The Bills of LadingThe Bills of LadingA sailors truthful account of the things these weird landlubbers are upto. Articles
The return of the Lego
2007-07-14 06:03:00 I haven't been around for some time. I thought I should begin again with something else that I hadn't been doing for some time. The Lego blocks are something that have never lost their coolness as far as I am concerned. The Lego mindstorm Robotic invention system is something that takes these blocks to an all new level.As a lego fan, I used to relish working on the technic sets. The gears & springs and interlocking parts would in my humble mind be ample proof of some genius at play. The fact that an assorted pile of stuff could be assembled into into something so obvious was magical.The beauty of the Lego RIS is that not only can it be used to make what the Lego team wants you to do, but that the Lego team wants you to do what you want to do with the Lego RIS. At the heart of the RIS is the RCX module (That Yellow thingy on the top) that you can actually programme with your PC as you want. The RCX, powered by six AA batteries and assisted by gadgets such as Touch sensors, motors,... More About: Return , The Return , Turn , Return of the
The Local Airport
2006-12-07 03:31:06 As I lugged my suitcase to the taxi stand in Mumbai, the gang of Taxi drivers standing besides the paan Shop perked up and crowded around me."Where do you want to go sir?" One of them asked"To the domestic airport."This produced some confused looks and a bout of vigorous murmuring. After much ado, the enterprising man questioned me again."To where might you be catching the plane for sir?""Er, to Nagpur."His brows cleared and he glowed with satisfaction."Ah! You will be wanting to go to the Loca l airport then." More About: Airport , Port
The walls of Cafe Mondegar
2006-12-06 21:31:07 Last in the series of stiched images, Let me present to you, the walls of the famed Cafe Monde gar. This is where the end of the walk found me. Cafe Mondegar, or "Mondy's" as it is fondly called by its admirers is a landmark in Colaba and is one of the oldest pubs in Mumbai. The wall s have been painted by the great Mario Miranda and his signature style is evident. You will need to click on these to actually see some detail.The pictures were taken after a couple of beers, so You'll have to forgive the blurriness. I will make it a point to take better pictures on a dry day.Cheers! More About: Wall , Walls
The Triumph of the hostel food
2006-12-02 15:27:01 You really should never let down your guard in Life. Just when Puja thought that she had escaped the fate of hostel life, Bham! She gets married and finds herself in a hostel.As we were discussing the logistics on the first day in the hostel room, In came the canteen boy with two plates of our Veg-Thali's."How much do these thali's cost?" asked Puja"20 Rupees." I told herShe went into whichever world where women go to handle finaces and multipled the figure with 2 & 30's and bigger numbers before mumbling,"Hmm... this isn't bad. Maybe we won't need to cook after all."She then proceeded to eat the lunch in silence. The only thing that she did say at the end was,"I think we should start looking seriously for that gas cylinder." More About: Food , Host , The Host , Triumph , Hostel
My Happy Birthday to me!
2006-12-02 15:27:01 Yes. It is my birthday today.Apart from the fact that I have aged another year and don't seem to be any wiser from it, it is proving to be much fun.Much to Puja's anguish, these days the birthdays seem to be welcomed at midnight. This ofcourse means that someone has to stay awake till midnight so that the rest can be woken up. As you can see, I am not slowly taking the narrative to a party that was most rocking!But thankfully we had Rajat, my batchmate and my chaddi-buddy to give me company through the aurdous hours leading up to midnight. Ofcourse a few pegs of officers choice did help in relieving the burden of each others company. I think we didn't deviate much from our usual discussion on topics ranging from the Karmic circle to our great wisdom in being able to talk about the karmic circle.Puja , full credit to her, did manage to stay awake till almost midnight, but the poor thing has been below the weather these last few days with a viral and needed to be nudged at appropr... More About: Happy , Birthday , Birth , Happy Birthday
The dreaded Veluitis
2006-12-02 15:27:01 The thorntree is a great place to hang out for someone who likes to travel. Or anybody who doesn't like to like to travel & yet still has to. I had also posted the "urinating Norms in India" thread In the Indian Sub Branch. Some of the replies to it were most entertaining. I am not very sure how long the Mods on that branch will allow it to float on the TT waters, so let me run by a few of them here.Till then please see the thread on its original site:Terry recounted how he had suffered directly due to the horrible bacteria:- Horrible side effect: The damn Indian bacteria (veluitis) made my package huge, but shrunk my bladder to the size of a peanut.Result: I'm hung like a porn star, but have to go to the bathroom every 3 minutes.Personal allegations were heaped in my directions for raising the deadly Veluitis:Balthasar: ...Velu has been one of the leading oracles on this branch for many years, ever since he got honourable discharge from the merchant navy in 2003, when he (not to ... More About: Read , The D
Riding on Bikes with Daddy
2006-12-02 15:27:01 White people just don't get it. I don't know why that is so, but it is so. The other day, I saw a chap asking people on the net about renting a couple of bikes so that he and his dad could drive around India and generally have fun. Apparently he wasn't a good biker and was wondering if he could keep up with his dad in a country like India.He asked the same question after a couple of weeks when he didn't get any replies, but he still didn't any reply. Neither did he get the point. You just don't ride bikes with your dad. How difficult is that to understand?I was raised like any normal Indian. That I didn't turn out to be one does should not reflect in any demeaning manner on my parents. But the fact of the manner is that like all Indians I have ridden on bikes with papa. If you look up on my other blog about dad, you will see that he used to ride the Jawa. I have no memories of the Jawa. Infact if I didn't keep leaving links for it everywhere, it is doubtful that I would even... More About: Bike , Daddy , With , Bikes , Riding
Google Video
2006-12-02 15:27:01 Hey I finally put up my first google Video . :)It's a clip of the IL-76 transport plane dropping anti-heat seeking missile flares. It was some show and the whole night was lit up because of it.Awesome!Check out the video out here! More About: Google , Google Video , Googl
The Kala Ghoda Area - Elphinston college
2006-12-02 15:27:01 The walk was great. We started off from the Jehangir Art Gallery and the went down to the fountain via the Bombay University. Sadly the it became a bit dark by the end so I couldn't take as many pictures as I might have liked to have taken.Right Opposte the Jehangir Art Gallery it the Elphinston Coll ege . It ofcourse has a great history behind it, but we were focusing only on its architectural side of its facade. This is the Bust of Sir Jehangir on the front of the building.The brown rock that we seehere is the hard Basaltic rock quarried from Mumbai itself. Whereas the white rock is the much softer rock brought in from Gujrat.As you can see, the White rock is the one where all the art work is done, whereas the Basaltic rock was used f load bearing purposes. Unlike the buildings of today, where the beams take the weight of the structure, here the walls take the weight. That is why architects call these load bearing structures.The College was built in the Neo Gothic style and it does... More About: Area , Kala
Kala Ghoda area - The Sasoon Library
2006-12-02 15:27:01 The David Sasoon Libra ry is right next to the Elphinston college and is truly a beautiful peice of work and I went in the library for the first time. I'm putting a few of the pictures I took there. More About: Area , Kala
Jerry Springer and Indian Biker Daddy's
2006-12-02 15:27:01 Or Riding on bikes with Daddy - II=========================So where was I? Yes For some reason, I had drifted over to talking about riding with dad on the Vijay Super. It is probably a good thing that I stopped then, because I would inevitably have then drifted on to how in a darstedly move, he sold off the beauty to some milkman for 40 USD before my 18th birthday when I was out at sea. A occasion of great tragedy, which I never refer to except when I am listing out points that I never refer to. So the point was this. India ns travel everywhere with their daddy on a two wheeler. They travel in front, behind, and in some Indian vehicles, even above or below their esteemed fathers. But under no circumstances will you ever see an Indian riding alongside his father.The reasons for this are not hard to understand once you try to the understand the sociological ethos and the root of all traditions of the nation. It would be a gross insult and a tragedy of unmigitated sadness if proper pro... More About: Bike , Spring , Ring
Anti-heat seeking missile flares deployed by IL 76 aeroplane
2006-12-02 04:57:07 I finally put up my first google video. And thanks to Dada, also found out a way to embed it in the blog. During the Diwali celebrations, we had gone to the camp and the huge IL-76 went overhead dropping the flares.These flares are actually a defensive measure against heat seeking missiles (like in Air force one). They lit up the whole night sky and was an awesome display. More About: Aeroplane , Heat , Lane , Miss , King
Chopper_ride.avi
2006-12-02 04:57:07 This was my first (and only) chopper ride. I was joining my ship off the LOOP (Louisiana Offshore oil Platform) and as a result caught the chopper from New Orleans to the ship. We even stopped midway to fuel up. A great feeling to be up there. More About: Ride , Chopper
Bombay heritage walk - 19th Nov
2006-12-02 04:57:07 Got their message in my mail box a couple of days back. Lets see how it goes. If it all falls apart, Atleast all the beer joints are close by. :) More About: Bombay , Heritage , Bomba , Bomb , Walk
The Mumbai University
2006-12-02 04:57:07 By the time we reached the Mumbai Univ ersity , it was too late to do any serious photography, and I must ask the good readers humble forgiveness for the following pictures. They were taken by long exposure of over a second and will therefore be not very steady.But the building is truly beautiful and I really must go sometime in the day and get some better snaps.The constitution posted outsideThe convention centre with its zodiac wheelA beautiful winding staicaseThe Main window on the Univ buildingThe Watch tower. More About: Univers
The Mumbai University - II
2006-12-02 04:57:07 By the time I got around to taking this picture, the light had faded to very sad levels, but I wanted to try it out still. The shots were exposed for about 1.5 seconds and as I was holding it in my hand it was shaking a bit as well. Add to that the fact that I got it after stitching three pictures , it is a wonder that it even exists.There are large distortions due to this, but I think this was the favourite three pictures of the evening. You will need to click on it to see the whole thing in detail. More About: University , Mumbai , Univ , Univers
The Flora fountain
2006-12-02 04:57:07 Another in the series of stiched pictures, this snap is also the result of stitching three pictures.The fountain was the place where the walk ended and apparently this fountain was actually made in the UK and then shipped in peices here. More About: Flora , Fountain , Flor
Happy Diwali
2006-12-02 04:57:07 To all of you who hapen to drift by, ...A very happy diwali to all of you and your families. Hope you have a great and peaceful year up ahead.Regds,Velu More About: Happy , Diwali
Urinating norms in India
2006-09-20 14:25:00 It is like this. India has never been known to be a very healthy place. You hardly have to step out of your hotel before you are assaulted by people urinarting everywhere. This has led to great epidemics like bomb blasts and aircraft falling.Now it is like this. More and more forigners are urinating on the side of the road sides of side roads. But they are not knowing. There are these bacterias that actually climb upstream through the stream of urine as it falls on the ground. These bacteria are waiting on the ground, waiting to pounce up the first stream of urine that is splashed on to them. After they swim up, they lodge themselves in the urine emiting appendege or crevice (as appropriate) and cause much sadness.The method to avoid this sadness in India is as follows:1) Urinate with all your might.2) Urinate maximum for 2.35 seconds. These are very fast bacteria.3) Stop urinating.4) Hop over five jumps to the right.5) Repeat step 1 to 4 till as long as required.This procedure is n...
The days are all packed.
2006-09-18 19:41:00 My blog does not seem to have any entries in it for some time now. It is probably a good thing. But then most things, good or bad, must be explained when possible.As everyone is aware, there is nothing like some good education to kill anything creative in a person. I have joined college. In Mumbai.The weird part of it is that there is so much to write about in a place like Nagpur when you are doing practically nothing, but in Mumbai when the day is literally packed, there just seems to be nothing to write about at the end of the day. A day in mumbai is like a roller-coaster ride, after which, you just want to sit down on a bench and grin to yourself. More About: Days , Pack , The D
Shadow work and the town of Mhow
2006-08-29 16:05:00 The town of Mhow is famous for its shadow work. What shadow-work actually means it that the actual embroidary is never seen, but only the shadow or the faint color and outline of it is seen from the other side.This work has caused much sorrow and confusion since the time it was created. My own mother once gave a suit to be stiched and the tailor like any sane person thought that the beautiful embroidery work should be presented outside and stiched the whole suit inside-out. I personally think that the whole story of the Shadow work might very well resemble that story of The Emperors New Clothes.But one thing that is undeniable is that this is a work of art. The first thing that I thought on seeing the work was that it was a pity that they had made the shadowwork on such poor cloth. But then I realised that the cloth had to be thin and of that texture if the color of the threads had to be seen on the other side.To make the shadow-work, a tracing is first printed on the cloth. You can... More About: Work , Town , The Town
Indian Postal Service - Philatelic account
2006-08-29 13:13:00 I had written some time back, in an upbeat spirit about the Indian Postal service and the philitaly service that it offered. In the intervening period, the postal department has not done much (Apart from a few misplaced postcards- which could be because of Thai post) to remove the tinted glasses from my eyes.The scheme that had made me so buoyant was brilliant in its simplicity. It purported that if you deposited some money with the post office, they would at no postal cost (all in house you see!) send you new philatelic stamps as and when they did get published.I had put in my trust into the department and placed my 500 rupees in their care. That was in June and just when I was beginning to fidget, in came the mail with this package.I must say that the packaging and the processing is great. The stamps come by speed post and are sealed in an impressive envelope that is sealed with wax (do they still do that?) on the behind. Inside the stamps are further enclosed in a clear polythene... More About: Service , Dian , Phil
A blog for dad
2006-08-29 09:27:00 I have started a new blog. In it I will be putting up old snaps of dad and the family. The times when he was in the Indian Air force and even before. I was going to put them up in here, but then realized that this s-crap book was defintiely not the place that something like that should be tackled.It promised to be a most exciting project. Atleast for me as I try to understand the times and the person before even I was born.This is the linkto it. Hope you people go over there once in a while and like it. More About: Blog
Mhow - An Eating foray
2006-08-28 04:45:00 I doubt even people staying in Mhow would describe it as a place of surpassing beauty. Any person who enters the small town of Mhow looking for beauty is promptly directed to the Cantonment area. Any person seeking to enter the cantonment area is promptly shown the wrong end of an SLR which miraculously does make the Mhow town look exceedingly beautiful by comparison.I don't know if it was my misfortune that I am of the defence stock and was not shown the gun, but it did ensure that I shall not chronicle the beauty of the Mhow town in these lines. The Cantonment on the other hand is as beautiful as most cantonments seem to be. In this post monsoon season, the greens were everywhere and the wide open spaces were blooming with some amazing colors. The houses of the cantt. are ofcourse the same from kanyakumari to the valley. neatly spaced, yellow colored, with large lawns and peeling plaster. I think the architects keep it so deliberately so that the residents in them, that keep movi... More About: Eating
Me , my god and some milk
2006-08-21 15:37:00 I rarely joke about god. And I expect others to do the same. So today I got a bit of a shock when the TV announcer was shouting that Ganesh idols across the country were gobbling up milk like there was no tomorrow. A Mr Pinki from bhubneshwar was on the line."Hello Mr pinki? ""Hello?""Yes Ji. So did the ganesh idol drink milk from your hand?""Nahi nahi sir. But it did drink milk from my mummy's hand. please speak to her.""Hello?""Yes madam? please go ahead.""Yes yes. So the lord ganesh drank from my hands. I took it in a cup and the whole milk disappeared.""So madam, how are you feeling now that god has eaten food from your hands?""Ji I am feeling good.""Did you hear that?""Did you hear that?""Did you hear that?"I realized that unless I replied, my wife would continue this talk ad nauseum,"Em? Realize what?""People are feed ganesh. We should too.""You got to be kidding."She did not had to be kidding.So we dutifully picked our small silver ganesh from my black bag and put it in a cu... More About: Milk , Some
A post of sadnessness
2006-07-21 06:03:00 When I first came to know about the mumbai bomb blasts I was drininkg a chilled bottle of Singha Beer on the beach of the Phi- Phi Island in Thailand. I had logged on the the web to check out a few things and the details hit me. After I had read enough and seen enough, I logged out, went on the beach and began to cry.There is a ghost haunting me more and more everyday. It is the guilt of inaction. As I read the news daily, I see much of the same thing. If it is not happening in Mumbai, then it is happening in Jammu. Or Imphal. Or Chattisghar. I don't see myself in the foreseeable future to kill someone. Then why would any sane person kill so many people? And sane they must be. How else could a person or persons carry out such an attack. What circumstances would push a person to such an extreme that he would kill others? And what could I have done to pull him back from that point? If the place he grew up in was bad, could i have done anything to make it a better one? If he had no fr... More About: Post , Sadness , Ness , Snes
Flat Chested Mermaids and the sun
More articles from this author:2006-05-23 14:25:00 There is simply no question about it. Sunrise and sunsets are meant to be seen at sea. I always find it truly remarkable. I mean, you have the same bloody sun. Agreed, depending on the orbit of the earth, its size might increase or decrease a bit. But for all practical purposes, it is a circle the width of your thumb. And this circle sets on the sea?s horizon. Which for all practical purposes is simply flat water. Sure there are some waves now and again, that with some constructive wishful thinking, can be converted into topless mermaids. Depending on the distance of the waves, they either turn out to be very flatchested Mermaids seen up close, or very un-flatchested mermaids seen from very far. So essentially it?s just a flat horizon over which the sun sets. And yet, the sheer tireless beauty that the sunset consistently provides you with, never fails to surprise me. Now the sunrise at Tungnath was stunning. But you have to agree, that even a snap of someone like me naked, in that ... More About: Chest , Maid , Erma , Este , Aids 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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