Absence of Mind

Dealing With Uncertainty

2012-02-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

In these uncertain times, one of the things that keep me awake and alive is music. I have once again started to work on my music project (which I had abandoned in February 2010). Here's a demo of the first track.

The main riff is based on "Babe I'm gonna leave you" as performed by Led Zeppelin. The idea behind the track is a couple getting into a quarrel, which eventually leads to their breakup. Each solo guitar track represents a half of the couple. The basic premise is that both sides are telling the same story, without either willing to listen to the other.

The first section before the bridge represents the start of the quarrel, with the tempo indicating that both sides put their viewpoints across in a relatively calm manner as indicated by the tempo of the solo.

The tempo then increases in the second section indicating that the fight is now full blown. I am still working on the conclusion, will update the track when complete. Obviously, the working title of the track is an alliterated reference to LZ's track!

Feedback welcome!

Movie Geekery

2012-02-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

A week ago, I finally watched Velayutham (Don't ask me why). Another crap-fest featuring Vijay, with the storyline being a poor imitation of Shankar's vigilante movies of the 90s. It features a scene, where Genelia, in only 3 key strokes, creates a complex 3D logo of the vigilante. That reminded me of how such tasks are dumbed down in movies. Funnily, whenever the scene features a character designing an image or anything that requires extensive mouse use, he/she NEVER uses the mouse. I do understand the reasoning behind such gross simplification. Nonetheless, as a geek who has done his fair share of "designing", I find the end result quite comical.

Having said that, whenever it is required for the character to hack into a computer network (belonging to the government in most cases), there is a tiny element of realism, with Flash animations resembling Unix terminal windows churning out characters (especially in Hollywood movies).That takes us to my favourite on-screen geekery.

Ramana, A Kollywood movie featuring Captain Vijayakanth contains a scene where Captain is shown accessing information from a terminal. Only that when we finally get to see the computer screen, it is actually Windows Media Player playing a video of random characters appearing on a terminal-like screen. Here is the video. If only the director had pressed Alt+Enter.

How To Name an Indian Restaurant

2012-02-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

In the four years that I have spent outside of India, I have tried out many Indian Restaurants and I have noticed one thing. The operators/owners are not very imaginative when it comes naming the restaurant! In New Jersey, I have been to three different restaurants named Taste of India. I thought I had seen enough. Upon reaching The Netherlands, I found that the situation was much worse. Some of the Restaurant names that I have come across.

1. Taj Mahal Palace

2. Taj Tandoori

3. Bombay Palace

4. Bombay Inn

5. Tandoori Express

6. India Palace

7. Royal Tandoori

8. Indian Tandoori Touch

9. India Express

10. India Paradise

Thankfully, I haven't found any "Taste of India" yet. It's easy to create a mobile phone app for generating such unimaginative names.

Algorithm:

Accept the number of words the name should have (either 2 or 3)
If the number of words is 3, then

The third word should be either of Mahal, Palace and Paradise, Tandoor, Tandoori.
The second word should be either of Bombay, India, Taj, Tandoor, Tandoori or any other well known location in India.
The first word should be either of The, Royal, or even Taj (why not?)

If the number of words is 2, then

The second word should be either of Mahal, Palace and Paradise.
The first word should be either of Royal, Bombay, India, Taj, Tandoor, Tandoori or any other well known location in India.

I have deliberately provided no facility for 1 word names. There is plenty of scope to be imaginative. As many restaurants have proved with names like Rangoli, Sangam, Kohinoor, Akbar, Moghul, Mughlai, Vijaya, Daawat, Haveli, Priya and Rasoi.

So, if you want to name your Indian restaurant with 2 or more words and you are lazy, please feel free to use the above algorithm. And don't forget to decorate the interiors with colourful and patterned Dupattah/Chunari!

Kollywood Bass

2012-01-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

The general view has been that bass isn't given much focus in Indian film music. Having said that, some composers do know the value of bass, and they have allowed their session bassists to get sufficient attention. Some have even gone on to compose some really fluid bass lines that stand out like a diamond in a bowl of peas.

In Tamil, the easy pick would be A R Rahman. When I heard Roja for the first time, I realised that the sound was far different from what I had heard previously. I was eight years old and I wasn't sure what the difference was. It is a lot clearer to me now - The use of synthetic sounds and the emphasis on bass. In general I have found ARR's tracks to have lot more emphasis bass. Yet, I think Ilayaraja wrote the best bass lines in Tamil music. Two songs stand out for me.

Ninnukori Varanam from Agninatchathiram:

Mandram Vantha from Mouna Raagam:

To understand what I am trying to say, please listen to both songs on your headphones/earphones. If you can think of any recent track with a great bass line, do let me know!

Tamland II

2012-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

It wasn't a long time ago that India was portrayed as a land of mystery and intrigue, with mendicants, street traders and snake charmers on the street with men and women wearing traditional Indian attire, elephants, cows and monkeys on the streets. Hardly any of that is valid, if you want to describe India in 2012 - except for the cows and monkeys. Strangely enough, the sight of monkeys trying to enter the kitchen at my home actually brought a smile upon my face. The sight my mother feeding the squirrels near the window was a sight I hadn't seen in a long time. And it felt great in a way.

The Bengaluru trip was largely nostalgic, with visits to my old office campus in Electronics City and meeting up with ex-colleagues. It seems that during vacations, nostalgia is the best way to really enjoy. Meeting my ex-boss certainly proved helpful as I managed to get a few contacts in Europe, which would be helpful for my job search. The sight of cows on the highways unintentionally testing out the braking systems of cars was funny as well. Is that what being outside of India for a long time does to you? Things you took for granted have now become interesting suddenly. That's one train of thought.

It felt really great celebrating New Year's the way I have always celebrate, when in Madras. I was obviously a bit apprehensive about how that was going to turn out. The New Year went absolutely great! Much better than expected. Considering the fact that it was I who organised the New Year party. My cousins and relatives were very happy with how everything went. Speaking of family, parents. They simply don't change do they? Or so you think. The fact is that it is that very filter in your brain that probably prevents you from communicating with them the way you should. That was a big wake-up call for me. I am guilty of not keeping in touch with them during my stay in US and The Netherlands. However, this trip allowed me to reconnect with them, particularly with my mother. There were a couple of emotional moments. But I have made peace with that part of me. I will be more regular as far as communication with my parents is concerned.

It is unfortunate that I may not identify myself as a resident of Tamil Nadu anymore, at least for a long time now. But I am fortunate to know that there are still some things to look forward to whenever I plan to visit Madras, or Chennai.

Tamland

2012-01-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

2011 has been the most eventful year of my life. Yet, it's been the year with the least number of posts on this blog. What is worse, I have not even managed to summarise my experience at RSM adequately, barring the 2 terms. I choose to lay that aside for a while and proceed with one of my resolutions for 2012 - writing more.

I have spent the last one month in Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu (or Tamland, my attempt at making it sound more contemporary). To be honest, I wasn't exactly looking forward to the stay, given that most of my friends didn't live in Madras anymore. The ones who do are now married and have moved on. I have had enough time to observe where the city is now compared to what it was a year ago, or even four years ago. I am sad to say that the way I see it, Madras has taken a step backward. The condition of the roads are at their worst and the city now has no effective waste management mechanism in place. What used to be clean and beautiful streets for morning walk, have now become breeding ground for communicable diseases. Besant Nagar Beach - my favourite spot for the rare walk/jog is now a chamber-pot-in-making. Fortunately the state of public transport has improved, with newer and more durable buses. Thiruvanmiyur beach remains clean enough for walks and jogs on the sand, something that I did on a regular basis during my stay here, in an effort to get some physical activity. Nonetheless, overall, the old man and his family have literally destroyed the city. Let's see what the fat lady sings. Why am I giving such a hard time to my birthplace and hometown? For one, Bengaluru, a city that Chennaites don't like to live in, due to it's apparent sub-standard infrastructure (given the revenue it generates), is racing ahead in all the aspects that I have mentioned so far. While there is no direct information reported by the media, could it be due to the presence of a Lok Ayukta? That will be as close as I will get to covering India's biggest debate of 2011, at least on this post.

Having said all that, I did have quite a bit of fun, mostly in a way only my hypergeeky 18-21 year old self could have had - perhaps for the last time in many years. Thank God for the fact that my closest friend in Madras hasn't tied the knot (yet). It wasn't all rosy with him though. He obviously couldn't connect with everything that I was trying to tell him about Netherlands and Europe in general. It appeared as though I would lose the link with him as well. Fortunately for mankind, there's always Johnny Walker Black Label. Reconnecting with many old acquaintances proved great, as we met up regularly at the local pub/bar, as our 21 year old selves. The trip to Ritchie Street was probably the icing on the cake. Ritchie Street, arguably the most overcrowded street with 99% of the population being male, is the haven of all tech savvy geeks in Madras, with all computer parts, circuit boards and electronic equipment available at near-wholesale prices. After purchasing a headphone for my sis, I proceeded to raid all of the eating joints along the street. The Samosa Channa stall at the end of the street and Balaji Stall's Rasam Vadai haven't lost their taste. Speaking of taste, Vishranti Hotpoint's Sambar tastes as good as it did four, or even ten years ago!

More on my India stay later. I have to catch a flight to Netherlands in a while!

@RSM : Term 2 (Part 1)

2011-12-14T02:05:00.001-08:00

As I write this post, I am sitting in the living room of my home in Madras (or Chennai) in India, having finished all my MBA coursework and awaiting replies from companies to whom I have applied for jobs. What this situation does provide me is time for reflection and better assessment of my experiences during the most eventful year of my life. When I last wrote a post for this blog, I had talked about my experiences and observations during Term 1.

Right, so Term 1 went by in a flash and we had a week long spring break, during which I couldn’t do much as I was nursing a foot injury. Term 2 introduced us to two concentrations that 80% of the class wanted to get into – Strategy and Finance. There were other courses too – Operations Management, Human Resources Management, Business Society Management and Economic Environment of Business. Now I am going to be a bit biased in the ordering of the courses, starting with my most favourite.

Martin Mocker is arguably my favourite professor of Term 2 and probably of both the terms put together. Women in my class who had a thing for the intellectual looking, developed a crush for him! A German (made obvious by his accent), he introduced us to the basic frameworks that went on to define the concept of “Strategy Consulting” as an MBA product – 5 Forces, Value Chain et al. As much as I love numbers and get a kick out of problem solving, I do sometimes prefer looking at things without focusing too much on numbers. I particularly liked the lecture on corporate strategy, with Microsoft being the company under study. Being a music fan, I was also delighted to see cases on Sony BMG et al. My Term 2 study group’s assignment was a presentation on successful and unsuccessful corporate strategies, which we aced.

Numbers like me and I like numbers. It’s no surprise that my next favourite subject in Term 2 was Financial Management. The course was a foundation course and it therefore offered an introduction to interpreting balance sheets, income and cash flow statements. We were also introduced to theoritical concepts such as the famous MM propositions, which sound brilliant in theory, but have severely limited practical scope. The course was divided between two professors. Prof. Wouter de Maseneire helped us learn the basics of interpreting financial statements, while Prof. Mark Schauten introduced us to the theoritical basis behind the valuation of bonds, stocks and companies. They played their parts well, mixing current affairs and humour with the course content, ensuring that we didn’t fall asleep. It must however, be noted that those with no engineering background, or exposure to numbers and excel in general, found this course overwhelming and this was the point where many, who came into the programme hoping to do Finance, decided on choosing strategy or marketing as their career concentration in Term 3. What probably also made it worse, was that Prof Schauten was a bit too fast for people learning finance for the first time!

Next comes Economic Environment of Business, by Prof Barry Standish, one of the many excellent South African profs who have taught at RSM this year. You have to note down every word he says. Every class of his was like a story and it involved a lot of discussion and engagement with the class. While there are no points for class participation, the classes were quite interesting, given the recent turn of events across the world. His expansive spreadsheet, which covers the entire coursework, is a work of art. One thing that helps RSM the most, perhaps as a by-product, is that nearly all of the professors are NOT from USA. I have nothing against the US faculty. But having watched documentaries on the financial crisis, where many people from US academia had a part to play as well, I am inclined to think that probably exists some level of conflict of interest, when US provide their opinions on the financial markets and the economy on the whole. This was definitely not the case, at least with Barry, as he openly told us that it is very unlikely that we will find jobs when we graduate!

Now I didn’t spend too much time paying attention to this course. But considering how engaging the professor was, I will put this on No4 – Human Resources Management. Prof Philip J Stiles (from Cambridge) is a character. Like any good professor, he was well aware of the general level of interest students would have for his subject. In this case – not much. Yet, he tried to keep our attention well, partly due to his highly energetic style of lecturing, with lots of rhetorical questions (which we don’t have to answer!) and his frequent monitoring of our energy levels! What also helped was there good number of video cases on recruiting, employee satisfaction etc. To top it all, there was a case on Infosys employee satisfaction, which struck a chord with some of the ex-Infoscions in the class, including myself, who were from Infosys.

Business Society Management – this was essentially a course that introduced us to the concept of Sustainability. It initially dealt with the rapid depletion of resources and blah blah. But it soon shifted gears to give us a peek of what various businesses were doing and in quite a few cases, claiming to do to make their lines of businesses more sustainable. This included small businesses aimed at rural homes, as well as big businesses aiming to become carbon neutral and the capitalist challenges that lay ahead of them. In all fairness, it was an interesting course. However, Prof Lawrence Pratt, knowledgeable as he is, appeared to be selling us his point of view rather than presenting facts using which we could form opinions. It appeared to be more of my-way-or-the-high-way approach. As much as I was disinterested in this subject during Term 2, with my ambitious self paying more attention to strategy and finance, looking back, this was a course that I should have spent a little bit more time on.

And now we come to the last subject of Term 2 – Operations Management. I hated the professor more than the subject, when I did this in Term 2. It was a tragedy of errors. But reflection I guess, always puts things in perspective. The professor, Prof Rene de Koster is the kind of person who would fit perfectly in an environment, which consisted of mostly Dutch students, of mostly Engineering background. Because that’s how he taught the course, being extremely direct. One of my Dutch students commented that he was way too direct even for the Dutch. This didn’t go well with a class where only 4% of the class was Dutch. His colleague, Finn Wynstra, didn’t do a bad job actually. In fact it was quite useful, interacting with people from Danone, and trying to solve a real world business problem with them. However, the bad atmosphere that had been created due the mismatch of Rene and MBA12, dominated the course. The icing in the cake was the OM exam, which was well intentioned, with the questions covering all key concepts. However, the wording of the questions left a lot to be desired. As a result, many struggled with the exam. I scraped through with a decent grade.

Those were the subjects. Now, like Term 1, we MBA12ers were made a part of a study group in Term 2 as well. Term 2 study group for me was numbered A4 and my teammates were Simone (Dutch/British), Panos (Greek), Kurnia (Indonesian), He Jung (South Korean), Joanne (Taiwanese). We started off well, making sure everyone’s opinions were taken into account. However, the regional preferences were all the more obvious here, with the easterners forming their own sub-group, out of (a misplaced) fear that Simone and Panos made most of the decisions for the team during their smoking breaks. The reality was of course, that the cultural barriers were far too strong to overcome. This would of course culminate into a mega issue in Term 3, which I would leave it for later.

That was the academic part of Term 2. The social part will be followed in the next post.

@RSM: Term 1 (Part 2)

2011-08-23T00:42:00.001-07:00

Right, so grades-wise I did well in Term 1.

The RSM MBA class of 2012, like all previous classes, is a very diverse group. 20% Indians and 15% Chinese can appear to be overwhelming. But when comparing them with global population ratios, they are absolutely fine. Overall, there representatives of 40 nationalities, with 96% of the class being International. One could expect a LOT of cultural exchange. And there sure was, especially during the study group meetings. Besides that, there were some interesting and expected social phenomena.

The Chinese and Taiwanese hung out with Chinese and Taiwanese only, with one or two exceptions. The Koreans hung out ONLY with Koreans OR Chinese. This most likely had to do with language and culture. Most of the Indians, barring a few (including me), preferred to hang out with the Indians. It probably had to do with the fact that most of my Indian classmates, being very early admits, had met each other in India and developed a comfort level with each other. I on the other hand, got admitted only in the middle of November and had no time to mingle with my countrymen before arriving at Rotterdam. Why do I say this for Indians? Well that’s because the Indians hung out more with people from other countries than those from the far East. In these past 8 months, I have made some really good friends, some of who have stood up for me during some tense situations.

Most of the RSM students reside in accommodation provided by the school - International House (I-House) and De Schans. De Schans, located on Kralinger Esch, is located a little outskirts of the city. I-House, located on Struisenburgdwarsstraat (roughly translated to Struisenburg Cross Street) on Oostzedijk (The old “Eastern Dyke”), is closer to the city than De Schans. What also helps I-House is that there is a bar/restaurant located right next to it - Concordia. No points for guessing which one I chose to stay in. Most of the Term 1 socializing activities of an MBA can be summed up by two activities - drinking binges and clubbing. A typical drunk night would start with at least 20 students gathering up at either Concordia OR Locus Publicus (A nearby pub that serves over 200 varieties of beer). The group would then head to a club at the town center. The most frequently visited clubs were Cafe De Beurs, Bed and Cinema. There would always be those BYOB party nights at the I-House terrace, also known as the I-House Hub. Some of us got into trouble for excess noise. Naturally, these were followed by hangovers.

With excessive drinking, comes crazy behaviour - be it imitating the Thriller dance at 4 AM, party and debauchery till 6 AM, or trashing an empty student apartment. Fortunately, there were a few activities that were more civilized, thanks to the RSM MBA International Culture and Social Club. I got along well enough with everyone to get elected as the president of the club. My exploits as the club president for Term 1 can be found on this post.

Dinners have always worked well if you want to get to know people better. Inviting and getting invited to dinners became a norm and would continue to remain so. And this has allowed me to perfect my culinary skills in a variety of dishes. More RSM to follow in Term 2!

@RSM: Term 1 (Part 1)

2011-08-08T11:05:00.001-07:00

Alright! I have finally stopped procrastinating, and decided to update my blog. Yes procrastination is the reason. Believe it or not, I have had quite a bit of free time on my hands.

75% of the RSM Full Time MBA program is done. Terms 1-3, were essentially 1.5 years of education rolled into 7 months. A lot has happened in the last 7 months and fortunately, I seem to remember most of the important events. I would like to group them into two categories – Academic and Social. This post specifically deals with the academic part of the experience.

After the orientation and the initial welcome sessions (which included a session on Djembe drumming and Pub crawls), the program began with the Personal Leadership Development program, which essentially consisted of sessions on conflict management and the importance of communication networks in managing organisations. I found the latter particularly interesting as Dr. Karen Stephenson, in her Texas swagger, convincingly explained how Hubs, Gatekeepers and Pulse-takers shape the flow of information among different groups within the organization. We were also split into groups who would work together for the rest of the term. Mine consisted of Alex (Australian), Anna(Dutch/American), Yong (Singapore), Sharlina (Taiwan), and Hiroo (Japan). Every group was as diverse as mine!

There also were the Student Body elections. Those who have been reading this blog would be familiar with the fact that I am an entertainer par extraordinaire. Ergo, I successfully, contested for the President of the RSM MBA International Culture and Social Club.

Finally, we come to the subjects. Term 1 consisted of Organisational Behaviour (OB), Managerial Accounting (MA), Financial Statement Analysis (FSA), Quantitative Platform for Business (QPB), Marketing Management (MM) and Management Science (MS).

Professor Bill Collins handled OB very well, mixing theory with cases (which included the usual suspects such as Southwest Airlines) and some interesting anecdotes. I found OB to be very interesting. To be honest, the one thing I learnt about myself was that I found any subject analysing human behaviour very interesting. In fact I have developed a theory about a peculiar form of male behaviour based on my experiences with my fellow males over the years, but more on that later. Of course, this realisation is perhaps skewed by the fact that I got a perfect 4 for this course!

MA was handled by two professors from the Ivey School of Business – Prof. Mary Heisz and Prof. Murray Bryant, both of whom were very engaging lecturers. Prof. Bryant in particular effectively taught us key Accounting concepts, one of them through the means of this song (replace the title with Contribution). Add his enviable general knowledge in the mix and we had very entertaining three hours everyday! The key take-away from this course was how Accounting concepts could be used to make better managerial decisions. The final exam also reflected this as we got to apply the key learnings without indulging in too much number crunching! I personally enjoyed Prof. Bryant’s classes and I look forward to meeting him again in Term 4, as he will be handling Strategic Value Management, one of my chosen electives.

MS was interesting for engineers like me. It was a nightmare for those who weren’t! And the social awkwardness that we all came to associate with Prof Nishant Mishra only worsened the way we learnt it. However, as the term progressed, both the class and the professor warmed up to each other, and we realised that we had a lot to learn from him. Stuff like Monte Carlo simulations and Decision Trees have proved to be very useful to students (like me) who went on to choose Finance as their career concentration in Term 3.

How can I forget the QPB (Statistics) Professor Trevor Wegner, a man who was clearly in his late 50s and yet maintained an amazing physique (I mean that in a very heterosexual way). His unique hand gestures and vocal tones only made the class even more engrossing and entertaining. Those planning to attend RSM in 2012 will know what I am talking about. Of course, this course was mathematics intensive as well, and those with minimal or no math background found it a very heteroscedastic ordeal. But that’s where the cohesiveness of our class came into picture. Most of us chipped in to help out those who weren’t too comfortable. It was never a competitive atmosphere. It was great.

Finally, Marketing. Honestly, I found the subject to be quite fluffy. And the Prof Mike Ewing’s take on the subject only led to me not developing an interest towards anything related to marketing (though I still maintain a soft spot for marketing of hi-tech products, and therefore I have chosen that as one of my electives for Term 4). I am afraid I don’t have many fond memories of marketing classes, except for viewing some really interesting advertisements.

The subjects overall, were apt for a first term in MBA. A key part of the academic experience were the study groups. I must admit that despite being culturally diverse, academically, my study group was engineer-heavy. That meant that we did well in assignments related to Management Science. However, with Anna’s experience in interacting with different groups and organizations, thanks to her background in Royal Dutch Shell External Relations department, and Sharlina armed with a marketing background, we were also able to navigate around the more qualitative/subjective courses like Marketing and OB. Alex’s background in agro-businesses proved to be extremely useful for us when we were dealing with the second group assignment for QPB. However, there was one key challenge that our group faced. Not all among us gave importance to grades and that at times really reflected in the fact that our group in general was quite feedback averse, which meant that there was not much of continuous improvement taking place.

Exams were soon upon us. I managed to do well in most of them, although I must admit, I could have done better. I scraped through with a personally satisfactory cumulative GPA. I wish my study team for Term 1 were a bit more focused on grades. More on that in the second part of my thoughts on Term 1.

Flash Mob at RSM Graduation Day!

2011-03-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

It was supposed to be a formal event, with speeches galore and lots of sentiment. But we, MBA12, thought that there is room for fun as well. And so we decided to crash the event with a flash mob.

Here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr8GGWWuO3g

Backward Compatibility

2011-03-07T14:09:00.001-08:00

Interesting video on the level of backward compatibility provided by Microsoft in its different versions of Windows over the last 25 years!

One of the pitfalls of providing such a deep level is that you are going to be stuck with designs that are so old, and that can be very difficult to remove when required to take a fundamentally different approach to how the operating system to function and interact with the user. Some of these could be choices made that are revealed as design flaws years later as described in this Ars Technica article.

I know, I should be writing stuff about my experiences in Rotterdam so far. I am just letting people know that I am still around!

Rotterdam

2011-01-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

I finally made it to Rotterdam!

The British Airways flight was pleasant, despite me sitting in the middle seat. The in-flight entertainment left a lot to be desired, although 3 servings of Johnnie Walker compensated for that. I have heard many horror stories about Heathrow and British Airways, but touchwood, I didn't face any issues. I was accompanied by Ashwin, from Chennai to Amsterdam. We arrived at Schiphol in the afternoon. The immigration was a breeze. It took me only 10 seconds to clear immigration! Sweet! We were then received by Jan, our RSM contact, who got us tickets for the train to Rotterdam. At the station we were joined by Derek, a fellow MBA12 student, from New York. Thanks to the amount of baggage, we couldn't find a place to keep them. As a result, we put ourselves and our baggages in the luggage compartment, which reminded me of the part in DDLJ where SRK meets Kajol for the first time.

30 minutes later, we were at Rotterdam and received by Rick who gave me the keys to my apartment. Abdul the driver of our taxi, was nice enough to tell us a lot about Rotterdam and Dutch people in general. As we drove through the city, I found Rotterdam to be a cozy, yet quite urban, and of course - quintessentially European. With KVD already having shown me pics of her room at the Erasmus International House (or I-House) I had a faint idea of what my room would look like. But yes, it was definitely bigger than my room in Jersey City.

Internet setup was quick and easy, thanks to the 30 ft cable (one of the zillion things my sis had left behind for me). A few phone calls later, I decided to unpack my suitcases. Halfway through, I decided against it. I then received an invite from a fellow classmate for dinner at Bazaar ( a Turkish restaurant), where I met some of my fellow classmates. We then spent a while at a pub for a drink after which we headed home.

Being our first day at Rotterdam, the end of the day HAD to be dramatic. Derek and a few others were "caught" travelling without tickets by inspectors in the Tram. In reality, they were only waiting in the queue to purchase the ticket. We tried to reason out but the inspectors appeared to be stickler for rules and they insisted on the fine - EUR 38.5. I was lucky enough to purchase my ticket as soon as I boarded the tram. Amidst this fiasco, we had gone one stop too far. Having lived/worked in Manhattan, Derek and I decided to walk back. The others were also up for it, as no one wanted to board another tram for the rest of the day! We shared stories of how we all had been fined at some point in our lives as we walked back to I-House.

That was quite an "exciting" way to end the day!

Home, Home Again

2010-12-13T08:57:00.001-08:00

I know. I didn’t put a farewell post before leaving USA. Well, I won’t be leaving USA for good. I have a very weird feeling that I will be returning to the land of opportunity.

So, it’s been 10 days since I returned to Singara Chennai (as referred to by the locals, a la Aamchi Mumbai) my place of birth, and my hometown for the past eleven years. A lot of things have changed for better, as I have witnessed, due to my diligent exploration of the city’s administrative sections and food joints. E-governance is definitely making the government machinery more efficient in Chennai (and India on the whole). I was pleasantly surprised to see government officials sticking to their timelines as far as processes were concerned. However, e-governance cannot change lethargy and the rather feudal nature of the relatively high-placed officials, known as under-secretaries, in front of whom we still have to procrastinate for rather straight-forward requests. The roads are in a pathetic state, but that is due to two reasons – 1) Untimely rains due to the cyclonic depression and 2) Digging up roads, especially after they have been laid out new, is one of the favourite pastimes of the corporate and administrative Babus in Chennai.

I was pleased to see that some of my favourite (Whee, I can use British/Indian English again ) eat-outs were still operational, albeit with astronomical prices, which can be attributed to inflation and their general awareness of the fact that the IT and BPO junta dominate the (South) Indian middle class today and they are willing to blow a considerable sum of money at anything and everything. I believe a Samosa should be priced at `5 indefinitely and not `20. Same goes for Ghee Roast. It should not cost more than `15. Jughead’s Special at Fruit Shop on Greams Road (Besant Nagar Branch) continues to rock though.

My cousins are doing well. They haven’t changed much in character, though their marital/relationship statuses are changing rapidly. That does put someof a pressure on me especially from my grandmother and grand-aunts and uncles, considering that I NOW more-or-less satisfy all the requirements of an eligible and ideal Tam-Brahm bachelor (minus the my dear paunch).

The biggest change? I am unemployed now. Since most of my savings will be invested in my Yum-Bee-Yay education, I am not financially independent even for a month. I am supposed to be more frugal and think twice before purchasing anything. Considering that I have lived quite lavishly and spent more liberallly in the last 11 months than at any other point of my life, this change is quite sudden. And I love it! Not many people know it, but I love change. I start feeling weird if my life gets set to a pattern. And therefore I am looking forward to more such challenges in life!

A Billion years ago

2010-11-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

A billion years ago, I had decided that at some point in my life, I should do an MBA. A million years ago, I started putting some effort in that direction. Countless failures later, I have finally tasted a little bit of success. I have been accepted into the class of 2012 at the Rotterdam School of Management. The course starts on the first week of January, well, at least the orientation does. Which means I have only a handful of days left. Funny how things sometimes work. I was given only 2 weeks to pack my bags and leave for the US. And now I have only two weeks left to wind up everything here and head home to complete all the visa and loan formalities. Two weeks left to begin the rest of my life.

In The End

2010-10-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Never realized until today that the lyrics of the song were so powerful.

One thing, I don’t know why
It doesn’t even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It’s so unreal
Didn’t look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on but didn’t even know
Wasted it all just to
Watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
One thing, I don’t know why
It doesn’t even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I’m surprised it got so (far)
Things aren’t the way they were before
You wouldn’t even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end
You kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There’s only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There’s only one thing you should know
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter

Windows Phone 7 - Microsoft's Last Stand

2010-10-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Windows is a household name as far as desktop and laptop computers are concerned, and it holds 90% of the market share in that market. However, the reverse is true for the Windows Mobile Phone OS share. Smartphones are gaining huge ground in developed economies and larger emerging ones, led by Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Microsoft however, has lagged behind greatly with its Windows Mobile Operating System. While the OS was rich in functionality and application support (especially for business users), it was truly one of the worst, as far as the user experience is concerned. A mini-start menu looked simply ugly on a 3-inch screen and it was more importantly, not very easy to operate. But that's all history now.

Windows Phone 7, rewritten from scratch, attempts to not only provide a completely new user experience for phone users, but also bring more cohesion among Microsoft's own services. The user interface is a tile-based approach, which is different from the icon-based approach associated with iOS and Android. Most of the services are grouped into "Hubs", eg: People Hub provides Facebook and Twitter updates in addition to storing contact info. The XBOX Live Hub is very useful for XBox owners as it provides them access to their XBox account and the Live Arcade and its selection of games. In terms of other differentiating features, Windows Phone 7 has The Zune software, including access to the Zune Marketplace, and a mobile version of Microsoft Office. The OS at the moment lacks some commonly found features, such as Bluetooth file transfer , and copy-paste functionality, although the company says it will be available early next year.

Basically, Microsoft has provided all the essential features of the modern-day smart phone, without the need for any third-party app so far. Also, it offers an interface which is supposed to reduce the number of hops required to access the main features of a phone.This seems to be a good strategy at least from a customer point of view. However, availability of many third-party apps is the main reason why iOS and Android are leading the race right now. Microsoft already has a few popular apps such as Netflix and eBay. But whether it can build an app catalog rivalling that of the two frontrunners, how well it manages and controls this catalog, remains to be seen. Additionally, the missing-features, unless not made available soon, can turn off quite a few potential customers.

UPDATE: Here's a link to a well detailed review from Ars Technica, one of my favorite websites.

I like it...

2010-10-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Trust me, I was a bit surprised when one of my friends posted this on her Facebook Wall...

I like it on the pool table...

However, I got a bit of a shock when I saw my mother and my aunt post something similar on their respective FB walls! What on earth are women upto??? That thought process reminded me of a colour game that my cousin sisters and friends and aunts had played sometime back on FB - that was to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. I wondered, if this could be a similar game. After 15 seconds of Googling, my suspicions were confirmed. Here's the description of this year's game...

Remember the game last year about what color bra you were wearing at the moment? The purpose was to increase awareness of October Breast Cancer Awareness month. It was a tremendous success, and we had men wondering for days what was with the colors in our status, and it made it to the national news. This year's game has to do with your handbag/purse, where we put our handbag the moment we get home for example "I like it on the couch", "I like it on the kitchen counter", "I like it on the dresser" well u get the idea. Just put your answer as your status with nothing more than that and cut 'n paste this message and forward to all your FB female friends to their inbox. The bra game made it to the news. Let's see how powerful we women really are!!! REMEMBER - DO NOT PUT YOUR ANSWER AS A REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE- PUT IT IN YOUR STATUS!!! PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

Phew, that saved me some really awkward questions!!!

P.S: I hope this post had at least 0.0001% contribution in spreading the awareness...

Hey Joe

2010-10-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER : This post could potentially result in immediate sleep to readers who are not familiar with western music theory or have allowed music to create a profound emotional and philosophical impact on them. Well, one might find it boring otherwise too.

Often I have come across songs that have captured my mood when I am listening to them. But only on very few occasions have I heard songs that take me to an epiphany. Four days ago, I experienced an epiphany, when listening to a Hey Joe cover by Otis Taylor. My then earworm, The Jimi Hendrix version, led me to do some research on the track, meaning I read its wikipedia entry. And to my surprise, I learnt that Otis had a version of the song too. Those who frequently read my blog would perhaps remember me mentioning Otis more than a year ago. Having heard Ten Million Slaves, where his voice perfectly suited the tragic lyrics and had a touch of emotion that formed the basis of blues, I thought I should give it a listen. A minute later and 99 cents poorer, I was listening it. It hit me real hard. Real Hard. I am referring to the music. Ironically, the lyrics have nothing to do with the emotion that I relate this song to.

The chords as such are based on the Circle of Fifths - C G D A E. This set of chords contains an element that can literally send all of your brain cells into a crescendo, bringing about the experience that is termed as epiphany. As the song progressed with the trademark voice of Otis Taylor, in came the guitar solos. If the song were the sea, then each solo would represent a powerful wave. Such was power of each guitar solo in the song. They may not be the most sophisticated solos in guitar playing, but as they started they took me along with them. And soon, I was there. The solution to the turmoil in my mind that I have been trying to solve for the past 5 months was there right in front of me. The more number of times I heard this song, the more the solution reinforced itself on me. All I now need to do is to implement it. And that is the toughest part, for the solution is only simple in words, not in actions.

By the way, here's the song.

N'est pas en vain!

2010-09-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was running late. So, I decided to take the Light Rail to work instead of walking. At the Light Rail station, I met a foreigner, who was clearly lost and struggling with the directions printed on a piece of paper he was carrying. His English was very bad. But from his accent, I figured out that he was French. When he asked me for directions to his hotel (Days Inn at Tonnelle Ave), I decided to put my fluency in French to test. I first let him know that I could speak little bit of French. From that point onwards, we conversed entirely in French. Every time he asked me a question, I asked him to repeat it at a slower pace. I took out my Nexus One, gave him the directions, which train to take, where to get off et al, including what train to catch in case he was interested in visiting New York City.

The expression on his face was that of genuine joy. Definitely not the forced smiles that I have gotten used to when engaging in small talk with New Yorkers. He thanked me at least thrice (Merci Beaucoup! Thank You! Thank You!)! I guess he never expected an Indian to provide him directions in French, in Jersey City! The six months I spent at Alliance Francais weren't in vain after all!

Pen Fight!

2010-09-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a decade since I started my higher secondary schooling - which means it's been a decade since I was introduced to the ancient and obscure game of Pen Fight. Pen Fight, as the name suggests, is a game where battles are fought using pens of all kinds. No, this doesn't mean men (or in most cases, boys) substitute pens for swords.

A demonstration of Pen Fight

Pen fight is a game played by two sides on a table, where each side tries to strike out their opponent's pen off the table. It is better described as playing carrom with pens. The carrom board is a desk/table. Your pen is the striker. Your opponent's pen is the target. The holes are the edges of the table. Like carrom, one is allowed to only strike the pen using one's fingers, including the thumb, and not push it or shove it across the playing surface.

As seen above, Pen fight is very straight forward. However, like most games, it is essentially bound by laws of physics, mostly of the Newtonian variety. And therefore, it requires immense skill and strategy. Strategy is important especially when playing as teams. Each team member has to position their pen on the surface and strike it so as to cause maximum fatalities for his opponents and minimize those of his team.

Pen fight shares some attributes, at least as far as the playing surface is concerned, with an Indian religion - Cricket. The way the nature of the pitch plays an important role in cricket, the nature of the table can also influence a game of Pen Fight. Considering that 99% of all pen fight games are played in schools and colleges, protruding nails, small holes and inclined desks provide an element of surprise in addition to making the game more difficult for the players.

The Best Pen for Pen Fights...

Also important is the make of the pen and the type of the pen being used. Ball point pens are preferred over fountain and roller ball pens. Rubber grips provide some friction, which provides control to the sliding and rotating motion of the pens, especially on inclined surfaces. However, excess rubber can cause unpredictable behaviour and can often lead to suicides (player striking his own pen out of the table). Pens without rubber grips provide good speed and momentum, but are very risky when paying on inclined surfaces. Personally, I have found the Reynolds Fusion ball point pen to be very effective on both surfaces. The rubber grip is just thick enough to provide adequate control, without compromising on the speed.

I have enjoyed playing pen fight during both school and college days. Along with my classmates, I have wasted many free hours in pursuit of greatness in this sport. I even created a Pen Fight Premier League when in college, which lasted all of five hours. Pen Fight games have always been fun way of killing time and building camaraderie.

Why did I decide to write about Pen Fight on my blog? My first game of Pen Fight was with one Vijayakrishnan A, who was the Head Boy of my batch in High School. He passed away a few weeks back in Boston, due to cardiac arrest while playing cricket. May his soul rest in peace.

Another Season: Will the wait end?

2010-08-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

Right, starting tomorow, the richest sports league in the world, The English Premier League will begin its new season, and my fellow Gooners and I will start cheering for Arsenal as they attempt to win their first EPL title in seven years. Yes, they last won their title when the Invincibles went through an entire season unbeaten under the leadership of Patrick Vieira, with support from Thierry Henry, Robert "Le Bob" Pires, Bergkamp, and Co. We did come very close during the 2007-2008 season, when we finished third, only 3 points behind eventual victors Manchester United.

This year, however, it looks very unlikely that we have a realistic chance of ending the premiership drought. Our defence is very very weak, after the departure of William Gallas and Sol Campbell. Thomas Vermaelen and Bacry Sagna need more support. The new signing Koscielny will take some time to settle down in the Premier League. Every Arsenal supporter knows that Arsene Wenger needs to desperately sign an experienced Center-Half. The defence was our Achilles heel last year, as we gave away goals aplenty and our predicament was only worsened by shoddy goalkeeping by both Almunia and Fabianski - the latter has failed to impress in every opportunity that has been given to him.
We face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday and no matter how overrated they are as a team and the fact that they are no longer a top-four team, they are a tough team to beat at home. With Alex Song and Djourou injured, it will be very interesting to see what formation Arsene Wenger puts forward. I will be very surprised if he includes Fabregas and RVP in the line-up as they have only recently returned to the team after the round of international friendlies.
I hope Arsene finds a long-term solution to our defensive woes soon, else, this year will be just another year in the long wait for the Premier League Title. In Wenger We Trust.

Earworms

2010-07-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

Off late I have been suffering heavily from earworms. It might sound like a gross disease involving something like say, tapeworms in your ears. It isn't. It is that state of mind when a song gets stuck in your mind and refuses to go away for hours, days and some times even weeks. Luckily for me, my earworms last only for a day or two at most. However, the what is intriguing is the underlying theme of the songs - early 90s Alternative/Grunge with lyrics of that form a very deep emotional connection with me. I wonder if that is a sign. I only managed to recover from Pearl Jam classics Black and Alive recently. The current earworm, Losing My Religion by REM nearly reduced me to tears couple of days ago. I remember identifying with the lyrics at least 6-7 years ago. That reason no longer exists. When I listen to it now, it reminds me of something entirely new and shocking. I hope that passes on as quickly as possible. Yikes! That scares me. It makes me feel extremely guilty. But I think I can deal with it, like I have in the past, with similar experiences of lesser severity. The last lines of the lyrics seem slightly conforting, at least from an escapist's point of view.

Losing My Religion - By REM

Oh, life is bigger, It's bigger than you, And you are not me.

The lengths that I will go to, The distance in your eyes.

Oh no, I've said too much. I set it up.

That's me in the corner.

That's me in the spotlight, Losing my religion.

Trying to keep up with you, and I don't know if I can do it.

Oh no, I've said too much.

I haven't said enough.

I thought that I heard you laughing.

I thought that I heard you sing.

I think I thought I saw you try.

Every whisper of every waking hour I'm choosing my confessions.

Trying to keep an eye on you, like a hurt lost and blinded fool, fool,

Oh no, I've said too much. I set it up.

Consider this, Consider this.

The hint of the century.

Consider this, The slip that brought me to my knees failed.

What if all these fantasies come flailing around.

Now I've said too much.

I thought that I heard you laughing.

I thought that I heard you sing.

I think I thought I saw you try.

But that was just a dream. That was just a dream.

That's me in the corner.

That's me in the spotlight, Losing my religion.

Trying to keep up with you, and I don't know if I can do it.

Oh no, I've said too much.

I haven't said enough.

I thought that I heard you laughing.

I thought that I heard you sing.

I think I thought I saw you try.

But that was just a dream.

Try, cry, why try?

That was just a dream.

Just a dream, just a dream.

As the dew falls...

2010-07-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is a very bad attempt at translating "Pani Vizhum" to English.

I am referring to the song Pani Vizhum from the Tamil movie Ninaivellam Nithya, with music by Maestro Ilayaraja. I have always been an admirer of Ilayaraja's work, though he isn't one of my musical influences. However, in my humble opinion, no one can match Ilayaraja (and Laxmikant Pyarelal) when it comes really arranging and recording compositions using a full-fledged orchestra. Of course, 70% of his best works have been ruined by pathetic and sometimes really awful picturization in films. I don't find this song an exception either.

On the occasion of my 26th birthday as per the Tamil Calendar, I attempt Pani Vizhum on my guitar. This will be my first full-fledged attempt at a Tamil song.

NOTE: The track is actually performed on the D sharp/ E-flat Major Scale. People on Youtube have mistaken it for E major. I have taken the liberty to play it on D major.

Misirlou

2010-07-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a year since I purchased my Gibson Les Paul. And it has served me faithfully through sickness and health, joy and sorrow.

On the first anniversary, here's my attempt at Misirlou, more popularly known as The Pulp Fiction Theme.

FroYo - First Impressions

2010-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

I received the latest update to the Android OS on my Nexus One and spent the day exploring and evaluating the features (besides working at the office). Android 2.2 or FroYo might sound like a minor update to the previous version, Android 2.1 or Eclair. However, there are some important (for geeks) features added to the phone and major performance improvements, which make this more than just a minor update.

Let's start with the performance. It is FAST! And the jump in speed is quite visible. The transition between home screen panels is a lot snappier on FroYo. The browser is better too. The rendering of web-pages is much quicker on similar network strengths. Applications launch and execute faster than the previous version. Twitter and Gmail loaded and executed much faster than what I had observed ten minutes before I got the over-the-air firmware upgrade. Google developers pegged the improvement between 3X-5X. I am more than willing to take their word for it.

Moving to the feature set - thanks to the new version, I can now install downloaded apps on the SD card. This is important, since the in-built memory may not be able to store all the apps, as their number grows. Then again, one uses only so many apps. Yet, it is useful to know that a backup option is available when needed. FroYo also brings in tethering capability. Essentially, I can use the phone as a USB modem and access the carrier's 3G/EDGE network. FroYo also brings in Exchange Support, but I didn't get a chance to try this out. We can now use more than one Google account to use the phone, unlike earlier versions of the OS that required us to use only one Google account. I have successfully configured both my Google accounts on the phone, and can access Gmail for both the accounts simultaneously.

Now, in my opinion, Android has a good user experience. However, the public in general has found it a bit too geeky/intelligent compared to the iOS. Google has certainly taken note of that and added some UI improvements in FroYo. Firstly, we now have permanent icons for the browser and the phone-dialer on the bottom bar. Very sensible. This allows the user to access the two most frequently used apps on every base screen. The camera interface has undergone significant changes. The advance controls are a lot easier to access and use. The Gtalk (I won't be using this much though) has a nice white background, instead of the dull black one, and the menu is a lot more user-friendly with the common options more readily available.

Having praised the update so far, I would like to point out couple of major shortcomings. Firstly, the music app continues to underwhelm. It is functional no-doubt. But, on the usability front, I will have to give it to Apple. The interface and the feel of the Android music app remind me of the old 128MB mp3 players, and not the modern mp3 players with jukebox capabilities. Secondly, the keyboard hasn't changed at all, meaning there is a lot of scope for improvement. I hope Swype is available as soon as possible.

To sum it up, I am impressed by the update. My N1 is a lot faster now, and the UI gets some decent tweaks. If Google can work on the identified areas of improvement in the next version (Android 3 or Gingerbread), we will arguably have the best smartphone OS ever developed.

Interesting Ingredients

2010-06-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

Love the way Pret-A-Manger describes the ingredients of its organic Apple Juice :-)

Irresistable

2010-06-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Usually when Youtube recommends videos for me, I consider them with a pinch of salt.

However, today, it recommended the one below.

4 Good looking girls playing Kashmir Led Zeppelin. That's one offer I cannot refuse ;-)!

Apparently, the guitars were performed by Slash. Sweet!

Life with a Nexus One

2010-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, at the Google I/O, Vic Gundotra, the Google VP, announced the latest update to the Android OS, Android 2.2 or FroYo. I am obviously excited about it as I have been using a Nexus One for three months now.

The Nexus One isn't my first smart-phone. I owned a Sony Ericsson w810i, arguably one of the best feature phones made by Sony Ericsson till now. While one doesn't classify it as a smart-phone, I browsed the internet, via Opera Mobile and used apps, such as Sideralis (an astronomy lover's delight) and Gmail, all thanks to the 600 per month data plan from Airtel. Last year, I switched to Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It was my first smart-phone and my first touch screen phone. I even got a data plan from T-Mobile for it. Feature-wise, it was better than the iPhone. Good camera, memory card slot, and good sound quality. But the OS left a lot to be desired. What perturbed me the most was its general sluggishness and buggy feeling. Lack of proper support from Nokia only made it worse. Of course, I did try to experiment with the phone quite a bit. However, the most recent firmware upgrade was enough for me to decide to move to a newer one. I had been actively keeping track of media updates on the Nexus One. When Google decided to push Android 2.1 into Nexus One, it was time to buy it. I originally tried upgrading my existing contract with T-mobile, for the subsidized price. But then US wireless carriers, being greedy pigs, rejected my upgrade request. Unlocked version it was. The Nexus One arrived two days after I had placed the order on the now-defunct Google web store. The changed my life, for better and for worse.

For Better

Linking the phone with my Google account ensured that my GMail Inbox, Contacts, and Picasa were in sync with my phone. I could respond to e-mails from near and dear ones much sooner. Thanks to apps like BankOfAmerica and Amazon I could transfer money and send gifts to friends and family from any part of the country (where bars were available.) And I did. In a way or two, it did make me a lot more productive and help me exhibit a better presence of mind. Didn't carry my camera? 5 good MP of it! I could share photos of my niece with the rest of my family instantaneously. Not to forget Google Maps and GPS Navigation, due to which I practically couldn't get lost (excluding my amazing absent-mindedness, hence the blog title.) Craving for a Tall Latte from Starbucks? There was an app for locating the closest SBUX! Heck, I even managed to design a T-shirt for my friend's birthday on my phone! And of course, Pandora and Shazaam! Je vous aime!!

For Worse

For the first few weeks, I was ADDICTED. Period. I simply couldn't remain still without fiddling my phone, much to the annoyance of my friends. I would be playing games on the phone when commuting the Subway, which gave my friends the impression that I was either not interested in their conversations or I was feeling left out. In the middle of meetings, I would be on Facebook/Twitter. I had this hilarious experience during one of them when I was chatting with a colleague on GTalk in the middle of a meeting! He had a Motorola Droid :-)! Speaking of GTalk, that is what really started getting into me. I used to be signed into the Nexus One GTalk app by default. Pings from family and friends in India (their evening time) served as distractions when I was at work. Unanswered "Hi"s led to needless misunderstandings.

I am not that hysterically addicted to the phone anymore. I am no longer signed in on Mobile GTalk (except for coffee/water/loo breaks.) I still enjoy that odd game of the battery-draining RoboDefense or TrashCanToss when commuting to work. Ergo, productivity-wise, the Nexus One has been my best friend. Socially speaking, Err... It is certainly not my worst enemy. But it does at times, make me one annoying character!

Geeky Notes:

1. The name FroYo (short for Frozen Yogurt,) is in line with Google's habit of naming versions after high calory snacks - Cupcake(1.5), Donut(1.6), and Eclair(2/2.1.) This is also one of the reasons why I love Android OS.

2. The Nexus One is rumored to be named based on the Nexus 6 androids that appear in the Phillip K Dick sci-fi novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" and its film adaptation, "Blade Runner." While this has not been confirmed, The Phillip K Dick foundation is sueing Google over the name. I think that is BS.

Sessions with Sis

2010-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

I have always enjoyed the music sessions with my sister (Pooch), when I was in India. They were the best ways to pass time during my trips to Madras, and bond with my little sis (apart from dropping her to college/work.) The song list used to be more or less the same for every session, containing the following tracks in no particular order,

1. Jaane Jaan Dhoondta from Jawani Deewani

2. Wonderwall by Oasis

3. Back to You by Bryan Adams

4. Tumne Mujhe Pehchana Nahi from Raju Chacha (Yes, that's quite an eclectic choice...)

5. Teri Deewani by Kailash Kher

6. Dil Ko Tumse Pyaar Hua from Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein

Needless to say, the biggest contributors to the fun factor were obviously the mess-ups, either due to me falling woefully out of rhythm, playing the wrong chord, deliberately seguing into a Led Zeppelin track, or my sister going completely off-pitch, which would crack me up.

However, after I moved out of India, all of it came to a grinding halt. That was until yesterday. It never occurred to either one of us that we could have attempted it over Skype. Probably my excitement over the arrival of my Takamine Acoustic guitar was the catalyst. I was showing off my latest purchase to her during one of our Skype conversations, when she asked me to strum some chords. I in turn, asked her to sing, and we hit it off with Jaane Jaan. The session had resumed after a gap of nearly two and half years! We followed it up with the rest of the songs in the list, and even tried out some new ones, like Pardesi from Dev D. Babulaal, my roommate and friend, saw this as an opportunity to try out some burst mode photography using his newly acquired SLR. I didn't mind that at all. Moreover, the results were quite impressive. Fifteen minutes later, it was time for my sister to sign out of Skype. The first "session" in two and half years had come to an end. It was a somewhat emotional moment for me.

Thanks Pooch. Yesterday's session was awesome, just like the rest :-)...

The Gig

2010-04-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

Right, I have gotten over the euphoria now. I have watched my videos at least 30 times each. Now I can describe my thoughts about my first public performance with a calm mind.

"This is not your first public performance!", people might say. Technically, they might be right. But I think this is arguably the one that motivates me to take my music very seriously.

I had always wished to perform at a club during my stay in this country. Two years had passed by without that happening (No, that one doesn't count.) due to reasons within and beyond my control. That changed when my flatmate Ben invited me over to his place for a small jam. I had recently purchased a midi controller for my Mac. Ben had noticed that and he had been pestering me to do a collaboration with his band. That didn't happen until I moved out to my new apartment. One night he invited me over to his place to jam and we started trying out some Robbie Williams numbers. Ben was impressed with my skills and suggested that we do a Robbie Williams set at the open mic that happens every Wednesday night at Boca Grande, a local Bar/Mexican Restaurant in Newport. I said yes almost immediately.

Considering that Ben would be handling the vocals and the lead guitar and I would be concentrating on the piano, we had to pre-program some of the background music and percussions, which I managed to accomplish on GarageBand. However, we suffered a minor setback, when a critical key of my midi-controller stopped functioning. Moreover, Ben felt that we needed to get a bit more comfortable with the songs. We decided to postpone our performance by 2 weeks, i.e, the next open mic. In the meanwhile, I spent some extra money on getting a proper 61 key Yamaha keyboard, and other equipment. Ben had also suggested that we try out a few Led Zeppelin tracks, and if we were comfortable, we could play them too. I was even more excited now, especially after Ben suggested that I handle the guitars for those tracks. Soon we started practicing the numbers regularly and time flew as it always does.

March 17th had already arrived and it was St.Patrick's day too. Ben had signed us up for the show. My friends Babulaal, Munni, and Agent 070 had come to watch me perform. We were slotted 8th. I wasn't feeling well that day, thanks to the sudden change of weather, and that 6 hour wait to get my tax returns filed. Two pegs of rum with hot water later, I was feeling much much better. We waited while the bands before us performed their bits. There however, was a hip-hop band, who went well beyond their time limit, and that was bad news for us. Ben was running late for his night of bar-tending at a local bar, and couldn't stay longer. We had to call off the performance for that night. Yes, I was disappointed, but I guess the two pegs of rum helped me take the news well. We were now delayed by another two weeks.

We continued to practice the Robbie Williams and Led Zeppelin numbers. The rehearsals at the Keyhole were very helpful, as we were able to gauge the volumes and gain levels for our respective instruments, in addition to trying out new numbers for potential future performances. TheStud's recording of our rehearsal also served as a good source of motivation (and promotion.)

The second D-day had arrived. We decided to call of the Led Zeppelin numbers for this night, as neither of us were confident about them yet. We were slotted second, right after Nick and Pat, the hosts of the open mic. After a string of acoustic numbers, they made the way for us. We started with Feel (one of my all time favorites and a special one that too.) I was initially nervous, and therefore concentrated on playing the notes perfectly. However, as we neared the end, I became more comfortable and started to enjoy it. Angels was a far more relaxed performance, and by then I was even miming out the lyrics, while Ben crooned them, in addition to playing the lead. We had extended Angels towards the end for couple of improvised solos - one by Ben and the other one by me. I thought both the solos sounded good. A sense of ecstasy and relief descended upon me as I hit the final note of my solo. We had concluded our very first collaboration. I was initially concerned about how the songs sounded on the whole. My fears were laid to rest when I heard the recordings by Munni and Babulaal. I am definitely looking forward to more such collaborations with Ben, and others, and even solo ones.

With that we can strike out "Perform at a club" from my US stay wish list :-).

Angels @ Boca Grande

2010-03-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

Me and Ben, my ex-roommate performing at Boca Grande, Jersey City, NJ on 31st March 2010. Angels this time...

Feel @ Boca Grande

2010-03-31T21:48:00.001-07:00

Me and Ben, my ex-roommate performing at Boca Grande, Jersey City, NJ on 31st March 2010. I am playing the keyboard :-)...

Physical Graffiti - Disc 2

2010-03-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Part Deux of Physical Graffiti begins with the song that inspired me to write this commentary, the song that has been playing on my MBP on repeat mode for quite some time now - In The Light. I find this to be one of the most underrated tracks of the band, and surprisingly so. A song that can get you high even if you haven't tried out anything in your life. The drone and the synthesizers that mark the start of this eight minute epic, create the infinitely surreal atmosphere, which you get absorbed into, only to be suddenly hit by a bolt of guitar and snare drums. The song then takes you through a rather depressing, yet thumping section, and follows it with a very simple, yet mood-lifting guitar solo. We go through another round of this roller-coaster ride before the song fades into something completely unexpected. Pure acoustic guitar - Bron-Y-Aur. The track lasts a little less than two minutes, but nearly makes you feel as though In The Light never existed. The change in mood is taken a bit further with Down By The Seaside, which genuinely makes the listener feel as though they were walking long the beach with their loved ones, thanks to the Surf guitar and the slow tempo of the song. Of course, it does have its mood swing, but it soon returns to tranquility.
The more I talk about Ten Years Gone, the more, I feel, needs to be said. Very few songs have touched my heart simply through their music. The melancholy brought in by the initial chords, is amplified by the main riff, which was achieved by Jimmy Page's multiple guitar overdubs. It took me eight separate tracks of guitar tracks to achieve 50% of the effect created by the song. Add to that the tragic lyrics by Robert Plant, and you have something that can potentially reduce you to tears. And no sooner I finish writing this, we are taken away by Night Flight, a song featuring the increasingly distinguishable style of John Paul Jones. A very pleasant sounding song, with some great drum work by John Bonham and very clean sounding guitars by Jimmy Page. We are then taken back to the heavy tone that one associates with Led Zeppelin, through The Wanton Song, which once again feature double-edged lyrics by Robert Plant, with Wanton being another reference to a feline pun.
If Houses of The Holy is the weakest track of the album, Boogie With Stu is a somewhat close second. The only reason I didn't tie it with HOTH is because it was an attempt by LZ at doing something different, which I appreciate. Out of nowhere we hear an airplane in the background, then Page and Plant give a go-ahead to leave it that way, and we enter Black Country Woman, the penultimate track of the album. It is one of those acoustic songs that one can dance to, this is made possible due to Bonham's work on the drums and Page's rhythm guitars. Plant's vocals are filled with the essence of what the lyrics are trying to say. An album of this magnitude has to end with a bang, and it sure does. Sick Again takes care of that with a rather effortless sounding rhythm guitar and a standard 4/4 beat with some nice touches that ensure that it doesn't sound too conventional. The end of the track reminds me of how When The Levee Breaks concludes Led Zeppelin IV.

Physical Graffiti was an album whose creative process started when the band was working on earlier albums. Songs originally written for LZ 3,4 and HOTH were finally included in Physical Graffiti. The album is the definition of what everything Led Zeppelin stood for and will remain one of the greatest Rock Albums of all time.

Physical Graffiti - Disc 1

2010-03-20T05:41:00.000-07:00

My appetite for Led Zeppelin is insatiable. Anyone who has been following my blog for a while would agree to that wit no questions asked. I have written about LZ 2, 3, 4 and Houses of The Holy. But I haven't written a word about the album, which in my opinion defined Led Zeppelin at their peak - Physical Graffiti. It's not like this is the first post mentioning Physical Graffiti. There was this attempt at rewriting the lyrics of Kashmir. No offence meant to Presence, LZ 1 and In Through The Out Door - Your time is gonna come. For now let us concentrate on Physical Graffiti - The only double CD studio album released by Led Zeppelin.

Physical Graffiti is the sixth studio album of Led Zeppelin. It builds on what was partially felt in Led Zeppelin IV and realized with more obviousness in Houses Of The Holy. It was an album that touched upon multiple genres, as evidenced by the rather eclectic set of songs.

The album starts off in vintage Led Zeppelin style with Custard Pie - a tight performance, driven by the relatively heavy riffs by Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones' fluid bass-lines, and a percussion section patented by John Bonham, with Robert Plant's double-edged lyrics. The Classic Rock mood set by Custard Pie is continued by The Rover, this time with the classic 4/4 Rock-n-Roll rhythm section, created by the chugging bass line and the drums, with Plant crooning about his trips around the world. The poetic nature of the lyrics is definitely a departure from Custard Pie, and is kind of overshadowed by the instruments. All such observations are thrown into the garbage bin, with In My Time of Dying, a rework of a Blind Willie Johnson blues number. And when I say rework, I mean rework. It sounds nothing like the original, except for some of the lyrics. The performance lasts for over eleven minutes and is a testament to why each member in the band was irreplaceable (unless their children filled in for them :-).) The two solos by Page on slide guitar, and the shifts in tempo led by Bonham's thunderous snare - truly a work of genius.

And when we think that everything has changed, we return to another round of classic Rock n Roll, with Houses Of The Holy, which didn't find a place in the album Houses Of The Holy. To me, this is arguably the weakest track of the entire album, simply because it doesn't offer anything new when compared to the rest of the songs. John Paul Jones finally starts using the organ with Trampled Underfoot, Led Zeppelin's attempt at some rather funky blues, with some interesting results. The organ and the guitar do sound somewhat funky and cute to be honest. But Bonham's natural instincts perhaps make the rhythm section sound a lot harder than they should have been. That however, doesn't make the track any less jive-worthy though. And now we come to the accomplishment, which according to Plant, represents everything that Led Zeppelin stood for. Written in the deserts of Morocco, named after a valley that has witnessed as much bloodshed as spring-time flower blooms. Yes, Kashmir. What makes the song work? The percussion? The subtle guitar work in the background? The eastern-influenced strings arranged by John Paul Jones that dominate the track? Those poetic words recited by Plant? All of them. In the world of classic rock, if there is a composition that defines "Majestic" to the T, it is Kashmir. And with that we mark the end of Part Un.

To Be Continued.

Jive-walkin

2010-03-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

I am not sure how many of you have tried it. I am sure we have all done it at least once in private, but hesitated to do so in public. I for one, do it every time I need to go on a long walk. I am talking about Jive-walking. It is not just walking to the beat of the song that you are listening to on your music player. It's about feeling the rhythm as you walk.

I for one, have been enjoying the act of walking to my French classes from 33rd St, thanks to jive-walking (Full credit to Babulaal APS for the suggestion.) It is embarassing only if you want it to be. Of course, people might give you a stare, but that's about it. It is fun. Of course, it also depends on the song. For starters, I would recommend:

Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
Walk This Way - Aerosmith
Galvanize - The Chemical Brothers

Change for Worse, "Un-Change" for the better

2010-03-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

I have often made terrible decisions in a fit of excitement or under the influence of ethanol (though people have remarked that I use my brain better when I am drunk.) However, this would rank as one of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life. And I treat it so because the move was:

Stupid
Unreasonable
Careless
Kind of weird
Esoteric (somewhat)
Dumb

In short, the move sucked.

Which is why I have decided to restore the original title and description for my blog. And once can be rest assured that this name is going to remain in place for a long long time.

Missed the starting gun?

2010-02-26T22:28:00.000-08:00

For all those people experiencing a quarter-life crisis.

I think this song describes our situation to a T.

One of Roger Waters' masterpieces.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

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.

Visible Signs

2010-02-10T20:50:00.001-08:00

When I wrote this post, I was swimming regularly, averaging around 40-45 laps per session. That had peaked to 50 in September. Then came October, and that meant a change of weather. A small bout with flu left me with cold. And with cold came cough, my worst enemy. Those who know me really well, should have known by now that when I catch cough, it stays for at least a month. And so it did, till the end of November. And as a result, I stopped swimming, fearing that I would only aggravate my condition. And that put a halt on my weight loss. By the start of December, my weight stood at 230 lbs, or 104 kg. The holiday season had officially begun, and I was in the mood too! Pizzas, Paneer Parathas and what not (also include fruits!) Weight shot up to 234 lbs.

On 25th of December, under the influence of Kingfisher, sitting in one of the worst Indian Restaurants ever to have sprung up in Manhattan, I took a vow in writing, that I would lose at least 20 lbs by the end of April 2010. Now, given my state then, it appeared to be a tall order. Abhishek and Pattu nearly dismissed it, as they have seen me make bold claims about my health plans earlier, and fail miserably at each one of them. But I was serious this time around. After a rather sumptuous supper at the Ganesha Temple Cafeteria in Queens, I took the first step. I started having only salads for lunch, stopped rice altogether, and limited dinner to only 2 rotis (max 3) plus sabzi. I had recovered from cold by then and ergo took up swimming again, though less regularly (once or twice a week vs 3-4 times a week.) Bien Sur, les cours de français étaient aussi une raison (utilisez Google Translate, Francais – Anglais, pour comprendre.) Much to my astonishment, I was able to consistently execute this plan! Needless to say, there were those odd days when I kind of strayed off the path, days when I went out to eat, visited relatives etc. But overall, I haven’t been so in control of my diet, on my own!

And the results are beginning to show. For the first time in more than 2 years, my colleagues have begun to notice that I am losing weight. That to me, is an encouraging sign. The most recent reading at the gym – 224 lbs, means that this is the first time I have weighed below 226 lbs in the past 2.5 years – the “lightest” I have been in this country! 5 lbs more and I will be back to double digits in the metric system. Add to that the fact that the trousers that I had custom-tailored during my last visit to India, are kind of loose now! For the first time in 2.5 years, my waist-line has come down to a number below 40 (It currently stands at 39.5!) and that’s saying something!!

By the way, the name of that terrible restaurant is Curry Dreams and it is located on 39th St, near 6th Ave.

Pavitra Aur Bhakti Ras Se Bharpoor!!

2010-01-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my unending liking for AAA, much to your annoyance, I have attempted to translate one of my favorite scenes from the film.

Come In. Hands Down! You are three minutes late. Do you know what happens in 3 minutes?

Deals worth Billions are finalized in 3 minutes.

Shut Up! I had reserved 6 minutes for you two. 3 for me and 3 for you. You have lost your 3 minutes.

Now you only listen to me. Shut Up! Start..

Amar and Prem, Amar Prem - filled with sacred and devotional juices. After hearing your names I guessed that you are fakes and vagabonds. But no, you are worthless parasites too.

And well, you certainly look dumb and stupid.

And Of Course, you have proved youselves to be fools of the highest order, when you came here thinking that I will agree to you marrying my daughters.

Wait!

My Three minutes are not up yet.

I have brought up my daughters with lots of love and affection. But I think I need to get their brains treated soon, since they have chosen rascals like you.

Finger out of the mouth and you out of the room!

Below is the clip. The translation is for the scene after our heroes enter Ram Gopal Bajaj's room.

Hip Hop Melancholy

2010-01-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

I have been fiddling around with Garageband a lot, ever since I got my MBP. In my opinion it is the best piece of software for amateurs like me, providing an amazing range of guitar processing effects. I tested all the effects available in the basic version that comes pre-loaded with MBP, and I am very impressed with the quality of the sound. Below is a ringtone/trailer of a project that I am currently working on, tentatively titled Hip Hop Melancholy. You can listen to the ringtone/trailer here.

And if you don't mind using up 600KB on your phone, you can download it here. Feedback is always welcome as the project is still work in progress.

NOTE: The trailer is essentially a sample of Ten Years Gone by Led Zeppelin with a little hip-hop twist, courtesy the Garageband loops library. All the guitar tracks were performed by me by plugging in my Les Paul to the MBP.

New Year, New OS, New Name, But NOT A New Decade!

2010-01-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

To many people, it is the start of a new decade. But for geeks like me, the decade ends only on Dec 31st 2010. With that I have dealt with two quarters of the title.

Nonetheless, it has been nearly 10 years since a lot of seemingly significant events happened.

My first New Year after shifting to Madras from New Delhi, when I thoroughly enjoyed the benefits of being a part of an extended family, especially when celebrating New Years.

My first Hard Drink (In matters like these, I have the best dad in the world!)

My first computer. I officially became a geek from that point onwards. The comp was obviously loaded with Windows 98. After a decade of tolerating various versions of Windows (including the latest one), I have finally made the shift to the Mac OS X Snow Leopard, courtesy of my new Macbook Pro 13. I haven't ditched my HP though. I have loaded that with both Windows (required when I claim to be working from home) and Ubuntu (If I master Linux administration, another line on my resume will no longer be a lie :P.)

December 2009 was quite a month, but I couldn't come out with a single post for my blog. It's nobody's fault but mine. I finally experienced Avatar. Yes, it is more of an experience than a movie. And a mind-blowing one. In case you are planning to watch it, please do so on IMAX 3D.

I managed to accomplish something I have been wanting to do for 2 years now - skiing. I finally put a trip to the Pocono mountains with some friends. I never fell during the skiing lessons, and managed to receive praise from the skiing instructor, who said I was the best student of that day :-)! That changed when I faced the real thing. It hard started raining and the snow had begun to harden a bit. That meant lesser control on the speed. It became worse when gravity and my weight joined forces to provide such a momentum, that I wasn't able to control my speed. I had to fall to stop. But I soon learnt how to deal with that, and ended up falling the least number of times amongst the four of us. Abhishek wasn't so fortunate and during one of the instances, he ended up flying into the nets put for protection. With his legs and skis stuck on the net, like a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, I couldn't help laughing, when I should have been helping him out. I doubt if he will ever forgive me for that momentary lapse of reason.

I also got into the habit of listening to TV Shows and Movies on my iPod. It does sound weird, but it works well, especially when the dialogs are funny and are delivered well (Eg: Anything that comes out of Chandler Bing's mouth.) Along the same lines, I loaded Andaaz Apna Apna onto my iPod. I have now listened to the entire movie at least forty times, either at work or while commuting to work. Add that to the hundreds of times I have watched it on DVD. I still cannot get enough of Teja, Ram Gopal Bajaj, Robert, Bhalla, Gogo, Amar and Prem. Paresh Rawal should have received a Bharat Ratna for his role(s). Also, there has been a considerable drop in the number of black-tees-with-rock-bands in my wardrobe. For some reason, that simply doesn't attract women!!!! I bid a tearful goodbye to 3 of them recently, including one of Led Zeppelin :'-(. To reflect that changing mindset, I have decided to rename my blog. After nearly, five years of being called Hammer of The Gods, it will now be known as Vasco Da Gama's Gun. Please watch Andaaz Apna Apna to comprehend the new name and description. With that, I am done with shamelessly marketting the best Bollywood comedy to my readers. And this also marks the end of the first post from my new Macbook Pro.

P.S: Cheap! I always knew you had amazing prospects! Now I have a very very valid reason to visit Amsterdam ;-)!

UPDATE: The ISO thinks there is a year 0 and that coincides with the Gregorian Calendar (which UTC is derived from) year 1 BC. That would mean 1999 marked completion of 2000 years as per ISO. Damn You ISO!!!!

2012

2009-11-21T10:54:00.001-08:00

Three years ago, a grossly erroneous 1 hour special on the 2012 "doomsday event” was broadcast on the History Channel. I got to watch that and was relieved only after the much dominant geekier side of my self did some fact checking on the internet (including websites other than Wikipedia) that indicated that almost all of the stuff shown on the programme were, to put it mildly, load of crap. I could only imagine what a movie based on those theories would look like. The wait was over last Saturday.

I was personally not interested in watching it, given its resemblance to one of Roland Emmerich’s earlier efforts, an oddly titled, The Day After Tomorrow. But it was a 3.5/4 star review from Roger Ebert that really got me interested. Add to that the company of my friend and ex-roommate from Bangalore, with whom I have published research papers on ripping apart movies while watching them. And the company was well worth it.

This surprisingly lengthy movie starts with a pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo about aligning of the sun and planets with the galactic core, solar flares, neutrinos and the finally the shifting of Earth’s poles causing Earth’s crust to collapse and blah. Leading this discovery is an American Scientist with an Indian friend (who speaks English with a very artificial Indian accent, and Hindi in a British accent. We laughed out loud (the first of many LOLs) at that bit, when a Russian sitting next to me empathized with us, as soon we had actors blabbering away in terrible Russian accents. Three was definitely company.

The protagonist John Cusack is the definition of a loser. His kids live with his ex-wife and her current lover (you know this guy is destined to die at some point in the movie to make room for a very clichéd family reunion.) The president of the USA is an African American, with Thandie Newton playing his pretty daughter. The Prez is always African American when earth is being destroyed (Remember Deep Impact?) And when the American Scientist warning the world about the impending disaster, is a young African American male, you know he is going to hookup with the first daughter at some point in the movie. 30 minutes of the movie is dedicated to such needless sub-plots. The brutal video-game-like CGI destruction of every possible point of interest on the planet is a given. All escape sequences featuring Cusack are strategically staged, with our man very narrowly escaping the rapidly crumbling earth’s hand tossed NY style crust in all of the scenes. Like every Hollywood disaster movie, Chicago deep dish is ignored. LA though, is given a very special farewell as it literally sinks into the ocean. As if that weren’t enough, we have the mammoth Antonov 500 jet, stacked with the latest Bentleys, Ferraris, and Lamborginis. When you have that many sports cars in a jet, it shouldn’t surprise you when there is a scene involving a crashing jet, and the principal cast escaping in one of the cars. Last but not least, we have Chinese made mega-Arks on collision course with Mount Everest, Russian concubines risking their lives to save their pet Chihuahuas, and a relatively subtle destruction of India by mega-tsunamis.

We (including the Russian) laughed all through the movie, especially when apparently not even a cent of the $260 million production had been spent on the screenplay. It’s been quite a while since I enjoyed predicting every dialog of a film in a cinema hall, surrounded by scores of other movie-watchers who are so clearly annoyed by my antics. 2012 allowed me to indulge in this sadistic pleasure one more time. And for that I would like to thank Roland Emmerich. However, he continues to live in the early 90s, when G8 was a force to reckon with, and India was a third world country.

Lucky Finally…

2009-10-26T19:18:00.001-07:00

October deserves a much bigger post. But I just wanted to point out an observation I made today on Google. Sometime back I had pointed out the fact that this version of Hotel California was among the top 5 results when one googled for my “Alma Mater.”

As of today, it is now the top search result on Google!

I doubt if any other post from this blog would reach this level of popularity.

I have never…

2009-09-20T07:51:00.001-07:00

walked out of the movie hall because of the poor quality of a film. I have used bad movies to build up my tolerance limits. I have sat through movies like Love Story 2050, G I Joe, Villu etc. But my tolerance was truly tested last Wednesday, and for once I am glad that I had failed. I had gone to watch All About Steve.

I was extremely bored. I had watched every other movie running in the multiplex in my neighborhood except this one. The fact that Sandra Bullock had a lead role should have served as a warning for me. That’s what made me skip The Proposal. But ego prevailed over logic. If I could sit through a Sandra Bullock movie, my tolerance for supremely bad movies would increase tenfold. I took the bait.

When I entered the cinema hall, I realized that I was the only male member of the audience. The signs were clear. It was going to be a tough ride. The advertisements and the trailers were over and it was now time for the test to begin. The first few minutes of movie were not so bad. The camera was only following her steps. And then the inevitable happened. She appeared on screen and started to act. Every minute following that was sheer agony. There were occasional points of relief when she didn’t appear on screen. But those were rare and few. Thirty minutes into the movie, I had had enough. More of it would have been suicidal. I got up and rushed out of the hall. I ran towards the restroom. I tried to puke, but couldn’t. I ran home, washed my face and drank gallons of water in an attempt to calm myself down and recover from the torture that was meted out to me.

I therefore warn my readers. Watch All About Steve at your own risk.

Harry Potter and the Audiobooks by Stephen Fry

2009-09-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

It's been close to three weeks since I finished listening to the audiobooks of the British versions of the Harry Potter books, narrated by Stephen Fry. I still haven't gotten over the experience, and this post is an attempt to get it out of my system. I wouldn't be writing here if I weren't a big Harry Potter fan. I have enjoyed reading the books like all of you, if not like some of you, who have read it a million times. But listening to Stephen Fry narrate every line so beautifully, has only increased my appreciation for the books from a more emotional point of view.

Stephen Fry is a class act. He manages to provide a unique tone to almost every character in the seven books, be it the bossy tone of Hermione, or the dreamy voice of Luna, or the smug tone of Draco. More importantly he accurately brings out the emotion connected with every line in the book. I have to admit, I enjoyed reading the first 4 books more than the last 3, but I loved every line of the last three books when I listened to them, as I was overwhelmed by the emotional content in these books. Therefore it is not surprising that most of my now-favourite moments from the books can be found in the last three. Probably the funniest bit was the Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor in the 6th book.

“. . . but now that big Hufflepuff player’s got the Quaffle from her, I can’t remember his name, it’s something like Bibble — no, Buggins —”
“It’s Cadwallader!” said Professor McGonagall loudly from beside Luna. The crowd laughed.
......
......
Ginny and Demelza scored a goal apiece, giving the red-and-gold-clad supporters below something to cheer about. Then Cadwallader scored again, making things level, but Luna did not seem to have noticed; she appeared singularly uninterested in such mundane things as the score, and kept attempting to draw the crowd’s attention to such things as interestingly shaped clouds and the possibility that Zacharias Smith, who had so far failed to maintain possession of the Quaffle for longer than a minute, was suffering from something called “Loser’s Lurgy.”
“Seventy-forty to Hufflepuff!” barked Professor McGonagall into Luna’s megaphone.
“Is it, already?” said Luna vaguely. “Oh, look! The Gryffindor Keeper’s got hold of one of the Beater’s bats.”

The grace with which Fry shifts between McGonagall, Luna and the narration is fantastic. I have listened to this bit umpteen number of times. Some of the more powerful scenes in the book literally brought me to tears, none more than the one featuring Harry and Dumbledore after they have viewed the complete version of Slughorn's memory (chapter 23 - The Horcruxes.) I just couldn't get enough of the below lines in the end of the chapter, especially when narrated by Fry:

But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world.

And of course, Harry's bouts with himself, regarding his feelings for Ginny, or the developing romance between Ron and Hermione have been dealt with brilliantly, with the latter deserving a separate post. I have never been appealed or been touched by the representation of emotions, more particularly those concerning love and sorrow, in books in general. To a good extent, same has been the case with the Harry Potter books. The fact that Ron and Hermione end up together, didn't make much of a difference to me when I originally read the books. But listening to the audiobooks helped me catch hints that went previously unnoticed by me. I was particularly impressed by how Fry surprised by me pointing out hints hints laid out by JKR in the first three books. The ones that caught my attention the most were:

Book 1:

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; Ron pulled out his own wand — not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: “Wingardium Leviosa!”

Book 3:

It was dusk, and Ron and Hermione had just turned up in the common room, pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they’d had the time of their lives.

Book 5:

“What do you think about this?” Hermione demanded of Ron, and Harry was reminded irresistibly of Mrs. Weasley appealing to her husband during Harry’s first dinner in Grimmauld Place.

Of course, there is also the more obvious "perfume" moment in Book 5. But my point is about how delicately Fry appears to stress on these little things cleverly laid out by the author. Needless to say, the chapter on Snape's memories served as a fitting conclusion to the masterclass of a character that was Severus Snape. Snape's worst memory was his worst, not because he was preyed upon by James and Sirius, as it was made to believe in the 5th book, but because he had insulted the only person he had sincerely loved, by needlessly calling her a Mudblood. I am only more in awe of Snape and JKR than ever before.

I highly recommend the audiobooks to any one who has enjoyed reading the books. The books are available on Amazon for a princely sum. Make sure you get the Audible format (.m4b file) as they not only contain chapter-based skip-points but also have chapter art (interestingly from the Scholastic version of the books.)

Those who prefer to look beyond the legal boundaries, this should act as a good source. The .m4b files are playable on iPod, iTunes, Quicktime and VLC media player. The chapter and the Chapter art feature however, function only on iPod, iTunes and Quicktime.

Physical Graffiti and Me…

2009-08-01T17:21:00.001-07:00

This will probably be the umpteenth post on this blog that has anything to do with Led Zeppelin. But like the rest, this too is very special. Physical Graffiti is arguably THE definitive Led Zeppelin album. Those who have listened to it will certainly remember the album art.

Below is a picture of the building in its current state.

Notice that the penultimate floor of the building was removed to accomodate the building into the dimensions of an LP/CD sleeve.

And below is a Patel shot of me in front of the building!

Those interested in visiting this landmark can find it at 96 and 98, St. Marks Place in Lower Manhattan.

Directing Harry Potter movies..

2009-07-25T06:18:00.001-07:00

With the 6th movie out and unsurprisingly making lots of moolah, quite a big group of fans have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the movie, which is equally unsurprising.

This is one area where I have disagreed with some of my fellow fans. In my opinion, what they fail to understand is that whenever a movie is made out of a book, the most important decision is to provide a movie an identity of its own, instead of being a plain verbatim reproduction. Liberties will be taken as long as they don’t completely stray away from the original story line. Hell, the storylines in the Jason Bourne movies ended up having no relation to its book counterparts, yet managed to win a lot of fans and critics. Or the Lord of The Rings movies chopped and edited many parts from the book, yet managed to win 15+ Oscars in total.

The user reepicheep, while commenting on this great interview with the director David Yates, echoed my thoughts on the Harry Potter movies to the letter T:

Rowling actually has stated, in many interviews, that she was protective of the storylines when they first started making films out of the books, but quickly realized that adapted a book into a film requires that things get changed or left by the wayside, because they're two very different entities. She became more relaxed and actually told directors like Yates to do whatever they wanted, whatever they needed to make a better MOVIE. As to why directors put new things in...do you really want a word-for-word, scene-for-scene recreation of the books? What would be the point of that? NO film adaptation of a book has ever done that, to my knowledge...they've all changed, deleted, and added things. And I've said this a thousand times on other message boards, but one reason they add new scenes is this...say you know that you only have a limited amount of time to tell your story, and in the story, there is a scene where one character verbally confronts another character, then, later on, that character ends up physically attacking the other character, but over a completely different argument. A screenwriter might decide to COMBINE the two events, starting with a verbal exchange that becomes a physical confrontation, and create a whole new source of the argument that would allow the two events to be combined. This is, in effect, a new scene, but not really, it's just an amalgamation of other scenes, pared down and given a different direction. To be honest, I'm glad they cut down the big battle at the end of Half-Blood Prince...it's far too similar to what happens at the end of Deathly Hallows (although that is much bigger in scope). And Yates is right, adding a scene such as the one at the Burrow is important because a movie's pacing has to be far different than a book's. For one thing, very few people sit down and read a book in one sitting...it's something which is parceled out a bit at a time...whereas a film has to tell it's viewers a complicated story in one big chunk as they sit there. I think the movies have been great...They are not "butchered" because they don't include every little detail, in fact, I'm amazed that they managed to fit in as many details as they did. And, to be honest, one of the fascinating things about turning books into movies, for me (and this works vice versa, too), is that in a book, the author may have to give you three pages of text about how Harry feels conflicted, how he's been dreading certain events, about how he feels nervous and edgy...and the screenwriter, if he's a good one, simply writes...HARRY LOOKS NERVOUS AND SAYS, "I don't like this at all". What takes up three pages in the book, even though it may give more detailed information, is accomplished just as readily in about three seconds of screen time. It's more about SHOWING an audience things, rather than TELLING them about them.

I have another example of a change, which I thought, worked well in the movie. In GoF, for the second task, it is Dobby who provides Harry with Gillyweeds, enabling him to breathe underwater. However, Dobby isn’t there in the 4th movie. Who will now get those magical herbs for Harry? Neville Longbottom. A stroke of genius in my opinion, given Neville’s strength in Herbology.

While I understand that not everyone feels about the book the same way, that each may have scenes that they would have wished to be reproduced in the movie to the minutest of detail, A movie can only show so much, and especially in case of the Potter series, hold its place in the overall storyline. To me the 6th movie did well in interpreting the book, whose purpose I felt was three-fold – provide Harry the knowledge to finally defeat Voldemort, allow the characters to sort out their feelings as they matured into adults, and set a stage for a fitting finale. I won’t be surprised if they show flashbacks of Dumbledore explaining more about the Horcruxes, or Harry getting a look at the tiara in the room of requirement. I get a feeling David Yates hinted at it, when he showed flashbacks of Harry and Dumbledore being photographed by the press after the battle at the ministry of magic . What do you think?

Finally, A successful plan?

2009-07-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

What is the difference between the person who wrote this post and the person who wrote THIS post? The latter is 12 pounds lighter! Looks like I have finally found a convenient schedule to lose weight. Believe me, the only part of it spent in the gym is when I swim 4 times a week from 9:30 to 10:30 in the night. I owe most of the plan to three people - My doctor in Madras, my cousin Deepu, and me.

My doctor suggested me to eat normally but walk for at least 40 minutes a day. I started doing that right after I moved to my new apartment. A walk to work takes me approximately 25 minutes. I now walk to work and back. Deepu gave the next suggestion, which was to simply READ the nutritional details printed on every edible package and count calories based on that. She suggested maintaining the count at 1700-1800 per day. I believe I have done that on 95% of the days so far. It was my turn now. Add honey to Fage non-fat Greek Yogurt and Viola! Dinner! I wouldn't suggest you to follow this though. I have done this for a year before, when I was in final year in college. I used to have only buttermilk for dinner, seasoned with pepper, asafoetida and salt (Of course, that was preceded by mixed chat at Adayar Ananda Bhavan for an evening snack :D.) The last step I took was to join the Newport Swim and Fitness Center. The summer offer managed to compensate for the lack of any swimming only memberships. I started with 20 25-yard laps on the first day. After a week, I managed to do 26 laps. Couple of weeks later it became 32. And now, I am able to do at least 40 laps per session. Despite the fact that swimming burns slightly lesser calories than equal time spent on a treadmill, I prefer it to treadmill because I don't find it as excruciatingly boring as the treadmill (in spite of the iPod connectivity.)

So, I have lost 12 pounds as per the weighing scale in the men's room. My weight now stands at 238 pounds. I have 38 pounds more to go. Wish me good luck!

The Silver Jubilee weekend... And a dream fulfilled...

2009-07-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

I turned 25, on the 2nd of July. In the modern times, 25 marks the start of the quarter-life crisis that hits the youth of today, as they begin to realise that they are no longer in college, and try to chart a path towards happiness, in an effort to escape from the status quo. Well, I experienced this two years too early, and I am still struggling to take the first step in the chart I have plotted. But I did discover an interesting fact about my birthday. It is basically the median day of a calendar year (not leap.) There are 182 days before and after this date. I hadn't realised this in my previous 24 years of existence.

Having a birthday very close to an American holiday is fun, especially when you are living in USA. You either get a long weekend to celebrate your birthday or your manager doesn't mind if you take those extra couple of days off. I got the long weekend this year, and I was joined by Kandoi and Shoaib from Chicago. They arrived late in the night on Thursday. And then started the most restless weekend of all time. As it was our wish to visit DC for the fireworks (like last year) and with only three days available to us, we were running on a really tight schedule. Friday was probably, a real crisp tour of Manhattan for my friends. I think if timed well, a lot can be covered at a leisurely pace in Manhattan (of course, you would need the one day Subway pass.) We started with what Jay Leno calls America's latest WMD - Wall Street. The Bull and the NYSE buildings were followed by a short visit to Ground Zero. Then came, Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most popular filming spots in NYC (Kate and Leopold, Godzilla, Kal Ho Na Ho..), after which we took the 6 line to Grand Central. Then came Central Park. A long walk and a short nap later, it was time to head to the Rockefeller Center, more specifically, the Top Of The Rock observation deck. Now, people in general would flock to the Empire State Building instead. I prefer Top Of The Rock, as it provides a fantastic view of Central Park, and equally good views of other popular spots in the Big Apple. Hell, we could also catch a glimpse of the O'Shea stadium, thanks to my Olympus binoculars. More importantly though, one doesn't have to wait for 1.5 hours in the queue. It was soon time for dinner, after which we headed to watch Public Enemies. It was officially 4th of July when the movie ended, meaning it was time for me to wish my little sis a Happy Birthday. (Funny how that works out sometimes. I am almost exactly two years older than my sister, and almost exactly twice the size of my sister..) It was also time for us to head to DC!

As we only had a day to spend at the Capitol, we had to make the most of the time we had, given that downtown DC would be uber-crowded that day. We took the 4 AM bus from Port Authority, assuming that it would reach DC by 0830-9. The driver managed to get us there by 0730! We had therefore lost at least one precious hour of sleep. That would affect me adversely later in the day. After grabbing some coffee and muffins at the Au Bon Pain located in Union Station, we took the famous (or now recently Infamous) Red Line to Metro Center, from where we switched to the Orange/Blue line to get to Federal Triangle. Our tour of DC started with the Museum of American History, primarily because it was a relatively smaller museum, and it was one of the Smithsonian museums I had missed out during my earlier trips to DC. Adarsh and Shoaib were really impressed with the military artifacts, more so with the earliest AC and DC generators, which were at the center of the "Current Wars" between Nikola Tesla/Lord Westinghouse and Thomas Alva Edison. It was then time for a quick lunch at the Folk-Life festival, which had Wales and Latin America as the themes this year. The missed one hour of sleep had now started to show its effects on me. I started feeling weak and dehydrated, despite consuming bottles of water. The visit to the National Air and Space museum would change all that. After covering the entire museum, we decided to watch one of the IMAX presentations at the museum. There was one on collisions, which I had seen last year. I also remembered the seats being very very conducive for sleeping. It was a win-win situation for us. Adarsh and Shoaib witnessed 30 minutes of breathtaking imagery, and I got 30 rejuvenating minutes of sleep. It was time to scope out the remaining tourist spots and grab some dinner before the fireworks began. We swiftly completed visits to The White House and Capitol Hill, thanks to our DC Metro day pass. We had dinner at this Asian restaurant called "Cafe Asia" located at Farragut West. In case you do go there, please don't try out the drink "Very Dirty Martini." Apparently it is the house special, but tastes exactly like oral rehydration solution, with any presence of alcohol negated by the truckloads of salt added to it. The food was very good. I liked the way they had prepared the sauce for General Tso's Chicken. We headed to Lincoln memorial by foot, completely forgetting the fact that 3 blocks on a DC map were actually equal to 3 miles. At Lincoln Memorial we witnessed the weirdest and funniest instance of "Patel shots" being taken. A Chinese family, consisting of two kids, their parents, and their aunt, took pictures of themselves for every combination that was possible from them. The number of pictures they had taken would be equal to 5C1 + 5C2 + 5C3 + 5C4 + 5C5. And I am not joking / exaggerating! We then headed to the Washington Monument, to witness the fireworks, not before we witnessed the 5Cn family doing their thing in front of the monument as well. According to the media, DC is the second best place to watch the fireworks, with Boston being the first. and DC didn't disappoint. The fireworks were great, just like last year. They were however, followed by by an unabashed display of jingoistic patriotism by some Americans (USA is the greatest country in the world! All others suck d*ck!) who were sitting next to us. I never thought 4th of July had the same effect as the 1st of January on some couples, as they locked their lips, with The Star Spangled banner being sung by people surrounding them! I don't know about you, but I found that quite amusing.

It was soon time to head home. The Boltbus, despite being positioned as a competitor to the Chinatown bus service, was a zillion times more comfortable and cleaner than the Chinatown buses. Kudos to the driver for his impeccable timing, as we arrived at 33rd and 7th at exactly 4:30 in the morning. We crashed immediately after reaching home, deciding to skip our 9:00 AM appointment with Lady Liberty. At 11:00 AM, I switched on the TV to see Federer win 6 straight points in the second set tie-breaker against Roddick, to snatch the second set in the Wimbledon finals. I thought it would be Fedex all the way after that. The rest of the match, especially the 5th set has been extensively documented by the media, and I have also put my thoughts on the match on Facebook and Twitter. We headed to visit Lady Liberty, at 3 PM, with Kandoi and Shoaib's flight scheduled to depart at 8 PM from La Guardia. For the first time in 1.5 years, I set foot on Liberty Island, officially striking it out from the list of Patel spots I was yet to visit. We returned home at 6:30 in the evening, with only an hour left for the flight to start boarding. We caught the taxi at 6:45 and reached LaGuardia at 7:35 PM. There can't be a better example for describing the phrase "Nick of Time." It was the end of one exciting and restless weekend.

My birthday had passed and I hadn't gifted myself anything. It was time get a birthday gift. I went to Guitar Center on 14th and 5th, and exchanged my old Fender Squier Strat for a brand new Gibson Les Paul Studio! It was a dream come true for me. Ever since I laid my hands on a guitar, I had always dreamed of playing the Les Paul. And now I was a proud owner of one. the Line 6 Spider III amp arrived the very next day, thanks to Amazon prime shipping. I have to say, a Les Paul is a Les Paul! I will try to post some pictures, but only if I find the time, as another round of App-ocalypse has officially begun!

The King is Dead.. Long Live His Music..

2009-06-25T17:29:00.001-07:00

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark,

Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart,

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it,

You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,

Youre paralyzed..

Cause this is thriller, thriller night,

And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike,

You know its thriller, thriller night,

Youre fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight..

RIP Michael :'-(..

There has been and there will only be one King of Pop.

May, May (contd...)

2009-06-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I filled out the necessary forms and patiently waited for the Jet Airways folk to respond. As expected, they didn't. I finally called them in the night and learnt that my suitcase was in Toronto and would arrive at Newark the next day. Luckily, I had bought backup clothes from Kohls. On Monday, my dear suit case arrived safe and sound.
I spent the next 2 days hunting for a new place to live. I don't think I mentioned it here before. I had moved to Newport Parkway after completing the terms of my lease at the old place. I later learnt that the place had different names, such as Boys Hostel, thanks to it being infested by desi bachelors who lived in hordes in the apartments located here. They had attracted the ire of so many, thanks to their unhealthy lifestyle, which had aggravated the prevailing roach problem. The building was also known as Cockroach Central. Luckily, my apartment was one of those exceptions, with my new roommates having successfully fought the war against the roaches, thanks to their extremely hygenic lifestyle. One of my roommates was an Infoscion too, much too senior by role, but luckily shared more or less same tastes as I did. A fitness freak, he would, as the Madras Slang goes, make use of every cycle-gap of a pleasant weather to get a nice refreshing jog. He was a soccer fan too, and he was an expert at it too. He had subscribed for the soccer pay channels. The other roommate was a trader at Barclays Capital. He had a lot of hatred for GS, thanks to their alleged role in the downfall of Barclays' predecessor, Lehman Bros. He was happy to share some nice info about who really brought down Bear Stearns etc etc. We have shared some real good moments together and I would like to thank them for that. Why I am I leaving? The lease was to expire by end of May. The trader had left for a long term assignment to London and the soccer-fan decided to move in to a new place with his wife, who was flown to US from India.
After much searching, I managed to find an apartment that matched the cleanliness benchmark set by my old roommates. It was occupied by Americans. That wasn't a problem for me. The dude renting out the spare room was a trader by day and a guitarist by night! The room was great too, slightly bigger than the previous one and costing the same! The other roommate had family at up-state NY. He was an early riser and spent his weekends at Poughkeepsie, meaning the shared bathroom was more or less mine. Perfect. No sooner than I said yes to the place, I got a call from my uncle from DC, asking whether I was free during the memorial day weekend. He had put a plan with Sridhar uncle to spend the weekend at Smoky Mountains. I said yes immediately.

After a providing a rather convincing explanation to my managers, I got a day off on Friday. I boarded the Amtrak regional to DC from Newark Penn. It was not my first time on Amtrak. But it was probably the most comfortable train journey in a long long time. The train arrived at Union Station before time and I managed to hop in to the Red Line DC Metro to Shady Grove just in time. Sridhar uncle and Ravi mama picked me up at Rockville. In the mean time I managed to squeeze in a couple of Happy Anniversry wishes to Amma and Appa, who were ironically, in different locations at that time (Amma in madras and Appa in Toronto.) I went straight to sleep after arriving at Sridhar uncle's place. Of course, I had to do the customary Hi's and hugs with everyone before crashing.

We left next morning to Smoky Mountain National park, located on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee (I think I got the spelling correct on the first go, Yay!) As there were eleven of us, we were split into two SUVs, elders and youngsters separated with elders taking turns one at a time at our car. I guess was the fun car, as we swapped our iPods every couple of hours in shuffle mode with interesting results. This practice was followed throughout the trip. Archana and Aparna introduced me to Penn Masala, the world's first Hindi Acapella group consisting of students from UPenn. I have now become a bhuge fan of the group, so much so that I actually paid 9 bucks on Amazon to get one of their albums. Okay, I paid so only because I couldn't find illegal downloads anywhere on the internet. We finally reached out cottage in the evening, which was located at a hill top 3000 feet above sea level. The cottage provided a breathtaking view of the smoky mountains. The exteriors reminded us of the cottage from climax of Michael Madana Kama Rajan, but the interiors were way too different. The cottage had a hot tub, a TV in every bedroom, a fully equipped kitchen, couple of HDTVs with cable (we didnt use it at all tough) and home theater system, a foosball table, an air hockey table, a pool table and even a checkers table! There were beds for everyone including a queen sizse bunk beds and a couple of beds at the attic, with a strategic window to view the sunrise. After viewing the sunset, we decided to enjoy the facilities. Chinni aunty and I teamed up against Harini and Aparna and managed to thrash them 7-3 in foosball. Then it was my turn to get thrashed in 8-balll pool at the hands of Ravi mama. I did manage to win one though, with a mix of genius and sheer dumb luck. Later in the night, we were joined by Raghu, Sangeetha and their son, Roshan, a bright and cute kid. Raghu and Sangeetha were responsible for booking this cottage, and so I owe them one. It was soon time to sleep.

Saturday began with an early morning walk on the steep roads that lead us to the cottage. After a healthy breakfast (idlis) and a game of frizbee, it was time to head to the Smoky Mountains (I prefer calling it Misty Mountains.) On the way we got a good view of the towns Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, which were filled with cottages and mini amusement parks. Dolly Parton has one there too, called Dollywood! I spoke with a Southern swagger throughout the trip, much to everyone's annoyance. Our first stop was Clingman's Dome, which was the highest point in the Smoky Mountain Range, sitting on the border of TN and NC. I doubt if I can get to see nature like that in so many days to come. The walk to the 7000 ft tall peak was a struggle for me, considering I weigh 250 pounds. We then proceeded to our next destination, Laurel Falls. On the way we managed to spot a couple of bears, thanks to which we marked one item in our checklist - wildlife sighting. Laurel falls are supposed to be the most easily accessible waterfalls in the park, with a steady "Flat" 3 mile trek as per the map. As we progressed towards the falls, we realised that "Flat" was a relative term as we encountered pretty steep slopes. We began to wonder how bad the ones marked "Strenuous" would be. The falls were worth it though. The ice cold water provided much relief to our feet. Soon, it was time to leave. The music session began as soon as we reached home. The music session has become a kind of a ritual in the coastal cousins family. I am one of the more eager participants and I wasn't any different this time either. I had brought my melodica and Sridhar uncle hadbrought his harmonica. The session as consisted of the usual Tamil and Hindi oldie goldies, and some newer stuff. There also was a kind of Jugalbandhi involving Sridhar Uncle and me.

The next day began with us waking up to rain. That meant that our next destination, Catalouchee, was somewhat inaccessible. We switched to Plan B - another trek, and a halt at The Cherookee Indian Reservation Camp. The second trek was a breeze compared to the one to Laurel Falls. All of use made it to the desitnation. After a satisfying lunch, we proceeded to the Indian Camp. It wasn't the way I expected it to be. It basically was a piece of land governed by people of Indian origin. The camp was pretty much developed as the rest of USA. The coffee tasted nice though. we managed to find Chandrika being sold at the coffee shop! That wasn't the Indian experience I was looking for. The camp did have some good souvenir shops. I bought an Indian drum with the stick et al. We returned home to enjoy the sunset with some bloody marys and Coronas. After a dip in the hot tub, it was time for the second music session - except that it was a dance session. I managed to dance a little bit though, but ensured that my girth didn't have the same effect on the cottage as Bheem Boy's in MMKR.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. This trip was no exception. The return trip was somewhat eventful, as we missed a rest area, resulting in me having to hold on for quite some time before I could respond to mother nature! The thunderstorms threatened to spoil the journey but they actually managed to provide a sense of adventure to the journey. No sooner we reached DC, it was time for me to leave. After some slices of pizza, a couple of beers, and a lot of hugs and good-byes, I took the Amtrak back to Newark. I reached home at 3 in the night.

I spent the next few days packing and junking away stuff. I had to vacate the apartment by Thursday, but my new place was available only on Sunday. I managed to find a temp room at my colleague's place. I completed the move to my new place on Sunday, and so ended the busiest month of my life in so many years.

May, May, What a month!

2009-06-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

May 2009 has probably been the busiest month of my life in so many years. The solitary post, which was a recycled piece from facebook was by no means an indicator of that. It started with a two week vacation in India, followed by a search for lost baggage, a memorable trip to Smoky Mountains and finally, relocation.

My two-week vacation officially started at 3 PM on the 1st of May. It was the first time I was flying Jet Airways. Indians frequenting between North America and India prefer Jet, primarily due to the food. Being an omnivore, I didn't find that to be a differentiator. But I was impressed by the in-flight entertainment. Strangely enough, the movies I chose to watch had traces of LZ. DasVidaniya featured Vinay Pathak roaming about in foreign lands wearing a LZ tee. Rock On had Luke Kenny's room decorated with posters of rock gods, with a final and a relatively lengthy shot on the Mothership poster. More so, the audio section also listed the Mothership album. To top it all, I could sight the O2 arena clearly as the plane approached Brussels. I met dad at Brussels where, ignoring my protests, he managed to get my seats changed, so that we were seated together. We reached Madras at 11 in the night. The Swine Flu screening consisted of a simple question from the examiner "Sir, have you fallen sick in the past few days?". I calmly replied, "No." After collecting baggage and clearing customs, we headed home. My sister and mother were stunned when they saw me. I was no longer a lanky boy to them. I was a giant. As expected, she started fiddling with the netbook I had got for her.

I had intended the trip to be a surprise to all my cousins and relatives, and it remained that way. My paatti, Ko-paatti and my Mama's family were the first to be surprised, followed by Ram and Vaidy, my first employers. The next day my paternal paatti and Chitappa arrived at Madras, from Bangalore, for my thatha's first death anniversary ceremony. The fact that I was returning from US of A was unfortunately not a secret to the Shastrigals I think, as they conveniently quoted a high price for the 4(?) day long ceremony. I feel the timing was right for my vacation, as I managed to see and speak to almost all of my relatives during this function, eliminating the need for visiting each and everyone of them, something that my mom would have probably susggested otherwise ;-). I also managed to get a taste of the Samaiyal Mami's cooking. For once, I managed to agree with my sister on the aspect of food. It was fantastic. I spent the entire week gobbling up Vadais, Kesari, potato fry, Appams, and Sakkarai Pongal, not to forget, the heavenly Sambhar and Rasam and Moore Kozhambu.

We spent the Saturday and Sunday at Yelagiri, at my uncle's summer house. It was my first visit to the place, where I managed to get a glimpse of the famed Musical Fountain (It was essentially a combination of a fountain and some jarring music functioning independently, without any kind of synchronization.) I was accompanied by my sis and my cousin Keech (Krishna), who managed to surprise me with his in-depth knowledge of Korean movies. Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the famed Hotel Yelagiri, a Dhaba-esque restaurant run by Periyasami, who was overjoyed on seeing his regular customers - my family. After countless Puris, Idlis and Pongal, we left for Madras. Ram and Anjali arranged a get-together at their place with all of my cousin brothers dropping in. The party started in the evening and ended late in the night, with unlimited supply of booze and good food.

The second week started with a movie. I finally managed to watch Monsters and Aliens with my friend from school, Anand. If you remember, he was partly responsible for the brief, yet unforgettable experience with a roommate. We also did what we do best - gobble up as many sandwiches as possible at the sandwich stall in front of Alsa Mall. There had to be a trip to Spencer's Plaza, where I managed to get replacements for my casuals wardrobe. The job for redoing my office wardrobe was left to the ever-dependable Hong Kong Tailors. The next few days passed by with numerous visits (3) to Adayar Ananda Bhavan, Vishranti Hot Point breakfast joint. Probably the one place I missed was the breakfast at Palm Grove. Oh yes, I managed to throw away 50% of the items from my dear old desk-cum-chest-of-drawers, at my mother's request. I was hoping not to, but I managed to work remotely for a couple of hours. After two years, I replaced my cell phone. It was the Tube. A firmware upgrade later, I had Gmail, Facebook, Google Maps, Cricinfo and Opera on my mobile, along with apps for weather and news feeds from Associated Press. The only downside with the phone is the 3G frequency. It is the international version - meaning I get to use EDGE network in US. I am fine with that. I also learnt something very important. Blood sugar and cholestrol tests failed to reveal any health problems. But the weighing machine claimed that I had hit the magic number of 250 pounds. I was now half the weight and size of the WWE Superstar Big Show. After a visit to my cousins place for some routine fun and a dinner at my grandmother's place, it was time for the visit to the Lord of the Seven Hills. The minute we reached the hill top, it was time for change - change of hair style - technically no hair style. After eleven years, I became Lex Luthor again. The darshan took only 1.5 hrs, despite warnings from Ash. The darshan was followed by an eternally satisfying lunch at Bheemas. After returning home, it was time for another holy visit - to Kabab Factory. I have always felt that Veggie Kababs were pointless. All the changed after a filling double buffet (one mine, half my mother's and half my sister's.) Soon, it was Saturday, and it was time to head back to the US of A. I had come with only one check-in baggage. I was leaving with two. The second one was full of sweets and savouries. Only 25% of them were for me. The rest were for friends and relatives. After a zillion bye-byes, it was time to go.

The flight was pretty smooth. The immigration didn't appear to be. Given my new look, the immigration officer failed to match my face to the photo on my passport and started to doubt my identity. Fortunately, he was just having fun. I then proceeded to the conveyor belts. The sweets bag arrived safe and sound. I waited for the clothes bag. I waited - and waited. It hadn't arrived.

[To be continued..]

My life like a Rock Band

2009-05-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

Another one recycled from facebook.. for those who aren't on it. A friend of mine had already used LZ for his notes, but I decided to go for it nevertheless and answered all the questions with complete originality. It was only natural that approx 5 answers matched. They were simply too apt for the questions.

Using only song titles from one artist, cleverly answer these questions.

(not as easy as it seems)

Pick a band/artist: Led Zeppelin

1. Are you male or female? The Rover

2. Describe yourself: Dazed and Confused

3. How do you feel about yourself? Trampled Underfoot

4. Describe your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend: Heartbreaker

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: Nobody's Fault But Mine

6. Describe your current location: Houses of the Holy

7. Describe where you want to be: Stairway to Heaven

8. Your best friend is: Hot dog

9. Your favorite color is: Tangerine

10. You know: Friends

11. What’s the weather like: The Rain Song

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called? Rock n Roll

13. What is life to you? Misty Mountain Hop

14. What is the best advice you have to give? The Song Remains The Same

15. If you could change your name what would you change it to? Bron-Yr-Aur

16. What is your favorite season? When the Levee Breaks

Photo-Op? You gotta be kidding!!!!

2009-04-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

It was the first Monday morning of the year I had stepped out to work without wearing a jacket. the weather was amazing, and I hoped my day would be so too. It started off fine. Not too many mails from irritating characters this time. A time-waste of a meeting was cancelled for the day. So far so good.

But at 10 AM, it all changed. A security guard entered our floor and urged us to evacuate the building as soon as possible. The thought in our heads was - WTF? Apparently a plane was flying low and was being pursued by an F16. We could se the plane from quite a distance before we rushed downstairs. As I came out of the building and looked above, I could see the plane banking sharply. It appeared as though it was going to hit 77 Hudson, a luxury apartment. It wasn't a plane. It was a Jumbo Jet - Air Force One that too (a backup Air Force One apparently.) It was indeed being pursued by an F-16. We started running for cover, before it flew away towards Staten Island. It was terrifying to say the least. But that feeling lasted for only 50 seconds as cops immediately rushed to 30 Hudson with mega-phones in hand assuring us that it was a training drill! We then wondered why we weeren't informed before!

30 minutes later, after I got back to my desk, I saw this on the NY Times breaking news blog:

The mission on Monday, officials said, was set up to create an iconic shot of Air Force One, similar to one that was taken in recent years over the Grand Canyon.

You gotta be kidding! Crap planning I must say!

For those who want to know how it felt, take a look this video taken by one of my colleagues:

Thank You Movie Trailers

2009-04-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Most of us who watch movies at the theatre are forced to watch movie trailers for ten minutes before the movie starts. Some of the trailers are actually pretty good. I still cannot forget the Matrix trailer, or the more recent one for Watchmen. The very first Spider-man trailer was kick-ass as well.

To me, movie trailers have been a gateway to some really good music. Quite a few of the trailers feature some neat tracks that seldom get air-play. Some of them are actually much older tracks getting exposure, thanks to them being perfectly placed in a trailers. I have come to know quite a few of my favorite artists and songs solely because of movie trailers. Take The Matrix trailer. The track starting at 1:44, suits so perfectly to the footage. The haunting nature of the chorus chant really got to me. Thanks to the then powerful Yahoo, I found out that the track was The Eyes of Truth by Enigma. Believe it or not, I hadn't heard of them till then.

Then there are the trailers for The Watchmen. The hypnotic track appearing the first trailer re-introduced me to Smashing Pumpkins. However, the second trailer really surprised me. The trailer's dominant track begins with warning tone to finally realise itself in its apocalyptic glory. Google told me that it was by - Muse! I really didn't expect them to be so good. The last time I had heard anything worthwhile from them was in 2006 about something to do with Mars.

More recently, Terminator Salvation's latest trailer features this kick-ass track by Nine Inch Nails, a band long forgotten. The phreshest meat is Otis Taylor's Ten Million Slaves, which appeared on the trailer of Public Enemies, featuring Captain Jack Sparrow, Batman and Doctor Manhattan. I hadn't heard of Otis Taylor till Saturday evening when I returned home after watching State of Play. I found the song so addictive that I ended up paying 99 cents for it on Amazon after unsuccessfully searching for it all over the net.

I can go on and on about this. I am not sure how much attention you would have paid to the music played in a trailer. If you do, you are probably in for a pleasant surprise.

Ledded Chaiyya

2009-03-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

If Harris Jeyaraj could jam with Tha Zep, then The Genius couldn't be far behind..

In fact ARR wields the hammer of the gods this time.

Another remix by me where I mash up A R Rahman's Chaiyya Chaiyya (Bombay Dreams version) and Led Zeppelin's a)Bonzo' Montreux (the drum track), b) Ten Years Gone and c) Black Dog.

This one is rather crude at certain points, but I decided to keep it such, since I made this one in 3 hours only.

Feedback welcome in the form of comments.

The End is Nigh!

2009-03-06T22:27:00.000-08:00

Yes.. It is 03.06.09 (in the muMMy daDDy format as we call it) the release date for Watchmen - The Movie. Those who have been following the blog regularly might have already realized how much expectations I had over the movie. In case you don't, I have read and revered the graphic novel, gave a short extempore on it during my ISB interview (they asked for it) and even got robbed of 20 bucks by iTunes to download the motion comic series. Last but not least, I went out on the streets of Manhattan dressed as Rorschach, for the Greenwich Halloween Parade.

Now for the million dollar question - How was the movie?

Was it good?

Yes. Definitely.

Was it great?

Hmm in a way, yes.

PROS?

1. The background score - dig the way tracks of S&G, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix were used.. Kick-ass stuff.

2. Jack Earle Healey's performance as Rorschach.

3. Some of the scenes were sequenced well, especially the beginning credits sequence, which neatly summarizes the appendices found in the graphic novel. So was the scene where Dr.Manhattan is interviewed.

4. Despite the necessary cuts, the most iconic frames were retained, as they were in the novel, such as the Galle crater.

CONS?

1. One of the the flipsides of being 99% verbatim faithful to a literary work is that the characters may not get etched out completely. Additionally, the movie flow fails to be as fluid as it should be.

Despite Zack's best efforts, I could spot quite a few symptoms of these.

THE CLIMAX? (SPOILER ALERT)

the most debated part of the movie isn't it? Yes, it has changed. There is no intelligent colossal kraken-like squid in the movie. I was disappointed initially, not because I couldn't get to see what I had already seen in the second Pirates of the Carribbean film, but about the fact that Dr.Manhattan was framed and therefore held responsible for the destruction of Manhattan. But coming to think of it, the climax makes a lot of sense when put in context. Dr.Manhattan was anyway started to being looked upon as an outcast, thanks to the cancer accusations. With him having agreed to Ozymandias' plan, he was no longer interested in humanity as such. Therefore, the idea of him being the guinea pig wouldn't have meant anything to him. Meaning he could still go on to create life in Mars (which is what he sets out to do in the book anyway) without worrying about the latest accusation.

SCORE?

4/5

WILL IT BE A HUGE HIT?

Fans will like it. Fanboys may or may not. Those who haven't read the book, will not understand the whole point of the movie (unless they listen to the dialogs of course.) The movie will surely be a box-office success (Batman Begins) but not a blockbuster (The Dark Knight.)

Standing Still.. but Still Standing..

2009-02-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's been almost six months since I joined the rat race that is the MBA application process. I am now done and dusted with that for at least another 6 months now. I have gotten over the heart-break of February 11th (should have been 10th) rather quickly. I am standing still at the same place where I was last year. I will be stuck here for some more time, without any progress. Nevertheless, those six months didn't go in vain. I have learnt valuable lessons, primarily in the area of presenting myself. Being frank is simply not enough. I hope build on this failure next year.

However, the six months have been the most testing for me, just like they have been for most of the employed ones that are reading this post. I have seen scores of people I know, being asked to leave the firm (Nah! not Infy) with immediate effect. At a time, when a third of my account members are being sent back to India, I should thank my stars. I am still standing and fighting this storm brought on by the dumbest acts of some of the most intelligent minds. So far so good.

Some Fun

2009-02-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

Some Fun... Comments welcome..

I leave it to the listeners to add lyrics of their choice..

Revelations - Tonty pHive Random Things

2009-02-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

Nothing major.. something I picked up from Facebook:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. And if I didn't tag you, it's only because I ran out of tags. I still want to know about you. :-)

(To do this, go to “NOTES” under tabs on your "PROFILE" page (you may have to add the tab by clicking on the + sign), click on "Compose New Message" and paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1.) Am searching for the quickest way to lose weight.

2.) Worship Led Zeppelin..... and to a small extent Beyonce... and to a very small extent Justin Timberlake...

3.) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, How high I wonder you are ! Whiskey also gets me high, excuse me while I kiss the sky..

4.) Am a miser, but at the same time a very very impulsive buyer (no one would pay INR 5000 for binocs)

5.) Ate 1.5 12 inch pizzas at a stretch in 2002. Broke the record recently by devouring 1.5 16 inch pizzas on January 4, 2009. There had to be mention of fooD!

6.) Missing quizzing big time.

7.) #%$@A%$##

8.) Wondering when I will get my chance to write the "Last day in Infy" email. Have saved so many of them for reference..

9.) Initially loved and and later hated the experience of living alone.. Couldn't stand the lengthy periods of silence.. which were fortunately interrupted by the odd belch..

10.) Wondering why I don't feel genuinely homesick. Is it because of the battalion of relatives in NJ?

11.) Regret the fact that I haven't been on a ski trip till now

12.) Realizing that this is getting a bit senti.. fetching another drink

13.) Err....

14.) Aah... that feels so much better..

15.) Aye Masakalli Masakalli, Ud Matakalli Matakalli.. Almost a month now, and still can't get it out of my head.. What a song!

16.) Enjoying blogging, after a relatively dull 2008.

17.) I still have a very short temper.. Ask my Bangalore team members for more details.

18.) Used to own a Teddy Bear till the age of 16. The teddy bear was 14 years old (seriously) and protected me from my then fear of the dark.

19.) Yes, I cried when SRK was getting beaten up in a needless fight scene at the end of DDLJ. I was 11.

20.) No, I did not cry when Buffy "died" at the end of Season 4, despite what Deeptha claims.

21.) In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man. Now I've reached that age, I'm trying to do all those things to the best I can..

22.) Have finally started working on my secret art project. Of course I am not going to tell you about it.

23.) I think "Benjamin Button" was a draaaaag of a movie.

24.) I have started to enjoy the practice of watching movies alone.

25.) This is the end, my only friend, the end.

Walk in the shade!

2009-01-24T21:21:00.000-08:00

Those sheltered by the shade of love,

will find paradise beneath their feet.

Those comforted by the shade of love...

Walk in the shade of love, walk in the shade!

Paradise beneath our feet, walk in the shade!

My love is like a fragrance,

Her words are like a poetic trance,

My evening and night, my world incarnate,

My friend, my love is my soul mate.

The wearer of flowers does tease,

Her fragrance may tell me where she is..

Like an amulet, I will wear her.

Like a miracle, I shall obtain her.

Like a priest, my love is to me.

She is my song, she is my hymn,

My song, my hymn.

My friend walks on the dew drops,

Beneath her feet the heaven trots ,

Either in branches or in leaves,

Or in the wind I seek a sign of her.

Her beauty is what I worship,

between shade and sun, she slyly shifts,

Changing the color of her shine.

Her color and beauty I find divine.

Those sheltered by the shade of love,

will find paradise beneath their feet.

My evening and night, my world incarnate,

My friend, my love is my soul mate.

Walk in the shade!

ARR has bagged three Oscar (not Aascar) nominations (I heartily support the one for original background score!) I thought of dedicating a post to him, in my own sweet way.

The above "poem" is a translation of the lyrics of a rather peppy track and one of my all time favorite ARR tracks.

In my efforts to obtain meanings of some words, I came across a similar attempt by an anonymous person. While that one may be more literal (not really, it misses out one complete line) mine is obviously more poetic and captures the mood perfectly.

UPDATE:

The anonymous attempt actually comprises of the sub-titles from the DVD!

Mine is better nonetheless!

Certification

2009-01-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

Sing to the tune of Californication by RHCP.

Volatile policies manage to steal your mind's elation,
Lifelong benchers somehow manage to attain your position,
All of these happen due to Infy Certification.

It's a part of the Sensex and and the IT civilization,
The Fortune 500 will pay the least,
to seek support from this corporation.
And they too know that we are screwed by Certification!

Clear the tests very well to stop yourself from decaying,
Unix is your strength but Oracle is what you're facing,
No change in role, all hope long gone!

Tired of Infy Certification! Tired of Infy Certification!

- minutes of creative Nirvana attained by YT 2 months back!

Better late than never!

I wish I had sung this during my interview!

Slumdog Millionaire - Reality check for Indian critics

2009-01-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

The previews of Slumdog Millionaire are out in India, and the movie has received very mixed reviews, with most of the criticism directed on the portrayal of the country. I managed to watch it couple of months back in Chicago and liked it very much. But I disagree with the criticism on the "Third-Worldly portrayal" of the country. My 2 cents on the same. And I mean 2 CENTS. Not 300 million words modestly described by many as their "2 Cents!"

1. The fact remains that however gruesome/embarassing the portrayal is, every bit of it is real and it is a part of India. Moreover, it tells the story of a slumdog - and not a Rahul Malhotra/Singhania/Pratap Singh/Mehta living abroad and calling their home close to Haridwar. (watch K3G and you will know what I am talking about.)

2. IT IS BASED ON A BOOK FOR GOD'S SAKE!

It is not a perfect movie, but the criticism on the portrayal of the country is unwarranted.

Dig the New Google Favicon!

2009-01-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

Become a Google fan-boy. You only need to glorify free and awesome products that ironically remain permanently in beta, instead of overrated and overpriced white ones (though I admit I own one of them!)

7 Years on and I 'm Somewhat Feeling Lucky about Sathyabama!

2009-01-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

In April this year, it will be four years since I passed out of Sathyabama Deemed University (affectionately known as Sathyabama Doomed Universally.) However, my relation to and feelings for this institution have more or less been immortalized by Google's PageRank algorithm, as I discovered during yet another round of ego-googling (trying to search for one's own name on Google.)

Google "Sathyabama" and you shall find this post in the top 5 results. That day won't be far when it becomes Google's selection for Sathyabama + I'm Feeling Lucky.

Coming to think of it. It has been Seven Years Since I wrote this song!

A lot has changed since the updated version was published in 2005. TNR is no longer with the college. A rather peaceful demonstration (given the frustration of every student) 6 months after the release of the song led to some serious overhaul. That doesn't mean that the song will be updated again! The song shall serve as a reminder of what the place was about and what it can still return to being!

ISB Calling!

2009-01-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

After a mindless conference call with Bangalore colleagues today morning, I proceeded to check my gmail, before leaving for work. This is what I saw:

Dear Adithya,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been short listed for an interview for admission to the Post Graduate Programme in Management at the ISB. We have scheduled your telephone interview and the schedule is outlined below

....

I need to stay Awake at 5:45 in the morning :-|!!!! But it will be well worth it :-)!!

New Year, New Hairdo and a Gift..

2009-01-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

It is 2009! The year I am hoping God would gift me an email saying, "Dear Adithya, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the XXXXX School of Business Class of 2011."

That hasn't happened till now.

Coming back to more cheerful things. It is a new year! Time to start things afresh! Despite my plan of hiding potential bald spots by keeping my hair long, I broke the 7 month streak and finally visited a saloon. Staying with 7, for the first time in 7 years, I went back to the Sarkari Cut. The Sarkari Cut is not a hairdo by definition. It is basically the most common hair-cut for desi gents - short enough in the middle so as to get a parting for combing, and very short at the sides so as to convince the on-lookers that one actually had a hair-cut. Plus of course, the length transition from the sides to the middle should be smooth and sloped and not stepped. I was pleased with the result barring one small thing. With this cut, I only require a moustache and spectacles to resemble Professor Klump.

I haven't received any New Year gift from either of the schools I have applied to till now. But that shouldn't dampen the New Year Spirit! I instead decided to gift myself a Led Zeppelin collectible. But it is not just any other LZ collectible. This is the box set of mini LP replica CDs! The packing and the cover design are exactly the same as the original LPs. So is the sound! Unremastered and pure! Whole Lotta Love sounds fantastic! So do Immigrant Song and Ten Years Gone. I also received the 5 bonus covers that came with the original publication of In Through The Out Door, plus the original ink cover of Led Zeppelin. This is a must-have collection for any Led Zeppeli fanatic! I hope you readers take a cue from me and gift yourself something you may want to call "My Dear, My Precious!"

A Clean-shaven Klump:

The Gift of the Musical Magi:

The Vanishing Hair Trick

2008-12-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

This will soon become a fact of life. I have enough statistical evidence to support this argument. Nine out of every ten Indian males and every desi techie experience hair loss the minute American water hits their scalps. I am no exception. I have taken great pride in experimenting with hair-styles, till I entered college, after which I reached a kind of steady state. My first tryst with hair loss was in Mysore, where the fresh Cauvery water had begun to undo all the hard work of the hard Madras water (this would have become an oxymoron hadn't it been for the recent recurring showers.) It continued on a smaller scale in Bangalore and there was nothing to worry about. It all changed on January 6th.

The dark side of New Jersey water supply had set its sights on the latest H1 desi to invade its dear old state. Its plan was simple - exercise hostility. Unfortunately that has been the scene ever since then. I could only find solace in the fact that I wasn't alone in this regard. As a result, I have been forced to take drastic measures. It has been 6 months since I had a hair cut, which used to be one of my favorite pastimes in college. The length of the hair may be the longest I have ever had, but the thickness leaves a lot to be desired. Evidence is in the form of the recent mugshot taken at my place:

Some Experimenting

2008-12-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

Not sure how many of you have noticed the Labs tab in your Gmail settings (assuming you have a Gmail account.) It contains certain beta stage gadgets that you may like to have on your Gmail inbox.

There is one that allows you to navigate across messages using mouse movements. Remember the flagging option Outlook? There is one equivalent to that in Gmail now. This feature allows you to save emails as tasks and alerts you (aasuming you have your gmail inbox open 24/7.) To the Hafeez Contractor fan, then there is a gadget that allows you to move around and rearrange components of your mailbox in as many bizarre ways as you can, just like Mr.Contractor rearranges the edges. Remember the message templates that were/are available in your mobile phones? That feature is now available on Gmail as well. Ex-users of Nokia's monochrome phones (the 3315s, 3310s and 1100s) can indulge in a bit of nostalgia as they play around with ol' favorite Snake Game.

There is this neat gadget that reminds you to attach stuff in case you intented to but forgot. It works by searching for the obvious keywords in your text. One that is definitely going to become popular with the users is the texting (SMSing for desis :-)) utility that allows you to chat with a friend by sending SMSes to their mobiles. Of course, it does come with a warning -

"XXXX may be charged for an SMS by their mobile carrier each time you hit enter."

There are meaningless gadgets as well, such as the "Superstar" utility. I can't describe what it does because I cannot understand is purpose. No offence meant to Thalaivar fans.

It looks like Vista is about to go into a trance so let m

I guess Vista and Chrome won the battle but not the war! Blogger was smart enough to auto-save this post till now! Take that!

Anyway, the gadgets are out there for you to try out. Happy Experimenting!

PS: I wonder which gadgets you readers liked the most?

Salvation!

2008-12-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have been scouring the Internet for around nine years in search of Digital Nirvana. I came across Nandamuri Balakrishna, Captain Vijayakanth, Krishna, and of course the Human Bear. But they only provided me temporary peace. Not long ago, I finally found salvation in this gem of a video, which was brought to my notice by Adarsh. Hope you find salvation too!

Halloween, BamMan, Age of Loneliness etc...

2008-12-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Its been a billion years since I visited my account's dashboard. I owe my blog one big time! Let's see. What has happened since I last visited my blog? Too many things actually.

There was the Halloween parade, where yours truly entered as Rorschach, the anti-hero from Watchmen. Why did I chose Rorschach? One reason is this. Another reason is that, well, the costume was one of the simplest ones that I could make, based on the resources available. An overcoat, a white cloth with Rorschach ink-blots (drawn expertly by me), and a winter cap folded to look like a hat. The parade was pure fun! The usual suspects, The Count, Frankenstein et al. There also was a woman who had rather strategically painted body. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I didn't get a snap of that. There also were the comic heroes, with attires of The Dark Knight, The Joker (many of them), X-Men, and 2 more Rorschachs. Mark my words, when the movie comes out next year, there will be many Rorschachs in the next parade. That makes my costume choice a rather rare one this year :-)! There also were the presidential candidates - The Rock Obama, John "Mr.Puddles" McCain, and Sarah "GILF" Palin(s). But to me the best costume was that of a woman who had dressed up as the portrait of Monalisa! That was truly a work of art! And not to forget Edward Scissorhands.

Barack Obama (who shall henceforth be known as BamMan) became the President-elect, a truly historic moment for the country. The Grand Obnoxious Party candidates tried their usual tricks, and fortunately failed this time. You never know what would have happened at the White House if Mrs.GILF had become the President. Cmon! McCain is 72 (Not so sure about Mr.Puddles!) Never before has the world celebrated a US election victory so much. I guess that is the effect of Bush and Darth Cheney.

Then of course, Citi nearly tanked. It did survive, but not without casualities. One of them being my roommate. He had to leave for India. I managed to find a roommate though, only to learn later that he was going back too. I am yet to receive any response for my ad on Craigslist and Sulekha. If nothing works out, I will move out by end of January, after serving the notice period. Honestly, I have begun to feel the financial pinch, with all the recent investments in trips and stuff.

On a different note, I realize that any surviving traces of liveliness in me were on the verge of being wiped out forever, thanks to the nearly endless weekdays. By clicking "Publish Post", I can see some hope getting it back!

The Begining is The End is The Beginning

2008-10-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

September went by without a post. I have been very busy lately. Yes, I have been writing essays and making award winning short films, and watching TR's (sorry, VTR's) antics endlessly. But I have also developed a new hobby - reading graphic novels.

Since the I watched Sin City, I have been intrigued by the edgier series of comics by Frank Miller. I have finished reading all of Frank Miller's works and am eagerly waiting for Sin City 2. I have now started reading the works of Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Batman: A Killing Joke etc.) I managed to complete Watchmen yesterday. I have no words to express my thoughts - surreal comes close.

I was blinking when the trailer for Watchmen played before the screening of the Ayatollah of all comic book based movies (known to a certain few as The Dark Knight.) The trailer sure was interesting. After months of searching for a properly seeded torrent, I finally managed to get my hands on the books (jpegs actually,) on Friday.

I think the best story summary has been provided by wikipedia, and since it is not copyrighted, I am free to lift it from there - Watchmen takes place in an alternate history United States where the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. After government-sponsored superhero, The Comedian is found murdered, the vigilante Rorschach warns his former colleagues of what he believes is a conspiracy to kill costumed heroes. As the story progresses, the protagonists discover that one of the heroes has devised a plan to stave off war between the United States and the USSR by carrying out a plan that will kill millions of innocent people.

None of the "superheroes" are established names. How many of you have heard of Rorschach, Dr.Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, and Silk Spectre? However, one gets to know each one of them inside out as the story draws close. The images were frightening, yet spellbinding. There were moments, when I was just staring at my laptop screen shell-schocked, only for my room-mate to break the spell by giving a loud shout for dinner. The part that describes how Walter Kovacs became Rorschach can literally wet the clothes of those with even the strongest of bladders. Full credit must be given to Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, whose artwork and choice of colours have left a lasting impression on the reader.

The last few pages of every book in the series provide interesting bits of info, that are crucial in understanding the characters. Newspaper interviews, excerpts from a book, psychatrist's report - do you get the drift? Add to that a comic-within-a-comic, whose subject initially appears bizarre, but is very much relevant to the plot.

Zack Snyder, the self-acclaimed "visionary" director of 300, has his task cut out. It would be great if he treats each panel as it is - an event of its own. The trailer certainly looks promising though.

What does the title of this post have to do with the content? Google it.

Bad.. Worse... Worst...What Next?

2008-08-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sometime back I wrote a protoype of the "goals" essay, which I felt was miles better than what I had written last year. This prototype has been dissected by all my well-wishers, and rightly so. I wrote an improved version of it yesterday. But when I read it today, I realised that it was conveying the exact opposite of what I wanted to convey. Basically it means that it is a much bigger piece of crap. I will now have to work on a version 3.0. Hopefully, I should like it when I read it for the second and third time.

I will have to do a full scale regression test of my own work.

I am sure I won't include one-liners as terrible as the one above.

Too much of a distraction!

2008-08-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

I have been trying really hard to complete the required essays for my b-school applications. My dad and my friends have dissected the first draft of my goals essay rather convincingly, forcing me to rewrite froms scratch. I am not pissed off because of that. I am angry with myself. I am furtious with myself. I am now vexed with myself. I now cannot remember any another synonym for Anger. Coming to the point..... The reason I am not happy with myself is because iI get distracted way too easily. Thanks to such some fantastic clips available on Youtube. Such as this one:

Highway Star

2008-08-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, I managed to drive in the States. And my first real driving experience lasted a good five hundred miles - providing enough justification for the post's title.

It had been 4 months since I had got it and I had used it only as an ID to enter pubs and clubs at the Big Apple. Therefore for me, the invite from my colleague was a simple case of Ore Kallula Erendu Maanga!

It started on Saturday morning at 4 AM, when my colleague Gautham, his family and I headed off to Niagara Falls. We had rented a Jeep (unfortunately that's what Avis gave us) which surprisingly provided a mileage of 20, which is fantastic for a Jeep. 2 hours into the journey, I took over the wheels, to the music of AC/DC's Back in Black. It is a pleasure to drive on the inter-states, though at a point it can get monotonous. This drive was pretty fun though, we engaged ourselves in ATLAS, a game I last played in 12th grade. Picks of the lot were Ambattur, Rajamundri and Xanadu! 7 hours after the trip started, we had reached our destination.

It was an awesome sight, and I finally got to understand why people keep raving about Maid of the Mists. The wait wasn'tas long as expected, But my favorite would be the Cave of the Winds. Standing right under the Bridal Veil falls was a fantastic experience. For trivia enthusiasts - By harnessing the power form Niagara Falls and distributing it to the entire town of Buffalo, Nikola Tesla defeated Thomas Edison in the War of Currents, resulting AC becoming primary mode of power distribution. All of this enhanced his Prestige (I hope people noticed the pun) in the world of science. There also is a statue of him in the adjoining park, reading a huge book, which has shamelessly been used by almost every tourist as a seating location for snaps.

After all the snaps and souvenirs, we headed towards Pittsburgh. Thanks to my plan of not sleeping the night before, I dozed off while Gautham took over the wheels. After some coffee we switched again, and reached Pittsburgh at 11 PM, where we retired for the night. The visit to the temple the next day went off quite well. The food at the temple cafeteria was more than worth it price - 2 bucks per meal. No points for guessing how enthusiatic I was. The darshan was followed by a visit to a used records store, where I got my hands some rare chestnuts. We then headed towards home. The return trip was rather uneventful, with everyone fast asleep.I did get stuck in some heavy rain though.

On the whole, it was a good trip. Not only did I get to do a solid drive, but I also managed to have the delicious food at the temple cafeteria.

Not so cuil

2008-07-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Tried out the recently launched "Google-Killer" - cuil (pronounced "cool".) While the layout of the results does appear interesting, like millions of others have said before, leave alone Google, it is way behind Live Search, in terms of relevance of results.

The "Killing Stroke" Reason:
Cuil suffers from amnesia. Live Search, Yahoo and Google can find themselves on the internet while Cuil cannot.

Personally disappointing reason:
Despite entering the most obvious references, I couldn't find my blog using cuil :-(.

Back to more serious things...
What to do with River Zumba?

Thrice!

2008-07-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

As a Bat-fan I had the opportunity to watch Batman Begins on the very first day of its Indian release three years back. Last week I got to watch The Dark Knight on the very first day of its release, keeping my resolve of watching Batmovies on their very first day of release intact. This would probably be the shortest of all reviews on TDK.

I liked this movie so much that I watched it thrice in a span of 7 days, starting with 18 June, 2008.

Now this rat of a reviewer doesn't have enough time to write more as he has to start preparing for a rat-race. See you in a while.

When The Zeppelin Dream Came True!

2008-06-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Never in my life did I imagine that I would actually attend a concert featuring a Led Zeppelin member. On the 10th day of June 2008, that fantasy came true. I watched Robert Plant perform 3 Led Zeppelin tracks and 1 track from his solo albums, with the bluegrass queen Alison Krauss, veteran producer T Bone Burnett, and their band.

As most of you might know, to put it in a rather humble manner, I worship Led Zeppelin. Ever since they gave that blistering performance at the reunion concert, a part of the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute show, there were rumors of the band planning a reunion tour early this year. With Iron Maiden and Aerosmith already having played in Blore last year, I was hoping The Gods of Rock would follow suit. But then Plant laid those rumors to rest, announcing that he would be touring with Alison Krauss instead. I had lost all hope of watching them.

But then, in March, the Raising Sand tour dates were announced and Percy and Krauss were scheduled to play on June 10th and 11th at Madison Square Garden, the self acclaimed World's Most Famous Arena. I wasted no time in getting my hands on the tickets. The concert day finally arrived DBY.

I am not sure if MSG is the greatest arena in the world, but it is definitely got an impressive history. Countless number of artists have performed here (including LZ.) I was pinching myself from the moment my ticket printout got validated. I was finally inside the theater. I got a souvenir as well - A Plant and Krauss tee, for 35 bucks! Man was I excited.

The WaMu theater was full, packed with 5000 odd people, out of which around 4000 were people who were in their 40s and 50s, out of which around 1500 were wearing LZ tees! Such is the influence of Led Zeppelin. The show opened with a 40 minute performance from Sharon Little, an up and coming musician, who was working as a waitress till January. She was very good to be frank, especially on the acoustic numbers. The roadies then took 20 minutes to perform some last minute checks, after which the band made it to the stage with T Bone Burnett. Then, my heart started pounding. Alison Krauss, in her charming self, entered from the left, and The Voice of Led Zeppelin, Robert Anthony Plant emerged from the right, to a standing ovation.

They wasted no time and got on with the show. While they played songs mostly from their collaboration Raising Sand, they also included classics from their earlier works. Krauss was fantastic. I had never heard of her, till she released this album with Plant. She was excellent on the fiddle as well. Her best performance of the night was Down in the River to Pray from the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Robert Plant was Robert Plant. I cannot say anything more. He may be 60 years old, but he has still got the wit and charm and of course the sheer power when LZ was at its peak. The track Fortune Teller from Raising Sand, is one classy piece of music, a testimony to the genius that is Robert Plant. In The Mood, from Plant's solo album The Principle of Moments, was reworked as a duet with Krauss, and the result was sheer magic. T Bone also got a chance to perform a few of his songs, which went down pretty well with the crowd. When the famous riff of Black Dog, came of a banjo, I went wild. It was the first LZ track of the day, again converted to a duet. The audience sang along the entire song, including the "Aah Aah"s. They got a pleasant surprise when an interesting banjo solo, morphed to Black Country Woman from Physical Graffiti. Krauss added her own touch to it with a nice little fiddle solo. However, the crowd were on their feet, when Plant and Krauss completed a fantastic rendition of Battle of Evermore, from the Untitled LZ fourth album. The stage setting changed all of a sudden, and the audience knew what was coming. Gone Gone Gone, the Grammy award winning track, was played amidst loud cheers. After a couple of tracks for the encore, the show was over. I was still pinching myself. A dream had come true.

The only sore point of this event was that I only had my phone cam with me. I decided not to take the digicam, assuming that it wouldn't be allowed inside. I was stupid to think so, beacuse nearly, 70% of the audience had brought digicams.

Neways, here is a clip from the show. Being a phone cam, the audio and video clarity is obviously shoddy. But I don't care! I watched Mr. Led Zeppelin perform in the flesh!

Nobody's Fault But Mine

2008-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Don't ask me why I am writing this. I just want to get it out of my system.

In the past few days I have been trying to find myself and evaluate where I currently stand in life. I have come to realize that I am such an egomaniac.

Looking back at my life till now, I can recollect so many instances where people have asked me a simple question and I have never given a simple answer for the same. My answers have always been lengthy, meaningless, driving the listener to boredom. That is plainly because I have found it hard to accept the fact that I may not have an answer to every question a person has ever asked me. This refusal of acceptance was driven by a fear of being ostracized and criticized for not knowing the same. I don't know why and when this fear developed inside me, but what I know that it has been there for so long that it has now become a part of my subconsciousness and that I sometimes do not even realize it was this fear that drove me to do so many stupid things in life.

Being an egomaniac, I have carried excess baggage for so many years. I have kept track of every fight I have ever had and used these as reasons to break contacts with so many people. In fact, I can now recall some cases where I stopped talking to people because I assumed that I might get into a fight with them some day! How pathetic! As a result of this, I may have been mean to so many of you. If I have caused you any harm, all I can say is that I am extremely sorry and that I am eager to start things on a clean slate.

I know that it is going to be difficult for me to all of a sudden, change the way I think and interact with people, but I do not want to later regret for not having tried at all.

No body's fault but mine
No body's fault but mine
Trying to save my soul tonight
It's no body's fault but mine.

Chocolates, Video Games and Memories...

2008-05-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

This was arguably my most interesting weekend in the US of A till now. It started with a drink at the Newark airport and ended with some last minute laundry.
Friday was Sunitha's (remember the roomie post?) last day as an ITL employee in the US of A, and I had been to the airport for the send-off. After having a drink and completing all the bye-byes, I decided to give a call to my uncle, who only hours earlier, had landed at DC. After finalizing the plan, I returned home to find my roommate celebrating his friend's birthday. The celebrations went on till 2 and I had already started revising my plan for the trip to DC. Instead of catching the bus at 7 in the morning, I decided to take the 330 AM bus, knowing that it would take me around 5 hours to get there, just in time for breakfast. Within minutes I was done with the packing and took the metro to the city. I was proud of the fact that I had survived the walk from 33rd street to Port Authority Bus Station at 245 AM, avoiding all the shady looking gangs. There were some tourists too though and one of them ( a Frenchman) even asked me if I knew about any nightclub at Times Square. After getting the tickets and waiting for more than an hour, I finally boarded the bus and slept off immediately. The bus started at 445 AM, but made up well for the lost time, in fact reaching DC on time.
My uncle, and his host, Sridhar uncle, a family friend, were obviously not aware of this and had other healthier plans for the morning. Sridhar uncle's daughter Archana was sweet enough to give me info on the Metro routes and I reached Rockville in no time, where I was picked up by my uncle and Sridhar uncle. Sridhar uncle and his family are some of the nicest people on this planet. I had last seen them in 2003, which was when I was introduced to them. Despite not having met me or heard of me for 5 years, they treated me as if they had known me all along. After some generous doses of mind-blowing Sambhar and potatoes for lunch, I was already in the mood for some fun. We were then joined by Venkatesh and Vidya, and their kid, Pramit, another cutie. I found it hard to believe that Venkatesh, with whom I had played volleyball so many times, was now a dad! Archana then took us around DC (conveniently skipping all the monuments and the museums.) I kind of liked DC, because despite not being so densely populated as NYC, it had that liveliness and that urban feel to it. After returning home, it was drinks time. Fosters, Kingfisher and Samuel Adams were at our disposal. Surprisingly Samuel Adams did not taste as bad as it did the first time. I then got my hands on the Gibson Les Paul Wii console, and got hooked on to GuitarHero III : Legends of Rock, starting with Sunshine of Your Love by Cream.
Sunday was picnic day, thanks to the amazing weather, with the temperature at a very pleasant 75 degrees. A trip to the Hershey township meant that each and everyone of us became Charlie with the Golden Ticket, with Mr. Willy Wonka being replaced by an artificial voice and the Oompa Loompas giving way to sophisticated equipment. We were even given free chocolates at the end of the tour. It was lunch time and we went to the most perfect picnic spot, with benches under the shade with acres of greenery adjacent to it. We managed to play a bit of volleyball, which brought me back memories of the days when I spent 70% if my weekends every year playing beach volleyball with cousins at the beach-house, followed by an extended drinking session. Sad that the court had to be redeveloped into a garden, following the Tsunami. After the main course, comes dessert. And when you are in Hersheyland, it has to be the chocolate milk shake. The minute the first drop hits your taste buds, you are in a different world altogether, with a river flowing full of chocolate syrup, with Hugs and Kisses floating in the air, ready to be caught and eaten. Man! After returning home, it was time for another beer session, followed by Wii Golf, Wii Tennis and more GuitarHero. Looks like toddlers have finally begun to like me, at least going by the responses of Pramit and Nivritti.
It was Monday, the day I was out sick as far as work was concerned, and we had more of GuitarHero and Golf, after which it was time for me to leave. After the hugs and goodbyes, I returned home by bus a few hours back only to realize that I didn't have anything to wear for work tomorrow, leading to an emergency laundry trip. Now that I have clothes to wear, I can start planning for another trip to DC next weekend, at the request of my relatives :-)!

Unfair!

2008-04-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

It is very unfair!
The fact that you spend 23 years of your life with someone only to remain in a helpless state 1000s of miles away from him as he breathes his last. It is so damn unfair!

NARAYANA KRISHNAMURTHY
B: 30-Nov-1930
D: 18-Apr-2008
Affectionately known to me as Murthy Thatha... my best friend for the first 10 years of my life.

Gone Roomie Gone!

2008-03-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I made a visit to this blog. I moved into my new apartment, got a roommate and kicked him out in less than ten days. This post shall explain the entire ordeal. It all started on the 28th of February, when my to-be-roommate decided to opt out as he decided to stay with a batch mate of his. And there I was... without a roommate. Next thing in the morning, a friend of mine calls up from Madras, asking me if accommodation was available at my place as an ex-project mate of his was coming to New Jersey. I decided to get in touch with this ex-project mate of his. God I wish I hadn't done that! He initially sounded like a DMK propagandist
( "I want to stay only with Tamilians")
Instead of asking about the rent, he was asking whether I had a car. When I said no, he sounded disappointed. In fact, he sounded like a freeloader to me. I then went on to give him the details about the rent, and as soon as I finished, he confirmed it. That was quick! I was hoping he wasn't as bad as he sounded on the phone. He seemed to be a bit uncomfortable whenever I resorted to English on the phone.

March 3rd: I came home early from office, to receive FO (as he shall be known henceforth.) I was expecting a taxi at the entrance of my apartment but was rather surprised to find an extra-stretched white limo parked in front of my apartment building! And out stepped FO! He paid a royal $170 bill to the driver, and therefore out of cash as soon as he arrived in NJ. When asked about why he took a limo,he said that he couldn't find a taxi in JFK! Now that is hard to believe isn't it? He then started asking about Indian restaurants in and around my place. I started with Journal Square, then Amiya and then finally Saravanaas at Lexington Ave.As soon as I mentioned Saravanaas, he replied "Saravanaas is for Brahmins like you! I would prefer something Non-Vegetarian!" and gave out a weird laugh. Now I might have had some regional biases before, but I have always been against all forms of caste-based classifications. And when someone makes a remark like that, I hate to say it but I guess it all comes down to your roots. For once I agree with your Casteist views MG!

March 4th: FO wanted to make a call to India. I lent him my phone asking him to make it short. I also asked him to make calls to India between 9 PM and 7 AM, to make use of the free hours. FO made a 45 mt call when I was getting ready for work after 7 AM. The silver lining was that he did not use my Reliance card! He then mentioned about some problem with his laptop due to which he could not use it to complete some mandatory forms on the company's intranet. I therefore lent him mine. Before I left for work. When I returned home, I found him cribbing about my laptop as he was not able to install his favorite game Cricket 2005. That was a shocker! He had no fucking right to use MY laptop to play HIS games (In case you haven't noticed, this is the first time I have used the F word on this blog. That is how frustrating it has been for me over the past few days.) As if that weren't enough, he had signed on to GTalk and was chatting with his girl-friend. The messages were basically rip-offs of the lame and hyper-corny smses that keep popping up on Sun Music, Sun U2, Teja etc. Sample (Notice the spelling of Hi):

"HAI CHELLAM, I LUV YOU I LUV YOU I LUV YOU I LUV YOU"

March 5th: FO uses another 55 of my minutes on the phone, before deciding to get a connection. But wait. He did not have the right mobile and didn't have enough cash to get a new mobile(remember limo?). I had to pay for his new mobile. And on this fateful day, the previous occupant of my apartment decided to disconnect his Internet connection. And thanks to the superior service of Comcast, I was stuck without Internet at home. This however, gave me an idea.

March 6th: FO called me asking for the nearest StarBucks outlet. I asked him why. He replied that he wanted to get some stuff done on the Internet. I then asked him whether he finally got his laptop fixed. FO replied that he in fact had my laptop. That's it! I couldn't take it anymore. I then decided to use the idea I had gotten earlier. I told FO that we wouldn't be having an Internet connection until March end. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work. I now had to think of something better!

March 7th: Thanks to Sunitha, my coworker and Anand, my friend who originally suggested FO to me, I managed to come up with a rather potent excuse for kicking FO out of the house. When FO heard that my "dad was coming to NYC on a business trip for 3 months", I guess he got the message.

To my surprise, FO moved out rather quickly. Of course, I did my part too by finding a new place for him as soon as possible. Had I allowed him to stay, I would have been forced to listen to genuine appreciations of C-Grade Tamil films and Tamil dubbed versions of English films, and criticisms of good Tamil films. He was initially very disappointed with the fact that I hadn't signed up for Sun TV! Oh, I forgot to mention, A cockroach came out his suitcase when he opened it on the very first day.

After reading this rather lengthy whine, I am sure you would heartily agree with my decision to kick him out of my house! As of now, I am still searching for a room-mate. In case you know who is not idiotic enough to do the things that FO did, please let me know.

And finally, FO made me realise what a Gem of a roommate I had at my previous place!

Borrowing...

2008-02-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

For the umpteenth time, A Led Zeppelin hater bitched about my favourite band having ripped-off songs from old Blues Artists. For the umpteenth time I had to explain that borrowing lyrics and tunes were pretty common on old blues artists (until the songs actually started making money.) Of Course, Page shouldn't have been stupid enough to credit it entirely to him and Plant.
Coming to think of it, many famous songs that were released in the recent past also have great degrees of similarities with older tracks.
Check out the below video and enjoy the shocker! (Especially GreenDay!)

New York, New York.... Finally!

2008-02-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

Remember Forrest Gump?

Oh Yeah!

The Guitar That Gently Wept!

In case you were wondering why the usual suspects are missing, I decided not to post them as I get to look at them everyday on my way to office!

One month already and err... Go Giants!

2008-02-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

It has been a month since I got out of the Air France flight at Newark Liberty International Airport, went to my Aunt's place and ate nicely. And I am already a New York Giants fan, thanks to my uncles in New Jersey. Here's how it happened.
I had been to Metropark last weekend, which really should be renamed to New India or something like that, as 40% of the population consists of desis, with Cash and Carry Indian supermarkets outnumbering the Targets and Walmarts. It was a pretty overwhelming sight. But then everything is fine as long as you get to have hot and yummy Samosas, Katchoris and Jalebis :-). On our way back from the snack shop, my uncle and I managed to get ourselves featured on a STAR NEWS SPECIAL REPORT (on the desis campaigning for Barrack Obama) when a friend of my uncle, the chief campaigner for desis in Metropark was giving an interview and asked us to join it! At my uncle's place, after the all the emotional long-time-no-see stuff with my aunt, grand-aunt, and cousin, I met a Yorkshire Terrier named Coby. I am not sure why it is scared of me. It is pretty cute though. Later in the evening, my very distant aunt and uncle dropped by. In fact, it was that very day I came to know that they were related to me. A good dinner, consisting of Palak Paneer, Veg Pulao and some Parathas, preceded by a few gulps of wine, and I was happy. It was the first time I had consumed alcohol of any kind in the US and wine was by no means a bad way to start.
The next day, we went to my other aunt's place to watch "SuperBowl". As a newcomer to American Football, I was given KT (Yikes! what is happening to me!) on football for an hour, and by the time the first half had gotten over, I was a Giants fan already. Plus, I had won 40 bucks in the predict-the-score lottery organized by my uncle :-)! My aunts ensured that we had the most exquisite of junk food, which included Bhel Puri, Nachos, Beer, Fruit Punch, Salsa mix, and a very yummy Artichoke dip made by my little cousin Neeraja. To top it off, a fantastic cake in the shape of the football.

After 3 very very pulsating minutes in the last quarter, thanks to a revival led by Eli Manning, the Giants were Superbowl champs, upsetting the favorites New England Patriot. And we were celebrating! Take that Tom Brady!

Phase One Complete.. Relatively!

2008-02-01T20:58:00.001-08:00

Settling in here is a very long process, and when it does reach its finishing stages, the amount of relief one gets is indescribable. I finally managed to find an apartment. Albeit a studio, it is a good one and I got a steal of a deal too. I also got my SSN, with my last name chopped off due limited field size :-|. How I wish they had the concept of initials here. I was however reassured by them that it wouldn't be a problem as the id I had shown was alright. So far so good. All I need to do now is to get my driver's license.
Last weekend I visited another aunt of mine. I was so overjoyed to find a piano AND a Fender guitar! I tried both and it felt heavenly! I was obviously scratchy, but the fact that I played on a Fender made even the odd notes sound like a masterpiece! Of course, I do have my birthday target in mind too - Gibson Les Paul. Last weekend I also realized that I had missed the golden opportunity to watch A Live WWE Pay-Per-View - The WWE Royal Rumble! It was held at Madison Square Garden, a mere 30 minutes by train! Anyways it wont be long before WWE returns to the garden and I fulfill my childhood dream of attending a live WWE event!
Oh by the way, my cousin, who helped me settle down here, delivered a baby boy a couple of days back! After 2 nieces, this would be my first nephew. And if my brother-in-law was serious about it, then the baby's name will be one of Vishnu's 1008 names in Vishnusahasranaamam :D:D:D!!
Speaking of relatives, it is a good thing to have relatives nearby. They are there for help! But it is a completely different thing to have too many relatives nearby! By the time I finish visiting each and everyone of them, it is time for me to make a visit to the first one in the cycle! I better sort this out soon! I will be paying a visit to ANOTHER aunt of mine, who also stays in NJ. And if my calculations are correct, I would have completed visiting every relative staying in and near New Jersey, and that is a big achievement! Oh I guess I forgot a person who is married to her PhD lab and therefore can't find the time to meet her favorite cousin :-D!

Weekends and wallpapers

2008-01-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

Tha last time I was here, I was wondering what to do over the weekend. Well, I did accomplish one thing that I couldn't do in Bengaluru for over 7 months. I visited a temple. It is the famous temple at Flushing Meadows, which is supposed to be the first ever Hindu Temple to be built on American soil. Deepa, my cousin and Vijay, her husband were kind enough to pick me up from downtown Manhattan. It was my first visit to Manhattan too. I managed to locate the GuitarCenter store there, where I hope to make the purchase I have been wanting to make for sometime now. There was an Ayyappan Poojai happening at the temple and the atmosphere was no different from the ones I have experienced in Madras. I was rather surprised to see something called a Temple Cafeteria out there. But the food was awesome. The kurma was mindblowing and so was the kesari. I also managed to belt a Paper Dosai and an Onion Rava Dosai. Thanks to my aunt and uncle, who too were present at the temple, I got some Paruppu podi, which really does taste good with Olive oil.

The weekdays that followed were uneventful, except forthe fact that I made some visits to prospective accomodations. I had this rather unusual and unpleasant experience of actually confirming an apartment and later being told that it was no longer available. That didn't stop me from giving a piece of my mind to them.

It is a long weekend now. After hours of wondering what to do, I decided to pay a visit to my uncle and his family in Connecticut. The Peterpan bus ride was comfortable except for the fact that the leg room was simply not sufficient for me. I have been having some good fun with my 20 month old cousin here. I have never had a good track record with toddlers as they run away from me in general. But this one is different and it definitely is encouraging.

As for the wallpaper part, I have just now confirmed that Arsenal's success depends on what wallpaper I have on my comp. I remember changing my wallpaper in Blore temporarily, and the very next day Arsenal lost to Seville, follwed by another defeat at Middlesborough. I then changed it back to the original one, that of the current Arsenal First Team photograph. Guess what happens? Arsenal go past Everton 4-1. The very same thing happened last week too. I mean, my laptop did not have the Arsenal wallpaper, and they drew with Birmingham at the Grove. And after I changed the wallpaper to the first team photograph, they thrashed Fulham 3-0. Now that I have argued successfully for this theory, I better stop this post right here, because you never know what curiosity can do to 20 month old toddlers.

Settling in

2008-01-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

Phew!

It has been a week since I set foot on the US of A. Needless to say it has been a very busy first week. My aunt was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport and then serve me some good if not genuinely Indian thohayal and other Indian delicacies. I was pretty quick when it came to recovering from jetlag. It took me exactly 24 h ours to do so. I then went to my cousin's place to spend the night there, since my office was pretty close to hers. First day at office was understandably long. Spent only 12 hours there. I moved into my temporary accomodation at my colleague's place. I initially thought it was a bad decision, since the place was in a mess. But it doesn't seem to be bad now. The office folk back in Banglore were kind enough to provide me with a laptop with an Indian power cord, meaning I couldn't write this post much earlier.

Man, the people here are so impersonal! I can understand the Americans being like that, but then what is with the desis to behave the same way? In fact they are the worst of the lot! They can't even show any kind of courtesy to their countryman! No wonder people keep saying हम नहीं सुधरेंगे । I was lucky enough to have some good egg biryani at a restaurant called Baba Hut. It is run by the same guy who played the role of the evil policeman in Nayakan. He was one of the few well mannered desis I met here. Oh and he has proudly put on display photographs of him with Thalaivar, during his visit to New Jersey. Cool huh?
Anyway, weekend is hereand I am wondering what to do. I thought of visiting my cousin, but loooks like she is busy with her lab work. My roommate is yet to be back and he has the keys to the place. I can't imagine being here all day! Neways hope eveything turns out well tomorrow.

P.S: My sis mailed me saying that I had got a call from IIM-I. I m sorry to say IIMs, I am not interesyted in you anymore!

Hundert

2007-12-24T01:40:00.000-08:00

That is one of the few words I can remember from the German classes that used to happen at my college. This is the hundredth post of this blog, the last post on this blog for this year and probably the last post on this blog from India, at least for now. HAMMER OF THE GODS has been a long, hard, profound, nonsensical,____, _____, _____ (please suggest adjectives in the form of comments) journey into the mind of the chief architect of this blog.

Most of the posts have been written based on pure instinct without any form of editing (as most of you might have noticed the numerous speling and grammar errata) and some of them have been written over a period of days with lot of thought given to them. All in all the blog has been more than just a brick in my wall.

The best part of having a blog for me has been the fact that I could pour out my frustrations and joy into it, knowing that it is going to take everything without even asking a question (except when I attempt to close a post without saving it :-)), without showing any bit of emotion (except when it says, your post has been published successfully :-)), something one may not find in humans, no matter how close they are. I sometimes feel like laughing at myself, when I read the post on Raja Sen that I wrote on my birthday. That was something which was born out of pure frustration and anger. I am sure no one in his right mind would have wanted to listen to all that!

Another thing that makes maintaining a blog more interesting, is that the blog in a sense acts as a documentation of how much the blogger has changed/ not changed as a person, over the years. The post on The Alcohol Song, gives me that rare sense of pride. The fact that I could write a real good song, that too with dedications to Wordsworth, makes me wonder why I am not able to do that any more! It definitely wasn't a fluke! Is it because I am not high right now?

The blog has had many avatars - 897, Snapshot, and now Sand Dollar. Thanks to the blogger team I can now blog in Devanagiri and can edit the layout without having to do any kind of coding. They can probably add a bit more to the post editor interface, which still looks very primitive and offers lot of scope for improvement. But then, Google Docs compensates for that.

2K7, despite the initial hiccup, has turned out to be a great year, with lot of good things happening to me and everyone around me. Here's is my New Year wishlist:

Arsenal win the treble!
Led Zeppelin start touring again (with first set at Madison Square Garden :-))
I make enough moolah to buy me a Gibson Les Paul

That is all for now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMALS :-)!!

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(Thank You Home Alone 2)

99

2007-12-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

In case I haven't already bragged about it to you, here it goes.

After months of dilly-dallying, my company has finally decided to send me on a long term assignment to New Jersey. I wil be flying to Newark on the 4th of January, from Madras. And ever since I told this news to my family, advice from all quarters have been pouring in. "Don't buy woolens here! Buy them there!", "Buy your woolens here not there!", "Don't take the Jet Airways Flight!", "Don't go downtown alone. Take some one with you!"
As the Reliance ad says,
मुफ़्त में टू सभी अद्विस देते हैं!
I guess that will be the last bit of Devanagiri you will get to see on this post at least for this year.
I am still in a very flustered and excited state and therefore cannot write anymore. I shall probably put another post before this year comes to end.

In case you were wondering what the title is all about, this is the 99th post of this blog.

Cheerio!

Please Start a Tour!!!

2007-12-11T04:51:00.000-08:00

They better start touring and come to India (preferably Bengaluru and not Mumbai). It's been twenty years since they last performed and they still sound the same!!!

MANO YA NA MANO

2007-11-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

In June 2006, I took a rather bold (and nowadays very normal) step to shift to Electronics City, after having stayed at places such as Koramangala and Indra Nagar. I was hoping to save time in travelling and as an added bonus, enjoy the facilities in ITL (namely swimming pool and music room) a bit more. I had made this decision based on my observations regarding availability of basic amenities, such as wine shops and pirated VCD rental shops, at EC. I was overloaded with work anyway and therefore didn't do much after returning home, and therefore thought of saving travelling time. Though I did go through some tough times due to power cuts during weekends, I was rarely at home in the weekends and so it didn't bother me much. However, yesterday, I made a startling discovery about Electronics City.

I was asked to make some mandatory changes in my VISA forms, by the HR folk. I needed a whitener to do the same. I didn't have one, and it really didn't matter that much to me as it is available in every stationery store. That is the catch! It is available only in a stationery store and nowhere else! And guess what, Electronics City did not have a stationery store. I tried to find one for two whole days but in vain. There was a shop next to my house though, which specialised in stitching blouse pieces, that housed some pens pencils erasers, etc etc. To my delight, it kept whiteners too. My joy was however short lived, as the whitener was manufactured in October 2005, and ergo didn't work at all. I have now managed to obtain a whitener in working condition from a xerox shop located at some distance from my place. Yet, I haven't come to terms with the fact that Electronics City, one of the pearls of the rapidly growing Indian Economy, did not/does not accommodate a stationery shop!

Two Years On...

2007-11-09T06:55:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, I completed two years at ITL. I am now an official member of the endangered species of the batch MYS_NOV05LC1 that entered ITL's sprawling campus in Mysore, got struck by food-poisoning almost immediately, opened accounts in a bank that works in MAFIA ishtyle, experienced fun, wrath, jealousy, betrayal, sorrow... I guess I am heading nowhere as far as the intro of this post is concerned and I better stop here.

Professionally, I have excelled like anything. Of course, I got a salary increment, which obeyed the Salary Axiom. I became a senior member of the team, which means I have been rewarded for my excellence and it has been ensured by my seniors that I continue to excel. I can now prepare 14 Excel sheets in 8 hrs. I can assure you that these Excel sheets that contain vital information regarding the quality of the project I work in, will never be used by anyone in ITL. No, it is not because the sheets suck, but because the company's processes have been decided in such a way that they ensure that we prepare numerous excel sheets that serve no purpose whatsoever. For the rest of what goes on in a company such as mine, please read the Dilbert Principle. I have seen a large bunch from my batch leave ITL. I really cannot explain why I have decided to stick on to ITL.

A year back I wrote a post about the lessons life taught me and blah blah blah (too senti a year.) Except for the blip in the beginning, this year has been quite pleasant so far. Dunno if I have become a better man, but I definitely have become a bigger man, kilogram by kilogram. In an effort to stand out amongst the herd, I did accomplish quite a bit. Some of my achievements have been listed below:

1. As mentioned earlier, cleared the nervous nineties and hit my maiden century (1.01 quintals.)

2. Watched Aap Ka Surroor - The Moviee - The Real Luv Story with cap, jacket, stub et al.

3. Became the only owner of the original DVD of Raam Gopal Varma Ki Aag, on this planet.

4. Realized that I could write/tell stories about myself (read MBA essays) as well as some of the greatest storytellers ever known.

5. Have continued to use my blog (tho at a far lower frequency) unlike many of my peers.

Well that's about it.

Oh did I mention, I watched Om Shanti Om today and therefore spoilt my Diwali vacation on the very first day. Now that I have hit rock bottom, I might as well watch Saawariya.

By the way, Azhagiya Tamizh Magan is one huge borefest, but the remix of PonMagal Vandhaal rocks!

The Lucky Shirt

2007-10-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

This post is about a very special piece of clothing that belongs to me. Ever since I discovered its magical powers, I have managed to hide it from my mom. She has been trying her best to get rid of this shirt for the past few months, with tons of support from my sis. Fortunately, she has been unsuccessful. Now what could be the special powers of this shirt?

Since July, I have done well in every exam that I have taken with this shirt on. Most recent instance would be the NCFM (National Stock Exchange Certificate in Financial Markets) exam. I received a 360 page study material from NSE, which I later found out, was more potent than Valium. Having no hopes of clearing the exam and not wanting to dish out another 1000 bucks for a retest, I decided to place my money on my dear ol' shirt. Based on its proven record(GMAT and TOEFL), I hoped that it would bail me out again. And man it did! The moment I saw the word "Passed" appear on the screen, I screamed with joy, only to be shown the door by the invigilator. Without an iota of preparation, I had managed to crack one of the toughest and most boring exams in this country. All because of my shirt!

In case you were wondering if you could have a look at it, here it is:

A Great Weekend

2007-09-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

This could probably be one of the best weekends I have ever had.

Why?

Here are 5 reasons why:

5. My sis coming down (or is it up :D) to Bangalore.

4. Watching Aap Ka Surroor on DVD :-).

3. Arsenal Thrash Rottenham Hot-Spuds 3-1.

2. Watching Sabrina (1954 version) and enjoy the very subtle and dignified humor of the 50s

1. How I wish I were in London!!!

Easier said than done...

2007-09-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have been criticised by my colleagues and friends for talking too much on certain sensitive subjects. Most of the times I can actually see them imagining the possibility of strangling me to death (Hahaha! As if that were pracitcally possible even if it was desired so.) Well, they might be under the impression that I talk a lot on these topics because I am obsessed by them. However, the fact is that I blabber a lot only about things I show least amount amount of inclination towards actually doing them, more or less comforming to the age-old easier said than done rule. Who hasn't?

In my case the most striking example would be of my elaborate plans of working out at the gym to lose weight. Most of you, in case you have met me in the last 3-4 months, can confidently conclude that the plan hasn't been executed yet. However, I am still clinging o the hope that I shall some day see an accurate weighing scale show a two-digit reading when I press all of my weight on it.

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I am not the only one who has followed this rule. Thousands and thousands of people I know have done this before. Only that most of them go by the tag of politicians. How many times have we seen them give speeches that can easily humble Karan Johar movies when it comes to run-time? Again, we now have a billion people to testify that none of their plans have been implemented. Getting a bit too serious am I? Hmm.. let me shift to lighter moments...

My sister - classic example. Standard scenes when I come home to Madras from Bangalore:

Scene 1

Sis: Useless Pig! All you do is sit in the house and do nothing! Why can't anyone help Amma with her work? People should learn to help others out!

Amma:Deeptha, can you help me out with cleaning this room?

Sis:NO I WON'T! WHY SHOULD I?

Me:ROTFLMAO!

Scene 2

Sis: How long can one be dependent on others? One should learn to be independent and self-sufficient!

(Deeptha then turns towards me and says)

Adithya, please, please, can you drop me to the bus stand? This one last time, pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase?

As it can be seen from the above examples, people talk more about things that they surely are not going to act upon (err.. did that statement make any sense?? I am in a kind of a hangover right now and therefore apologies to all ye readers if the entire post made no sense whatsoever.) So, for those who think I am.. eg: gross, simply because I use slightly explicit language, here's the good news, I am not what you think :D!

DAVID SLEW GOLIATH

2007-08-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

I have been ostracized by many of my friends for not owning a bike. Now that I have been working for more than 2 years now, I can't even blame my dad. I have been forced to make do with a 7 year old TVS Scooty till now. But on 19th August 2007, my Scooty came out on top after a duel with the latest model of Bajaj Pulsar :-). Here's how:

I was on my way to Kutcheri road, when a biker coming a pretty decent speed hit my right arm. Needless to say, both of us lost control. I fell on my scooty, which fell on the bike, which in turn, fell on the poor biker. I managed to escape with minor bruises and torn jeans. The biker was injured worse than me and to make things worse for the biker, the indicator lamps of the bike were broken and the bike was refusing to start. My 7-year old scooty however, didn't suffer any damage except for a scratch on its chassis (wondering if that term applies to scooterettes too :-S), despite the fact that it had fallen pretty badly carrying a quintal of additional weight. And lo! My scooty had not only survived an accident involving itself and a much powerful and better built vehicle, but had also caused damages to the latter :-).

And therefore, 19th August to me, will be the day when David yet again overcame Goliath :-).

Lesson in Life

2007-08-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

It all started yesterday night, when I managed reach Yeshwantpur Raliway Station just in time to catch the weekly special to Madras. It was arguably one of the most primitive "main station" I had ever seen. Now, weekly specials don't always get listed on the arrival/departure screens. Yeshwantpur, didn't have any such screen. I then went to tha station office and asked for the platform for my train. "1", came the answer. The train on platform , neither had a name board nor the reservation chart on it. To confirm that this was the train, I asked one of the passengers about the train details and their reply was positive. Thus, I finally managed to locate my berth took my seat. An hour after the train started moving, another person sat on my berth claiming it to be his. I went to the TC with my ticket and got a pretty big shock. I was on the wrong train. THANK YOU OFFICIALS OF YESHWANTPUR RAILWAY STATION!!

I got down at the next station, (Tumkur - 70 km form Bengalooru) and managed to get to the town bus stand using every possible Kannada word I knew. I came back to the beantown at 12:40 AM, just in time to catch the last bus to Madras. A couple of hours later, I was woken up only to see the remains of 6 trucks involved in an accident, blocking the entire road. By the time the debris were cleared, I had lost two good hours of sleep. Finally, at 0930 hrs IST, I reached CMBT, Koyambedu, listening to the laughter of my folks at home.

I had learnt an important lesson in life - never board a train from Yeshwantpur.

The Journey Ends.

2007-07-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

The journey started in July 2000. It ended on Saturday. I am yet to get over the fact that I have finished reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Phew! What a book! I am speechless! As my little cousin put it, the language was so different from the previous 6, and perfectly suited the setting. Quite a few characters got more than what was due and that was really nice of JKR to do so.

It certainly was gripping and extremely pacy, especially during the end. Though one felt that JKR got a bit carried away while killing off characters, the death of one of them made a lot of sense. Though the epilogue was pretty cliched, I liked one part of it. I am sure most of the potterholics might not agree with me on the overall quality of the book as many of them were expecting something much more dramatic. I couldn't care less. My only true disappointment with the book is that none of my theories turned out to be true.

Is RAB Regulus Arcutrus Black?

Is Harry one of the Horcruxes? If so, he should be destroyed isn't it?

Is Snape a traitor?

These questions, have been answered, though one might get the feeling that one already knew about it. But, how important are they when it comes to the main plot of the book? That is something neither of those who haven't read this book know (such people would be very few in number I am sure.) The only way to find out is by reading it.

As for me, life is going to be very different without The Boy Who Lived. What have I decided to do? Reread the books from the beginning that's what!

Houses Of The Holy - An Epic

2007-07-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

The other day, while returning from office, I got to listen to Houses of The Holy after quite some time. Believe me, it is definitely one of the most mindblowing albums I have ever heard. It certainly deserves an entry on this blog, just like LZ2 LZ3 and LZ4 (Untitled).

Houses Of The Holy is the 5th album by Led Zeppelin. It was the first album not to be named after the band (ignoring the fact that LZ4 didn't have any official name.)

The album was a turning point in Led Zeppelin's career as the band shed its purely blues-oriented hard rock image and went on to experiment with new styles of music. John Paul Jones began to play a more prominent role in the Led Zeppelin music arrangements. Though he and Jimmy Page were calling the shots when it came to production and arrangements from day 1, he displayed his skills on a wide range of instruments, glimpses of which were present in the 3rd and 4th albums.

The album starts off with The Song Remains The Same, a predominantly fast paced track with multiple layers of guitar work and an excellent rhythm section provided by Bonzo and Jonesy. Jimmy Page shines throughout this track with his 3 brilliant solos. The track would turn out to be a precursor to another LZ masterpiece - Achilles Last Stand (from the album Presence.)

The second track - The Rain Song is a class apart. A genuine romantic ballad. The melodious base tune coming of the guitar strings and the orchestral simulation by Jonesy's mellotron fill my eyes with tears. Robert Plant's voice and the subtle drumming (that morphs to proper thumping towards the end) augment the beauty of the song. Bonzo aptly plays the drums with brushes instead of sticks on this track. The Rain Song was performed along with The Song Remains The Same during all of the band's concerts after the album's release. The track is said to have been conceived by Page after a discussion with Beatle George Harrison who remarked that Led Zeppelin were a great band, but surprisingly never played any ballads. The first 3 chords of the track are same as that of Harrision's Something, another classic.

If you are a fan of the earlier four albums and are missing the folk/blues sound, then you needn't worry anymore. Over The Hills and Far Away, brings all the elements of the previous four albums into one power-packed tight performance. There is also a Tolkien connection, since the lyrics have been interpreted by many to contain references to JRRT's The Hobbit.

The fourth track, titled The Crunge is a result of a random jamming session among the band members. It is a tribute to James Brown's style of music. In case you were wondering who the hell is James Brown, remember the track I Feel Good!, that has appeared in numerous commercials and soundtracks? The ever-changing rhythm section provides a funky feeling to the track, with Robert Plant providing the finishing touches to the tribute aspect by querying for the confounded bridge section of the track.

Dancing Days, the next track has an interesting sound to it, despite it not making me dance. It did make Led Zeppelin dance in joy after it was recorded. The cover by Stone Temple Pilots is also very good, with the band using the triple-congo instead of drums.

D'Yer Mak'er, the sixth track, continues the band's tendency to experiment with various styles of music, reggae being the target this time. The track title is pronounced Jamaica, though it doesn't appear anywhere in the song's lyrics. Try also listening to Sheryl Crow's cover. I feel she has effortlessly made it her own.

The penultimate track No Quarter is another masterpiece. This is the track where Jonesy has showcased his skill as a keyboardist and a pianist. The haunting opening notes of the song are well complemented by Jimmy's guitar work. Robert Plant's echoing vocals and Bonzo's drum work enhance the mystique surrounding this track. The seamless transition from Jonesy's piano solos to Jimmy's set of guitar solos serve to demonstrate the superior production quality synonymous with Jimmy Page.

The album ends with The Ocean, a track with a bluesy opening accompanied by Bonzo's trademark heavy drumming. The song alternates the rhythms for most of its duration before it ends with a frenzied jam that pays homage to doo-wop. One can hear Jonesy and Bonzo harmonizing "doo-wop". Fort Minor fans (if any) would realise that 80% of the song Dolla is a sample of the main riff appearing in The Ocean. The Ocean refers to the band's fans who turned up in record numbers to watch them perform. Incidentally, Houses of The Holy was a term used by Led Zeppelin's fans to refer to venues where the band performed, elevating the band-members to a divine presence amongst all fans of classic rock.

The album is one of the most critically acclaimed and big-selling albums of the band and rightly so.

Jimmy Page is God