Tribute-14th Sep 09

Poem for the best person I have ever known, the most genuine, the most respectable, the most impartial, the most professional, the most loving, the most caring, the most loyal , the most concerned, the most sacrificing, the best smile, the most encouraging, the most uplifting, and the list goes on endlessly. He was my dad-- Dr KM Mahajan .

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-- W. H. Auden

MakeMytrip.com First experience

It was a great Friday evening and I had to leave for home, I had a train to catch the train at 2230 hours. And I was in the midst of planning a trip to Pondicherry and I checked a number of travel packages during the day and found the MMT (Make my trip) package for Pondicherry as the best one. So I customized the package on the website and called MMT for the booking. The executive who picked up the phone told me that the package is being shown on the website for 28516/- but actually its 31516/- , I asked that why is that so? She told me that the flight PNRs in the 28516/- are in waiting. Pheww...that was news for me , I had heard that the waiting PNRs were there with the Indian railways only. It was news for me that airlines have started to have waiting PNRs. So I told her ,"Thanks a lot!!!" , I would go for the waiting PNR from the website itself.

And I filled all the details , chose the flight of my choice and was in the process of filling me credit card details when my phone rings and there she is , the MMT girl. Its already 800 PM and she says, "Sir I talked to my manager and he is telling me that you would be able to get the same price on phone too, so please if you have not booked already , book the package from me." I said, "Ok, its not a problem for me as long as I get the package I want at the price I think is right." So I gave a go ahead to her.

From here starts the nightmare. She says now , "I have a cab in 5 minutes , so please give me your credit card number and the other details" . Owing to my good judgment and the newspaper ads of the increasing number of frauds on the internet, I refused to give my card details on the phone. I told her that , " Mam you can confirm the booking , and I can pay tomorrow , if you are getting late for home, I dont want you to miss your cab". She says, "No sir , I have to complete the booking till the payment step right now." I say, "Ok, if that is the case then you have to transfer me to the IVR system and I will dial my card number and details only in the secured IVR" , she tries to Please sir me , but I dont give in to the pleas and I am adamant to enter the card number only on the IVR.

So here she goes , I confirm her three times that I want the morning flight for 710 AM on the day of travelling and at 2010 on the day of return and I wanted a XYZ hotel during the time of my stay there. And she confirms my choices twice and transfers me to the IVR, urging me to hurry up. Something goes wrong and the IVR system disconnects. She again puts me on and IVR confirms the transaction.

And off I go to home tension free and happy that my trip has been made by make my trip. I go home check my mail and to my astonishment the flight that was to be booked for 710 AM has been booked for 1640 PM. Shit!!!! Whats this, I pick up my phone and call the toll free MMT number and inform about this mistake. I am told that ,"Dont worry sir, if you had demanded for the 710 AM flight, we will re-listen to your conversation with the executive and your booking would be changed without you being charged anything." I think thats fair enough. This thing has already started to spoil my weekend fun at home as my mood goes sour.

I make 3 calls the next day and I am told that I would be getting a call by 200 PM. Then I get the extension of Miss MMT who booked my package and she admits that she booked the flight for 700AM. But as she checks what mistake she has done, she gets sheepish and tells me call would be heard and things changed to what you demanded, I tell her , " Mam atleast your dont go to this stuff, you just admitted that the flight was for 700AM" . She tells, " I will call you at 200PM and inform me you what happened."

Bingo, here she called me up at 200PM and now she starts "Sir, I will have to bear a Rs 1500/- loss from my side, so I have some proposition for you, that you take a cab from Chennai to Pondicherry (110 Kms) and it will cost you Rs 5000/- (are you joking me, 5000 for 110 Kms , I dont think I am going to take a Merc)." I tell her, " Sorry , I have already arranged the cab, you please change my flight and I dont know who is charged Rs 1500/-" , She tells me " I would have to use my own credit card to change the flight and then you would be asked for the card by the airline at the time of boarding and you would not have it", I tell her , "No, I have made many flight bookings and changed many too for my brother and none of the airlines have asked for a card anytime , or you can send me a scanned copy of your card to me and I will not misuse it" , She says, "sorry I can't do that". I tell her ,"Ok , I will use my card , but you transfer the 1500/- to my account or credit it to my card." She tells "Let me talk to my manager". Hold ...... She come back and tells" Sir, the amount of 1500/- would be credited to your account, but change the ticket right now, No more than 1500/- would be credited." I tell her to drop me a mail confirming this ,from her official ID. Here comes the mail and here i change the flight booking.

The nightmare has still now ended.Next day I find out that the hotel that has been booked for me for two nights in Chennai and that too for 15 days in advance of my 4 day journey to Pondicherry. Then again the same story, your call would be heard and changes made. My stay in the home stands spoiled big time and I am visiting home after 6 months. But eventually 2 days later, the changes are made. And I think its been a bad experience with MMT, but the nightmare is yet not over.

Next Saturday, when I am again having fun in a waterpark near Delhi, I receive another call from MMT, saying that your money has not been received for the booking. Your card has not been charged, so you need to give the card details again to me on phone. Owing to my good judgement, which I used earlier too, I declined to give any card details on phone. I told her to drop an email from the official ID and since I am out of station I would talk to my bank and then pay the amount tomorrow. She says , "It ok , but please dont delay the payment much or your booking might stand cancelled." Again fun spoiled.
Next day , I reach home and the first thing I do is call my bank. They tell me that the transaction has been already setlled and the money transferred to MMT and give me the Authorization code for the same too. I call back MMT and inform them the same. They forward this to the Accounts department and tell me to wait for another day. Another day of suspense, I urge them not to cancel my booking as the amount has already been debited from my credit card.

Then finally next day, on Monday, I receive a call from MMT that we have received your payment and have cleared this booking. Pheww !!! finally after blowing away two of my fun weekends and giving me 7-8 grey hairs , finally I got the booking I was so close to doing myself and would have saved myself from such a sarcastic adventure. I have still to go on the journey and I hope MMT does not have a fourth nightmare in store for me. Its been an inexplicably horrible first experience with MMT. I even told the last caller to give me something complimentary, but to no avail. The answer was, " Thanks for your patience sir and have a great trip."

So here is my account of my first experience with MMT. Do tell me what you think of this. :)

Transformers 2

I saw Transformers 2 this Saturday. I loved the movie as against the many bad reviews I read about the movie before going to the theater. The transformation of machines was amazing, I loved the Major transformation+combination which takes place in Egypt, and 5-6 cranes and trucks combine into a major machine which climbs the Pyramid later on.

The movie had a great satisfaction index for the graphics and special effects it bundled. Megan Fox was awesome. And the new twist of a Decepticon who is good at his mechanical heart was a welcome one. Bumblebee was a good boy as usual and Megan fox was hot as usual.

Transformers III would be there was also clear from the ending, I am waiting for the next part from now onwards....

Ice Age was amazing

I saw the movie IceAge3 -Dawn of the Dinosaurs today. I just loved the movie and infact I love the entire IceAge series.This one had the very cute and cuddly Dinosaur kids and that too T-rex. As opposed to all the Dinosaur movies I have ever watched, Jurassic park et all, this one had the cutest T-rex puppies I ever saw. It also had a cute Mammoth kid, though his role was quite less, but he was darn cute.

And as usual Sid was at his alltime best and the nut chasing squirrel too had a quite extensive role in this one. Overall the movie had me laughing all through the end. The animation was worth a work of art and I would surely praise that. The movie kept me interested from the beginning till the end, I would term it as a must watch. 9 on 10 from my side. I especially loved the part which had Sid with the T-rex kids and the part where the new character(Buck) comes into picture and shows his acrobatics. I also loved the part where all start laughing after inhaling the toxic fumes.

The best action sequence in this one was the saving of Sid from the huge T-rexed Crocodirlized dinosaur Rudie. Though I surely missed the pop corn during the interval because of long lines on the pop corn counters. I didnt want to miss 5 seconds of the movie because of pop-corn :).

I was planning to see this movie on a DVD, but now I think that it was great that I decided to see it on the big screen. I would have loved to watch this one in 3D, missed having a 3D preview of the movie anywhere near my city.

Never say "I can't"

I re-viewed the movie Spirit- The Stallion of Cimmaron recently. The movie has amazing powers and makes you think twice, "Is it justified to always take the easier path in life?". Its a marvelously directed and animated movie, which can be inspirational to one and all. And to best that it has an amazing sound track, with Bryan Adam in the lead singer role. I don't think there would be anybody not moved into the "Do not give up attitude" after seeing that movie.

We generally have a tendency to give up when things start becoming tough and don't lie in our comfort zones. But those are the times when we really need to put our best foot forward and not let the adversities to pull us down and stop us from achieving our most cherished goals in life.
And not only this, there is another clear message in the movie, that however far you may go and however great friend you might meet in life, its the Home and the family that are the final goals of one's life. Its the friends you make when you are younger that last for the life time and those who actually worry about you being happy. And there is also a message that don't give in to any kinds of pressure against your will and don't let your superiority complexes or misunderstandings blind you from recognizing your true friends.

I just love the movies that have a message and relate to stories about not giving up, a few of them are Million Dollar Baby, Cinderella Man and Pursuit of Happyness. I feel truly motivated after watching a movie in the league of the above mentioned movies. I feel all accomplished people have had their struggle periods at some point in life and every successful person needs to go through this grinding and churning process to be what they become. We see only the rosy picture, but we tend to ignore what they have gone through to change the bed of thorns ,to the bed of roses without the thorns. We must focus on the struggle these people go through and learn from that and move ahead towards success in our lives.

The Failure called The Tiger Project

I was watching a documentary on Animal Planet yesterday. It was based on the infamous Tiger project of India. The project was started to save the National Animal of India , the Tiger. The Tigers and leopards have been indiscriminately hunted across India for meagre profits and for using their skins to complete the dresses of some idiotic Tibetian tribals. 

I dont understand that how small profits can lead to clean up and entire population of such majestic animals. I was really take aback by the insensitivity of the Indian authorities towards the issue. People like Raghu have dedicated their entire lives to fight the authorities to allow them to save the Tiger. But the government is not willing to help the volunteers too, atleast help them if you cannot do anything yourself. I firmly believe after seeing yesterday's documentary that anything is possible in this country due to its corruption. 

I visited Sariska three months back and we could not see a single tiger in one of the India's largest tiger reserves. The keeper told us that they are bringing a tigress and a tiger from some other tiger reserve to start the population of tigers again. But till 2005 there were a claimed 3o tigers in Sariska , but now there are none. Its an apathy that the authorities instead of saving the tiger ,helped the hunters to kill them. One of the arrested hunters told how he had made a tree house to kill the tigers and how he lay traps to lure the tigers and shoot them in the head to kill them. And the most amazing this is that the biggest know dealer of the skins to china and tibet lives right under the government's nose in Delhi, the capital of our great country. His name is Sansaar Chand and he was first convicted in 1982, but he roamed scot free on bail till 2005 only to be captured , after he had reduced the Indian tiger population from 4500 to 1000. What was the government doing to save the tiger? The answer is nothing , it were helping to kill the tiger by not executing people like Sansar Chand, I feel such people's skins should be peeled off and that also when they are alive. I urge the Indian government and law to become stricter while there is still time or some day , like Sariska, none of the national parks would have a single tiger in them. 

I feel really bad for the tigers and even worse for the shape this country's politicians are in. I can urge my fellow friends to not but anything that has tiger bones, teeth or Skin in it. Indians need to change their way of thinking from "Why should Ialone do it, everyone is doing it so I would also". It starts from a single person. I follow some rules myself , like not littering or spitting on the streets and I believe small things make big difference and mind you this is what your children will learn from you and its your moral responsibility to help them become the best citizens of the country. Only when the thinking of Indian people would change , can the country progress actually on the path of development. Development is not all about economic development, its also about mental development and thinking of the citizens of a country. 

Arrogancy comes with visibility

I recently had an indirect experience of how visibility can hatch Arrogance in a person, my brother was traveling to Chandigarh from Delhi and on the bus a girl was sitting besides him, he has the habit of talking to people in a friendly way. So , he asks her ,"What do you do?" , she says "You might be knowing me, I am Roop from Roadies" and my bro being a hosteller where they dont watch TV that much, said " This year's or the last year's"  and the fuse goes off in the roadie mind. :) and she must be thinking at this point of time , that how can this guy not know me. And then off she goes to sleep and does not talk to my bro for the rest of the journey.
What I have generally seen in life is that as and when people gain visibility and recognition in some or the other way, be it a public recognition as in a TV show or a professional recognition as a out of place promotion, they tend to become arrogant as and when they climb up and up the ladder. The higher they climb the more arrogant they become.
This is a natural phenomenon or the manifestation of one's mind is something that can be debated upon, but I think that it happens to everyone its just the degree that varies.
I hope I dont lose my poise and calm as I move up the ladder in my life.

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Take down target of 40

I have been playing across Burnout Paradise lately. In the beginning it feels boring but now as the game has progressed , I like driving on the streets of paradise city.The most favorite of all races is the Road rage where you need to take down your opponent's cars by tailgating them, hitting them from the side, throwing them in the way of incoming traffic or just grinding them against the wall. There is another one called Marked man , that is the one I least like.

The most amazing experience is when the car is totalled and is shown in a majestic slow motion of flying glass shards, parts and wheels coming off the suspension. Every car has a unique accident experience, the faster the car the better the visual is.

I am most pissed off when I take the last turn before winning the race as a wrong one or the car gets totalled by a car which was thrown in my path by the following car. I dont like the Paradise Bikes section though as much as I like the cars section. Have just got 37 out of the 75 cars in my garage till now.

One thing that I dont like about the gaming experience is the lack of good navigation as the NFS games have. There is no colored marker line on the streets warning the driver of the oncoming turn. :( and the only thing left to rely is the car's indicator lights ,which usually start blinking at the last moment causing the driver to mostly total his car :) ....

Everything apart, the game play is great, the super jumps are good looking and the accident visuals are amazing. I hope and will continue to play the game till the end. I am planning to start playing GTA IV next week and hope I dont leave BP midway as I get engrossed into playing my new game.

Happy playing.

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Have time will write

I have been thinking lately , how lazy I have been not writing on my blog for ages now.
I am thinking of continuing with "What I think" series yet again and I hope I will be able to justify myself by keeping up with writing regularly on the blog.

I did start my twitter http://twitter.com/adityamahajan ...recently ..will keep up with both of these now ....

Just watched Star trek today, old memories of the TV series came to life in my mind. I was a die hard fan of Star Trek back then ...though not of the Vulcans... :)

It was overall a nice movie with good special effects. But I am more hopeful and am waiting to watch The Terminator Salvation, GI-Joe and the Transformers.

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Goa

I went to Goa this new year and the trip was a really a cool one. The trip made me believe that Goa is not all about the hype created around the place , it lives up to the hype on many counts.
Due to late bookings ,merely a week before we landed in Goa , the hotel choice was not much great for me, so I had to put up in South Goa on the Colva Beach in a decent hotel.
As a beach, Colva is a clean and beautiful beach to spend quality time peacefully. Calengoot ,a beach in the north of Goa, is the place where the party is. My companion for the trip to Goa was my lovely wife. Both of us enjoyed the beaches and the parties in Goa in the Christmas and the new year week.

In Colva , our favorite hangout was the Boomerang Beach shack and on Calengoot it was the beach shacks (too many of them in a single line) and the Titos and Mamboos discs. We had a lot of fun in the day we spent in Calengoot partying all night . The street food in Calengoot is awesome and we tried a number of outlets for some of the great things they had to offer. When in Goa, we also went to the picturesque churches of Goa. The architecture of the buildings is quite beautiful and awe inspiring. The weather is lovely at that time of the year making the trip all the more enjoyable. We also went to see the famous Aguada fort, and also enjoyed a boat cruise which started on the uphill climb which you had to take to reach the fort. On the boat ride we came across the Indian Millionaire Vijay Mallya's personal Yatch ,"The Indian Empress". When I saw that boat ,the sight was enough to instill in me the belief that owning one's own private yatch is an awesome thing. A nice dream to have :).

We also participated in a few water sports which included water scooter ride and a dolphin finding boat ride. The favorite thing to do was running in the shallow waters on the beach. Its so much fund when your legs cut through the shallow waters and the water splashes all over you. Its just the smell of freedom which makes you even forget the bitter taste of that salty sea water. Its best ,that, when on a beach enjoy the moment there and then and let all your thoughts wait for the time your are having fun in the beach.

The taxi drivers are also interesting folks to interact with in places which are tourist attractions, they always have a lot of stories to tell. We also met two such drivers in Goa. There were a lot of foreign tourists in Goa and it was great to see them enjoying the beaches and cuisines as much as we do. Goa is a relatively safe place to walk around in late night without worrying about being robbed or otherwise having to face problems one faces when in a metro city like New Delhi. We enjoyed this part of Goa and took advantage with walks at 200 AM in the night :) .
The sea food in Goa is awesome , I had a lot of fishes when in Goa. The Goan cuisine preparation is also delightful. The fish is frehs so one enjoys it all the more with the soft and supple meat.

All in all, the trip was all fun and left great memories when back to work in Delhi.

Cars (The movie)

I saw the movie today , its awesome to see the levels of details Pixar has captured in the animations. The characters have been so typically potrayed that the movie is a must watch for all alike, whether you like cars or not.

For me there were various reasons , cars being my second love in life and my biggest life. The way the story unfolds is quite fascinating and the movie is surely a seat gluer. The concept was completely new and fascinating. The races are very lively and the effect of the crowd of cars cheering with their headlights was one of the many moments at which I praised the imagination of the Pixar guys. A must watch is something I would like to summarize this in.

There was a kind of hidden fear following me today as I went around places ,be it to the movie , be it to eat something , in the light of the terror threats to the national capital. Sometimes , I pity and loathe these bastards who want to disrupt normal life by their un-wanted acts (be it anywhere in the world), making the lives of many a people miserable. I think its high time India should take some concrete steps to curb the acts of terror against the country. I am fine with the image of India as never the "First Attacker" , but there is a limit to which things should be tolerated. The culprits should be executed according to me. With the Indian economy on its full bloom the intentions of those responsible also flourish like bamboo shoots. Rather than living in the boulevard of broken dreams , hearts and hopes , its better to live in the gardenia of peace.

"Bludgeon has never led to something conclusive , but cowardice has always manifested enemies" but Enough is enough...

The Dead man's Chest

I have been itching to write about this since last Sunday , thats the time I watched this movie.
If I give my opinion, I just loved the movie inside-out. I had gone with a lot of perceptions in my mind ,as to what will be the sequel of such a good predecessor to it The Black Pearl will be like?

But to my mind's creative satisfaction , I found the successor to be equally good and better involving than even its predecessor. I just loved the special effects Disney has gone all out to potray in the movie. Davy Jones is simply awesome nad its a movie not to be watched on the television , but on the big screen , if you really wanna enjoy the beauty of the creativity flowing abundantly in the movie.
Though I got the third row from the front ,but still I can say , I enjoyed watching the movie better then many which I have watched in the 3rd row from the back :) . Captain Jack fully lived upto his expectations and he is still the favorite with that RUM bottle never parting from him and Keira is looking very beautifuk (though this time she does not have much of a role to play).
The sea monster , I would say , could not have been better. The tentacles so life like and the aura so frightening. Davy Jone's sailors have had the best makeup artists in Hollywood , maybe. But. in one word , the make up work was applaudable. The movie has had some of the best Film sets lately.

The ending of the movie was equally mysterious and has me already waiting for the sequel. I heard though ,that both this one and its sequel were shot parallely and that the new movie will be out by winter. Its a good news if its true. This time Captain Borbossa has to show his magic moves and one of the biggest questions is , after the Black pearl gone , what will take them to the other end of the earth , they have to tread to find Captain Jack.
I would just say that if you have not seen the movie yet , "Go watch it !!!"

The eye of the beholder

Did a lot of shopping over the weekend , ohh!! the power of money; its so difficult to resist the lure of buying something that pleases the eye of the beholder (which is me in this case).

A very good channel called Travel and Living (courtsey Discovery Channel), showcases some of the most beautiful houses , vacation homes , vacation destinations and a lot of eating places across the world. I just love to watch the channel , the columbus in me pushing and urging me to do something which will enable me to start a new journey of discovery across the beautiful world. I wish I could be so lucky to be able to depart on such a journey.

I have become the Unix doctor here, cometh any problem in the lab I am called upon to be an angel in disguise and solve the glitch. Am just installing a solaris remotely, watching the monotonous progress of the task bar which is moving at a slow rate of 1% /30sec perhaps. The stomach is growling , hungry for a byte or rather a full dinner.

Will write more!!!

Why am I confused?

The legions of confusion are ruling my head these days.. I don't know what direction should I shoot the arrow in to hit the Eye of the target or rather What my target is ?
Sometimes I wish life was simple enough to make some sense of it , but the truth is that it gets complicated as the days pass and the years get added up.

There are invisible responsibilities , expectations and some not called for duties which you have to perform sometimes by wish and sometimes by will , though the former is a seldom affair. And now, what the heaven , I am confused as to what should I write on. Ahh!!! Here is the answer , write anything.

A week ago Honda Civic was launched in India , I really am in love with the car , but when I shuffle my pockets only some coins fall out , when I compare my money to the cost that car is. But man!! It sure is dammn sexy, sometimes I think "Hey!!! When will you drive this car?" with the state of the art Honda fly by wire system , shifting the gears from the steering wheel itself. Ahh!!! What a beautiful dream... someday it might come true is all that crosses my mind after the cat of though crosses my mind.

I am still on the lookout for something that makes me love what I am doing , I wish I find that something soon enough and that day , I would say that life has a meaning.The thin lines between individuality and crowd has started vanishing somewhere for me, it was a visible one earlier. I am perhaps successfully bitten by the fangs of procrastination... I am finding the anti-venom , the cure , I wish it was that easy with the poison now adoring every single blood cell in my body.
Lets see how things work out , I will surely be able to kill this monster eventually. "HAHAHA " the knight in shining armor inside my head laughs, he says "Dont worry , we will together defeat this beast" ...and I give sigh of relief and continue with the ongoing , prolonged and seemingly never ending battle with my worse enemy ..."My Mind" ..let the battle continue and be waged till the mind is conquered by its master.

I think I am back

I have been away from my blog for a long time now... My writing instincts , I thought, had started failing me. But then I thought ,thought and thought and came to a conclusion that I should resume writing.There were perhaps a lot of varied reasons or I could say excuses for not writing this long, but now I think I should and would be continuous in writing to this blog.

A lot of things have changed since the time , I wrote the last entry on this blog (though I had been visiting the blog time and again). I got my laptop is the most obvious change I notice , as the keyboard is the primary instrument to fill all this space over here. ;)

The world for me is on the roll and things are going on at a pace , perhaps not according to my liking. The weekends go fine with some rest and movies at times. Though its been long since I have seen some good movie. I am waiting for the Pirates of the Caribbean to be captivating now. Superman was a disappointment , its been made too longish to be an action movie. Instead Spiderman was better, in the sense that it was short and interesting as a mini skirt ..hehe.

A lot of new things happening in the Indian automotive front too. A lot of new cars too , but the bad news is that I am not buying one anytime soon. I wish I was in the USA , at least I would have been driving a car of my own ...lol...

I think my mind has become full of junk and lots of scrap now , it really has refused to budge from the rustic roads it has wandered onto from quite some time now. I don't understand what happen to all my good things ...hehe... Sometimes I think people don't like me too, maybe its all an illusion or whatever, but it sure is one of the manifestations of a brain like mine , which has been stopped from being used voluntarily by me. I have to start doing something to oil to beast back to life , the rust is of the proportions of may be the Titanic lying on the ocean bed now since 1912.

Jokes apart , lets see what do I figure out to smoothen the ropes of the anchor , so that I can pull it back up and get the ship rolling with the sails on the full high and the mast clean and shining. Hoisting the flag would be some time away though, I hope and I know someday I will hoist a nice one though.(and not the pirate one though :) )

Like they say "I wish I could..."