Swarajya Mag- Subscribed and Delivered!

My first subscription to a magazine in my life and it feels awesome!
It reminds me of that cliché of paperback vs kindle and it rings true.
The quality of the print here totally blew me off. I had already been enamored by the content through their website but seeing that in print made my day.
This feels like being part of a hipster alternative to the appalling mainstream media lies, and it feels great.
As I jostle my time between expanding my knowledge on current affairs, the lies that tag along with the affairs and giving MBA a shot, this quality reading, I hope should hold me on a good stead.
Perhaps this is a small step forward to gain insight into the public policy management apart from business management I deal with in everyday worklife.
Cheers to a new beginning.

Kites... Powai ... and the journey ...

With every passing weekend, the options to chill out obviously keep reducing and hence the hunt is always in progress for new eateries, the trite malls and movies, rest-o-bars, the ever welcoming Marine Drive ..and so on..

This weekend though was something sweetly surprising because, finally ..... we got to go to Powai and the much hyped Hiranandani. yippee!!
I had been vehemently pleading my roomies to visit this place but either very hot/humid weather or the inherent languidness plays the villain almost every time. This time though on the pretext of watching Kites movie and more importantly watch my first football match of the season, coincidentally the last one, I had convinced them on the trip.
The humidity was very much beyond bearable limits and half way through the journey on the local train, I was in two minds, one deliberating the ordeal till that point, the other hopeful of soaring Kites and an even better CL finale, Inter Vs Bayern.
After successfully negotiating a devious route (Malad-Bandra-Dadar-Kanjun Marg), we landed up at the Adlabs to watch the movie.
Should probably blame it on the workplace cos my nearly non-existent iota of tolerance towards humidity has completely been extinct now!
Movie- Totally mindless lousy flick which never seemed to have a plot! Except for a couple of scenes which highlighted the briiliance of screenplay in places, it was totally a passable affair. Could not still comprehend, what had forced Masand to declare it experimental!!
May be it is if you ignore the storyline! May be Anurag Basu envisaged that a shortcut to making a Holly flick was to shoot in Vegas!
Boss... when you haven't got anything substantial to tell us, why take the pain and then pass it on to us later at all??
Post Kites, it was all Welcome Hiranandani! Surprise ..surprise!.. The arches. the columns.. the very much similar building structures along with clean roads glimmering under night light and a special mention on the fountains that embellished the beauty of the place really left us spellbound, never mind the fact that we had been to Colaba many times earlier.
CL finale was way too one sided to inspire any great interest! and hence the much required slumber post the nice home made food..
Sunday meant that things had to return to their original state ASAP and only something inevitable could delay our homecoming!
And suddenly, the occasion of Luncheon meant that cooking trials could be initiated! With dedicated ideation from Herr Director (Shanta), the lead..the hero ... the megastar ... yours truly wielded the peeler, the knife and potatoes to start preparations of Alu Fry!!! Not to forget the inputs from the generous Producer (Peep), after all it was his production house :P
A meal that comprised a tasty, mind you it was unanimous (Nihar, Alli and Balg), curry along with the dishes already prepared called for a timely siesta. The more comfortable return journey on an auto rickshaw and the  following pretty okayish dinner, only after 20 minutes of waiting @ Uncle's Kitchen meant that the all the weekend chores were done and it was time to sign off , except for a dessert @ newly opened Amul Parlour!- a good VFM..

P.S. Bhaiyya, who also supported me for the Powai trip earlier missed this out ! :-( ..

A God-awesome Testi

Here goes a testimonial on Orkut for a friend of mine from his friend.....
Sorry! No translation could even come closer ..let alone beat this totally brilliant piece of a scripture so did not venture out doing that ...
This was saved in the drafts ..as on 1/1/10!!but never was posted .. Guess..did not wanna start off a year on a sarcastic note :P ..

**** are to obscure the reality and thereby help maintain the remnants of friendship intact :-) ..

" ***** vadu vyakthi kadu SHAKTI..
***** spects pettukoni chudataniki SWATHI MUTHYAM lo KAMAL HASAN laga untadu..kani okka sari rangam loki digithe DASHAVATHARAM avthundi situation..ma vadu multi-talented..he has a vast knowledge in various areas..vaditho parichayam avvadam i feel verrrrrry LUCKY..
***** tho movi ki vellamante theatre lo full JALSAA untundi..ma vadu keeka comments vesthuntadu..
ma vadiki sports annna,chadavadam annna chaala intrest..avi unnaynte night-outs ee..next day vadi eyes chuste maku ardam aipothundi..a range lo kashta paddado.

*****(cute boy) = 24 KARATE GOLD FRIEND...

sensex lo GOLD rate alter avthu untundi..kani na drushti lo ma ***** value is at EVEREST..i PRAY and WISH him a veryy bright future..hav KUSHI,JALSAA ra.....xxxxx "
P.S. ROFLMAO .....

Rama Rama krishna krishna .... among others

The rate at which Ive been watching movies has increased exponentially over the past couple of months. Weekend quite literally now implies a visit to the nearest mall for the Hindi/English movies and a little further away for a Telugu flick.
The ones I remember among the recent ones are ..

1.Iron Man- The first I could jot down because of the total lack of VFM!! ...Perhaps the super duper heavy Gujarati Thali @ Subkuchh made me a little too dreary to and hence have a contrary to the popular opinion on Scarlett Johanson's acting/beauty, which in effect meant that 250 bucks were spent only to watch the brilliant screen presence of RD Jr. Definitely on the higher side!
2. Simha- A tortuous ordeal. Pathetic is the only word that I can think of right now to describe the movie.(Time and energy already spent @ Dry Day)
3. Darling - A pretty average movie barring a much hyped twist. Prabhas' costumes were a total eyesore, Kajal's acting or the more obvious overplay was too much to take along with the drab romance involved. Slightly soothing music, Swiss locales and passable comedy put the movie in the okayish zone.
4. Rama Rama Krishna Krishna- By the end of the movie, totally aghast at the precipitous fall of the entertainment level. Pre-intermission session was just about hitting the levels of a laugh riot when the director told everyone of us to "Relax" and apparently he himself took the break too seriously and never returned to work! In short, an appalling second half was awaiting the popcorn and a lip smacking apricot juice..

My Reader!

Love the look that my Google Reader sports !! ...

An incessant reminder of the zillion things that always stay in my To Do ... To Read .... and the intermittent efforts put in to repress those numbers .... :-)

I try and subscribe to anything I find interesting .. from Comics to Classic Economics...

Should really try this! ... All the stuff to read at one place..!! ..May be there are better things, but this is the closest I've come to an e-Library! :-)

A lovely user friendly catalogue on the LHS along with the easily accessible assortment of all the readables all of which are exclusively of my choice!! .. muhahaha!

A Dry Day...

A very much awaited Saturday finally arrived and it was as usual party time! A visit to the malls and loads of positive reviews flowing in from friends gave me feel good vibes about the thought of watching a Balayya film.
There might be a zillion reasons that might have made an impression on the review.. rather a rating of the movie.
I have tried to make note of the ones that immediately come to my mind at this point of time ...

• Shooting headache
• Impatient to watch an oldie like balayya ripping apart 100s ... or as a paraphrased dialogue from the movie reads ... Come in 10s... plus 10 .. plus 10 ..plus so on ..aawn ... yawn... pristine crap!!...
• First leading lady is double the size of the hero and an interview of her I came across a couple of years back quoted her stating that she was proud of her girth! Well ... did that expand exponentially over the years or did she strive hard to get to this stage??? Whatever the intention,... it certainly put me off!
• Second leading lady?... yep she did make an entrance pre intermission. Falls in love with effortless ease and looks so juvenile that you would expected her to pass off as the hero's daughter! Sadly, we have to bear the insipid romance b/w the protagonist, named Srimann Narayana, whose name is so rarley abbreviated that it is not even spared in the "special effect" instances where action replays and slo-mos  are in full play, and the doe eyed beauty.
• Intermission!! ... CCD stall has such a line that would remind you that the movie was not at all the reason why people turned up at the cinemas! Logically speaking taking into account that there were other screens as well, you could conclude that all of them were equally bad!!.. Housefull, Chase Paathshala  and perhaps Darling !! ..Goodness .. a certain all time low! 
• Post Intermission, torture multiplies ... Enter the hero's dad .. well in short a double role played.. hence agony continues, only thankfully both of them dont share the screen at the same time !
• The third leading lady! .... they keep coming ... was pretty decent in her limited role and did not draw ire..

All in all... when 

1. Pathetic songs
2. Cheesy dialogues
3. Cuss words apparently to get the audience into the groove of the "high voltage" action sequences
4. Bad, well there have been worse, imitations of Matrix fights!!
5. The previous day, you end up watching a totally brilliant movie like Prasthanam... !

  Come together, it in short is a doomsday delight ... Nothing could fall in place on that day....
... And as expected, post movie.. here we enter into this plush resto and come to know that its a Dry day!!!...
Kaboooom!!! ...Congratulations...all the plans of driving out the searing pain in the head with invaluable help from Bloody Mary have just been thwarted!!
We settle in to have a nice intro to Italian dining experience with a dish which had a lengthy nomenclature. The contents on my dish were steamed rice, French fries and garlic bread with white wine sauce garnished with my fav tomatoes and broccoli... The glasses that were offered for drinking water had that strong alcoholic stench that made it difficult to drink water then and hence this current thirst I feel ...
Gotta sign off ... Hoping for a not so Dry Sunday! ....

PS
The movie- Simha,
Mall- PVR, Goregaon,
Resto- 72 Degrees North
@ those new to cocktails, please google Bloody Mary, these are really the ones which "no one have just once" ... reminiscent of the old Lays ad..

4/29/1988 - 2010

Well to start off.. the title may just be confounding as this usually related to an obituary column. but thank God, it isn't!
This was to be the lifespan of the old me who was eternally awaiting that mystic transmogrification to land upon, which apparently isn't around the corner yet and hence in all probability the RHS should continue to ..2011..12..13 and so on ..
School
Birthdays were fun till say early teens and with completion of schooling, the fun completely died out! Luckily as I was a good enough student while at school, at around 4/29 every year, teachers would distribute report cards and I at the same time chocolates!! Thankfully, it served both purposes..majorly as part of my birthday celebrations and secondly as a reminder that I did well that year! ;) .. Well the topper was invariably this gal!
With quite celebrations at home.. relatives esp my fav aunt dropping in huge gifts.. the end was always sweet! and one to look forward to...

That was it about birthdays!! ... That paradoxically was the obituary of my birthday ;)

Plus 2
Totally shunned celebrations!!!
Reason??- could no more take those, so called invaluable career guidance classes from every Tom Dick and Harry ...
Well... dont get me wrong.it has nothing to do with my penile egos!..I am generally open to any advice!.. Well its a different story whether I follow it diligently or not. Now imagine this sorta person totally lambast those well wishers.. Hell yes u got it ! I was totally saturated to the brim! The weekend tests and the accompanying low scores ...the tailgated marks sheets.piling syllabus... plus the intro to PC games, thanks to Rahu(l)...punny u c.. (excuse me for not counting Road Rash as an intro to gaming!) was already too much to handle :)
Grad
Welcome Home Sanitarium .. yes this was an asylum...a jungle ! you'd totally get lost in the wilderness..yet it had that magnetic quality that was irresistible ..
Bashing bumps, rapid fires .. deodorant fires.. followed by water bath.. given a chance mud bath ...all in action at one place... yep.. you are at a D day.. err.. a B day party!
College days dubbed Happy days would make this post hugely protracted and hence censored out!
The passing mention here about this is because ..4/29 is generally the time when senti-ness is in the air ....the last lab... the last grub... the last write up ..transgress ephemera and are etched onto our memories for a life time ... (Thanks to all the status updates from juniors!..)
Work
If people really longed to take a day off from work, it has been ingrained in our memes that it should be a death of a grandparent...But to my surprise a birthday literally gave you the same privileges..and a few extra points, like you could watch your colleagues toil while you babbled on phone all day long, simply because it wasn't counterfeit after all!
A gentle cake cutting session.... and way lesser work made my day!!...

On Closing remarks.. I'd like to thank my now dead cell phone!.. Well w/o you, I would not have known how many people really waited to call me up!! ... Routine wishes are the ones that you would get every year! On account of me not being reachable .. this time around, wishes had been raised to the echelons of special ones simply 'cos they carried loads of profanities and blasphemes that simply spiced up the whole birthday!
All those school frns.... dear college buddies... bros sis...cousins.. own loan..... watevr ....
Thanks a Ton!!

Muhahaha....Birthday is again a thing to look forward to !! ... :-)) .... Thanks again !!! Luv ya Loads!! ...xoxo

Lost ....

When the punchline in evey mail I sent out reads that I should not egret doing things....
how could I let this one stay in the drafts??? Not that Its one miraculous post proposing a watershed theory... but this at least reflects the state of my mind as on 12/5/09 !! :) feels good that blogger had this option available ;-)) 


I was lost. .. I was desperate ....with lappy formatted ... bookmarks lost ! .. I was deserted .. I had to find my way back afterall ! ...read through those pages stored on my mind... to find those good blogs that I sincerely follow... ..

What did Coelho say in the Alchemist ? .. ring any bells ??-"treasure lies where your heart belongs" ...

I found the link to the site in my own past blog post !! .. Huh ! . .Relieved ! 
this rerouted to Amit's blog ... 
I'm back to normalcy post scanning through  my fav reads after a long time !! :D :D

One last time ...

Placement Blues ! .. I haven't even felt them yet! The moment I step on that expedition tomorrow, my life will have changed for sure. Be it the regret/repent for the years I've been whiling away to glory or the deep anguish that simply strikes through all the facades for once.
I wish Id be naked once again! Nothing written on me for once. No prejudices, no conceptions ..no approximations.. Just plain me ...
Well, that is too big a request for sure!
Why do I feel answerable to every person I come across? Why is that the limelight is getting brighter by the day? Why am I forced to give this testimony and try to free myself of guilt pangs?
Philosophies might just come in handy at this point of time, but deep inside you have to reconcile to the fact that your castles of ego will be crushed for once.
...
Wish I may, wish I might
Have this I wish tonight
Are you satisfied?
Dig for gold, dig for fame
You dig to make your name
Are you pacified?

All the wants you waste
All the things you've chased

Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled
And you're left with just a name

Where's your crown, King Nothing?

Let not this levity of the situation collapse under the gravity of it. I cannot be burdened anymore! I just wish to be weightless ...
.... Is this escapism? Don't I have the guts to face the truth? the reality ? ..
ESCAPISM .. surely has to be dealt with ...!

Tit Bits(Nonsensical to d core)!

1.With All is well..turning into a buzzword, Aamir's taunts on Chetan Bhagat not withstanding, his popularity seems to have risen to a different level...swell!
2.The past weekend was rather happening one,adorned with an impromptu trip to Marine Drive..followed by a -strong motivation cum egotism lend a helping hand- in an attempt to ward off vineyard pleasures at the restaurant. Success...
Austerity drive still going strong-Go green,No Booze n fag ....
3. To continue 1, I stood there among the jamboree anticipating Aamir arrival and felt rather alienated. I wasnt one of the regular enthusiasts who came puffing and panting just to catch a glimpse of a star, neither was I able to drag myself completely out of it and carry on with my routine. I am still left pondering if it was the odd "high" I needed to teleport myself from this banality or just that Newton's first law took me along.
4. Il come back at a later point of time and certainly rue writing this....
Of all things I hate, the one I can remember just after Deceit is... Repent ..
It just sucks the life out of life after all..
5. Words are hard to come by while sheltering in the arms of Morpheus..
Au revoir ...
P.S. "Kolonall Hans Landa's" goodbye to Shosanna still rings in my ears!!..Perhaps nothing has left me as awestruck in the post-Joker era...Kudos Mr Waltz!

(The) Start of(f) 2010....

Fighting a Hangover can be real baad ! Gaawd ! .. If only I could get back in time to the point when I was thinking of a zillion reasons to politely turn down the "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" situation and free myself of that coaxing session on the "1001 ways to enjoy Dec 31st"... If only ...

So... while 31st passed by only too well .... Jan 1st was more sombre.. spent all the while surfing stuff and thereby staying indoors except that single visit to have my skipped breakfast & lunch-have junk@ home, so wont come out again- dinner ! ..As I looked at the system tray pointing out that the-much ado about nothing-Jan 1st was finally over ... I started to muse about the happenings of the day.. or rather the lack of them ! ..


17:00 - Wake Up Mad ! ... its already too late ! ..


17:30 - Force myself outta bed .. to leave the lappy alone ... n stop the downloads for once .. (LOG Discography in progress..)


18:00- Hi's and hellos r done ... hpy new yr is passe ! ... never mind the odd one to the loved ones even around 22 hrs on Jan 1st ! :D


19:00-done with brushing and lil grooming to permit myself into the decorous restaurant..


20:00- restaurant has hiked prices !! .. thanq 2010! ... watta way .. my "deep" pockets to get shallower by the day ....


21:10-finally devoured the totally non-speedy service of non-spicy vaishnavite (of cos pristinely veg) cuisine 21:25- A good quarter HOUR to decide how much to charge me?!!.. Even goin by my standards, its a bit too long mate!


21:30- STOPPED ogling at the hot/cute chic on the oppostite table! (It'l take another long writing to explain why phoney, pretentious gals are fun to watch... her low neckline has given her a superior air !! .. aah .. i get that .. why at all wear n feel uncomfortable ... cmon wasnt fashion meant to go with comfort ?? .. )...
- btw ... @ 01:45- get nostalgic about a convo on imbibing a course on fashion in schools ... a la moral science ! ... to keep children away from imitating the West !! ... with.. ahem... u know hoo ;-)


22: 00 ... tete-a- tete with an agent to find an accomodation for friends shifting to Santa Cruz.


22:30- back home.. finally its time for daily proceedings to start ... things come back to normalcy ...


22:45 ...... 00:00 ....01:30 - Chat ranging on topics from love to .. New Yr celebrations ..to Metallica ... to ... getting back in touch with a pal from school ! ...
01:30- 01: 50 - .... pen this down ! ... and close it . so that ...I could start watching Stauffenberg, '04 movie which has resulted in Tom Cruise being the butt of all criticism in Valkyrie (both deal with the plot on assassination of Hilter, while the former won accolades ..)

P.S. Trivia- Bryan Singer-Dir-Usual suspects,Superman 2, Valkyrie .... is openly gay ...suffers from Dyslexia ! ... Hats Off man !! ... If that is what it takes to direct usual suspects ... I shall very well ... ;-) ..
Jan 2nd,13:12- Realize Ive forgtten to post this!...n finally do it..now... cmon dont quip that it was better forgotten!