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You save a penny here, you save a penny there and somewhere else you loose out on a fortune.

Today there was mock fire warning in our building. It was done to observe the reactions of the people to such warning. At the end it was summarized like this:
1) People do not rush outside when there is an alarm. Instead they try to grab their belongings, lock their cupboards and what not. Your life is important than all those so please hurry as soon as there is an alarm.
2) People walk slowly as if they are going for an evening walk and they wait for their friends to join. It is important to save your life first. Just run.
3) 5th floor people were not active compared to others. Remember fire goes up and even when there is fire in lower floors, 5th floor people are also expected to evacuate. As soon as possible.

There were other two points, but these were the important ones. The safety measures are good. But somehow the seriousness is not present among us. Probably because we have not seen / experienced anything like that. As they say, experience is a comb given to you after you get bald. Touch wood.

Just the thought of being surrounded by fire, unable to do anything, to see all the plans for the future becoming meaningless, second by second heat and glow approaching me, to think everything burning to ashes – oh, this is scary. Next time I will run for life.

I feel I do not know many and do not understand many things. Starting today I will try to list them here, as frequently as I feel like asking someone.
Warning: It could be very silly. On the other hand, that is the reason I do not understand

I have noticed there are safety suggestions listed in front of ICICI Atm.
1) Do not enter in groups
2) Do not wear helmet or cap and enter
3) Do not use mobile inside the ATM

1 and 3 are ok, how does 2 help ?

Quite a few times, after first few minutes of the movie, you will be transported to some other world. You will remain there, laugh and cry with characters, cheer at some scenes and become dumb during others, gasp and finally clap. You move out of the theater nodding, smiling at others. Everything looks beautiful.
Iqbal was one such experience for me. I knew the story, but is not a movie much bigger and different than a story ?

The plot is simple and simplicity is in everything - the dialogues, the humour, the drama, the action. Iqbal is dreaming to play cricket and get into Indian team. He tries hard but meet hardships. He is determined, but the difficulties at home are more demanding. He finds a coach for himself and beats all odds to achieve his dream. There are many small notable dialogues. Like the one where mother in just couple of sentences, changes her husband. Like when Mohit(Naseer) confronts Iqbal’s father(Yateen Karyekar). The humour too comes in short sentences and visuals. When the mother threatens Naseer that she would kill him, whole theater bursts into laughter. When the family members pretend to be working just before Yatin’s returning home attracts smiles. Naming of buffaloes after crickters too. The drama - just one ball Iqbal bowls at Kamal is as good a drama as the climax match or the Guruji’s talk with Iqbal before the match.

We don’t actually dislike any character (except perhaps that of Guruji’s(Girish Karnad)). The father dislikes his family members wasting time on watching cricket - a common scene in many families. He expects his son to work with him, but that is ok, he too is helpless. Kamal’s jealousy is also normal. The adoring characters, apart from that of Naseer and Iqbal’s are the mother - ever smiling and encouraging and wait: the most adorable character/ child artist in recent times has to be Iqbal’s kid sister(Shweta Prasad).

The way Iqbal practices in the night is my favourite part of the movie. We often land in no-way-out situations due to many factors and blame the circumstances and resign to the destiny. Or we compromise and get defeated. That part shows that everything is not over if one door is closed. I can quote many, but let me say in cricket lingo: It is not over till the LAST ball is bowled.

The story telling, performances are all first rate. A little pace in second half would have been better. That said, there is nothing that takes it away from the movie.

Iqbal is not Lagaan. The comparision stops at that the both involve cricket. Iqbal is not Black. Iqbal is colorful - green fields, blue skies, bright hopes (except for 2 black shades of politics and jealousy).

In Hyderabad Blues in which Nagesh showed simple lives, in Bollywood calling where he exposed dramatic life in movie making, in this film he carries same finisse in showing a boy’s dream, and its coming true. Between poetic narration, he packs other aspects like scenic beauty, the corruption, the leg-pulling activities, the fun.

Please stop reading this and watch Iqbal if you have not yet.

I have few complaints. Very few. First - the parents should have been watching him play the last match. They should have been shown watching it on TV, at least. Second, Just like for a batsman hitting a sixer is, for a bowler, the ultimate thrill and satisfaction is in getting a batsman BOWLED out. Middle stump. And that is an ultimate answer to a batsman. Given Iqbal’s bowling, I thought, that was how it should have ended ideally - Iqbal authoritively bowling out Kamal.

Third, this movie is not given a fair chance in the theater I went - Only one night show is being screened in a small auditorium (For me, small audi is one reason to hate multiplexes.)
Crossposted on 70mm

Wow! It is finally here. The one I had been wanting! Also I am waiting for the invite to try it out. Update: I got

Got it via Chugs. A word about the blog. The “Links For A Sunday Morning” which is regularly (most often) and promptly posted , like this one, gives a lot of useful information. Unlike other blogmelas which only links to blogs and are, in a way, time bound, the links found here are informative. Some links carry a very short description which helps to pick and proceed!
Spare sometime everyweek and headover to Sunday morning links. Spare yourself the effort of finding good information, the filtered and selected stuff helps!

The publicity and the popularity that Jogi has gained made me curious to check it out in the theater. Impression : Not bad to Good.

The film starts off with a mother searching for her Mahadesha in the midst of Bangalore city. Through cleverly placed flashbacks we come to know that her son was a Jogi, following on his father’s footsteps. Their already troubled life due to deteriorating health of father worsens after his death. Being unbelievably innocent, Jogi, sets out to Bangalore in search of work that would keep his mother happy. Unfortunately few turn of events result in his arrest, an attempt to kill him and a group of people to protect him. In short, he is drawn into the big bad underworld.
Meanwhile a journalist student is in search of a sensational story bumps into the mother. She listens to the story of her son. In parallel, she also gets to know the story of Jogi. But she is late in realising both are same. Search for son and search for mother continues.

Do they meet ? If yes, how and when? What happens to the underworld and the baddies ? To know the answers to the above, watch it on screen! (Hey..this is my first conscious attempt to not-to-be-a-spoiler).

Shivaraj Kumar comes out with an impressive performance with the dead and sad look on the face. The jogi outlook suits him as well as that of don’s. But the best part is the way he effortlessly breaks into dance (huli kunita). As mother, Arunadathi Nag breathes life. Jeniffer (of “Just Mohabbat” which was coming on Sony) wears good outfits and does her part well. The songs except for 1 or 2 are completely forced into movie. The picturisation of Ello jogappa in Rajastan (Jaipur to be precise) is beautiful. The music by Gurukiran has caught on with the public but I like only Ello jogappa. Bin Laden/ Bill Clinton song, though has foot stepping music, is marred by bad and insensible lyrics.

Direction is good (mostly because of a tight narrative and intelligent flashbacks), ably supported by slick editing. What was significantly different in the treatment is presence of the emotional angle (feel that never ends) and it keeps moving with the bloodshed angle in parallel.

What I do not understand - Is there really so much underworld activity in Bangalore that there is flurry of movies on those lines like Kalasipalya, Majestic etc
And what is the relevance of running around and using sword/Hatcher instead of automatics.

As with every other tour initiation, this too started with a mail and then continued with the endless Reply All. Flood of mails included everything from zeroing of the location, checking the accommodation, short listing places to visit, route to take, maps to use… Something like requirement analysis (who is available, what time, interested in trek?, can a leave be taken?) to the (hourly) schedule(itinerary). This is by far most planned tour. Even then, I as usual do not believe the tour would happen until I sit in the car (or until I finish the tour … last time we planned to Munnar and till we reached Munnar we were not sure whether we would go there). There are many reasons to remain so skeptical…you see the world is so unpredictable. The number of times the tours got cancelled or didn’t go well are almost 4 times the number of those that did go well. More importantly, to this particular spot, the tour was planned around 6 times and each time resulting in either total cancellation or change of destination. The name of the city had thus become more familiar than the tourist spots to which I have visited.

So started my thoughts even before we started. Meanwhile, due to some requirements I could not leave the office early and that left me with the option of taking the already booked Bangalore Express. Wow..what a misnomer. The train, I am sure, was reluctant to travel to Bangalore. The surname of Express is totally misleading. And to my (and other participants of the tour) ill fortune, the train showed no movements even 90 minutes after its scheduled departure time. Our itinerary dictated us to start latest by 8 (that too only because of me!) but this additional 2 hours meant the whole plan is going to go for a toss. I could no longer keep my eyes open and feel bad about it, regret and think of 101 ways in which things could have been better or differently managed. It always happens. Experience is the best teacher. To my further agony, whenever I broke from my sleep and opened my eyes, I would find the train motionless. It happened so many times that I felt I would still be in Chennai even at 8 AM, the time of scheduled departure to Wayanad from Bangalore. And I let “my minutest hope that the tour would happen” sink and felt sorry for other 3 guys who were all set. Worse, they would keep waiting, in hope, for me to arrive.

Finally around 10 AM after a quick brush and breakfast, we started our tour, keeping in mind the inevitable changes that were to happen to much planned time table. I really thank these guys for not to cancel the trip in which case I would have been heart broken for the nth time and exhausted to think of Waynad tour again!

Around 12 we reached Kadumane and had another round of breakfast. Reached Mysore around 3 and searched for a Paradise to have lunch. (Notes to self - hereafter NTS- An experience to keep in mind. Never search for hotels while on tour. Barge in to the decent hotel and get on with the tour. Tour and time is more important) Then cruised through the jungle to Kalpetta. Sunset and other evening spots were missed out (especially lake. After Hyderabad lake visit in the hot afternoon, I am very averse to the idea of visiting a lake in the afternoon and wished [against odds] to cover the lake in the beautiful evening. But as you would see, I failed again). The lovely roads coupled with views of inviting jungles, wonderful brand new car drive what with noted music directors entertaining us through out the tour, with the company of some nice friends and snacks, the purpose of tour was almost accomplished. I have often observed that the company and the journey is almost as important as the places to be visited to make it a complete nice tour. Ever since I had seen DCH with SK, I had wished to go on a tour with him in a car, like this. And plans for a tour with Nbk and RS are in the making ever since RS has bought a car!

Reached Kalpetta so late that we could not do anything but to search for resort (NTS - as above) but we had already booked rooms at a reasonably good place and we checked in there. We walked around the city and SK noted the time when most of the people get their hair cut in this place. We had dinner at Hotel Harithagiri. Here more than the dinner we observed and noted the design and raw materials used for everything - bamboo. We also hatched our plan, design and name for our own restaurant that we are going to start in another 6-8 years in Bangalore (which could possibly expand to chain of restaurants - speciality being - good vegetable dishes served along with drinks). The name would be Udupi Jungle.

Lots of shoots happened with each one turning as creative and artistic as possible either in photographing or in posing.
Waynad/Wayanad_074.jpg

Being all boys group, not to mention, matter talk happened along with other many discussions ranging from blogs, politics, movies, gossips, tennis, car races. Interestingly not once did we speak about cricket -Indian cricket. Then it was time to rest after the re-plan of the itinerary for the next day, along with finalizing on the routes to take - with the help of the map. Re-plan and route finalizing kept happening through out next day.

Early start was mandatory next day. Alas everyone was in deep sleep. Thanks to SK who woke up and tried to wake us up, we began [albeit half an hour later than the plan]. We went in search of Sun rise valley. By the time, we reached some point which we only decided our destination, the Sun has already come up but was hidden in clouds. With constant fear of running out of petrol we took best possible routes [and in this confusion missed & lost the Soochipara falls] and covered a picturesque tea estate, a waterfalls [Kanthanpara] (only sight seeing), had breakfast and went to lake[Pookot].
Waynad/Wayanad_120.jpgWaynad/Wayanad_137.jpgWaynad/Wayanad_184.jpg
Lake was wonderful surrounded by the trademark beauty of Kerala- God’s own land (NTS- I have to visit the interiors of Kerala and experience long cruise through backwaters, the wish pending from 3-4 years). The sailor was more than happy to let me do the job.Waynad/Wayanad_174.jpg Now that I am more than an amateur, he too appreciated and promised to get me a license next time I go there. He also was more interested in taking photos himself that I had to snatch my own camera from him few times.

We noted one prominent thing in Wayanad, the places are not as well marked as in website. There are no directions mentioned, no sign boards and worst of all the local people have no clue as to what “tourist” spot we are looking for. The falls was present as if in someone’s backyard.

After checking out we proceeded towards the dam. It is being renovated or being constructed. And to mention that as tourist spot in the website is surprising for us who have seen absolutely marvelous KRS dam. This visit, we realized later, was a waste of time. Especially walk to the dam and back.
Then we headed in search of Phantom rock and by this time we were convinced that it is going to be some rock for which we have to assume some shape and visualize it as Phantom Rock. Also that we would see it from the windows of our car and we can not get there. We were right. But still we went in search of it and returned.
Finally it was Edakkal Caves. A govt jeep shall take us through the steep hill to the caves. The best part of the tour (next to the journey, of course) is indisputably these caves. In around 4000BC tribal people lived here and their carvings of tribal head, man, woman and dog etc can be seen on the walls. Carvings in dravidian script could also be found. The rocks have been split by an earthquake. From the first point we could get good views and good photos. Waynad/Wayanad_236.jpg

We saw many other points through a telescope. Including Phantom rock.
We could not get to second point which involved some trekking and we had absolutely run out of time (we were still hoping to reach Blore by end of day). This is where we looked back where exactly we could have saved some time. We would get absolutely wonderful views from the top of all the 3 states Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I am sure the effort would be more than worth if we get to the top.

Again wonderful drive through the jungle. Both our drives were in the evening and I just love that. Add to that short drizzles make it more wonderful. (Though we had rains following us the day before). RS and BK were skeptical that the lorry we saw the previous day was the victim of football playing by elephant and wanted to rush through the jungle. Also, finally thankfully we could see 2 elephants and few deers otherwise we should have been satisfied with the views of only wild dogs.

We reached Mysore, early enough to do something , late enough not to continue our travel. Due to the program of last day of Janmastami and because it was Sunday, the palace was lightedWaynad/Wayanad_279.jpg. Few more clicks, search for hotel, dinner and sleep. Two days were over.

Get up early morning, stop at Coffee day for a short break, cruise towards Bangalore, hoping that RS and SK would be able to reach office.

Nbk constantly planned, re-planned, routed and re-routed (sometimes with the help of the knowledge of Kilometers obtained from the locals). He constantly renamed the places too! Nbk Waynad/Wayanad_116.jpgalso managed Djing. RSWaynad/Wayanad_117.jpg posed for photos most of the time and deleted the photo for which he did not pose (that is not being sporty and RS, I will never forgive you for this). RS also drove superbly enjoying himself as much as we did. SKWaynad/Wayanad_105.jpg, along with directing and re-directing the routes, planned for the future restaurant, cut cool jokes, talked about his job and kept his cool despite the changing schedules (which would affect most to only him). I, enjoyed most of it, (along with making NTS), feeling bad for my contribution to upset the schedule, maintaining accounts and calculations, and experimenting Waynad/40f7.jpg with camera and clicking away the picsWaynad/Wayanad_167.jpg.

Thanks guys for hanging on with the tour. Where next and when ?
Selected Photos

I have lived in Bangalore and now staying in Chennai. During my recent visit to Hyderabad, without intent to do so, I drew up few comparisons and conclusions. Here it is:
(If I say A is good and don’t mention about B there it means B is bad or pathetically bad. And vice versa).
Auto:
For Chennai I have a simple thumb rule. Bargain for 1/3rd of the initial quote of the driver. At the maximum agree for 1/2. The problem is non-existence of meters. They demand like crazy without any justification or logic. Hyderabad and Bangalore are lucky for that matter, with meters available and decent enough drivers.
Another tip I would like to give while taking auto either in Hyderabad or Chennai is : Once you sit inside auto, hold the auto firmly for safety and close eyes and pray God. At least you pray during this time, you can pray for your health and safe journey. Even if you don’t want to pray, keep your eyes closed - to avoid heart missing beats due shock. Dear Bangalore auto drivers, you are worse compared to other drivers in Bangalore. But thank God, you don’t yet know how bad can you still get.

Bus:
Frequency/Connectivity looked good in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Cost wise Chennai wins marginally. Crowded factor leaves Bangalore and next Hyderabad lot more likable.

Cost of living:
For food and accommodation, Chennai wins. Hyderabad is no less cheaper than Bangalore.
(Let me not go into the variety of food available because any normal veg food is ok for me and all are good at it. Hyd is supposedly good for non-veg.)

Pedestrians:
You do not exist in Hyderabad. If you can cross roads in Hyderabad you can cross any obstacles in life.
You are more important than vehicles in Bangalore. So you shall obstruct the vehicles on road which are helpless anyways.
Thankfully Chennai has a good balance among vehicles and pedestrians. There are available good number of subways and most of the civilized people use them.

Language:
Hyderabad has this unique switch language mode. If you request to change the switch, people would change the language to Hindi (or Telugu) even from a mid sentence! Hindi language eases the entry of outsiders.
Bangalore is out of race. Here there are multiple switches for all important languages: English,Tamil, Telugu,Hindi and sometimes Kannada. (When I get out of railway station in either Chennai or Bangalore, I won’t know the difference because I am spoken to in Tamil at both places.)

Traffic:
The vehicle density is more in Bangalore. In adhering to rules dept, Bangalore and Chennai are good. Chennai because of a stricter Police. It is total chaos at traffic junctions in Hyderabad even with the Police watching it. Lane rules etc are mostly followed quite well in Hyd.

Roads:
This is one place where Bangalore fails miserably. It is out of comparison. Hyderabad, Chennai both have good and durable concrete roads but Hyd wins easily what with cleaner, wide roads and plenty of flyovers.

The traffic is bound to go bad in big cities. It is all in how it is handled.

Climate:
Bangalore is again out of comparison, this time because it is heavenly in Bangalore and other two places fight out to prove which can get more hotter.

All these are not on the fly comparison after 2 day visit, but includes accumulated facts and opinions.

Theory is when you know something, but it doesn’t work.
Practice is when something works, but you don’t know why.
Programmers combine theory and practice:
Nothing works and they don’t know why .

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