Jackpot !!

Or should I say I unearthed a treasure trove ... of Marathi online songs! Half the day was spent chatting with Di and the other half was spent listening to songs online.

Let me keep them here.. for posterity sake! hopefully more will follow.

http://www.ideasnext.com/marathimusic/

http://www.mazafm.com/marathimusic/

Though they look similar there is a subset of disjoint songs between the two. And I found one two of my favorite songs :

Chapha bolena by Lata Mangeshkar - one of the most soulfully rendered song

Dhunda madhumati raat rey - rightfully placed under "Lokpriya Bhavgeete"

Everyday is a Sunday :-)

After 5+ years of being on call each weekend, either as an engineer or as the escalation point of contact, its like each day is a lazy Sunday nowadays.

At work even weekends are not spared. If you are not on call, you are on your toes wondering if some customer has faced any event and your engineer is right now on an outage call and then checking your email to ensure no voice mail notification email has been sent out.
While it gets to be a matter of habit and after more than 7 years of being in support your learn to make the requirement of being available 24x7 a part of your life, it is a relief to be able to kick off your shoes, unplug your phone and settle down with a book for some uninterrupted time

After coming to USA, the tension of having to find a new job was overwhelming. Notwithstanding all the horrors written above workaholics like me need that rush of adrenalin to keep going. With lesser work I either drain out quicker or have to work out harder at the gym.

However lately I've realized that if I sweep the tension aside then each day is almost like a Sunday with absolutely nothing to do other than what I want to do to relax. I can leave my cell phone on silent in the gym locker and not have to keep it in my pocket while playing tennis. I can now afford the luxury of watching a movie without the constant thought of cell phone interruption. And so many more things.

And I guess I'm starting to appreciate the lighter life and ironically while I would like it to last longer I don't want it to.

Between the rush of the work desk and the calm of a quite workout I'm sure work burns more calories ;-)

Preparations begin for Kili

http://www.adventuresingoodcompany.com/trip_descriptions/KiliStories.html

http://www.kilimanjaro2006.com/

http://www.traveling-stories-magazine.com/chilly-up-kili-climbing-mount-kilimanjaro/

http://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/index.htm

http://www.kilimanjaro.com/books.htm

Have you seen this ?

http://www.43things.com/person/charags

What's happening at home ?!

That is a despicable thing to do; on a weekend when families get going, at crowded places and worst of all.. hospitals ! It's disbelieving and utterly incomprehensible.

What logic explains such acts? Expert analysts says BJP states are being targeted. But what religious or moral zeal explains blowing up families and hospitals? The injured for God's sake!!

X-Files .. I DON'T want to believe

..that any X-Files sequel could get this .. this... mushy and sentimental! Aaarg.. Scull the Mold. It's infecting the primary X-files.

No aliens in the plot this time. Something to do with psychic, but it seemed more to do with Mulder and Scully raking up each others' sentiments from the past. Try this; take the plot, remove the two agents (and their boss) and all traces of FBI and include Detective Goren and Eames and you get an unbeatable Law & Order - CI episode.

Yeah, it's that bad.. as an X-files, but good enough for an hour long action episode, of course after slashing all the mush.

Quoting an -Files-ite "too much normal movie stuff, and not enough X-Files; let down. The writers seem to have given in to movie execs and lost the very essence of what X-files is supposed to be"....

The Dark Knight

What do I say; I'm not a Batman fan, not in the least bit. So this movie was never on my cine-dar. I skipped it for two weeks and then gave in to a close friend's enthusiastic suggestion of a "Must watch". In retrospect I conveniently forgot that "close friend" is a most avid Batman fan!! Moronic of me!

Joker! Joker! Joker! That's all that matters. Christian Bale makes me go "Mmmmm" (remember 3:10 to Yuma?). but not even his ultra husky voice made me long for Batman to reappear on the screen. To be fair the action is good, the underlying psychology is powerfully potent and that's where the goodness stops.
I just can't imagine the superhero getting into a sentimental scene with his EX-girlfriend, who is incidentally dating the Greek-God-Good-Boy-Harvey-Dent, when the city is on the brink of anarchy. That's a Joke!

An obvious must-watch for Batman fans; more so for Heath Ledger fans and non-fans... but otherwise ... wait for Mandrake in 2009.