Sathya's Views..

After a long time, Aruna and I went to watch a movie together alone after a long time. I read a couple of positive reviews on Friday and decided that it was worth going, if only to watch the great Naseeruddin Shah in action. Sunday afternoon we landed at the Forum mall a little late for the show - the inevitable traffic jam on Old Madras Rd slowed us down even ona Sonday noon. The movie was running on when we took our seats and soon, we were at the edge of it as it buuilt up towards a telling climax. There is nothing very unexpected about the ending as some sites would have you believe. Its not for any plot twists that "A Wednesday" must be watched. Its for the telling message that comes across, in a most moving but non-preachy way from Naseer himself. Seeing the way India is going, the complete apathy of the state and central governments to basic infrastructure in the country, a situation that is worsening by the day, such films make you sit up and think. The message is not ...

Yesterday night, Sun TV telecast Deiva piravi as prt of its late night movie series commemmorating 75 years of Tamil cinema. Starring the celebrate pair of Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini, the film proved to be an enjoyable watch most of the time. A simple story of a married couple who lead a happy life together, how it is finally marred by the designs of a scheming woman, misunderstandings and finally a happy finale. The last segment of the film is typical of the films of the time where the vvillains were usually the spiteful women. Misery is caused not by deaths but by emotional turmoil. I empathize with that entiment. A confused mind finding no peace anywhere is the worst punishment that can be inflicted on man. Death or physical pain is far more endurable. The chemistry between the lead couple is what eventually drives the film. It is very obvious that Sivaji and Padmini were very comfortable with each other and a few scenes depicting the love and udnerstanding between the couple is v...

It was a lazy, sleepy weekend - perfect. On Saturday, we handed our bruised Swift for body repairs. The body was in a bad shape for a while but we decided that as the renewal time for our insurance was drawing near, it was best we got the repairs done. Maruti's service experience was pleasant as ever and we were done with the formalities within an hour. We now need to manage without the car for the nest four days. I rolled up myu sleeves and got busy in the kitched - cooked the alu and cabbage curries for lunch while Amma cooked mulagu kozambu and rasam. Aruna took over the kitchen on Sunday and on Sunday evening, we went to Home Town to start planning our woodwork renovations at home. We are not yet sure on how to go about this. Do we get some designers to assess and give us an idea or do we just get our own designs ready and get a carpenter to do it? One thing is sure. The house definitely needs to shed some load. And before we knew it, it was Monday again !! The blues start set...

  I was recalling with fondness our memorable Italian vacation last year and I think our anniversary day at Vienna was one of the best we had on the trip. It was such a serene, relaxed time that just looking at the photos provides a soothing effect. The Tuscan country is indeed a glorious sight !! I was just touching up this photo on Picasa today. I usually use iPhoto or Lightroom for all my photo editing but Picasa is easily one of the better softwares on Windoze. The photo looks pretty nice I think.. eh?

We are now closing in on an year of moving to Bangalore and I have reached the conclusion that this is no longer a city for an average IT person like me. What meaning does life have when you find you dont have time to do the things you love to do, you find that even the time with your loved ones is running short - and its not the work thats the problem. I would be happy if it were so. It is the horrible traffic jams which drain you of energy and any remaining freshness at the end of a long day at work. I start from office at around 6.30 and the 6-odd kms to my home at Pai Layout takes a little more than an hour every day. Driving a car during the time is as stressful as it can get. The bottleneck at the Benniganahalli flyover has remained for over three years now and not an iota of work appears to have done to alleviate this problem. There are two solutions I can think of: a) widening the road - this is too much to expect. So lets not talk about this. b) have traffic signals and contro...

I know its been ages since m last post.. almost two months. A lot has happened during this time - we enjoyed a great vacation at Egypt , Appa and Amma moved to Chennai for a while during Shakthi's last months before delivery and Aruna left on a 3-week to the USA quickly after we returned. So the period between the return from Egypt and her departure to the USA was totally hectic - time just flew. Shifting the items required for Appa and Amma at Chennai  occupied the earlier half of the intermediate month while shopping and packing for Aruna's trip took the latter half. And since she left, work has taken over considerably leaving me with little time and zeal to post. The temporary bachelorhood I am going through is surprisingly not as fun as made out to be. I think its fair to say that men in general develop a much greater dependency on their wives after marriage than the other way around. Its not at all about household work - I am happy enough to do the cooking and sundry washi...

Its going to be two years since I got married to this most amazing lady . We have hit upon the plan to take a vacation during our anniversary to some long desired global destination and last year, we visited Rome, Florence and Venice over a stay of one week at Italy. While Rome and Florence were Aruna's dream destination due to her love for paintings and sculptures, Venice had been my dream place to visit. This year, its going to be Egypt. We leave this Saturday early morning from Bangalore and return back the next Sunday morning. Needless to say, we are both highly excited and looking forward to another memorable vacation.. a tryst with the Pharoahs...

The 2007-08 test series between Aus and Ind drew to a close today amidst some anti-climax and high emotions. The Indian baating proved itself to be as inconsistent as ever and had it not been for Sehwag's aggressive 151, it is quite possible that we would have witnessed another collapse and a sub-200 score which would have enabled Aus to have a go at a 3-1 victory. As it was, a draw it was and Australia retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy. It is worth wondering what this series holds out for the future of Indian cricket. Definitely, the bowling was a revelation. The return to form of Irfan Pathan and the raw aggression of R.P.Singh and Ishant Sharma were the biggest gains for India. They bowled their hearts out and had their moments even in Adelaide where the Aussie batting decided to bat out the test. The spin department is not as happy. Kumble remained India's best spinner with Sehwag coming a second. Harbhajan Singh was pathetic. I have said it often – the man is not wor...

That lil hero of mine, Sunny Gavaskar, has got embroiled himself in another controversy with the ICC taking an exception to criticizing one of its officials when he himself is part of the group. Now, I have always remained true to my childhood hero and refuse to believe that the likes of Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar were better batsmen than him. However, his actions in a few instances in the recent past have left me feeling uncomfortable. First, there was his scathing criticism of Greg Chappel as a coach and he went so far as to question Chappel's credentials as a coach. This would have been ok if Sunny had been an independent viewer to the whole coach selection process. But he wasn't. Sunny was part of the hi-profile committee which selected Chappell as the Indian coach in 2005. It is no big secret however that Gavaskar pushed his weight behind his old time mate, Mohinder Amarnath. However, it was Chappell who finally won the day. Gavaskar whatever his own persona...

A great deal of hullaboo has been created in the recent days over the Australian victory over India in the second cricket test at Sydney. The dark shadows of bad umpiring, racism and unsportsmanlike behaviour have overshadowed an otherwise excellent test match filled with great and gritty batting. Umpiring was definitely one of the reasons why India lost. I think a draw would have been the correct result for the game, India did not deserve to lose. But such righteousness does not happen often in the game. The whole uproar has glossed over one important fact - a much-hyped batting line up does not have the spine or the ability to bat through two sessions of a day. Yes, two well-settled stalwarts who were leading the survival were thwarted by poor umpiring but pray what were the rest of the heroes up to ? There were as many as five other quality batsmen in the team - Wasim Jaffer, Laxman, Sachin, Yuvraj and Dhoni. And these fellows could not survive through two sessions ?? Then what the ...