Good read...

This is an article my friend sent me a couple of days ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/business/05corner.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smsredirect=true

I usually stay away from Steven Covey and the types but I thought this article was quite nice. It ended with this thought:

“Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.”
— From a speech John W. Gardner delivered to the Hawaii Executive Conference in Kona, Hawaii, in April 1993 and published in Stanford, an independent publication of the Stanford Alumni Association, March 1994.

Songbird

One more song I listened to after a long time...Songbird
I think one of the reasons I like it, is cause its over even before it starts, and I mean that in a good way.
Yeah Yeah...U can bring in the "40 Year Old Virgin" joke and say
"U Know how I know you’re gay?"..."cause u like songbird"
I guess I can be gay for this one song...its a good one...enjoy it

written by: Liam Gallagher

...three, four
Talkin to the songbird yesterday
Flew me to a place not far away
She's a little pilot in my mind
Singin songs of love to pass the time
Gonna write a song so she can see
Give her all the love she gives to me
Talk of better days that have yet to come
Never felt this love from anyone

She's not anyone
She's not anyone
She's not anyone

A man can never dream these kind of things
Especially when she came and spread her wings
Whisper in my ear the things I'd like
Then she flew away into the night
Gonna write a song so she can see
Give her all the love she gives to me
Talk of better days that have yet to come
Never felt this love from anyone

She's not anyone
She's not anyone
She's not anyone

Scrubs and the song...

I was watching Scrubs on a slow a Sunday afternoon and I heard this neat little preppy song. Just simple guitar chords and a great voice with it. The sound felt familiar and kinda reminded me of the eighties. So I decided to look up the lyrics which go something like this...

I can’t get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away

Turns out, the song is from Colin Hay (formerly from “Men at Work”) . Good to see the good old guys of rock still rockin it out. Still remember getting my first "Men at work" tape from Sudeep and blasting it to the max on my 30W Phillips stereo system.

Check out the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg6JdQulNrc

Hope you enjoy it...

Ta na na tana tana naaaa...

I finally found it. The one series, that to me, in many ways was the definition of television in my childhood - Malgudi days. The voice and direction of Shankar Nag, the title track, R.K. Narayan's story telling, the characters - Swami, Mani and the all those Kannada television extras (who my dad would identify by name) and the cricket match. All these bring back great memories.
You can find all 38 episodes here:
http://www.rajshri.com/malgudidays/
Hats off to Shankar Nag. One man you could have revived Kannada cinema. It's unfortunate that he had such a short life.
Happy watching..

The name is ALI - Makonah-ALLI (Nimma's experiments on me)

What a week it has been...

As I sit here at my office desk slogging as usual on a Tuesday night two things that somehow I feel profoundly about have occurred. Firstly, in the morning the NY Giants were welcomed to the city by cheering crowds that lined either side of Broadway. I so wished I could join the parade but work kept me tied down in the afternoon. I have been following the NFL for the past 4 years but this was the year when Giants became 'MY' team. I followed them through the regular season and also their phenomenal run during post-season. The last 5 minutes were the best 5 minutes of football I have watched (Janet Jackson's nipplegate scandal comes a close second :)). Though Eli played like a true MVP(specially the clutch play with David Tyree) I felt Michael Strahan should have been the MVP. He along with Steve Spagnuolo masterminded the Giants defensive strategy and tormented the Pats offense all through out the game. Those precious few seconds that the Giants denied Brady in the pocket finally got them home.
The second thing of importance that is happening today is the primary election. The debates have been intense and things are just starting to heat up a little bit here. For most part the Rebulican nominee has been decided. As the votes are counted as I type this piece I think the next president of the United States is going to be chosen. I do not think a Republican candidate has a chance this time around. With the kind of budget Bush brougth out last week and Mccain promissing to go after terrorists even more vigoursly I think the GOP is headed in the wrong direction. The last Dem debate was very inetersting. Clinton seemed to have the specific answers while Obama rallied on 'hope' and 'change'. Two things that the times desperately seek but will they be enough to get him into the White House. A lot has gone in the wrong direction in the past 8 years and I feel we need a President who can hit the ground running. Making rookie mistakes might cause more damage. Clinton had specific plans to each of the issues. Like her husband she is well informed about the economy and proposed a plan to mitigate the effects of the impending recession. She has worked on healtcare and has a decent plan there too. But, what holds for Obama is that he is the man of change. Mccain and Clinton are the some more of the same. They are Washington and all that is wrong with it. Obama is fresh and brings along with him hope and change and just like JFK did in the 60's he might storm into the White House. It's going to be fascinating Tuesday and I can't wait to get home and call on Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly and Wolf Blitzer. May the best democrat win!!!

Me and my "Mii"

I've developed this habit of calling up mom when I'm on the train to work. Speaking to her almost every day leaves me with nothing much to say, except, what I had for dinner last night and what I'm going to have for breakfast. Mom though, always has something to say. She invariably starts with complaining about dad. How he did not get her the sari she wanted or how he did not take them to the restaurant that she wanted to go to or how dad helped someone she did not approve of. Then she would move onto how she bargained with the subjiwala or what my sis was up to or how Ricky Ponting is a devil and Dhoni is GOD’s gift to mankind.

So today, as my ‘Mii’(I started with ‘mummy’, then it shortened to ‘mom’ and now a mono-syllabled ‘Mii’) was going through why she had get a new sofa for the living room,I found my thoughts wondering off prioritizing tasks at work for the day. I even went through the agenda for my 9am meeting with my boss, as ‘Mii’, finished up with the sofa and started about how the flyover on the main road is finally getting re-built after a 4 year hiatus. All I had said in these 10 minutes was just a ‘hmmm’ as I missed out on all the details. Finally, feeling a little guilty for not having paid any attention to the things ‘Mii’ had to say I added a few lines in agreement to the government slacking off and that it should be replaced. Adding just two lines to the conversation seemed to fill ‘Mii’ with new found vigor and also a brand new set of things to talk about. The train closed in on New York City, as I continued to listen to ‘Mii’, and I thought to myself what a lucky sonuva gun I was. I barely had to give anything to ‘Mii’ to get the whole wide world in return. For ‘Mii’ these 20 minutes spent on the phone were probably the most important ones of the day. I’m sure she made a list of things she wanted to tell me everyday. It made me smile and feel fortunate at the same time. I wish someday I could offer so much to somebody for so little in return. I promised myself to call ‘Mii’ every morning just to listen to what was wrong with the world today and about the right way to go about fixing it.

Love you ‘Mii’