Myriad Mumbai

Cuffe Parade, downtown of Mumbai

Call it Mumbai, call it Bombay, or Bombaim (for the Portuguese), whatever you call it, the name does not matter.

Mumbai which was basically named after the Hindu goddess ‘Mumba devi’ and ‘Aai’ meaning mother in Marathi was earlier famous as Bombay- meaning ‘good bay’, a name which a lot of people outside India still know it by. A group of seven islands was merged into one to have what today is Mumbai. Appropriated by the Portuguese, ceded to Charles II of England, and in turn leased to the East India Company, Mumbai has imbibed from a lot of influences and as it stands today it’s an amalgamation- a cocktail, a concoction. You can clearly find the mark of the Portuguese and English mainly on some of the monuments and structures still present.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria terminus), H.Q of Central Railway and UNESCO World Heritage site

I have been here for 16 months and it has been an enriching experience to say the least. It is the ‘Mumbai’ I had always heard of in television, read in the papers and heard in conversations. Even now, suddenly once in a while I seem to remind myself that I am in THE Mumbai because once you are at any place for a certain amount of time, you do get used to it and start taking it for granted. This is the place where you are very likely to spot a celebrity- an actor or a cricketer; or anybody famous for that matter because they all seem to reside here. This is the place where by the time you realize it’s raining and you take out your brolly (umbrella) or your raincoat, you would have been already drenched by the downpour and by the time you put it on, it would have already stopped raining.

Called as the’ Maximum City’ or ‘The city that never sleeps’, one of the world's top ten centers of commerce, home to important financial institutions as the Reserve Bank of India, the Stock Exchanges and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations, the city that houses India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood, featuring in the Top ten in the world in Financial hubs, expensive streets, office rents, world’s largest billionaire cities and even in filthiest cities. Mumbai is a city of dreams, despair, drama and dazzle; heartbreaking poverty amongst staggering grandness. It is the bubblegum glamour of Bollywood cinema, shopping malls full of designer labels, cricket on the Oval Maidan, promenading families eating bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty, red double-decker buses queuing in grinding traffic. This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant street life, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars. Millions travel everyday by trains and buses. Nearly eighteen million people live here - wealthy industrialists, flashy film stars, internationally acclaimed artists, workers, teachers and clerks - all existing cheek by jowl in soaring skyscrapers and sprawling slums. They come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and speak over a dozen tongues adding colour, flavour and texture to the Great Mumbai Melting Pot...........

Solve Rubik's cube without any external help

* Even if you don't have a Rubik's cube, you can use a Java virtual Rubik's cube HERE

What I am giving here won't be the fastest way to solve a Rubik's cube, you won't need to understand the whole mechanics but neither will you have to refer to anything or need external help after this help of mine of course! This is for those who can solve a bit of the cube, not whole or those who can do it by following a lot of algorithms from somewhere. With this, you will be able to solve the whole cube and only remembering a few easy algorithms.

Poetry- Words from my heart

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.

BLISSFUL EXISTENCE :

What a wonderful world
This Existence has provided us with
But even to know it that way,
You will need the eyes and ears for it.

Where every day as the night ends,
The whole world comes to life
From the birds to all creatures,
All become active and throbbing with life.

Where the sun everyday rises punctually,
Without even a single holiday
Light and warmth that it provides with,
Gives comfort to everyone day after day.

Where a lot of different climates
Are there for us to experience,
And for such variety of seasons,
Nature takes nothing, not even once.

Where there is beautiful greenery
And flowers of all colour and shade
From the lotus to rose are different smells
And even colours like yellow and red.

Where every day the sunset creates
The most largest and natural canvas
Whose painter is really unknown but
Every other painter, he definitely does surpass.

Where an unknown musician creates music
Through the orchestra of a river or a bird
which is of divine quality and the best
But to know this, it has to be heard.

Where every day the night falls,
And everything goes into a deep sleep,
It is a moment of complete rest
And eternal peace so profound and deep.

Achyut Telang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fact: Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.

My cooking experiment- Madeleines

Hou la! c'est délicieux.

There does seem to be some French connection with me because after dabbling a bit with the French language, today I made The madeleine or petite madeleine, which is a traditional small cake from northeastern France.

Original Madeleines (the way it should be)

A tribute to Sachin Tendulkar who defeats a language

Since the time a man called Sachin Tendulkar picked up a bat and started playing as a child, such has been the mesmerising sight that people have not been able to refrain themselves from describing it.

Starting with 'a child prodigy' then came the all the common adjectives- great, super, majestic, amazing which all seem so petty now, then came genius, master, little master and master blaster, even higher - legend of the game and he was only 25 then. At that moment itself, it should have become apparent to all, that soon the English language and its vocabulary would be found inadequate and that people are going to run out of words to describe this man.

People realized this soon and so started to use their creativity and thus came descriptions like..

Fun with Google and other sites

I wonder if you have noticed this before in Google, since we all use it so frequently, while entering something in Google for search, it gives some suggestions and that is what I am going to put here. It is funny to see what kind of things people are generally looking for!

Here are the funny Google searches in order-

My visit to Dhyanalinga- Isha Yoga Centre

(For my experience with Isha's Inner Engineering Program, CLICK HERE

Surreal! That's how I describe my whole experience.

Set amidst the dense forests at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains, is the Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple, the first of its kind to be completed in over 2000 years. Created by a profound mystic and yogi, it embodies the distilled essence of yogic science.
This powerful meditative space does not ascribe to any particular faith or belief system nor does it require any ritual, prayer, or worship.
"Just sitting silently for a few minutes within the sphere of Dhyanalinga is enough to make even those unaware of meditation experience a state of deep meditativeness" - Sadhguru

Loaded with knowledge like this and lots more in great detail about Sadhguru, Dhyanalinga and Isha Yoga Centre, I just had to visit it and have an experience of it all.............

IPL- A Case Study

The Most Comprehensive Case Study on the IPL :


Origin of IPL Twenty 20 Cricket Idea

How do IPL cricket teams select individual players?
 

Best Blog Post Contest

Having thought many times of having a best blog post contest, finally now it is here.

You can submit any one of your blog posts which you think is the best. Just leave the link of that blog post in the comments section. This is open till 14th April. I will announce the results on 20th April here itself.

Criteria- It would be preferable if the blogs aren't too technical or region/culture specific which other people can't easily relate to. It could be funny, a true story, part of your personal diary, something creative or anything else.

Animal Faceoff

If the most deadliest creatures on the planet were ever to confront each other in the wild, which predator would win the ultimate battle? Many of nature’s deadliest confrontations are never seen and some of the mightiest beasts are destined never to meet - until now!

ISketch...fun online

I am sure most of you, like me, spend quite a lot of your time online browsing through various websites. And there are times when you really have nothing to do and having gone through all your pet websites are bored and aimlessly browsing, just looking for something good to spend your time.

This is one website which can become quite addicting and the beauty if it is that here time flies away quickly, you get in action mode, get involved, it also has virtual social interactions..in short everything one might want to spend some time enjoying.

Isketch is a kind of a game similar to Pictionary where one after the other, an artist is selected, given a word which others can't see and that artist has to draw and others have to guess that word. Simple? Only the concept is.......

Expendables- Worth it for the action

When a movie of this sort is about to be released, which has the most awesome line up of action stars ever assembled together, there is going to be a lot of hype and expectations naturally. When I came to know about it, I thought it might not really live up to the high expectations and might not be able to do justice to the star studded cast. But after watching the movie, I must say I quite liked it. Definitely a must watch for action movie fans. It is the dream come true for almost everybody who would have often thought- How awesome it would be to see all our favorite action stars together!

Best of Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes has always been one of my all time favourites. I feel if you are looking for wisdom, you need not look any further and here you get it in a fun way too. Through this comic strip, a lot is said that is quite deep and meaningful through the eyes of a six year old.
Here I am going to put up some of the best Calvin and Hobbes comic strips of all time.

My World ODI XI and TEST XI

This post was always inevitable. Anyone who loves Cricket would have thought of this some time or the other.

In fact I would like to tell you a funny thing about this.(Kind of a Prelude). In my MBA college in Mumbai, we used to have long classes and I was one of the students who used to sit in a place not at the back neither too much in the front. I follow the 'middle strategy' everywhere. And although lot of students had no problem or shame falling asleep in the middle of the class, I could never do that. In fact it is difficult for me to fall asleep at all places other than my bed in my room..like buses and trains or new places etc. And generally I did not have much trouble getting through the class but there was this one class in the afternoon where I was feeling really sleepy. No strategy was working. Everything failed and that was the time I had to bring out my 'Brahmastra'. Something related to Cricket and in the class, something related to Cricket that I could do and which would also stimulate my mind was making my ODI XI and TEST XI. And it is funny because I took out my pad and started doing this seriously and the person sitting behind me became interested in what I had suddenly started writing. And he started laughing. He told me........

Weird, funny keywords for my blog!

After quite some time, a post from me. The 49th post! And this is inspired by few discussions with my friends on BC (Blog Catalog). For those of you who don't know, BC is a great place for bloggers to hang out and participate in discussions. Sometimes for knowledge, sometimes just for fun.

In that there was one discussion about the key words or the phrases that people type into Google or other search engines and from there arrive at your blog. For those of you who want to know how to find this out, there is one application called Google Analytics. If you get decent traffic or visitors to your blog, it is a good thing to have, to find out from where people are arriving at your blog, through what search engine etc. You have to put its code in your blogger HTML code and it tracks your blog and its statistics..lots of it like the number of visitors and many more.

So here are a few of the funny or weird searches through which people arrived on my blog. Sometimes it is not even clear how that particular search could have made those people land up on your blog!.......

Interesting Concept- Prisoner's Dilemma

Recently I came across a concept which I thought was quite interesting- The Prisoner's Dilemma

It is a fundamental problem in game theory. It is a situation where two parties must choose to cooperate or not and where both gain when both cooperate, but if only one cooperates, other gains even more, while if both don't cooperate, both lose.

To explain it better, let's say there are two people- A and B who are caught for a crime. Both of them make an agreement that they will not confess the crime and remain silent. Now they are separated and questioned. So now, if both remain silent, they get 1 year in prison, if A cooperates (keeps the agreement) and remains silent but B confesses, then A gets 20 years in prison while B goes free and similarly the other way round if A confesses to the crime and B doesn't, then A goes free but B gets 20 years and in the case where both confess the crime, both get 5 years in prison.

This figure below might make it clear:

Save our tigers

Tiger- perhaps the most majestic animal on the face of the planet, India's national animal is in danger.

Though India is home to the world's largest population of tigers in the wild and according to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the world, 1,400 are found in India but it has come down from 40,000 at the start of the century. This is why it is alarming. World Wildlife Fund for Nature has released its list of the world's 10 most in demand species being bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for trade purposes and tiger heads this list. In India right from earlier time, the tiger has been one of the Big Five game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India!

Some interesting facts about the tiger below.......

Survive without food and water- FOREVER!

Yes, surviving without food and water is not impossible if some cases are to be believed. Some of you might be aware of "Inedia" or "Breatharianism" where people believe that food and water are not necessary.

There have been many examples of people who have claimed it.- Jasmuheen (born Ellen Greve), Wiley Brooks, Hira Ratan Manek and the one case I am interested in- Prahlad Jani (also called Mataji) who claims he hasn't had anything for 70 years now and has never fallen ill!

PIANO NOTATIONS

* In return for providing the notations that you need for free, just asking you to follow this blog and share it as much as you can. Thanks.

So, you always wanted to learn and know how to play your favorite song or tune on a piano, or harmonium or even guitar or violin? Even if you have never learnt music and still want to play your favorite songs , you don’t have to worry. I am here.

First let me tell you that I am not an expert musician but I have learnt it mostly by myself. And I am mainly interested in the Bollywood, Hindi songs. And whatever song or tune I like, I find out how to play it. Now, even if you don’t have a musical instrument, you need not worry. Even I don’t have one with me! All that you need is a computer and it can become your musical instrument. I always loved being able to play my favorite song and people recognizing it when I did. And since I did not possess a musical instrument and neither did I want to spend money on it, so I found it out through the internet. Yes, internet- the current God!

If you too want it, it is quite simple and free too and just 24 K bytes........

GHAJINI

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and all photos, images etc on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.

 Just recently I saw the movie Ghajini. For those of you who might not know, Ghajini was originally a south Indian movie made similar to Memento. And this movie was made in Hindi with the other actors and the team being the same except the main actor. The actor in the hindi movie Ghajini was Aamir Khan- the 'perfectionist'
And what a perfectionist he is! Initially he was skeptical about playing this role but others convinced him and he made a wise choice. For this he underwent one year of training to build up the kind of body required for this role.
Below is the portrait I have made from the movie Ghajini:

* NOTE : Click on the drawing for a larger and better view.

MY DRAWING OF AAMIR KHAN IN GHAJINI

Ever since I saw this movie, I have not been able to get it completely out of my mind. And this movie being directly a remake of the south indian movie, they have kept it the same except the last half an hour. It contains a bit too much of violence and is a little gory though, but is essential for a theme of revenge.

The story itself is interesting and something that the audiences would not have come across much- the concept of Anterograde amnesia, called 'short-term memory loss' in the movie in the layman's language. A man affected by this disorder, who forgets everything after 15 minutes, seeking to take revenge of his beloved!..........

Book Review- Mystic's Musings

Book cover of Mystic's Musings

Actually this is not just a book review but also in a way a continuation of my previous post. So those of you who have read my previous post- Enlightened Masters would understand. In that I had written about Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev too and that I had ordered his book.
A few days later, now I have finished that book. I had gone home for 3 days and in those 3 days, I did manage to read it. Actually I managed to finish those 500 pages within two and a half days!

People say that such books- specially, have to be read slowly not just like a novel and it has to be read again and again. But I have never treated Spirituality books any differently. And one of the main reasons I think, which is important for these kind of books is that they are not really for the intellect. So you don’t really have to read and understand as such from the mind. It is difficult to understand because we only know that way and no other but these kind of books have a special purpose which Sadhguru himself said for this book that at certain points there are some keys in it........

Metamorphosis of Cricket (Sport, not insect!)

Cricket sport which originally started as a five day affair, has been changing with time over the years and in today's fast paced world with everything being fast and instant, Cricket too has a new face in the form of Twenty-twenty game, so much so that the previous formats seem no longer relevant.

It is a tough time for Cricket, for the people associated with the game over the years, for the audiences who have been watching and loving the game and its various aspects. It is a clash between the old and the new. For Cricket game as it started, some are advocates of "that's how it's meant to be". It is like the Bible or religion, the first word..the way it's meant to be. They cannot accept it to be changed or even to bring modifications to it. Some on the other hand believe that the time of the original Cricket formats is up and they should be scrapped and a few in the middle suggest bringing in some modifications and changes to make the game more up-to-date and in tune with today's time while avoiding both the extreme options.

Is Test Match the problem or is One day Internationals the problem? And the meaning of 'problem' here is........

Congrats! I bow down to "The God" Sachin Tendulkar

Today is the day when Sachin Tendulkar completes 20 years in International Cricket.

And since we all know that everything has already been said, written and documented very well about Sachin Tendulkar by almost everybody, it is futile for me to write something that has not been already said or written. So this will be a short but interesting post.

It is difficult to believe that it has been 20 long years since the small, curly haired boy was seen playing for India! Any one who saw this cherubic boy with a spark in his eyes could not help but be mermerized. Such a small innocent boy taking on the Pakistanis in their home land would be nerve wracking for anyone but who can forget the incident where he was hit on the nose? And then to stand up again and continue and score a half century as a 16 year old was what made the whole world take notice and really grasp the magnitude of what he really was. And then to take on the wily, experienced Abdul Qadir and to hoick him for 3 sixes announced the world that he was very special indeed; something that happens once in a century or even more. But one thing is sure, there can never be another Sachin Tendulkar. Ever! It is not for nothing that he is called "God" in Cricket..........

Koans

Recently I came across a few questions and while travelling too, few very strange looking questions arose in my mind and it reminded me of a Koan.

For those of you who don't know, A Koan is a tradition in Zen. It is basically kind of a question of a very strange kind that may seem weird or absolutely meaningless and is given to a disciple to think on it. It might even be a question that has no answer but the student has to think over it. It is also to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness.

Thus, the Koan has a specific purpose. A student or disciple is given a Koan to ponder over, and he goes into his room and sits alone- only he and the question exist and that is the only thing he does. Till the time he finds a solution, he just stays with the question, and does nothing else. And there have been instances where they have done this for days, months and even many years! For years, day in and day out, they only think over the question. And many have become enlightened just by this. This is actually just a method, a device, the question itself is not important and nor is the answer. It is the effort, sincere effort put in by the disciple that does the trick. For these questions, you cannot use your normal ways of thinking and logic and anything else. You have to give yourself to this question and become the question itself.............


The purpose of kōans is for a Zen practitioner to become aware of the difference between themselves, their mind, and their beliefs that influence how they see the world as an aspect of realizing their True nature. Paradoxes tend to arouse the mind for an extended duration as the mind goes around and around trying to resolve the paradox or kōan to an "answer". This is a lot like a dog chasing its tail and, while it's chasing, the mind makes itself more visible. Once a Zen practitioner becomes aware of their mind as an independent form, the kōan makes sense and the teaching point is realized.

And out of the hundreds of Koans that exist, perhaps none is as popular as this one- "What is the sound of the one-hand clapping?" You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together, so what is the sound of a one hand clap!

PIANO NOTATIONS III

For those of you who don't have a musical instrument and still want to play, please refer to my other 2 posts on Piano Notations where you will see how to turn your computer into a musical instrument and various types of notations.

Here I will be providing normal Western Notations for a few songs-

* I will use lower case letter like a,b,c,d,e,f,g and a#,c#,d# etc for lower octave, upper case letters like A,B,C,D,E and A#,C#,D# etc for middle octave and A+,B+,C+,D+,E+ and A+#, C+# etc for higher Octave...................

Captain Jack Sparrow

Ahoy mates! Savvy?

It always happens with me that a thing- a movie comes, becomes hugely popular, everyone keeps on talking about it, and I wonder what is the matter! Later on, perhaps years later I come across it, actually watch it and fall madly in love with it and it continues on and on while others are done with it by then and that is exactly what happened with The Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I had never before seen a pirate movie, nor did I think it was something I would like; before I came across this one that is!

Now for some background, Pirates of the Caribbean is a film, actually based on the.........

A Test Match that will be remembered

India's Tour of Australia- Sydney Test Match

*The opinion expressed here is personal and should not be taken offensively by anyone as it is not with the intention to raise any controversy of any kind.

In just my previous post,after the First Test Match, having praised the Aussies quite profusely, a huge controversy has arisen after the second Test Match between India and Australia, where the attitude of the Australian players has been questioned. Well that’s how things usually turn out to be.

The hearing after the controversial incident

A lot of things have happened in the past few days in Cricket, with so many opinions from ex-players and many decisions being taken and everyone having their own version and interpretation and analysis of what has happened and why it has happened and what not. Even if I just cover all that has taken place, it would be a huge post by my standards too. But I am not going to do that. You must have already read all that in the newspapers and in the TV news channels who are always coming up with their opinion polls and everything. Cricket has definitely been in the limelight and not for the right reasons, with even Australia’s Tennis player - Hewitt saying he feels like the Indian cricketers, as in being done in by the poor umpiring!..........

Sach Ka Saamna- Moment of Truth

Sach Ka Saamna is the latest television show on Indian television that is being talked about a lot for various reasons. This is the show after Kaun Banega Crorepati on Star Plus that has become so popular with the audiences.

Sach Ka Saamna is actually the Indian version of the popular American reality game show The Moment of Truth and Television & film actor Rajeev Khandelwal is the host of the show. I personally too have been following the show and the concept of the show is indeed interesting and Rajeev Khandelwal seems to fit the bill quite beautifully because this kind of show definitely requires some qualities from the host who has to maturely handle the situations keeping his composure as it brings out some of the most intimate truths from the contestants in front of their family, friends and National Television!

Now, about the show itself, Prior to appearing on the actual show, contestants are asked 50 questions while being hooked up to a polygraph machine. The biological indicators of the contestant, such as pulse rate, blood pressure, etc. are measured and used by the polygraph to decide whether the answer is true or not. The contestant is not aware of the results of the polygraph for his or her answers.........

Cricket- The illogical Game

As you might know, I actually have a very diversified blog with posts covering almost every conceivable topic, ranging from Cricket, Art- drawings, poems, Martial Arts, Spirituality, reviews of books, games and movies, Politics, cooking, interesting websites, Computer games, my musings and experiences etc etc. It is infact a fun exercise because anyone who knows about my blogging like my friends, family or relatives, I tell them that I have a new post and see if they can guess on what topic it is and it is so difficult for them to think about because I am so unpredictable that I can write on any topic and it might be a totally different topic and might have no connection with the previous post. And as someone who had analyzed my blog said, this might be my strength or weakness or both!

But one of my pet topics is definitely Cricket and so far, under the topic of Cricket I have written about particular matches, or about a tour, or the various formats of the game or about a Cricketer. But this time I decided- Why not write about the game itself?

So here it is - a post on the game of Cricket.

(below is a small description of a funny event of Cricket that would take place if The Gods, enlightened Masters, Scientists etc took part in it)
............

Narendra Modi- A different picture

The Indian general elections are just round the corner making this a good time to write about this topic.

First of all, let me tell you that as far as I am concerned, I am a completely 'a-political' person. I cannot understand politics; just like Amitabh Bachchan confesses. And that's why I myself am surprised that I am writing on something related to Politics which I could never have thought!
I don't particularly care for politicians either, whom I consider to be a different species altogether. But still there are a few people in there who do seem to be different from the rest and do seem to be nice people indeed!

Without talking about too many other things, I will come back to the topic that I want to actually write about, but before that a few interesting things about this.............

Gautam Siddhartha- The Buddha

Religion and Spirituality is a topic I absolutely love and can read on and on about it and write too. In fact I even had suggestions or requests to write more on this topic but so far I have only had two posts on it.

Yesterday was Buddha Purnima or Buddha's birthday and called by various other names in various places. It actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha which is always on the full moon day. And I felt that the best way to celebrate or observe this day was obviously to go into meditation and also I read and saw videos related to Gautam Buddha on YouTube and specially one of BBC video of around 50 minutes was really good! You can watch it HERE

Observe that I am using the phrase 'going into meditation' instead of 'doing meditation' because it is not an act, it is just the way you are- the state of being as it can be said..........

Poetry- Words from my heart II

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.


DEATH :

There is only one thing in this world
That you can be absolutely sure about
That death is going to come to everyone
And for this there can be no doubt.

Still in their life, people forget this fact
As a matter of fact, they try and ignore it
As the very idea fills them with fear
And, if they could, with death, they'll never meet.

But death is something that has to be faced
And it's possible only if you've lived life fully
If you've lived life the way you've always wanted
Then you'll know even how to die peacefully.

The more you tend to forget death,
The more you get attached to people and things
As, the people you love; you don't want them to die
But death comes to all without the distinction of beggars and kings.

So the lesson for us is to accept death
And to live life blissfully and to rejoice
And to make even the experience of death, a blessing
As doing that is the best possible choice!

Achyut Telang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Known Fact About Death -Maybe people just aren't comfortable using the word 'die'. There are more than 200 euphemisms for death, so we don't have to utter the real words.

Me and cooking!

Regarding this topic, let me tell you that those people who know me, know that kitchen is one of my least frequented places- not because cooking is one of the things I don't have interest in but because I am not a foodie whatsoever. It will be difficult to find a person who is as indifferent (if I can say that) to food as I am!

If you have read my other posts, you will know that I weigh 50 kgs and I clearly fall in the underweight category. As regards food, I have always seen people around me having strong likes and dislikes about food to the extent that they have so much aversion to some foods that they will just not touch it and other food items that they like, they can have any amount of it! ..............

Gambling- a game of chance?

Around a month back, I and a few of my friends had gone to Mahabaleshwar. And most of my friends know that I blog, and a few of them have started too. So there were talks about what I would write in my blog about our trip, with my friends saying that do write about this thing or that thing or don’t forget to mention our names etc. I knew that I wouldn’t write about our trip per se but there was one thing that stuck with me and thus in this way at least there would be some mention of the trip.

There is one thing we did in that trip that I was quite fascinated by later on. And as you can guess from the name of this post, it was a game. I don’t really know if it falls exclusively under the ‘gambling’ category but here is what it was all about................

Portraits- My work of Art!

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and all photos, images etc on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.

* NOTE : Click on the drawings for a larger and better view.

Yesterday I got a bright idea and I thought - How about including all the other stuff that I do on my blog itself?

If you have seen my profile, you will know that my hobbies include - the very first one being drawing portraits. So for those of you who might be wondering what kind of portraits I make, fret not, here it is, just for you to look at and marvel, if I may say that!

Also note that these pictures that I have made on paper are not scanned but taken by a digital camera without even switching the flash off! So it might not be the best to look at. I will soon update these portraits scanned. So watch out for it...........

Titanic

A voyage into my heart !

Titanic! You all have heard about it, read or seen the movie. You all know when it started and with what fate it met. You remember the movie for the actors and the director and for the awards that it won galore. And yes I know it is also among your favorite movies of all time.

But for me, this movie is really special. As usual I caught up with this movie very late- years after it had been released and after people had watched it a million times! When it burst onto the scene, I did not particularly think much of it. It wasn’t something I thought I would want to watch or something I would like. Little did I know!

A story about a ship, its voyage and the life of mainly 2 people on board in it. Jack Dawson and Rose De Witt Bukater. Two people living extremely different lives. The classic poor boy and rich girl! Even though this is the classic setting, it proves that still it can be successful. The poor little rich girl trapped into this world where she does not belong. Her heart longs for freedom and here she is trapped where no one really cares that she exists, taken for granted. Under social obligation of sorts and under pressure from her mother, she tries time and again to settle and accept this life of hers but her soul longs to break free......

Game review- Unreal Tournament 2004

Well, it does look like I have become only a reviewer now, going by my past few posts! This time suddenly out of nowhere I struck upon this idea of writing a review for a thing which has become a part of my life- it is no short of an addiction, as it is for my roommates too and I must thank them for introducing me to this game.

This game is nothing short of real. You have a gun and you go on killing others. Sounds too simple? Thinking what is so great in that? Well that’s not the only thing about this game. First of all, the best part is that you can play it with your friends not just the computer players and that gives it a personal touch- fighting it out with your roommates- the people you know and live with......

IPL

IPL-



The IPL was certainly one of the most talked about things. No one knew how it would turn out to be, whether it would succeed, what impact it would have on world Cricket etc. For the first time Cricketers were auctioned and so, many expressed their opinions on this issue with Adam Gilchrist even saying that he felt like cattle. Certainly from the player’s point of view, it is not fair to be putting a price on the cricketers this way. It makes them look like just commodities in the hands of the buyers and I think this was visible in the game too..............

Enlightened Masters

My fascination with religion and spirituality started quite a long time ago. In fact I would say as far back as I can remember. My grandmother is a very religious person, as they are normally supposed to be, my father too in his own way; not my sister but that too in her own way. In fact it is very difficult to classify anybody into the category of religious or non-religious or spiritual, with some thinking they are spiritual but not religious etc. but it is a personal thing and depends on each individual.

I too, as other kids, listened to the various stories of the Hindu religion which I was born into. It is undoubtedly very fascinating and rich. But as a kid the thing that impressed me the most was the television serial specially Mahabharata and even in that the fights with bows and arrows. It is only now that people have realized that there is tremendous scope by the way of making animated movies in these field, with the central character being any superhero from our vast scriptures. So we have had Hanuman, Ganesha, Ghatotkatch, Bhim and others.

Once, having heard so many stories of how people used to do penances or underwent various other arduous tasks and then God used to be pleased with them, I as a child decided to do the same. After my parents had gone in the evening, I decided that I wanted to see and meet God. So the way I thought was.........

My Body- Health Enigma!

Arnold Schwarzenegger. See the biceps

WANTED- Experts.

Today I am going to write about one topic that almost every human being on this earth has faced at least at some point of time in their life- your body and health.

It is such a complex thing to understand at sometimes and seems relatively simple at others. I guess around 90% of people face the problem of being over- weight or obese! Well, why do you eat so much then? So, as you might have guessed, I am in the other 10 %. The simple indication for this statistics that I have written are simply from the fact that you will always see advertisements for weight loss everywhere. I am yet to come across an advertisement that even shows- “GAIN WEIGHT”- 10 Kgs a month with people testimony etc, leave alone an exclusive ad like this..............

THE TRANSPORTER- Movie Review.

Transporter. What kind of thoughts would come in your mind after hearing such a name for movies?

Now actually I watched the movie Transporter-2 first and I had not seen The Transporter i.e. the first part. Now I don’t know if that’s recommended, but I did it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know whether watching the second part before the first made any difference. Whatever the case be, that is what happened.

Transporter-2 starts with a scene of the Transporter- Frank Martin in a beautiful Audi car, everything so sophisticated right from the start, putting on the gloves, an ignition code required for starting the car and then the fight scene right at the start indicating already that the movie has everything. Although the fight scene gets over before you know it, it introduces you to the capabilities of Frank. And not to mention, he has that kind of humour that you can perhaps associate with Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies, which is quite a success formula. You know a movie is almost perfect when you feel everything is falling in place beautifully, or perhaps you get this feeling if you love a movie and watch it over too many times. Whatever it maybe, just watch the reaction of the man shown when Frank takes off his coat before the fight. It is just perfect and says so many things….the admiration for the man, feeling what kind of a strange man he must be etc are conveyed by that one second look. Then the - so smooth start of the car, almost like a plane. It can’t get better...

Stick twirling or Staff Wielding

This is a video available on YouTube as well.

You all would have seen the video. Now I don’t really know what you might have felt after seeing it. Personally my experience of showing it to others has been that first of all my friends, relatives etc none have been able to identify that it is me in the video in the first place. One another comment I got is that it is too short- just 5 seconds. Also some have suggested that it is some real fast twirling and even wondered whether it is a trick of technology etc. Generally everyone has been impressed by it.....

My marathon run : Tower of Hanoi & other online games

Phew! I finally did it!!!
I cannot stop smiling. It feels like I have conquered Mount Everest!
Ok, ok..now I will tell you what I am writing about......

Poetry- Words from my heart III

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.


THE GLORY OF EARLY MORNING :

The joy of watching the early morning
Is a divine feeling always cherishing.
In the cool atmosphere, with the breeze blowing
It's a nice feeling to see only a few people moving.

The birds singing beautifully from within the trees
And hovering above the colourful flowers, are the tiny bees.
Everywhere, far and near, it is so quiet
With the light of the bright morning finally winning over the night.

The sun also slowly rising in its splendour
So are the green creepers which are very tender.
The brightness of the sun gradually spreading all around
With more and more people now hustling on the ground.

Achyut Telang.

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Fact- The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.

India - Number one?

India - Number 1?

Well, just take a look at these facts- Winner of the Twenty-Twenty World Cup, Winner of the under-19 World Cup, winning the CB series in Australia- defeating the number one team twice in a row in the 2 finals, excellent performance in the Test Matches as well.

So is this Indian Cricket team the number one in the world right now? Logically if you are better than the number one team, or defeat it, then you automatically become number one. But is India better than Australia, which is still number one in the rankings?......

Cracking the CAT

Cracking the CAT

Well I don’t really know when can this phrase be applied- Cracking the CAT? When a person gets a call from IIMs or for doing well in general? And if the later, than how well? Actually I received an email from a relative who congratulated me for “Cracking the CAT”! I did manage to get around 96 percentile in CAT this year,........

Poetry- Words from my heart IV

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.


THE WAIT FOR RAINS :

From quite some time,
It has been very hot.
The conditions have become worse,
As there is also a drought.

It is not only the heat,
But also the humidity,
Which is adding to the suffering
Of people of both the village and the city.

The sun is busy throwing flames
And people are battling with the sweat,
They try and hide from the burning fire,
But still end up getting all drenched and wet.

All the streets become almost empty,
Especially during the afternoon.
People can only wish and pray
For the rains to come on really soon.

The only solace that people get
Is only during the time of night.
With the sun finally gone to rest,
It feels so cool and just about right.

The moon with its gentle rays,
And cool breeze makes it very pleasant
And atleast for the time being,
People are spared a bit from torment.

In the night people sleep outside,
With their gazes fixed to the endless sky,
Searching for any signs of clouds,
While on the cots, helpless they lie.

People do just about anything
In order to appease the gods of rain,
But this story of vying of the sun and rain,
Next year will be repeated once again.

Achyut Telang.

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Interesting Fact - The umbrella was originally intended for shade from the hot Egyptian sun.

Hail the Master!- Sachin Tendulkar

India vs Australia Test Series 2008

The second test match between India and Australia is over and India has taken a comprehensive 1-0 lead in the 4 match series.

Lots of things have happened even before the series started and I will start by discussing that.
Australia landed in India with a team that many thought was the weakest Australian team. Australia always take playing in India as a challenge and this was the first time that this team was in a major series, in India, without their stalwarts. The retirement of McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist will definitely weaken any team no matter how good the reserves are. It also did not help that a few of their players were injured, and with MacGill and Hogg gone, the spin department is virtually zero specially when touring a country like India. Also a major setback was an incident, which also in a way highlights the way the Australian cricket and its board functions - not considering Andrew Symonds- one man who could have influenced the series! That was a major decision no matter which way you look at it.

Sachin Tendulkar also stated before the series that India-Australia rivalry is now bigger than even India-Pakistan rivalry. This is absolutely true and I can’t see anyone disagreeing with this statement. In fact I would say that India Australia rivalry is the biggest right now in world Cricket perhaps even greater than the Ashes!
Honestly with the focus now shifting to Twenty over games and people questioning this original, longer version of the game, if people are going to watch a test match, it will be this- India vs Australia.......

Yes!!! I did it once again :

For those of you wondering, I am talking about an online game- Shell Swap wherein I have scored the highest score of all time!
In another post, I had mentioned about the game ‘Tower of Hanoi’ and how I had managed the mental marathon of completing that game with 12 discs, I usually play a lot of online games and recently have been playing a lot on Orkut.

Many people use Orkut which is a social networking site. In that there is a feature of Mind Jolt games and the good thing about this is that you can compete with your friends and constantly compare and challenge your friends to better your score etc. This is the only reason I have been playing the games on Orkut otherwise the games themselves aren’t so good there. One site I have been using quite regularly for games generally is.......

Poetry- Words from my heart V

* This is the original work of Achyut Telang and you may not reproduce or distribute this information in whole or in part and the content on this blog post cannot be copied, edited, reproduced or used without the prior written permission of Achyut Telang.


THE DOWNPOUR :

The heavens have opened up,
And sent forth a massive downpour.
The life in general is affected by it,
Even as the thunder continues to roar.

The parched land becomes wet first,
As its thirst is a bit quenched
And soon the puddles appear all over,
And everything becomes all wet and drenched.

The climate change is an aberration
And it becomes all cold and chilly.
The strong winds that blow, do no good,
As everyone shivers on; and not with glee

Some animals and birds look for shelter,
While others are as non-chalant as ever.
And it is true for people too,
As some try to be all brave and clever.

The sun gets a well deserved break,
As the clouds take over and transform the day.
The change is quite sudden and drastic
And all the trees and plants viciously sway.

Some people enjoy the rains,
While others become all dull and gloomy.
What you do is your choice,
I certainly rejoice every moment. Well, that's me!

Achyut Telang.

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Interesting Fact - The world's heaviest average rain fall (about 430 inches) occurs in Cherrapunji, India, where as much as 87 feet of rain has fallen in one year.