Gone Girl,,,

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

stunning concept of the book,,,loved the first 60% book,,,,i think the author lost some grip for the latter part,,,should have been more concrete,,,,looked like the author finished it in a rush,,,

View all my reviews

Andala Rakshasi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Have been longing to see the movie from the moment i saw the trailer of it - so poetic - so beautiful - so romantic - so so so adorable character of Midhuna,,,,

Finally, after watching the movie with fullest involvement and eagerness, trying to catch my thoughts over here. Let me see how far i can,,,,

The movie was definitely a half satisfying meal. Too many awesome items served,,,some greatly cooked, some half cooked, some very badly cooked. Though the list of items were great, the meal finally was not the same.

Story wise:
Really loved the way the two characters LOVE the girl,,,just GREAT,,,,
The concept taken by the director is a brave attempt. I really appreciate him for that. But, would have loved it more in the form of a novel.

Movie wise:
Some of the scenes were little too complex like the one the girl talks to the village ladies.
Gautam's acting was little okay compared to his voice. Some professional dubbing would have done a great difference.
Even surya's character probably was a little bit more for the actor. He cannot express completely.
Midhuna is just awesome. 100% justified the role,,,really really lived in the character.

Many times, the scenes were just jumping in. Especially in first half, the scenes just look like many tapes attached with some missing links. Lesser scenes and more continuity would have been really great.

Some of the scenes would have looked great on the paper, but did not really get the involvement needed on the screen, like the projector scene, the heroine accident and many other scenes,,,

Some of the dialogues were really great,,,

Really loved the music of the movie,,,,,

Overall,,,should really appreciate the attempt, but something was definitely missing.

Pather Panchali(1955) - Satyajit Ray movie

After watching so many gr8, nice, worst movies from different parts of world, I have been thinking to watch some movies made by gr8 path breaking and critically acclaimed indian directors as well. But, for some reason it was always getting delayed for unknown reasons,,,,

Today, after watching the nice "Well done abba" movie from netflix and finding that it was made by THE Shyam Benegal, I was really happily surprised. Because, there was always some feeling in me that, I will get bored watching the movies made by the likes of Satyajit Ray/Shyam Benegal,,etc . This movie anyways proved me wrong.

So, through some googling finally decided to watch the first movie of Satyajit Ray "Pather Panchali". Luckily found a subtitled version of the bengali movie in the youtube itself.

Pather Panchali

I was able to watch the two hour movie without dragging a single minute from it.

It was a great experience to see the India from the year 1955. How much ever you read or see the timeframe recreated in later movies, watching a movie filmed in 1955 was a complete different experience.

The movie is about a 5 member bengali family and their struggle to live. I don't want to write anything about the story and spoil the fun of watching the movie :).

The acting by all the actors was just natural. It felt more like watching their real lives rather than someones acting.

I really really liked the way each and every character is created in the movie. Everything just taken from our day to day lives. And, with all these the Director was able to create a gripping movie and make me sit for two hours watching  it.

So, I would surely try to watch more movies from such great Indian directors. 

First long drive,,,,

After becoming An Officially Licensed Driver, I finally decided to go on a much waited long drive in my car to explore The Lone Star State,  Texas (And, yes I bought a car in March and got a driving license on May 23rd, 2012 :)). 

Apart from driving and freedom, the other most important thing i have been enjoying the maximum in the car is music. After coming out of the college hostel in 2005, the only place where I am really enjoying the LOUD LOUD LOUD music is in the car while driving alone,,,its really such an awesome fun listening to all the songs we like in the way we like :),,,and luckily the car i bought has got some nice speakers. My apartment being very near to the office, so many times I just drive further and come back just to continue and finish listening to those songs :)

Then, felt to just go alone on this drive as I was not interested in planning this trip much and wanted to just go on the flow :) 

Destination point decided as "San Antonio" as it was around 200 miles: not too long and not too short :).

Started from Houston, TX on Saturday(May 26th) morning 7:00 AM. All the roads were empty and the Houston I saw with those early sun rays was much better. Getting on to the I-10 was easier due to the recent repeated trips to Bollywood 6 theatres :)

Drove for around 60 miles listening to some 15 mass-masala/classic telugu songs and took an exit from I-10 to some town called Sealy, TX. 

Thought of having some coffee and breakfast there. The roads were smaller, simpler and older. It was nice driving there. And, the place was having older model street lights like the ones we have in India :).

With just some 10 mins of driving, reached the downtown of the place. The downtown area was again a small place but was really awesome. There was a clock tower in the center and a set of all varieties of shops and banks on both sides of the roads. It was just like one of those city centers they show in hundreds of american movies which I was finding in Houston.

Being weekend and just 8'O clock in the morning, none of the shops were open. I just got down and walked around. Anyway, couldn't find any open local cafe to have my breakfast. And, I had already decided not to eat in any of those Franchises which are already available in Houston.

Got back to I-10 and continued driving. After driving for 20 miles, found another exit to a town called Columbus.

Immediately took an exit and entered the town. This also looked like a small place and I was just slowly driving around. Luckily, saw a board called Becky's Cafe. 

It looked like the exact place I was looking for. Even though, it was looking simpler outside, it was quite spacious inside. Looked like run by a group of ladies, it was nicely decorated. There was a small pastry hut in the middle of the place and 

it added to the beauty of the place. 

They were really very friendly. Being a vegetarian, I did not have much of a choice and so ordered scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, Chocolate cream pastry with lots of coffee :). 

Everything tasted really good. May be because of the weekend, lots of families visited the restaurant for their morning breakfasts. Many of the american families, really enjoy their family breakfasts in weekends. I have seen many times. The complete family from grand parents to parents to kids will be present and will have good time. Some kid's simple birthday celebration was also going on in one corner. Had a really long breakfast for some 45 minutes covering some news and gossips from the iphone :)

Started from Columbus at around 10:00 AM and this did not join the I-10. And, instead stayed on US-90 which goes in parallel to I-10 but will have provide better view of surrounding farms and villages than from I-10. 

Even though there was no breathtakingly beautiful scenery around, there were some really nice things I saw:

some huge huge farms-agricultural equipment-old cars just lying around-beautiful isolated small houses in the farms-rugged people driving their trucks with their cowboy hats-lot of cattle roaming around in the fields,,etc. I couldn't stop and take many pictures and being a photographer I am, the ones I took were also pretty awful :)

After driving for around 70 miles, my next stop was at BUC-EEE'S in Luling. 

It is really a great place to stop. Even though there are lots of good things there, they are most famous for their Restrooms :D. Apart from maintaining them very clean, they have a very good old texas cow boy kind of theme they follow which makes them a must place to visit. The whole place is very nicely designed full of old cow boy movie style boards and decorative items. They have amazing collection of food items too.

Had some junk food and nice coffee there and did some shopping too.

It was around 12:30 PM by the time I had started back from Buc-ee's.

Now I was just 60 miles away from San Antonio. So I needed the GPS to guide me into the city. Also, as I had no idea what I was going to do there, did some searching to spend some nice places to spend the afternoon and evening. Found that all of the places are nearby to downtown. Selected some very old Majestic theater as a destination GPS and started to San Antonio.

It was around 1:30 by the time I reached the downtown of San Antonio and found some parking.

It took around SIX and HALF HOURS to travel 200 miles :). I had really enjoyed every moment of the driving and music and all the intermediately stops.

The downtown was old and good. Was able to spend next four hours walking around all those beautiful places and parks around. The must see of San Antonio is the River walk. Its like the city of Venice. We should see the River walk in morning as well as in the night. 

 

Had a nice leisurely Italian lunch at 6:00 PM in a restaurant on River Walk. Spent the evening watching a good music concert(piano competition), which I thought I may not enjoy much. But, I ended up spending three and half hours there. The singers and musicians were really great(At least to my standard :)) and never bored with such a variety of songs. It was also fun. Some new things I saw were:

people requesting the songs and they playing them dynamically-piano competition-the participation from the crowd and enthusiasm they have-continuous auction of space on the mirror there which people can buy and write messages on.

Someone even proposed through that space :)

Finally started back to Houston at around 10:30 PM with a single break only at BUC-EE's for a 24 ounce of coffee :) and reached home by 2:00 PM.

It was fun. Will surely have to plan one more such unplanned trip again :)

Jogging listening to DevaRaagam on Hyd Radio Mirchi,,,,

Coming to the pleasant Matzke park on these late evenings where kids are all playing around and adults walking & jogging, when the sun is about to disperse, running around with the pleasant wind touching you, listening to some of the wonderful devotional songs by the likes of balamurali Krishna and m.s.subbalakshmi gasru on the morning DevaRaagam program of hyderabad Radio Mirchi are really some of those moments when U R AT COMPLETE PEACE :)

Rockstar,,,,,a honest attempt,,,

        

        While ARR and Imtiaz Ali have added one more feather to their cap, Ranbir is the one who just shows what he is really capable of. 

        Imtiaz ali has created such a wonderful character, Ranbir lives through it:

as a simple normal town boy who is dreaming big,,

as a BAD BOY for media,,,the outbursts,,,

as a lover boy having found the true love in one girl,,,

as a true rockstar on stage performing with broken heart and with amazing expressions and body language,,,

the innocence or frank clean water like acting he sometimes does with the music companies or girls parents,,

The acting was just mind blowing,,,

        Hearing the songs separately, i liked them but expected some more from ARR. But, the background score in the movie and the songs with picturization showed his class. He is THE MAN to bring life to such directors movies. Without such quality music, movie will look rubbish,,,

        Imtiaz should be really appreciated for such a honest attempt without any compromises. I guess "if he had stuck to not so complex second half and the complex love story, and made a much simpler Rockstar with rags-to-riches kind of story, there are chances it would have been a massive hit.". But, he did not compromise and just went by the way his characters had taken him,,,he is just an amazing story writer and story teller,,,

Rockstar is surely a must watch movie and going to be a classic as time goes by,,

Wishing to see more such attempts by our film makers,,,

Gone with the wind,,,

 A movie about a lady named Scarlett O'Hara, set in southern states of USA(Atlanta,,etc), during the American Civil War.

It was a 3 hours 50 minutes movie. But, I never got bored except for the 5 longs minutes title and intermission screens with some music :)
You see such an amount of *Passion* in some of the movies that, you can just feel it while watching the movie. 


Scarlett O'Hara:
Seventy to Eighty percent of the screen time would have been occupied by the Film's main character Scarlett. The artist has acted so nicely during all the kind of scenes involving *blushing, flirting, jealous, sobbing, caring, stubborn, hatred, anger, innocence, love to family, love for land, love for a man, love to a friend, selfish, fear, funny, shame, sympathy and may be some more*. I had come up with above words just by recollecting the scenes from the movie without much trouble.
The character is not a great one or wicked one. It's too complex to put in some bucket. At times you hate her for some things and at times, you will love her. And that is how all(atleast most of) human beings can be. You can't just be perfect in eyes of everyone. She gets scared seeing a problem, but immediately recovers and faces it with bravery instead of running away. I just loved her character through out the movie.


Rhett Butler:
A man who knows how to live the life to the fullest. Understands the people deeply. He is *The Problem Solver*. Knows how to handle people n situations. Many at times, he is very selfish, not caring about anything more than himself. But, at time of need surely goes to any extent to help the friends.
He is in deep love for Scarlett knowing from the beginning that she loves some one else. Tries to woo her and ignore her when it does not work. But, finally gives up and marries her.
What ever he does, he gives his 100% fighting for the nation, helping the friends, having FUN(drinks n girls), loving a woman, loving his daughter. We will just feel, that is how we should be :)


Melanie Hamilton:
A perfect humanitarian. A loving wife, caring friend, caring human. 
A very simple n straight character in the movie.


Ashley Wilkes:
Starts off a great character, but doesn't end a great one. Hates war completely but joins it as it was more bad to ignore it. Little confused one in case of *love* [Probably, his confusion is the reason for the whole movie :)]. But still greatly *cares* his wife and by the end looks like completely loves her too,,,


These are the four characters the movie is all about. There are many other things that go on in the movie but all of them around the above four.


The movie is made at leisure. Never you will see any hurry. Also, never you see a scene just for the heck of it.


It feels good to see such movies made or books written with such great love n passion.

96th Day!!!!!!!!!!!

In the Engg. days, I never thought much about coming abroad or anything,,All I was thinking of was a JOB(thinking of a small town boy). Once I joined the rat race in Indian IT Hub "Bangalore" - probably after two years, I seriously started thinking of ONSITE - to earn some quick money. But due to various reasons(lottery rejection, recession, etc etc), it took me so long to fulfill that[my great luck:)].

And now, here I am Santhosh Chikurambotla spending my 96th Day in "United States of America" :)

May be due to that little waiting period, lost most of the curiosity/passion, but still having fun so far.

Been thinking of summarizing many thoughts over here from many days, and somehow, got the mood to write some words.

First thoughts after stepping in US:

Did not feel much difference in the airport except, lot of foreigners around[sorry I am the foreigner by now and they are the locals :)]. Some Pakistani cab driver came to me and took me to the hotel. Watching the city from the Windows was a great different feeling. It was as though I was watching those Hollywood movies from the window screens. After reaching the hotel and talking to receptionist, slowly it was sinking in to my brain.

I came during the end of winter over here. The temperature was around some 5  Degree Centigrade[The lowest my body has been in 28 years :)]. The trees around and whole envi around was awesome. The images r permanently flashed to my memory,,

It was by then more than 24 hours I had been mentally alone except for the fellow passengers. It was getting on my nerves. Luckily, a friend came by within 2 hours of checking in to the hotel. Went out with him for the rest of weekend. That made a huge difference. Saw couple of stores, a mall, couple of restaurants, met his friends and spent great time with them all.

With all that, the whole abroad thing got sunk into my mind.

Earlier experience of working at client locations had helped me. So, at least that part was not new to me except for the new country.

Have a big bunch of Wiproites over here. And all of them very helpful. From then, it was all cool.

Things I love here:

• -          The travel journey to and fro from apartment to office is around 20 minutes. So, suddenly I had around one and half hour more time every day[to waste J]
• -          Everyone has a car, and u always travel in car J
• -          The facilities in the apartments make life very easier(gym, kitchen with refrigerator & stoves, washing and drying machines). So, even though we cook ourselves and wash our clothes, it is not as much a pain as we do in our place.
• -          The variety of food to try. I always like to try new food items. Here there r probably endless varieties to try(Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Ethiopian, pancakes,,,,,). So, it’s a good place for foodies. But definitely can’t try out daily. The stomach graves for a routine of Indian food J. All the above r only once in a while to break the routine,,
• -          Everything is very properly planned over here:
•  The streets, roads, traffic, flyovers, highways, offices, stores.
• -          The Unity In Diversity principle applies even here too. There are just so many different kind of people in this country(Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian subcontinent, some European, middle east and native AMERICANS ). It’s just good to see such a wide variety of people all staying as a community.
• -          These were on the top of my mind. But if I think more, I may add some more. May be later.

Things I don’t like here:

• -          Not great public transportation. We can probably say NO public transportation. So, until you have a car, you are not on your own. Coming from India, with such a great n huge local and intercity public transport, this will tie your legs.
• -          Definitely miss all the friends n family. If by any chance, the Bangalore, Hyderabad n Chennai gang was here, the FUN WOULD HAVE BEEN AT PEAK. But sadly, it is not possible and that’s life. lol!!. So, again realized that, happiness just does not come with money or some other things, u need people to share with J
• -          The mobile devices are cheaper, but the carriers charges are huge. They even charge for incoming calls and even even for incoming messages J
• -          For safety reasons, can’t walk alone outside after sunset. Again, in Bangalore, I was happily walking on the roads at 1:00 AM or 3:00 AM. Never felt feared. So, have to live with it.
• -          That’s all I can think of as of now.

-Cheers
Santhosh

Swades - We the people

                Just now, finished watching the movie Swades, including all the seven deleted scenes available in youtube :). I am not sure how many times i've already seen the movie. 

From the very first time i've seen this movie, I've become a big fan of the movie as well as Ashutosh Gowarikar. He is a marvellous Director who has done some excellent meaningful movies.


Coming to the movie:
    Shahrukh was perfect to the character, an NRI who came to india for his nanny. Not a bit of over acting any where[which he normally does :)]. Perfect in cute little romantic scenes as well as serious scenes crying or preaching the villagers. I would say this is his best performance till date(Sep 1st, 2010).


    Gayatri Joshi is also very natural and apt for the role. She might not've acted greatly in some scenes, but that makes it more natural.[No Human being gives perfect expressions in real life :)] I am really surprised why she couldn't act in many movies[atleast big movies] after that movie. 


    The director was able to properly everything in the movie:

• Romance/Love between the lead pair was shown in  a very cute and decent manner. 
• Emotions were perfectly brought in all the scenes showing various problems/people's sufferings,,etc. Never over the board. This is very difficult to achieve.
• Some simple solutions were shown in a nice way. Lets not debate on the possibilities of those solutions.
• The whole village environment was captured very well.

I feel/think, India needs many such Mohan Bhargavas for it to resolve all it's problems and become a properly developed country.

I will feel really happy/proud when ever I read about such people who fight/bring  change in the society and show solutions to the common/poor people's problems. Recently I've read about Bhagavatula Parameswara Rao, an indian who completed his PhD in US and returned to India in 1967 and since then been helping many people using his Bhagavatula Charitable trust.

More information can be found at http://www.bctindia.net/

Jai Hind

Easiest way to download images from picasa website [Other user accounts]

Hi,

 

Many times, our friends will upload the pics to picasa and send us the links.

 

But, how can we download all of them to our desktop?

Picasa doesn’t provide any such options. And we cannot waste all our time right click on each image and downloading.

 

We can use DownThemAll but with a slight twist.

If you directly use it to download all images, you will only download the thumbnail size images.

To download the actual full size images, open the RSS and use the tool from there.

 

1. Install the DownThemAll extension
2. Go to the picasa album url.
3. Click on the “RSS” on the right side bar and you’ll get album’s feed.
4. Right-click on the page, select DownThemAll/DownThemAll in the contextual menu, expand the Filters section and check "Images". Don't forget to enter the folder where you want to save the photos.

 

Cheers,
Santhosh

 

 

[Some time pass] Observations on Population & Population Density stats :-)

Today, I am getting damn bored in the office and hence wasted time doing R&D on Population and Population Density.

And here is some of the gyan I gained: (Thanks to Wikipedia J )

 

Total world population as of now: ~685 crores

• (2^nd) India’s contribution: 17.26%
• (1^st) China’s contribution: 19.52%
• (3^rd) USA’s contribution: 4.52 %        [See the huge difference from here J]
• (4^th) Indonesia’s contribution: 3.41%
• First 10 countries among the 223 countries in the list contribute to 58.65 % of the population

(China, India, US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia and Japan)

• The 80-20 rule(Pareto principle) applies here also:

• 80% of world’s population live in less than 20% of the world’s countries(33 countries out of 223 countries)

 

 

Population Density:

• Among the top ten populous countries, again India is the second densely populous country after Bangladesh J

• (9^th rank in population density ) Bangladesh: 1126 humans/km2
• (9) Bangladesh: 1126
• (32) India: 360
• (36) Japan: 337
• (58) Pakistan: 211
• (72) Nigeria: 167
• (78) China: 139
• (91) Indonesia: 121
• (178) US: 32
• (192) Brazil: 22
• (221) Russia: 8

 

• This to some extent explains poverty in our countries and wealth in US and Russia,,

 

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

 

Cheers,
Santhosh

 

 

**^H@ppy Sund@y^**

From the past 26+ years, except for the first 3 initial years, i think the ever sweetest thing is SUNDAY. And I am sure, each of you would surely say so. [If u do not think so, better u visit some doctor(not kidding :))].

During different stages of life, I was enjoying them in a variety of ways:

L.K.G to 5th Class: Full of playing inside n outside home.

6th Class to 10th Class: Some games outside, movies with friends and very importantly IDIOT BOX[TV]

+1 and +2(Intermediate two years): BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS[all others r negligible :(]

B.Tech 4 years: Nothing special[same enjoy as other days of week ;)]

Of late, probably after I am little grown up, following three are really helping me in enjoying my Sunday.

Eenadu: 

Like many people in Andhra, my brain has now got completely programmed to such an extent that, reading any news paper other than eenadu, I will not feel like I read a news paper. Hence, first thing I do once I get up is to get this.

Why do I need the news paper?

I will not claim to be a responsible citizen just by reading a news paper. The imp. reason to read it is, probably it provides me what I am interested in(movies, sports, politics, happenings). Easiest way to know about the world u r leaving in is reading the news paper. It tells u about the real-time meanings of all the following words including their counter words. 

Good, bad, ugly, great, faith, bold,  generous, secure, sensitive, responsible, honorable, creative, humility, ignorant, tolerance, determine, loyal, truthful.

Swathi:

Ahhhhh,,,, "I almost enjoy each and every letter printed in Swathi weekly."

I know it's little exaggerating. But it's not completely false. I really love each and everything in swathi: serials, stories, nannu adagandi, kothi kommochchi, ee sheershike meedhe, all the cartoons and drawings from Baapu, editorial by balaram sir, film reviews and news, articles about various things, articles about god, health tips, that, this,, etc and everything.

FULL TIMEPASS. I cannot say this, as I make the time for it and again pass it ;)

Some people think, it is for ladies. But, I am proud to say I am a fan of Swathi. I am not at all ashamed of reading it.

Bru Coffe:

Start the day with a bru coffe. Even though u've it daily, but having it so leasurely on a Sunday morning, is a completely different experience.[Again aaahhhhhh],,May be caffeine is little poisonous to health. But it is worth the joy it provides :D,,

Apart from the above, movies(inside and outside, men only parties :(,  :), friends, internet, and of course, IDIOT BOX complete my Sundays.

Another sunday is almost finished,,,,Waiting for one more [:)],,,

Cheers

Santhosh 

""Little philosophy""

I have been thinking from a lot of days or probably months to write about this, but but but, it took a little while for this lazy bugger to put it on paper(mail).

 

Lord vinayaka is my favorite god for reasons I can never think of. But, I even worship all the other hindu gods my parents worship. I really like stories about each god. They will all be really fascinating, captivating, gripping, charming, etc etc *ing.

 

I don’t know from when, but suddenly I started getting convinced that all those gods and all their stories ARE ALL COMPLETE FICTION created by some great great writers for what ever reasons GOOD or BAD.

 

But, even after that I still pray in front of their idols in the morning, occasionally go to their temples, actively participate in all the pujas my family does, go all pilgrimages with them all without any complaints.

 

I again started thinking why am I doing all those if I am fully convinced that it is all fiction. Following are the answers I could get:

 

• My mother will not leave me if I do not follow them J

 

• But, to my surprise, the main reasons I was doing all those as I was enjoying them.

• Every day after finishing the bath, go and stand in front of those beautiful/peaceful/ever-smiling/ever-blessing idols:

• I feel real cool.
• Close your eyes and pray for some time. You will feel relieved. And your whole heart feels light.

• Okay, then why do I enjoy pilgrimages and pujas:

• Above reasons still hold good.
• Other main reason is due to the family I think. It’s normally little difficult to get all ur family together doing the same without any external thoughts(not even TV J ). But these are the times, I think we all sit and get a feel of togetherness. I really like that feeling and hence enjoy these also.
• Other reasons for liking pujas is the whole environment is made so delightful, devotional, divine that I again feel happy.
• And new places and picnics are always enjoyable ;-)

 

 

• Some other philosophical thoughts I’ve:

• Even though, the story about that particular god may not be true, but when I pray him, it means that I am praying someone powerful who is definitely responsible for the existence of everything/anything and even nothing. No way I can compete with him and I have to pray him for all reasons.
• When ever I succeed, it’s all because of me J. But when I fail, I need someone else to blame(actually we sometimes give our 200% and still fail. The only logical reason I find for that is him. This is world works on too many random happenings that we can’t always plan ur success.) [at least I think so]

 

 

• Other very interesting question, I many times think of is “Does GOD exist?”

• U should be really stupid, if you say there is no one powerful than man and everything got created on it’s own. Everything definitely can’t come out of nothing. Come on,,

• Yes. 2H2 + O2 = 2H20. Man has found this equation and that’s how water is formed.

• But, why the hell should the result be 2H20???????(unless someone had made it so)

• I think, man is just discovering the rules which are written by someone(something or somesome) . He has never invented(I mean created) anything.

 

• But then who created that powerful someone/something/somesome??????????????????????????????[I get mad here. Hope u 2 get mad L]

 

• Okay, now I agree that GOD exists, but still I am not sure if that GOD is same as the religions promise(At least the religions I’ve been seeing):

• Will he fulfill our wishes if we go and ask him? [But, if god has created us, then why should he wait for us to ask him. He should definitely be generous enough to grant all our wishes directly. Waiting till the devotee asks is not a good attribute for god!!!(at least I think so)
• Why are some people lucky and some not?
• Does everyone’s life will be balanced with both good and bad?

 

• WHY THE HECK SHOULD GOD CREATE US AND WATCH US SUFFER OR ENJOY? WHAT IS THE NEED MAN??

 

• If I am a creator, would I really care about things we create and their feelings ,,etc [ do we feel sorry for our programs if they go and crash customer machines? Everyone would’ve definitely broken their toys(need not be beautiful one. Any thing we play with in childhood). Do we feel anything for those toys?

 

 

With all these, I am sure I am not conclusive!!!!!!

 

Just thought of putting it to written(typed J) form once. Finished it. That’s it. Cool.

 

Best way to lead the life is to lead the way u want.

• U find happiness in praying the god. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in blaming the god. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in dying for the nation. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in violence. Go ahead do it. (But, there will be many others who will find happiness in giving it back 2 u. Be prepared for it then. J)
• U find happiness in not doing anything. Go ahead do it J
• Go ahead do it. Go ahead do it.
• Go ahead do it. Go ahead do it.

 

I am now going ahead doing it, but what makes me happy???[Again a thousand answersJ ]

 

Cheers,

Santhosh

 

testing mail update.

Hi,

Testing mail update.

-Santhosh :)

Attended Friend's Sis marraige(Giddaluru)

Last week we went to attend Ranga's sister marraige to Giddaluru(Prakasham Dist). Generally i really enjoy all the trips i go with friends,,,and particularly this trip was really coool,,,,,

May be as this was the first time I went to attend a friend's or friend's sis marraige other than local in Kurnool,,,,it was really thrilling for me,,,,,,

OK let me try to put everything over here now,,,,

Friday 21 March 2008:
In the evening we started from our room to Majestic(b'lore bus station). The bus was at 5 or 6 PM,,,,but we reached there well b4 the time and that lead us to do something really worst, but it was really another cool experience ;-). We got into the bus and started our journey chatting, listening the songs, sleeping,,,,,,

Saturday 22 March 2008:
We should go through some ghat section(Nallamala Forest) to reach Giddaluru. The forest would've been really beautiful but i was fully asleep to enjoy it :( and suddenly one of our friend(Dhara) who took the responsibility of taking us to Giddaluru asked us to get down at a stop,,,Trusting him fully we got down and landed in Giddaluru,,,
The village was surrounded by lots of hills and forest,,,,,actually it was little bit like a hill-station :-D. There was a bus-stop over there which was really old but looked strong with lots of Film posters on it,,,the roads were much better than I had expected(probably better than b'lore),,,,that area(shops, walls,,,etc) was in an old style, probably that may be the older part of that village. As expected there were lots of people in their dhothis and lungees travelling around.
We called our friend to ask where to come and found that we got down little earlier and got the correct landmark to go from him. Just hearing that, the guy beside us explained us how 2 go in a very strange but easiest way "Goto the Third Current Pole from this Current pole and u'll be in front of that Lodge" :-)(gr8 intelligence).
The lodge was also very good and clean(again exceeded my exp.) and he has booked the SUITE room in that lodge,,,it was in the top floor,,,We took some rest and quickly got ready as we had planned to go to Mahanandi which was near to that place,,,,

We went to the Railway station and got the tickets and started waiting for the train. It was a passenger train and it was supposed to come at 9:30 AM. After lots of lots of lots of waiting it finally came at 11:30,,,,But the train journey was very nice,,,,It was fully through forest, but actually we couldn't see much of the trees as they were all cut :-(,,,,The train went through a tunnel(Bogada Tunnel),,,It was around 2 to 3 KMs and inside the tunnel it was nice,,,but all the lights were turned on we couldn't enjoy it much,,,,,,Though the train was late, it was very fast,,,we reached Gajulapalli by just one hour. In Gajulapalli we got into a Diesel Auto to reach Mahanandi. It was 5 KMs from there. The Auto driver has filled the whole auto with people. He has definitely filled it with double or triple its capacity b4 starting,,,,I just don't know how much risky that will be,,,but I think it is very common picture in India which cannot be avoided at all,,,

Mahanandi was a very small village,,,Except the temple nothing was there. We had our lunch->just roamed here and there and finally after the temple was opened we entered the temple. Mahanandi is very famous for its Koneru which will be very clear. We can see the bottom of the Koneru with lots of clarity. We got down into it and started enjoying the water. I really enjoy water but I don't know swimming :-(,,,,Finally i swam on that day with help of my friends. But I don't know why I was not at all moving FW while I swim :-),,,,,,,After enjoying the water for one hour we went to the temple and took the blessings of Mahanandeeshwarudu,,,,,

While going back as we couldn't find many buses back 2 giddaluru we got into a LORRY. Journey inside the lorry was really cool. I don't remember when was the last time i travelled in a lorry. I was sitting just beside the driver and enjoying the GHAT,,,There were many and many dangerous spots all over the journey. We also saw a lorry and van which had a small accident lying on the road. But due to god's grace we reached giddaluru safely,,,,

We had a nice party in the night :-D and also a nice happy sleep,,,,

Sunday 23 March 2008 :
We got up early at 8:30 AM and went to the marraiage,,,The marraige was in front of their house it self and the environment was really nice,,,,Our friend's father received us and also gave some nice advices(which we always try to follow, but never possible :-)),,,,
We had the breakfast->gave the gift to the newly married couple->took some photographs with them->came back 2 room->again went and had the lunch.
After the marraige our friend took us to his village "PodalaKuntaPalli" [I guess i spelt it correct :-)] We went from there again in a diesel auto. But here suddenly some guys jumped and sat on the top of AUTO. I never saw such a scene or never even expected that people can travel sitting over an auto :-),,,,
PodalaKuntapalli was very beautiful. There was some Thiranaallu going on then in their village. And as part of that some competition was going on. We went there. First time I saw an OX which was taller than me. But my friend said they were ki normal ones and there will be OX which will be still bigger and giant. The event was like "A big Stone was tied to the OX and they should drag them around. Which ever pair drags it more, they r the winners". Many men were around the animals controlling them. They were hitting them like anything and poor animals were dragging them in intervals,,,,But the whole envi was gr8. There was a small hill over there and people had climbed it to watch the events clearly and we joined them. The scene over there was something similar to to the LAGAAN scene(lots of people standing on the hills to watch the match)...After enjoying there for some time we started going into the village to wards their home,,,
Passing through all the major areas in their village we went to their home, had some rest and then started back,,,,while coming back he took us to a common place where everyone will sit and chat,,,but as it was raining no one was there. We saw their KUNTA(small lake) and a monkey's tombstone and finally came back 2 giddaluru and started back 2 b'lore

Monday 24 March 2008 :
By early morning 6:00 AM we were in b'lore. Got up at 9:00, got ready to office->had breakfast->came back 2 room->took a leave->And watched TV :-)

ThanQ MOM & D@D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom is the best mom in the world!
My dad is the best dad in the world!

"Whatever good I am having/enjoying today is all because of my mom and dad"

-I am making the above statement without any doubt.

Using this post i am trying to thank my parents(Thanks to Blogger for giving me this opportunity)

Sometimes I really wonder how they have done so many sacrifices, faced these many difficulties, taken so many risks for our happiness and bright future. Whatever be the situation at home, they have never said a NO to anything which makes us happy or which helps us for our future and did more than their best for it.

Whenever my mother used to give us bulk part of her share of any sweet/hot, I always used to think she dislikes eating all those. Just recently I understood the correct reason is to just keep us happy. Doing it for one day or one week or one month is easier but I just wonder how is she continuously doing it from past 24+ years and still continuing it :-),,,,,,,,,

I will try to list out some of the things they've done for us: [I'm sure I am missing many many many more than listed here]

(1) Twenty years back they have moved from our native to a town just for the sake of our studies. They were having a nicely running business, own bungalow, agriculture lands in our native which is a village and they left all those as they've correctly thought it will not help our studies. I can actually prove how correct their decision was showing how many people are presently struggling to settle in their lives with whom i used to study there. Thanks mom and dad.

(2) My mom knew the value of education and she made sure from our childhood itself that we were on the right track in studies:

• I still remember that until I was in third or fourth class she used to keep us slip tests at home regularly.
• Once I lost my classwork before the the annual exams. She brought my friend's book and wrote the complete book for me.
• Even my grades show that until I was under my mother they were much better than I got after that.
• Even while doing my graduation when I just got 36 marks[PASS Mark :-(] in first year Chemistry, my first thought was how should i say that to my mom :-)
• Both my mom and dad always used to tell us the value of education and how bright our future can be if we studied well.
• Our father is having garments business. I was going to shop to help my father whenever I was free. But he always made sure i was never attracted to the business and he always used to tell me it was not my destination. It would have really helped my father and given him a lot of rest if I had joined the business but he never thought that way.
• All the above doesn't mean our parents were really strict or we never had any enjoyment. Actually we had never never felt that they were strict/hard or anything. We were enjoying lots of TV/movies/games/trips,,,etc. But they had balanced everything and made sure we missed nothing in our childhood.
• To extend the above point, i don't even remember exactly the last time my father has beaten me. I think it was before third or second class. And I don't remember at all of my mother beating me :-). I should really really appreciate their patience.

(3) Until I joined my graduation, I was regularly having health problems. Sometimes really major ones and sometimes minor ones. But I was always able to recover from them only with the help of my parents. They used to spend huge amounts on my treatment and patiently take care of me. Thanks mom and dad.

(4) While doing my graduation I think in the middle of my third year, six of us planned a 3-4 days tour to Bangalore-Mysore. I called my dad and asked for money and I immediately got them and enjoyed the tour. But only later I came to know that the financial position was not that good in my home at that time and still they've not even asked me to cancel/postpone my trip. Also, in third year summer holidays, I've asked my dad that I will go for GATE Coaching in hyderabad. Again independent of the difficulties he was having then, he has not even given it a second thought. These are just two of the many incidents where they made sure we were never disappointed. Thanks mom and dad.

(5) Even after I have started doing a job, most of the prayers/poojas my mom does are for my career. This shows that they will never stop caring for us. Thanks mom and dad.

(6) Before we were born, both my mom and dad used to enjoy the life greatly. Like my father has toured almost all the places in India, they used watch lots and lots of movies and sometimes two movies on a single day,,,etc. But they've sacrificed all of those just for our sake. Thanks mom and dad.

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And one more thing which makes me proud is, whatever care they have shown on their children, they have shown same amount of care on my grand parents. Our grand parents have spent their last twenty years with us and for the last ten years both our grand parents were always having health problems. Our parents have never neglected them and served them with great care. Regularly one of them always used to be admitted to hospitals. I can say that they have joined almost all of the major hospitals in Kurnool for some or the other problem :-). I really really really wonder where were our parents getting energy to serve all of us(their parents and their children).

As said previously I have just listed very few things about my parents here and they have done lot more lot more things for me/us. Blogger.com can't provide enough memory to list out all of those :-).

Except around their first twenty years of life we were their only world. They have always thought about our happiness, our wishes, our future, our health, our comfort,,,,,,

I would like to thank GOD for giving me such wonderful parents and family. And I would say I am the luckiest person in this regard :-).

I once again Thank you mom and dad.

Good News to Amir Khan's fans

Amir Khan has started blogging and we can get first hand information everything abt him using his blog,,,

I am really enjoying his blog,,,,Its always interesting/nice to know abt these celebs ;-)

Now u can start enjoying it at: http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

Masth maja madi,,,,

Two years in Software Industry!!!!!!!!!!

I have already completed 2.11 years in the Software Industry. Days have gone really fast,,,,,,,,
"Santhosh" the name was announced in the list of selected candidates for WIPRO by the Wipro people who came to our campus[SV University,Tirupati] . I can easily say it was one of the happiest moment of my life,,,,,Even muni also got selected and it still increased my happiness,,,
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I didn't inform about this placement interviews in my home till then,,,,so we both immediately took our bags and went to bus-station to go to our homes and tell them the happy news directly,,,,,,I bought some sweets and took a bus to Kurnool.
My family was not expecting me and was little bit shocked to see me suddenly. They then asked me the reason for coming so suddenly,,,,,hearing the reason they also felt happy and appreciated me,,,,,There were lots of reasons for all of our happiness
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All this happened at the starting of our First Semister in Fourth year and almost THREE years back from now,,,,

We were not at all having any idea what these people were doing in the Software Industry in Bangalore and what we are going to do[I was expecting a lot of complex/interesting work than what I am doing now :-)],,,

Now I have learnt lots of things here both technical/non-technical in many aspects.

I have really enjoyed greatly the life in bangalore in these two years:
- Got some new habits ;-) and lost some habits(like reading technical books),,,
- put on some weight and lost some hair :-),,,,

Inside the wipro it went like this:
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took training for some 45 days and somehow cleared the mandatory test in the first attempt->went and joined the prjct in madiwala wipro office->was really enjoying my personal cubicle+nameplate+desktop+landline+mobile+coffe and the reall cool building of WIPRO->and finally started doing some work after 2 or 3 months->immediately went to client's(Sun Microsystems) place to work as our prjct is moved there->there again was enjoying unblocked superfast internet access->moved to some other part of our prjct as my module was closed by the client which i couldn't understand->after some one year was really getting lots of work/tensions/responsibilties->and after one and half years our whole team went back to wipro leaving me there for some work->Learnt really great things in those six months and learnt how to manage time/people/work->and now finally completed it successfully and waiting for a new prjct in wipro Electronic City office
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