Sunday, June 28, 2009

Walk on

I walked. Yes. Those of you who know me will be surprised. For the rest of you, I’ll tell you why. The only walk I take is the one from my office to the place where my carpool stops. That's my exercise. But seriously I did walk, for about 4 kms. SO WHAT you may ask. Well, you see this was different. I took a guided tour. A whaa? Yep, a tour in our very own Bangy town. I, along with my friends took one of the walks conducted by Bangalore Walks. It was indeed an experience I’ll always cherish. A tour that helped me re-discover Bangalore.

We walked through places which were familiar. It seemed familiar and yet new. I went through a series of - “WoW I never knew that!” moments. Savita, our ‘guide’ clearly knew the place like the back of her hand and her enthusiasm was extremely infectious. We had good fun interacting and walking through the streets of Bangalore.

I will refrain from saying anything more about the walk. Take it and discover for yourself. Highly recommended, folks.

p.s. This walk has totally inspired me to find out more about Bangalore. I will get back with a complete North Bangalore (read Malleshwaram) tour guide. Promise.

p.p.s had breakfast at my favorite – ‘Brahmins coffee bar’ :) yummy VaDaa and chutney.. slurp slurp. Darn! I am hungry now :(

p.p.p.s I had written this post three weeks back and was waiting for my friend to send across some pictures, which I thought would beautify this blog. Now I have them, as you can see, yeyy!. err this was avoidable but of course you know how I like giving pointless information.

Now for some pictures (courtesy: my friend :))

Fruit Bats in Bugle Rock park. You got to look closer :)

KannaDa KaTTe (near Brahmin's coffee bar). This kaTTe (KaTTe means a place where you can sit and talk talk and talk. There’s a kaTTe in my compound as well, are you surprised?) has pictures of various luminaries of our state. This is just one part of the kaTTe.


My friend found this very amusing :p


Gavigangadhareshwara temple:


Thursday, June 11, 2009

Castle in the air

When a cute guy (really cute, mind you) stops his car and asks for directions and you have no clue what he is talking about, don’t just stare at him and say “I dunno”. You are doomed if you do. Think hard. Pretend you know the place. It doesn’t matter if you give him wrong directions. Just make sure he is there in front of you.
Got that?

Don’t be like me (and two of my other friends) and say idiotically “hmm nope. no clue” and then squeal “wasn’t he cute?”

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Looks interesting

Watch it. (with headphones).

I know I know few of you might be shaking your head and saying, "pah! Harry potter anthe. yappaa.. Kid only you are". I don't care what you say. I will watch it (release date: July 17). Anybody want to join-aa?


But books are any day better. In fact they are the best. With one exception, I believe. I have read the book but haven't yet watched LOTR movies. From what my friends tell me, the movie it seems, is as good as the book. Somebody please lend me LOTR dvd's. please please pretty please. You will get puNya, really.

Anyway coming back to Potter movies, till now, they have been very disappointing. Lets hope Half blood prince is better.

Friday, June 5, 2009

World Environment Day

“Geez! Not another ‘world something-or-the-other day’”. “Not another publicity-gimmick-day”. “Another “change the world by switching off television sets and computers day" you’d think.
But I prefer to claim this as a commitment day. Can I request you all to take some time off and think about climate change? No no I am not asking you to become an environmental activist or go around the city, shout slogans and hold “stop polluting start protecting” kinda demonstration. All I am asking is to do your bit. Commit yourself for your future. *too heavy eh?*

Well let me start again. Why can’t we commit ourselves to the environment? We could start by committing ourselves at home or office or when shopping. I am sure we can do little things such as using coffee mugs instead of disposable plastic cups or printing less or switching off the ignition while waiting for the lights to turn green or switching off fans/lights when you know you wouldn’t need them. You know things such as these (though not grand) do matter.
I don’t want to sound preachy but I do think we can bring about change in our lives by doing such simple stuff.

Just a thought. So what do you say? Can we start a movement? :)

Please send in your suggestions and share your thoughts about it. Do make use of the comments section. Maybe we can come up with better ways to tackle this issue.

Here is an excellent way to begin (an initiative by UNEP).

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Honey-soaked voice

At the beginning of this millennium, when hindi film-music industry was falling apart due to lack of good female singers (wokay I think I am exaggerating a bit) and when most of us were deafened by Alka ji’s, sadhna ji’s, Kavita ji’s, Sunidhi’s monotonous vocal torment and not to forget, once amazing, unbeatable sisters asha tai’s and lata ji’s shaky vocal torment, there entered a voice that left us all enthralled; a voice that charmed us; a voice that captivated our hearts; a voice that sometimes felt like a cool breeze and sometimes like a deep ocean. When we heard her for the first time, we all exclaimed at once- "ah! whatay"

Okay, I am talking about Shreya Ghoshal.
Twenty something Shreya has a voice that’s difficult to replace. I don’t think any of her contemporaries can sound as good as her. Maybe few, but not all. And please let's not talk about few singers whom I am not too “fond of”. Can Alisha howtospellherastname sing a note without going flat? Or can Sunidhi-falsetto specialist-Chauhan for once sing without murdering a tune? I do feel Sunidhi, Kavitha, Alka and Sadhna sargam are better than most of the talent show winners; like that moaning-groaning singer and that other aggh sounding singer. These girls are better off doing moaning-groaning numbers (alright alright I know it sounds errmm.. somewhat crude, but don’t they sound horrible with their ooh’s, ahh’s and mmh’s?).
Anyway in my opinion Shreya is a fabulous singer. Period.

I thought of sharing two of her songs today:

Bhor Bhaye (Delhi 6): I haven’t stopped listening to this wonderful album (Delhi 6) since its release. And thanks to ARR this thumri in Raag Gujari Todi is neither remixed (like what Imsail darbar did to Albela sajan in Hum dil de chuke sanam) nor murdered. It is kept as it is. And mind you it's not easy to sing this fabulous thumri, what with it's complicated sargam and taans, you'll go crazy. Shreya does a commendable job. Well, few of them might compare this to the original piece, sung by Ustad Bade Ghulam ali, which is unfair I tell you. Coz this man is God. Nobody can sing like him.

Enjoy the song.

Tere Naina (Chandni Chowk to China): With a movie name such as this, one can hardly expect a nice soothing number. But Shankar, Ehsan & Loy give us a sweet romantic number with Tere Naina. Not their best though. Shreya matches Shankar Mahadevan with ease. Not only that, she also out-performs him this time. A sweet cute SEL-ish song.

Here are a few other songs by Shreya I recommend listening to:
Dheemi Dheemi si (Shiva),
O Saathi re (Omkara), Silsila yeh chahat (Devdas), Chalo tumko lekar (Jism), Tumhe jo maine dekha (Main hoon na), Barso re (Guru), Naam ada (Yahaan), Wada raha (Khakhee), Ishq hua (Aaja Nachle), Mere Dholna (Bhulbhulaiya), Thode Badmash (saawariya) and Teri ore (Singh is King).

Let me know how you liked these songs :)