Digital Arsenal

Disturbed

2006-09-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

Song : Land of Confusion
Album : Ten Thousand Fists
Band : Disturbed
My Overall Rating : 9/10
Out of the box lyrics adding to the brilliant music
and rocking David Draiman voice.

I must have dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
But I can hear the marching feet
They're moving into the street

Now, did you read the news today?
They say the danger has gone away
But I can see the fire's still alight
They're burning into the night

There's too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And there's not much love to go around
Can't you see this is a land of confusion?

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in

Oh, superman, where are you now?
When everything's gone wrong somehow?
The men of steel, these men of power
Are losing control by the hour

This is the time, this is the place
So we look for the future
But there's not much love to go around
Tell me why this is a land of confusion

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in

I remember long ago
When the sun was shining
And all the stars were bright all through the night
In the wake of this madness, as I held you tight
So long ago

I won't be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
We're not just making promises
That we know we'll never keep

There's too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And there's not much love to go round
Can't you see this is a land of confusion?

Now, this is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth fighting for

This is the world we live in
And these are the names we're given
Stand up and let's start showing
Just where our lives are going to

Leh Mega Post

2006-09-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Yes everyone, the first part of the Leh Story is out on stores. Lol.

Check it out on my I Disappear Blog, which is specially for travel related posts.

Got Leh'd

2006-08-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

Yes. I just got Leh'd. If anyone ever tells you that Ladakh's cold desert is amazing or Kashmir Greenery and Landscapes are breathtaking, please donÂt believe them. SEE IT ON YOUR OWN!!

Its hard to come back to normal life after having an out of the world experience traveling close to 1500 KMs on road and 1000 on air. The route we took was Delhi - Manali - Leh - Khardungla - Pangong Tso - Sonamarg - Srinagar - Delhi.

It all started in May when a friend of mine Dipayan from Mumbai suggested that Leh is a good option for a long trip (Note: In Indian software industry any vacation more than 3 leaves is considered a long leave; I had to take 5 added to 3 weekends and 2 holidays making it a 10 day trip, which is really long). The first plan was in June but we were just 2 people who were ready at that time. 2 more friends of mine showed interest if we were ready to postpone it to June end or early July. We had to agree but unfortunately due to project pressure and unavailability of leave, plan got spoiled again. Finally near the end of June, we decided that August mid is the time where this trip can be done without taking many leaves. 4 people - 3 from Delhi Region and 1 from Mumbai. A fortnight before the trip, Dipayan backed out (He said he is still trying but I understood :)) I was so fu**in looking forward to the trip but was just left with 2 friends - Sudhish and Sudhanshu. A trip like this needed at least 4 people so that the cost can be shared effectively so we started searching for travel partners online. In the meanwhile over a glass of beer, I found another friend Amit, who was interested and he was pretty sure that his childhood friend Varun would also be interested. He confirmed two days later and we got 5 Volvo Bus tickets to Manali. Just a week before scheduled departure date, Sudhanshu found out that he is a critical resource for his project and 5 days of leave is a lot to take. He was denied the vacation. We felt terribly bad and were thinking whether to continue it or not but now more people were involved and there was no looking back.
Few days before while driving back home one day with my friend Ashish, he told me that his plan for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was ruined due to the heavy rains and now he has his leaves approved but no plans at all. I am sure I donÂt need to tell you what the consequence of this conversation was.

August 12, 2006 Â Me waiting for Ashish, Sudhish, Amit and Varun in front of the Shivaji Stadium entrance of the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. THE PLAN IS ON!!

The whole post for this trip would take me at least a fortnight but I canÂt wait to express my happiness, hence I am posting some of the magical photos I have taken using a Canon SLR and a Sony Digicam. The photographs are not not in any particular order.

Mesmerizing Pangong Tso, 1/3rd in India and 2/3rd in China

Some Photographic excellence at Pangong Tso Lake.

Thikse Gompa(Monastery)

Road after Chang La pass on the Leh-Pangong Tso route

Khardung La, Highest Motorable Pass in the World

Snow at Khardung La

Spithuk Monastery

Objects are closer than they appear

Magical Moment

More Plains on the Manali-Leh Highway

View from our tents in Keylong

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Start of the Ladakh and end of greenery

Another view of the More plains

ZiREDine Zidane

2006-07-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Anyone who had foreseen such a dramatic World Cup final must have hidden superpowers! Congratulations to Italy for playing amazing football all throughout the knockout stage and reaching the Glory. They had a shaky start but came out brilliantly as each match progressed. The Azzuris won but this post of mine is dedicated to the God of Modern Football, Zinedine Zidane.

One moment of Anger and what could have been the best farewell for the legend turned out to be the Worst moment of his life.

Yes Zidane has disappointed me, his fans and all the lovers of the World’s most widely followed sport. Maybe Luis Figo escaped a similar act in the Portugal - Holland match but that is no way an excuse for his Head Butt right in the center of the chest of Marco Materazzi. I feel bad for him Zizou.. Too Bad actually. Right from the day France's Knock Out matches started, fans was closely following every Zizou move on the field which probably could have been his last if France bowed out but his Sheer Brilliance backed up with some highly experienced defense kept France in. Then comes July 9, 2006, the night which surely is the Last time people would see Zidane play and though almost everyone backing up Italy by mind, by heart wanted France to win simply to give Zizou a dream farewell. Arrives the 111th minute of the game, the last Red Card of the Germany World Cup 2006 and Zidane is 'sent off' from his 105 match footballing career. Sad but so true. I am pretty sure, by the time the match ended even the Italians would have had thought of asking the officials to get him back to thank him for being an ambassador of football. But rules and rules. Anger ate England when Rooney was sent off and same thing happened in the World Grand Finale. I won’t say that was the only reason France lost since Trezeguet anyways would have taken the kick but yes if that incident wouldn’t have happened Zidane might have slipped in a header or maybe a lethal pass to create the Winner in the last ten minutes of the match. Without the leader, France went haywire and was playing just to take the game to spot kicks.

The one moment of the match which surely changed the result of the game was Zizou's towering header of the Sagnol cross magically kept away by Buffon. That header reminded me of the 1998 France World cup when Zidane was at his very best. It was fast and accurate but Buffon just won’t let any ball go in. The ball has passed him twice this World cup, an own goal and a spot kick.

My Italian player of the Match would be Andrea Pirlo. He was simply outstanding with his crosses and passes. He marshaled the midfield beautifully and almost scored a goal of the free kick. He is really a master of delivering the ball to set pieces. The corner kick he took which actually resulted in Italy's only goal was one of the best corners I have ever seen.

For the French side Malouda was exceptionally good and his left flank sprints caused major panic in the Italian defense. The foul on him resulted in France’s only goal. The Zidane, Henry, Ribery and Malouda quartet had amazing synchronization.

The last thing I would want to say to the World is to forget Zidane's Last act and remember him for what he has done in the field for 104 matches and 110 minutes.

Peace.

Some Excerpts from BBC

“When one has to put up with what Zidane had to and the referee doesn't do anything, one understands. You can't excuse it, but you can understand it." – Domenech

Domenech said that Zidane regretted what had happened but refused to say if he had apologized.
.
.

"To see him finish his career in this way is sad," said Domenech. "He has had a great career and a great World Cup.”
.
.

It was the fourth and fifth officials looking at the video at the edge of the pitch.
.
.

"We did not do anything. They saw it and they called the attention of the referee.
.
.
Materazzi was not acting. He took a blow and he was hurt."

Rummy at Nuremberg

2006-06-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

How many witnessed this game of Rummy on Sunday at the Frankenstadion Football field, Nuremberg? I did.. and guess who was dealing the cards. It was none other than the Russian referee Valentin Ivanov officiating the Pre Quarter final knockout tie between Portugal and Netherlands. Thought the referee did some partiality on Portugal's side by dealing them lesser cards, overall the match was fun. :) The match consisted of 25 fouls, 16 Yellow Cards and 4 Red Cards.

Despite the flurry of Yellow Cards and dismissals of Portuguese midfielders Costinha and Deco plus Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz and midfielder Giovanni van Bronckhorst, it was a contest of high-quality and much attacking play and Portugal booked their place in the World Cup quarter-finals with a bruising and bad-tempered 1-0 win over the Netherlands.

Now it would be very difficult for Portugal to overcome England in the Quarter finals without Deco and Costinha but still I will put my bet on them.

My prediction for the last phase (I will delete this post, if this doesn’t happen.. :D)

The French Smile

2006-05-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Da Vinci Code is an amazing movie and I don’t agree with the ratings and reviews its getting in India and abroad. The top 2 Indian English news papers have given it ratings of 3 and 3.5 on a 5 scale. IMDB has given it 6.5 on a 10. I suggest people not to go for the movie with a preconceived notion that it would be a replica of the Dan Brown bestseller. You would end up finding out nooks through out the movie. People who haven’t read the book have an upper edge watching the movie since they will be experiencing the suspense which unfolds at the end. On the contrary they might have a tough time following the movie and the facts properly.

My 'Things to watch for in Da Vinci Code' would have on top, Sophie Neveu; Audrey Tautou. I think she is one of the most gorgeous actresses on screen today! She's a true, natural beauty, nothing vulgar about her. And I don't think anyone could have filled the role as well as she did, she's almost exactly how I pictured Sophie Neveu to be when I read the book a year or so ago. I haven’t heard about her before the promos of this movie were aired. After watching the movie I thought of gaining some insight into this actress on the WWW. I got hold of some amazing pics. As Sir Leigh Teabing said, she indeed has an amazing smile.

Tom Hanks no doubt was brilliant again. It wont be a surprise for me if he walks with the Oscar this year again.

The Gandhi Phoenix

2006-05-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

A very good friend of mine sent a forward to our college group which joked about the Current Gandhi family. I thought of saying a line or two against the mail. I wrote it and what I got was a huge mail just blasting my mail left right and centre. Brilliant mail but ofcourse I am not the one who could let my dear Devashish Sarkar to get away with that ;) Whats written below is my reply against each of his points taking one by one. Gosh i had to sit on the net to do some research before writing it.. :) The text in italics is what Dev wrote. The one in bold is what i wrote... Have fun.

My opinion is that the Gandhi’s' present generation don’t deserve what they r getting ... not a single one of them ... Sonia doesn’t have any political achievements ... she is important to these empty headed congress zealots because ... according to them ... she is the only link to Jawahar - Indira - Rajiv ... and somehow by bear beating the overused but shallow name of "Gandhi" ...they can get the coveted seat of power...

Smt. Sonia Gandhi has emerged as more than the President of the Congress Party. Today she represents the hopes of millions of Indians reeling under the anti-national, anti-poor and unconstitutional politics of the BJP. In the past five years, Smt. Sonia Gandhiji has joined the ranks of our earlier statesman like Smt. Indira Gandhiji and Shri Rajiv Gandhi. She has toured the length and breath of this country and through her accessibility to the masses, and their response to her, proved that she not only lives up to the traditions of the Gandhi family but continues them so that, under her leadership, the Congress Party can once again claim its place as the leading political party of our country.

I don’t know if u remember properly but Indira died in Sonia's arms and she was killed by her own bodyguard who was a Sikh and after that anti-Congress people floated the news that Congress is anti-Sikh. That same Sonia Gandhi left her post to a Sikh just because she found him more suitable for the post and that she had other responsibilities. She didn’t back out because our 'own' saffron clad Sushma Swaraj said that she will commit suicide if the 'firang' becomes the PM.

If this is not a political achievement, i want to ask u the definition of political achievement.

Secondly I don’t know how u believe the fact that people would back Sonia and congress 'solely' because of their history !!

If you think that renunciating the seat of PM is her sacrifice ... I think it is a political price she has paid so that her children continue to enjoy the fruits of power ... till eternity ... and who wont accept that Dr. MM Singh is nothing more than a puppet PM ... the actual power still resides in 10 race course ...

Dev i want to know what 'fruits of power' are being enjoyed by Rahul/Priyanka ?
I don’t accept the fact that you are calling the most educated PM in the world today, a puppet PM. He has a better educational background than Amartya Sen. :)... If you can say this, its not you speaking, this is a voice of a BJP supporter. If consulting your party President (Sonia) is being a puppet, my dear Dev, its time u start thinking from a neutral point of view while arguing on these points.

So Ari ... Sonia may be a good wife and a gr8 mother to her children ... but sorry ... if u think winning parliamentary seats in the would be banana republic which India is going to become sooner if people of this country (me including) don’t wake up ... is an achievement ... my friend give it a thought once again ...

Yes Dev I think wining parliamentary seats is an achievement. You cannot be a hypocrit in calling India the largest democracy and at the same time not going with the people when they choose Congress to be the ruling party. Sonia was chosen by the House of Commons rather than the House of Lords (Rajya Sabha) which many people refer to as a backdoor entry. This list includes Late Shri Pramod Mahajan, Pranab Mukherjee.. and a lot of them..

Regarding India going to be a banana republic it’s solely your point of view. India is waking up. Just that we are expecting it to wake too fast which unfortunately is not possible.

And all of these MPs ...I m so happy that u chose MP as a word to address them ... coz they r not our leaders ... but power hungry sycophants ...

Very true but whom can u take out of the list??

Lastly i would not even consider our beloved Atalji as even a sane person who can have the 'guts' to speak against the people who brought us our independence.

Delhi

2006-05-01T03:57:00.000-07:00

As each day passes i feel proud and happy that I am someone who, since birth has lived in only one city, DELHI. From broad roads to 'chaat papri' to north Indian babes, I love it all. Thrice in my 25 year lifespan, there was a definite chance of me going out of Delhi for Studying or for Work, but each of the times I escaped and I am so fu**in happy about it. Now, almost all my good friends have shifted out of Delhi, work being the major factor and I don’t know when would be the next time when we would be together. I feel good when some of them call me up and crib about staying out of Delhi ;)

Last night, I went to Turquoise Cottage, where my friend's office colleague was playing live. The ambience, in one word, was electric. TC, as its better known in Delhi is said to be the best place for live rock music in the city and truly it was. I remember one of my friends telling me about Texas, the live music capital of the US. I wish he was with me last night. Castle Lager pint in one hand and a Marlboro in the other and the head swinging to the rhythm, this was the scene almost everywhere. One of the guys played a Joe Sat solo number and it was as perfect it could have been. Some other songs were Animal and Black (Pearl Jam), Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots)…

The beer was too expensive but my friend, Shantanu couldn’t resist and decided that he will have just one Fosters pint just for the sake of lightening up his mood. He goes to the counter and says - "Ek foster, two glasses”.... Of course we can’t blame the bartender and expect him to hear everything perfectly in midst of the rocking guitar sounds. He happily gave him a fosters pint and 2 Castle Lager pints ("do Castles")... :D ..

Delhi Rocks....!!

Goal!

2006-04-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

A must watch for all the soccer fans. It’s a story of how a Mexican guy staying in LA makes it to Newcastle United. Minute details about English Premiere League issues have been portrayed: Inter and Intra team rivalry, endorsements, hatred for a player who has just been signed for 23 million pounds :) ... Last but not the least the movie has guest appearances by many European soccer starts notably Zidane, Beckham, Raul and Shearer...

Splash !!

2006-04-20T00:46:00.000-07:00

It all started at 12 midnight with bottles of Kingfisher Strong being opened by special bottle openers consisting of 32 pieces of calcium strongly attached to the gum. We couldn’t sleep all night and by the time we reached Haridwar at 445 a.m., it was not possible to keep our eyes open. We didn’t sleep and went for the Holy Dip at Har ki Pauri. We got all out energy back after sitting in the spine chilling cold water for 20 minutes.

800 : left for Rishikesh

900 : halt at Ram Jhula for breakfast at the famous Choti wale Pandit ka Dhaba, took a nap on the river beach.

1230 : reached the Garhwal Himalayas office where we had to report. We had booked the Camping and rafting there.

1400 : Reached Shivpuri for just having fun in the river. It was basically decided on runtime since we had time to kill before we could enter our camp at 330 p.m. which was 30 minutes from this place. Felt like Jacuzzi… :D

1600 : Entered Camp, welcome drink served, checked in our tents, played beach volleyball, drooled at a firang babe whose guy was doing yoga on a cliff. A saffron clad babaji was making joints for them and another local friend of theirs was doing something to her which was a little difficult to find out even using our camera zoooms !!

1900 : Campfire, BBQ and drinks on the beach. We had 5 Beer bottles remaining with us adding to the Bacardi White Rum khamba and the Antiquity addha.

20XC%: sdjkhzzzzz..hic....hic...... :D

Next Day

0800 : Breakfast followed by a drive to Marine drive from where our rafting experience was to commence. The raft was meant for 10 people excluding the main guide but we had only the six of us on it.

Till 1'clock we experienced some amazing rapids in our 22 Km enroute to rishikesh. It would take pages if I start elaborating these 4-5 hours. Point to be noted is that no one fell outside the raft unwillingly.. lol ... yes we did some body surfing... but that was fun.. Lying with your back on the water with waves carrying us along.

Rapids have been given interesting names like Golf Course, Three Blind Mice, Daniel's Dip, Sweet Sixteen, Marine Drive, Cross Fire and Roller Coaster

Cliff diving was another breathtaking experience

... 2-3 seconds in thin air... but only two of us including me ;) had enough guts to plunge into the river from that height.

1430 : Lunch at camp. The firang was again there … :D .. 30 minutes lost again…

1530 : Leave for a temple(I forgot the name) about 20 kms from there.

1730 : On the way back, park our Qualis in the middle of the empty road and enjoy the White Rum with an amazing mountain view in front of us.

2000 : Leave for Delhi….

Gooooogle Up !!

2006-04-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hail google, the best search engine as of today.

I was searching for something very specific last night and after 15 minutes of full fledged effort without success, I decided to invest some time on the basic searching techniques which aren’t that basic.. :)

I am listing some basic google search tips. Mind it; all the things written in this post are 'BASIC' techniques. We have some advanced searching techniques as well, which I definitely plan to post provided I understand them myself.

The following table summarizes how Google interprets your query.

Search Behaviors	Descriptions
Implicit AND	Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND.
Exact Matching	Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly.
Word Variation Automatic Stemming	Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms.
Common-Word Exclusion	Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results.
32-Word Limit	Google limits queries to 32 words.
Term Proximity	Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near each other.
Term Order	Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query.
Case Insensitivity	Google is case-insensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results.
Ignoring Punctuation	Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including , . ; ? [ ] ( ) @ / * < >

Now some fine tuning ...

Notation	Find result	Example
terms1 terms2	with both term1 and term2	[ carry-on luggage ]
term1 OR term2 term1 \| term2	with either term1 or term2 or both	[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ] [ Tahiti \| Hawaii ]
+term	with term (The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.)	[ +i spy ]
-term	without term	[ twins minnesota -baseball ]
~term	with term or one of its synonyms (currently supported on Web and Directory search)	[ google ~guide ]
number1..number2	with a number in the specified range	[ annual report 2000..2003 ]
"phrase"	with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order	[ "I have a dream" ] [ "Rio de Janeiro" ]

It doesn’t get any bigger than this.

2006-03-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

Cricket as they say indeed is a funny game. Records tumbled like a pack of cards as South Africa clinched the decider against the World Champions. The total number of runs scored in the two thousand three hundred forty ninth Limited Overs International match played on 12th March 2006 at Jo'Burg is more than many of the 5 day Test matches. I am sure statisticians had to be hired by news companies for compiling the statistics for the headlines. This match surpassed the existing highest Limited Overs Int'l aggregate record by more than 25 percent. The highest team total record was broken twice in a matter of 4 hours. The Kiwis would surely have achieved this record in their match against Zimbabwe when they scored 391. Unfortunately that match had to be curtailed down to 44 overs. The record for highest winning total in a run chase was left behind by the Proteas by more than 30 percent. The Kiwis couldn’t even savor this record for 2 months.

Most of the batting records were smashed but Saeed Anwar would surely be smiling. I feel bad for Gibbs who could have easily crossed the Magical 200 but when you are chasing something like this, and you see hopes of victory, you just cannot think of personal milestones.

The wounds of the 1-run dramatic World Cup defeat must have healed by now. South Africans would have lost the most number of close encounters and they were criticized for not being able to provide the final kill but this match was an answer to all those criticisms.

It was a second major setback for the Oz after their loss to England in the Ashes last year. These matches prove how important was Shane Warne to the side. They should lay stress on their bowling attack now and get bowlers who don’t go for 113 runs in 10 overs :)

Nothing is impossible these days in the modern form of Cricket but these records would be there in the record books for many days to come, if not for ever.

You deserve much better !

2005-12-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

I compiled this in December but somehow forgot to post and was there in the draft mode. I have taken some of the text from another blog post.

Forget the home wins, under your captaincy India began to win games abroad for the first time ever. No one can take away your record as a player and captain. And the present captain, well what can one say? He struggled to find a place in the ODI team in his best days but you found a slot for him but now he is "happy" you are out and says "these things happen" and they call him a nice guy, some justice this!

India has started out with a new 'official' captain and a new coach and the that too because you backed Chappell when he was being interviewed by the Board and Dravid managed to outmanoeuvre you in a coup orchestrated along with the five wise men. Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Gambhir et all have all come up the ranks and nurtured by you. Sehwag as an opening batsman was your idea, Dhoni as No.3 was your idea and you gave Pathan a break in the big league. Whatever happened to the 'new' Team India!

This is the the brilliant career record of the person who is talking about consistency in performance.

Name Mat Inn Runs HS 50 100 Avg Ca St

Kiran More 94 65 563 *42 0 0 13.09 63 27

Following is a poem in Bengali which i recieved in my official mail circulated between the bong community -

Amar nam KIRON MORE
Selector hoyechi rajniti kore
Khachhi ekhon haramer dudh apple

Sange amar bhai GREG CHAPPEL

Khub besi ami khilini test
Tar boodle niyechhi rest
Avg niye bolona katha
Mone amar lagbe batha

Chole jache sob cricket priti
Cricket eo hobe rajniti
Jani ami “ ”er bachha
Tobe rajnitita korechi achha
Jani ami “ ”er chhele
Bhabchhen amay kelaben pele
Jotoi din galagali dhele
Godi chharbena ei haramjada chhele
Baki selectorgulo to amar e mato
Orai ba test khelechhe kato
Jani amay keu bhalobasena
Kintu godi gele to r asena
Jatoi apnara lathi marun jore
Godite thakbo rajnitir jore
Jani abar firbe DADA
Mukhe amar lagabe kada
Run DADA karuk jato
Rajniti ami korbo tato
Ratane ratan chene
“ ” KACHUR er pichone ghore
ami holam sei “ ”
amar nam KIRON MORE
PABENA “ ”AMAR MATO
SARA WORLD E KHOJOI JATO
TAI SABAI MILE BALO EKBAR JORE
“ ”ER CHHELE KIRON MORE

Some Days Free From Work

2005-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Panchami Night
This year the puja being one day short than usual (Ashtami and Navami on the same day), Panchami was as eventful as any other day. Normally the events start shashti evening.
At 6pm, I was at FabIndia in GK 1 buying a kurta. Got a call from a friend of mine who was there at CR Park. A runtime plan was made and I was there at CR Park at 730. After being there for an hour and visiting some of the 'pandals', started for home where a cocktail party was waiting for me.
Reached home. Had screwdriver and bloody mary.

Shashti Night
Had to attend a rock show. Reached Decibel in Hotel Samrat. Rocktoberfest was organised featuring Themclones, Joint Family and the winner of the GIR 2005, the band from Chennai called No Idea. Lovely GIG. Joint family started with Fear Factory and they played stuff by Korn, Pantera etc.

Then came Themclones. It was their 4th show that I was witnessing.. First time indoor. I have heard almost all their songs in their prior performances but still they had put up a great show and it was great to see my friend headbanging to Themclones standing right in the front. They played Disturbed, RATM and some of their lovely originals like 'Awaken' and 'In the name of God'. Their performance also featured Rollin by Limp Bizkit. It was sung beautifully by the lead singers of Themclones, Joint Family and the ex-Clones singer. We had to leave early so we missed No Idea (anyway I was not in a state to listen to the slow rock that they play.)

Pic: Themclones

Saptami
Met friends at Gole Market DIZ Area Puja Pandal.. Gave 'anjali', had 'prasad' and headed for New Delhi Kali Badi. Met some more friends there. Stayed there till 130 pm and left for CR Park. Were in a hurry as my friend had to leave for home early. Reached Shib Mandir in almost no time thanks to the cooperative traffic at that time of the day. Seeing a line of atleast 500 people for the 'Bhog' was too much to take but the hope of finding one of my friend's dad who is in the Bhog Committee kept us alive. Being optimistic is not always bad. We found him and he arranged the bhog for us.

Post bhog, we roamed around CR Park to have a look at the rest of the pandals. Nothing worth mentioning happened after that.

Ashtami/NavamI

It had to be a long day considering it to be the last day of the puja and the aggregation of 2 days into one. Gave anjali at 11. Visited some nearby pandals and conserved energy for the evening and the night. We had a planned a tour of the major pujas in Delhi.

We started at 730 and headed towards India Gate where we had to meet some people. Reached there and drove around India Gate for parking for atleast 15 minutes. Met them, had food there. Mouth watering chilly chicken and Naan.
Started from there and had a quick view of the Minto Road Puja. From there we headed for South Delhi, starting with CR Park. We could sense the crowd as soon as we entered the vicinity of CR Park. Jams all over the place. I knew an alternative route so we saved a lot of time. But it wasn't over. The roads around all the pandals were jammed with people all over. Police controlled queues were there for entering any of the pandals and none of the queues had less than 150-200 people. We managed to enter Mela Ground Puja after walking for 20 minutes. After that we headed towards Shiv Mandir. Walked for 15 minutes to find another queue whose end wasn't visible. That was too much for us. We headed for home. On the way stopped by at South Delhi Kali Badi and Sarojini Nagar Puja Pandals. We reached back our area around 1 am.

Vijaya Dashami
Reached my pandal at 1130. Process of taking Goddess Durga for immersion had already started. She had to be taken to Nigambodh Ghat near ISBT. The procession started and after walking some distance, I started back for home.

Pic : Visarjan Ceremony from the Pandal.

Note : Use of the photographs without permission is prohibited.

Wanna Play a New Game ?

2005-10-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely mindblowing stuff. Am not giving my experts comments on this for the moment :) Its only a matter of time and awareness; this concept will spread like wildfire.. for sure...

CASH IN ON HIDDEN WORLD OF GEOCACHERS
By Anubha Sawhney/TNN

New Delhi: Ever been to Manali? Did you know there's a treasure watiting to be found under a large boulder in a park there? Don't believe us? Check out geocachers Minnesota Dave's post on the Internet. A series of elaborate instructions later, he tells you "The cache is hidden behind a couple of breadloaf-sized rocks that you'll have to move."

Enter the hi-tech world of geocaching ("geocashing"). This most advanced form of treasure hunt is a sport that's gaining popularity worldwide. Geocashing is an entertaining game for GPS (Global Positioning System) users where they become the search engine. The idea is to go looking for items that individuals and groups have set up called 'caches' which are located all over the world.

Geocachers seek out hidden treasures utilising GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache. Using a GPS unit, they then trek out into the backwoods or urban jungles to find the hiding spot of the cache.

The global indian geocaching community has been treasure hunting with a frenzy. Says Prashant Solanki, a marketing executive in Montreal, "This growing outdoor sport has a simple set of rules, making it easy for anyone to play. The challenging part is finding the cache. Some caches have even been planted on mountainsides and underwater."

Here's how it works:Once you have a GPS unit, you need to go online to start finding cache locations or report a cache that you have created. The location of a cache is then given in coordinates of latitude and longitude, revealing caches in that particular area. Several geocaching web sites and clubs have sprouted on the Internet.( A popular geocashing site reveals that right now there are 203768 active caches in 218 countries across the globe.)After you get the coordinates online and enter them into your GPS, you're ready to get started on your adventure!

Hooked onto geocashing in a big way, Bijoy Mathew is waiting to come back to India to check out the caches here. "I've just located the coordinates to about 23 caches in India. I must check them out when I come for vacation." he says from Mississipi.

Bijoy is particularly interested in a cache in Bangalore, the post for which reads like this: "This cache is within walking distance of the centre of the action(MG Road & Brigade Road).The cache is in a tree near the path. be sure to cover the cache deep and well when finished. Otherwise it will be found and plundered for sure."

And what are the treasures you're likely to find? "A cache typically has a waterproof container discreetly placed within the local terrain. The container will include a logbook and any number of more and less valuable items such as toys, books, money, jewellery, trinkets....," explains Santosh Kumar, software engineer in New York.

Wanna be a geocacher? You must follow these basic rules: fill out the logbook, take something out of the cache, put something in the cache and return the cache to the exact position and condition in which it was found.

The location of a cache is the most important part of the treasure hunt." When hiding a cache, you can be as creative as you want to be," Santosh says. "A cache can be located just about anywhere. Caches may be located in the country or cities, both above and below ground, inside and outside buildings. The placement of a cache may be quite challenging to find even with the accuracy of a GPS."

Clash of the Titans

2005-08-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

The recently concluded 3rd Ashes test match was one of best test matches anyone has ever witnessed. It was one of those test matches which can actually be called 'down to the wire'. Generally by the start of 5th day of any test match the outcome of a test match can be ascertained but it doesn’t seem to be the case between these two archrivals in this series. The last two matches just proved that.

But what can be said about the Aussies? They are simply too hard to beat. Australia last were forced to follow on 17 years back by Pakistan. This was the test when it was quite visible that their 17 year streak will be broken but Warne was there to the rescue. He is just maturing with age.

This was one of those matches in which deciding on the man of the match was a very difficult job. It could have been Warne for his brilliant all round performance, Vaughan for his outstanding first innings 150+ score which eventually helped England to post a heavy lead. In bowlers Simon Jones was unplayable in the first innings and he chipped some important wickets in the second innings as well. Flintoff was a better bowler overall but he couldn’t match Jones in the wickets tally. He bowled constantly at 88-91 mph range. Finally the decision about the MOM was correct to its last bit. Ricky Ponting, captaining the best side in world single handedly saved the match for the Aussies. Chasing a world record fourth innings target to win a match, he just saw the other end tumble down to the English furious pace attack. Only Clarke and Warne could stand that attack. When Clarke and Ponting were at the crease hopes started to float in favour of the Aussies but with the old ball Simon Jones produced a unplayable reverse swinging delivery to uproot the off stump of Clarke who was stunned with the way the ball breached his defense. Master blaster ‘Gilli’ and Gillespie didn’t trouble the scorers much and the Aussies were down to their most veteran cricketer Shane Warne again. As expected of him he played beautifully and once there was a feeling Aussies were eying victory with around 7 per over needed for just about 20 overs. Gerant Jones took a stunner of a catch to get rid of Warnie. With just 24 balls remaining in the day Ponting, after holding his wicket on one side for almost one complete day, edged an over shoulder delivery to the keeper and the whole Old Trafford crowd were on their feet smelling victory. Then what happened is what England would not forget for sometime now. Brett Lee and McGrath aka 'Pigeon' survived the 90mph ‘Bodyliners’ of Flintoff and Harmison to eventually save the match for their country and keep the Ashes all alive and wide open.