Fly the good times...
Posted On Friday, February 16, 2007 at at 5:43 PM by Bijeshyeah. trip to chennai last friday. company sponsored. Chance to fly the good times. The air hostesses are a hype. in my humble opinion. I, perhaps, expected Yana to be on the flight. They were polite though. All of the ground staff were too. Except for the woman at the check-in counter. I should've taken the baggage on board. Sheesh!! Had to wait in the queue to check the baggage in, inspite of a web check-in and a printed boarding pass. Neat touch that - self-printed boarding pass. Do all airlines do that now with web check-in? If I had only carry-on baggage, I could've walked straight from the airport entrance to the security check and boarded the flight. Ah! That would've been so pleasant.
In-flight magazine is hundreds of page 3. Mallya is on most of them. So are a number of pretty women. Thumbed through the mag in less than 1 minute. Not my type of reading material. In-flight entertainment. the video is a mix of tv channels - ndtv, hungama, etc. The audio channels had a nice selection of rock and jazz. The headphones (which you can take away with you) were of standard issue airplane sound-quality. Should have brought my earplugs along.
Flight to chennai was a mere 30 minute affair for the jet. Dinner was three *small* aloo-masala sandwiches. You are given exactly 7 minutes to gobble it all up before the hostess is back for the tray. :) Can't blame them though. Baggage was out quick.
Return flight from chennai. Extremely polite and helpful ground staff. They are all over you. In a nice way. Infact my check-in baggage was carried across to the check-in counter by one of the ground staff. Wow!!
Plane was an ATR72. The turbo-prop toyplane (Ok, I agree it is not that small). The one with those huge exhaust fans. Well, they are not exactly exhaust fans.. Before boarding, I was wondering how the plane would even fly. After boarding, I was blown away by the interior.. Cushy, really cushy seats. fake leather, I presume.. enormous legroom. I could sit with my legs crossed. Do they fly this thing to other destinations? Both sides are two-seaters. that's all the plane can contain. Only one class. No economy/first/business. Would make it my choice of flight. :)
My window seat's window opened right out to the edge of the fan's blade. Scary to see the blade rev up and spin at those mind-numbing rpms. What the heck would I do if the fan decided to unhinge? :-O
Food was great - comparatively speaking. I don't expect much from airline food, so my opinion might be coloured. Steaming hot chicken-egg fried rice, chicken in some sauce (the menu card claimed basil-flavoured sauce), salad of corn-cucumber-peppers and rasmalai for dessert. Decent food and a very pleasant hostess.
Yeah, definitely the good times.
Heart Strums
Posted On Friday, February 09, 2007 at at 12:14 PM by BijeshHe sat in the front row, watching the guitarist performing a ritual so close to his heart. He closed his eyes to listen to the ecstatic cries of the strings as the guitarist moved his fingers from fret to fret. He felt the friction slide through his own body. He watched as the fingers waltzed around the sounding board, playing and cajoling the strings to dance to the rhythm, that ironically was their own. The air reverberated with the notes that flowed as part of it. He could sense the heart beats of space salute the notes that passed through it. He listened with wonder as unrelated sounds came together into an all-encompassing oneness.
He had wanted to be there. He dreamt that he could be there. Not in the limelight. Just the center of where music came from. Where the music relived its life. To swim in the fluidity of the guitar chords. To pick notes that could set pulses to dance along. To be able to slide his fingers across the fret to arouse the rose wood into a sensual rendition of its song of joy. He wished he were able to conjure order out of chaos, music out of crude sounds, joy out of thin air.
He wanted to be there but he wasn't. He called himself a loser and immersed himself into the dream that the true artist weaved for losers like himself.
Touching Lives
Posted On Monday, February 05, 2007 at at 4:44 PM by BijeshOr would you rather melt away into oblivion? Ash to ash, dust to dust. Leaving behind no footprints in the sands.
Stop lookin. Start zook.in
Posted On Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at at 11:18 AM by Bijesh<Ziva is a mobile search company run by a talented group of folks. This mail is an announcement of their service launch. >
*Zook is going live.
*Zook is a new mobile search which helps you quickly get answers. It identifies clear answers upfront, or interactively narrows down to what you really meant to look for.
Today Zook works for
* Ringtones
* Restaurants (Bangalore)
* Movies (Bangalore)
* Events (Bangalore)
More coming soon - and to more cities too.
To start zook.in
* WAP : http://zook.in/
* SMS : "ZOOK
[when SMSing, remember to always start with "ZOOK ... " ]
If you like what you see, please do include your friends in *groups* or as *friends*, and spread the word about Zook. Also, please send your comments/suggestions to svcfeedback@zook.com.
A short how-to guide can be found at http://www.zivasoftware.com
Happy zook.in
Zook FAQts :
Whats Zook ?
Zook is the new way to use your mobile phone. Let it now be your friend which helps you find a place to eat, or catch a movie, or download fun stuff for your mobile.
Its on your WAP phone at http://zook.in
You can also send an SMS - "ZOOK
[BTW, You can also just use "Z" instead of "ZOOK" ]
So, a local search engine on the phone? So?
Zook is not just a search engine. Zook makes sense of the data, and of what you asked. It analyzes the data, your interests and interprets the likely intent of your query.
A few examples [ Remember : on SMS start all queries with "ZOOK" , e.g. "zook chinese" !! ]
*you* : chinese
*/zook/* :1:Restaurant:Chungs Chinese Corner, Indiranagar
2:Ringtone:Theme Of China Gate, Monotone
......
7: Restaurant (31+)
8: Ringtone (19+)
9: Locality: Indiranagar (5+)
10: City: Bangalore (31+)
*you* : 7
*/zook/* :1:Magnolia, Koramangala, South Bangalore
2:Aromas Of China, Langford Town
....
6: Locality: Indiranagar (6+)
7: Locality: Church Street (4+)
8: Locality: Koramangala (7+)
9: Locality: South Bangalore (4+)
10: Locality: Palace Road (2+)
More
*you* : 6
*/zook/* :1:Wangs Place, Indiranagar
2:Chungs Pavilion, Indiranagar
3:Wan Ley, Indiranagar
4:Gokul Kuteera, Indiranagar
5:Oregano, Indiranagar
6:Vishals, Indiranagar
7:Ramya, Indiranagar
8:Bangalore Mandarin, Double Road, Off Richmond Circle,
OR
*you* : thai kgla
*/zook/* :1.Magnolia, Koramangala
2. Pan Asian Bites, Koramangala
*you* : 1
*/zook/* :Restaurant: Magnolia
Cuisine: SE Asian, Chinese, Thai
Phone: +918041102222
Address: 840, 7th Cross, 15th Main, 3rd Block Koramangala
Bangalore - India (Koramangala ) 560095
1. sms "RES 1 for 5" to 3030 to book a table for 5 at Magnolia
2. ORDER to 3030 for a callback
(these are some things you can "do" now after you find
something. We're adding lots more soon)
OR
you : guru pvr
*/zook/* : Movie: Guru (Hindi)
Theatre: PVR
Timings: 12:00pm, 12:15pm, 3:50pm, 3:30pm, 6:40pm, 6:45pm,
9:50pm, 10:00pm
Address: The Forum, 3rd Floor, Nr. Madiwala Checkpost
Koramangala Bangalore 560095
Phone: +918022067511
And Zook is not just local. Its about your leisure, your music, your
tastes, your choices, your neighbourhood, your *friends*....
Friends ?
Yes. Your friends give you the best references, and beyond a point can give you a way better answer than even we can. So if Zook cannot dig out the answer, it helps pass it on to your friends.
You can create *groups* of people you hang out with for various different things - work, bowling, golf, whatever. Your *contacts* and each set of people can be your 'expert circle' for answers and advice (and soon we'll enrich the data for the entire community based on stuff you find out and share). You can both *ASK *these contacts about choices, or information, and *TELL* them about what you like (whether or not you found it on Zook).
*you : *korean kgla
/zook /:No Matches Found
ASK your friends?
send "ASK
*you* : ask amit, 9878709878 Is there a good Korean place in Blore ?
*amit : *Tell nopes theres a couple of good Japanese ones tho
You can ask more than one friend, and we'll summarize their responses too.
Need WAP ?
Zook works fully featured on both WAP as well as SMS!
SMS is charged at whatever your operator's premium SMS rates are.
Next time you need to look, Zook it!
Rgds,
TeamZook @ Ziva
