The play was 110 mins long with an interval in between. It has been directed by Nasir Uddin Yusuff.
This play was performed at The Globe in London. The Globe in London is a reconstruction of the original Globe after it was destroyed in a fire. The original Globe was constructed by the play company that Shakespeare belonged to. And performing a play by Shakespeare at globe must be the pinnacle of success any theater artist can achieve.
Here is a video of the Dhaka Theater Production troupe after their performance at the Globe.
I have read The Tempest in school but thanks to my deplorable memory , I could enjoy the play as if it was the first time. The play would even otherwise be quite enjoyable since it has a quite distinct Bengali touch and is a very musical and colorful performance.
The actors consistently add a refreshing touch to the characters they are portraying. While Ariel was played by a woman whose long hairs were quite befitting to the Bengali idea of a spirit. The energy and emotion that was invested in the portrayal of a spirit was quite impressive.
The best part of this play is enjoyed only if you know Bengali. The dialogues and 'bengalification' of the play gets quite hilarious at times. Especially the mushy romance of Miranda and Ferdinand.
Please do try and catch this play and here's a glimpse of the people who will entertain you.
Jog Falls is the second-highest plunge waterfall in India. It is certainly one of the most beautiful and dangerous water falls I have ever visited. It is 400 km from Bangalore and 240 km from Mangalore. Jog Falls is formed by the Sharavathi River. The best time to visit Jog Falls is from June-September, During the monsoons.
We took the following Route from Bangalore to Jog Falls.
Here's a small video compilation of the falls followed by some interesting snaps.
The route was quite scenic and the road was decent. In spite of it raining it didn't feel unsafe to drive.
Things turned even more beautiful as it was drizzling.
We ended up having lunch at a restaurant in probably a town. There was only one restaurant that seemed decent enough to even enter. But the menu was absolutely out of the world. The "Non" were very normal. But having curd rice on the north Indian Meals Menu was the icing on the cake.
It started pouring on the later part of the journey and it was quite hard to even see the road. The Roads were pretty good so we managed to reach safely.
When we had almost reached jog falls we hit a bridge.
It was afternoon and yet so misty that it looked like the marshes from Lord of the Rings
Finally we reached the Enchanting Jog falls. There are a couple of places Jog falls can be viewed from. However the best of them all is the Inspection bungalow. We got a guy who said he will take us there and give a pretty good view of the falls. He Actually made us lie at the edge of the cliff and look down . Something anyone could do there without the guide but probably wouldn't dare. It was worth it though. It looked mesmerizing .
Then it suddenly got misty and hardly anything could be seen.
And after sometime the mist cleared off as well. It was quite an experience to see one of the largest waterfalls vanish in its own mist.
If anyone ever told you Bangalore doesn't have a beach then take them to Talakadu. Talakadu is a river beach on the banks of the river Kaveri . It is located 133 km from Bangalore . It is certainly one of the best places to visit around Bangalore since its actually a beach .
There are two ways of reaching Talakadu from Bangalore. You can either take Highway 209 or Mysore road. While Highway 209 is a shorter route, the road is pretty bad. The recent work for Metro has completely ruined the road and beyond that the road is narrower than Mysore road.
There are some shops near the beach but It's not a good idea to have anything more than a couple of snacks.A Good Plan to visit Talakadu is to first visit Shivanasamudram (Barachukki and Gaganachukki) and then visit Talakadu in the evening.
Talakadu has temple ruins which have a legend behind it. Supposedly it's the result of a curse that the temples in Talakadu get submerged in sand . You will find lots of people trying to show you the temple as guide's. These are just locals trying to make some money. Personally I never had the interest of visiting the temple ruins.
The beach is quite clean and a great place for playing football/volleyball etc. If you can then take the football/volleyball with you. otherwise you will get extremely-low-quality-use-and-throw-balls to buy there in the beach.
If you are in bangalore and need a one day trip then this is one of the best places to visit. But make sure you have a heavy breakfast and pack some food for lunch as you will not get any decent food near the falls,beach or even on the way.
Shivanasamudram is a waterfall on the river Kaveri located about 140 km from Bangalore. It is one of the best Waterfalls around Bangalore. There are two ways of reaching Shivanasamudram from Bangalore. You can either take Highway 209 or Mysore road. While Highway 209 is a shorter route, the road is pretty bad. The recent work for Metro has completely ruined the road and beyond that the road is narrower than Mysore road.
The best time to go to Shivanasamudram is within the first few months of rainy season(July-Aug). If the monsoon hasn't been very good then any time is good for Shivanasamudram. Going after a good monsoon season will mean the waterfall will be at its best but then you won't be able to actually go near the water.
Barachukki & Gaganachukki
There are two falls in Shivanasamudram , Barachukki and Gaganachukki . These are separated by about 20 km.
Barachukki also known as Bluff is where you can actually enter the waterfall, play in the water. Gaganachukki is a majestic waterfall that should only be admired from far.
Which makes Gaganachukki the destination during the peak of monsoon.
The road to Shivanasamudram is quite scenic. And the fresh country air is what one needs after suffering the horrible pollution of Bangalore.
Development in Shivanasamudram
A year back when I had been to Shivanasamudram there was hardly any facility there. It was quite a neglected tourist spot. But it has come a long way since then. There are proper stairs and changing rooms. Which is especially good for Ladies.
If you are in Bangalore and need a one day trip then this is one of the best places to visit. But make sure you have a heavy breakfast and pack some food for lunch as you will not get any decent food near the falls or even on the way.
While you are here you can also visit Talakadu the only beach Bangalore has. Start as early as possible from Bangalore if you want to cover Gaganachukki, Barachukki and Talakadu.
On January 14th 2012, I took one of the best decisions of my life. I bought a Yamaha Fz 16 . I had the specific requirement of a city bike, since I needed to travel almost 50 km everyday within the city. So my friends suggested Fz 16 as a good city bike.
It took me 9 months and 8 days to finish 10000 km and at the end of it I was left surprised that just few months back I wasn't sure if buying is a good idea or not.
The bike is the perfect city bike anyone can get, it's very light and handling is extremely smooth. The brakes are extremely good and have saved my bones a couple of times.
One problem I have faced till now is a very irritating false neutral . Its quite dangerous when that happens to a newbie on slopes. Now I have got used to it and manage to get out of it in no time.
The best part of the bike is the silencer, it looks so beautiful and probably gets a lot of evil eyes. The only part which gets damaged is the silencer cover. the beautiful silencer cover. If the bike falls on the right hand side the silencer cover easily gets damaged. And the beautiful silencer starts to look hideous.
I have always observed the silencer cover of other Fz's on road and it'll almost always be damaged.
The Tyre pressure is ideally supposed to be 29-33 which always confuses the petrol bunk guy , somehow he feels every bike is a pulsar.
There have been no issues whatsoever with my bike and driving it is still a pleasure. Though the pillion rider doesn't feel the same way. The seat is too small for the pillion, though the new Fz seems to have fixed that.
I currently own an Acer eMachines EM350 netbook and I need something more powerful now. I need a good laptop. I have been using Ubuntu, and consequently not been using Windows, in my personal Computer for over 5 years now. And to say the least I would be using Ubuntu in the new laptop as well. But as I soon realized its not an easy job to get a laptop without Windows preinstalled. So I started looking hard for one.
While price wasn't a concern, I knew that I wouldn't be needing more than an i5. I had narrowed down to 3 Brands - Dell, Asus, Samsung.
I went and searched for Laptops without OS/with Linux at various places, and that means I wanted to buy it online. If you are living in the US/Europe probably things will be easier but I live in India.
There are 3 Sites that are trustworthy and sell Laptops.
Flipkart.com - Dell,Asus and Samsung all have laptops on flipkart that come with Free DOS. And Dell has a few with Linux.
Dell.co.in - Since Asus and Samsung do not sell on their website. Dell inspite of having laptops with linux and free dos for some reason doesn't show them in their site. I would have loved to directly buy from dell's wesite otherwise.
Ebay.com - Here the laptops with free dos outnumber that of windws.
Now it came to a simple fact. where do i get the best price for the same configuration.
I found an Inspiron N4050 for 30k but turns out the seller doesn't ship to Bangalore. What the hell. Where does he ship to!!
I found an Inspiron N5050 for 31.5k and I found the same being priced in Flipkart and dell's site(with windows) for above 40k . This seemed like a pretty good deal to me So i went for it.
The Seller in Ebay had an impressive satisfaction rating of 100%. The laptop was shipped in 3 days and reached my home in another 4 days by bluedart.
So Finally Here's my laptop with Kubuntu Installed .
The Secret of the Nagas by Amish is the Sequel of The Immortals of Meluha. This is a very anticipated book since The Immortals of Meluha ends at the heights of climax. Sati is pregnant and right in front of the temple Shiva and Sati notice a Naga, Shiva Screams and that's when the first book ends. Its an evil ending in my opinion , but well it does make the second book worth waiting for. The Second Book mainly deals with the Nagas.
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown is an amazing book. The premise is that the belief that Jesus had no descendants may not be true and there is a closed group that guards the secrets surrounding this. This also involves the much sought after Holy Grail. The members of this closed groups are now under attack. The book has been denounced heavily by the Church but Its certainly worth reading as a piece of fiction.
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown is a story that revolves around the question of who will be the next pope. Since it involves the Vatican there are several very interesting debates on the most common topics where the church has strong views. But the best part of the story is in the climax. It seems to so befitting to name the book Angels & Demons when you realize that the angels are the demons.
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown is a mind boggling thriller involving the best encryption cracking computer in the world. What happens when the best machine is pitted against the best minds. Can the Best machine crack the latest development in encryption. Or will it become useless as newer forms of encryption are encountered. The story has all the elements of suspense, lies , treachery, murder and best of all a very lucid writing style.
The Exile by Allan Folsom is a thriller that is captivating and certainly deserves to be a best seller. The whole story has so many twists and turns that it gets hard to believe what the truth is. The characters are all very strong and extremely significant. The story goes into different countries and goes through a lot of rather interesting climax's .
The Immortals of Meluha is a alternate fictional story of who Lord Shiva was. The Book takes ancient India from the History books and creates a fictional story. There are several occasions when creative situations have been made based on mythological events and actual historical places. The most striking thing in about the book is the way an alternate story has been made from mythology. This book is
Mockingjay - Book Report And Review End Of The Bloody Games
Rating: 3
Reviewed by Sougata Khan on
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Book Report
This is the last book in this series and is a direct conflict between Katniss and Snow, rather than indirect ones via hunger games. This time its a war. What the capitol does to peeta is beyond any imagination. The actual fighting in the capitol is filled with twists and surprises at every moment. This book is quite an ending to an amazing series.
The destruction of District 12 is rather quick. Capitol certainly is scared now. The story of district 13 is pretty awesome too. To have survived for so long, living underground and organised a rebellion is some achievement.
The state of mind of Katniss is in tatters now, she is obviously too young to be going through this kind of trauma. Peeta’s appearance and call for cease fire is obviously forced out by the capitol. Finally Katniss decides that she has to be the Mockingjay, the one hope of the people.
I KILL SNOW has a rather menacing yet captivating effect on the reader.
The behaviour of the top brass of district 13 seems rather suspicious. I would have expected a rather more friendly attitude from them towards their allies. It is surprising to see the reaction Katniss evokes in the injured people of District 8. The power of a mere symbol is clear from this . symbols can mobilize the masses.The bombing of the hospital in district 8 is rather cruel but its quite interesting to note that katniss has got arrows that can take down planes.
Peeta and Katniss are in a rather puzzling situation now. While snow wouldn’t kill him because he is her weakness. Katniss knows how Snow is using Peeta and has to do something about it nevertheless. Peeta’s rescue and then the attack on katniss was rather surprising turn of events. It of course seems like the perfect plan from the capital. One of the best trojan horse tactics. President Coin’s intentions are rather confusing. It seems like Coin wouldn’t be much different from snow.
The attack on the capital seems to be a close shave. It was indeed sad to see Finnick die. His love story was heartwrenching. The idea that Coin has betrayed everyone to this extent is rather a huge shock. Coin getting killed by katniss is rather a just turn of events.
So finally its Peeta and Katniss, I somehow felt it would be Gale.
Never did I imagine that I would have to weblog, but a buffon compelled me to do the impossible.
On the foremost, all errata should be ignored and due apologies for hurting any sentiments.
During Requirements Gathering (software engineering parley), I was informed that I would have to write on - Women's Day. The deadline was March 7, 23:59 HRS.
So I had
State of Fear is a novel by Michael Crichton is actually an environmental thriller. The world is in danger this time from Radical Environmentalists. The book keeps swaying between interesting and boring. It gets even worse as its considerably bigger than the usual Michael Crichton books. There isn't really much of an adventure that is really worth it. Does a few incidents of
We made an elaborate plan to go to Mysore, and just like any other plan we didn't stick to it.
Initially the plan was to leave early in the morning but then there were some glitches and we finally settled on starting at 4pm saturday 25th Feb 2011. Plan also included that we all will go in Amar's car.
But then we were 6 of us and so i decided to take my bike too.A bike is obviously slower,
all the more with a pillion, on highways than a car, I started early at around 4.30 from Domlur and reached Nayandanahalli and joined the Mysore road . Here I filled up my bike's tank and started off at 5.20.
Its always fun driving in Mysore road . But as luck would have it right after Rajarajeshwari nagar there was an interceptor waiting for me.
I was doing just 70's and the traffic police didn't like that. After coughing up 300 bucks i continued my journey.
We had started after lunch and weren't hungry at all. I did get very thirsty at times. We stopped only 2 times before we reached Srirangapatna.
Now the initial plan was that the rest will come in the car and probably overtake us somewhere on the way.But we had reached Srirangapatna before them and they were still in Ramnagaram. So we halted in Srirangapatna and bought the booze.
A large old monk and a large vat 69.
There were hardly any decent shops for liquor . I am used to buying liqour in Madhuloka kind of shops and didn't really want to visit any of the dirty local shops. Srirangapatna came to the rescue with an average, but better than the rest, liquor shop. Then we started off with the liqour to mysore.
We had booked a hotel - The Viceroy in mysore. I wish i could write something good about the hotel but I can't. When we had called them and booked, they had quoted a price and when we reach there it increases by 500. We could have accepted that if we felt that the rooms were worth that much.
Simple facts - the bathroom leaked, the basin was partially clogged ,the TV's sound didn't work and picture quality was no good either. All this and it is located right across the Mysore Palace. I expected only good hotels to have such great locations.
Other things were ok but we certainly didn't feel it was worth the money. we decided on having dinner in the hotel as it was already quite late in the night. the food was below average . Right then we realized that we got the booze but forgot to get the soft drinks to mix it with. So we were roaming around the streets of mysore at around 10.30 for cold drinks.
It was not just disappointing but rather surprising. None of the shops had coke. Some shops had, but it wasn't cold. Finally i managed to get a 2 litre 7up and three 500ml pepsi.
Once back at the room we got cozy and started boozing. Things obviously got better after that. and for obvious reasons its hard to recall what all happened but some of the interesting things -
I usually mix every drink with 7up/sprite kind of drinks and ppl liked it this time . So that goes to my recommended list.
Someone feels that his nose is gone(yet again) and finds it amusing to rub his non existent nose on the pillow, obviously we did the same.
For some reason we started singing - handla glass , glassla scotch, eyes fullu tearu
All this resulted in some very memorable pictures which couldn't be uploaded due to their extremely embarrassing nature.
We slept off wondering what we'll do the next day. I got a bit less than 5 hours of sleep. I got up and found everyone in different states of awareness. Some were suffering from insomnia while some were certainly somniac.
We managed to wake everyone up and ready by around 11 . we checked out of the hotel. and went to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.
We finally decided we'll visit Chamundi hills . There is a temple at the top but we weren't going to the temple, certainly not after seeing the kind of queue there was . We got a decent view from the temple. We walked down a fleet of stairs to a view point .
Climbing back was excruciating, thanks to the alcohol induced dehydration and the dry sunny weather ..
We returned back to the city and had our favourite domino's pizza .
We saw the St. Philomena's church on the way but didn't go inside.
We decided that we'll visit Tipu's palace in Srirangapatna as it comes on the way. Neeraj drove my bike from Mysore to sri rangapatna and i got a much needed rest.
Tipu's palace is rather simple compared to the palaces they show in movies. It was peaceful and the only interesting artifacts inside the museum were the few weapons that were on display.
We sat outside in the garden , it was really peaceful except for a crow, which went away eventually.
I was pretty rejuvenated after this and we decided that for the sake of safety I'll drive solo and rest 5 will come in car. so we drove straight from Sriranga patna to the CCD after Ramnagaram.
On the way we saw some accidents, a truck had fallen on its side off the road, there was another where a car just drove off the road but no one was hurt, and then we hit a huge road block cause by a minor accident .
I hit a max speed of 110 kmphand but most of the times drove at around 80. Had to slow down after it was dark though. After some rest in CCD I came home and the others went to theirs.
At the end it was 307.9 km on the odometer . Now that's the longest I've ever driven in my life. And all this for only 7 liters of petrol.
I have always been fascinated by Airplanes and especially Air Crash Investigations. Airplanes are extremely complex and yet the incidents that happen never involve just a single reason. They are an example of perfect machinery. And yet its humbling how a series of mistakes can bring down a plane in seconds. This makes investigating Air Crashes very difficult and also interesting as its one thing to find a fault and a totally different ball game to find a series of errors , that caused something so tragic.
The book is about an Airline Airframe manufacturing Company. An Aircraft develops problems mid air and rises up and falls down steeply for several minutes causing a couple of deaths and dozens of serious injuries to passengers. No one is sure of how and why this happened. The investigation gets more complicated due to the labor unrest and corporate games.
In the middle of all this is Ms Singleton , whose job is on the line. She has to find the reason of the Aircraft's malfunction before the media destroys the credibility of the Airplane.
The story is bit of a drag in the first half of the book, but it gets really interesting towards the end. Happy Reading.
This was the 2nd time I was going on a BMC organized trip.
Why BMC?
Firstly it would be prudent to explain the reasons for choosing BMC.
There are at least 2 solid reasons for choosing bmc over a personal trip
You don't have the numbers.
The first time we went for a BMC trip it was just my friend Amar and me. Its difficult to organize a personal trip if its just 2 of us even worse if its 3. The mode of transport(bikes vs car) being the biggest problem. This time it was the simple fact of not being sure of how many might actually be turning up for the trip. we decided the number only a day before the actual trip.
You don't have the time to organize
This is the biggest problem. The most common request from all my friends is - abe kuch organize kar na(dude organize something).
Night Treks
Night Treks are inherently a bit risky and for security it is always a good idea to go in a big group.
Other than these there is always the fact that you get to meet new people and also BMC in this case is pretty well organized.
Rangaswamy Betta Night Trek
It was 5 of us who finally registered for the trip - Night trek to Rangaswamy Betta. This was my first Night Trek.
As it was supposed to be a night trek, we finished our dinner and got into the BMC bus. There were two tempo travelers which were almost full . The onward journey was quite uneventful and I had almost dozed off, when I realized that we have reached. It did seem like a short trip. We reached the base of the hill by 12.
It was pitch dark and there was no moon around . we realized later that it wasn't a new moon night but certainly close to a new moon night. So with no help form the celestial bodies, relying only on our torch lights we started the trek .
The temperature was quite cold but a minute into the trek and we were warm enough to forget that. We had taken a good amount of water and some chocolates and energy bars.
The guide told us that the elevation was of 60 degrees , it certainly didn't seem a difficult trek to me. There wasn't much of a view at night but at one point we could see some city (we later learnt that it was kanakpura) with lots of lights. It looked beautiful. We didn't take a camera good enough to take a picture of that.
The guide told us that the elevation would be 70 now and another km was left. Some of my friends were tired . The 70 degree elevation did prove to be a bit challenging so much so that reaching the top did feel like an achievement and a relief.
The hill is more like a plateau with a flat top almost the size of a playground and there is a temple built around a rock that acts as a roof.
Now we started feeling cold and I opened my bag to take out my jacket only to find that there was no jacket. I had managed to drop it in the cab. So I was left at the mercy of the winds.We started a campfire with the dry plants and logs. It was indeed a tasking job to keep bringing more of them to not let the campfire die. the fire was nice and warm and the only reason i didn't freeze to death.
There were various games that were played ranging from mafia to dumb charades and then most of us slept. I was awake the whole night as sleeping would have meant being frozen.
There was some movement at around 5 and i noticed that some kids came out of the temple and started their own fire.
We started talking to the kids who knew only Kannada (and Marathi too). We ended up singing and dancing with the kids and we also gave them chocolates. Turns out that they have a school in the temple.
They told us that the other side of the temple had a better view and indeed the hills covered in cloud did offer a good view.
Then came the eagerly awaited sunrise . It was pleasant to see a sunrise after a long time.
We left right after the sunrise. The kids started shouting bye bye when we were leaving.
The return journy was faster and we stopped for breakfast on the way. I slept the whole day after that.
Here are some other travelogues that I had read before going for this trip
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