RADIOVERVE – Internet Radio for Indian Independent Music

Just read an article on The Hindu about a new indian internet radio station RadioVerve dedicated to independent indian music. I am hooked now !!

I’ve always been aware of the amazing musical talent in India, who showup from nowhere at few of the rock shows (bit rare these days though). But the tragedy in the Indian “Music Industry” is that you are forced to play in hindi and shift to “pop” genres to break into the market, which is just not acceptable for most indian bands. Hindi is debatable but pop, no way !!

Now, radioverve has put this amazing thing together with a good listing of indian bands for a start. This includes some of my favorite bands like Moksha, Kryptos, Myndsnare, TAAQ , Sceptre, Asura etc..

Forget it, stop reading, just logon to Radio Verve at http://radioverve.com

Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu.. A review

This is one of the best movies of Kamal..And certainly the best for Gautham. Each time he manages to come out with a super hit….(Minnale and then Kakka Kakka)….

This movie is second of the trilogy of the Police stories which he is directing. The first one being Kakka Kakka (An episode in a young police officer’s Life) and this (Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu) one being the story of a Middle aged Police officer’s lifestory. And the last one yet to come is of a senior police officer’s life story.

SportzVillage Inter-Corporate Basketball Tournament (Bangalore)

I participated in the SportzVillage Inter-Corporate Basketball Tournament. Here is my review on the event:

12 Corporates teams were participating: Infosys, Ocwen, HSBC, Wipro, Oracle, Tavant, TransWorks, iflex – Solutions, Reuters, SAP, Honeywell.

The venue was the Sree Kanteerva Stadium basketball courts. The league matches were held on Aug 26- Aug27. The finals are yet to be held on Sept2. From what I know Infosys, SAP Labs India, Transworks and HP seemed to be the top teams in their respective groups.

The crowd support was very less, but that didn’t really reduce the enthu of the players and display of some good skill. I was suprised there were just 12 teams though..

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (K.A.N.K.) grosses 72cr in the 1st week!

KARAN JOHAR’S multi-starrer KANK grossed 72cr in its 1^st week of worldwide release.

Although having a storyline that’s not been appreciated by everyone, the movie now targets cracking all the overseas records (these days – the strategy of bombarding screens with a large number of prints).

(PVR Hyderabad has 2 screens running the show at the same)

Quick walk-through/summary of the movie:-

Story begins with Rani (Maya) getting married to her childhood friend Abhishek (Rishi). SRK (Dev) actually just hops in before the wedding and gives her a hint that its better to marry/live with someone whom you love, instead of someone whom you don’t love –

Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTSi, long term review.

Engine : Awesome. Sheer delight. (add superlatives). It just begs to be revved, and boy, its got a good tune too! I have taken it to 8,500 rpm (redlines at 9K rpm) and there wasnt even one bad vibe (in all gears except the 4th and 5th - havent gone beyond 95kmph even at 105+ in 5th). And its deceptively smooth and silent when you’re taking it nice and easy – rev it, and it turns into the hooligan that it is! 16 horses are more than par for the course. The best part about the bike, is its seamless acceleration. Traffic lights are a delight, cos you’ll always be leading the junta. (There’s a new 200+cc engine supposedly for the bike)

Brakes: Will stop the bike on a coin. Really. The front brake has MASSIVE bite – and the rear’s good as well. But one should really get used to the braking before you try stoppies or hard braking – the rear brake pedal isnt positioned right, so a lil slip there, and you’ll end up getting deep bruises(gravity and inertia arent always good).

Patel’s Inn/ Race Pace, Gokarting @ Bangalore

Patel’s Inn :

http://www.patelsinn.com/aboutus.htm

Address :

38/2/2,15th Cross, 2nd Block,Govindaraj Garden, R.T Nagar, Bangalore-560 032, +91-92434 13880, +91-080-2333 0182, 2333 7575

Landmark:

3-4 Kms from Funworld, Palace Ground, Very close to R.T. Nagar BDA Complex

Monsoon Adventure @ Kodachadri, Karnataka

More Kodachadri Trek Photos at BubbleShare

[travelogue of trek to Kodachadri Peak (near Kollur-Mookambika Temple, Coastal Karnataka)]

The gang of 3: Nara, Kamu and me (sumne), took the Sugama Travels “J” bus (why not just Kundapura bus, nearly missed the bus, when I thought it was the “G” bus) from Bangalore to Kundapura (Rs. 300 x 3) which left Jayanagar 4th block at 8:15 pm. The bus reached Kundapura at 11.30 am late by 3 hours. Blame it on the bad roads from Bangalore to Mangalore and the caravan of trucks parked on the ghat sections (of the all the places), while the truck drivers slept, causing massive traffic jams. And I thought, I had left the traffic-jams in bangalore

After refreshing ourselves and a quick breakfast, we took a local bus (Rs.25 x 3) to Kollur which reached there at around 1.30 pm. We then hoped on an autorickshaw, which dragged itself about 14 kms upto the starting point of our trek Gari-Katte (Rs. 170). The local bus would have been too late for us, which would have charged us Rs. 30 (Rs. 10 x 3). The Kodachadri peak is about 10 km from here.

Juice Junctions (JJ) Chain, Bangalore

I am a regular customer at JJ, Koramangala [close to jyoti nivas college (JNC)] during lunch time and sometimes in the evening too. As a result, I am a partial Fruitarian now. Anyways, I was suprised today to find another one in Jayanagar 9th block. On enquiring further, I found out that its a chain with around 15 JJs all around bangalore, pretty impressive !!

For a guy concious about the diet “these days”, JJ being so close to office is just great. Of course, existence of the JNC crowd at JJs during lunch time is just a coincidental boon, i guess (FYI for non-bangaloreans, JNC is one of the major women’s colleges in bangalore with great crowd).

Adventures @ Chic-Maglur, Karnataka

[IMAGE: the lovely tree house]

DESTINATION:

Eagle Eye Holiday Home is located at Hoscodu Estate, which is a sprawling 130 acre plantation land situated in Chikmaglur District in Karnataka, India. Eagle Eye Holiday Home is exactly 48 Kms. from Chikmaglur and approximately 300 Kms from Bangalore.

CONTACT:

G.H. Monis, Managing Director, Eagle Eye Holidays
Hoscodu Estate, Kadavanthi, Sangameshwar Pet Post, Chikmagalur 577136, Ph. 08262-252153 Cell. 9448317760

HIGHWAY STARS:

The journey began with antakshari. It was the front-seaters Vs. the back-seaters. The songs ranged from loud enthu songs by the backers and almost audible senti-numbers by the fronters.

Songs were being created on the fly.. Papa Kehte bada naam kare ga, “QA” mein apna naam karega.. a bit of techi-touch there. Courtesy: Gurvinder Paaji.. Later Antakshari was followed by shayari with the famous radio line “Babar Sher”..

Planning a weekend trek from Bangalore

Just to introduce the topic, I am bit of a trekker (more of a hiker actually) and plan to blog with details here soon about the places I have been to, hopefully it will be useful to others.

Anyways, my friends and I are planning for a 3 day trek for the upcoming long independence day weekend (Aug12-Aug14). Here are the options we are exploring right now: