Panasonic RP HC 500 - Available at jzool.com!

I have always dreamt of getting my hands on one of these. The very first time i came across the technology of noise cancellation was at the Bose store in Bangalore, and i was completely blown away by its capability to put you literally in a planet of your own!

From what i see on the internet and after reading reviews by users of the Panasonic RP-HC 500, it appears that Panasonic has come out with a product that is as effective in noise cancellation as the bose headphones at a fraction of the cost!

I cant wait to get my hands on the product and hope to place my order at jzool soon! Jzool is a Japanese company that specializes in online sales of electronics and the best part about this store is that, with any purchase above 100$, your order ships free! Click here to access the site and see for yourself!

Hopefully, i'll recieve the product soon, and will be able to share a more detailed review with you!

-Abhishek.

surprises in life !!!

Have u ever felt that sinful pleasure accompanied by a chill passing down your spine when you saw your favorite childhood comic / catoon printed in the paper cone that the Peanut-seller or the roadside Bhel-puri seller gave you? Well, something similar happened to me recently, and i thought i'll share this one with you.

It was sometime in 2002 when my mom spotted this ad and told me to have a look.
It was an intersting offer for an internet phone and i dutifully cut out the snippet and stored it for posterity. Years later, many years later (6 years to be precise), as i was cleaning out the shelf in which i had placed this newspaper snippet, i happened to turn it over, and what i saw pretty much blew me away.

Take a look at it and i'm sure it'll take your breath away ! (obviously not literally ;)).
Sorry about the poor quality of the scan, the age of the paper clipping shows only too obviously ... For those interested in reading the original clipping, i have it with me :)

Stanford - A truly memorable journey.

It was a sunny afternoon as the three of us (Abhiman, Santhana and myself) set out to drive down to the city of Palo Alto, CA, and to visit the Stanford Campus.

It was a pleasant drive on the broad freeway US 101 and we covered something like 20 Kilo metres in 4 minutes and 30 seconds !!! The freeway funda is simply awesome here in the US ... you have the concepts of exits and approach ramps as a result of which traffic on the freeway never stops !!! but for accidents, of course ;)

People reach upto 90 miles per hour on these freeways ( thats about 150 kmph !!! ) and its an awesome experience to drive on them ... no chance we can travel at such speeds in india !!! :)

Once we entered the city of Palo Alto, we took university avenue to reach the Stanford Campus and slowly drove past several posh houses which i'm told are worth millions. It seems there are several Stanford professors who're millionaires themselves and live in some of these houses !!!

The approach road to Stanford University is a lovely straight road with an avenue of Palm trees on both sides. It has such a serene look to it and on the warm sunny sunday afternoon the approach to Stanford was truly surreal.



The snap you see above is the first thing a visitor to Stanford sets her eyes upon. Its called the oval ( for obvious reasons) and the lush green grass surface is truly a sight for sore eyes. The entire Stanford campus is WiFi enabled so i believe its not uncommon for students and researchers to stroll onto the oval with their laptops and make the next ground breaking discovery while enjoying the sun sitting on the grass !!! :)


The snap you see above has one of the Lecture halls in the background and the Hoover tower further in the background. The part that i liked most about Stanford is its layout and how much free open space exists !!! Out of the 8000 acres the University owns, more than 2/3rds is open !!! Can you believe that ?


This is a snap of the Hoover Tower, named after the Us President Herbert Hoover who happens to be an alumnus of the university. At over 250 feet, the Hoover tower happens to be the only structure in entire Stanford which can be seen from any point in the university campus !!! The view from atop this tower is truly magnificent and was well worth the 2$ entry fee.

The best part about this was that i got to meet one my college seniors after like 2 years !!! Imagine meeting someone atop a tall tower after ages !!! What are the odds !!! :D


The entire campus is filled with greenery and its very common to see both students and faculty commuting to classes on bicycles !!! Even though it was a Sunday afternoon there were a fair number of cycle commuters !!!


This is a view of the Visitor Information Services center which is a dedicated center to provide help to visitors desiring to tour the university. They provide free maps and even a guided tour ( which is completely free !!! :) ) where a Stanford student takes you on a walk around the campus and describes the culture and history behind the amazing place that it is.

A video taken from the Hoover Tower can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfaMCPYo_2A



The main building of the campus is called "The Main Quad" and has huge passageways around it. We even saw a class being held right in the middle of the courtyard !!! The main quad also houses the Stanford Chapel which has a mural on its walls supposedly painted using over 22000 shades of colors !!!


We saw that a guided tour was scheduled for 3 15 in the afternoon so decided to have a quick lunch and double back to the university for the tour. After a quick burger at burger King we were back near the Hoover Tower's fountain and ready for the walk.

Our guide was an under-graduate student named "Gus" who was remarkably adept at walking backwards for the entire duration of the tour and managed to hold our attention with his riveting narration as we passed along the campus !!!

The entire culture at Stanford is a real eye opener and you really have to BE there to feel it. No where else in the world have i seen the following activities taking place simultaneously under one campus

1. An impromptu dance class where anyone can join in and someone'll teach u a few steps !!!
2. Proper classes outside in the courtyard with some students lying down in the grass and taking notes !!!
3. A high school debating competition which had drawn a major crowd of high schoolers
4. An apparel sale where Stanford apparel was sold at 50 % the listed price.
5. A musical choir performing for no one in particular !!!
   
6. Plenty of students whizzing past in bicycles
7. Small kids on roller skates completely enjoying
8. I think i've made my point ;) so i'll stop now.

A few more pics to follow

This is our tour guide - Gus

This is a snap of the choir - performing for all the enthralled visitors!!!

Wonder where i'll get to go next weekend !!!

Bye for now,

Abhishek.

PS :: feel free to hit the comment button and post your thoughts on this article !!!

I'm lovin it !!! :)

It has been a week in the US and i'm lovin' it !!! :D

Being a capitalist country all u need here is money. I am told, if an indian and american went to a BMW showroom in the US, the indian will be waited upon first !!! Because they assume he is the one who'd going to make a costly purchase.

Sunnyvale is a town in the state of California and houses the headquarters of Juniper Networks and i am told, also Yahoo. I did see a major Yahoo establishment here but i'm not certain its the HQ. I am really amazed at the amount of thought that must have gone into planning infrastructure of this magnitude and this is one of the smaller towns in California !!! You gotta see the super wide roads, the freeway entrances and exits where traffic merges without any hiccups !!!

Check out the amount of space between 2 buildings !!! i believe this is mandatory as per US law. I cant imagine this kind of space between 2 building ( that too with a lush green PUBLIC lawn) back in india. I'm so sure a mini shopping mall would've come up in this area back home !!!

There were some truly scenic moments that i managed to capture on camera for posterity :)

This is where i work.

On a Sunday we decided to go to San Francisco and oh man what an unforgettable experience it was !!! We took the double decker train :) from sunnyvale to SFO and that itself was a super experience ... You gotta see the vending machines to believe it ... Completely automatic and super hi fi ... I sure hope the Bangalore Metro comes close to this kind of efficiency !!! and beauty !!!

The plan was to visit this place called Fisherman's Wharf and try to do some shopping after that. There are organised tours too in SFO but since it was already afternoon we thought its better if we go by ourselves !!!


The photo above was taken at Embercarado Street which is something like Mumbai's Marine Drive. It stretches for a huge distance along the bay and offers some of the most awesome sights and scenes :) Thankfully, this part of San Francisco wasnt too commercialized and also, it was the Superbowl Sunday so we could walk around freely !!! Superbowl is american football finals - our rugby :)

oh wait a minute ... let me show u a couple of snaps of my private limo and speed jet ;)





































The piers in the Sanfrancisco Bay are arranged in two consecutive rows - ordered by numbers ... even numbers first followed by odd ones. We needed to get to pier 39 and we were at peir 40 when we alighted from the train. We dint know this kind of arrangement so were feeling really happy that we needn't walk a lot !!! little did we know that we had to walk almost 5 miles to reach Fisherman's Wharf .... a colossal walk of over an hour !!!

but it was completely worth it and the beauty of walking is that u can stop as and when you please to click photographs. And San Francisco is a city where u feel like taking a photo of Everything !!! I caught a few glimpses of the Sky Scraper studded downtown of SFO and some shots of mighty buildings on the seafront.



My favorite however, is this one .... a shot of the SFO Bay Bridge connecting Oakland to San Francisco ... it was built just a few years after the golden gate brigde but is much much less famous as compared to its illustrious relative !!!


Along the way, we stopped at this roadside shop to check out some warm woolen clothing .... it was freezing and i was the only one among the three of us who was pretty much covered head to toe ( and I was freezing !!! ) The owner of the shop was Luiz and we started chatting .... i picked up a bag and asked him for the price ...

Luiz - " twenty dollah "

Me - " no way .... back in india i give only 2 dollar for this .... i give u 5 ? "

Luiz ( grinning ) - " first time to US eh ? ok 15 dollah "

Me - ( sheepish grin ) " ok 10 dollars? "

Luiz - " sure"

lol .... he was a damn nice chap and managed to bundle off a couple of hats, shawls and some other nick nacks onto us and before we knew it we were parting with almost a hundred dollars !!!

I think we have financed Luiz's next trip to Equador ... lol ... he must be praying for us to come back next time !!!

Oh and yes ... we did take a snap with Luiz ( yeah he's a small guy ... lol )




Can u see my friends all packed up after a stop at Luiz's ? Man he was a godsend that day .... all three of us will vouch for that ... we couldnt've survived the cold if not for those clothes we bought from Luiz.

My friends Abhiman and Santhana convinced me to go on "The Bay Cruise". This is a one hour cruise on a ferry starting from Pier 39 and it takes you under and around the Golden Gate Bridge, around the island where Alcatraz Stands and back to Pier 39 taking a winding path where u get to take in the breathtaking beauty of the San Francisco coastline.

This was a truly unforgettable experience and all for just 21 dollars !!! or as luiz would have it - 21 dollahs !!! lol

There are 3 decks on the ferry and the first two are nicely covered and centrally heated i suppose cuz it was quite comfy there ... my friends had warned me that the top most deck which was open to the elements was meant only for the very brave :) and when i got there i really got a hang of what the phrase "the chill gets to your bones" actually means !!!

The wind was whipping around me and all i could do was just to hold on for dear life with one hand and manage my digicam with the other - furiously clicking away at the glorious SFO landscape.

There were some birds following the ferry and it was simply amazing the way they glided in the wake of the ferry's airdraft .... I got a real up close and personal look at the golden gate bridge .... i got all nostalgic for a moment when i remembered the re-runs of Full House that we've watched back at home and each and every episode starts with a shot of the Golden gate bridge !!!

Truly , a most memorable experience .... it was about 5 30 when i got back on terra firma and i was pretty much chilled ;) The first thing i did was to pull my land loving friends to a coffee shop and order the largest coffee !!! cost me a whopping 7.99 $ but it was totally worth it !!! :)

americans take their coffee black !!! thats like our decoction !!! i find this quite amazing !!!

So instead of looking through the menu and making a choice, i just went up to the clerk and asked him to get me the largest coffee which has milk in it !!! the guy must've had a quiet laugh at me !!!

After coffee, my experienced friends guided me to some shops where we bought a few clothes and accessories :) and there the trip ended with a cab ride back to the caltrain station and finally back to the hotel in sunnyvale !!!

oh yeah, a truly memorable outing :)

The final countdown ....

Earth!

Fire!

Wind!

Water!

Heart!

GO PLANET!

With your powers combined I am Captain Planet!

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
He's our powers magnified,
And he's fighting on the planet side

Captain Planet, he's our hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero,
Gonna help him put us under,
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

"You'll pay for this Captain Planet!"



Haven't we all seen this cartoon at some point of time or other? Were we not inspired to the hilt by the way our hero saved the planet each time from peril? The latest Simpson's movie too attempts to drive in the very same idea of us needing to take care of our atmosphere but are we willing to listen? I suspect we prefer to laugh at blundering Homer's antics and choose to turn a blind eye to the larger issue at hand. Well, thats what i did anyway !!!

The reason i am writing this blog is essentially as a follow up to my friend's blog. It really impressed upon me the vitality of the issue and motivated me to think deeply about a practical solution. You might want to check it out at http://hellsown.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/rain-beauty-of-the-nature-or-its-grief/

What we all are only too aware of nowadays is the fact that our planet is under severe stress caused by mankind's incessant efforts to better himself and which goes under the presumably acceptable guise of "developing the infrastructure". More importantly, What we DONT know is how we could contribute to turning the situation around !!!

I will not waste time raving and ranting about global warming and the global issues at large. Go check out the Green Peace website for that. What i intend to concentrate on is trying to restore some of the beauty which has of late been stripped off a city which has housed me for over the past decade.

Look at the following snaps of developement works in bangalore which have been taken up over the past few years under the pretense of modernizing the IT hub of our nation.

The Hebbal Flyover

The Bangalore International Airport

The Airport Road Flyover

Anand Rao Circle Flyover

One common thing about all these projects is the fact that innumerable trees have been uprooted to make space for the large cement columns and reinforced concrete bridges. What chance do these gentle trees stand against the might of the machine when it is powered by man !!!

This is just ONE picture of the sacrifices made in order to speed ourselves on to reaching the pinnacle of developement.


Before i digress, let me address the main issue i set out to talk about.

Our city is losing its greenery. Be it flyovers, or the burgeoning business parks, all infrastructure projects invariably end up cutting into the green belts. What are we going to do about it?

It doesnt take long to cry out against government apathy and demand remedial action , possibly even strict stipulations against corporate giants. However this will not reach the right ears until we prove that we not only have a case in point but also have taken some initiative to do something about it.

The need of the hour, as i see it, is simply to help our city get back its greenery. Forget banishing cars off the roads or other solutions like car pooling or advocating public transport. We'll do ALL that later. First lets try and do something about helping the greenery part.

I dont want to sound like a propagandist so i shall refrain from preaching. This might be a really abrupt end to the blog but its for a reason. The reason is to make u wonder what might be the possible ways of contributing to the solution and how the average person could help.

Any comments ?

Think deeply about what i have said. I am sure u will have some ideas.

Regards,
Abhishek.

Ps :: i have not shared any of my ideas as of now as i felt that might stifle the creativity of the suggestions flowing in. I shall surely follow up this post with my suggestions at a later point of time.

The " GURU " experience :) :) :)

hi folks !!!

long time no see , no blog , no online activity !!!!

well , here i am , back with a flourish to voice my thoughts on the online medium :D

I'd planned to watch Mani Rathnam's latest much hyped blockbuster "Guru" today .




So according to plan i set out with a friend at Indian Standard Time which in this case turned out to be fifteen minutes too late to be on time for the 10:30 AM show :)

As we were waiting for a bus at the stop , a super deluxe volvo bus of our esteemed state owned BMTC waltzed up to the stop and i was sorely tempted to get into it simply to experience the AC ride , sitting on a cushioned seat , on a super fast volvo service !!! this particular bus had some kinda advertising hoarding on its sides which i strongly suspect were installed there just to make sure ppl cant see the insides of the bus , for as the bus door opened , the driver super enthusiastically ushered us in . Even before we could register the fact that the bloody bus was jam packed and we'd've to shell out four time the normal bus rate and have to stand for the entire journey , the clever driver snapped the hydraulic doors shut in a fraction of a second , well before our indecision of whether to hop off the bus or not settled in !!! obviously the man was specifically trained for such occurrences :)

Just for fun , i showed my daily pass to the conductor who got annoyed and glared at me as if i'd committed some form of sacrilege by showing him such a menial document ;) Well , finally we did end up buying the tickets ( exorbitant ones mind u ;) ) and had to contend ourselves by clinging on to a support near the driver's seat . Let me tell you , the Volvo service is one helluva high tech gizmo service . It even had a live feed from a camera mounted at the rear of the bus which relays the real time rear view scenario EXACTLY behind the bus to a TFT LCD monitor which is on the dashboard !!! can u beat that ? AWESOME !!!

The highlight of the rather brief volvo trip was one perfect example of contemporary India what we experienced . It was quite hilarious actually . Anyone who's been in the Volvo bus'll've heard the conductor/driver announce in perfect english as to the arrival at a particular stop , like " Kindly note , We're at Manipal Hospital . " I could see the high tech dudes who were destined for the laststop ITPL( international tech park ltd ) with pretty smug expressions on their faces accustomed to such pampering ;) . But what followed next nearly split us up with laughter . We'd been past two stops , both announced with a flourish by the rather enthusiastic conductor in as formal a tone as he could summon , but finally the bus rolls to a stop in the middle of nowhere with only dilapidated buildings on the road side . The conductor , with utmost reluctance as if this is the part of his job which he doesn't enjoy , announces " ok . Borewell bus stop hiliavaru banni " . lol . just imagine that .

awesome sequence no ?

"Welcome to Manipal Hospital " ,

" ok . Borewell bus stop hiliavaru banni " ,

"We have reached the final destination . ITPL , Hope enjoyed the journey "

There ! Contemporary India for you !

Finally , we reached our original destination , and entered the theater to fully enjoy one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in the recent past . Abhishek Bachhan pulls off the role of "Gurukanth Desai" perfectly , actually getting into the skin of the character he is attempting to portray for the first time in his not-so-successful acting career . And kudos to Aishwarya for not over-acting for once in her rather eventful life !!! She too portrays her character , that of wife and partner of "guru" , to the T !!! The songs and picturisation are rather exquisite and all tunes are so catchy that u're sure to have them ringing in your ears for atleast a coupla days , by when u'll surely go out n buy the tapes/Cd's or more likely download it off limewire ;) so the tunes're sure to haunt u pleasurably for a long time to come !!! My personal favorite song was "tere bina" - simply soulful lyrics .... and favorite video was " barso re " - dont u dare miss the ducky steps ash tries in the middle of the song :D

go ppl !!!

watch this movie !!!

if u've watched it already , no problem !!!

watch it again !!!

its super !!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Hmmmm.... lets see.... what feelings do those words inspire in us? Patriotism? Honour? Pride? Or.... sarcasm? Cynicism? A feeling that simply sez ... " get real dude.... r v really independent? “.... If it was the latter I wont blame ya’ll.... its a perfectly normal reaction considering the current state our country is in ...

Everywhere around one sees, incompetence surges at u like pointed daggers striving to rip out your eyes, so that even you end up as one of the herd ... and not one of the trend setters, or path breakers or whatever. Any course that one chooses to take up in life in our country today is strewn with so many hurdles (read bureaucratic red tape) which would indeed seem quite daunting to even the most seasoned Olympic athlete ... speaking of Olympics ... I remember the time when we were considered pretty good contenders for the Olympic hockey title ... where is all that enthu now? Or is it just lack of talent? Or is that like the BIGGEST rhetorical question ever asked? "Why are we like this? "

Look at the govt scenario ... by elections seem to be the vogue nowadays ... be it at the centre or at the oh so many states ... at last count there were ... heck ... u get the point ... y do we need chattisgarh , uttaranchal and whatever the other one is called? Everything is retrograde ... instead of unifying ppl, the powers that be simply want to enhance their vote banks ... and end up diversifying the system ... diversity is good ... but unity in the midst of diversity is the need of the hour ...

Take a look at the decisions (read scams) made by the ever changing ruling party of our great nation. Be it bofors, of oil for food, or whatever ... even the latest hype about reservations and quotas for the supposedly needy, most of the bureaucratic decisions are not taking India forward. But backward.... for as Mr. Narayana Murty once said. " WE Indians must be the only breed who'll do anything to be called 'backward' " ... guess that makes the point quite succinctly ...we are proud to boast of the largest slum dwelling in all of Asia!!! Can ANYTHING be more retrograde than that? Huh?

You might be wondering.... in the midst of the turmoil in my country, an inkling of which is shown above, WHY MUST I BE PROUD TO CALL MYSELF AN INDIAN!!!!

I’ll try telling you why ... its for u to decide if u want to be proud of being an Indian of course, thereby striving to make the nation proud of u...for as JFK said " ask not what the nation can do for you ... ask what YOU can do for the nation" .. cliche i know , but it makes the point ...

Just think about this ... there've been oh-so-many of our fellow brothers n sisters who've made a mark in whatever field they've chosen to, INSPITE of all these issues listed above. Just imagine ... isn’t it like the mythical grass sprouting amidst the ruins of the forest fire? Doesn’t it symbolize life ... the urge to live NO MATTER WHAT ;) ( anyone in RV-CS will appreciate that) the very fact that so many Indians have made their presence felt having overcome all odds ought to be a great motivation to us to exceed our expectations n deliver more ... be it at home, school, college, workplace, office, on the field and off it ... in whatever profession one chooses....

So many Indians have gone abroad, made their fame and money there and literally “ bharath maa ki naam roshan kiya hai!!! :-) “ to name a few who’ve mad it super big from humble origins … saber bhatia, sam pitroda, vinod khosla - all these ppl are responsible for getting India into the IT map of the world (I’m sure I’m missing some one big here but I guess my point is made), even in sports we’ve got so many upcoming athletes. Koneru humpy happens to be the world number 2 currently in chess!!!! And do I need to say anything about vishwanathan anand? I wont even get started about sachin or any of our cricketing heroes!!! Some of them have impressed the world not just with their sporting prowess but their charm n personality … a perfect example’s Mahesh Bhupathi … one can never forget the way he conducted himself on the court while partnering Mary Pierce for the Wimbledon mixed doubles and even more, the prefect gentleman he proved to be soon after the match and during the presentation ceremony … a fact aptly lauded by many, including his parents in an interview on TV.

Last but DEFINITELY not the least ;) need I mention sania mirza?

Of course we can also draw inspiration from those people who’ve chosen to make a mark right here itself in our great nation … Azim Premji of Wipro fame and Narayana Murty of Infosys fame barely need introduction … pardon me for focusing on IT, I’m a computer science student after all. ;-) But this fact holds good for each and every field u can name. Be it Biocon’s Kiran majumdar Shaw … or Nasscom’s Kiran karnik … or formula 1’s Narayan kaarthikeyan, we indian’s’ve made it big in all fields …

A super example would be that of Mittal steel’s Lakshmi Mittal …. Having clinched the Arcelor deal he now wishes to invest in India in UP … Naturally he wouldn’t do that if he dint truly believe that India is very profitable and is on an economic upward swing!!!

Why do u think so many companies are vying with each other to set up plants/campuses in India? Why do u think our sensex has doubled from 6000 in 2000 to 12000 in 2006? Why? SIMPLY BECAUSE THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS KNOWN THAT INDIA HAS THE POTENTIAL AND NOW WE INDIANS ARE STARTING TO DELIVER GLOBALLY.

It’s a sexy part of the development of our nation we’re involved in … with ample scope and room for everyone. We just have to do our best n deliver … endeavor to improve our country. Seriously. In another blog I’ll get started on where I think we need to focus, cuz certainly handling outsourced phone calls isn’t the way to improve our country … might be the quickest way to make some fast cash, short of looting karur Vysya bank though ;)

But now seriously again, just think about this ... if every jawan in our army feels that "hey!! I’m just one in a million jawans ... they'll take care of the work ... " imagine what'd be the state of the defence of our country!!! We take it for granted that we're damn safe sitting where we are ... but just give one day holiday to all the defence forces to our country and see what'll happen ... u'll be toast before u know it ... but also take ur mind do that scenario ... when every jawan lying on his bunker ... just before the hooter buzzes, thinks like this " hey. I’m not here for no reason ... if I can simply strive to MY work a lil better, to hell with others if they wanna laze, I’ll just do my work a lil better every day, it'll definitely make a difference " ... if all the million (and million is a conservative estimate) jawans thought in this fashion, will it not make a HUGE difference? And the best part is it aint just about jawans ... it could be anything ... a guy sitting on a Mumbai local (he’ll most probably be jostled about, struggling for a place to hang on to), or a surgeon scrubbing down for the days surgery ;), or a working mum getting her kids ready for school, or the most hi tech scientist at ISRO programming the next gen rocket, strive to do their work a lil better. . Give it that lil more.... wont it makes a difference? OK our country aint looking in the best of shape ... but isn’t it better to light a candle than curse the darkness?


Looking forward to your comments as always n waiting to see who punches the largest hole through my arguments ;)

JAI HIND !!! BHARATH MATA KI JAI !!! VANDE MATARAM !!!

yours as always ,

abhishek .