Manish Jethani: Weblog » Friends

All packed and ready to go

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

From the looks of it this is going to be a fun trip. 600 miles at 50
mph and the loong load. I am all excited already.

Thanks to iPhone to email to flickr to wordpress to livejournal, plan
is to keep updating this blog all along the way.

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/487.

Flattop's GOGOGO

I’m in a state of despair. His cellphone doesn’t work and I have no idea where he might have gone. To give you some background, it’s been a long relationship. One of the longest I’ve had in Bangalore at least, apart from 2-3 other close friends.

As you can imagine, it’s been a hearty blow to me. I called the landline number for him and they said he had left. They wouldn’t even tell me where he’s gone.

I used to see him often. In fact, every time I felt in need of some cheer. I usually fall to pieces if I don’t. Sadly though, it’s been a rather imbalanced relationship – I need him much more than he needs me.

I trusted him completely. Over 3 years only he could understand what I needed the most. I never had to say much to him. I would just sit there and let him work his magic. And he’s hardly ever let me down. I don’t have the energy to look for someone else considering it took me many years to find him.

( Read on )

With the heat beginning to get to everyone this summer in Bangalore, I thought this would be a an appropriate visual for everyone. It's such a nice feeling - to fall into the water, looking upwards and feeling the spray all around you... SPLASH!

I frankly don't even remember the last time I did this... do you? The sheer pleasure of this seemingly simple act is quite difficult to measure. Or express in words.

We spotted a group of boys having a lot of fun in the water on a day trip to the town of Kolar. That's the place you go in search of gold. Or at least it used to be. The Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) have since closed down so we couldn't really go in search of our pot of gold after all.
( Read on )

Am I the only one missing Vasanthi Hariprakash on Radio City. She first moved from Good Morning Bangalore to Joy Ride and now she is no longer on air. I tried asking around a few folks and no one seem to know. I have now switched from Radio City to Fever these days.

Who is your favourite RJ these days?

A friend forwarded me the following email with the words "What say?":

This is interesting......

"Jana Gana Mana" - Just a thought for the National Anthem! How well do you know about it?

I have always wondered who is the "adhinayak" and "bharat bhagya vidhata", whose praise we are singing.. I thought might be Motherland India ! Our current National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana" is sung throughout the country. [SNIP!]

OKAY! You know what follows! This email forward has been doing rounds for quite a bit now, and keeps cropping up in our inbox every once in a while...

So I thought I would just re-post what I wrote on the Jana Gana Mana controversy way back in November 2004:
Of Songs, Anthem, and controversies...

I hope it will catch the attention of some of my friends who missed it earlier, and give them a thought before they encourage this misinformation campaign with another forward!

Nakul

Remember, you heard it from the BBC first...Great tits cope well with warming.

I understand helping humanity and all that. But before we expend a bunch of funds and resources helping Myanmar rebuild, what say we finish aiding and rebuilding New Orleans?

Further to my post about airtel, Amitha from Airtel reverted to me saying that, Airtel has put process in place to ensure that these kind of stuff does not offer again. Also, she told me that henceforth any new plans that are being offered will be updated on the website as soon as the offer begins. They will also be including fliers in the bills informing about this starting this month.

Let us wait and watch. But I am really happy that they took the complaint seriously and acted upon it, albeit a bit late.

Off to California on Saturday night, for two weeks. Been looking forward to this visit for quite some time, so let's see what gives.

It takes me exactly 22 days to get sick of Bangalore.

So far I've only heard this coming out of Clinton's campaign, so I guess it really doesn't matter.

But I'm already growing tired of hearing negative campaigning against John McCain based on calling his Presidency "George Bush's third term". That's both fear mongering and total FUD. I look down on that every bit as much as I look down on those who claim Obama is Muslim or always refer to him using his middle name (which, for those of you living on another planet, is "Hussein").

But I guess when your campaigning is so futile that you can't raise funds anymore you have to resort to tactics like that.

Unfortunately for her, Hillary can't call a term of her as President "Bill Clinton's third term"...she wouldn't be half the President that her husband was.

I watched Jimmy Carter on Leno tonight. He's a great elder statesman (Carter, not Leno). Carter had a great foreign policy even when he was President. Too bad his domestic policies sucked so much.

The photograph I posted yesterday was the Draco, The Flying Lizard. Click here to see the lizard marked out in the bark.



These small lizards live in trees and are found along the Western Ghats. They are masters of Camouflage and if they are sitting on a bark without moving, its almost impossible to find them. On land they are clumsy and easy victims for predators. When scared, they run up a tree. When threatened, they leap off the tree. With their "wings" stretched out, these long-tailed, lightly built lizards glide gracefully. The wings act like parachutes. They gently land on another tree, head up. When they land, they run up the tree, getting ready for their next flight.

During mating season, male flying lizards defend their territories. They court females by displaying their bright yellow throat flap as shown in the photograph above. They have to, as they are well camouflaged otherwise.

As the election date for Karnataka State draws close, I have been trying to find out who deserves my vote.

After the drama that I witnessed, where all possible combinations were tried out by Cong., BJP & JD(S), drama that revolted me completely.
Backstabbing was the order of the day, Everyone was willing to go with everyone else - for a slice of the power. Principles - were an unknown quantity and governance - was all about being in power & nothing about governing.

That period was revolting & I dont think I would be able to get myself to cast a vote in favour of any of them.

Today morning I saw a leaflet in my newspaper from "Lok paritran" - Took me a while to remember that this was a party created by a few IITians a couple of years back and I was happy that it has survived. I am a little ashamed to admit that I felt charged up till a few days after I saw the movie Yuva , but did nothing about it - and here are some people who seem to be doing exactly that in real life.

I went to their site and read up their election manifesto for karnataka .

I was quite impressed by their manifesto, which took a data driven approach at listing out the issues, and suggesting solutions that they would work on.

Besides the fact that they have a lot more educated candidates than other parties, they attack a lot of fundamental issues, which should have far-reaching - ripple-kind of effects.
They are apparently fielding candidates for all constituencies in Bangalore, and I hope that at least in Bangalore - they can see some success.

What I have posted here, is based just on what I have read & may be far from the truth.
I would be happy to learn more about the topic and make a more knowledgeable decision about my vote - about this party or others from more experienced & knowledgeable folks in this area so do leave me a comment.


I hope all of you who are in Karnataka - do vote this weekend.

There really is a lizard sitting on this bark

Answer : You can compare the original with this one to find the lizard. Try to find it yourself before you look into this link though.

When a high school girl wears what are obviously pajamas while shopping at Walmart, that's cute.

When a high school boy wears what are obviously pajamas while shopping at Walmart, that's fucking lame, and is a textbook example of "loser".

I feel like I should learn how to create House music. I want to see House music. I think there's a lot of Godel, Escher, Bach happening with House. I think it's possible to program a House synthesiser and direct it to produce House music or generate visualisations out of it. It's simpler and more deterministic than Metal riffs, it seems.

Don't I sound crazy? Never mind, I'm doping on House.

Being a member of the Jury for the magical competitions at Vismayam 2008 was challenging and fun, but even that could not compare with the utmost joy gained from meeting the doyen of Indian Magic - Magician K Lal from Gujarat.

It indeed was a very special moment when the nonagenarian came visiting The Magic Space stall at Vismayam 2008, and said good things about the products that were on display and sale there.



Hearing appreciative words from Master Magician K Lal about my Essential Card Magic Kit for professional and amateur close-up entertainers was surely the best part of the four day convention for me. Not to mention, entertaining the legend was an enthralling experience that will stay with me all my life.

K Lal ji -- I have to say -- is the one of the most humble and encouraging people I have met, especially in the Magic fraternity.

Kudos to the grand old man of Indian Magic, who is billed as The World's Greatest Magician for his shows the worldover!

Please Note:
K Lal is currently performing in Chennai with his son K Lal Jr. Catch the show if you can!

Today we learned that while davmoo was happy with the current County Council, apparently the majority of his fellow county citizens were not. And apparently those same citizens somehow feel that a retired fireman will make a better coroner than a retired police detective.

And so it goes...

I opted for a Republican ballot.

In every online poll that I've taken in the last month, I come up, and I kid you not, 1/3rd in favor of Clinton, 1/3rd in favor of Obama, and 1/3rd in favor of McCain. Over all, I could accept, and vote for, any of the three as President...especially when you compare them to the current Dumbass in Chief. At this point I'd vote for Peewee Herman to replace George W. Shrub.

But the state and local races are another matter.

Bartholomew County is overwhelmingly Republican. The only current office holder I can think of that is Democrat is the mayor of Columbus, an election that I can't vote in anyway (I'm not a resident of Columbus, thank the spirits). And while maybe not as rabid as this county is, the state is mostly Republican also. So in this year's state and local elections, most races don't even have a Democratic competitor, and those that do don't really have a chance of winning. So for offices like County Council and Superior Court Judge (all of which I favored the incumbents, which is unusual for me), the election is effectively decided at the primary, and between competitors of the same party. Therefore, if one wants to have a say in local politics, one pulls an orange ticket at the poll on Primary day (for anyone who wonders, the Democrats are green).

I have to laugh at the number of local people who thought they could vote Democrat in the national elections but Republican in the local elections on Primary day. People like that are too fucking stupid to be voting.