My year end lists

I love lists. Like Alan Harper of two and half men, i make lists for almost everything. Shopping, packing for travel, movies to watch, restaurants to try out and so on. With the year drawing to an end, we've got every Tom, Dick and Harry with an audience or readership coming out with lists- best movies, best songs, best moments of 2009 and so on. So i was like, what about my best and worst lists?; they should go up in the blog. Hence this post. Only that, i don't exactly have a big list for everything. Maybe i'll just list out the best and the worst of a few things that really stayed on in my mind. :) I don't expect anybody to agree with them coz i have this eccentric taste sometimes:)
So here goes a few of my personal year's bests-worsts and expectations from the next year.

Best movie of 2009: Wake Up Sid. Loved Ranbir in the movie. ( I so wish Hritik was featured in a full fledged role in some movie. This would have totally gone to him! )

Best song: A tie between Chor Bazaari, Ikatara and Dhan te dan.

Best book: Or books. The Twilight series. Call me a hapless romantic, but i totally loved the series!

Best TV show: Highway On my plate on NDTV good times.

Most entertaining show: Rakhi ka swayamwar. People who watched it will agree with me. Maybe bigG boss was a serious competitor, but i was not blessed enough to follow the show and its kamaal ke characters.

Cutest tv actor: Josh Radnor of How i met your mother.

Most unwanted death on tv: Michael Scofield of Prison Break. Did the man have to be killed?

Worst movie of the year: From the ones that i watched, I must say What's your Rashee. Its one thing to overact. But in 12 roles?! No thank you.

Most adorable movie character: Russell from Up.

Most overrated restaurant: For me, it would be Rajdhani. I know that it has been around for a while, but i discovered it only this year. After reading rave reviews about their authentic vegetarian food and all, i probably had really high expectations. The food wasn't great. And blame it on my inability to gorge down food, I don't think i got value for even half of the 300 bucks that i spent on the thali.

Best ad: The docomo train advertisement.

Best moment: When i finished my last exam of the 8th semester.

Most exciting moment: It was the day my first salary was credited into my account. The cell phones of most of the people around me went off with salary update messages and i could see this smile wave spreading across.

Other random things:

1. Loved the Crest edition that Times of India came up with.
2. Booster Jus simply robs people of their money.
3. Malleshwaram and Jayanagar offer some of the best places to eat in Bangalore.
4. We should have more radio stations playing Hindi and English music. Whats the point in having so many stations when all of them are playing the same kannada songs over and over again!!
   
5. It is great to have friends from college in the same office and having one of your best friends for a room mate. Saves the trouble of getting used to and adjusted to the person.
   
6. Shopping is really fun when you go swiping your card. Its only when the bills are checked that the guilt really starts!
   
7. Almost all the nice guys are taken. Really!
   
8. Two States was probably one of the most widely read books of the year. I saw almost everyone around me reading the book.
9. It is great that there is a McD in almost all prominent shopping places. Don't really cre about the taste or calories as long as i get the energy to keep me going ;).
   
10. It is so funny that one can't remember much from the first half of the year when making lists such as this!

Anyway, here's my wishlist for 2010:

1. Slightly less clutter in the city. Wish something could be done about the traffic in Bangalore. I am sick and tired of travelling for almost 2 hours to reach Majestic from work every friday.
2. More restaurants serving a good vegetarian fare.
3. Autodrivers asking for not more than 20 bucks for minimum distance.
4. Stores giving a small cashback to people getting their own bag. It is high time something is done about the plastic bag menace.
   
5. Quality movies being released. Especially in the regional languages. I can't think of many good movies with big stars in Tamil and Telugu being released this year.

Well,perhaps there are more, but i can't remember any right now. Tonight will be spent ruminating over the year and going over its pluses and minuses. Then there is also a big list of resolutions to be made. Phew! Ushering in a new year does take some effort. Anyway, 2009 was great for me and am hoping the next year will be better still. Hope your new year brings you loads of smiles and success. Happy New year!

The week that was

The previous week has been one helluva eventful week for me. It started with a trip to M.G Road one evening in search of books and magazines. Found an alleyway where a nice gentleman was selling old magazines and novels. The stacks and stacks of readers digests evoked fond memories from school when i used to read them during boring classes. I picked up a few for as less as 15-20 rupees a piece depending on the year of publication. From there, i headed to Bookworm where i lost track of time, going through a multitude of books, some new, some yellowed, but each one of them shouting out at me to buy them. I had an eye on the Ayn Rand collection but the price was a turn off. So i settled for a good copy of Gone with the Wind and a few Enid Blytons for sister dear.
It was while i was at Bookworm that i heard about the Bangalore Book Festival. Told about it to a few friends and all of them jumped at the idea of going there. So off i went on Wednesday to palace grounds with a bunch of friends and loads of cash. And oh my god! My two eyes and three hours of time were not enough to take in the stuff on display there. After a lot of searching and sorting, i bought 7 second hand books- an Irving Wallace, David Baldacci, 2 Agatha Christies, Michael Crichton, a chic lit book by an unknown author and the Kishore Biyani book- It happened in India. All this for just 490 bucks, without burning a hole in my wallet. If only i had more time I'd have emptied it for sure! The Wodehouse and Stephanie Meyer collection cost a bomb, so i have to be satisfied with the pictures only here :).


Thursday came and we restless souls were on our feet again, this time for a movie- APKGK. The reviews looked okay, but what the hell, when there is Ranbir Kapoor in it, i can watch any movie ;).Left work early that day to catch the early evening show at Innovative Multiplex. The movie turned out to be really silly but have i laughed till my sides ached or what! I was laughing more at the movie than with the movie. But Ranbir's performance was top notch and comic timing was brilliant. Go watch it at least once. For me, for 100 bucks at Innovative, it was a great deal!


Skipped going home this weekend. Instead, went to the Groundnut Mela in Basavangudi. The whole of the bull temple road was filled with stalls selling not only groundnuts but a variety of fare that made it look like a village fair.

I realized what the charm of the Old Bangalore areas was all about. With rows of stalls displaying colorful stuff, my camera had a gala time. To satisfy the appetite that we had worked from all of that walking, we had the North Karnataka spread at Kamat Buglerock. I can say that this was by far among the most gratifying meals that i had in Bangalore. The violinists playing classical music in the backdrop was an added plus! The only thing i did not do was probably wipe my banana leaf clean ;). A nice ending to a memorable week. I now know that roaming the malls is not the only option to pass time here. There is absolutely no dearth for avenues and options in Bangalore to go all out and spend money and time :).

Hurrah to long weekends!

It has been a more month since i moved to Bangalore and i can't get myself to believe how quickly time flies! And how dramatically my life has changed in such a short span of time! Though my favorite hobby still remains watching movies, i hardly spend time doing it anymore, coz i don't get that kind of time. And also that there has hasn't been a great movie that's released recently! Instead, i spend my time planning for the day- what to study, what to cook, shopping, playing scrabble and singing with my friends i share the flat with ( I really don't know how else to refer to them! Flat mates sounds so impersonal! I guess i'll call them G and J henceforth).

I've also learnt the art of giving my parents an account of the whole day over the phone. Initially, it felt weird, going through my day's activities with them and asking them to do the same. I left out most of the things, did not know what to mention and what to leave out. A typical conversation would involve what i had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the highpoint of the day and plans for the next day. It would never occur to me that they needed more details than that so as to differentiate the day from that previous one! Now, i remember to go through little things like some joke that happened at the office, the effort that went into dishing out a meal, a recipe that turned out bad, some new food joint we discovered or a new place that we found to shop at.

The whole transition thing did not really take that long. During college, everyday was like a day off. I did not have to apply my head unless there was a test and i could spend all my time day dreaming, chilling out with friends or sleeping. Not so anymore! I don't have the luxury of sleeping late on weekdays anymore. Every morning is a running race. If only i could give up on that extra ten minutes of sleep after the alarm goes off! But i am certain that running like this each morning can surely help me knock off a few pounds ;).

On the bright side, i have come to value the weekends even more. I so look forward to coming home during weekends, getting pampered by my parents, quarelling with my sis to reclaim all my stuff that she's taken over, going on a ride and sleeping till late. My mom feels for me that i don't get to watch TV in Bangalore and i get to keep the remote whenever i am home. Yay! I never got to do that before since my parents would get so annoyed with my frequent channel-changing.

Once back in Bangalore, each day is spent waiting for friday to arrive. It is not so difficult anymore! And the three consecutive long weekends surely help! I am so loving it!

New beginnings

I have known this was coming, all along. For i spent the whole of the last month preparing for this day- buying stuff, getting documents ready, packing, you get the drill. The packing happened with a great deal of excitement, so much that mother dearest was under the impression that i could not wait to leave home. Somehow, i did not even feel a twinge of sadness when i went for one last time to the college to collect some certificates.
But today, as i put the last of my things into the suitcase, there is this queasy feeling in my stomach. I have never been away from home for long. This morning, i got up knowing that i won't be sleeping in that bed for hours together anymore! Seemed like the whole house was spinning around me! (Perhaps it was nausea but i am not exaggerating! ) To clear my head, i went for one last ride on the empty streets of Mysore and cried my way back home. Maybe i will get busy with my life in Bangalore to mull over this, maybe not. But today morning, i am not exactly a happy girl. I don't want to leave home! Only consolation is that i have the task of setting up a new home with friends and new experiences to look forward to. There are hopes and aspirations that life at the workplace will be challenging and fun. In the past, i have spoken at school and college about farewells being a mixture of happiness and sadness, but today i felt the full force of the feeling for the very first time! Saying goodbye is really hard. This is how i am possibly meant to feel. And the feeling might just fade away as time progresses. So bring on the wings, i am probably ready to fly!

It's raining, hallelujah!

When the month began, I had like a hundred plans about doing this and that. Top on my agenda for the holidays was to watch movies. The first week or so was wasted because of half a day long power cuts due to scanty rainfall( That's what the KEB people told me when i called to complain about the power cut). I resorted to reading and slowly got back my age old average of one book a day when the rain gods started smiling and the power situation got back to normal. The books were dumped in favor of movies and i had a nice time.
By then, it was time to look for a place to stay in Bangalore. And let me tell you, it is one of the hardest things that i have ever done in recent times. There are a thousand things to keep in mind- a place close to the office, a decent locality, many outlets close-by that dole out good food, comfort level in the house, good security, proximity to the bus stand and railway station, the budget, no water shortage and the list goes on! At the end of the two-day long hunt that spanned three areas and included both our relatives coming out to help, G and i finally found a house that almost suited our needs after a few compromises. What a relief it was! The both of us, along with Jyo are going to turn this flat into a nice and comfy home :) To think that when i started out, i was under the impression that i'd find like three or four places that i would really like and will have a hard time choosing one of them!!!
Back in Mysore, i am now spending all the time indoors, thanks to the incessant rains. There is lots of shopping pending and loads of clothes on the line that need to dry! But i am not complaining much. What better time to savor a cup of ginger chai and grab loads of sleep!! I still got about a fortnight before work starts. The usual whining and blues will begin then. Till then, i had better put my feet up and ease those worry lines!

Yay!

That is all i can say! Yay! Am done with exams! Once and for all!! The demo also went pretty smoothly. Am going to have a B.E. degree soon! It is an exhilarating feeling! (Ya,ya. Am certain about clearing all the subjects. CIPE too! Of course, the marks in that subject will be courtesy friends around me in the hall. Thanks a bunch, people, for helping me on a day when my memory failed me totally!)
Anyway, coming back to the point, like i said, i will have an engineer's degree in a few days. Got me thinking as to what prompted me to take up the course. From what i can remember, as soon as the tuitions for the 2nd year PU started, all that was drilled into my head was that my only goal that year would be to max my scores in the theory exams and the CET. All the people around me were working for it, and so was i! Engineering after CET was like a default option. It was just a matter of choosing a college depending on the rank.
Now when i look back, this degree has been at the cost of so many childhood dreams. Starting from getting into movies just so that i could get to meet Hrithik Roshan at close quarters, being a journalist, getting into advertising, being a part of a travel show, to opening a restaurant that serves the bestest food in miles! They somehow just got lost as i grew up and joined the herd in what they were doing. Just hoping that the B.E. against my name is worth all that i have inadvertently given up! And if at any point i feel it is not, i am going to go ahead and chase one of those dormant dreams! :) But for now, it is relaxation time. I am going to get enough sleep, catch up on my reading and watch loads of movies for a whole month! Happy vacation to all of you who have that luxury ;)!

Did you understood this?

I was in the college, to submit my project report and i stumbled upon the answers to the 4th cryptography internals on the notice board.Yes! The lecturer put the answers up! Whoever asked for them?! Thankfully, i did not have to take that test. And i pity all those who were forced to take it. Why?! Take a look:

Well, let me spell out a few questions for your benefit, in case you are having trouble reading it:
*What is the draw back of "mano"-alphabetic cipher? how can it be "overcomed"??
*List the characteristic Ceaser Cipher substitution which "enforces" to use brute force cryptanalysis. ( i guess it should be characteristics of..)
*What are the two unique and not necessarily compatible requirements for a sequence of random numbers? Lo and behold! The answer is a) Randomness and b) Unpredictability!!!

It is difficult to ascertain what language the man is communicating in!! That's not all, he spewed wonderful pearls in the class all the time, that i kept awake to listen to them, interpret them and have a good laugh! :) Here are a few:
*Did you understood this? ( Repeats it after explaining each topic!)
*The typewriter is going to be elapsed soon!
*Practical means, not impractical.
*When we product two numbers, the result becomes very large! ( by now you know, he meant multiply two numbers :) )
*We cannot larger the key size in any way!
*If the buffer is fulled, the connection cannot be formed easily!
*In conventional systems, there is a possibility of stoling the key!
And saving the best for the end, he pronounces eavesdropping as "evaas-dropping". I close my mouth, duck under the desk and laugh my heart out each time he says that in class!! There are many more such gems. He says them with such a straight face that you are sure that the man does not know how funny his nonchalant statements turn out to be! He even asked us to draw a round square while he was teaching us Logic Design long back! God help the juniors! I wish them luck in decrypting his statements!! :D

End of a joyride called college!

How many times have you woken up and cursed the college simply because it exists and you need to go there to attend those blasted classes?!And how many times have you secretly wished that a lecturer would fall ill or something so that you could have a class off? I have probably done it all through the four years of my engineering. But alongside, i have also looked forward to meeting up with friends in college, catching up on the latest college gossip, the bunking and going loafing. It is as if, there are two separate worlds inside those college gates- one, outside the classroom and one inside!

Well, yesterday was the last day that i got to spend in the class, during the photo session. Amidst taking pictures and signing autographs, we also made sure we left our mark in the class. The beam in the center of our classroom, all brightly whitewashed, now sports a message-"8th CS-A 05-09 was here", just like the one in Shawshank Redemption.

I had always imagined that i would be all teary eyed and sappy on the last day. However, it was not to be, what with all the PJs being cracked and the smiling for the pictures. I was extra happy since we had wrapped up the project only the previous day!
With the project also over, it is as if there is nothing more to do for now!( i have blocked out exam preparation entirely out of my mind, as of now) It all just adds up to the empty feeling that i have when i wake up these days( of course, half the empty feeling is because Sony Max has some bad movie playing at 8 since monday)! To top it, there are neighbors who see me at home all the time and keep asking me-" college ilva?", "college mugitha?". Howdu! College mugithu. And i am not exhilarated about it. The four years seem to have passed in a jiffy and have left me wanting more! And in a matter of a few days, the exams will also be over and it will be THE end of my college life! I am going to miss all my friends, the juice center,the steps, the parking lot, the placement cell and all the fun i have had in college. One big regret is that i can't seem to recollect which was the last class that i bunked :(. After all, i won't get to do it anymore!!

The blue book rests in peace!

I completed, no, successfully completed the last set of internal assessment tests of my engineering today. What a relief!!No more internals!! Each day of the internals is a trying experience and all that one wants is to get it over with. I really cannot get myself to believe that i have gone through almost 24 such sets of tests through these four years.
Way back in the first year, the internals were serious affairs with all of us sincerely preparing and vying to get the much coveted 25 in all the subjects. As we got higher up through the semesters, the interest and the seriousness waned, and so did the marks! The graph was anything but exponential. All that we prepared and prayed for was the magic number of 15, by hook or crook ;) ! There were some hopeless subjects along the way in which i thought i'd not get even that- EC,CO, Adv MuP, SE... i could perhaps list most of the subjects we studied! But to compensate for the nightmares they gave, i am sure we had some interesting subjects too, but i can't remember any of them :D. Do remind me if you can think of any!
Anyway, i am glad that i don't have to go through the ordeal of IAs anymore. It has been one herculean task to get those marks each semester. I'd like to thank all my friends who directly or indirectly helped me get through my internals. Thank you for the combined studies, for explaining all the stuff i'd skipped, for letting me peep into your books, for the pdfs and the chits! The marks wouldn't have been so good without your support ;).

Hello Again!

It has been eons since my last post, so let me say hello to the handful few who read my blog!( i don't think it is reeaaally necessary though, coz most of the few people who read it are the ones i meet on a day-to-day basis in college :D) Anyway, i have a good reason for not updating my blog regularly. It is not for the lack of events to talk about! It's just that i have been pure lazy ;). And a proper valid reason that i changed my ISP and the new guys took 3 weeks to provide the connection.( i was internet-less and restless the whole time!!) Anyway, now that i have gotten back to blogging, let me get you up to date with the taaza khabar from my side.
Project is progressing at snail's pace. Gawd knows how Greeshma and i are going to tie the ends together by the final submission date. Am praying for a miracle! ;)
In the meantime, 75%( i guess that's the minimum) attendance has been made mandatory for us 8th sem CS people, in case we want to take the internals. Something unheard of in JCE! So your's truly has been slogging away in class in order to make the cut to be eligible to take the internals. Its killing me!
And there was also our CS Fest, CieSta during Feb-end that was a huge success, what with highly efficient people organising it ;). It was a precursor to a host of other departmental fests. While i was not plodding away in class, i was participating in the fests without too much luck with the prizes :(
In movie news, i have not watched anything new! Thanks to the producer's strike!
And who needs to watch movies when you can see the movie stars at the IPL! And i've been rooting for the CSK from the start of the tournament. It breaks my heart to see them lose!

Coming to TV, when Prison Break went on a break last year, i was wondering how the hell was i going to wait till April for the rest of the episodes!April has already come and gone! How time flies!! i am waiting to see how it ends now. It's about time it wraps up. They have been dragging it for a long time!
I'll leave other trivial stuff for later. Enough of boring you guys! But i have to mention the highlight of my day- i cast my vote today. i have been maha-thrilled about it during the run up to the elections. i can proudly show off the indelible ink on my finger now!

Firsht Day!

First day of the 8th semester! I was as excited as i was on the first day of college some three and half years ago. So i get to college earlier than class time and find only a handful of people standing in front of class.Then we do the customary hi-hello and wait for the lecturer to turn up. No sign of the lady,so we go roaming. The first stop is the temple where i prayed for a wonderful final sem. Hope Lord Ganesha was listening! With an hour at hand before the next class, what better way to spend the rest of the time than at Yampa? Caught up on the latest college gossip, gloated at being the seniors of the college and all, over chai.

By the time the next class was due to start, a lot of people had finally decided to grace the classroom with their presence. Second hour was Constitution of India & Professional Ethics(,according to VTU syllabus ;)). It seemed to me like i was back in school in the civics class.

Third hour was Advanced Computer Architecture(ACA). The lecturer came in and started talking about responsibility, discipline and how we were going to step into a new life soon. How we would be recognized for our individuality in the industry and how engineering had made us all lazy(how true!). I was waiting for him to stop doling out advice and to come to the point. But no! The sermon went on and on and touched myriad topics, ranging from Darwinism, evolution, spirituality to modeling our life and future. The modeling then found some link with robots and AI. By then, half the people were wondering what was happening! And someone fell asleep. The lecturer woke him and actually asked if the lecture was causing any inconvenience to him!! To top it all, he conducted normal conversation using technical terms and it kept us in splits. One really weird class which i enjoyed! Never seen so many topics discussed in the span of one lecture.

The last hour was that of the strict,action-taking lecturer. Only, he did not take any action for bunking two weeks or bother to scold us. Probably realized by now that it is of no avail! While the previous class was full of entertainment, this one was completely dull. The lecturer simply read out from the notes he had got, stressing on totally unwanted stuff.The way he droned on and on only made things worse. After what seemed like an eternity, did the last hour get over! It is classes like these that make you simply want to stop coming to college. Thank god for friends and the fun stuff we get to do in college. And thank god for the holidays we get once a while! By the way, naaLe is raja! Yay!! Seems Dalai Lama is visiting our college tomorrow. The college is all spruced up for his visit. If you are in JCE, you do not want to miss our old airplane in the quadrangle,replete with fresh coat of paint. Who is going to call it junk now?

College beckons..

The 7th semester results came out today and i got back the "distinction" that eluded me the last time! Yours truly is very happy and thought it fit to share it with others. Not that it is a great achievement. Almost everyone i know has got one this time around. Happy that the VTU did not play spoilsport with any of us:)

Since i have a lot of free time at hand, i picked up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged that i had left halfway through, and started reading it. At one point, one of the protagonists says that the most depraved type of human being is the one without a purpose in life. Got me thinking as to what the purpose of my life is! As of now, all that i am doing is living it to the fullest and having all the fun i can. Is that a good enough purpose? I suppose the actual purpose will be clear once i step out of the confines of the college into the so called "big-bad-world".

Speaking of college, it reopened on the 5th of this month. But as per JCE tradition, am yet to set foot into the class. Rumor has it that one particular lecturer is really furious at our indifference towards classes and is gonna take strict "action" when we get there. Like we cared about it for seven semesters! At most, the first internal will be really tough with incomprehensible questions and many will end up with single digits for marks. There was a time, maybe at school and PU college when a single digit was looked down upon. But engineering college changed my attitude towards it coz i became a single-digit-getter myself. I was horrified the first couple of times but got used to it as time passed and even started enjoying the process. It became a norm to score measly marks in the first internal and the third internal would be a challenge of sorts.This semester will be no different in that sense.

Am eagerly looking forward to the first day in class. After all, it is THE final semester. Most of the memories i will take back from college will be those of this semester. But i am not sure if i want to spend all my time in class. You see,after this, i wont have anymore classes to bunk! So attending college, bunking class and watching movies, roaming around and having endless conversations with friends is on the agenda for the semester. You never know, in the process, i might discover the purpose of my life!

When Roger Federer cried...

"The stage is set .I hope we can live up to them (expectations) like we did in Wimbledon. " This is what Roger Federer had to say before the match that the whole world was waiting for! Expectations were high and how! He was gunning for his 14th Grand Slam title and then there was the epic semi final that set the bar really high.

Though Federer leveled the match at two sets all, he was not exactly in his best form. The guy did not serve well, struggled with his backhand and made too many errors! Nadal seemed to have endured the strain of the semi final and succeeded in breaking the calm of the otherwise unruffled Federer. It was as if the man on the mission resigned in the final set and just let the match slip away from his hands! I was ecstatic when Nadal scored his championship point. Wish the match had the same result but was a little more gripping towards the end!

But the drama that unfolded during the presentation is something I can't forget. I have seen Federer displaying his emotions after an emphatic win. But today, he cried like he had lost something really dear to him. I can only guess that he wanted to equal Sampras's really badly and was also probably mortified for not trying too hard!

Nadal once again proved that he is unstoppable. He even apologized to Federer for taking it away from him and reminded him that he is a great champion. Spoken like a true champion . I hope that the Federer-Nadal rivalry retains some juice in it because they seem to bring out the best in each other!

Pyar hua ikraar hua!

Before you get a different idea, i must say that this title is here for want of a better one!( And maybe, just maybe,a teeny-weeny attempt at trying to catch the reader's attention) Anyway, the song forms the central theme of an ad that's been on tv for a while. Yepp. The Airtel hello tunes ad featuring Kareena and Saif. Every time i see it on tv, i cringe and change the channel. So i decided to rant a little about it and get it over with!
Agreed that the commercial puts across the gana bolo and get the hello tune easily message effectively. But does it have to be at the cost of projecting Kareena to be dumb? Does she have to make that lame attempt to get the guy's attention while he is busy with his playstation? She remembers that Saif was humming some song the previous day but does not remember which!( It is from one of her Grandad's classic movies, for heaven's sake!) And doesn't the female know how to set a hello tune? Does she have to ask him to set it for her? Wonder why she agreed to be in the ad where she is no more than a showpiece, in the first place! And the most disastrous part of the ad is when Saif sets the tune by bolo-ing the gana into the phone and she gives this oh-my-god-its-a-miracle and you-are-so-great look. Can't the ad film makers come up with more decent stuff? Something like the Nokia ad with Priyanka chopra. It had Girl Power written all over it!

What a match!!

Five hours and fourteen minutes. That's how long it took Nadal to defeat his fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open Semi Final. Five sets of uninterrupted entertainment. It was one match that had my loyalties swaying by the set. At the end of the first set that Fernando won, all I wanted was for Nadal to win the match and take on Federer in the finals. But as the match progressed, I could not but help admire the strapping Fernando who saved break points, hit winners across the court and gave that wonderful resigned smile each time his challenge went against his favor by a minuscule margin.

The match that stood at 6-7,6-4,7-6,6-7 at the end of the fourth set still had so much to offer. Though both the lefties were tired and sweat drenched by then, they continued their attempt at securing a berth at the finals with equal gusto. Verdasco was putting enough pressure on Nadal and it was obvious on his face as he scrambled all over chasing the ball and matching his opponent with his best. Ultimately, when Nadal who got the better of his opponent in the nail biting encounter,I did heave a sigh of relief. Nadal, who did not get it all easily, threw himself on the ground to celebrate the end of one of the best matches ever!

I can't wait for the final showdown on Sunday. The World no.1 and 2 come face to face again. All I can pray for is a repeat of their previous Grand slam encounter ;). FedEx must have gotten enough rest and also watched the match today.Am just hoping that a day is sufficient for Nadal to recover and pull out all stops to get the title. Before I forget, Verdasco has a big fan in me now. Hope he continues his form. Once again, whatta match it was today!!!

p.s. It seems like the day of records. Can't tell you how delighted I am that SA have finally managed to dethrone the Aussies as the no.1 ODI team. It is more of contentment over the fact that the Aussie reign has ended than being genuinely happy for the Proteas. ;)

Padma Shri Khiladi

At a recent awards ceremony, Akshay Kumar turned down the Most Popular Actor award and said Aamir deserved it instead. He spoke about how he loved Ghajini and how his own performance in Singh is Kinng,for which he was given the golden lady,paled in comparison. I was watching it on TV yesterday.So far so good. I was pleasantly surprised at his generosity.But after that he launched into a lengthy speech(John Abraham later commented that it sounded like a lifetime achievement speech!!).He spoke about how he badly wanted the award but did not think he deserved it and he refused to be the man who pretended to take it away from Aamir!!Like Aamir wanted that award!It's a people's choice award for God's sake!! Wonder what Akshay has to say about the Padma Shri now?? ;)

p.s. Hrithik got the Best Actor for Jodhaa Akbar and I was overjoyed. Am sure this is just the beginning of a spate of awards for an impressive performance!!

JAI-HO Networks??

OK!My first post sucked big time! It was more like a what-I-did-in-my-vacation essay!!
And now,I have nothing to write about!!That's coz my holidays are being spent sleeping, watching Two and half men(rocking series!! ) and Grey's Anatomy and sleeping and watching movies and more sleeping. With so much time wasted, I hardly have any time left to prepare for the CN-II exam on Monday.The fact that inspiration to study is close to zilch does not help either!
When the notice about the postponement of the exam was put up(after loads of dilly-dallying by the VTU that resulted in anxious days and sleepless nights for people like me who prepare in the eleventh hour), I thanked the heavens for the elections. I also decided that I'd go really well prepared this one, what with 18 days' time for it. But we don't change, do we?!(like they say, nayi baala donku ;))
Am yet to get seriousness to study. Guess I might as well get back to TV now. I can start burning midnight oil from Friday.
By the way, the promos of Delhi 6 look great. That's one movie to watch out for.And Slumdog Millionaire is one movie you should not miss. Caught it over the weekend. Am besotted with Dev Patel now. The music of the film is great. Totally Globe-worthy. More power to ARR! Jai-Ho!

My First Post

I have been planning to start blogging since a while but that much needed impetus was missing!To the rescue came the South Canara trip with college friends, just a day after the C# exam. Also exciting was the fact that there were friends from Bangalore joining me on the trip.

After a long wait,the train finally chugged into the Mysore station and all of us scrambled in,hoping to get comfy berths next to each other. But that was not to be! Almost an hour was spent on swapping berths with other people but we still did not have adjacent berths and we had so much to talk and catch up!! So what did we do?We huddled up near the door and spent the entire night chatting away, much to the disgust of the sleeping co-passengers, got off at stations and imbibed caffeine and went click-click with our cameras.

Once we reached Mangalore we freshened up at a friend’s place and headed to the Campco factory in Puttur.The heady smell of cocoa welcomed us at the entrance and we knew we were in for a treat!The friendly guide took us through the entire chocolate making process and gave us stuff to taste from each stage.We loved it and gorged greedily on chocolate. It was all wonderful initially, but as the quantity of chocolate consumed increased,it started looking more and more repulsive. So much that, at the end of the tour, most of us were swearing to go off chocolates for a few days.

Then came the Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple near Kasargod.Legend has it that getting to see the vegetarian crocodile residing in the pond there is a lucky omen, and were we not lucky or what!We caught sight of it, clicked pictures and then rested at the temple.All this took so long that we would miss the sunset at Someshwara beach but for our driver! I cannot forget how he raced against the sun and made sure we reached the beach on time to catch the breathtaking view and do some contemplation staring at the drowning sun. The exciting day was finished off with Ice cream at Ideals.Special mention to the Chikku ice cream which is really yum.Why don’t we get to eat it in Mysore?!

Day 2 began with swaying on the hanging bridge at Kote road.From there we went to the Kodi Bengre delta and it was time for more sand and more water.We ditched the plans of going to Pili KuLa in the last minute and voted for the Pharangi Kudru ,a private island maintained by our driver’s friend. A half an hour boat trip took us to the island where we were welcomed by the owner’s dogs. It is a place where you can spend your entire weekend and also learn fishing if you have the time. The driver then took us to Pajaka-Madhvacharya’s birth place-an ancient house whose cool interiors were a welcome break from the sweltering sun. An ideal pit stop to catch that much needed rest. Malpe beach was scratched off our list coz the crowd there was scary!Instead, we went to the Kedaki beach close to it. Being a private beach, there were hardly any people.We got into the water and had the time of our lives!

While the second day’s itinerary was chock-a- block with places, we had only two places to visit on the third day before taking the train back to Mysore-The St.Mary’s Island and the Udupi Temple.The former gave us ample opportunity to pose and take pictures while the temple finished off our trip on an auspicious note.All I could pray for was super duper marks in the 7th sem exams!!That reminds me, I still have another exam left on 19th jan Why don’t vacations just last forever??!!