incoherent messages

MMX in retrospect.

2010-12-31T11:51:00.002+05:30

i like that name mmx. sounds scandalous. the MMX scandal.

moving on...

so this year started out awesome. i made resolutions, decisions, plans, plans of actions, all of that. and almost came close to acting on those, but one of the things i resolved, was that i would write each week. so i wrote the first week, and now the last day. this is a recap.

this year in retrospect.

1. witnessed more weddings this year than all years put together.
2. know more new parents now.
3. travelled much less than what i would normally do. or like to.
4. ipad release (didn't get one, but just being there the time that it happened)
5. replaced a good macbook with a better macbook pro. (fried logic board can do that to you)
6. lost a phone.
7. started a company
8. stuck to it for longer than 8 months and counting. (making it my second largest employment ever)
9. attempted to separate my personal performance review of a job from its actuals. still not there but close.
10. got introduced to the musical genius of amit trivedi
11. was around when tron made a come back.
12. made a resolution to write each week, did only for about 10 weeks or so. but
surprised at my own conviction.
13. attended 3 indian ocean concerts. downloaded the free album.
14. saw james camaroon make avatar.
15. saw knight shyamalan make avatar.
16. saw right ya wrong.
17. witnessed an erosion of movie taste being replaced by an unhealthy addiction.
18. did things i swore i never ever ever would.
19. missed the german winters. but not enough.
20. saw what 6.5 degrees feels like without heating.
21. made unlikely friends, made unwilling enemies.
22. lost friends to monogamy, work and distance.
23. started working on a script/magazine/business idea. stopped working on a script/magazine/business idea.
24. found out how those i thought uncool were cool in waiting.
25. worked. not as much as i should have, but as much as i could.
26. started doing things the way i hoped i would someday
27. still trying to cling on to a shred of my suicidal tendencies that fuel my work ethics.
28. learnt of the harms of coffee allergies.
29. saw jitesh bafna reel in horror each time i mentioned the word wife. (evil laughter follows)
30. saw hrishikesh kalkote get to where he wanted to go finally. :)

(i like 30. its a nice number. i will stop here now. )
there is a bigger list, but i would have to kill you, or hit you with the forget me bat after you have been told.

thank you UN.

2010-06-10T08:01:00.000+05:30

i cant help it but share this with you all.

UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION UNIT,
IN AFFILIATION WITH WORLD BANK
From: Special Envoy to
Secretary-General BAN KI-MOON
Telephone Number:

SIR/MADAM,

This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the UNITED NATIONS in
Central Bank to pay 50 victims from your country who has being Victims of
Internet scam, The United Nations has decided to pay you $500,000 USD (five
Hundred Thousand Dollars) each.. You are listed and approved for this payment
as one of the scammed victims to be paid this amount,get back to this office as
soon as possible for the immediate payment of your $500,000 USD compensation
funds.

My dear friend I will like you to contact UPS Courier Company regarding delivery
of your ATM CARD, You are advised to forward this information to the above
office for release of your ATM CARD compensation.

This card centre will send you an atm card which you will use to withdraw your
money in any atm machine in any part of the world,but the maximum is ten
thousand,five hundred United States dollars per day. So if you like to receive
your funds in this way please let us know by contacting the UPS Courier Company
and also send the following information as listed below.

1. Full name
2. Full address
3. phone
4. Your age
5. Gender
6. Occupation
7. Country

However, We have Concluded an arrangement with the UPS Courier Company for them
to deliver your Atm Card to you,and to let you know that you have to Contact the
Dhl Courier Company with your information Via email so that they can send down
your Atm Card to your postal address and to also let you know that the amount
which you are to send to them for the delivery of you Atm Card to be deliver to
your postal address is US$200 Equ 9000/inr being the UPS Courier Company
Delivery Charges so far.Note That's the only fee you will pay to enable UPS
deliver your ATM to you.

*****************************************
Mr.Barry Slim.
UPS Courier Company Dispatch Officer
E-MAIL : upsfast@post.com
Telephone:00447010036124
*****************************************

The atm card payment centre has been mandated to issue out $500,000 USD part
payment for this fiscal of year 2010. Also your information,you have to stop any
further communication with any other person(s) or office(s)to avoid any hitch in
reciving your payment. Note that because of impostors, we hereby issue you our
code of conduct, which is (ATM-199/2010) so you have to indicate this code when
contacting the card centre by using it as your subject.

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs.Sarah Thomas
Secretary United Nations
General Ban Ki-Moon.
( Financial officer )United Nations...
http://www.unorg/sg...

(this is what constitutes of most of my internet doings these days)

10 things only fanboys do:

2010-06-06T14:39:00.000+05:30

a few weeks ago ironman II released. this post is from that experience.

1.you wake up wishing you had tickets to the 9am show so that you can tweet about it before anyone else does.
2. you wear your faded marvel comics tshirt all day.
3. you brush up on your prequel skills so that you dont miss out references from the movie.
4. you google the plot, character, actors, director, references etc...
5. you see it twice in the same day.
6. you brag about it.
7. you facebook about how the plot was inaccurate and/or how you loved it anyways.
8. you want the director made president of a rich and powerful country so that he can do what ever the hell he wants.
9. you search the internet hi and lo for the perfect fanboy tshirt, in hope of finding something you can buy. only to be disappointed they dont have what you want.
10. you write this. blog it. buzz it. tweet it. and then post it to your facebook wall. and wish you had more places to show it off.

{i wrote this post the same night. i just got around to putting it up. but by then prince of persia was out, so still relevant i guess. if not. my blog, my rules. i rule relevant.}

the future is here!

2010-03-07T23:53:00.002+05:30

http://www.openmoko.com/freerunner.html

i saw this link today, it got me most excited.

phones like the neo runner, why do we not have commercial versions of them? the hardware seems perfectly friendly for a non developer to use it. why not sell it to the masses and make more profitable for developers to make apps, and hacks to it. sort of fill the gap between say the smartphones (blackberry), and the iphone.
with the amount of emphasis on portable devices now, wouldnt it make sense to have a model on the market where its easier, customize it to our needs, in the true sense of the word, but on a larger level. something like a closed chat group. more secure phones, that can handle more data flow. applications that connect various daily activities. phones that can be used as tourist maps. things like that.

i am no developer, so i dont really understand the limits of something like this. but potentially, the free runner with the right kind of push, could beat the iphone out of use.

but this is what makes the iphone successful.

1. blig value. the big shots have it. the shows we see, have the cool ones on the iphone. people show it off as if its a needed device and an object of desire at the same time. becomes easy to justify to your conscience.

2. the appstore. nothing seels like the free stuff. once you get your world hooked to the free, slipping them to the paid ones is just a little leap away. like they said, free is the new currency. the app store has millions of free things, app versions of big applications.

3. ease of use. even the non techies flock to it. the oomph is just too much to ignore.

4. the gamers and the users. everyones device.

5. the os. oh god dont get me started on that. the first os that is made for us fat fingered slobs. touch screen devices can bow become touch screen devices. with an os so simple that designers from yesteryears should kill themselves for not having thought of it earlier, and sticking us with things like mouse, pointers and other things that dont do touch screen things.

i am an apple fan, so most of this must sound like fanboy stuff.
so what i was coming to was that its no longer necessary for devices to be just good technologically, but also need the added free stuff.

which the freerunner already has by the ton load. so why does no one else pick it up! WHY?!!!

{the first part is the letter i wrote to someone. the second part i left out. for reasons of decency}

time travel its futilities and god.

2010-03-07T23:04:00.000+05:30

i keep thinking of time travel.
i think it would be awesome when we can finally travel in time. then we would start living life in 3D. instead of the uni-directional time travel we now engage in. past and future would become relative concepts. todays future can be yesterday just because i went back in time and did something there. or tomorrow comes before today, because i went ahead yesterday and changed something there. our watches would have to become multi channel, with specific timelines for specific tasks, and all time shall be referred to as 0+2 or 0-24 hrs, time shall now need to be referred to in coordinates, x and y or x,y and z. none of the o'clock concepts shall exists. (i already had this concept of time becoming relative dialogue with kshitij while touring the greenwich median. it was a stimulating conversation, that kshitij and i had, which involved scaring tourists away, and stern looks from the museum guards. good times!) yeah, so in my wandering over 3dimensional time travel, i just realized something... its all crap. i cant go to the future, it hasnt happened yet. a series once described time as a book, just because you are on chapter two, chapter 3 and 4 dont not exist. but i think time is more like a work in progress, each day, space gets written. you can only travel in time to points in space, hence since the future has not been written yet, hence you cant be in space that doesn't exist.

unless, you believe that god/nature/universe has a purpose for you. in which case, the space in the future, or the events within those space, has already been provided for, thus making future travel possible. it also makes future travel futile, becase the same force that put the future there, would try to ensure that it stays unchanged and since those forces that put them there, are powerful enough to put them there, and hence will also be strong enough and determined enough to keep it that way.

thats all i got on time. besides wasting it. profusely.
[so that is post one of the week. two to follow soon. real soon]

resolution over.

2010-03-01T00:30:00.002+05:30

i quit!

i think i did it for quiet a while. 2 months almost. the new years resolution of writing 2 posts a week has been quiet a formidable task, and sadly must come to an end. not because i dont have things to say, and not because i have suddenly started having better things to do, just because the task keeps getting more and more difficult by the week, and i see myself as more of a micro-blogger than a macro one. i am good with the one liners. less is more is more of my way. the things i have to say can be said in 140 characters of less. i dont need to ramble on for more than than generally. and even in those 140 char, i can more often than not not make any sense. so keeping all that in mind, and the fact that my scruples, and conscience, allow for me to quit an endeavor guiltlessly, i have now decided to stop blogging twice a week and shall blog as and when i see fit. after all it is my rule to break the rules i make. and i shall abide by it for as long as it is convenient.

BAZINGA!!!

this is todays post. i dont plan on quitting yet. may be next week. for this week i got my 2 posts. both written on a sunday. both written from the phone. and both amazingly meaningless and dry. as much as the universe is crying for me to stop, i shall go on. i shall be seen week after week for as long as i can, rambling, crying, bickering and ranting about mundane things that i do, and the oddities that i have. so until next week, which is already here, adios amigo(a)s! we shall meet again.
(evil laughter fades into black with end credits.)

who killed the music?

2010-03-01T00:16:00.001+05:30

who is to blame for mtv?

I was at the hairdressers today. For me he is more of a hedge trimmer. Cut the excess, leave the head. No fancy stuff. Cut and dry. 8 weeks later repeat. But this postg is not about the hairdresser. Neither is it about the disinterest he has in my hair. Its the easiest thing to cut. One sweep of an electric sheep shearer would do the trick. This post is about what I read, in the papers while waiting for my turn on the chair.

Well, its todays sunday express. Big bold letters tht state 'who killed the music?' the article goes on and on about how reality shows and 'evil' corporations and their hunger for trps killed music channels and transformed them into their songless state. They blamed the internet too. Youtube killed it too they said.
But is tht so? If music television is dead and if the internet and trps killed it, we watched it die. We asked for them to change. We wanted them to show more skin. I remember a ban on reality shows back in the 90s when channel v on a dare got a girl to stip down to bare necessities. How did it creep back on us. Talent shows, the races, the rodies and all that. They all seem to appeal to our dark desires. We slave at our work all day, and go back home where these seem to present a vent. the things we want done to others. we want to watch people cry, break down, plot and do the deeds we frown and fantasize over.

I would like tv to go back to being entertainment none of the mindgames all of the fun. music channels that play music. news that show the news, and not sensationalize avalanches. i think its about time we went back to reality and not reality as we doctor it. TRPs shall take care of themselves, show things that make sense and people will watch them. we saw the BBC mastermind quiz. no one complained. the audience hasn't changed. television just needed an easy way out. youtube will keep doing what it does. videos of cats doing funny things. but music television needs to do what it needs to do...

in the words of billy joel:
sing us a song, you’re the piano man
sing us a song tonight
well, we’re all in the mood for a melody
and you’ve got us feelin’ alright

{i wrote this post, on my SE X1. from the hairdressers chair. (or rather from outside the hairdressers place) where i waited for over an hour to get my hair butchered in less than a minute. all typos in this post shall be attributed to my fat fingers and the small keyboard on the X1 god love 'em. but the really serious mistakes in content, and the mindless banter is all me.}

dog ate my post

2010-02-22T00:30:00.002+05:30

i know i am late.

but its sunday night and i need to post a post or i miss this weeks two. this is my dog ate my homework. (i know its lame to write about your own inability to write, but this is the best i can come up with at such a short notice. )

so why am i late this week?

actually i dont have much of a reason. i wasnt swamped with work. i wasnt moving mountains, or planets or even rocks. i was just at work doing my daily work type things which for the last month or so involved a lot of sitcom viewing. i dont watch them for work, i just watch them at work. it does affect my productivity, it makes me feel guilty after the first 4 hrs and motivates me into working for about half an hr or so on a good day. on the bad ones for about 10 minutes and i am back to my shows.

so what happened this week. this week i had to decide. decide weather i should stay here and soldier on towards what ever form of life i am going to lead if i continue down this rabbit hole, or do i leave home, move to another city in pursuit of greener pastures. now as far as my decision making skills are concerned, you can ask anyone i know, they will all tell you that karthik is a legend when it comes to not choosing. i have almost perfected procrastination of my life choices to a point where i am starting to believe that there i life possible without choosing at all. so this week i had to make a choice. and i HAD to do it. it couldnt be pushed any further. i had to make a call. in terms of my newly devised scale for decision making, menu units. it takes 10 Mu to oder your own lunch at lunch time. but if you are bored it takes you anything upto a 100 units to order "something nice".

this weeks decision needed something like 200000 Mu. now you can image the magnitude of the weight on my head. its amazing i didnt try to kill myself.

so if i delayed work this week, it is only because of the things i had on my mind.

the folks back home would be happy to know that i shall continue in my inconsequential ways in the city. i am not moving. i shall stay and brave my own demons this year. it is going to be a phenomenal year and i want to be here to witness it!

dead at the funeral.

2010-02-20T18:24:00.001+05:30

it happened right there.

after the super heavy post of last week, i thought i should go lighter this time. may be something not involving explosions genocidal idiots and such. but then only time will tell if i can let that happen. (this is like the recap section that so many day time televison series have)

(title track)
(silly adverts of soaps, perfumes, insurance companies and their likes)
(and finally the plot fades in from black)
we were at a funeral this week. a friends father had just passed on. (or as they say 'expired' here) but this incident has nothing to do with the death, or the funeral, or even the friend. its just to tell you that this was the kind of place that almost screams out meaning less discussions to keep the place from going explosively silent.

so there we were, talking about our worldly stories, exchanging stories of holidays, work, and others, the newly weds talking of the recently gone valantines day, and how they had the coziest little dinner, or how work ruined their weekend but they still managed to do something valantiny, and the always evident married ones preaching to us singles as to how awesome married life is and how we should get married the minute we can. (at this point i always imagine that they suddenly turn into these preacher like clothes, the white cassocked, balding bearded men and very nun like clothed women without the bald or the beard, preaching/sermoning us to get god/religion or what ever it is that they are selling). thus wading from meaningless conversations to meaningless conversations we waited for the decent time to leave.

one such topic we walked by was the existence of a digital life, social networking, mafia wars, farmville and such. and people ridiculed the obsession that others had and how when we were kids we had such games we played offline and on LAN. and how even seniors today have gotten on to these trivial pursuits. then like any other conversation between friends fingers were pointed on how that person did things the same way as those described earlier. when it comes to anything remotely on the internet, i am generally the one to be pointed to. not because i am good at anything there, but because of my dependence on all things digital. my phone, ipod, macbook all of these things that i shall shamelessly acknowledge that i cannot do without. what if started to emerge, what if i woke up one day, my laptop wouldnt boot, my phone died, m ipod wont play, my email addresses erased, and everything that i did on the internet just basically vanished. (this blog included, but no one mentioned that because i am sure no one reads it) and so on and like every other time, it would end in if that happened i would kill myself. and they all somehow enjoy that ending. something about, now i know this man is mortal. his life can be in our hands, its not diabolical, its just natural that people dont like to know that there are people whose weakness these people dont know.

(commercial break. bad adverts and such. go grab your popcorn, or change the channels now, cos the tone of this series is about to get preachy)

but then i started wondering, dont we all have such things? for some its their little blinking screens, for some it is their online persona, for some it is their money, they pride, for some it is their loved ones. everyone has a set of things, that enable them to get by without which you would find it difficult to function. if that thing, is your digital persona so be it.

the argument they have against it, is that its not real because i cannot touch it. and because i can go to all those places without leaving my chair, those places dont exist either. i think that is a sad assumption to make. the internet, and therefore all things that happen on it are real. the places, the people the things that these people do in those places . second life is not an extension of you on the internet, it is you online. the mind does things that the body just cannot catch up with. so when you lose something online, when your associations with it are purely that of the mind, you would tend to lose it.

imagine if your house got bombed. would you understand if someone killed themselves over it then? (i know i promised not to talk of bombs and death, but this is just to show you why someone would kill themselves over lost facebook pages)

we are ok with people jumping off buildings over lost jobs. but we are not willing to accept that there are some who would do everything they do, online... and if they lose it they almost lose it all. in this day and age? wake up neandrathal and smell the instant coffee!
(fade to black....)
to be continued...

(meaning less white noise between two badly made series.)

peace? NEVER!

2010-02-16T07:43:00.002+05:30

(this post is in the wake of a recent attack on my city. )

there was this cafe in my city.

see how i said was? it got bombed last week. or so they say, they blame it on terrorist attacks, some say its a faulty gas line. 9 dead, 50 injured, 13 critical. the opposition blames the government. the government blames the terrorist we blame the police, the police blames the people and the cycle continues.

here are the things presented to us as facts.

1. its a local chapter of a national extremist group.
2. its a part of a series of attacks.
3. its related to an issue that has little or nothing to do with the city.

and the solution to these issues seem to be, invade the country harboring these terrorists, show no mercy, cut all diplomatic ties with them, no business, no exchange of entertainment, suspend all peace talks until these attacks are stopped and these attackers are brought to justice. do what the world did to south africa at the peak of the apartheid movement and get them to stop this and talk, or we just go all afghanistan on them, poison their rivers, kill their cattle. fight back with raping and killing everything that moves thru the land. run them over with tanks bombs grenades and mines. we bleed them dry to take back what is rightfully ours.
but would it solve anything. what about escalation? we hit them with guns they bring tanks, we bring tanks, they bring planes, we bring planes they bring missiles and the circle continues, until one of us brings a nuke to the table. what about them doing the same things to us as we would want to do to them. plus we got a faceless, shapeless demon to blame this on, their government blames it on independent extremist groups. these groups dont show formal links to the government. the army does its share of things. we cant really negotiate, talk to any one of them, since they all point their fingers in someone else's direction.

the politics of conflict. we dont realize that we dont want peace. we benifit from the conflict too much. our politicos use it as an agenda for elections. the opposition blames the govt for negligence, the govt blames the opposition for lack of support. the local govt blames the center for lack of support, the police blames the city, we blame the police, the police blame the people. we use this as an excuse to not focus on our problems. we use it as a way of getting away from the problems we really need to solve. it allows us a leverage in international dialogue, and it affords them access to funds from other extremist groups to fund their cause. defense contracts, funds that can be embezzled, the coffin scams, all these cannot happen in peace times. so then what? well, let us assume:

A. there will be no peace. ever
B. we wont give them what they want, and they wont stop trying to get it.

i think its crucial we see the facts presented to us in new light. we are dealing with an extremist group here. there will never be an end to this. we can bomb our neighbors to oblivion if we like, but that will solve nothing. it would be like killing the mother of criminally insane children. (i know there is nothing called criminally insane tendencies, but i think it would be nice to have such tendencies bunched up and treated on a therapists couch with handcuffs, a very clockwork orange type thing). we could go exterminating these terrorists, but then we only get seen in worse light than what they show us in, giving rise to more extremists.

so how do we solve this? there are two choices we have:

one, is reduce the impact they have on our lives. we just continue on the path we choose, strengthen our borders, make arrangements to strengthen our states. airport security, security on entry into state and city limits needs to be tightened. damage control. eliminate what you can, and minimize where you cant.

two. we take the war to them, we go as low as they did, show them what it is to have an extremist attack your world repeatedly. drop a bunch of the criminally insane into their land, and let them lose. no cause mentioned, no group sited. murder death kill until there is no more. show them the pain until they would just stop it all to go back and put out the fires back home.

we may not have the peace we wanted. but we will have the peace we fought for.

blasphemy. revisited.

2010-02-15T07:30:00.002+05:30

sincerest apologies to the believers.

a few weeks ago, someone posted a question on pre-adamic age. and what must have happened then. i thought it was a good question and got thinking on that. i know i would hurt someone's sentiments with it and all that but then again, i was never known to be the sensitive types. plus, i got nothing to write this week, no mixing insects in a post, no stories to tell. no tech implements to rant/rave about. nothing. so here is my excuse of a post.

Where does Satan and the fall fit into the Bible ? He must have been cast down before Adam and Eve were created because he was there to tempt Eve in the Garden? Was there, could there have been, a pre-Adamic age - and surly this would have been a catastrophic event ?

actually there has to have been a pre-adamic age. it lasted for 5 days i think. god made man on the 6th day... sort of like building the zoo and then moving the monkeys in. there fore, i think the devil was gods first creation, he was essentially made as his friend, confidant and chess opponent. (u see god has to have gotten bored of talking to himself alone.) but then the devil was sick of losing and started cheating and so god sent him on earth as a snake. dude was pissed. went and lashed it out on gods favorite creation (not because people were beautiful, but because they were so freaking stupid that it was amazing. sort of like his own personal lol cats!) and said, dude, the guy up there, he hates you... he thinks you are fat and ugly... and stupid. but if you want to get even with him, he is keeping his most delicious apple on those trees and he goes for a nap between 1-3 in the afternoon... go steal it. and balm! you have the story of adam eve and the apple they stole.

but then why did god leave the apple tree behind?

i think in gods own country (not kerala, the original gods own country, heaven as we are told) the apples are like super old whiskey or really good weed. so he kept a tree full of it on earth, away from his wife and kids, and his evil twin benny. so he kept it here, and would say... i am off to earth dear, got a lot to do this week, will see you later. he would come over, get high, get naked and make dinosaurs, crocodiles and that ugly lady who lives down the road from my house. but to us human, its just an apple that broke our inhibitors. thats all.

so there you go. questions answered. posts written. cheap shot i know, but what can i say, cheap guy.

so Mr grasshopper, whats your story?

2010-02-09T21:03:00.002+05:30

there was once a grasshopper named bob.

now bob had is ways with the world. he would do what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted. all things that he wanted he did and all things he did, everyone wanted. now bob keeps doing things, good things bad things, new things, but all different kinds of thing. hopping away to glory. eating what he finds when he finds, no saving for rainy days no burrowing thru the grounds, no making homes or nests. just living it up each day, grasshopper style.

same time there are these ants. millions of them. running around toe to tail, one after the other , in sync, in style all with the same dreams of one day being the queen bee, sitting and eating, hatching eggs at the heart of the hive. the good life they said. with the big rooms, the sweet honey, the friends, the admirers, the jealous onlookers the evil empires. everything under the sun and behind it to make us happy.

but every once in a while the ant would glance a shady glance at the grasshopper. dancing till his shoes hurt, doing his thing, the grasshopper thing. being himself smiling dancing making merry, doing the joke and poke thing. everyone watches him and so does the ant. part in awe part in envy and part wondering why hes not that guy? why is he doing this in the line on the floor thing? why cant he just leave this all and take up the violin and play the strings to oblivion. he knows he will be happy that way. it may not be all honey and empires, but he would do it for the happiness and stories. the guns and glories. the small town man with the big time dreams, making it in the big city without losing his chee.

but then he marches on. he get back in line, dons the helmet that his predecessors did and soldiers on. hoping, nay knowing one day, he makes it to the top, get the girl, the house, the sweet nectar of gods and all that. and resolving under his breath that one day he shall meet the grasshopper, watch him play the songs do the dance from high up above in his silvery throne. and tell the next generation as to how the grasshopper stayed where he was, while he moved up and moved on! the grasshopper froze each winter, the ant stayed warm, moral of the story work for your happiness nothing is for free. the end.

but no one asked the grasshopper, sir, what is your version of life? are you happy making merry or is there something to look forward to? dont you want to do the queen grasshopper thing? the life of luxury, shiny objects and fresh cut leaves? dont you want to be at that place? be that guy who everyone wants to be, who everyone either envies, or talks about? i think if someone did ask him these question he would reply in the most lost voice of all...

hell yeah. i want to be that guy that you all want to be. but i want to be happy first. and i cant make up my mind what i want to do about either of them? i cant commit to a life on the path, i think its just too slow, and too tedious. i want to do what i want to do and i want to have what everyone wants to have and i want it all now. i cant wait till the end of my life to do what i want, wait for my parents to pass on the mantle to me, wait for my kids to take on the mantle, wait for the birds to leave home the bees to go out hunting before i go out and play the fiddle the violin and become the traveling one piece band i want to become. but what can i do? can i stop being me for an indefinite period of time and then keep who i want to be for later? i dont think i can refrigerate desires?

we are all born at the crossroads. the fiddle in one hand, and a shovel in the other. you can find your time to do both, or bury one with the other. most make their choices early on, some have them made for them. i am still staring at both my hands, trying one, and then trying the next... still at that cross roads staring into what lies ahead. i am still the hopper i was the day i hopped in. and guess what.. i think i shall be happy hopping for a while.... and not cos i am happy doing it, no, and definitely not because i want to do it all my life, hell no. i will be hopping because that is all i know how to do, and if i stand in one place long enough, may be i would miss out on all the other places i want to be in. so there's this and thats that. now can i go please? i see something new i havent done before and i want to get done with it.

death of a drive.

2010-02-04T19:17:00.001+05:30

today i lost something.

something valued. something irreplaceable. it was my years of hard work, collecting, saving, swapping, and creating little bits and pieces to put it all together there. it was my hard drive. 320 gigs of portable entertainment. all gone in one single drop of my bag. one careless/carefree gesture and all is gone.

to the untrained eye, it is like a watch being broken, or a favorite tshirt with moth holes in it, but to me, and i am sure to a lot of others to whom half the fun is in the amount of space it occupied. but to me, is the 1900s equivalent of having a big fire in your workplace. or a california wild fire of the 2000s, or losing your own hut in the haiti earthquake. no matter what you get after this.. your life can never go back to being the same. you may rebuild your fortunes, you may work hard enough to make all of this seem like a bad dream, but that day you change. you become someone you were not before and someone you will be for the rest of your life.

the hard disk was fairly new and it isnt that i lost the drive or that i lost money today that i am sad, its a lot more. it is that today i am reminded of my helplessness against all things that i thought i was using for convenience. i cant go without my phone, my ipod, my laptop, the hard drives i own, none of that. its almost as if i am slave to it. and thus the unbearable loss.

almost reminds me of the matrix reloaded dialogue between the council man and neo about dependencies. and he ends with... 'are we truly free?'

and so shall i.

(alright may be just a little foot note.

i know i know. i am a day late. but in my defence, i was a day early last time so there that and thats that! plus i am a grieving man this week. i am allowed a day off aren't i? i mean 320 gigs of movies, music, may be a few bits of work too all gone. never to be gotten again. i am allowed a day off!

i also have to do this..

happy birthday sister.

she thought this would make up for a good excuse for a post. may be she was right, this does seem more intelligent and mature than crying over a dead drive. but then... i dont want to seem what i am not. )

ipad (yagami)

2010-01-29T18:13:00.005+05:30

why the Ipad is not for me. or is it not not for me...

everyone jumped on the ipad bandwagon. its good its bad its alright its all that.
so i thought for the post of the week i could do that. you know, i am much like a b grade celebrity like that... i wait for trends and i follow them soon enough to think,i am original...
so heres the things i see the ipad do for me and not do for me. (and the worlds worst cash in effort since indian cinema tried to use 9/11 as a measure of terroristic levels.)

the dont buys

1. i dont like the name. it sounds like a medical company made blue tooth napkins, or a 16 year old white male with too much of the wrong R&B in him naming his house (cos no self respecting male would refer to his own house as a pad, much less add an i to it). i think they could have called it much better things, just a tablet. or a slate (i think hp took that one tho') i mean why do you need the i? you dont have an i on the macbooks anymore. why this?

[i am going to call it something else from now on. because the image is just burnt at the back of my head and i get this weird smile on my face each time i hear the word. lets call it yagami after "the Death Note anime series has a still frame based on The Creation of Adam, with the protagonist Yagami as Adam and the death god Ryuk as God, holding an apple" it is only appropriate. since steve jobs is the devil. you only need to see the keynotes that he gives. i would have sold my soul for the shuffle if he had given that speech to me. i know hes only selling things, but boy is he the devil! ]

2. it replaces an iphone, an ipod and half a macbook. ok... whats the point? i dont want a bigger ipod. i want a smaller notebook. if you didnt get that.. go back home call your mother cos you didnt do your homework well! a 10 inch ipod is not easy to carry, a 10 inch macbook is peachy, a 10" touch screen thing is amazing... i know you position yourself as a company that does fun things... but a computer is serious business.. dont make fun of those who buy your things... (love the design by the way)

3. it plays games... so? so does my phone, and my ipod. dont need a new thing that does the same old thing only makes it more difficult? get better apps. get bigger things. make it a macbook. design users would loooove all their things on a tablet. and just FYI the last on the mind of a game making company is a mac user. no one makes games first for macs, they make them for the xboxes, the PSs the Wiis the PCs and then the macs. get your head out of your safaris and start looking around. me no PC fan but numbers rarely lie.

4. ipod, 3G, internet, and....? thats it? nothing more? my shitty phone did that... 4 years ago.. gimme something new people!

the buys.

1. you, finally finally have an os built for and just for a touch interface, no hand me down software, no adhoc interface needs .no small radio buttons and checkboxes. no need for a stylus, let your mind do the thinking and your fingers do the walking. (how ever far apple allows you to go that is...)

2.it makes the kindle look like a clunky 1980 nintendo. it will revolutionize ebooks. you dont need one more thing for your reader, you need just this one.

3. what's good for the iphone is good for the yagami (popularly known as the ipad!) so you get a big set of apps already built, tried tested and perfected.

4. it is a whole new OS. only jobs could do it. introduce a new os so subtly, without talking about it.. we just handed over the world to him on a plate. anyone who uses the iphone has already used a small version of the pad. so you dont really need to work on anything new.

5. its going to do to computers what notebooks did. shrink them. the laptop i typed this post on, the computer you are reading it on, even the phone that would show this post in an unimaginably small text is obsolete. its a revolution baby, and we are here when it happened!

so what do i need it to do for me?

1. make it do more.. make it replace my keyboard and my mouse on the mac, and then become a portable extension to my computer. make it all minority report like.

2. make people make things for it... photoshop, illustrator... bring the hand back in action... i am sick of dragging my palm along to draw

3. i dont need it to replace my phone.. keep em seperate... replace my mac instead!

4. surprise me... cos as of now... i see old wine in a striking new bottle!

(WOW. i am here early. may be i am going to be good at this. or may be i am just too stupid to cound days. i swear i thought it was the third day and i would miss my deadline if i didnt come up with some crappy mindless sap to say. sorry but this was the best i could do on such short notice)

holy smokes batman... why?

2010-01-27T08:36:00.001+05:30

the life and times in gotham city

Batman is my favorite superhero of all times. Right from the time I saw the adam west series with him faking a climb up a wall too evidently horisontal with the lady sticking her head out of the window too far to be real waving at him and the bang! pow! kapow! with the show tune, the colorful robin and the slightly bulging belly in a slightly too purple costume. Loved batman thru the animated series, thru the dark Tim Burton movies with the unconvincing Michael Keaton (who I only remember for multiplicity), the suggestive Joel Schumacher movies of the supposedly PG Batman with a very unsuitable Batman and an even weirder set of neon lit villians. I admired the dark knight thru the days of hush, Batman begins right up to now... with the miller/lee/williams masterpiece of Batman&Robin all stars... You want to know why? Because he is one of us. A man. An average joe super rich kid. But he deals with his life. happy or not, he soldiers on. Doesn't try to alter the balance of the universe thru time travel or setting up a dark dimension like superman or crib about how tough the life of a super hero is like Spiderman. He is not an alcoholic like Ironman. He doesn't have anger issues like wolverine. He helps when he's Batman he helps when he's Bruce Wayne. In my books, hes the only super hero there is. Him the robins and Barbara Gordons angels. The only non powered supers there ever were . Fighting with all they have to give, holding nothing back. If you are powered you are privileged. Its an unfair fight if you got heat vision and your nemesis is armed with no hair.

So what bothers me so much about him? This. Gotham city was Gotham city before Batman. Gotham city is Gotham city after Batman. nothing changed. They had the mafia, they have the mafia, they had the joker they will continue to have the joker (heath ledger, god bless his soul) two face was a good guy gone bad. bane in one series (battle for the cowl) plays a bad guy gone good and so on. gotham city with bats waxes and wanes from shit soup to shit storm all the time.... so my problem is why does he do it then? if he barely manages to make a difference to a city hell bent on not doing anything for itself, why is he really my hero?

like the gita says; "Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani" (which roughly translates into "your duty is towards action,but you are not entitled to the results they bare. Never consider yourself the cause of the results,and never be tempted to not doing your duty.") this is Batman's credo. he works towards a goal not for it. He's not an idealist like Superman. he calculates. the closest result to the path of minimum destruction is the one he takes. not dealing in absolutes but in reality can be quiet tasking to the gods. But he is relentless. when the city is unwilling, the world hates him, his best friend (superman for the most part) has difficulty understanding his ways. His childhood friend is hell bent on killing him, he still decides to go on unmoved and unshaken from his goal. he is a righteous energizer bunny. a man hell bent on making hell a better place. he fails, he falls but he rises up again. he is a man but he can move gods. he survived a battle with the Darkseid and won. only because the master of chaos knew that the worlds greatest detective has the steel in him to do what it takes to get the job done. he knows nothings perfect, not him not his ways, but he does what he can. trust no one, but give everyone a chance. there are no absolutes with him. all rules have exceptions. improvise. adapt. but never back down. he works on better tech for the world, he works on poisons, antidotes and medicines with equal sincerity. he wont lose sleep if there ever is no need for batman anymore. always preventing, always progressing. my god. my guardian. my hero.

(i wrote this as a piece for an online magazine run by a friend. its mediocre and childish i know but then so am i :) anyways, i figure this counts as post of the day. more to come. karthik out!)

suicidal planet.

2010-01-22T21:21:00.003+05:30

why do none of us believe in a long and happy ever after anymore.

why is 2012 so deeply imprinted in our minds that we almost believe it will happen. why is everything we do today doesnt seem to be with a sense of where it will be 50 years from now. why cant we look at the future, straight in the eye and feel happy/hopeful about it? why are we focused on doom so much?

hindu mythology calls this period as the 'kalyug' or the time of instant redemption. it is a period where all actions are punished/rewarded almost instantaneously. it is also known as the dark ages, or the time when the truth and the righteous have to struggle for recognition and existence. the sins rule the game and all that exists around us is bad influence. it only gets better, the next phase according to the legend, is 'pralaya' or destruction., the end of the world. a mercyless reboot.
then there is nostradamus. he was pretty scary too. he predicted that the world would end this millinea. we have all been sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for the other shoe to fall. almost certain that the other shoe will fall soon. believing in our hearts that the world is going to end. and we are going to be around to see it.
the bible also predicts the end of the world soon. and not just the end of the world as a destruction of the planet, the end of the world as in the end of all that we know as creation. i wish we are wrong. i hope and pray that the world has a longer life than i do. i sincerely pray (if i have to) that the world will be a better place once day. that utopia will not be a bad thing and that the zeitgeist will cease to exist as a thing to be addressed, but will become as a statement of pride. that today we make tomorrow better.

i tend to quote the matrix on this one 'we see reality in misery' we ourselves dont believe that the future will be bright,

but can we change this obsession with the dark side? i dont think so. for two primary reasons.

one, we are short sighted, we dont dream of the future, we dream of a better today. better standards of living. better cars, better homes, better education, better vacations, better everything. not new, but better. i haven't, in a while heard of any significant breakthrough that we weren't genuinely surprised by. pluto is NOT a planet, or better yet, almost a planet. but have we found something beyond that? have we even begun with the idea of a possible USS enterprise? have we actively made progress in finding a new one, or a new solar system. i don't know. the last time we put a man on the moon was in 1972. what happened then? have we found out everything there is to find out about the moon? does the moon hold nothing of learnable value for us?
we are so busy waging wars and protecting territories, that we forget to look beyond. we are going smaller and deeper while ignoring the wider and farther.
what i do know is that we have become unimaginative. we cant imagine beyond 10 years. our goals are shorter, more attainable. i don't remember the last time a kid said that he wants to be an astronaut. i cant remember a time when a kid didn't want to do what his dad was doing.

secondly, research shows, that we are at present going through the most unhappy phase of our evolution. this after the holucast. our society and culture is ridden with holes. we tend to look for the cloud in the silver lining. once we start looking for holes, we look for the fixes, once we find the fixes then tend to capitalize on the fixes, if we dont find the fixes, we tend to shop... if everyone will be happy, who will buy the fixes, or the replacement to the fixes? the capitalist system will collapse and money will be of next to no value. and this cannot happen. we cannot let people get happy under any circumstances. happy people are just bad for business. what if we change the assumption? what if we say, happy people make better consumers, only if the consumables are made better, then the question of quality comes into play, as long as you make quality items, happy folks will buy it. a good car will get brought, advertisements or not.

and therin lies the tragic flaw, we then have to innovate, we cannot reproduce, we have to invent. get off our lazy behinds and make something. until now, the shortsighted version had been paying off pretty well.

low quality + investment + demands (or short supply) = high returns.

but since everyones happy, the consumption patterns will change, they will no longer be linked to the happiness index but to the quality index. which means that people will no longer look at flash value, or street credits, but for quality of goods, environmental impact, because we have enough, we only need replacements not additions. everyones happy with what they have, they want new when they want better. zen all over!

the flipside: by making quality = returns we are adding the risk of failure to the whole equation. making manufacturers nervous... rejected again.

so is there a solution. i would like to believe so. i would like to think that at some point we all truely acknowledge that chaos will exist, we are all ok with being miserable from time to time and that good time are always around the corner as opposed to the other way around. we dont live on a linear chain of consumption but on a cyclic one. hand me down is the new cool and such... like the schoridingers cat experiment, where we are assuming that the solution will be one or another. and hence both simultainously exist for a finite time, and then it shall go back to an absolute (the cat is either dead or alive...). that the final solution will always be absolute. but i think that is where the problem lies. there can never be an absolute. it will be 2 things at the same time, waxing and waning in importance but present and accounted for at all times. we need to focus on a better today, and a future that we never thought of. we need to bring back the use of imagination as a need and not a sign of insanity, we need kids to paint more than sunsets houses and ducks. we need imagination and we cant need it sooner!

(a positive outcome of me being lazy, and being too egoistic to give up so soon, added with the difficulty of coming up with something new each 3 days is that now i can start finishing all the bad ideas i dropped with good reason. this is the first of many back up plans i have for me to get thru my 106 post this year. people of the world... one at a time please....! )

my digital is too analog.

2010-01-19T20:04:00.001+05:30

look at the things you use today. your phones, computers, the softwares on the computers, the things those softwares do, the internet, blogs, social media everything digital. now think of a time before these, the time before you had any of your digital realities. think of how people used analog things to do what you do with your digital. the watches, the word processors, the drawing tools. even the things you use the internet for. like communication, publishing, photo sharing, ideation, collaboration, everything that you do today, was being done then. slowly, none the less, but surely. now you have blogs, then you had news letters, now you have websites for designers, then you had bulky portfolios, now you have a mobile phone, then you had telephones, the text messaging of today, is the direct lineage of the telegram. and i can go on. but what am i rambling about here?

what i really mean to say is... we havent changed anything. we made the digital do analog things are satisfied with them. architects use autocad for 2d drawings, and are happy with it, only a few push things to their full potential. how many architectural firms think of computers and digital techniques as more than tools that replaced the drawing board? we call them design drawing. not designing. Word replaced the word processor or the typewriter. books written on the type are like books written on a computer, no change there. just the convenience of a select few. i am not one of those shun your computer, nature is the right way to go preaching hippie. i love my macbook. more than the people around me, but its just a sad realization that since the time someone invented the printing press, we havent moved much, and since the time of the telephone we have moved even lesser.
the mouse simulates a pen, the screen supposed to be paper, digital watches with needles, mp3 players that look like cassette tape players, bluetooth headsets made to look like Bakelite phones. we even had mobile phones with jog dialers,
all new technology at some point simulates and if we are lucky just about replaces old technology.

now forget what you know. think of something that has never been done before. like the multi touch track pad in the macbooks, and the new apple mouse since the beginning of the mouse/trackpad usage, no one thought of more than two fingers and 3 buttons. or google wave, first time ever, we got a system that is built on the internet, not on the postal service! social networking broke the mould to some extent, orkut, facebook, linkedin all these did move out of the general already existing since adam and eve.

now lets look at what work we do. day in and day out. time and time again, do we do the same things that people have been doing since for ever? or are we doing something new? is your digital too analog?

food for thought. and action. :)

(i know i got preachy on this one... but i was sick of the autocad interface when this one came about :) too bad you got the wrong end of this stick)

resolution day!

2010-01-16T14:13:00.002+05:30

happy new year everyone.

i know i am late. i know it was 2 weeks and more ago. but i just woke up. from work. not a holiday, nor a drinking binge. anyways, the point is that its new years, and i got a good feeling about this year. i am doing seemingly well, making apparent intelligent moves, while showing hints of settling down in a job for longer than 30 days. the point is, i like this year. i think it is going to bring a lot of new things.
so when i saw a lot of designers come and write about their new years resolution of doing 365 pieces of personal art, i thought i should do something like that! now the catch was, i cant think of 5 different things to draw, wait... i cant think OR draw!365 of those would give me a stroke! i needed a more doable goal. 365 blog posts a year. again, stroke worthy. i can barely think of one tweet a day, plus a facebook status message added to that.. the pressure of being visible, is too much. not that i mind it, its a mental exercise and i love the challenge of coming up with these, plus its fun. so now back to the challenge of doing something that will need constant thinking throughout the year. 52 blog posts a year. (for 52 weeks, of the year.. if you didnt know that... i think u should quit reading here). that means a couple of 100 words a week. too doable. its not so much of a challenge, when u have to get up one morning say, good morning people in text/type, rant about the things that happen to you once a week and then go back to bed. i mean once a week is for starters. not re-starters. us second time text offenders need stricter punishment. so here goes. 2 posts a week for the first 3 months. then move up to 4 and so on. the final climax would be 2 posts a day, for the last one week of the year. so those watching, (i know i got 2 official followers (thank you both!)and hopefully a larger number of people who would read it once and then would sanitize their computers, delete their logs, format their OS's and never acknowledge that they visited my blog. i know, its insulting to read this crap right? anyways...) brace yourselves, include me and my resolution to write more often in your nightly prayers and your daily desires or at least lie thru your teeth and say 'good job karthik keep it up!' cos i am NOT a self mover. i am a self starter but i am also a self - lose-interest-er.

so here goes nothing. absolutely nothing.

see you in 3 days with more nothing.

many to many cities.

2009-12-02T21:37:00.001+05:30

http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html

this lecture primarily demonstrates as the shift in public media from a one-to-one (telephone) and one-to-many (newspapers, televisions, radio... ) to a many-to-many medium. and demonstrates this through the recent chinese earthquake, and the way news propogated. he says "in order for any media to become widespread, the technology needs to get boring" people using twitter, facebook, chatrooms etc have become so much the norm that we can easily put up our views on a public forum.

if we replaced media with planning. the principles are the same. ancestrally, planning has been a 'one-to-many' operation. it has come from the 'planner' to the 'people' never have we really had a dialogue. surveys and interventions are the tools we use today for feedback, but what if we had a system in place that would give us a 'feed-front' (for lack of a better term) what if we could use the open platform to get users (in this case residents of the area) to plan their own locality. essentially assuming that planning is organization of a finite number of resources within a finite area. which means it is a matter of distribution and not creation. the intangibles like the socio-cultural flavors, are better catered to by the 'non-experts' as they live and breathe the area.

in visual terms it would be like mapping a wiki over a finite area, non experts come in and edit pages, collectively they can then map the desires, fears, aspirations of the region under consideration.

thereby instead of an outsider coming/observing the region for a definite length of time and then planning for it, we could now get residents, who have been soaked
in the social fabric, to plan their own regions.

there by making the planner a medium of interpreting this directory of social desires such received, instead of the modernist version of 'god'.

congratulations karthik:) for the second time this week! :))

2009-09-16T17:19:00.002+05:30

THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT BMW
22 Garden Close, Stamford,
Lincs, PE9 2YP, London
United Kingdom
Reference Number [:BMW:2541236004/25]

Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that your email have been selected as a winner of
a cash prize of 500.000.00 GBP(Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) and abrand new BMW 5 Series Car from International programs held in september 2009,

To file for your claims please contact your fiduciary agent with your Full information

Names:
Address:
Age:
Occupation:
Phone no:
Country:

BMW LOTTERY CLAIMS DEPARTMENT
NAME:Mr, LARRY SMITH
EMAIL: bmw.automobil.dept1@googlemail.com
NUMBER: +44705796890
Please you are to provide him with the above listed details as soon as
Possible so he can begin with the processing of your prize winnings.
Congratulations once again from all our staffs and the director BMW lottery

DR Smith Antony
THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS
BMW LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
UNITED KINGDOM.

towel day celebrations!

2009-05-26T18:11:00.001+05:30

on account of towel day :

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists seem to forget that.

if jesus got a second chance

2009-05-08T20:23:00.002+05:30

(background story: was a gloomy afternoon in dessau. something had to be done. then came the status message, if jesus was an architect, would jerusalem be a new town, and then began the flurry of possibilities, and lo and behold... this was written...) apologies to peoples religious sentiments but this was an opportunity i couldn't pass.

if jesus got a second chance, what would he have done?
would he still be the saviour of men, or would he just watch the fun?

if jesus was an architect would jerusalem be a new town?
would it be a functional city or would it be new babylon?
would it have a church at the center, or a huge open land?
would the city have guards at its gates, or kids at lemonade stands?

if he was a web designer would the bible be in flash?
would the bible be searchable, and cross indexed
or would it be a pdf, with bold images and sans-serif text.
would he use web safe fonts, or would they just be friendly?

if jesus was a photographer, what would he do then?
how would he respond to the call of children and of men?
would he hold an exhibition of sad, hungry faces and say dont?
or would he photograph a smiling kid and show?

if the son of god was a movie maker, would he be any good?
would he make schindlers lists and pray they all understood.
or would he make mindless comedies, so all could laugh and play
forget their worries, make someone smile, even if just for a day.

if jesus was an investment banker, would we be in a crisis?
would we still have credit cards and absurd war taxes?
would we have to have a savings plan, or would that become obsolete?
would we still be working for money, and warming a worthless seat?

if jesus was to be born again, would anyone really care?
would anyone listen to him, or would they throw a disapproving stare?
would he have to be an expert to say the things he had to say?
or could he just start a blog and there would be bloggers who would stay?

but if jesus really had a choice, would he be born again?
would he want to step in this world of lies and deceit, or would he step off the plane?
would he much rather not get in this dimension altogether,
and just send us friendly spam through emails?

verse inverse!

2009-03-11T03:03:00.003+05:30

maybe definite

if all almosts became certain
what happens to all the mystery
what would become of the possibilities
would they tell us where to go
would they show us the only road

what would happen to the limits theory
what if things that tend to zero, become
what if infinity becomes a number
would it make our lives easier

would we still survive
would we still be able to live at peace
would god still exist
would there still be temptations to resist

what if you would know
if there was a reason or a purpose to grow
what if magic just became a scam
and doubtful letters become spam

what if uncertainty became clear
would we still need an expert
would we ever really wonder
would we really need these words?

the list

2009-03-08T15:21:00.003+05:30

things about me a list i made for some other time but had so much fun that i went on and on about it so here is a list of things that people who know me know and the ones who dont will.

1) i was born. not found.

2) i dream. a lot. a looot.

3) i wish to die soon, but with no intentions of killing myself.

4) i love things more than people.

5) i have a secret wish to suffer from a really rare disease.

6) i can go without food for 5 days. but haven't gone without a computer since 1996.

7) i need people around me. and i hate that.

8) i know my sister is a better person than me.

9) i love escalators. when i build my own house, thats the first thing that i put in it.

10) i need the movies. i cant live without them.

11) i am a comic book fan.

12) i am like superman. i need the sun. i am like batman. i live in the dark. i am like both. i try to hide my true nature. i am like neither; my underpants are on the inside. generally.

13) i suffer from a perpetual identity flux.

14) i think an exclamation mark is the most amazing symbol ever invented. i wish i had had something to do with it.

15) i am a closet realist narcissist. i know the world revolves around me. i just dont boast about it.

16) sweet is my favorite taste. i can have deserts for all three meals. a wise man once said. life is uncertain.. eat desert first. i live by that rule.

17) i have the answer to all problems in the world. i just dont have all the questions.

18) my left foot is a size and more bigger than my right foot.

18)i hate shoes. i love buying them.

20) i have to pack my things thrice over when i go travelling. i am a packing perfectionist. i can fit the world in a suitcase given the right time and conditions.

21) i always over prepare for trips, but forget one important thing, always.

22) i am bad with money. and everything else that needs to be saved.

23) i see awkward questions and have an urge to ask them. how ever inappropriate, i just have to.

24) i hate people that love the news. if you think it makes you smart to know, sucks to be you!

25) i am the most uninformed person i know. but i am a trivia buff.

26) i am orderophoebic. i am afraid of ordering food at restaurants. i get nervous while deciding what to order because i think that that will be the one dish in the whole menu that the chef will screw up and i would never step into that place again. i always ask someone else to order for me. that way, if its bad, its their fault.

27) i have to have the largest tub of soft drink at the movies. how ever large. (1.5L was the largest at last count. thank you sonycenter berlin.)

28) i swear. a lot.

29) i am a chocolate addict.

30) i am a coke addict. but regular coke. i am leading a campaign against diet coke. i think principally nothing that is sweet has a right to be sugar free. plastic sweetners are just rude!

31) i have a speech ready for both the oscars and the nobel prize. i have been working on these for the last 25 years.

32) i like children. just dont like what they grow into.

33) i am at peace in filth. cleanliness is next to sickness.

34) i believe in lucky underwear.

35) i am chromophoebic. i am afraid of wearing colors.

36) i am a reluctant freeloader. i want everything for free. but i feel guilty for it afterwards.

37) i am the laziest person alive.

38) i love postit notes. all sizes and shapes.

39) deadpool is my favorite superhero.

40) i love making these lists.

41) pheew! i am done

wishlist for a good internet existance

2008-06-24T00:23:00.000+05:30

less:
articles on ill effects of coffee.
diets plans
diseases and their pictorial representations.
political propaganda.
free advise

more:
remedies
networks
faqs.
free porn
entertainment
ideas
personal goals
support.

tagged!

2008-04-13T19:46:00.005+05:30

/riya brought this upon me... a looooooong time ago.. adn i finally got to writing it...!
some day i shall remember to thank her for this. :)

life ten years ago:
Odd, awkward, aimless.
i wasnt born that way, they made me like that, full of dreams void of directions. another cog in the wheel destined to become a spanner in the works. one way or another. fresh out of high school, I dreamt of becoming a research scientist, which got lost somewhere in the transition between the child and adult. the glorious future replaced by the multi flavored present. the rude shock that i am now at the crossroads that would lead to i-know-not-where. into architecture by chance, not sure if belonged. they were weird times.
music: the birth of the metal junkie. introduced to it by an acquaintance trying to showoff

Life five years ago:
angry, smitten, determined.
it wasn't over night but it was somewhere now. from the reluctant entrant into the world of architecture and design, i fell in love with it. no longer a design virgin i was hooked like an addict. my friends took up alcohol i took to fantasy for kicks. angry at the system for keeping me in the dar about the wonders that design brings. angry that i didn't know then what i know now. determined that i would better what they ruined. make up for lost time. load up on junk and get the show on the road.
music: deep into nu rock. heavy metal, death metal and all things that sounded rebellious, introductions were made with classic rock too... U2, rush, lynnard, DT were made...

Life tomorrow
certainly uncertain.
music: metal still rules, right besides, house, electronic and classic rock...
Five locations I would run away to
i dont think places are special. its what we make them with the things that we do that make them special.
my top 5 hideouts:
my imagination, alone, with characters, and the things they do.
a road trip to nowhere, dirt sweat, caked mud on a throbbing head has its own charm. this i would do alone, no baggage, emotional physical or otherwise,
a movie theatre, the matrix trilogy, kshitij, dey and a lot of coke.. not snorts, liquid, not diet, the stuff that real men drink!!
the beach at pondycheri, friends, food and fights....
bangalore, friends, food and ram to take shots at! (sorry ram but u are the best part!)

5 bad habits:
y top five, i leave that to you...
this is what came out of an exercise on a very long and cramped plane journey...
(axe, elle and the short lady!... you know who u are!)
fear of responsibilities
confused
short attention span
push over
aimless
talks crap
lazy
indifference to attire
no tact
spendthrift
inconsistent
emotional
afraid of women? (i dont know what made them say this.)
restless
no sense of belonging (root less) (drifting)
spells horrid!
disinterested
non prioritizing
childish
immature

Five things I will never wear:
under normal circumstances:
deep purple/red/yellow
head gear made out of another animals head.
a suit
the emperors new clothes.
a shirt that says britney rules!

Five biggest joys at the moment
ravioli in walnut and cream sauce.
the macbook 13" black.
motorbike and an open road
good movies
new music

Something to achieve by next year
c l a r i t y! would give anything for it!... absolutely anything. just show me what it is that i want. a definite answer to anything. but ya otherwise, a new bike, a longer ride, a faster run, a smoother road, a cleaner beach, and someone to understand why! if not ride along :) and a million bucks... any currency.

Something that impacted me last year
18th march 2008, the maiden concert and everything that happened around it!, (you know who you are)
What I will miss about 2007
everything and nothing. it changed my life in more ways that i know and more ways than i would like to... its was the best and the worst year of my life, this phoenix burnt brilliant in 2007 !

Five things I want to do before I die
World domination.. and wont take no for an answer.
waken festival
road trip on a bike that i hand built across all 5 continents
skinny dipping in the Antarctic.
and stop a speeding bullet... just once!

and now to inflict this on to the next breed of suffering bloggers... I would like to introduce ... Sam , sister and r3fluxx, may you feel what i felt while writing this post. :)

cheers!

zero knowledge society.

2008-03-06T12:59:00.004+05:30

there was a time before time... when all was in the dark, no one could see anything, they were dark times, and then god said.. let there be light, He willed it, and it was done, and the world changed for ever!.... awww shoot!

we started to see things, observe them, understand them, analyze, rationalize assess them against other rationalized theories, practices, experiences... we started seeing things for what they were, potentially and actively, and found them to be very threatening. because logically it was concluded that people go bad. so every thing people do, can do, will do, must do, will be done bad. faith in everyone was lost in the fear that knowledge created. people somehow extrapolated their bad experiences, mapped them over real life scenarios and
this made people unhappy... very unhappy...! they now knew that u cant exchange metals for food.. will work for food became outdated, they wanted to work for more, shiney little pieces of metal seemed like a nice thing to work for, you collect them and then exchange them for food, shelter clothing, and better food, bigger shelters and more clothing and so on... this too wouldnt satisfy us.. we wanted more, we knew we wanted more, and we knew we wanted to know more... and so we fought, we travelled, invented, discovered, shed more light on the world, got more and more unhappy, the closer and smaller the world got the more unhappy we became... and there in came about Angelina Jolie's personalized lower belly tattoo "Quod me nutrit me destruit" or for the latin-ically challenged "what nourishes me, also destroys me". the knowing has undone our faith and trust in everything, and we have to rationalize everything, we have to necessarily do a worst case scenario simulation before we get into anything, we have become more cautioned, more surefooted and lost our ability to adventure, to try out new less done things, knowledge has its price and sometimes times its just not worth it.We started decaying the minute we were born, and there is no such things as immortality, the only question is can we go back?...

now imagine if it were possible, we could go back to not knowing, if it were possible that we formed a society in the middle of nowhere, connected to nothing but those around us, no information super-ways, no internet, no vast libraries chronicling our rights and wrongs, just us, no wise men of the village, no rules forbidding, just our morals, and respect for each mans private space, you trust everyone and they trust you back. and all progressing with the same pace, progress not because of resource availability, but because of shared and collaborative enterprise. and it is all beautiful... now imagine this same society in present day, we force feeding trust in our system, us looking for means for peaceful coexistence, no them vs us, just plain we. take the whole web 2.0 movement and make it earth 2.0 and start open-sourcing our lives, you use my knowledge in exchange for yours, back to barter living. no economics, just a collaboratively grown knowledge society, the power that knowledge brought would now percolate right to the bottom, forming a corruption free society with pure progress,we move forth only when we move together.... the individual as significant as the community and no one left behind. pure utopia. non corrupting power, zero singular knowledge, absolute trust. pure bliss...
in the valley of the one eyed, the blind men shall rule! The end...or the beginning...:)

plagiarism has a new address!

2007-12-22T11:18:00.000+05:30

this is how this letter would have been drafted had it come from my college,

to whosoever who reads this blog,

I 'karthik natarajan' of karthik[no-dot-here!]natarajan[dot]blogspot[[dot]com have started another blog called 'INSpyred'.

the contents of this blog are semi-coherent messages of other ramblers put out there in the universe!...
this is my tribute to the greats words said by great minds that inspired me to jump from great heights and has more often than not put me into great trouble, this is me spreading their, message, cheer and inspiration to the world,

thanks and best regards,

the squintessential human!

if i were to write it:

yo!, new blog! read!

;D

wish i has said it this well...

2007-12-13T11:19:00.000+05:30

from the worlds of the great Stefan Sagmeister
one of the greatest designers of our times..

What I like about my job - Stefan Sagmeister
Thinking about ideas and content freely - with the deadline far away.
Working without interruption on a single project.
Using a wide variety of tools and techniques.
Travelling to new places.
Working on projects that matter to me.
Having things come back from the printer done well.

All the things I've learned in my life so far - Stefan Sagmeister
Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organising a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Travelling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
Having guts always works out for me.

road rage!

2007-11-09T18:24:00.000+05:30

Owing to the traffic and the time it takes me to get from one place to another it helps to occupy your head with crap. some play music, some talk on the phone while driving, some sing, some get pissed some play race
this is my method.i image the ride to be a videogame that i am playing. its a multiplayer/strategy/roleplaying/fantsy meets reality kinda game...
you need to get wherever to save the girl. you have monsters on the road, looking to piss you off, and some times they win and u go home all angry, or you win and u go home less angry after a well deserved victory.
if i was to write a synopses this would be it:

this is how it goes. you have a vehicle and a destination. and you have to be there in a stipulated time. the scenarios change every time you log on. its on your way to office, to a friends house, a simple cruise through the city. could be anything. you come across these obstacles on the road. they again could be anything.. creatures, monsters, zombies, immobile obstacles and a huge array of them. i try to quantify them below.

1. the zombies:
like the name suggests, they are barely there, flesh and bones but totally indifferent to the moving vehicles. they walk/hop/skip/jump/corss and have a very ingenious bag of unpredictable tricks that you have to be weary of. low carnage capacity.

2. the werewolves:
these have similar vehicles like you do. dead in the head, but they just have to get to some place in a hurry, no finesse, appalling riders, really awkward but still in a hurry. mostly found in vehicles at-least one class above its handling capacity high carnage possibilities.

3. the vampires:
purebreeeds. these are the most polished of the villains, smooth riders, clean turns, great control over their own vehicles, cold, oblivious of the damage caused and always ready to move in for the kill. they instigate rage on the streets and finally draw blood. always on the lookout, waiting in dark alleys, with cold eyes and warm engines the scariest in congestion. no regard for anyone around, the more the annoy the stronger they get. very high carnage possibilities.

4. the were-zombies:
these are zombies converted to werewolves. high on damage, low on speed, accuracy, always leave a mess, they are the bulk of the moving mass, they slow you down, cause delay and involuntarily make it easier for the other engined creatures to move in for the kill. damage possiblilty high.

5. the shapeshifters.
these are the worst of the lot. the most unpredictable, the hardest to beat. they ac as all the above as and when they desire and think they are the best of the lot. when actually the only damage they cause is to themselves. always cocky, always trying to pull a fast one and almost never make it.

6. the hyenas:
these are the noisy nuisance. they sit on the sidelines. hunt generally in packs, one mistake and u hit a zombie, vampire, werewolf, a shape-shifter and you are done for it. the hound you, hunt you down and eat you alive with babble. the scariest on the streets are these who actually never are on it. yes.. but they also get mobile every so often and become shape-shifters themselves.

7. the cattle:
they are pseudo zombies, move in packs, not awkward, hyper comfortable and aloof of their surroundings. no regard for safely of their own or the others not in their pack, would very comfortably stop in the middle of a road to graze in on a juicy piece of gossip. also found vehicle borne, again in packs but the simgular ones are deadly .. they would most definitely have a mobile phone to their ear and a hand off the controls! beware!

8. the traps:
these are the worst. these come through some time warp thing. today its a good road, tomorrow it will be a gaping hole! you wont know what hit you, you have no one to blame, no one to scold, just a few cattle around who wont bother and a few hyenas who bother too much!

its the game of life people .. play responsibly!

if i were to sell this as a real life game,, would u buy it?
:)

phoenix rising.

2007-10-26T20:43:00.000+05:30

design is evolving. we may not totally approve of what it is evolving into but it is evolving... i was going down university road.(for those in pune know what i am talking about and those outside just read on....) there is a series of fly overs that help you 'fly' for about 6 odd kilometers without a single traffic crossing on the way (which earlier took us around 45 minutes to cross on a good day which were far and too few...) so plying down (aimlessly again... :)!!!) this road you see these new urban 'complexes' as we call them when the only thing complex about them is the fact that how did some being.. having the audacity of calling himself intelligent life form allow for these things to be built. they are visually polluting, maniacally loud, monstrous blemishes on an otherwise serene road (or as it used to be..) and the worst part it that as far as their impressions go all they leave in your mind is a bad after taste. i go down that road each and every day and even then all i can remember is red building, bad design, LOUD, .. never the actual building.. or the things that are there inside it, the point of the loud design was attraction towards the function within .. its lost in the sheer volume of the shout! ... form follows function is all lost in the last reincarnation and now it is the loudest wins...! do people consider the mpact that these buildings have on people that pass by it? isnt it time we also considered the impact of visual pollution? glass facades facing the sun shining on a road? neon lit advertisements, attractive signboards, and a whole lot of other commercial proclamations that if they did their job well.. can cause death or at-least serious disfigurations and not to mention the actual intention of these ads - mangling self esteems. [i try my best to deviate from here and i shall continue the advertisement industry's presence and modus operation... those who know already know.. for those who didnt .. coming soon! ] can we build guidelines for these as well? but then it wont remain a democracy.. design guidelines is as oxymoronic as it gets the only way out is that everyone has to realize .. loud isnt necessary clear.. you could be the quietest and still shout it out... purpose driven design is the best way to move forth... but then who am i to tell . i can only show you what i think is the door.. we all have our own doors to find and walk through....!

lessons learnt....

2007-10-26T19:09:00.000+05:30

things only a road trip can teach:

in no specific order than that in my head....

you are insignificant. the world is larger than you thought.

the only person who really needs you is you.

you are replaceable

your problems start only if you stop.

money is no good when it is your spirit or back that needs mending.

the difference between how far your mind will wander and how close will you get physically to that point is how old you really are.

credit cards are useless.

mobile phones are really only so good.

your only true asset is your health.

addictions only slow you down.

the sun burns, the rain is cold. winds can be both.

distance is just a number.

crazy is good.

speed is overrated.

travel is not.

life is what happens to you now.

roads will have obstacles,

good roads end. so do bad ones.

your hair is dead cells. but what holds it there is definitely not.

looks arent important.

looking is.

its not where you are going. it is that you are going that is the real high.

an MP3 player is my best friend and closest companion.

people are friendly. terrain sometimes is not.

the only real pictures are the one you take with your eyes and store in your head.

photographs dont do justice to memories.

company is over rated.

silence is not.

smiling is an action not a reaction.

a clean bike tells no tales.

dirty jeans speaks a thousand words.

bad design awards.

2007-10-18T10:44:00.000+05:30

there is this award conducted every year to commemorate badly designed products. they may be houses, products, packages, services, anythign that has come into existence can contend for this award. its the ignoble of design, or the mock oscars (dont recall what they are called.)

here is my nomination for the awards.
whiskey. 180ml units. tetra pack. who thought of that? logically addressing the given problem. you need a way to transport alcohol. that is cheap to manufacture. easy to transport. easy to store. stackable. attractive to look at as individual units and as multiple unit packs. (a six pack of beer.... ) and the genius came up with a tetrapack! idiot! ever thought of the consequences? ever thought that all u need to get these cartons oodling juice is a blunt object.. thats all.. nothing more.. no bottle openers, no corkscrews.. not that these wont work.. but u dont need them.. a simple pen, a key, a nail, a piece of rock, anything would do...!in a country where we have our fare share of riots and social misbehavior i think the genius should be give the award hands down!

that brings us to the bigger issue t hand,.. how did he arrive upon this solution(????????) what was the process of design? is he some capitalist fruit cake sitting in his office sipping off a vodka and juice when he chances a glance upon the carton of juice kept there and says .. (stoned voice..) u know what we could do.. sell whiskey in tetra packs.. cheap to pack, easy to smuggle into places, easy to transport and safety.. who gives a ****!
Or is it a underpaid designer fresh on design but not on practicality who says .. dude.. labels are so passe.. we need a new way to present our goods.. then he says.. what say to tetra packs.. and the rest of the room says... dude.. that is soooo coool man.. lets drink to this!

i dont know.. and frankly i dont care.. but the conclusion sucks.. on levels beyond reason.. and how is it that it doesnt bother the government that we make fuel to burn that much more accessible! plus the possibility of contamination! the chances of leakage and the possibility of it becoming more readily duplicable by bootleggers.. all this doesnt bother the government who sits in their ivory towers deciding which city to rename next, which industry to target for tax extortion for adding security detail to their fat over fed under intelligent wives!
i am not telling all of them suck.. but if u arent a part of the solution u are definitely a part of the problem.

the phoenix design theory!

2007-10-07T09:09:00.000+05:30

it was sometime yesterday afternoon, while aimlessly cruising through the city... again (does any one see a pattern here?) that it dawned on me. that the more complex we make life the lesser chances of survival we have (similar circumstances similar findings.. read on and you shall see the difference in area of extinction!). the simpler we keep things the better chances it has of being sent into the next generation and the generation after. we make our peace with the fact that life will be complex. but it neednt be, its gotta be simpler. we fight for complexities. we werent satisfied wen we made the wheel we needed the bicycle, then the bike then the car then ships the planes then the jets then the supersonics then space,then mars and then beyond until there is nowhere to go. same with design. we started with simple layouts single color sending out the same feeling as if we were witnessing the event. then came in the complex printing the softwares the paper styles and things went complex. they started mocking reality instead of expressing it. it became more a prowess of the technology than of the intended art. art was no longer a medium of expression it was the expression of the medium. messages lost, purpose redefined. architecture also.. it was no longer about the space. it was about the technology used. it was first the decorative styles, then the metal framework, then titanium claddings, the curves, the shapes, the scale , size, color, everything.. it all became about how you build and not what you built. something incredible happened with it... art turned profitable, we could have people making a living as artists, it isn't a luxury of the privileged few, design is no longer a hobby, it is a profession, as architects, movie makers, graphic artists, painters, fabric designers, we have all moved out of our cocoon and gone on to a more profitable state, now we have design houses, corporate owned studios, a more business structured architectural practices where we can get our work done.. butt! wait a minute..... it just got complicated again!... now it is a business dominated enterprise.. creation over creativity... we design because our client requires design, but we design like the client wants us to design and not what the design needs. we may build/colour/design things in a certain way that is most profitable for the designer, by minimized time and effort spent, you get it right for the client the first time... innovation is difficult, specialization necessary and we lost the essence of design somewhere on the way... but what goes around come around.. and now the times a changing again... now is the age of design becoming profitable again.. but this time is isnt client driven, it is designer driven.. the designer is the king, he dictates the rules, the laws and everything involved. and like Kelly Osbourne's tattoo proudly proclaims ... 'this too shall pass!' and god know into what..! we shall rise from the ashes of the past to be burnt again...

survival of the simplest.

2007-10-07T09:06:00.000+05:30

last week through aimless wanderings through the streets of bangalore... it dawned on me.. we have plotted our own course for extinction. technology isnt helping us live better.. it is only making discomfort more prominent. earlier if you were ill you ignored it, if you went more ill you rested and if you went more sick you died. simple. now if you fall ill you medicate, then operate and then artificially respire. there is no healing only curing. we drank water from pools, ponds and rivers. now there is purified water, distilled mineral water, water purifiers that distill water with UV light and make it 'potable'. the flip side you dont get your dose of bacteria, immunology 101 daily dose of a little miscreant makes you more tolerant to the element. there are now pills that you can take for everything. and we still struggle to cure common cold. have we really made progress. have we really gone beyond where we were. we havent been able to domesticate a single animal since we moved on from caves. we still are struggling with the idea of prolonging life. but nature has escalated. it moved on. it doesn't strike with common cold and malaria any more. we now die of dignified diseases cancer, AIDS, STDs, and then it laughs at us b throwing in an epidemic or two. bird flu, mad cow, dengue, and what have you. then the natural calamities. the tsunami. the volcanoes, the earthquakes and what do we have against them? nothing.. absolutely nothing. we are still the nasty kid trying to take on the gods thinking that just because it can walk it can out run. and nature is the placid adult toying with us and laughing at our naivety. nature isnt the enemy, it is the watchful adult with the ghost stories to keep you in line. and you better stay that way.. cos these ghosts are for real. and they are deadly. live simple. dont toy what you dont understand, try to understand what you dont. live simple and die when you should.. attempts at longitivity is short-lived...!! think about it...!

no sport this is just a game!

2007-10-02T19:33:00.000+05:30

the sport itself has taken a nasty turn here. its hero worship. i know a guy who every week goes to the temple and prays for them with the whole offering and hoopla done. there are others who resign over this game, there are fights, riots, everything a good healthy sport has asa extra baggage this one has, but in confusing measures. but heres the confusion. we hero worship, but not the team, we worship the player. its xyz today, then someday he starts to fray, we worship the next guy and then xyz gets back his thunder by playing better the lights are again on him. its difficult for a fan of the game to look at the team as a whole. then there is the whole patriotic thing you cant cheer for someone else when your country is playing. even if all the players are in through some stupid selectors family connections. yes. the players needn't be good just connected. its odd when you look at sports and you see games being played. dark games, there is politics, like a well rounded soap opera. then there is the match fixing issue. you dont know wether the team you have been praying for, fighting for, resigned your job so that you could watch them play for, may not even be playing for you. they play for the highest bidder, legal or otherwise. have money will play your way. so its rather difficult for a fan of the sport to continue loving the sport because it is not a sport of physical prowess any more. it is the game of the mind.
i set out on trying to understand the origins of the sport from circumstantial evidence. it seems to have originated from england, spread to all british territories and no further. i dont know any other country other than the commonwealth ones to play this game. as far as the origins go it is more of an afternoon leisure activity like golf, or croquet. have some tea, eat a sandwich, play with the men that kinda thing. the only sport not to breed competition but to subdued it. like scrabble it doesn't matter who one. just that you played it. i dont know of any other sport that could have been so un-spoilable. and then they go ahead and spoil it. they made it competitive, they made players stars, and the team a summation of individuals and not the other way around. it goes from a team sport to a single player supported by others in rotation. this was never meant to be as fast paced a game as it has turned into. but then we arent supposed to fly, fight or marry for money...who are we to judge!!!

win it like you own it people!

2007-10-02T19:30:00.000+05:30

we won the worlds first T20 world cup. congrats to the indian cricket team. this post isnt about the win itself. i dont care about the sport, i care even less about the team, and a little lesser than that about the fact that wether they won by chance or choice. i mean u won it .. cool congrats moving on...! that kinda thing.but what i do care is the garbage that they generate that makes it difficult us to break the cliches. the post in on the way they took the winning of the cup. first the pre final match with australia, absolute no respect for the game, team or country, behaving like a bunch of Neanderthals on the field isnt sporting spirit. ok so u get a fine the next day, but the damage is not monetary its the, indians are barbaric on the field thing that bothers me, every time you sledge on the ground there is a bunch of people that could matter making an opinion of that which you represent. my country. patriotism isnt shouting at the top of your voice with a bleeding heart and the country flag. its to act in a way that you belong to civilization. agreed the win was surprising. but the behavior was unforgivable. when you win a game you dont look like you didnt expect to win.. you gotta conduct yourself like you have been winning all your life and you dont know life otherwise. not the way things went down there. we looked like a bunch of oppressed teenagers after their first chat with a female. excited and stupid.

ok lets say we forgive their sins of conduct and appreciate their win even so . we as a nation behaved ridiculously. we ran an entire newspaper edition celebrating their win. we had articles with interviews of the german who sat next to the capt. on his flight back..! why? dont we have anything else happening in this so called great nation of ours? we won a series .. fine move on.. gets some rest, and get to practice in the morning. you interview their parents, wives, children neighbors, the gardner, the watchman.. and how far will this go? dont people in this country have better things to do than read dirt?

ok lets say we forgive the media also for this. i mean they are feeding us garbage cos we ask them for it. but can we forgive ourselves? the same sport, nearly the same team, was dishonorably removed from the world cup not so long ago... and when i say removed,.. we were literally thrown out by the underdogs.... ! the boys come back home heads hanging low and we have a bunch of housewives at the airport wearing full cricket gear standing under the sign that read"wanna play?". now we get them to our country, we give them gifts worth millions, a guy gets 1Cr for hitting 6 sixes in a row... and a porche, and a house in any city of his choice, plus the state govt. showering them with gifts....! how shameless are we? if you win you are everything to us if you lose we tar and feathers you and run you off our property! and this is only true for cricket.. we are a lot more tolerant otherwise.. you win the world championship anywhere else.. ok cool get back home and better yourself... unless you are piping hot and can endorse a cola.. then you are the ruler of the universe..! we have a chess genius in our hands.. and we dont bother, we have a brilliant hockey team.. we dont let the success get to their head, we have athletes running bare foot for lack of sponsorships.. that doesn't matter.. but if we win a cricket series .. hurray! whats so great about this sport? its a test of patience and not stamina. its more about timing than strategy off the field.
i am not saying that dont celebrate them, just that celebrate every victory equally. and please behave! the hockey players, the chess champs, the tennis players, the athletes work as hard as the cricketers. you may be the best at what you do, but thats only how good you are. you are not gods, certainly not mine.

social changes.

2007-09-28T17:55:00.000+05:30

we were exploring the reason for how the success rate of arranged marriages has reduced drastically in comparison to earlier generations. Divorce was a taboo word till very very recent times. incompatibility was never a consideration. the initial system was, everyone lived together no individual egos to play with no personal space. packed like sardines in a can stacked for transport. there was nothing called compatibility. the purpose of marriage was procreation and supporting the larger family. marriages was for progression of the family size. you have 3 daughters and 4 sons, i have 3 daughters lets talk business .. that kinda thing , all match making happened through word of mouth. there were these matchmakers who came later into the picture but even they were only well connected individuals who know people and so as long as the families were compatible it all worked out for everybody. then we exploded as a population, you couldn't have individuals that well connected families became smaller the largest having 3 kids.. individuality bred like crazy.. they still thought an arranged marriage would work if we got them on a common platform and this led to the advent of the matrimony sites. single male in bangalore seeks girl :: single female in delhi seeks male.. bingo! no past no present accounted for .. marry and merry. but the idea is bombing. individuals are literally jump into the sack with no prior knowledge of each other. and then what? the girl has to live with the guys appetite for death metal and he has to put up with her addiction of mush.. and sometimes it could be worse if the girl has a thing for death metal and the guy for mush!!!! i know guys who still cant decide with their girlfriends of 3 years if she's the one, and here we are expecting people to live off the rest o their lives with someone who you barely know for the last month and a half and is putting his best foot forth. kinda difficult to envision success. i think we are making the transition from the society moving from a unit driven individual to a individual as a unit.

looking ahead in the rearview mirror

2007-09-28T17:52:00.000+05:30

as an architect we studied stone buildings and how they were actually mocking wood structures. Then i thought that how is it that we ran out of ideas then to actually not develop details in stone indigenously and ape age old systems of buildings. but then we were silenced by the whole what will be has always been and how it is actually the same principle that construction follows and hence the similarity in design and detailing. plus there is a similarity in the structural behavior of stone and wood. but then hundreds of years later we started to mock stone buildings. and we got good at it. we aped the aped better than ever before. we made cement look like stone , slurry look like marble. we have even got to a point of making one type of stone look like another, cement look like wood, plastic look like glass concrete to look like wood. its like somehow we hate the original nature of things and are always looking to change them to ape something else entirely. Most that i have talked to have called it progress and how they are trying to better present materials to relive the glory of the items of the past. its not only true for architectural design. its also true for vehicles. you hear of people spending millions on old school bikes with new age electronically triggered engines.people customizing their new bentleys with old school suicide doors. our parliamentary buildings ape the traditional designs of years bygone. we have a hard time getting to the point of moving on and when we do we have already moved to a newer past that we are nostalgic about. this is the nature of man as i see it and this to me is the essence of all design. louis khan was right "what will be has always been" it doesn't meant that we have invented all that was worth inventing. it means that we always will look back and the the future to somehow be a commemorative of the future. we made alarm clocks to praise the lord. we made lamps of LEDs to make them look like oil burning ones. we make digital microphones to look like old school microphones. we have telephones to look like old time instruments. there has to be something that makes us want to live in the past all the time. and we get good at it. our stone work is impeccable, we have mastered moulded plastics, concrete as a fluid material, metal also contributes to our fascination with the past. but is this how deign progresses? retro for the future?

questions for life!

2007-09-26T10:36:00.000+05:30

1. would it help if the money we spend on videos to make poverty history was spent on making poverty history...?

2. is it discomforting that sham.poo means a shit scam?

3. why is it that when you sit down to write that questions that bother you so much nothing comes to your mind?

4. still to come!

y r v the way v r?

2007-09-17T15:53:00.000+05:30

how is it that one city in a country is more intimate and less connected and another one less than a couple of hundred miles away seems less intimate and more connected. how is it that certain cities appear really distant and impersonal at a level have well established networks that make communication and information exchange easy. where as certain cities are very intimate in their scale and structure but very disconnected in existence? is it something to with the people who live there? or the development of the city from its past to now.....
lets map the growth of these cities. bangalore came up in the last 10 years or less from a sleepy small town to this monstrous urban sprawl with an unprecedented growth rate. a major chunk of the cities population is immigrant worker in the service and IT and most of these here are between the age group of 25-40. it is a young city with immense infrastructure at their disposal but with limited land available. the public events are far and few the social instances are limited to a few concerts an performances every month. no public gathering space in the city that is functioning to its desired capacity. even nature is against it. no hills around it no beaches where people could gather around and engage in any sort of community activity. prices are high and opportunities aplenty. but people on person seem disconnected. they move about without even a flick of recognition. boundaries drawn firmly around houses, curfews strict. the sleeps early rises late. i have friends here who have a 8 pm deadline (just to give you a yard stick: back home in pune i would leave home at 10 in the night to meet friends and hang around doing nothing till 2-3 in the morning without hinter and geographically and historically we share similarities with bangalore.)
but everyone here knows everyone. they connect on the internet. they still stay in touch through non-intimate modes of communication. voice/text/electronic any means necessary. they interact, they communicate. you do something on this end of the city and people in the other end of the city know of it. it is transparent beyond my understanding. you start something today, an by the afternoon everyone knows.

chennai has had a more stable growth rate. its still spawned from a capital city before independence, the struggle for independence has left more violent scars on the city, its has a smaller immigrant population in comparison to city one but has a larger industrial growth. education is more of a business here in comparison to the earlier city under question. there are music festivals, the corner teashops the small businesses with the local grocery store selling everything form greens to phone recharges. the coast line is always crowded with people gathering there for food, or fun. the city sleps late and rises early. but news travels slow. for any one to establish them selves as a formidable entity it can take years of work. you could swindle half the town and people wouldn't take notice unless you have gone through a considerable chunk of the population.

why the contrast? what keeps the connection distant. why does new travel faster in one place and in the other it just doesn't move? both cities have seen a boom in the last few years and both have been influenced by the dot come boom and bust. what is it about people that makes them connect and disconnect?
the possible answers are aplenty. literacy, exploration of communication avenues. the number of locals that move to the west, immigrant population, city size, general social structure,
damned if i knew.

we are al meant to die!

2007-09-17T15:08:00.000+05:30

we are all meant to die!
did the dinosaurs not try to avoid extinction?did they also call in the conservation and environmental designer and get their lives reorganised to last a few years longer? if we were meant to preserve ourselves for ever wouldn't nature have given us a way to do so already? the question is all these methods of conservation that we are so fondly advocating are against the natural course of existence...!
we have already started screwing the planet over by increasing the life expectancy of man by a few years. infant mortality rate has also gone down by a considerable amount, we are eliminating more and more diseases each year... you call this progress right? if nature was writing a dictionary.. this would be listed under infestation.according to nature... we gotta eat, gotta sleep and eventually gotta die.. we are screwing with the survival of the fittest theory people! we don't let the old die and we don't stop the new from coming... so we grow and grow, and grow..... until there is no more to grow into!!!! and then we plan to move to the moon, mars, and beyond.. until when?
we are destined to die.. this party is almost over.. pack your bags and leave dorothy cos kansas is going bye bye! the sooner we come to terms with it the better it is for us.. let nature take its own course and we may go further.. we try to alter natures course. and there is justice in this world in a way that we wish there wasn't. solution.. no prayer for the dying, kill the kids and bring your daughter to the slaughter. :) kidding.. i don't know what to do... i only got this far...!

2007-09-15T10:36:00.000+05:30

design studios = multi-cusine restaurants?over the years people considered architect who have in house structural designers and contractors to be the way design to progress.the restaurant case study, vertically divided with a impermeable distinction, multiple chefs cooking their specialty cuisine without borrowing any influences from the others cooking around him. or him the rest dont exist as he has nothing to learn from them or teach them.

design studios=lalapalooza over the last couple of years it as begun to dawn upon us that design has jumped the gun, and has moved on to a larger umbrella of design verticals, architecture depending on artists to add excellence to their work has been happening since the beginning of time and before, but since the nature of design has evolved the form of artistic expressions has also evolved, from murals, sculptures and paintings it has moved on to more complex interactive technology driven artifacts like scrolling screens outside the nasdaq building, or the heat sensitive paint in restaurant lobbies, the printed graphics in lobbies and mediatheques with interactive walls. the lalapalooza theory where artists of various genres come together and collaborate on new material, revisit past works to improve styles, techniques, borrow and exchange influences, deconstruct and rebuild their style of working and with every such fest we come closer to losing the extra baggage that we carry as designers and restart our creative thinking with fresh perspectives and newer influences.

movement versus travel.

2007-09-15T10:34:00.000+05:30

movement versus travel. all my life i have gone down the same roads over and over again to the same places, and yet this time something is different. this time its more personal. its more intimate.is it the mode of transportation or just in my head? it probably was the bike, a new view of the old roads. 15 day of pure travel seeing things for the first time in new light. the roads seemed better. the people friendlier. the police trying to help you with friendly smiles and brotherly concerns. india seemed healthy, with all the super highways, and the development that you find along them. i was impressed. it wasnt at all what i was told it would be. skeptics did their job on my head when i was leaving. the whole oh the highways are unsafe. the village people are unfriendly, cops scary, bandits abundant, and such. and now innumerable rides later i am of reformed faith. i believe it is the cities that have gone to the dogs, its is us who are hostile and unfriendly, the bandits live amongst us, and the roads are just the conduits laced with all the goodness left in the world. the 4500 kilometers of indian highways,the countless people,teach you survival, the importance of living over existence. the true worthlessness of money when it comes to doing what you really want.

2007-04-18T11:39:00.000+05:30

been quiet a while since i wrote!
so here goes nuthin..!
well i have been unemployed for the last 50 days or so.. of whihc i spent the first 10 preparing for the next 20 which i spent as what you could call as the best time of my life ever.. past present future put together...! i went on a 4000Km ride all over the south of india.. still have a lot of gound to cover .. but it will happen..
now i am back... its been 20 days .. the aches, the pain and the nostalgia has worn off. i am now coming to the realisation that life truely is ..
its boring.. its difficuilt.. and man!!!... it is a toughie...
the things you have to do not to get bored to death .. yours or someone elses!!!
this is the system i have deviced!..

1. Take a very complexly lyriced song...and type lyrics...then go online and verify if you got it right...
memorize it.. and then translate it literally to make absolutely no meaning... repeat..

2. Watch a movie... analize the living lights out of it.. twist it turn it drop it off a 20 foot bilding till it means the exact opposite of what it was intended to be...repeat..

3. Read a book... re write it from the twist as though u are writing it for the first time.. question every move.. what if.. why not..
throw ina few surprises of your own.. an then see what yu get out of it.... repeat..

4. write a blog.. repeat...

5. read the blog you just wrote..and finally .. repeat!

if this doesnt get you thro. then god save you...!.. cos i sure cant!

2006-04-03T18:13:00.000+05:30

"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."

i hope we could actually live like this... where like naseeudin shah says in LXG we try not to let the ghosts of the past haunt us.. we just move on march forwad without letting incidents of the past decide our future.. could we ever be so carefree that we just concentrate all our efforts on the future and not worry about what happened or the consequences of our actions.. and that will truely be progress...

2006-02-19T17:16:00.000+05:30

old enough to know whats right and young enough not to choose it!

2006-02-05T18:26:00.000+05:30

"who is big enough to say that since we have come so far we shall go no further...."

2006-02-05T18:21:00.000+05:30

today was one of the few days in my life wen i could actually enjopy the whole day doing what i do best....NUTHIN"! and then you reach aa point in the day when it just becomes impossible to do it anymore and that is when you start getting the feeling of guilt tht u are a worthless piece of **** with **** for brains.... this lasts for @ 5 minutes before you getup clean up and go out to do mor eof nuthing and somehow the guilt vanishes... its doing the same thing tht u did at home somewhere else and yet it feels like u have accomplished something more than ordinary!
....

2006-02-05T18:05:00.000+05:30

IF succes is getting to point where you want to kill yourself and you dont .. then i am close to failure....

well life has come to a point where we really have to fight to stay sane cos things arent looking so bright.. i mean workwise when all tht u do turns to shit and all the things tht u want to do are being done in front of u but not by u!!!

just to make a point ....lets keep a days journal and see what we have accomplished today...

well 7:00 am. woke up and started watching tv....

11:00 am. still on tv no shit.. no shower .. no shave... nuthing still existing in the same place at the same bed in the same clothes....

12:00 noon.... showered shaved shat.... still on tv though....

1:00 pm. left for work.. the fact tht i have nuthing to do at office and tht there will be nuthign to do there strangely doesnt bother me one bit!

6:00 pm. still here at office... getting so bored tht i write into my blog!!....