Thoughts of a project manager/husband/father/nature lover/ traveler
Took this picture of moon yesterday with 250 mm lens. Obviously it didn’t turn out half as good as I expected. Probably need to get a 400 mm lens or higher to get a really good picture. To account for distortion, I increased the shutter speed to 1/400 and ISO to 800
I clicked this picture at Panchvati in Nasik. There is a small Shiva temple near Ramkund and it is easy to miss it. Shiva transcends all duality, one image to express this is the ardhanarishvara (“the Lord who is half woman”) As you can see, one half has male features and attributes, and the other half female (thus showing how Shiva transcends one of the most basic divisions among human beings, that of sex).
The other day I was returning from my MBA classes and completely forgot to punch in my train coupons. Normally I stand in the ticket line on the platform and buy a return ticket, but on this particular weekend I was running late and didn’t want to wait in a line to get the tickets. So I decided to take the train coupons and punch them in. The problem with the train coupons is that you need to punch them in every time you need to travel. So I reached the railway station and used the coupons to travel, but while returning completely forgot all about it. So I traveled in the train, got down at my stop and walked out without ever realizing that I had not purchased the tickets. I only realized the same when I had almost reached home.
I remember, during my college days in India, when I was once caught traveling ticket less in a 1st class compartment. Like yesterday, it was entirely accidental. During my college days, we used to get special discounts for students for the monthly/ quarterly railway pass, which was basically 1/3rd of the original price. I used to travel by 1st class because the crowd was comparatively “better”, the seats were cushioned and it was comparatively cheaper. I had taken a quarterly pass and used to travel on a daily basis. I thought my pass was expiring on a certain date and was traveling keeping in mind that date. However, my railway pass had expired a couple of days earlier and I wasn’t aware about it all. Like usual I was traveling in the train with an expired railway pass and a ticket checker came along to check the ticket. I handed him my expired railway pass and didn’t even look at him considering all was fine. So he asked, “do you have any new pass along with this?” I replied “No”. He told me “This pass is expired and you need to pay the fine.” I was like “Oh oh are you sure?” He said “Yes. Here take a look.” I looked at the pass and saw the pass has indeed expired. So I check my wallet to see how much money I had and there wasn’t much. As a student, I didn’t really have a lot of pocket money and fine for traveling ticket less in a first class compartment is usually very high. The ticket checker told me the fine that I needed to pay and I told him I didn’t have enough money to pay the same. He asked me to get off at the next station and then have the discussion outside. I was like ok.. So the train stops at the next station and me, my friend and the ticket checker get off. I told him I have Rs. Xx and he should just take that money and let me go. He then said that’s not possible and I need to somehow pay the fine. I checked with my friend if he had some extra money and he said he didn’t have enough to pay off the whole fine. I asked the ticket checker to let us go with whatever little money we had. After some amount of haggling, we agreed on the fine and which I was able to pay and was finally let off. Since that time onwards, I normally take a ticket while traveling, to avoid such an experience.
Decided to take this picture inspired by a post seen on Reddit some time back. Placed a green marble on the flash of the phone. I am thinking may be a more colorful marble would have given a different result.
Around a couple of months ago, I upgraded my phone and laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and around the same time I changed my Vodafone 3G internet plan from unlimited to 2 GB. The two events occurred around the same time. Before the upgrade and change in the data plan, I was able to use internet sharing on my phone without any issues. However since the upgrade/ change in data plan, I am not able to connect to the internet. I am able to connect to the network, but when I open the browser, the net does not work. I didn’t pay attention to this problem since I always carry a 3G data dongle with me. But today, I had a presentation to make for my MBA classes and forgot to carry the data dongle with me. I really needed the internet connection to work. So I tried connecting through the phone and as usual it didn’t work. I called up the Vodafone call center, assuming that it could be a problem at their end as earlier internet sharing on the phone was working fine. After being repeatedly kept on hold, the customer service executive informed me that since I have a windows phone and windows machine, internet sharing would not work. I was extremely surprised at this answer and told her that everything was working fine earlier and only recently since the change in data plans, things aren’t working. She told me that there is nothing that they could do over the phone for this and it was a known issue and I could try my luck at the nearest Vodafone store. Not satisfied with the answer, I decided to connect through a Windows 7 laptop. The same issue occurred – I was able to connect to the network, but not able to use the internet. So it leads me to believe that this is a Windows 8.1 issue.
I am now trying to search through the issue on the internet to see if this problem exists and what is the resolution. I am also going to go to local Vodafone store to check the issue. Hopefully should be able to identify a resolution to this problem.
Took this picture of a quiet street late in the night. There is something about riding the bike on the quiet empty roads, in the winter chill which can never be met while riding on cold winter mornings.
The Teacher’s day speech from the movie 3 Idiots has to be the funniest dialogue of all times in a Hindi movie. It cracks me up every time I watch this movie. I remember watching this movie the first time in a theater and the first time I heard this speech I laughed till my stomach hurt. The dialogue delivery along with the facial expressions of the character, Chatur Ramalingam, are just too good. I don’t think anyone could have done it better. Hence I decided to post the transcript of the dialogue, along with the translation below and relive the moment.
Original dialogue:
Adarniya sabhapati mahodaya …atithi vishesh shikshan mantri shri R D
tripati ji ..maanyaniya shikshagan aur mere piyaaare sahpatiyo …aaj
agar I.C.E aasmaan ki bulaaandiyo ko chhu raahaa hai ..to uska
shreya sirrf ek insaan ko jaata hai Shri Veeru sahastra buddhe
..give him a a big hand ..he is a great guy really you are
Peechle buttis saal se inhone nirantar is college mein balatkar pe
balatkar kiye ………umeed hai aagey bee karte rahege ..hami to
aashcharya hota hai ki ek insaan apne jeevan kaal mein itni balatkar
kaisi kar sakta hai …….…inhone kadi tapaasya se aapne aapko is
kaabil bunaya hai ..waqt ka sahi upyog ghante ka purna istemaal koi
inse seeke ..seeke inse seeke ….
aaj hum sab chaatra yaha hai ..kal desh videsh mein fail jayenge
waadaa hai aapse jis desh mein honge waha balatkar karenge I.C.E ka
naam roshan karenge dikha denge sabko jo balatkar Karne ki
shamtaa yaha ke chaatro mein hai wo sansaar ke kisi chaatro mein
nahiii ….No other chaatra No other chaatra
Adarniya mantraji namashkar aapne is sansthaan ko wo chees di jiski
hamein sakht zaroorat thi …Stan ..stan hota sabi ke paas hai ..sab
chupa ke rakte hai ..detaa koi nai …aapne apna stan is balatkari
purush ke haat mein diya hai…ab dekiye yeh kaisa iska upyog karta hai
Is swarn awsar par ek shlok yaad aa rahe hai……uthmam dadddad
padam..Madhyam padam thuchchuk thuchchuk….kanistham thudthudiya
padam..sud sudi pran katakammm !!! aaaha
Translation
Welcome our Chief guest, the Minister of Education. Welcome our respected Mr. Chairman(Dean), and our respected teachers and schoolmates… The reason our school can be so successful is only one person’s contribution, Dr. Viru Sahhastrabuddhe! Give him a big hand… He’s a great guy really… For 32 years, he has been continuously raping (The original word chamatkar means ‘doing wonders’ whereas balatkar means ‘rape’) college students… We believe that he will continue that. It’s so astonishing that a man can rape so many students perfectly in his life! His perseverance must come from his practicing! He devoted every moment to raping! We should learn from him! The students here will soon be all over the world. Wherever we go, we will continue to rape! We will make I.C.E proud ! We will show everyone that our ability to rape is incomparable!
Good evening, Mr. Minister of Education. You gave us one thing that we need most… Breasts (The original word means funds). Everyone has boobs, but they all hide it… No one would generously give them to others! But you gave your boobs to this rapist… Now you’ll see how he uses of it!
(Verse) A loud fart is respectable… A medium fart is tolerable… A slight fart is fearful… A silent fart is unbearable…!
Been listening to this song form the movie since last night and I feel it is one of the best songs/ ghazals out there. It has been sung beautifully by Rekha Bharadwaj.
England suffered yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia in the 2nd Ashes test. Simply don’t understand what’s wrong with this team. Most of the articles that I have read online suggests that the team is fatigued, however, not sure how fatigue only applies to the English players, especially when you are winning. This Australian team has bounced back very well under the new coach, especially after their performances over the last couple of years. While they are nowhere near the Aussies of the old, they appear to be winning by bullying the English players by bowling short and into the body. Such tactics always used to work on teams from sub-continent, however, I am surprised that it has worked against the English players who I believe are used to playing on similar wickets. IMHO, the England team is paying just too much attention to one person and one type of bowling i.e. Mitchell Johnson and short pitch bowling. They need to get over it and stop trying to prove that they can play the pull shot. I think they need to check the video of the match where Sachin Tendulkar where he made 248 not out and the entire innings didn’t include any off drives – because Sachin decided to stop playing that shot altogether as he used to get out playing the shot. Similarly the English batsmen need to curb this habit of jumping around the crease like rabbits and trying to pull every short ball, else they are just going to perish.
The 3rd test is going to be played in Perth and while most people have written England off, I am hoping that they provide a fight. They just need to go back a few years and draw inspiration from team India beat Australia on the same ground after an eventful Sydney test. Lets see how the match turns out. I am hoping to see some amazing fast bowling from Mitchell Johnson and hopefully brilliant batting from KP, else it is good bye Ashes for England.
My thoughts...My story 