Ramesh' birthday bash at rediff

Ramesh' birthday bash at rediff, Mumbai

Ramesh' birthday bash at rediff

Ramesh' birthday bash at rediff, Mumbai

Rehearsal at St Michael Church

Music rehearsal by kids at the legendary St Michael Church, Mumbai



St. Michael Church at Lady Jamshedji Road, Mahim, Bombay

Ganesh Festival 2008 at Mumbai

Ganesh immersion 2008 in Arabian sea at Girgaon Chowpatty beach, Marine Drive, Mumbai.




This is the first movie from my new Sony handycam. Its a cool model with 40x optical zoom! (digital zoom is 2000x). It doesn't have the hassles of video cassette and DVD..
It has a kewl 30 GB hard disk.

Homeless in Mumbai

This is the video of a woman whose family lives on street at Opera House.

They make a living by collecting and selling raddi.

When they don't have money, they beg. Or collect elusive currency coins at Chowpatty beach near Marine drive in Mumbai.

Ganesh Festival 2008 at Mumbai

Ganesh immersion 2008 in Arabian sea at Girgaon Chowpatty beach, Marine Drive, Mumbai.




This is the first movie from my new Sony handycam. Its a cool model with 40x optical zoom! (digital zoom is 2000x). It doesn't have the hassles of video cassette and DVD..
It has a kewl 30 GB hard disk.

Street Life Part - 1

This is the video of a woman whose family lives on street at Opera House.

They make a living by collecting and selling raddi.

When they don't have money, they beg. Or collect elusive currency coins at Chowpatty beach near Marine drive in Mumbai.

My brand new web site and blog!

Today is an occasion for multiple celebrations. First of all it is my sister's birthday. Then it is Gahesh Chaturthi. I started my new website krishna-reddy.com. And a colleague has become father for the first time. So much to celebrate on a single day!

Ganapati Bappa Morya!


Ganesh Pandal at Mahim, Mumbai

Over the next few days I will upload more photos/videos of Lord Ganesh especially from Mumbai. So watch out this space.

Bandra Worli Sea Link

A very nice coverage of Bandra Worli Sea Link and Mumbai city in general.



Also see Mumbai sky scrapers update on Skyscrapercity.com

Miracle at St Michael Church, Mahim, Mumbai

Miracle... Miracle... Jesus Christ bleeds !!
Where: St.Michael Church in Mahim, Mumbai - 400016
When: on 27.6.08 (Feast of our lady of perpetual succour)
What: A red colored liquid, resembling blood started oozing out of the heart of Jesus Christ 's picture. Thousands from all faiths flocked to witness this "miracle".

Here is its video..

Mahim - the happening place

Bandra-Worli Sea Link in the making

View mukhtartamboli786' s map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

Mahim, the part of Mumbai, where I live, has always been in news... For all possible reasons.
Be it Bandra Worli Sea Link across the Mahim Creek, dubbed as one of the India's engineering marvels or Mumbai bomb blasts.
Ariel view of Bandra and Mahim behind the Mahim creek in Mumbai.

A few days ago flamingos were spotted in Mithi river in Mahim Creek.
3 years ago thousands of people flocked to the Mahim creek, in the middle of the night, with buckets to taste the sea water that had suddenly turned sweet, a miracle attributed to 14th century's Sufi Saint Baba Makhdoom Ali Mahimi!

Mahim is now again in news for a similar reason... another divine miracle.
This time its the legendary St. Michael's Church that is in news.
Today "Bleeding" Christ is drawing thousands to the Church!
There is a 500 meter queue around the Church near my office to catch a glimpse of the miracle.

Beware: Mumbai Traffic Police tows away your vehicle

Mumbai Traffic Police, a short film by Krishna Reddy, at Mahim, Mumbai
(Pause the song at the bottom and view this video.)

See in this video, how faded and unreadable the parking signs are!
As it is, parking space is scarce in Mumbai. To top it all, Mumbai Traffic Police ruthlessly tows away your vehicles in a few moments that you are away from your vehicle! The hight is the police themselves park their vehicles on the wrong side for hours causing traffic congestion.
Hapeless car owners - beware!

Diary at a wee hour

I checked my watch.
Oops its Wednsday....
And it is 23:30 hrs!

O my God..
I changed my clothes and rushed to the Legendary St Maichael Church.
I went there and did what I wanted and had to do.
Then I noticed, as usual, people "walking" in kneeling position down to the front.

I wanted try it out and see what it feels like.
So I started the 200 hundred feet "walk" what later seemed like journey of a life time.
I finished 25% easily. Then my knees started hurting like hell... like I can't move forward..
Its impossible; I thought of giving up.

But I decided.. giving up a small thing like this will amount to giving up on your passions.
Without standing up, I sat in Vajrasan for a few seconds and resumed my "journey".
After sevaral "breaks" and "walks", it looked like I was close.
I looked back to see how much percentage I had covered. Oh, it is 50% only.
So equal or more amount of pain is remaining.
Finally I made it.

On my way back I checked my watch.
Oops again.. Its past 12 midnight, 28th Feb.
I called up Tenzing and said, "I need to meet you urgently. Come immediately."
Perplexed at my phone call at this odd time Tenzing said, "But I am at home".

Then I said, "I don't care, I want you immediately at office.. Bole to happy birhtday".
I aksed how and with whom he was celebrating.
He said "girlfriend no 1 to 7... coz seven is the lucky number".
February has been full of birthdays and parties. Well, every day in this year has been a celebration since beginning which satrted with a BIG BANG.

I walked past the bustling Mahim railway station.
I found a chaiwalla with his bicycle.
I picked up my favorite coffee in a disposable cup.
Then I saw a passing local train at this odd hour, which you find every one and half minutes.
This took me back to a memories of the past.

No hour is an odd hour for Amchi Mumbai. Mumbai never sleeps, I love the way it is!
Mumbai recovers from a disaster any magnitude, within hours.
And Mahim, one of the most happening places - both good and bad; ordinary and extraordinary.
Life in its fullest contrast.

On this side of the railway track, you have one of the world's costliest areas with plush and tall buildings.
You pay Rs 40 thousand a month for to rent an slightly above-average size flat.
And this average is smaller than that of similar flats in other Indian cities.
Small b'Coz Mumbai iland can grow only vertically.

On the other hand there is Asia's biggest slum Dharavi (next only to the wolrd's biggest one in Brazil), on the other side of the railway track.
What an asset for India's financial capital (a city that generates the country's 40% revenue) to take pride in!

One and half years ago Mahim was the worst hit place in the parallel bomb attacks on local trains, which is India's worst ever terrorist attacks.
That day happened to be Guru Purnima. I was about to board the one of the seven ill fated trains that was blasted in the next station.
Some how I postponed my trip for a few minutes on the pretext of work.
When I went to the station, I found it sealed by the police.
Workers were bringing out a few corpses wrapped in white cloth.
I assumed that it was a routine train accident and decided to catch a cab/bus to Vile Parle, where the function was happening.

When I went to the Lady Jumshedji Road, there was a chaos everywhere, which I assumed as the routine Mumbai traffic.
Actually I did'nt notice it untill a gentleman asked me "Kya hua? Log idhar udhar kyon bhag rahe hain?".
That is when I noticed something is wrong and found out that bombs blasts happened.
No cabbie was ready to come or is already engaged.
All the buses were fully packed as Mumbai's life line - local trains on the Western Railways had stopped.

ZZZZZZZZZ sleep time... have to stop the story abruptly. Phir break ke baad milenge

Techfest 2008 at IIT Bombay

Check out this year's (25-27th Jan 2008) Techfest (Asia's Largest Technology Festival) at IIT Bombay.

As usual, it has cool competitions, workshops, lecture series, loads of fun, exhibitions, initiatives, robotics, Barcamp etc.

Enjoy!

Techfest links:

http://www.techfest.org/home/

http://www.google.com/search?q=techfest

http://www.techfest.org

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awikipedia.org+techfest

http://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/services/events.htm

http://www.iitb.ac.in/events/techfest.html
Techfest at rediff search
http://search1.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=techfest

Earlier speakers included rediff.com's founder and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan, Narayana Murthy, John Nash, Sir Roger Penrose, Abdul Kalam, Sam Pitroda, Richard M. Stallman, Jayant Narlikar, Vinod Dham etc

This year's speakers:

Dr. R K Pachauri Chairman, IPCC (Joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize)	Jimmy Wales History of Wikipedia
Robert E. Kahn Father of Internet	Henry F. Schaefer Big Bang Theory, Stephen Hawkings, God
Dr. Dinesh Keskar Boeing 787 - 'The Dreamliner'	Blaise Aguera y Arcas Sea Dragon, Photosynth
Sylvester James Gates, Jr. Supersymmetry Theory

Hyderabad blues and "celebrations"

On 31st December, I had got up at 5 am (ooops!!!!) to pick up my nieces Snigdha and Jnanadha from Lonavala. Getting up early was not as difficult as I imagined it to be, especially because I got myself woken up by my aunt from Hyderabad through phone!
Not that I had never woken up early but it has always been tough task to rise early.
Well, getting up in "Brahmamuhurt" has always been a dream still unfulfilled.
Ideally every day I would get up at 3:30 am every day, then go for jog, come back and take shower, then do Yoga and then Meditate before I start my daily activities!
Well, that is an ideal situation. In reality, I get up late (don't ask me how late; its embarrassingly late that can't be mentioned here), freshen up and rush to office. Even the combing hair part I do using the mirror in the home lift.
I want to change this but dunno when this will happen!

I went to Dadar to catch a Volvo for Lonavala. No cabbie was ready to come to Dadar at that time probably because its close to my home. In Lonavala I picked up my cute kids, thanked the teacher for taking care of them. She postponed the picnic plans of the rest of the group for one and half hours till I arrived, just to take care of Snigdha and Jnanada probably because I had sms'ed her to keep the children under safe custody in the resort while they leave for sight seeing.
Then we came back to Bombay and cabbed up to my home where we freshened up and went to Heena Solanki's (Henna Solanki) home for lunch.
Till then they did not eat anything other than Lays chips (which I should not have given as they hardly ate anything in lunch later) in the cab . Thank God I found out from my aunt the previous day about her grand kids' food likings. One of them likes orange Lays while the other likes the blue ones.
Well, I took them to Heenaji's home because Snigdha wanted home made food and also I wanted to get her blessings for the kids.

Then I showed them "Jab we met" movie in my laptop. I had specially loaded that movie the previous day as the kids had specifically asked me to get it. So the happy girls wanted not to go anywhere else but to watch the Shahid Kapoor movie. Halfway through the movie I called them to get ready for airport.

Then happened the craziest thing you could ever conceive!
I went to airport to drop them but, upon going there the kids said, "Chinnanna (uncle), you also please come with us to Hyderabad".
They what did I do?
Without a second thought, I walked up to the ticket counter and bought my air ticket on the spot and joined them to celebrate new year in Celebrations food villa in Jubilee hills!
During the flight, Jnani continued to watch the movie while Snigdha kept herself busy in aerial photography.
Their dad (my cousin-in-law) inaugurated a new pub "Black Hole" in the dazzling "Celebrations" on the occasion of the new year celebrations.

zzzzzzz.... sleep time! Rest later :)

Snigdha pampering the cats

My Orkut Testimonial for Archana

This is what I wrote for Archana Gandhi today:

Hey Dulhanji!
This is my wedding gift to u as I could not personally attend.

Archana speaks soo fast that often I have to say "come again":)
She is a caring and ever-smiling BABE!

Wherever she goes, she takes the initiative and brings the situation under control.
In a huge party, she takes the charge and orders the food of ur choice without ur permission!
She figures out effortlessly what u would like to eat without even asking u even if u r meeting her for the 1st time!

When she is ur guest, u become her guest as she plays the host herself!
All of a sudden she flocks to ur home with a gang of 30 friends; then feeds everybody without ur help.
Her presence turns a huge crowd into one family!!
Being a Jain, she declares “I don’t eat onions as I am fasting”
Then immediately u will find her relishing her favorite cheese ONION Utappa!

Hey Archana,
U outshine the Sun, bringing light to the sun Himself!!!!
Kahaan Tum, aur kahaan Suraj??
Ur bubbly presence lights up the whole surroundings like "Chirag tale andhera”[:)]

I wish u and ur hubby a great married life.
Best wishes as always

Happy Birthday Happy Fuzz-man!! - My Orkut Testimonial

Krishna Reddy, Fuzzy, World Trade Center n Joggers' Park at Cuffe Parade, Mumbai

---

As I said earlier, words find their futility in expressing the length and breadth and depth of Fuzzy's vastness!
And even these 3 dimensions r not good enuf to capture him!
Add to them Einstein's fourth dimension - time. Still no use!
And Fuzzy-dear doesn't fit into even the 26 dimensional space of the superstring theory!!!!!!
That confirms the existence of parallel universes! . Looool!

Well, there have been people who are smart enough to express the inexpressible!
Like Narada Maharishi who had successfully described Love in his famous treatise Narada Bhakti Sutras (aphorisms of love).
And Ashtavakra Maharishi who exposed the Highest truth to King Janaka.
Or Vasishta who made Lord Rama understand the Highest Knowledge (Well, Matrix movie is based on this knowledge!)
Amol Mujumdar who can elucidate a complex computer architecture in crystal clear and least number of words!

Attempting to describe Fuzzy would be equally a Mission Impossible, so doing this Herculean task will put you alongside with these great people!

Here is a small tribute, my birthday gift, to a great man!!!

So dearest Fuzzy, wish you many many rocking returns of the day every day!!

The first thing u notice about Fuzzy is he is very humble, down-to-earth, sweet and innocent.
Then why so much intro 4 such a simple guy??????
Well, he is innocent like a child, yet extraordinarily wise - a rare combination!
When u call him up, the way he greets you with a “Hello” that is fully loaded with a gushing enthu n love (which itself is unique every time!), lightens up ur day!

Fuzzy’s mesmerizing music ranges from spell-binding Raaga Bhairavi on an elec guitar! to rocking Rock to classy classical Mozart!
And he is unrivaled in wherevuh and whatevuh he does.. acou/elec/classical guitar or piano or vocals to name a few...
And he is a poet and a great writer that would have Douglas Adams and Dan Brown envy. I'm serious :)
And he would be the first one in the town to get the passes for Pink Floyd or Beyonce concert or…!

What more?
A total geek!
One of the best Computer wizards I have ever known.
He has two publications to his credit - a paper in an international journal and a chapter in a book published by American Cancer Society.
Each of which he managed to do with a week's "hard" (??) work!
That too when he was still an undergraduate!!
Having done a carefree bachelors in EE and a rather nbdu masters in CSE both at IITB, he is at ease at giving u any fundaes on a spectrum of subjects ranging from robotics
to encoding ur signals into bits to mining the mysterious data and artificial intelligence to Indian politics and history, solving partial differential equations of 10^th order and 100 variables, and not to mention women’s psychology and breast cancer :))

Other lighter "colors "/"frequencies" of the spectrum include but not limited to!!:
Number theory of Pure Mathematics.
Euclidean geometry
Non-euclidean geometries
Fractals theory
Fourier analysis
Stocks
Sardar and non-sardar jokes

And he is a good teacher and orator adroit at giving PPT’s (pre placement talks)

He perfects the art of effortlessly "pataoing" "babes", a skill that he seems to have acquired from his past life-times!
However he has an enormous respect for the feminine gender.
And he is too handsome and sweet for any female to resist!
Sweet because he gives you his best, yet expects the least from u and accepts everybody on an “as is and where is” basis :)

Faizaan Malolia is sooooo gentle (a trait I think is hereditary in all Parsis including Homi Bhabha and Tatas :))) a man that, in the so many years that I have known him, he never uttered a single harsh word, even behind somebody’s back.
But then it does not mean that he is too foolish to let u fool or be foolish!
He is firm enuf 2 slap & put u back on track but with a knack that doesn’t hurt u!!
But he is often a happy victim of his lil sister Hemisha’s teasing and preaching!!

He is full of strength, immense kindness, enthu (but never overexcited!), always happy, bubbly, humble, unconditionally loving, caring, resourceful, peaceful etc etc...
Well, it’s rather easier to say what he does not have; else the list will be endless! Lolz!!
In short, putting together all the good adjectives with superlatives and nouns in all the world languages will not suffice 2 capture Fuzzy!

But then, he can not shop for his own clothes, which is the duty of his younger sister or parents!!
But at times, he does not only a wonderful cooking (see the below pic) but also happily cleans up all the utensils to make his folks and friends happy :)

This is Faizaan Marolia for you! Believe or not... None of this is an exaggeration!

So Fuzz-man! Have a greaaaat blast and a greaaaat year ahead (Btw, u seem 2 b getting younger every year :)))
Also, dude, I wish that u get a cat-eyed chick soon.
And wish that all your talents and knowledge will be even more useful to the mankind.

(This is my Orkut Testimonial for my best friend Faizaan Marolia

Early morning black tea (Fuzzy made it!) just after the jog

My Bedroom