Skandagiri

Dont tell me u want me to |WRITE| something on this place

Tuesdays with morrie

Morrie Schwartz was a college professor in philosophy at Brandeis University for many years. One of his students in the 1970's was Mitch Albom. Morrie, "Coach," and Mitch became good friends over those years. Then Mitch graduated and went on with his life, too busy to keep in contact with his professor.

Almost twenty years later, Mitch is now a sports newscaster and writer. He and his wife are part of America's fast lane of life, doing well and striving for yet more. Then he watches Nightline one night. Ted Koppel is interviewing Morrie. And Mitch is surprised to discover Morrie is dying. He has ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Morrie is delighted to hear from Mitch again, and immediately invites him to visit. Thus begins a fourteen week, every Tuesday, visit and life lesson. It is also a funny and poignant life lesson. Morrie is able to take a look at life not only from the philisophical view he has taught over the years, but now also from the "end of life" viewpoint. He is a peace with himself and can share that peace and knowledge with Mitch and the others around him.

This book is a collaberation between Morrie and Mitch. They taped their visits each time Mitch visited. They discussed the big questions of life (what is love, living, death, marriage, a relationship) to the small ones (what's for lunch, how's your wife, how's your son, and the war in Bosnia). Mitch rediscovered the relationship that had never been broken. Morrie rediscovered his old friend. Also, Morrie was able to use this time to do what he loved, teach. The last line of the book is the perfect epitaph "A teacher until the end."

The book hits the right note - not too depressing because it deals with death, yet not irreverent or lighthearted to cover up death. Instead it is a wonderful chronicling of friendship and life questions. It is a short read, and worth it. Mitch is able to portray Morrie so that the professor once again is alive (and dying) for the reader.

I'd been putting off reading this because, as you know, there are too many books and too little time. I'm glad I finally made the time. This one will be worth a revisit as well. Morrie Schwartz' life philosophies help keep a person's perspective and keeps him grounded .
It also gets you pensive as to what our priorities are ?

Justification

How does a smoker convince himself to smoke....
-> Oh shit my dad's bought these ITC shares and if there is something i
can do to make his finances better it s this (what he spends for
his sutta is unaccounted adn FYI ITC isnt more domains than just tobacco)

-> If these Maiden songs can give me high by plain listening, just
imagine the intensity if i were high . Thats the true repect i
give to this classy band.

->When on the company bench ::::: Man i ll stop smoking once I get my
hands on some work, this idleness is killing me and driving me to smoke

->When working :::::: I cant handle this pressure , i need a smoke. That
would relax me make me work more efficiently

->My gal how could she ever do this to me . Cant stand the pain , dont
know who but has rightly said "pain in the body is much better than pain
in the mind " so this statement kinda sums up what i am going thru .

-> Because i am quitting(smoking) from monday (that is day after ) i
better smoke all i can before i quit .

-> I aint gonna live for 200 yrs . So if i smoke 1 which reduces 3 min of
my life , i am one of the lucky few who get to decide my destiny amidst
ppl who think GOD does it for us.

->If smoke a day reduces 3 min of ur life then work reduces 9 hrs of ur
life a day , 3 min and 9 hrs arent comparable on any scale .

->Now that Rajnikanth has stopped smoking on screen , who is gonna teach
the next generation to to smoke the right way. What if they injure
themselves trying to experiment , the wrong way (so for the sake of the
future generation)

->Just think of that corner shop guy.He is supported by his wife and 2
daughters . How selfish can i get by thinking of just me and not about the
people around me .

->Wieght Loss ;)

"Revenge"

The sound of the train seemed to make his heart chug faster.He felt this was faster than even the train .His mind seemed to speak to him , " U CHOSE PLAN B IF ONLY U HAD THE COURAGE TO LEAD A LIFE " He knew he couldn't and this was the only logical hit-back he could give to all the the trough life had given him. Noone knows when u are born , but only a few get to enjoy seconds before the soul and body bid farewell and he was the elite few. The grin from ear to ear said it all.He planned to keep his hands to buttress his body.It was just less than a second,he could feel the train touching his skin and !!!!!! his head was the farthest from his body he had felt all life and David lay there lifeless.All he could do to feel better from the clutches of the cruel life was give it up. He talked all his life how relinquishing one's life was cowardly , but ended up on the other side of the debate when he started riding the trough.He thought just at the moment he could smell the train , well i am at the border of life and death and only a few get to feel it. George did know of his father's suicide but wasnt ready to let go of the train driver for not having taken last minute measures. He took all the pain to look for that guy and stabbed him a lot of times till he knew that guy was dead. George gave this gratified look, and thought he had accomplished something that the driver deserved all life. But what would the innocent driver do for the willing suicide of David.
Well if this was a story, the real life analogy of this isn t too far away. If u have been following cricket , India lose to Bangladesh in the world cup and then organise a tour and then screw up the minnows claiming it to be a revenge . The worldcup loss being the suicide and the recently concluded series being the revengeThe analogy between the 2 is not far away :D

BILL 's Realization

" Bill u r the best thing that could have happened to me " said his mom

Oh was i ever so important to others and having done nothing big to her , mulled Bill
Is it mothers that are so self contended of their offsprings or is it anything by them seems good.
Bill got into the pensive mode.
' There have been relations in my life where i have seemed to give more than what i could expecting i'd get them back someday and i kept expecting , and here my mom ( she may have been this matured and a level headed CAT ) seems to be more than happy with even the negligence i provided.
And this day i bent over backwards for a small work which was pretty trivial of wat i was capable of , and she seems to be elated.
Just imagine if i were to give my maximum to her. '
The very thought , gave impetus to B I L L ! ! ! !

Cat's confusion

Relations are like " The life "
It ain't easy every time !!

There are difficulties at every turn ,
We don't run away from life, but why run away from relations
---------- said Bill's sis

Well for an intro Bill is the little cat that was new to the city and was on a socializing spree He was expectedly a little troubled

Bill seemed to feel a little better

U aren't perfect , nor is anyone else and thats what makes people more likable . Those are the imperfections that make u more attractive . U can try to mend ur character to fit the others' but not change them , cuz tomorrow "others" may be different people


Bill was feeling lighter . and for the first time seemed to believe the theory that the earth keeps moving , felt hellova lot since the last minute. May be he left his sulk and moved along with the earth !!!!!

Hyderabad

Well the word HOT got another example in my dictionary , well thats HYD ..
U travel all over in an ac car and then get into a house that is on the 5th floor and still feel the heat wave , then the very thought about the homeless people there makes u squirm.
Yeah the roads in the new hyd are broad and the apartments seem more organised but it has its own share of glitches , but thats what makes a city more enjoyable .

u can watch the snaps HERE

And yeah the individual places u could go shopping are the charminar (but please remember not to bargain )
The Birla mandir also has its set of shopping spots

If u are a movie freak just dont miss the Ramoji film city. It just rocks and u would be able to relate to so many of the shots u have watches on the movie screens

Bangalore (The Retro effect)

This week has been a one to remember to all those hard core Bangalore fanatics (like me). The clement weather seems to have one and all fall head over heals for it. Immigrants and Aborigins over the weeks were kinda getting cynical about bangalore's core strengths , C-L-I-M-A-T-E , and it seems to have given a taste of its usual self. The weather after 3 PM or was so adorable that even an copy book professional wouldn't have found it guilty to step out for a stroll and and get the breeze all over oneself.
My friend went a step ahead to go for a short drive(at good speeds of over 70) around the company on the new bike another friend just bought (CBZ extreme).
Well these are pretty small things that makes u get high on life!!!!

Chik tirupathi

My first long trip after we bought the car.We planned to leave at around 8 in the morning and left immediately picking my friend and his mom along with my mom and aunt. We took the white field road and then via channasandra and NH-207 . It is around 40 km from the outskirts of Bangalore.It has decent roads for most of the distance except for a few stretches of road where the road is under construction.
The temple that is generally pretty empty was filled to the brim cuz of the marriage muhurtham that were aplenty.On the whole it was a good place to watch and then while returning we came through sarjapur and thru electronic city etc. The return journey the roads were much better mainly cuz it was a weekend and u wont have the choker traffic in electronic city.


ROUTE (for people who wanna go there)
Route-1 take the road straight ahead ITPL and then go to channadandra and stay on NH207 throughout and then it is on road some 20 km or so from whitefield .
Route-2 Take a left after the electronic city junction on hosur road towards sarjapur and then from there go towards the Mugalur bridge and then follow the board or distance markers(its just the straight roads anyways)

P.S - Unusually photography is permitted in the temple

Marathalli Effect(The unknown face of the IT capital)

Marathalli and that side of bangalore may be known for more reasons than one. But one that more often than not tops the list is the volume of dust. U just cant escape this factor. U just cant get ur clothes to dry on the terrace or u cant make urself brave enough to walk out with a white shirt.
Now this atmosphere just having sunk in , Imagine if we had a small drizzle.Usually when u park ur vehicle out, u have to spend a good ten min to wipe the just of the vehicle, and to top it all the roads and the vehicle seemed to have gone to an impatient extreme.
The snaps may just sum it all up. :-D
I havent included the incident when there was a power cut and the over fed mosquitoes (in huge numbers) virtually carried us over, so that the readers dont breakdown. My blog is not for readers to breakdown. I haven't delineated that cuz i dont want this incident to go around as chain email stating each forward would donate some cents to us.

Ephemeral life!!!

Why do awe about life's capricious nature? Why is that no-one ever came up with a mathematical formula on how to live life ? Because it would be like the whodunit with the murderer's name in the prologue. Life is also kinda movie and u know the hero would turn out smiling but the sting in the story is u don't know who the hero is . I would have to laud the risk analysts who try to predict the unpredictable life and negate the evanescence of it.
There is nothing in life thats going to come all the way with you to ur graveyard and even if something does,you would never know what it is , you can just speculate what it is . So why think expect something to come all the way in this whimsical life?
Ur comp stays faithful to u for a while and becomes laggard and so does ur automobile . There is wear and tear in the vehicle and so will it be in ur relations .Expecting a lot of things to stay till u do , is wee bit immature.
So being prepared to lose the best we presently have is the next to that best thing , that a mature mind can have and knowing this u would appreciate my blog name .
Like this is would probably be Tendulkar's last world cup , every good thing in life has a termination and asking it not to would make the good thing otherwise . Giving due respect to good things would help u have the best of good memories .

PS: This is one of the few things i wrote as and when i felt and this is very much visible in the scattered content in the text

Asin and me

Like her or hate her but you can never ignore her !!! Bhumika has been my uno for years till asin starred in POKKIRI . There isnt a song these days on tv where i dont watch her till the very end of it. Her whetting looks in pokkiri has made many a guy crazy about her and i fall in that majority of the population. Mostly in the songs like vasantha mullai and thamizh her killer looks takes the audience by surprise as we haven't hitherto seen this glamour quotient from her and she carries this off in style .
And the nail in the coffin for any young guy is the enticing expressions she serves on the platter in the songs and scenes.All you can do is you recoil your jaw back to normalcy as quick as possible before you get embarrassed . Corroborating to this i think she is one of the main stream actress who can act.

More on her i think she isn't that figure conscious emaciated soul and is attractive naturally with the right quantity of adipose at the right places . She has quite a few credits to her name. She has dislodged simran from my books as vijay's best onscreen pair. And it is a rare feat that she even makes me notice her more than vijay in songs (after the 20th viewing though).Vijay has his hands at the right place in tamil cinema.

PS: Bala i am sure u have no competition for 3sha and she is all urs.

Ladies Coupe(the book) review

Ladies Coupe is a compartment in a train that is reserved exclusively for women. This compartment is safe, quiet and preferred by women who are either traveling alone (or traveling without a man). However, Akhila, the protagonist chooses to travel in a ladies coupe to discover herself.
Akhila is a 45-year-old single woman who belongs to a
conservative Brahmin family. She enjoys eating eggs, doesn’t do her prayers, makes love to a man who is much younger than her and gets upset when she sees the signboard at the ticket counter which says ‘Ladies, handicapped and senior citizens’.
he title in itself is very interesting to begin with. It’s in this compartment that five women of different age and family background come together and weave their own world. As the story develops, the Coupe turns into a place where five women share some of their life’s most private moments– about their childhood, their husbands, their sons and their lovers.
In each of the stories, it is clearly seen that all the five women have been victimised by the male-dominated society and each of these women have struggled, at some point, in their life to establish their own identity. Some failed, some succeeded and some managed to stay ‘afloat’.

‘Afloat’ – that is my favourite chapter in this book. I have never disclosed the plot or the story in my previous review and I don’t intend to do it now. However, I would like to mention that the simplicity of this chapter is what caught my attention. The narrator challenges herself to break the monotony of her life and assert her identity again. She succeeds and stays afloat.

The main character Akhila gets to peep into the lives of these women who also become companions in her journey. Like they say: It’s the journey and not the destination that matters. I am not sure if Akhila found the answers to all the questions that have haunted her for so long. But I am sure that by making an effort to find her answers, Akhila found a lot more than what she was searching for.

Any body can relate to this story. If you are a girl, live in India, fall in the age group that the society considers “eligible for marriage” and your resume is frequently circulated among relatives, shaadi.com and a family pandit – you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

The book is humorous, witty, serious, light hearted and thought provoking – all at the same time and I would suggest it to any body who wants to read a simple and well-written masterpiece.

Ring Road

Ring road epitomises more than just one thing.For some it may be one of the few roads in bangalore where you can drive your vehicle at speeds you can seldom imagine. For some its the hub of all the crime. And for a few its the road that is close to a desert where you have equal volumes of sand blowing at you .But recently i got to view another of its facets when i went to a movie through it. I, being an ardent movie buff was starving cuz of the sanctions that the karnataka rakshana vedike had put forward to retaliate the tribunal's verdict to release the water to TN. Well i thought i would put a halt to this(my starving for movies) and reached the multiplex well in time for the show . I had 2 other friends with me who would have not less than cursed me to have taken them along .Well i would prefer not to mention the name of the movie cuz i wouldn't like to rub them (Kar) on the wrong side. Well the movie apart, lemme continue to tell u what i set out to tell, the ring road.What could have lifted my sagging spirits after the movie better than the drive back on the ring road at 1 in the night .The 15 km stretch from PVR to marathalli was one of the few drives that I would cherish in bangalore.I by no means try to compare this to the best roads we have in the state(hinting at the bangalore mysore highway).But the metamorphosis of the road from the time we went to the movie and the whole facade of the road when we came back reiterated to us the capricious nature of the city life.The same street where traffic trickled slower than Jeffry Archer's books is now close to if not pacier than rajnikanath's movies.My bike for once seems to have enjoyed the speed.For people anywhere else other than bangalore ,can't appreciate this beautiful feeling cuz u havent experienced the sheer pleasure of the 9th wonder (bangalore's traffic).For many in bangalore may feel this is getting a bit more web space and attention than it requires ....
LIFE IS A GREAT EQUALISER .
While going for the movie >> My spirit and traffic was high
:( While back my spirit was low but my bike can FLY!!!