Too lazy to search for a Bangla font, so here goes:-

"Achena Path, andhakare,
Mon royechhcey, bondho dyare.
Ekla amar potho chola,
Aaj shesh holo mor miththey bola.
Moner majhe meghla akash
Tai aaj theke mor agyatobash..."

You can take a Bengali out of Bengal, but you can't take Durga Pujo out of his heart. This is the first time in my life when I'll not be able to hear rumblings of dhaak; this is the first time I'll not be able to watch dhunuchi naach, and bow down before Ma Durga. However being thousands of miles away from home doesn't really take the feeling of Durga Pujo out of a Bengali's heart. Today is Panchami, and even though I can't see the Kaashful sway gently in the breeze, I can somehow smell them. Even Though I can't hear the dhaak, my heart still dances to its beats.Although I am thousands of miles away from home, my head still bows down before Ma Durga. The very thought that it is Durga Pujo is enough to make me happy. It makes my heart sway and adds a certain gallop to my steps and makes me chirpy :).
Durga Pujo has never been a mere religious festival to me. And I had once said that Durga Pujoy Kolkata Las Vegas keo haar manay. Today I can say that Kolkata during Durga Pujo is not only more beautiful than Las Vegas, but the entire world. And as I close my eyes, somehow I am taken back to those streets I had walked down as a kid, and the sounds of pushpanjali and dhaak fill my ears, the smell of dhunuchi and dhup fill my senses... and I am there, a seven year old, holding my Mom's hand, waiting for the Pushpanjali to start..

If you're the type who gets offended easily, and has no sense of humor... please stop reading now.

You are an Indian in Trento if:-

1) You carried a 5 Kg pressure cooker from India even though your luggage limit was 20 Kg.
2) You think Pizza hut/corner made better pizza than the ones found in Trento.
3) Your Pasta tastes like noodles back home.
4) Your Italian is very minimal and you always resort to English after 2 sentences.
5) You look at the girls and wish at least one of them would sleep with you.
6) You look at the guys and realize why the girls won't.
7) You still think that the drunk girl who kissed you at the party would have gone to bed with you if you could speak Italian.
8) You know someone who has dropped out from either a Masters or PhD.
9) You have tried to travel in the bus without punching your ticket.
10) You know who Manish is, and often refer to him for either Italian translation, advice or help.
11) You have at one point of time while reading this post, smiled because you could relate, and have cursed me too.

Singer : Joe Cocker.
WoodStock 1969

In 1969, Joe Cocker resang the Beatles "With a little help from my friends"... Here's what he sounded like:-




And the Original Beatles version:-




The actual Lyrics ( believe it or not, he was actually singing this):-

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me ?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

What do I do when my love is away
(Does it worry you to be alone ?)
How do I feel by the end of the day,
(Are you sad because you're on your own ?)

No, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody
I need somebody to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.

Would you believe in a love at first sight
Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time
What do you see when you turn out the light
I can't tell you but I know it's mine,

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody
I just need someone to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
with a little help from my friends.

Well it has been quite some time since I wrote my last post. Quite a few things have happened in the last few days:-
1) Went on two hiking trips. One to Monte Calisio and the other to Pinzolo... Italy is beautiful. Have been meaning to blog about those trips ever since...
2) Was able to go past ciao, come stai and bene with my Italian... have added words like per favore, arrivederci, adesso and piutardi to the list :P
3) Finally got the specification from CSS... so its hard work now.
4) Completed my PhD application on the last day... so no hope of getting through - there have been over 1500 applications for this year :(
5) Started reading another of Robin Cook's medical thrillers... I am hooked on to RC :)
6) High time I started job hunting... Don't want to end up jobless...
7) The weather is enchanting... low hanging clouds, cool breeze, slight drizzle... I hate to be alone :(
8)Oh.. I missed the Miss Trentino regional finals :(

As promised: Click on this to view more pics on flickr

The last time I had watched a beauty pageant live was when I watched a few girls trying to catwalk on my Engineering college amphitheatre ( spot the Italian connection? ) way back in 2003. Last night had everything which that beauty pageant did not have. While I do not even remember the faces, leave alone the names of the participants or the winners of the 2003 contest, last night's faces will be imprinted on my mind for quite some time to come.

The evening began with the models swaying to the Pussycat Dolls' version of AR Rahman's Jai Ho. It was pretty funny listening to AR Rahman's music being performed on a stage in Italy where leave alone Hindi or Tamil, most of the people don't even understand English. So albeit the curses everyone had bestowed on Danny Boyle for his portrayal of India, I felt proud to hear the music play and was glad that the Slumdog had helped make a few millionaires.

You can find the video of the dance at:-


Sony DSC H9 does provide a decent video clarity.

As the evening progressed, and the models sashayed down the ramp first in Evening gowns, then in beachwear, and later in wedding gowns, all we could do was stare at them, mesmerized.

All of us had our favorites, and unfortunately I had to be satisfied with my favourite one Valeria Simonetti winning the fourth position with the title of Miss Peugeot.

The fight was down to Stefania Deval and Valentina Targa for the crown. But the 17 year old blonde Valentina Targa won hands down. She had the charm and grace of a beauty queen and exuded a lot of charisma as she walked down the ramp with the crown.


I have uploaded the two videos for the ones who missed the show. I'll also upload a few pics for the unfortunate ones.

I am looking forward to the regional finals Miss Trentino Alto Adige which will be held on the 8th of July at Piazza Duomo in Trento

I have nothing better to do right now. I spent the entire morning trying to model a toy ontology using WSMO... if you don't understand what that is... welcome to the league.
Then I started googling (google has become one of those brand names like xerox which has replaced the by the product name... Genericized trademarks ... blah blah if you know what I mean :P)
about random things. I came across a site where people ask for self-help advice... mind it I was not looking for self-help ... I guess even God can't help me with WSMO :P. Anyway I came across somebody who had posted the following question:-
"Someone help me…
How can i suicide with little pain?
Give me suggestions."

I went DUH ??? Well anyway, my curious self read on to see what people had answered. While most of the people went about trying to deter him/her from the act of committing suiced a few actually suggested methods.

Here are the relevant answers:-

1) "blow yourself up it will be awesome" -- huh??? Now how does he know it'll be awesome??? What if its not???

2) "jumping off a tall building is painless. try landing on your head. good luck" -- Just to ensure that you are not lightheaded you can shove your head up your ass... that way you're sure to die, either from the fall or whatever...

3)"Take a handful of Tylenol PM and go to sleep with a garbage bag tied around your neck." -- I don't know about the Tylenol, but I'd surely die from the smell of garbage ( advice:- don't use a fresh bag )

4) "Buy 12 ecstacy pills. Take all at once. Goodluck." -- Is this what you call to die out of happiness??? Would he be ecstatic to die???

5) "die by old age" -- by far the best one... but when can you say that you're "old enough to die :P" ?

My suggestions:-

1) Time travel back to when you were a kid and nuke yourself ( I mean your young-self... or whatever)

2) Go and tell your girlfriend that you're sleeping around with her best friend - death will be instantaneous - don't know about the painless part though.

3) If your eyebrows are joined like mine, then on a full moon night imagine that you've turned into a werewolf and eat yourself.

On a more serious note, here are a few quotes on dying:-

"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours. " - Yogi Berra.

"I don't believe in dying. It's been done. I'm working on a new exit. Besides, I can't die now— I'm booked. I can't afford to die— I'd lose too much money." -George Burns

"They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad to realize that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days." - Garrison Keiler

"If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the up button. " - Sam Levenson

"When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once." - Samuel Butler.

"At my age I do what Mark Twain did. I get my daily paper, look at the obituaries page and if I'm not there I carry on as usual." - Patrick Moore.

"I want to die like my grandfather, peacefully in his sleep, not screaming and terrified, like his passengers. " --Bob Monkhouse

I was digging through an old diary last night which I had carried with me to Italy. One entry written sometime in 2000 struck me. I must have scribbled in down in a fit of frenzy over being heartbroken by some girl, movie-star, fender-stratocaster-I-might-not-have-been-able-to-afford; or I might have been generally pissed off with life. Really don’t remember the circumstances under which I had penned this down.
I googled out the lines and realized that every odd line is from a poem from the movie “A walk to remember”. I remember having watched it a long time back. Now that I think about it, it was a very beautiful movie.
Nevertheless, here goes:-

I hate love
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is screwed up, love is blind
Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.
Love will someday kill you and also be your shroud
Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not become angry easily.
Love just pisses you off immensely...
Love does not remember wrongs done against it.
Love just counts the number of times you've not been right
Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with truth.
Love is a virus that spreads through bluetooth.
Love bears all things, believes all things,
Just can’t bear you and believe a single word you say
hopes all things, endures all things.
The worst to endure is love itself
Love never fails
But can screw you enough to make life hell

Disclaimer: This poem in no way reflects my true feelings about love :P. It was written ages back.

Repeat hundred times "I will not waste spend sleepless nights watching Heroes"

for ( i=0;i<100;i++)
System.out.println("I will not spend sleepless nights watching Heroes");


5 Episodes down... and its almost 4 in the morning.

For the people interested in watching Season 3 online, here's the link:-
Heroes Season 3 view online

I prefer watching DVD ripped versions though :)