Phone and Photography - Skyscapes

I was playing cricket at the Marina beach on the lawns beside the lighthouse when i noticed the interesting lighting in the sky . Out came the phone , and it performed as good as ever . Though the contrast adjustment in the phone didn't allow me to get a silhouette then and there , a bit of tweaking with Picasa did the job .



This one was really weird . What you are seeing is exactly as how I saw the sky that . I went a bit early to Besant Nagar beach , in my over-enthusiasm to play frisbee and got treated to this beautiful sky . Of course, everyone around were clicking pics too . This was one time I wished I had a better camera .


Again, I had to tweak this foto and then crop it appropriately to get it to it's present state .


This was a photo I shot in Ksheera-Samudram , my native village . Surprisingly, i managed to get the silhouette effect without the help of any editing software .

My first attempt at Poetry

A couple of days , the sun shone bright
our bodies glowed , from the golden sunlight
The grounds were busy with all kinda sport
it was but , alack , short lived hope .

It came back with a vengeance
like a dark lord , back from his penance .
It is really, really cold again , here .
Damn this fucken blasted weather .

Heroes - Worshtu

Heroes is this television series that everyone here at IITK is talking about . The first season attracted an average of 14.3 million viewers in the United States and received the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years.
Today , I decided to see what it was all about and started the first episode of season one . About three minutes into it , the serial shifts to a scene in " Madras, India " and goes on to become one of the worst depictions of India I have ever seen . From blazer-wearing twenty-something prof teaching genetics to a class which definitely looks elder than the prof himself , to totally accentuated english from everyone , it is so,so UN-Indian....that I wonder why the director chose India as a location for one of his heroes if he was so ignorant about the place .
We also have a guy roaming the streets wearing a coat and a.....believe it or not.....a bow-tie . And lest I forget, the streets were cobbled too....
I am now dying to see what the rest of the series has in store for me .

Mind Your LANGUAGE ! Bleddy !

Last week , i went over to my friend's apartments to play cricket and we were discussing plans to go to a movie when all off a sudden , this 40 something gentleman shouted at us , " Mind Your Language !!! " . Uh ? .
He went on to tell us how we shouldn't be using "unparliamentary" words inside the apartments and should keep our filthy chats to the streets . All of us were still staring at him like he was crazy .
And he stared back at us . The staring game went on for quite a few seconds before I thought of asking what exact words we were using . Bleddy . This was the word he had heard one of us utter which had sent him mad . ( Personally speaking , I later realized that he must have probably had a very bad day from his wife :) ) .
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So much for those apartments ; lets consider IIT Kanpur . Yeah , its still one of the best colleges in India . As for the scenario in IITK , a few facts about the spoken word here are :

• The first 40 or so words I learnt in Hindi (during the first few days at college) were "gaalis" , i.e. swear words .
  
• Every alternate sentence begins with bhenchoddh .
  
• The in-between sentences begin with madarchoddh .
• The sentences which begin with bhenchoddh end with madarchoddh and those which begin with madarchoddh end with bhenchoddh .
  
• The few rare sentences which don't start with either of bhenchoddh or madarchoddh begin with either of bosdickey/maakichooth-theri .
  
• If you know what the fore-mentioned gaalis mean , good for you . If you don't , even better . If you still want to know , DON'T ask me .
  
• Yes of course , every sentence has atleast two other distinct gaalis in between the starting and the ending .
  
• Quite a few creative students burn up their grey cells in coming up with new innovative gaalis every week . An interesting example is " Mayya-ki-Bua" , invented by Ankit Agarwal .
• A special should be made of "Madhar-Puttu" , which came into vogue after it was used by a Rajnikanth look-alike in Deepshika , the Hall 2 festival .

For deeper insight into the polite words used by the brightest , most-respected students of our country , two days at a UG hostel in IIT Kanpur is recommended .

RajniKanth

It's been two days since RajniKanth alias Thalaivar turned 57 and he's still the hot topic for discussion here . Two television channels are having month long Rajni-centered programs while MoserBaer has come out with a special RAJNI DVD pack . Various other rajni-centred events have been taking place throughout this month .
Coming to the man himself , it's as if he has disappeared from the face of the earth . Nobody seems to know where he was on his birthday .
Having lived in three different cities till now , I have noticed various views about Rajni - utter devotion from die-hard fans , respect from people for his humble nature , ridicule from ignorant fellows up north , dislike , admiration , craze , etcetera , etcetera . Having seen quite a few of his films , I can't do anything but wonder the way fate has taken him from Bangalore bus stands to the highest position in Star-dom . No hero , be it Amitabh Bachhan or Brad Pitt would have ever enjoyed adulation like Rajni does . From morning pujas to BEER-abhishekams , this chap has seen it all . But to call him a BAD ACTOR will not do justice to Rajni . North Indians , and even people of other southern states have seen only Rajni the SUPERSTAR , only his action-packed masala flicks, which has lead to the misconception that Rajni has done only films of this kind .

One statement a lot of people would agree with me will be : Kamal is an exceptional actor . Let me tell you something else ; I have seen three films starring both Kamal and Rajni and Rajni OUTSHINES Kamal in all the three , purely in terms of better acting . Padhinaru Vayadhinile , Ninaithale Inikkum and Aval Appadithaan . The latter especially needs a special mention as one of the best Indian films I have ever seen . Released in 1978 , it had a female character (beautifully portrayed by SriPriya) as the main protagonist and Rajni donning the role of an MCP . That is Male Chauvinist Pig for those who don't know . Apart from these films , anyone who has seen ThilluMullu will never say Rajni doesn't know how to act . Mullum Malarum , Johnny , Dalapathi , Batsha (The king of all masala films ever) are other films where I felt Rajni gave stellar performances .

Something I've found really amusing in IITK is how ppl seem to find Rajni hitting four bad guys at once as ridiculous while they don't mind SRK chasing a scorpio in a cycle-rickshaw . Heck, every industry part of Indian Cinema has these gravity-defying scenes , be it Bolly/Kolly/Tolly-wood . But no film industry in the world has ever seen a star bigger than RajniKanth . Never will either .

For those of you who don't know it already , Rajni's next film is an animation flick called SULTAN . Now, if this film becomes a huge hit(which it probably will) , probability is there will be Rajni films releasing fifty years from now in animation format . :)

You can like Rajni or hate Rajni , but you can't ignore Rajni . At least not if you are in Chennai right now .

Those Small Small Things....

Ever thought of those small,small things you do now and then which make you really happy for a couple of moments???Sliding down the railing on a specific staircase,having special chai in the morning after jogging , walking along the corridor and suddenly bowling an imaginary delivery at an imaginary batsman ; trying to throw the ball of waste paper into the dustbin ; actually managing to throw the ball of waste paper into the dustbin ; taking a morsel of food into your mouth and revolving it around for a few seconds without swallowing ; sprinkling water suddenly on your friends ; trying to fool your friend telling him there was a quiz during the class he missed ; smelling your cup of coffee before drinking it ; twirling your mobile in your hand with nothing else to do ; singing your favorite song and trying to tap dance at the same time in the confines of the bathroom ...........

Selfish.

Observations :

• Gandhiji was a great freedom fighter .
  
• Paris Hilton is a very active socialite.
• Mother Teresa did a lot of social work .
  
• My roomie , Dhiresh is very good at business matters .
  

Inference:

• Gandhiji did what he did because he wouldn't have been happier doing anything else .
  
• Paris Hilton wants to become more and more famous .
  
• Mother Teresa wanted to change the world into a better place as much as she could .
• Dhiru likes to read about businesses , stock market , etc .
  

Conclusion :
EVERYONE IS SELFISH . PERIOD .
Gandhiji , Mother Teresa , Paris Hilton , my roomie , you , me , everyone do what we do because we want to do it for ourselves . Say , we give 10 rupees to a begger . We do it more to satisfy our conscience rather than to feed the beggar . The fact that these two points are connected is a different matter to be discussed somewhere else . Anyways , my point is every single action in this world can be deconstructed to signify an act of selfishness .



Added After a few days of posting this , the following is what my bro had to say on this:

"This deconstruction is pointless. I could counter it with - there are different kinds of selfishness. The selfish being that hurts a heart. A selfish act that causes negligible pain or damage. A selfish person who massacres millions of people. A selfish person who feeds a hungry person. A 'selfish' person who has such a profound effect on humanity that it changes the very perception of life. Therefore, there are two extremes and between those lie infinite degrees of selfishness to choose from."