Sunday, January 15, 2006

Love Across the Salt Desert

"Love Across the Salt Desert" was the Title of one of the best stories in our Standard XII syllabus English text book. I am quite thankful to the NCERT (National Council for Education ? ?) for compiling lovely short stories and for introducing us to great authors like Oscar Wilde, RK Narayan, Khushwanth Singh, Rudyard Kipling etc.
This particular story I am talking about is set in an Indian village at the borders of India and Pakistan in the Salty Deserts of the Rann of the Kutch (somewhere in Gujarat or Rajasthan). The village is totally parched and dry and it has not rained there for years together. Many villagers earn their livelihood by smuggling goods across the border braving the BSF(Border Security Force) , Pakistan Army and bringing back goods from Pakistan as exchange. Our hero and his father too smuggle stuff into Pakistan and bring back spices from a Pakistan Village.
On one such visit The Hero meets the Spice Seller's daughter. "Eyes Meet, Love at First Sight" - Kannum Kannum Nokia - The Eyes do all the talking and it is understood that the Hero will come, "aur Dulhania Le Jayega". The Hero returns home with his father then informs his mother of his love and that he will be going to bring home his bride. As do standard Indian Movie mothers she wants her son to be happy, but his concerned of his safety and finally she courageously sends off her son with some food and jewels. Our hero braves the border forces in style and reaches the Pakistani village. The Spice Seller is hesitant but he sees the love in their eyes and does not stand in between their love. The Hero brings his lover in style, back to his village and it rains for the First Time after long long years. The village hails the girl as the saviour, and All is Well That Ends Well!!
Subham
(:) was watching Veer Zara for a while yesterday and thatz what prompted to write this entry.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Enlightening talk

I had been to Swami Swaroopananda's (Chinmaya Mission) talk on "The Art of Medidation - and The Power of Gayathri Mantra" . I should say it was really a enlightening talk. Though some concepts that he covered were OHT (Over Head Transmission) most of the contents of his talk were very practical and relevant to day to day life. After my upanayanam I was religiously doing the "Sandhyavandhana" [which I have currently discontinued ;) ] but now after attending this lecture I really feel that I have not done justice to it, even while doing it. One lesson that I have learnt is : just uttering prayers etc. and repeating shlokas are good but only to serve the purpose of chaneling the wavering mind and streamlining our thoughts so that we can concentrate on particular thing. The true power of meditation is to achieve greater mind control. I just tried a simple test, I counted how many different thoughts that crossed my mind in just 10 secs : I counted about 8 + 1 counting process = 9, that makes 9/10 = ~ 1 thought process per second. In Computer Science a well established fact is that "Context Switching is Expensive". Thus I have come to realise that I lose so much time in unnecessary context switching overheads. If I can tune my mind to concentrate on a particular thought without distraction for longer periods of time then I could be much more productive and efficient.





Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year!!!!




Wish you all a very Happy New Year!!
Fireworks At Sentosa (Siloso Beach) 12.00 A.M 1st January 2006



Books in the Last Month:
One Night at a Call Center (Chetan Bhagat) : A decent read and could associate with all the places in Gurgaon and brought back nostalgic memories of my shorts visits to Gurgaon while at Pilani.

Movies in the Last Month: (Rated according to my liking)
1. Parineeta: Awesome movie - Story was great, songs were great, Vidya Balan Roxxx.
Dil Ki Jo Baatein Hain
Baatein Jo Dil Ki Hain
Dil hi Mein Rakhna Piyaan
AAnkon Ne Sab Key Diyaa!!
Piyu Bole Piyaa Bole Kya Yeh Bole Janoona :)

2. Kanda Naal Mudhal : A different kind of Tamil movie, Re-recording by Yuvan was enjoyable.
3. Paheli : Shah Rukh + Rani Mukherjee starrer - Liked the Folk Story concept and the authentic Rajasthani background captured in the movie.