Château de Versailles

Before the weekend story! I am sorry; I am not able to be in touch with friends and my blog friends, since I am not able to spend much time with my computer and internet! Reason… deadlines, August is summer holiday here, so, I need to finish writing a research article for publication, and also some more work for another two publications in which I am a co-author, I need to finish this before, everything comes to a stand still in August, but not to worry, I am relaxing in the weekends, with my friends and camera. This weekend me and Micha went to Versailles, which was the capital of France during Louis XIV - until the French revolution. Now it’s a beautiful suburbs of Paris and very touristy, you can see the long queue of people to visit the Château de Versailles (in the photo) the most wonderful feature of the French Château (Palaces) have huge gardens around the Château. Château de Versailles, the king of all Château also has a wonderful garden. Check out few pictures!

New Passion!

New passion which I picked up in Paris is photography. I guess Paris is a wonderful place for Photographers, both for clicking and exhibiting. My first inspiration is Arjun, who does photography as hobby, but nothing less than a professional, Next is Mahesh, a photography student, who took my portraits for his project.(yeah! that’s the portraits of me, taken by him. Yesterday he invited me for the photo exhibition in his school, 50 budding? photographers displayed their work, under different topics like photojournalism, fashion, portraits etc. it was just breath taking. Unfortunately I can’t share that complete experience with you, but you can have the taste of it, from the artist’s web site.

The Student's collection from yesterday's exhibition

Have a look at the my friends collections, the inspiration for my new passion. Arjun's - http://joune.free.fr/ and http://photos.joune.org/ Mahesh's - http://thecontrarian.in/photography/ Ok..Finally my collection! http://www.flickr.com/photos/umaheswari/

Banaras, the Spritual Heart of India!

Have you ever seen a movie back to back three times? I did it this weekend. I accidentally started seeing the movie Banaras, I had no idea about the movie before started seeing it, finally ended up seeing it twice on Saturday and once again on Sunday. I wanted to write about it in the blog, but I am still not able to figure out, what’s so special in that movie which didnt allow me to take my eyes and mind out of it. The movie is completely shot in Banaras (Varanasi) and in Sarnath,the picturization of the place is just magical; each frame takes you for a spiritual visit to those places. I guess its always difficult to express the spiritual feeling through dialogues or through acting in a movie, most of the spiritual movies ends up like a long boring preaching stuff, but this one, is done in such a way that it leaves the audience to perceive the spiritual experience by their own. The highlight of the movie is the dialogues of Nasrudin Shah, I guess the same spiritual essence of the movie, Matrix, is conveyed using short and crispy dialogues of Nasrudin Shah. Banaras a beautiful spiritual feast for eyes and mind. This movie was written and produced by L.C. Singh, president and CEO of an IT company, no wonder it’s less cinematic. Check out his Blog and the discussions with him...Thanks Meeta for the link...

Fête de l’Europe !

Today is Fête de l’Europe (Europe Day), May 9^th; Europe celebrates the formation of Europe Union. In 1950 on this day few countries of Europe united its coal and steel production it seems. In Paris the day is celebrated by painting (lighting) its major monuments in blue (I guess representing the Europe union flag). So, took my bike and camera and went for a mini city round to catch few pictures for you guys! It was really strange to see the monuments lighted blue, I enjoy the few aspects of Europe union, I can just jump into a bus or a train during the weekends and travel to the neighboring countries without wasting money on visa or currency exchange! So,Lets celebrate Fête de l’Europe with blue! More Pictures....

Light at the end of the Tunnel!

Yesterday was the very ‘successful’ day of flopped plans! First of all I was suppose to be in Swiss…..thats flop1. I thought I didn’t see an animation movie for a long time, so wanted to go for a French animation movie Kirikou, in a small little animation studio near my lab, where they screen animation movie for the kids on the weekends. I woke up early and was the first one in the studio at 10 am (too early for a Sunday right? ) till 10:30 they didn’t open the studio at all, no show yesterday it seems! ok..thats flop2... went to the lab and started writing a report.Its was first Sunday and all the musems in Paris are free. so, decided to go to Musée de l'Orangerie, read and saw some pictures in BBC news but forgot to notice that its scheduled to open only on may 17^th after 8 years of renovation. Ok with that 3 flops in hand and the saying “ Gods delay is not God’s denial” in mind(just like in this photo, which I took when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel), I meet Poonam for lunch, she was on wheels next to the seine, the road next to the river is closed for roller and bike on Sundays, as I was searching for her got some nice pictures of Paris bridges and in my evening walk in the Parc montsouris, I caught the picture of the platform, the place where I put my first step in Paris. Some more photos from the weekend.

E-Business

When I started learning computers, the first course I joined was for e-business, a fancy title but they just teach a RDBMS and a scripting language for webpage development. Even though I never applied that in doing e-business, I have developed some biological databases using that. But in day to day life we do lot of e-business, specially buying things online. I do a lot, sending gifts, buying tickets etc. but for the first time I sold something online, my tickets to Switzerland(since it was a non-refundable ticket). I put an advertisement in craigslist without much hope, but finally it worked. Thanks e-business!

Even though I mess up a lot with these non-refundable tickets, SNCF the train system in France is pretty good. On my way back from Milan this Monday, I took a evening fast train (TGV) It was almost 6 hours direct train, but it broke down just after an hour of departure and I have to make 4 changes in two small towns in Italy and France to finally reach Paris just by 3+ hours delay, even though it was bit tiring end of a long trip, I am getting my ticket money back. They have a different percentage of refunding based on the hours of delay, if its 3+ hours delay its 100% refunding + taxi charges to reach back home from the station. Isn’t it cool!

Freeing Intelligence!

I was going through some of JK’s thoughts today; I found this very impressive quote.

“The very first thing to do, if I may suggest it, is to find out why you are thinking in a certain way, and why you are feeling in a certain manner. Don't try to alter it, don't try to analyze your thoughts and your emotions; but become conscious of why you are thinking in a particular groove and from what motive you act. Although you can discover the motive through analysis, although you may find out something through analysis, it will not be real; it will be real only when you are intensely aware at the moment of the functioning of your thought and emotion; then you will see their extraordinary subtlety, their fine delicacy. So long as you have a "must" and a "must not," in this compulsion you will never discover that swift wandering of thought and emotion. And I am sure you have been brought up in the school of "must" and "must not" and hence you have destroyed thought and feeling. You have been bound and crippled by systems, methods, by your teachers. So leave all those "must" and "must nots." This does not mean that there shall be licentiousness, but become aware of a mind that is ever saying, "I must," and "I must not." Then as a flower blossoms forth of a morning, so intelligence happens, is there, functioning, creating comprehension.”

-JK

Most of the time, with our limited knowledge define “must” and “must not” and the worst thing is when we try to impose it on other, thinking that its compassion, love or helping someone. We might have learnt from our elders that we “must not” play in the mud. now can we try to apply to a frog, which is happily playing around in the mud? Is it worth worrying about the frog?If we react for the frog, its just because we are in love with compassion than having compassion for the frog? Is that a compassion or arrogance and egoistic belief in our Intelligence? Can this “must” and must nots” stand steadily in the tough hands of “Time and Space”?Lets, Free our intelligence from “must and must nots”.

Under the Tuscan Sun!

I was in Italy - Pisa, Florence and Milan last weekend. Ullas and Priya joined me in Florence, and I was roaming around in Pisa and Milan with my camera catching the beautiful Tuscany and the Fashion capital Milan. It was wonderful. It’s not so difficult to fall in love with the Italian flood, people, art, culture and the nature. Centuries old Museums, Cathedrals, Monuments and masterpieces of Michelangelo, Leonardo proudly stand hand in hand under the Tuscan Sun! Slide Show of more photos!