My Space

It had been a year since my last get-together with my two friends, and we were all buzzing with anticipation for this meetup. The occasion felt even more special because Sahil, one of our trio, will soon be leaving Bangalore. This was likely our last chance to meet for a while, making every moment count. Racing into Cinema at Shankar Nag Theatre Our first stop was the legendary Shankar Nag theatre on MG Road, Bangalore. Having lived in Bangalore for 19 years, I've visited this iconic movie hall a few times, and it never disappoints. We were there to watch the much-talked-about F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, was a promising high-octane action movie and was a glimpse into the world of Formula 1 racing. The movie was indeed a great watch. While there were a few moments in the middle that felt like a stretch, perhaps to force a subplot, the ending was both powerful and inspirational.  It's amazing how often movies hold up a mirror to life's realities, offering us mome...

So I am back in Mumbai and it was a kind of impromptu decision to come here. I opted the cheapest option to get to the airport. I took the bus to the airport for the first time, and found it very hassle free, and time saving. Lugging the heavy bag to the Srinagar Bus stand was the only difficult part. Route number 10 came almost immediately, and it was an air conditioned ride to Majestic.. It cost me 20 bucks and about 25 minuted to get there, and the BIAL 9 was just leaving majestic when I boarded it. The route was pretty straightforward, and we went straight through Mekhri Circle, and Yelahanka. It took an hour to reach BIAL, and as usual, I was there very very early at 5 pm, to get on the 8 25 pm flight.  A long wait at the airport followed, and I was finally checked into the flight, after a few phonecalls being made to confirm my seating. The flight was full of businessmen, making their regular journeys between Bombay and Bangalore. Most started s...

I went out with my school friend to watch the movie Oblivion yesterday. We went to Koshy's before that, and had a wholesome late lunch made up of scrambed eggs on toast, and mutton cutlets. It was really good..Watched oblivion at REX, which was a very passable movie at best. I was eagerly waiting for it to end. I thought Morgan Freeman would deliver an awesome performance, but that did not happen. The story gave him no space to perform. Tom Cruise had his usual exasperated expression on, throughout the movie, and the storyline was drab. It looked like Wall E met Total Recall. We dined at Shangrila, and had haka noodles and garlic chicken, which were really good. I had chinese food after a long time. Used to be a regular at Dragon Palace, which shut down last year.  I waited for over an hour for my bus which never showed up, and I had to finally take a rickshaw home. I had to shell out 150 bucks for the ride(One and a half). I guess Bangalore will never change. The ride was w...

Yes It's April fools day, and Twitter and Youtube have done their absolute best to pull off a prank. I installed the Bit Defender Total Security and it works pretty well. Power outages are becoming regular these days, and last longer every day. I guess kannadigas can never get their heads around these mundane problems. Sigh, what a place to live in. The rain clouds deceived my part of town today as well, but were quite generous elsewhere as I heard. Still, there was a slight drizzle during the power outage, and I went up to take a few pics. They turned out to be Bokeh!

Woke up after sleeping for about 3 hours, and had a long autorickshaw ride home.. I had to pay 170 bucks, which is the most that I have ever paid. Had agood afternoon nap, and decided to catch up on the youtube vlogs and CTFxC which I missed for a few days in a row. I received the cheque from BSNL, after almost an entire year. But atleast they paid up. I'm feeling a bit dazed right now, and it is surprising how much a trip can offset you from your daily routine. The streets were mostly empty, with a ragtag of boys playing holi. Looked like a public holiday, but it wasn't. The internet speed dropped on the downloads, and hence stopped the torrents. Usual phone calls followed and the usual assurances from the other end. I will go out for dinner soon, wonder what I will have..   

I woke up this morning, and decided to do something that I hadn't done in close to 2 years. Go on a bus ride around the city. Me and my friend would do this quite often when he lived here. So I snuck into my jeans, had my breakfast, and got on my bus. It was bus route 201, the longest bus route in Bnagalore. I got on at 10 15 am, which was just after the busy rush hour. The bus was empty for the first half hour of the journey, but started filling up as we went through the commercial districts. I met my college lecturer as she got on. It took her some time to recognize me. It's been a while. The bus went meandering through the busier parts of the city and a steady flow of commuters got on and off.Office goers mostly and a few students.  I started noticing several changes along the route. The overhead metro construction work had progressed handsomely, although that can be debated, and the bus stops had been redone, and looked a bit snazzy(some of them). Earth had been du...

I headed to Hosur on sunday morning, and after much confusion, reached there just before lunchtime. It's a tiny place, and not many people live there, and it was good to be somewhere away from Bangalore for a change. It had been over a year. Me and my father had simple lunch, and did some paltry shopping at the local "Megamart", and talked about a lot of things. It's a really tiny place, and a quiet one as well, and my father's new home, is bang opposite the local railway station. Evening set in, and we went to the station, and sat around for a bit. Nothing much happened, and I was quite bored by the end of the day because of a weak internet connection, that kept going off. The new bed that was ordered came in, and after much tossing and turning I finally fell asleep. I woke up today, Monday, at 5 AM, made breakfast after a long long time, and went to the station to beard the train the Bangalore Central. It was an awesome journey, I must mention, and it was pret...

As I continue to write in this blog of mine, posts are getting more and more agonizing. I was cursing an uncle of mine, who "helped" me buy an assembled desktop computer during my first days in Bangalore. It wasn't till a year that I realized how the assembler guy, had cheated me. I went out to buy a video/graphics card today, so that ubuntu would not look as bulky as it does now. I spent 1300 bucks in buying something that simply does not fit into the allocations. I can proudly announce that I use an antique computer. The hardware is absolutely outdated, considering that it was the height of sophistication in 2004, when it was actually assembled. It was in 2006 that they were relieved to sell it to me. The amount that I have spent on it till date, replacing parts, and optimizing it, so that it can work, has totalled up to almost double of what I paid back them. I could have got myself a darn good lappy even back then at this price. BESCOM cut off lines for 4 hours today...

V day went wushhing past... there was nothing in it for me, however. I am quite saddened to hear about the death of my friend's grandmother, whom I knew from a very young age.May she rest in peace. Yesterday, wasn't a good day for PC s, as an anonymous bug struck at about 10 30 pm Indian Standard time, that caused PC s to shut off. My friend's Vista was affected very badly, and the last time I saw, he was manually checking the disk. I installed Ubuntu Hardy on his system, and which he much appreciated, and thats the only way that his lap is running at the moment. I I were to use his words, I'd say that his lap is now running on life support. Lollz! I read the ubuntu wiki a lot and also the open forums, where people who are sick of Microsoft often come up and flay it publicly, There are so many comments on the wiki and the forum, and I just remember one, that caught my attention, and I still remember it. It went like this. " FAILURE ISN'T AN OPTION WITH MICROS...

It's nice to see that people do visit this blog. Now that I have a tracker installed, I can see their locations. Its nice to connect with people whom I do not know at all, when they pay me a visit here. The day was quite listless,and adding to that was my slow internet connection. I tried downloading Openoffice.org 3.1.2, but it seemed to be never-ending. Finally the connection went off completely, and the 3 hours spent in downloading a potion of it, went to waste. Tomorrow's valentine's. i hear everybody's planning ahead, and making a big fuss about it. I did come across a blog, that listed out the top 10 anti valentine's day cards. And were they hilarious.. This being Karnataka, and Bangalore, Muhtalik, the frustrated man again warned against v day celebrations. I wonder why he's so pissed out. People sure have their own ways of getting their way in politics. I applaud the man who painted his face black with some good old shoe polish. Loved watching the video...

Its been a very sleepy day for me today. I woke up thrice today, as funny as it may seem. Once at 4 o clock, the next at 8 40, and then finally at 10 30. Having breakfast and lunch together has become mainstay for me nowadays. I had been having a bit of a tummy problem, so carefully chose to have a veg puff, rather than its eggy cousin. I don't really know what is bloody wrong with the electrical supply guys in Bangalore, who call themselves BESCOM.There was power outage four times today, each for an hour. Adding to that, the internet was down as well, due to power failure at one of their control centres or whatever they call them. Bloody city this, Bengalooru. Ended the day with a big Andhra Mils,("Mils" is what they call them, and they think that's how you pronounce meal, or they'll serve you fish instead). I just watched Quantum of Solace for I guess the tenth time, and I'm getting ready for bed. Oh wait! I forgot to add this in... I slept again from 2 30...

I just remembered I have this blog, and decided to scribble in something. It's the first time that I'm blogging, using Ubuntu. I've finally got this absolutely great OS under control, and you know what, I can even run those "sudo" scrips. It's a really neat system to work on. Everything "just works". I've been quite cheeky to set up those extra launchpad accounts and kept on ordering those free distros of 9.10, even when they rejected it. I guess a total of 3 cd s are coming my way in around a month's time. I've aquired this habit of watching ctxc everyday. Though it's not as interesting as it once was, its worth the sneak peak into someone's life. I just finished watching CInderella Man, which was long due. I got a pretty well seded torrent, and downloaded it for a day..(256kibs only). The movie was just awesome, and i was excited enough to blow a few empty punches into the air myself. There's something new coming into Banga...