My Scribblings

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T00:59:43+05:30

I am not a mac fan boy. For that matter, I am not a gadget freak. I have been using a Mac for a couple of years. I very recently started using an iPod and an iPad, all thanks to Yahoo! And I am amazingly impressed by both the devices. I am sure both these devices are going to change the way I look at gadgets. May be that is why, when I woke up this morning to the news of Steve Jobs death, I felt as if someone close to me has died. Even after all the fun we had today, somewhere in the bottom of my heart, that sorrow feeling lingers on. RIP Steve Jobs. You have changed the way people will look at gadgets.

Decathlon

2011-09-25T10:01:36+05:30

In June, while I was preparing for my trek to Roopkund, I was looking for trekking shoes. I was recommended Forclaz 500 Ventiv by friends. The shoe was retailing at Rs.2999 at Decathlon. The same was available for Rs.2499 online with free shipping. I went to the store to try it out, thinking that will order online and save Rs.500. John, the salesman helped me out with my questions and suggested that I pick up a tight fit. It was too tight but he suggested that it will expand a bit and will be fine. He also promised that he will replace it if I find it uncomfortable after a couple of days use. I told him about the online store and price and he told me that he can give it to me for 2799 and joked that Decathlon needs to pay him salary and hence cannot match that price. I bought the shoe and paid the premium just for his service. A couple of days burn-in did not help and it was causing pain in the toe. I called up the store and Kuldeep another salesman at the trekking section suggested that I bring in the shoe for replacement. I picked up one size bigger and it was very comfortable for most part of the trek. On the last day of the trek, thanks to heavy snow and rain, the shoe lost its shape. There was a bulge around the ankle support and due to this the show wasn't stable, causing ankle strain. After I reached Bangalore, I called up the store and mentioned about the problem. Kuldeep asked me to bring the shoe along with the bill for exchange. I never had the time and I almost forgot about it. Last week I remembered and took the shoe to the store. I had already lost hopes but wanted to give it a shot. I walked into the store on Sunday, explained him the problem and showed the shoe. Kuldeep / Jon, said only one thing "Give it at the counter calling it a defective piece and pick up a new one'. Absolutely no questions, no nagging, not trying to put the blame on the buyer, no delay. This is an excellent example of customer service. I had to go to the store 3 times but I will never mind the distance of driving 20+ KM to the store for such excellent service. Looking forward to the store opening in Bannerghatta Road. I am a Decathlon convert.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011-07-16T23:28:37+05:30

I watch a movie to relax and laugh. And I prefer to watch it at my own pace, pausing it, rewind / forward, sometimes with subtitles. However, we have been thinking to watch a movie in a theatre for a while but that never happened. I hate this idea of reserving a ticket well in advance. I prefer to walk up to the window and buy tickets. But this mad rush in Bangalore does not help. So I decided to try my luck today for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Bookmyshow crapped out, INOX was unavailable, Cinepolis was giving useful error messages. Until I discovered Vision Cinemas and Ticket New. Got the tickets booked for the 7pm show, at 6:00pm. And a mad rush ensued we reached the theatre on time. Enough story, now about the movie. The movie is about 3 people rediscovering themselves while giving up their inner fears. Nothing new in the story and I felt as if I have seen the story before. But what stood out was the amazing shots of Spain, the way the story was told and some really funny lines. Every one had played their role very well but Farhan Akthar was classy and stands out. There are some amazing lines in the movie (BML, Bagwathi). I have tried skydiving but the film makes me think about skydiving again and deep sea diving. Though the music was good, I don't think any of the songs stayed with me. And I did not get the ending where Kabir goes to marry Natasha. Sitting in the first row, the full screen barely visible, a slight neck pain and the tension to get to the movie on time - All worth it for a good evening and a nice movie. -- My name is Imran but my friends call me Majnu.

Making the minister smile

2011-06-25T21:08:56+05:30

Running has always been about me, my timings, my fitness, my races, etc. And every time I have gone for a race, Vasu drives me around, ensure that I get the right nutrition and struggles to keep me sane. And in the process, she has done a couple of 10Ks. So the moment she said that she was going to do the TCS 10k this year, I decided that I will run with her. We did not train with the NRC this time and so there was no lounge and the usual amenities we are used to. The day of the run, Pratheepan, Vasu and me, managed to reach the stadium by 7:30AM to join the sea of runners. For the first 10 odd minutes, we just moved with the flow, while Pratheepan moved ahead. The crowd eased up a bit after the 2km and we saw a lot of familiar faces going past. I kept cheering while telling Vasu to keep moving. It was down all the way till the U-Turn point and it was a good place to pick up some pace. She was doing her run, walk routine but we could not gain much pace. Around the 4km mark, she got severe cramps and was struggling in pain, almost in tears. I was worried but suggested that she should keep moving if possible. And onlookers started cheering us and that gave the motivation to walk. I also tried my PJs but it did not help. We walked till about the 7K mark, but tried to keep a pace of about 9mins per KM. At the 7K mark, a wheel chair participant had an emergency and I suggested Vasu to go ahead, while I went in search of a support crew / ambulance. It took about 10 minutes to get some help, and then I ran to catch up with her. She had covered a good pace and was entering Cubbon Park, by that time. We met another couple of folks who were walking at a decent pace. The next couple of KMs were covered with ease, since it was our regular route. I also realized that we would be missing the 90min mark but tried to motivate her to keep a good pace. We ran the last few hundred meters to the finish. Garmin Connect Link Except for a bit around the 7K mark, I ran along with her, most of the time holding her hand, and pulling her along, until the finish. It took about 94 minutes for the entire run, but it was awesome. It was my way of saying thanks to her, making this run memorable for her. And I did make my home minister smile at the end :) -- It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse. -- Ann Trason

Publishing to Yahoo! Calendar

2011-05-17T23:31:05+05:30

I use Yahoo! Calendar to keep track of my calendar events. I sync to it from Lightning/Thunderbird and iCal. And use the iSync plugin to sync it to my phone. I also use mutt over a screen session at times. During such times, this is how I update my events to Yahoo! Calendar. Save the text/calendar attachment from the mail to a file, say cal.ics Determine the UUID of the calendar event. Not the best, but one that works is given beow. perl -n0e 's/(.*?)UID:(.*?)\w+?:(.*)/\2/gms; s/\s+//gms;print ' tmp/ical.ics Yahoo! Calendar supports Caldav. Upload the files to the calendar with the following command. curl -i -k --data-binary '@tmp/ical.ics' -H "Content-Type: text/calendar" -X PUT \ https://caldav.calendar.yahoo.com/dav//Calendar//.ics \ -u : Voila, You are done. And here is how, I discovered this. Enable debugging in iCal, with these commands and then start iCal from a terminal. You can see the HTTP transactions between iCal and the calendar server. defaults write com.apple.ical IncludeDebugMenu YES defaults write com.apple.ical LogHTTPActivity YES

73rd Sree Rama Navami Celebrations at Fort High School

2011-04-09T22:32:14+05:30

It is the Marghazi of Bangalore. The Carnatic Music season that happens around the Rama Navami festival. Looks like my blog gets a lot of hit where people look for the concert details. And this time, the official website of the mandali seems to be down. So here you go. Sree Ramaseva Mandali - 73rd Ramanavami Celebrations from 04-April to 05-May 2011 at Fort High School Grounds, Chamrajpet, Near K.R Market, Bangalore. 04 Apr Mon 06:00pm Inauguration 06:45pm Nityasree Mahadevan & Party 05 Apr Tue 06:30 pm Rajesh Vaidya ( Veena ) & Party 06 Apr Wed 05:15 pm Suman G & Party 06:30 pm T M Krishna & Party 07 Apr Thu 05:15pm Sriranjani Santhanagopalan & Party 06:30pm Neyveli Santhanagopalan / TKV Ramanujachryulu / K V Prasad / Sukanya Ramgopal 08 Apr Fri 05:15pm Shikha & Party 06:30 pm S.Sowmya & Party 09 Apr Sat 04:00 - 6:15 S V Narayanaswamy Rao National Award Function 06:30 pm K J Yesudas & Party 10 Apr Sun 05:15pm Niranjana Srinivasan & Party 06:30 pm Mysore Manjunath ( violin) & Purbayab Chaterji ( Sitar) - Jugalbandi / Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam / Viswanath Nakod 11 Apr Mon 05:00pm Dr.Muralidharan & Party 07:00 pm Gayathri Venkataraghavan / B U Ganesh Prasad / Cheluvaraju / Sukanya Ramgopal 12 Apr Tue 06:30 pm Kadri Gopalnath / Kanyakumari / B Harikumar / B Rajendra Nakod /N Amruth / B Rajasekhar (Saxofone) 13 Apr Wed 05:15pm Praveen ( violin ) & Party 06:30pm Lalgudi GJR Krishnan& Vijayalakshmi ( violin) / B Harikumar / Guruprasanna 14 Apr Thu 05:15 pm Sridevi Koushik & Party 06:30 pm M S Sheela / Mysore Srikanth / H S Sudhindra / Sukanya Ramgopal 15 Apr Fri 05:15 pm V Vijayalakshmi & Party 06:30 pm Sudha Raghunathan & Party 16 Apr Sat 05:15 pm Abhiram R N & Party 06:30 pm P Unnikrishnan / Mysore Nagaraj / thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam / Guruprasanna 17 Apr Sun 10:00 am Founders Day - Felicitation of senior musicians M S Anantharaman-M A Sundareswaran -M A Krishnaswamy - Parur Ananthakrishnan ( Violin Quartret) / R Ramesh / N Amruth 06:30 pm Ranjani& Gayathri / B U Ganesh Prasad / Poongulam Subramanyam / M A Krishnamurthy 18 Apr Mon 05:15 pm Malladi Vasavi & Party 06:30 pm Malladi Brothers / S Varadarajan / K V Prasad / Giridhar Udupa 19 Apr Tue 05:15 pm S A Karthik & Party 06:30 pm O S Arun / H N Bhaskar / J Vaidyanathan / S Karthik 20 Apr Wed 05:00 pm Bangalore Brothers / C N Chandrasekhar / V Krishna / Rajashekhar 07:15 pm Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna / H N Bhaskar / J Vaidyanathan / B N Chandramouli 21 Apr Thu 04:30 pm Akshay Padmanabhan & Party 06:45 pm S Shashank ( Flute) / Avaneeswaram S R Vinu / Yella Venkateshwara Rao / S Karthik / B N Chandramouli 22 Apr Fri 05:15 pm Harsha & Sanat ( Violin) & Party 06:30 pm N Vijay Siva & Party 23 Apr Sat 05:15 pm Suchetan Rangaswamy & Party 06:30 pm Mysore Nagaraj & Mysore manjunath ( violin Duet )/ Karaikudi R Mani / V Suresh 24 Apr Sun 06:30 pm T V Shankaranarayanan / T K V Ramanujacharyulu / B Harikumar / N Amruth 25 Apr Mon 05:15 pm R V Nityasri & Party 06:30 pm HK Venkatram(violin) / G Ravikiran ( Flute) /Ashwin Anand ( Veena) Venu-Veena-Violin / Neyveli Venkatesh / Ramanujam / Guruprasanna 26 Apr Tue 05:15 pm Hosahalli V Raghuram ( violin) & Party 06:30 pm Praveen Godkhindi ( Flute - hindustani) / Ravindra Yavagal 27 Apr Wed 06:30 pm E Gayathri ( Veena ) / Ganapathy Raman / B R Ravikumar 28 apr Thu 05:00 pm Anupama Srimali & Party 07:15 pm Muddu Mohan ( hindustani) / Vyasamurty Katti / Ravindra Yavagal 29 Apr Fri 05:15 pm Arjun Srivasthav & Party 06:30 pm Sikkil Gurucharan / S Varadarajan / Arjunkumar /Giridhar Udupa 30 Apr Sat 05:15 pm Sangeetha Tharanathan & Party 06:30 pm Ashwini bhide Deshpande ( hindustani) / Vyasamurthy Katti / Ravindra Yavagal 01 May Sun 05:15 pm S Vidya & S.Vijaya and Party 06:30 pm Hyderabad Brothers / Mysore Srikanth / MNL Raju / Giridhar udupa 02 May mon 05:15 pm Madhuri Kaushik & Party 06:30 pm R K Padmanabha / C N Chandrasekhar /C Cheluvaraju / B R Ravikumar 03 May Tue 05:15 pm B N Skandakumar & Party 06:30 pm Anuradha Madhusudan ( veena) /C Cheluvaraju / Sukanya ramgopal 04 May Wed 05:15 pm B S Murali & Party 06:30 pm Kanya kumari & Embar S Kannan ( violin duet) / K V Prasad / N Amruth 05 May Thu 05:00 pm Pallavi Prasanna / Anuthama Murali / Renuka Prasad/ Srishyla 07:15 pm Vijayalakshmi Subramanyam / Usha Rajagopal / Sudhindra / Krishna Prasad 06 May Wed 05:15 pm Vidya G Subramanian & Party 06:30 pm O S Thyagarajan / Mullaivasal Chandramouli / S Thyagarajan / M A Krishnamurthy 07 May Sat 06:30 pm Abhishek Raghuram / Mysore Nagaraj / Ananth R Krishnan / Guruprasanna 08 May Sun 06:30 pm Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt & Lalgudi GJR Krishnan ( hindustani & Carnatic jugalbandi) / Yella Venkateshwara Rao / Vishwanath Nakod 09 May Mon 06:30 pm Vishaka Hari & Party

Thyagaraja Aradhana

2011-02-18T23:38:45+05:30

Thyagaraja Aradhana is an annual carnatic music festival, held every year on the day, the saint attained mukti at Thiruvayaru. On the Aradhana day, the Pancharatna kritis are sung by all artistes, in unison. Over the years, the event has spread to various places and now many cities have an annual commemorative event to pay homage to the great composer and one of the Trinities of Carnatic music. We attended one such event a few weeks back, presided over by R.K.Padmanabha. The event had a concert by Pattabhiram Pandit followed by the singing of Pancharatna kritis. While speaking, RKP narrated a hilarious event that happened a few years back at his home town Rudrapatna. For Thyagaraja Aradhana, he had organised a week long music festival and on the day of the Aradhana, he had arranged for food for everyone. When he was explaining the contributions of Thyagaraja and the importance of Aradhana, one gentlemen misunderstanding the meaning of Aradhana (which also means worship) interrupted and said - Sir, We should do an Aradhana to you for all your good work and for the feast. RKP was stunned but when he quipped, "Give me another 10-20 years and then you can do my Aradhana", the entire audience burst into laughter.

Disk Inventory X

2011-01-24T22:25:11+05:30

Last week, I ran out of space on Mac. I had less than a gig left and the system started complaining that my boot disk needs cleanup. I did not know where to start the cleanup from and was looking for something similar to the Disk Usage Analyzer for Ubuntu. My search led me to Disk Inventory X and this has made my life easier. Some of the significant points of the tool Displays disk usage based on directory and kind. Displays the size as a treemap. Ability to filter files based on kinds. This feature came in really handy when I sorted by name per kind, resulting in easily identifying duplicates. The only gripe I have is that, when I delete a file from the window, it takes a while. This is probably because, the tool apart from deleting the file, also recompiles the size, location, etc. Give it a spin, if you run out of disk space.

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T19:47:32+05:30

Wow, is 2010 over already? Time flies fast and 2010 is no exception. There were lots of ups and downs both personally and professionally. But nevertheless, it was a fun year and a lot of positives to take from it. Completed 5 years at Yahoo! Did my first full marathon. And in general was very active with running. Read a lot and I hope I can put things that I learnt to use in my life. Have definitely improved my Carnatic music listening skills Travelled a lot. I hope 2011 is even better. Here is wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year 2011. Hope 2011 brings a lot of joy, happiness, health and peace to each one of you. Keep your frown upside down and enjoy life.

... and lived to tell the tale

2010-09-26T23:42:19+05:30

Running a marathon is all about endurance and strong will power. For me, it was a lifetime experience. I took up serious running less than 18 months ago. Completed a 10K , thanks to Coach Beedu and Reeth of the Nike Run Club fame. Did multiple 10Ks and a 25K at the ultra last year. I wanted to do a full marathon, one of my bucket list items. The next couple of weekends, I did a 25k+ and a 30K+. That gave a little bit of confidence but I was still not very sure if I would be able to do the full in the stipulated 6.5 hours in trying conditions. Vasu and Gopal nudged me to go for the full and I thought, "Let me attempt it. If I finish, well and good, else I would know my limits". One thing was clear, I was not going to get tensed and freak myself out over it. I was just going to get through the day and take it 1Km at a time. We drove to Mysore on Sep 18th, along with a couple of friends. After dropping them at their hotel, we checked into Dasaprakash Paradise. Found out a place called Olio, serving Pasta nearby. The ambience was nice and the food was delicious but pricey. Packed a sandwich at CCD, bought some bananas and retired to bed early in a desperate attempt to get some sleep. But then, I ended up tossing and turning. Woke up next morning and landed at the run site by 6am. The run site was buzzing with activity. Met a lot of folks from Nike Run club, Hashers and RFLers. Arvind from RFL warned us that even though the sky looked clear and the water calm, it is going to be a difficult terrain and advised runners not to attempt their personal best. I caught up with Gopal and we decided to run together maintaining a decent pace. At the stroke of 6:30, what I call now, as the run of my life, was flagged off. Gopal and me started in the last group and were doing about 6 mins per KM. The first couple of KMs was nice and easy but the uneven terrain was making life difficult. I had to really concentrate on the path to avoid tripping. Around the 7KM mark, Gopal had a minor fall and he started slowing down. One of my biggest problems in running has been that, if I stop for a while, I find it hard to resume at the same pace. Found another group doing between 6-7mins per KM and joined them. Around the 10K mark, there was a really bad patch and I struggled crossing that. Met a bunch of half marathoners and ran the next few comfortably. I started tiring a bit around the 16-18K mark and was doing slow. I saw Vasu and K cheering everyone. The route was a 10.55K out and back. For the full the marathon, we had to do this loop twice. I had completed the first half around 2hrs 20 mins and started the second. Around the 23KM I was completely tired. I was not used to the sports drink and had a feeling it was just making me feel thirstier. By now, started doing a run-walk, with fellow full marathoners, and was drinking a lot of water. Got completely exhausted and started having doubts if I would be able to finish. There were 3 people whom we all saw during the run - A man running without shoes, a woman doing a half with her kid on a pram and another man running a half with a fracture, wearing a sling. If these people could do it, I better be able to do it, said my mind voice. My motto throughout the run was, If I could not run, I would walk. If I could not walk, I will crawl, but I will finish. I was mostly walking from 23rd till 28th Km. Then got a sudden bout of energy and pushed myself till 32K in 4 hours. Saw a lot of folks, tired and with cramps but with the never say die spirit. We were joking that we all have run a 10K under an hour, and we would do it today too. But easier said than done, after the 32k. Despite the scorching sun, tired legs, thirsty throat and about 6 miles between me and the finish line, the only comforting feeling was the confidence that I would be a finisher today.. Around the 38KM mark, saw Vasu. Started a walk-run back with her to the finish. Every beep on my Garmin watch was cheered since I was one step closer to the finish. I was about 500m away from the finish when someone said, "You are less than 500m from the finish and you should be sprinting now". I have no idea where I got the energy but I started running, counting every step, pushing myself till I could cross the finish line. And finally was home. A full in 6 hours and 7 minutes. This moment will be etched in my memory for ever! After the run, the limp on my feet left me in a few days, but the grin on my face remains.

Just Books

2010-08-09T00:29:53+05:30

In the last few months I would have spent atleast a few thousands on books for S. Most of the books she was reading were all pulp fiction. I decided that it was no longer fun coughing up money for books which would never be touched after they are read once. This was the same time when I stumbled upon Just Books. A couple of weeks back we walked up to their branch and figured they have an impressive collection of books. The library is well lit, and well maintained. The different plans that they had to offer were also attractive. They have a section of books for children with small chairs neatly arranged to encourage reading habit. They have also put technology to good use. Books are tagged with RFID and each member is issued an RFID card for issue / return of books. We signed up immediately and the experience so far has been fantastic. If you have branch around your area, do check it out. -- Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. -- Mark Twain.

Swimming

2010-08-08T00:59:53+05:30

Since school days learning to swim was a fascination to me but never had the opportunity to learn. I thought I would learn this once I joined college since river Cauvery was nearby. But that too never happened thanks to the sound reprimand I received when my parents discovered about it. The wish remained as one of the top priority bucket list items for a long time. I had tried on and off venturing into the pool but never learnt the nuances. A couple of months back when I was talking my running coach Beedu, he suggested me to go and learn swimming. The nonchalant yet firm way he talks pushed me into signing up. I signed up with a lot of apprehension and much against the approval of my parents but S pushed for it. With July feeling as if it is peak winter and with the rains, I was not very sure but decided to put my best foot forward. I finally made it to 19 of the 20 sessions. After completing the course, I am confident that atleast I know the nuances and can swim the breadth of the pool with confidence. Needs practice and I will get to once I am done with KTM. KTM, here I come.

Run for the Biscuit

2010-05-23T23:02:43+05:30

Last year, since I was regular at the NRC, I had trained well. However, this year, I was neither regular nor well trained. I wanted to do atleast 200K before the actual race and atleast 4-5 10Ks but I managed about 100K with not a single race distance. However, one good thing I noticed was that my overall pace had increased and I was able to do the small distances that I was running with ease. I was thinking that I would be able to do 52-54 mins for the 10k. I started of the race at an easy pace. For the first couple of KMs, I had to fight for the way. There were too many people. It eased out around the 2k mark and the next few kms were covered in quick time. I started feeling a bit tired around the 6K mark and started taking it easy. The 7th was even more difficult. When I was thinking of walking for a few minutes, I started to play with my mind. I was thinking what I would I be telling Vasu if she decides to quit. That made me push and I was able to complete that last couple of kms with relative ease. Overall I did the 10k in 56:36, a couple of minutes better than last time. Once I completed, I took a few minutes break and went back looking for Vasu. She was near the Hudson circle gate and I pushed her to run the last 700 odd metres. This was her first 10K and I am glad she completed it under 1:30:00. After the race, we went to the Nike Lounge for foot massage, photo session and a sumptuous breakfast. I also ran into Dr.Rajat at the lounge. He was cheerful and all smiles as always. When I approached him with a couple of questions, he was happy to provide me inputs on the spot. So bad that he does not consult in Bangalore anymore. The lunch was at Ragoos, on Kanakpura road, a vegetarian place for pizzas, pastas and rice. More about it later. -- It is a fight between your body and mind. The body says it cant go any further but the mind is trying to push. When you achieve this harmony, then you can breeze. -- Balaji, 2010

72nd Sree Ramanavami Celebration and Music Concerts

2010-03-30T13:40:21+05:30

Since I see lot of hits on my blog looking for the concert details, here is the link to the mandali's website with the concert list. It has been hectic and have not been to a single concert yet. Hope to listen to a few concerts in April

E75 and Calendar Sync

2010-02-08T22:37:40+05:30

I have a convoluted synchronization setup. I use Thunderbird as my primary mail client. Lightning is my calendar application and is configured to synchronize with Yahoo! Calendar. I also have iCal synchronized with Yahoo! Calendar. Finally using Nokia's iSync plugin, I synchronize my calendar to my Nokia E75 phone. Also at times, I synchronize my phone with Ovi.com and with Nokia Ovi PC suite. A few weeks back when I was upgrading the phone firmware, the calendar synchronization broke. I got this error message. [Y man] There was an error getting data from the phone. The synchronization may have been canceled on the phone. Device “Y man” synchronization failed. This seems to be a common problem but nobody seems to have found a working solution. I tried to locate the calendar database on the phone to see if deleting it would help. But could not locate the same. Was contemplating a hard reset and restore from backup when I accidentally discovered a working solution. Calander -> Select Any date -> Options -> Delete -> Before Date. This cleans up the calendar. A synchronization after this worked. Now you know what do when your calendar sync screws up. -- I'd love to go out with you, but I'm converting my calendar watch from Julian to Gregorian.