Trompe-l'œil

A beautiful picture isn't it ? Doesn't this look so real ?

This is actually a trompe l'oeil mural painted by the talented John Pugh.

Trompe-l'œil is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects really exist, instead of being mere, two-dimensional paintings. The name is derived from French for "trick the eye", from tromper - to deceive and l'œil - the eye.

Amazing piece of art !!

RIP Orkut !!

Finally decided to bury my orkut account . .
Rest In Peace Orkut . .

Will remember this day for a long long time . .



"Words once spoken cannot be taken back how much ever you regret"
Remember this and be careful with what you say to your dear ones.

The Struggle .. Independence .. 60 years gone by

It has been 60 years of Independence. Some questions just pop up in my mind. Are we giving the people, who sacrificed their entire life for the present day India, the credit they deserve ? Or do we think it has been 60 years, let us move on and make our present India better ? The question we need to ask ourselves is "What does this Independence mean to me?". And when we realise how important it is that our country is independent, we will surely remember contribution of the selfless souls who fought hard for us.

Finally after their long and hard struggle, we got our independence. We are now responsible for what happens to fate of the entire country. Each and everything we do affects the entire country in one way or the other. That is why it becomes very important that we do things that are right for our own good and for others. With independence comes more responsibility. This happens to every one of us. When we have to stay alone at home with no one at home, you will be having the freedom to do anything we want, but that is when we need to act more responsibly because its easy to get distracted with the newly acquired freedom.

Let us take the case of a person just about to start his college life and stay in hostel. When he(or she) used to stay at home there were people either controlling or advising as to what is right and wrong. With them constantly having an eye on us, it is very difficult to commit any mistake. For some independence at that point of time would be to get away from their control. Some parents donot realise that some of their restrictions are illogical and follow the same since their own parents did that to them when they were kids. The generation now are the people who think beyond invisible boundaries and ask the question "why not ?". This is the time when we realise that some of their opinions are not correct. The parents do things for the good of their children but are blinded by tradition. These are the boundaries that people now want to break. The ones which we feel is right and they feel is wrong without any reason as to why it is wrong.

But once he enters into college life and has to stay in hostel, he at once experiences the new born freedom. It is a great feeling we can either use it in a right or wrong way. With no one to look after us, we are independent. Independent to do anything and with no one around to ask why/what we have done. The test of character creeps in with person's ability to control and realise what is good or bad. I have seen both kinds of people. One who just cross the boundaries with acquired freedom and those who exercise more self-control. It is all the matter of choice. This is freedom. Once we have it, the decision to choose what is appropriate is in our hands. When we use it well, we become more successful. When it is in wrong people's hands then it can turn out to be disaster.

What I wanted to say is that once we achieve freedom, it is not the end of the road. It is the beginning which is more difficult since we will have more responsibilities. Now that the freedom fighters have done their job of securing independence, we need to be more responsible. With every single thing you do, think whether it is good for you, for others. Don't be egoistical in thinking.

We must remember the efforts of the freedom fighters and also think about being a more responsible citizen to the country now that we are independent.

Make this day more relevant to you, that is how we can make it special. Even if the independence of the country does not mean anything to you, look at it from your point of view. What about me. Am I independent. Do I have the freedom to do things that are right. Am I being controlled by people. And if I am going to be independent what will I do with it. Even the people I mentioned starting their college life, only those who were mature enough to use the independence in proper way became more successful than they would have been without freedom.

Be more independent and responsible in your every day life.

As I am nearing the end of this blog, would like to mention one incident. Who says we youngsters are not patriotic ? Last week I entered into the theatre, suddenly 'National Anthem' composed by A.R. Rahman specially for this 60th year celebration was screened, the whole theatre almost full of youngsters stood up for it. People had a choice, they could still sit down when few of them who are really patriotic stand up. But it didnot happen. Everyone stood up. Every one senses emotional attachment to the nation in a different way, but the important thing is they are attached.

Dont sit back commenting on how bad the government is run or how bad the politicians are. If you think you can make it different then voice out your opinion. I am not suggesting you to start a movement or something. Do what you feel is right and expect how others should be. Only when we are right, we have every right to comment on other people.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Happy Independence Day !!! Be Proud !!!

Finally Some Time To Read

Its been a long time since I actually cud get my hands on some good books to read. Not that I cudnt get, just that I got other things to do that I didnot find time to read. Call it laziness or anythin but then the good part is am goin to get bak to reading :)

Think my next target will be Atlas Shrugged if I get enuf time to read it. One problem is I got it as txt file so its kinda hard to read. And got 'Mein Kampf' which i wanted to read for a long time.

Seriously dono if I wil read either of these first or neither of these ;)

And while I was downloading some, I got one book named "The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations". Interesting one. Cos it had all the famous quotes - from Aristotle to Lincoln to our very own Gandhiji.

So then me off to read a book .. Perhaps to rediscover .. Nothin like the smell of old books !!

One quote as I sign off ..
"The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition."

Review - The Simpsons Movie

Before we start talking abt the movie, we definitely need to applaud the hilarious TV series.

The Simpsons - the longest running series in the history of TV shows is finally on the BIG screen. I have been a big fan of this series watchin the yellow coloured faces whenever my free time and tv schedule matched. Now with the internet, I have been able to watch one season after another and enjoy every moment of it.

Its been fun just to see how one can make people watch a series which does not have any story in any one of its episode :) It is the brilliance in story-telling, always filled with twists and turns with funniest one liners in town.

The dialogues are amazing part of this series, dont know how the writers keep coming up with crazy stuff one episode after another.

Homer: Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you don't show up tomorrow don't bother showing up on Monday.

Homer: Woo-hoo. Four-day weekend.

Homer: Here's to alcohol, the cause of—and solution to—all life's problems.

Dialogues like these make u laugh time and again thinking about these cute yellow people. Each and every character is completely different that makes the entire series more interesting.

But my favorite character is without any doubt the legendary HOMER SIMPSON. Absolutely nothing can describe his personality. Truly a wacko :)

Abt the MOVIE --

When I entered the theater, there was absolute chaos with almost 100 ppl from a company coming and watching it along with us. With screams and sarcastic laughters from them, it didn't turn out to be a memorable movie experience.

What can I say about this movie, I was a bit disappointed because I had lots of expectation from the moment they announced this movie will be released. As expected there was no solid story which is always the trademark of 'The Simpsons', but then there were lots of characters who did not have any significant part to play in this movie like Burns, Moes or Chief Wiggum. With this movie being made after 18 long years since the first simpsons I expected more witty or crazy dialogues which seem to be missing in this.

Since I grew up watching the Simpsons, it was good to see them on the big screen. There were moments of brilliance for eg. in one scene Homer just stands up in the Theatre and says "Why PAY for something you can see on TV for FREE?", this made the entire theatre to roar in laughter and I enjoyed it. And the part where he calls his pig - Spiderpig and refers him as Harry Potter with a lightning bolt across the pigs forehead :)

Ha Ha .. it was a good time but in a corner of my mind I feel this should have been lot better.

Saturday gone :( Sunday here :)

Well its weekend !!


Finally some time to just laze around at home doing some silly things. Just dont realize how last week just flew away, its been a gr8 week with multiple threads of coding, design and testing running in my office. Finally some solid work to be proud off !!

After browsing till 4 am on saturday, finally went off to sleep and woke up aroun 11 .. Then had a chance to jus look into some books I got in my house. Finally decided to read Bhagavad Gita ( not that am really religious), thought some spirituality is for our good. I would like to quote one line which i felt was pretty good -
"A legitimate problem can be solved by action but an illegitimate one can only be solved by knowing that it is illegitimate"

Back to my day . . Then , I went out to a hotel for lunch where I had to wait for an hour to get some place to sit. The ppl out there are in such a hurry to get the customers out of the table even while someone at the table is still eating, they swarm around asking the next family to wait by their table. And after bein stared at and also staring at others, of what seemed to be a long long wait we finally got a place to sit. I dont even know why ppl still keep going to the same hotel cos we pay for the food and we are treated as though the food that was served was free and asked to move out once we finished eating.

Since the simpsons movie was at 430 and I had to stuff my fried rice in a hurry.

And then went off to the theatre, watched what seemed like a pretty decent movie, and back home watchin some cricket.

And Saturday ended . .

Looking back ...

Life has been like walkin along the sea coast.

When I look back at this point, I see lots of footprints that I have left as I walked down this journey. Some I feel just vanish as I move forward, memories and time lost forever.

There have been moments when I felt I am lost with nothing to look forward to, but we need to move on and see how it goes. That is how it should be, never be "stuck in a moment". The journey will always be a mixture of good, bad and ugly, but then move on, it always good to explore.

But there are some footprints that I can still see clearly even after having walked this far, these are the memories that makes me laugh, smile, happy, cry . . These are the ones for which we live.

I dont know if I had been too philosophical in the way I am seeing life when I write this, but then its 23 years of memory that I am trying to look back.