WordPress 3.2 was released recently and as I read posts and tweets on the web about it and how it has improved (I love the new writing space) I had to come back to upgrade this blog to v3.2 and check it out.

Going through the upgrade process, got me thinking. I was trying to analyse why I am not blogging as often as I used to (according to the Word Stats plugin, it has been 259 days since my last post – which in itself was just a re-shared photo from flickr.)

I realised that earlier I needed the forum and space this blog provided to express myself and to hear from others through their comments and to interact with friends and strangers from around the world.

Nowadays I still seem to be expressing myself, infact several times a day.

I do this through
my tweets on twitter;
through facebook status updates;
by sharing
articles that interest me,
videos that amused me,
songs that enchanted me;
through facebook places and foursquare check-in updates, which tells the world the kind of places I hang out at and the different people I hang out with;
through flickr and instagram by showing the world the world around me through the lens;
and then there is linkedin
and chatter (at work)
and now google+ is here offering  opportunities +1 of expressing myself.

One has to admit it is not very difficult to express oneself through the above mentioned avenues and more importantly it is not difficult to get almost instant feedback through a like or a +1 or a comment. The world responds to incentives and these sites offer the all important incentives of easy exposure and feedback! I too got sucked into that world, but luckily didn’t let this space die or lose my domain.

One of the main problems with blogging is the effort it takes.

It takes a lot of effort by the blogger to compose a new blog-post. Firstly one needs to come up with something interesting to write about. Even if it is an idea that pops up suddenly (like this post,) there is some effort involved. Write, revise, check, rewrite, spell-check, add links and images and finally publish.

It also takes quite a bit of effort by the readers. There are tools that make it simpler to aggregate content from multiple blogs, but even then one needs to subscribe to different blogs; read posts that are generally on the longer side (which, in these days of short attention span, is a challenge); pass through some authentication system and captchas in order to be able to post a comment and follow up on the comments regularly. Definitely not as simple as clicking the ‘Like’ button.

Nonetheless, even in this age of Twenty-20, the ODI’s and Test Matches are still watched and loved.

Likewise, there still are a lot of bloggers out there writing and publishing some great stuff – many old timers and several new ones. A lot of blogs that I once followed have become inactive or 404s. It is time I update this list with some new blogs and subscribe and follow them regularly.

I found that as I stopped blogging, I also stopped reading other blogs. Although I don’t promise anything, I am hoping this will get me back on the blogging track and will not be the end of blogging for me!

I’d love to hear from you -

What are your thoughts on blogging and micro-blogging?

Know any blogs that I should check out?

Got a blog yourself?

- please post it all in the comments section!

Below are some articles I could find online -

Piracy funds terrorism | http://www.window2india.com/cms/admin/article.jsp?aid=3810

Check piracy to defeat terrorism | http://www.samaylive.com/news/check-piracy-to-defeat-terrorism-says-nasheed/602463.html

Interpol Links Piracy To Terrorism Funding | http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4368051-1.html

This is seriously shocking stuff and I think we need to raise awareness of this and have enough self discipline to avoid going the cheap way, which could prove costly later.

After reading these articles I thought of doing a little myself and avoid buying or renting out pirated movies and got myself registered at seventymm.com – a one stop hangout for renting movies online. 

They carry this disclaimer about the legality of renting movies from them -

We carry all the movies which are legally released in India with a certification from the Censor Board of India. If a movie is not released by the studio or distributor for rental purposes, we won’t be able to provide it for rent to you. So if a movie is not legally available in India, we will also not have it.

I now rent out all my movies from seventymm and I must say the service is great. I’ve been a member for under a month now and have rented out 4 movies so far. I got some membership offer of Rs. 750 valid for 4 months and 24 movies (DVD or VCD). This roughly works out to around Rs. 31 per movie, which is great! My package lets me borrow one movie at a time, which is home delivered and picked up. They have other plans with different rates, where you can borrow unlimited movies at a time and keep them for as long as you wish.

Once you register on their site you can set up a movie queue. They have tons of movies to select from and you can add them and change the order around in your personal movie queue. You can request for a delivery, upon which the first available movie from your list is delivered to you and any previous movie that you might have borrowed is picked up (depending on your plan); you can also request for a pickup only, wherein the movie queue is not processed and only the previous movies are picked up.

The DVDs so far have all been of great quality and I haven’t faced any issues with the entire service. I’ve built up quite a nice movie list with lots of Tamil and some Malayalam movies as well to watch with the family. So now we even have regular movie sessions! :)

Delivery time wise I haven’t had an issue so far and usually within a day or maximum two after requesting for delivery the movie is delivered. One can even provide an alternate address (such as the office address) and request for them to come to the alternate address if unavailable at the home address.

The only drawback as such with Seventymm and my one-dvd-at-a-time rate plan is that if I don’t rent out 24 movies in 3 months, then I’d still end up paying Rs. 750/-, although they do have an option of ‘pausing’ your subscription, which can be done by calling the help-desk.

Some other alternates to Seventymm

- Big Flix | http://rental.bigflix.com/bigflix/Home

- CatchFlix | http://catchflix.com/index.php

Here’s hoping more people stop buying and renting out pirated movies.

Anyway my Noida trip was really awesome on the whole. I managed to learn so much at work a lot of new things and processes and also managed to see so many new places in and around Noida and Delhi!

Noida was an ok place. Nothing really in it to see, apart from the Atta market and Sector 18 areas (which I did frequent a lot!).

I really fell in love with Delhi as a city and I managed to explore quite a lot of this ancient city. Its got so much history and culture in it and I had an amazing time trying to learn more about the city and checking out different places in the city. I reckon I still have a lot more to explore and it will take many more visits to see everything!

Highlights of the trip -

1. The many markets of Delhi and Noida: Connaught Place / Chandni Chowk / Khan Market / Dilli Haat / GK 1 M block / GK 1 N block / New Friends Colony / Saket / Atta Market / etc. etc. went to many such places and loved the atmosphere and mood at these places.

2. Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah, Delhi:Went there for the Qawwali performance that happens every Thursday evening. Imagine listening to Qawalli’s sitting in an open courtyard, right there inbetween the tombs of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrao (considered to be the Father of Qawalli)!! Pure Nirvana!

3. All the monuments in Delhi: Humayun’s Tomb / Qutub Minar / Akshardham Temple / India Gate / Red Fort / etc. etc. In Delhi there have been so many empires and so much of history, that no matter where you go, you will end up running into some tomb or monument or some place of historical significance!

4. Taj Mahal, Agra: Finally managed to see one out of the 7 wonders of the World!

5. Fatehpur Sikhri: Amazing place, with great architecture and monuments from the Mughal era all around.

6. Golden Temple, Amritsar: Never even thought that I’d be visiting Amritsar on this trip! Thanks to some friends from Bangalore who insisted I join them, I got to go on one helluva a trip to Amritsar!

7. Wagah Border: The visit to the India-Pakistan border to see the colourful and patriotism inspiring ceremony in the evening was simple amazing. The whole atmosphere and display of patriotism by everyone was very touching and the ceremony itself was very interesting to watch, with an exaggerated march past display and well dressed, very vocal army personnell. It felt great to be so close to the border, that we could see the Pakistanis on the other side of the gate in their stands! All of it concluded with the lowering of the flag on both sides of the border.

8. Haridwar and Rishikesh: This was a religious plus adventure trip. I’ve been wanting to go to Haridwar and take a dip in the Holy Ganga and finally managed to do this in this trip. The trip to Rishikesh was more for the adventure of Water Rafting, and what an adventure we had!!

9. Delhi Metro: I had the opportunity to travel on the swanky clean Metro and I was simply blown away! The whole experience was really great and I was very proud to see the Metro. It was like stepping into another world. Considering I got into the metro after going around parts of old Delhi and the markets of Chandni Chowk!

10. Meeting friends: Most of the above happened largely thanks to me meeting some old friends and making new ones on the trip! Although I would have ended up travelling alone, I doubt if I would have covered so many places and/or had this much fun if it weren’t for them. Thanks to Animesh / Nethra / Sayor / Disha / Shobit and even Leelu and gang (who coincidentally also came to Delhi while I was there).

A very eventful trip on the whole and I return very satisfied, although disappointed as I missed out on one place that I also wanted to visit – Jaipur in Rajasthan. First the very sad incident of the bomb blasts occurred and later the Gujjar strikes removed all chances of me going there this time.

I have a whole lot of photos to process and upload and a lot of blog posts to write about the above places and more in detail. God knows when I will get around to doing it all! But keep watching this space!

This fest will always be one of my fondest memories of college days. Along with Harish (Gunda), Sashi, Manohar, Vinay Kharade and several others, I was responsible for conceiving, planning and organising the very first fest at NMIT. I am proud to say that even the name of the fest was given by me! :)

Being a fan of Indian myth and epic, it was only natural for me to dive into that ocean to look for a name. While several options came up, I selected this, as it literally means ‘without beginning or end’. Creativity and talent has no limits and that was the idea behind choosing the name. Anaadyanta is also a name given to Lord Shiva.

We had some amazing moments in planning and organising this fest. Since we had nothing to base the fest upon (being the very first fest), we had to do everything from scratch and it was no easy task.

We had some amazing moments trying to convince the management about everything, right from serious issues to trivial issues. Be it the actual fest itself to issues like stage height or about calling a rock band (we eventually called Moksha!) or event list or prize money. Everything was under scrutiny and nothing was spared! We were constantly questioned. We proposed, they opposed! Ultimately after a lot of discussions and arguments they agreed to most of our demands and we agreed to most of theirs and went ahead with the fest!

Also we had extremely limited budgets (the management wasn’t sure if the fest will become a hit or if it was worth spending so much money which could be used elsewhere, considering ours was a new college). Getting sponsors was a huge task, as nobody was ready to invest without knowing what returns on investment they will get and hardly anybody had even heard of the college then!

Harish, Sashi and I spent countless hours together covering countless kilometres to countless companies, talking about the fest and asking for sponsorship and support. Not everyone was forthcoming, infact no one was! Some were even rude and left us embarrassed! Finally we managed to get some sponsors, who though didn’t invest in large amounts, somehow contributed to the fest!

At several moments during the planning stages, we weren’t sure if the fest was going to be a reality. We had a lot of barriers to cross and a lot of discouragement to counter. Finally when everything was finalized, we even had a postponement to deal with, thanks to some issue at college! And a day before the original fest date, we called up colleges to inform them of the change in dates!! But somehow we saw it through!

Most of the time Harish, Sashi and myself were together during the planning for this fest.

There are some moments that we will never forget, such as -

Getting our first poster printed. It was more of a teaser, to be put up in our own college, breaking the event and hyping it amongst our own students first! That night at Rajajinagar, when we got the printed posters in our hands, we were all extremely emotional and it was Just the beginning! Even when we got the other main posters and literature printed later, we had the same feelings of delight!

All the hours sitting at Pizza Hut in Sadashivnagar and Coffee Day in Malleshwaram planning and thinking and replanning and brainstorming and sharing one glass of unlimited Pepsi by three!!

The drive back from visiting some sponsor when I braked suddenly in traffic to avoid banging into a scooter that suddenly came in our path. The scooter guy panicked on hearing my car screech and banged into the car in front (both in an extremely funny way!) When the car driver came out to shout at the scooter guy, he started pointing at us while we were laughing our heads off! Finally the signal turned green and everyone moved on. None of us can forget that moment!

The very first sound check in campus! The guys from Audio Touch were able to set up the speakers and sound system at something like 3 AM after a lot of trouble with the stage guys. The Audio Touch guys turned on the speakers in full blast and played Hotel California! I can never forget that moment, in the middle of the night, standing on our stage for our very first Anaadyanta, after months of planning and hard work and uncertainty, listening to that amazing song by The Eagles. When this first sound check happened all the hostelites and other students who were still on campus all freaked out and came running to the venue, to celebrate. Anaadyanta was here and how!

Realising Gunda had given the stage backdrop guys the spelling of the fest name, wrongly as “Anaadynata”, when they put up the backdrop on the morning of the fest! We then corrected the mistake by cutting out the ‘n’ and the ‘a’ and interchanging them to form “Anaadyanta”!

All our experiences with our college dean, Mr. N.R. Shetty and with our inimitable fest coordinator, Mr. Natarajan! We always had to have extra print outs of every document ready!

And last but not the least, how can I forget “Whose Father What Goes?!” :D

Ultimately Anaadyanta ’04 was a great fest with huge participation from several colleges, including the top colleges of that time. The fest was a resounding success and everybody and everything came together over the last few days and all the various committees did their best to put up a great show!

The reason this blog post came up, is because I got all nostalgic after seeing the new core committee go all out in conducting Anaadyanta ’08. It was held recently and they even came up with an Anaadyanta theme music and a dance performance based on the theme music!

Enjoy the video and the Anaadyanta theme!

Music composed and arranged by : Skanda
Vocals: Suchetan R , Sushruth
Dance by: Preetham and group

This is a very proud moment for me and my fellow Anaadyanta core committee members!

Btw for all that we did to create Anaadyanta – we guys from the first core committee were rewarded with a cup of coffee and some biscuits in the Principal’s office. It was the most satisfying cup of coffee we’d ever had! :)

The main highlights of 2007 were -

1. March 13th: I became an uncle, when Aditya Rajagopal entered the world and our lives! Here’s hoping my sister’s son has a great life ahead!

2. October 24th: Moved into our own new apartment! This was long pending thanks to huge delays from the builder’s end (Indraprasta Apartments, Sri Krishna Properties), but finally we moved in, even though the building wasn’t (and still isn’t) complete.

3. June: Moved into a new project (Tenet Healthcare) at work.

4. Not much of a year gadget wise. Got a new phone (Sony Ericsson S500i), thanks to losing my old phone (Sony Ericsson W810i) at the Iron Maiden concert :(

5. Upgraded my computer at home. Got a nice 19″ wide screen monitor and moved to Windows Vista Business edition.

6. As usual went on a lot of trips (including one to Sri Lanka); partied a lot; watched a lot of movies and read many books…

7. Joined dance classes at Swingers in Indiranagar!

Life was pretty much normal and ordinary in 2007. Hope 2008 will be different.

Had a college alumni meet yesterday at NMIT and met some old friends and new ones. Had a decent time. College sure has changed a lot from the one building place that it was, when my batch joined!

Work is also decent. Lots of fun times ahead in office, with the start of various cultural and sports activities. As usual I’m involved in organising them and have been designing various posters / communications for the events. Will upload some of my better ones here as and when possible.

This seems to be the season of goodbyes, what with so many friends leaving for their higher studies over the next couple of weeks; which brings me back to the issue of what I’m going to do further. Let’s leave that unanswered for a while longer, while I think over it, again.

On the gadgets front – I’ve been thinking whether to get a new laptop or a new camera. Haven’t yet found the need to own a laptop, so I might mostly end up just upgrading my existing desktop and buying a new camera. I’m strongly considering getting either a Canon EOS 400D or a Nikon D60. Any suggestions?

Go Green!

before it’s too late…

World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

The World Environment Day slogan selected for 2007 is Melting Ice: a Hot Topic? In support of International Polar Year, the WED theme selected for 2007 focuses on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities, and the ensuing consequences around the world. Read more here

The World Environment Day Rally, leaving the Perot Systems campus

To create awareness and to show that we care, we at Perot Systems organised a rally around our campus in Whitefield. Saplings were distributed to every employee and to many of the neighbouring companies that we passed on our walk! I really liked this gesture from the company and it was well appreciated by the more than 200 employees that joined the rally and by the companies that we visited as well.

Make Everyday an Earth Day

Things were supposed to have fallen into place by now at work, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened so far and I’m not sure when it will either. In June I would have completed two years at Perot Systems. Freak! Time sure does fly.

For now though life goes on as usual. Work is ok. The home front is doing great, what with me becoming an uncle! Being with my nephew (who is a month and a half old now) is the one thing apart from working on the computer where I completely lose track of time! Made a few good friends so far this year and I’m grateful for that! Been traveling some more and have lots more photos waiting to be uploaded! I’ve decided I need to shift to a good DSLR camera and am just waiting for the right time and more importantly sufficent bank balance to do the same!

Inshallah by the end of this year I’d know for sure where my life is headed. A lot of things need to fall into place and a lot of things I need to work at to make them fall in place.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report on their study of the causes and effects of global warming and the news is not good for the planet -

• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
• UN delivers definitive warning on dangers of climate change
• Global warming: the final warning
• Humans ‘Very Likely’ Making Earth Warmer 
• Ten years left to avert catastrophe
• Carbon dioxide rate is at highest level for 650,000 years

I hope we are able to slow down or reverse this trend in the coming years through some of the following ways -

• use of cleaner fuels
• recycling
• conserving energy
• reforestation
• more environment friendly procedures/processes
• other recommended steps
• and most importantly lots of awareness

Let’s hope for a cleaner, greener tomorrow.

‘ Year of Travel, Friends, Gadgets and Injuries’

I’ve traveled more this one year than probably all my previous years combined! Been to a whole lot of places and with different groups of people. Each trip had its own unique mood, flavour and purpose!

Some places that I visited this year (trips longer than one day) – as far as I can remember are -

• New Delhi | alone | first time to Delhi!
• Varanasi/Allahabad/Sarnath/Gaya/Bodh Gaya/Ayodhya and Secunderabad | with entire family | religious trip
• Coorg | with office colleagues | friend’s wedding
• Munnar/Kumarakom/Alleppy and Trichur in Kerala | with Microsoft Student Partner friends
• Dandeli and Goa | with friends | broke my left leg in the trip and also celebrated my birthday in Goa!
• Tirupati | with parents | drove the car long distance for the first time
• Palani in Tamil Nadu, Alamballam and Trichur in Kerala | with parents | religious trip
• Wonder Valley, Bannerghata Road, Bangalore | with colleagues | team building program from Perot Systems
• Hyderabad | Microsoft Student Partner Meet
• Munnar/Alleppy/Kumarakom/Kochi and Cherai in Kerala | with office friends and other friends | new years eve weekend
• Apart from the above there were many one day trips to Nandi Hills (in the middle of the night!!), Pearl Valley, Wonder La, Emerald Isle etc.

This year was not too good for my body and I ended up with quite a few ‘problems’. A fall from a Bullet driven by Rangan who was trying to take a 90 degree turn at some 60 – 70 kmph saw me land hard on my right wrist and an already strained wrist thanks to all the computer usage was bandaged for a long time. Infact I’m yet to recover completely from this and any strenuous action leaves me in pain. Next to get affected were my legs – one after the other. On a trip to Goa while playing with my friends and running around a lot in the beach, I stepped into some depression in the sands below the water (which I couldn’t see) and fell hard twisting my left ankle in the process. I’m not sure if the ankle broke then or later due to all the continued movement and lack of rest – me being on a holiday, but nevertheless it ended up being a serious crack in the ankle and I was bed ridden for almost a month and in a cast for about 6 weeks or so. Less than a week after removing the cast on my left leg, I fell down the steps at my apartment and ended up with a ligament tear and hairline fracture on my right leg. This saw me back on the bed for another couple of weeks. To add to the body pains, all the excessive computer usage and poor posture over the years started to affect my back and neck and what was initially small pains ended up becoming unbearable by the end of the year. Another visit to the doctor and I was diagnosed with the beginning of cervical and lumbar spondilitis, for which I was prescribed some physiotherapy and massage sessions.

This year was a good year when it came to meeting old friends and making new ones! Partied like crazy with friends this past year! Almost every weekend I was out partying/clubbing with a different set of friends! Discs, pubs, resorts, reunions, insane bike rides, movies and multiplexes, trips, etc. been there done ‘em all! I also made many new friends at work and elsewhere. People that have become very close to me, very quickly! This was also the year of reconciliation and a few very close friends that I had lost touch with for various reasons are now back in touch! Also thanks to orkut I’ve managed to reach out to nearly all my friends from almost all phases of my life!

I’ve also watched and enjoyed a whole lot of movies this year than probably any year before, many with friends and the rest on my comp! The list is very exhaustive and I’d probably need another post to write the whole thing down (IF I can remember all the names, that is!!). If I were to list the good films that I saw in 2006 (not necessarily released in 2006), they would be -

1. Rang De Basanti [Hindi] – Beautiful move and one that went on to inspire so many people across the country to stand up for their rights.
2. Saw I, II and III [English] – Gruesome, Gory and Chilling!
3. Ong Bak [Thai with English subtitles] – Freaking amazing action movie! Tony Ja’s stunts blew me away!
4. Lage Raho Munnabhai [Hindi] – Gandhigiri Zindabad!
5. Crash [English] – Touching movie about racism and how people are affected by it.
6. The Devil Wears Prada [English] – Cute movie!
7. Cars [English]- Vroom Vroom! Good animated movie.
8. Woh Lamhe [Hindi] – Fascinating movie on the life of Parveen Babi
9. Omkara [Hindi] – A great adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello in a village setting
10. Quite a few more…

TV shows have really come of age and there have been some great shows released over the past year or so. Two of my favourite TV shows in 2006 were Prison Break and Heroes. Both are on their winter break at present and I’m looking at some other shows with interest, like Dexter, 24 and The O.C. I also enjoyed watching Nach Baliye on Star One, which is probably the only show that I saw on a television itself, the other shows being seen on my computer!

I started working in my present project – PHH Mortgage at Perot Systems from Jan 2006 and have learnt a lot from it and my team. Worked in various technologies, some I knew earlier like Java, JSP, VC++ and Oracle and some were new to me, like TIBCO, Informatica and Sybase. The team at office is simply amazing and we have a great set of people in it. Right from the Project Manager to the Team Lead to the Team members, everyone truly rocks and we are really one close unit. I also contributed at the organisational level by being an integral part of the Perot System’s cultural and sports committee – Aakaanksha. Helped organise quite a few events at office and continue to do so, with the most recent being the Christmas and New Year party.

Books as usual played a very important part of my life and I read a great many number of books. The major ’theme’ as such for me this year was to read books by Indian authors and/or anything concerning India – Indian fiction/myth/epics/etc. and not surprisingly I found a wealth of great books to read. Ashok Banker, one of my favourite authors, released the final two books of his Ramayana series – Bridge of Rama and King of Ayodhya. Both books were simply brilliant and the epic has come alive in a truly grand and captivating manner through Ashok’s writing. King of Ayodhya ends in a totally unexpected and amazing manner, that only Ashok could have thought of. These two were easily my best books of the year 2006. Other books that I read this year that I really liked were Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair; Siva: The Siva Purana retold by Ramesh Menon; Water by Bapsi Sidhwa; Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts; and a lot more that I can’t remember at this moment.

2006 was also a great year when it came to tech/gadgets and me! I got myself a Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB Portable Media Player that truly rocks! I got a Canon Powershot S2 IS digital camera and a Sony Ericsson W810i mobile phone thanks to Su! I also got various accessories and lenses for the camera and the player. I got my own domain name (sabarish.net) and hosting space and moved from blogger to wordpress. I also bought myself a Flickr Pro Account! I also became a member of Desicritics, early 2006.

All in all 2006 was one helluva year! I had a LOT of fun and lived life to the fullest. Worked hard, but partied harder! :)