random wierdness

have you ever looked at a coconut tree sitting or sleeping right under it, or around there somewhere? .. i was, and i was imagining that in a situation if trees were to come alive and move around, the coconut tree would be like the huge alien machine in the movie, "War of the Worlds." it would take tall steps and fire coconuts at people, like the alien machine (which by the way fired deadly lasers in the movie). i counted 6 coconut trees from where i was sitting, if the war started, i would be a slight outnumbered. though there is the problem of each tree just one feet.. hm.. perhaps they would hop around. a tall one legged hopping coconut throwing army
..and so my creative juices flowed.. :) boredom can do some wonderful things to your mind.

false impressions..really

A couple of weeks back, when i was at home in Eraviperur, i read Jeffrey Archer's False Impressions. it was suprisingly sad. as bad as a bad book can be.. illogical, predictable, long and badly written
Jeffrey Archer is popular right? but then how could be write something this bad, i mean if i just decided to write a book, i would probably end up somewhere on the same level of lousy.. but this guy makes millions off his writing!
this is a book that makes you go out and blog on how bad it is, and here i am :) back to bloggerland

da Camera

yes so i got myself a toy. (it is a very nice and complicated toy...and the more complicated - better the toy)
it is a SLR camera from Canon. the 1000D or the Rebel XS. I got the body and the kit 18-55 IS lens
Canon india has a price of Rs. 29995 for the 1000D with a 18-55 non-IS lens. with a 2 year india warranty and a 2GD sandisk SD card.
the gray piece i got has a price of Rs. 25,000 for the Rebel XS (US sold) with a 18-55 IS lens. no India warranty, no SD card.
got a decent bag for 900 and a 2GB Sandisk for 350.
no warranty so i hope it comes up with no manufacturing defects... or any other defect for that matter for the next 100 odd years

the search for the camera started 2 weeks back. the though of buying one started 3 back. the very idea was relatively new as well. even though i am telling everybody hey i always wanted an SLR.
in a sense, i like photography and dabbled with it in my viscom days.. i did some shooting with a film SLR though i came up with atrocious pics then.. a film SLR cant show u the pic till u print it and by that time your scene is long gone.

so Sid in campus had this nice camera so the idea was appealing, then Gaurav got one and it became unfashionable. then Suhasini got one.. and i got to play with it.. man that was interesting indeed
so then again..i wanted an SLR
so read read, read read, ask SID who kept telling me wrong stuff, but good anyways
so read read
and then there were 2 cameras fighting for my money the Nikon d40 and this one
and this won

blog block

it s been too long, blog.. and it feels a little awkward writing again. it s like a person u meet after too long, and you don't know how to react. For instance this schoolmate of mine who came to campus today and called me. You meet someone after 6 odd years and always there s this sense of disappointment. On the phone i guess we felt excitement, and we met and suddenly it was like.. yeah there u are,.. and u know what.. u look and sound like u always did.. did i know you? yeah i guess i did. i must have looked bored after the half hour i was there.. she said..hey u carry on! :)
maybe all meetings are like this, for instance for the past 2 weeks, i was reading up like crazy about the SLR camera i dreamt about buying. i never actually decided to buy it for sure till much later. so reading up was fun. there was this excitement. how would it look, what all new things we would do.. and then i told everybody i wanted to buy one, in a way this was so that i wouldnt chicken out and not buy. so once i went and got that 25k from the ICICI ATM in Aundh and picked up the camera from this small camera shop in Aundh itself after some nasty bargaining and arguing, suddenly it felt like an ending rather than the beginning of a long relation between me and the camera. rather it felt like an ending of the search for my camera. and i lovveed the search..:( now i'l have to fall in love with the camera itself. :)

new heights

Suhasini got placed.. time broadband.. a new media company. with a good profile as business dev mgr..and.......
she s coming to pune...
yestday i trekked up the 800m high sinhagad hill.. :) this week is turning out to be quite something.. :D

there was this Guest Lecture today and the guy who came, the head of a small Austrian firm had a nice point on human nature that i liked.. he said you can categorize people as
1. Input oriented
and 2. Output oriented
these input oriented guys get a lot of air time around us as they tell us how difficult work is, how much work they've put in etc.. andd these output oriented guys actually just talk when they have done some work.
point being, if 2 guys of similar skill etc where to work on a task the input oriented guy is gonna be credited as for the same amt of work, people would have heard him a lot more..
hmm..

christmas cake

i am just back from home, and as always, am a little happy to be. every time i go home, it takes a good few days for me to adjust. the first 3-4 days there i am grumpy; amma brings out the stored love of the last how many ever months, the lack of noise (small town, therefore no traffic or city bustle), the fact that time inevitably slows down, that i always feel full(6 meals a day do that) and to top it all, dad and i are experts at getting on each others nerves.
..a grumpy me complicates life as my parents now wonder why i am grumpy..s they ask probing questions.. and probing questions always makes me grumpy.

i blame small town kerala...
at home there is no internet, no english newspaper (u cant even buy one if u wanted to), there are no 'places' to go, hardly any good restaurants, no friends..u cant even get a decent cigarette..

nevertheless, it is actually good that small town kerala hasn't changed much. life is slow and stable. u could compare life here to roads here - they keep going without sudden turns or intersections, u always have your pot-holes, but no great life threatening ones..
maybe this is why i see a smug complacency about people here. and if u ever ask any of the smug complacent people anything about themselves, you will get a story about some great sadness. so they are smug and complacent about how sad their lives are..!

anyways, perhaps it is because most people and hence everybody else as well are old here..a visit to the church shows a sea of gray. in the part of kerala i live most of the population is christian and a visit to the church (which is the only social acivity arnd here) provides a good sample of the population.

another sad (very sad) thing i notice is that for all the unnikrishnans of the world, women (and girls) in small town kerala are not attractive... they have this smug blank complacent look that is such a turn off. then of course they have bushy hair, hair on their hands, moushtaches,oversupply of moles,terrible sense of style... but i guess these can be cured. but what of the fact that any women over 30 looks more and more like a potatoe.. fat, shapeless and sweaty!
add to this the Kerala christian style of names.. you will find the 'loveley's', 'Moleys' 'shitty's' 'tripsy' 'princy's' and jomols of the world only here.
i guess good malayalees are obliged to suffer the agony of such appalling names.

so a grumpy me in kerala, i look forward to come back.
and this time as motivation to come back.. Suhasini is coming back back, so i can go see her (her placements still remains, that needs to go well).. free time in college is good, i can read and gym, i am planing 2-3 trips, looking forward to some other things as well. as far as trips go.. the plan is like this..
1. a winter trek.. there was some talk of a trek to uttrakhand, a snow covered peak in Himachal.
2. a trip to Rajashtan
3. more interesting than 2.. a roundabout trip.. pune to jhansi..jhansi to lucknow, lucknow to nepal, nepal to gangtok, there to calcutta (sunderbans anyone?) and back
4. march mein a trip to Goa.. ,maybe a large gang of classmates
5. and in between all this small trips to mahabhalleswar, this new beach some poople went to.. (off the radar, great place to smoke up t seems) etc..