The Reminiscences of the Ancient Mariner

the whole nine months...

2011-06-25T06:33:00.000-05:00

A little over eight months had passed by. I was woken up by the buzz at 4.00 am. It was one of the alarms. I had managed to sleep for two hours.

I was just two hours away from the moment that would define my lineage. Still trembling in nervous anticipation and the cold Bangalore air, I drove to the hospital.

'Congratulations, both boys' were the words from the doctor as she came out of the Operation theatre holding two little bundles of life, bringing to an end the most agonizing, excruciating 35 minutes of my existence. Why , you may ask ? After all, the pain is borne by the mother. But spare a thought for the husband who has to wait outside trying to offer all the prayers that he can remember and invoke all the Gods that have been idolized by mankind.

A little over eight months have passed by. I am woken up by the buzz at 4.00 am. It was one of the babies. I had managed to sleep for two hours.

I was just two hours away from bathing in the first rays of the sun. Still dreary eyed from the lack of sleep, I proceed to the living room to prepare the baby formula.

Being part of a very miniscule part of the population who are blessed with twins or more, it does make one feel special. My boys have given me the celebrity status I couldn't achieve.....as yet. It's always heartening to hear the whispers 'ohh they are twins' as we venture out with the kids.

My skills repository has been growing.

Wake me up at any time of the night and ask me to find a needle in the haystack. I can do that and to exceed your expectations, I can thread the needle as well.

I can prepare the baby formula in any situation, be it seated at the back of a Tata Sumo on Kerala's serpentine roads, or perched above on the upper berth of a train, or entangled in the seat belts and narrow space of a rocking aeroplane.

I don't have to lift those dumbbells at the gym. Trying to hold two hyperactive kids gives me the much needed exercise and muscle power.

It has been an experience so far. Hope to see what lies in store.

the license saga..revisited..

2010-08-01T06:55:00.000-05:00

It was not long ago that I was authorized by the state to get behind the wheels. But a visit to the RTO..errrr.. the DMV was a pleasant experience. Book an appointment, take the test and you had your license. The procrastination was more on my part but eventually I made it through. That was back in 2006.

After coming back to India, again after a year or so of deliberations (on the necessity of it), faced with countless questions (on why I don't have one), ridiculed by my friends (who flaunt it) I finally got the driver's license.

As is the norm in these parts, called up the driving school, took the classes, got my Learner's without even taking the test(!!!) and then began the long wait of getting a permanent license. Long, because again I chose to delay the inevitable. Finally I decided to take the driving test and went to the RTO. If you have the blessings of your driving school, the process should be a breeze but even then they make you go through the grind. A farcical one at that. First a long wait for the RTO official to show up. Then stood in a queue for about an hour to get a signature of the 'all important' official. Stood in another queue for about an hour to get myself into the RTO books. I wonder what that guy was scribbling down. It seemed gibberish. Another wasteful process. I was then instructed to go to an area where all the driving schools had lined up their cars. After about 30 mins, the driving school boy convinced some RTO guy to get into the car and take the test. He asked me to start the car, then moved from 1st to 2nd gear and after about 100 mts asked me to stop the car with the remark 'you have passed'. I didn't mind. I have heard horror stories of some RTO officials asking you to make an eight or a 'H' while driving the car and countless other tasks. My test was over in 5 mins. Well why would anyone bother, I kept the driving school happy, I am sure they would have kept the RTO happy as well.

Later I was told that the person who took the test was not even a RTO officer but his driver !!! Sad state of affairs. Would have preferred taking a test for 1 hour than standing in queue for hours!!

Stood in another queue for about an hour again for the photo, biometric scan etc. Tired and exhausted after spending around 6 hours at the RTO,it felt like an unending ordeal. This was one brush with a Govt office after a long time. I wonder how many more battles lie ahead.

An Affair to remember...I

2010-07-15T12:12:00.000-05:00

As posted on an automobile forum

Disclaimer : This post might not help anyone who is looking for specific technical inputs, comparisons with other cars. There are a lot of knowledgeable threads in this forum. This writeup is just to share my overall experience.

It was one fine day on April 1st that a thought dawned upon me. It is about time I had a car. Reasons were many. Somehow before this, I did not find any compelling reason to buy a car. As they say when you decide to do something, the entire universe conspires to make that happen. Reasons came flashing thick and fast and I embarked on my search for ‘the’ car.

To give a little background about myself, I am not much of a driving enthusiast. I love driving but that’s it. I have driven an automatic over the past 3 years in US but had never ventured into driving a ‘manual’ car in India. I decided to take the plunge this time and took my driving classes. On 8-10 hour drives on interstates and freeways in the US, I would happily get into the passenger’s seat while my friends would fight over the driver’s seat. But like I said, I love getting behind the wheels but not crazy enough. I must also admit, I am a dud when it comes to the technicalities involving the car. Terms like low end torque, body rolling, steering feedback , ride stability were alien to me. After having driven many rental cars in US, the reaction, mostly would be ‘chalane me mast tha’ after the drive. Hence I started with a handicap : What to look for in a car ?

I did narrow it down to two things : I wanted a hatchback and a petrol one at that.

So I convey my decision of buying a hatchback to my circle of friends over lunch and pat came the suggestions : Swift, Punto,i10,i20,Beat,Figo. Thoroughly confused I was advised by a friend to refer to TBhp for better reviews. I open up TBhp and the first link I find is GTO’s review of Polo. I liked the car and after reading the review and comments decided : this is ‘the’ car. Promptly shot an email to the VW showroom on Hosur Road. Got the price list. Analyzed the features vis-à-vis the price. Found to be a tad costly but I liked the car. Asked for a test drive but they said that I will have to come down to the showroom. I thought I will do a test drive on my way back from work. In the meanwhile also found out that the waiting period was around 2 months.

A week passed by.

My eyes fell on the i20. Liked it. Again read the reviews and comments on TBhp, drooled over its looks and decided: this is ‘the’ car. Requested for a price list from the Hyundai showroom on Hosur Road. Did the price/feature comparison again. This went on for a couple more weeks. Booked a test drive. The Polo faded from memory but I still wanted to take a test drive.

And yeah, I was also contemplating on buying the Swift, of course without researching much as this was the car that everybody had !! Again a waiting period of 3-4 months dampened the enthusiasm.
And also, i10 was on top of my list for a considerable number of days primarily because of its price factor. But then again. It was too common on the roads for my liking.
But ofcourse, the Chevy Beat too featured in my dreams for a while. It didn't appeal much to me.
and then, the Ritz got a passing mention. Only if the designer had bothered to finish his job.
I have no reasons why Figo did not get a look-in. I simply missed it. Period.

A friend suggested Punto. I replied ‘I don’t like the looks’. And I haven’t seen anyone drive it.

In the meanwhile I continued to read about the i20. This felt pricey. The showroom folks called me up and landed at my house with the demo car. I test drove the car. Felt nice. I told them that I would need some time and would get back to them. Put up a question for my FaceBook friends ‘i20 or the Polo’ and the replies poured in. Somewhere in between those replies, a friend Arvind (arishi in tbhp/teamfiat) chipped in ‘why not the Punto?’

And then I opened up the Punto review thread on Tbhp. Read through GTO’s review and ALL the comments posted for another two weeks. At the end of it, I was confused.

In the meanwhile, I had changed my job, and with it I lost the opportunity of driving the Polo . Lame excuse ? Didn’t I tell you about the ‘universe conspiring and yada yada theory’

Heck, falling in love with a girl was easier. But I started liking the Punto’s looks. Associating yourself with your car is more like the feeling when you first meet your girl. You just like her (without going into the details of whether she cooks, is working and blah blah ).

I started my relationship with Punto the way I started it with my wife. I fell in love.

On another fine Saturday morning on May 15th, a day after my birthday, I landed at Prerana Motors on Sarjapur Rd. I was greeted by the salesperson. I showed my interest in a 1.4 Petrol Epack. He mentioned that only the diesel is available for a test drive. Took the drive. The clutch travel was a bit long to my liking but after the drive I remarked ‘chalane me mast tha’. Promptly handed over the booking amount.

I must admit, I did note down the pros and cons of each car from the various threads. It all boiled down to one thing. There is no perfect car.. perhaps. You choose your car based on what you want to compromise on. I get asked : Why Punto ? I don't know. It just happened. I didn't even test drive the 1.4 petrol !!

On a side note : Our names ( mine,dad,sister and wifey's) start with P. The name of our house starts with P. The showroom where I booked my car starts with P. So it was only poetic justice that this is the car I chose.

(Buying experience and driving experience to follow...)

the extreme

2010-06-06T21:44:00.002-05:00

The other day I got a forward listing the world's extreme adventure sports and it included deep cave diving, sky diving,bungee jumping etc. This got me thinking. Why are they extreme adventures ? Is it because of the feeling that death stares you right in your face or is it just the sheer 'hair raising' experience that one has to go through when you know things can go out of your control. Heck, I go though the same experience day in and day out. Ever tried driving on Indian roads ? Its the world's greatest and the most dangerous and the most extreme adventure that one can try. And you don't have much of an option to avoid it either.

I am miffed. I am grumpy. I am annoyed. If there is one thing that gets on to my nerves these days, its the thought of having to spend precious moments of my life on the road. I know we, as a nation, have been driving for decades and its our way of life. Nobody complains. We all 'adjust' ourselves to the maniacal ways of road. Comfort in the feeling that nothings gonna change even if I rant about it, I will still do so. Didn't I say I am peeved.

Patience, as a virtue, is non-existent, when we get behind the wheels. Period. The situation at the red light is a veritable F1 start from pole position, except that there is anarchy around.Why do people drive as if they are holding on to their inflated bladder and looking for a place to relieve? Some dickheads just try to squeeze their way, honking incessantly as if the sheer sound of it would carve out a righteous path amongst the zillion vehicles present on the road. Huh. I believe lane markings on Indian city roads are just to give a 'city-like' feel. Even on a narrow stretch if you manage to draw two lanes, it looks cool. Forget the fact that anyone hardly follows them. In my land, you create your own lane and a serpentine one at that. The cab drivers are the worst of the lot. Have you ever seen a sticker on the rear of a cab 'In case of rash/negligent driving please contact 98********.' I wonder if calling the number makes any difference.

Can someone enlighten the three wheeled autorickshaws that every machine has its limit and they should not try to push it. These puny vehicles sometimes go at 60-70 km/hr ,the sight of which itself is terrifying. The design of the autos makes them highly susceptible to toppling at high speeds. I bet they are highly influenced by Mr 007's handling of the auto in the movie Octopussy.

If you get nudged from behind or pushed by another vehicle, we don't show the middle finger. It might not make sense to many anyway. We have our own style. Just raise your hand with fingers outstretched in a manner of 'kya hai yeh'. Of course depending on which part of the country you are in, niceties with reference to your body ,dog, mother or sister may follow.

I gifted my self a Punto on my birthday last month. I am yet to take delivery of my beauty. I will surely have my heart on my sleeves when I take her out on the roads. I wonder how Merc, BMW owners drive around in this chaos. Scratches and dents are a foregone conclusion.

I admire the traffic policemen who man these roads. I see some taking pains to ensure a smooth commute while some just watch helplessly. I am not sure if the situation will improve. There are too many constraints. But I just hope that my BP remains at acceptable levels by the time I reach office.

decisions..

2010-04-11T05:00:00.006-05:00

We come across a zillion situations in life where we need to take decisions. Sometimes they happen in a fraction of a second, at times they go through a long thought process. Sometimes you are content with your choice, at times you regret them.

Decision to marry, decision to change your job, decision to buy a house, decision to buy a car are a few among the umpteen choices one has to make in the life. Thankfully, the first two are off my list. The next two are ,well, responsible for the increased activity in my hypothalamus. The house thingy has been put on the backburner for now as I am obsessed with the need to have a car.

Wish choosing a car was that easy.

The past week has seen me going through all the possible reviews on team-bhp.com (an excellent site for car reviews) for the following cars : i20, punto and the polo. The result : still undecided. I have changed my decision a million times over the past week. My friends would soon run at the sight of me throwing up statistics about torque , power, engine type, mileage,dimensions etc etc. My research on cars has sure enlightened me on the various aspects about the four wheeled machine. I have also realized that no one car is perfect. Each variant has its drawbacks, so my fight for my prized car and the profound confusion in my life continues. Someone remarked that hunting for a bride wasn't that difficult.

On expressing my anguish over this tumultuous phase in my life, my friend suggested 'Close your eyes and think about that one car you would like to drive'.

I did.

An Audi A6 flashed across my thoughts. With a price tag of somewhere around 32 lakhs, it would have probably,at worst, burnt a crater in my pocket !!!

Then reality hit hard on my face and I was back to the puntos, i20s and polos.

I want to go on an ego trip and was heavily inclined towards the German beauty Polo (from the Volkswagen stable) but then its maintenance might cost me a bomb.

The Italian horse Punto has impressed me with its looks but its quality is something that is being debated about.

The stylish Korean i20 is currently in the lead in my books but the low mileage and its pricing is something I am concerned about.

So there you go, now you know why I am yet to make up my mind.

of ads, calls and changes

2010-04-03T05:04:00.004-05:00

There are a couple of Tata sky ads doing the rounds. As if the emotional atyachaar meted out to the husband is not enough, do we need more creative ideas from the telly? Leave the tigers. I know there are only 1411 left ( courtesy the aircel ad ). Save the fast dwindling species called 'responsible,loving and caring husbands' !!! But I can breathe a sigh of relief with respect to these ads.

Ad : Mixie - I am usually the one who runs the complicated mean machine (with Intelli lock feedback, Intelli arm and Intelli Shutoff and God-knows-what-else features) in my house

Ad : Burnt Toast - I don't take a lunch box to office :)

Ad : Elevator - See being on the second floor has its advantages :) You can simbly run up the stairs. I am told that you do burn a few calories in that process.

Hope they don't come up with other innovative ways to cripple a man's basic rights. I am allowed to watch a few minutes of the ongoing IPL games but not without hearing a mouthful.

Have you ever received calls from companies selling any kind of insurance ? They have a smart way of selling it. They make you believe that you can have one of all the possible critical illness , scare the c*ap out of you and entice you with great offers with 'only this much money sir' offers. I fell into the trap not once but thrice and here I am holding 3 different kinds of insurance against hospitalization expenses in case of illness and accidents , critical illness and all types of fractures !!! Its another thing that I came to my senses and canceled some of them within the 14-day look in period. This is not to say that not taking an insurance is an intelligent thing to do. It is more important to pick the right kind of insurance.

Changes continue to sweep my life. I will be ending my long , somewhat long association with my current organization in a few weeks. It is not always easy to take this decision but then I blame it on the circumstances. Its ironic that my friend shared this link the next day after I put in my papers !!

so long so gone

2010-03-06T01:34:00.017-06:00

Been a while. I must admit, it was hard for me to keep pace with the sweeping changes in my life. I got an opportunity to change my marital status on my orkut and facebook accounts in October. The definition of 'a person who shares my flat' has been upgraded from a 'roommate' to a 'wife'. So far so good. Still coming to terms with this new life. Four months have just flashed by,not without its share of fun and revelations.

These days I get shouted at for spending too much time on my laptop (hangover from my bachelor days). In my defense, I am pulled into a conversation only when I am hooked to the laptop !!

These days my language interpretation ability is being put to test. As if the differences in our Malayalam wasn't enough (Northern Kerala Vs Southern Kerala), now I have to figure out words spoken in Hindi..err....Marathi as well!!. Now I know what to pick up from the vegetable vendor when wifey dear says 'bring some kanda or batata'. Its time to switch on the telly or watch a movie or put up a comic act , when I hear 'kantal'.

These days there is a presence of a 'woh' in our lives. I hear a sigh when a shirtless Sallu lightens up the telly. Not to be undone, I let out a bigger sigh when a Katrina/Deepika sashays across the screen. Drawing some inspiration from Sallu Bhai, I have set myself a goal. To reduce the gunny bag that I carry to a more respectable 2 or 3 pack. My aspirations are modest. The security guy is amused to see me at the gym. Wonder why?

These days I am hooked to Farmville. Yea I know, I am not 'supposed' to play that or so my wife says. ' Don't you have an iota of shame to play Farmville at this age' and in the same breath 'get some potatoes from your farm for our kitchen !!'.

These days I pay Rs 30 for my haircut. Down from Rs 60-70 I used to pay in other parts of Blore. Don't call me cheap. It's just that the cost analysis doesn't justify the steep price I need to pay elsewhere, considering that there are only a few strands of hair left on my scalp.

These days when I view the 'Top 25 songs' on my Ipod, I don't see a 'Fear of the Dark', 'Jeremy', 'Dead and Bloated' or 'Fade to black'. These have been conveniently replaced by Malayalam Devotional songs. Not that I am complaining. The melodious tunes which wafts across every morning is refreshing. A far cry from the days when I used to start my day with ear-shattering metal tunes. I haven't shunned rock music either. I do listen to it after the self imposed 'devotional phase' of the day is over. Wifey is amused when I put up the 'head bang' act.

These days I am also waging a losing battle in the kitchen. My ex roommates would attest this fact that I love putting 'aloo' in any damn curry. For me the 'batata' is the ultimate vegetable that is a necessity for any curry. But my better half doesn't think so. Hence I need to quietly slip in my favorite vegetable when I get a chance. I love to see the look on her face when she digs out the treasure when we dine.

Hopefully I should be a regular in the blog land again. Need to catch up with so many blogs now!!

for want of a tooth..

2009-09-12T06:40:00.006-05:00

my wisdom was lost. Or will be or may be. So kindly excuse me for my blabbering hence forth. The ordeal which started a couple of months back, i.e. the recurring headaches which led me to undergo various medical tests like the MRI and the EEG and which was finally traced back to the teeny weeny tooth at the far end of my mouth, would hopefully end now. I always used to feel a tingling pain in my left lower jaw when I used to get headaches. I attributed it to the headaches. Didn't think it could be the other way round. After procrastinating my visit to the dentist for about a month, I finally paid a visit a couple of weeks back. The examination quickly led to the conclusion "Your wisdom tooth is in a state of decay and has to be extracted". Sounded simple. So I took the appointment the next day notwithstanding the fact that I was extracting a tooth after close to 20 years. I thought I could get away with using medicines or any nonsurgical/extraction methods but the advice from the prosthodontist was to get rid of the redundant part of my body lest it leads to further complications later.

What do I do after coming back from the visit? Promptly google 'wisdom tooth extraction' and read the oh-it-so-simple stories to horror stories about the whole process. I braced myself for the 'surgery' the next day only to get it postponed. The surgeon was a bit hesitant on operating on someone who clocked a 160/90 on one fine bright sunny day a couple of months back. Taking me to be an hypertensive person, he advised me to get my BP checked one more time and also product a fitness certificate. I had a hard time explaining that the spike was a temporary one and my BP has been normal since. So after two weeks of monitoring my BP, I finally went to get the damn thing extracted today. I was not helped by the fact that a friend of mine , who happens to be a doctor, scared the crap out of me by giving me all the gory details about the anatomy of a tooth. Apparently it is connected to a nerve cell and complications can creep in if the nerve cell is affected during the extraction.

The procedure went well, but a a tad longer for the doctor's taste. Apparently he had trouble extracting the obstinate tooth because the roots were quite strong. I could see the expressions and sweat on the doctor's face as he used a plethora of surgical instruments including what looked a driller to me !!. Another late discovery during the course of the procedure was that the nerves were pretty close to my tooth which slowed down the doctor's progress. After some struggle, the tooth was finally plucked out. He wiped off the sweat and remarked 'Phew that was one stubborn thing'. He complimented me by saying that not many can endure the stuff that was done on me today and that I was one of the strongest male patients he had come across !!! Now I don't know if this 'praise' is reserved for all this patients:)

No pain yet, though it has been a good 7 hours since I was given the local anesthesia. I hope it isn't bad. Suddenly I have this craving for hot spicy food which the dentist advised against!!. Reminds me of the dialog from the movie 'The Hangover'. He is not a doctor, he is a dentist!!!
With all the medical checkups I have been undergoing in the past few months, a friend remarked 'Like a car which undergoes routine maintenance checks before its sold, I am also going through the same process before my marriage' :)

An escape !!

2009-07-14T05:47:00.014-05:00

Either I seem to write when something interesting/untoward happens or something fascinating happens when I begin to write !! I had a brush with ....err....my inner self a couple of weeks back. I was in an auto traveling back from another brush with destiny when a son of a gun driving in a Hyundai Santro hit the auto from behind. All I could feel was a huge thud and then everything around me starting to swerve as the auto gracefully inclined to one side, on two wheels, overturned and skidded on the road. It happened in a split second. I went blank. I just stood up, lifted the auto to free my left leg which was trapped under the wheel, and walked to the pavement and sat there for a while, still unable to comprehend the goings-on. Passers by stopped by and inquired if I was doing fine. The autodriver had hit his head and was lying on the road. We lifted the auto up to free him. I did not see any bruises on me, hence walked off, took another auto and reached home while the autowallah's and onlookers argued with the Hyundai driver on the amount of money he would have to shell out. Only after reaching home did I realize that I had 4-5 cuts and wounds on my left leg and a sprained ankle.

It didn't help that I was coming back from an appointment with a neurologist and that I was scheduled for a MRI scan the following day. The MRI scan revealed something fishy which led to other tests like EEG and extensive blood tests. At the end of it all, I was relieved to hear that there was nothing serious about my recurring headache. It was just a tiny weeny tooth at the far end of my mouth that was trying to cave its way to the top which was the 'root' cause. But I tell ya, these private hospitals !! First they instill the fear in you by suggesting all these tests which are costly and then give you a clean chit. How can someone have a peace of mind when a senior doc gives a piece of his mind by mentioning brain scans etc. Anyway, it was good that I underwent all those tests. Put my restless mind at ease else I would have been battling nightmares all this while. Try searching for headaches,MRI on google and you will know why. Everyday I learnt about a new disease : brain aneurysm, migraine, brain hemorrhage, epilepsy, brain tumor. My inquisitive mind did its research before each of the tests and the possible results and it didn't help soothe my nerves a bit !! It's a bane to have all the information at your fingertips !!!
After sleeping in the claustrophobic MRI machine for a good 30 minutes and listening to all the queer sounds ( very much like tik-tak-tak-tik sounds you hear at a tap dance show ) that emanates from the machine during the scan, the lab technician poses a question
'Sir have you had any brain seizures in the past?'. That question was enough to make my hair stand.
I said 'No, have you noticed anything weird in the scan ?'
'I noticed something but I will let the doctor talk to you'
'Well is it serious? What was it?' I tried my best to get him to talk to me. Reminded me of a scene from 'Everybody loves Raymond' where Robert tries to do the same thing ( Tried googling for the link but was unsuccessful)
He says 'I think I will let the doctor talk to you'

That conversation was all that was needed to keep me awake for 2 more nights , anxiously waiting for the results of the scan. I googled and googled looking for all the possibilities. When the reports came, my curiosity overtook my sensibilities as I tried to decipher the medical report that the radiologist had prepared. It did sound Greek to me as it went something like 'T2 HYPERINTENSITY SEEN INVOLVING RIGHT MIDDLE FRONTAL GYRUS'. I took it to my neurologist who asked me 'Have you had an head injury in the past'. I mentioned about the accident couple of days back but then I did not hit my head anywhere. To rule our further complications, he asked me to undergo the EEG and the complete blood test. One more sleepless night and I continued my googling ( I did google for the above phrase). The EEG and blood tests results were absolutely normal and I was happy to hear that my brain was functioning normally !!

It pays to be patient, not do your own research and trust the doctors judgment in these situations. The anxiety that comes from knowing the various possibilities/diseases causes more harm than the actual condition you would be suffering from.

Walk when you Talk!!

2009-06-29T20:14:00.007-05:00

You know the feeling when the idea practiced and preached by you is finally given its due and is then conveyed to the larger audience. I am talking about the new Idea ad featuring the concept 'Walk when you talk'. Link

I have been a devout practitioner of this doctrine ever since I got myself the little toy called 'a cellphone'. I never sit and talk. I get fidgety. I always have to do the walking when talking else I just can't just speak into the phone. Its a weird habit but that's the way it is. Back in the days in Milwaukee when I was on the phone with friends/family for long hours, I used to do the 'Milwaukee downtown darsan'. I used to walk round Downtown, the art museum and the lake side while on the phone for 1-2 hours. Good enough to avoid jogging. When I wasn't doing the street walk I used to do the corridor walk in my house. I used to walk from one corner of the room to the other corner while talking. Sunday morning's were usually reserved for calls to my family and my roommate once remarked 'I wake up to PP's conversation in the morning which at first seems to come from a distance , slowly increasing in pitch, reaching a crescendo and then once again fading into oblivion.' That's when he knows I am on the phone. At times I used to wear track pants which made an awful noise when my legs crossed each other while walking. My flatmates got used to that sound after a while. They conspired to tie my legs and handcuff them so that I wouldn't walk when I got a call. I was restless. I just cannot imagine sitting or standing at one place and talking. If I do it, its out of compulsion, say when I am in the bus. Imagine my agony when I have to sit through a 2 hour tele conference at my desk with the handset glued to my ears. Its hard to resist the urge to stand up and start walking.

Now that I am committed and engaged (Yep!,that's another cataclysmic event since the last post:)), my 'kilometres/day' have increased dramatically. Living in a house on the top floor with the open roof as the balcony has its merits, notwithstanding the lovely weather in B'lore with windy nights. I get more space to walk and that adds to the kilometres covered. The security guards in the shops near my house are now used to a silhouette going back and forth on the terrace at odd hours. It helps them get some rest as nobody wants to rob a shop when there's movement nearby!!

The month of May has been significant especially the week after my birthday. At work, I finally get rewarded for all the efforts that I have been putting in. An award , a small monetary compensation and some goodies came along with the recognition. Then I committed hara-khiri by agreeing to be loyal to one person for the rest of my life. Since then I have been battling questions from friends and foes alike : Is it love or arranged ? , Where are you going for honeymoon ?, Are you moving to Pune or is she moving to B'lore? The repercussions of being in a relationship : I get warning calls from my cellphone service provider for hitting the maximum limit on my postpaid, my credit card company comes out with ways to help me pay my huge bill over time with some innovative EMI offers, an airline company has enrolled me as their member as they figured that I would be a frequent flyer on the Blore-Pune route. Please buy shares of the following companies : Airtel, ICICI, UB group. They are gonna hit record revenues this quarter!!!!. Tips from well wishers come thick and fast 'Man you need to get used to this, We are so happy to see you in this misery club' and so on..Hence my reference to the 'cataclysmic' event earlier:).Somebody please tell me something good about getting engaged. The good part though is I got engaged on 14th June while my b'day is on 14th May. So I won't forget the dates easily. One reason crossed out for any fights in the offing !!!

One other catastrophic event ( and I mean it in the literary sense ) in the history of television would be the staging of the 'reality' show 'Rakhi ka Swayamvar'. The show garnered the highest TRP's when it was launched. Not surprising, because there would be many like me who are anxious to know how stupid such a concept can be shown on TV. I did tune into the first episode and a couple of episodes later. Its amazing to see that there are dickheads around who crave for attention, ready to stoop to the lowest levels of ludicrousness, a lady who flutters her eyelids so rapidly that you begin to believe 'wish I had such a sharmili wife'. To aid the TRP's, I will continue to watch the show. After all , a dose of mindless nonsense is what someone needs after a tiring day!!!

Chapter # 30

2009-05-13T09:27:00.009-05:00

Yes I am a proud Tricenarian now. Proud? What can I substitute that with? When the whole wide bad world is conspiring against you and doesn't leave any stone unturned to make you realise that you have 'touched' the 'hussshhh-he's thirty' age, why should I not reveal it myself :) Its not that I am the only guy in my generation to have turned 30. More than three quarters of my friend circle will be knocking on the forbidden doors this year. Some already have but are hiding behind their falsified birth certificates. Some are leading their lives under the misguided notion that they are not going to hit 30 at any point in their life !!!

I was spared from ordeal of tasting out the ingredients of a chicken mughlai or a paneer butter masala dish this time around . It was a subdued welcome, the way I like it to be. Browsing for birthday quotes made me stumble on this piece of enlightening information : "The 30th birthday is special. You are now officially a mature and responsible adult who has the necessary wisdom to make important decisions in life. The 30th birthday heralds your adult status with measured indulgence." That is some wordly wise information.

Having crossed the dotted line comes with its own share of woes
- I cannot make it to the TOI's list of under-30 billionaires..
- or the list of under-30 entrepreneurs
- will be filtered out in those groom searches
- the list of 'should-not-be-done' things just keeps getting longer

I am not as freaked out as in this

I had started with French lessons a year back. Never bothered to complete it. Now I have joined Kannada classes in my organization. I hope to atleast understand it to an extent after the mandatory 15 classes unlike the French class which was self taught (courtesy Ms Elizabeth in the CD).

Staying true to the pattern I followed in my previous birthday posts (2008 and 2007), let me sign off with a few lines from the song 'Time' (Pink Floyd)

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

picking up the bits.

2009-05-05T21:53:00.001-05:00

Life's crawling back to normal. It is always a pain when you move to a place and you have to start things all over again. I envy my friends who have their families in B'lore. Though moving with my 'boriya bistar' is not something new, having gone through the cycle a lot in the past 10 years Balasore->Calicut->Blore->Pune->Blore->Columbus->Blore->Chennai->Blore->Milwaukee->Blore->Milwaukee->Blore. Been spending a lot ever since I landed. I don't want to be the cause of ICICI's increased revenues this quarter.

One thing I absolutely love to watch on TV, amidst the IPL and the General Elections, are the Vodafone ads. These guys come up with the most creative ads. It started with the pug being featured in their earlier ads and now they have this character named ZooZoos. The ads are witty, catchy and quite simple at that. No garish sets, no stars and its amazing that the characters are human beings in body outfits. The first impression one gets is that the characters are animated. These commercials bear the mark of great ingenuity. Almost every match of the IPL features a new ad and more than the match I am always curious to know what the next ad is. All the ads till date can be found on the Vodafone site. I have downloaded it onto my Ipod touch. :)

I have always liked the ads back home compared to the boring insensible ads in the United States. And the products themselves. The Indian consumer is often spoilt for choice. The other day I was hunting for a toothpaste at the neighborhood departmental store. Of the many varieties of brands on display, the Luscious Lychee Close up toothpaste caught my eye. I promptly picked it up (Lychee is one of my favorite fruits btw). I wasn't surprised to see ants make a beeline near my toiletries this morning. Whoever came up with the thought of fruit flavored toothpaste!! The good old white colored toothpaste is a thing of the past. I r'mber the dull orange colored toothpaste named Forhan's from my childhood days. I don't see them anymore though. The past few years have ushered in novel changes like the toothpaste with salt, toothpaste with tiny goofy particles floating in it, oxygen, iron and what not.

I will be hitting a significant milestone in a couple of weeks so I decided to gift myself a fancy bean bag!! I am an impulsive buyer and was actually scouting for a garden chair so that I could make full use of the large balcony in front of my house when this thing caught my eye. It was a costly one to buy from a showroom near the Forum mall but then heck, its a gift !!

Why put a price tag to it ?

Now this milestone also made me realize that I am not a 'bhaiya' to certain age groups any more. I am now an UNCLE !!! I was okay with the children in my extended family and the tiny tots in neighborhood calling me 'uncle' but when 16-18 year old's start calling you that, you know they have hit where it hurts most!! I was trying to strike up a 'youthful' conversation with my landlord's 18 year son when he remarked 'Uncle, I gotta leave'. How can I not give him some wordlywise advice since he had already accorded me an esteemed status. I said 'Beta, you should be concentrating on your studies, do well , be something in life and yada yada..'.

News about job losses and divorces abound in these times . A friend had a double whammy when the person lost the job and got divorced. I keep getting these shocking news every now and then. Its scary to even think about it.

the travel back..

2009-04-18T09:33:00.006-05:00

When you travel, you always expect wonderful things to happen which translates to 'Have a pleasant flight, chat up with beautiful people, be relaxed and stress free'.
Did I expect all this? No. Period.
The way things have shaped up this year, I thought I had been through enough but then there is no limit to the number of chillies you can put in a dish to make it 'hotter' and make some one's life miserable and so it was for me. When people fly back, they usually have a relaxed work week, take time off from work, complete the shopping, visit friends and places and be nostalgic about 'those' times.
Did I expect all this ? No. Period.

After the end of another hectic week, I just wanted to pack my bags and leave but work kept me glued to my laptop till the end which is when I excused myself 'I have an international flight to catch in 3 hours, I better get going'

6 pm : I reached Milwaukee airport only to find that the flight to Chicago had been delayed. After 1.5 hours, they canceled the flight and put me on a bus to Chicago. With 2 hours left for the Chicago-Blore flight, I had braced myself to take the flight the next day.

9.15 pm : The bus dropped me at the domestic terminal in Chicago. I requested the driver to drop me at the international terminal but all I got was ' We cannot go there'. With 30 mins to board the flight at Chicago, I did not have an option to argue. I rushed with my two 60 pounders along with my laptop bag and cabin baggage on a trolley to the airport transit which would have dropped me to the international terminal.

When I was about to enter the train I saw the sign ' No carts allowed on train'. Now I am wary of breaking a rule in United States. You don't want to do a stupid thing when you are about to leave the country. I hurried back to the airline counter.

En-route I met an Indian official at the airport. I explained my situation to him and asked for help as I had enough luggage to be dragging it myself. The thing with approaching certain Indians in foreign countries for help is that they give a shit about your troubles. They have this 'oh-look-at-the-Indian-approaching-me-and-I-will-act-aloof' look on their face. The response I got from that son of a gun was ' I can't help, nobody will help, you need to take the train to the international terminal and since they don't allow carts/trolleys on the train, you need to carry the luggage in and then take it out'. 'Thanks for the gracious help laced with preposterous advice'. How on earth can someone expect a man to drag all the luggage into the train in 15 secs(the time the doors remain open). Cursing him for not helping out a fellow Indian, I ran towards the airport transit

9.25 pm : I entered an elevator, the doors closed, I pressed the button which would take me to the station and I waited for an eternity. The elevator moved a bit and then stopped. I was stuck between two floors. The damn thing wouldn't move!!! I frantically pressed all the buttons but in vain. I kept pushing the 'alarm' button for a good ten minutes. That area isn't frequented especially after 9 pm. I gave up all hope and sat on the floor looking at my watch, the two hands ticking away. Nasty thoughts cross your mind when you are in that state. I was plotting my survival strategy in case there was no help till morning. I had a box of Godiva chocolates and other candies which was a comforting thought. It pays to take chocolates for your relatives/friends back home.

9.40 pm : After a good 15 minutes, the elevator moved. Help came in the form of a janitor who happened to be around. Thanking him profusely, I requested him to help me out with the baggage. There was another airport official standing there and he allowed me to take the cart into the train and accompanied me to the international terminal.

Reached the terminal, thanked both the gentlemen for helping me out.Rushed to the terminal when the lady behind the counter remarked 'No more check in's after this'. Tired and exhausted I waited at the terminal to get into the flight. My friends had heaped praises on this flight and the inflight services and of course the gorgeous air hostesses but..... did I say I was having a wonderful day so far?

The flight was one relic from the early annals of aviation history. It jumped and bumped, swerved and tilted mid air and all I could do was to sit tight and hope that the flight landed safely. The inflight entertainment system was a mess and have the ladies stopped joining the air hostess academy?

On reaching Blore, I was told that my baggage was misplaced and it would arrive the next day. I just wanted to reach home and crash and crash I did. I made up for all those sleepless nights in the past 6 months.

Life's back to where it was 16 months back.

change of seasons..

2009-03-09T04:17:00.000-05:00

The onset of the new year has brought in some sweeping changes in my life or rather the last few months of the year gone by and the new year have been a torture. While these may seem absolutely normal to some , it isn't for me at least. So thought of documenting this for posterity. Also I have come across a tag which had to do with describing queer things about yourself so writing it up in one lengthy post :)

- I realised that I have logged on to my office network everyday since November 1st 2008. Not just for the kicks but to do some WORK. Come what may, the weekends, the Thanksgiving holidays, Christmas breaks, I have been 'working' all along. 18-20 hours a week everyday for the past 3 months, barely managing 3-5 hours of sleep has wrecked my system. Contrary to the notion that only 'desis' go through this ordeal, my 'firang' counterparts have also been slogging it out. Our meetings usually begin with 'So how many hours did you manage to sleep yesterday ?'

I know that people go through this grind in a B-school, but then you get great results for the work that you put in. What do I get ? No monetary benefits. No recognition from your employer though they always have the cliched 'You have been doing a great job but there are others who have done a better job' !! I have never been able to figure out what 'others' do that I don't do. I don't know why am I putting in these many hours. Losing my sleep, my personal life. All for what? The only comforting factor is, at least my teammates and people with whom I work with, always have some encouraging words for me. Someone from one of the numerous teams I interact with, remarked the other day 'how do you motivate yourself to work this way'. I guess I have become too impassive to even think about motivating myself. Nothing less than a zombie...and the irony is, I used to strictly advocate the good 'work-life balance' concept.

- How often do you find people making fun of those who care to eat breakfast!! Yea right. Since my engineering days, I have seen my friends exclaim in wonderment 'see he eats breakfast !!! '. As if it was a cool thing to skip the most important meal of the day. I, for one, never missed eating breakfast when I had a chance. I used to help myself to a bowl of corn flakes, or a cereal bar or omelette or anything but I used to eat breakfast before I left for office. Ha..those days are well past. I have been skipping my breakfast for quite some time now. A normal thing for some but definitely a big change in my way of living !!!!!

- Off-late I have developed a liking for Double Fudge Brownie Ice cream. I don't usually have a craving for ice creams. I used to have it only when I accompanied friends, mostly at these two places ,Tom n Jerry Ice cream Parlor in Calicut and Corner House in Bangalore. Else I was content with eating the ice cream served with the buffet. But this particular ice cream is THE ice cream to have. A friend and his wife had brought this once and I have been in love with it ever since. Two scoops from a bucket and a couple of teaspoons of honey and you will see me licking away with childish abandon.

- When I came to the States, I used to hate the decaf coffee served here. Indian style coffee was all I wanted. Having been through the life cycle of the 'coffee process' right from plucking the coffee cherries to roasting it and grinding it , I have learnt to love/hate different types of coffee. Nah I am no expert in coffee tasting. But again, in line with the changes, I have started liking the 'American coffee' and it has become a ritual to grab one on my way to my cubicle. And no, it does not have to do anything with the girl behind the counter.

I am so looking forward to the break I am planning to have in a month, hopefully. I will be catching up on all the sleep. A week wouldn't be enough. Its 4.13 am on a Monday morning. So its a 2 hr sleep for today.

wherever I may roam

2009-01-15T15:01:00.004-06:00

Another year goes by. I usually adopt a quiet, sedate approach while welcoming the New year. In the past 5 years, I have either slept through the New Year's night a couple of times only to be woken up by frenzied calls and messages from relatives and friends, or watched the celebrations unwind on the telly. Yes it is boring but then on many occasions, I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. So this year when my pals asked me to accompany them to a discotheque, my instinctive reaction was a 'NO' (as always), but then eventually succumbed to the lure of actually partying on a New Year's eve after so many years !!!

So off we went , hoping to paint the town red in the sub zero temperatures. Walked around 8 blocks to a club. The ethereal lights and swaying figures behind the glass facades of the club convinced us that this was the 'place-to-be' on that night. After being stopped at the gates for not having bought the entry tickets in advance, we were asked to stand in the line and wait for our turn ,in short, we were left at the mercy of the bouncer/gatekeeper(whatever!) . We would have turned around had it not been for a bevy of gorgeous beauties who swarmed out from their limousines and cabs. The decision was unanimous. We had to get in somehow and have fun ( which in other words translates to 'get in, stand in a group and watch others dance' !!!). We were made to stand in the biting cold (-16 C) for 40 whole minutes, while some groups with ladies managed to get an entry and other men bribed their way in!!! My friend made remarks about how the person at the entrance was being a racist..n lo..that seemed to have worked as he had pity on us and let us in. After being in a near frozen state, it sure was comforting to be in. As the countdown started, people started hugging and kissing each other while we gulped down a drink and yelled 'Happy New Year'

Not one post goes without me referencing anything about the crisis. Not my fault. Every time I write, something new comes up. After the news about one country going bankrupt sometime back (yeah!!), a German millionaire committing suicide, comes another shocking revelation about one of India's leading software services provider. It's time some good news started to come in.

The one thing that will remain etched in my memory is the Metallica concert I attended couple of days back. After IronMaiden, this was one concert I was looking forward to and boy it was an amazing experience. Even after 30 odd years, the raw energy in their performances is something worth watching. The atmosphere in the arena more than compensated for the frigid sub zero temperatures outside as they dished out classics like 'Wherever I may roam','Enter Sandman', 'Nothing Else matters','Sad but true' etc alongwith songs from their new album 'Death Magnetic'. Now I can add Metallica to my impressive list of 'Concerts attended' which includes IronMaiden, Aerosmith, Nickelback, Rush, 3 Doors Down, Stone temple Pilots, Def Leppard :)

Talking about temperatures, the meter tanked 30 degrees below zero today!!! Its not cold its COLDDDDD. The coldest day in 13 years!!!I did a quick endurance test on my self by trying to venture outside, (was going across the street to another building) clad in a sweater and I couldn't bear the freezing temperatures for more than 20 secs. The walk to the office and back is a struggle against all odds.

winding up..

2008-12-26T09:28:00.014-06:00

Milwaukee's dreaded winter is back with vengeance. With heavy snowstorm which led to the closure of our office one fine Friday, followed by snow on subsequent days, this winter has been a disaster so far. God's way of adding more misery to the mess the world finds itself in. Until yesterday, when the rain gods decided to open the floodgates leading to the melting of snow, there were huge pileups , of upto 6 feet at some places on the pavements. The thing about icy promenades and snow laden walkways is that it shaves off a minute or two from my commute time to office. Every time I put my foot down, I slide forward by an inch or two. This being my fifth winter in US, I have learned the fine art of balancing myself during such skids.

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The custom here and everywhere on bday's is to dump the birthday cake on the 'victim' with the attendees doing the honors, expecting no retaliation. I attended a friend's bday which started with the customary 'cake-all-over-the-face' thingy but thereafter turned into a full fledged battle with cake, pepsi, curd, and hot water being hurled at the unsuspecting attendees by the 'victim'. At the end of the ordeal, it was anyone's guess as to whose b'day was being celebrated.

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A few months back I had written about the changing trends in the photographs of my orkut list of friends. The metamorphosis is conspicuous. From single shots to miya-biwi closeups and now a new wave : snaps of the pati and/or patni and their kid(s)!!! Reminds me that I am not getting any younger!!!

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The greed of money continues to lead the world towards it inevitable doom. In the wake of the sub prime mortgage crisis comes another scandal : the Madoff scandal. Considering that no human being is averse to the lure of money, how can you trust your investment adviser or agent who promises to give you the best return on your money. The credibility of the financial system itself is under severe threat.

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There's a quote : "We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies ". Its difficult to believe that two people madly in love can forget the sweet times they had and decide that they can't take each other anymore. The separation of two close friends and couple of other breakup's only lend credence to the above quote.

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Got a chance to watch the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". Contrary to what some learned men have written in their blogs, I loved the movie for its execution. True , the movie is riddled with cliches, but then which movie isn't. It's how you weave a story using those cliches is what counts and I felt that using the popular show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' as a backdrop to show the cliched scenes depicting India was creative. Contrived, but worth a watch.

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Working 16 hours a day and seven days has gotten into my head so much so that I blabber SQL statements in my sleep now a days. That was the observation of my roommate. See, my folks always told me that I mutter incomprehensible sentences in my sleep. I always thought that it was my subconscious at work, probably dishing out revolutionary ideas and theories. I gotta keep a voice recorder by my side.
With India too in the grip of unemployment, things have changed all of a sudden for the folks in the IT industry. The past few weeks have seen people go back to India for want of projects at onshore. The situation isn't exactly pleasant. Hope the new year infuses new energy into everyone's lives.

and the award goes to..

2008-10-31T19:08:00.024-05:00

Thank you! Oh! Thank you! I can hardly conjugate verbs! I feel so surgically enhanced! And this statue - it's so suspiciously phallic! Oh, thank you again! I just want everyone to bow down before me and accept that even in my wildest fits of self-loathing, I never would have fantasized that this could ever validate my mediocrity. And to the other suck-ass nominees, I want each of you to know how totally vindicated your crushing defeat makes me feel right now!

You know, there are so many blood-sucking two-faced harpies to thank! First off though, I want to thank the senile old bats of the Blogging world, who looked deep within their lint-encrusted navels before giving me this fantastic award! Also, I want to thank Zeus, for being such a powerful force in my kitchen. And to the hooker with the heart of gold, who taught me to take life by the balls. And finally, to all the illegitimate children I sired - I couldn't have done it without you!
Thank you Blogville!!

is NOT how I plan to deliver my acceptance speech for the award that has been graciously bestowed upon me by SuperNova. Thank you! It's not everyday that your work is deemed worthy enough of appreciation. Especially when it comes from someone who knows me only through my scribblings. I stumbled upon her blog during one of my routine blog hopping in this space. Her writings ranging from her rants about life to her philosophical musings and 'just-like-that' posts has made me a 'follower' of her blog. I am, what I term a 'blog-trotter' and I keep reading random blogs and then add them to my Google Reader if I find them interesting. So picking up seven people is something of an exercise for me. Hence this award goes out to everyone who finds me in their list of 'followers' on Blogger.

Blogville is a nice place to be in. You get to know what people think, their perceptions, people with whom you wouldn't normally get a chance to interact with. I read blogs written by wannabe writers, fashion designers, journalists, students, the young and the old. Some candid, some humorous, some thought provoking , some creative posts abound in Blogland. Not to mention the wealth of knowledge that comes with the posts. How else would you know how it is to live like in Australia, Germany or UAE. I never would have had an idea about the Bhojpuri film industry and its catchy numbers had I not stumbled upon a blog. The ignorant in me would have read the 'after effects of PMS' as something the Prime Minister's Secretary did, had I not been enlightened about its vagaries in a friend's blog. The sub prime crisis would have remained an amalgamation of jargons had it not been for a good Samaritan who explained that in layman's language. Agreed that you will get this information with a simple Google search but then who would think about doing the search unless you read about it somwhere. I have made friends in the blogging community and have had the opportunity to meet some of them. Reading blogs continues to be my favourite pastime.

Unrelated:Winter has set in Milwaukee and the landscape in and around Wisconsin was draped in fall colors. We had been to Door County couple of weeks back.

PS : The above speech is courtesy this site.

the pain lingers on...

2008-10-17T22:34:00.009-05:00

Its official. The crisis is clawing its way through people's lives affecting someone or the other in some way. Amidst all this news it wasn't surprising to read this article. The crisis has even affected the prospects of the breed that I am part of. This wasn't anticipated. I thought that all those grossly overpaid finance hunks would fall out of favor but computer professionals ??!! Yes it had to happen at some point but not at this time. Suddenly terms like IT revenue cuts, slowdown, faltering US economy, subprime mess are endearing to parents. Television and media, I tell ya, should be banned. I hate to show this article to my folks.

Just like the fancy securities, with worthless assets, were exposed in the recent turmoil , the myth and the aura surrounding the people in the computer industry has been busted or will be . Did I say aura? We were a hyped up species anyway. 'Ohh so you work in this company, you must be really happy' was what an Indian owner of Chicago-based e-commerce company commented when I bumped into him in the supermarket last week. I shrugged.'Yea, btw does it look like I am happy?' My friends from the non-IT-non engineering background used to comment 'you get to earn dollars, you get the beautiful girls'. Now I can see them sneer. So the tough times are here. Guys with no assets (read girlfriends), are doomed. Guys who have have lost their assets (again read girlfriends) will have an even harder time trying to regain the faith of the market. Guys who have held on to their assets (yea its the girlfriends again) will have to hold on to them precariously. Who knows when the value of the asset diminishes or the owner goes bust!!!

The other day I went to Peter, the barber, ( yea if John Mccain can have Joe, the plumber then so do I) for a haircut and some worldly wise gyan. I asked him about his investment strategy during these turbulent times.
He replied 'I am holding on to my cash'.

I said 'Isn't it a good time to buy the stocks since they are so cheap?'

We said 'No this is the beginning of the end, the crisis is going to worsen and the stocks will go down further. I will then gobble up my favorite stocks. I am saving every penny, you gotta save every nickel and dime that you have. Hold on to your cash and save. That will be 18$ for the haircut'

I gave him 20 $ and said 'keep the change'....

the morning 'sex'..

2008-09-27T00:27:00.013-05:00

Friday morning. I woke up to a bright day, but the thought of attending the 8 am meeting kept me under the sheets for some more time. Funny that I felt this way coz I usually reach office by 7.30-7.45 am. It wasn't the thought of going to office that made me cling on to the comforts of my bed but the meeting that was scheduled for 8 am. Being the only 'desi' to reach office at a time when most of my friends are busy climaxing their dreams, my 'angrez' colleagues take the liberty of scheduling meetings at such 'un indian ' hours. I never complained. But today's meeting was different. We had been struggling with an issue for quite some time and today was when we were supposed to get all our questions answered by the 'experts'.

I went into the meeting dreary eyed and dreamy but came out charged up and refreshed. Nah, we didn't bail out yet another bank by throwing down millions, nor did we strike a rich oilfield in Siberia. Here's what transpired.

The meeting was to discuss about how the data for a person can be managed. There are various attributes that make up a person : his name, address, social security number, occupation and gender(sex). We were debating on how people are grouped based on these attributes when I went to the board and drew some fancy diagrams explaining my point of view. I went back to my seat, hoping to catch some sleep, when this gorgeous lady (who was an ideal substitute for the santoor you-don't-look-like-a-mother-of-a-daughter ad) started explaining her scenarios thus :

'Two people can be linked if they have the same characteristics, like they have address, occupation or they have sex...'
My hair stood up..'Err what' (in my head) and from then on I heard only what my ears wanted me to hear.

'If I have sex (and name) , and the other person has sex (and name), then we can group them together......'
My eyes popped out.

'If (pointing to the board), he does not have sex , then he would have merged into .......(other sentences), then they both have sex and it will be a union....'
I gasped.

' If all three of us have(same) sex and yada yada.., and they live in the same house.....'

I kid you not...I got totally lost and the explanations thereafter did not quite make much sense as ..well....I am a perfectly normal human being though its quite early in the day to even harbor such thoughts.
After some more discussions, a finger pointed towards me ' What do you think of this?'

I, struggling to put my thoughts together, replied ' well...err...uhhhh....yea I ll do whatever she suggested'

I don't know about others in the room, but the frequency and manner in which the word was used in the sentences made a dent in this not-so-young impressionable mind.

Only the day before, we were having a conference call and a colleague remarked 'We want the SSN to be associated and we want SEX !!'.
Another colleague intervened 'Lets just use the word 'gender'.'

Right after the meeting, I was in the elevator and there were a couple of ladies talking 'God, It is so warm today, I feel so HOT'
Another lady quipped 'Even my daughter remarked on her way to her high school that she's feeling HOT !!

Common phrases probably but I can't stop using my creative license today!!

a puddle of ....

2008-09-21T07:50:00.010-05:00

The brouhaha in the financial world in the week gone by has been succinctly captured in this article. The marquee names in the financial industry : Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG caused flutters which left Wall Street choking followed by the rest of the world. The latter half of the week saw some tough regulations and measures( notably the takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by the US government) taken by the powers-that-be which restored normalcy in the markets. The magazines have been awash with articles describing the muddle these institutions have gotten themselves into, partly fueled by the subprime and credit crisis. A humorous explanation of subprime mess can be found here.

This has also triggered off discussions on how this affects B-Schools as these financial behemoths are the largest recruiters on campuses ( p'larly the IIM's). The general perception (from the couple of articles and blogs that I have read) is ' Well it had to happen and anyway a certain section of students were getting insanely bloated salaries compared to students from other streams such as HR, Marketing, so this is a great leveler' and 'This will shift the focus from pursuing an MBA just to get into an i-Bank '. The Indian B-School salaries have always stretched the upper threshold year on year. It will be interesting to look at the salary statistics this time around.

I was talking to a friend from IIMA and he jokingly remarked: ' What are you doing to the US economy sitting there..subprime..collapse of financial institutions?'
I snapped back 'Well its members of your breed, people from top schools around the world who have caused this rut'
He admitted ' I will not argue on that. Partially yes, a few greedy people are to blame'.

This was not a personal comment. Rather I just quoted what I read in one of the B-magazines a couple of weeks back. The article was about how people with a degree in finance from some of the top B-schools of the world are 'probably' responsible for the mess these financial institutions find themselves in. Well, can't blame anyone either. The lure of money is a good enough motivation to toss 'ethics' into the waste bin. Who can come up with a fancy name such as 'High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund' whose value reduced from $630 billion to almost nil !!!. A funny take in this video. There was another interesting article (I can't seem to find the link even after an extensive Google search) on what is common between the CEO's of these collapsed institutions : they hold a MBA from the best colleges in the world !!
No conclusions being drawn though.
PS : Another link

105 and going strong..

2008-09-02T21:36:00.012-05:00

Harley Davidson : the iconic brand that is synonymous with the thundering sound, the name that brings to mind the image of a stout biker, clad in leather jacket, with a girlfriend/wife/'the other woman' as the pillion . Milwaukee, the home of Harley, played host to the 105th celebration of Harley's existence last week. There were numerous events, rock concerts etc in Downtown Milwaukee as Harley revellers converged from all corners of the world. There were thousands of motorcycles lined up on the streets. Harley motorcycles are heavily customised which makes each motorcycle stand out from the rest. Some clicks taken during my evening stroll.

Watch more of the videos here.

I am not a motorcycle enthusiast. I have never owned a bike. My closest brush with a 'cycle' of any kind is perhaps the ubiquitous bicycle that I rode to school and the tuition classes back in those days. During my stint in Bangalore, I was happy being one of the sources of livelihood for the autowallahs. I was happy being the pillion rider. I could do with those additional 15-45 minutes of conversation in the autorickshaw whenever I accompanied a friend. So all that talk about my xyz CC pulsar and CBZ usually fell on deaf ears. I 'll probably never understand a bikers enthusiasm and the love for his machine.

I missed Bruce Springsteen's concert during the Harley fest, speaking of which, I am eagerly looking forward to the Metallica tour. They will be playing in Milwaukee in January. There's also a concert in November at a place 4 hours from Milwaukee. In all probability, I will be attending that. I am currently listening to the songs from their new album Death Magnetic. Vintage, thrashy Metallica stuff. Liked a couple of the songs, p'larly this one, though I would still like to hear something anthemic like a Fade to black or The memory remains. The past couple of months have seen me drag myself to a couple of concerts : Stone Temple Pilots, John Mayer, 3 doors down and Bryan Adams and I have enjoyed each one.

I have noticed a new trend (or may be I was unaware) of guys going for higher studies after marriage. Not one or two but close to five from my circle of friends are pursuing their MBA post marriage !!! Marriage is probably the trigger, so I will wait..:)

I have been using Google's browser Chrome since it's launch this week. Not very impressed as I heavily use the add ons in Firefox. But yea its simple and elegant and pretty fast too. Hopefully they'll add stuff to it.

bytes from the books...

2008-08-23T02:34:00.014-05:00

Picking up one tag which I liked from here. I have been maintaining a leeetle collection of quotes on a notepad for quite sometime now. I usually put these lines as my status message on Gtalk every day.

Here's some from my stable...

Jot down 5 of your favorite quotes from the various books you’ve read. If you don’t have the books with you now, googling (Wikiquotes and the like) can be used to find them. Tag five people and acknowledge the person who tagged you.
(Well I have gone beyond the five quote thingy...I picked up a couple of lines from the books that I have read and quotes I faintly remember, completed of course with the help of google.)

Shantaram:
- If fate doesn't make you laugh, then you just don't get the joke..
- Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears
- Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting.
- Truth is a bully that we all pretend to like

A Thousand Splendid Suns:
- One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls

- Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman

Kiterunner:
- There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft....When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

- That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.

Blink:
- It is quite possible for people who have never met us and who have spent only twenty minutes thinking about us to come to a better understanding of who we are than people who have known us for years.

- We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.

Julius Caesar:
- Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings
( I remembered this from school)

Catch 22:
- But they don't say you have to go home. And regulations do say you have to obey every order. That's the catch. Even if the colonel were disobeying a Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, you'd still have to fly them, or you'd be guilty of disobeying an order of his. And then the Twenty-seventh Air Force Headquarters would really jump on you.

Calvin:
- As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway.

- They say winning isn't everything, and I've decided to take their word for it

- As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You've taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations

Tagging the following : Avinash, Tia, Saphire,Yuvika,Avenger, Vidya
and goes without saying that others are welcome to pick it up..

monday jitters..

2008-08-11T22:41:00.011-05:00

I took a day off from work today. Yea a holiday on a Monday. The best way to start the week and to beat the Monday morning jitters. It wasn't a vacation per se as I had to take an exam in the afternoon but then the exam wasn't big of a deal and I was looking forward to a refreshing and mundane day ahead, devoid of any 'interesting' incidents.

I had to drive around 30 minutes to get to my center for my test at 2pm. I started at 12, with directions written on a piece of paper, hoping to reach the center comfortably. Little did I know, that I was about to set the tone for the day.

- I hit the freeway, took the exit and took a right turn onto a road, where I was not supposed to. I made a Uturn and missed taking another right which would have put me on the right course and hence I went straight ahead on Bluemound Rd hoping to make another Uturn. I made the Uturn only to find the road blocked on one side. I pulled up near an office and called up a friend who asked me to go West on that road and take a right after 2 miles. It was 12.45 pm. I looked up at the sun for directions. I decided to use my better judgment and went along the same road. After two miles and a few rights and lefts, I landed up somewhere near the country side. Convinced that I was in the wrong place, I came back on to Bluemound Rd and proceeded in the opposite direction. The road was blocked and there were detour signs all around. I followed them and landed somewhere. Called up my friend once again to ask for directions. He finally put me on the right track and asked me to follow a p'lar road and take a right at some other road. Convinced that I wouldn't do any wrong this time, I continued along and ended up in a cul de sac. I remembered that I was asked to take a right somewhere but the streets in those parts don't even have a name on them!!! I drove on to one highway and called up my friend once again. As luck would have it I was just minutes away from my destination. I reached the centre 10 mins before the scheduled time. Had I glanced at the map[pic attached, blue being the actual path to Point B and red being the path I took:-) ] before I drove, I would have had some idea of the streets in that area. But I was driving like a ship lost in the stormy seas. The drive back was smooth except for one more missed exit. The story doesn't end here though.

- Later in the evening I drove to the library. I have been to the library drop box many a time and I shouldn't have missed that street. But then when things start going wrong, the ripples last throughout the day. I missed the street not once but twice and went round and round. Wish it could end here.

- I took a friend to a familiar shopping mall. I was on the freeway engaged in an argument over 'why an IIM guy would get a role that is usually handled by people with 8-10 years of work experience(non mba)'. Thirty minutes hence and my friend goes 'Aren't we supposed to be in the mall by now and why are we going to Chicago?'. Damn !!! I missed the diversion on the freeway which would have led me to the mall. I took an exit near, what looked like a nice little farm and came back on to the freeway and headed back. I took the diversion that I had missed earlier and I was supposed to take the exit towards the mall when I was about to miss it again (rmber ripple effect). I managed to get on to the exit by changing lanes at the last minute. Well, the day is not over yet.

- I was driving back home from the mall. The exit that I had to take to Downtown was something I could take even with my eyes blindfolded. I have been through that a gzillion times. But then in the now-all-too familiar saga of missing exits, I ended up missing this one too. I was undone by the road construction on that stretch , which was completed a couple of days back hence the roads looked different. I proceeded to explain to my friend that I was looking for an exit with a tunnel and I wanted to drive through that. She accepted my explanation. When you are having a bad day behind the wheels, it helps to have someone, who is not much familiar with the area, sit beside you in the car. Else I would have been subject to shouts and screams from my other friends.

I am glad that I was able to find the way to the gas station and back to the rental office after that. No missing adventures this time around. It was clearly not my day. The worst since I started driving. And yea I forgot to mention the 'three honks' that I got between all these, the first time someone honked at me in my illustrious driving career :-)

one such Friday..

2008-08-02T00:38:00.007-05:00

This is one of those rare Friday nights when everything feels topsy turvy. Why else would I bathe in my loneliness, sipping what seemed like my fifth glass of a heady concoction of molasses, yeast, and orange juice, breaking my head over what looks like a 'data flow diagram', reviewing software design documents while the soothing and mellifluous tracks of Pink Floyd play on in the back ground, shuffling between reading pages of 'The color purple' and 'Shantaram', watching a stand up comedy show on Netflix, and running off to the kitchen in between to make some egg fried rice for my parched stomach at 1.15 AM. Neither was I working, nor was I drinking, cooking or reading as I would have liked to. One of those confused nights when I did a bit of everything but accomplished nothing. One of those those evenings/nights when I needed someone to talk to but found no one. Couple of friends went out to play pool, some went to the nearby Water street , some for shopping and a lakeside walk. When even my 'friends' on gtalk were busy with their work/party or gf's/bf's/wives/husbands or weren't simply interested. One of those nights when I got bored of my own solitude and the things that keep me going. One of those nights when even my sleep angels abandoned me.

the victim of a 'tag'

2008-07-25T20:51:00.011-05:00

picking up the tag by sapphire. My second one after the first one here. I have changed the format slightly since I realized that I cannot do due justice and complete certain sections. To think of eight things is an exercise in introspection for me. And anyways I have a history of not doing the 'tags' the way it is supposed to be done!!

Things I'm passionate about :
- books, music and the internet : a cliche' perhaps, but they do keep me going. One of the reasons I can survive even if I don't have a soul to talk to and another reason to excuse myself from social gatherings and drinking sessions. Ohh BTW, I don't write books and I don't play music :-)

- food : my lean frame wouldn't exactly convey the message that I like eating to the point of being called a glutton by my buddies. But I love food and will not miss a chance to try out new cuisines. Though a friend has commented that my appetite is less than what a normal guy should have!!!

- stock market : my liking for stock markets is as cyclical as the behavior of the stock market itself !! I can invest hours and hours of my time(and money) during a particular phase and also completely ignore it for a while.

Things I want to do before I die:
- Play the electric guitar!!. I want to do a-la Slash in this video, strumming away to glory in that setting. I want to do a 'fade to black' (Link). I am not interested in knowing the ABC's of guitar. I don't want to distinguish a A minor from the D major (if there is one). Someone teach me how to play my favorite songs and that should be it. I am a sucker for musical talent and I admire people who can play the musical instruments with ease.

- Be able to speak French. No, it has nothing to do with the French Kiss, or the French toast, the French beard, the French wine or the French girls. Ever since I was introduced to French by my Moral Science teacher at the tender age of 8, I am in awe of that language. Though I was not able to take up the lessons later, I want to do it someday. I had initiated the process a couple of months back going for a 6 week course but its been 16 weeks and I am yet to go beyond the third week!!!

- Travel to all those dreamy destinations, europe, egypt, puerto rico, hawai.

- Burn the personal diaries. I don't want a scandal post life:-)

- Get married. Did I just state the obvious? or did I write something which is the most matter-of-fact thing in this world.

Things I say often:
- Ohh accha
- Aisa kya
- Haan kya
- Nahi nahi aana ( which I use quite often now a days whenever I am invited to an evening session of spirits )
- Thank you, Excuse me. I know it's a matter of courtesy to say that but hell ,I do say that often.

Books I read last:
- The Color Purple(Alice Walker)
- Shantaram(GD ROberts)
- Games Indians Play(V Raghunathan)
- Kite runner & Thousand Splendid suns ( K Hosseini)
- One (R Bach)
- Snapshots from Hell(P Robinson)
- Blink( M Gladwell)
- The curious incident of a dog at night time(M Haddon)

Songs I could listen to over and over again(click the song for the youtube link):
This changes every six months. As of now, I am hooked to the following
- Outside by Staind (Link)
- Lips of an Angel by Hinder (Link)
- Here by me by 3 Doors down (Link)
- Lady Picture Show by Stone Temple Pilots (Link)
- Alvida :Life in a metro (Link)
- Kuch is tarah by Atif Aslam (Link)

I have a list of 50 odd favorites I could listen to any time of the day or night.

I hereby complete the tag. Phew!! That was quite an exercise.
As is my habit, feel free to pick up the tag :-)

it's a surpriseeee!!

2008-07-23T21:05:00.007-05:00

Surprises, when pleasant, always add a touch of anticipation to our humdrum existence. A surprise visit from your dear ones or a bit of surprise news when you least expect it. A couple of days back , we had a good time capturing the expressions of one of our friends who got a 'surprise visit' from his wife who flew all the way from Finland. The normally garrulous guy who keeps himself and others around him in good humor was caught gaping with his mouth wide open as he tried to come to terms with the fact that his wife was indeed standing right in front of him. A full three minutes of silence ensued, interspersed with a bewildered question 'koi batayega yeh kya ho raha hai'. We had a hearty laugh at his expense.

A couple of years back, I managed to surprise my family by giving them an 'unannounced' visit after a year. The look on their face when they saw me standing outside the house on an usual Sunday morning: priceless!! Many of my friends have similar tales to share. I had planned out and 'almost' orchestrated a visit to surprise a friend last year. I am glad I didn't pull it off !!! Its nice to receive a surprise visit from your loved ones, only if you are not caught with your pants down..well not literally..!!!

The blue rush

2008-06-29T16:43:00.017-05:00

RUSH : Attended their concert last week, as part of the Summerfest in Milwaukee. As is with any rock concert, the experience was exhilarating. There's always a thing about attending a live rock concert. So I will add one more band to my roster of live concerts which includes Nickelback, Ironmaiden, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, and Hoobastank. In the next two weeks, I will be going to a Stone Temple Pilots gig (again as part of Summerfest) and a 3 Doors Down show. In all probablity I will be attending the 'mother of all concerts' : a chance to see Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne live in August in Dallas,Tx as part of Ozzfest.

BLUE : The other day my colleague commented 'Is blue your favorite color?' I said 'No, it isn't, why do you ask?'. 'Well I have always seen you wear blue on three days out of five'. I said 'I donno, I never consciously pick up blue shades'. I came back and looked into my closet and hell yea, I had so many shirts/tees in different shades of blue!!! Suddenly I began noticing things. The things which seemed blue.
The comforter set over my bed is blue in color, my blanket and the bedsheet is blue. My optical mouse has patches of blue in it and my mousepad is blue! Blue also lends its color to the pen on my table, the pencil sharpener and my 256mb flash drive. My laptop static duster is also colored blue. I amble in to the bathroom and find the blue shower curtain, the blue bath towel and my toothpaste which is, as you guessed it, blue!! Not to mention the sky which looks blue and the view of beautiful lake Michigan from my apartment which has chose to drape itself in blue. Either the color blue has suddenly become ubiquitous or my perspective of colors has changed. The next day when the same colleague caught me wearing another blue shirt, ' there you go, the blue guy', I took pains to explain the significance of this color and how it blends with my personality!!! I assured her that I will be wearing a bright red or a fluorescent green shirt someday. I know for one thing that blue was never my favorite color but since my subconscious has decided otherwise, I think I can officially declare blue as my favorite color!!
My subconscious has been playing some nasty tricks off late. The conversion ratio of my thoughts that I anticipate/want to happen to the actual thing happening has alarmingly increased. Scares me at times.

how the eating goes..

2008-04-20T23:07:00.010-05:00

Some people live to eat, some eat to live. Some love to eat certain things, some love to eat anything that is supposed to be eaten. Some don't like to get their hands dirty in the kitchen, some ,well, don't mind trying out new things in there.

I love food, I love eating it and I don't mind cooking it either.

Taking a step back to my school days, I was very fussy about food. I didn't eat much. I was a skeleton in motion. I tried hard to gain weight without taking recourse to the obvious way of doing it : eating healthy food. The umpteen Dabur Chyavanaprash bottles (they still adorn the kitchen shelves), the numerous Seven Seas cod liver oil bottles and ayurvedic 'kashayams' stand testimony to my efforts to tune my body for adding an extra pound or two. I would eat an omelet but not a boiled egg. I had a strong dislike for bhindi, brinjal, drumsticks, green leaf vegetables and bitter gourd. Never ate fish. A mallu (and that too living on the orissa-bengal border), who doesn't like his kappa-meen curry(tapioca-fish) is as rare to find as a person not having had sex by the time he/she is 23 in the 'open cultures' that some countries follow. Even 'ghar ka khana' wouldn't add the additional flesh that I so desperately wanted in those times.

But then you realize the importance of something only when you are deprived of it. Just like you start to miss someone when there's 11.5 hours of separation, just like you realize how important it is to be close to your near and dear ones when you are 7000 miles away. I yearned to eat good food during my engineering days. The hostel food was terrible. I started realizing and missing the food back home and all the good things that I adamantly avoided. And thus I changed!

I eat anything and everything now. Well almost. Just don't tell me what it is. As long as it is yummy, I will devour it with pleasure. Even if it turns out to be an exotic snake from China or some god forsaken root from Africa. My friend here, a Brahmin, eats boneless chicken dishes. His expression changes only when he is told that it is chicken and not paneer!! Well that brings me to another point. Why do we have restrictions on eating? Why is eating pork and beef different than eating chicken ? Why attach religious feelings to food!! The caveman didn't certainly think about offending God when he hunted for food. Excuse me, did this vegetable grow on the soil or under it ? Does this flesh belong to a hog or a goat ? Citing health and hygiene reasons is understandable but religion..duh!!! I live by the statement 'eat what you feel like eating and don't cringe when you see other's eating what they like to eat.' With due respect to people whose eating habits are dictated by religious ideals, I don't quite subscribe to it, so spare me the preaching. The likes of 'mad cows' and 'avian flu's can happen to any eatable stuff, be it meat or vegetable.

Off late we have been trying out different cuisines in Milwaukee and there is always something unique about each one. We went to a Mongolian joint , where you are supposed to hand pick your vegetables, meat, spices etc and hand it over to the team of chefs who cook it over a large round hot plate singing all along. The Japanese restaurant had a chef coming to our table and doing all kinds of jugglery with the knives. Tasted the usual sushi, hibachi dish and the Japanese rice wine 'Sake'. The Ethiopian one had a different concept. You just had one big metal pan, placed on a woven basket, where they put the food and you were supposed to share this plate with your friends and eat it with your hands. This is served with Injera (seemed like dosa to me). The food is kindda Indian, though it could have been spicier. Tasted the Ethiopian honey wine 'Tej'. The Arabian restaurant had the usual hummus, succulent kebabs and falafel accompanied by flavored hookahs and a belly dancer!! We have tried out the usual Italian, Mexican and Greek fare too. There is always something good about each of these.

I love to try out different things in the kitchen. Neither am I passionate about cooking per se , nor am I looking forward to hone my culinary skills. I dislike frozen food and the usual daal chawal, so given the time and opportunity, I don't mind experimenting with whatever is present in our kitchen. And at times, the result is beyond my expectations.

Thats about it.

Crossroads

2008-04-05T00:40:00.011-05:00

Crossroads, you see them all the time. I see them all the time. The streets in my neighborhood are all designed as sets of parallel lines crisscrossing each other perpendicularly!! Back in the times when I was put up in another apartment, the walk to my office was a good mental exercise in determining the least number of blocks you could cover to reach my office. Imagine yourself standing on one corner of a grid and you need to reach the diagonally opposite end. There are umpteen 'shortest' paths available. You can try out different paths each day. You can stop and look on both sides of the roads for impediments as you march down to your destination. You can retrace your steps. Isn't much of a dilemma when you are at crossroads or is it?

How I wish I could use this as a metaphor for life. When life puts you at crossroads, why is there no turning back ? I know my destination, I can see all my three options distinctly. I just am not able to figure out the precedence and the paths to be taken. I know, eventually, I will have to tread down each of these paths but how to pick one path over the other at this juncture is turning out to be one hell of an exercise, an exercise in futility, perhaps. But at times, going along the road not taken is not exactly a good idea.

I had an interesting conversation with a couple of close friends when I visited them last week. We dissected our life and others and had an insightful discussion on where we stand today and where we are headed to. There are friends who have made the right decisions at the right time. What was I thinking then?

When you take decisions , you gotta stick by it, even the mundane ones. I start off with a whole lot of things but I do not pursue it passionately.
Started with the gym. I was regular. And now I visit it, well, once in a blue moon, and , even the sighting of the blue moon is far and between. Result : a conspicuous paunch and to remind me of the extra baggage that I carry, I got myself a skin fit A&F tee. I hope the mirror on the wall would tell me something if I ask THE question everyday!

Started fiddling with the synthesizer keys. Copied the finger movements by looking at the videos in Youtube (copy and paste is our bread and butter) and was able to play some part of what seemed like 'nothing else matters','right here waiting' and 'my heart will go on'. Then my heart stopped and refused to go on. And now I don't like to touch it as it is covered with dust.

Started learning French. It was supposed to be a 4-day-6 week crash course in 'communicable' French. Two weeks hence, and I am still stuck with Day 1 Week 1. Yea C'est moi.

I draw a blank when confronted with the question 'What have you done in life?'. And reading through the B-school essay topics hasn't helped my cause either. Quoting the movie 21, 'what is that one life experience that would make you dazzle from the rest'. I am yet to have one. I believe that all it takes is to sit down, chalk out your plan, choose the path you wanna take, make decisions and follow it religiously.

Did I say I need to choose a path??

touch wood!!

2008-03-21T21:27:00.007-05:00

as per the dictionary
touch·wood (tuc̸h′wo̵od′), noun : dried, decayed wood or dried fungus used as tinder

as per wikipedia
touch wood : The expression is usually used in the hope that a good thing will continue to occur after it has been acknowledged.

For this post, lets take the second definition. This word is something we use in our daily lives, mostly by the opposite sex. Though I have come across guys who use this as well. When, why and how do we use this? Well say, a girl exclaims " My boyfriend got me a diamond ring " and follows it up with a "touch wood" after frantically searching for a piece of wood. That means, 'hope my guy continues to bring me good gifts and good sense does not prevail upon him' or say "I had no problems with my car today, touch wood" This is to say that "hope my car doesn't breakdown when I drive out next". I am not sure if 'touching the wood' shoos away the evil forces and prevents the said event from happening, but its a custom and a reflex action nevertheless.

The reason for this enlightenment is that when I wrote my last post, I, obviously, did not do a 'touch wood' after writing it. The snowstorm had come and gone. Life was good. Sunny days were back again.Trees, that had shed leaves in winter, started getting dressed in foliage and girls, who were over dressed, started shedding clothes. The snow had melted. Milwaukee was slowly and steadily putting up its green veil. Began dreaming of lakeside walks, tennis and the reduced burden on our bodies. But No !!. Nature had diabolical designs. A huge snowstorm hit the peace loving folks of Milwaukee today which again led to our office being declared closed at the stroke of twelve. There's nothing much you can do in these times. We came back, cooked lunch and to laze away, started making paper boats and rockets and throwing them around.

Milwaukee has been getting a sizable amount of snow this year.Wonder why they don't clear the snow, melt it and use the water somewhere, may be dump it back to the nearby Lake Michigan. Instead they just clear the roads and shove the snow onto the pavements, building mountains.

Will have to grapple with the snow covered walkways and slushy roads for the next couple of weeks. Wish I had taken the trouble of lifting my lazy bum and actually touching our wooden kitchen cabinet. Could have been a savior. Well the landscape looks beautiful now, hope it continues snowing. And I am still lazy!!.

what a wonderful world?

2008-03-08T18:55:00.022-06:00

Louis Armstrong must have been in a cheerful mood when he wrote these lines
"I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world."

Adding my own lines " I see mountains of snow , sheets of ice
Cold wintry days which don't seem so nice
And I think to myself ...what a wretched world .."

My love-hate relationship with winter continues. I have ranted about the winter and its memories. This time around I seem to have landed at the most inopportune moment in Milwaukee. Faced with the worst winter in years, the weather gods seemed unrelenting. We had one hell of a snowstorm a couple of weeks back. The funny part about the snowstorm was that for once, the weatherman's prediction came true, but the actual snowfall happened a good 12 hours after the 'predicted start time'. There is a joke doing the rounds here 'the only person who cannot be sued for telling lies is the weather man'. The snow storm leading to 10-14 inches of snow was expected to start in the evening at around 8 pm. That didn't happen. The weather websites(yea!) kept delaying the inevitable by an hour till 7 am in the morning. My friend's desperation was apparent when he stood by window looking at the clear starry sky hoping for the night air to turn into flakes. His prayers went unanswered. The snowfall, finally, started at around 8 am and continued through out the day,enough for the office to be closed mid day, and enshrouding the entire city in a way I have never seen in the past few years. Life went on. There were a couple of forecasts for dangerous snow storms in the weeks that followed, but thankfully this time, none of the forecasts came true. The temperatures, though, remained sub zero for most of Feb. The sunny days are back now. Saves me the trouble of going through the ordeal of trying to evade the first few icy drops when I step into the shower in the morning and trying my best not to display my 'moon walking' skills on ice when I walk to the office everyday. But in this part of the world, it doesn't take long for the temperatures to drop from +10 to -20 C . Its a strange world!

Dear Chidu comes up with a populist budget. Not enough juice to revive the already battered markets and soothe the industry at large. Stocks tank. US recession adds misery to the ever widening wound for traders like us. My friends and country men reading this blog, please be profligate. Spend , Shop , don't you need new clothes? . Buy a car, a couple of cars in fact. Aren't cars comfortable? Build houses, buy land. Isn't real estate enticing? Fly, use oil and power, use a couple of cell phone connections, take a loan, live in a hotel, consume sugar!! Do anything you can to increase the revenues and keep the economy booming. Then it will be a blissful world.

One fine day I logged in to my orkut account and saw a bunch of 'updates' from my friends. Incidentally most of the updates were regarding the uploading of new photographs in their respective albums and coincidentally , all of them were marriage or related snaps. Obviously you are all excited about your first marriage and understandably, you want the world to know, hence you upload your engagement, marriage and honeymoon snaps (not in any p'lar order). Makes perfect sense. You upload a snap with your hubby dear or darling wife in your profile snap. Sounds fine. What I don't subscribe to is this idea of clicking your 'picture perfect wife' against a backdrop of a tree, ocean, park or a sofa in traditional and modern costumes and putting it in your album. These guys never let us talk to their girlfriends or allow us to put their gal's photographs on our desktops, then why this sudden obsession of flaunting of your 'prized catch' after marriage ? Its more like 'I got this, what have you got' ??Most of the comments that are made when you go through these snaps are ' yaar xyz ki biwi to badi pyaari/sundar/acchi hai' (yea we do say that at times!). Once, we were looking at some of the snaps with my friend and remarked like 'yeh to maal hai' , ' is ko yeh kaise mili' and the likes. A few days later, after he got engaged, he showed me his fiancee's snaps and wanted my opinion. I gave him a wry smile. Some things are best left unsaid. No offense to my dear friends who show their beautiful wives around, but lets put some sense into it in this otherwise insane world!!

Since we are talking about marriages, there's another thing that has been doing the rounds of this world : Personalized websites related to marriage. I mentioned about my once-upon-a-time passion of collecting invitation cards and the creativity on display. But this web based stuff is a leap forward. I have come across some innovative, witty, touching websites hosted by friends and acquaintances. They mostly have brief descriptions about the bride and the groom, how they met, the rituals, the all important dates, the invitations, photographs, poems etc. Commendable. It is indeed a creative world!

This is something that I am terrible at. I can't talk just for the sake of talking, make jokes and pick on people just for the sake of being the 'funny one'. Some people have this uncanny ability of livening up a party with their stale jokes and insipid blabber.Not me. Alright I am the boring types. Do I have a place in this merciless world?

One of the most venerated banks, Bear Stearns is being acquired by JP Morgan Chase for a measly $2/share. The bank nosedived from $60 to $5 in a day!! Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo caused flutters. Reliance Power's IPO disappoints. Well all that glitters in this muddle is just GOLD. Some things do shine in this volatile world.

The colors of a rainbow,so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands sayin ' how do you do'
They're really sayin...i love you..

Now did I tell you...it is a wonderful world :-)

packers Vs giants/ bulls Vs bears

2008-01-19T22:18:00.000-06:00

Ohh no don't get me wrong, I am not putting my money into animal fights. The title pretty much sums up the highlights for the week gone by :

There are a couple of places you wanna be if you watch cricket/soccer or football : in India for a WC Cricket final with India playing Pakistan and in Europe for a World Cup or a Euro cup. I was fortunate to be be part of the celebrations in India when India won against Pakistan in the 20-20 final. The enthusiasm,fervor and expectations of thousands that you see here is unmatched. More so if you are in the United States and a follower of the NBA, MLB or the NFL because these leagues are comprised of teams from various states and cities. People are die hard supporters of their respective home teams. Pretty much like the state teams in our Ranji trophy and Santosh trophy but we don't follow our national leagues passionately except maybe for the likes of IPL, ICL etc. Do you think the streets of Delhi would be deserted if there was a Delhi Vs Karnataka Ranji final going on in Delhi ? I bet you can count the spectators in the stadium. I was kindda lucky to witness the NFC final involving the home team : The Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin.

I have never been a fan of American football and I never followed the NFL during my previous stint in the United States. My only association with the game was to open the nfl website on my way to the office, memorize the scores for the previous days games , especially if it was a Packers game, so that I can nod (in agreement of course!!) my head when my American colleagues talk about quarterbacks, touch downs and field goals. I never quite liked the sight of twenty odd 300 pounders ram into each other for no apparent reason. I say this, coz you will see the ball in play on the right side of the field while two giants would be wrestling on the left side. I did not understand why an hours game( four quarters fifteen minutes each) would last for well over three hours. I did not understand why the guy holding the ball does not pass it to his teammates and instead run with it, often crashing into the opposition players. I did not like the fact that the play was stopped every 30 seconds, mostly, unlike in soccer where the game is free flowing. I was naive. Well an American watching cricket would think 'Why are 15 people on the field when all you can see is 3 or 4 in motion at any given time and Why the hell are they playing for 5 days!!'

But this time around, when I came to Milwaukee, 'mahaul kuch alag tha ( the environment was different). My friends here were discussing American football like we would discuss cricket in the times gone by. The Green Bay Packers were in the reckoning after 10 long years. They were in the NFC finals. playing the New York Giants and, a game away from the Superbowl. The atmosphere was abuzz with excitement, everyone was talking about the final. We even had a Packer day in my office. Its hard not to get involved in such surroundings. So before the big final I browsed through the sites learning the rules and nuances of this highly physical game. I should admit, I found the game very interesting. Armed with a days worth of knowledge, I went to a nearby club to get the feel of the game with the local crowd. The atmosphere was electric with the game being shown on six large TV screens. Every tackle,miss, and a yard run was met with huge applause amidst chants of 'Go Packers Go' and beer bottles held high. The clubs, bars and pubs in town would have made a fortune in those three hours. My first NFL game and it was as exciting as it would get. The game went down to the wire as the scores were level after the regular playing time. It went to extra time and the Packers lost. How I wished the Packers had won. It would have been great watching the Super Bowl in Milwaukee with the Packers playing in the game.

The other vehement fight between the bulls and the bears continued unabated on the streets of Mumbai. A 800 point slump on Friday was followed by a 1200 point,800 point and 300 point plunge on the first three trading days of the week. The markets recovered with a 800 and 1000 points rise on the last two days. Where in the world would you see this volatility ? A 50 point rise or a 100 point fall seems to be a thing of the past. The crash wasn't surprising though. It was just a matter of time ever since the Sensex touched 21000. There are countless sites devoted to explaining the week that was, hence won't delve into it further. However as it is with every market crash, there are lessons to be learned. My lessons :
- Every market undergoes a cyclical phase. A steep rise would always precede a sharp dive.
- Pick out any large cap BSE-30 stock and you would always always have an opportunity to get into it at an attractive price. Patience is the key. Never sell at a loss.
- Curb your greed. If you are a medium term trader, sell the stocks if its giving you 50 % + return
- Always have cash in handy.

a busy start

2008-01-11T19:45:00.000-06:00

My orkut fortune reads "You are going to have a very comfortable old age". Haah!!. That's a comforting thought. Rest assured that I don't have to start planning for my retirement days, I will start writing my first post of this year. The last few days and the first few days have been ..well..busy. If the proceedings at the start of a new year are an indication of things to come then I am in for a torrid time in 2008.

The trip to Orissa was followed by a four day trip to Kerala for a cousin's marriage. My second trip this year after the one in April. The ride to the enchanting lands wasn't a smooth one. I don't know why I keep ending up with the most crappy Kerala bound buses from B'lore. The journey to my place which usually takes around 12-14 hours took an agonising 18 hours. It was some kindda 'pick up' bus as it halted en route to load vegetables, fruits and other produces from various towns. Then had to deal with a permit problem at the TN-Kerala border for an hour and a half. The ride back to B'lore wasn't pleasant either. I had a good time in Kerala though. Met my long lost cousins, some after 8-10 years !!.

Fielded the usual questions ..mon shinichu ( son, you look weak) ..evidea joli ( where do you work) etc etc.. The thing about attending a marriage is that you come across many people in your near and extended families. Now I have a very very bad memory for names and their corresponding faces. At any point in time I can remember either the name or the face of the person I have met, say, 4-12 months back. In these circumstances, if someone walks up to me and remarks ' mone manasilayo' ( dear son, do you recognise me ?), I am left looking like a complete jack ass. A question, to which there is no definite answer (atleast for me), a question tougher than the ones in CAT, GATE or GMAT I have taken. I can't say No, coz that would be perceived as an insult. I can't say Yes either as one lie would lead to another and eventually the person would realise that I don't have an iota of knowledge about him. When confronted with this question, my eyes scan the surroundings looking for my parents or cousins to bail me out with their remarks 'don't you remember xyz ammavan(uncle) from puthenkavu or mangakuzhiyil '. To promote world peace, nip a potential family feud and finally to keep everyone happy, I nod in agreement 'yea yea I do remember'. Most of the time its just a placeholder trying to remember where the hell on earth is that place.!!! Kya karen? I need to work on my face recognition capabilities or the fine art of lying.

Another thing to note is the way people are referred to in my place. Its usually 'xyz from abcd'. This abcd is usually a person's house name and at times the house name has a reference to the terrain or the profession of the people in the house. I am not sure if this is the same in other parts of Kerala. For example : if a house is near a river, or on top of a hill, or near an orchard the house name is suffixed with the malayalam word for hill or river. And this serves as an identity for the people of the house. You are always referred to as 'xyz from abcd'. This is where I feel FM (Fraud Mallus) like me have lost their identity. No body would refer to me as 'Ancient Mariner from Nadaparambil'. I will, during my stint in Blore , be known as 'AM from House No 6, Madiwala' :(. Of course there is a solution to this. Renounce everything and go back to my ancestral place and make a living. :-) And this thought did cross my mind when I looked at the number of 'rubber sheets' produced from our small rubber plantation. If I had three times the number of sheets you see in the picture, I could lead a luxurious life. I am still thinking .......
( PS : If you are residing in Kerala and you have a couple of rubber estates to sell, do contact me:-))

In between the marriages and the house warming parties, I had to visit the temple for a ritual called 'thulabharam' which is essentially offering something to the Gods in proportion to your weight. Some mannat (wish) my mom had asked for 10 years back.!! All I had to do was sit on a huge weigh balance while jaggery was put in the other scale to balance my weight. I do believe in God but I have my reservations when it comes to the offerings in cash or kind. I am sure God does not need the money nor the food which can be put to better use. But whatever makes my parents happy, after all isn't keeping your folks happy a service to the Almighty ?

I managed to watch this play on Christmas named the 'The Odd Couple' by Evam. This was a 1965 hit and has been subsequently adapted into television series, plays and films. An out and out witty comedy about two divorced guys who come together and live as flatmates. Two contrasting characters. One a sloppy, carefree, unaffected-by-divorce guy who likes to spread things around the house, eat and drink stuff well past their expiry date, and the other a meticulous, sensitive, fastidious guy who likes to keeps things in order. This is one of the best plays I have seen till date. The hilarious one liners exchanged and the sense of comic timing among the characters gave me a hearty laugh. Nice way to celebrate Christmas. B'loreans, do watch it if you come across this play.

After the Kerala trip, I ran around getting my documents ready and packing for my US trip. The Ancient Mariner set forth to sail across the seven seas. Feels great to be back. Old friends, colleagues and the place. Memories, pleasant and unpleasant, hope that it doesn't come back to haunt me....

deja vu

2007-12-28T10:11:00.000-06:00

Ah! Its that time of the year again. December!!.The sense of excitement, the pang of loneliness, the ecstasy of companionship, the apprehensiveness of the new year. Similar feelings, different places, and a different year. Winter has always been a harbinger of good times. I liked the season for the vibrant sweaters and woolens we used to buy from the Tibetan/Nepali tradesmen in the town I grew up in, Balasore, for the kite flying activities, for the badminton matches played on makeshift courts at night, for the cricket matches played on misty mornings on dew soaked grounds, for the winter vacations, for the lip smacking Christmas specials at a family friend's place, and for the solace and warmth I found under my blanket and bedsheets as I cuddled up in bed.

But winter, off late, has been ...well....strange!!. The past three winters in United States have followed a similar pattern. It starts off with frenzied shopping activity with shopping malls bedecked with lights and offering great winter sales. A snowfall and a couple of days later, the city is engulfed in a deathly veil of silence. The freezing Lake Michigan, the diffused moon light bouncing off the snow covered pavements, the empty neighborhood streets lend an eerie atmosphere. My first winter in India in 4 years and B'lore's weather has been unrelenting. Days of sunshine coupled with rainy and gloomy days. Quoting the Stone Temple Pilots in 'Plush' : And I feel, so much depends on the weather. And add to that my misery of living alone in a room in my near empty-and-ready-to-vacate 2bhk house where I can hear the boxes rattling on the kitchen shelf when a lizard saunters through the rubble searching for its long lost beloved. So should I blame winter for this 'state' of mind I am in ? Nah, its the circumstances that have conspired to cultivate these thoughts in me.

It is with these thoughts that I started packing my bags. When I say 'packing my bags', I mean wrapping up your stuff to move to a new house, a new place or a new country for a new life!!.
There have been a couple of instances in the past when I had to 'pack my bags'.

- The first time I did the packing was when I bid adieu to my parents and lil sister to join an engineering college down south. It is difficult to leave a place where you have spent 19 years of your life and the thought that you would not get to spend more time with your parents in the coming years is depressing.
- The second calling came when I had to leave Calicut, my college friends, those four years, the hostel masti and all the camaraderie.
- The third time I bent to gather my belongings was when I left Pune for Blore. The short stint in Pune was memorable. Made good friends, had a great time.

You get to unearth so many things when you start collecting your stuff. Some memories buried in the remotest corners of your cupboard/almirah or suitcase. Its been almost 5 years in this house. As I packed, I came across :

- my BTech college ID card. Our batch was the last batch to have passed out with the REC tag. The college has been re christened NIT since.

- a PMT ( Pune Municipal Transport ) buss pass. Those were the days when I literally counted the pennies. Auto was a luxury and cinemas a strict no-no coz the tickets were priced at 100 bucks. A single room shared with 4 guys. A days meal was worth Rs. 35 ( breakfast (poha): 5 rs, Lunch & dinner: 15 rs each ). *sigh*. If it was not for a bunch of enthusiastic and helpful friends, my life would have been nothing short of a hell.

- one photograph with friends in Pune. Well the special thing about this snap was that I had a mustache for the first ( and probably will be the last ) time in my life. Was kindda funny to see myself that way.

- a nostalgia book from college. In our final year , we were given a scrapbook with the names and photos of our batchmates. Interesting scraps penned by my classmates about me. It was our version of the 'orkut testimonial'. Only that we didn't have orkut in those days.

- three diaries dating back to 1998 A.D. I used to pen my thoughts during those years. I stopped maintaining diaries in 2003 and those were stowed away in some corner of my almirah. I took a break and started reading the diaries. You always wish you could go back in time and relive some of the days. Memories might help you to some extent but there's nothing like reading a part of your life on paper and recollecting it.

- lot of birthday cards from family and friends.

- a Timex watch my parents gifted me after my matriculation. Yea that was the first time I wore a watch!!. Apparently in our school we weren't supposed to wear watches. But I see the kids now wearing fancy watches to school.

- a collection of about 10 'Best of Rock' cassettes, 4 Iron Maiden and other rock albums. Does anyone use a Walkman now a days? I haven't used mine in 3 years.

- a floppy diskette from college. Pity I can't even view its contents. In the age of 300 gb hard disks, the floppy disk remains a mute spectator and will probably be a prized antique item in the years to come.

Cleaned up the almirah, sold off the newspapers and distributed lots of goodies to the children playing in front of the house who were shouting 'thank you uncle'. I call one kid and tell him
1) you call me bhaiya and not uncceel 2) If you kids want to thank me, go down to the street and shout it out. At least the pretty neighbour will realise that I am human too and I have a tender and a loving and a caring heart. Talk about selfless deeds...:-)

My last post from this house. My last post to wind up this year. See ya around soon.

sub prime crisis

2007-12-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

explained in a funny way..

one more Link1

a marriage, a trip, a night n related thoughts

2007-12-22T22:26:00.000-06:00

Sometime in the last week of Nov, I had an opportunity to attend my friend's marriage ceremony. Well this was the first time I was attending a marriage. I have never been to one. I always missed attending my cousin's marriages and the one marriage that I went to, early this year, I reached the temple when all the rituals were over just because my crappy, rickety bus broke down near Kottayam. As my friend went through all the rituals, dutifully and wore a smile throughout the ceremony, we couldn't help picturing ourselves on that pandal, after a few months or maybe years or may be days, who knows....My friend, dressed in traditional Kannada costumes was an epitome of the happiest man of earth or was the smile a facade? A fear of the new role and responsibilities and good bye's to 'chal na firangi paani me milte hain 7 baje' calls made to yours truly and many other escapades and fun times with friends.

As the marriage was in Shimoga, we got a chance to visit the Jog falls. I had high expectations, yea almost as high as the waterfall , but was a trifle disappointed when I got there. I could see only three , of what looked like, strands of water coming down the rocks. It had rained a couple of weeks back so we were expecting a decent sight.
No trip is complete without an adventure. With another friend's 'fart'athalon, notwithstanding, we had to make a dash to catch the train. We were in our hotel rooms chilling out and watching some dating shit game on MTV where the guy ( a shithead) had to chose one girl by asking some shitty questions with the girls geting into a cat fight everynow and then.
9.50 pm : I told my friends 'Chal lets make a move, the train leaves at 10.30', After all the washing, combing, locking etc, we proceeded to check out.
9.55 pm : My friend makes a call to another pal who was traveling by the same train.
' Where are you guys'
' We are checking out from the hotel, where are you?'
'We are sitting in the train which is supposed to leave in 5 minutes'

Gathering all the energy produced in our bodies by the idli-masaladosa- icecream-tea we had thirty minutes back, we ran to the nearest auto-rickshaw driver. Called up our friend in the train and requested him to pull the chain, well just in case. The station was a good five minutes away. Egged on by four frenzied passengers, the driver drove the drive of his life. We reached the station and sprinted towards the train. At least I did. It left as soon as we boarded it. I had the Kareena-running-behind the-train scenes of 'Jab We Met' going on in my mind but sadly that did not happen.

Who's to blame for this unwelcome rush of adrenaline? Well the Indian railways, coz there was no mention of the departure time on the e-ticket. Somewhere we had heard that the train is at 10.30 and we didn't bother to check.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was chatting with a friend a couple of weeks back and he reminded me of this day, around the same time last year in Milwaukee. And coincidentally a pic was on my desktop at that time. What a day..errr..night that was. I am not much of a 'discotheque' frequenter but I do accompany my friends at times. I don't binge, though that day was, lets say, a once in a blue moon night. I always believe that there comes a day in a person's life when he loses his senses..completely.period. Why did we decide to party ? Well for one it was a Fri night, two : everyone had one reason or the other, a fight with 'a good friend', frustrations at work and more importantly to let out that steam that has been seething over the past one week. Winters can be a drag as there is minimal outdoor activity .

We lived in downtown, hence most of the discs/clubs were at a stone's throw away from our place. The worst thing I dread in a disc is the dance floor. Yea ! you heard it right. I am not too comfortable with 'the dancing' part. I never was. Even under the influence of a heady concoction of malt, grain, molasses and hops, I never really could shake my bum on the dance floor. Back in college, I used to sit in the stands and watch people dance during the 'orchestra' . Somehow I could not move my feet with the music. They just went numb. And I always had this feeling that a thousand cameras were focused on me and they were showing my dance live on TV. I was conscious. I am at ease with the 'head banging part' in a rock show. I can shake my head all night long !!. But then you can't headbang when all you hear is 'don't you wish ur girlfriend was hot like me' and 'my hump'. I was partly successful in shedding off my inhibitions as I did shake a leg or two on the dance floors of Milwaukee. Realised that it was not tough. Raise your left leg parallel to the ground, raise your right arm and move your left hand back, all in one swift motion. Do it for the other right leg-left arm-right arm combo and keep that running in a for loop until you get to hear a mouthful by a guy for kicking his butt or a shriek from a lady for letting your arm go far when you did that 'arm-go-back' move. See it isn't tough, is it? Or the best thing you can do is the Chandler dance. So easy!!. Or else there was this highly productive groin-rubbing move patented and performed exclusively by a friend.

I was content watching everyone from the sidelines. I did try to dance though but kept being pushed to the corners. That's what happens when you don't dance with a lady. Its funny to watch people when they have no inhibitions. Even funnier to watch my Indian brethren. Desi guys are notorious for chasing around girls in a disc. And all those Indian students, accompanied by a 'multicultural' group, who look down upon the IT-professionals-from-India as some sort of aliens.

After overindulging in the club's strongest beverages and getting tipsy, we somehow tottered and crawled our way back home. Someone chose to sleep on the pavement on a thick sheet of snow, feeling the softness. We had to convince him that home sweet home was a good three blocks away. Someone helped us navigate the traffic signals. Someone yelled 'Gentlemen, please be decent and also watch your steps while you walk' and promptly fell down as soon as he completed his sentence. Someone called someone 7000 miles away only to be lambasted with bitter words. Someone chose to transform himself into a canine form walking on four legs and howling. Someone chose to satiate his hunger with the leftover idli sambar or was it chicken and rice..?.

I woke up the next day. Yes I did . My most hated enemies were all around me, pounding my head with hammers. I felt queasy. With a silent vow that there would be no more binges henceforth, I proceeded to google 'home remedies for hangovers'.

tashakor !!

2007-12-15T08:58:00.000-06:00

Finished reading 'Kiterunner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'. Even if you are not an avid reader, I'd recommend these books by Khaled Hosseini. Afghanistan and its culture have always been an enigma to me. Never really read about their history except for all the news during the Taliban regime and the US's 'fishing-out-the terrorists' attack, but reading these two books have given me some insights into the lives and people in that part of the world. Kiterunner is a poignant story of two guys while A Thousand Splendid Suns delves into the lives of two young women. Both the novels are set against the backdrop of King Zahir Shah's reign, the Soviet rule and Taliban's atrocities. It gives an account of the life and culture of the people of Afghanistan during these times, the different tribes (Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras), the various customs, food etc. The narration is lucid and keeps the reader engrossed from page one. Khaled sure manages to tickle those emotional chords buried deep inside your heart. The characters and the plot, at times, are haunting. I was so 'in' to the book at one time that I woke up screaming when I thought I was hit by a bullet from the Taliban, while I was wandering aimlessly in the streets of Kabul trying to escape.!!!

I picked up a few Persian words as well ..A must read.
Tashakor (Thank you) Mr. Khaled!!

paisa, yeh kaisa..

2007-12-10T10:34:00.000-06:00

I got an email offer from my US trading account : "Deposit $100,000 and get a $300 Apple gift coupon". Duh!!?? Couldn't they think of a better offer ? If I had $100,000 to spare, would I care for a $300 gift coupon !!. And if it was an Indian investor like me, the first thing I would do is to convert the hundred thousand dollars into rupees and invest it in the Indian market. Cummmon..Gimme a better offer. I am not getting enticed by this even though I am short by atleast two zeroes in that figure of $100,000. :-)

my 'phone' y thoughts..

2007-12-03T08:40:00.000-06:00

Dark was the night and cold was the day, as I lay on my 'bunker bed' contemplating on the plans for the year 08, I hear the now-familiar sound 'thurrrr-thurrrrr' coming from my cupboard. A quick look at the display and I see a once-again-now-familiar-message from the service provider on 'what to gift your gf/bf'. Aaarghhh... As I was playing around with my Nokia 3120, a thought crossed my mind : I need a new phone.

I am impulsive when it comes to purchasing anything. I do a quick research and zero in on the stuff I want pretty quickly. My requirements were simple. I needed a slim slider phone. Did not care much about the other features. After browsing through a couple of sites, I got what I was looking for : A Samsung U600 it was. And I have not frowned since.

My relationship with my Nokia 3120 has withstood 3 tumultuous years. Three years is a long time if you consider the rate at which new models with fancy features are being released. For more on the non-features of my phone, refer to Q2 here. The phone still works great. The battery life ..not complaining. Like a forlorn soldier, battered and bruised, it has stood the test of time. The innumerable indelible scars on it face stand testimony to the hardships it has been through[ Pic to the right]. I was often mocked at for carrying a 15th-century relic which would, one day, go under the hammer at Sotheby's. Some pleasant memories, some not so sweet ones are what I leave behind in that cell phone...coz I don't have the data cable to transfer stuff from Nokia :(

I wanted to go for an iPhone but my cost Vs benefits matrix proved otherwise. I liked iPhone coz of its 'screen touch' feature. But then Apple has released iPod Touch with the same features as an iPhone sans the phone. I might consider buying it after sometime when the prices have come down and more importantly the capacity has increased. And in any case I was planning to buy an iPod touch for now. I always had this predilection for slider phones. Hence Samsung U600 seemed the best bet. Its the slimmest in it category and has the touch feature on some of its keys. It has all the standard functionalities. Bluetooth, Fm, Camera, Video plus some other cool features. As I don't intend to write a full fetched review, additional features/reviews can be found here and here. For me it was like moving from a Windows 3.1x to a Windows XP machine. I am not used to any of these features and hence spent a considerable amount of time exploring it so much so that I flunked an exam today as I was..well..playing around with my new phone over the weekend. Failed for the first time in my illustrious academic career. Not that it matters much but I flunked and I will have to face this ignominy until I clear it.

With new phone comes new responsibilities. My Nokia phone was at liberty to pop out of my trouser/shirt pockets whenever it felt like having a fresh sniff of air. I allowed it to align itself to the contours of my mattress when it couldn't bear 130 pounds of mass resting on it. But I could not allow, or rather afford, these things to happen to my new phone. I am now very conscious of the fact that I am carrying a phone. It fits in nicely into my trouser pockets but every time I need to feel my trousers to make sure that the phone is in there.

I was so eager to explore the Mp3 ringtones and put my favorite guitar riffs as my ringtone that I came home early. My roommates have all left for a life with family and their better halves. The kitchen utensils and other necessary stuff found their way into the new home. I am left with nothing but my bed and a couple of suitcases. Yes, my life can be packed in approximately three suitcases. Kindda makes me 'mobile'. I came home thinking that there were a couple of slices of bread left over from the previous day. Hoping that the bread and a bowl of soup would satisfy my dinner appetite, I sauntered into my kitchen only to find an army of ants gorging on the left over pieces of bread. Grrr...The pack of Maggi soup helped me to live and fight another day. After a couple of hours of research I was finally able to put the 'Sweet child of mine' guitar piece as my ringtone. Now working on some Iron maiden and Metallica stuff.

If anyone has come across a better, slimmer slider phone than this one, do lemme know. I'd like to take a look at it.

why?

2007-11-22T01:12:00.000-06:00

Why is life so uncertain? Why is an innocent life chosen amongst the vast multitudes of sinners in this world ? Why do we plan for the future when you never know when death engulfs you in its icy embrace ? Why do we pay heed to those soothsayers who predict a long happy life and yet, fail to see the inevitable ? Why is the journey of life halted abruptly in its tracks when there are thousands of miles to cover and a lifetime to cherish ? Why do I have to wait for another 40 odd days for this wretched year to end ?

colorful tamasha

2007-11-08T20:39:00.001-06:00

I came across this piece of information that ICL cricketers are gonna don designer Manish Arora's creations. Nothing wrong in that but who would dress a male cricketer in pink and other fancy colors !!!!!! Check out the snaps here. Even in the ICC trophy when you had so many teams competing you had red and yellow outfits and various hues of green and blue but nobody chose pink for Christ's sake !!. I bet, ICL wanted to add some 'color' to Indian cricket but they went a step too far. I had absolutely no interest in the ICL but now I am looking forward to the match between the 'Men in Pink' and the 'Men in that brightblue-green-yellow outfit'. It would be a colourful spectacle to watch all the teams assemble on the field during the opening ceremony. This would seem more like a gay parade going on the field.

The gay parade reminds of the year 2005 when my roomie and I went to Summerfest near the lakeside Milwaukee. We thought it would be a normal day at the fest with music and beer when we came across the huge signboard with the message ' Welcome to the Gayfest' . Well that day happened to be the 'gayday' at the fest and we weren't aware of it. That's when we saw so many guys in weird costumes and funky dresses holding hands and having fun..

An Afterthought: Come to think of it, these colorful attires serve a purpose and ICL's efforts are commendable. What this will certainly do is increase your concentration and temperament on the field. I bet you will laugh your a$$ off when you see a guy in pink running in to bowl a delivery or to see a team huddle when a wicket falls and that is when you need to concentrate on the game than ogle at a bunch of guys who have been at the receiving end of the designer's fantasies.

the bike ride

2007-11-03T05:13:00.000-05:00

Breaking the monotony of our humble existence, we embarked on a bike trip to ShravanaBelagola, shrine of the world's tallest monolithic statue, last saturday. Six of us on 5 bikes with yours truly graciously accepting the role of a pillion rider. At around 7 am, we converged near Iskon temple to start our 130 odd kilometer trip on two pulsars, a royal enfield, a thunderbird and a yamaha.

We crossed Malleshwaram en route . My eyes searched for a familiar street, a ground, a graveyard and a house but in vain..fourteen years is a long long time, the cityscape has changed but some memories don't seem to fade away..

It was supposedly a straight route to the shrine with two deviations to be taken. TJ was the only one who had been there before. None of us had biked as a group be and so mistakes were bound to happen if you are in your world zooming away to glory, paying no attention to the road signs or your fellow bikers. TJ stopped near the first deviation, very well knowing that the rest of us would miss this left turn (towards mangalore) and proceed straight towards tumkur, pune. Three of us missed and whizzed past a frantically waving TJ, courtesy a vehicle which came between them at the junction . An& and I spotted him and stopped near the junction while TJ started his chase hoping to catch the three guys but had to call it off after a couple of kilometes. Left with no choice, we tried calling them on their cell phones but the vibrations of cell phone were subdued by the rapidly throbbing pistons. After a good thirty minutes two of them stopped for breakfast and that is when they saw the missed calls. But another friend had gone 8-10 kms further and only when he stopped for a photo shoot did he realise that he had lost the rest of us. They all came back and after a cup of tea we started off with some ground rules : that everyone should stay close and be in the line of sight. Well the road ahead was dead straight (except for a left turn at the fag end of the 116 km trip) so there was no way we could have missed anyone.

The ride was smooth, the roads are remarkably well maintained.We rode through villages, often wondering what life would be sans the luxury of frequenting a shopping mall, or hitting a pub. We reached ShravanaBelagola at around 11 am and proceeded to climb the 653 steps. We left our footwear, helmets and backpacks near the stall. Six helmets, Six pair of shoes, and Six backpacks. As the guy was handing over the Rs 5 coupons one by one, my friend asked "Why don't you give us one receipt with the total amount written ? " to which one other friend replied "Well looks like Rs 5 is hardcoded on to the coupons"..yeah..

After seeking Bahubali's blessings and a few photo sessions we headed down. As we stepped out of the temple discussing about our lunch plans, we met a guy who led us to a Jain Bhojanalya. It looked dark and dingy from outside. The walls and the roof looked like they would cave in anytime. After a few minutes of discussion on whether to get in or not, we finally got in. The food was great. It was a simple meal of sukha roti, rice, cucumber curry and tomato curry.

It took us 4 hours to reach Shravabelagola but it took us an eternity to drive back to Blore. Here's how : We started at around 2.30 pm. Drove 50 km at a stretch, stopped under a huge canopy of trees for some sutta and water. And then from thereon our ride was interspersed with bouts of rain. At one point, we were all far apart and finally we met in one dilapidated dhaba and thankfully we got one hot cuppa of tea. My friends smoked biddi borrowed from the dhaba owner, much to his amusement. We reached somewhere on the outskirts of Blore at around 6 pm and finally reached my place in Madiwala at 9.30 pm !! So much for the traffic and the rain. We just wanted to reach home and hit the bed.

The next day, not surprisingly, my posterior ( interior, superior, ulterior and what not) had gone for a toss. The ride was great though and hoping for some more scenic drives in the future.

and the memory remains..

2007-10-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

I woke up today (on Vijayadashami) to the fact that its been 9 long years since I have been part of the Durga Puja festivities and I vividly remember the celebrations back in the town I was raised in, Balasore or Baleshwar (in Orissa). Its claim to fame ? When you come across the news 'Agni missile launched today' , pay attention to the place where the missile was launched. Also a unique feature of the Chandipur beach in Balasore is that twice a day, the sea water recedes from the shore , going back by almost 4-5 kms. So you can literally walk 5 kms into the sea.

Owing to its proximity to the Bengal border, the town had a sizable Bengali populace. The huge Defence establishment led to the influx of Punjabis and SouthIndians and the vibrant trading community consisted mainly of Marwaris. Pujas were always celebrated with pomp and gaiety. The whole town was abuzz with activity. The fragrance of the incense sticks, the sweet smell of flowers filled the air and when you woke up in the morning, you could feel the festive spirit. A small town has its advantages. The Pujas (often featuring pandals and idols) included Durga Puja, Kali puja, Ganesh puja, Saraswati puja, Laxmipuja, Vishwakarma puja (god of architecture and engineering), Makara sankranti (also the kite festival) and the Chandan mela. So you can very well imagine the number of holidays we had in school. Add Christmas,Easter, Ramzan, Muharram, Rath yatra and other national days to this list :-)

Durga puja was celebrated with traditional grandeur. Giant pandals with creative themes were erected and each part of the town was famous for its unique pandals. So we had distinctive names like the puja at cinema choko( choko is essentially a square or a junction), police line square, station square, circuit house square, tv station etc. The highlight (and possibly a unique tradition) of the Durga puja celebrations in Balasore, was the immersion ceremony. Unlike other pujas where the immersions were done by the organisers, the Durga puja immersions were planned out by the local Municipality. A route, which led to the river, was defined and the bedecked trucks, carrying the deity, had to line up in a queue as per the number allotted to them. This 'immersion' route passed through the nerve center of the town ( or may I say downtown..hehe) and my house was just a few minutes walk from the main route. There were shops and houses lined up on either side of the street and people took their seats on rooftops and verandahs well in advance.

On the final day, the procession used to start at midnight with the traditional martial arts game of 'akhada' or 'kambadi'( also played during Muharram). Groups and clubs assembled to play what is essentially a 'stick or a sword fight' (much like the kalaripeyuttu of Kerala). Professional clubs displayed their superior skills followed by amateurs who usually fought under the influence of handi (arrack). Well you don't wanna wake up the next day thinking how you got that huge lump on your head or why it feels like you have tasted blood. 'Drink and fight' works just fine for the guys who sometimes fight with a spring in their steps when they spot a cute Sharma /Patel/Khandelwal/Gupta /Agarwal gal standing on the rooftop.

This was followed by the idol procession, accompanied by the crowd dancing to the tunes of popular Hindi/Bengali/Oriya numbers. I got to hear some catchy tunes during these times. The ones I remember are 'Ami Kolkatar Rosogolla' ( Bengali song sung by Usha Uthup) and 'Aye paan waala babu' (Oriya). I remember waking up at 4 in the morning to watch the procession with my neighborhood pals (I used to skip the 'akhada' part). The procession went on till about 12 in the afternoon.

Wonder if I will get to see this again..ever. Professional commitments kept me away from this year's celebrations. Possibly next year..until then the memory remains....

pizzazz

2007-10-14T08:56:00.000-05:00

Happened to watch this hilarious English play PIZZAZZ at Alliance Francaise yesterday.
Synopsis: People stranded on boat jetty, waiting for the boat strike to end, decide to indulge in a 'game' initiated by a 'rude, garrulous American lady' , a drama which results in some humorous situations. Read the abstract here.
Watch it if you get a chance.

the revenge of the bulls

2007-10-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

The market is on fire.The marauding bulls have trampled all records en route its way to the 18000 peak. The Financial analysts, investment bankers, brokers and their breed have a huge smiley painted all over their face. A thousand points intra day rally and a 788 point rise. That is one hell of a day for the markets. The reason I have chronicled these events [ posts labelled stocks] is because 10-15 years down the line, when my wealth starts to gather dust in the lockers of Switzerland, Monaco and Bermuda Islands, when I would no longer keep track of every penny I earn from the stock markets, when all I would be reviewing is the quarterly report from my wealth management advisors, I would look back at this post and think about the days when I used to be glued to the financial world, at times unable to comprehend its functioning, but following it nonetheless.

My father used to tell me about his civilian experiences in Jammu during the Indo-Pak war. I would similarly recount the times when India won a cricket world cup (a feat which I don't think will be emulated in my lifetime), when markets blazed its way from 16000 to 18000 in the blink of an eye and on 'kaise BJP ka kata' ( Hindi sounds better) not once but twice.

One thing I have been observing is that when the markets are on their way up, all the pundits are unanimous in their views about the bullishness and vice versa. On Friday, everyone yelled' markets will touch 20000 very soon'. On Monday, Sensex shed 230 points and out came the cries that markets will reach 15000 levels soon. And the next day, markets responded with a thumping 700+ point rise. No one can predict the market patterns and I realise that the analysts are after all human. A case in point is Reliance Energy. This scrip was hovering around Rs 600 six weeks back. Ever since this scrip touched Rs 1000, I have been reading articles in almost all major web sites/newspapers advising people to sell it off as it would go down to Rs 500 soon. Belying all expectations it continued it march and is at 1600 levels now. As my 'stock buddy' declares " Being a contrarian helps" :-).

the 'i' factor

2007-10-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iMac, iNote, iLife, iWork, iPalm(from the Apple stable) , iLuv(DVD player), iZod(Apparel), iMate(PDA), iDock, iAudio (Mp3player). Doesn't take long to guess that all products have an 'i' in them and most of them are related to electronic goods(except for iZod). Hence its natural to think about something 'electronic' when you come across a product prefixed with an 'i' (very much like the web related stuff that have an 'e' affixed to everything). 'Surprised' would be a mild word to use if I say that I expected to see some new gadget when I saw the ad for iPill...well it doesn't even come remotely close to the world of circuits !!!!. Wouldn't be surprised to see the launch of products named iDesire or eSutra to stymie the ripening of the fruits of procreation.

tagged...

2007-09-25T23:14:00.000-05:00

Usually I am too lazy to pick up tags but here's one that got my fingers to type in a few lines..

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it.

An inconspicuous mark near my left eye. How did I get it...aah...thats a long story. Back in the days when I was in school, the winters heralded the season of kites with gaiety. Hell... people don't even fly kites in these parts, but in the land of the Konark temple, in the town that I grew up in, kite flying was a passion, one of our favorite spare time activities.

Besides flying the kite and battling it out with others, kids competed for the 'falling' kite and outrun each other for the 'prized catch'. We used to brag about the number of kites we'd have at the end of the day. [Hence Kiterunner struck a chord with me]. Competition breeds animosity and minor scuffles with the 'galli ke bache' were common.

One fine day I was on the terrace, about to pounce on a falling kite when a guy below caught the string attached to it. The kite however fell on the terrace and I claimed it. After some swearing which was limited to words like 'kutta' 'saala' and which often got worse with ' tune mujhe kutta kaise bola be' etc ( I have enriched my vocab since), the guy took a small bit of stone and hurled it at me. It was too late to take evasive action but the stone thankfully missed my eye by a millimetre.
So here I am, living with my scar, which serves as a reminder of those halcyon days.

2. What does your phone look like? List your reasons to buy it?

I own a Nokia 3120. Bought it 4 years back. It has no bluetooth, no FM, no camera, no widescreen, no brilliant color combinations, no memory space to store 1500 songs, no hifi games, no song composers, but it does a pretty decent job of connecting my world with my friends and enemies.

3. What is on the walls of your bedroom?

Nothing except for the cloth hangers with clothes. There was a time when Axl Rose, Bruce Dickenson, Cobain and other gods adorned the walls of my room. But guess I have mellowed down with age :-)

4. What is your current desktop picture?

This picture I took in the Smokey mountains, TN.

5. Do you believe in gay marriage?

Marriage is the union of two or more souls. Where does the 'sex' element creep in ? Live and let live..

6. What do you want more than anything right now?

A 30 day break from work ...and a trip to Hawaii would be the icing...

7 . What time were you born?

sometime on monday, on the fourteenth day of the fifth month of a wonderful year..

8. Are your parents still together?

Yess

9. Last person who made you cry?

I walked into my flat one fine evening to find my flatmate in tears sitting with his head buried in his arms.

'Kya hua re, tu thik to hai na'

'Yaar PP, jara woh pyaaj kat dega, cheel ke rakha hai...'

And then we proceeded to cry in unison, weeping our heart out till the onions went into a vessel, with some sliced tomatoes and potatoes, green peas and masalas of various colours ,yellow, red, brown, off white brown ( my cooking mantra, when in doubt, put in all the colored powders that you see on the kitchen shelf )

10. What is your favorite perfume / cologne?

Perfume would be GUESS.

I have been using AXE with limited success. The beach ad that is being aired off late is gross and scary. I don't want to be lynched!!. One or two and I'd be happy. Is that too much to ask for? I am betting on Orkut's Today's Fortune which says "If your desires are not extravagant they will be granted" :D

11. What kind of hair/eye color do you like in the opposite sex?

Hair: Black with a brownish tinge. I'd fall for it any day
Eye : bluish

12. What are you listening to? Why?

Started with Wake me up when September ends (Greenday) and My own prison (Creed) and now it is Fade Away (Seether) on my iTunes. and Why?..well I need to check with Apple on how the intelligent shuffling algorithm works.

13. Do you get scared of the dark?

Yes,very much, doing full justice to my all time favorite Fear of the dark (Iron Maiden)

"Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that someones always near
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someones always there"

Ironical, coz when I need a kick, I do listen to songs glorifying evil and idolizing demons and yet i get the creeps .

14. Do you like painkillers?

As long as it alleviates the pain, I ain't complaining.

15. Are you too shy to ask someone out?

Well I am not 'too' shy and nor do I seem overtly eager to ask anyone whom I find interesting. What I do love is to observe hunks who have this 'who's-this-champu-with-that-lady' expressions all over their face when I accompany 'a good friend' or a colleague.

16. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?

aloo paranthe !!!!! been a while and I am famished

17. Who was the last person who made you mad?

My 'internet-wallah' for sucking the lifeline out of me by switching off the router !!!

18. List one habit you have that has the potential to annoy people?

My ability to come up with preposterous excuses for avoiding things.

19. Who was the last person who made you smile?

The Ambani brothers. And if you wanna know why, check out how much the Reliance stocks have appreciated on Fri(9/21) and Mon(9/24)..*muahahahahohoh*.Thats not a smile..thats a boisterous laugh..

Feel free to pick up the tag...

slam bang..

2007-09-22T07:41:00.000-05:00

I say, 20-20 cricket is here to stay. Never mind the cricket purists and its critics. T20 has a shaped a new dimension to the ever popular game by making it more appealing to people who love to spend the afternoon with beer, basking in the sun and watching the cheer girls dancing away every time the ball crosses the ropes. The game gets over in 3 hours, you get to see some innovative batting and bowling methods, and a barrage of sixes and fours, what more can anyone ask for. I will not vouch for a 5- match or a 7-match T20 series between two nations but a cricket tourney featuring the top teams held every six months would do just fine. From a purely entertainment perspective, I will give T20 a big thumbs up.

PS [1.00am] : Couldn't help updating the post...the stuff you only dream of...an Indo-Pak world cup final....scintillating stuff.

sawan ka mahina, traffic kare bore..

2007-09-14T23:39:00.000-05:00

Lord Indra woke up after his siesta on a warm Thursday afternoon. He looked into his crystal globe and smirked at the happenings around the world.

Craving for more fun, he gathered the other Gods "Hey oldies..Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have had their share of problems, but Bengaluureans seem to be enjoying their life peacefully. Lets give the software engineers with fat paychecks and the not-so-fat ones some cause for worry."

And lo he beckoned his rain angels and it poured and poured and poured.

"And jest phor phun, lets stall some vehicles, choke the drains, fill the lakes, uproot some trees and to add to it lets disrupt the match in Durban so that the lucky few in the house don't get to watch the India-Scotland match".

It rained cats and dogs, bulls and bears, ants and elephants and what not. I bet he decided to spend his evening with renuka, menaka, urvasi and their ilk, got sloshed and conveniently forgot about namma bengaluru.

Getting drenched on your way back home is one thing but getting drenched on your way to office is nasty. Rain brings with it its own share of woes on the traffic front and Friday was no exception. The traffic on the 10 km stretch to E city on Hosur Rd, the infamous and busiest stretch on NH-7 , was excruciatingly slow. I was lucky to get to office in under an hour but my colleagues got stuck for more than 2-3 hours. There were quite a few horror stories doing the rounds in our company's discussion board. A bus, on its way back from office, took 3 hours to cross a 5 km stretch, phew that would even beat a snail that had managed to crawl the same stretch in 2 hours on a fine morning. Ominous signs for the return journey and I already started to dread the situation in the evening.

The employees were instructed to leave the office campus as early as possible and I braced up for the arduous journey ahead by charging my iPod and taking printouts of today's Hindu crossword. Since I started at 6, I was told that 5 hours, at the best, was what the drivers were aiming for- a journey that normally takes 15 mins on a de-congested road.!!!! With rain showing no respite, all hell had broken loose. The Transport Department did a good job of finding alternate routes (avoiding Hosur rd) and soon we were heading back into the city. The bus ventured into some God forsaken places on the outskirts. It was pitch dark outside and all I could see was a convoy moving on the road. Taking a longer route with uninterrupted traffic is far better than sitting in a logjam and hoping that the bus would move an inch in the next 15 minutes.

All's well that ends well. I finally got home in under 2 hours which is incredible given the scare at the start of the journey. Lord Indra seems to have woken up for the rains have stopped. Its Friday evening, time to hit the discs and pubs, i.e. if you manage to reach those places on Fri night itself.

God save all those souls battling their luck on the roads as I sit comfortably in the confines of my residence sipping a hot cuppa tea and watching the enthralling match between India and Pak.

resurgence..err..hmm...

2007-09-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

After mulling over the purpose of my existence for a certain number of months, reflecting on my spare time activities, and finally drawing a huge blank, I decided to pursue some of the interests which had taken a backseat for want of time and attention.

Crosswords : An avid cruciverbalist, I relished the cryptic Hindu crosswords during my engg days. Enough matter to stimulate my brain cells. Somewhere down the line, I lost this habit. Thanks to a friend, I have revived this addictive passion. Its a welcome break from the " stupid abends, I/O exceptions ,mapping invalid and missing ';' in the statement" errors that I have to battle with throughout the day.

Reading : From being a voracious reader during my school and college days to being a 'non reader' in the past two years, I have kick started my reading habits. Five books in the past five months. That's good enough for a start.

Quizzing : The good old days of Sunday quizzes in our community and quiz participation had come to a nought. I was alienated from the world around me and its wonderful facts and trivia. The final blow came in one of the quizzes last week when I failed to figure out the vice president of India from the facts given !!!.. *sigh*. So its back to 'retaining and correlating information in my head' rather than just flipping the TOI pages looking for Anna's latest outfit or 'tips to rejuvenate/stimulate/break/spice up(for me garam masalas would do just fine) your relationships'.

Hope these activities would keep me and my under-utilized brain cells occupied for some time to come and stop me from humming this song :
"I get up in the morning,
and I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the evening
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired
Man I'm just tired and bored with myself"

m.e.d.i.a

2007-09-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

The headlines screamed " Salu miya did a certain number of push ups in the morning, ate palak ki rotis for lunch, read some crap in the evening". One other news channel was concentrating on Sanju baba's exploits and his pilgrimage which went something like this ' Sanjay reached Delhi at 1.55 pm. He took a flight to Jammu at some unearthly hour, went to some other place in an Innova and God knows what not. Wonder why they didn't mention the brand of jeans he was wearing. The detailed km by km account of his trip to Vaishno Devi was annoying to say the least. Yet another one beamed the 'rumoured' break-up between Kareena and Shahid. Content in its true sense has surely been dumped for some ludicrous sh*t that is aired day in and day out. Bored of flipping between music and movie channels, we (my friend and I ) decided to watch our favorite program on CNBC 'Stocks with Udayan'. To mention that the sole purpose of watching this program was to analyse the market swings would be a blatant lie, for we were more interested in listening to ( or rather our eyes were fixated on) Mitali who anchors the show on certain days. Captivated, smitten, enamored, infatuated add any synonym that you like but we are huge fans. Her diction and expressions sure act as a tonic when we switch on the telly after a bad day in office and the stock markets. Glad to see that there is a fan club in orkut too:-).Well CNBC has an impressive group of smart and beautiful anchors on board.

a collector of....

2007-08-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

marriage invitations!!!.Well what would you call a person who indulges in this never-heard-before activity. My chance to contribute a word to the English Language. I am planning to showcase my collections, both softcopy as well as the actual cards. Any sponsors? ... please do get back to me. I will soon build up a sizable collection by the end of this year.
Its interesting how these marriage invitations have evolved over the years. From an insipid " Miss Chamundeshwari D/o Mr Bridesdad and Mr Banke lal, S/o Mr Groomsdad solicit your kind presence in yada yada yada" to using poems and ornate verses in the invitation, they have certainly added a new dimension to the rapidly changing marriage industry in our country. I wish I could quote some of the invitations here but that would take some sheen off the witty, touching, novel and original sentences I have come across. The cards themselves come in various shapes and sizes, in the shape of scrolls, musical ones, gold laced ones and other innovative designs. The thought and creativity that has gone into the invitations is commendable.
So junta reading this post, please do not forget to mark one invitation to my name when you decide to put yourself under the guillotine. I started with Stamps, quotes and then tequila shot glasses :-) [Strip courtesy gocomics.com]

one of those days..

2007-08-11T07:46:00.000-05:00

Saturday 8.45 am : Woke up,looked at the cell..damn !! its 8.45, late for someone who is used to waking up at 7, even on a holiday. Went to the balcony, stretched my arms and legs. Its a beautiful day, birds chirping, sun shining n blah blah...The beautiful neighbor comes out to her verandah, sleepy-eyed, winks at the sun shining brightly on her face, and gives out an innocent smile. ( Adore the unkempt hair and face sans makeup in the morning). Made my day. I go about my chores for the day, breakfast, a hair cut, laundry wagera wagera...

1 pm : My flatmate is in deep slumber, smiling away in his dreams when a devil enters his dreams and wakes him up.

"Buddy, we have to reach ITC Sheraton by 3 pm, wake up..!!, we need to leave early to beat the traffic and the place is goddamm far ".
"Arre phikar not, pahunch jayenge, ded baje nikalte hain" and he saunters towards the restroom.
The perfect day has just begun. The water taps refuse to oblige and the care taker comes up to our apartment "bhaiya, woh pipe me problem aagaya tha to paani nahi hai, ek bucket niche hai agar tumko chahiye to".

'Ohh thank u, atleast brush to kar sakte hain.'

1.31 pm : My flatmate takes out his bike and we go for lunch at a nearby place.
2.20 pm : We start out towards Golf course road. Traffic in Blore is always at its best when you have to reach somewhere at a particular time. God opens up his garage and unleashes thousands of vehicles on to the roads and precisely on the roads which you are planning to take.

2.45 pm : We reach the signal near MG road.
" Yaar we are not going to make it, 15 mins me kaise pahunchenge"
'Aree thik hai be, 5-10 min late pahunchenge, kya pharak padta hai'
' Abe yeh koi movie hai kya jo kabhi bhi ghoos jao..'

A PYT cat-walks on the promenade and he applies the brakes
'Arre dekh acchi hai na'
'%^&&*% jaldi chala, yahan wahan mat dekh, aise bhi hum log late ho rahe hain'
And we discuss about how Blore is 'improving' and hopefully soon it will be 'at par' with other biggies like Delhi n Mumbai.

2.55 pm :We stop at a roadside paan shop and ask for directions and instead of asking for directions to the Golf course road, I end up asking about the race course road (which is actually quite close to golf course). Stopping at a signal, we ask an autorickshaw driver for directions. He says ' aage signal pe left'. A helpful passenger in the auto says ' Na take the right'. A word from a woman is the word of law and we take the right as she suggested.

We wait at another signal. That part of Blore is quite green. Lots of trees on either side of the road. We enjoy the shade and the weather.
' This is why Blore is great. Nice weather, kitna hara bhara hai'

And as we shower praises on the green activists who are all for preservation of trees, ...ploooop, plushhhh...and my friend goes
" Abe yeh kya hua, Fu**... kowe ko meri Tshirt hi mili thi ...abe kowe... humlog ek five star hotel ja rahe hain, lota leke kyun nahi nikalta , kaale kowe Ma^@$$^%"
3.00 pm : We park the bike at the parking lot in ITC Sheraton and proceed to clean up the mess on my friends's tee.

'Correct time pe pahunche hain, hope the session has not started.'
We start to run towards the reception, approach a pretty lady who seemed eager to help us.
'Maam can you lead us to the hall where this session is being held'
'Sure , please follow me'

She leads us to the some hall named 'House of Lords' and leaves us. We don't see any board and the doors are all closed. We check with one guy there about the session going on in the hall. He is ignorant. Blaming the hotel for not putting up a sign board for the session
' kya yaar, india me yahi hota hai, ek five star hotel me bhi'.
' Hamari galti hai, hame jaldi pahunchna tha. Session would have started at 3 sharp.'

I hear words like 'market value, stock prices' and all kinds of financial jargon coming from the hall. We were unsure of whether we were at the right place and we didn't want to barge in and look like idiots if it was some high profile conference going on. Convinced that the lady had misled us, we approach the pretty lady at the reception once again.
' Iski khabar leta hoon, hadkata hoon, isko itna bhi pata nahi ki ek session kahan hota hai, kya bakwaas hai'
'Nahin re hadka mat, she probably mis understood wht we meant to say'
'Maam, we were at the wrong hall, could you check this once more please, we are already 10 minutes late'

Looking apologetic, she says 'Ohh sorry Sir, let me check'
She went to the reception, takes a few minutes.
We are at the lobby , looking furious , blaming everyone, hoping to take the hotel and the organizers to task.

The lady walks up to us 'Sir the session is on Aug 12th which happens to be Sunday, n that is tomorrow'
Phoooooooosh, and we vamooooose...

Black Friday !!

2007-07-27T12:29:00.001-05:00

When I refreshed the moneycontrol page today morning, I was in for a surprise. The only thought that crossed my mind at that moment was that 9/11 or something similar had happened. US markets had crashed. Call it bloodbath or mayhem or havoc, the repercussions were profound. Triggered by the fall in US markets the previous day, the global markets crashed in unison.Sensex was down by 500 points. After a stupendous ride over the past two months the correction was waiting to happen so I am not surprised. Time to take stock of some of the scrips I have been trying to lay my hands on for some time.Sample this on a Friday evening.
Sensex down 541 points
Nikkei down 418 points
Taiwan down 424 points
Dow Jones down 311 points
Hang Seng down 641 points

thoughts, facts n weird things!!

2007-07-22T23:03:00.000-05:00

I succumbed to the Potter mania and went to watch Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix on Saturday. Though I am not much of a Harry Potter fan, think I need to catch up with the world and people around me and read all the books in the series. I have read the first book and liked it. Followed that up with an English play named ‘What is to be done with Sathe’ on Sunday. And as if to top it all I was witness to one of the most amazing F-1 races I have seen till date. The European Grand Prix was a virtual cliffhanger in the last ten laps with Massa and Alonso battling it out. The overtaking maneuver by Alonso in the final lap was breathtaking and he deservedly won the race. For once I admired his driving skills but still kindda hate him for stealing the thunder during Schumi’s swansong years. The fight for the third and fourth position was pretty close till the last corner before the chequered flag… that’s what they call a complete ‘paisa vasool’ race notwithstanding the drama at the start of the race when the rain poured down in torrents causing confusion.

I came back from a refreshing vacation last week which caused some flutters amongst my brethren in the erstwhile states of America who speculated that I was up to something. Can’t a son go and meet his folks? Isn’t that normal or is it that at this age the only reason for a trip is to announce one’s intentions of tying the proverbial knot. Three marriages and two engagements in the past three weeks. Yes, that’s the news my friends gave me. So it’s not surprising that my vacation raised a few eyebrows. I was talking to a friend the other day and he said “Nowadays when I look at any girl, I always seek my wife in her, thinking if she would/wouldn’t be like this girl.” !!!!!I would have ignored this observation as an inane thought had it not been for two other pals who seemed to corroborate his feelings. It’s high time that a research paper be written on the hormonal changes a bachelor goes through between ages 27-30.

I was tagged by Avenger so here are some weird things about me. How tough is it to evaluate oneself and the B-schools seem to highlight this very aspect in their application essays.

Weird thing 1: I freak out when I come across an ATM which devours the debit card, completes the transaction, and spits it out. Somehow I have this lingering fear in my mind that my debit card won’t come out after it is sucked in by the machine and I have a hard time making the damn machine pull in the card in the first place!!!

Weird thing 2: I am renowned for making ‘bahanas’ (excuses). People tell me that I can come up with the most vacuous reason(s) for not doing/doing something. Well I do it unknowingly and I have my reasons but if they are misconstrued, is that my problem huh?

Weird thing 3: Though I am very much an outdoor person, you will most certainly get an answer in the negative if you want me to accompany you to a party/pub/mall or any place. It takes a while to convince me (na not convincing, its persuasion) to get my lazy bum out of my house.

Weird thing 4: Nothing pisses me off more than to see people break the rules. Be it jumping the queue, or motorists using the pedestrian path to people simply ignoring the signboards when it says ‘Do not walk on the lawn’!!!. Patience is a great virtue to have but unfortunately in our country we seem to have lost it.

Weird thing 5: I am kindda scared of riding any motorized thing on wheels. Not sure why. That is one of the reasons why I took my own sweet time in getting a license in US. The 'highway accident' scene from 'Final destination' still gives me creeps. I prefer using the public transport than take the pains of negotiating through the mindless traffic in b’lore (that’s one excuse)

Weird thing 6 : The scariest ordeal that I have to go through on a 'weekday morning' is the prospect of having to apply the after-shave lotion. I always end up with minor cuts and the after-shave makes me go 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhh'. I can't avoid using it as I always see a 'asha ki kiran' ( ok its ray of hope dont bother asking me who asha and kiran are) in those advertisements which show a lady swooning over the guy who has just applied an after-shave. Wonder why it doesn't happen in real life :(

Weird thing 7: Per the rules I am supposed to tag someone but I am not doing it. Anyone reading this feels that he/she can write weird stuff about himself/herself please go ahead and tag yourself and do lemme know.

ramblings on a sunday afternoon

2007-07-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here in the boring room
It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I'm wasting my time
I got nothing to do
I'm hanging around
I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and I wonder

This song by Fools garden playing on my iTunes pretty much sums up my mood for this Sunday. Coming to the line ‘But nothing ever happens and I wonder' and deviating from the context in which it is used in the song, a few days back I had a discussion with a friend over breakfast on where we see ourselves 5-10 years down the line. Not everybody can be a unit head or someone heading a division etc etc given the number of people competing for that position. So what would happen to the multitudes of professional currently engaged in this industry? Would our career paths be abruptly stopped at some point and be stagnant? The only way to go up the ladder or carve a niche for yourself in this world would be to do something different ( what a cliche’), set up your own enterprise and foray into hitherto unknown areas, areas previously unexplored or untapped. Take for example the company mginger.com set up by a couple of professionals. They do their business by sending ads via sms’s to people who need them. Why didn’t anyone think of this idea before? I am not sure how sustainable this venture would be but there's no harm in taking a chance. Another example where one of my unit heads took up a job in a start-up which administers tests for fresh engineering graduates reducing the overhead on companies who conduct their own tests. This was also one untapped area. The other day I was watching a CNBC show named ‘Young Turks’ (and I watch it regularly). This show profiles people in their twenties and thirties who have set up their own ventures and been successful at that. Amazed to see the many business opportunities that are available only if you have any eye for it and the willingness to pursue what you think is right. As my friend and I concluded, we are happy living in our ‘own comfort zone’ to be thinking of taking risks and taking the path less traveled but then there are other factors too..........

This weekend I had a chance to witness a hindi play named ‘Bikhre Bimb’, directed by Girish Karnad at the Ranga Shankara. Although I am not heavily into watching plays and I have been to a couple of English plays before, I didn’t regret going to this play. It was a great and refreshing performance, portraying a battle of self with one’s conscience. The enactment by the solo actress Arundathi Nag was superb.

Up,up and away

2007-06-29T10:44:00.000-05:00

With the SENSEX within kissing distance from its all time high, its time to start analyzing the gains from this topsy turvy market.Its been a roller coaster ride since May, beating all speculations by the 'experts' but market sentiment like human emotion is hard to predict. In what has become a routine for me ( much like the saas-bahu serials for some of the housewives), I follow the investment programs on CNBC religiously. There's so much to look forward to. The IT sector has been underperforming and the software behemoths are priced attractively, the sugar sector has been under pressure for quite some time, the auto sector has taken quite a beating. With some encouraging news from the FM the other day, I am desperately waiting for these three sectors to pick up steam and also for the rupee to depreciate (lets keep aside patriotism for a while..:-)).The unconfirmed news about the tie up between Infy and CapGemini was interesting. The much talked about 'market crash' has been eluding everyone for quite some time now. At some point a huge correction is bound to happen and yup... I am waiting for that too :-). Funny thing this is, when you sell a stock, the price of the stock always goes up and conversely, if you don't sell one when it is at its peak, it will definitely come down. Some Murphy's law I guess which drives me nuts. Wish I could foretell when my stocks would rise and fall...if wishes were horses, beggars would fly n I certainly would have ..hehe

Vrooooooooooom....

2007-06-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

The thunderous sound of the engines reverberated in my head as I switched on the telly to watch the US grand prix last Sunday bringing back memories of my 2005 trip to Indianapolis. Though that race had a farcical finish with only 6 cars competing after the first lap because of differences between Michelin and FIA on the track safety conditions, the race nevertheless was a great experience. Nothing gets your adrenalin pumping than to see an F-1 car zooming past at speeds over 300 km/hr with ear-shattering sound. Was glad to see the iconic Schumi race to victory without much competition.

What intrigues me is the engineering and design that goes into each of these speed demons. Every minute detail and design is taken care of, be it the fuel, tires, aerodynamics of the chassis, and calculation of the different forces acting on the cars at various speeds. Being an engineer myself who once specialized in finding out how a tiny particle of mass 9.1 * 10 (to the power -31) kg could be put to various uses in our day to day lives,I can probably relate to the thrill the F-1 engineers feel when they see their babies whiz past millions of fans. Hats of the teams working behind the scenes to ensure that viewers tune in to watch every race.

St(a)(o)(u)mped!!

2007-06-23T07:19:00.000-05:00

Got my visa stamped, the proceedings over the past few days stumped me as I stomped around on the streets of Chennai. What was supposed to be ‘get on the flight-get the visa stamped-take the flight back home’ turned out to be a test of patience and an agonizingly long wait. To start with the proceedings, my IA flight got cancelled in Blore and so had to wait for 6 hours at the airport. I was lucky enough to be accommodated in the Jet Airways flight. Some people (who had visa interviews the next day) were left stranded. I was glad that I had charged my Ipod the previous day, hence spent those hours watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S and admiring the Kingfisher ladies who were all over the place. I landed in Chennai at around 1 am and was even more surprised when the air hostess announced that the temperature outside was 24 C. Chennai for me was a city where the minimum was always 30 C but this time it was as pleasant as Bangalore, no heat no humidity. Guess the heavy rains the previous day was Gods sign of telling me to change my opinion about Chennai.

I reached the consulate the next day and after the initial formalities, sat there for 3 hours waiting for my turn. It doesn’t take that long on a normal day but think I failed the patience test at the airport hence was given a second chance to prove myself. Without the cell phone and Ipod, I was handicapped but eavesdropping on the visa interviews kept me occupied. Excerpts of some interesting sessions I heard at the immigration section.

Visa Lady Officer (VLO): Do you understand English?
Middle Aged Malu(MAM) ( nodding his head up n down in a typical mallu fashion) : No

VLO clearly surprised at the nodding and his answer, repeated her question in broken accented Malayalam. Finally she got hold of a translator and repeated the questions once again

VLO : Are you married?
MAM( nodding his head sideways) : Yes
VLO: But in the visa interview earlier you said you were not married.
MAM(looking confused says to the translator) : I am not married
VLO: Do you have children?
MAM: Yes
VLO: You are not married and you have children? Why did you say that you were married earlier?
MAM(explains to the translator): I was not married when I submitted the visa application but after that I decided to marry.
VLO: Why did you lie then ? You should have said that you were married. Do you know the consequences of lying in a visa interview? You will not be allowed to set foot in the United States of America ever.
MAM( nodding): I am married but it was not legal
VLO( admire her for keeping her calm):Where did you marry? Was it in the church?
MAM: Yes it was in church
VLO:If it was in the church then its quite legal, isn’t it?
MAM ( confused) : Er..hmm…ehhh..
VLO:Okay I want you to write this in a piece of paper that you are married and you have children and sign it.

The translator helps MAM with the declaration and walks away. VLO comes and hands over the paper and says : 'I am sorry but I cannot accept this petition.You will have to apply again'. MAM walks away smiling. I bet he didn’t understand that his visa just got rejected.

There were a couple of other hilarious interviews as well. Cant help admiring the way the visa officers keep their cool. There was also one officer (looked like an Indian American) who was the cynosure of all men. She was strikingly simple yet so beautiful, probably in her thirties, wearing what looked like a sleeveless salvar and I had a good time watching people go to that counter and getting hammered by her incisive questions. One such situation I enjoyed watching

Beautiful Officer(BO): So what is your company involved in?
MiddleAgedExecutive(MAE): The company supplies cheap labour to the United States.
BO : You mean software programmers ?
MAE: No,No, workers, labourers in factories (making me wonder how different are we from them except for the perceptible color difference in our collars..:-))
BO(looking up surprised): So you supply cheap labour from India to America?? How do you do that? That doesn’t seem right..
MAE: No Maam, We are involved in supplying American laborers to American factories.
BO: Then what are you doing in India and why are you involved in this. Aren’t there any Americans to take care of this?
MAE: We support the back office operations of that company in India like staffing, HR, finance etc.

What the man intended to say was that his company supports the back office operations of the American company and he was going there for some business meetings, but ended up explaining that it was ‘his’ company that supplied the laborers from India. After some more questions/explanations/clarifications he was able to state his intentions clearly and probably got his visa. So much for overstating things. Couple of other ‘interesting’ interviews kept me engrossed and entertained during that three hour wait.

Marriage is the buzzword these days. A friend is getting married next week, another one the week after that and a third one getting married in the third week. Huh?? Most of our discussions over breakfast and lunch center around this topic with insightful experiences shared by my friends who are in the process of searching for the perfect match or have already found one. Long lost friends greet each other with the marriage dates serving as the opening line (as mentioned by a friend in his blog). Ladies get the goosebumps when papa dear declares that its time to move in legally with someone else for life. When I come across friends after a long time the first question is invariably ‘Are you married’ ? The reason I digressed from the topic was because after the officer questioned me on my stint in the United States, his last question was ‘Are you getting married anytime soon?’. Phewww...!!! Guess everyone in the United States assumes that when a desi IT guy comes back after a long stay in US, its coz he wants to get married. Even my colleagues and managers in US had popped this question. Desis are a stereotyped lot in America. Almost everyone has the same story and their lives follow a predictable pattern . More about that in another post later on.

Thought I’d end this short trip on an eventful note when I saw lots of PYT’s boarding the flight back to Bangalore. But no, the airlines would give them seats in the front, behind me, next to middle aged men but never beside me….damnn...so my dream of a ‘hum-tum’ type situation will have to wait until my next flight in the second week of July..:-)

taste of india..

2007-06-03T06:19:00.000-05:00

Hold on..I am not going to talk about my culinary skills (which seems to be the only skill left in me at present) nor am I going to speak about the ‘taste of

india

’ masalas which fill up the shelves in an American supermarket. All I'm gonna do is to write about a 33 year old band, a band famous for its rock n roll numbers, who graced Bangalore today playing in India for the first time. Yes they are the ‘Bad boys from Boston’: Aerosmith. I have been to a lot of rock concerts; Ironmaiden, Nickelback, Hoobastank, Deff Leppard, Bryan Adams, Blue Oyster Cult and there was no way I was going to miss this one. I endured an excruciating back ache and stood for more than 2hours (thanks to the painkillers..) .As much as I enjoyed the concert, the crowd management at Palace grounds left a lot to be desired (the organizers had done a pretty decent job during the maiden concert), there was confusion and chaos all around especially at the gates. We stood in the queue for atleast 1.5 hours before we finally got in, pushing our way through the crowd and gasping for air. Aerosmith came on to the stage and started off with, quite predictably, a song dedicated to the nation: Taste of India. They followed this up with Love in an Elevator, Living on the Edge, Dream On, Sweet Emotion, Jaded, Falling in Love. Steven Tyler’s histrionics on stage invited cheers from the crowd. In his trademark style, he jumped around swaying the microphone and at one point removed his shirt to reveal ‘Lick me’ painted across his abdomen. Joe Perry enthralled the spectators with his amazing guitar riffs and his comments "We need to thank India for giving something to the world, I am not talking about the snake charmers, the elephant rides or the stuff you put on your hands, But we need to thank India for giving the world the Kamasutra. After all we are all here for messing around” and he broke into the song ‘Messing Around’. The crowd consisted of young and old alike with a good number of PYT's..( i guess the best of bangalore had assembled there ;))

During the song 'Sweet Emotion', Joe Perry played an instrument known as the theremin.Never seen anyone play such an instrument.It was great to see the crowd sing along as Aerosmith sang one of my favorites: Crying. I absolutely love the video featuring the beautiful Alicia Silverstone. How many guys would relate to this song…I bet you throw a stone into a crowd and five times out of ten, it would hit a guy who would echo the following lines:

There was a time
When I was so broken hearted
Love wasn't much of a friend of mine
The tables have turned, yeah
'Cause me and them ways have parted
That kind of love was the killin' kind
Now listen
All I want is someone I can't resist
I know all I need to know by the way that I got kissed

I was cryin' when I met you
Now I'm tryin' to forget you
Love is sweet misery
I was cryin' just to get you
Now I'm dyin' cause I let you
Do what you do -……..

They walked off the stage signaling the end of the show only to return amidst the roars “We want more’ from the crowd. The band came back on stage to perform another favorite ‘I don’t wanna miss a thing’

Wonder why people dislike this genre of music. There are different ways of conveying your feelings and emotions and this just happens to be one way of doing that. Probably these songs can be sung in a more ‘refined’, ‘classical’ ,’soothing-to-ones-ears’ kindda way but this is a different genre altogether. So I have given up on the ‘reasoning’ part as to why I like this music when I discuss this with my friends. Metallica is embarking on a world tour soon and I have a hunch that they would stop by, and that would be their first appearance in India. Hope they do land here and I get to see another one of my favorite bands. Till then ..\,,/

the haircut

2007-05-26T18:28:00.001-05:00

I woke up this morning determined to get a haircut. After going through the normal weekend routine of brushing, reading the papers and eating scrambled eggs, I sat down to catch a glimpse of the morning news on the telly. It was already 12 in the noon as I switched on to one of my favorite channels VH1. They had a program named Anthem weekend going on, so thought of watching some songs before heading off to ‘put my scalp under the blade’. Those ‘some’ songs proved to be quite a handful as the channel played some of my all time rock favs. I took the liberty of letting my hair grow for another two hours. How could one venture out when a channel plays some of the best anthems that this genre has to offer. The roster of songs that were played included
Nothing Else matters(Metallica) ;November Rain(Guns n Roses) ;Dancing in the Dark(Bruce Springsteen) ;We will rock you(Queen) ;Another brick in the wall(Pink Floyd) ;Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams) ;Zombie(The Cranberries); Kashmir(Led Zep) ;I want to break free(Queen); Staying Alive(Bee Gees) ;Everybody wants to rule the world(Tears for Fears) ;Free Falling (Tom Peters); Janie’s got a gun(Aerosmith); Money for nothing(Dire Straits); In the End(Linkin Park); Smells like Teen spirit(Nirvana); Fields of Gold(Sting) ;Where the Streets have no name(U2); Cats in the Cradle(Ugly Kid Joe); We didn’t start the fire(Billy Joel )

When the channel moved over to hip hop after two hours of excellent music, I decided to go for the haircut only to find the shop closed. Nothing is more frustrating than walking all the way up to the shop in this sun, only to find it closed. Speaking of haircuts reminds me of Peter’s hair salon in Downtown Milwaukee. The 30min appointments were often spent discussing various topics ranging from politics to business, countries n cultures to hobbies and also Indian movies and actresses!!. Armed with a PDA, the hairstylist at the salon used to take down appointments and worked eight-ten hours in a five-six day week. He even had an explanation for why he shut shop on Mondays during certain times of the year. Apparently in his 20 years in this profession, he collated the figures for the appointments on each day of the week for all the twelve months and found that on Mondays (certain months), there were fewer appointments, hence he decided to take the day off. The guy owns a RV (recreational vehicle), canoe and a cabin. He gave me tips on ice fishing, fly fishing, and how to invest in government bonds and treasury bills and save a fortune. Bush Bashing, plight of US industries facing the onslaught of cheap Chinese imports, terrorism, global warming, and the weather in Milwaukee were some of the other topics which were touched upon during these sessions. After his 15 day European vacation (!!!), he narrated his experiences. Where would you find a sophisticated, well read, never-out-of-topics and well informed hair dresser. He doesn’t even charge exorbitantly…15$ is kindda ok when the lowest price you can get , that too with a student ID, is around 7-10 $. Compare this with the barber near my house who charges 25 Rs and the Shahnaz’s and other salons who charge nothing less than 300 Rs.
I asked him once, “Peter, doesn’t it get monotonous doing the same job 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 300 odd days over 20 years “and he replied “It does get monotonous hence I spice up my life by talking to people when they come in for appointments, pursuing my passions, interests and taking a break once in a while.” How wretched is my life !!

rain,rain go away

2007-05-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

A heavy downpour is usually looked forward to in the hot months of May-June in these parts of the world but the downpour also brings with it its own share of problems. Its heaven’s way of testing how well a city’s infrastructure can cope with a surprise cloudburst. And more often than not, most cities in India fail this test very badly and namma bengaluuru is no exception. The aftereffects : inundated roads, overflowing drains and errant traffic. It rained heavily today and I had a difficult time getting back from the bus stop to my house. Had to wade through knee-deep water near my house, came home completely drenched. The Rain God chose a very inappropriate day and time to open up the floodgates: Friday evening !! Hope the rain doesn’t play spoilsport during the weekend. I missed the rains last year when most parts of Bangalore were submerged. Looks like we are in for some flooding this year too, and the monsoon hasn’t even started yet. The rains have brought down the temperatures to a level which makes my friends in north, west and east , go green with envy.

another year older..

2007-05-14T09:09:00.001-05:00

'Another year older, another year wiser’: comforting words for someone who is approaching a bench mark in a couple of years; an age when you are supposed to have completed a certain number of things and you have a list of ‘things-which-should-not-be-done’ at this age as well. The thought of transitioning from a Vicenarian to a Tricenarian (terms learnt courtesy wikipedia) gives me creeps…but Hellllll…..I got time….why am I complaining. The worst part about celebrating birthdays after you cross 25 is that you start to dread every year, contemplate on things you have missed, decide on things which have to be done, tunes of ‘wish I could turn back time’ ring in your head and questions like ‘how old are you now’ make you sulk. But as someone said ‘Age is a very high price you pay for maturity’.

Surprises liven up a day especially birthdays. It is a surprise when you get wishes from friends and you never expected them to wish you and it is also a surprise when friends who know you well don’t wish you :-). Thanks to the new wave called orkutting, wishes kept pouring in. To summarize everything I feel about opening up another chapter of my life: ‘Off late I appear to have reached that stage when people who look old are only my age’. Another quote I came across 'We know we're getting old when the only thing we want for our birthday is not to be reminded of it'. Winding up this write up with a beautiful song by Ozzy..

I was looking back on my life
And all the things I've done to me
I'm still looking for the answers
I'm still searching for the key
The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me
It just won't leave me alone
I still find it all a mystery
Could it be a dream?
The Road To Nowhere leads to me
Through all the happiness and sorrow
I guess I'd do it all again
Live for today and not tomorrow
It's still the road that never ends

fly,fly away..

2007-05-11T07:31:00.000-05:00

....came across this ad. This speaks of the competition that has been unleashed in Indian skies off late. There has been a deluge of airlines in recent times namely Indian Airlines, Jet, Kingfisher, Spicejet, GoAir,Paramount,Air Deccan,Indigo and a couple more. The entry of private players has brought down the prices , increased connectivity between cities, and reduced travel time. Flying is no longer a luxury. Hope the day is not far when all the major towns in India are connected with greater frequency of flights. With Vijay Mallya in the news for all the good reasons, the airlines industry has got its share of glamour too. Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher seems to be India's answer to Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic....and a peep into the luxurious interiors of the Airbus A380 ( courtesy the news channels) indicates that the 'high income'/'company-sponsored' traveller is in for a treat in the skies ( of course the common junta will have to be satisfied with the 'economy' class..)

kerala darshan

2007-04-17T04:43:00.001-05:00

Ever since I landed in Bangalore, I have been yearning for a break from work and this place. I finally got a chance to break the monotony of my humdrum existence when I went to attend a wedding in my native place. I was visiting Kerala after a gap of four years and I was very much looking forward to this trip. It was wonderful meeting my cousins and relatives after so many years, some after 5-10 years. By now I was accustomed to hearing the exclamations and statements like ‘You have changed’,’ you have gained weight’ and the most banal comment ‘you haven’t changed!!!’.I was kindda prepared for this and was planning to carry a ‘Before 2003’ and ‘After 2006’ snap to prove that my appearance has indeed changed; a bit of flesh added to my face and flab at the wrong places.

I have always enjoyed visiting Kerala (visiting and not living). Having spent most of my life outside God’s own country (except for four years of engineering when I was in Kerala), I used to relish the once-in-two-years summer vacation trips to my grandparents place. The place has a rustic charm to it, something you won’t find in other parts of the country. The lush green landscape mostly covered with coconut trees and paddy fields, the small rivers which adorn the countryside, the sight of fishermen going about their daily chores, the enchanting aroma of spices, the hustle and bustle of the local market, and waking up to the melodious tunes of temple bhajans in the morning are some of the treasured memories of that place. Other memories of my summer sojourns include running around rubber trees, literally, collecting ‘milk’. Each rubber tree has a small bowl clamped to its stem, and the latex collects in this bowl drip by drip after the bark is given a small cut(left pic). The milk is then poured into flat trays, allowed to settle and condense for a couple of days, flattened into thin sheets by passing it between two rollers and then the sheets are baked by placing it in the sun or over chimneys. The blackened sheets are then turned over to the rubber merchants for further processing. Since our house was located on a slope, I used to walk around the place picking up pineapples(right pic), coffee beans(left pic), jackfruits (right pic), fallen coconuts, cashew nuts(left pic), pepper, mangoes, and bananas on the way. The brook across the road was the perfect place to beat the sweltering tropical heat. All said and done, I would still prefer to go there occasionally rather than think of settling down. The heat, water problem, attitude of the people etc are not exactly to my liking.

But Kerala is unique in its own way, its people, and its culture. A typical malayali is often spotted with a ubiquitous umbrella, which comes handy in sun n shade, is mundu clad complete with a moustache. Ohhh yes, this has been a topic of intense discussion with my elders in Kerala since I don’t sport one. To my rescue, the present generation of youngsters bought up in Kerala is also clean shaven; hence I get away with the ‘you-don’t-have-a-moustache’ remarks. Temples form an important part of a keralite’s life.. They do make it a point to visit the temple a couple of times in a week. Every temple is unique in some way. I used to have a hard time figuring out the different customs followed in temples, like circling around the deity (but in certain temples you are not required to do the full circle), restriction on wearing shirts/ trousers inside the temple premises (supposed to wear the traditional mundu instead) and other rituals. The age old, stonewalled temples in Kerala have a distinctive feel to it particularly the fragrance of sandalwood paste, burning oil lamps, and incense sticks.Eating is one other activity a keralite would gleefully indulge in. Onam & Vishu: two important hindu festivals are…well… also days of gluttony. Sumptuous sadya’s (a traditional meal with five or more items) are laid out as mallus revel in these days of excesses. I have always savored these meals and on my last trip to Kerala, had more than mouthful of my favorite dishes. It was a welcome break and I am very much looking forward to my next trip.
[PS: All snaps photographed by yours truly...]

frailty,thy name is.....

2007-04-03T04:36:00.001-05:00

Strange is this world and its ways. Confusion and uncertainty are some of the perils that people are wary of and with a reason. There is nothing more frustrating than having to go through a phase where confusion abounds, silence reigns, questions left unanswered and you are faced with an emotionless barrier. Life has been hunky dory for more than 25 years and matters of the heart have always ended on a happy note, atleast for people around me. Deceit, lies, change in attitudes, putting up with mood swings, irrational behavior were best confined to the idiot box and the silver screen, in the countless soap operas and movies which portrayed a facet of womanhood, albeit the nastier side. But life has this amazing way of making you experience everything; the joy of companionship, the ecstasy of relationship, the pain of aloofness and the frustration of dealing with a stoic egoist. Drawing from what my friends told me recently about their experiences with women, I cant help but reiterate some ‘facts’ I had written sometime back in this post. They will remain an enigma for ages to come.

One incident a friend happened to share with me. He met one of his childhood friends after a long time. They started as ‘good friends’ and he wasn’t looking for a relationship per se even after the lady’s confession that she had started ‘liking’ him. But as time flew by, they came close, they gotto know a lot about each other and eventually he couldn't resist her advances. It was a commitment, unsaid and unwritten. Couple of months later he was startled by the woman’s revelation that she was still in love with one of her ex-flames. Hurt as he was but they still continued as good friends, they were still close sans the ‘romance factor’. It so happened that the relationship with her ex-boyfriend did not work out either. Poetic justice? One fine day, he is even more stunned when the lady decides to call off the ‘friendly’ relationship and no reasons were given thereof. Numerous attempts to renew the relation were met with silence, a dead obstinate wall of silence. It’s difficult to believe that somebody can make/break a relationship, even if its friendship, per her whims with absolutely no regard for the other person’s feelings.Sounds filmy? How about a case where a lady called off her marriage, post engagement, over an inane reason. She didn’t even bother to realize the gravity of the situation. Common sense prevailed over her and she apologized after two days. It was hard to see my friend go through this ordeal. Yet another friend wasn’t lucky enough. He had informed everybody, invitations were sent and then the lady flatly refused to tie the knot. I am not aware why this happened but a couple of years later, when he got married to another gal, he made sure that the news of his marriage got to his friends only after the event took place.

There were other incidents too involving some of my friends, which further accentuated the fact that no man can understand a woman completely; a fact even acknowledged by my lady friends. You cannot make anything out in the first couple of meetings; probably you can gauge her thoughts after some months of courtship but even then there would always be a ‘corridor of uncertainty’, something about her which would be revealed only in due course of time. This is not to generalize or fabricate an opinion about women. These may be one off cases which came to my notice in recent times. To quote a friend “We women, are bitches, you can cajole us, impress us, shower us with gifts and flowers, but it doesn’t take us that long to have second thoughts in a relationship.” This may not be true for everyone but you will be one unlucky chap if you come across one......
[PS : The sketch is the result of googling :)]

Scream for me …Bangaloreeee

2007-03-19T02:48:00.001-05:00

was all Bruce Dickenson had to say as the crowd went into a frenzy screaming at the top of their voices. If the Ironmaiden concert in Chicago was a breeze, the concert in Bangalore was a storm in all its fury. In Chicago, Maiden had played all the songs from their latest album and very few classics. This did not go down well with the crowd as they were not able to sing along. Thankfully, this was not repeated in Bangalore as Maiden fans got to hear the old favs, songs we have been listening to since ages. The crowd took part to a greater extent in this concert as 25000 plus fans screamed, headbanged and sang along as Maiden belted out chartbusters like Fear of the Dark, Hallowed be thy name,2 Minutes to Midnight, Run to the Hills, The Evil that men do and The number of the beast along with songs from their latest album. Few highlights of this concert included the chanting of ‘ohh ..ooo..oohhh’ in unison when tunes of Fear of the Dark wafted across, the sudden rush of adrenaline as they sang The Number of the Beast , the near-stampede situation when a section of the crowd pushed forward hoping to see their idols at close quarters and the light of thousand mobile phones flickering as the heavy metal Gods came onto the stage. The opening acts FTN and Lauren Harris weren’t impressive and were greeted with hoots from the Maiden-thirsty crowd. Parikrama came on to the stage amidst cheers from all quarters and they gave a stupendous performance singing most of their original compositions (including my favourite But it rained). The vocalist was too excited for words as he kept on repeating ‘this is the best f***ing day of my life’. This was one of the best concerts I have attended so far and at the end of the day, after standing for 5 hours; I was left with sore legs, an aching neck, and croaky throat.
The next day I met a friend and when I described my concert experience, she asked me ‘why the hell do you listen to songs glorifying Satan’…well some songs do praise the dead and the devil, some lyrics are dark and gloomy; but at times when you feel that life is frustrating, people don’t seem to behave the way you expect them to, tune into some heavy music and release your pent up feelings by singing along; at least you will have the band for company. For once during those two hours I forgot the life I had been living off late and purged myself of some forgetful memories.
Up the irons and to quote Bruce ‘You will live to tell your children and grand children that you have attended a Maiden concert ‘…

back home!!

2007-02-14T10:18:00.000-06:00

After 22 months in a foreign land, I finally got a chance to return to the land of my ancestors. The welcome back home was indeed warm, literally, as the temperatures hovered around +30 C, a far cry from the – 20 C something in Milwaukee. The start to the journey wasn’t exactly smooth. My flight from Milwaukee was delayed by an hour and then the plane was taxied on the runaway for almost 1.5 hours. The journey to Chicago which normally takes 30 mins by plane and 90 mins by road took 130 mins from the time the plane left the terminal, prompting the flight attendant to comment that this was her longest flight till date.
I landed in Delhi at around 8.30pm on Sunday. I had a 16 hour stopover at Delhi and the experience there wasn’t exactly what I expected out of an international airport and that too in the capital city. Nobody knew how to get to the domestic terminal from the international terminal. There was an empty facilitation desk and the Indian Airlines kiosk was unmanned too. The only way, I was told, to get to the domestic terminal was to hire a cab or ‘chorahe tak chal k e jao and bus no 714 pe chado’. My response ‘dude, look at my luggage, how do you think I will board a bus, Isn’t there an inter terminal shuttle?’ and the guy gave me a blank stare. Finally I came across a good Samaritan who directed me to the inter terminal transit lounge which was inconspicuously located right after the Customs desk. Some pointers to the lounge by way of signs would have been of immense help. In the lounge, I met other passengers who shared the same tale. Somehow my experience at the Bombay international airport was far better. And as if to prolong my miseries, I had to run from pillar to post the next day to get my baggage checked in for the domestic flight. The official refused to acknowledge the fact that I was traveling on an international connecting flight and I was entitled to carry more than the stipulated 30 kg (the limit on domestic flights). In spite of showing him my international boarding pass, he failed to understand and directed me to the Desk manager. After a lot of explaining, common sense prevailed over the official and he checked in my baggage. The best part in Delhi was I gotto spend a couple of hours with a school friend of mine and I was meeting her after 10 years!!
It’s great being home and with it comes the change in lifestyle. Not that it would take aeons to adapt to the new environment but it’s a change nevertheless. Things which I came across in the first few hours of landing: reach out for the paper napkins after washing my hands, open the fridge hoping to find a Tropicana or some soda, receive calls on my cell and think about the incoming charges and wish that calls in India were free after 9 pm and on weekends. It took a couple of minutes to get acclimatized to the bumpy roads, incessant honking, and zig zag traffic. I can hear the murmurs, so what if he has returned from the states; he was born and brought up in India so he shouldn’t be grumbling. That’s absolutely true; hence I was able to complete the ‘metamorphosis’ in a matter of hours. Bangalore will be different than how I left it 2 years ago. Many of my friends are happily married now and others have moved out of Blore. Adapting and settling down would take a couple of days.
The time spent in Milwaukee was fun, more so coz I had some good company around. Couple of memories associated with that place
- frantic planning for the long weekends and some wonderful trips ( camping, trekking et al)
- lunch/dinner invitations and the sumptuous food at a friends place
- the various culinary exploits at home
- beating our heads over why every guy in US, even a weirdo, has a girlfriend. (One obvious explanation was that the number of pretty gals outnumbered the males.) And discussions on various other topics: the roads, infrastructure, social benefits, lifestyle dollar value etc etc
- an insightful postmortem of relationships and women in general, with a friend of mine.
- the fri/sat night parties, the disc/pub hopping, the once-in-a-month clandestine journey to a far away land… (I was not very active in all these but I used to chug along at times.)
- the endless walk by the lakeside on weekends with my thoughts and words for company.
- the snow, tennis, summerfest, women, beer are the things m gonna miss…

Hoping to land in Milwaukee once again. And sooner.

the year that wasn't

2007-01-03T21:12:00.000-06:00

Had scribbled a few lines sometime back... the sloth in me then took control of the mental faculties, forcing me to repeatedly click on the 'Save to Drafts' tab. Breaking free from the shackles of inertia, and collating my thoughts below :
31/12/2006:
How do you expect the last day of the year to be..bright, sunny,lively ? But alas that was not to be. I woke up this morning to the sight of rain . A thick veil of fog engulfed the atmosphere descending a pale of gloom and the absence of life on the streets made it more morose. It felt much like a day of mourning. What a way to end this year!!. Emotions of the human mind often manifests itself in nature and the day pretty much summed up the way I felt about the year gone by. Ephemeral moments of happiness coupled with despairing thoughts, plunging me into the depths of obscurity, leaving me groping in the dark for answers, and at times questioning my raison d'etre. But life's not without its share of contentment and cherished moments . It has been a mixed bag of sorts. Following a pattern, incidentally the 'even' numbered years haven't gone that well for me, save for 98'. I am starting to dread these years.
1/1/2007:
How do you expect the first day of the year to be...bright, sunny, lively? And that was exactly what nature had in store for me as I woke up to the sight of the shining sun. The day felt great , a far cry from yesterday, rekindling hopes, propelling me to take on life with renewed vigour. This is what they call 'the perfect start' to the year. Hope this is not transitory.

its december !!

2006-12-24T00:05:00.001-06:00

The year is drawing to a close. Its the Christmas weekend and relieved to get a four day break from work. Most of my friends have gone on a 20 hour drive to Texas !! I bunked .I d rather enjoy the solitude in the confines of my apartment than break my back sitting in the car for 40 hours !!

December has been a see saw month for me, a potpourri of emotions, surprises, achievements, trials and tribulations. Every week has sprung surprises galore. One of the surprises has been the deluge of marriage invitations from my friends .Everyone seems to be in the mood to tie the knot. Whats with December ? Is it that the month sun, moon, stars and planets are perfectly aligned , a sign for the couples to take the vows of holy matrimony ? Something related to the laws of procreation ? Availability of marriage halls !!!?? Or is it zimbly my idle mind conjuring up incoherent thoughts ? Maybe marriages take place every month, may be its coincidental that many of my friends have decided to take the plunge at the same time. Among the guys getting married include my roommate from college , my roommate in Bangalore, two of my office colleagues, couple of college friends. Happy married life guys....

Another little surprise that nature has in store for me as I look through my window (its 12.02 am on 24th Dec) is the prospect of having a snow'less' Christmas.This is my third Xmas in US and in all probability we will have some colour around instead of the thick white sheet which engulfs the entire town.

2005
Memorial Day weekend :Smokey mountain trip
Thanksgiving weekend : Vegas trip
Xmas & New year weekend : At home

Circa 2006.. the destinations remain the same...talk about monotony in one's life...

December has made me go through an entire gamut of emotions, some dreadful, some ecstatic, some decisions which I regret and some which I will regret. Haunting memories of the past manifests itself once again in my present, inexplicable thoughts and subjugated feelings...I loathe December and this solitude....wish I could fade into oblivion....