Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Random things about myself....

This might not be a pretty write-up... it can get corny, funny, ridiculous, dumb or whatever... cos I am writing this one in a free flow... Kinda listing out my idiosyncracies; if you like... I came across this blog written by some girl which made her list 20 random things about herself; I liked the idea and picked up the tag...

I hope this one's a balance between my qualities but I cant put a number to it.... Here goes...

1} I like to sing in my loo; that too the most soulful of ghazals and old romantic or sad songs...I feel like I am the classic crooner with a voice so silken that girls wud rain left, right and center over it...

2} I love playing with earthworms and cockroaches... Catching a roach's whiskers gives me an awesome kick...

3} I am scared, i mean shit scared of stray dogs and I shiver at their very sight when I encounter them at night, especially if I am alone...

4} I would like to think that I cook fairly decent but I just hate the cutting of vegetables charade... Overall, messier the work involved more is my love for it...

5} Exercising was invented as a form of exorcism for humans who didnt demonstrate any visible traits of being haunted... I hate it from the bottom of my heart and can think of any and every excuse to avoid it...

6} Equal to my hate for exercise is my love for sport... I would and generally try any sport on display... Even if I am amazingly lousy at most of them; I would still go and play it... I have spent most of my vacations playing one or the other games... right from cricket and soccer to chor-police, aaba-dhoobi, i-spy etc.... I am not so fond of Bowling though and I prefer karting any day....

7} I feel that I understand people very easy and can relate to all and sundry... I demonstrate that typical leo trait of guarding my friends and family and wouldnt mind a face-off with anyone for the same....

8} I believe in tough love and would make a very demanding boss... More than individualistic glory I love the team spirit at my workplace...

9} I can eat and I mean it... If I love the food, trust me to finish it... I hate seeing food being wasted and make an effort to stop it... My face gives away my hurt when I see such acts....

10} Anything in life should be VFM (value for money) for me... By this I dont mean that things should be cheap but they should provide that sort of comfort, luxury, brand visibility and confidence once we spend on those... for eg I hate spending 100 bucks on miniscule chicken chilly in Nandinis but I can spend 300 for a sizzlers at Kobe for that ambience and food quality...

11} I love chaat and roadside junk.... I can go any lengths to eat a Vadapav.... I drink any and every sort of water( though nowadays I have become lil circumspect about it)....

12} I have always been more popular in my peer group than I imagined... the biggest shock was becoming the CR in final yr engg class based on a voting system... I almost fell off my chair...

13} I have a knack for mixing drinks... I have concocted weird combos and knocked myself out a few times..

14} Hyprocrisy is one thing I genuinely abhor.... we all are hypocrites at some level but some people just over do it... I cant line-mark what I believe is hypocritical behavior but I sense it when I see it and I generally avoid accquaintance with the likes...

15} I see " Lal Baai" once in a while and though I am not scared of it nowadays; it does give me a few sleepless nights...

16} I work as and when needed, though my grasping powers good; I would hardly make an effort to enhance my knowledge and this attitude does hurt me once in a while..

17} I would like to think I am a good leader and silent force behind any and every team that I am a part of... Overall, throughout my final yr project and MS projects and even now at my work... I feel I have always gelled in well...

18} I can see TV 24*7..... sports and music channels are my soul food but even discovery and zee and sony and such stuff can be watched... If nothing else, News channels can also keep me hooked on...

19} I cannot handle extremely close cricket matches in which India is involved... I generally run temperatures which subside soon enough... However, those final overs are not my cup of tea...

20} I am very forthright.. sumtimes to the point of being brutal.. I call a spade a spade and dont mind risking my head if I believe I am right... I love arguements espcially the ones which are strong and sensible and can carry on all night long... I hate when people present vague justifications for their comments (though I am guilty of doing the same once in a while)....

21} I have this vision that I could have been the next Harsha Bhogle if I had taken the chance.... I also feel if I ever make a movie it would be a mad caper a la Hyderabad blues... My biggest dream however has always been a chain of coffe shops like CCD but even bigger and better... Only problem being no money in my jeb...

22} I have had an amazing head-on crash in my car and I felt life would end... But I had no recollections or my life didnt flash by as they say....

23} Lifes too big to list in article but I would like to end at point 23.... Thats Michael Jordan's jersey number... my most favorite sports personality.....

Monday, May 22, 2006

Gadget frenzy

I have one of the cheapest pieces of electronic junk popularly called the TORCH that I use to call people and communicate via messages... It looks shamelessly ragged but I love it. Firstly, no one tries to flick it and a cell like that shouts " I am broke", hence friends never ask me for a small favor... Pick pockets veer clear of me lest they wanna risk their reputation for a little small money....

However, this has not stopped me from marvelling at the gadgetry available... Sleek mobiles which carry all but your lunch boxes within... TV s that are flatter than the notebooks we carried to school... Laptops that process things almost before you type them in.... Pencil shaped I-pods that store anything close to 1000 high quality music albums...
The list is never ending and sky seems to be the only limit (mayb not even that) to what the human mind may come up with...

Mayb the next biggest challenge maybe creating human beings who are unbiased and love rest of humanity irrespective of caste, color, religion, sex, money, power.... Now would that be possible sumtime in my living future????

I doubt it.... A 1100 just doesnt impress one as much as a N90 any more; so what if the messages and calls from the former are way sweeter....

I am Himeshed....

No, no, no.... dont get me wrong... There is nothing about his current songs that I adore; well, apart from Deepika Padukone in one of those videos...The problem is that everyone in the media industry seems to believe he is the next messiah out there to save our wasted souls from further plunging into the depth of mediocrity.

Agreed, that he does come up the odd soulful melody like " Kyunki" or "Dil ken raha hai" once in a while or sumtimes he totally bowls you over with an amzing sound track like " Tere Naam" but thats not what we know him for and/or as...

Himesh typifies the media overkill of a moderately successful product. These leeches have taken the meaning of " sucking your blood dry" to a whol new stratosphere. If it sells we would make sure you end up buying or else we would kill you with it. We wont allow you liberty to breathe without catching a glance of what we sell... If you dare close your eyes, we would badger it into your ears... If the ears are closed, we would shove it into your brains... Sumhow we would ensure you can't escape...

Well, before I forget lemme get that designer trim done, wear that overtly tight tee and grab the oldest cap I had so that meself fits into this cloned world... I am Himeshed and I dont know what to do...

Whats the cube of 13? Ans: SUROOR...
TERA TERA TERA...... SUROOR

Monday, May 15, 2006

Wait until dark...

Well I am writing this cos we didnt have to... If we wanted to get a feel about the primitive descendants of mankind survived... we managed to get a taste of it... Under some weird logic spurting from randomly sadist brains came the notion that since Bangalore isn't subjected to regular load shedding; let these over serviced civilians live in HELL for one complete day.

Now what better day can you choose for such an execution than a brilliantly hot Sunday... We, roomies were still reeling under the effects of alcohol and melancholy spreading ghazals when it happened...

The power went off slowly; first a small voltage fluctuation followed by a complete stoppage to the whirling blades of our antique fan... Lots of thoughts poured in. Mayb the fan has breathed its last or this was the normal routine of power tripping cos all boilers were started simultaneously... But sumhow the heart knew this was different. And the signs werent too ominous...Suddenly the harshness of the sun seemed to have increased in tango with the humidity and then came the news... Our servant came running like those old hindi movies had; he looked like the messenger of some real bad news...

SAHEB 12 HOURS KE LIYE LIGHT BAND KIYA HAI.. RAAT KO 8 BAJE AAYEGA...

The face we made was close to those of imprisoned pickpockets who sincerely bliv that the only fault they committed was getting caught; that too while spreading the light of Communism...We all knew that next twelve hours were gonna make us all feel very wasted and with this thought in mind we all started our morning prayers ( Mine only included a wish that I have enough food to survive this day...)

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Making people write

Its been almost two months since I started blogging and its been fun to scribble whatever I have. For the past few days, my major bloggin activity has been to make people read my blog (albeit a bit forcibly) and something thats even tougher, making them register and start blogging.

Writing has to be a natural extension of reading cos; If you read stuff seriously about such varied topics as the Iraqi war for Oil to the Oil deals revealed under Volcker report, India's unstoppable juggernaut in cricket to the immovable soccer team, using drugs to pump ur triceps to doing drugs to forget your physical existence to what and what not...

If we read this and so much more so vociferously, wouldnt or rather shouldnt we be eager to express our opinions about the same? We write so much throughout our lives... so much of it forcibly.. remember all those assignments and workbooks and fair notes and essays and reports that we either wrote or copied... Filling those reams of paper never dettered us from further occupying even more space on our examination answer sheets... Whatever is a compulsion; we duly oblige. Why then do we procrastinate something that may provide us with great joy?

I seriously fail to understand the Human Mind ....

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

10 things that I miss the most....

I started blogging around 2 months back and one of the few people that I have developed an instant connect with is Kavita... I just happened to browse through one of her write-ups by chance and ever since I have been hooked to her writing... She writes very very sweetly and kinda inspires me to scribble most of da times... She's tagged me to mention a list of 10 things that I happen to miss a lot and so here goes.........

DISCLAIMER: the missed things would appear in no particular order and may change over a period of time...

1} My Aaji and Aajoba..

I grew up in Kalyan till i was 2 and was showered with so much love that even the baby knew that these are sum very special folks... My love story with that small town and big house kept growing every year as I passed vacation after vacation troubling them and they, in turn loving me more than i thought humans were capable of... Both of them are no more and evry now and then, a thought passes me by.......

2} Playing cricket in Amit Apts.....

I left Dahisar when I was almost 23 ....... And I miss nothing more than those crazy Sundays where we left our body, soul, blood and sweat on the cemented field ; playing cricket; to earn those darn 3 rupee samosas and a gulp of Pepsi.... The cuts and bruises from those mega wars is sumthing I am gonna display all my life (with a lot of pride, ofcourse).

3} Study leave Dhamaal.....

I swear I wouldnt have been an engineer had Ketan and Rupesh decided never to come to my house to do their revisions during those crazy study leave days... The whole process and the mindlessness of it is a memory etched forever...

4} Sumo wrestling.....

I sumhow always found wrestling on TV very invigorating... It was only natural that my school days were filled with these mock wrestling bouts where me and snehal and amit mounted on Salil... the sole purpose being beating the living hell out of our very own Yokosuna...

5} Cycling.....

My best school memories are all centered around running crazy; me and Rohit cycling through those up and down slopes from school to home gluttoning our way to glory at the VadaPav wala... Mary Immaculate Girls Convent was always a place of devotion and unknowingly the cycles used to turn super slow or stop completely near the entrance... Strange is the magic of God's creation...

6} Ruia and my Katta.....

I never had a huge frd circle at Ruia nor did I spend any significant time thr... But Mani's and the idli-vadas-free sambar; DPs and the fruit beer; 5 Gardens and the cricket matches; most of all sitting idle and carefree on the Katta totally oblivious of worlds measure of successes is sumthing I dearly wish I could go back to.

7} BE VCET MECH mavalis and what not.....

In the remotest of places was my college and till date I wonder if that was a right choice... but the memories it has given me is enuf for this lifetime. The tin hatched roofs, sweltering heat, zero chick classes, absurdly stupid profs, ill-timed xams, copied oodles of submissions, numerous rejections, even more joyous bunked classes, first ciggy, cockroach-infested noodles, brushes with profs and princi... most bitter sweet ride of my life. I like it, love it... even hate it but for nothing in the world am I gonna trade it...

8} Goa trip....

No parental supervision, 2 profs present for namesake... some godforesaken industry located in Goa or wherever and 40 mech guys... What u get is a rollercoaster ride full of drunken revelery...yours truly included... The amount of booze we consumed or the weirder than hell games we played... Its a lifetime of memories and its the only thing we friends discuss everytime we meet....

9} USA....

31st July 2003. The baby sparrow spread its wings for da first time. I am still learning, I may never soar as high as I wish but I love this ride and am gonna miss all da days of settling down in the US, those amzing seniors, the fight for grades, working at Smathers Library and getting to know Jo and Marvin, staying with Nilesh Dada and falling in love with Veyd and Varun( the most cutest nephews i have) and all the Jugaads i did for my job whilst at CA with solo... I miss those days a lot...

10} My past life....

Coming to think of it, its been quite a journey... All along I miss my parents and sumtimes my bro... I miss my building friends and our evening sojourns, I miss those games we played as kids and the fun we had at Holi and Diwali, miss moms food and dads passing the glass at parties, miss the first crush, miss Juhi Chawla and QSQT, miss India's world cup triumph of 83, miss that feeling I got when I got my result in 8th sem and then my GRE score, miss my UF commencement, miss Jason and Adil and Harsha and Churi and all my UF friends, the cooking turns and even worse.. the cleaning ones, trips to WinnDixie, the job interviews and prepartions for the job fairs, miss my VCET buddies esp Ketan, Solo, Rupesh and Sachin, Sujith and Rangeela and Mahimkar even more and to borrow a phrase from one serial that touched me the most...

" The memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul.. I remember a place...a town...a house...like a lot of other houses. A yard like a lot of other yards...on a street like a lot of other streets.

And the thing is...after all these years, I still look back...WITH WONDER."