetings. I'm carrying so many medicines, its a wonder they didnt catch me at Taiwan airport for drug traffickin! Right now I feel lousy... and (did I mention it?) hungry.

Much ado about the apostrophy

While reviewing a technical document, I ran across blatant usage of the apostrophy to pluralise all acronyms. I've always believed that acronyms should not be pluralized with the ' character. (That comes from learning English the Queen's way, rather than Bush's way.) Unfortunately, most engineers insist on writing RAM's and not RAMs, or MLA's and not MLAs.

So I decided to so some research on the net to find out about this "issue". And ran across tons of discussions and material on the correct usage of the apostrophe.

One of the best discussions forums on this topic can be found here in Mediawhore. An excellent and comprehensive journal on the Plural Noun Forms is available here by Webster.

And by far, the best comment on this controversy was this image
from AngryFlower.com. Its hilarious. And while you are it, do check out the Angry Flower website. Its pretty good.

Mediocre But Arrogant

Ha ha ha. How well Abhijit Bhaduri describes the pucca MBA type from any of India's premier B schools. (Of course, considering the fact that I'm from IIMB, I run the risk of being labelled one myself. But modesty is my first name.) This is a another book by an MBA type. MBA types have started writing "Just like me" books more often these days. Something to do with job security, I guess.

PS: Just-like-me books are stories about you and me, common everyday people and our loves and our lifes.

I was looking for some articles on HR problems in Indian companies on Google (nothing like finding ones homework already prepared and pasted on some website, eh?) for a class assignment, when I chanced upon this blog. Then I discovered a Jampot connection (Abhijit is another MBA type from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and I grew up and did my schooling from Loyola School in Jamshedpur.) And I was hooked.

Will await the book to hit the stands. Meanwhile, check out his blog.

Photoblog: Sunrise over Amsterdam 1

Sunrise over amsterdam 04, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Sunrise hues light up the eastern sky over Amsterdam. Taken from the flight as it was coming in to land at Schipol airport.

Photoblog: Sunrise over Amsterdam 2

Sunrise over amserdam 03, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Another photograph showing the majestic sunrise hues.

Loyola website

After a long time I thought I would pay a visit to my alma mater, Loyola School, Jamshedpur website. But I was in for a real shock. The website, which was active for the last many many years has this shit below. First I thought I was on a wrong website, but this is the right one. It is linked from many places. And try as I might, I get this page. This is crazy. I wonder whether others are getting this website in place of the Loyola website. There's a fucking cyber squatter sitting on the website. I dont know how this happened. How come has the school lost the URL, and how come there isnt any uproar over it. Strange. If anybody knows about this please let me know.

PS: BTW, did anybody know that the Loyola website was defaced by this obscure group called WFD way back in 2002. I came upon it on the net when I was tring to find information about this cyber sqatting. See this for more details. Seem like a bunch of "high profile" Indian websites were defaced and unfortunately Loyola School's website had the (dubious) distinction of being one of these.

loyola website, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Photoblog: Damon Mill 1

Damon Mill, Concord, Boston, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

I'm in Concord, Boston. Its such a beautiful town. Damon Mill used to be a textile mill, and is now converted in to a hi tech office. This is a view around it. Very scenic and old worldly.

Photoblog: Damon Mill 2

Damon Mill, Concord, Boston, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Photoblog: Damon Mill 3

Damon Mill, Concord, Boston, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Photoblog: Flowers at Schipol

Flowers at Schipol, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Lovely tulips at a flower shop at Schipol airport in Amsterdam.

Schipol airport...

is big, and very beautiful. I arrived here today morning from Bombay, a long flight. Has coffee for 3 bloody euros. Sigh. (Somebody would think that I'd have gotten outta the habit of converting to Indian currency and comparing the price with India. No, not me. I have to bitch abt the expense.) My flight to Boston is at 2:30. Been walking around the airport, exploring, clicking photos. Usual stuff to pass time. Had lunch. Then connected to the Internet using WiFi and my corporate I-pass account. Then corporate VPN, and my Outlook was ready for use. Never expected the I-pass to work. Totally rocking!!

Back to India

Came back from Israel last week. Been completely caught up in work since them. A hundred fires all over, and me pissing on them and hoping they will die out. Shit. I bought a lovely digicam from Tel Aviv to replace my old digicam which was stolen. My last camera from Olympus (the D510Z) was pretty good. See the photoblog nightlife photos here and here, or some photos I had shot in Coorg last year here. This time I have got a very expensive digicam from Panasonic (the DMC-FZ2), with these amazing 16x optical Leica Lens. Have to yet do much testing to see what kind of photos I get with this one, but the reviews are very good.

Gabriel Faure

I usually listen to western classical music at work. The music shuts out people and my mundane surroundings. People disturb me a lot lesser when they see me at my desk with headphones on, oblivious to the world around. Thank God for talented composers like Bach, or Faure. Though I dont understand the pieces and movements much, I follow the music keenly and its a pleasure to listen to famous classical music peices.

One of my favourites is Gabriel Faure. Been listening to him all the time these days. He was a French composer in the early 20th century and wrote some wonderful pieces of music. He is a brilliant, unsung genius. One of his very best is this piece called Pavane (that's of course my opinion). Its a slow moving piece and is the most delightful piece of music I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot of classical music).

PS: If anybody wants to hear this piece, drop me a line. I will be glad to mail you the mp3. Believe me, it will make a music lover out of you.

Last week...

was fun. It was my first time in Chicago, and its a pleasure to visit this city. I hope to be there again some day. I stayed a day with an ol pal of mine from college. He is also an Amit (note how I'm referring to him as "an Amit", coz we are a breed apart. heh heh heh. He can be found here.) He was staying at a company apartment in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue. Its on the "Magnificent Mile".

Downtown Chicago is a beautiful beautiful place. I arrived in downtown Chicago late in the evening, with millions of lights twinkling in tall buildings. It was simply stunning; I had never quite seen a city like this one. We had dinner at a small cosy place, a Moroccan joint called Andalous.

Next morning (Morning? More like noon) , we went exploring around. Had breakfast at a Mexican joint. Clicked some photographs. Had coffee at Starbucks, another first for me. Checked out the breath taking architecture, skyscrapers kissing the wintry blue above. Stark and beautiful.

Caught a long flight back on Saturday evening to Bangalore, via Frankfurt and Mumbai. Whew. In a couple of days I'm leaving for Tel Aviv. Globe trotter, be I :o

CHICAGO!

So this is the place thats in the movie. The place of the gangsters of the 60s, bootlegging, Capone and cold cold weather. This is the first time for me in the snow, and I find it cold. Thanks god for heated room, and heated cars and heated offices. I'm visiting a client here in Chicago for a week. The first few days were really cold, but its better now. The sun is shining (though it seems to be heating Bangalore not this place), and the snow has all melted. Which is good, right? Thou a teeny weeny part of me cant help missing the snow. Its nice to see outta my hotel window (and I got huge bay windows looking on the lawn), and see the world all white. Sigh.

Wish I was here at Christmas. Shore would've been nice. Cant even take a photograph, coz my camera was stolen. Oh yeah, my house was burgurled a couple week ago and I lsot a lot of stuff, including my precious digital camera.

Photoblog: night life 2

Lighting a fag, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

A friend of mine lighting a fag at night. In case you cant make out nething, that's his hand cupping the fag near his mouth.

Photoblog: night life

P1090020, originally uploaded by Gunslinger.

Photo of a candle floating on a glass bowl, reflected off a marble floor.