The motorcycle diaries crash

Kailash came back from Hyderabad this Saturday. He surprised me with a gift. But that is another story. This post is about two movies we saw this weekend. Kailash had brought some DVDs with him, adding to his already impressive collection of DVDs. The one that we decided to see first was “The motorcycle diaries”. It’s the story of 23 year old Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and his 29 year old friend Alberto Granado embarking on a trip across South America on their old Norton motorcycle which they call “The mighty one”. The plan is to start from Argentina and celebrate Granado’s 30^th birthday in Venezuela. Their journey and how it changes them and the history of the world is the story of this movie. BTW, if you have not already guessed it… Ernesto Guevara is Che Guevara. I must read the book – “The motorcycle diaries”. Someday, I must go on a journey like this.

The other movie that we saw was “Crash”. It’s a patchwork of intertwined stories. The direction is awesome and you can’t tell where the story is going next. Just when you think you have got a hang of the story, there is a twist. Very thought provoking, but equally enjoyable.

Glad to have seen two high quality, thought provoking movies over the weekend. I remember the weekend when we went to the movie halls to watch Crash, but due to lack of tickets, saw "Fun with Dick and Jane" instead. What a waste that was!

Kya yehi life hai?

This is not the name of Ms. Ekta Kapoor’s new daily soap opera. This is the stranger than any tear jerker that Ms. Kapoor is capable of producing. And it starts and ends with a “K”. It’s called Life! Life with a capital K. Allow me to explain:

There are two things in K – The I and the <.

The I is me – me, myself and no Irene – only me. This is my life as I see it. For me it is a linear path.

The "<" is another person’s life you are involved in. And this is purely from your perspective. For the other person, her life is I and you are "<".

And you know what is the point where "<" and "I" meet? It’s called “now”. This is the time that you are involved with "<"; interacting with her and influencing her.

You know, who the fortunate ones are? They can influence the K and makes them F, where the other person comes in your life and stays till the end of life.

You know, who the unfortunate ones are?

New member in SLR club

Mr. Arun Salwan is now the proud owner of a Nikon F55 SLR camera with 28 – 80 Nikkor lens (3.3 – 5.6f). It took us one full day to look around, decide and purchase the camera, weighing the pros and cons of buying this one. He is already showing the symptoms of a newly hooked; sneaking out of the house without telling (to get the sunset picture, he told me later). Let's wait for the first set of prints to see the results and to verify whether he actually went to capture sunset!

Meanwhile, I bought a tripod for my camera. It is not too heavy and quite stable for my use. Hope to get better pictures from the 100-300 lens, which is (as expected) very sensitive to shakes.

Sandwich technique example

Good news: Sudip got married to Ronnie on Saturday. Although the gang could not make it to the marriage in Kolkata, they had a party at Sudip’s place – U 24/25, pink town houses, DLF Phase III, Gurgaon.

Bad news: That was the last Hughes party in U 24/25. U 24/25, “the” party place for the Hughes gang for the last three years is now officially closed. Over the last three years, there have been numerous parties here; more than parties, it was a place where you could meet your friends in the weekend and vent frustration gathered over the week. Entry was by invitation only and only close friends attended, mostly comprising of Batch 1 and 2 of Hughes. There were unwritten two rules. 1. What we said there remained there. 2. Every two hours, we would have to lower our voices for half an hour (because the neighbors complained!!!). There have been gross violations of both rules on occasions. Still, it played a very important part in the friendship that we share with Hughes colleagues, most of them now working elsewhere. Will miss those parties.

Good news: Bangalore branch of U 24/25 – code named 406 (after the flat #) is now officially open. At the same time when U 24/25 held its last meet, we celebrated “officially” for the first time here in Bangalore. The party – Arun, Samarth, Amit (Junior), Dheeraj, Girish, Sushant (BD), Mr. Milind Modak (Yeah – special guest from NCR) and me. Although it lacked the neighbors-pluggin-ear-bud, straight from dictionary-of-profanities language, it was fun. Looking forward to more meetings.

In case you are wondering how Milind got here: He was in Chennai for a training session. After the training got over on Friday, his vacation started. First destination – Bangalore to meet us. We enjoyed a lot yesterday, showing him the city and making comparisons between Bangalore and Delhi. Like, you know, when he was looking at a local Volvo bus (launched recently – and looks really impressive), we pointed out that this is the normal local bus here; unlike in Delhi where the blue and white lines needs major overhauling. When immediately afterwards a local bus (the regular ones, running for ages and really unimpressive) passed, we mentioned that these are the heritage busses so that people don’t forget their culture and heritage!

He left tonight for Trichy, where his parents are. He will be there for the entire week and then go back to Chennai and then leave for Delhi.