VTS_01_1.VOB

Tokyo calling..!

Recently went on a short visit to Tokyo and Seoul..Albeit a brisk one, there were many things to discover and experiment with, which made the experience in some ways, a fruitful one. But nonetheless it was very hectic...I was cooling my heels till a week after returning, and now's when I feel somewhat better! Tokyo has a great infrastructure, all these years of precision Nipponese engineering and ideas have surely carved out a modern metropolis, worth envying. Food is a big problem, not because it is different, but because you need some time to adjust to the raw and less cooked style of having delicious nutritious food (which Indian's like us are not used to, usually that is...as I write this what flashes in front of me is the huge pile of rice we have...Honestly I am trying to find out a reason..also what 'rice' has to offer in terms of nutrients...or for that matter even a lot of wheat in roti's or chappatis..)

Expensive it is, infact till late it was the most expensive city in the world, usurped this year by Moscow and Seoul http://www.finfacts.ie/costofliving.htm
A nice good rich meal for one person would cost more than 50 USD or about 2500 rupees..(this ofcourse in one of the posh localities of the city..)

It does boast of its own Statue of Liberty - a much smaller version of the real one in NYC. It stands at 34-feet tall, 1/4th of its original version. History has it that the real statue built by Bartholdi (from which the gigantic one in NYC was replicated from..) was lent to Tokyo for sometime, after which the people got so used to it, that they built one of their own, which i must say does look a lot like the real one...!

What was i doing amid all this...I was on a tour to a lot of companies - the tech titans of that part of SE and North Asia - Samsung, Toshiba, LG, Lenovo, Fujitsu etc.. I must say they have a nice empire built up there - very similar to what the software companies (the more bigger and famous ones..) have done in India..

Here are a few images:



Early morning in Tokyo's heart..!



Traditional Japanese dance..



More of it..






Tokyo's Statue of Liberty



Rainbow bridge



Wedding in Tokyo!



Sunset over the Tokyo Waterfront

Bangalore - Driving!!

Driving in Bangalore

Get a taste of the drive in Bangalore with some old hindi film music..!! :) and nope its not me driving here..

Spidey's coming again!!

Watch the newest teaser of Spidey III !

JUST HERE!!!

Innocence Lost!

Rotten smell of decomposing wine
Pinching crystals of broken glass
Blood drops - from red to magenta
A corpse lying - denim clad, footwear adidas
All these strewn over a dark alley,road unknown
Such unsightly cases duly unreported,city known
The modern man sees no-one
Nothing is his own.


Another day in a shabby shack
Snugly sleeping small little wonders
Man's own scion but a picture of innocence
Still detached,semi-earthly,long way to senecence
A sudden movement,the swarm gathers
Sleeping beauties in ignorant bliss
Salvo of abuses and the fire duly rises
Semi-earthly to heavenly,human's return to ashes
Man kills himself again
Blind faith gets the better of him.


Sectarian violence,communal clash
A bribery scandal,terrorist attack
Drunken driving,student brawl
Culture shock,no end at all
Women dishonoured, Men disfigured
and children rendered amorphous
Daily newspapers like xeroxed clones
Sardonic remarks splashed all over it's tones
Fathom the depth we've reached
Benevolence seems a word out of date.
The modern man lives for himself
Matters other than own,he's afraid to dwelve.


If all this seems a forgotten pledge
Jaded face of a God that failed
Life's not just about living on the edge
Wait awhile,before you fear to tread
Somewhere there, a sun may rise
Spreading it's rays - far,fresh and nice
Only if we were that much wise
To see the truth that still lies in our eyes.


Some may say it's just a satire
Others - no better than an elegy
Take a look and you will see
It's but a rendition of our times,only!

Blank!

My pic post got delayed coz I don't have the snaps i need to post, on-hand!
Have summoned them from those who have them and they are on their way, I hope!

Something impressionable that happened this time around was nothing actually...So i discovered that i can be a poet and hence the scribbling below! Not something that i wrote recently but when I was caught in a communal clash, albeit not physically but the air was more than full of communal overtones and that was the inspiration.

Being my own critic, i feel its a decent enough job, quite wordy but being that does help in communicating the exact notion without actually having to create a big web of words.
And yes it has a story behind!

Ok, am blogging in between a meeting now, so i guess need to go back to work now...Cyaaa!!

MB II

So I am back!!...Finally!!
Naa this is just for me, so that i get reminded not to use the cliche again..!!

A lot of things went right, a lot wrong, but after all is said and done, its all back to square one..Back to where i started from!! Wonder when the vicious circle of roads within potholes, long queues waiting for tickets for anything u need them for, uncalled for and surprise rains...Ah! and a lot more, would end!! But end they will!!

Why do my posts turn sometimes into tech journals, movie review's and sometimes just simple reports (journalistic)..I guess that's how i am, when i do something, am fully into it!..
Well anyway so the invisible force has been prying, shying, jemmying away at me!..But am after it, on top of it, defying its every move, slowly but surely, shooing it away!..Am i schizophrenic, no not yet!! :-)

Saw MB-2 this weekend, and it's not Men in Black!!!
MunnaBhai part - II was good, a lot of everyday 'mumbaiya' (athough i feel now most other cities do reflect mumbai..atleast in everyday life minus the infra part) stuff that was nice, coz it was quite refreshing although soulful and teary (naaa! i didn't but a lot of them beside me were laughing as well as sobbing at the same time..a unique sight!!) coz everybody might have identified with the characters (people responding to an on-screen portrayal of their LIVE issues...) and looking for solutions!! Overall a good movie. Am sure, the MB trend is now gonna continue for some more time!!...With RajKumar Hirani directing, i do see a good enough future...!!
I personally could identify to some - I really don't know my neighbours as well as probably someone a thousand kilometer's away from me :) and no this was not the case 5-6 years ago, things do change!

But i guess the hero (Mr. Dutt) has a certain bad luck (or should i say, a certain jinx) associated...His father expired after MB-1 (which was a gr8 hit with the masses!!) and now after MB-2 capturing the same popularity, ghosts of the 93'Mumbai blasts (where he is an accused, number 117 to be precise out of 123) come back to haunt him!!..Dutt has to wait (and that means all his work is ceased) till he gets a verdict..
Am not sympathizing with him in anyway..But that's how life's been to him (and to many others maybe..)!!

Ok, Next time a photo-blog-post??
Sounds like a nice idea,
Byee!!