Prashant's Weblog

Crying – Roy orbison

Posted by Prashant - 08/03/10 at 05:03:34 pm

Roy Orbison : Crying

I was all right for a while
I could smile for a while
But I saw you last night
You held my hand so tight
As you stopped to say, “Hello”
Oh, you wished me well
You couldn’t tell
That I’d been crying over you
Crying over you
When you said, “So long”
Left me standing all alone
Alone and crying, crying
Crying, crying

It’s hard to understand
But the touch of your hand
Can start me crying
I thought that I was over you
But it’s true, so true
I love you even more
Than I did before
But, darling, what can I do?
For you don’t love me
And I’ll always be crying over you
Crying over you

Yes, now you’re gone
And, from this moment on
I’ll be crying, crying
Crying, crying
Yeah, crying, crying
Over you

Amazing India – Golden Moon at Gurdum

Posted by Prashant - 08/03/10 at 03:03:29 am

I always believed that every photograph speaks a story, especially if you are traveling and photographing in India, then it has to have a story to tell. I absolutely love this country. Every kilometer of it is filled with a different colour, a different hue. So when I had good fortune to travel around and take few photographs I wanted to tell my side of story as to what inspired me to take that photograph. So in a quest to tell the story of how I connected with the photograph that I took, I have started this “Amazing India” series.

It started on facebook and will continue there. I am also posting the same on my blog also. The blog allows me to be more verbose than facebook. Anyways here another photo and its story.

Amazing India – Our date with the moon is not a recent phenomenon. Our paeans of the moon go back more than 2000 years before Christ. Rigveda pleads in earnest supplication to the  moon asking it to enlighten us in the right path. Such was the celebration of this celestial body by our people. The romance has continued and only strengthened with every passing year. We have crawled, toddled,walked, ran, stumbled, fallen in our quest to know this celestial body which our ancestors have revered so much, but with every fall we have rolled over, dusted ourselves and started all over. It is because of this relentless perseverance that today our own Chandrayaan-I has made headline news.

As I watched this golden moon in Gurdum, my chest ballooned with pride. Somewhere in the outer realms of space, in the black surrounding this golden ball there was a 1000 odd kilograms of electronic equipment called Chandrayaan-I, which alone, on behalf of a billion people, represented the scientific prowess of an amazing India.

Hindu Life

Posted by Prashant - 03/03/10 at 04:03:21 pm

If  330,000 god and goddess, innumerable holy scriptures, countless cultures and rites weren’t enough to confuse, befuddle, baffle, distract and disorient  a Hindu life today, we now have sex scandals,  enacted by the very people who have been entrusted with responsibility of uploading the sanctity of our religion, rocking the very foundation.

In wake of this where does the average Hindu go? Who would be that “north-star” that he can look-up to navigate this maze?

Magical Ukulele performace by ryan Imamura

Posted by Prashant - 03/03/10 at 03:03:47 am

I don’t know what it is but there is something that very few people have that allows them to give that magic touch to whatever art they perform.

Absolutely love it..Absolutely brilliant. The grace with which his fingers move over the fretboard is simply awesome. Truly inspirational.

Invictus

Posted by Prashant - 20/01/10 at 02:01:11 pm

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Beautiful lines from poem titled Invictus by William Ernest Henley.  Clint Eastwood has recently directed a movie with the same name. It is said that this poem was a inspiration for Nelson Mandela as he was incarcerated in a tiny cell for 27 years.

Sandhak Phu Trek – Photo Slideshow

Posted by Prashant - 18/01/10 at 02:01:29 pm

It was a mesmerizing feeling as you stand and stare at the kanchanjunga in all her glory. No amount of megapixal cramming will do justice to her resplendent glory. Only way to experience is get out, stand in front of her and just watch.

Slideshow of photos from recent Kolkatta-Sandhakphu trek.

Avatar Movie- Breathtaking 3D Experience

Posted by Prashant - 18/01/10 at 01:01:15 pm

Don’t let email forwards like this stop you;

Don’t fret about the costly tickets nor let the not so satisfactory review comments about the movie stop you from watching the 3D version of Avatar. Just go and watch it. What a breathtaking experience it was. Simply awesome.

Damn with not-all-that-great story line. The movie is worth the weight in unobtainium just because of the absolutely brilliant action sequences,  the Great Leonopteryx, mesmerizing banshee ride, the thanator, the viperwolfs, the direhorses, attack of the Hammerhead Titanothere,the magnificent floating Hallelujah Mountains, the destruction of gaint hometree, the holograms, stunning beauty of the Pandora planet, especially after dark and the list goes on. These could have been passed off as another set hollywood stunts, but that third dimension makes all the difference and what a difference it has made. Absolutely love it. I almost jumped off my seat with the joy when it had scenes of people flying these cool looking flying machines. It was like I was in it..experience was really cool. Other scenes which are worth their weight in gold are when people operate those futuristic touch based hologram. You feel as though you are right there in the thick of the action. Fantastic.

So don’t miss this one and for heaven sake watch the 3D version, if not you for sure are missing something.

Back from Orissa and SandhakPhu trip

Posted by Prashant - 08/01/10 at 12:01:58 pm

As the train, Prashanthi Express, to Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, chugged out of Bangalooru’s central railway station on 19th December 2009, I was still not very sure as to what beckoned me to this great land of Kalinga. Was it the unique history/culture, splendid architecture, bountiful beaches, the amazing Chilka lake or was it just that it was “on the way” to Kolkatta? I was not sure.

But the journey had begun and as I traveled through Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Konark, Chilka, Nalaband and Balgaon, it was aroma of a different world, flavor of a different cuisine, savoriness of a splendid heritage and a tang of rich natural beauty all rolled in to one. I savored, relished and smacked all of it and thoroughly enjoyed what it had to offer.

After ambling through part of Orissa, I moved to Kolkatta. It was a different place altogether when compared to Orissa. Fact that the whole of the trek group(almost) was with me added to the fun. I wonder why none of the travel guides make the following the must do activities for all tourists at Kolkata;
- Munching yummy rolls after rolls
- Gulping down golgappa after golgappa
- Hogging packet after packet of Jalmurdi
oh take our word for it, fun in travel multiplies several fold when you get into an infinite loop with above there tasks .

When we were not busy with above three activities we found enough time to travel on machines that fall on two completely opposite sides of the speed spectrum, Metro rail and Kolkata trams. We also were able to, not in any order, visit the Birla temple, Victoria memorial, shop for our trek gear near S-Planet, add lot more calories at one of the yummiest sweet shop K.C. Das, enjoyed the ferry service at Howra.

After a wonderful day in Kolkata, it was time to move on to NJP. We undertook an overnight train journey to NJP. Then a sumo and an indica transported us from NJP to Manebanjan which was the start point of our trek.

Fighting the freezing cold which we were not used to at Manebanjan, we started the most exciting journey of year 2009, trek to Sandakphu-phalut. Generally people either trek or most of the times take land rovers from Manebanjan to Sandakphu and then climb down from Sandakphu in to West Bengal.But we had planned a different route.

Day 1:

We would start at Manebanjan and trekking through Chitrey, Lamaydhura, Megma, Tumbling where we halt for night.

Day 2:

The next morning from Tumbling throught the Singalila forest reach Garibus and then passing through Kaiyakatta reach Kalipokri which would be the stopover place for the night.

Day3:

Trek from Kalipokri through Bhikey Banjan to reach Sandakphu.

Day 4:

Trek 21 km from Sandakphu to reach Phalut. This is a slight deviation from the usual trekking route. Most of them come to Sandhakphu and then take the Gurdum, Srikola Rimbik route to complete the trek.

Day 5,6 and 7:

These three day idea was to trek to Uttarey in Sikkim by passing through Sabnam valley, Shinglila Pass,Achelley Dara, Phoktey Dara with night halts (in tents) at Achelle Dara and Kalizar

Uttarey would be the end of the trek from where group would disperse off to their respective destinations.

The plan looked impressive. The view of Himalayas you get to see  from Sandhakphu and Phalut are unparalleled. But hey we all know the universal law “If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong” and our trip had to abide by it. Things went on as per the plan until we reached Sandakphu. The night we halted at Sandakphu was greeted by sever cold and blizzards. By the time we woke up and opened the door of our loghut, the entire landscape had magically transformed. It was completely covered with snow almost half a feet in thickness. Though we thoroughly enjoyed, it also ment that we were struck in this place until the snow recedes by melting. Day one went waiting for the skies to clear and so did the day two. With the cold taking heavy toll on all of us and with the loss of precious time we had our back against the wall. We all knew there was no way we could go ahead with our plans in these circumstances. Plan “B” was imminent. Considering the time we had on our hand, we decided to chuck the plan of going to Phalut, instead we decided to take the regular trek route and climb down from Sandakphu through Gurdum, Srikola and then to Rimbik. We also arranged for vehicals to pick us up at Rimbik from where we dispersed. One group went to Siliguri, a big town around 6KM from NJP and rest went back to Manebanjan.

As I had to take a train from NJP to Howra, I decided to go to Siliguri. The day we landed in Siliguri, on one had it was the nostalgic feeling that marked the end of a superb trek, but dusk of that day also marked a brand new year for a fellow trekker who became a year wiser. Celebrations started early and went on late into the night. We all had a wonderful time.  The next day three from the group in Siliguri started off on yet another awesome adventure to Butan. Rest of the group spent time surfing the hongkong market in Siliguri. After shopping we headed towards the NJP station to catchup with the penultimate leg of our journey. We took the train from NJP to Kolkata and the the next day flight back from Kolkata to Bangalore, thus ending a trip that had lots and lots of “WOW” and “Ah ha” moments.

Though I would rate Leh trip higher than this one, this trip has given me more moments than the Leh trek that I would cherish and remember my entire life. The first glimpse of the majestic Kanchenjunga, exhilarating view of the Himalaya range from Sandhaphu, First glimpse of the mount Everest, View of Sikkim dotted in electric lights and basking in the full moon light, first sight of the amazing snow filled landscape that hit my eyes when I stepped out the log hut in the morning at Sandakphu and many many more…

This was just the bird’s eye view of the amazing trip I had. A much longer post with lots of pictures depicting more incidents, pranks, “What the forest!!” moments, moments of exhaustion, relief, triumph, exhilaration, pain and fun is on the way.

yepeee…at last proud owner(going to be) of photoshop CS4

Posted by Prashant - 16/12/09 at 01:12:10 pm

Photoshop CS4 is downright one of the best software for image editing and in some days I will be a proud owner of a licensed copy of not just the Photoshop CS4 but the entire web premium suite and that too at a throw away

All this thanks to a fellow trekker who works in Adobe. They get employee discounts and was kind enough to purchase one license for me. Like the saying “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” goes this throwaway price comes with a caveat and that is I cannot use any of the web premium suite products for commercial use. But then its not that much of a handicap because I don’t think I have the necessary skills to make serious money with photography and Photoshop. So it will always be for personal use.

So the next obvious question is why the hell would I want to pay a non zero price when you have Gimp? Make no mistake about it Gimp is one hell of a image editor and if that is not good enough its FREE. Well I myself dont have convincing answer for that, but I guess its because;

• Its GNU
• Its slow compared to photoshop
• I can afford photoshop (the discounted one)

I don’t know how the upgrades system would work for the personal license. Next version sounds really interesting.

Death of relationships

Posted by Prashant - 14/12/09 at 03:12:17 pm

What started as a simple jungle civilization around 300 AD in the backdrop of rain forests in the Mexico region, Mayan civilization lasted until close of 900 AD. In between these 5 centuries, also referred to as the classical age, Mayan civilization rose to improbable heights marked by architectural brilliance, unparalleled splendor and magnificent display of art and culture. But as everything that has a beginning has an end and as we read on, the history book of Mayan, one page after another  reveals this gut wrenching story of how that  splendor turning to dust. But like every other civilization, long before history composed the elegy for the Mayans, there were clear harbingers of  approaching doom and as in every other civilization people either did not read them at all or were late to react.

Its amazing as to how striking similar the patterns of this beginning-glory-doom-dust life-cycle of civilizations are with that of human relationships. Both display telltale signs long before they start going downhill. Most often then not, by the time one correctly interprets them, its late, very late. The fine fabric of relationship would have been strained beyond repair. From then on it downhill all the way culminating in the death of that relationship.

Some of the telltale signs that mark the impending doom of a relationship are;

Communication:
An ongoing communication is one of the healthiest sign of a good relationship. Put the other way, when its not going too well, its like magically some one has pumped in vacuum between the two.

“NO” option:
Another sign of a healthy relationship is being comfortable in saying NO to the other person.

Person 1 – Hey, can we catch up for lunch?
Person 2 – No. Not today.

Neat, short and simple. Person 1 understands.Person 2 understands. Done.
But then things are not all that great

Person 1 – Hey, can we catch up for lunch?
Person 2 – Looks bleak..too many things to finish. Sorry.
Person 1 –

That comfort level with other person which you enjoy in a good relation no longer exist.

Terse replies:

Person 1 -
blah blah……………….
……………………………………

blah blah
Person 2 – thanks
Person 1 –

shucks!! I am pretty bad at this, I better stop. This is what happens when you are great fan of blogs like PhyBlog (Understand your mind with the science of psychology) but don’t have the necessary skills nor expertise. Anyways, decided to stick on to travel stuff, speaking of which Orissa-Kolkatta-SandakPhu Phalut trek is happening this month end..Yepppeeeeee. Expecting to see lots and lots of snow, it will be bone chilling cold. Very excited. Will talk more about that later.

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