Lightning Crashes - LIVE

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door


lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for
the angel opens her eyes
pale blue colored iris,
presents the circle
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

Kaun Banega Crorepati - The death of the Quizmaster

It is not my wish to say that we Indians have lost our sight of what is good and what is bad, but definitely have lost sight of what differentiates intellect from 'tamasha' (roadside drama). I had cursed the media barons and the human needs of money; when the iconic Amitabh Bachchan appeared on
Kaun Banega Crorepati to host it. As Shobha De had rightly quoted, it was death of the class that we always had maintained for our heroes on the big screen. But Amitabh Bachchan driven by his lust and love for more money and fame, bent on knees to host this show. However, one thing good about him was that his father was Harivanshrai Bachchan . So, he had a wonderful diction, an aura of class and magnetic intellect that caused no harm to the dignity of a quiz master. From our younger days, the work that Derek O'Brien and Siddhartha Basu had done was retained by Amitabh. Quiz as was and as should be was a mind-game full of thrill and nerves.

But that was not all. When Amitabh Bachchan came down to the TV, it was a slap on the face of the Indian Film Industry and death of their dignity; when Shanrukh Khan came to Kaun Banega Crorepati, it was the death of the words - dignity and intellect from the quiz. Not only has Shahrukh insulted the chair of a quiz master, he has also made it clear that he does not think twice when he sees an oppurtunity to earn money. I was totally ashamed to see his non-sensical, undignified and commonplace way of presenting the quiz. He tries to be more street like, boy next door who feels the pinch of nervousness. But thats not what a Quizmaster is supposed to do. Shahrukh has made a mockery of the quiz and himself. No wonder the TRP ratings are falling for the show. It would be the greatest day in the history of Quizzing when this show is actually taken off-air.

Plush - Stone Temple Pilots

And I feel that times a wasted go
So where ya going to tomorrow?
And I see that these are lies to come
Would you even care?

And I feel it
And I feel it

Where ya going for tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?

And I feel, so much depends on the weather
So is it raining in your bedroom?
And I see, that these are the eyes of disarray
Would you even care?

And I feel it
And she feels it

Where ya going to tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?

When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it

Where ya going for tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?

When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
To find it
To find it
To find it

It's All Right - No Excuses

www.googleresult.com

Its alright
There comes a time
Got no patience to search
For peace of mind
Layin low
Want to take it slow
No more hiding or
Disguising truths Ive sold

Everyday its something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin by myself
No excuses, then I know

Its okay
Had a bad day
Hands are bruised from
Breaking rocks all day
Drained and blue
I bleed for you
You think its funny, well
Youre drowning in it too

Everyday its something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin by myself
No excuses, then I know

Yeah, its fine
Well walk down the line
Leave our rain, a cold
Trade for warm sunshine
You my friend
I will defend
And if we change, well i
Love you anyway

Everyday its something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin by myself
No excuses, then I know

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

Farecast - Scaling new heights

Indeed I am not on a spree to make too many review blogs for websites but this one has to be there.
Being a frequent traveller, I have a great need for good deals for air tickets and that led me to commercial websites like www.orbitz.com , www.expedia.com and www.travelocity.com. However, there was always this thought that whether this is the best deal or not. Talking to people... never helped. I do not want to be too critical at this point about the 'desis' in US, this is not what this blog is about. Both me and my wife have a good habit of reading. Since newspaper subscription is of a more expensive option in US, we have opted for the weekly Time.

It was in this magazine that we came across about this great website www.farecast.com
Farecast - the twist from the word 'forecast', is the most sophisticated airfares website that I have explored ever. The website if already on the 'look-out' list for orbitz and travelocity. Farecast has a very sensible algorithm.
It gives you multiple options for chosing fare. However, what stands out is the 'buy-or-wait' feature.

What 'buy-or-wait' means is that for any dates of travel that you choose, the website will give you the best fares available across airlines and then would tell you whether it is a good time to purchase the tickets at that best fare or not. There are mutliple slabs for this decision making - the lowest being 'BUY' i.e. the fare will increase in the next 7 days so it is the best time to buy the tickets and the highest being 'WAIT' i.e. the fare will decrease in the enxt 7 days. It has multiple intermediate levels of confidence that help to determine what are the chances of fares going up or down. This is backed up something called 'Confidence'. The website gives a confidence level in its prediction that the fare will go down/up. It would give numbers like 100% confident, 82%, 60% so and so forth.

Another interesting feature is the rate chart for the last 62 days. This gives you a fair idea of what the lowest rate was in the last 62 days and makes (at least for me) decision making even more interesting.

In addition, the webiste does feature if any additional miles would be attained if the tickets are bought from a particular airlines on a given date.

One feature that can be found in other websites is about the date grids where the predictore will tell you what are the best travle dates for any destinations. This feature is available in many other sites so did not appeal to me much.

On the whole, www.farecast.com has re-defined the rules for online air ticketing.
Way to go.... farecast!

IBN Live - Reliving Indian Journalism

This article is in no way a marketeer for the website www.ibnlive.com but it surely is about my personal observations about this great website. IBN Live is the result when CNN shook hands with one of greatest icons of modern Indian journalism - Rajdeep Sardesai. I happen to be a fan of Rajdeep from his initial days in NDTV. He is not only astute, smart and confident in thoughts but also extremely articulate in his thoughts. Probably he realised that he cannot surpass Dr. Roy on NDTV, so moved on. But what a great move!!!!

Although I hear that there is a news TV channel as well by the same name, my current geographical constraints have restricted me to savour the internet part of this initiative. I had been a devoted follower of http://www.ndtv.com/ until my room-mate from Mysore sent a blog from this IBN Live. Thanks Nanda for that.IBN Live is fresh, intriguing, sensational, commercial and rational in news. Some of the true characteristics that are needed to portray the image of new India. The website has realization of brand building and brand equity. It keeps most sensational news as the main item of the page and rest of the news is easily searchable. Knowing that you cannot have a sensational news everyday, the editors keep a topic/article of mass appeal always ready that forces you to spend more time on the website.

Some may disagree that the website does too much of masala news and is too commercial in approach. At times you are given unnecessary news articles on Bachchans and Khans of the film industry. But its when this feeling starts to grow that this website demonstrates its greatest strength - the free flow of thought. At any point of time when the front page is all gaga about some celebrity or some burning issue, the blog section will have an article from an expert that diffuses this notion. Take the example of Big B coverage, it was delightful to see that the front page had both - a poll of who is better star icon SRK or Big B and a blog by Jha 'Kaun Banega Conpati'. While the poll talks about the greatness of Amitabh Bachchan and his star power, Jha gives a final verdict through his plausible scribblings that Big B is nothing more than a fad and a hypocrite. I was just too delighted to find both these links side by side. And this is not just by chance, if you are a devout follower of this website then you can see that it is an intentional proposition.Now, comparing the two comaprable websites - www.NDTV.com and www.IBNLIVE.com, I find that both have their own style and appeal. NDTV relies on pure journalism. It is terse, simple and very direct in news reporting. The website is non-glamorous. It gives all the information that you can live with on the front page. On the contrary, IBN LIVE as I said earlier, is more commercial yet thought provoking.

I feel too delighted to be able to witness this great mix of journalism at the click of my mouse.

The frame of Time

Indeed it has been a long enough for me to think and then pour all that I have stored in my mind. Alas, as always you stumble and then you fumble with words.... however, it is important to realise the importance of Time. I had always wondered on how this amazing concept of Time occurred to the mankind. It is this that has changed everything around us or at least is in process of changing NOW and will FOREVER. Many times I wonder that the moment that is now is not going to happen again ever.... never... WOW!!! It is the great concept which has put the entire human race into a never-ending rat race. Unfortunately, this rat race is against the driver of it. Its like the boggey trying to overtake the engine of a train.... it is this race of time. It was not long ago when I was just out of my college. All my veins has young blood and I was out to venture out the world.... to conquer it. But today when I stand 4 years from then, I feel the same... lot is still left and lot is being created. And I end up in this quest of how to beat up time.

Of course, this article is turning into banal. Of course, what I am saying is what all of us feel. But I really wonder what if this concept was different. Say instead of time being a constant forward concept, was like a can of milk. It would reduce after you start pouring out of it and will eventually end. Then you have to refill it. It is indeed difficult to imagine how things would be from what they are... more so what are very significant but commonplace for us. But one thing is for sure that the ongoing rat race would be split into smaller portions till the 'time-potions' end. Another interesting aspect could have been the way the trade was done. Say we could trade in and trade out these 'time-cans'. The one with the maximum number of these cans would be the richest person.... for he will have all the time in the world for his use.

Ideas - Running short of them

Ideas are a funny thing. You always run out of them when you need them most.For me more so when I decide to pen them down... whether on a piece of paper or in notepad.So there have been millions of times when I have decided to write out something that I struggle harder to come up with the idea. More so with the words to articulate it. Initially I thought that if I take up this new hobby in the world called 'Blogging' then I may be better off to put my thoughts out. But darn!!! I struggle more here.Anyways, for the last 2 weeks I have been trying to come up with any idea for which I am committed enough to write a blog on. Ideas and thoughts are like butterflies... they fly away before you can catch them. And sometimes you dont know and you just chase them out. Its strange though that you get the most of the ideas when you are away from any means of recoding them. My mind is most fertile while I am riding a bus or driving a car or many a times in the bathroom. Thats when these grey cells actually start running in all directions generating the ideas that I always would like to put into this forum. And that my friend is the real problem. When creativity is let to go out in the playground i.e when your creativity is not murdered by your desire; is when it is the most productive. But then we live in a plastic world. I remember one of the recent songs from the grunge rock icon 'Pearl jam' where the poet, Eddie, has beautifully defined the entire process of the clipping of your wings from youth into the more mundane lifestyle.... just by a sleight of hand.Indeed just by a sleight of hand.As I progress even in this text, millions and millions of thoughts are flowing through my mind. Difficult is a small word.... it is indeed impossible for tapping all these thoughts and present here. How I wonder now... it is even more difficult to write out a book in a 'time-frame' with a subject and a story and to avoid all that you have read and heard.I know the flow for this text is swaying... its out of my hand... but then thats what it is intended to be like. Just flow....
With the falling reading habits and growing browsing habits, my mind is getting more used to infer from images than to actually imagine. It is this what is going to be a bigger problem that I would need to counter from now. We are getting more adaptive to the images than the text. We are more comfortable writing e-mails than charting out essays. We have transformed our creativity in a more business-relevant form. So what is the escape from this? This is an evolution and we may not need to transform... may be it is an adaptation that we have willingly accepted. Dont know whether this makes any sense... but this is here... probably to stay!

My First Blog

Heard about the word 'Blog' from an intermittent exchange of mails from one of my college juniors. When he told me that in spare time he writes his blogs.... came to know later that Microsoft uses it for getting new ideas. Big consultancy firms use it for new change in the way business goes. Then came to know that it is not just confined to that arena. Blogs are to be found on food, politics, music, movies.... you name it you have a blog for it. So what does a blog actually mean? Well, it is just a web log of yours. You can say an internet diary or an open forum for putting your voice. It is a new tool to enhance you capability to share ideas. Yes ideas..... With blogs and other such tools, internet has become a huge bank for ideas. You can share views, create networks and get connected to long lost friends hrough this one huge shop - just a click away. Bloggers have there say in everything. (Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog for some interesting gyan on this.)

Interestingly, it has become a new tool for revolutionising. But there is a darker side to it as well.

TIME Magazine came up with a cover story about how children are getting more and more wired. The new kids on the block (...not blog) have great multi-tasking capabilties. Although all related to the world of communication. They can listen to music, IM and browse all at the same time. So much so that they can IM with 6 persons in one go without mixing messages. They are so deeply involved in this huge pool of data that they even do not have an eye-contact with their parents for the entire evening. They probably do no need anything else for survival. Shall we say that Internet has created a new world of its own?

Getting back to the blog. Well, I am not sure whether I will be pursuing this new thing for long but to start off it certainly is exciting for me. What I like most about it is the freedom to express your views which others can see! Now you need not be a great achiever to be heard. You need a blog.... If you market yourself well enough then there will be a bee-line behind you. Blogs give you an exposure to criticism which you may not get otherwise. It creates for you a huge learning ground to enhance your inter-personnal skills and helps you to realise your hidden potentials. However, this comes with a caveat that you may be exposed to the sharpest criticism which may be difficult to digest.
Lets see how I proceed from here!
To all fellow bloggers - Enjoy blogging :-)