Bye Bye Monsoons...

zigzagged lightning patters over the dark sky visible from a 6th floor balcony of my Mangalore apartments... no better sight to have a laptop right ahead and start writing. The thunders have died down and so has the rains. The only spectacle remains is the blazes flashing around every 2 second or so. This is the retreating monsoons of southern India.
First thing they are not the threatening streaks of lightning which would rip apart anything downunder. They are simply sprawling across the 2 dimensional sky and are absolutely beautiful!! They are the left overs of the thunderous storm that just passed by and i am just enjoying the farewell, watching the absolute white streaks saying "sayonara". This is how wonderful the mangalore weather and this is why I would never cease to love the place.
It had all started last Thursday afternoon. The heat had over powered us. So was the fate of the studies i m still bound to. With my balcony facing westwards, I could see almost clear horizon at the distance with tiny flashes of saline water reaching my naked eye. It was pretty sight as it meant the monsoons clouds will no more block the beautiful sunsets. But alas, the winds starts gathering some speed and so does the the black clouds over the northeast sky. The baneful clouds with the silver linings were approaching slowly and dreadfully.
In no time, the clouds had taken over the Mangalore sky with little hope of any clear sky and clear horizons. The day was the last day of the navratri festivals or to say the dusshera. What better occassion to celebrate the festival with cool winds buzzing through.
This is the time of the year mangalore streets witnesses the rally. The rally of the dancing tigers, ruthless rakshashaas, swirling fire balls and pompous lights. All this while, the folks and devouts carry there idols for visarjans. The processions are beautiful and extravagant (pretty much for the city which sleeps at 10).
Only thing which is marred in the whole affair is the street traffic which ofcourse was the last in the planning list for the city cooperation babus. This is what reminds me the date that day was ofcourse 9th Oct. Greater details on the significance of this day later though.
Well the time is - to put off laptop and go to sleep for i need to ofcourse go work every morning. Good bye Monsoons... hope to see you soon!! :)

TV shows come to YouTube... but alas

since when has internet also become bound by nation boundaries?
When do we see same programs in India?

Bubble Gum...

read the conversation the author has put forth between him and IIM investment banker in US...

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/05/stories/2008100550010100.htm

excerpt "
Flashback to year 2003:

Me: Why do the banks sell these home loans to you guys?

Rohit: Because we allow them to keep a significant portion of the interest rate charged on the home loans and we pay them upfront cash, which they can use to issue more home loans. Otherwise home loans go on for 20-30 years and it would take a long time for the bank to recover its money.

Me: And, why does Lehman buy these loans?

Rohit: Because we get a fat commission when we convert the loans into CDOs and sell it to investors.

Me: Who are these investors?

Rohit: They include everyone from pension funds in Japan to Life Insurance companies in Finland.

"

Ingenuity of the markets -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g

Secret Passageway...

before it fades away...

mickey world was a famous games cum hangout parlor in Navi Mumbai. The place we reached out to escape. The place the fun meant that the only competition is the virtual demon controlling those games. It was (and may be still is) over the Gupta sandwich waalah (vashi sector 17). The place is not great 50x50x50 meters area, but suitable for a 20-30 teens or a preteens to keep their heads busy in.

I had been to this place (not many times but yeah have had fun) and had my earnest fun (sounds ironical.. well yeah fun sometimes for me is this way). So I am here after 5 years of gap and 2+3 years of college and job. I await the chaos and thrill .. the exulted expressions and few proud guardians watching over. I guess, the time must be evening 4pm when i reach the place. The regular watchman and the hustle, both are absent. May be the time is 4 and day of the week is 4(Wednesday). I ignore, the expectation still doesn't fade away until i reach the place and open the door!!!

The place has turned into a ghost room. Neither are those machines blinking neither are there any joyous faces. There is no one. There is no one stamping there foot (either in joy or anger). There is no one queuing up for the those tokens to play again. Strangely, the machines and the counter still present. I couldn't be mistaken to have come to wrong place at wrong time. This definitely is the place and there is definitely something wrong. What's wrong? The place simply was shutdown with low turnout and revenue and consequently niggling between the brothers. (yeah i found this out when i did find the watchman downstairs).

Now, the time was to redo the place. Redo the stroll and redo the experience. It all has to be in mind but with the memories and experiences as sharp then, nothing dies down so easily. So I walk in again only to find the the superheroes dashing machines on my right and cop acting upon the bank robber on my left. Further walk down, it was the place for popcorn and soda. Yeah of course, the steering wheels with which I vroomed virtual cities. Oh come on, how come kids don't enjoy this anymore??

The place is deserted but the items and brink surrounding them still in place. The partition always use to halt my way but could only manage to wiggle my whim by 1 mm, next moment i had my friend calling on to buy more coupons before he runs out of time 6....5..4.3!!!

But this time i was alone and i could see through the partition and the back door. I chose to take step forward rather than sway right. I creaked in and kept moving in. The passage is lit but dim lit. This is inviting to those who take on invitation for anything but the weddings and engagements. Walking in, there is no thought but to keep walking and of course keep that fist geared up in case someone tries to act smart. Well in dark corners anything could take place and anything could go wrong, why take chances (at least my fist will be safe). The passage leads to another door which swayed open just like that (no it wasn't the wonderland, nor was i Alice to keep toggling to get the key and open the door.)

The room next was again lightly lit but awesomely bright. The place is justly embellished between the like a chandelier gushing out to all corners and candles filling in bare necessities. The place has cubicles but of the size of rooms. I rolled my eyes to disbelief of the architecture. The columns were no where!! Just that one large space with nothing holding it. If only they had managed to keep the boundaries out of sight, the room would have been such that trees and birds could live in harmony. The decor was of course amazing with the fine cubes partitioning the place into many rooms. Those partitions were wood and carved with "i don't know wat!!". Know what, it still felt amazing and beautiful. Colors and carvings were not following a definite pattern but they were symbolizing anything or may be something. The symbols were of sunflowers, crayons, footballs, fishing nets, sunset. None of these were actually there to be interpreted as mentioned. I guess i assumed them this way.

Now, now what ... I had to enter one of those rooms and check out "whats going on???". Another thing.. footsteps never seemed to have no sounds. I wonder, was it just by chance or were there sensors nullifying any sound. It accompanied, those computer beeps and peeps. I wasn't thinking about this when i entered the the room. I was wondering who is this playing games here!!

As soon as i enter the room i find things which i haven't seen ever before. Not unless you have seen the 42" sized PC monitor with its keyboard (cordlessly attached)and huh?? third component missing (CPU). Amazingly, the ubiquitous wirejams were huh MISSING! not even to the power plug. The eyes went past that and the guy(whom i did notice before but can take a back seat now) was playing the intense graphics game. He lets me play that and i realize no way this could be played on my PC. So what is this guy running here...

Well the guy briefs me (well this happens only after he himself gets over initial shock of "who is this?") .. briefs me about the the high end stuff he has procured for in-house testing for the processor giants. They give away a complete assembly to test those quadras and tetras here. I actually didn't ask further, except for the controls to the game...

When i was leaving from the place, I met up with few more who carry out there secret operations in secret community and have fun with those thunderous counter strikes!!!... yeah so while i was leaving the place i realize that i have never felt this good since the time we (I and Tanbir) bumped our bicycles into heavy stream near Nazira(Assam).

Those were the days when the we looked out for the secret passages everywhere. The places hidden to our horizons, places beyond our imaginations, places closest to us. So where are those places, or where are the new kids going to look out for new dreams and new friends and new ghosts. Where will these guys find their caspers?