I promise I will come back

Sydney is very beautiful city to live. Especially for young hearts and couples!! One of the best places to be with your soul mate. I am sure you will love it. It can also be great for aged people, if you still have ice cubes of love in your heart and mischievousness still bubbles in your mind.

I was asked by a friend to write my experience here, I also wanted to do that, but kept failing to put my thoughts on paper. Today I have made up my mind to do it. There is this fear of bad post, as I am not feeling elated to write. Let me start, I will modify later as my mood swing.

Other day I wrote a post, and criticized Sydney tower, a friend told me that I am good detractor, and I must learn to adore and revere good things with analogous zeal and passion. It is really not easy, to kill the natural instincts, and go against of it. Please do not feel that I am trying to praise this place to prove that I am aficionado. I really liked the place, and I am very much honest with each and every word which I am going to write.

Bhagwad Geeta of Love

Other day I had this conversation with my friend. I am not going to tell who is Arjun and Krishna here. And most of other names are changed to keep the identities of people hidden for obvious reason. A friend of mine likes transcripts, and I shall dedicate this to him. I should also say sorry to a friend with whom I had this conversation. As I am publishing this without his consent, and also too all the people whose names I have mentioned in this post.

This is my longest post, and may turn out the boring too. I would say that read it at your own risk.

Krishna :- duniya ke koi kone mein kisi bhi company mein koi bhi khush nahi hai [Nowhere, in none of the companies anybody is happy]
Arjun :- haan [yeah]
Arjun :- where there are two individuals they will have different opinions and the conflicts starts
Arjun :- isliye office ke baarey mein jada nahin sochta [that is why i dont think much abt office]
Arjun :- now i am happy
Arjun :- since client ke sath direct kaam karta hoon [since I directly work with client]
Krishna :- good
Arjun :- koi KSI wala nahin [nobody from my own company]
Krishna :- best thing about being in US is that u dont need think abt office after office hrs
Arjun :- yes
Krishna :- same with australia
Krishna :- i come home and dont worry abt anything
Krishna :- kal duniya khatam ho jayegi yeh soch ke hi jeeta hoon [I live like tomorrow world will be over]
Arjun :- soch raha hoon yahan kuch din rehna ka [thinking about living here for sometime]
Krishna :- whts ur future plan
Arjun :- change maarne ka soch raha hoon [thinking about changing the job]
Krishna :- talk to Dave, tum akele ho, ghum sakte ho [talk to Dave, you are alone, you can roam around]
Arjun :- haan [yes]
Arjun :- yahan reh kar kuch paise kamane ka and dekkta hoon mba bhi [should live here for sometime and earn money, thinking about MBA too]
Arjun :- aur abhi 2-3 saal tak soch bhi nahin raha shadi ka [and I am not thinking about marriage for 2-3 yrs]
Arjun :- lekin kabhi kabhi dad aise hi bolte rehte hain [but dad tell me sometime]
Krishna :- nothing wrong in getting married now
Arjun :- nahin abhi sar dard nahin chahiye [no I dont want headache now]
Krishna :- sab kuch settled hai, mein yahi soch ta tha ke career pe dhayn dete hain.. lekin koi farak nahi padta, shadi kar ke bhi log kaam kartein hain [everything is not set yet, even I used to think that let concentrate on career, but it does not make a difference, people work even after marriage]
Arjun :- waise kuch nahin hai

….
….

The hope lives on in the quest of lie !!

Here is some part of Interview by Prem Panikar and other with Farhan and Javed Akhtar. Reference of Hrithik’s comment was made over Farhan, while worked together on Lakshya. Farhan is exactly one day older then Hrithik, here is what he has to say about it.

The point Hrithik was making was that you have a firm grasp of the medium and two, that you know exactly what you want and who can give it to you, and you will not settle for less. What is it about your formative years that gave you this grasp, this control? How did it happen that in terms of cinema you are way ahead of your years?

Farhan: When I was young, I used to lie a lot, and I used to really believe my lies. There were very few people who could see through my lies -:) my Pa was one of the few.

Javed: Creative people are liars by nature.

Farhan: Right. And I was extremely addicted to my lies; I would make sure that people believed it. At the end of the day, film to some extent is about you creating a lie you want the audience to believe, and how good you are as a creator depends on how good you are at making people believe the lies you tell them. So I guess that thing about lying when I was growing up was my training ground. I’ve stopped doing that otherwise, now I channel all my lying into my movies.

Anyway, it is least important here what Hrithik said, but the reason what Farhan gave for his genious over his craft and how is he able to create those masterpieces.

I would die to be such liar, the chores and monotouns world of secured job and career has ruined the creativity of an individual. At least this place of Worpress gives me some space to try my hand over words and placing them creatively, so far I have not created wonders, but one day I will surely do. The hope lives on, and the world lives by hope. The hope lives on in the quest of lie.

quote of the day

When the odds are against me I prove them wrong,
When all else fails I succeed,
When all else ceases to live I breath,
When all turns to ashes from it I rise,
So it doesn’t matter what you throw at me or what you do,
I am, I do, and that’s all that matters.

I still remember thouse great days when Pat will send an email with quote of the day. Though they were not original, she used to get from Internet, but they were really beautiful. This is her last qoute which she sent.

Once she had sent the quote, then it was left to Jam to disect the meaning of it. Some were torn apart, some revered, and some really blasted with lough riot. I think I should post some examples here for you people to have some fun.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. – Unknown

Response from Jam – Is this a Question or an Answer ? !!!

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll still land among the stars.

Another blunder from Jam -
bbbbbaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnggggggg zzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . . . . . . . . . . .
…
…
…
…
…
…
Where Am I ?

Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder “What happened?” Which type of person are YOU?

Can you imagin, this can be response of Jam -
I make things happen. I watch those things happening, and then . . .
…
…
…
…
…
…
I wonder What happened.

And then sadly one day Pat gave up. But then some one had to keep the show on. Jam did not had patients to search the internet, and being creative soul he invented his own qoute.

Don’t give up saying I can’t. It’s OK if you say I couldn’t after you give up.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, as we had plenty of such qoutes and unqoutes. Plenty of time reply to all button was clicked, and half of the team would be rolling on the floor in the morning. After we parted ways, I never had those wonderful days in office.

I must thank the great TGA team which includes Pat, Jam, Kris, Suu, Dave, Sam, Sandy, and Pravin. This was the time when I was renamed to Ken by this lovely people.

Zen of our life

As usual in his morning chores of playing with his grandson, dad had cramp in the back muscle. He is having this trouble with back for a while. Later in the noon, pain augmented and he could not even get up for lunch. He had terrible pain. He wisely chose to take rest and off from work. Next morning, he went to work as usual. Routine!! The pain had been abbreviated, but it was still troubling him. He could not continue for long, and came back later afternoon. And he went to sleep again. He is having problem with health for some time He is working on it thru diet control, morning walk and yoga.

As a kid, I was always covetous of him for his vim and vigor to carry on whole long day of 12 to 14 hours. I used to give up after 6 hrs of school. But lately even he is not doing great. I could see the declination of his verve in past few years. Today evening when I called him to check his health; mom gave me the news. A friend on Orkut met dad, and told me that he is not well. Thanks to her!! Otherwise I would have never learnt it until I would have reached home.

Finally mom broke the news; dad is closing his last enterprise. She cried; I can understand how important it is for women to have his men at work. My dad’s small wholesale business was empire for us. It fed us all life; all our needs, education and luxuries were bestowed by it. It was patron of our family. I am sure he would have continued for longer, if he had not been deceived by his health. The work and business are his lasting passion for life.

Understanding of blogging extened

This is in reply to a friend, who was new to blogging. I have changed a name here to hide the identities. 

Dear Ash Sin,

heii.. Ash I am overwhelmed that you not only read, but gave those nice comments. Actually blogs are nothing more then your penned thoughts. Topics, subjects can be anything, literally anything.

Its just an expression, there are things which u can tell people, you may not tell people, there may be outburst; anything can be penned there. You can also hide ur identity if u want, as I am not blogging with real name here. But few people know that it is my blog, you are the latest edition.

I know about your ability to read, cultivate it. Force urself into it, it nurishes life, you can read anything, books, news, blogs, it can be anything; at least use 1/2 hr in day.

Like these days least I do is go to net and read Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times. There are some good articles every other day. You may not accept everythin about what they say. But at least u will see the different dimensions of things.

Best thing about bloggin is that no need to have correct grammer and spelling, it’s more of scribbling. You can also paste your forward there, and comment your opinion. This helps to enrich ur langauge. I have lost sense of my mother tongue and Gujarati. My hindi was always rash as I learnt in Mumbai and not in school. So finally I am left with foreigh language.

Thx & Rgds
Ken

Email Subscription !!

Frdnz,

I am came across this very cool feature provided by service called FeedBlitz. Register your blog with them, and they will provide you with wonderful feature of email subscription. Now your reader do not need to keep visinting the page to check if there is any interesting post.

They just need subscribe, and they will be sent an email with all the updates. You just need copy and paste small piece of HTML code. Though I don’t have many readers, I just wanted experiment, and added the code to my site.

Here is the sample:
Subscribe and get your updates by email

Ain’t this great? Try out for your blog, and make life easier.

My understanding of my religion

“The one who is Jain, never has faith in any other GOD except Jinendra” 

Prologue and Disclaimer: On Interenet people were debating whether to follow the statement or not. As always, I had my opinion too. I want to clarify that this is my understanding of my religion, and these are not words of any Jain Tirthankar*. I also apologies in case I have hurt religious feeling of any individual as it was never a motive. It is mere attempt to present my understanding, not an expert’s opinion or words of wisdom.

We must understand the statement in full, before we say that we agree or not. According to Jainism, there is nothing like GOD. For Jainism Bhagwan not = GOD, the word Bhagwan is not used for any Jain Tirthankar with meaning GOD.

Jainism says that who ever attains the Moksha or becomes Siddh is equivalent to any Tirthankar with only diff that Tirthankars are Shashak for certain period, and they show us the correct path and remind us about right human values during that period.

Above statement means if you are Jain, you do not preach anybody falling in definition of GOD, it means that you only follow the way of life explained by our Tirthankars.

Primary reason to give statement is that Jainism considers lack of knowledge as sin, we must attain the complete knowledge to be called Jain, and hence if you are preaching any other person or idols or entities named as GOD, then it is mistake. And I mentioned earlier Jainism does not believe in concept of god.

testimonial, for a friend, on orkut

It is always difficult to describe simple things. Try describing God or Love; you can write page and epics, but still we are asking same questions. Wht is love and God?

Anyway, now that I have descided to write testimonial I must describe him. His decsions are last nail, nothing changes later. He is perfect Pisean, best fit to have friend with Virgos, which is me . He is practical than math theories, and understands emotions better than Shakespeare. Deep rooted Indian, true Rajput, loves his family above anything else.

These days he lives in Chicago, City of Strong Shoulders; I bet the whole world can trust him, and lean on his shoudlers.

Wish you all the happiness of universe, to share with universe.

 P. S. – For quite some time now, I am noticing that people are leaving absurd comments on this post. I just wnated to let dear readers know that this places is not to write testimonial for your friends. Thank you all for reading and commenting.

Definition of Line

In school I studied the definition of line, in Geometry. According to textbooks Line is geometrical shape; which is collection of dots, has no starting or ending points. It can continue to extend in both /opposite directions as longs required without intersecting itself.

For me friendship is identical human relation; which is collection of moments, it has no starting or ending moment, can extended in both /opposite directions as long as required without intersecting each other.

Both are eternal.

Without Line no other geometrical shape can be formed. No relation can survive without the basic elements of friendship, be it husband-wife, brothers, sisters or the most cherished mother-child relation. So every moment lived in these relations is connected to friendship or different moments of friendship. Friendship can form these relations; like different types of line form several shapes.

finally… I have a funny post.

I should not be doing this, but then there is limit to everything. I apologies for the foul language and bad words, but then censor board was on leave on Ghandhi Jayanti. I also apologies to almighty for insulting his creature, but I told you, there is limit to everything.

Other day I was complaining to a friend that I have lost my sense of humor, but the I realized that you need good food for good health, and same for humor. In the absence of humor, I had lost my sanity, and here I am with my insane roommate and our conversion. 

Enough, I was just creating the right atmosphere as you people may be working and not ready to take the shot. God may forgive me, for my insanity.

Note: My room mate is male, 25 yrs old, south indian based in Mumbai, working for reputed software company. We stayed together in Pune, when both had our first job, and first time away from M’bai. We stayed together for 1.5 yrs, and parted ways when I had to move to Hyd. All my other friends in Pune consider him as my better half, and they consider him my wife. As most like me are certain that none of us are gay.   names replaced for obvious reason.

pictures say more stories then words can write

 I was browsing through a profile on a Orkut, and just saw this picture. I have kind of lots my personality in this picture. It is from early days in Hyderabad. I had single opinion, the city sucks. These are among those who made my stay in Hyderabad most memorable and left me to cherish those wonderful day for rest of my life.

This picture has so much to tell, I know it is not photographic genius, but then you don’t need that to feel emotions. Never in my distant dreams had I thought I will have most unforgettable span of life in this city.  These guys were fresh out of college, all my juniors in office, and newly found fountain of joy and happiness. They all used to stay in one apartment and it was our den, play cards till 4 in the morning or drink whole 31st night, though I was not a drinker then.   And then sleep over rest of Sat morning.

They all were god’s special creatures, each with set of attributes. One was arrant mysterious; I am yet to understand this character. He was big story teller, he can go on and spin a yarn for hours and days; believe me you will never realize that was all fake.  Other was creative soul, lost in the materialistic world, confused with his dreams and desires. Then we had chief chef, great talker too (only on phone though), he was sweeter then honey. The other two will remain close to heart definitely forever. We understood each other well. Both were on two different extremes of life, and that was celebrated most by me. Casted perfectly in their zodiacs, Pisces and Sagittarius; complimentary color and emotional to elate life.

They give different meaning to a word called friendship and companionship to me. I would have dejected or doomed without them, there were some other’s who deserve the accolades. There are more moments of joy and angels to talk about, currently let me just rely in peace with colors of life in this picture.

Sar Jo Tera Chakaraye …

Sar Jo Tera Chakaraye …

There is nothing more soothing then Hindi Movie songs. One of the reasons for their eternal success is perhaps this. Certain songs are so mysterious that every time you listen, it will reveal new meaning of life.

I still remember those days when I moved to Pune, first time away from home, for a job. I had this filthy character in my room mate, which was kind of a pain in neck. Finally I asked my dad to get me 2in1. Everyday after dinner, it was me, a book and Radio Mirchi. I and roomie would hardly speak in the evening. My favorite was last show; they used to play old songs. It just used to fill the heart with so much of elation. I never felt lonely then.

After all these years of wondering, today I am bewildered in Sydney. Same old story, all alone. I was about to fall in dejection. I felt strong urge for my favorite music, but could not find. Finally I was blessed with internet connection in hotel. First thing I did was to log on musicindiaonline and played a track from latest Hindi flick. Time and again, I did not felt any needs futher.

One song which I can listen zillion times is from Ghar, Tere Bin Jiya. I really hate myself for not knowing the nitty-gritty of music when I listen to it. The flow of music, rhythm and vocals passes so serenely through your heart. I really don’t know if it is complicated or simple. Like flowing streams and springs, it has lot of hidden stories to tell, and meanings to be discovered. The journey goes on; life goes on, your soul keeps looking for more.

There is say; everything is fair in love and war. What if you have got them together? Fierce battles have fought for love, but people never have drowned in love while they are in war. For many years this song has motivated Indian couples, I don’t know how many girls have turned tails when they perceived the sound Jab Pyar Kiya To Drana Kya. This is should be national anthem for Republic of Love. Most exaggerated still true praise for love, loads of motivation if you have failed recently in love, I am sure I can move mountains.

Both of them are two tangents of a same arch; love. It is not that I love movie songs only for Mills and Boons romantics. There are plenty of other elements. Try Aayega Aayega (Mahal), the hollowness of soul can be literally seen, the pain can be suffered, and I am sure I will reincarnate if sung for me. Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo, the only song to follow national anthem on August 15. Sar Jo Tera Chakraye, who knew that humor can be musical too? Have you heard O Palanhare from Lagaan? This song cleanses all the pessimism in me, and makes me arrant optimistic. My faith in almighty becomes stronger every time. Dum Maro Dum, Hindi Cinema has song to proffer to smokers? By just listening to the song I can feel the effect of morphine.

There are hundreds and thousands to bring up; they have so much to revel, yet so much yet to sing. What would have been of fate of Antakshari without them? And where would have I been doomed without them.

Sydney Tower + Oz Trek + Skywalk

Sydney Tower is claimed to be highest point of Sydney; it gives 360-degree view of city. Prize you pay for this is AUD 24, which includes entry to the tower and Oz Trek. I already saw the tower. Oz Trek is some sort of a 3D movie cum virtual venture ride of Australia. I have not seen the trek yet, just back from tower and waiting for it to start. There is third option Skywalk, separated fees is levied for it.

Sydney has got really beautiful aerial view. But let me tell you that the way this tower is placed; it really does not give you great view. If you want to see the earth, I guess best place would be moon, to get real outer 360-degree view. And if you want to see Sydney, I think we must choose the helicopter ride. This tower is hopeless, waste of time and money. After spending dramatic Friday night and Saturday morning, this is worst thing I chose to spend Sunday evening.

Chicago and NY look beautiful from Sears/John Hancock and Empire State building respectively. They look even better in the night. But Sydney does not really look great in the night. It is very happening inside but not beautiful from outside. Chicago is almost sleepy in the night but it creates vistas for eyes and shutterbugs.

I spent an evening in Botanical Garden to shoot Opera House from there in the evening. It was cold, winter had just ended and spring was still to spring. But experience was awesome. I was sitting on rock, placed my camera on tiny tripod, and capturing different shades of Opera House for almost 2 hours. Changing shutter speed, aperture of lens, color of the sky and lights of Opera House filled my heart with joy. Outcome was almost perfect; most of my friends liked the picture. I was delighted, so were my friends. I took only 2/3 pictures here in tower, just to feel that I was here and took snaps. Don’t know if I would share this with my friends. My apartment looks better, far, far, far better.

I think Skywalk should be tried; it is walk around Sydney tower in open gallery. It must be definitely thrilling. But it is too expensive. I mean almost AUD 90 for it. But do it only in a day, if at all you want to. Sydney looks beautiful in a day.

Enough of sulking for 24 dollars; Oz Trek will start in next few minutes. Let us console the soul that I did something on the weekend. I actually wanted to go to Bondi Beach. But change of apartment took lot of time, and it was too late to go to beach. So just came here sooth my soul. Feels like it is more bruised. It is not the money which matter, just that I did not had the overwhelming feel, which I wanted.

[I will write about trek later, it is 2 in the night. I need to get up at six to go to Bondi Beach. ] [Here I am to complete the post, yes I got up at six to write these for you guys. ]

Hmnnn… so I had the trek too. It was mix of 3D movie and virtual ride as I said earlier about Australia; it’s history, natural landscapes. To be very honest it was advertisement by Australian tourism board for which we have to pay. It tells you about places to see, how, when and where. It also tells you about the lifestyle, special events of the year, like operas and NFL. Also about several activities you can do in Australia, like scuba diving, skydiving, surfing, etc.

It is split it into 2 parts, first where you see very short 3D sort of movie. It tells you more about lifestyle, and ancient Australian tribe. It was not useful, as it was too short. Then you have part II where you are taken hall with 3 screens. Here the chairs are of kind which I first time saw in Universal Studio. They move, shake, and vibrate with scenes on the screen to give you more realistic effect. Yeah, the show again was about places to visit in Australia.

I think for this they should not have charged, they could give it for free with tower entry fees. After all it was promotion of tourism in country. Already tower is so atrociously charged for no extra facilities other then lift to go up and down. These guys are really smart, they have observatory of the tower split into 3 levels. First where they allow us to have free walk, another layer is for Skywalk, and third is café. And you get the best view obviously from café and Skywalk. So what you paid and saw in normal entry of tower and Oz Trek was more of a trailer.

To be honest light and sound show back in Hyderabad’s Golconda fort was more interesting with narration from Amitabh Bachchan and ghazals from Jaghjit Singh. Coming to experience it was no way near to those rides and shows in Universal Studio. I must say that at least Americans are better then Australians in terms of giving value of money to it’s tourist.

For lonely soul in Sydney City camera & tours can only give some joy.

[Okay, now I must take the shower and get going to Bondi Beach. I don't want to waste another day. Thankfully this beach is free, I just need to pay for travel by bus. ]