What Would You Say?

Kaapi from the Holy Filter

2011-02-20T00:17:00.002+05:30

I went to a school which was run by a group of non-resident south Indians. That's where I learned a lot about south India. Things like there are actually 4 different languages down south, and not just one 1 incomprehensible Madrasi language. It was also where I first heard about filter coffee.

Quite a few teachers carried special cups and once in a while you'd find one of them performing the elaborate mixing ritual in the staff room. It seemed to be their little secret. The ingredients, the mixing, the apparently heavenly taste.

It is a pity that it was only about 4 years after coming to Hyderabad that I actually tasted real filter coffee. It was during a fortuitous visit to Cafe Nandini - it was love at first sip. Earlier, this love would make me cycle out of my way to Nandini. But after the Udupi joint opened close to our house, not one opportunity to taste the divine concoction is wasted.

There is something about filter coffee that I can't quite put my finger on, which makes it what it is. Try a cup when you're nursing a massive hangover and as the first sip makes its way down to your stomach, you'll feel the hangover easing out, your head feels lighter, your neck and back stop aching almost immediately.

Try a cup when you have a very bad cold, try one when you are down with fever, try one after an intense workout, try one when you're feeling low.

Filter coffee never disappoints. It brings back hope, convinces you that everything will be alright.

Here's to the divine potion.

Why, oh why?

2011-02-16T23:07:00.002+05:30

Why should I write again over here? This place doesn't seem familiar anymore. This UI, which, once upon a time, used to put me in the mood to write seems to have lost its knack. My mind isn't blank, but is nothing more than a big ball of frustrated neurons. I'm not even following any blog these days. In fact, many people who had started blogging around the same time as I did, have stopped writing. I feel like I belong to an outdated generation of bloggers. Blogging isn't even 'cool' any more.

Then why should I come back to it?

Because there are 3 comments asking me to start writing again, on the last post, which is more than an year old?

Because I'm probably not as obsessed with writing better and polishing my posts as I was after the English literature courses in college?

Because this post just flew off my fingers?

Because I find writing therapeutic?

Because I feel I need to write?

Because I was told by some that they actually liked what I wrote?

I don't know. Maybe I'll give it another try. Maybe this is that try.

Boredom Buster

2009-12-19T12:50:00.004+05:30

I'm bored and I haven't quite undergone a contemplation and introspection phase in spite of the birthday that just went past. So here's a tag:

Have I ever (points in bold are a yes):

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam in the actual sea
03. Climbed a mountain - here's proof
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it - there goes your shocking fact of the day about Sankalp Mulye.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Water-skiied
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game - the one where Sachin scored his 10000th run.
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa/Qutub Minar
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a sixer that won the game
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - what's so great about that?
40. Can name all 27 states.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk - hoping that one day he will do the same for me.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales - dolphins to be precise.
45. Stolen a sign/damaged public property
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Kashmir.
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love.
My answer is no, but this reminds me of a poem by Pablo Neruda which has a line to this effect. I think it is titled "Tonight I can write the saddest lines".
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Tried to make a buffalo move when it sat down in front of your cycle.
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero - I don't have to pretend, I am one.
58. Played ‘Antakshari’ in a public place and sung really loudly without caring about the onlookers.
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played gully cricket
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played a video game for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie.
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made chapatis from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. White water rafted
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to all states in India
86. Recorded your own music
87. Eaten shark and preferred roadside ‘bandi’ food
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in the National Day Parade in New Delhi/your city
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Howrah bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car – with the windows open – and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 10 kgs
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart.
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Spent the night at a railway station
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Spent the better part of your life outside India
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried ice cream
134. Read ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’
135. Selected one ‘important’ author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - I've witnessed the full process, so I'll mark this done.
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Apocalypse Now

2009-11-29T02:37:00.003+05:30

Some movies are meant to be watched in a group. Goof-ups and loopholes are meant to be pointed out collectively laughed at. Aha! moments are meant to be shared.

There are others that are meant to be watched alone, in a dark room, doors and windows closed, no one to disturb you. They demand that you let nothing come between you and the movie. They demand complete surrender of all control to the events unfolding on screen. They are meant to be a very personal experience, and you don't want to take chances having someone else's vibes around to affect the impression the movie leaves on you.

I suppose there is something similar with drinks. Beer is analogous to the former category of movies. It's a drink for the big, happy group. Whiskey on the other hand is personal. It is the drink for an evening of solitude. You don't gulp it down, you savour it. Let it play on your tongue while thoughts play in your mind. Who knows, you may discover something new.

Exodus.

2009-08-07T16:15:00.002+05:30

Supreeth left early today morning. Can't think of anything sensible to write, but I just need to. So, forgive me for borrowing the title from Badri and these lines from Dave Matthews:

One drink to remember,
And another to forget.
How could I ever dream to find a friend like this again?
One drink to remember, another to forget...

Excuse me please, one more drink.
Would you make it strong,
Cause I don't want to think.

Neruda

2009-08-01T01:58:00.002+05:30

Suddenly started surfing through translations of some poems by Pablo Neruda earlier today. A line has stuck to the walls of my brain. I have to write it down somewhere. Might as well do it here:

Love is brief. Forgetting lasts so long.

I can only wonder at the beauty of the thought and the simplicity of words that express it so well.

The Night Out

2009-05-11T00:39:00.002+05:30

I'm trying to write this as quickly as I can. The events described here happened one crazy night a few months back.

11:40 pm

Frustoo with work, its abundance and its refusal to budge and let me make progress. I call Billu and set out to do a night-out in college.

12:05 am

I'm on campus and we have just started our BC session.

2:00 am

Hunger caught us unaware and we realised that we have nothing to eat and all sources of food supply on campus are closed. We decide to go till the DLF building, where Billu is pretty sure we will get food. Since I am no longer a student and Billu will have to submit his id card for leaving campus so late, we decide to take the path behind the campus.

2:30 am

As we come out of the back gate, we realise much to our surprise that we are not supposed to use that path. We are told this by policemen patrolling the place in a van.

Policeman1: Haan! Kidhar jaare?
Billu: Ye idhar, paas hi mein (pointing towards, what I thought was the sky)
Policeman1: Kyon? Main gate se kyon nahi? Idhar se kyon jaate?
Me: Abhi jaane nahi dete sir, bhaut late ho gaya hai.
Policeman1: To kyon jaare?
Me: Bhaut bhook lagi hai.
Policeman1: Kya? Kyon, khana nahi milta idhar college mein?
Billu: Bhaut ganda hota hai. Khaa nahi sakte. Please sir jaane do. Bhaut bhook lagi hai.
Policeman2: Oh, chalo jaane do, jaao. Lekin aate time main gate se jaana andar, idhar se nahi.
Me: Haan, ok. Pakka sir.

We happily walk out, congratulating ourselves for the lucky escape. We plan to follow the same route to get back inside the campus since after we eat, since the police van will not be around till then.

2:55 am

We reach the DLF building entrance.

There is not one shop open where we can get food. The place is deserted. The dogs don't seem friendly. (Otherwise, why would they all bark at the same time and run towards us?)

3:00 am

Going in through the main gate is not an option. We expect to find the police van blocking us, if we go back the same way. But we start walking down the road towards ISB anyway.

3:05 am

We are now pretty sure the police van is still there and there are more policemen watching us with suspicion as we walk past the police check post. We walk till we reach a convenient spot where the wall is comfortably low, we're not clearly visible to the check-post. We act like we're peeing (Just in case someone's watching). Then, we jump the wall.

3:08 am

We land. Actually, not quite. Because we are ankle deep in something dark, squishy and wet. We hope it is mud. We somehow manage to reach firmer ground and realise that we'll have to find our way out of thick, tall, thorny bushes. Lack of light and the possibility of a snake suddenly deciding to grace us with his company makes us nervous. But we move on.

3:15 am

Only to find ourselves wading through more calf-deep mud.

3:25 am

We're back at the OBH - wet, muddy, tired. And hungry.

Overall rating for night-out: Great success!

Joblessness

2009-03-31T16:51:00.002+05:30

Yes. I'm in the office and I have no work. Which is absolutely a new situation for me to face. So I do what most of the bored people on earth are doing. I logged into Facebook. And I find this interesting exercise to do. Instead of doing it on Facebook Notes, I though I'd do it on the blog. Here goes:

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

()Rocky Horror Picture Show
() Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
() Starsky and Hutch
() Neverending Story
() Blazing Saddles
() Airplane
Total: 4

(x) The Princess Bride
() Anchorman
() Napoleon Dynamite
() Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
() Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
(x) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 10

() Scream
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
() Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
() Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 13

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
() Harry Potter 3
() Harry Potter 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
() Little Black Book
(x) The Village
() Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 16

() Finding Nemo
() Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
() The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
() 13 Going on 30
() I, Robot
() Robots
Total so far:18

() Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
() Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
() Kingpin
() Never Been Kissed
() Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
Total so far: 23

() A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
(x) Final Destination 3
() Halloween
(x) The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
() Flubber
Total so far: 29

() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
() Chicago
() Ghost Ship
() From Hell
() Hellboy
() Secret Window
() I Am Sam
() The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 29

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
() Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
() Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
(x) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
(x) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 36

(x) Bad Boys
() Bad Boys 2
() Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
() Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total so far: 46

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
() Christine
() ET
() Children of the Corn
(x) My Boss' Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
() War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 50

() Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
() She's All That
() Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
() Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
() Ever After
() Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 56

() X-Men
() X-2
() X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
() The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
() Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
() Shrek
() Shrek 2
Total so far: 61

() Swimfan
() Miracle on 34th street
() Old School
(x) The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
() The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 63

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
() Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
() Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
() Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
() Basketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
() Elf
() Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
() Three
Total so far: 65

() The Jacket
() Kung Fu Hustle
() Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
() Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
() Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard
Total so far: 67

() High Tension
() Club Dread
() Hulk
() Dawn Of the Dead
() Hook
() Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
() 28 days
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
() Waterworld
Total so far: 67

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
() Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
() Army of Darkness
Total so far:69

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far:75

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
() Evil Dead 2
() Team America: World Police
() Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal
Grand total:80

Phew! I came real close to not having a life. And yes, it was quite embarrassing to mark an x against some of those movies.

What's your score?

2009-03-06T02:40:00.002+05:30

Some days are just so incredibly fucked up.

But thank God, there's Bob and there's No Direction Home.

I didn't know they made a version of that

2009-02-27T14:36:00.005+05:30

After a 60km cycle ride, my posterior is about to fall apart. So I thought I'll let it rest on a cushy chair and a write a post.

Over the last few months I have become a major youtube addict. I keep looking for music videos of my latest musical obsessions, live or otherwise. This has led to many pleasantly surprising discoveries. So following is a list of some of those. These are versions of very well known songs, but not by the original artists. I won't call them covers because they are as good as the originals if not better.

All Along the Watchtower by Dave Matthews Band

Jimmy Hendrix's version of this song is so so popular that many people don't even know that it was originally written and composed by Bob Dylan. But listen to The Dave Matthews Band perform this in their Folsom Field Concert and I bet you jaw will drop straight to the floor in awe. Boyd Tinsley becomes one with his violin (What's a violin doing in rock band? Working wonders.), LeRoi's solo on the sax is as smooth as ever and Dave Matthews uses shouting to maximum impact in the last few minutes of the performance. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypaH1Gj6VIs

Brothers in Arms by Joan Baez

I have raved enough about this song by Dire Straits and one of their divine live performances. But this version by Joan Baez is different. Her sweet, female voice is a great change from Mark Knopfler's dark, gruff rendition. The lack of the instrumental magic that Dire Straits put in is not felt at all because of the emotion the beautiful Joan provides to the brilliant lyrics. The link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJeNPS2tLdA

Cinnamon Girl by Type O Negative

I first heard the Type O Negative song in Smiley's room. Saw its video actually, with muscular, scary looking band members wearing metallic chains for guitar straps make the crowd go berserk with their heavy, thumping version of Neil Young's classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hnMgIOnjMs

I believe in Miracles by Pearl Jam

This song is apparently a very popular number on PJ's concerts. I first heard this on their Benaroya Hall Concert album at a time when I actually needed a miracle to finish stuff at work. It unknowingly became a sort of work anthem. Only later I found out that it is not a PJ original but a song by The Ramones. Frankly, I don't like the original version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEU7S-6MfIg

Behind Blue Eyes by Suzanne Vega

Everyone knows this classic by The Who. While scrounging for songs by Suzanne Vega, I stumbled upon an audio from her concert in Montreux where she sings Behind Blue Eyes with minimum instruments and yet, with great effect. I can't decide which version I like more, The Who's or hers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZBduiTvqm4

With my music-messiah-giri done. I think it is time to go and grab something to eat and crash for a peaceful afternoon's sleep.

Stuck

2009-02-09T23:21:00.003+05:30

I have written more posts in this month than in the last 6 months put together. So, keeping up the good work, let me ask you a question:

What do you do when a super-mushy song gets stuck in your head?

Here's why I ask this. (The song is "Way Back Into Love" from the killer mushy movie called "Music and Lyrics", in case the Big Brother prevents you from accessing youtube.)

Blur

2009-02-08T18:08:00.000+05:30

Blur. That's how life has been since I became a corporate majdoor. I feel the intensity being sucked out. No time to think, reflect or introspect. Not much time to read, write or draw. No time for anything.

I remember the days when I was in second year of college when life was exactly the opposite what it is now. Days passed at a leisurely pace. It felt like the second hand of the clock will stop. Back then, I actually wanted a life where there would be no time to think. A fast, busy life. Huh.

Be careful what you wish for.

Scorching winter

2009-02-02T09:37:00.001+05:30

This year in Hyderabad, if you called that an oxymoron, you'd be wrong.

I Will End...

2009-02-01T02:25:00.002+05:30

...this is bloody streak of weekends spent working. Very soon.

Till then, Where are you going?

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T19:47:00.003+05:30

It's another brand new year. Watching the massive crowd on the Baga beach in Goa go mad at the stroke of midnight with the sky lit up with fireworks and the thumping beats from the shack close by, I was thinking what is it that we are celebrating? Beginning of the Earth's 2009th revolution (after the birth of Christ) around the Sun can't be worth all this hysteria.

Were we celebrating the fact that so many of us dared to come out in spite of all the security threats and warnings, the fact that we did not let the fears bog down our spirit? It didn't feel like that was the prevalent emotion.

There were people hugging, kissing, holding hands, or simply smiling at each other. Wishing each other a happy new year. Were they celebrating the fact that they were together, sharing this moment with someone? To be frank, a few years from now, you might not be able to recognize the person who probably means the world to you right now. Don't we all know deep down that this togetherness is fleeting?

I think there is only one thing we celebrate through all our festivals - hope. The hope that things will get better from here on. For me, for you, for the world. It amazes me how the existence of the human race is based on just this faith, that everything will be alright, that things will work out. And yet we have survived.

Here's to the hope of a better tomorrow.

It's not a nice feeling...

2008-11-24T23:12:00.002+05:30

when you realise that the only thing you got is so fucked up.

Story of a Night-Out

2008-10-12T20:15:00.002+05:30

The < insert expletive here > weekend

2008-07-21T10:46:00.004+05:30

Ever heard of the abbreviation klpd? No? You could read the urbandictionary link or better, read this post to fully understand its meaning.

I have long tried to follow the policy of using as few expletives as possible on the blog. But I have to write about the weekend just gone by, I would end up filling the whole page up with the choicest words in my vocabulary. But still, let me try.

It started on Saturday morning. We had booked tickets for the morning show of "The Dark Knight". We got up at bloody 7:30am on a Saturday and hopped through buses, trains, autos to reach Imax only to find that they had cancelled the show fearing some f***ing bandh! The whole city was absolutely normal. Every damn shop was open. There was no bandh. But anyway, we came back laughing at our bad luck.

I didn't think much about it. Just a bad day, I thought and brushed it aside. I should have known better.

I had been looking forward to the rock walk on Sunday for a long time. I managed to persuade Apoc to come along. So, after a horrible one hour in a hopelesly crowded bus, we reached the starting point for the walk about 20 minutes late to find absolutely no one there. People had already left. We had missed it. So we roamed around and wasted some more time and came back empty handed.

So that was the story of one great weekend. This whole working life has made weekends too important. There's too much pressure to go out and do something, too many expectations. And when nothing happens according to the plan, I have all the right to be frustoo like I am right now.

Now that I have let it all out, I feel better. I can work now.

The quirky tag

2008-07-19T16:48:00.003+05:30

This one came from Lord. Sitting in the office on a Saturday afternoon, after a major chot in the morning, this is the second best thing to do. The first best thing is to chat with Apoc about the most bizarre things in the universe. Do keep checking that link to Apoc's blog for his much anticipated post about our current obsession with lolcats and lolspeak.

Here is a set of quirky things about me:

1. Females with nice upper arms and shapely, delicate ears totally turn me on. I have been mocked for this several times. But I often find myself unconsciously straining my neck to take a look at somebody's ears/ear-rings.

2. I am a maniacal list maker. To-do lists, to-carry lists, to-not-forget lists, I make them all. And quite often forget to carry them along.

3. I have numbers going around in my head all the time. Squares, cubes etc. I can't help thinking how I could represent a particular number as sum or difference of only squares.

4. I'm a total sucker for blue, basic, straight cut jeans. I already have 4 different shades and would love to have more.

5. When I like something, I tend to overdo it. Kill it. It could be a song I play in a loop for 2 days straight, or a TV show whose episodes I watch one after the other, whose lines I quote in conversations, whose events I keep thinking about all the time.

Current obsession is of course, lolspeak.

6. I really like chocos. Is that weird?

My list of tag victims:
Bose, Sharat and SidKC. Can't think of anyone else who isn't taken by now.

Oh I forgot, I'm supposed to put the rules of the tag:

1. Link the person who tagged you. (Check)
2. Mention the rules on your blog. (Check)
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. (Check)
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them. (Can't check)
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged. (Not checked. Who would be jobless enough to do this?)

The White Mughals

2008-07-17T22:49:00.002+05:30

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing this book which seems to have finally brought me back to reading. I found it to be brilliant in many ways. It is historical, has a great story and is set in Hyderabad. A perfect blend of things that interest me.

It is quite a relief to find myself reading with so much interest. I would have classified myself as a voracious, bordering on maniacal reader about 2 years back. But then with the internship and other things coming in, reading took a back seat, much to my discomfort. For a very long time, I could not read more than a few pages at a time. It took me 3 months to finish 'Greenmantle' and about a fortnight for 'Heart of Darkness'. Both of them being really thin books.

I was really worried that probably the only good habit/hobby that I have is getting left behind. But this book changed things. At times, I was actually fighting sleep to stay awake so that I could continue reading.

Super book. Do read it.

p.s.: On a totally different note, I hope all of you watched the Wimbledon men's final. Painful as it was to watch Federer lose, it was the best match I have seen in my life. If you didnt, the first thing to do after you finish reading this line is to find it on youtube and watch it.

2008-06-26T10:03:00.002+05:30

"Sir, kahaan ka drop hai?"

"Telecom Nagar?"

"Balapur."

"Ok sir."

The driver turns the key and we move out of the car park.

"Songs nahi hai bhaiya?"

He tunes into some FM station. I try to ignore. I'm lucky that the other two in the cab didn't demand the a/c to be put on. I roll down the window and let the cool air hit my face.

The weather is brilliant. The smell of wet earth is lingering in the air. It's a pity that I saw the rain only from behind a glass wall.

It is at times like these that I miss IIIT most. I miss the long walk which I could've gone for. I miss the toads that I would have to dodge on the street. I miss the sound of leaves, wet and fresh after the rain, rubbing against each other. I miss the sweet fragrance of Raat-ki-raani which would come floating and persuade me to not turn back before reaching its source. I miss the empty, wet streets where I could hear nothing but the sound of my flip-flops. I miss the silence that would help me put my worries on hold. I miss the cover of anonymity provided by the dark shadows. I miss the coffee that I could sip on my way back to the hostel. I miss being able to just stand in the corridor outside my room and stare at the trees, their branches swaying in the wind, for hours together. I miss being able to stay up all night, either reading or listening to the sound of rain.

Gross

2008-06-20T19:24:00.003+05:30

I found the answer to one burning question that I had in mind for long:
How does one give a stool sample?

Others, like the following, are yet to be answered:
Is the second last urinal always the most popular in the mens' toilet? If yes, why?

Present Sir.

2008-06-19T14:56:00.002+05:30

This post is pretty much like an answer to the attendance call in a class. To inform everyone that yes, I am alive.

I was wondering about the inverse relationship between the eventfulness of a blogger's life and his/her posting frequency.

It seems to be quite true for me. The most blog-worthy events that have occured in my life in the past few years: the Goa Cruise, the treks, the Goa trip, the internship and its eventual culmination into a naukri etc., find no mention on this blog. On the other hand, absolutely mundane and inconsequential things like the thickness of the layer of dust on my monitor, have complete posts dedicated to their analysis.

Anyhow, here's an update, in roughly chronological order:

1. Trek was great. Pictures here.
2. First flight was mostly spent sleeping. To be frank, it was quite boring.
3. Moved out of IIIT.
4. Moved in with flatmates: Shaitan Of Sialkot and Harry.
5. Started majdoori.
6. No music since long. This is driving me mad. Someone please repair my dabba!
6. Suddenly there are too many things on the to-do list which has been growing at a scary speed.
7. Bored of the old template and too lazy to make custom changes, I chose this template.

Hope to post more regularly from now on.

I shall be back very soon

2008-06-16T18:34:00.003+05:30

Just noticed that I deleted the title image by mistake leaving a big hole on top. I'll mend this broken page pretty soon and come back pretty soon.

The End.

2008-04-09T20:39:00.002+05:30

There was no conversation at the dinner table today. None of us even looked up. We ate quietly. Later Billu left for home. A normal salute to say good-bye. I couldn't look him in the eye.

I tried telling myself that he'll be back and that I'm not moving out of this city, that we'll meet again. But it doesn't help.

While walking back to the OBH, Smiley and I talked about this strange, heavy feeling. And that we'll have to get used to it, that it is inevitable and that we can do nothing about it. But it doesn't help.

The end is here.

I want a rewind button for life.

Plastic Money

2008-03-25T10:14:00.003+05:30

Plastic money is convenient when you carry it. But it's the biggest source of embarrassment, when you forget it. With no paper money, the thin wallet gives you an indication. But forget the damn card and you'll hardly feel the difference. You probably won't even care to check.

But you should. Check once. Check again. And again.

Because the only thing that can be worse than Federer losing to Fish, dirtier than pigeon shit in your room and uglier than Kareena Kapoor's protruding collar bones is making a very very old friend pay when it is supposed to be your treat.

Testi-fy

2008-03-18T16:00:00.003+05:30

If you're thinking that this is one of those posts where I pick up a song and launch into describing its greatness and meaning and what not, let me ensure you that this is nothing of that sort. It is not at all about the RATM song called "Testify". (RATM is totally brilliant btw. No one has ever spat out a "m******f**ker" that comes close to what Zack de la Rocha says in "Killing In The Name Of".)

But let me not digress. This post is about writing and receiving testimonials and the effect that they can have on you.

It all started with when the yearbook went live. I made a new folder called "testes!" (I realised that I got the spelling wrong only when I spell checked this post) and wrote my first set of testimonials containing those for Smiley and Billu and during a chat with Bose, asked for his opinion. He was probably just being nice when he said that they were absolutely awesome and that he wanted me to write another one for him. I felt proud of my power of senti and even claimed the "King of the Senti Ring" title. To be able to summon the services of my senti-gland so effortlessly and then shut it out with equal ease made me feel like some superhero.

It was a major ego boost. Much like the boost that the said ego experienced when praise for this (rather boring) blog came as a bullet point in a totally unexpected testi. (This short form is slightly disgusting, but convenient.) Apart from the boosts came shocks. Massive shocks. People called me "decent", "sincere", "mature" - how I wished could tell people to think twice before using such blasphemous adjectives for me. It was a shattering realisation of the fact that I failed to follow the teachings of this revolutionary article:

"How to be an a**hole"

Just when I had recovered from this calamity, came the truth which spelt disaster on my scarred mind. It dawned upon me, that the testi-s I wrote, to put it bluntly, sucked. They were neither funny like Billu's testi-s, nor senti. Smiley's testi for me, totally pwned in this regard. If my tear ducts had not been so crocodile-like, I would have certainly shed a few drops after reading it.

I think I should publicly apologize to all those who feel that my testi for them doesn't pack enough emotion or doesn't do justice to their personalities. I'm really very sorry. I tried. I really did. Thanks to all those who wrote such nice things about me. I absolutely love reading those testi-s over and over again. They give me narcissistic pleasure beyond measure.

Tathastu. (That's how Hindu Gods sign off.)

p.s.1: Current addictions: Eddie Vedder's voice, Mark Knopfler's guitaring.
p.s.2: Farewell tomorrow. All this has happened too fast.
p.s.3: This post isn't worth posting. But there are already too many unpublished drafts.

FUBAR

2008-03-10T01:43:00.002+05:30

A course which requires me to work hard even if I only want to pass.
A project which exists only on paper.
A humongous pile of clothes to be washed.
A dirty room.
A nagging desire to watch movies when I should be working.
A rapidly decreasing account balance.

All these contribute to my current situation described by the title.

Bachaao!

Senti

2008-02-19T13:08:00.002+05:30

The yearbook is up and people have started writing testimonials. Lat night, I was feeling proud of myself for not getting senti at all. (Kya patthar-dil hai mera!) But suddenly Chauhan reminded me that room #195, OBH will be mine for just another month or so.

And it hit me. Just one month to go.

The Return of the Blogger

2008-02-14T02:04:00.007+05:30

The title of this post is not lifted from the name of the Felicity quiz. Though why it was called "The Return of the Quiz" is beyond me. Very much like the second composition played by the Galatea Quartett. "Ecumes" was its name. As far as I can recall, it is the French word for something to do with waves. It was a totally wtf! piece of music. But the concert (organised by Goethe Zentrum, Hyderabad on Feb 12, 2008 at the ITC Grand Kakatiya) was much better than the total wtf! by the Sygnum Quartett.

This post is inspired by a major spat of activity which has occurred in my blogospherical vicinity.

To top the activity list was Rashmi Bansal's workshop at IIIT-H as part of Felicity '08. Find more about it on her blog. It was slightly disappointing to find nothing about her funny observation (Why do IIITians drink so much milk?!) in the post.

No. 2 development in the list was triggered by the aforementioned workshop. The hyper-intelligent, super talented blogger is back in action on a new URL!

My theory about joblessness and blogging was corroborated by the arrival of the ~~Shaitan of Sialkot~~ Sultan of Samarkand. With nothing to do and a pretty good digicam in his itching hand, he is more dangerous than a monkey with a sword.

Even Neon, broke his silence with a couple of posts.

Things to do are suddenly getting out of hand. I need to catch up.

Coming up soon: Goa and Felicity '08 posts.

Picture courtesy: cartoonbank.com

A-Z Tag

2008-02-07T12:23:00.000+05:30

I like tags. This one came from Lord.

A-Age: 22

B-Band listening to right now: Dire Straits

C-Career (plan): Break out of software majdoori -> Travel!

D-Drink or Smoke: Drink - yes. Smoke - not really.

E-Easiest friends to talk to: Neon, wingmates.

F-Funniest moment of your life: When I conducted the school assembly without knowing that my fly was open.

G-Gummy bears or gummy worms: Wiki says both are same. So I guess anything will do.

H-Have a girlfriend?: Sadly, no.

I-In love: No.

J-Junk food you like: Chaat from roadside carts.

K-Kids: Are fun to play with till they don't pee/puke on you.

L-Longest ride ever: Can't say.

M-Man/woman you love the most: Me.

N-Names for your kids: boy - Gappu / girl - Ginty

O-One wish you have now: Peace. For myself, for everyone.

P-Phobias: I'm scared of packs of dogs on dark, desolate streets. Does it have a name?

Q-Quote (favorite): "Happiness is an elusive state of mind, not to be gained by clumsy pursuit. It is given to those who do not sue for it; to be unconcerned about a desired good is probably the only way to possess it." - Ruskin Bond

R-Reasons to smile: Many

S-Sleeping hours: Whenever I feel sleepy - about 8am

T-Time you woke up: 8:30am

U-Unknown fact about you: I almost fell in love once.

V-Vegetable you hate: Cauliflower

W-Worst habit: Nose digging

X-X-rays you’ve had: Tooth, Chest

Y-Yummy foods: The list is too long. The hostel mess makes almost everything seem relatively yummy.

Z-Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

I tag:
Neon
Preshit (Does he read my blog?)
SidKC

The Goa post will be up before my tanned skin comes back to normal.

The 3am post

2008-01-22T03:00:00.000+05:30

How is a 3am post different from an 11pm post? Well, who said it is?

Anything which remotely resembles work is repulsive these days. Somebody help me. We stand all day outside our rooms and do random, pointless bc. I should be try finish all that work.

But the most important reason for writing this post is that I need a good (or at least decent) quality audio of the 'tic tic tic' song featuring Rajni ka Baapu, Mithun ka dada, his holiness annavaru Rajkumar himself.

If you have it, please mail it to me. Main aapka ehsaan kabhi nahi bhulunga. (Waise yaad rakh ke bhi koi teer nahi maar lunga.)

Q&A

2008-01-06T17:47:00.000+05:30

I'm staring blankly at the grey evening sky. This time of the day always brings a strange feeling. A little restlessness. Perhaps melancholy would be the right word.

I remember looking out of the window of the coaching class to find children flying kites on terraces, mothers taking their kids out for a walk, samosas being fried on the little cart across the road, some fellows stopping for a smoke at the shop right under the window. A day of hard work coming to an end for them. On this side of the window, it was only beginning. Strings, pulleys, aldehydes, ketones, conic sections, differentials, integrals... spread all over the board. A whole bunch of tired eyes and minds trying to keep pace. What for?

I also remember spending evenings sitting on the terrace in Kota. Scores of students kept the bicycle repair shops on the ground floor busy. We wondered where all the girls went for their bicycles. All the main characters of this little evening show had nicknames. Though now, I can't recall any. Our conversation would time and again stop at the point where we could not understand our reason for being there. For an exam? Was it worth all that? As the evening gave way to darkness, the questions were postponed. More mundane discussions about food and girls occupied the void created by the pensive silence.

Today is no different. My disappointment seems absurd. The questions are still the same. What is the purpose of all this? Is it worth all our efforts? The answers still elude me.

This will reach the publish button....

2007-11-01T11:45:00.000+05:30

I've been trying to post for a long time. I have 3 drafts which make some sense, but I'm not going to publish. You could call it an effect of taking the Literature course in the 7th sem. I realised how pathetic I am at writing. As such, I'm trying to do better.

The 7th semester is nearing its end. One more after this and I'll be out of IIIT. Into the big, bad world. This comfortable, laidback life will soon come to end. I will, of course, try to resist change. But the odds don't seem to be in my favour.

To be frank, I've been waiting to get out of here. It is quite strange. During my last year in school it was the same. I just wanted to get out. Now I feel I had a great time in school. Probably, the best in my life. Maybe I will feel the same about IIIT some years later.

But wait. This post wasn't meant to be a pseudo-senti one. This was meant to be an oh-fuck-i-am-screwed! post. In a moment of madness, I registered for the DIP course. Owing to my suicidal stubbornness, I did not drop the course when I had the chance. And now, here I am, crying over spilled milk after being totally pwned by each and every exam in the course. This might just be the first F on my already unimpressive gradesheet. I'm on the verge of doing something really desperate.

I've already started a chain mail. It should reach you very soon. Google is tracking it. For every reader it reaches, 0.01 marks will be added to my end sem score. I hope to reach the passing mark this way. So if you receive a mail with subject, "Do not delete, please help him save his degree, very important!!!!!", please do forward it to everyone in your contact list. Especially all those who forward me those "Be careful with AIDS infected needles in theatres", "Jai Maata Di", "Help child victim of super bhayankar dangerous disease" mails. Please!

May the force be with me.

Why does the geyser take so long?

2007-09-22T16:50:00.000+05:30

Yes, you are here. And you will read this right till the end because somewhere in this post I'm going to mention Bipasha Basu.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

I'm hooked to this band. Don't know what the hell that name means. These days my playlist oscillates between CCR and Pearl Jam. The latter's lyrics are particularly frustoo, but the songs are good. Don't ask why. This is not the English literature class. So I'm not going to explain WHY I like something.

2 working days

I wisely took courses such that all my classes fall on 2 days of the week. So now I have this huge Sunday which lasts 5 days and 2 Mondays which are more annoying than they have ever been.

That gives me a lot of time to work on my BTP. The BTP! There is no light at the end of this tunnel. In fact, there's no end at all. It is like a dark circular tunnel and I've been running rounds.

CZ

Everybody in the wing has started playing. So have I. And I suck at it. I'm the biggest danger to my teammates, the master tk-er. I suck so badly that I play by the name jhand_khiladi. But I can't give up.

Seinfeld

I finished watching all of Seinfeld that is there on the LAN. (Someone please download Part 2 of the finale and the missing episodes of the 4th season.) I totally loved the show. Especially all the hot girlfriends Jerry gets. I hate Elaine. Actually, in the beginning, she was my favourite character. But later she got too annoying. And Geroge is so un-cool! But I like that character too. Or should I say, identify with him? We do have things in common.

If you haven't seen it yet, giddy up!

Well, that's it. You came here for Bipasha Basu? Sorry, you have been taken for a ride.

Updates

2007-09-11T18:57:00.000+05:30

An year ago, I would have given a grand title to this post. I would've stood up and waved to accept the applause from all the readers of this blog. I would've given a speech saying how glad I am to be back after a fairly long break and how much I missed blogging and the readers.

But, I'm doing nothing of that sort. A part of the reason is the fairly obvious lack of readers who'd be willing to do the cheering and applauding. Instead, I'm wondering whether it would be appropriate to write an update post.

Now you might say that posting an update is like accepting defeat. You would have a valid point if you say that an update-worthy, interesting life, would leave little time to post updates.

When a blogger posts an update, he might be doing it to keep his blog alive. Then it is the same as the sad story of a struggling actor who ends up in the porn industry. Sometimes it might be a totally shameless i-have-nothing-to-blog-about-but-i-want-to-hence-this-update post. Such a post is no better than Himesh saying, "Yes, I sing through my nose. So what?". It is like one of his compositions.

But, we all know that both pornography and Himesh's albums, do great business. And there's nothing we can do about it. In fact, we can't afford to do anything to curb these things.

The blogosphere is built on the foundations of update posts. Someone tells us about how she threw a surprise birthday party for her husband, someone blogs about her six month old son, someone reviews his first month on a new job. And, to be frank, it isn't boring.

Here's to all the updaters of the blogosphere!

The curious incident of the Mouse in the shoe

2007-06-25T22:46:00.000+05:30

One of the disadvantages of wearing shoes for more than half the hours of the day is the fact that you have to pinch your nose when you take them off. Even a single stench carrying molecule finding its way to the sensors in your nose could wreak havoc on your olfactory system.

As such, much to the annoyance of my wingmates, I leave my shoes just outside the door in the corridor every night. To pick up the shoes every morning before I step out is among the most mundane and mechanical things I do during the day.

But today was different.

I was already late and in a hurry to reach daftar at lunch time. I don't like to miss free meals you see. So I pick up my shoes, bring them inside, wear socks and put my right foot inside the shoe. The darn foot doesn't go in fully.

"Damn it, I thought it stopped growing a long time back".

I push again and suddenly sense something inside.

"What is that? Lizard! Yuck! Take it off! YUUUCCCCKKKKKK!"

Shoe is lying on the ground. But nothing comes out.

"Ah, it's nothing. Probably just some little insect. Nothing worth all the hysterics. "

So, I invert the shoe, and lo! Guess who's peeping out? A mouse!

"Damn it! What the f***?! A f***ing mouse? Baahar nikal ********"

It comes out and makes a dash for the nearest corner instead of making a quick, peaceful exit through the door which is wide open. In a most innovative display of warfare tactic, it tries to shock the hell out of me by choosing the route between my legs.

And well, it succeeds. I jump up and down. Left foot in the air, now the right one. He dashes to the corner, I run out of the room.

But in a moment, I am back to my usual, brave self.

"I need a suitable weapon. A broom maybe." No broom in sight. Yes, that bottle of Thums Up lying under the chair could be of use. I tiptoe into the room so that I can catch it unawares and pick up the bottle. By now, it has taken a position of strategic advantage under the bed and on top of the bucket.

With one stroke of the bottle, I bring the bucket down. A good beginning, but it manages to hang on. Another blow and the enemy's on the run! It runs straight into the gap in the door.

I run after it with a war cry and strike the bottle on the ground right next to its tail. I had read somewhere that their tails can sense vibrations. I guess it was true. It immediately wriggles out of the room and makes a run for its life, towards the end of the corridor. The battle has been won.

I put on my shoes and walk out with a victorious smile.

Jeans

2007-06-21T00:22:00.000+05:30

I'm waiting for a code to compile. And it takes long enough for me to seriously start considering options to pass time. Blogging seems to be quite a good option.

So, I think about what to write. I swing my chair left and right, look at the pen, the cellphone (which is still quite new, and hence I actually notice it). I pocket my hands. Pockets of a jeans. Ah, that could be a topic!

me1:What? You'll write a post about jeans?

me2:Yes, why not. Seems like a pretty good idea.

me1:You mean this jeans you're wearing, or in general?

me2:No, in general.

me1:Write what about jeans? About how you totally enjoy wearing them, and all that crap?

me2:Yes. Why, only today I was talking to Billu about how I can't remember the last time I wasn't wearing one.

me1:Really? You don't?

me2:No. Not that I've been wearing them ever since I appeared on the face of the earth, but it certainly has been a long time.

In fact, I even remember the first time I bought one. I think it was my 8th birthday. I was super excited about the 5th pocket, the little one meant for keys (or is it for a condom?). I spent hours thinking what would be the ideal thing to carry in the pocket.

me1:You thought about carrying a condom in it at the age of 8?

me2:No, of course not. WTF?

me1:I don't really see a point for favouring jeans over normal pants...

me2:Well, the best reason I can think of is that you can wear them for as long as you want without washing, because it should be dirty.

me1:What's the longest you've gone wearing an unwashed jeans?

me2:Let's see... I think I went for about 20 days once, around the end sems in the 2nd semester. I was too busy studying, you see.

me1:Yeah, right. But 20 days? Man, yuck!

me2:That's nothing. Read about Hell's Angels and their Old Levi's.
You can basically do anything to your pair and it'll become the latest rage.

me1:I think that explains the bullet-hole trend and the auctions where old pairs are sold for as high as $100,000.

me2:Yes, but some of the recent trends are total bakwaas. I completely detest anything other than the straight fit. Those boot-cuts, low-rise, skeleton, faded are bullshit.

me1:See, you're just fashion unconscious and uncool. And you want to write about jeans.

me2:Okay, I'm uncool. But those artificially faded and skeleton jeans completely defeat the purpose. you're supposed to use a pair till it fades and then take pride in that fact that you faded them. And don't even get me started about the weird fits that are popular these days. Absolutely thoo!

me1:How can you say that? Don't you remember the wise words of the salesman in the shop who was trying to push concepts of latest trends in jeanswear down your throat? And about how your choice is totally uncle-like?

me2:Bollocks, what does he know about jeans?

me1:And you do?

me2:Yes.

me1:Yeah, right. That's why I tell you, don't write about this topic.

me2:Hmm, but maybe I can write about this little argument.

A movie / A wedding / The Channel / The Deal / The Mission

2007-05-06T10:38:00.000+05:30

Spiderman 3 hit theatres in India. No, I did not watch it. Hence, this is not a review post. This is not even a post trying to gather junta to go and watch it with me. I have no plans of watching the movie.

Well, unless you can arrange for the Bhojpuri dubbed version. Who can resist power packed, spitfire dialogues like this one:

"Hum makad maanav hain, ud kar aayab aur tohar tetuwa dabaa deb."

Sheer brilliance!

I hope they also the come up with some title good enough to match "Ek Bandar Hotel ke Andar". How does "Makad Maanav, Bhagaaye Daanav" sound?

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The Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding finally happened. After all the talk about Aishwarya being a Martian and being made to marry a tree and a bush and what not, to wash off the Mars effect. The public hysteria about the whole wedding was quite ridiculous. And even the media went into a full-throttle mode. Whether it was the insanely stupid Aaj Tak style coverage of the event, or the in-depth analysis and criticism of how it was a demeaning affair for the ladies in the Bachchan household, and to Aishwarya herself, and to women in general.

I don't understand, what's the big deal? Why so much attention? A wedding, who cares?

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Another disturbing piece of news was the ban on FTV. That explains why Billu spent most of his time at home sleeping.

Suddenly, I feel nostalgic about the times I spent watching those lingerie (didn't even know how to pronounce the word then, bloody French) and Pirelli calendar shows with my senses on high alert to prevent the embarrassment of being caught while watching the forbidden channel. Channels like Trendz came and went, but FTV will always be FTV.

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Microsoft planning to buy out Yahoo! (for 50 billion dollars!), Rupert Murdoch trying to buy out Dow Jones, some other company trying to buy Reuters' agency, Anchor switches bought by Matsushita, how could I be left behind?

I bought an All-Out machine to keep the blood sucking monsters at bay.

Right, bad joke.

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I'm on "Mission IMDB Top 250" these days. I'm not planning to watch all 250, just trying to get my count up to 100. 28 more to go. So, without wasting any more time, I shall start watching 'Double Indemnity'.

I want to post...

2007-04-01T17:46:00.000+05:30

...but I have nothing on my mind. What a hopeless situation I'm in!

So with complete disregard to the readers' mental health and well-being, I'm going to go ahead and write this update post.

Been struggling with work. My productivity graph (which has always been a modest one), is achieving greater depths. No progress in the whole of last week.

Finally finished reading 'The Motorcycle Diaries'. It took almost 3 months. Quite acceptable given that I read it only in the very interesting WDKM classes. I read some chapters twice or thrice, because I forgot that I had already read them.

Finished watching Rome. I didn't watch the whole 2nd season in a single, long slog like I did for the 1st. This one had a lot more gore and nudity. But, a brilliant historical series.

Both BTP vivas for this semester went okay, I think. Not many questions were asked by the panel. Don't know whether that is good or bad.

India crashing out of the WC didn't cause me any sorrow. I remember watching every single match of WC 96. I even maintained a nicely decorated book keeping a record of all the matches back then. I'd followed the tournament quite closely in 2003 also. Thanks mostly to Mandira Bedi and her noodle straps. But this year, with her extra pounds beginning to become a little too apparent, I had little interest left.

End sems approaching, course project deadline approaching, assignment deadline approaching. 6th sem is almost over!

Batch trip next month!

Karaoke night on campus. Not sure what it is exactly all about. Let me go take a look.

Tag, really.

2007-03-23T02:12:00.000+05:30

A living person I would like to meet:
Just one meeting wouldn't be of any great use. Fed can't teach me any tennis in one meeting, and neither do I see any realistic chances of 'getting lucky' with Elisha Cuthbert on our first and only date. So, it might as well be someone who will be fun to talk to, maybe Jerry Seinfeld.

A dead person I would like to meet:
Ekta Kapoor, after I've killed her. I would enjoy killing her again.

An event in history I would like to change:
I would like to change the day I conducted the school assembly without realising that my zipper was open.

You say this isn't history? Well, I say this isn't a question for a tag.

A movie I would like to witness in real:
"The Motorcycle Diaries", as Alberto Granado. I think he had much more fun than Che.

A literary character I would like to meet:
Do Penthouse letters qualify to be called literature? If yes, then I would like to meet the Loving Nurse.

Otherwise, Karla Saranen from Shantaram will have to do. In fact, even Dr.Watson would be fine.

And now the part where I pass on the goodies to others:
Neon (or Dr.SafetyFirst, as he calls himself)
GKay, can I turn this into something like an infinite recursive function call? Tag-back the person who has tagged you, and then he tags you again, and it goes on... till one of you dies (or alternatively one deletes his blog).

Tag!

2007-03-17T00:58:00.000+05:30

I had started contemplating a post about how I am completely falling short of ideas to blog about.

I'm not following the World Cup, I haven't read the newspaper in ages, I don't have enough background information to write about the internet ban in IIT-B, I haven't watched any great movie, even the time I spend listening to music has reduced drastically, I don't know what happens in classes since I'm never awake there, my grades are miserable enough to prevent me from mentioning them, I haven't managed to finish a single book since January. What am I supposed to do?

In times of such great despair, of such dire need for topics to blog about, the only hope which keeps a desperate blogger from deleting his blog in an uncontrollable fit of frustration, is a tag. All you have to do, is a little blog-hopping, find a blog where someone has been kind enough to pass it on to 'anyone who is willing' (read 'all you jobless f***s out there!'), complete the tag and post it!

But, just when you start feeling all cheery and optimistic about your blog's future, everyone in the blogosphere decides to be very choosy and specific about the people they tag. They waste their tags on bloggers who have either stopped posting or who have long been dead. Some of them even decide not to pass it on to anyone. It is gone, even before you could lay your hands on it! Like the ice-cream at a wedding dinner.

The wait goes on. Every time you read someone else's tag post, the song "aaega aane waala" starts playing in your mind. You give up all shame and start posting stupider comments on exceptionally stupid posts. You consult a pandit and plan a 'tag-siddhi pooja' on the 3rd amavasya of the shravan maas and even make arrangements for giving special daan to all the fellow blogger yajmaans, to satisfy all gods of blogdom.

And finally the day of salvation arrives. You scroll down, with bated breath to the part where the fortunate tag recipients are mentioned on someone's post. Your name is there! You rub your eyes in disbelief. After confirming that it is indeed you, who as been tagged, you run out into the corridor shouting, "ooparwaale ne meri sun li!". You start hugging all wingmates and even people you've never met before, exactly the way it was done on numerous occasions in Ramanand Sagar's Krishna.

And then you sit down to complete the tag, your heart skipping many-a-beat, getting impatient to hit the publish button. It is at this precise moment that you realise that you can't think of answers that are interesting enough to do justice to this brilliant opportunity.

That's what happened to me when I tried to complete GKay's tag. Maybe some other time, hopefully in the near future, when my neurons are feeling less lethargic. Till then, why don't you read my previous masterpieces?

Glimpses on a lazy day

2007-03-04T19:42:00.000+05:30

The construction worker's kid playing on the felled tree. Pure joy.

A Bajaj Pulsar going at an unbelievably high speed. Its rider weighs at least 150kg.

The durbaan says "Thank you, Sir" as we walk out of the restaurant. I should thank him for sparing the salute.

A drunkard sleeping on the road in the hot sun. No daaru this month. Had a little too much in February.

A really pretty Firang babe. Extremely attractive, to the extent that I take the stairs instead of the elevator so as to get a direct look.

A taxi driver swinging in his seat to 'wo ladki bahut yaad aati hai'. A few seconds later I find myself humming the same song. Damn!

A bunch of fellows drenched in colours. Somehow it evens out the differences between people.

A squashed rose in the middle of the street. Only a fortnight was enough for it to lose all value.

Another kid, in a lemon yellow frock. Reminds me of bygone days. 12 years suddenly feels like a very short time.

Things I did on Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T01:56:00.000+05:30

Alright people, this might turn out to be a very useless post for you readers. This is more like a post so that I can record a great day.

1. Got up at 6 o'clock. That's a monumental achievement! this happened for the first time since I don't know when.

2. Wrote a totally mindless exam. After it was over, cribbed for some time for reaching 15 minutes late. Damn, I could've puked out much more crap on the answer book.

3. Worked.

4. Did infinite BC.

5. Got drunk. Felt good to be in company of other girlfriend-less frustoos. I think they won't like being called frustoos. One of them is strong enough to crush me with a single hand. Sorry fellows, but I can't take my words back.

6. Watched Seinfeld. It's great!

7. Went for a midnight cycle ride, about 3km in all. It was brilliant, the best part of the day. Thanks Lord. I may not add you on Orkut, but this link is to thank you for your bike.

8. Wrote a post about this absolutely inconsequential topic.

Orkut

2007-01-30T00:13:00.000+05:30

Lately I've been spending a lot of time on Orkut. Not that I've been bitten by the scrapping bug, but just that I have absolutely nothing to do. I find myself staring at the Firefox window and my fingers involuntarily guide the mouse to the Orkut bookmark and click it.

Once logged in, I find myself absolutely clueless about what to do. In spite of being pretty high on the frustoo scale, I don't really like the idea of surfing through profiles of supposedly pretty girls. Neither do I like to spy on people by reading their scraps. But, it is quite surprising to find people careless enough to exchange very personal information using scraps. Cell-phone numbers, addresses, working hours, plans for the night and what not!

Though I must accept that reading through insanely hilarious "i'm kool", "i'm sexy" 'about me's (some fellow described himself as koool, frandly and CORNY ?!@#$* WTF?) and make-you-pee-while-laughing 'i wanna mak franship wid u... plzz accpt ma rqst' kind of scraps is a pretty good way to pass time.

Orkut's actual intention was to help people keep in touch with friends and old acquaintances. But I think it has in fact done exactly the opposite. Real people with whom you had conversations have been reduced to little icons on the friends list. Friends who'd send you mails sharing things happening in their lives have become those obscure acquaintances who drop in that occassional 'hi! 'ssup?' scrap and even you won't care to say more than 'hey! i'm good. how're you doing?' in your reply.

Orkut made maintaining contact too easy, and that seems to have spoiled all the fun. We've started rating our friends-haven't met(how can someone you've never met be your friend?), acquaintance, good friend, best friend. Earlier, even if it was only once in a month or a few months, I would sit down and write an email, or in some rare cases, when the person was not net-savvy I would write a letter. If only for those few minutes, I would bear that person's thought in my mind, memories of times we had spent together would flash past and that somehow gave me a better feeling. Scrapping and profile visiting can never come close to that. I think the recipient will also appreciate that someone actually took time off to write him a mail or a letter.

Maybe that's how people who were used to writing letters felt when email started replacing traditional post. Maybe I'm old fashioned. Maybe I'm slow to adapt. But I want to go back to the old routine of sending and receiving mails.

People out there.. are you listening? If I actually get around to writing mails, please do not reply to them with lame scraps! I won't mind if I don't get replies. But a scrap reply would really offend me.

Arbit Tag

2007-01-27T11:46:00.000+05:30

The alarming infrequency of posts has caused me to take desperate measures. This is a tag I picked up from Silverine.

1. Yourself: I hate this Orkut-ish "about me" stuff. I'm not writing anything.

2. Your girlfriend/spouse: None!

3. Your hair: Going by the current rate, they will only be a faint memory in a few years.

4. Your mother: She is probably baking a cake right now.

5. Your father: Has a voice exactly like mine. Or should I say, I have a voice exactly like my father's. Doesn't matter actually, it is a symmetric relation.

6. Your favorite item: A very old blue cap.

7. Your dream last night: Kesar attempting suicide because of a heartbreak. Weird!

8. Your favorite drink: Water.

9. Your dream car: Will have all the NFS kind of fodu stuff.

10. The room you are in: OBH 132.

11. Your fear: Tonight's dinner in the mess.

12. What do you want to be in 10 years? Owner of Playboy.

13. Who you hung out with last night? Smiley and Billu.

14. What you're not? Senti.

15. Muffins: WTF?

16. One of your wish list items: A gun, preferably a Desert Eagle without 'replica' written on its side.

17. Time: A brilliant Pink Floyd song.

18. The last thing you did: I yawned.

19. What are you wearing? Black jeans and a (FREE!) grey t-shirt I got last week.

20. Your favorite weather: Cold, cloudy.

21. Your favorite book: The Godfather.

22. The last thing you ate: Omlettes and bread.

23. Your life: If we ignore the fact that Sharapova lost to Serena, then life is good!

24. Your mood: Lazy.

25. Your best friend: Well, there are many. Smiley, Preshit, Neon, ....

26. What are you thinking about right now? How to squeeze out a week this summer for a trek.

27. Your car: You mean the Hot Wheels Rodzilla? Some a**hole stole it from my box of cars!

28. What are you doing at the moment? Writing a post.

29. Your summer: Hopefully won't go without a trek this year.

30. Your relationship status: Single

31. What is on your TV? No TV.

32. What is the weather like? Hot, sunny. Hell! This is supposed to be winter.

33. When is the last time you laughed? A little while ago, when Smiley derived the word under-bitch from under-dog.

Anyone desperate to post and facing a severe lack of ideas is free to pick this one up.

Back

2007-01-17T22:48:00.000+05:30

Been a long time since the last post. Not in a great mood right now. A bad day in more ways than one, will be over in an hour.

Sportsperson of the year 2006

2006-12-28T08:20:00.000+05:30

"In 2006, Roger Federer played tennis better than anyone else played any other sport."

Here's the full article.

Too random to have a title

2006-12-23T00:28:00.000+05:30

This has been quite a long break from blogging. I can think of quite a few reasons ranging from absolute dearth of ideas to blogger spoiling my mood a couple of days back by taking infinite time to migrate to the new version. Anyway, here I am, posting after almost a month.

I changed to this enhanced version of blogger and started tagging my previous posts. But then decided to stop when almost all of them had just one tag: Joblessness. Actually, I think bloggers blogging out of sheer joblessness comprise the majority.

-----------------------------

Dire Straits has a very dominant presence on my playlist these days. To say that I particularly like the live version of 'Brothers in Arms' would be a gross understatement. I feel like kneeling down and bowing my head in respect for God Knopfler every time it is played. The only other song which evokes such feelings is 'Comfortably Numb' by Gods Waters and Gilmour. I actually rate it a notch higher. I've recently started listening to a little bit of Pearl Jam too. 'Last Kiss' is good, 'Alive' is better.

-----------------------------

I pity our poor juniors who're being forced to stay back during the winter break to attend a conference. Is the institute is trying to conceal the lack of participants by using them as bakras? To not let them go home is autocratic. Threatening to drop their grades if they disobey, is downright cheap. What is most ironic is that all this comes from the person who talks about developing a culture of sensitivity. I hope he doesn't make me stay as punishment after reading this.

-----------------------------

A multitude of emotions can be observed on people's faces during an hour long bus journey. It was a pleasant surprise to see that many of them were happy ones. The number of smiles and relaxed expressions outnumbered the frowns and worried faces. The satisfaction on the thirsty kid's face as he sucks water from a pouch, the relief on the smoker's face as he exhales the first puff, the sense of achievement visible on the clerk's face as he manages to board the bus after running behind it for a distance, the pride on the young fellow's face as he offers his place to an old man.

-----------------------------

Joseph Barbera died. I don't think anyone else has had such a great impact on the childhood of our generation. I am a huge fan of Tom & Jerry. A fan to the extent of joining the Orkut community dedicated to them. I know that's a lame argument. But how else do I prove my fan-hood? I liked Flintstones and Johnny Quest also. For a brief period, I was crazy about Scooby Doo Adventures and one of those boring afternoons of the summer vacation when your mother won't let you go out to play, I didn't mind watching Whacky Races. I'm sure he'll rest in peace after making so many kids and grown ups laugh their brains out with his creations.

-----------------------------

Let me end this post with a link to the song currently playing....

TP

2006-11-25T20:23:00.000+05:30

We were whiling our time away in Smiley's room last evening when this brilliant idea of translating band names into Hindi came.

Here are the Hindi translations, try guessing:

Mrutyu Par Bhugtaan
Yantra ke viruddh krodh
Youn Bandookein
Sapnaa Taakeej (this is pure genius!)
Bhagwaan ka Tamaachaa
Judaa ka Pujaari (sounds like some Ramsey Brothers movie?)
Badhai
Laal Garam Mirch Kaali-Mirch
Awaaz ke Ghulaam
Lohe ki Kanya
Keede
Bandookein aur Gulaab

and now the actual names:

Payable On Death (P.O.D.) -- Mrutyu Par Bhugtaan
Rage Against The Machine -- Yantra ke viruddh krodh
Sex Pistols -- Youn Bandookein
Dream Theatre -- Sapnaa Taakeej
Godsmack -- Bhagwaan ka Tamaachaa
Judas Priest -- Judaa ka Pujaari
The Carpenters -- Badhai
RHCP -- Laal Garam Mirch Kaali-Mirch
Audioslave -- Awaaz ke Ghulaam
Iron Maiden -- Lohe ki Kanya
Beatles -- Keede (Don't know what those insects are called in Hindi)
Eagles -- Baaz
Guns n Roses -- Bandookein aur Gulaab

Yawn...

2006-11-19T00:40:00.000+05:30

There's a layer of dust on top of the monitor. The keyboard's dirty again. I just cleaned it last week. Or was it last month? The two glasses I used a fortnight ago, for the raita that came with the biryani are still liying on top of the dabba. There's a full fledged spider web on the window, around the Rin-bar. The calendar still shows October. The body of the moth that died last week is still lying under the table. I should return Jimmy's bottle of Colin and his teaching board. They've been here for quite a long time now.

The previous occupant of my room has left a poster on the wall. People would classify it as cute. I don't quite like it. Black and white, a little kid, not more than 5-6 years old, on his knee, offering a red rose to a little girl. Why don't these people let kids just be kids? But the poster doesn't hurt. I don't even notice it. There's no reason to remove it.

I can feel the air so full of lethargy. It's almost like it'll solidify and fall on my head. Even the clock hands seems to be moving slowly.

Reminds me of a Garfield quote, "Anybody can exercise. But this kind of lethargy, takes discipline." Also reminds me of Agastya Sen from 'English, August'. That was a good book. Very weird, though.

The only thing adding a little cheer to all this is the cover of 'Ruskin Bond's Book of Nature'. It has a butterfly on a grass green coloured background. I love his writings. I think I've said this at least a dozen times in the previous posts. Let me say it again.

The spider on the ceiling is not dead after all. The cleaning fellow removed all the webs a few days back and destroyed this little spider's family. There were five of them. Now he is alone. I didn't mind their presence in my room. It was peaceful co-existence barring the incident when one of them fell on my face one night when I had just fallen asleep. People prefer the lizards in their room. Say they eat the insects and keep it clean. I'd rather have the insects.

Why did I type all this into this post? Don't know.

Alright, good night.

Tears....

2006-10-31T00:38:00.000+05:30

meri bezabaaN aaNkhoN se gire haiN chand katre,
wo samajh sakeiN to aaNsoo...
na samajh sake to paani

------------------------------------------------

jo aake ruke daaman pe 'sabaa' wo ashq nahiN hai paani hai
jo ashq na chhalke aankhoN se us ashq ki keemat hoti hai

-------------------------------------------------

I'm not writing this in a sad mood. These two ghazals happened to occur consecutively in the playlist and I was wondering at the brilliant lyrics.

God's in His heaven and all's right with the world!

2006-10-24T00:26:00.000+05:30

I've shamelessly copied the title from one of Bertie Wooster's lines, but I don't think anobody will mind. Well, I say so because everything in the past week has turned out as I had wished. The Brazilian GP went smoothly for Alonso and the Renault team who secured the driver and constructors' crowns yet again, Federer won the Madrid Masters and Sharapova won the Zurich Open, India won its first match in the Champions Trophy. What more can I ask for?

Schumacher ended his career in style. He was unlucky not being able to make it to the podium, but it was a brilliant performance nevertheless. His hunger to win remained insatiable till the end in spite of 7 world titles. It was slightly ironic that his streak ended at the hands of a Renault driver (Renault was formed by taking over Benetton, the team with whom Schumacher won his first title).

On a different note, 'Seven Years in Tibet' is turning out to be a very good book. A must read for any travel-book lover. This is my second book about Tibet. The first one was Vikram Seth's 'From Heaven Lake'. This one presents a different picture of Tibet, before being taken over by China, when the Dalai Lama was still the God-King in the Potala palace. Some day, I wish to visit the forbidden city of Lhasa.

Anyway, enough daydreaming.

Kal chaudhvin ki raat thi...

2006-10-07T00:57:00.000+05:30

Shab bhar raha charcha tera,
Kuchh ne kaha ye chand hai,
Kuchh ne kaha...
Chehra tera

The moon looks really beautiful tonight. I find it a little hard to believe that it is nothing but a normal celestial body. It can't be just another pebble in the debris that makes up our universe. The moon is special. Every night, I crane my neck, force my head out through the gap in the grill to take a look and it never disappoints me. All its forms, be it the slender curve or the full moon, have a beauty of their own. Even when you can't see it, because it is covered by the clouds, its soft glow lights up a part of the sky. Though hidden it may be, but it is always going to be there. Nothing can change that.

I am reminded of the full moon night a few years back. It was a night trek. We had started from Maheshwar at about 10pm and the plan was to reach Sahastradhara, where the Narmada breaks into a thousand little streams, by daybreak. When we came close to the river, we stopped and lay down on the ground.

The view of the sky in all its grandeur with a full moon and millions of stars with the faint music of the river falling on our ears is unforgettable. A little distance away was the river, its waters shining in the moonlight. There were stars above and stars below me, and I felt like I was floating in between.

If space travel becomes cheap in the coming few decades, and if people start going to space for vacations, I don't think I'd like to go to the moon. I'm afraid that it'll be a let down. Only grey dust and barren land. From here, it is an object of beauty. On the other hand maybe I'll find out how beautiful our earth looks from space. I've only heard of the blue and green ball seen by astronauts. I'm sure it'll be a sight worth a thousand moons.

Sounds I Hate

2006-10-04T12:35:00.000+05:30

1. The sound of the tt ball whe it does not hit the table.
2. The sound of nails or any sharp object on a metalic surface.
3. A child crying.
4. Himesh Reshammiya's songs.
5. The ding when an error message is shown in windows.
6. The sound when your car hits some tiny little thing at the end of a drift and you lose all the n-thousand points earned. NFS can be very frustrating at times.
7. The sound created when I move the bow across the strings of Smiley's violin.

There are many more which I can't recall.

Well, there's good news, Neon is back to blogging and there's bad news, I'm going to take a break. In the past week I clicked the new post button 2-3 times. But when this screen appeared I couldn't think of anything to write.

On a different note, the F1 season is nearing a very exciting end. With Alonso and Schumacher tied with maximum points, the last 2 races promise a lot of action.

Sharapova won the US Open! So did Federer. Yet another time. It was good that he didn't have to face Nadal in the final. He brings in that little window of uncertainty. But Roddick has shown some real improvement. I think Connors is the right coach for him. Hopfeully Roddick will show the hunger and competetiveness that his coach was known for in his playing days.

The title to this post is quite inappropriate. But I'm too lazy to change it to something better. 'Yet another update post' would've been more correct. I was trying to avoid writing such posts. Anyway, who cares? I'll be back when I actually have something to write.

Small things that can make a day

2006-09-07T16:56:00.000+05:30

I was wondering the other day as I stepped out of the bed with my sprits higher than usual, about what makes a day happy. I figured out that all it takes are few moments of joy, moments when you're at peace with yourself.

It could be the sight of raindrops accumulating on the edge of a leaf or the soft sunlight on your face when you open the door in the morning. The familiar black butterfly with large white spots or the lemon yellow and orange one, or that little squirrel which follows you for a while before running up a tree can have the magical effect of turning a lousy day into a bright one. The smile on a kid's face or his laughter can help you shrug off that bad mood. Nothing like music to make a day. It could be one of your favourites or something you've never heard before, with the power to provide you those moments of bliss. It could be a poem, a quote or a small story. Even that tiny comic strip in the newspaper can do the trick. The memory of a loved one, an old friend or someone special. A phone call, an email or that rare letter, or just a look at that photograph which is right there in front of you, but which you hadn't really noticed for a long time.

I hope you find that little thing today to make you happy. It is out there, just keep your eyes open.

Forgive my sin

2006-09-02T21:19:00.000+05:30

I know I'll have to repay for this sin when the account of my life is settled. It will be written in big bold red letters in the debit column: "inf", particulars: "DISLOYALTY". But I am helpless. My dedication as a Fed fan has failed the test. I have jumped the line.

Before you start forming any opinions, let me clarify that I've not joined the Nadal fanclub. I'd rather commit suicide, or better, kill him.

But for this year's US Open, I'm on Agassi's side. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out like the Wimbledon where he was shown the door a day after I wrote a post wishing him luck.

As he takes on opponents almost half his age the only things he'll have in his favour are his will-power and the crowd. The question is, can he defeat his age, his chronic back problem and focus in spite of the emotions surrounding his last tournament before retirement and emerge truimphant against the likes of Federer and Nadal?

If he does, it'll be a fairytale ending to a fascinating career which saw him change from the long-haired, denim shorts clad, defiant and wild teenager who preferred his style of clothing over the Wimbledon to a meticulous and valiant fighter. He became tennis's first true glamour boy.

He resurrected himself from 142 ATP ranking to the top 10, toiling through tier 2 tournaments where there are no ballboys, leave alone any other facility. He pushed himself to the limits in the last year's US open quarter final to overcome James Blake. He sadly lost in the semifinal to Federer.

If he wins, it would be an effort greater than Jimmy Connors's run to the semi-final in 1991 at the age of 38. More than anything, it will be a fitting farewell to a great tennis player. I just wish he does.

Things to do....

2006-08-28T23:03:00.000+05:30

...when you have an exam on the next morning and just one night to slog through the syllabus:

1) Go to the library. Take a paper and pen and make a list of all the books you want to read. Don't leave out any section... fiction(English, Hindi, etc.), politics, philosophy, history...

2) Organise all the music on your computer. Dont forget to provide shortcuts to songs which fall in two categories(there should be a shortcut for 'Comfortably Numb' -- residing in 'Pink Floyd' folder -- in the 'Best guitar solos ever' folder).

3) Pick your favourite TV serial(pick Coupling if you don't have a favourite). Watch at least one season.

4) Assume that the food in the mess is simply inedible. Then walk leisurely to Indra Nagar for food and come back at an even more leisurely pace.

5) Log on to orkut. Count your fans(Do drop a comment if you have more than 52). Then count your fans/friends ratio. Then count how many people you are a fan of.

6) Surf Wikipedia reading articles about all the weirdest things in the world.

7) Download music, movies and stuff from the LAN. Surf through filelists of all users. Don't forget to consume all the downloaded stuff.

8) Reply to every single mail in your inbox telling friends and family how burdened you are with studies and exams.

9) Gather other jobless souls like yourself in the corridor and bc about the futility of exams and studies.

10) Blog.

Do comment if you have more innovative ideas. I'm falling short of things to do.

Too many things, too little time

2006-08-22T01:04:00.000+05:30

No. this post is not about how overloaded I am with assignments with very little time left to finish them. This post is about how there are so many things that I want to do in the coming few years and how time is running out very fast.

This thought first came to my mind when I was going through the books on the library shelves. I've been going to the library quite frequently for the past few days. For the first time I spent some time in the sections other than English fiction. To my surprise, I found many books in the Mathematics section, which I would like to read. I have this habit of making many lists (Smiley thinks it is quite feminine. Well, he knows best about the female psyche). But it does help me reduce the number of things I forget. So, I thought I'll make a list of books I want to read before I leave IIIT. I dropped the idea for some reason. I think I'll just put my last sem away to read books.

An year ago, I'd read in some magazine, National Geographic I recall, about a man who had made a list of more than 100 things he wanted to do in life which included brilliant things like climbing Mt. Everest etc. and actually managed to put a 'done' mark against every entry in that list!

I had made a list of 7 things I want to do in a previous post (which was a historic post, for the number of comments it got). But it was too short and too unthoughtful. But now I have ample time to think of such arbit stuff in the Social Entrepreneurship class.

I think we need to keep reminding ourselves of what we want to do, or else we get caught in the unending cycles of our routine. I strongly believe that if our desire is strong enough, then opportunities appear out of nowhere. We just have to grab them. Which means being alert, flexible and ready for taking big risks.

But now I'm wondering, will the things that I want to do, remain the same as time passes? Maybe they won't, but then I'll edit my plans. But wait, I don't have any plans! What am I doing? Why am I wasting time blogging? Being the author of a highly popular blog isn't on my to-do list. Or do I see something scratched off it very violently?

Off I go. I need to chalk out a few plans tonight.

Wish you were here

2006-08-09T20:14:00.000+05:30

"How I wish, how I wish you were here."

4th year in a row.

Damn the postal service.

My First Testimonial

2006-08-07T21:46:00.000+05:30

Received my first orkut testimonial yesterday written by a Neon, a dear friend. It was both surprising and revealing. So, I thought I'll put it here:

I do hereby testify that:

Sankalp is NOT
- A good person by heart, nature, character, and whatever else should/could/would be the criteria.

Hey! What the hell? And I always thought that I'm the nicest person on earth.

- A person you should be looking for help/suggestions/condolence when you're heartbroken or depressed. If you ever commit such insanity, he would probably urge you to commit suicide or 'find your damn solace in dope, not me!'

Alright, I do find it a little difficult to come up with the exact soothing words to symmpathise with people. But this point is greatly exxagerated. So, if I ever respond coldly when you come to me in such a situation, then please know that it doesn't mean I don't understand your feelings.

- A Fat Admirer.

Come on! I have so many friends with that extra pound of fat. Neon himself is an example. I don't admire fat, but I have nothing against fat fellows. I think they are the most cheerful bunch around.

- An occasional smoker, drunkard and liar.

True. I don't lie often, I don't like smoking, and I just took my first step on the 3rd front, a few days back.

- A "Ok-your-blog-is-better-than-mine" acceptor.

I will never accept that Neon's blog is better than mine. Because it isn't.

- A drug addict, homosexual, Bisexual, or anything-that-you-should-be-afraid-of-sexual.

True again. No drugs and I'm perfectly heterosexual.

And;

Sankalp is:
- An intelligent geek.

I would love believe that I'm intelligent. But I'm not a geek. No way.

- A mature person with very high IQ (just 4 points ahead of me).

Mature? Dont know. Maybe I am. But I don't think so.
The IQ, well, I think he changed 'average' to 'very high' because I was 4 points ahead of him.

- An honest, and considerably modest, sane soul who believes in being himself.

Honest, quite true.
I shouldn't comment on the modest part.
Sane? Nah!
Staunch supporter of the 'Be Yourself' philosophy and the greatest fan of the song by the same title.

- An optimum and live proof of the hypothesis "some distinct variety of babes prefer bald heads to khaandani tummies."

No comments.

Sealed and Signed
***** ******.
(Neon Zamboski)

Music

2006-08-02T19:34:00.000+05:30

Just came back from the library after spending a couple of hours reading 'City of Djinns'. But as you must have guessed from the title, this post isn't about Darlymple or Delhi or Djinns. So, as I sat reading the book, Smiley was reading an article in a magazine about A.R. Rahman. Then he started talking about how nice Rahman's music is and that they are beautiful in spite of being very simple. I observed the glow on his face as he talked, probably, he had a tune playing his mind.

Last night, we were sitting in his room urging him to play something on his violin. He did play after his usual nakhras. If you look around when he's playing, you can see a faint smile or some expression of joy on everybody's face.

After he finished, my thoughts came back to one of the usual topics, "I should learn to play some musical instrument". I'm not particularly blessed with musical talent and I feel quite like a bum with people like Smiley (violin), Billu (tabla), Gas (guitar, mandolin) and Badri (who thought Carnatic singing wasn't worth it because he preferred to waste time wasting time rather than strain his vocal chords).

My only stint with music has been a fortnight of harmonium lessons at a neighbour's place. Now the harmonium is not a very glamorous instrument like the guitar. But believe me, if you have had a chance to listen to Pu. La. playing the instrument, you're bound to like it. In spite of such great inspiration in front of me, I gave up the when the teacher asked me to identify the notes without looking at the keys he was pressing.

I had a pretty much uncaring attitude about music before I came to IIIT. But now I think I can at least distingiush good music from bad (I can tell, for example that Himmesh stuff is unalderated cacophonic torture). My choice has diversified from Hindi film music to rock, instrumentals, ghazals, and I feel even the Carnatic stuff Smiley listens to, is good. So the next step should be to be learning to play some instrument. Singing isn't my piece of cake unless I'm alone. There are other reasons also. Aai always wanted me to learn. She used to say I'm becoming like Aurangzeb, with no appreciation for any art. Also, they say, girls tend to like guys with some musical ability.

So, any suggestions about how to get started and what instrument to choose would be welcome. Please do not suggest flute or santoor or sarod (as if harmonium wasn't tricky enough).

A Unique Outing

2006-07-24T19:28:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was well spent amid books, infinitely many books. Classics, old ones, new ones, ones I always wanted to read but never found in the library. 4 hours just whisked past in the bookstores looking at them, flipping through pages, suggesting, selecting, discarding. I like spending time like this in the library too, but the collection there remains the same. Here, they were all new, fresh books.

It's weird, but I love the smell of a fresh book. I loved it right from the time I went to buy my textbooks in 1st standard. I remember having bought He-Man name labels also. It used to be very exciting, buying new books, uniforms, lunchbox, water bottle and all before the new year began in school. The excitement of the first day always remained, though the cause behind the feeling changed over the years. When we were kids, it used to be the excitement of carrying new things, new classroom, new partner to share the desk. As years passed, it turned into the excitement of reuniting with friends, resuming the masti routine in school, finding new bakras to pick on in the school bus and that of having a newcomer in the class.

Having studied in the same school from Kg1 to 12th, I never had to face a first day in some new school, answering all sorts of questions to a bunch of curious people. Though I would've liked such an experience.

This reminds me of my first day in IIIT. I came a day before the scheduled registration date and was allotted a room on OBH, 3rd floor. Yes, I was lucky not to be thrown into NBH or GHEB. They remind of a morgue for some reason. I've never been to one, but I'm quite sure it won't be too different. I didn't shift my stuff on the same day. My father and I went back to the place where we were staying in the city. I remember having been very quiet that day. It had suddenly hit me that I won't be having anyone familiar with me from the next day. It was a kind of a mild shock.

This has turned out like any other post on this blog. Arbitrary, incoherent, drifting from topic to another, and I like it this way. This isn't a place to rant about serious issues. So, why bother?

Blah

2006-07-01T18:55:00.000+05:30

I had written this post on my defunct wordpress blog due to the absolute lack of things to do. Ok, not exactly. It was actually the complete lack of the desire and enthusiasm to do the things at hand.

I had abandoned this blog long ago, but the extremely intelligent directive from the Indian govenment to block blogspot has left no other easier option for a desperate blogger like me. Sad it is, that I can’t celebrate The Don’s Blog’s first anniversary, by writing a post there. My dear blog, has completed its first year in June.

I’m not really desperate, just that it’s been a long time since I last blogged. This is going to be a list post, an update about what’s going on in my life.

1. Was there at home for Aai’s birthday after a gap of 3 years, had a nice time.

2. I was puzzled by the number of people asking me for advice about which college and branch to take. Cousins, younger siblings of my friends, children of my parents’ colleagues, neighbours etc. Come on! I’m not some career counselling baba. I don't even have clue about myself and people want me to help them?

3. Finished reading ‘Freakonomics’ and ‘From Heaven Lake’. I particularly liked Heaven Lake. An excellent account of Vikram Seth’s hitchiking journey through Tibet. A must read for people who like travel books.

4. Came back to IIIT on 14th. 10 days at home are not sufficient at all.

5. I’ve shifted to room 132. Thanks to Billu, Smiley, Gas, Badri who were here to get the allotment done from MBG.

6. Shifting your room is a real pain.

7. Course selection and stuff has been a source of major confusion for the past few days.I feel a little more clear about things right now. Lets see what happens.

8. Oh! I forgot the most important point, Fed won the Wimbledon! That just made my stay at home perfect. All I did for those 10 days was eating, sleeping and watching Wimbledon on TV. I even watched many of the doubles and mixed doubles matches. Agassi’s early exit was sad. The only move I saw at home was also Wimbledon.

9. I don’t hate Nadal anymore. I’m not a fan, but his tennis and his behaviour off the court, in press conferences and interviews has left a good impression on me.

10. Sharapova losing in the semifinal was a major heartbreak. But the tournament was full of new and better--in every sense of the word--female players. Vaidisova, Bremond captured my attention. Na Li also surprised many by upsetting some big names.

11. Schumacher is doing well, I hope Alonso bounces back soon.

12. One major target was achieved before I left for home. The final result was a little disappointing though. An enriching experience nonetheless.

13. Kill Bill is a series of really good movies, in spite of all the blood and gore, I found them to be a good watch.

14. Anti ragging action by IIIT faculty and anti-blogging action by the govt. are both, quite pointless and autocratic, more pointless than Jeevan Vidya. Blocking blogspot does not serve any purpose. Nor does completely disallowing free interaction with the freshers, who’ve already been fed a fear of their seniors.

IIIT administration has become more despotic and money hungry over the years since I joined. Charging inexplicable amount of money for sheets of paper with the Institute’s stamp is beyond my understanding.

15. I’m waiting for Pirates, Dead Man’s Chest to hit the theatres in India. Expecting a movie as good as the first part, if not better.

16. Saw very few movies in the past week. Ice Age 2 was good, Fargo wasn’t. I don’t know how it got a respectable IMDB rating.

17. Also need to catch up with the spat of Hindi comedy flicks that has come out recently.

18. Life is peaceful as of now. Is this the silence before a storm?

Done.

Wimbledon

2006-06-30T12:40:00.000+05:30

The greatest, oldest and most eagerly awaited Grand Slam of the year is here. Wimbledon with its special charm and great respect for tradition always promises fantastic tennis and entertainment.

This year's tournament has something new with the ball boys and ball girls changing to blue and cream coloured Ralph Lauren uniforms, giving up the traditional dark green and mauve. But the prize money issue is still hot. I think female players deserve equal amount. True that they play fewer sets, but then, we don't watch the ladies just for the tennis.

I'm confused about whom to support in this year's championship. It isn't as easy a question to answer as it was last year, or the year before that. There is a long queue of gentlemen vying for my moral and vocal support for their campaign this year.

The God

Federer. Even after his loss (at Nadal's hands yet again) at the Roland Garros, my heart refuses to give up on his neat serve-vollyeing and classy gameplay. Federer is poised to win his 4th consecutive Wimbledon and equal Sampras's and Bjorn Borg's feat. Only something extraordinary, rather supernatural can prevent him from becoming 'The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World' yet again.

The Underdog

My natural tendency to favour underdogs is what has landed me in this problem. When I was fully for Goran Ivanesevic in 2003, it wasn't soo difficult to choose. He was my favourite in his two previous final clashes with Sampras also.

With Andre Agassi announcing that this will be his last Wimbledon, I'm undergoing an emotional turmoil. Should I give up my loyalty for Fed and switch sides to Agassi? From his days of denim-shorts and long hair to the present, mature avatar, he has been a great player, fighter and icon. Bouncing back from world ranking of 142, toiling through tier 2 tennis circuits, isn't a piece of cake for anybody. Also he is my all time favourite Steffi's husband. Anything for Steffi!

The Brit

Tiger Tim can be called the 'Semi-final man'. It is incredible how he has managed to keep on fighting in spite of the semi-final exits against the eventual winners. I seriously feel pity for him. But, in spite of being unseeded this year, he is still a contender. Can he shock everyone and be the first Brit after Fred Perry to be kissing the cup on the Centre court?

The Others

Tennis has become quite unpredictable in recent years because of the rise of many young players who keep causing major upsets in many tournaments. Likes of Andy Murray, Ljubicic, Fernando Gonzalez, James Blake have the potential to show the exit to some of the best in the game on their day. I just pray it happens to Nadal, who is another force to reckon in spite of being only a shadow of his clay-invincible self on grass. I hate him, for being Federer's nemesis. Not to forget Roddick, who is very much capable of ending his drought of major titles.

The Ladies!

The ladies competetion is also a source of worry. The problem is even more difficult with too many pairs of beautiful legs and attractive faces to choose from. There's Sharapova(my current favourite) with her no-sweat Nike outfit, Hingis making a comeback, Daniela Hantuchova and Nicole Vaidisova (who suffered a painful loss against Kuznetsova in French open semi), supposed to be the one of the Maria tradition. If we disregard the X-factor (why would anyone do that?), there's Justin Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Venus Williams and many more.

I think the I'll just wait and watch. A hard-fought Federer v/s Agassi final would be a feast as good as a ladies final between Sharapova and Vaidisova.

May the best gentleman and the loveliest lady win!

Sunday!

2006-06-19T02:42:00.000+05:30

A great Sunday deserves a post. What makes a Sunday great?

Wake up at one in the afternoon, after a satisfying sleep. Finish daily chores, eat. Call home, talk, joke and laugh. Write mails to friends who've been out of contact for a long time. Listen to some good music as you read the latest posts on your favourite blogs. Go for a walk in the evening with your friends to explore some new spot. Spend some time absorbing the peace and quiet of the place. Meet the friend who has come back after a longish break. Eat and go for a walk again. BC about everything under the sun during the walk and continue the session later. More BC and more music. Surf and find a really nice picture of your favourite actress. Set it as your wallpaper. Then write a post to record the day on your blog.

While I was surfing around for a picture to adorn my desktop, I felt that black and white pictures capture the beauty of things much better than coloured ones, they somehow communicate more. They are much more effective than coloured pictures. As if the essence of things gets lost in the noise of too many colours. Maybe the reason is the simplicity of b&w photographs. Beautiful women appear more beautiful, expressions on people's faces appear more honest, more pure. Is it just me or do others feel the same?

Does it happen to you?

2006-06-14T18:48:00.001+05:30

That you catch yourself humming a song which you despised when you heard it for the first time?

That you say you hate orkut and scrapping, but end up checking it 10-12 times a day?

That on a day when you wake up with the feeling that I'll do kickass work today, you sleep throughout the day?

That you delete bulk mails everyday on yahoo in spite of knowing that they don't add to your quota?

That you realise you've been blowing up too much money but spend much more that very day?

That you decide to give up your nocturnal habits but stay awake watching movies till 5 in the morning?

That you think you too should watch the FIFA WC, but don't feel interested enough to actually move your lazy ass out of your room?

That you dismiss Linkin Park songs as bloody loserish, but scream along when someone is playing Faint?

That you think you should try new music which is slightly lower on the decibel value and the only songs running in a loop on your playlist are by Metallica and Rammstein?

That you label so many blogs as undiluted crap but do nothing to prevent your own from being labeled as one by others?

That you demand a ban on all romantic/senti movies, but end up not only downloading movies like Casablanca, Shall we dance, Pretty Woman etc., but actually watching them?

That you decide to watch every ball of the last 2 days of India-WI test thinking that it's a win-win situation for India, only to be denied the chance by rain in St. Lucia?

That you predict Fed's win at Roland Garros and the dumbass loses yet again to Nadal?

That you tell yourself that you better do some work and then spend all the time reading Freakonomics?

That you sit down to write a post about something and after you're done, it turns out to be about something completely different?

I Hate Tragic Endings

2006-06-12T23:37:00.000+05:30

Just finished watching the movie 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. I got the book from the library a few days back. But saw Jack Nicholson's picture on the cover and thought I'll watch the movie first.

The movie is great. Jack Nicholson is fantastic in R.P.McMurphy's character, fighting Nurse Ratched's dictatorship in the ward, in spite of being fully aware, that he's fighting a losing battle for the patients. I was half expecting a tragic end, though I didn't want it.

But somehow, tragic endings always leave a greater impact, isn't it? They make people think, make them look at their own lives. Maybe suffering and tragedy are too common in this world. So common that people have become insensitive? So common that it doesn't move us anymore? And then we sit down to watch a movie, trying to get away from reality and it hits us with such endings. Hits us when we don't expect it, when we are vulnerable.

There is something sad, something painful about life. And discovering that something, the source of ultimate joy?

French Open, British GP, FIFA World Cup

2006-06-10T00:37:00.000+05:30

Lot of sporting action is coming up this weekend, with the French open's final showdown, the world cup's ties and the GP at Silverstone.

The French Open final between 'Fantastic Federer' and Nadal promises a lot of excitement and great tennis. I've been looking forward to this since the beginning of the tournament and all my prayers would be answered when Federer brings Nadal's clay court juggernaut to a halt. I've a gut feeling that this time it won't be another disappointment for his fans. I was favouring Ljubicic in today's semi-final. Ljubicic was good today, it's just that Nadal, I have to admit, is exceptional on clay. Exceptional, not unbeatable, as we'll see this Sunday. I missed the other semi-final where Fed turned the match on its head with a stroke of his genius. Too bad that the spectators were deprived of the action with Nalbandian pulling out.

I'm not really interested in the FIFA world cup, at least till the initial stages are on. I'll keep myself updated using Google news and Footiefox. I'm not supporting any side, not knowing much about any of them. More about the "Which Team to support?" dilemma by Apoc.

With these high profile events, Formula One has taken a backseat. Lets hope that Alonso widens his gap over Schumacher.

So, stock up all your junk food, get down on that couch, carpet, bed, floor or whatever in front of your TV and enjoy all the action.

Superhero test

2006-06-03T00:54:00.000+05:30

Followed the link on Siddarth's blog to take this test.

Turns out that I am Green Lantern! Never heard of him... have you? What a stupid name for a superhero. The high % of Supergirl and Wonderwoman content is also surprising and of course, annoying.

If you take this test, don't forget to leave a comment telling me your result.
Shameless I am, using such excuses for comments.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern		85%
Spider-Man		70%
Superman		70%
Supergirl		62%
Robin		59%
Wonder Woman		57%
The Flash		55%
Hulk		50%
Iron Man		45%
Batman		40%
Catwoman		25%

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Ice cream

2006-06-01T13:41:00.000+05:30

There's some secret power in ice-cream. One moment the thought of ice-cream occurs and the very next moment it becomes an overpowering desire and I'll go to any extent to fulfill it.

There are so many images that come to my mind when I think of it, the sundae, the cone full of nuts and chocochips, the simple good old cup, the softy, the bucket, the stick with the solid chocolate at the core hidden under a layer of chocolate icecream and then the family pack which I plan to have one day, all for myself (just to see whether I can consume a litre of ice cream single-handedly). I bet no one can resist the temptation if such vivid pictures start dancing in front of your eyes at the mere mention of the word.

Another thing I have observed is that you can never have enough of ice-cream. After devouring numerous scoops, even if the stomach is full, there is always room for another one, and another one and infinitely many more. Almost as if the stomach is a black hole for ice-cream.

Some people have favourite flavours, black currant, butter scotch etc etc. In my opinion chocolate and its various forms are the best. But a true ice-cream lover isn't bothered by petty concerns like flavour. Bring on anyone and I'll eat it with utmost delight. Yes, even plain vanilla is welcome.

An equally alluring alternative for ice-cream is its desi counterpart, Kulfi. But it really takes a master to make kulfi which will sweep you off your feet. One such master has blessed the cantonment town called Mhow. Few years back, to meet the insatiable demand of the gourmet in Indore, he shifted his base to my hometown! Another alternative is Falooda, but it is more like milkshake and nowhere close to ice-cream and kulfi in its charm.

Ice-cream is especially wonderful during winter. People who refuse it because of the cold absolutely baffle me. If hot tea in summer is alright, then why this discrimination against ice-cream? It is the all-season, all-occasion dessert, God's gift to the human race.

To end this post, here is the ultimate tourist destination for the month of August.

Lara or Tendulkar?

2006-05-26T17:16:00.000+05:30

This question comes up again and again and people argue with fervour and passion. After all their heroics on the field and careers studded with records, what matters is how high an opinion their countrymen have of them.

Tendulkar is still called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in India, while cricket lovers in Lara's home (Trinidad) refer to him as Brian 'Jesus' Lara.

Need I say anything more?

A New Look!

2006-05-13T16:29:00.000+05:30

I spent the last evening making a few changes to the template. The blog doesn't look plain and minimal anymore. I had this template altering idea in mind for a long time. I decided against shifting to wordpress solely because they don't allow any changes to their template.

Also changed the title of the blog(as you might have already noticed). I think it perfectly describes my approach to blogging. I don't make any special efforts to organise, refine and then write. Some arbit idea suddenly strikes and I turn it into a post.

Any suggestions, criticism and creative ideas about the new look and title are most welcome.

Cricket Commentary

2006-05-09T17:12:00.000+05:30

I had mentioned in the previous post about the India-Pakistan cricket series in Abu Dhabi. The broadcast was only on DD and Sahara. Needless to say, the quality was pathetic. It was almost like watching glimpses of the match between commercials. The sound of the last ball of the over hitting the bat was immediately followed by some dumb DLF commercial. The commercials would go on and on you would invariably miss the first ball of the next over also. So, you had to be happy watching 4-ball overs.

That reminded me of the days when ESPN and Star Sports had the rights for most of the major cricket tournaments going on all over the globe. World Cup 1999, Champions Trophies, India's tour of Australia etc. They at least used to make sure that people don't miss out on the cricket. Their commentary and analysis team, made the cricket all the more enjoyable. Harsha Bhogle was great with all the numbers and statistics and used to raise really good points during the post match and lunch discussions. He was my personal favourite among the Indian lot. John Dykes and Alan Wilkins were also good at anchoring the analysis sessions. Among the former cricketers commentating for these channels, Boycott was the best, as many would agree. He was ruthless and precise but interesting and funny at the same time. He was entertaining without being ridiculous like Sidhu. Gavaskar was also good, though a little biased towards India. Tony Greig and Ian Chappell were good too. I can still recall Tony Greig shouting himself hoarse during the Sandstorm innings by Tendulkar at Sharjah in 1997. I never liked Ravi Shastri, Rameez Raja and Richie Benaud. Shastri's analysis and commentary had no substance, Rameez Raja was too biased towards Pakistan. He was almost like their agent. Richie Benaud is quite popular and respected as a commentator.I hear he was a star commentator for Channel 9. But I personally think, he is plain boring.

The happy ESPN Star days came to an end with Setmax winning the rights for the 2003 World Cup broadcast in India. Charu Sharma was absolutely dumb. I would've had no problems with Mandira Bedi, had she kept quiet. But thanks to the mute button, Extraa Innings was a bearable show. As if these two were not enough to drive people away from the discussions, they hired lots of former cricketers with no brains for commentary and analysis.

Today, we have Srikkanth, Manjrekar, Arun Lal, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. All of them, bad beyond words. DD dropped lower with people like Atul Wassan and Maninder Singh. Their analysis show was called Fair and Lovely ......... (yuck! Fair & Lovely?!*#$@*), their female host knew nothing about cricket and she was not even worth watching with the TV on mute.

Hindi commentary is the ultimate torture. "Bahut hi powerful shot maraa hai, mid wicket ke upar se, bowler shocked. Behtareen shot tha, fielder ke paas koi chance nahi. Bahut hi unorthodox player hain, bowler ko poori tarah se dominate karte hain, yahi unke game ki speciality hai". If you want Hindi commentary, my advise is to put the TV on mute and switch the radio on. It is true that there are no Hindi equivalents for cricketing terms like mid wicket or gully or slip etc, but they can at least do better than this khichdi.

But with Nimbus having won the bid for TV rights for the coming years, there appears to be no light at the end of this tunnel.

I'm alive: Dead blog != Dead author

2006-05-06T18:53:00.000+05:30

What do you do when you are back after playing TT for a long time? You are tired, your clothes are stinking of the sweat flowing out of every single pore of your body and you are feeling as clean as a pig having a great time in the slimy surroundings of the filthiest drain.

You go wash yourself?

WHAT? NO! NEVER! What you do, is to take a look at your keyboard to find that it is already dirty since you haven't cleaned it for the past few months and then settle down in your chair to make it dirtier by typing in a bunch of random words and call the result which appears on the screen, a post on your blog which is all but dead.

For those who are interested in the happenings of my life, here's an update:

1)End sems over. Worst end sems in 2 years, I don't want to think about the grades.
2)The silver lining:
--Managed a B in Algorithms in spite of scoring less than 1/3rd marks in the end sems.
--I finally got the second PT credit. Thanks to Mohit for dragging me along, every morning in the month of March.
3)Finished NFSU2, actually this happened a very long time back, some time in March.
4)Home:
--Satisfied my appetite for ghar-ka-khana fully.
--Slept like a log for 11-14 hours everyday.
--Attended a cousin's wedding and got very very bored.
--Cooked dinner with my sister one evening. My contribution being the dessert.
--Casually told Aai that I tried to suttofy once. Unfortunately, she didn't take it casually.
--Shantaram: A truly great book. After quite a long time I actually spent time thinking about every single sentence and its meaning. I would recommend it strongly to everyone. Don't be scared of the 936 pages, you'll never feel that it is such a fat book.
--TV:It has dawned upon me that TV is an absolutely useless medium of entertainment without ESPN & Star Sports. Priyanka Chopra looks very cute in the new Pepsi ad.
--Couldn't spend much time with friends, all of them either had exams or some placement lafda.
--Did not read blogs for 20 days! That's an achievement.
5)Back to pavilion:
--Project has started, have to finish some initial work by Monday.
--Finished 'A Fine Balance', hated the ending. Otherwise a good read.
--Canteen is working fine, hope it survives after the vacation also, unlike the previous one.
--Swimming hasn't started, was looking forward to that. Let's hope that it starts in June.
--Started watching the Star Wars series.
--Downloaded loads of photos of Melissa Theuriau. Isn't she gorgeous?

The journey back home deserves special mention. People ask me why I prefer the meter gauge train which crawls slower than a snail over AP express. My answer is, if I go by AP express, I would miss so many things, the quiet little Parbhani station and the sweet hot tea served there at 2 in the morning when two coaches wait there for a few hours, the little farms that are spread out on both sides of the track, the trees with kids playing around them, the orange-red umbrellas of the numerous Gulmohars, the bridge over Narmada at Onkareshwar which provides a breathtaking view of the river, the railway tunnel which is almost a kilometre long, the spooky station at Kalakund with no electricity. I also get loads of time to look out of the window and think and read continuously with no one to disturb me.

Miss all these little joys to reduce the journey time by 3-4 hours? Nah!

Nadal beat Federer again at Monte Carlo, I'm beginning to hate Nadal. Schumacher won a Grand Prix after a long time. This F1 season looks like it's going to be close. India managed to square the Abu Dhabi series. Turned out be a pretty good series.

The police and government reaction to the peaceful protests by Medical students in Delhi was enraging. What kind of an HRD minister is Arjun Singh who refuses to meet the people? And we call it democracy! Why does a numb-brain like him, with his feet hanging in the grave (and a head so high up his ***) get such an important ministry?

This post is long and haphazard. But, a post coming after more than a month has to be long and there are so many things to cover that I can't do anything about its chaotic state. Also, there is nothing better to breathe new life into a dead blog than a post where you just let the words flow without much thinking.

And now, it is time to take a shower!

Campus fauna

2006-03-25T00:10:00.000+05:30

I am posting this when I have loads of other things to do. 3 assignments and an exam fast approaching. But, this is the best time to blog.

Woke up today and opened the door to find a sparrow on the floor, right outside my room. I find mornings quite musical if I pay attention to the chirping of these birds. I always wonder what they try to communicate. This particular one was quite busy. It was making frequent trips from the grill to the fuse box, then it would fly off somehwere and reappear in less than a minute.Then I started thinking about all the animals around us on campus. There are so many of them: sparrows, butterflies, bees, dogs, lizards, mosquitoes, frogs, squirrels, dragonflies etc.

Sparows here are pretty brave. They have built their nests at places that are quite risky, they venture into the mess without fear, they disturb classes if the need be.

I think it was after reading 'The Alchemist' that I started observing butterflies. There are the regular orange and pale yellow ones along with the not so commom, bright red or blue coloured ones with wonderful patterns on their wings. The path through the guest house is full of them. It feels quite nice to spot some new pattern while walking to the class.

Then there are bees. This dumb bee which comes into my room every evening when I switch the light on, is particularly annoying. It must one of those residing in the huge hive on the lamp post in front of our wing.

Dogs aren't very comforting when they are barking and you are walking all alone, down a road at night. But otherwise they are okay.

Coming to lizards, I have seen the fattest and ugliest lizards here in IIIT. They have more than enough food here. There is that greyish-yellowish-brown one which is always around the wash basins in the bathroom, there is an exceptionally ugly one which has recently regrown its tail, there are 2-3 more living in the bathroom, and a few more that keep roaming around in the wing. I have no problems until they don't come inside my room. This fear of having a lizard in my room prevented me from opening the back window of my room for many months. But with the current hot weather, I've given up.

Mosquitoes, well as soon as I finish this post and go to bed, they'll be ready for their daily dose of blood. They have spoilt many nights when I could've slept peacefully. But my tendencies against all-out, odomos and mosquito-nets leaves me to their mercy.

Talking about frogs, I have actually seen very few frogs alive. I mostly find their corpses on the road. What a way to die, being crushed to death under a bike, poor things. But they don't seem to be learning from their mistakes. Every single day they lose a few a members of their community.

I'm sure there'll be some snakes also (I found a snake's skin once near the guest house). But at least there is no danger of leopards or anything.

Quite a pointless post, but then what the heck? Who wants to be sensible? At least not me.

Questions

2006-03-17T08:50:00.001+05:30

Why can't I come up with good excuses for being late for the morning PT?

Why didn't I get a PT credit in the second sem in spite of more than enough attendance?

Why can't I slog regularly?

Where do all the lizards go during the day and reappear at night?

How did South Africa chase 434 runs successfully?

Why doesn't Supreeth like the nickname 'Billu'?

Is Ideal an android or is it just flawless discipline?

Why are some blogs so boring?

While some others so hilarious?

Why does my room door bang loudly when I close it and the opposite window is open?

Why does Lord have such horrible taste when it comes to music?

How can people like Friends more than Coupling?

Can we not talk nonsense, once in a while?

What purpose does having a babaji on campus serve?

Can politicians stop wasting money on Yatras?

Why is it so difficult to be honest to yourself?

This gal doesnt just ask a question, she answers it perfectly.

A week full of inactivity

2006-03-13T13:02:00.000+05:30

Monday always does this to me. Gives me a new sense of enthusiasm, hope, energy. So after a week full of nothing I am back to normal.

The past week was spent doing absolutely nothing. My frustoo levels reached a new high. I did little except sleeping in classes during the day and random blog surfing in the afternoons. But the evenings were the worst, I would stand in the corridor staring at the sky and muttering 'life sucks' at regular intervals. I don't think I've had a frustooer week. So, I'll just erase it from my memory.

Some important events of the week gone by:

+ South Africa beat Australia chasing 434 runs successfully, this is
ultra-hyper-super-duper-atibhayankar fodu.

+ Alonso won the Bahrain Grand Prix, Raikonnen displayed his well known fighting skills, finishing third after starting from the back. This is a good start to the F1 season.

- Federer lost to Nadal yet again, damn it! The fact that Nadal was just back after an injury is even more disturbing.

+ The Blank Noise Blogathon was a success.

+ Saw quite a few movies in an attempt to block out the frustoo thoughts in my mind:
- Before sunrise, Before sunset: Romantic stuff with a unique plot
- 50 First Dates, Jerry McGuire: Usual romantic stuff
- Sin City: Comic adapted to a movie, pretty good. The narrator's voice is the main feature of the movie.
- Crash: Well worthy of the Oscar it got
- Godfather: Nothing beats this, no matter how many times over you watch it.
- Walk the Line: Good performances by Joacquine Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Johnny Cash
  kind of music was a good change for my ears used to rock.
+ Bathrooms in the wings now have tubelights!

- Haven't managed to get a summer project yet.

+ Realised that not getting/doing a summer project might not be a bad idea.

+ My first quiz as quiz master went okay, I guess. Reactions and suggestions are welcome.

+ I'm half way through the book called 'A Fine Balance'. I think I'll finish it in a few days.

- LAN was bad throughout the week. The 'Connection timed out' message was too damn frequent.

Interesting how so many things cropped up when I was writing about a week with zilch activity.

Blank Noise Project

2006-03-12T00:29:00.000+05:30

A blogathon was held as a part of this project on 7th March.

I read quite a few posts. Very disturbing. I completely support this effort against eve-teasing and sexual harrasement. I think I can at least do this little bit to help strengthen the voice.

Here is a link to the official blog: Blank Noise project

It's a beautiful day?

2006-03-07T19:34:00.000+05:30

Loud music helps. All the thoughts in my mind get drowned in the ocean of sounds created by Tom Morello's guitar. I have always been absolutely against posting any frustoo stuff. I have made fun of Neon for frustoo posting. But today I am doing just that. I guess it'll help to get rid of the thoughts in my mind. I don't even know whether I'll actually publish this post. If I do, and you happen to read,I suggest you not to read further.

Had my first experience of being rejected today. But it isn't that bad. Till yesterday, I did not know or I was not sure of what I want to do. Today I finally made up my mind, I had to face a quick no as reply. I don't know the reason. But I guess it was beyond my control. At least the confusion is over. There is no turning back. I have seldom turned back after starting something. I will chase this to the end, whatever it may be.

When I got up today and opened the door of my room, I saw the green expanse in front of my eyes. I could hear "It's a beautiful day!" in my mind. The day was really a beautiful one. It rained, rained heavily. Everything looked fresh and happy. The rains in the past 2 days have been a relief from the heat. The weather has been very good. It helps when I don't want to think about things that bother me.

Lets see if tomorrow has something better in store.

Be Yourself

2006-02-24T19:25:00.000+05:30

"Be Yourself", the song by Audioslave. As far as I can recall, I think I first heard it in Ganand's room in the 2nd sem. I entered the guest room after dinner and found Sir there, headbanging to it with the lyrics on the screen. Since then, I've played it over and over and over again. I feel that a late night BC session is incomplete without this song.

When I was going home for the 3 month vacation last summer, I was wondering how I'll stay for 3 months without it. We had played it infinitely many times over, so it had become a necessity. Smiley had started worrying that we were killing the song. But Arjun had it on his laptop. He used to drop in every once in a while so that I could listen to it. But sadly, even Arjun didn't really like it. He said that the guitar is too repetetive or something. Why? How can one not like this masterpiece?

These days I play it less frequently, I have to pay some heed to my wingmates who probably stuff cotton in their ears as soon as the playlist reaches this song. I don't understand how people cannot like it. Once I downloaded it on Kesharwani's pc and played it, and to my horror, he didn't like it at all. He put it off immediately.

What do I like about this song? I like the vocals, though Badri thinks that the guy has a bad accent, I like the guitar. A portion in between two stanzas, is absolute GOD stuff. Tom Morello just sweeps you off your feet. I like the drums, I like the bass, the lyrics. The video is also fodu, set in a dark room with a tranquil kind of atmosphere. In short, I like everything about the song.

So, here are the lyrics:

Someone falls to pieces
Sleepin all alone
Someone kills the pain
Spinning in the silence
To finally drift away
Someone gets excited
In a chapel yard
And catches a bouquet
Another lays a dozen
White roses on a grave

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Someone finds salvation in everyone
And another only pain
Someone tries to hide himself
Down inside himself he prays
Someone swears his true love
Untill the end of time
Another runs away
Separate or united?
Healthy or insane?

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

And even when you've paid enough, been pulled apart or been held up
With every single memory of the good or bad faces of luck
don't lose any sleep tonight
I'm sure everything will end up alright

You may win or lose

But to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Sunrise

2006-02-16T06:54:00.000+05:30

The world is still fast asleep, but she is already up. Ready with her pallette, brush and canvas. With her heart brimming with optimism and happiness, she lets her brush dance to a divine rhythm, working magic. Colours start appearing on the canvas, numerous shades of red, orange, yellow on a blue background. The picture appearing like a reflection of her overflowing joy.

Now she is not alone. She has the company of birds, chirping in appreciation of her beautiful painting. Flying from one tree to another, perching on different branches, they break the slumber of the trees. Beckoning them to let the energy flowing out of the canvas like an unending stream, seep in.

The picture is almost complete now, but she is waiting, for him. He, who will come riding his chariot, to deliver the final touch to the picture. Her eyes are fixed on the horizon, in an eternal gaze. How long will she have to wait?

Has he betrayed her?

No.

There he comes, spreading a brilliant red glow on the canvas, completing the masterpiece they have created together, for the world to enjoy and cherish forever.

YES!!

2006-02-08T16:05:00.000+05:30

I'm very tired, but I've never been happier.

Time to sleep.

Spontaneous post!

2006-02-05T16:39:00.000+05:30

This is a spontaneous post. Zero thinking involved. So here's a list of the songs that are currently on my playlist, which runs all day long:

1) Kryptonite : 3 Doors Down
2) Kryptonite (acoustic version) : 3 Doors Down
3) Live Wire: ACDC
4) The Scientist: Coldplay
5) Spies: Coldplay
6) Layla: Eric Clapton
7) Bring me to life: Evanescence
8) Crystal Planet: Joe Satriani
9) Butterfly; Crazy Town
10) Nothing else matters: Metallica
11) Something stupid : Frank and Nancy Sinatra
12) Time of your life: Greenday
13) Comfortably Numb: Pink Floyd
14) Youth of the nation: P.O.D.
15) Engel(Emglish version) ; Rammstein
16) Vertigo :U2
17) Beautiful Day: U2
18) Riders on the storm: Coleman, Jaz and Kennedy version
19) Riders on the storm: The Doors
20) Riders on the storm: Snoop Dogg version
21) Break on through: The Doors
22) Matrix Soundtrack- Wake up: Rage Against the Machine
23) Hotel California: Eagles
24) Be yourself: Audioslave
25) Jhuki jhuki si nazar: Jagjit Singh
26) Pyar ka pehla khat; Jagjit Singh
27) Kabhi yun bhi to ho: Jagjit Singh
28) Apne hothon par sajana: Jagjit Singh
29) Aadat: Jal
30) Door: Strings

Muddled musings

2006-02-03T01:01:00.000+05:30

I am confused.....no, I guess I'm worried. No, I'm sad, or am I just being a little too hyper? Damn! All this is really testing my patience. I hate such situations, neither black nor white. I hate being in a situation where I can do nothing to make it better. I have made my last desperate attempt. I guess the period of beginner's luck is over. The tough part starts here. I think I should just relax and hope for the best.

Mehdi Hasan is really good to listen if you just want to forget about everything:

Ranjishein sahi.....
dil hi dukhane ke liye aa,
Aa fir se mujhe chhod ke jaane ke liye aa...

Ab tak...
dil-e-khushfehmi ko hain, tujhse umeedein,
Ye aakhri shamein bhi bujhane ke liye aa....

Ranjishein sahi...

Kuchh to....
mere bindaar-e-mohabbat ka bharam rakhein,
Tu bhi to kabhi mujhko manane ke liye aa...

Ranjishein sahi...

Maana...
ke mohabbat ka, chhupana hai mohabbat,
Chupke se kisi roz jataane ke liye aa...

Ranjishein sahi...

Jaise...
Tumhe aate hain, na aane ke bahane,
Aise hi kisi roz na jaane ke liye aa.

Ranjishein sahi...

Australian Open, Federer and Baghdatis

2006-01-28T01:12:00.000+05:30

I don't know when I started watching tennis. I have faint memories of a few matches I saw on TV when I was very young.

Gabriella Sabatini was a collective favourite of the family. I remember a few of Boris Becker's matches and how he used to fall every now and then. I also recall some matches involving the extremely vocal Monica Seles. Aaji was convinced that she knew Marathi and that she was shouting "Aahey!" or "Nahiye!" while hitting the ball. But I always liked Graf more than Seles. Graf was more graceful.

As with any other sport, even with tennis I have a special liking for the underdogs in the game. I always cheer for Kenya when they are not playing against India, I was cheering right throughtout Wimbledon 2001 for the wildcard entrant Goran Ivanisevic. I was really sad when he lost 2 previous Wimbledon finals to Pete Sampras. Agassi has been one of my favourites after his comeback, maybe because he was being counted as down and out.

Over the past few years, Federer has been my favourite in mens tennis. I don't think I need say anything about Sharapova. Well, she's cute isn't she? And she has beaten the Williams sisters quite regularly, what more can I ask for?

Coming back to Federer, I just love the way he plays tennis, it comes so naturally, so easily to him. It's like he was born to play tennis. Calm, collected and immaculate with his shots.

But now I'm confused. Whom should I cheer for in this year's Australian open final? Not that my prayers really matter, but I have to take somebody's side. On one hand is Federer. On the other, there is the underdog, Baghdatis, who is on a dream run at Melbourne. Having beaten Roddick in the second round and after a brilliant comeback act against David Nalbandian in the semi final, he looks unstoppable.

May the best man win!

Name decoders and Personality tests

2006-01-24T12:44:00.000+05:30

Some dumb personality tests I took some days back and a fodu name decoder , which I tried today have given me enough matter to write an utterly useless post. Here it is:

Cyborg name decoder says Sankalp means:

Monster name decoder says:

Sexy Name decoder:

Then there are my Irish, Hawaiian, Japanese, elf and 1920s names:

Your Irish Name Is...

Gill O'Connell

What's your Irish Name?

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Nahele Keahi

What's your Hawaiian Name?

Your Japanese Name Is...

Jiro Matsuki

What's your Japanese Name?

Your Elf Name Is...

Freckles Snowballer

What's Your Elf Name?

Your 1920's Name is:

Wardell Elvis

What's Your 1920's Name?

I couldn't believe my Scary score:

You Are Scary

You even scare scary people sometimes!

How Scary Are You?

or this:

How You Are In Love

You take a while to fall in love with someone. Trust takes time.

You give and take equally in relationships.

You need your space and privacy. You don't like to be smothered.

You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change.

You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

This made ROFL:

Your Personality Profile

You are pure, moral, and adaptable.
You tend to blend into your surroundings.
Shy on the outside, you're outspoken to your friends.

You believe that you live a virtuous life...
And you tend to judge others with a harsh eye.
As a result, people tend to crave your approval.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Don't know what this means:

Your 2005 Song Is

Beverly Hills by Weezer

"My automobile is a piece of crap
My fashion sense is a little whack
And my friends are just as screwy as me"

You breezed through 2005 in your own funky style!

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Weird score:

You Are 70% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right?
But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

No comments about this!

Personality tests are absolute crap!

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT)

You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas.
You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy!

Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people.
In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally.

You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought.
Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals.

In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent.

At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia.

With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well.

As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly.

On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

Heart Colour?

Your Heart Is Purple

For you, love is about establishing and developing a deep connection.
If it's true love, it brings you more wisdom and inner strength.

Your flirting style: Sincere

Your lucky first date: An afternoon at a tea house

Your dream lover: Is both thoughtful and expressive

What you bring to relationships: Understanding

What Color Heart Do You Have?

Your Hidden Talent

You're super sensitive and easily able to understand situations.
You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts.
Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition.
The right path is always clear, and you're a bit of a visionary.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Yeah, right!

I have many more results, but I guess this is enough.

Sidin quits consultancy for freelancing!

2006-01-19T12:30:00.000+05:30

I log on to bloglines and what do i find? Sidin has posted again today. Two posts in two days? I click the link and read the post .

So the news is that Sidin, the author of my favourite blog, has chucked his cushy consultancy job to follow his passion. Kudos and good luck to him.

Sidin's profile: here

End of a long hiatus

2006-01-16T12:06:00.000+05:30

Life is full of surprises. Things may look bleak, but they can change in no time, it's just a matter of staying positive. I am riding a wave of optimism, thanks to the developments in the past few days.

I had the idea about this post right from the time I came back after the vacation, but I kept postponing it. Maybe because I felt that all that I was writing was getting too self-centred. But since I haven't been able to think of anything better, I'll go ahead with this idea.

So, this is how the story goes. I am sitting in this train on my way back to Hyderabad from Indore. I realise that I have left my room key at home and that I have locked the spare key in my room itself. "No big deal, I can easily break the lock", I think. But then suddenly I feel sad, as if I am going to lose a faithful companion.

Interesting isn't it? How these things become our friends unknowingly. It was the same lock which had been with me in Kota for an year, which had guarded room 334 for another and had sincerely hung on to the door of room 331 for a semester. Almost 3 years, it had been a part of my daily life. The click sound it made as I slid the key in and turned it had been taken for granted, but now I miss it.

This set me thinking about other such friends. I think my best inanimate friend is my cap. It has been the most reliable and faithful friend for almost 4 years now. I have carried it everywhere with me, Indore, Kota, Hyderabad, the HKD trek. I also remember how I happy I had felt when I got it back after I lost it in a classroom at Bansal once.

It is special for another reason too. It reminds me of the innumerable nights we(Samay, Gabbu, Tarun and I) spent at Tarun's place trying to slog in the final few months before the competetives started in 12th. In the morning, while coming back home, Gabbu would always wear the cap. He absolutely loved it. Once, he even drove his bike against heavy traffic to retrieve it, when it blew off his head on the road.

It is not that the cap has been lucky for me. It's just that it has been with me in good times and bad.

I'm sure everyone has such companions, maybe we take them for granted. If this post helps you recognise your 'friends', which I hope it will, do leave a comment.

2006

2006-01-03T13:44:00.000+05:30

Another year has passed and has left me with many memories, both bitter and sweet.

The first day in 2006 has taught me a very important lesson. Death is not such a far off possibilty as it seems. Life is short, so live it to the fullest.

In the past 20 years, I have said or done so many things that I should not have. So, today, to start off the new year with something new, something good, I apologise to all those whom I have hurt. I didn't really mean what I said, just forgive me. Who knows? I may die tomorrow and I don't want to die with this burden.

May the new year bring a new ray of hope to the distressed, love and friendship to the lonely, good health to the diseased, success to the persevering and happiness and cheer to one and all.

Tagged

2005-12-10T12:31:00.000+05:30

Tagged by Knight Rider.I never knew that thinking of these seven things would be this difficult.So here it is:

Seven things I want to do in my life:

1) Fulfill all my responsibilites towards my family.
2) Earn loads of money,retire early.
3) Go trekking in the most remote regions of the world.
4) Go bungee jumping (in New Zealand),parasailing (in Barbados),scuba diving (Great barrier reef),skydiving (anywhere).
5) Own a house at a quiet little hill station in India. I mean really quiet, like say Naggar or Sankri.....heard of these places? No? Good!
6) Write a post on this blog which makes a century of comments.
7) This one's a secret!

Seven things I can do:

1) Everything in the above list ~~except~~ including point 6. I have some dedicated (read jobless) friends who can make that happen in no time at all.
2) Read books like a mad man,not only hard copies,even on the computer screen.
3) Chat for hours at a stretch.
4) Listen to the same song in an infinite loop.
5) Stare endlessly at the night sky.
6) Give advice (Good or bad, I dont know. Ask those who took my advice).
7) Walk long distances without feeling tired.

Seven things I cannot do:

1) Avoid the 'Yuck!' feeling when I see a lizard.
2) Stay awake in classes.
3) Avoid feeling frustrated if I start something and leave it half way through.
4) Smoke.I tried,didn't like it.
5) Go for one day without using my special vocabulary.
6) Shave properly without cutting myself in spite of using a safety razor.
7) Go for one day without listening to Audioslave's 'Be Yourself'.

Seven celebrity crushes:

1) Elisha Cuthbert
2) Riya Sen
3) Scarlett Johansson
4) Laetitia Casta
5) Maria Sharapova
6) Monica Belucci
7) Alicia Silverstone

Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1) Intelligence
2) Frankness
3) Patience
4) Evergreen smile
5) Dimples
6) Sweet voice
7) Sense of humour (Should find my jokes funny.That's a tough ask!)

Seven things I say the most:

1) The 'f' word (phrases?)
2) The 'g' word(s)
3) The 'c' word
4) Abe Yaar!
5) Ok
6) Fodu!
7) Hehe (Ok, I dont say it. I type it,but what the heck?)

Seven people I tag (Damn!Badri hasn't left anyone untagged).I hope our combined pressure tactics makes the last 4 on the following list post on The Band:

1) Neon
2) Abhinav
3) Turbo
4) Sir
5) Ganand
6) Smiley
7) Troll

I Love Winter

2005-12-02T08:11:00.000+05:30

I can't exactly enumerate the reasons why I like winter more than any other season.I don't say that I don't like summer or the rainy season.In fact, I love rains and getting drenched and I also love summer because summer means vacation. But there is something special about winter.

Maybe I love winter simply because I was born in December. Or maybe its because most of my favourite dishes are winter specific or maybe it is just because I enjoy my warm blanket and bed more or maybe because I like the world covered by a layer of fog. Or is it because the cold brings back the memories of all the treks ?

I remember the first few years in school when I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to reach the bus stop within an hour. It used to be especially difficult in winter. But all that was made easy by the cup of piping hot tea. During the last two years in school, winter was when I could wear the school council's special jacket.

I especially remember the winter in Kota.Kota was really cold,I recall that it went down till 2 deg celsius one night.But it was great coming back from classes with the sun still not out at 11:30 in the morning to the poha and jalebi stalls. Those samosas tasted much better in winter.

I was very disappointed when Hyderabad had a very mild winter last year, but this time it has been better and it has brought all the memories flooding back.

The Night Sky

2005-11-22T01:41:00.000+05:30

The night sky is an absolute delight.Looking up at the stars,the moon,the clouds spreading out like waves,I feel as if they are all alive.The stars seem to be talking to each other,or are all of them quietly admiring the beauty of the moon?

The moon peeps through the clouds,spreads its tranquil light.I can go on staring at it.The pale yellowish glow,the soft moonlight feels like a soothing hand on my shoulder.

But the beauty is not just because of the moon.The night sky would be incomplete without the stars.

Is that a stream flowing through the heavens? A sparkling stream.The millions of stars up there,are like the innumerable droplets of water that make up the stream.They are the life of the stream.They give it a direction,a purpose.But what is the destination of this starry stream? Where does it originate? What is its purpose? Is it trying to help us forget our worries,carrying us along in its flow, drowning us completely in its beauty?

I don't know.But then,do the answers matter at all?

Long time...

2005-11-17T14:15:00.000+05:30

Ha! So here I am writing a post after a very long time. Lots of things have happened, here is a list of the most prominent events:

1)Screwed up the exams real bad
2)Finally got the LAN card changed
3)Booked tickets to go home and then cancelled the plan
4)Got myself a Bloglines account, now I spend only a limited amount of time reading blogs
5)Got the movie portal working
6)Wrote down a pretty exhaustive list of the movies we have seen and made some significant additions to it in the past week.
7)Finally the database of chess games in xml format is ready.Now some proper work on the project can be started
8)Got a wordpress invitation. We'll probably shift The Band of Bloggers to wordpress, this blog won't be moved. I'm too lazy to do it.
9)Had my first fag.It wasn't a pleasant experience at all.I can't understand why people get addicted to it? I'm done with it.
10)Read almost all the archives on Sidin's blog.If you are wasting time,reading my blog,then stop it.Read his blog.
11)Did something which I had never thought I could do.I have been in a pretty good mood ever since.Obviously I'm not writing exactly what I did.

Another crappy post.I should write a proper post which is not a list.

SNAFU

2005-10-24T21:11:00.000+05:30

I wrote a post by the same title yesterday also,but some error occured while publishing and I lost it.So,let me start all over again.

The title is inspired by Siddharth's post.Actually, last night,I was feeling a lot better thinking that I have pulled myself out of the SNAFU condition.But today I am feeling worse than before.

Well,where do I start from?Let it be OS first.This important subject is now completely screwed up,with only a very faint chance of getting anything above a C. Mid sems were a disaster, and as if that was not enough,I chucked the assignment evaluation for a useless movie,'Se7en' and I have been begging the tutor for the past 2 days to evaluate it, with no avail.To top it off,some dumbass sent a 'threatening' mail to the tutors.Now even they are not ready to help us and the prof has revised the grading criteria,making it absolutely impossible for me to get a decent grade.Then there is the labtest and the next assignment due day after.

Then there are loads of other assignments,Signals,Maths,ITWS and the project.That reminds me that I have to meet the prof tomorrow to show the progress of the project. Needeless to say,the progress has been infinitesimal.

I'll wrap up this post with the only positive development of the week gone by.The movie club portal is up and working.I had to break my head over the php code for the whole of yesterday to get it right.But now it is working fine.Haven't had any error reports till now.

That is all for now.If you are still reading this,then please pray for me.

All play and no work !

2005-10-21T08:01:00.000+05:30

Last 4-5 days I have been doing little except playing NFS Underground 2.I have become a complete addict.

I could have done so many things,I could have read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich",I could have watched the movies I had on my computer and downloaded few more.I could have done my assignments,I could have worked on the project,I could have had the movie club portal working by today,.....

But all I have done is play NFS till 3 o'clock every night(except lsat night).This post is just to vent my frustration.I haven't been able to get the movie portal up for voting for almost a month now.I better get working.

The ITWS project is also going nowhere.Had Dhruvan not completed the Java applet,we would have had nothing to show for this deadline.I struggled with the PGN to XML conversion for 3 days before getting it to work.

Lets hope this weekend I finish some major work on all the fronts.

If you are still reading this,thanks for standing this crap post.

First Blog from 172.17.9.85

2005-10-09T20:24:00.000+05:30

I just discovered that my new pc's new ip address is 172.17.9.85.Actually yesterday I had a pretty cool ip address:172.17.8.8.But it proved to be absolutely useless as I was getting miserable LAN speeds(<30 kb/sec).So I tried and tried and poor Anand (who did not go home,because he had to help me get my pc from Park Lane to IIIT and then get it working) tried and ultimately I went to bed with some 40 items on the download queue in DC++.

Today morning I woke up and found 10 items still there.I thought,"What the hell? 6 hours and this shit (I just noticed that these two words are anagrams) cannot download a few MBs?"
Then finally today evening I put Anand's old LAN card and it worked perfectly fine.Download rates are now of the order of 10^2kb/sec.That is when i got the ip address 172.17.9.85.

I missing home today.Many guys have gone home.I have stayed back.I don't know why.I was actually planning to get my PC in these holidays and then do some work with the project.Let's see how much I actually do.

Dusshera used to be fun at home.I would help my grandmom make garlands to be put on the doors,I would watch my mom make shrikhand,watch my father do the puja of all our vehicles,books etc.Then I would enjoy a wonderful meal,make a Ravan effigy with my friends in the afternoon,invite everyone for the Ravan Dahan,watch the fireworks and feel proud of the effigy we had made.

Now I can't even go home.All these festivals were much more fun when I was young.Now I don't know what to do.I'm too old for all the fireworks,or am I?But,that is where all the fun of these festivals lies.

I think I just don't want to grow up.I want to stay a kid forever.

Exams and Slogging

2005-10-04T05:06:00.000+05:30

It has been a very long time since the last post.Even the last post was a copy-paste matter.

Second mid sem exams started today and the ordeal will be over by day after.Right now I feel quite satisfied.I realise that when time comes, I can slog too.I spent more then 6 hours in the library yesterday,without dozing off.Slogging isn't that bad if you have to do it for just a day or two.I dont know how regular sloggers maintain their mental balance.

Over the years, I have completely lost faith in the examination system.I think nothing can test anyone's knowledge at a particular subject.Getting marks and being actually good seem to be two completely different things.The world would be so much better without exams.

But a stereotype like me should not be talking about exams and their futility.After all,I have not done anything too revolutionary. I have accepted the system,though faulty.I have been tackling exams all my life.The very reason for my being here in IIIT is that I had a better day than someone else on the entrance exam day.

I am Morpheus!!

2005-09-13T11:39:00.000+05:30

Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

If Mathematics is a language.....then I'm bloody illiterate

2005-09-12T14:04:00.000+05:30

"Maths is a language,the subject is not just about knowing the equations,what we should really strive for is the deeper understanding".Understanding?My a**.I can't even make sense of the signs that are scattered all over the blackboard.

In the past one year,I have grown pretty much used to not paying attention in the class and consequently not knowing a damn about my subjects.But it was probably for the first time that I found myself in a situation where I felt that the teacher is teaching well,that I am paying attention,and in spite of all this I could not make head and tail of the f***ing subject called Signals and Systems.At the end of the class all I could do was to laugh at myself and my pathetic condition with regards to this subject.

But the only heartening fact was that quite a few of the people sitting around me were carrying similar expressions on their face.Maybe I should start slogging.It is not for the first time that I have felt the need.But I guess I should follow this advice:

Whenever you feel like working ,
Wait and relax .. until that feeling goes away .