Somebody buy me!!

Today, I went to art exhibition in Bangalore, where artist from all over south India convene in Bangalore to sell off what they have made through out the year. This is the second time I have gone to that exhibition. This time, unlike last year, I went a bit early, and was fortunate enough to get a good deal for two drawings. The drawings were unbelievably cheap.

But the main point in this post is about the artist who are not able to make it even, even in this exhibition.

The girl from whom I bought the second painting managed to sell almost all of her paintings. Definitely you should appreciate her business sense. Her paintings where inexpensive. For example, I bought my painting for Rs 100/-. She was selling similar things for Rs 250/- when the exhibit started. While we were about to leave the premises, she was selling two paintings for Rs 100/- So definitely she knows the people’s mentality.

Another artist, who was drawing each and every of his pictures with just ballpoint pen and nothing else managed to sell only one of his painting. His paintings where comparatively in the higher side. They were about 12K+ per piece. After talking with him for some time, I came to know that he has come to Bangalore with his friend to participate in this exhibition.

Now thinking about it, you can see that he too has got a decent business model. The travel,food and accomodation expense for two can easily cross 2K. So that has left him with 10K profit from this exhibition. So to break even, he just has to sell a single painting of his. Not to mention the exposure he has got and the contacts which he has obtained by showing his talent to the whole world, or atleast to the art loving population of Bangalore.

There were some successful painters too, I saw one guy who managed to sell 3 of his paintings, each costing 70K. He was definitely a happy guy.

More famous names got to auction their paintings, with starting price for a painting being 5K.

But the face which disturbed me the most was that of a girl. From her paintings, you can see that she is not that talented painter. But the worst part was the expression in her face, which was a mixture of sadness and timidness. She was clearly embarrassed to be in that exhibition. Crowd gathering around other exhibits, but none next to hers didn’t help things either. You can not stop feeling sorry for a girl who was holding her pictures in her hand, sadness in her face and hoping to get recognition from some one in the crowd.

Definitely the art world is definitely a much competitive one.

On your death bed

Once there was a really old man, who had three sons.
His sons loved him very much and the old man too loved him dearly.
The old man was really old that nobody even remembered his name.
Of course his sons knew his name, but never called him with his name.
All of his friends who could call him by his name had long been dead.
We know his name and we will call him by his name Peter.

Yes he hoped to be like Peter Pan who never grew up.
Still he was happy with the way things have gone for him.
His sons are still alive, and he is sure he will die before any one of them meet their end.
The grandsons of his sons are expanding their family fortunes all over the world.
Peter really felt like a Badshaw of Persia.

Now he felt that he is becoming a burden for everyone around him.
He has enjoyed his life, got his children, and have seen their grandchildren.
There should be no reason for him to live in this world.
More than this feeling, the feeling of boredom was affecting him badly.

He was sick most of the times, and when he is fine, he can hardly walk around his big house once before resting to his cot.
It has been aeons since he has rode his bike.
His bicycle, which was the first thing he posses of his own, is just a memory in his mind.
His bicycle and bike, unlike Peter, has stood the test of time, and are still carrying his sons and grandsons and sons of grandsons, so and so forth.

Talking to his nurses and doctors day after day is tiring on him.

He wanted to end his life.

He realized that this is the worst thing that can happen to anyone.. Wanting to end your life, but not able to die.
He is not a broken hearted lover, or a stock broker during 1929.
Neither he Hitler nor a Kamakaze pilot.
His condition is just plain old boredoom and nothing else.

Television didn’t interest him, internet didn’t concern him.
He was in his very old world, and he was bored with everything he had.
He has read his fill, and with failing eyesight, even though reading books is out of question,
he has long lost his interest in books.

With nothing left other than to wait and die, he wanted to face death head on.

Of course he was not afraid to die, because, like a soldier in the charge of light brigade, he is ready to face the enemy head on.
But for him, suicide is out of question.
He never like suicide, and he never liked the people assisting others to die.
Suicide according to Peter is the coward’s way of life.
People commit suicide because they are afraid to live, but Peter on other hand, want to die not because of the fear of like, but the indifference of it.

He realized that, his mind is uttering whatever to what ever is happening around him.
He has stopped caring for anything around him, as they were boring and this stoppage in caring for stuff around him, has made him bored.
Definitely he is caught in a vicious circle, and unfortunately he was ready to go down than come around it.

Finally he decided what he thought was a good idea.

(To be continued………)

Sad Boise state girl

Today (07-Jan-2010), this video is the most watched video in the whole of youtube.
I was kinda confused why this video is the most viewed on the whole of youtube for a day.
Sure, the girl looks completely unaware of what is happening around her, and even the rhythm she is playing is pretty out of sync. She looks hallow too. The guy who is playing enthusiastically next too her, too didn’t serve the purpose.
Finally, after searching around the internet who that girl actually is, I found out that she is in fact blind.

Now this made me thing about one basic question.

Is laughter bad?

The daemon

How will you feel about a person who knows what you think, whom you talk with and some times even direct your money and watch each and every thing you do?
Pervert? Leach? or Google?
Now to those who don’t know about the reach of Google, here are the snippets.

Not many people know any video hosting site other than youtube or google videos. Hardly few people use metcafe.
Yahoo messenger is almost extinct and almost every one in the block use gtalk.
With the release of google wave, which has shown new ways to communicate through webcam, skype is moving almost out of question.
The number of entries in Blogspot – again owned by Google almost completely outweighs the entries made in wordpress.
Google Adsense is definitely much better than Adbrite, even though you have to be a owner of a high traffic blog/website to have one account.
People who were using mozilla are slowly switching over to Google Chrome.
Google has even come out with an OS Chrome OS, which will have nothing other than Google Chrome installed in your computer, and you use your computer just to connect to the internet.
Google Reader, Google Maps, Orkut, Google Docs, Google Calender are slowly taking over our way of life. Even WikiMaps is powered by Google!!

So OK. Google is every where. So is or was? Microsoft. You might ask what is the big deal with Google monopolizing the whole of internet? The problem is that Microsoft asks whether you want to send some information to its server. The problem with Google is that, you have to accept their terms and conditions, which almost none of us care to read, and in some obtuse location, they have specified that they will collect some of your data. The worst part is that Google till now, they haven’t come public about what they are collecting from us.

Yeah Google knows what you type. Google knows what you blog and Google has got even a new OS.

Now coming on to perks.

I think almost each and every one has a gmail account. Now guess what? The button which they have provided as delete is just for beauty. It doesn’t serve the purpose. For the sake of so called efficiency, your data, what ever you store online in gmail is duplicated in various servers around the world and recently Google has come out open saying that they necessarily don’t delete all the content which the user thinks he has deleted.

So nobody knows what is going on inside the black box called as Google. And this black box is slowly taking over what we knew as internet. You could be prosecuted for what you think. As in countries like China, you are not supposed to think in certain ways.

So the gist of the post is that, if you are a believer, pray to God that Google does not fall in wrong hands and become a daemon which it could become

PS: This is my take on Google. For detailed list of controversies surrounding Google, please check wiki

2009 for an year it is

So this is my first post in 2010.

Like almost every one else in the blog world, I am also going to post what happened to me in 2009.
But this is going to be a boring post for sure.

I think I am posting this for my satisfaction than for the sake of others reading I suppose.
So I think those three guys who are right now looking at this blog can very well move on to more productive posts

Pun apart, seriously, 2009 sucked big time and I am starting 2010 with a huge grumbling.

I didn’t do anything worth while other than putting some few kilos.

I did complete 25 K run. But that was done in a pathetic time of 3 hours and 30 odd minutes. I am pretty sure a tortoise can run faster than that.

So after thinking long and hard for the past 45 seconds, I have realized that, other than that 25K, nothing much has happened in 2009.

Yeah. I went for some few treks, got lost in Ombattu Gudda and came out alive.

Have survived yet another year of my mom’s pestering of me getting married, and have stopped the habit of writing diaries after doing it for 2 years and realizing that nothing worth while is happening in our boring daily lives.

I hoped to start a new blog which will become a sensation. I did start that blog, but that blog was a total and utter failure with just 100 odd visits (50 of that is mine ) to that website till now. One thing which I did realize was, I have to improve my skills in photography by leaps and bounds.

Like any other year, I read many novels. But the novel “Brothers Karamazov” By Dostoevsky did change my way of thinking. Now I have more novels in the half read state than I have ever had in my life counting to 4. I am pretty sure I am not going to finish the latest crap from Chetan Bhagat or Alchemist. So you can tick those two off, thus discrediting the record which I have set just a sentence above.

I did see many movies, but not many in theater. 2009 ended in a sorry note with the last movie being Vetaikaran!!!!

To wrap it up, may be I am getting old and mature that I am looking at each and every year just like any other year. For a 100 year old turtle, or for a billion year old star, an addition in its life should not matter much. I, being in the wrong side of twenties, am going towards that utopia I suppose .

Whats in a name?

Have you ever met any of your old friend whom you have not met for the past 10 years and his name just pops out of your mouth?
But unfortunately Murphy hardly parts ways with me
as some times, you meet one of your best buddies and you will just forget his name. You will remember his favorite color, crush, mom’s name, dad’s name and even the name printed on his water bottle, but his name.

I met one of my old friend Sreedhar, who became close to me after he broke open a part of my skull with a stone. Even though we were not on talking basis for a long time, sharing leaked question papers brought us together. I lost contact of him after my 10th, and after meeting some unknown stranger in a restaurant near to our office, I realized that, the guy in formal shirt and pant sitting in the very next table is in fact Sreedhar.

Some times, brain really amazes me. Some times, I get frustrated with it too.
This happened with my another friend whose name, I can’t remember even now. Blame it on the ‘Sutha Kathiri’ (Spoiled brinjals) which became his nick name in 11th and 12th standard. You know what the worst part is? He will remember your name and will call you with the same. And trust me guys, it is really tough to act as if you can remember his name without actually remembering it.

My brain has not helped me with this cause even when I was in my MTech course. I was the maintenance secretary of our hostel and I play cricket on regular basis. the down side of this is that many people know me, but I don’t know them. The real trouble happens when you go to the mess to eat, where the guy standing before/behind you will start talking with you as if he is a close friend. During the initial days, I politely asked them their name. I stopped my habit after realizing that I can not remember any of their names.

So seriously guys, what is in a name? Person as a person is more important than a person as a name rite?

I finish with a modified version of a dialogue from Matrix Revolutions.
“Love is just a word. What matters is the connection the word implies.”

Why do girls give dowry

I and my roommates were sitting in our favorite restaurant – Wazir, which became our favorite mainly because of its cost when two hot girls entered it. Our perception about them changed once they opened their mouths.
It was an unanimous decision with the three of us that we can not stand this kind of crap, even if the girl is as beautiful as Aishwarya Rai!!

This opened up another stream of conversation between three of us. Why do girls have to give dowry.
We have to pay money to get something which we think is of some use to us.
We also get paid to do some work which we don’t want to do.
I think dowry is similar to our salary and marriage similar to our job. Once you enter a new job, you will like everything that it has to offer to you. After an year or so, you will hate the same things which you once thought were wonderful.
We have to hold on to something without which we can not survive, but hate it at the same time.
Precarious rite??

But there are some cases where you enjoy doing your job and even get paid for it. For example, look at all those cricketers and footballers. They are getting paid to play!! Atrocious I would say.

Only few times, you come across guys like Andre Agassi, who after playing for some 20 years straight say he almost always hated playing tennis and will thus keep your mind sane.

So the crux of the story is, in most of the cases, guys gets paid for up keeping and adapting to the tantrums thrown by the so called the better half. It is like take it or forced to take it.

I end this post with my latest quote:

“If you can’t enjoy it, fake it”

churake dil mera goriya chali

WoW!!!!! WoW!!!!!!!!
Damn!!!!!!!!!!

Just played the above song before some 100 guys.
In case you guys don’t know, I can play keyboard very averagely. I have always had a love-hate relationship with the keyboard. I love to play the keyboard. But the keyboard hates me. Each and every time I try to play something good in the keyboard, it gives me giving really bad or sometimes horrible sound.
Still this has made our relationship stronger.

This is not the first time I am playing keyboard before an audience. In-fact this is the second time.

The first time I played, I was in 12th standard, and I was learning keyboard in Sathangai in Madurai. It was a summer course and by the way Sathangai is a musical institute associated with our local church.

So we learn the keyboard starting from CDEFGABC to some chords and notes. This thing went on for 2 months, and at the end of 2 months, we were supposed to perform in front of our family and friends.
I fortunately didn’t take any one from my family, as the event was a total disaster.

We had a tabala master to play the background. I and another girl were supposed to play the treble or the foreground, and two other guys were supposed to play the bass or the background.
It all started when one of the bass guy screwed up a note. He panicked and he forgot what was going on around him. He forgot what beat was being played and after that missed note, perfectly played his part, but in a different note. The tabala guy could have stopped and caught up with him. He didn’t. So when the treble part came again, I told the little girl who was also playing treble with me to stop. But she would not budge, and she was also playing in a different note than what was supposed to be played. Frustrated, I too started playing in my note, forgetting what was going on around me….
The worst part was I got the best student award in that keyboard class. I seriously detest myself when ever I see that heap of wood in my home.

This time, I was very fortunate. I was in the hands of experienced persons. Our lead singer have learned karnatic vocals for 17 continuous years, and we found out that in-fact she can play keyboard much better than what I can. Our guitarist is a self taught genius, who have taught himself guitar for the past 3 years. Our drummer calls himself novice as he is learning drums only for the past 1.5 years. I on the other hand, have learned keyboard for a combined time of 8 months. 2 months in Sathangai and 6 months during my tenure in TCS and while I was in Trivandrum.

I had to give the start, and as expected, I screwed it up. But as usual, I didn’t panicked, and I found the correct chord and I started playing seamlessly from there on. I had to sync up with the leading vocals, and unfortunately, we played really well that, the crowd was roaring at their best. Fortunately, I made out her voice in the noise, and I was able to play properly. I had to give the end, and the roar was such that no one was able to listen to my tunes at the end.

Really a nice feeling indeed. Of course I feel that I could have done way better. But still I held it off, and was able to survive due to the experts covering my potholes

Nobel laureate Barack Obama?

Like many people in the world, I am also shocked to hear Barack Obama granted Nobel peace prize. This should definitely be the most scandalous Nobel peace prize of the century.
The Nobel committee has awarded the peace prize as he has 1. worked great deal towards climate change, 2. bringing muslim world closer to the rest of world and also in 3. reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile through out the world.

Seriously I am sure the Nobel committee does not read news papers daily.

1. Regarding climate change, I seriously dont know what Obama has done to change the world. Other than fleeting talks which even George Bush can give, he has not done anything more.  The UN international conference on climate change has not yet convened in Coppenhagen. Without even deciding on what the world is going to do about climate change, awarding a political leader the fruits of working towards climate change is simply stupid.

2. This is the most comical point which is given by the selection committee. US army is still in Afghanistan and in Iraq. They are thinking of getting them back to US. But thought has not been supported by action. Obama being half muslim doesnt prove anything. Nobody cared about his race. So I think even religion should not come into effect.

3. I never read any news saying that the US nuclear weapons stockpile is being reduced. Forcing other countries to sign NPT when they are the guys who have done more than 50% of the nuclear tests is pure hippocracy.

So I totally think Obama does not deserve the peace prize. Norway has yet again aligned to the strong arm of the west and have sided with the US president. It is the same committee which did not give peace prize to Gandhi, but had Hitler and Stalin as nominees for the prize. By awarding peace prize to an unworthy candidate, they have proved the world that words are in fact better than action.

Around the world to your next house

Has it ever happened to that you will think a lot for something and will even do something really complicated, only to find that, the same thing can be done in a really simple way, sometimes even in a single step.
It happened to me today.
I did really cool, complex, annoying code, which ran for hours together to get an output which could have been done in a single line and that too taking less than half the time which it took for the original complex stuff.
The worst part was, the complex stuff was not what I wanted and I am right now running the simple stuff which I didn’t know in the first place and am waiting for its output.
I seriously laugh at people when they say you have to think out of the box where you can go to your destination in a really simple straight line.

PS: I am pissed off really.. 2 days of my work = 1 single line of configuration file :X