Sunday, December 8, 2013
Friday, May 23, 2008
An addiction I love
Every time you walk into a bigger city, do you make it a point to visit the tech store in the area? Do you wander the store and keep staring at those huge LCD screen even if you cannot afford one?Your love for gadgets is so high that you want to gift your 80 year old grandma a Bose docking station, even though she can’t hear a thing you say to her when you stand a foot away? If that sounds like you, it’s a relief to know that I am not alone!
It wasn’t long ago when I was walking the streets of NYC that I accidentally bumped into a local tech store just to walk out with a camera, an I Pod and a much bigger smile on my face. I knew that my mom wouldn’t have much use of an I Pod, but was a little surprised when I visited her a year later to know that those electronic gadgets are still sitting in the boxes and all I need to do is wrap it up and present it to one of my mates.
On my journey back I had the greatest of enlightenment, (don’t immediately imagine a, little bright light shining at the back of my head, it was just the reading lights on the plane) and realized the truth that I had shopped for my own pleasure than for the need of it. Any one before being named as an addict needs a test and I had my own. I had the option of watching a couple of TV shows; in one channel you had sexy looking babes walking around Bikinis (BAYWATCH) and the channel right next to it, you had a 35 year old dude, presenting a TV show called CLICK on gadgets. That was the moment of truth; I ended up watching CLICK but in all honesty, it wasn’t long before I checked you tube for those scintillating episodes.
When I look back from the day I started earning, till now, my major write off’s have all been in technology.As of today I have an Ipod with a video capability and have never loaded a single video in it. I have a cell phone with so many features that I have to refer to the manual every time I use it. I have a beautifully modeled Sony Laptop with features more than enough for me to make movies of my own, which I very much use to check you tube, reply to my messages in orkut and more importantly refresh cricinfo!. There is so much of technology which lies in my room unused; I sometimes feel I am the MINI ME version of the best buy store.
A friend of mine once told me that he loves driving his Porsche and doesn’t worry about the speed tickets, for he has invested some of his money on the company which makes those speed cameras, that was his way of hedging. May be I should not just stop after blowing up an alien ship or bombing the Nazi camps in my gaming console rather follow what Microsoft and Sony are planning to do and invest some money in them? But in all fairness, life without gadgets would certainly be less exciting. This is one addiction I would love to live with and think about a couple i should be quitting.
As of now looking forward to the Orlando trip and hoping there are a few tech stores not too far from our hotel. Long live gadgets and their guru’s.
Cheers
Madhu
It wasn’t long ago when I was walking the streets of NYC that I accidentally bumped into a local tech store just to walk out with a camera, an I Pod and a much bigger smile on my face. I knew that my mom wouldn’t have much use of an I Pod, but was a little surprised when I visited her a year later to know that those electronic gadgets are still sitting in the boxes and all I need to do is wrap it up and present it to one of my mates.
On my journey back I had the greatest of enlightenment, (don’t immediately imagine a, little bright light shining at the back of my head, it was just the reading lights on the plane) and realized the truth that I had shopped for my own pleasure than for the need of it. Any one before being named as an addict needs a test and I had my own. I had the option of watching a couple of TV shows; in one channel you had sexy looking babes walking around Bikinis (BAYWATCH) and the channel right next to it, you had a 35 year old dude, presenting a TV show called CLICK on gadgets. That was the moment of truth; I ended up watching CLICK but in all honesty, it wasn’t long before I checked you tube for those scintillating episodes.
When I look back from the day I started earning, till now, my major write off’s have all been in technology.As of today I have an Ipod with a video capability and have never loaded a single video in it. I have a cell phone with so many features that I have to refer to the manual every time I use it. I have a beautifully modeled Sony Laptop with features more than enough for me to make movies of my own, which I very much use to check you tube, reply to my messages in orkut and more importantly refresh cricinfo!. There is so much of technology which lies in my room unused; I sometimes feel I am the MINI ME version of the best buy store.
A friend of mine once told me that he loves driving his Porsche and doesn’t worry about the speed tickets, for he has invested some of his money on the company which makes those speed cameras, that was his way of hedging. May be I should not just stop after blowing up an alien ship or bombing the Nazi camps in my gaming console rather follow what Microsoft and Sony are planning to do and invest some money in them? But in all fairness, life without gadgets would certainly be less exciting. This is one addiction I would love to live with and think about a couple i should be quitting.
As of now looking forward to the Orlando trip and hoping there are a few tech stores not too far from our hotel. Long live gadgets and their guru’s.
Cheers
Madhu
Monday, May 19, 2008
Is it the beginning of the end?
We live in a universe which is so beautifully balanced, the deep valleys, great mountains, iced filled glaciers, ever blue ocean, long stretching deserts and what not. It’s a planet like no other and do we as individuals do enough to maintain the balance or are we doing plenty to shift the balance?
The planet by itself is very tricky and has got its share of tragedy let it be the earthquake which rocked China, the cyclone in Burma, monstrous tsunami which hit the Indian Ocean, and even the big comet which apparently collided with our earth and wiped out most living organisms from the face of it a few thousand years ago. Why are we working hard to ensure nature has much bigger a weapon against us, by having so much carbon released in our atmosphere?
We didn’t have the science or the technology to help us predict these natural disasters well in advance.However in the present day world, we very much read and listen to reports in various print media and television shows. We even watch movies about the effects of Global Warming and finally what do we do? We walk out of the theatres with a strong feeling and a much heavier tummy, thanks to the large pop corns and extra large coke they serve in these arenas. I was a big fan of the movie inconvenient truth and one scene in particular, where they had a weighing scale with gold biscuits in one end and the whole planet in other. Any doubts as to what we got to choose?
It is very surprising that one of the worlds leading economies and advance nation is the biggest contributor to Global warming. They are happy to be spending millions in a fight against evil, for some odd reason couldn’t convince their congress to sign up for the Kyoto agreement. I am as perplexed as you are. How about the developing nations and countries like India and China? They are growing; so is their demand for energy and steel. But they always have an easy pass out, pointing fingers at the US and having the world famous economic slogan “We are growing nation and we cannot afford to allocate a bigger budget”. They just need to be reminded that the budget is to the save the very plant we live in.
May be we have left a lot to the government and the bigger corporations. What have we contributed to this whole cause? I haven’t done much other than writing this blog. We humans are known for living in denial until something big shakes us up, for us to take notice. Hopefully we take notice a little early and start contributing in little way we can. Here are a few for starters
- Try to UNPLUG cell phone chargers from the socket, when you aren’t using it.
- Try to fit in ENERGY SAVING bulbs in your houses.
- Don’t leave electronics in stand by, rather unplug it.
- If you could afford to buy a car, check out the cost of HYBRID CARS too.
- WALK if you can, if it’s a little far try cycling. (One of my mates A.P, hats off to you. You don’t even ride your cycle, you walk it)
- CREATE AWARNESS amongst yourself and the people who surround you!
- Once in a while it’s not bad reminding our politicians that we got a planet to save and let the Cheer Leaders dance.
- Never stop questioning and save energy in any means possible.
Cheers-
Madhu
The planet by itself is very tricky and has got its share of tragedy let it be the earthquake which rocked China, the cyclone in Burma, monstrous tsunami which hit the Indian Ocean, and even the big comet which apparently collided with our earth and wiped out most living organisms from the face of it a few thousand years ago. Why are we working hard to ensure nature has much bigger a weapon against us, by having so much carbon released in our atmosphere?
We didn’t have the science or the technology to help us predict these natural disasters well in advance.However in the present day world, we very much read and listen to reports in various print media and television shows. We even watch movies about the effects of Global Warming and finally what do we do? We walk out of the theatres with a strong feeling and a much heavier tummy, thanks to the large pop corns and extra large coke they serve in these arenas. I was a big fan of the movie inconvenient truth and one scene in particular, where they had a weighing scale with gold biscuits in one end and the whole planet in other. Any doubts as to what we got to choose?
It is very surprising that one of the worlds leading economies and advance nation is the biggest contributor to Global warming. They are happy to be spending millions in a fight against evil, for some odd reason couldn’t convince their congress to sign up for the Kyoto agreement. I am as perplexed as you are. How about the developing nations and countries like India and China? They are growing; so is their demand for energy and steel. But they always have an easy pass out, pointing fingers at the US and having the world famous economic slogan “We are growing nation and we cannot afford to allocate a bigger budget”. They just need to be reminded that the budget is to the save the very plant we live in.
May be we have left a lot to the government and the bigger corporations. What have we contributed to this whole cause? I haven’t done much other than writing this blog. We humans are known for living in denial until something big shakes us up, for us to take notice. Hopefully we take notice a little early and start contributing in little way we can. Here are a few for starters
- Try to UNPLUG cell phone chargers from the socket, when you aren’t using it.
- Try to fit in ENERGY SAVING bulbs in your houses.
- Don’t leave electronics in stand by, rather unplug it.
- If you could afford to buy a car, check out the cost of HYBRID CARS too.
- WALK if you can, if it’s a little far try cycling. (One of my mates A.P, hats off to you. You don’t even ride your cycle, you walk it)
- CREATE AWARNESS amongst yourself and the people who surround you!
- Once in a while it’s not bad reminding our politicians that we got a planet to save and let the Cheer Leaders dance.
- Never stop questioning and save energy in any means possible.
Cheers-
Madhu
Monday, May 12, 2008
Bermuda- “Is it real or a little fairy tale”
Most people would say their most romantic getaways would be one of those secluded island with not too may people, beautiful beaches and a few Italian restaurants! How good are these romantic gateways if you are working in one of those dream islands and doing a job which pays just about enough for you to buy a few bottles of wine (which I am still trying to spell) and a couple of trips to Vegas/Montreal?
I certainly can’t deny the fact that its one of the pretty looking places and they did have the pink beaches as promised, the crystal clear water, a few good looking middle aged women and lots of alcohol to go with it (not sure if its to celebrate the beauty of the place or the lack of single women in such a beautiful place)
I still remember my first flight into Bermuda and was wondering why the hell didn’t I learn swimming, it wasn’t because the beaches looked gorgeous from the sky, but was more out of the fear of my plane flying only a few hundred feet above sea level and shaking endlessly. You are then welcomed by a few men ( who believe they are the next band to go live on American Idol) wearing the famous Bermuda shorts and holding a guitar in their hand and playing the world famous Caribbean music which I have heard only in the Kingfisher adverts. The first time you listen to it, you enjoy the rhythm and your head starts nodding both ways and you end up doing the famous Indian dance steps of feet tapping. But a few more trips and when you aren’t as drunk as you were in your last trip you recognize the fact that they sing the same song and your feet doesn’t do the famous Indian tapping anymore.
The level of curiosity is bound to be a little higher when you land in such an island and get to see massive cruise ships, with weird names and high flying flags standing right next to the only main road. But the island gets its lease of life only when these ships sail into the front street and almost park right next to your bike. I always wondered how complicated would it be to drive one of these? But the Captain at least has one less issue to worry about and that would be a speeding ticket. For god sake can some one push it for they could sail a little faster, these machines do take their time to move!!
After a few days of settling in and a few miles of driving around the city in your high end moped you get used to the relative size of the island. But the next question which crops up in your mind is? How good an explorer Am I? What else is there to be seen in the island? I keep asking myself the same question even today and it’s almost been close to a couple of years. Most spots I have visited are either for the free vodka, the so called swimming or for the belly dancers. It’s a depressing feeling until you call up a couple of your friends who have spent close to half a decade in the rock and they strongly feel they have out smarted you for they have focused all their time on the drinks and the belly dancing and some times on the belly dancers themselves.
So we come down to the big question, is Bermuda fun? Is it worth the stay? Is the Bermuda triangle true? Are the gnocchi as tasty as they are told to be? Are we playing golf tomorrow? Are most waitress pretty? Is grey goose the best drink?
Consider a scenario of 10 friends, who could hardly walk in 3 feet of water leave swimming apart. Also ensure their IQ levels are NOT SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER and fill them up with as much alcohol as they could hold. To spice things up make them all work for the same company with access to a high speed computer and most Indian websites including Desi Baba. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse make sure, they all live about 5 mins of each other and close enough that they could smell what is cooking?. Having done that they ought to meet almost twice a day, every weekend and end up asking those questions we talked about at the beginning. But the order of questioning changes after a few glasses of vodka and it starts off with the pretty waitress and stops with the Bermuda triangle, for there is no definite answer and no one has a fxcking clue as to what it is! By the time we come to the first couple of question, we are almost 2 years into the island and I am no different to my mates.
Bermuda isn’t a bad place as I might have made it sound, especially if you are a under water expolorer, a sport lover and a big drinker. However if you are single with hopes of getting smashed and getting lucky, think again for you pretty much leave the island intact no damages to be claimed!
I certainly can’t deny the fact that its one of the pretty looking places and they did have the pink beaches as promised, the crystal clear water, a few good looking middle aged women and lots of alcohol to go with it (not sure if its to celebrate the beauty of the place or the lack of single women in such a beautiful place)
I still remember my first flight into Bermuda and was wondering why the hell didn’t I learn swimming, it wasn’t because the beaches looked gorgeous from the sky, but was more out of the fear of my plane flying only a few hundred feet above sea level and shaking endlessly. You are then welcomed by a few men ( who believe they are the next band to go live on American Idol) wearing the famous Bermuda shorts and holding a guitar in their hand and playing the world famous Caribbean music which I have heard only in the Kingfisher adverts. The first time you listen to it, you enjoy the rhythm and your head starts nodding both ways and you end up doing the famous Indian dance steps of feet tapping. But a few more trips and when you aren’t as drunk as you were in your last trip you recognize the fact that they sing the same song and your feet doesn’t do the famous Indian tapping anymore.
The level of curiosity is bound to be a little higher when you land in such an island and get to see massive cruise ships, with weird names and high flying flags standing right next to the only main road. But the island gets its lease of life only when these ships sail into the front street and almost park right next to your bike. I always wondered how complicated would it be to drive one of these? But the Captain at least has one less issue to worry about and that would be a speeding ticket. For god sake can some one push it for they could sail a little faster, these machines do take their time to move!!
After a few days of settling in and a few miles of driving around the city in your high end moped you get used to the relative size of the island. But the next question which crops up in your mind is? How good an explorer Am I? What else is there to be seen in the island? I keep asking myself the same question even today and it’s almost been close to a couple of years. Most spots I have visited are either for the free vodka, the so called swimming or for the belly dancers. It’s a depressing feeling until you call up a couple of your friends who have spent close to half a decade in the rock and they strongly feel they have out smarted you for they have focused all their time on the drinks and the belly dancing and some times on the belly dancers themselves.
So we come down to the big question, is Bermuda fun? Is it worth the stay? Is the Bermuda triangle true? Are the gnocchi as tasty as they are told to be? Are we playing golf tomorrow? Are most waitress pretty? Is grey goose the best drink?
Consider a scenario of 10 friends, who could hardly walk in 3 feet of water leave swimming apart. Also ensure their IQ levels are NOT SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER and fill them up with as much alcohol as they could hold. To spice things up make them all work for the same company with access to a high speed computer and most Indian websites including Desi Baba. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse make sure, they all live about 5 mins of each other and close enough that they could smell what is cooking?. Having done that they ought to meet almost twice a day, every weekend and end up asking those questions we talked about at the beginning. But the order of questioning changes after a few glasses of vodka and it starts off with the pretty waitress and stops with the Bermuda triangle, for there is no definite answer and no one has a fxcking clue as to what it is! By the time we come to the first couple of question, we are almost 2 years into the island and I am no different to my mates.
Bermuda isn’t a bad place as I might have made it sound, especially if you are a under water expolorer, a sport lover and a big drinker. However if you are single with hopes of getting smashed and getting lucky, think again for you pretty much leave the island intact no damages to be claimed!
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