Thank you for the music...

I had a gift voucher to purchase 100 songs from an upcoming music store. So, I started browsing the store for all my favorite music. It is not an easy task to choose the best 100 tracks of your choice ranging from English, Hindi, Kannada and even Tamil. Especially when there is a huge collection of music from all genres and all types of music.

Most of the songs I chose used to take me back in time to some place, some incident or some situation. I guess many of you would have experienced the same, when you listen to some song.

I think the first and foremost song which created any interest in me towards music was a song from "Qurbani" - "Aap Jaisa Koyi". Every time I hear that special music, it takes me go back to 1980, when I was a kid of 5 years. This music was played round the clock in my neighbor's house and I was so much attracted to this music. I guess this is the only thing I still remember about our neighbors back then. Even now, my heart skips a beat to hear to this great song. During that generation of 1980s, may be this music would have created flutters.

Other song(s) which I can never forget are the songs from Roja. Uh, the music defied the tradition and it completely stood out from the rest of the music in 90's. Every time I hear this music, I go back to my hostel days in engineering college. Every room you enter, at any time, this song was always on. For so many days, weeks and months, we just listened to these songs from Roja in that hostel. First time ever I became a fan of Tamil music and first time ever I watched a Tamil movie.

One more incident which I can never forget is "Jayciana" - our college festival. It is in one of these festivals that I heard the song - "Pyaar hame kis mode pe le aaya". Uh, it created an unbelievable "mode" and instantly this became one of my favorite songs. Similarly I cannot forget "Dil tadap tadap ke" song sung in one of the Wipro day functions back in 90's. Again, added to my favorites.

Listening to so many lovely songs over the years, only one thing comes to my mind : Thank you all the composers, musicians for the music. It is always so special. Long live these lovely music.

Changing times....

I remember, as a kid, I used to play almost till 7 in the evening, when the light was not sufficient anymore to sight the ball in the game of cricket. Typically our evening games used to start around 5 PM (after the school hours) and go on till it gets dark. All our home-works and other studies used to start only after 7 PM :-) (actually I was wondering, if we were to have the extended daylight during summer, we would have played till 10 in the night :-) )

Nowadays, in our apartment, I see children playing all the way till 9 in the evening. I was really wondering about the "school-life" balance of these kids :-) When do these kids study? When do they do their homework?

Last week, after a late-night basketball match with these kids, some of us (uncles :-) ) were talking to these kids. It seems, most of these kids come back home by 4 in the afternoon from schools. Immediately they do their homeworks and study all the way till 7 in the evening. They come out only by 7 and play till 9. Their logic was simple. "We cannot do studies after playing uncle" :-) So true. This 7 to 9 schedule also suits their parents, who can watch their favourite serials on TV, without much bothering about kids' homework and studies. Hmm... Changing times, Changing life style, all for good I suppose.

Great Expectations...

This incident happened while I was having a chat with my cook some days ago. He asked me "aap Nokia phone use karte hai na"?. I nodded my head. Then he asked me for a favor. "Idhar se Orissa ke liye sasthe main phone karne ka plan batha dena". Uh, I don't know if he has an Airtel SIM or Vodafone or in fact Tata Docomo :-) So, I told him he has to talk to the operator like Airtel or Vodafone. He was not convinced. Probably he did not know the SIM and what has gone into his phone. He again asked me back - "Aap office main kya karte ho? Aap ke office main pooch ke bata dena Nokia phone se sasthe main phone kaise karna hain". Umm, I could no longer argue with him, I told I will try to find out. Just to end the conversation, he had one more question " Nokia mobile se hi sasthe main call kar sakte hai na, doosre mobile se mehanga padta hain"? This question is like asking a barber if one needs an haircut. What else can I tell him?

For once, I felt he should have been in US of A to get that user experience of integrated mobile and tariff package :-)

Same cook goes to one of my friend's apartment. His wife happens to be a dentist. Again last week, our cook had fever. So, he goes to the dentist and asked for some medicine to cure his illness. Rightly, she refused to give him any medicine. Our cook was shocked and could not believe that people are so against him. One person is not giving right "tariffs", other one not giving "medicines" to cure his illness. He was complaining to us "Kis taraf ki doctor hain wo, dawayee nahi deti, hamare Orissa main tho aisa nahin hain, sab bheemari ke liye, sabi doctor dawaayi dete hain", his list of complaints continued forever.

I am sure he would have had similar expectation on me, for sure he would have cribbed in similar lines elsewhere :-)

I think this kind of expectations from people are not new to us, right? There were times when Veena was asked which Petrol bunk she works for (HP), whether we made Shikakhai soaps (for Wipro) etc. If you can explain your position and clarify these doubts, well and good. Otherwise, learn to live with these great expectations :-(

A lovely, unwelcome visitor

Yesterday night, we were just walking around our apartment complex, when few of my friends had gathered at one place and looking at something with amusement. Poorvi and me went to see what it was. The annual visitor to our apartment was back. Last time around it had created a little havoc when it accidently had hit a visitor on the head. But whatever it is, this is a lovely bird called "Barn Owl", which unfortunately is on the verge of extinction.

Have a look at the picture taken during the day time, this owl has a nest in one of the cozy corners of our apartment. But this owl visits our apartment only once-a-year and stays here for couple of months.

Yesterday it was sitting on one of the balcony grills in one of my friend's apartment. Whole of yesterday it had been kind of "shoot at sight" for them, trying to capture the images of this special visitor from different angles. Hope this time around this visitor does not cause much problem like what it did last year.

Note from Wiki-Pedia:

The Barn Owl is a pale, long-winged, long-legged owl with a short squarish tail. Depending on subspecies, it measures c.25-45 cm in overall length, with a wingspan of about 75-100 cm. Tail shape is a way of distinguishing the Barn Owl from true owls when seen in flight, as are the wavering motions and the open dangling feathered legs. The light face with its peculiar shape and the black eyes give the flying bird an odd and startling appearance, like a flat mask with oversized oblique black eyeslits, the ridge of feathers above the bill somewhat resembling a nose.

GSM War - TATA DOCOMO

From last couple of days, there have been ads (in the paper, on the bill boards) about Tata Docomo. Wow, one more operator into already crowded service place? Not a bad move and not a bad timing to enter this market now in my opinion.

First of all, Docomo is a BIG name in Japan. I still remember the times when we used to work for a NTT-Docomo competitor in Japan and how Docomo virtually wiped off that competition (with able support from us also :-) ).

Secondly, with number-portability option coming into place, I guess people will start moving across operators, while retaining the same phone number. So, not necessarily Tata-Docomo has to find "new" subscribers, but can as well pull other "existing" subscribers from other operators. With schemes such as 1 paisa/second billing, it is surely an attractive proposition. As their Ad says, if you talk for 12 second, you pay 12 paisa and not that minimum amount / minute. Good. Pay for as much as you speak.

Looking at these rates, my memory goes back to exactly a decade ago, back in 1999 when I owned my first mobile phone. Rates used to be around 8 Rs per minute for outgoing calls and around 2 Rs per minute for incoming calls (Yes, I used to pay for incoming calls too ) :-( Compare it with 60 paisa per minute outgoing calls and absolutely Free incoming calls !!! Who cannot afford a mobile these days?

Lastly, Docomo is also known for lot of value added services in Japan, hope they will bring all those into India as well. Hmm, watch out Airtels and Vodafones, a new giant is coming :-)

(BTW, real "wiki-pedia" says that Docomo actually stands for "Do Communication over Mobile", it is a passe now, communication is taken for granted, people are asking, what else?)

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Shaadi ka Khel

Have you been following the biggest pre-wedding show happening on television? It can put some of the big movies and some soap operas to shame. Yes, I am talking about "Rakhi ka Swayamwar" on NDTV imagine, a reality show to choose a groom for Rakhi :-)

Some of the scenes reminds one of "Hum Aapke hain Kaun", while other episodes have so much masala into it, even Ekta Kapoor would not have thought about it; already married guy (with three kids) being there in the race to marry Rakhi, another guy kissing Rakhi while dancing (which made into the headlines on one TV channel yesterday) :-) Uh... the twists and turns continues.

The whole show seems to be well stage managed. May be there were multiple round of rehearsals. I really wonder, if this is really a reality show? Will Rakhi really marry someone at the end of this show? Whatever it is, going by the TRP of the program, for sure Rakhi would have made a fortune for her life through this program. All that remains to be seen is "who is going to be the biggest bakara" at the end of the show, is it one of the guys in the show OR audience like us :-)

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