The STALKER

First it was orkut. Then it was all the e-mail sites and video sites. Now Blogger is also blocked in my company. But can it stop me from writing and blogging more? Never. So, here I go again, using a proxy site. This is the 1st song I wrote after completing my training and starting work at office. Donnow why, this subject came to my mind all of a sudden. Is it because an idle mind is a devil's workshop?

******STALKER*********
Obsession fuels my ride
On a duel to decide
In me, the devil reside
Its me, always by your side.

I am the thorn in your flesh
U r the smile on my face
U can't see me in the haze
Behind you,here I rush.

chorus:
You call me the stalker in black,
the man without a name
and the man without a face
Yes, am the stalker at your back.


You see a psycho behind you
But I am a macho, out to save you.
Am not the evil lurking in the woods
Am just a dreamer, with a mind full of wounds

chorus:
You call me the stalker in black,
the man without a name
and the man without a face
Yes, am the stalker at your back.



25/02/2008

your crusader Praveen

Skandagiri-Conquering heights

A 6-lane highway, then some village roads, some steep travel through rocky slopes and bushes, and finally the exhilarating feeling of reaching the top, looking all around and savouring the cool breeze and breathtaking beauty. That aptly sums up the trekking trip that we had on saturday. We heard about this hill called 'kalavarahalli [skandagiri]' from a forward mail that we got some days back. What attracted us to this are the snaps which showed the hill with its head majestically floating over the clouds. And so we set forth from Banglore on saturday morning in a qualis. Our only info about the place was that its 70km from Banglore near the new airport at Devanahalli. The ride along the new 6-lane highway was exhilarating. As we passed Devanahalli, we enquired about this hills to some people we saw on the wayside. But nobody seems to even have heard about it. Anyway, we rode on until we reached a village and got to the foot of the hills after asking atleast 10 people.

After taking the permission from the forest officer, we set forth on our journey. For a group of 6, we only had 2 packets of biscuit and 2 bottles of mineral water for the whole trekking. One old man led us to the path that started from the foot of the mountain. A dog was following us and it was too close for my comfort. We started the climb and we saw one group leaving the place after the night trekking. Other than that, we didn't meet a single soul on our way to the top. The dog closely followed us all through the rocky path. We took rest at regular intervals and this time was spent in taking snaps. The biscuit pack was getting thinner by the minute what with the dog also getting a share whenever we ate. The interesting part was that the dog stopped whenever we stopped and waited for us all to start walking so that it could follow. It wudn't start even if one person is lagging behind. And, so after almost 3 hours of walking through some treacherous as well as beautiful paths, we reached the top. Nothing prepared us for what we saw there. Our jaws dropped as we feasted our eyes on the limitless beauty that was lying all around us. The only thing missing were the clouds kissing the hilltop, that we saw in the snaps. Later, the forest inspector told that we should be there at sunrise to witness that scene and for that we have to take night trekking, preferably on a full moon day. We sat there for a long time enjoying it all.

Then we started the downhill journey which took us another 2 hours. The dog was still following us like a faithful servant. Along the way down, we saw a young guy, about 14 years old, walking uphill to sell buttermilk. Mind you, this is not a place where many people visit. The fact that we didn't meet a single soul during the whole 6 hours that we spent in trekking will tell you how popular this place is. After a sip of butter milk, we continued our walk downhill. As we reached the foot of the hill, the sun was already fading. We took a glance back at the hill. There was that unexplainable feeling of satisfaction in my mind then.

To top this heady saturday, there was a rocky sunday at palace grounds, banglore as part of rock ethos. 13 Indian bands performed all day through and as expected Motherjane topped them all with an earth shattering performance in which one of their new songs 'fields of sound' was also played. Other bands which I liked were 'Bhoomi' and 'Kryptos'. It will need another full post to describe the full fest, which was notable in that it was exclusively for promoting original Indian rock music.

So that was my great weekend for u.....wish every week was like this

NB-The snaps that we took there couldn't be put here because its still inside the cam. USB access is blocked here in office. So I have to wait till I get to work on some computer outside office. The pics displayed here are the ones that I got from the forward.

Info to reach Skandagiri- Proceed along the new banglore airport road to devanahalli. From there, go to Chikballapur. Then to Kalavarahalli[skandagiri]. Its almost 80km from Banglore. And do remember to carry something to munch on and drink.

your crusader Praveen

Wingless,Finless
This is a song that I wrote last week. You can interpret it in any way you want, just as you interpret your dreams...

*********wingless, finless*************

Its pitch black as darkness falls
the shadows are hard to make out
but i ride alone and shine along
the helios glows its heart out.

Its a brand new story, every night
as my unchained mind gallops
along unknown paths and little known worlds
on another aimless quest

Its the power of dreams, they tell u
Never known of these endless boundaries
wingless I fly, finless I swim
But built up are castles of sand.

Its an escape route, when doom looms
Sown are the seeds of inspiration
Its a ray of hope, for the lost soul
Born out of a thought etched in time.

NB-I took the snap of the sunset last year at Kovalam beach. Thought this will be apt for the subject...

your crusader Praveen

The 'Maiden' Miss

This is really a bad day for me as I'll miss watching 'Iron maiden' performing live in mumbai marking the beginning of their 'somewhere back in time' world tour. I can safely say that watching them live some months back during their banglore show was one of the greatest experiences I ever had in my life. If that concert was a mix of old and new, this mumbai jig is exclusively in tribute to the good old days. Coupled with that, they've chartered a flight titled 'ed force one' with a mammoth amount of equipments being flown in[our own great bruce dickinson himself is flying the plane]. So, Me and my friends were eagerly waiting for this. But, as fate would have it, we have our final exam of training scheduled on monday and we had to drop that plan.

Now, poor me is sitting here catching every possible news on the concert on the tv and net. My ipod been playing Iron maiden non stop for the last 2 days. To get that concert feel, am playing 'rock in rio' and 'live at donington'. And also browsing through the old pics that I took last year during 'eddfest 'o7' at Banglore.

So, for all those who missed the show, here's a link to last year's concert review and a collection of pictures from the concert.

Iron Maiden eddfest '07 -Banglore concert review
Snaps from the Banglore concert

your crusader Praveen

I am racist

Yeah.U read it right. I been a racist right from the time I started going to nursery. Because thats when I learned about the monkey and started calling some of friends monkeys. And for that matter, most of my friends are also racist because they also been using this word for a pretty long time. This shocking truth struck me yesterday when the ICC declared the word 'monkey' as a racist slur.I am still wondering what crime did the poor creature commit for its name to be ranked alongside such respectful words as 'nigger'.

Today, I read so many posts in infyblogs about how the Indians are blaming the umpires and aussies' lack of sportsman spirit for their own incompetence. I just don't see any justification in these claims rather than the urge to have a different opinion from the masses. Team India put in all of their effort to make it tough for the aussies except for a few notable exceptions like Yuvraj. The main point many raised was that the Indians wouldn't have raised the issue of bad umpiring and aussie spiritlessness had India atleast drawn the match. But the point they are forgetting is that it would've been a different story[India might actually have won] if not for the above mentioned factors.

Its time the ICC threw away such blind incompetent donkeys as steve bucknor from the umpiring panel. And, for the Aussies, words starting with 'm' and 'f' are friendly . The only thing is that only they are allowed to do so. They can call others anything. If u reply, you are a racist. In the now infamous Bhaji-monkey incident too, it were the men in yellow who started it. But it was an indian who got penalised in the end. The Aussies are known to intimidate their opponents with the ugly sport called 'sledging' when things are not going their way. Thats what happened here too. Its really a surprise that 6 aussies were there to testify against bhaji claiming to have heard the 'monkey' call, which not even the umpires didn't hear[reportedly,one of these players were in the boundary at the time of the incident].

The Indian captain conducted himself really well in the post match conference after exemplary performances in the field. Its really a shame that many Indians are blaming their own team and praising the shameless aussies like ponting and clarke. I had great respect for the aussies until this match. They spoiled it all. They are a shame to the sport alongwith the biased umpires. Hope the next 2 matches will turn out to be heated contests with Indians giving the aussies a taste of sledging:D
PS- I developed a new habit yesterday. Using 'F' and 'B' interchangeably...For example, Buck Fasketball. So, how will you say Steve Bucknor?

your crusader Praveen

Looking back
Looking back, 2007 been one hell of an eventful year.

This was the year during which my four year holiday called 'engineering' ended. It was hard to bid adieu to the fun that was life in college. I'll forever miss some of the great friends I had there.

And this was the year in which I started my job and got my first salary. The training[that am currently undergoing] in infosys more than made up for the sadness I had in missing college life. The last 2 months here been really rocking with many of my old college friends and new ones that I met here.

The time I spent with my band 'Stoneage' was also great with some memorable onstage performances and some good original music. Again it was hard to say goodbye to the rocking life that I was having with this band. It was another lesson of life that U cannot have all the good things in life together. You have to sacrifice something to win something else. Still I hope to rejoin the band and have some more shows with them in the future.

This was the year in which I spent a mammoth amount of time on one of pet hobbies-movie watching. The 4 month vacation I had between the end of my exams and the starting of the job training was spent mostly in watching movies,sometimes even 3 per day. I discovered some great classics and bowed my head in tribute to masters like Satyajit ray,Ingmar bergman,Akira Kurasowa. It was a virtual download cum movie watching fest at home considering the sheer volume of dvd rips I downloaded and watched with sheer pleasure. This might not make the people who are obsessed with policies and values happy, but I can't help it. Its fitting that my movie watching this year was topped with one of the best works I've seen from India in recent times, 'Taare Zameen Par'. Its one film which made me think, made me laugh, made me cry and most of all, inspired me. It was the same kind of feeling that I had after watching 'Pursuit of happyness'. I miss the daily movies after coming here but I hope to restart it after I get my laptop. And then hopefully I'll reach my goal of owning and watching all the movies in the IMDB top 250 movies of alltime list. Now my number stands at 79 out of 250.

But besides all this, there are somethings that remained the same as before. And the number one in that list is 'punctuality'. I've never been known for my punctuality. I been a perennial late comer in school and a regular bunker in college. My attendance percentage of 15 in the final semesters speaks volumes for that. Its only because of my kind faculty head that I was able to appear for the exams. I thought I'll become punctual once I start working. No,It didn't happen. I scored a hat-trick of latecomings in Infosys training and was greeted with the training faculty's "please come in the afternoon" dialogue many times. Then there are these old habits of never listening in the class, writing poems in the class and studying just the day before the exam. One more thing will remain the same-I'll continue my evergreen resolution of not taking any resolutions this new year also. And there are somethings that I haven't mentioned in this, somethings that has made me sad. But I don't want others to read the sad stories of my life. Radiate happiness and be a black hole to the sorrows, thats my principle.

So its time to wind up for the year.
Wish you all a prosperous and happy[thats the important point] 2008...

PS-2007 ended with a bang today afternoon with a mail from the HR to meet her. It was regarding me and my friend's late coming to the campus last week. The 9:30pm time limit was set considering the safety of employees. But punishing the same employees for a slight lapse is a little too hard on them. Inspite of having a solid reason, we were fined 500rs and a warning that we'll be expelled from the campus if we repeat the same. These are the times which make me think we are considered just as some numbers in the employee roll call, not humans. Anyway, a nice way to end a great year. As usual, I don't have any regrets about what I did or what I did not do. Am happy as ever about my existence. Am thankful to God as I live to savour another year full of glorious uncertainities.

your crusader praveen

MASHIN FALT

'Flexibility' is a word we associate mostly with the english language. There are so many brands of english around the world. Sometimes, even the British guys do have a hard time understanding some of these exotic brands. In the name of flexibility, the language has been subjected to gangrape,gruesome murder and sometimes re-birth.

But even this knowledge of the language's flexibility didn't prepare me to handle the shock of reading one simple sentence some days back. We have this habit of drinking Capuccino every night at 12 30 from the coffee day at FC3. But this special day, we were greeted by a big banner that read

"Hot bewerage not available. MASHIN FALT".
Hope all of u understood what they meant.

your crusader praveen

Its my Indyeah!!!

TV has become boring off late. Most of the time I'll be surfing music channels and news channels. And I do miss VH1, what with V and MTV ruled by the likes of Himesh. The only show I watch regularly is 'My India Report[MIR]' in V. Its a really cool concept with 6 youngsters selected from various parts of India travelling all over India. During this journey they discover different cultures, path breaking thoughts, shocking truths and share it all with us. As far as i think, this show is conceived as an amalgamation of the themes of 2 popular films-'motorcycle diaries[MD]' and 'rang de basanti[RDB]'. The idea of a country round trip from 'MD' and the idea of the nation awakening from 'RDB'. There were so many interesting thoughts that came out from their visits to various cities.

The team comprises of an interesting mix of people including a lady bartender and an artist based in Canada. Every episode, they'll be posing some questions to some random people they see on the road. In Varanasi[India at its religious best], they surveyed about belief in God among the youngsters there and found that most of them were god fearing but not mad about the religion they follow. This should serve as an eye opener for some 'religiously' political parties in India. One taxi driver gave an interesting discourse which would put even well known philosophers to shame. These are the things which tell you that you should never underestimate anyone. In Kolkata, the team found out that Che guevera is more popular than sourav ganguly. Is it the 'MD' effect or the good old love for communism? Yesterday, they went to Shillong, India's rock music capital. This city was in the news recently for showcasing the largest guitar ensemble in the world as 1730 guitarists strummed together for the Bob Dylan classic "knocking on heaven's door". Its told that almost everyone you meet on the road is a musician. There are more than 100 rock bands in the city alone. After meeting up with some bands and musicians, the team went to an NGO. There they met a woman who suffered a lot in her life. She was a servent in a household and her master sold her to other men. She somehow rescued herself from a brothel and helped the police to bust a big racket which specialised in human trafficking. According to her, more than 300 girls were rescued from there. She and other women like her are being given a chance to live a new life by the NGO.

Besides these interesting and sometimes touching anecdotes and opinions, what I found interesting about MIR is the nice camera work. Wherever they go, we are treated to some amazing visuals which really make us wonder whether there are such places in India. These visuals sometimes remind me of the great BBC documentary 'The story Of India'. I downloaded this documentary running close to 7 hours some months back. I would recommend it to those who want to see some unseen but breath takingkly beautiful visuals of India. Coming back to MIR, there are still some more episodes to go. Those who have missed it, try to catch it at 7.30pm on thursdays. Am not telling that all of what is shown on MIR makes sense. Sometimes they do sound absurd. But most of the time its really good and shows us some little known but interesting things about our motherland

PS- In MIR, there is so much talk on the lack of values and too much of skin show on television. It might be an irony that all this happens in a channel which has shows like Pia's beach diaries, where you have an anchor wearing just a bikini and strolling along the beach and 'India's hottest' which awards people based on how hot they are.

your crusader Praveen

Faceless...
Here's another song.. wrote this during today's class on infosys quality standards...These are my thoughts on terrorism in the heavenly kashmir valley.

**********Faceless*************
Shrouded by the dark cloth,
Is it the veil of ignorance?
Fighting for the devil's cause
Yours is a venomous death dance.

Snowy fields in the divine valley
turning red time and again.
Unholy flags of your holy jihad
fluttering like vulture wings.

Brainwashed morons on a killing spree
dreaming of a better morrow
throw their lives away for the dirty work
taking lives for a final ride.

Life's a full metal jacket
burning away inside the barrel.
Faceless u came,faceless u go
as your ashes pollute the serene lake.

22/11/2007

your crusader Praveen

Superhuman

Indian filmdom has a long history of stories of normal men producing superheroic acts onscreen. Most of the time we are left scratching our head or banging our fist on a nearby hard object, after such an onscreen assault. Rajnikanth is credited with pioneering this exotic art form of executing actions of unimaginable impossibility. But long before that, the great malayali actor Nazir have done some awesome tricks on screen. Its a little known fact that the bullet dodging trick that the whole world watched with gaping mouth in matrix was actually done years before by our very own Nazir. That too, without the help of slow motion, wire trick or stop motion cameras. In the original bullet dodging scene starring nazir, he comes off cooler than the one and only Neo. Our hero sees the villian firing the bullet from a distance. He raises his head and with his trademark doubtful look with the hands on his chin mouthes the dialogue-''vediyunda aanennu thonnunnu. Maarikkalayaam"[seems like a bullet.Let me move aside]. And he moves aside. Whereas poor neo had to bend backwards within milliseconds of the firing and couldn't even speak a single word eventhough the bullet was coming in slow motion.

Though we all dismiss these kind of tricks on screen as crap and all, these very scenes turn out to be the most viewed in video sharing websites like youtube. Its a debatable fact whether this popularity can be attributed more to the heroism or the comic element in it. It makes me laugh my head off to think that the directors are actually making such scenes with some serious situation in mind. Still, they are doing us a great service. After doing lots of assignments or sitting through boring sessions, these type of scenes can lighten you up like anything. The most popular one here at present seems to be another bullet trick scene, but of a kind which even neo would find hard to reproduce on screen. This stars Vijaykanth, another tamil actor who is popular for his superhuman scenes. The villian fires the bullet at Vijaykanth and he bravely shows his chest to the bullet. The next moment we see the bullet going in the opposite direction with double speed and it hits the villian who fired the bullet and he dies on the spot. Now the frame shifts back to vijaykanth and the great secret is revealed. He opens the top button of his shirt and removes a steel plate[the same thing we use to eat dosas from wayside eateries]. Its time the government gave a steel plate to all politicians and make it mandatory to place it inside their shirts. We can save millions of money that we spent on security for the politicians every year.

Another very popular man on youtube is telegu actor Balayya. His scenes ranges from moving a train just by pointing his finger to singlehandedly fighting and killing a whole building of pakistani terrorists in pakistan. Though I have watched all these scenes many time before, I still laugh real hard when I see it again. Most of the time in discussions on such scenes, the blame always fall on south indian films. But to tell the truth, Hindi films have produced a long list of such movies, right from Amitabh bachchan through Mithun chakraborthy to shakhrukh khan. Not many would've forgot shahrukh's action scenes in dumb movies like 'main hoon na'. Though the general advice for those who are going to watch such movies is to leave their brains at home, its real hard for even a no-brainer to tolerate such scenes for a whole movie, which happens mostly in the case of tamil superhero movies starring vijay,ajith,Rajnikanth etc. But, these small clippings can really cheer u up. So, enjoy with these no-brainer dumbos until my next dumbo post...

your crusader praveen