Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Capoeira Mumbai

Capoeira is a traditional Brazillian dance. It is a mix of martial arts, dance and traditional Brazilian Music. I was lucky to catch a session at the St. Stanislaus High School Campus, Bandra. I was there for the Yuva Vividha Seminar. Please excuse me for the darkness in the video but these people were performing in a dark corner.


Video 1 Capoeira

The music in the video is really amazing and the energy of the group makes it even more special. This group of cool people got together and started playing some nice music. The energy of the group kept getting better, it was really amazing. Watch out for the guy in the end...


Video 2 Capoeira

In this video the group was playing bit slower but very nice music. One minute into this video you will hear me talking to Valentina (from Italy) about the history and other interesting things about Capoeira. She explains the whole thing with lot of interest and excitement. Also you can see Freeman playing in this slower version of the Capoeira.


Video 3 Capoeira

This is the last of the three video that I captured. In this one the song and music was absolutely amazing but I have not been able to capture it completely. You can find more about Capoeira on Wikipedia. If you are interested in playing Capoeira please visit the Capoeira India Blog, these guys are amazing!

Tarun Chandel
Music, Dance and Capoeira

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Starting to say with photos - Tarun's Blog with Photos

Though I have been taking pics for a while now but never really put them on this blog. Recently I have started to put them on my Flickr photostream and got response from my friends that, I should put them on my blog as well. As someone smart said, "always listen to your friends" so I am going to listen to my friends. Though I will post most of my pics on Flickr but once a month I will post some pics on this blog. Here are some pics:

Mozilla I love it
Those of you who have seen me in last few weeks would recognize this :) I have been openly sporting my love for Mozilla for last one month or so.

there I saw it lying
This is one of those pics where I was thinking of capturing something abstract yet beautiful and I got lucky in this shot :)

... and then there was light!!!
Dimaag ki batti jala de

The content of my pics is fairly simple just like my blog. Do let me know what you think about the pics and should Tarun's blog have more pics? I will appreciate your views and ideas.

Tarun Chandel
Photos, Beauty and Expression

Friday, May 02, 2008

Welcome Yuva Vividha Audience


I was speaking at the Yuva Vividha Seminar at the St. Stanislaus High School Campus, Bandra, Mumbai. The aim of the seminar was to introduce children, teachers and school administrators to the world of ICT by relating it to their school studies and their environment. My session was about Writing and Creating content on the Internet and I talked about it from the bloggers perspective. It was very interesting to mentor and guide people to blogging. The session was very interactive thanks to the ever inquisitive audience.

As it was a working day, I attended the later half of the seminar. The other sessions were also very good and informative. Freeman was also present at the seminar and he talked about how we can use internet and how Google is the new university. The other session I attended was about a very interesting project named She Creates, where a bunch of people are helping poor girls to highlight their issues by creating movies. Overall the seminar was highly interactive and the sessions were very interesting, I would suggest more and more schools and institutes should have such seminars.

Thanks to Chandita of Comet Media for inviting me to the seminar and her warm hearted hospitality. I really enjoyed the whole event.

Tarun Chandel
Blogging, Passion and Interaction

Friday, April 18, 2008

Bloggers get ready for the Marathon

This is a treat for the blogger in you. Blogathon is an online event where all the bloggers blog on a particular topic, daily, for a week. Blogathon is going to start on 20th of April so hurry up put on your marathon shoes or (blogathon) gloves.

Here is the list of topics:

Infrastructure: Sunday, 20th April 2008
How can we improve the traffic condition in our city?

Politics: Monday, 21st April 2008
How do we change the focus of politics from caste/religion to grassroot issues?

Entertainment: Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
Does Bollywood overshadow regional cinema in India?

Media: Wednesday, 23rd April 2008
Why are Indian news broadcast channels not as mature as their International counterparts?

Gender: Thursday, 24th April 2008
What are the challenges that society faces in accepting the concept of alternate sexuality? How can we address them?

Sport: Friday, 25th April 2008
Are ‘media’ and ‘commercial interests’ in cricket the only reason that are killing other sports in India?

Lets all blog together for a cause. For more details about the Blogathon please visit Blogathon Site.

Tarun Chandel
For the love of Blogging

Monday, April 14, 2008

I did not fall...

One of those days when I am thinking about some good days in the past and let me share one post that I wrote for another blog sometime back...

It was just another day, or at least that's what I thought. I vaguely remember it was around 5 in the evening, I was lying on my bed for last two hours without moving even an inch. It was very unusual for a guy like me to be so still, but this was a different day, a day like no other in my whole life.

What was it? I think those eyes, no that smile, no it was the tinkle in her eyes, or may be it was her wet hair, I think it was all of this and much more. I had lunch with her today and I think I fell in ... No way can't be ... me ???

These thoughts were making me crazy but I liked it. It was different, as I had never thought about anyone for this long. I was not even sure what I was thinking but it was an amazing feeling. I think yes I did fall in ... or may be it was just because I was thinking about her so much. I never really had thought about any other girl for so long. I had missed three lectures. I finally got up; it's tough to move after lying motionless for more than three hours. One of my leg had gone numb and I limped to the window of my hostel room, which was facing the cafe and a lush green lawn in front of it. I saw her. She was sitting in the lawn and having tea, I was looking at her and then she turned towards me and a current ran through me. No not because of her but because my leg was getting the blood circulation back and anyways my room was quite far from the cafe and one could barely recognize anyone from there. So it might have been someone else and I was seeing her everywhere or at least I was supposed to according to so many movies, so many hit movies.

I came down from my room to the cafeteria, as I wanted to be around her. She was there in the lawn, I ordered a coffee and sat with her. She was sitting there with a bunch of other friends, and most of them were singles. So they were not going anywhere, if you are a couple then you go away from the group to spend sometime together. But since most of my classmates were single they used to hangout together. I liked this group till date, but today I wanted them to disappear. I wanted to be with her, wanted to talk to her, smile with her, gaze her, make her laugh and tell her how good I can be. I wanted her to fall for me. I wanted her to feel the same way about me as I was feeling about her.

We were sitting there for next one hour, I was unusually quiet today and as I was sitting just besides her I was not able to look at her directly. Later that evening we went for dinner in a restaurant near our campus. On our way we walked together for around 10 mins or so but it was the best walk I had in my whole life. She asked me about my family, friends and childhood. I also talked about a lot of general stuff. Suddenly her hand touched mine and I suddenly felt the current in my body again. Though it was just a gentle brush, but her hand was so soft. We reached the restaurants had dinner, while coming back she walked with other girls. We reached hostel, said good-bye and headed to our rooms.

I collapsed in my bed, I don't know for how long was I up that night, though my roommates were chatting constantly but I could not hear anything. I was in a totally different world. I don't know when I fell asleep or was I up all night, but when I opened my eyes it was 6 in the morning and it was a cloudy morning. I could still feel the touch of her hand, I was still seeing that smiling face in front of me, and I was still able to see the shine in her eyes. I was still wearing shoes, I never took them off I reminded myself. I headed out of my room, I don't know where I was going, I was not even sure what was going on with me, so I didn't care much. I headed out of campus and started running, I was not thinking anything, and I was just running. I must have jogged for around half an hour that morning. I didn't know whether it was love or not but one thing was clear it was surely going to change my life. People fall in love I think I jogged in love...

Tarun Chandel
Love, Life and more love...

Friday, April 11, 2008

Not just another year by the bay

Two years since I came to Mumbai and it has been:
2 years of fun
2 years of hard work
2 years of sheer learning
2 years of growth
2 years of being independent
2 years of being professional
2 years of survival
2 years of madness
2 years of happiness
2 years of Capgemini
2 years of Mumbai
2 years of life...

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Party I love, Noise I Don't

On the No Honking day, I was having coffee with one of my friend discussing, how effective the silence can be and how we as a society make a lot of noise that can be easily avoided. I don't know whether I said it wrong or what, but he did not like my idea. He singled out the instance of playing loud music during the festive season (may be because he had read my post on power of silence) and he was of feeling that it's very important for us as a society to get together and enjoy these festivals. He said the music is played out loud so that everyone gets to know that such a thing is going on and they should also join. He was also of opinion that if the majority of people are enjoying at a event they have every right to play loud music.

I am not denying that we need to come together as a society and enjoy all our festivals, that will surely make us more united. I am just saying that we should enjoy all this at a reasonable decibel level so that no one is getting affected because of it. I was recently watching Apocalypto and there is a scene in the movie where the whole group of villagers are sitting together and celebrating the good catch they had. They were playing music, they were dancing, they were enjoying and they were surely united. We can have our celebrations in similar style, keep the music to a level so that everyone at the celebration enjoys it and those who are not there are not getting bothered. May be then we will also get to hear some wise words. As for the points made by my friend that music is loud so that everyone knows about the party, foolish idea. Tell everyone about the party in advance if someone is not interested he will never come no matter how loud music you play. The later point that he made if majority at party are ok with loud music they have the right to do that. This is a rather bigger and difficult issue to tackle as this is a wrong way to think. Just because some/lot of people like it they should not compromise others comfort. This mentality has to change and we as a society need to start respecting others comforts and their personal space. I am not against getting together and having a party or celebration I love that but at the same time I would not like others to suffer because of that.

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology