Idle musings

    It is one month since my mother, my wife and I visited Dubai. This time, we had a purpose: it was my niece's first Bharatnatyam dance recital (called "arangetram"). Along with that, we did roam around Dubai. Apart from us, my sister-in-law's sister, her daughter, my maternal uncle and my mother's sister also joined us. My brother's house in Dubai was full !     The blog is delayed since I caught a fever that tired me out for a couple of weeks. I still have dry cough, but I am almost normal now.     Note: Like the previous paragraph indicates, I avoid names and photos with people in my blog.     I shall first talk about my niece's arangetram and then about Dubai.     I had not imagined that the preparations for the arangetram were that complicated. My brother and sister-in-law arranged for gifts for the artists who supported my niece ; organized the backdrop of flowers on the stage ; arranged for the curtains that made up the backdrop on the st

    A bright dawn broke over the village. The handsome and broad shouldered Nirmal had been up long before the sun rose, as was his custom. Today was an eventful day  : the day of his final race with Samarth. Nirmal and Samarth were the two famous climbers who had earned the admiration of all villagers. Among the two, Nirmal was the clear favorite of the villagers.     Their village was surrounded by hills. It was natural that the villagers appreciated mountain climbing and trekking. The village was famous primarily for its hills and for its climbers, who often set up races to climb the hills and return. The races lasted hours and beginning early in the morning, would end in the evening. The people of the village enjoyed the climbs and the races. A good race and a good climber could stop work in the village for a few hours easily ! To each villager, climbing was a natural progression from walking. Outsiders visited the village to see the hills and marvel at the skills of the climbers,

Review of "Lucia", the Kannada movie     It has been a long time since my wife and I watched a movie in the theatre. On 22-Sep-13 afternoon, she, her parents and I watched "Lucia", a Kannada movie. After Mathaad Mathaad Mallige (my review is available http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/2007/09/review-of-mathaad-mathaad-mallige.html for my blog on it. For some reason, the first hyperlink in my blog does not work when I see the preview. If it does not work, please don't bother clicking on it !), this is a Kannada movie that made me think. The movie is the first crowd funded Kannada movie as specified in the website http://www.hometalkies.com/lucia/ .     "Lucia" is directed by Pawan Kumar, who deserves credit not just for the direction of the movie but also the excellent screenplay. I looked up Pawan's website which is  http://pawantheactor.com/  . It shows that he has been an actor and a screenwriter among his other talents, which include b

THREE REMARKABLE SPEECHES     NOTE: This blog was updated on 04-Sep-13. It was originally published on 27-Aug-13. I added a couple of details more about Dr. R. Balasubramaniam in the first paragraph. I had mis-spelt "this" as "thos", which I corrected. I added the word "which", which was missing in the last sentence of the paragraph that introduces Ms. Madhu Kishwar. I also changed the font to "Verdana".     On Sunday, 25-Aug-13, I attended a seminar organized to commemorate Swami Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary this year. The website http://vivek150.org/ has information about the celebrations. The theme of the seminar was "Intellectual Meet for Vision and Thought Leaders". The speakers were Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister of Goa; Madhu Kishwar, the Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), based in Delhi and founder editor of "Manushi" (more information is available at http

    During the last week, I moved all the blogs that I had written since 2003 to this blog. It was a bit like disposing off old stuff ! It brought back memories of travels made, movies seen and of cricket matches watched ! I started blogging way back in 2003 and yet, it doesn't feel that long actually !     One part of me (the rational, logical part) says that for want of nothing better to do, I have spent a lot of (un?!)necessary time writing stuff that is not required. The vain part of me says that the blogs reflect my thoughts and opinions and hence they reflect me - to the extent that my writing can convey my thoughts. I rather like this vain part of me !!     So, here are a few blogs that I have written which I still continue to like, in ascending order of preference ! Note: These blogs are my selection now, but there are other blogs that I like as well. It is quite likely that my preference will change tomorrow !     5.) http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/2003/05/note

FRANCE VISIT ============     From 2-Jul-13 to 5-Jul-13, a lady colleague, my counterpart in our customer's organization and his manager, a lady from New Delhi visited Paris, Bordeaux and Brest on work related reviews. This blog covers the "touristy" (I am sure no such word exists !) aspects of our visit. BUILD-UP (PREPARATION) ----------------------     The preparation started in May, when our visit was planned initially : at that time I had not realized that my passport would expire in October.  I would not have been able to visit France in May, since the passport needs to be valid for 6 months from date of travel. We were supposed to travel in the end of May but since the others also did not get French visa appointments in time, the visit was postponed to 2-Jul-13.     This gave me time to apply for tatkaal passport. The passport issue process went like a well-oiled machine. First, I got a tatkaal appointment in the Koramangala office at around 9:30 a.m. in the end of