Monday, November 26, 2007

Interview Skills

Courtesy: http://www.dilbert.com

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Power cut?

An odd little political game is being played out in Karnataka these days. At the center of it all is the grand old farmer of Indian polity Mr Deve 'Son-of-the-soil' Gowda.

To lend you perspective, lets flash back to around two years from now. Back then the JD(S)-Cong coalition was trudging along in bursts, with Mr Gowda acting as both benevolent (seemingly) Godfather and irritating Spoke-in-the-wheel. Brand Bangalore sat in a corner licking its wounds, wondering what hit it, and with it sat Gowda Jr, Kumaraswamy with a dour expression on his face. People knew by then, that Mr K chiefly had ministerial ambitions, but no, Mr K actually had Chief Ministerial ambitions. But he knew that, with the old guard at the helm that dream would be hard to dream and possibly impossible to achieve, if things were to go the way they had till then. So what did he do? He rode on the development plank(as most 45 year young politicians tend to). We need some good solid development, he said ,and what better a start than me being CM, he whispered to himself. He convinced a majority of JD(S) MLAs that the 'S' in JD(S) doesn't stand for secular but for 'Satta'. He shepherded them into a luxury bus, got into talks with the oh-so-not-Secular BJP. And thus, did JD(S) stab the Cong in the back and form the current govt. Mr Gowda, at the outset was furious at this sudden volte-face in ideology, but then let time (and power) heals all wounds and thus he welcomed back his prodigal son into the fold. Mr Gowda after all loves being the king maker doesn't he?

As part of the 'arrangement' with the saffron brigade, Kumaraswamy was to rule for twenty months and after that one Mr Yediyurappa from the BJP was to rule for the second period of twenty months. Mr Kumaraswamy was totally okay with the pact with the BJP, saffron hues not withstanding. He said, anything for the betterment of the state.

It was a good start, Mr K seemed to bring youth and exuberance into governance and slowly won the people over. But twenty months don't last forever do they?

As the twenty month stint came to an end, Mr Gowda started making all kinds of noises, of why JD(S) shouldn't have joined hands with the saffron brigade, of how the BJP was trying to tarnish him and his family. Lots of confusion,conflicting statements ,and the Sriramulu (lets not go there) episode didn't help matters either.

And today we stand at a threshold. Today is the day when Mr K will choose whether to keep his promise or to break it. Today is the day he has to chose between being honest or being in power. Today is the Mahatma's birthday. No doubt Mr Kumaraswamy will make lots of speeches praising what the Mahatma stood for, truth and honesty, and how he values these virtues and how these should be the beacon that will show our nation the pathway to the future. But the burning question is whether MR K will choose to follow the path shown by the birthday boy or be a hypocrite.

After all what's at stake Mr K is not power, its not your popularity. It is something that is much much more valuable ( at least they should be to you). Its credibility. Please don't let us down Mr K.

Monday, September 03, 2007

This and that

A long lazy weekend.

Watched The Departed and liked it! Our desi directors should learn a thing or two about how to remake a movie from Martin Scorsese.

September is a month full of treats and incidentally, birthdays. Last Sat was P's birthday and he gave a nice little treat. Tomorrow is Peanut's birthday.Hopefully he'll follow suit! ;-)

My brother is back from Aus! Its odd that I realise what was missing at home, some unspoken quality, when he was away, only now, when he is back. I still can't put my finger on it and say Oh yeah that was what was amiss!

Its amazing to see how brothers get along as well as Kol and his brother get along. I believe they share everything that happens in their lives with each other! I can't imagine telling my brother about how a day out with the gang was and other stuff. Both of us believe in keeping our out-of-the-home lives separate, although this doesn't stop him from asking all kinds of questions!

I kept mis-spelling believe all through the post. I've always done that when a word has i and e together.But I didn't do it in the last time I typed believe!! Not this time either!!

Back at the office I'll be joining my old team again. Its like a whiff of fresh air after the last two months!

That's about it for now I guess. Signing off!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Jaagte rahoo

Work,work,work. Blah,grind,blah. To other interesting stuff....

Man, you gotta read the script of the Matrix series. I've just finished the script of Matrix reloaded and its awesome! I just can't believe the level of detail!! Every damn scene,every move is spelled out. Hail those script writers! I'll start reading Matrix Revolutions tomo. I would've read it today, but haven't slept properly through this week and I gotta get some shut-eye.

You can find the scripts here .

Chalo then chao! Hopefully I'll not dream up something related to work or witness my assasination.

Before I crash though here's something that you could chew on:

"Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."
The Architect

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Dark bodings

He stood at the crossroads and turned back. He was confused already! He couldn't tell which path had brought him here, all four seemed identical. He stared at each in turn. Somehow he knew in his heart that one meant glory,one ignominy, one lead to pain and one happiness. As he started to wonder which was which and which one he should choose, a fog started setting in. He was astonished; it was sunny a moment ago! He looked up and inexplicably a dark sky bore down upon him. He pinched himself, certain that this was a dream. It hurt! He tried to remember if he had had a dream in which he had felt pain. There was no memory. Everything seemed fuzzy, the past, the present and as a result, the future.

The fog closed down upon him and it was dark all around. He closed his eyes (as though that would make a difference!). An idea!He tried to conjure light and hope in his own heart. But what was light? What was hope? He seemed to have forgotten what hope is! What light is.

What is hope? What is light?

One little clarification. The 'he' in this post is not me neccesarily! I was just thinking and voila!! I had thought this post out! Maybe the 'he' could be any of us.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Bungee brownie park

Now there are three things in life that one should try at least once.* Of these three, you'll definitely want to do the first one again and again, the second one never again and the third one .... err that depends on your temperament and taste. So lets cut the chase and get down to the three things

1. Bungee Jumping!!
"Woohoo"

Yo people! After planning things out for a week (which means tons of mails spamming every which inbox and mail server), returning back home disappointed on the first day (Windy conditions spoiled the party) and waiting for 7 odd hours the next day, we finally got to bungee jump! Man was it awesome!! Just wish the instructor gave people more time up there. It was like you go up with him and as you look below (we were hoisted around 140 m in the air) and try to soak it in, he barks 'Hold your arms straight in front of you! Loosen your body and when I say 1 2 3 jump, jump! 123 jump!!''. And you are just standing there petrified. Its only after a moment or two that you gather enough gumption to actually jump. And when you do, oh boy, what a sensation you go through. The whole world around you goes bonkers. The ground seems to hurtle towards you at break neck speed and just when you come around to think that life insurance is not a bad idea after all, the rope goes taut and you go high up again! For a few seconds more elasticity and gravity have fun at your expense, and then its all over. The whole jump lasted all of ten seconds ( the first downward motion must have taken three seconds), but you go totally nuts in those ten seconds and trust me its worth every paisa you pay!

2. Eat 'Death by that-brown-thing-that-girls-like-to-eat'
If you can eat more than once cup of 'Death by that-brown-thing-that-dairymilk-is-a-brand-of' at Cornerhouse, all hail thy sweet tooth. I wasn't able to finish one cup of this blasted thing! And I feel sick when I hear that brown thing mentioned!! To top it all today is supposed to be 'that-brown-thingy's day!! I saw this pic in today's newspaper and was sick to the stomach.
"Yuck"
Added later : What I meant was you gotta try this once! After this, you'll either like chocs even better or stay away from it for a month or two at least. I am doing the latter right now! :P
3. Watch South Park
"Awesom-o"

South Park is an animated series about the lives of four fourth graders, Kyle, Kenny, Stan and Eric Cartman. These guys live in the small mountain town, South Park hence the name.
Try and get your hands on one of the episodes of this series, its hilarious (and totally over the top , totally politically incorrect , sometimes vulgar). These guys have parodied everything under the sun. I might just write a post about one of the episodes I watched.

Btw are you watching Wimbledon? This year has seen some amazing tennis. Did you catch the Bartolo-Jankovic match, or the Serena-Henin one? My money is on Bartoli for the women's title. (But wish Henin had faced Venus in the finals, what a match that would've been!! ) This lady(Bartoli) has loads of talent and if she could just get less chubby and improve her fitness she'll go a long way. Boy, didnt that Gasquet fellow play some awesome tennis against Roddick?

Ps: Call it irony or whatever, since I wrote the last post, work at office has become more hectic than ever!! But what are weekends for? :D

* If you'd expected something more.. erm.. sophisticated like maybe going around the world, or watching the sunset at the North Pole or something ,remember that I've had a 55+ hr week and that my world view is limited to the bugs that are waiting on me and what I will do over the next weekend right now! :P (You're thinking are ye post khatam kyu nahi ho raha? Me too! chalo chao! )

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Mish mash post, Grooks, Jobs.

Hmm long time isnt it? This is gonna be one cocktail-post.

At the work front, things have at last fallen back to the usual routine. Although, things have known to change rapidly and drastically every time I think this very thought. To moot, our manager now uses our team as an example in meetings and urges other teams to match our levels of 'commitment'. Quite a thing huh?

I've never been a poetry guy. I mean, I am not into poetry in english in a big way, although poetry in hindi has been a favourite. Well, who can forget Saroj Smriti by Nirala, Madhushala by Bachan Srmost ( Well if you haven't heard of Harivansh Ray Bachhan , thumbs down to you mate! :( ) , Satpuda Ke Ghane Jungle etc? Those were the days of Swati and Parag. Hmmm....good old days!

But recently, thanks to a friend of mine at office, I've been exposed to some real good English poetry. One of my personal favourites, among these are the works of Piet (which are referred to as grooks. Grook, wikipedia tells me stands for "GRin & sUK" ,"laugh & sigh" in Danish). Here's one for you to enjoy.

An ethical grook

I see
and I hear
and I speak no evil;
I carry
no malice
within my breast;
yet quite without
wishing
a man to the Devil
one may be
permitted
to hope for the best.

Liked it? Ok, here's another,

A psychological tip

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.


Real good ,eh? Thanks due to my friend!
If you want to read more, google Piet Hein.
(Its speaks a lot about the strength of a brand name, when it is used a verb doesn't it? Hail Google! )

One thing long work hours have brought in, is late night telly watching. After a long day at office, it feels good to round off the day with an episode of Sienfeld followed by one of Friends ( and of course, the now routine scoldings about working late by the folks at home).

The last book I read was iCon. A well researched ( I hope!) book about the life and times of Apple Inc's CEO Steve Jobs. It was a pretty good read. A lot harsh things have been said about Jobs, his (mis)management style, aggressive attitude and misdemeanor. But all said and done , at 22 (my age) Jobs had already found Apple (Jobs went on to found nEXT and Pixar too!). And here I am fixing bugs in a stupid tool! Well, the urge to 'make a dent in the Universe', as Jobs would put it, has grown stronger ( and with it the desperation of dealing with the work I am doing at off right now).

Aur ab aap bataiye, aap kaise ho?

Friday, June 01, 2007

And when they reached the Black Gate, Strider said,"Brothers of Blogger! Of Blogspot! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same strain that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the wrethcedness of work ceases; when we forsake our servitude and break all bonds of stupid God-forsaken work... but it is not this day! An hour of joy and uninhibited laughter, when the Age of the Manager comes crashing down! But it is not this day! A day when one can send off one's brother (the only one at that) on a three month trip,without getting a call asking one to return to office as soon as possible! A day that doesnt seem like monday. But it is not this day! This day I work!".

And then he unsheathed his id and walked into his office.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

The end of Voldemort!

Heeya! I've read the deathly hallows!!

Now before you jump the gun, let me clarify.

The version I read has not been penned by Rowling but by one of her fans Melinda Leo.
For all its mushiness , it was still a good read! You can find the book here.
Have a great time.

I am still waiting for the official version though!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

what's wrong abt 300; south park

300 was a good movie. In terms of production and other frills few movies I've watched come close to it. And given the fact that I'd wanted to see the phalanx in action for a long time, Abhi's description not withstanding, 300 was a good dekko.

But what's wrong with it?

Here's what!

300 depicts Spartans as flag bearers in the first ever war for freedom. To quote Leonidas, "This is the dawn of a new age. An age of freedom!!" (or something like that)
But what pulls the (Persian) rug under the collective feet of the Spartans is the hypocrisy of it all. Spartan society depended heavily on slaves. How do you think Spartan free men were able to train so hard and for so long? Infact Spartans had a special force to supress slave uprisings down. Now you see the irony of it , when Leonidas talks of freedom.

Now chuck that.

I discovered South Park, this crazy show about four 4th grade kids thanks to Su a friend at off.

Here's a small two minute clip from South Park.
I must warn you South Park is not for the faint hearted or the prim and propah among you. (So Di you better skip this)



Did ya like it?
What? Oh! You won't be hanging around here any longer?!
:-/

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Refuse the offer,Mr Murthy

I do not want Mr Murthy to be the President of our nation. No, it has got nothing to do with the brouhaha about the national anthem incident. I believe that anthems, symbols and flags are for just that- symbols - and the dignity of even a single man holds more value than all the symbols of the world put together!

My reason is that the office of the President has no power to bring about change. All Mr Kalam has done (leaving aside the exemplary example he himself is) in the last four(or is it five ?) years has been to set roadmaps, set visions and talk about what we , the youth of this nation should do - in short preach. To be fair that is the most one can do as President anyways. ( I must confess that I am unaware of any positive change that Mr Kalam has brought about, do correct me if I am wrong!).

Wouldnt it be futile to waste four years of such a personality as Mr Murthy? Mr Murthy has much to offer. Let us ask more of him; let us not allow him to be a powerless rubberstamp.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Yenjoy madi

I want to whine about the fact that I've not been able to watch 300 although I was the first among my friends to learn that such and such a movie exists, and have, on last count attempted to watch it on 5 different occasions. So here goes,

WHINE!

Now that thats done, here's something much happier. Six of us are leaving for Oooty tomorrow night and hopefully we'll have a whale of a time out there!!

Adios amigos and amigas!

Cia at the other end of this long weekend. Have fun! :-)

P.S: Whine jhine jaye bhad me!! Watched it today!! :D

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Two thoughts and a sight to behold

Imagine India, the person(not Mr India for God's sake!) living in a small shack somewhere in the country. Everyday India is rudely woken up by the shrill ring of his/her (India may not be Mother India after all) telephone and when he (ok! lets assume he means he/she from now on) picks up, someone says "Jaago India Jaago" in that jingly tone. India slams the phone down but he can't go back to sleep now. He looks outside his window and sees a whole crowd camped out there. This lousy bunch has the idiotic habit of chanting "Indiiiia India" although sometimes India has heard them chant "Sachiiiin Sachin" too. India has no clue who Sachin is and is immensly irritated by the crowd's chanting his (India's ) name. All through the day, some or the other chap knocks at India's door and when India opens it, the other guy shouts "Come on INDIIIA DIKHADO". India slams the door on his face. He turns on the TV and lo someone's singin "East or West India is the best" (remember the song from Judwa? ). This brings a smile on India's face. India takes a walk every evening through the streets of the town nearby and occasionally he hears someone say "India ka kuch nahi hone wala. Yaha ka system hi kharab hai". India doesnt know the guy who said this butdoesnt care, having listened to this kind of crap all his life. But what bugs him is the crowd outside his shack. Last I heard India was planning a vacation with Ms Bahama. Enjoy madi India!

****
On the way to office yesterday I read this
"Delhi Chalo"
"Haq maango"
"Musalmano ke liye alag quota maango"
on a poster.
This set me thinking about reservation in the education sector and how it sucks. Then I had an idea. What if we could have an engg and a medical college (and a mgmt school) for every two or three districts that cater only to students with reservation? We could get the best teaching talent and provide the best infrastructure possible in these colleges. We may leave the politicians to fight over how much % of quota each sub group should get in these colleges. All the other colleges will admit students only on the basis of merit.
But will such a solution be acceptable to the lobby that's 'For' reservation? One reservation the lobby may have with this solution is that having a seperate college for reserved candidates will be a neo-discrimation against them, but wouldnt the best teaching talent and the best infrastructure make up for that?
What do you think?
****
On the way to office I stopped at this signal today. The signal after the left at Nandidurga road to be precise. At this signal I noticed a group of eagles scooping down to pick up some piece of meat that lay strewn on the road. There were vehicles plying on this road!! The eagles would time their dive perfectly (Avoiding the traffic of course!) .I managed to witness two or three succesfully executed scoops! It was an amazing sight.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Aisa bhi hota hai? Part 3 Or I dont need a shrink! Period.

What makes us dream the dreams we dream? Is it the thoughts we take to bed? Or is it something else? I just cant understand why I had this dream the night before last. I'll not use the past tense but will try to take you through the dream as if you were there.

I am Salman Khan.Or you could say my spirit is in Salman's body. Tabu is my wife and we have a kid. The kind of kid who is adorably sweet and naughty but has a uncanny ability to escape harm,like the Baby's Day Out kid. I knew the dream was all about how our kid lands in trouble, Tabu and I go hysterical and then everything falls in place, a happy ending.
We live on the topmost floor of an apartment, but there's some construction going on in the roof. Some small room or something. The person who is building the room or whatever is Ajay Devgan. He is a bad-good extremist. You know there are two kinds of extremists in movies (and in my wierd dreams). One of them is the bad-bad extremist. He is evil all the way and his part in the movie is usually inversally proportional to how evil he his. He is usually played by some side actor. The good-bad extremist is however played by some prominent actor and has a major part to play. There's usually a scene where he loses his family, his property or something to a bomb blast or a riot and then the screen fades and in the next screen we see him moving with feline grace (donning sunglasses) walking away from a building (preferably an evil govt building) and as he walks away there's an explosion. Now that's the kind of extremist Ajay Devgan is. Good but misunderstood.Ajay is a good friend of ours. Infact we are the only friends he has in all of the city.
Inexplicably Tabu and I start singing a family song. Tabu, the kid and I start singing the song and eventually we go to the roof and Ajay joins in. In between our happy song, Ajay sings some sad lines remembering his lost young brother (Arbaaz Khan. He fades in and fades out) . The song stops as quickly as it started and then we (Tabu and I) walk down the stairs into the apartment forgetting all about the baby.
We see the baby is on some make-shift roof and as we are watching the baby falls through the thatch roof. We see the baby falling but don't quite see it hit the floor or anything.
Next thing we see is a frantic search for the baby.Tabu, Ajay , a police inspector (don't ask me why he didnt apprehend Ajay), my twin brother (yes I have a twin brother) and I look for the baby everywhere but are unable to find it. All of us ,except Tabu gather infront of our apartment, tense and tired.The inspector looks at the floor and notices the remains of an egg. Tabu runs out of the apartment and screams "Mera baccha!! Ab tak hatch nahi hua tha!!!". (Don't ask me why in the whole world she's so mad!!). Everybody starts picking up the remains of the egg (the remains of the egg, I remember, are not liquidy but solid and crumbly).
Everything fades into darkness and the next thing we see is Tabu and Paris Hilton (or Anna Kournikova. not sure) sitting in a jeep. I am my twin brother now (you got that? I am not Tabu's husband now, I am Paris/Anna's boyfriend!! ;-) ). I walk upto them and tell them that Tabu's husband has already left (to where ? don't ask me! ) and we'll need to leave shortly. And then Paris/Anna kisses me!! Its a nice enjoyable kiss. After the kiss she explains that the kid's safe and the egg crumbles were not of the kid (I know it doesnt make any sense but hang on!). We ride into the sunset or something (this wasnt very clear :-P).

And then that's it. That's when I woke up. As I woke up from the dream all that hogwash about the extemist and the baby, and the baby turns into the egg funda did not seem to matter. What seemed to matter was the kiss! :D

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Not the usual crap

A hectic week! No time for the usual music-blog hopping-occasional orkutting (is that a word or did I just invent it?) - stumbling routine and I would not have it any other way!! :-) Hopefully the next few weeks will be as busy as the last week was. And yeah, we've been promised some developement at last; something to look forward to!

Now amidst all of the work, I read "The God of Small Things" (TGOST) thanks to the long commute I take to work.

TGOST is easily one of the best books I've read. What makes it special is the way it speaks so much by saying so little.

The book is about Ammu and her twin children Estha and Rahel. One of the most moving stories I've heard. It speaks of the immense, selfless love a mother has. Of the indescribably beautiful love kids have for their mother. Of the inexplicable twain that binds twins. Of the hypocrisy of human behaviour. The small things that matter so much (but are not given the attention that's due to them) and the supposedly big things that shouldn't matter. Of how inspite of how badly you want to press that reset button ,go back and undo something, you just can't do that!! At the end of the book you feel just that! You want to go and stop Ammu, or stop Estha and Rahel from walking down the paths they are. But you just can't.

Its a beautifully woven story that touches base on so many things. Read it if you can.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Good things come in threes

Another V day has come and gone ;a big thenga and :-P to all of you people out there who say "change is inevitable,change is the only constant, blah blah blah". The one thing that refuses to change is my singular single status. Not that I am complaining but still.

I don't know why but I would like to thank all the wonderful friends I have, from school, from coll, from office, from blogistan, from anywhere for being friends with me and bearing with all the little quirks of mine, the many OHNO* moments and all the stupid jokes! Thanks a lot guys!

Life Lover had tagged me a long time ago and here's the post at last!

Three things that scare me:
1. Barking dogs springing up from nowhere.
2. Of being the last one to go among my loved ones.
3. Myself.
Three people who make me laugh:
1. The office crowd.
2. My friend K.
3. Chanlder Bing.
Three things I love:
1. Books.
2. Honesty
3. Spending time with friends.
Three things I hate:
1. The awful noise that's made when people bite anything crunchy.
2. Hypocrisy.
3. Hatred?
Three things I don’t understand:
1. Ladki junta. Self explainatory. ;-)
2. The defintion of girly-sweet. Sometimes I say something random that elicits a "So sweet" and sometimes when I say something really heartfelt all I can garner is "Jaa" or "GTH". hmmmm....
3. Why Abhishek chose Aishwarya or vice versa.
Three things on my desk:
1. This beautiful art piece that N made. Its amazing; maybe I'll post a photu here sometime.
2. My bag
3. The calendar that my company gave us all.
Three things I’m doing right now:
1. Listening to nasha hi nasha hai by Sukhwinder Singh
2. Trying to read a dry work related document
3. Trying not to fall asleep
Three things I want to do before I die:
1. Master the guitar (Are yar bahut dino se practice nahi ki... ab tak ek song nahi bajta mujhse :( )
2. Learn dancing.
3. Fly.
Three things I can do:
1. Make up songs for any situation.
2. Code. (Lekin karne ko nahi mil raha off me :( )
3. Crack absolutely wierd jokes.
Three things you should listen to:
1. The songs of Aandhi, Abhiman and Anand. I had a casette with exactly this combo. Kho gaya! :(
2. Pink Floyd.
3. Advice from ur loved ones.
Three things you should never listen to:
1. People who constantly say "you can't do that"
2. 92.7 FM
3. 93.5 SFM.
Three things I’d like to learn:
1. Salsa
2. Mountaneering
3. Flying ( a plane or parasailing anything)
Three favourite foods:
1. Chapathi/roti wid aloo muter
2. Theeka pani poori
3. Mirchi ki bajji
Three beverages I drink regularly:
1. Coffee
2. Tea
3. Water
Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
1. Shreeman Shreemati
One of the best comedy shows I've watched. DD2 was amazing back then, with shows like All the best, Tu tu main main, Superhit muqabla etc etc....
2. Tehquikat
I remember one particular episode where the detective is called in to investigate paranormal activity in a house. I couldn't watch the end. Not that I was afraid or something. (Afraid aur me? HAHA ;-) ).I just fell asleep :-P. I used to doze off at 8 30 - 9 when I was a kid! :-P
3. Hardy Boys. Frank and Joe Hardy were the 'boys' if I am not wrong. Nancy Drew was a big no-no for us tough guys.

I tag Assaulted Peanut, Morpheus , Isha and Zoltan

* An OHNO moment is the moment right after you realise you've done something stupid or said something you didn't mean or mean to.Publish

Life's grey at the moment

This post was written yesterday at around 11 in the night or so.

I have been Mr Grumpy today at office. Although I didnt let it show I was believe me.
Am I pissed at life?? I have this one question that I must find an answer for. I cannot share this question with anybody. Its pretty confusing. Add to that the fact that I have not been assigned any work. I am a person who's happiest when busy. If I am busy I'll not find time to ruminate and questions like the one I am facing will not come to the fore. But I am not busy now. This idleness is taking its toll. Add to that the fact that I have not been sleeping well for the past few days and you have Mr Grumpy fresh out of the oven.

Have I told you I am an angry young man? Not one of those who are perpetually angry, but those who explode once in a while and God save you if you are close by. I have mastered the art of controlling this rage so if you ask my friends about this they'll probably laugh at you. But ask my dad who calls me Durvasa muni from time to time. The most recent outburst was about an hour ago. There was a bit of shouting and I lost it for a minute. The amazing part is the duration of such outbursts is inversly proportional to the intensity. I was my normal self moments later. I hate it when I lose it.

*Shuts the comp down and fades into darkness*

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Me, a movie person?

Its nice to be back in the blogging circuit!

Do you know what happens when you pour hot coffee into a porcelain cup throw it out and then put some ice cubes into the cup?? It cracks up due to the extreme change in temperature!! I've had two weeks that were chockablock with esoteric technical training and two weeks in which I was more or less free. See the similarity?

If you have read this blog diligently you will remember that a friend of my bro had gifted him a slew of Salman Khan movies. Did I hear you gasp?
But as if in atonement the very same friend gifted my brother with a host of other infinitely more sensible movies!!
So the last three weekends were spent watching all of these movies!

Here are some of the movies I've watched and a one line review (Non-spoilery of course) of each of them:

Memento

the "inspiration" for the tamil movie Ghajini (wonder what Ghajini means). Well made but confusing. Good one.
The Incredibles
Very good! Much more than the usual superhero fare you expect. Incredibly funny.
The Shawshank Redemption
One of the best ones I have watched till now. Must watch!!
Final Destination
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
Part 1 was great, part 2 was good, but after part 3 impaled torsos, heads stuck in the lift and such supposedly grewsome things induce a protracted I've-seen-it-all yawn. Don't ever watch all three together like I did.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Nice one. Somehow I've grown immune to horror flicks. But this one seemed good.
Pulp Fiction
One of the handful of Quentin Tarantino movies. (I knw you knw but this guy was the one who made Reservoir Dogs the "inspiration" for our desi Kaante and Kill Bill)
Seemed mad, totally mad. But when the movie gets over somehow u come to like it.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
Assaulted Peanuts (nice name na?) had written about this some time back. Read it here. I must warn you it has spoilers. The whole idea is about something that enables one to erase a person completely from one's memory and the kinda consequences/confusion it brings in its wake. Must watch.
Batman Begins
Nice one. Liked this quote "And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up".
A Scanner Darkly
total crap.
Rocky Balboa
Uff this guy just can't go away can he? The underdog story yet again

Eternal.... deseveres a special mention. I was fascinated by the idea of removing a person totally from one's memory. You could remove a person from your person completely and the next time you met, the other person will be a total stranger to you. But I was left wondering whether such a thing is actually worth it. One of the pros is all the pain that a person caused or is causing you could be forgottten in an instant but the con that goes with this is that all the good times will be gone too!! I think its not worth it at all! If all we had were good memories life wouldn't be life would it?

What do you think? If given a chance would you erase somebody entirely from your memory?

And yeah!! Did I tell you?
ANTHONY WON ROADIES!


PS :
This post is dedicated to a person (let's call her Anjali) who does this:
Gang of friends: "Hey put-in-a-movie's-name chale?"
Anjali: *puts on a pained i-wud-have-come-if-i-could expression*
"I am not a movie person! :-( ..... Aaap jao aur enjoy karo! :-) "

Next day:
Sorority:""Hey put-in-the-same-movie's-name ke bare me suna hai? achha hai it seems"
Anjali: *jumping around* "When are we going? When are we going?"

:-/

PPS :
@Assaulted Peanut :
If Anjali kills me after this, take care of this blog man!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Chow Chow Post

Here's what I found in one of the forwards that a friend sent:

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Dear Friends,


i promise i will follow my new year resolution with all trust and all pains.........
This is my resolution for the year 2007 ..... (Scroll down and have a look )


is


is


is




My Resolution for this Year 1024 by 768 pixels!!!!!!Whats yours ??

If you can't see the bright side of life, polish the dull side, like me....


**********************************************************************************

Now I have a 100% track record when it comes to resolutions! :-)
Because of the simple reason that I have never had any resolution in the first place!! :-P

K .. bad joke! But here's what I may or may not do this year. But at the end of this year if I find that I had put my best effort into doing these, I'll be more than happy.

1. Eat properly and at the correct time. And dont be the last one to finish lunch!
2. Write good posts . (Ahem ... k this one's a goner! )
3. Exercise everyday. OR Play football as often as possible.

As you can see I dont put much pressure on myself.

The new year has brought a lot of changes in its wake. In the first week of the year I learnt that I have been moved to a new team yet again! In the short five month career I have had till now, this is my third team. It goes something like this:

Join team.
Break ice with new team mates. Go on team outing. :-)
Attend training sessions. Do a lot of study.
Attend a breaking news meeting where I get to know I'll be joining a new team. :-/

Sab study ka satyanash!! I hate these breaking news meetings!!! Hrmp! :-/

The past week has been very hectic. I've been attending five-six hour long sessions everyday. And I can't even pretend that I am listening , because firstly, the work involved is pretty complex and I have to have some basic knowledge just to go about my work in the new team and secondly we have quizzes (apparently the results will be made public :-( ). Hence the break from the tradition that started four years ago in college. To be fair the sessions are interesting, but I am actually paying attention to lectures after a long time. Hence the grumpiness.

K enough of my ranting (and yeah I have a bus to catch too)!

Happy Sankranthi/Pongal to all of you! :-)

Have a great week end!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

A newbie's guide to soaps

Over many lunches (during the hols) and dinners (everyday :( ) I've been forced to watch soaps (kannada all of them, and thankfully no KSBKBT). Actually one could look away but then the sound bytes get to you and so does the hilarity of it all.

Here are some things I learnt the hard way.

1. Title.
The title is invariably a female's name or something that relates to suhaag,kumkum, family and such. In the first case the lead female does all the crying but in the second anybody and everybody can cry.
In the second case the title and the soap have no correlation.(Actually yeah the title may get used in one or two dialogues in a span of three years or so.) Or you could say the title could be used for any of the zillion soaps around.
2. How to identify the vamp
Sleeveless blouse + more make up than other heavily "made-up" characters + garish background music (+ last minute evil look when the episode is about to end) == your friendly vamp next door.
3.Nobody dies in a soap
Yeah nobody does! Everyone takes one fortnight to die (see pt 4) and some 40 episodes later you realise the character is not dead after all. He/she is lying is in a coma/in a mental asylum/ in some random stranger's place having suffered memory loss.
The real reason a character dies (or rather correctly goes into a dead-for-forty-episodes state) is that he/she found a better soap (ahem a better paying soap I should say) to act in or he/she needs to be comitted (sometimes they go mad too!) or they have a fallout wid the big shot (heard of Kekta?).
4.Soaps warp the time-space continuum
Soaps can make time slow down to a crawl. It takes one hour (two episodes) to answer a door bell, an accident to take place, for the doctor to announce whether its a boy or a girl or whether someone's dead or alive.
Soaps can have the opposite effect as well. In a blink of an eye uncles become grandpas , aunties become grandmas (theu don't look a day older mind you; the only difference is that one streak of white hair and less than usual make up).
5.Everybody is born rich.
The clothes they wear for daily use, abe kisi shaadi mai bhi aise kapde kam dekhne ko milte hai!
6. Reinforcement of emotion.
When the director needs to emphasise on a particular emotion all he does is to show the same character's face from different angels.
UP DHANG.DOWN DHANG.LEFT DHANG .RIGHT DHANG.DIAGONALLY DHANG. DHANG.DHANG.DHANG.
you get the point don't you?
7.It all boils down to Saas-Bahu ki kahani
The current dinner soap started off as a love triangle. Two friends love the same guy.
Eventually (After a hundred episodes full of love-triangle drama) one of them meets with an accident and dies and the other female elopes with the guy and marries him.
The not-dead friend then goes to her sasural and guess who she meets there?
Her dead dost! The dead dost is alive (Aila!) and has married the guy's father (double aila!!) !!
8. Baa is actually Yoda reincarnated!






Her age is 200 I've heard!

9..

Oh crap forget it! A post about soaps! This blog is going to the dogs!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

22 not out

Yeay! Its my birthday today!!

Yeay!