Recently we went for snowtubing and thought this was a very colorful picture to put up.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Windows Vista – Windows Live Writer
This is just a test of the Vista WL Blog writer. You can basically set it up to publish rich content to any of your blogs.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
200
The summit has been scaled, mission accomplished, the barrier has been breached, the unthinkable has been thought of and actually done, yes 200 runs have been scored in a one day international by a single batsman. And who else would have deserved it more than Sachin. A classic innings to watch, I have watched the downloaded version a few times now. It felt like watching Sachin in his so called peak period in the late nineties or so we thought. There are a gazillion praises being showered on the little master. And deservedly so. What a treat it must have been to watch this innings in person. Really a true classic, a magnanimous display of skill and aggression and that too against a pretty good bowling attack.
What makes any innings great? Yes it was not under immense pressure or anything but then we probably would not have seen the kind of aggression in his batting that we have failed to see in the past few years. The looks on the bowlers faces said it all. A lot of people have said that Sachin knows the next ball the bowler is trying to bowl and you could actually see the amount of time he had before playing each shot. As Chatur in 3 idiots would have told you an innings is "a numbered round of play in which both teams have a turn at bat" or "the period of or opportunity for action, expression, exercise of authority, etc." the latter so fitting to what the display was as it embodied each and every word in that definition. So what can top this? I asked the same question when 2 thunderous innings were played in succession amidst the desert storm. But I guess there will always be a way to top this, to break this record, which I am sure Mr. Ponting will be eying for too.
What makes any innings great? Yes it was not under immense pressure or anything but then we probably would not have seen the kind of aggression in his batting that we have failed to see in the past few years. The looks on the bowlers faces said it all. A lot of people have said that Sachin knows the next ball the bowler is trying to bowl and you could actually see the amount of time he had before playing each shot. As Chatur in 3 idiots would have told you an innings is "a numbered round of play in which both teams have a turn at bat" or "the period of or opportunity for action, expression, exercise of authority, etc." the latter so fitting to what the display was as it embodied each and every word in that definition. So what can top this? I asked the same question when 2 thunderous innings were played in succession amidst the desert storm. But I guess there will always be a way to top this, to break this record, which I am sure Mr. Ponting will be eying for too.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Maha Shivratri
Today is Maha Shivratri. The day and the night long worship of Lord Shiva is performed along with fasting this day. In India we have a big pooja at our house, and it been going on for generations now. This is the only day in the entire calendar year that I observe a fast for too. Below is the story of the Maha Shivratri:
Once upon a time King Chitrabhanu of the Ikshvaku dynasty, who ruled over the whole of Jambudvipa (India), was observing a fast with his wife, it being the day of Maha Shivaratri. The sage Ashtavakra came on a visit to the court of the king.
The lord asked the king the purpose of his observing the fast. King Chitrabhanu explained that he had a gift of remembering the incidents of his past birth, and in his previous life he had been a hunter in Varanasi and his name was Suswara. His only livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. The day before the new moon, while roaming through forests in search of animals, he saw a deer, but before his arrow flew he noticed the deer's family and their sadness at its impending death. So he let it live. He had still not caught anything when he was overtaken by nightfall and climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a Bael tree. His canteen leaked water, so he was both hungry and thirsty. These two torments kept him awake throughout the night, thinking of his poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously waiting for his return. To pass away the time he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground.
The next day he returned home and bought some food for himself and his family. The moment he was about to break his fast a stranger came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to stranger and then had his own.
At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of Lord Shiva, sent to conduct his soul to the abode of Lord Shiva. He learnt then for the first time of the great merit he had earned by unconscious worship of Lord Shiva during the night of Shivaratri. The messengers told him that there had been a Lingam (a symbol for the worship of Shiva) at the bottom of the tree. The leaves he dropped had fallen on the Lingam, in imitation of its ritual worship. The water from his leaky canteen had washed the Lingam (also a ritual action), and he had fasted all day and all night. Thus, he unconsciously had worshipped the Lord.
As the conclusion of the tale the King said that he had lived in the abode of the Lord and enjoyed divine bliss for long ages and now he was reborn as Chitrabhanu.
Once upon a time King Chitrabhanu of the Ikshvaku dynasty, who ruled over the whole of Jambudvipa (India), was observing a fast with his wife, it being the day of Maha Shivaratri. The sage Ashtavakra came on a visit to the court of the king.
The lord asked the king the purpose of his observing the fast. King Chitrabhanu explained that he had a gift of remembering the incidents of his past birth, and in his previous life he had been a hunter in Varanasi and his name was Suswara. His only livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. The day before the new moon, while roaming through forests in search of animals, he saw a deer, but before his arrow flew he noticed the deer's family and their sadness at its impending death. So he let it live. He had still not caught anything when he was overtaken by nightfall and climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a Bael tree. His canteen leaked water, so he was both hungry and thirsty. These two torments kept him awake throughout the night, thinking of his poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously waiting for his return. To pass away the time he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground.
The next day he returned home and bought some food for himself and his family. The moment he was about to break his fast a stranger came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to stranger and then had his own.
At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of Lord Shiva, sent to conduct his soul to the abode of Lord Shiva. He learnt then for the first time of the great merit he had earned by unconscious worship of Lord Shiva during the night of Shivaratri. The messengers told him that there had been a Lingam (a symbol for the worship of Shiva) at the bottom of the tree. The leaves he dropped had fallen on the Lingam, in imitation of its ritual worship. The water from his leaky canteen had washed the Lingam (also a ritual action), and he had fasted all day and all night. Thus, he unconsciously had worshipped the Lord.
As the conclusion of the tale the King said that he had lived in the abode of the Lord and enjoyed divine bliss for long ages and now he was reborn as Chitrabhanu.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Aall Izzz Welll!!!
Yes this 3 idiots quote seems to be overtaking Gabbar's "Kitne Aadmi The" one in a big way. The impact this film has made is huge and so is the message that it conveys. We loved the movie, so did Aarav as he plays the "Aall Izz Well" song a few tens of times a day. And then imagine the thrill of meeting Aamir Khan recently face to face and actually having a chat with him for some time. It was an amazing experience, especially since I being an ardent fan of his and his films for the past 20 years. Yes that does make me sound a bit old, but then there are very few actors in bollywood about whom you can say that for such a long time. After his recent film, the Aamir Khan is certainly the biggest brand in Bollywood right now and with an envious success rate. To top it all, the film which he produced - "Peepli Live" had been selected in the competitive films category to play at the Sundance Festival in Park City. It is the first hindi film to be selected to play at Sundance which is a great achievement.
As soon as the news of him coming to Park City was out, we started looking for tickets to the film's screening. On the opening show, we missed him by a tantalizing 10 mins. The next showing was then in Salt Lake City itself, but we knew it would be difficult to meet him as there would be a big desi crowd. And is what happened, we were not able to meet him personally as the crowd went berserk and he had to leave early. We did get to see him during the Q&A session. We did manage to take some snaps with his wife Kiran Rao who was very nice to talk to. Also we managed some snaps with the director of the movie Anusha Rizvi and the actor Onkar Das. The film was nice, a black comedy on the topic of farmer suicides in Indian villages. After the movie we did get an autograph from Aamir Khan, but the thought of not meeting him personally lingered and we decided to try our luck again a couple of days later at the film's next showing in Park City.
Fortunately for us, since the showing was in the morning, we did not run in to any crowds and got to meet him personally. First he seemed busy but then agreed to meet with us on the way out. We talked for quite some time, about his padma bhushan, the blog and his movies. Yes one can say that it certainly was the experience of a lifetime. He seemed like a very genuine person to talk to and signed some more autographs for us. I being from Bombay, know how diffcult it is to meet a celebrity there and hence it was a big deal I guess. Last time I met someone was Aishwarya Rai who was sitting next to me at the American Consulate, but thats a different story and for a different blog article.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tai...
Today is 29th Dec and Tai (my grandmother) is in my thoughts as it was this day that she passed away. It has been a long time but some days you do not tend to forget irrespective of the passage of time. Every one called her "Tai" and my grandfather "Dada". The so called best days of life which usually are the childhood days were spent in their presence. My brother and I were lucky to have them live with us during those days. They nurtured a pretty big family I must say with 5 girls and a boy, which I still wonder how they managed to do during those days. I have a very hard time with just one.
But today I want to write about her. She was the go to person for me when both mom and dad were angry at my wrong doing. She would be the protective shield. She liked entertaining people all the time, no matter how big the crowd or how small the place. And for that, one has to be a very good cook which she was. She was also a cleanliness freak and also very detail oriented. She always had answers to our naive questions. She liked paan and ice cream quite a bit. She was always excited to take us out for ice cream once our final results were out. That was kind of a ritual for us. She used to be there with me when going to school, waiting for the school bus and was never afraid to give a piece of her mind to the driver if he was running a little late. She always said what was in her mind. She had a very good dressing sense with special nav-wari sarees for special occasions. She was like every other grandmother in the world, and then some more. That extra special quality that every grandmother has, to make her your grandmom :).
But today I want to write about her. She was the go to person for me when both mom and dad were angry at my wrong doing. She would be the protective shield. She liked entertaining people all the time, no matter how big the crowd or how small the place. And for that, one has to be a very good cook which she was. She was also a cleanliness freak and also very detail oriented. She always had answers to our naive questions. She liked paan and ice cream quite a bit. She was always excited to take us out for ice cream once our final results were out. That was kind of a ritual for us. She used to be there with me when going to school, waiting for the school bus and was never afraid to give a piece of her mind to the driver if he was running a little late. She always said what was in her mind. She had a very good dressing sense with special nav-wari sarees for special occasions. She was like every other grandmother in the world, and then some more. That extra special quality that every grandmother has, to make her your grandmom :).
Friday, December 4, 2009
Winter has set in!
Winter has set in! It really seems like a whole season has gone by since I have written anything on my blog. I guess there is always a phase when you just don't feel like writing anything if you are a blogger. Well actually a season has really passed since I blogged last around Dassara. Diwali has come and gone, and along with it the taste of the faral and the sweets that were made during that festival. Our first Diwali, in our home, so it was special in a way. We did put up some lights and celebrated with fire crackers, played teen patti and managed not to lose a lot of money, was involved in organizing a Diwali event for the Utah Marathi Mandal which surprisingly turned out very well for the first time. Then we celebrated our birthdays, threw a party in a very nice banquet room which we managed to get due to one of our friends living there. Someday we plan to throw a party where the kids will get to enjoy more than us, that would have to mean, no alcohol and at a place like bouncing off the walls or the jungle jim's playland. The next day, my cousin and her husband visited us from India. It was really good to have them over for a few days, always feels nice when the house is filled up. We went to Moab for a couple of days as that was the warmest place within our reach. Moab is always fun, the downtown reminds me of Matheran and Mahabaleshwar for some reason, I don't know why.
I got myself the Canon Speedlite 430 EXII external flash as a birthday gift. I first used it during the birthday party and boy was it worth it. The external flash along with its powerful light, and bounce and tilt features make the photographs look so much better, got some really good captures. Then as I had promised my self a few years earlier that I would never go in the early morning to a thanksgiving sale, I somehow landed there at 4 in the morning, this after a party earlier which went pretty late into the night too. After that I have renewed my promise once again with the exception of online shopping. I always think that Cyber Monday and Pink Thursday after the Black Friday is kind of a lame concept. Why don't they make the black friday deals even better so that they don't have to deal with left overs?
Yesterday was a feel good day, why?, just because I watched Sehwag bat for 6 hrs and beat the s**t out of the so called lions. I do not remember seeing a more demoralized team than SL. It was sad that he could not reach 300, but I am pretty sure there are more of these special innings to come. He really does not get the praise and the attention he deserves and finally when Sambit Bal wrote on CricInfo, comparing him to Viv Richards, one of not so ardent fans of Richards commented from across the border saying "This is rubbish, only Hindu mentality can think like this.", to this I would like to say, thank god for the Hindu mentality and thank god for it was SL else you would have already killed the coach and called off the test. For now though, I am eagerly waiting for the team to be the #1 test team after tomorrow's result.
I got myself the Canon Speedlite 430 EXII external flash as a birthday gift. I first used it during the birthday party and boy was it worth it. The external flash along with its powerful light, and bounce and tilt features make the photographs look so much better, got some really good captures. Then as I had promised my self a few years earlier that I would never go in the early morning to a thanksgiving sale, I somehow landed there at 4 in the morning, this after a party earlier which went pretty late into the night too. After that I have renewed my promise once again with the exception of online shopping. I always think that Cyber Monday and Pink Thursday after the Black Friday is kind of a lame concept. Why don't they make the black friday deals even better so that they don't have to deal with left overs?
Yesterday was a feel good day, why?, just because I watched Sehwag bat for 6 hrs and beat the s**t out of the so called lions. I do not remember seeing a more demoralized team than SL. It was sad that he could not reach 300, but I am pretty sure there are more of these special innings to come. He really does not get the praise and the attention he deserves and finally when Sambit Bal wrote on CricInfo, comparing him to Viv Richards, one of not so ardent fans of Richards commented from across the border saying "This is rubbish, only Hindu mentality can think like this.", to this I would like to say, thank god for the Hindu mentality and thank god for it was SL else you would have already killed the coach and called off the test. For now though, I am eagerly waiting for the team to be the #1 test team after tomorrow's result.
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