Monday, December 03, 2007

Nice widget!

Found this nice widget embedded with a good song ;).
Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Shawshank Redemption

I love this movie. Wanted to post some of the best dialogues from this movie (tough to choose tho :)

1. Some Birds Are Not Meant To Be Caged...
Their Feathers Are Just Too Bright..
And When They Fly Away..The Part Of You Which Knows,
It Was A Sin To Lock Them Up Rejoice..Yet The Place You Live,
Is Much More Drab And Empty After They Are Gone....

this was red's feeling after andy broke out of SHAWSHANK.

2. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

3.
On the outside I am a man straight as an arrow... I had to come to prison to become crooked...

4. Red : These walls are funny, first u hate them , then u get used to them and as time goes by u get dependent on them

5. Red : Some things are best left unsaid

6. hope is a good thing,maybe the best of things and good things never die


7. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away...and for the briefest of moments -- every last man at Shawshank felt free.

8. "Andy Dufresne, he crawled thru 2 miles of shit and came out clean
on the other side"

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Dandia bash!

Well, I have to say that the India club event at Georgia Tech provided lots of entertainment to all the students who took part in the Raas Garba Night last weekend. After a l'il thought, I have to admit that the dandia night matched the navratri celebrations that I had taken part in India. I thought of tracing back the origins of dandia through this blog. So here it goes....

Raas
and Garba are the featured dances of Navratri evenings in Western India, originating in Gujarat and Sindh. Navratri is the longest Hindu festival celebrated all over India for nine consecutive nights in praise of Lord Rama (Hero of the Epic Ramayana) and Godess Durga from the end of September to early October.
Originated as devotional Garba dances, which were performed in Durga's honor, this dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king, and is nicknamed "The Sword Dance". The sticks of the dance represent the sword of Durga. The women wear traditional dresses such as colorful embroidered choli, ghagra and bandhani dupattas (traditional attire) dazzling with mirror work and heavy jewellery. The Men wear special turbans and kedias, but can range from area to area. The dancers whirl and move their feet and arms in a choreographed manner to the tune of the music with lots of drum beats. The dhol is used as well as complementary percussion instruments such as the dholak, tabla and others. The true dance gets extremely complicated and energetic. Garba is performed before Aarti (worshipping ritual) as devotional performances in the honor of the Goddess while Dandiya is performed after it, as a part of merriment. While Garba is performed exclusively by women, men and women join in for Raas Dandiya. Also known as "The Dance of Swords" as performers use a pair of colorfully decorated sticks as symbols, the circular movements of Dandiya Raas are much more complex than that of Garba. The origin of these dance performances or Raas can be traced back to the life of Lord Krishna.


Today, Raas is not only an important part of Navratree (meaning nine nights) in Gujarat but extends itself to other festivals related to harvest and crops as well. The Mers of Saurastra are noted to perform Raas with extreme energy and vigor.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

T20 T20

Well lemme start with the amazing Ind Vs SA match today! Congratulations to India for storming their way into the semi-finals of the Twenty Twenty Cricket tournament. Well, I am not going to get into the details of the match in this blog. I wanted to give an opinion on this new format of the game and whether this new format will go well among people in India. When the twenty twenty world cup started, I was not very sure whether I would like this format and with the big guns from Indian batting line up opting out, there was even more uncertainty about Indian team's performance in this tournament. But credit needs to be given to the new players who have come in and to a few others who are making a comeback. This Indian team has seen it all on its way to the semi finals. The bowl out with Pakistan, the stunning sixes by Yuvraj Singh against England, a smashing 50 on debut by Rohit Sharma and an amazing spell of swing bowling by RP Singh!

I think one of the few advantages of a 20 over match is that there is never a dull moment during the entire match and if the pitch offers some assistance to the bowlers, the match becomes really interesting. How many times has someone switched off the TV after the first 15 overs of a 50 overs match and then switched it on in the 40th over? Well that explains that there are many people who woould like this format. Especially, in today's fast paced world, if one can watch a full innings of a T20 T20 match with a couple of hours to spare, I think there would be many takers for that!. And with India doing well in this tournament till now, there would not be many who are complaining. But it might be too early to come to a conclusion whether T20 T20 would be liked by everyone or whether it should be played more often. Still it looks promising and hope there are many more fun filled matches to come by in this tournament and in the future as well!

PS: There are many times in the past when India makes a stunning performance in a couple of matches and loses it all in the big finals. Hope that does not happen in this T20 T20 tournment. Here is wishing all the very best to Team India!!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Rafting at its best!!

Well, after a long hibernation I thought I should start posting again in my space after a year or so!!! Probably not because I am feeling bored but may be coz the rafting experience was really good to share it with you all :-). It was an early morning on Saturday (09/01/07 to be precise ;) and we were all out of the bed in that hour! (pretty unusual for a weekend). But the reason was mainly due to the impending experience called white water rafting at Ocoee river in Chattanooga. When the person gave us the instructions for the rafting, initially I did not pay too much attention. But the moment he started telling about the instructions on how to hold on to the boat and the paddle when you fall into the river accidentally, I could do nothing but concentrate hard! After all I need to come back to the boat if at all I end up in the river :). Then started the ride in the bus towards the river. All along the way, I was checking out if I could get a glimpse of the Ocoee river and get an idea how rough the rafting experience was going to be. After about a twenty minute drive, we reached the place. The rafting boat is a six seater and has a separate seat for the guide who is like the captain of a ship.

Then came the moment when we had to put our life jackets on, wear our helmets and get into the raft with our paddle. I touched the water a bit and found it pretty cold!! I was thinking again that I should not fall into the river :). Once we started our rafting ride, we needed co-ordination among all six of us in the raft to make a move forward, backward or standstill. After initial hiccups, there was a decent bit of coordination and we were progressing very well into the Ocoee river. Then came the swirling water bend for which the captain told us a fancy name "Washing machine"! He also explained that there are lots of swirls along the ride with names like double trouble, frenzy and what not! When we were nearing Washing machine, he gave us special instructions on how to use the paddle when we go into it. Every one in the raft was excited and then came the moment where we faced the washing machine :). We entered a gush of water flowing from all around and for a moment it seemed like the paddling did not help and no one had control on the raft. But somehow we came out of it safely and our captain was giving a casual smile! Really it was an exciting experience. Check out the snap in one of the swirls.

After the washing machine, we could go through the other swirls relatively easily but with the same enthusiasm. The best part was when we crossed a level 4 swirl (based on the force of water, the swirls are classified as level 1, 2 etc) and our captain took our raft towards the river bank. He explained that many rafts tumble in this swirl and he wanted us to have fun seeing some of them. I was happy that I was in this raft :). As expected, the other raft in which some of our other friends were coming tumbled just in front of our eyes and every one was swimming hard in the water. But the nice thing was because of the life jacket, even persons without swimming experience managed to hang on!. It was a little scary though since the river water was flowing fast and there were lots of rocks on the way. But somehow, the captain of the other raft managed to pick all of them in the water and we proceeded along. Then there was a part of the river which was relatively calm and had no swirls. The captain told us that we can get into the river and swim for sometime as there were no swirls in that part. For a few minutes, all six of us were thinking hard to see if it was necessary :). But finally one got into the water and then everyone followed suit. It was nice swimming in the river for some time and only later I came to know that the depth was about 17 feet! I would have a second thought if I had known it before :). So somehow we all got back into the raft again and finally made our way back to the starting point . All along the way, our captain was telling about other rafting places, the best season to raft and lot of other information about rafting which made the experience all the more informative.

But have to say that rafting is so much fun and everyone should experience it once whenever they have a chance :)! Check out the photo of our gang after the rafting below.



(PS: I will try to post more often from now on)