stoned

finishing up with final report for client...4.25am...i want my mummmmmy.... :(

man overboard!

Its just one of those days. Nothing untoward about it. The usual grind, except that some days the word gets a l'il too literal. Fragmented thoughts. Thinking about the work deliverable while trying to concentrate on the training assignment on hand. Tying up the loose ends on the current assignment. Also the new assignment starting up and the related trip. Not forming a complete thought at any stage, whizzing between all the sundries, without a momentary pause. The mind, wearing down as each blurred thought ends in a cul-de-sac, then restarts, wheels spinning, a tortured engine being made to roar and then brought to a crunching halt, asked to reverse direction. making rasping protests about the pointlessness of the demands being made. In the backdrop of all the tumult...the wisp of the thought that its all momentary...that what really matters is there...reassuringly so...and you know how central this person is... to your functioning...your sanity...your life...

spurt

Almost been a week since I last posted. Not that I've ever been religious about posting my own brand of balderdash online. Read an article a fortnight or so ago in TOI about how there were approximately 3 million posts added every second to blogosphere. This article was about how the web let the unitiated and the clueless post their half-baked and mostly ludicrous opinions online, overwhelming, with sheer numbers, all credible sources of information (the use of the word 'information' immediately excused my scribbles from the maligned pack :). True that there lies a potential for misuse of 'free-speech' by lets say paid bloggers extolling the virtues of products that while packaged to appear like cars/consumer durables/electronic items are in reality round, yellow and sour...namely lemons.

Thats not to say that .coms with a reputation for candid reviews don't sell their souls. cnet.com being one such example, up until a couple of years ago that site would be my go-to for reviews on any new laptop/cell phone/thingamajig. Then it went through a revamp post-broadband where the site was suddenly only about ads in streaming video that played inexorably before taking you to the contents. The real-estate on the site too went through major overhauls with sponsor logos sliding and pirouetting all over the place. The reviews started to get suspect when a couple of laptops I'd seen in action and knew to be expensive paper-weights (and extremely weighty ones at that) were rated as 'Outstanding' with the 'Editor's Choice' accreditation and everything while some very decent models were panned. Today, you see prominent 'Advertisement' panels with makers like Dell and HP right under articles called 'Cnets top ten laptops'...and they're not lying, they are certainly their top ten. Only means more work for the likes of me when it comes to tft-matrix-shopping (as opposed to window) shopping for the latest 9MP reality-captured-breathtakingly-onto-screen monster from Canon(oh yeah...)/Nikon(umm..ok...am listening)/Sony(yeah right!)

Damn! so much keyboard diarrhoea...must be the hangover from singing along to 'chubte kaaten yaadon ke...daaman se...chunta hoon...' in the car on my way home yesterday...god bless ipods and audio-in jacks in car stereos...

meter down...stay down

you see them all the time...mostly in bunches at strategic locations...sometimes the odd solitary ones in the far reaches. fairly docile...non-threatening.. until you do the unspeakable. and you dont necessarily realise the folly of your ways at first. coz they maintain that laid-back demeanour...positively sopophoric. then you approach a crossroads...not the figurative, but the literal kind. they sidle up...on either side...sorta the precursor to the pincer move made popular by the...umm...pincers?

so they're on either side...and the caravan..like some smoke-belching millipede inches forward...its legs rippling forward in sequential movement. but there's something not quite right...the distance on either side seems to've diminished. you do some quick mental math involving some extrapolation and it doesn't compute...three bodies can't occupy the same space at the same time...unless...thats when it occurs to you...you look at their sides...scarred...fissured...beaten tin foil has better finish..and you think of the mirrored polished mirror-like feel...the sculpted jewel headlamps. you sense the complete disregard...the stony gaze tells you that here is something to be feared...something with nothing to lose...and coz you can't even bear the thought of seeing those scars on your beloved...

so you apply pressure with your right ankle...followed by your left...your left hand follows...you downshift..and let them squeeze by...frikkin' cabbies!

Naggon motherships and spaceman Spiff

1. A voice cackles in his radio. "Enemy Fighters at two o'clock". The taciturn response "Roger, What should i do until then?"

2. The valiant spaceman Spiff is led by his captors to a secret dungeon to be debriefed. Little do they realize that our hero doesn't wear briefs *evil smirk*

3. Looking at his dinner..."Can i have a different plate mom?, somebody puked on mine"

4. "Life should be like TV. All problems should be solved in 30 minutes with simple homilies. Weight and oral hygiene should be the biggest concerns. We should all have powerful, high-paying jobs and fancy sports cars. Women should alwayswear tight clothes and men should carry powerful handguns. Life overall should bemore glamourous, thrill-packed, and filled with applause"....*deep thought*..."Of course,if life was really like that, what would we watch on TV?!"

and the biggest pearl of wisdom...

5. "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want...

Every now and again, I dip into voluminous tomes of knowledge to extract life-lessons...and rarely do you come across as many as in this work of excellence..."The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book". Thanks S. Been a long time since I laughed this hard while flipping pages, except when leafing through brochures at the Honda showroom and looking at EMIs payable.

Been an eventful week what with Navratri and all the associated joys of loudspeakers and loud gujju music accompanied with hundreds of gaudily dressed individuals jostling shoulder-to-shoulder moving in some semblance of rhythm to the pious tunes of "Thandi hawa bhi khilaaf Sasuri..." . Of course, it can't all be song and dance, so there was my first major presentation to the president of HR. Also, I now have my own hunk of metal to contribute to all the greenhouse gases and global toasting (no, not a honda, but from the quintessential indo-jap small-car maker...the swift. Will undoubtedly have more to say about it once I've had the chance to do more than use it as temporary accomodation while idling in traffic. And if things go completely awry (read: if S has her way), might even end up with a name for it.

For now, gotta go get started on that electrified barbed wire fence made of titanium alloy around my ride...

bulwark: support, buttress, mainstay

Earlier this week India were in a position that the 'experts' announced to be 'back-to-the-wall' with two must-win games in order to qualify for the finals of the DLF cup. Lot of hoopla about the tremendous pressure of the knock-out games. But doesnt it automatically follow from losing league games that you aren't good enough to actually win the tournament?

I was blissfully unaware of all of this (shocks you to know i don't follow every ball bowled, live and in repeat telecast?, i'm weird that way. will wake up at 4am to catch an ashes test match but can't be bothered by the formulaic one-days we're usually involved in) when a member of our office staff came to the client's office i was at to drop off some documents and mentioned nonchalantly that we were sixty odd for five. Piqued my curiosity enough to have a look at the score-card. #10 was out there with one of the young turks. Treating it as a 'set-piece' as they call it in soccer, I just wondered how he'd deal with it. Said to myself that here was a challenge. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't thinking that his aura depended on his scoring a big hundred in this situation. I've spent too much time playing this game to know that there are too many factors not in your control that determine your performance. But I was certainly willing him on to take charge and to control the innings to get the most out of the lower order. Later saw that we'd ended at 160 odd and he'd scored 40% of the runs (he has on average scored that amount of the teams runs over the duration of his career) and been runout at the non-striker's end in the most unfortunate circumstance (ball deflecting off the bowler's hand after a straight-drive from the batsman)

The point? All runs aren't created equal. Its all very well to go out there belt the bowling around when the track's hard and flat and the outfield's grease. Its when there's something in it for the second-class citizens of the game; the bowlers, the men separate themselves from the boys. Statistically speaking, the 65 won't have much of an impact on a record with more international centuries than that. He knows it. Just like the noughts won't make a dent in the averages of the likes of Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj in all fifty other games they'll play this year on tracks like strips of concrete. Its that willingness to dig in and play what might not be your natural game just so the team score can advance to something resembling respectability. Compare that to a Dhoni who came, swatted three fours and left with a swish of his brylcreemed locks...no harm done to his 'swashbuckling-attacking-batsman' image but utility to the team...zero. Sachin would get many more rave reviews by playing with complete abandon, scoring crisp and aesthetic 30s and 40s and taking what the track gives him than taking upon himself the task of keeping India in the game.

Its probably why the likes of Ponting, Mcgrath and co still rate him far above the rest donning blue...probably because they realise more than most that while there are people on the India teamsheet who can hurt them on their day, aberrations much like the vagaries of the weather that you plan for by carrying an umbrella, there is only one true opponent that they need to fear, the guy who's willing to look ungainly in defense on two-paced pitches (and therefore leave himself open to being 'expertly' dissected by the 'experts' on how age is having a say about his reflexes) only to make sure that his team bats that much longer to score those additional dozen runs that might make all the difference. They know they're not up against a batsman, but a cricketer. They know India's (only true) Batting Mainstay is a worthy opponent, whether in form or out of it.

Religion: None

One man somewhere quoted something, and in another part of the world, a woman was shot dead. No telling how many more will be by the time the whole 'the pope dissed islam' fiasco blows over. Now, this is the kind of thing, my brain cells would steer waaaay clear of...by that I mean anything to do with the R word. Now, I'm way underqualified in terms of ability to comment but wasn't the whole point of religion to help us humans deal with the insecurities and other associated crap that comes from being..well...human?! I reckon that its caused more problems than it ever addressed. And for those who're puffing out your righteous cheeks to say how its the infinitesimally minor delinquent element that ruins it for the rest of us, you haven't seen mobs of seemingly 'normal' people pelt rocks at an apartment building with a name that could've been mentioned in certain holy books. Nor have you seen the landscape dotted with bonfires, except that those are homes that have been set fire to by their neighbours. And when you see a girl barely in her teens running as fast as she can with her l'il bro in tow, with blood streaming from her nose, the sheer terror in her face only too apparent, you just wonder if being pagan barbarians might actually be an improvement.

bear eats packer!

Over the weekend and the early part of the week, Roger Federer won the US Open...ya thats a surprise, Australia beat WI in cricket...yaaaawn and the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers...yeah ok WHAT?!

Since images of the game from North America called football that's played by clutching the footlong seed-shaped 'ball' in your hands aren't beamed to tubes this side of the equator, online sources of information would have me believe that the motley bunch from the windy city blanked the green and gold packers (26-0). with number 4 as their QB! in Lambeau Field (Packer stronghold in the heart of Green Bay)! Holy mother of ###!

A team that had trouble getting on the board did that to a team that had for all of the last decade, beat them with disdain! Something's not right with the world! Brett Favre (the #4) suffered his first shutout in his decade long career. (This is the guy that appears in 'There's something about Mary' right at the very end as Miss Diaz's long lost love).

Ok, for some perspective, imagine Kenya coming to India, beating India in the Chinnaswamy with jammy at the helm...yeah...its like that...except unlikelier

The throwback to Monday night primetime sports television reminds me what a seamlessl marriage entertainment and professional sports have in the US. There are mainly three major sports with varying popularity depending on the state you're in; Basketball, Baseball and Football. The season for each scheduled so they clash with the other. In fact, one starts up just when the other reaches its 'World Championship' climax. The duration and formats tuned to perfection to last just long enough to hold the user's attention with the right number of commercial breaks (mainly to give you a chance to do precisely two things: take a restroom break, refill on beer + assorted high-carb deep-fried snacks) The networks have programmed the average american so well, that it was discussed in consumer behaviour class how the water levels in any given city tank show a step-function decrease, each coinciding with commercial breaks in the middle of a game. Of course...not the best news for the companies pumping in millions to buy those ad-spots. If you happen to be at one of these games, there's freebie give-aways, lucky seat no. draws and aaah...the cheerleaders.

Compare that to the experience of watching the likes of Mohinder Amarnath and Maninder Singh babble away about "aur ye shaandar shaat...cccchar run!" interspersed with vajradanti ads that ensure you return to live coverage to see one team celebrating, what, you can catch that in the papers the next day. Of course, then there's the pre-game shows with Mandira Bedi and more nauseating nonsense. But then you decide to catch the action yourself and you're faced with queues lasting 3-4 hours as they frisk you for that safety pin that you might use to hold the stadium full of 40,000 people hostage. Not to mention large uncovered sections of concrete that serve as seats for the majority.

The difference simply lies in power of the 'supplier' versus that of the 'buyer'. Like the guest speaker in Advertising class said "Am sure all cricket-lovers hated the world-cup coverage, but we knew you had to come to us, we're a monopoly". If abc started showing '51 ways to bliss with origami' before a football game, the people would just load their 4X4s and go camping...

My Music

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

Early morning, April 4th
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love...

One song that's unfailingly sent the adrenaline or whatever chemicals cause your blood to course through your body at a slightly faster-than-usual rate. What's missing in the typed rendition of the song is the voice that can only be Bono and the humming at the end of it, that's well, ethereal.

People talk about their taste in music by reeling off genres, Progressive-Alternative-Punk-HipHop-Reggae-SleazeFest-DisguisedPorn etc. Ok, the last two might not be actual genres, but when you rely more on the visual than the sound to identify music..you gotta give them different names.

I've never really known what my genres are, just that certain songs and bands I could listen to for hours on end, some as interesting background scores as I labour through assignments/work, mainly anything remotely productive, some to rouse from semi-comatose states resulting from excessive amounts of sleep-deprivation or alcohol or both. And yeah, sometimes just to let the vibrations coming off the windows and other assorted paraphernalia wash over you...therapeutic almost.

So, there's the above mentioned band that created this masterpiece in tribute to Martin Luther King except that they've acknowledged how the line should be Early evening, April 4th since thats when he was assassinated. It doesn't stop there though, how they managed to capture the most powerful emotions that us humans can possibly experience onto thin discs of highly fragile material, is beyond comprehension. (U2)

And then there's the band that was the stereotypical rock band of the 70s. Alcohol, Drugs, infamous backstage 'groupie nights'. When it was almost like an honour badge to have members of your band hospitalised with alcohol poisoning and drug overdoses. But to be at your peak, and then to lose one member to the above and having your drummer lose an arm in an accident would finish off most bands. This one not only came back stronger, they also stuck with the same drummer! The movie on their story shows how an emotional band took the stage on their comeback tour and then proceeded the rock the daylights out of the crowd. (Def Leppard)

There are other bands, brilliant ones, with sensational songs...here's my top ten..or what i can think of at this moment:

10. Ye hai meri kahaani - Strings
9. Brilliant Disguise - Bruce Springsteen
8. Coming back to life - Pink Floyd
7. Deuces are wild - Aerosmith
6. Vindicated - Dashboard Confessionals
5. Bad - U2
4. When love and hate collide - Def Leppard
3. Hysteria - Def Leppard
2. Where the streets have no name - U2
1. Pride (In the name of love) - U2

inhale

Bright sunshine. Fresh-cut grass. Not the noon kinda bright where you sense that trickle of sweat run down your armpit into the waistband of your trousers. This is more the early evening sunlight that's not quite as hot. Then there's the expanse of green, not lush or gently billowing in the breeze...but more the index length tufty kind thats spread evenly across a clear tract of land, preferably oval in shape. And the rhythmic thuds...spaced evenly...going from soft thuds to distinctly crunchy as the spikes find gravel ending in a muffled grunt. This followed by a solid wooden sound, not dull, more like a bullet leaving the muzzle of a long bore rifle. One of the simple pleasures of life...missing that quite desperately in this city that seems to only look for excuses to f*** up its already clogged roads with ridiculous processions that are an assault on the senses and yes...sensibility.

Had a full week with the new engagement starting up (meant less in a matrimonial context than in an armed combat sense). This is the one that's been on the anvil for almost a month now, but it happened when I was being asked to *gasp* model in the financial sense for my first project. This one's more process-related and hence involves lots of talking to people and also listening. Whole bunch of interviews, some gyaan-giving to the newbie, some '   excel'ing to manage project plans and the week's whizzed by.

Caught up with one of the brethren from G6, impromptu plan...couple of drinks at the Sports Bar, burgers at McD and scoops of chocolate, the malted fudge and bavarian kind...ideal combination I think. Updates on whats been happening since last we met and how things have been since the days we overtipped the B&C staff after having exhausted their tequila supplies. Wonder when all the members will be available at the same time for a good ol' binge and completely nonsensical bantering.

Right-arm swing with some seam, Right-hand top/middle-order bat, Hair Bands, Booze with buddies...that's what i'm talking about...

perspire and grow thin

Just when it felt like life was mostly about scratched bumper to scratched bumper traffic and the endless 'religiously approved' traffic snarls with bunches of people going into epileptic fits of ecstacy accompanied by 15000 watts and jet-engine decibel music. The only distinction between those scenes and any seedy dance bar being the idol in tow that supposedly makes the whole exercise a worthy one. Bloody annoying if nothing else.

Coming back to the point, had the firm's annual 'offsite' gathering in Lonavla this weekend. So brilliantly located is this resort 'Upper Deck' (www.upperdeckresort.com), that you can't complete the last leg of the journey in your own vehicles but have to get into the resort's four-wheeled Scorpios to get up the stream-bed that doubles as the 'off the beaten path' path. The discomfort of the bone-jarring ride up the slope disappeared the moment the vehicle rounded the final turn. It was that orgasmic feeling you get when you bite into a morsel of minced lamb with sauteed onions where the flavors seem to explode in your mouth. except, it was all visual...the term panoramic has seldom been as breathtakingly justified as that view did. Miles and miles of rolling green hills, not so steep as to look threatening, all covered with what looked like a velvet green tablecloth with the odd outcropping of trees. The glint of reflected sunlight made you wonder if there were ropes of tiny diamonds hanging in different places, mini-waterfalls created as a result of the monsoons. If ever there's been a risk of moi lapsing into ridiculous poetry, this was it.

Fairly chilled out weekend with table-tennis sessions, long breakfast/lunch/dinner sessions with lotsa anecdotes, gyaan sessions, treasure hunts and the awards for the year being handed out to be followed by loud music and dancing...oh haan..and booze..kinda slipped my mind there...

the three kinds

Having been an inhabitant of the blogosphere for over a year now, I reckon I’ve been around. The idea of maintaining a 'private' diary that the whole world had access to had me non-plussed at first. But then I realised that what I had to say about stuff, however inane, was not very different from what I didn't mind being read by the 3-4 people that would eventually visit my blog. Ramblings aside, there are some distinct types of blogs or rather bloggers you come across. My B-school education spurs me to give these categories names like "Blue-blooded Factualists", "Keyboard diarrhea verbosers" and so on but I'll show restraint.

So there are three kinds i reckon, the ones who started the whole thing called blogging by penning down their opinions and giving other information quite religiously. The information on such blogs is well-researched, more importantly, well presented and very often updated. They usually tell it like it is with scant obfuscation with personal (often vitriolic) opinions. Dependable, thats the word.

Second are those that essentially have no rhyme or reason for their existence. They often get laughably predictable in their effort to be politically incorrect. The odd post might strike a chord here and there but don't count on it. The blog is just an extension of the hare-brained thought processes of slightly twisted minds.

And finally, those that are essentially like marketing tools. Except they're selling themselves, to who?..well f*** knows! Reams and reams of print about some profound insight into humanity and relationships while all they're trying to say is how they epitomise all that's good on this planet. How they opened their hearts and emptied their bank accounts for a noble cause..sniff sniff...how quaint...jeez...talk about putting in your application for sainthood by proxy.

But then, if you've nothing better to do than try to tap into the thought processes of people you hardly know...nothing like it :)

p.s: such pseudo-intellectual gibberish can only qualify this one for that 2nd type i guess :)

hole sale

My longest break by far since making the move to the new job. Three whole days...courtesy the firm moving our customary third saturday off to this monday. I certainly am not complaining, atleast not till saturday. The weekend's been mostly relaxing with the expenditure of some quality time. S, counting the cd and the Gary Larson and C&H, I won't complain if you make it a weekly thing to give me cool stuff :)
We're in the home-stretch of my first assignment. Had what was essentially the presentation of our recommendations on friday, went well, I think. The sixty-four million dollar question I suppose will always be whether you've come up with anything that they wouldn't have thought of anyway. Don't want to overanalyze something I have scant knowledge about, so there'll be more posts once I reckon to have a surer hang of things. Will be starting on a new assignment tomorrow, will know more after the first meeting with clients.

Considering to-dos form a large part of my life these days, thought I should list some of 'em important ones...

Things I need to do in the near-ish future:

1. Figure out the business of management consulting...as in really figure it out


2. Get back to working out...regularly (this one's been part of other lists in the past...but this time I have 35 lbs of metal and two bars to vouch for me)


3. Get a half-decent car


4. Stake out agreeable residential localities in the city...no..not for potential targets to satisfy carnal desires or serial-killer tendencies but for actual places i'd like to live in


5. Read the three books I recently got (from that l'il basement store called 'The Bookworm' in a side-street in B'lore, faint mustiness and arrays of yellowed books...quite surreal)

kinky in the boardroom

Ok, so tying a thin strip of fabric (mostly silk) around my neck, with a neat knot (well, mostly and no...we're not talkin' S&M here..well not yet) with the end dangling under my chin, every day of the work week isn't exactly my idea of fun. The hour long commute each way isn't that flash either. Nor is wearing three layers with this city's humidity levels..(when one is one too many).. every once in a while because apparently, the additional layer automatically implies 'wisdom' and 'great analytical ability' and 'a huuuuuuge....ok well maybe thats tougher to imply...ford's done a better job describing the garment that endows you...Butt...and am talking one of those that make you want to reach out...and...well squeeze!...telling the top management of a company about how they should be running their organization...in their boardroom..oak-panelled walls et al...listing out a slew of things they should do/change/desist to maximize shareholder value (and believe it or not...thats not sarcasm!)...yup....thats not stuff you put on your regular weekly status report in your regular information technology services company with regular growth rates in triple figures before boarding the regular bus that takes you back to civilization. Yup...I think I could get used to that...

hurtle

First week of the month whistled by before I could even puff out my cheeks to throw a tantrum about not getting my coveted b'day gift...Ok, so maybe...just maybe, it isn't the most practical of demands to want a german-engineered high performance luxury coupe..K, S, S and V...u guys have been marked...u know why...Got back from my stint of primary research in the two southern metros...meeting umpteen organizations and some fairly senior folk in them...in some cases...THE senior person. Some insightful...some ho-hum. Got back to pressing deadlines...vada-pavs and strategy meetings...and a positively scrumptious chocolate cake delivered to office by a fittingly named "Just Temptations". Oh yeah..and also my first full-month's paycheck! after a veeery long time. Not having my bank accounts updated in the office records meant that it was a check in the literal sense and I actually had a time recalling how one goes about depositing money into an account! Halfway through the working weekend and wondering what the hell happened to the plan of scouting for a gym...getting a new phone...getting a haircut...in that order! Ok..now that the 'being a prima donna' is done with...i should get back to accomplishing things...like taking a shower for instance...A pause in the headlong rush...

what's that smell?

the fair question would be "who's that smell?!" yeah...that's what probably caused the president of the United States (Harrison Ford, yeah the real one..not Dubya) to toss the evil dude(he spoke english with a middle-eastern accent...duh!) off Airforce One after he said "Get off my plane..." So here you are, about 170 odd of you...packed like sardines in a can...the flight's delayed by the regulation 15 mins (they might as well write "departure time: 20.05 std deviation 15 mins"), been in the air for an hour during which everyone's partaken of dinner (the only reason am not making fun of the meal is the recall of the pathetic bags of peanuts/pretzels that airlines in the US hurl at you)...and then ...yup...you guessed it...someone farts. and you realize how helpless you truly are...strapped into the window seat next to a guy who really should be paying for two tickets considering the amount of space the two of them occupy...yeah..him and his protruding belly! am sure it must be the kind of thing they teach in the advanced levels of 'Torture 601' in the clandestine training rooms of the KGB or the Mossad or such arcane (but equally ruthless) organizations. your primeval survival instincts kick in and you press your face to the 'window' for some fresh air but then the plexi-glass presses back mockingly. so you do nothing but let it all dissipate into the air to be regurgitated by the air conditioning. finally you land, and you wonder how a flight thats supposed to take a l'il over an hour took almost three to get you to your destination....frikkin' air-traffic!

but its nice to be home...wouldn't even think it'd be a big deal, but then after a week and a half of incessant driving about in b'lore and chennai...it does feel nice...sigh. had read a news item a couple of years ago about how a car thief pulled a job on a swank sedan parked on a tokyo street at 7am only to be arrested 2 hours later in a traffic snarl 300 yards away...bangalore's not like that...he'd be about 100 yards away here. and chennai...barrelling down the wrong way on busy streets because the auto-driver decided to save some time, cutting in front of buses that don't look like they're used to being treated like that and millimeter precision so you're vehicle is exactly two coats of paint away from the belching exhaust of a truck...quite an art i think. serves me right for skipping the car on offer thinking it'd be quicker this way. am starting to have more and more respect for b'bay's traffic!

oh yeah...and happy b'day to me

p.s: the title is actually three doors down...cool song too...

keep your hands where i can see them

An airport lounge: You're waiting for your boarding call. In the meantime, you find a seat and read your copy of The Financial Times...ok ok...comics section HT. And you sense more than see it. They're looking over your shoulder, reading what you are. You turn the page thinking they'll get the hint. After all they are available on the rack just ten feet away...and free too. But they keep looking...keep reading...

A phone-booth: You're in it, the door doesn't close completely, but that's ok.You're not discussing state secrets, just going about your business. This other person, looks like they intend to use the next booth, having nothing to do with you. But then, they pause outside the booth, pretending to be looking intently into that shop-window across the street, while their ears strain to catch your conversation. You find that every time you step into a phone booth, they are there. The shop windows across the street can't all be that interesting.

A hotel room: No, not a porn scene. Just your temporary station in some random city. You leave every day to go about your business, thankful for the small mercies called room service. Every evening you return, and you notice that you're stuff's not quite the same way it was when you left. You check, nothing's missing. Next day, same thing, everything's been disturbed, rifled through. So, its not your pseudo-expensive gadget collection they're after. Then what is it?!

yes...some people are just that annoying...

Let it rip...Let it Thunder!

Term 3 and one of the courses was about "...the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses. It is often a difficult undertaking, as a majority of new businesses fail.". While the course entailed studies on how enterprising individuals brought enterprising business ideas to fruition with a lot guts, dedication and the odd sliver of luck, was a yawn-fest for me. The amount of work that seemed to be require to setup a business, that might or might not at some distant point in the future reap you loads of moolah on which to retire on and to buy your island in the carribean seemed, well too much. But then, I find the effort required to lean over and procure the remote control to change the documentary on grass-growing in the prairies on nat geo rather too much effort. Ideas of bootstrapping and starting small, to spend the VC's money like you were drawing blood were all fine, but the concept of reducing something as abstract as entrepreneurship to a few checklists and methodologies seemed kinda ridiculous. Add to the fact that every venture seemed to be nothing more than a means to germinate an ingenious idea, nurture it through the early years and just when it promises a lot of potential, cash out to someone who actually likes to run business. Seemed too much about making that quick buck to me. Coz, lets face it, more than generating a bunch of ideas and convincing some fat cats to part with dollops of money, its the actual successful running of an organization that takes managerial brio.

Wild-eyed ravings aside, got an insight into the genesis of our firm today, about how things started up and how they graduated from one stage to the next. The discussion about what it took to start and run a professional service firm and how the decisions sometimes was choosing between whether to buy your third laptop or make that trip to Venice to pitch to a prospective client. The amount of thought that went into deciding on what was core to the firm, what kind of work wouldn't you do or how would you ensure that the fresh-faced B-school grads imbibed what the firm was about and accordingly portray it to the clients they worked with was mind-boggling. The decision to scale up from five to twenty and thence(thats a word right?) to fifty, taken after a lots of deliberation while the conglomerates of the world hire that many roughly every fifteen minutes. Its a revelation to know that there are individuals who, day-in day-out, apply their faculties these tasks. So, whats with the disconnect between the first and second paragraphs? I was paying attention this time, for one thing. And yeah...hearing the history of such a firm unfurl...makes you want to be part of the start of something...big. So...let it rip...let it thunder!

The Showdown

Most people who throw threats or insults my way find it to be a frustrating experience because they never stimulate responses. Mainly because I'm too lazy to...However, when people start questioning...nay..mocking fundamental tenets of life on this planet..then someone's gotta take a stand! So, in continuation with my previous post...and not in continuation with the rantings and ravings of the zealous fanatics (who sometimes do not stop to question what it is that they believe in so fervently)...a rather objective (mostly) comparison of certain key aspects of being a superhero.

Category	Spider-Man						Superman
Genesis	Regular bloke...irradiated spider...changes that didn't seem like powers at first...Spider-Man!						Different species...what powers?! On Krypton he'd be...just another guy!
Costume	Form-fitting...black web pattern on red and blue...masked face...covered eyes...an actual costume						Red underwear over tights...yes tights..nothing for the face...hmmm...quite a disguise
Love Interest	Mary Jane Watson-Parker: Known Peter for years...likes the super alter-ego...has always loved the man himself.						Lois Lane: Has worked with Kent for years, treats him with disdain...orgasms for him in tights...the word 'shallow' comes to mind? fooled by the different hairdo...bright too apparently
Weakness	Loses powers when self-belief wanes...depends on himself to get it back						Green rocks from home, can do jack in their presence
Bottomline	Powers don't make you super, character does Sharp objects and bullets...hurt Rural America better find another hero (tall buildings a must for web-slinging)						You're not from around here...automatically makes you special Flight, X-ray vision, Immense power...must be a stretch beating up on others Wear underwear outside to prevent accidental wedgies

For the initiated...here's a list of some actual superheroes...With Great Power

Bring it on...

Part them and feel my finger tips...

So it was Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 on Star Movies and HBO respectively and however cute the former might've been, with me, the latter wins...hands down. Inspite of the logical argument that one might make that I have watched the second movie atleast half a dozen times and also own the dvd of the same, it still turns out that I watch it...again..commercial breaks and everything! And unless 'one' wants to get hit around some, they will not be making more logical arguments. Like I've said more than once..."Do not get logical with me....!!" It falls into that category that I don't seem to mind doing, time and again (ok, so there are certain obvious things we all like to do...over and over and over...you get the picture). The Godfather, Kane and Abel, The Fourth Protocol, Dil Chahta Hai, U2, I never seem to grow out of. Ok, so, it probably doesn't help that I don't seem to grow up, at all, but then I somehow don't seem to have the urge to line-up my matchbox cars and have a demolition derby or experiment lighting a match to the open nozzle of room freshner...

Juvenile delinquencies aside, this movie is awesome for several reasons...not least of those...Mary-Jane Watson, damn she's cute! I mean, how cool is it that there's this girl who you like...who likes you...and yes, once you've brushed the awkwardness aside, you get to say..."oh by the way...check this out" as you 'accidentally' bump into a lamp post to leave it askew. Granted that a senile scientist with an ample waistline on metallic stilts isn't exactly a sight to send shivers up your spine, but then the sequence on the train is a worthy action-scene. The piece de resistance of course is when its all done and Octavius has realized that he's just not cool enough to deserve a place in the rougues hall of fame and leaps into the river and spidey, mask off, turns around, to that look of realization on Ms Watson's face. That, and the final scene where she says "Isn't it about time someone saved your life" and they kiss for the first time (technically second), sirens go off in the background. Spidey looks toward them, hesitates, look back at her and she says with a smile "Go get'em tiger..."

And if none of that does anything for you...you can't possibly walk away from one of most amazing movie soundtracks in a long time...two of the best...

"Vindicated" - Dashboard Confessional

"Hero" - Nickelback

p.s: was subjected to 'Superman Returns' last weekend...the superhero with the baby face and the ridiculous wisp of curled locks on his forehead...seriously...Spidey would kick his butt easy...but having seen this Superman, think he'd only like that...you know what i mean...and if you're thinking the title of the post is lewd, read the lyrics above...and stop being a perv! ;)