No more iPods for the North Koreans

The Bush administration is trying to punish North Korea for its missile testing .

The way in which Mr. Bush is trying to do it is funny. US is going to ban export of certain items to North Korea by the US as well as its political allies.

The list of items which will be banned from being exported to North Korea and it allies include artwork, cognac, cigarettes, expensive cars, Rolex watches, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, personal watercraft, musical instruments, sports equipment, Segway scooters, and personal electronics, such as iPods and plasma televisions.

It is very sad what Bush administration is doing to the people of North Korea, who according to international organization are suffering from poverty.

Now people will struggle more because they will not be able to play an iPod, wear a Rolex watch or a Harley-Davidson.

I still wonder what the logic behind this decision is.

May be by denying them these goods, it will make the poor people of North Korea revolt against their regime?

Or may be is it that the Regime's leaders fed up with a life without iPod, Rolex, Plasma TV will stop its entire missile program and even the nuclear program?

Somebody please explain this to me!!!

Burqa

This Post is about some religiously sensitive matters. I do not mean to offend any religion or person.

Going back to my native state is something I always loved even though I consider an average "Mallu" a hypocrite, pessimistic and downright lazy.

But, this time my travel to Kerala gave me an idea about how liberal we are.

Nowadays all international news channels are filled with news about a Muslim Lady in the UK being expelled for wearing a Burqa and the controversy raked in by the comments made by Tony Blair and Jack Straw.

Personally I am against Burqa as I feel it hampers somebody's freedom of expression. Also I think that it is downright sexist.

If a woman have to cover her face, then why not a man?

It was also amazing to see that kind of problems in a supposed to be "developed" country like the UK. Some news suggested that the number of ladies wearing Burqa has in fact increased. I am not sure how comfortable these ladies will be wearing it in a non all-Muslim country where most wear what they like.

OK, now back to the point. I was in Kozhikodu, a district in my native state of Kerala.

To give a brief introduction about my state, it is a multicultural state shared between Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The district I have been to was a Muslim dominated state.

I was expecting a very traditional place where men will be wearing traditional Muslim dress and women will be wearing Burqa. But, to my surprise I could not find so many men wearing the traditional dress.

For that matter most of the people on the road were young guys wearing jeans and short shirt in their Bike zipping past the traffic. Even older people are wearing normal clothes that anybody else in Kerala would wear.

The most amazing thing was that I could not see a single woman wearing a Burqa. Also they were actively going out with their husband and family. I heard that during the Id holidays everyone in Kozhikode will be in the beach with their family.

In a world where Radical Islam is making its presence felt, it is good to see that there are people following Islam with Sanity.

Lazy Traveler: Pondicherry Part 1

It was a Friday night at around 11:30 and I was frantically working

with my(not exactly!!)

laptop at my house after an SOS call from my Boss about some problem

in our code.

Suddenly my mobile phone started ringing. It was a call from my friend

Amol.

He started off with his typical "what's up. dude" greeting. His call at this time of the day was good enough for me to find out that he is up to something.

First thing he asked me was what was I doing now. I replied with a big story about the work and how my weekend was going to get spoilt ( as if I do all kind of adventure sports

during weekend!!).

"Why don't we go pub hopping?" he asked. "At this time of the day?" was my reply rather question. I was sure that he was up to something else.

After a round of questioning and set of "sweet" words from me he told me to be prepared with a pair of dress and be ready to travels somewhere during the weekend and PS (Sreejith) and Rao( Prasanth a.k.a Beedi) was with him. All my cribs about my work and how loaded I was fell into deaf ears.

Hesitantly, but happy about doing something different during the weekend I packed my stuffs and waited.

They came to my house at about 12.45 to my house. The vehicle of choice was PS's Tata Safari about which I know more that he knows.

But, luckily he knows what the steering wheel is used for and where the break is

I guess that is good enough to get a driving license.

Everything was set off we go!!

err.....one problem none is sure about the way to Pondicherry.

Only thing we know was we had to take to Hosur road route.

Radio city FM was playing nice songs on the car stereo for a change (hmm..in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep).

I thought the only thing they knew was blah..blah..blah.

We crossed the Bangalore city limits and was cruising nicely, suddenly like an after thought P.S asked “are we on the right track?". He did not get any answer as none was sure about it.

Pasanth suddenly came up with a solution “let’s have something to eat". We can stop at some Dhaba and ask them the way to Pondicherry.

We stopped at a "Dhaba" selling south Indian dosa and chutney. We ordered a dosa each. The lady in the shop had an amazing vessel which magically produced Chutney if she poured some water taken from a big barrel kept nearby. May be she should be the next one to do this after Jesus.

When asked about way, the shop owner said that we have already five Km past the turn which we were supposed to take to Pondicherry. We decided to keep Dhaba visit as a pit stop and a feather in the cap of the lazy traveler rather than loosing our way.

Man lazy traveler rocks!!

The travel after that was uneventful and silent barring the howling noise Prasanth used to make whenever the rock stars performing in his head via his Walkman mobile go wild. There was also no problem of loosing the way then as there was only way to go.. Straight!!

Cont....

Faces

For the last one month I have been traveling Europe.

New culture, new people and new places

I was really enjoying it.

Trying to pen down my European experience, through the faces that I came across.

The good looking Italian manager in the host company:

He took great pain to make sure that we are comfortable. He drove us to the Bus service company's office to help us get the bus pass. Even though he knows nothing about the public transport system, tried to find a map and a guy who could help us.
He never missed an opportunity to invite us for a dinner in special restaurants.

The developer with a large frame and larger heart:

I particularly enjoyed listening to him speak in his typical accent. He always had the typical "it is not my problem" kind of answer to everything.

The beautiful assistant lady who was a treat to watch:

U could literally feel the performer in her whenever she talks. She always used her eyes and hands like a theater artist to explain things. She can come up with a special place to have your dinner just like that. Thanks to the numerous dates she goes for.

The young Indian software consultant:

He always talked in a techie language which I never understood. But was kind enough to help me all the time. Be it helping me to find a way to a new places or lending me some rice when I ran out of it or be it remembering to call for my taxi to the airport.

The face that fascinated the world for such a long time, the face of Mona Lisa:

There is such a charm to this small painting by Da Vinci flanked by big and elaborate paintings of God and Kings. The enigma of that paining and the 'Da Vinci Code' will draw u to it.

The guy outside the Louvre in Paris playing a "hand organ" (I don't know what exactly it is

called):

Somehow he reminded me of the lead singer in the rock band 'Rasmus'. He was playing as if he was in front of a crowd of million, lost in his own world and smiling all the time as if he is in a blissful world. Just make u wonder how much he is enjoying his 'job' unlike many of those tie wearing, suit clad executives.

The driver of the taxi who took us from the ESKON temple to the railway station:

He had been doing this job for the past 20 years without fail. No wonder he was zipping past the rest of the vehicles as a F1 driver overtaking a Maruti 800. He kept on talking about the place, and how it has changed over time making us enjoy every bit of the conversation.

One of the most sober faces I met there:

A beautiful Muslim lady in the walkway. She was feeding her kid with one hand and begging for money with the other. It is hard to ignore the pain in those beautiful eyes and the scar on her cheek. Something that can haunt u for long.

The "faceless" faces of the prostitutes in the red light area of Amsterdam:

Standing in the show windows like a beautiful showpiece, Letting people come to them and bargain or just staying still even when drunken guys were passing comments at them or just covering their faces and yelling at a curious traveler trying to take their picture.

Old lady in the train from Amsterdam:

She kept on staring at me as if I was some terrorist trying to blow up the whole place. It was funny to see her occasionally lifting her head and take a quick peek at me to make sure that I was not getting ready to kidnap her :-)

Police officer in the Frankfurt airport:

He arrogantly showed his police Badge at a visibly tired and hasty traveler (read me) to tell him that he has come to the wrong place. It was little different experience for me as I have never encountered such arrogant officers in any other airports. They always used to talk to you politely even if u are asking a stupid question. May be what they say about Germans are right!!

The corrupt customs officer in the Bangalore airport:

He demanded money from me just because he did not know what a USB hard disk is. Or was he just trying to find out a reason to get some money from me. Shame on him and his colleagues!!

Life and Death

This thought occurred to me sometime back after watching two movies.

Being somebody who does not have the patience to watch, I usually enjoy channel surfing than

Watch a full length movie.

But somehow I had the chance to watch two movies back to back.

The interesting part was that both movies dealt with the similar subject “Death”.

The movies were “Final destination” and “death becomes her”.

I don’t know these movies were really good from a critic’s perspective, but some how liked that way they handled the same theme.

Telling about the first movie, that is “Final Fantasy”. It depicts death as some kind of demonic beast that is hell bent on getting its job done no matter what.

The story revolves around a group of people who escaped from a major air mishap. Death is following the all and killing one by one in a gruesome manner.

It more or less bases itself on the hindu ideology of fate and death.

I have heard about this story when I was a kid

Once yama( the god of death) and Hanuman(Monkey God) met at somewhere. During their conversation, they saw a small bird sitting there. Yama was surprised to see the bird and said “what this bird is doing here? It is about to die”. Hanuman felt for the bird and decided to rescue it from death. He took it and flew to a far away place and left it there and came back. Then he asked Yama about the fate of the bird. Then Yama said “The bird was supposed to be killed by a snake in a far away place. I don’t how it is gonna reach there by this time”. The place where the bird was destined to die was the same place where Hanuman took it to.

It really scared me, I felt like death was around me waiting to pounce one me. It really gives you w eerie feeling. Now matter how tough life can be and how sad it can make us, we still love it.

The second movie that I watched was “ Death Becomes Her”. This was a movie about two ladies drinking an eternal potion of youth and becoming immortal.

They never die, even after falling from the stairs and breaking all the body parts or being shot at by a shot gun. They continue to live even after everyone around them die. This again gave me a scar. But thus time, it was about the notion of immortality.

Is it worth to live, if there is no one to live for? Or there there is no reason to live?

Just a food for thought :-)

A day out

It has been sometime since I have written anything here. Blame it on my lack of imagination or lack of sensitivity or plain procrastination.

Now, Suddenly out of nowhere I got the stuff from the least expected source.

Last weekend we had our team outing. Being part of a research team we usually do not have time to go out or party. It is not because we are busy developing next "Killer App", But we are just busy re-designing our previous design. Thanks to a new mega customer deal, we were able to get some timer out for the trip.

The destination for the trip was a resort in the middle of a jungle in a place called “...hmmm..OK I for got the name!!”. Any way it does not have any relevance here. Personally I am not somebody who enjoy being in a resort as I always feel they are too artificial. But any way, this time I did not have any choice and had to join them for the trip.

We reached the place without any incident. The place was really good with all kind of luxury thrown in everywhere.After hours of games and dancing to the tune of "Himesh Reshamya"(Yeah.. you can run but you can never hide from him) followed by a stupendous meal everyone where exhausted and went off to sleep in no time.

The next day they provided us a jungle safari. It was not that interesting for others as they were expecting a tiger to wait for them on the way and wave at them and say "Yo man"!! Which, I was never expecting.

After the safari everyone wanted to hit the swimming pool and chill out. I thought of joining them too. Then somebody came up with the idea of trekking which was booed by the majority. I was not sure about that idea but thought that would give it a shot. We got hold of two reluctant souls and started for the trek. I was expecting a jungle trail with dangerous animals lurking round the corner waiting to pound upon us. It was not to be. The place was mostly tobacco fields cultivated by poor local farmers. It was bewildering to see the same poor farmers are cultivating the same tobacco that fetches billions of dollars to the cigarette companies.

We passed the fields and reached a rocky area where there was a Lord Shiva temple in a cave on top of the rocks. We sat next to the cave for sometime. The view was not spectacular but was very pleasant with nice breeze caressing us all the time.

Suddenly from nowhere one person came with a set of "stray dogs" or I would call them “his pets” in a procession. We were little afraid at first. He looked shabby with his torn, soiled trouser shirt and was drunk. He started blabbering something in his local language. I was never able to make out anything, but I still nodded to whatever he was talking.

I was not sure whether it was him the alcohol in him that was doing the talking. But, one thing I noticed was that everything he talked was from his heart. He talked something about the place, about the god that was protecting them. Then he invited us to the cave in which he stays. He was still telling so many things and in one moment he just broke down. I guess it was when he started telling about the people or something. He showed us the gods in the cave protecting them. After sometime we decided to leave him there with his problems, gave him some money knowing that he will use the money to get drunk all day.

On the way we met some kids staring at us as if we were from some alien planet. They had every reason to the think that way. From the way we dressed they must have been thinking, "Hay.... what these grown up people are doing here wearing shorts like kids and carrying some weird thing in their hand (Camera). Wow!! They have one more person looking like a lady, but why is she wearing a trouser and T-shirt?”

They looked very sweet, even though they were not well fed and were not wearing nice clothes and were not smelling of some expensive baby powder. There was innocence in their eyes. It looked like they were expecting something from us. We gave one of them some money and told him to buy some sweets. He ran and gave it to one girl and all of them together ran to a small shop nearby. We followed them to the shop and asked them what they wanted. The cutest of them was sure about her choice. She said "chocolates". We bought chocolates and distributed to them. Just as we exhausted with the chocolates, one kid cam running asking for chocolates. Surprisingly the other kids took one chocolate each from their pocket and gave it to him.

The way they did was so touching. They shared it without any hesitation or doubt. I was sure not every day they get to see some weird people giving them chocolates, but still they cared to share it among themselves. I don't know how long they will have this love between them. Being somebody from a city where each other fight for anything and everything, it was very touching to see love and care in the heart of these kids. They did not have anything, never ate good food, never wore good dress, and never had parents who pamper them all the time. But still they cared for each other.

We left them there and walked towards our bus. Then suddenly from nowhere they came in front of us giggling and smiling. I thought of taking their picture, and told them that I was going to take their pictures. Suddenly they stood there in attention in one line holding their breath. I have uploaded the pictures through flickr. It looked so sweet and genuine to me.

On the way back I still had their smile in my mind. It also made me think about "Happiness".
For everyone happiness means different things.
For some, it was about staying at home and watching the foot ball match.
For some, it was about going to the mall and shopping till they drop dead.
For some, it was about playing cricket in the rain
For some, it was about cooling themselves in the pool.
For some, it was about talking to strangers about their god.
For some, it was about drinking till they loose their mind.
For some, it was about the chocolates that the strangers gave them.
For some, it was about posing for a picture which they might never be able to see.
And for me, I got my piece of that real estate from seeing the smile on the face of these kids. Meeting these people was the best part of the journey.

One thing I learned about life was,
“It is not about what you do or what you don't do. It is just about what makes you happy!!!”

Show Time

Smallest movie theatre I have ever seen
Originally uploaded by uno_frozen_luv.

One movie theatre I saw in Sringeri. This is by far the smallest movie theatre I have ever been. Wonder what do they use to screen the movie??
They are playing Evil Dead Part 2 and another Kannada movie. Interestingly the name of the Kannada movie roughly mean "Aunty is Naughty". My first impression was that it would be one of those soft porn movie starring the greatest of all soft porn star in south India " Shakeela" . But interestingly I later learned that the hero was a mainstream Kannada actor and heroine is a mainstream south Indian actress. The aunty they were referring in the movie had some horrible disease and she is going the die!!

Why rock?

While having dinner yesterday my friend suddenly asked me a question.
"Why do u like rock music?"
"What in rock music makes u like that?"

I tried to answer him telling about the lyrics, guitar, the way they sing and stuff like that . But I felt I was just beating about the bush without making any real sense.
At the end I just gave up, telling him that I could not explain it.

I just thought abt this some time later.

Being somebody who was brought up in kerala, southern most state in India,I was not supposed to like this kind of music.
All my life I was used to the malayalam film songs which were slow and were based on melody.
I think people who has listened to that kind of music will understand what I mean.
There used to be a time when I used to listen to Backstreet boys, Boyzone and that kind of stuff which were slow and was kind of 'feel good'. They were some what similar to the bollywood music which I was supposed to like. Nowadays, I hate to hear the name of Britney and I do not listen to them at all.
Somehow I started hating these songs which I was supposed to like.

Just went through my winamp playlist, I see more Bon Jovi, Green Day, Linkin Park, Eagles, Nickelback than any pop artist.

Most of these songs in no way can be classified as 'headbanger'
kind of songs. So I can never say that that these songs gives me that adrenalin rush. or make me bang my head.

They in no way are 'lovely' and slow songs. I can't
classify them in the same ranks of the malayalam songs or Bollywood songs ( Obviously even comparing them is ridiculous).

Even though I like the lyrics in many of these songs, sometime I
do not listen to them just for lyrics. So It is not always the lyrics.

Many of them do not always have cool guitar performance, so it is not the guitar always.

So, it is none of those reasons I explained to him...
May be it is the combination of all of these.

It is ironic that I can listen to those lovely old malayalam songs with the same interest that I have when I listen to Linkin park.

Do I genuinely like these songs? I guess so..
But, What makes me like them??

The boy at the cafeteria

I used to see this kid in the food court almost everyday.
He was about 10~12Yrs old. He was responsible for cleaning up the table after we complete our lunch. Everyday he used to stand there waiting for us to leave the table.
His face always evoked a feeling of guilt in me.
Here I am doing some junk work wearing sparkling clean clothes, using latest gadgets and eating some overpriced "Chinese" food which would surprise even the Chinese.
There is that guy standing there wearing a soiled shorts and shirt, without having his lunch waiting for me to complete. I once asked my friend about this boy, His answer was "If you ask him any thing, he will say that he is 18yrs old". I wanted to ask him about his family and education, but somehow never did that. I blamed it on the fact that I did not know his language,was that the real reason?? Was I part of the list "assholes" who just watch and pity without doing anything?? I don't know.

I don't see him nowadays. He might have found some other job with a better pay. Still, there are some questions in my mind left unanswered
Does he goes to school??
Is he the only source of income to his family??
Does he have a younger sister who might be waiting for him to come back home everyday so that she can play with him??
Does he have a mother to look after him??
I don't know.. But still
I should have....I could have.....

valentine's day of a loner

I was woken up by the loud ring of my friend's mobile, wondering to
myself who might be calling him soo early in the morning.
I got the answer by his response " happy valentine's day...my dear".

I thought to myself "OK.. good morning loner".

Got ready and off to office...

The flower shop on the way way bustling with activity.
Usually every other day there would be nobody to buy the
flowers at that time and the guy in the shop would be sitting
there idle.

In office, I was welcomed by those mushy mails forwarded by my friends.

Tried to forward one of them the to a girl on whom I had a crush before.
It went as if it was sent to a blackhole...

My BOSS is back, and we got in for project the meeting.
The first thing he asked was 'U guys can leave early today as u might be having
some plans for the day'. All my colleague's were like 'Oh Wow...' and
I was like ' Oh..No'.

Back to work.. again

As usual tea in the cafeteria was 'me with nature'... and all the couples
enjoying coffee were staring at me as if I was an alien..

Tried to checkout the office beauty and she was looking through me as if I was
invisible.

Somehow completed the work and was back to home in the office cab.

The cab driver turned on the radio, and I thought may be the music might calm me down..
"Oh Boy how wrong was I"...

They were playing some valentine's day special on the radio with all the lovers in the town wishing each other....
"Blood hell don't they have anything else to do"??

Turned to the guy next to me for an earplug and was responded with an angry stare
as he was on the phone talking to 'u know who'.

Was feeling hungry and called up my room mate for dinner, and obviously I should have known
he had "other plans"..

Back at home, switched on MTV for some music to find out that they were playing
nonstop bollywood love songs all day long, thanks!!!

As I was lying there staring at the roof and suddenly my phone's message tone rang...

Ran to check which lucky girl it was, just to find out that it was from my
mobile service provider telling abt their new plan to suck more money from me...

Looked around to find out that all my room mates have settled in different corners of the room with
their mobile in hand, talking to their "sweet hearts".

They have made a telephone booth out of the house...

Thinking that sleep was the only way out,headed for my bed.

Somewhere in my sleep I heard someone shout

"Change that channel, I want to listen to
Everything I do, I do it for you !!! "