rani_black

rani_black, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

B L A C K

I happened to see Black today at MAAYAJAL ,a resort cum multiplex along the south east coast of India ...which is more popularly known as East Coast road , around 5 km's from office. We had a project party and we could chose any of the movies running there at 5 pm.60% of our team went to watch "shall we dance " and the rest were divided between 'Mayavi' and Black.

I am so glad I happened to watch the movie,which really had me in tears...at the end of the movie. Rani mukherji and amitabh bachan have performed exceedingly well in this guru-shishya story.The story is nestled amidst the lovely winter of shimla,the vintage buildings,lush green environs and the famous Ridge (a.k.a CHURCH).It reminded me so much of my trip last year to kullu manali where we stopped in shimla for a day.

The movie is really captivating.It shows how a blind person learns to slowly be independent after her teacher leaves her and works hard at her long cherished goal even after repeated failures.. I thought it was a beautiful movie about human dignity and not treating people with disabilities as mentally retarded or as people who cannot take on life with courage and strength even though deep in their heart they may regret that they cant live a normal life.

This was more so exemplified when Rani mukherjee, at her sister's wedding expreses her feelings to her teacher,whether she would anytime know what it is to fall in love,what it is to have someone kissing her on her lips. Amitabh's reactions seem so spontaneous in the movie after rani ..expresses here feelings.

He initially feels it may be wrong to kiss her,because if someone see's that , they would think , as a teacher amithab had crossed the limit and had taken advantage of Rani's blindness. But he thinks....thinks again...should he really think about what the community thinks or should he really grant ,what his student asks him for.....on whom he has spent 18 long years of toil from making her express heR feelings...to dance and now to graduate... and that final second where he does kiss her to show her what it feels to be loved and kissed, to me remained the best scene of the movie ...which though had very little words being spoken,but a lot could be understood from the spontaneity of the amitab and rani.

To me , this movie really gave an insight into a blind person's life,their inner struggle within themselves,their little emotions which they want to convey .

I generally like movies that are based on memories,flashbacks where a charecter lives to tell his/her tale on how they felt when they were young ...and feeling those emotions after a long period of time ..really gives a sense of satisfaction ..or to put it succintly MOVIES WITH THE THEME OF TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE ....

Some of the earlier similar themes based movies ,of the ones I liked were Titanic,Veer Zaara,Autograph and now Black , all of which have a thread of going back in time, remembering the "those were the days" kind of themes.

RD or AR

Over the past few years I've had this debate ,within myself as to who is India's greatest ever music composer. After filtering many potential candidates I can arrive at 2 possible icons of India ,who with their music ....have made India dance to their tunes..at different era's .

Contestant no 1 : RAHUL DEV BURMAN ....who brought some westernity into hindi music and made some mellifluos numbers of yesteryears which took India by storm.

contestant no 2 :A.R REHMAN who , taught Indian's to reggae and rock at the same time.some of his compositions are mind blowing.every time you think he has produced a masterpiece , he musically suggests that his best is yet to come...and still keeps captivating us with his music.



It's a tough ask comparing these 2,as both span 2 generations of music lovers ,whom they have enthralled ,but still If ever I was to pick one......I somehow get the cold feeling that Rehman is getting better. RDB is like the Gavaskar of Indian music industry ,while Rehman is the sachin of music composing. Rehman has more compositions in his favour than the maestro RDB himself,and looks in fine fettle to raise above his current iconic level ,by making his music talk.


Whatever it is , For music afficianados like me ....it's a win win situation , treating my eardrums to the beat of these lovely musicians. There are other musicians who have rendered s0me lovely compositions ,but when it comes to sheer consistency in delivering captivating music ....I guess only Rehman and R.D.Burman stand out ..

one may ask why this comparison so suddenly- Last night I happened to watch the DIV X version of the movie SWADES at home , in which the panchayat of the village screens "yaadon ki baarat" where the title song and the ever green "chura liya hain " happen to be played ...soon after which ,the song "yeh taara woh tara,har tara" pops up...within minutes one can just get to see both the genuis's works side by side ... so that explains the post ....

Life's movin great

I decide to take an honest stock of my life pattern in the last few years and i found some startling findings .

My reading habit has gone down so badly that it was nearly 5 years since I read atleast 40-50% of the newspaper. My eyes ,during college days would scan ET only for the masala news and the IT gadgets news...the biggest turn off which would be the headlines on ET like "FII's sold a majority stake in their consolidated holdings of which 15% is owned by the parent company's bla blah blah.....................(in essence the commerce terms ....) and the daily spate of bomb blasts ,killings and parlimenterian tussles.....made me safely enter the newspaper through its back door,from where I would have a peep over the cricket scores...or any article ......and even that in recent days ...had stopped ,thanks to the far-reaching Internet technology .So in effect my GK plummetted to an all time low (but even then i managed 95 percentile in GK section of XAT 2004 ,so that shows that the MBA aspirants of the year 2003 , were really bad in GK.

That apart I didnt read any novels as I felt guilty readingt them ,when I had so much to learn in my engineering...and so I decided it would be more chivalrous in sleeping-with-my-tech-books than flirt with other general magazines. The end -result .........I tried doing both with a totally unstable mind and so confused was I for 4 long years ,that I ended up doing sleeping as my main stream activity , making my magazines....sleep with my tech books on my bed :-) .

Earlier as a schooler I used to read a lot of extra books and that resulted in my assosiation with the British council Library in Chennai.As i climbed the hierarchical ladder of education a rencounter happened with engineering,and with no choice left I had to be a insessorial engineer adapting to the world of bits and bytes.I still continued to be a member at the British library , but found little time to actually go there.So instead of going home after college I travelled the length and breadth of chennai's local railways from Avadi to Guindy.....between which I would go to BCL (the British council library) and after mulling over which tech books to take ...I would neccesarily pick the heaviest of them and the most colorful of them...whatever it was wanting to see how much that book would leverage my IT knowledge. But alas that tiring sojourn would make me hit the sack as soon as I would return home...and I would totally forget about the books ...which would lie in cold storage until I ....finally get down to cleaning my room and discover that the books have passed the extension date and I had a fine in my account.

This insane practice has gone from 2001 to 2004 ....oops 2005 ......all because of the loyalty I had with the British council library and the hope that some day I would complete a book,taken for reading from there.....and till date all I have been able to do is borrow books,forget them ,pay up the fine......... I guess BCL must honour their customers ,especially me for providing BCL unstinted support burning a large hole of 700 bucks every year , in addition to the fines. So over a period of time ........my reading habit also suffered.

Now in school I was good at quizzing , as I always was an "inquizitive" guy ,but after I joined hell(ie: college ) I was seemingly castigated by my HOD's for bunking classes and attending symposiums. Now in college some saw me as a rebel or an outlaw who belived rules were framed to be broken by kartik.........Lemme tell u the rules they made were absolutely silly and U would piss in ur pants if u hear that a poor guy in my college, who didnt have his shirt tucked in after attending nature's call , was spotted by our director and his photo was splashed all over the college saying that he was suspended...The poor guy didnt know why he was suspended, and soon found out the reason " THE ABOVE STUDENT IS SUSPENDED FOR MISBEHAVING WITH A GIRL STUDENT" .The poor guy was dumbfounded ....I have never seen him coming near the toilet after that..... So what i want to say is that amidst such stupid rules , all my creativity was compressed harder than the Fraunhoffer institude did to music files (MP3).

I was the sort of a guy ,who in college had a certain insolence towards reading techie funda and my insouciance in my engineering made me do assignments the CTRL-C CTRL-V way, submit practical records at 2 days past the last minute,study for semester exams on the very day of the exam and end up reading unit 4 at 9 30 am ,unit 5 at 10 05 am and finally enter the hall at 10 20 am after a frenetic flip thru of pages for the 10 am exam.......during which my memory would function like a RAM (temporary memory lasting for a session....) blended finely with my story writing abilities. All my marks where I have got in heavy excesses in 80 and 90 were probably due to amount of pages filled up in my answer books and oh yes thanks so much to the "made easy series " 40 pages book , which compressed my 400 page engineering book to a tenth.

what i mean to say is that all these days I had lived life in a very negative frame of mind,not caring to see what went wrong..........but slowly things are changing....I am learning to be more relaxed, becoming a so-so Ok programmer who can think, am reading news papers and magazines.....am thankful the renaissance is on its way.Atleast I have thought about making my complex wired life ..... W I R E L E S S .

So to say Kartik RELOADED .


I have discovered a sense of calm ,a new renascent feeling ... that assures me that I would be fine.No more unnecesary tensions,flaring up,

Mr world ...santosh

Mr world ...santosh, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

If u are wondering why santosh and I (below) are topless, thats because of the heavy rains we got caught while we were climbing down.All of us got teribly wet ...before seeking refuge in in the warm confines of the TATA 407 that we had hired .

Santosh meanwhile entertained us wityh stories of how he won Mr world and knocked hercules in 10 seconds flat ...

IF WISHES WERE HORSES THEN BEGGARS WOULD BE RIDERS ........ :-) , I must say my imagination and story telling does go a little wild sometimes.Try reading some of my descriptions below the photos with a pinch of salt(TATA shuudh namak :-) )

my little goatie

my little goatie, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

PARADISE LOST

after 26 battles with my beard , my beard won finally , when it had me don this hairy atire below my chin.Actually speaking whenever I tried grooming a goatie ....some thing important turned up,which demanded me to go dressed up neat an shaven, but I just wanted a new look for the trip so didnt mind growing an unruly goatie..for about 2 weeks coming unshaven to office...before triming it to its present size.

kartik and prasad

kartik and prasad, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

That's Myself with prasad .Its amazing to see that a year back all of us were prisoners at hell(college ) where enjoyment didnt formally exist and now once freed from hell, memories of hell seems to hit me a like a gentle breeze.

trek anyone ?

trek anyone ?, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

This was a place where we treked uphill roughly for about a couple of kilometers and then stopped as the undulating mountain valley never semed to take us to the top but just lead us from one mountain to another,but it was a magical walk ....and thats just when the rains started to pour

Munnar in rains @ park

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28802891@N00/6355652/, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I dont think may know about the park in Munnar .Its a must visit....they have lovely swings,badminto courts , a mini forest, and loads of flowers....

TIP OF THE DAY

essential things required to enjoy

1) ur girlfriend

+

2) rain's in munnar

+

3) nice hot cutlet/bajji

+

4) Bryan adams number in the background ......INSIDE OUT

=

HEAVEN ON EARTH

enroute 2 munnar on an overcast evening

enroute 2 munnar on an overcast evening, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

thats one of the most magical sights , driving along those lovely tea gardens

..in wet weather amidst rich and lush greenery

tux in blue ,dinu n me

tux,dinu n me, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

TUX (ANAND)...A.K.A TIB (TUX IN BLUE/BLACK)ponders ...whether any

opensource philosophy can be applied to munnar.

This photo was taken at a boating place near IDUKKI in kerala , a little higher

in altitude than the mattupatti dam. This a highly recommended place if u are

one among the few who view sleeping by the shadows of the long trees and

lakeside as heaven.If u want to join this leisure club ...contact the

CEO of LAZYBONES.COM , thats me ...

Uncle SID

Uncle SID, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Thats Sudhir , our long time college proffesor who has done a PHD from IIT and is

on a thesis right now.He is married to a beautiful wife...whom once upon a time ..

.was even more beautiful and often left us drooling.he has two kids from that

beautiful wife ........

I ONLY WISH ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS TRUE,ALAS sudhir turned out to be

my classmate and very good pal .He is a TRIPLICANIST by nature and has bagged

this years award for the best player in the PML (Premier mottamadi league ..plastic ball

cricket ).

Rejuvenated -

Munnar trip was absolutely awesome,on 2 counts, one the abundant greenery,mist and the chillness and secondly the cery fact that 11 of my college mates met up after quite some time and had real fun.....reliving college memories and the numerous pranks we played.The only letdown was we cou;dn't visit some places due to certain restrictions imposed ,as it was the mating season for the nilgiri tahr (deer ). But on the whole if one word could charecterize what the trip meant to me ....F U N ......

Munnar ....HERE I COME

I am waiting with unabated breath for this weekend,as I am going to tour Munnar.But somehow within myself ,last evening I felt the major summer holiday excitement was missing ,because we were going and staying in a hotel,as I would have preffered some adventurous outdoor trekking,but if trekking is to be enjoyed ..it simply has to be done on the himalayas under adverse temperatures and the rocky terrains.

I was browsing through the site of the youth hostels assodiation of India , and saw that they have chalked out a new plan for trekking routes ,with the chandrakhani pass route being scrapped. They seem to have revamped their site and it does look and user friendly....and I also happened to stumble across my college's website.They too have revamped their official site from their older version to a newer one.
This site now looks a lot proffessional in outlook and I only hope My college grows in leaps and bounds...even as i type college .........the college memories tend to show up one by one ...and what better way to re-live it once again by meeting up with old friends at munnar.

SWADES RELOADED

SWADES RELOADED
Originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGEN IN CASE U ARE NOT ABLE TO VIEW WHAT IS WRITTEN

That's what happen's when one is on bench -the software enginer's terminology for having no work ...when being in the period between the end of a project and the beginning of a new one. I had done this a long time back , so thought might as well post this to commemorate the end of benching period,as now I have some work . By the way if u still need some explanation here goes

In the new movie

HERO -KARTIK KANNAN
SUPPORTING ACTOR -SOME SHAH RUKH KHAN
HEROINE-MALLIKA SHERAWAT.

BRIEF JIST - The life of kartik, a software engineer, who earlier lived in a posh place called ADYAR decides to improve the quality of life in a village called PUZHUTHIVAKKAM (that's where i stay now...decently call it madipakkam).Mallika decides to help kartik ....by raising electricty supply in the region and also get a sewage connection.The guy on the right ...(shah rukh...something ) tries and helps kartik meet hios noble objective of converting puzhuthivakkam from ATRO-city to E-village.Sharukh meanwhile falls in love with Mallika , while her love with the Hero is blossoming as they run around trees, sleep on terraces...while both hum "bheege hont terey....pyaasa dil mera .......).Shah rukh see'sthis with envy and pretends that he is a cancer patient battling for life, hoping that Mallika will like him .... ..but as bollywood stories go ....Kartik feel's his mission is more important than mallika and decides to go back to adyar...after a few sad songs ..... mallika sherawat ...takes a MRTS train from puzhuthivakkam ....and travels all th way to adayar ..searching for the hero KARTIK .Kartik finally meets Mallika , in the besant nagar beach when he hears mallika singing the song "bheege hont terey...." -A SAD VERSION ---and they unite as they walk across the beach....sharukh khan runs from his hospital and see's them walking in the sunset and remarks "kaash .....kaash mein kartik hota...." and he finally see's daughter anjali ...and say's he cant fulfil's anjali's wish of him marrying Mallika.....and his 8 year old daughter who earlier gave shahrukh khan the punchline "KAL HO NA HO " to madly propose to Mallika ...now ,with a drooping face wipes his glycerine filled tears and says ...."dont worry papa...KABHI KHUSHI KABHI GHAM ".....and the story doesnt end here ........ to watch the full story , pls book the cubicle right next to me .....to watch the next episode unfold.If u are wonderng why the story is dragging along why the hero's name starts with K ......NO , I havent hired Ekta kapoor ...

All Of a sudden I feel a new surge of blood in my veins and really active and ecstatic .....about what one may ask .......Even I tried asking myself why ? I dont find an answer to it .I have done nothing to brag about , but a feel good factor has slowly crept into me...over the afternoon ...This morning I was worried about the pile of documentation work that remained to be done ,and in the afternoon after a meeting with the concerned "clients" ,my mood was really terrible because a whole lot of changes had to be done regarding the requirements and I was supposed to be back to my table ......but I happened to doze of for 10 mnutes hearing some slow english number and I must say that those 10 minutes after lunch really relaxed me and lifted a lot of mental load....and I was able to finish the new documentation within an hour with my partner, but I am still left wondering whether it was those 10 minutes that made the difference today in my mood .

whatever .NET still is yet to find a place inside my cranium and the next few days will hopefully pass off installing .NET and SQL Server in my memory (the actual one -not the computer memory ) .

Any way , it's not a crime to have the FGF(Feel Good Factor) in excess ....as who know's what's in store for tommorow ?

All of a sudden being busy , doing work .....is a different feeling than being on bench ....I have .NET and ASP as my new girlfriends ....as my dear wife MAINFRAMES is on a holiday for some time.So I guess I shall be busy at nights ..............................(R u thinking what I am not thinking ???)