Michael learns to Fish

From LOST : Season 2 - Episode 39

When Mr. Eko is about to speak to the prisoner, John warns him not to reveal too much

John Locke, "If the alarm goes off, don't tell him what it's for."
Mr. Eko, "What is it for? "

Nobody knows unfortunately and thats true for our unanswered curiosities.

posted by Nev @ 3:16 AM 0 comments

Was listening in to Bob Dylan and watching the news about the Virginia Shootout...

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Labels: Music

posted by Nev @ 5:18 AM 0 comments

How many deaths would it take to ban firearms in US.
Seems like 22 is not enough in a day nor is 50000 people wounded in a year.

posted by Nev @ 11:45 AM 0 comments

Hamster Tales

Here’s a conversation between Nev’s Uncle and a Vet about a poor little hamster

Uncle: “Hi, My hamster seems to be sick. He is very sluggish, doesn’t move around much and is sleepy all the time.”
Vet: “I am free on Tuesday. Bring him in and I’ll take a look.”
Typical Indian Uncle: “Ok, Hmm… How much will it cost …. ?
Vet (without missing a heartbeat): “65 dollars.”
Really Typical Indian Uncle thinking to himself: “Damn! I could have got 4 hamsters for the same price.”
Vet: “By the way, how old is your hamster.”
Uncle (who is now thinking of the 65 dollars and missing work for half a day): “Huh, He is about …. Not sure … 29 months I think.”
Vet: “Are you sure? If that’s correct, then forget about bringing him here. He lived his age you know… most hamsters live for only 2 years. Find a proper burial site for him.”

I don't think Uncle was elated at saving 65 dollars. Sometimes there isn't any good news at all... just good memories.

The old hamster passed away and got a decent burial in the backyard.

posted by Nev @ 1:04 AM 0 comments

Day 5 - Chennai Trip - Visiting Velankanni ... and back again

5:30 am
We woke up to the joyous singing and celebration that could be heard even though we were atleast a kilometer away from the Church. The entire place seemed filled with divinity and purity and for a moment you actually felt waking up in Heaven.

7:30 am
We headed straight to the Church Canteen for breakfast. Idlis and Dosas were available at very low rates and I was amazed how they could feed atleast 2000 people on any given day and tens of thousand on special days.

We decided to visit the museum from where we could take some pics of the Church. We thought that we would just spend 5 min looking at the artifacts and then rush to the Church. But we were simply amazed at the sheer number of thanksgiving letters, petitions from people around the world. The museum seemed small but hosted an array of letters in praise and thanksgiving to Our Lady for all the blessings and favors received. Some said that they were blessed with a new job, some thanked Our Lady for enabling them to build a new house. There were some letters which had pictures of people standing next to their new house. Some even built miniature models of their house and cars. There were numerous photocopies of degree certificates attached with some letters. Some even sent photos of their new workplace, a captain on a ship, a pilot in the air force, a retired army personnel sent his badges and thanked Our Lady for being there with him always. I can’t remember the seeing so many pictures of little babies and children that were born to parents after many years of marriage. And as many letters that I read, there were atleast 100 times that number of letters that I couldn’t understand since they were in Malyalam, Tamil and other regional languages. Our Lady had touched so many people in so many different ways.

9:30 am
We headed to the Church for a quick prayer and then to the souvenir shop, where we bought a delicately crafted artwork resembling the Last Supper of Jesus and his twelve disciples.

10:am
Quick visits to the Confessionary and the place where Our Lady was first seen to the little buttermilk-boy. Every place that we visited was simply immaculate.

10:30 am
Our Final stop was the Our Lady’s Tank, the place where we collected Holy Water and said our final prayers. As we were looking at the entire campus, we were angry at ourselves for not being able to spend more time in God’s place. On our way back to our waiting car, we saw people making a wish and tying a handkerchief to several low hanging trees, something very ethnic, yet very beautiful to see.

10:45 am
We were back in the car driving away and we made a small wish that we would come back and spend more time over here.

11:15 am
We took a different route and passed Nagapattinam beach this time. The telltale reminders were still there, as we watched several boats and houses completely wrecked by the Tsunami. Bridges lay completely destroyed as we sped past on newly constructed roads and flyovers.

12 pm
Got an SMS and then a call from the Airlines, informing us about a delay of around 2 hours. Damn!! If only we had known earlier then we could have been there for some more time.

12:30 pm
We passed the industrial belt SIPCOT that simply reeked of bad chemicals in the air. Zipped pass many engineering colleges and ofcourse an MGM college too.

2 pm
Strangely we decided to stop at the same place for lunch and we simply enjoyed the meal. No more complaints from me about eating off a banana leaf and without a spoon. The meal was delicious as before and we thanked the couple of people who ran the restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

5:30 pm
Reached Chennai and stopped over at an old couple whom we met in Mumbai. We hungrily devoured their sandwiches and gulped down the tea and had quite a bit to tell them about our trip.

8 pm.
Made our final journey to the airport and luckily there were no delays. Our flight which was scheduled at 830pm finally left at 10 pm. There was an earlier flight at 6:30 pm which I was tempted to book before undertaking the trip. That flight was also delayed and only left at 1:30 am in the morning. Thanked the Lord for our good luck.

12 am
Touched down at Mumbai which was mighty scary since the plane bounced a couple of times, but no one seemed to care and everyone was rushing to the door even before the plane stopped. Now the tricky part was finding a rick that would take us home. One of the curses of staying close to the airport :)

posted by Nev @ 12:33 AM 0 comments

Day 4 - Chennai Trip - Visiting Velankanni

Something about Chennai made us get up early everyday. This time, we had to travel around 350 kms by a rented car to a holy place called Velankanni. Well we were excited and decided to leave at 8 am after breakfast at Murugans.

Once we got out of the city, we took the scenic route also called the ECR or East Coast Road. Unlike the boring Mumbai-Pune expressway, this road passes through some of the most amazing sights with beautiful crystal clear beaches on the left and villages and rice plantations on the right. We were crusiing down the highway and I saw this guy on a moped who was probably carrying around 60-70 metal pots all wrapped in a fishing net and tied to the rear seat. We zipped passed Mahabalipuram which incidentally had a name changed to Mamallapuram and reached Pondicherry. After 3 hrs of non-stop travel, we decided to stop for lunch. Of all the high expectations that I had of Pondicherry, of the scenic beauty , the French style buildings… I was disappointed. It seemed like any other town in India with unfriendly people OR maybe we didn’t explore enough.

We seemed to be the only people in the restaurant and made an awful mess of the table eating out on a Banana leaf and without spoons. I swore I was never going to eat on the leaf again.

Got back in the car and the poor driver kept driving and driving and driving and we passed small towns and big towns and small temples and some really large temples that were bang in the middle of the road.

Finally we reached Nagapattinam district, the place that was severely affected by the Tsunami in Dec 2004. We saw a lot of rehabilitation projects and houses that seemed to be recently built. Finally we reached Velankanni at 4:30 in the evening and checked straight into a hotel. A short rest and we walked towards the Church past many stalls selling eatables and wax offerings and garlands and candles.

The Church was simply beautiful. It reminded me of the Mount Mary’s church in Bandra, only difference this was even taller and plain white that it just resembled a place of purity and piety and with the faint singing of the choir and bells chiming away, you just feel a divine presence as you move closer.

Once inside, the old church looks very traditional, with very few pews and mostly everyone sitting on the ground. We bought a few offerings and made our way towards the center of the Church. Never before did I see so many people praying so fervently for maybe favors or perhaps in thanksgiving or maybe simply for a good health. I heard this statement once before “I complained that my shoes hurt until I saw a man without feet.” When you see so many people praying devoutly, some on crutches, some without limbs, others all alone, all your problems suddenly seem to be insignificant or miniscule in comparison and yes after a long tiring journey, I forgot all about the pain in my feet.

We trudged back to our hotel as darkness came over quickly promising to return early morning to see the entire campus.

posted by Nev @ 12:27 AM 0 comments

Indian Cricket reaches its lowest point

With so much media attention given to the India's defeat and tons of people being interviewed and rumours flying around, it didn't take too long for some of the players and administrators to get their 5 minutes of publicity and make their emotive feelings known. Sadly if only they had played better we would have remembered and cherished it all. With Sachin's comments being twisted, taken out of context and made to look he was slamming Greg Chappell, it was all over with Greg turning his back on Indian Cricket. We have reached our lowest point .... so far.... and sadly we haven't hit rock-bottom yet.

Labels: Cricket

posted by Nev @ 1:59 AM 0 comments

Chennai Trip -- Day 3: Wedding day.

But yes, Raghu & Helen’s wedding, did get me up early and we scooted in a rick to an unknown destination through a dark tunnel (to the faint-hearted – Subway) and narrow roads where even Ollie would have found some difficulty walking. Finally reached the splendid Green Park hotel and was drawn to the wedding by the smoke emanating from the sacred fire.

Raghu looked like he could use a T-shirt and jeans and Helen looked simply sparkling. With most Christian weddings it’s a simple exchange of rings, with some South-Indian weddings, it’s a toe ring that is adorned on the bride to symbolize that she is now married. After quite a bit of difficulty, the women folk managed to slip the ring through Helen’s toes and were roundly applauded by all the men folk. Nice joke!!!

It was funny watching Helen(since she was a protestant by birth) go through the motions but she seemed quite excited about the whole thing. Unfortunately her husband did not seem all that excited. I guess we can blame it on the late night booze party :)

The good thing about most Hindu weddings is that you can spend about 10 min watching the wedding and then next 20 min having lunch/dinner. A friend of mine once told me the most important part of any marriage is the Photo-session. Make sure you have your pic taken with the bride and groom which is like the attendance muster or in web parlance… guestbook!

After what seemed like pure torture for Raghu, he was finally able to put down the garland of thorns … I mean roses too and started counting his bruises. Poor Chap !!!
Quite a memorable day though for him and Helen.

After lunch, we hopped onto another 3 wheeler but not before I told the driver the destination and the fare that I was going to pay… only 40 bucks and not more than that. Well we reached our hotel just fine, but the driver suddenly turned hostile and strated mumbling words like 100 and 60 and the word 40 seemed to be some disease that he kept shaking his head and then gave me the choicest Tamilian gaalis when I chose to walk away from him and headed inside to our hotel. He followed us to the lobby and then after 5 min of verbal exchange between him and the receptionist, I finally paid up and extra 5 bucks and this time I was shaking my head.

Afternoon snooze and in the evening went out for a walk … we didn’t dare take a rickshaw :) . Bought a few souvenirs for folks at home and came back to our hotel.

posted by Nev @ 12:39 PM 0 comments

Chennai Trip - Day 2

Day 2: Got a call from the groom who decided to check in and see if we were doing just fine. He also woke us up. Had breakfast across the street at Murugans and then went for a lazy walk around Panagal garden. Saw nothing but Silk & Jewelry shops. Came back to our hotel, had lunch and snoozed for an hour. Lunch was at a Bombay style restaurant and did have some spoons.

Hired a cab and went sight-seeing in Chennai. First stop, St. Thomas Hill, the place where St. Thomas lived and died. A beautiful serene place overlooking the entire city and airport nearby. Quick prayer at the old chapel and visit to the souvenir shop and we were back in the car escaping the heat and humidity. On the way down the hill, saw people walking up the hill on their knees!!! Also on the way down, saw a marvelous statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched just like the one in Rio-de-Janerio.

Next stop, the snake park near IIT. Interesting place, nice well fed snakes, but they gave us the creeps and we bid goodbye to some alligator, gharials, pythons and snakes that were camouflaged and couldn’t see them. I suspect the park officials removed them after they died. No I am just kidding.

We then went to the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni in Chennai. This was close to the sea-shore. They were many people praying devoutly and a constant stream that was making their way to the sanctuary of the Church bare-feet.

Next stop, the magnificent St. Thomas Cathedral, which looks stupendous to say the least. It has one of the tallest spires that I have ever seen and it reaches straight up into the sky. . A large grotto which I think resembles “Our Lady of Lourdes” greets all visitors On a large Marble stone is engraved the Ten Commandments and The Beatitudes.

Inside, the church has some beautiful statues of St. Peter and Our Lady of Mylapore. The museum has an excellent collections of coins, artifacts from the 14th-17th century. Stone carving, chairs, pots & earthen-ware, portraits and paintings and weapons like spears takes you back in time. The highlight of this Cathedral is the magnificent painting of St. Thomas with the resurrected Lord and the words adorning it … “My Lord and My God.” Inside the museum basement lays hidden, a large chapel which has an altar built on the tomb of St. Thomas. The Cathedral is built exactly on top of this chapel and if you are in the Church, you can actually see the tomb by looking down through the center aisle.

The Cathedral has some excellent paintings that are in good condition even now. Final stop of the day, and the very long strip of sand… called Marina Beach. Seemed like a never-ending strip with atleast a hundred thousand people. Ok I did not count and I am just guessing but it looked like one of those shots that you see on Discovery with all the wildebeest gathered to cross the Serengiti.

For the first time in my life, I was facing the sea and watch the Sun go down behind me. It wasn’t a beautiful sight and nothing compared to Juhu beach Sun-set, but I suppose Sunrise at Marina would simply be awesome. Even that thought couldn’t get me out of bed early next morning.

posted by Nev @ 12:35 PM 0 comments

Chennai trip - Day 1

Somewhat inspired by my friend Brij, decided to document my trip to Chennai and Velankanni late January.

Day 1: Departure from Mumbai at 8:30 pm

Surprisingly the flight left on time and without much hassles we reached Chennai at 10 pm. The ride from the airport to our hotel was incident-free and we did glance nervously around when the driver took us through some narrow bylanes presumably to avoid traffic.

10:30 pm
Got a call from the bride-to-be who checked in to see if we reached – which was pretty nice of her to remember. We reached our Hotel and checked in. Not a great hotel but good enough to sleep in. No roaches and no rats and everything else was fine.

11:30 pm
Our tummies were growling at this moment and the few eatables that we carried unfortunately turned bad and we had to throw it away. The restaurant in the hotel was shut and we had to leave the hotel and dine in a shady restaurant across the road. We ordered Chicken Chettinnad and some dosas. And both of us got a shock when we had to eat off a Banana leaf and with our hands!!!!

I'll remember to pack some spoons next time I visit South India

posted by Nev @ 12:26 PM 0 comments