Back in black

… I hit the sack.

I’ve been too long, I’m glad to be back.

Yes I’m let loose

From the noose

That’s kept me hanging about.

This is one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands but I tell you, I could’ve written those lines right now without ever having listened to the song.

I feel like a free bird, all of a sudden.

Life at work sucked chocolate salty balls for a long time.

Things’ve changed though.

I never realized the impact that the environment you work in can have on your own personality and mood.

Just wanted to put in a good word or two and raise a toast to the wonderful team I’m part of, at work.

Every single one of them is incredibly insane and amazingly awesome in their own way. I wouldn’t swap a single one of them for someone else (OK, maybe one but that’s for another day).

In fact, I now enjoy going to work so much I haven’t seriously thought about leaving my job and pursuing higher studies for a while. I’ve thought about it, but not seriously for a long time (Is this actually even a good thing?).

I haven’t committed to anything for my future – I’m living in the moment and man, do I love it.

Of course, there’re plenty more reasons to rejoice too:

The slurpy thick shakes, the rocking live shows, the crazy crowd!

Life’s good.

On a side note, check out

http://themclones.com/

They’re this amazing desi band who’re soon releasing their first studio album. They sound really good.

The video truly is as spankingly good as it claims!

Saluting the heroes

I’d just like to say how proud and at the same time, grateful we should be for the NSG commandos for their fearless battle against the despicable terrorists. Hats off to them all and also to the hotel staff at the Taj and Trident. They put their lives on the line to save several others. I also pay tribute to the officers who lost their lives in the battle.

The game belongs to the fans!

Came across something very interesting indeed today.
At a time when the richest boards and clubs (irrespective of sport really) are struggling to get the crowds in even for the big games, I’m surprised the approach of the german football federation has been largely ignored. Apparently, travel to the BUNDESLIGA (the german football league) is absolutely free. Get on a train or bus, tell them you’re going to the game (some sort of proof required, i assume). Also, beer is served on an unlimited basis in the stadiums without any fear of violence!
I think the BCCI should do something similar for test cricket here. Not like they need the money! Imagine… Free travel, cheap alcohol and food, lots of cheering and singing… magic!

Destination Nowhere

Someone once said “when you’re not moving forward, keep moving sideways until you find that space to suddenly surge forward”

That someone is most probably myself and I am finding it difficult to identify with my own statements. I am certainly not going forward. Going sideways doesn’t seem to be the answer either. What now? Do I punt one long in hope or do I fall over myself and fake injury?

See how I digressed there? My life and career is pretty much the same. How/when do we know what we want in life? More specifically, how do we know what we want to DO?

All you happy/blissful people out there, could you be so kind as to throw some advice at my face… I mean blog?

Roadside Juliets

We all know about the typical roadside romeo … No, not the dumb movie with the newly discovered dog-human species. You know, the jobless guys who occupy the neighborhood ‘pittagoda’ and basically make every girl feel like she’s being pierced with javelins. Now, imagine a ‘jamba-lakadi-pamba-fied’ world. And I narrate the following based on personal experience-

Tall, ugly guy trying to cross the road at a busy junction. He’s halfway through. Two girls approaching in his general direction on a scooter. Next thing he knows, he’s been smacked on the ass and the girls shout ‘ hey handsome! 9pm tomorrow same place’.

Odd thing is, I felt neither offended nor stupidly happy. More importantly, though, should I have actually listened to her and gone back the next day?:P

Pune is different, for sure.

Through the lookin glass

Boy, talk about an irrelevant post title.

I am posting this from my mobile
Wanted to post a very relevant cartoon but … oh well.
In loving memory of the PC.

P.s.: how idiotic is the ‘already hip’ thing at the wordpress login? Also, m.wordpress.com if you want to go mobile!

Poetry in motion.. and look there, it’s fallen off a f***ing cliff!!

For about 7 years now, I have been gradually losing the ability to write anything that immediately catches the attention of another person –  regardless of whether his/her comment is a “wonderful!!!” or a “f***ing s**t!! wtf is that, you piece of c**p!”.

I remember as a kid, penning poems which had my family,  friends and their families gaping in awe; writing articles that a certain newspaper used to carry regularly and generally being able to write good stuff on anything under the sun. ***

Now, I read poems and think “Whoa! I wish I could write like that”. I read books by famous/unknown authors and I think “Pfft… I could have written better that that”. Yet, when I actually get hold of pen and paper and make an attempt to use the ink, all I can see via my mind’s eye is a pitch black tunnel or a blank sheet of paper fluttering in the wind.

Maybe it is because I have become so passive to my surroundings, so unaware of what is going on in the world. I spend 16hours of my everyday life staring at a manically flickering monitor-feeling like I’m falling down a deep abyss -and the other 8 hours, I try to keep my own life from flickering out of control.

Or perhaps it’s the electronic age that is to blame. There is not a single pen or pencil in my apartment. A lot of papers to make paper rockets with and throw onto the terrace of the girl-next-door’s house, although.

If you have anything that you think I can write about, tell me.

Have you ever felt like this? Have you come out of it? How?

This is a plea for help that you shouldn’t ignore!!! (partly because I will quite possibly commit homicide on you).

***boast is the secret of my energy

How to make money from food.

It has become such a damn trend for celebrities these day to open restaurant chains. I always wondered what these paparazzi darlings knew about food and the business of making and serving it that would prompt them to part with a substantial chunk of their savings (for lackof better word) towards these food-serving-places.

I found out the answer yesterday and the glaring obvious-ness (?) of it all had me stunned.

My roommate and I went to “Galaxy Grill – The greek Tavern” for dinner last night, since every other darn restaurant in the area was crowded beyond belief (a lazy sunday, perhaps).

We ordered a-la-carte, food preparations whose names we couldn’t remember on returning the menu to the Maitre d’.

Let me tell you what we were served (basing on what we ate, rather than the menu):

1. vankai bajjis – fried brinjal in flour wrapping

2. dosakai bajjis – fried zucchini in flour wrapping

3. usirikaya pachchadi – gooseberry pickle

4. vellulli paste – ‘garlic sauce’

5. bread and butter

6. stuffed brinjal (stuffed, very annoyingly, with fried brinjal)

Considering I don;t even like brinjal, the fact that this ’snack for two’ cost us a cool 900 bucks left me seething.

this experience has opened up a whole new career alternative for me. With minimal cooking skills, I can open a restaurant (or even a ‘cool/rad’ roadside eatery), serve distinctly everyday average food, and make a mindboggling profit by changing the preparations’ names to something fancy and european.

So people, next time you’re visiting my place, please don’t hesitate to try the ’smażony ziemniak’ and ‘mausteinen kasvis keittoa’ with ’söt ostmassa’

A cynical sense of humour

Laughing at the expense of others’ misery

Something happened at work yesterday that made me really wonder why we enjoy laughing at another human being’s misery/accidents so much.

The situation? Well, 3 actually:

1. It’s raining, about 10 of us are taking a detour out of the campus to the ‘tapri’ outside for vada-pav. There’s a lot of mud. It’s slippery. You know what’s coming, don’t you?
I just burst out laughing, much to the chagrin of a couple of other guys.
Luckily, it wasn’t my sparkling white t-shirt and shiny new jeans that got nature’s makeover.

2. It’s raining. A girl is running into the building, really not wanting to get wet. Next thing you know, it’s a classic ‘Saint Gobain Moment’. She’s all groggy and here I am on the other side of the door, clapping away and laughing like a madman. She probably didn’t even notice, being pre-occupied with getting her coordination right.

3. It’s NOT raining (thankfully), I’m in traffic – everything is pretty much at standstill in front of me. Guy on a scooter is at full speed, head turned towards his pillion (who is either a cheeky f***er or a daft moron) chatting away to glory. By the time I realise what’s happened, everyone around me is in laughter induced tears. The scooter-man (superhero names are ‘in’) has just tasted the paint on the back of a bus and his cheeky f***er friend is delirious with laughter.

In fact, thinking about this, I can recall a particularly unfunny situation which had me in splits (along with a fair few others) – My maths professor in my Intermediate 2nd year was explaining the intricacies of trigonometry (which are lost on me, by the way) when he decided he could do the same sitting in a chair. As what happened next would suggest, you should always check if anything’s in your chair before you decide to expose (well, not literally of course) a sensitive part of your body to it. I still don’t know why I laughed – was it the actual ‘happening’ or the fact that he actually said “Oh! Sorry” afterwards? I have no idea why he apologised, just like I have no idea why I laughed.

Then of course, there’s the ‘legendary’ story of my physics professor falling into the gutter due to a student going past him on a cycle – evidently, a little too fast for the prof’s comfort. My insides are hurting as I type.

How many of these incidents would you have been laughing at?

0 – F*** off. Go get some sense of humour into your system.
1 – You’re a boring fella, aren’t ya?
2 – Ok, you are clearly a morally tied up fellow?
3 – Hmm. Which one did you not find funny?
4 – Welcome to my evil world. Mwhuhahahaha.

Take the movies, even. Movies with large doses of physical humour-silly accidents, face contortions, slaps, daft people-tend to do significantly better than those with subtle, charming humour and wit.

Seriously, why is it that we laugh at others’ misery? If any of the above had happened to me and I’d found someone laughing at me, place your bet on him/her ending up with a broken skull.

Comments invited.

A Wednesday – a film to watch and remember

A Wednesday  – Went to watch this movie today morning. I must admit that I felt ashamed because of what happened in Delhi yesterday. So many people died due to those m***********g terrorist c***s and here I am the very next day going to watch a movie about terrorism when there’s a red alert sounded in the city. Made me want to puke on myself.

About the movie though, I’m no movie critic so all I can say is – go watch it !!!  Fantastic stuff. Our Film Industry is coming out with great films lately on sensitive subjects – Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday. I completely loved all 3 movies and must admit that they actually put my ‘emotional glands’ to action.

I was wetting my pants halfway through and checked under my seat and a couple of other seats to make sure I wouldn’t suddenly be thrown 50 feet in the air with my life flashing before my very eyes – of course because of the tragic blasts in Delhi.

It makes you sick to know that people who could very well be mingling with you, me, everyone could do such dastardly things. Our country is in such a sad state that we’re never sure if we can reach home safe.
Thing is, we still remain indifferent.  And blog about it. I’m pathetic.

This made me proud though. One India. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaai all coming together to celebrate Ganesh Visarjan:

MERA BHARAT MAHAN!!!