Trance Sitar

Found this interesting type of playing sitar, the 'trance sitar'. I had earlier enjoyed Niladri Kumar's electric sitar performance, and this one is quite different extention of that experience. Not everyone is expected to like it though. Sounds much better if you minimize the video and use headphone.

watch (rather listen) it here.

For more information about the artist (Prosad) and trance sitar visit http://trancesitar.com/

(un)dressed to kill...

It takes a lot of talent to make a naked streetfighter bike look presentable! To make it look seductive requires even lot more efforts and understanding of proportions. And proportion does not necessarily mean golden proportion! Because as Francis Bacon Sr. says, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion". This is the Deus Ex machina SR542, based on Yamaha SR500.

Are you watching closely?

Yesterday, I gave up!

Yesterday, I decided to stop fooling myself.

One of the few things I did, was to change the morning alarm time from 5:40am to 6:30am.

I watched this movie 'The prestige', which just helped me to understands something in a little better way.

Life, as a trick, can be described in 3 stages. In the first satge, you see something, something you feel, can belong to you, to make your life better. In the second stage, you find 'that something' just doesn't exist, doesn't exist for you! But you are not fully surprised yet, rightly because in the third stage, you get that 'something' back! If you were watching closely, you would have found it's not the same thing you wanted in the first stage! It's illusion! But life, like magic, succeeds in surprising you, because you want to be surprised, you want to be fooled!

I have stopped fooling myself, if at all I am not doing so right now!

Are you watching closely?

Viramgaman

"Little more than 60km from Ahmedabad, there is this place Viramgam, an ancient town with fortification having five entrance gates. Munsar Tank, the finest example of civic architecture, is located on the western edge of the town. This is one of the largest man-made tanks in Gujarat, dating from the 11th (or 12th?) century. The tank epitomizes the fusion of hydraulic engineering and architectural aesthetic values of Minaldevi, who patronized the construction of this tank. The architectural style is similar to the Sahastralinga Talav of Patan. The shape of the tank is not a perfect rectangle, but like a Conch or Gomukh. Originaly there were 520 shrines on the bank of Munsar Tank, out of which 360 survive. Most of them are Shiva Shrines, along with a few Vaishnava Shrines. These shrines are typical of the early Chalukya architectural style. Each Shiva Shrine has 3 niches housing images of Mahakaal, Bhairava and Natesh. Two large twin temples, located in the middle of the south side, are also of great tourist interest. "
OK, what you all read above is taken from the great internet! So even I was quite eager to visit this munsar tank since a long time and finally managed to do so on 15th Aug 09. What me and sid got to experience can be best described as the pic below!

I mean, can you imagine the feeling of witnessing a dog peeing on the sexiest bike available and that too owned by you! But thats characteristic of this place! The carvings, sculptures, architecture is really good as described on the internet, especially the bigger twin temples with that layered wavy roof. We didn't count the number of small temples around the tank, not just because they were too many but because, to move around the place we had to be extremely cautious... some part of the place was functional as open-to-air public toilet of Viramgam! Sid and I was quite happy that the two girls, Pogo and Poorva refused to join us at last minute! But apart from the Munsar tank the trip was very nice, thanks to the extremely ride friendly weather and good road throught the ride! Even Sid was happy to ride whole 60km in one stretch which I never expected! :) ( may be because he was not riding his oldy goldy TVS victor but my Yamaha FZ... yes sadly the bike in the pic above!) The experience of riding on confusing narrow lanes of Viramgam was interesting, and so was the discovery of Sid's capability of conversing with buffaloes! We managed to enjoy. :)

For some good pictures visit my album on Orkut, and sid wil paste a link to facebook album in the comments, with some more interesting insights I guess.

(above pic is clicked by my 'dear friend' sid when I was on phone. Don't know whom to 'thank/blame', sid or the dog! both found the golden mean of their own passions)

When you love someone, you give them the right to hurt you.

Love makes you happy for no reason!

Ulfat ki Nayee Manzil ko chala...

After a long long time, a post which doesn't get a visual!!! :)
Lyrics by Qateel Shifai,
Singer: Iqbal Bano


Ulfat ki nai manzil ko chalaa, wo baanhein daal ke baanhon mein
Dil torrne waale dekh ke chal, hum bhi to parre hein raahon mein

Kya kya naa jafaaein dil pe saheen, par tum se koi shikwaa naa kiya
Iss jurm ko bhi shaamil kar lo, mere maasoom gunaahon mein

Jub chaandni raaton mein tu ne, khud hum se kiya iqraar e wafaa
Phir aaj hein kyoon hum begaane, teri berehem nigaahon mein

Hum bhi wohi tum bhi ho wohi, ye apni apni qismat he
Tum khell rahey ho khushion se, hum doob gaye hein aahon mein

Dil torrne waale dekhe ke chal, hum bhi to parre hein raahon mein

some dreams...

Some dreams, you don't want to remember,

the ones, you don't want to talk about.

There are some, better seen with your eyes tightly closed.

You don't want to open your eyes, and know, 'thats the truth'.

Some of them may be even pleasant, so much that you pretend to be sleeping.

but some, so horrible that they don't let you sleep.

In any case, it's better you keep your eyes closed,

if at all you get the choice!

My 10,000 km on Yamaha FZ 16 :)

4th Nov 2008 - 4th Aug 2009.
9 months 10,000 km Rs 10,000 of petrol!
everyday morning trips to office. :)
Dholka, Thol lake, Indroda nature park, Adalaj, Hathisinh temple, few aimless night rides. :)
photography (sadly I haven't clicked her enough properly, still searching for the dream model ;)
Top speed ride to Gandhinagar for Tabala concert.
one frightening oily skid recovery, :o
Please don't cut trees, they fall on bikes costing Rs. 3000 :(
my favourite slow turns, one crazy hairpin leaving NID parking challenging maximum lean angles. ;)
little tyre burnouts, hard front braking and clutchless gear-shifts (but still no stopies!) :(
everyday fast overtakes from Neharu circle to Shivaranjani bridge ;)
some of them causing my heart to beat as hard as enfield.
my pillion riders (almost everyone I wanted to be) ...... ;)
my dream pillion riders (menaka if not keira knightley) hehehehe ;)
Waiting for winter again, Modhera, Nal sarovar, Munsar tank still on plan only... :(
still planning for new paint scheme, performance kit, silencer etc
wish Vijay, Akash, sanjeev were around for unplanned trips... :(
Anyway now that I know her quite well, should take the experience few steps up ;)

Following is a video of my trip with Poorva on the never-ending thorny road (?) around Thol lake. The lack of road is quite visible, but it was a very amazing experience to ride to go nowhere....

keep dreaming... so that they come true!

"Motorcycle" by The Rumble Strips

If only this bike was a motorcycle
i wouldn't be moving so slow
if only this bike was a motorcycle
i'd be over half way home

as i move down the street i'd be looking so good
and i'd be gone in a blink of an eye...

if only this bike was a motorcycle..
if only this bike could..flyyyy...

sometimes when i'm riding along i forget where im going!
i start a dream that this little old bike is a big loud glistening speed machine
im getting chased everywhere i go
by hundreds of girls all fighting to show how much they love me
so i, pull over and give them a ride on my
fast moving, street cruising, geek losing motorbike!

but it's all just a dream..
im actually moving quite slowly..
air is nice and clean but my bicycle seat is so lonely...
it's so lonely this bike..

if only this bike....

oh if only this bike was a motorcycle
i wouldn't be sad anymore!
if only this bike was a motorcycle
i'd move down the street with a roar
we'll be wild, we'll be free!
just my motorcycle and me...
with a glint in my eye...
i'd show you that this little boy can really... flyyyyyyyyyyy!

Kal bhi, aaj bhi, Aaj bhi kal bhi...

kuchh rishte badalte nahi hai kabhi....

I got reminded of this 'VIP luggage' jingle while watching 'Love Aaj Kal'. Not just because it revolves around the two love stories in two different time frames, different cultures, different lifestyles but also, because while trying to narrate these diferences it manages to evoke very similar emotions for both! Feelings, going beyond time, places and cultures, have remained same. What is changing with time is our set of priorities, we are 'practical' people as Saif says. But what is beyond our control is our feelings, no matter how much we try to mask them with a 'practical' set of expressions, responses and decisions. The best part is, we do not realise all this so seriously while watching movie. What we do at that time is.. just enjoy the movie.

Yes, this is a very well made movie to enjoy. Certainly there are some thing you should ignore so as to enjoy. The locations and detailing in the scenes of the older love story are very nice and pleasant including body language of Saif. And so are the details, mostly cultural/verbal etc in the 'aaj' wala love story. By verbal I mean the openness of conversations between the 'aaj' couple shows a high contrast to that of 'kal' wala story. The seemingly random switching between two stories manages to simultaneously tease as well as entertain the audience. Songs are very nice. And most of us can relate to /enjoy some lines or dialogues etc. e.g saif saying after break-up, "mai jyada time dukhi nahi reh sakta yarr..."

Enjoy.

:)