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Take Aim!

| Monday, January 31, 2011
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"tomorrow will always be a question so let us cherish today and be open about anything and everything. Make today the happiest day of our lives! "

The above quote from my previous post is a summary of today's post..so if you do not feel like reading it all then STOP. It pisses me off when many people complain that it is not an "ideal situation" in their life to attempt something... anything. Let me tell you two things. Firstly, you will never have "a lot of time" for even the most important preparation in your life. Secondly, and this is something that I strongly believe in, mainly because I have been burnt by it before. And that is - there is never an "ideal time" to do anything in your life. There never is. There is always an inconvenience, a complication, an unforeseen problem, a random change of plans. I personally had a million things like this. What this post is trying to do is to say that such things should not be looked upon as bad luck. But as evidence of your requirement to plan better and fight it out. To get the adrenalin flowing! Because fighting it out during an inconvenient time, is probably the only time when you will live life to the fullest.


Dronacharyar was taking his protégés along for a trip during their training phase. It is said that Dronacharya was the greatest teacher in Archery who ever lived and among those following him as a group of students was the great Arjunan, Duryodhanan, Ashwathaman, Nakulan, Yudhishtiran and the rest of the band. This is a story, which you may have heard before. It is a special story for me. This is my chance to say this story in my own words. So hear it again.

Dronacharyar stopped a few hundred yards away from a tree and called Ashwathaman by his side. He pointed to the far away tree and asked Ashwathama "Do you see the tree over there". And Ashwathaman says "yes". "Do you see a bird sitting on the branch of that tree", asks the revered teacher. Ashwathaman says “yes! I can see". Upon which Dronacharyar instructs Ashwathama to take his bow & arrow and take aim. He says "don't shoot! Just take aim".

Ashwathaman, who is chaffing at the reputation being second best archer in the world to Arjunan, takes out his bow and arrows and marks his target ( which quite far away) and he places his arrow on his bow and pulls the string towards him, ready to shoot. His rivalry with Arjunan is well documented and he wants to be known as the best archer who ever lived. Dronacharya now asks him, " what do you see Ashwathama?"

Ashwathama replies " I see the bird, its legs, the twigs on the branch in which the bird sits, the small mango behind the bird, the leaves surrounding the bird, a small worm on the branch that approaches the bird." The surrounding crowd is amazed. Bheeman could barely see the bird and nobody else had the eyesight to spot so many small details that Ashwathama so casually spotted. The fire burned inside Ashwathama to out beat his greatest rival and this fire allowed him to see what other could not. Dronacharyar does not seem impressed and tells him "Shoot! but you shall miss". Ashwathama, son of Dronacharyar, is insulted by the prediction of his own father and fires his arrow. He misses. He was given one shot and he missed. Dronacharyar would never give him another chance. He wouldn't want it either.

So Dronacharyar calls upon Arjunan, who as the books say is standing quietly behind the crowd watching the proceedings. "Arjuna, do you see the tree and the bird in it". Arjunan replies in affirmative. "Take aim then Arjuna, but do not fire your arrow until I say so".

So there stands Arjuna. And as great many writers have described before, he stands in a majestic posture with bow slightly tilted skywards, his powerful body arched as much as the bow. Observers seemed to feel the urge to see once more in order to distinguish between the man and the bow as they seemed to have merged into a single entity. So there stood Arjuna, on windy day like a statue, unmoved as Dronacharyar took the time to ask the question. "So, Arjuna what do you see?" Arjunan replied "I see the eye of the bird O' teacher". Dronacharyar smiled and asked once more “Do you see anything else?". Arjuna took his time and said “No! I don't. I don’t even see the feathers. I just see the eye of the bird".

Dronacharyar said “Shoot and you shall not miss". Legends never describes what happened after Arjuna shot the arrow. It is assumed that once he fires - the target is his. So Arjuna fired and that is the end of the story.

What got me thinking about this story? I always think about this story. There are small stories and big stories that move people. Such stories influence people and remains with them forever. This story among the millions of stories in the great epic Mahabharata is to emphasize the value of single minded focus and concentration in achieving success. Opportunities knock but once. From my experience during such moments you always have to see the eye of the bird, the core of your target before you take aim. It is the sighting that counts, the firing is almost incidental, a mere confirmation of the sighting. I have so many times noticed this as the key difference between success and failure. It is in the sighting.

Now in this computer age steeped in algorithmic approach to life, you may think "once I get the understanding on the importance of sighting. I should be able to crack the problem". But let me tell you friends. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Arjunan was given a difficult test but his story is under typical conditions. Silence, nothing else but the bird to focus on, and nothing but the wind to disturb you.

In life, when you are moving towards the most significant test of life, a test, which if you shall pass will not only make you great but will open the key to your dreams - may not be in such typical conditions. You just get one shot.. Imagine that shot in a James Bond movie. Now I am not comparing or contrasting Bond and Arjunan. I would never think of doing so. I am trying to find an example which a modern day youth can identify with. Bond is dangling on a cliff a rope (a thin slender rope) is tied to his left leg on one side and a tree on the other side. This is what stops Bond from falling down 10,000 feet. He is upside down, shaking in the air, it is biting cold with a lot of fog, the enemies are firing at him. His target is a mile away and moving. The vision is blurry. Bond then looks into his gun and finds that he just has one bullet left. He just gets one shot. He has to sight the eye of the target in that moment, fire and win.

Ladies and gentlemen! This is the typical modern day test to achieve your goals. This is real life. There will never be an ideal time to run towards an opportunity of a lifetime. There will never be an orchestrated test. This is not to belittle Arjunan's feat (he may have had other tests which was much harder than my favorite test which I quoted above) but just an explanation of tests the way I see it in the modern world. You just get one shot and if you fail, it's gone forever. You will only be left fighting for lesser trophies. The one shot separates people. During that one shot a person has to shut out all the other ambient noise and zone in on his target. That is the essence of a true warrior. There is and was only one Arjunan in times when many great warriors lived, so it is natural that in today’s age only a few will hit and many will miss. But it is the process of sighting gives valuable instructions on the irrevocable nature of life.

So do take aim and focus.. but only so when it is needed..

Take Aim!

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Monday, January 31, 2011
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Dil ki baat..

| Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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Let us all get tipsy and spellbound by the magic Hariharan wove through his voice. Here he is rendering an unconventional composition, proving his capabilities as an accomplished singer, with the improvisations in the oeuvre. Not to forget the hard work Stephen had put in to prepare the chord patterns, and understanding the progressions of the ghazals and the compositions...ENJOY!!
Isi umeed mein kaati hai zindagi meine...Woh kaash poochte mujhse ke aarzoo kya hai..

Yeh aaine se akele mein guftagu kya hai...Jo mein nahi hoon to phir tere rubaru kya hai..

Dil ki baat..

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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Cheesy

| Saturday, January 22, 2011
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I'm standing in the queue at Dunkin Donut's for an early brekkie. An unusual for me. I usually eat my breakfast at home but today I just wanted to try something different... allow me to explain.

I've been out since 5.45AM and that was three quarters of an hour after I woke up this morning. I have just taken a drive... a joy drive around my hood. Dunkin's, being one of the only few places open that early, had a long queue at the counter. I'm one of those people in the queue, not looking very different from the rest of the early risers. No surprise!

Guy before me had a cappuccino in hand, says to the kid behind the counter, "I'm waiting for my hotcakes". Kid says, "But you haven't ordered hotcakes, sir. You only ordered cappuccino". Guy storms out, "Alright, don't give me hotcakes. I'll go to work another day without food". You can't help feeling sorry for the crazy nutter. Everyone else is too busy to notice.

"Next please!"

My turn. I order a hot chocolate and veggie flatbread. It looks yum in the pictures, can't wait to dig into it. I settle down in a seat, fondling my Vibrant and gulping large sips of hot chocolate. "I'll eat the cheesy veggie flatbread when I get home", I think. Ten minutes later, my phone goes off. I guess my bro was wondering where I was so early on a Sunday. I pick up my drink and start walking slowly out the door, finish my hot chocolate and trash the cup as get into my car. I'm one with a heavy foot as those who drove with me will tell. The drive, a good 4 minutes before getting home got me excited. I was doing 80+ on an empty road.. if nothing else, my addiction to speeding will kill me! As I get closer to my home, I am excited. I can't wait to get home and eat my... Hang on, where's my...? I can see a picture in my mind's eye. A brown paper bag with orange logo, delicious smelling cheesy flat bread... sitting on the black, shiny granite-top table at Dunkin Donut's. I can't help but think of the guy before me in the queue...

Cheesy

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Saturday, January 22, 2011
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THX Certified!

| Thursday, January 13, 2011
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Okay, I know the title is very cheeeeeeeesy! But I could not think of anything better.. or I just was not trying hard enough! But in any case the fact remains I did buy the Onkyo HT-RC270, the equivalent to Onkyo TX-NR708 to replace my aging 10 year old Onkyo HT-S580S amp. I figured that after 10 years I could use a audio update even though the old Onkyo is still a amazing piece of equipment but at the same time I didn't want to spend $$$.

I wanted a receiver that had all of the newer DTS and Dolby surround formats and could power the 4 ohm Onkyo and Jensen speakers. I use/d the new and old amplifier to drive 4 ohms speakers. Most audiophiles will tell you to get external amplification to drive them. I am usually skeptical of these claims. (FYI- if you are gonna use this post as a review please use your own judgement for the speakers ;) And I also wanted to clean up the wiring mess by substituing all the digital in/out, component in/out, composite in/out and coax to a single ( maybe two or three ) HDMI!!!! Being able to use the HDMI really cleans up the cabling since it can also send the audio over the same cable. Same thing goes for my HD cable box (just upgraded too), HDMI no seperate audio cable needed... This new reciver some with an ethernet in, enabling though me to stream music via my in home server!!!

The Onkyo RC270 is a huge beast (comparetively) with a very hefty heat sink with dual fans. It has every single high-end adjustable settings you can think of. The only thing I discovered is that the noise correction caused my Netflix stream to ghost. However, that may be due to the noise correction algorithm coupled with the 120hz mode on my TV. Turning off the noise correction fixed the ghosting for me. The quality of the up conversion is good but perhaps a little soft for SD. But on the other hand it woks out well for my online streaming of Tamil Movies! LOL!

PROS:
135 Watts
Drive 4ohms speakers well
OSD for volume
Excellent Internet radio functionality
Regular cable for IPOD (I don't use one..will never use one)
Dual fans to cool heat sink
Per input level gain
Per speakers cross-over
Dual subwoofer output
Trigger
Firmware upgradeable (make sure you update right away **MUST MUST MUST)

CONS:
Warmer than the older Onkyo
Update 1/11/11: No dialogue enhancement

All in all, I'm very happy with this receiver. I originally wanted a Onkyo TX-NR808 as a replacement but as it is not budging on MSRP right now which means it would have cost me almost twice as much as this one. And also because there are currently no other receivers on the market that has the comparable features as this one at this price range!!

THX Certified!

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Thursday, January 13, 2011
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Grandma ...

| Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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My Grandmother passed away today.

And I've lost another important person in my life, that too within the last 12 months. My Grandpa passed away last January. I can't explain the pain especially for my dad. I feel broken.
Maybe part of me thought she wouldn't die... so soon. She was always a little more found of me... me too. But I suppose she was mortal, like the rest of us, after all. And maybe that's a beautiful thing.

She was an active and powerful woman, to the very end. I now only have memories of her.. and maybe that's a beautiful thing, too. May her soul rest in peace.

This is one of my recent fav pictures of both my late grandparents.

Grandma ...

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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Darn her!

| Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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So, I got a leather couch couple of days ago in an attempt to keep my dogs and their hair off of it. I told my bro to keep our doggies off of it so we could keep it nice. As soon as I said that "she" jumped on it, and as I picked her up to put her back on the floor, her claws dragged across it causing a very faint scratch and it was just the beginning.FML!

Today my bro as usual was the last to leave the house and unlike the yesterdays he forgot to crate "her". And no surprise I had to return home to a well ripped off leather sofa!! I was furious.. furious enough to kill her but then she is a puppy!

Darn her!

Posted by : Jegan
Date :Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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Script!

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Guys,

First an apology... Once again it’s been quite a while since I updated you on my progress. What can I say but there’s been a few distractions. It’s not that I’ve been unfaithful or anything, no really. In fact I have been diligently writing, scene after scene after scene. It’s huge pleasure seeing the story unfold but with my enthusiasm comes a side effect, one that is self inflicted - page overload. Ha hA! I may have to trim it down.. but it sure is an amazing feeling to see my story come into a script! I will post more soon.


I'll give you a small prelude by saying that the theme of this story/script is that of redemption. What if you had done terrible things? What if you really did change and repent? What if no-one was prepared to give you a second chance? Would you even deserve that second chance? Does anyone? Theses are all ideas that I hope to be exploring with the characters, while wrapping it around a romantic drama/comedy? I am not too sure yet.. we will see :0

P/S look out for CaliMafia, as he is going to be helping in bringing out the musical aspect of the script :)

Script!

Posted by : Jegan
Date :
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