Photo

Hmm, Surprisely good resolution for a crummy mobile phone self portrait :))

A new one aptly named - "Gyaan"

Its gud to be back after a long time. Ive ben busy (Reeeallly really)

Heres something really important that struck me while reading "Managing Radical change" by Sumantra Ghosal.

Heres the stuff, quoted verbatim from the Late professor's own lingo:

" Sustained superior corporate performance is based on the ability to manage the tension between two symbiotic forces: the need for ongoing improvement in operational performance and productivity through constant rationalization in existing activities, and the need for growth and expansion through continous revitalization of stregy, organization and people"

Rationalization - as in Cost cutting, tightening belts, improving productivity is Sour. Growth - as in "revitalization', dreaming up a vision and driving new things is Sweet.

Growth without productivity improvement is like building castles in sand, which collapse on their own weights.

Creating and exploiting new opportunities (Sweet) & Improving resource productivity (Sour) must go symbiotic - hand in hand together.

--Might sound big time gyaan. It is highly sensible stuff & just the right kind the doctor ordered for me.

So thats done: now to usual stuff - thanks to suraj, who is kind enough to make use of the HRD ministry's generosity to download & supply me with any mp3 i need - ive gotten hold of quite a few gud ones.

"Chasing cars" by "Snow patrol" - Deceptively slow, but feels real gud. strongly recommended.

i got "dekha hai pehli baar saajan ki aankhon mein pyaar" as well :)

" dil bar tujhe milne kho, kabse thaa mein bekaraar.."

Was in Mumbai for a week or so. Apart from the nightly booze at the Wild Orchid (where the bar tender has now begun to recognize me, ordering for a "Screw driver" the moment i step in) i also met AD & mumbaiah as usual. We watched Casino Royale.

I take back whatever i said bad about Daniel Craig last year, about him looking like a thug and all that.. Hes done really well..um, he cant help if he looks like a schmuck with a great body, can he ?

Eva green - shes like "omigosh what a babe" all through. Man!

Nice deviation from the usual slick style of bond flicks, of which we were growing rather tired of.

When a bartender asks bond (who goes for a drink after getting thrashed in a card game or something) how he likes his vodka martini,stirred or shaken, he says- "Do i look like i bloody care ?" :0

More good news: Looks like Utd are going to win this year after all.

CLUBS P W D L F A GD PTS

Manchester United 17 14 2 1 38 9 29 44

Chelsea 16 11 3 2 26 9 17 36

Hmm, iam kinda warming up to Chelsea though. Did any1 see Micheal Essien's strike last weekend. WHoosh!!!

And, finally before i go, did you know, I completed 22 years of my sordid useless existence this November 20th. My mom says ive even got two grey hairs near my sideburns :)

Nother one

kyun aajkal neend kam khwaab jyada hai
lagta khuda ka koi nek iraada hain
kal ka fakir dil aaj shehzada hain
lagta khuda ka koi nek iraada hain

kya mujhe pyar hain
kaisa khumaar hain

pathhar ke inn raston pe
phoolon ki ek chadar hain
jabse milen ho hamko
badla har ek manzar hain
dekho jahaan mein neele neele aasmaan tale
rang naye naye hain jaise ghulte hue
soye the khwaab mere jaage tere waaste
tere khayaalon se hai bheege mere raaste

kya mujhe pyar hain
kaisa khumaar hain

tum kyon chale aate ho
har raat in khwaabon mein
chupke se aa bhi jaaon
ek din meri baahon mein
tere hi sapanen andheron mein ujaalon mein
koi nasha hain teri aankhon ke pyaalon mein
tu mere khwaabon mein jawaabon mein sawaalon mein
har din chura tumehn main laata hoon khayalon mein

kya mujhe pyar hain
kaisa khumaar hain

*sigh*

Back to Brooding !

Heres something that feels great to listen:

Brad Paisley's "Find Yourself"

We go though life
So sure of where we’re heading,
And then we wind up lost
And it’s the best thing that could happen.
Sometimes when you lose your way
It’s really just as well.
Because you find yourself;
That’s when you find yourself.

:) Ahh, so true

Photography

This is a photo i shot with my mobile (1.3 megapix) at an airport last month. The baby's amused parents were watching when i took the photo.

No wonder my mom calls me "lazy sriram" :))

Catch up - October

Ben a really really long time :)

I guess its cool to say "Guys who dont find the time to blog are busy and doing great things with their precious hours & days"

WTH, its probably true anyways - atleast partly. How it is applicable in my case is worth a debate.

My reasons are a combination of the following:

- My broken laptop which put me back by about 15,000 bucks & 15 days of crunch time. (man, i am a careless useless choothiya)

- Travelling - Mumbai mostly. Had an interesting time there, staying in Chembur. Its amazing - It takes about 3 hours to travel from chembur to VT by train, taxi whatever. I met just 4 people in Thane, Lower Parel,Andheri & VT between 9am and 8 pm.

- i had been to Landmark twice and consequently has been loaded with new books to read. (more on that later)

Watched Munnabhai MBBS with mumbaiah and almost slept for the last hour or so of the movie. I guess iam growing up and getting bored of movies. coz I remember watching shows of horrors like "Kyun Ho gaya Naa" and "Yeh dil maange more" back to back and staying awake fully during college.

One day i had dinner with AD - which is always a delight (Not so much gastronomical as it is a splendid visual spectacle, if you get what iam sayin). We had the usual loud, head turning arguments about a few flashily dressed kids (who were in my opinion not more than 14 or 15), who AD declared were "Good Babes Daa" and about who'll pay the bill.

Back in chen, we've this new flat in T Nagar bang in the middle of old Nagar within walkable distance to Panagal park, the bus stand, pondy Bazaar & nandanam. Sounds too gud ? :) well there are hitches - the underground car park is flooded for atleast 1/4th of every year.

THere are about 10 other families living there - most of em old, i mean, really old, uncles & aunties whose kids & grandkids live abroad or work in MNC banks. They wear white reebok sneakers, talk in English (they call me "young man") and visit the thirumala temple nearby daily.

Other things:

Movies -

Cars (get your kicks, on Route 66)

The devil wears Prada (which has reinforced my affections & commitment to 'Anne Hathaway' ;) )

Omkara (Which, i admit, even with subtitles - i did not like much. "dolly" "omi bhaiyya" "langda thyagi" all seems way too,um, artificial to me)

Music -

Kya muje pyaar he :) (the remix version)

um, and one more thing Premiership Yesterday: Man UTD 3 - portsmouth 0 ( i missed Rooney's antics against Bolton last week )

more later (whew!)

Drool Maal

Later today ....

Chelsea Vs Liverpool
ESPN Live: 20:30 HKT

Manchester United Vs Arsenal
ESPN Live: 23:00 HKT

I am licking my chops & waiting :)

ISB :)

Application Requirements for PGP 2007

To be eligible to apply to the ISB you must have:

• A Bachelor’s degree in any discipline
( B.Tech Chem Engg )
• Preferably two years of full-time post qualification work experience
( As on date, I have 18 months FT W-Ex. This appears to be good as well )
• A valid GMAT/CAT* Score
( Sure. GMAT - Dec 2004: 710 CAT 2004 - Overall 98.8 %tile)
• TOEFL score, if you are an overseas student and English is not the primary language of instruction in your country
( Not applicable )

Note:

• GMAT scores of the last five years are valid (Ok)
• CAT* scores obtained since 2002 will be considered (Ok)
• Applicants applying with earlier year's CAT scores are advised to submit their application preferably before the first cycle deadline of October 3, 2006.


Application Checklist

The Admissions Committee will evaluate all applications. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed as part of the selection process.

A complete application form should include the following:

• Application Data and Information Form
• Preliminary Information Sheet
• Essays
• Photocopies of transcripts / Mark sheets and certificates
(from Class X academics onwards)
• Evaluations / Recommendations (a minimum of two and maximum of three)
• Copy of GMAT or CAT* score
• TOEFL Score (If applicable)
• Two copies of Resume
• Application fee of INR 2,000 or equivalent - to be remitted online
(Application fee once remitted will not be refunded)
• Four Passport size photographs
• Scholarship form, Essay and enclosures (optional)

Ok. The more i look into this, the more it seems as if ISB is the place for me. Just 1 year, spent in Hyderabad - which is pretty close. The course curriculum seems really good to me.

Shud try & talk to some1 whos at ISB now and see how things are.

Shud i apply in October 2006 for April 2005 ?

Other Pointers:

November 2006 - I will turn 22
November 2007 - I will turn 23 (I will be out from ISB while iam 23 if i apply in 07)
November 2008 - I will turn 24 (making me 24 if I enter ISB in 08)

Shud i give it another year or so to see if i go for a 1 year course abroad (like LSB or something ? )

think think

Week In review

First the Good News:



Go Giggsy !! 12 points out of 4 matches. Utd have their best ever Start to the premiership :) with or without rooney

Freak shows run on Russian Oil - Watch Out !!!

(And Utd better watch out. Idiots like Saha waste too many chances)

Now the Bad News:

Steve Irwin is dead from a freak sting ray attack. Ahh, i still remember hurrying back from school's morning shift to watch crocodile hunter at 1:30 on Discovery Channel.

RIP, stevo.

Yet another Online personality test

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (50%) medium which suggests you average somewhere in between being calm and resilient and being anxious and reactive. Orderliness (43%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment. Extraversion (56%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

I guess if i take too many of these tests, i'l end up categorizing myself as a selfish, uncaring, ruthless prick and end up skewing up results to that end all the time.

Hey, but what the f$#k !! Mebbe iam a selfish, uncaring, ruthless prick :)

How Selfish am I ? Very ;)

You Are 73% Selfish

You put your own needs first, figuring if you don't take care of yourself, who will?While this is a good philosophy to have, it wouldn't hurt you to be a tad more giving.

How Selfish Are You?

I was put up to this by Naren and Google desktop (which dutifully showed me Naren's post using its Really Really simple syndication tool :)

To tell the truth i cheated on the test saying "Often" instead of "Always" for certain questions. I wud have gotten like 95% selfish or something

Google mania

Google Google everywhere

Google desktop, google blogger, orkut every goddamn thing is now being integrated into one Google account.

Yahoo, Microsoft are surely f$#$#ed. :)

Only today i read a news item which was like

" google requests SEC (securities exchange comm of the USA) to not treat it as an 'investment entity' because google has accumulated SO much cash - like USD 10 billion in cash & marketable securities - that it has to invest (like a mutual fund) in short term parking lots.

It appears that such "invest" companies have higher/tougher rules of disclosure - which obviously is pain to google.

google claimed they were a "Information technlogy and emerging media company" and not an investment firm

:)

Oh well, for now all appears to be free.

So - Larry & Sergei - we're licking our chops and waiting ;)

Cars - the album

Today will go down in History as the day i discovered this brilliant album:

Disney's "Cars" the album - featuring brilliant tracks suchs as:

"Behind the clouds" - by this soulful country singer called Brad Paisley. Dude, iam a fan :)

" Life is like a highway " - by some Rascal Flatts. this is like a remix version of an older song. But what the heck - it is brilliant. ( 200 / 100 for this one )

" Life is a highway and iam goin drivin all night long " ....

" Real gone " - by our very own Sheryl Crow

i spent about 10 hours all day listening to Brad crooning with his hillbilly type guitar

" behind the clouds the sun is shining !
believe me even if you cant quite make it out.
Even if you cant , see the silver linin,
theres a big blue sky waiting right behind the clouds..."

*bliss*

Good Stuff

Couple of things i thought i shud record here:

1. Lessons learned from Dhriubhai - an series of articles by Mr. krishnamurty who founded 'Mudra' (the reliance group's Ad agency). Cool read

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/11spec.htm

2. Indian Per capita income in fiscal 04-05 was 23,000 odd bucks (on a national average basis). Interesting statistic which got me thinking. (will write up if something takes shape).

delhi's average is about 58,000 odd, chandigarh's is about 63,000 odd making them the highest earning places in India.

hmm, kinda strange, isnt it ?

The Holy Grail & what not !!

An interesting take on why Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" is all wrong - is here:

http://warintheheavenlies.blogspot.com/2006/04/da-vinci-code-why-isnt-it-true.html

I have to admit that after reading this i have more reason to believe that Dan Brown is 'somewhat' true.

(apparently, brown's book's first page says "All characters, Historical references, locations etc are correct & accurate as per my knowledge" - thats strange. i'l look it up when i get home )

but what the heck, faith is just faith and i am fairly certain that every modern day religion or 'faith' was born out of some kind of old, like, 'pagan' system of belief and then subsequently 'polished' & 'cultured' by generations of scholars funded by kings & institutions who naturally depended on their 'faith' getting popular to save their own asses or make themselves richer.

That would mean that there should an element of "hanky pankiness" that must be allowed.

This is true of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims - i mean everyone.

( Examples:

1. Christians - resurrection of the christ, miracles of the christ etc
2. Buddhism - stuff like Robbers attacking the Buddha and somehow not being able to inflict damage and similar stuff ive read in Illustrated Comics
3. Hinduism - Oh do i have to tell. Elephant faced Ganesha, Peacock riding Muruga, Durga with two dozen limbs, Boons granted after 50 years of penance inside ant hills and what not !!
4. Muslims - The Al Isra (journey of the prophet to mecca & his subsequent meeting with allah's spirit)

I am fairly certain that all these stories were spun out based on certain special junta and has passed through the hands of generations of spin doctors, wannabe gurus who doctored to suit their express purposes based on the degree of gullibleness amongst the people of the time.

I am a firm believer of the fact that anything - i do mean ANY thing revolves around the following:

1. Physical Security ( as in protection from violence, death, disease)
2. Materialistic goals ( as in money, wealth, land etc)
3. Power (This is more or less a function of 1 & 2 - but power become important as a tool for obtaining 1 & 2 and then controlling 1 & 2 for foreseeable periods of time against various external factors that may develop)

Religion, faith and so on has always something with which a hold can be maintained on a largish group of people be it for reason 1 or reason 2 or reason 3.

This fundamental concept can be extrapolated, even today to explain why religion works out.

Wierd Stuff

Was just ambling through some news item on Chelsea's loss to MLS's All Star squad on the Forbes website.

Then there was this sudden popup thingy and suddenly a guy just walked in the bottom right of my screen and said " hi iam steve forbes, welcome to Forbes.Com & went on to give a 3 minute discourse on why i should watch "Street talk" on the website's channel ".

Cute lil thingy - i'd say. Lets see if it ll catch on (p.s the applet / pop up thingy was called "in person" in case youre interested)

Heres more weird stuff.

I was reading the Useless knowledge website article on "What is a Fart?" - It says an average Healthy person farts 16 times a day.

Theres another equally weirdo item on "where did the Brassiere come from ? " here

Movie update

I ve broken my year long movie draught with 2 movies in 1 month.

Da vinci and now, "the pirates of the caribbean: Dead man's chest". Watched it with Mumbaiah & AD in adlabs theatre. The following are a few things i noticed:

1. The theatre had exactly 24 people including 3 security/torch light escort type guys. There were 3 of us, 2 couples 1 single guy, 2 other guys and a family. AD was of the opinion that the girl seated a couple of seats from him was "really da, really good looking da!" and the guy was "such a damn chooth da" :) "How does guys like him get such girls da ?"

2. THe movie itself wasnt that bad. Great effects & good fast moving storyline & exotic locales.

3. The story ends ubruptly cleaning setting this thing up for part III - but i wonder if Part III will be worthwhile because by the time you are through with this instalment it is pretty clear that the good guys will always win. Miss Swan, WIll turner & captain sparrow can never die.
The tentacled, undead villian - captain of the flying dutchman - appears at least 50 times & by the end of the movie we lose any fear of the guy or his,um, fishy looking crew.

4. It was an ok movie overall - but when i woke up today with a headache, i cud scarcely remember anything about the movie. Strange, i must be getting old :)

5. The "mysore masala dosa", "Chinese vegetable dosa" "sandwich dosa" and a few panner dosas that we had before the movie have already taken their toll on my digestive system and i may need to take tomorrow off :)

boy! iam REALLY sleepy

Movies !

I was going through a lot of movie reviews to check if theres anything worthwhile to pick up in the chor bazaar DVD store for 30 bucks. heres a sample of what i found :)

"The Lady in the water sinks. fails to even start swimming" - There are a few chills and seat-jumps, but no language, nudity or sexuality. Definitely too weird for younger kids. And though it isn’t offensive for teens and up, I question why anyone (other than very hungry fantasy movie fans) would want to put themselves through the agony of this film :)

“You, Me & Dupree” n A summer miss. Not original and frankly not that funny. PG-13. Grade: C

“My Super Ex-Girlfriend” n The other Wilson brother fares a little better. Uma is superb. The plot is unique. A mild affirmative recommendation. PG-13. Grade: B

“Monster House” n Animated movie about a house that doesn’t just have monsters…it IS one. Interesting cast. PG. Not Reviewed.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” n The costumes, the effects, the action, even Johnny Depp: better than the first! Rated: PG-13

Grade: A“Little Man” n Easily the worst release of the year. I didn’t even have to pay and I wanted my money back. Rated: PG-13 Grade: F

The last month, when i was in chen i broke an almost 13 month long movie draught by going to "The da vinci code" matinee with cheta (who incidentally works on Australian time 4Am to 2 PM).

Turned out that (Lav)da vinci code is the ballsiest movie ive seen in quite a while. Poor cheta slept in his seat and was twisting & turning all thru the 3 hours or so and surely must av had nightmares involving leonardo da vinci, the holy grail & the opus dei :)

It is a classic example of how a phenom book can actually be a story line for a REALLY crappy movie. I dont blame Hanks or howard or mademoiselle Tautou - they are all fine - this simply is a wrong book to make into a movie.

Lets see how Howard makes up in another one :)

And hey, did you know - "Shantaram" is being made into a movie with Johnny depp playing Lin Baba and is being co produced by Russel Crowe. and yum yum, priyanka chopra plays Kavita Singh. Dunno whos gonna play Karla. We'll see - now THAT will be one hell of a movie to watch out for.

July Journal

Its ben a while since i was actually in mood to actually bring myself to blog. I have been peeking into other blogs and the usual google, Y! mail & orkut till i drop to sleep.

i am in mood today and well, here it is.

Firstly something interesting - last month (mid june) i was asked to attend a syllabus committee meeting of a local college (arts college which had 1600 students and over 12 departments, as the Chemistry department's HOD proudly told me). While i tried to feign an attack of a particularly virulent viral fever,um, virus (;)) the prof who invited me came home and dragged
me off (wearing a tie & all - well, my mother's doing really :) ) to the,um, committee meeting.

I was told, in a stern voice, by the guy who they called "the chair" that we were here to decide the Chemistry department's UG course's syllabus for the next 2 years. I was the,um, "External (hold your breath) 'Expert'" from the industry and as my prof put it - 'part of the top management of a growing local chemical industry' which makes 'high tech' products. I cud only
stare and swallow :)

When we arrived the 'board' was deep in discussion. One guy apparently was new to the department and words like "dynamic" "radical" were all used to describe this gentleman - frankly, as i saw it - all of them - this new 'dyanamo' included -were all similar looking with spectacles of varying thickness & heads in various stages of hair loss.

Now, this dyanamo had apparently come up with such a super syllabus the "chair" (this guy seemed to be the head of this commttee) said : " Sir ! Remember this ! we have a syllabus revision every year and if introduce all these improvements in one shot and what on earth will we do the next year. We will run out of ideas and what will the Correspondent think of our
department committee ? "

The Dynamo says: - " Saar ! Semester II chapter 3 a eduthu Semester V chapter 5a pottuta, yaaruku theriyum. en pazhiya collegela appidi thaan 10 varushama panrome. Dont worry ellam Organic Chemistry thaan"

(sir! Interchange semester II chapter 3 and Semester V Chapter 5 next time. Nobody will know its all Organic chemistry. In my old job, we've ben doing this for 10 years. )

all of them nod, in total agreement. They start from Sem 1 chapter 1 and go on.

I loosen my tie and hang on. My mobile rings four of five times in the next 10 minutes. Twice it is Tata Indicom from chennai with a computerized voice reminding me to make payment immediate to avoid disconnection. They all stare at me patronizingly listening to the phone each time - as if i am making 2 or 3 million dollar deals. I mutter an apology and switch the damn
thing off.

I doze off for sometime. Theyve reached Sem 3 Chapter 5 - Intrumental methods. I wake up with a jerk - I got an 'S' from Dr.Sivakumar back in ACTECH in IMA. THey have 5 topics mentioned shortly as phrases.

The prof in charge of this course was then instructed to 'blow up' the topics to 'show mass' [ This, i found was a standard instruction passed on whenever the contents of a topic seemed to occupy only a few lines ] They ask the prof in charge to suggest a reference book as that column was empty for this course. He, apparently noticing my interest, asks me if i knew any book that is 'used widely in the indsutry' for Instrumentation.

I say,um, "Willard Merritt Dean and Settle Sir! excellent book. I have a copy myself." He seems suitably impressed and notes the name down. Feeling guilty i add, " but sir, in the industry no one uses books like these. we use more simpler books - like training manuals "

He says, " Oh! ok. but make sure that the book you named is by a foreign author ". Yeah sure :)

And hey, he adds - "is there stuff on Thin layer chromatography in it ? ". I say - "of course sir. must be".

By this time, CHai/Biscuit and an envelop marked "Industry Expert - Mr.Abhilash" containing my 'sitting fees' (as my friend the prof put it) of two hundreds and 5 tens.

By the time iam half way through my chai one of the profs - who had quietly arguing about something with 'the chair' throws up his hands in disgust and says - "sir! you cant expect me handle Basic program and C programs in the same semester. Because for C programs i have to bring in a "Computer consultant" because i dont know C myself. I know 10 Basic programs very well and that itself is adequate for a B.Sc in Chemistry and besides Programming was put into the course only due to pressure from parents committee who were forcing us to improve 'placement prospects'"

He turned to me and said - " Sir. You said you went to Anna University - tell him (he points to the "chair") how computer training is given ". I tell him that we did countless Basic programs and C, C++, Visual Basic in +2 class and we had the whole thing redone in 1st semester college in about 20 hours or so. Also, i added with some emotion- "It is important that students are exposed to some decent computer courses and not outdated stuff like Basic "

He nods appreciatively and says to the chair - "Sir! Young people these days" nods again " are very knowledgable". " Ok I will do 4 or 5 C programs "

By this time, i switch on my mobile and allow a few SMS messages to come in loudly and look around apologetically. My friend the prof says " look, the guy is already busy and he'll have to leave" and ushers me out of the room. I slip the 250 to him asking him to pass it on to the lab assistants in his department and run to back to the parking lot.

WHile driving past the main gate, i notice hordes of students going back in after lunch and i can only wonder about the fate of these poor buggers and what education they are receiving.

No wonder Kiran Karnik always says that India has too many graduates but most of them are not of "employable quality".

Who is to be blamed ? what is to be done ? I dunno.

It was a wee bit too much for me for one day.

Music

I am just about to drop off to sleep on my keyboard.

I have been ambling around blogs, orkut, google, wikipedia, imdb & M16.com (Ogling at Eva green in Casino royale)

I discoverd two luvly songs today.

1. aabhijaa - Band of boys
2. Neend churake - from some remix type album called "mere saamne vaale kidki". truly wonderful.

" [girl] neend churake raaton me, tumne baathon baathon me, dekho baath badhal di hai
[ guy ] Hum phir baath badal dhenge, aaj nahin dil kal denge
Aise bhi kya jaldi hai, arre aise bhi kya jaldi hai "

*sighs* am reminded of the good old times

futbol

What promised to be a great day for football, turned out to be quite a bit of a farce.

Summary:

Italy 3 - Ukraine 0 (that ok, i dont give a shit anyways)

Eng 0 - Portugal 0

England thrown out on penalties. after a disappointing 1st half the second half started with Becks being taken out (replaced by a very talented aaron lennon - a move which shud have been completed much earlier). England continued to struggle and the icing on the portugese cake came when Rooney was sent off for pushing and shoving his Utd clubmate, Cristiano Ronaldo.

After this i dont know how i will continue admiring and supporting Man U. Rooney appears to a immature roughneck, provoked by the slightest of instigation - forget pace, skill and goals - the future of english football seems to be firmly in the hands of immature cretins and tall, gauche 'strikers' who appear to 'gallop' rather than run and rich superstar, cockney accented fools.

And Cristiano ronaldo - when rooney pushed a defender down and almost stamped on his crotch - Ronaldo comes running in to protest to the referee from 100 meters away when there are 5 or 6 portugese already surrounding him. Rooney pushes his Utd teammate away, which earns him his red card.

to top things - Ronaldo scores the winning goal in the penalty shootout while Rooney, the immature cretin that he is, watched from the stands. It will be interesting to see how this incident affects their game at Man Utd together. :)

But frankly, i may get desperate enough to support Arsenal (Thierry bloody Henry scored the winner against Brazil later on in the night)

Ah, here it is

Brazil 0 - France 1

The game featured 3 players - Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldhino - who have held FIFA player of the year 8 times in the last 10 years :) and according to newspaper reports only Zidane appeared to live up to the billing he receives.

The night also featured Figo, who has won the FIFA player of the year in the remaining 2 years :))

So what potentially could have been THE biggest ever night for futbol in a few decades turns out to be such a farce.

Anne Hathaway

Hey, i forgot. I fell out of love and then fell right back in with this girl.

Drool :O

Her mee Ohhh neee :))

I was heartbroken after i got to see this :)

But hey, i cant wait to see the next Harry Potter instalment !!

Iam Back !!

Holla World (Which is my eupheism for 2 or 3 humans and about the same number of bots who frequent by miserable blog :)) )

Iam Back !!

It has been quite a while since i sat to blog. Ive been to 3 different Indian cities, 2 different countries and back.

Music: My playlist begins and ends with "James Blunt" - the song aptly described as 'An ode to love that cannot be had' "Youre beautiful".

( youre beautiful, youre beautiful ! its true ! i saw your face in a crowded space and i dunno what to do. coz i'l never be with you :) !! whew, phenominal. )

Books: I read this book called "Confessions of Max Tivoli" about this guy whos born an old guy and grows younger and dies aged 'zero' :) after sixty years. Nice concept, mildly entertaining, interesting writing style - but lacks that bit of sparkle that comes with the narrative.

( much like X Men 3 - nice movie and all, but no 'kick' in it (Xmen 1 or 2 were great movies)

Another parallel can be drawn to " Vernon God Little" which tries to ape the 'catcher' and fails miserably. much like "Confessions of Max Tivoli".

By far, the read of this year has been "Shantaram"

Aha, the worldcup:

Quickie observations on the matches i got to see:

England Vs Paraguay - The English were a bit' rusty' i guess. 1 - 0

Sweden VS TnT - Poor ole swedes drew. 0 - 0. I am sorry, i expected a bit more punch from Henrik Larsson & Freddie ijungberg (spelt wrong, iam sure :0 )

Spain Vs Ukraine - 4 - 0. Spain look brilliant. Raul & team pass, dribble and tackle magnificiently. The last goal is a brilliant volley by Torres.

I saw a couple of other ballsy matches like Iran Vs mexico, Togo Vs Korea, Angola Vs Portugal. Dont recall any thing of significance.

England Vs TnT - The English get a wee bit more rusty. As Harsha bhogle said after the match, if the English play the same way during the Second Round and the semis they can book their tickets back home early. The silver lining comes in the form of Steven Gerrard's phenom strike in the 91st minute.

2 - 0.

Somehow, the sight of Peter crouch irritates me to the point of turning off the TV and hey, i forgot, Rooney boy played for about 28 minutes showing no hint of loss of skill (on account of his broken metatarsal :) )

On a more introspective note, i seem to be slipping into the next stage of life - beyond sleeping late, pocket money, waking late, blogging about bullshit (:)), swearing, chickenshitting & limitless mobile chitchat.

I'l be completely 21 this November and it is time to get a grip on things. Because life, as it is now, seems to be leading back to this chickenshit spiral which is all mediocre & no fun.

I scroll up and read thru the bullshit ive written, sigh and get back to work.

Soledad :(

The feeling of depression is one of emotional suffering, sometimes seen as a mental analogue of physical pain. Someone who is depressed may be said to have a 'heavy heart', or if more seriously depressed be 'broken-hearted', because of a common sensation of the emotion in the chest.

Other somatic expressions can be a sense of 'low spirits', a 'drag' or being weighed down, and a heaviness in breathing, expressed as despondent or dejected sighing. It may also be associated with apathy, boredom, emptiness and lack of any positive source of interest or joy.
Depression - in this non-medical sense - may be caused by a loss or personal failure (as in sadness), personal rejection, or indeed by any undesired outcome or situation, particularly if the situation happens or continues despite the efforts of the subject. In addition to sadness, there can in a depressed mood be a conscious resignation that the unpleasant situation is difficult to change. Usually whatever causes the state of depression is consciously recognised as the cause, which is not necessarily the case with longer-term clinical depression. Other conscious factors in maintaining depression may be loneliness and long-term stress.

External affective signs of depressed mood also include a physical hunching or stooping, or putting the head in the hands, and an appearance of being physically subdued, and flatness of speech.

TRUE TRUE !! ALL OF IT

Dunno what to call this .....

It all started when this came to as a forward on my business email (outlook). I laughed it off calling the sender a 'foolish ch##$' attracting our accountant's malevolent stare (Mustav ben too loud) . [ In case you cant see it, it actually a animated GIF with the fucken fire raging :)) )

Then this happened:

I type up an email saying - "dear sureshji, so and so was dispatched on blah blah date. LR number . Have a nice day"

I type up another one saying - "dear rohini ma'am, please quote 500kgs of blah blah against immediate payment. specs attached as PDF"

send both out and head out to meet the guy whos ben waiting all morning for me.

I come back 1 hour later to find 2 emails waiting:

from: Suresh #%^$ : "Hi Abhilash! Nice picture with the fire. Regards / Suresh"

from:rohini ^^*#%$* : " Dear Abhilash! we are pleased to quote as follows; blah blah

p.s - Please check your email template just in case. I received a large picture attachment along with the text+ PDF. Regards "

Turns out that some goddamn way or the other, the picture became part of my message template. Darned embarrasing !!!

*****yawn*******

ciao

Cool Link

heres a link to a superbly fresh story:

http://unsuccessfullyyours.blogspot.com/2006/04/yin-and-yang.html

:))

What am I ?

There are five types of junta in the world

"Wishers, Talkers, Dreamers, Dabblers and Doers"

Wishers - sigh and cry, but never try. They know there's moreto life than they are experiencing, but they will not doanything to change their status. They wish things would change all by themselves. They wish they had a better life, but they will notget up an hour earlier, or start dieting.

Talkers - blab and gab. Talkers are always telling, alwaystalking about what they'd like to do, or what they have done, or whatthey're going to do. That's the key, talkers are always going to dosomething but never seem to get there. They often get people stirred upand excited but then they leave you hanging outon a rope somewhere.

Dreamers - plan and prepare but never dare. Dreamers readbooks, go to seminars and write-out mission statements. Dreamers are always learning but never able to live out their dreams. In somerespects, they are a combination of wishers and talkers.

Dabblers - like to start projects, but they do not finish. Likea person who dabbles in painting, it's not a commitment, it's just and interest. Dabblers get bored easily and often leave things half done, often leave things unfinished. Dabblers often leave a wave ofdisappointment behind them.

Doers - make things happen. Doers don't just wish about it. Doers don't just talk about it. Doers don't just dream about it. Doer aren't dabblers, doers are daring. Doers stepout and lead. Doers don't just listen to the Word, theyobey the Word and they are the ones who are excited about what they do. Doers are the ones with the testimonies.

I am a Wisher, a Talker, Dreamer and a Dabbler - most defnitely not a doer.

( iam in one of my most self depreciatory moods today - kindly adjust )

p.s - the crap above was nicked from a,believe it or not, christian sermon :) . It is kinda nice, isnt it ?

The book Quiz

I was out up to this by Gotti (my fortnightlyy peek at her blog actually). what is amazing is that there were only about 3 or 4 questions in the quiz and heres what they come up with. MINDBLOWING

You're The Sound and the Fury!
by William Faulkner

Strong-willed but deeply confused, you are trying to come to gripswith a major crisis in your life. You can see many different perspectives on the issue,but you're mostly overwhelmed with despair at what you've lost. People often have a hard time understanding you, but they have some vague sense that you must be brilliantanyway. Ultimately, you signify nothing.

:)) Well said

Royal Crap

Was first put up to this by the Yahoo home page.

Kate middleton and Chelsy Davy (rumored to be girlfriends of Prince William & Harry respectively) have been topping Yahoo search stats lately.

Well, i cudnt help either :)

Theyve even got whole WIKIPEDIA pages dedicated to them too. Kate is rather cute too :)

P.s - Talking of Royal - jaya got a ROyal Pasting in the elections here (see below, hee hee)

My election debut !!

;)

I voted first time this monday. My forefinger is still stained with the indelible ink that they put on it (" It is easily soluble in Oxalic acid" - says my brother. I'l try tomorrow :) )

11:00 PM Sunday Night: My mom storms into my room and says, ' if you dont wake up in time to vote before 8 AM, ul be sorry'. she mumbles something about how i'l become blind in 5 years after such relentless staring into a computer and leaves.

8:00 AM Monday Morning: I had woken up about 10 minutes before and was reading the Business Line in the Loo when i hear this 'rap rap' followed a series of curses in Tamil. It appears that my dad is already in the Car and has apparently been honking for 5 minutes. I rush out and get into new clothes and get in the car.

8:30 AM - The polling booth. My dad loses his temper over parking space, i drop him off and park it besides an alarming looking van labelled 'vajra' (THe police riot vehicle type van with guys wearing fatigues & helmets seated inside)

8:45 AM - the queue is surprising is very short and at this stage, i start to panic.

I slowly ask my mother - " Amma , nee yaarukku ootu poduve ? " [ amma, who will you vote for ? ].

She says ' chumma iruda, thona thona nu. Appa is already angry ' [ shut up, dad is already angry ]

Aha - i catch sight of the list of canditates and their respective symbols.

There are about 10 - 12 names with symbols like a drum, a monkey, a woman carrying stuff on her head, a top, some kinda,um, urn - 1 recognize two of them - irrataai ilai (Jaya's) and the Palm

(at this stage iam note sure whose symbol this is - i ask my mother, " amma, youve heard of this guy before ? "- she says, "oh! hes congress" [ so ok, the palm is congress's symbol ] )

Surprisingly the "udhaya suriyan" is missing. ( "No DMK here ?" - i ask. "dai adhan PMK irukule da ! " - Says dad. Um, Ok )

At this stage my brother says, "I 'l vote for vijaykanth" He then asks my dad, " appa edhu vijaykanth symbol ?". My dad glares at him and says " Paaru evan laam ottu poda vadhuttan, Medical student vera - enna symbolne theriyama " [ see, look whos come to vote and hes a medical student too !! ]

At this stage, my mothers already gone to the machine and my turn will come after my dad goes in next.

I suddenly panic and ask my brother " Dai Vaada, lets go out - i dont know who to vote for "

- he says, "dey, dont be silly da ! use the 39 D (or some crap like that) da, u just press that button marked " NO VOTE - I do not believe that any canditate is worthy" - so confidently that i march to the guy with the list.

he looks my License over and says "are you Abhi LAAJJ ? " (Pronounced like mumtaz) [ not that i blame the guy, my photo on the license always looked kinda creepy ]

I nod and he calls out loudly " No.72 , Abhi LAAAJJJJ" ( a few of the 'observers' turn to me and give me a once over, i ignore their attention and walk over to the women with the indelible ink and get myself marked )

I walk proudly up to the machine with my index finger poised to make the kill. The lady with the ink says " WAIT !!" - " why are you in a hurry ? I have to press the ready button here " she says. I wait for her for about 5 seconds by the side of the machine.

When there is a beep and the lady nods, i walk over and have my first look at the machine and look for the "NO VOTE button". i was in for a rude shock. all buttons are marked with symbols and if i have to save my ass from being humiliated in front of about a fifty people i have to vote.

I,um, stare the machine for about 10 seconds with my index finger pointing and in the next 2 seconds, i realize that iam now beyond redemption - if i say " NO I WONT VOTE NOW " I was 200% sure that i ud be laughed at.

so like the other millions of spineless tamilians, i press " button 2 : SV Shanmugam" and almost run back to the car, fighting back shame and remorse. My dad is the middle of a sermon chastising my brother whos voted for the 'drums' [ vijaykanth ] because ' he felt that he wont vote for J or the old man' - as he put it.

I glare at him and point out that the "NO VOTE" button did not exist and what a fool he is to vote for vijaykanth. My dad says that theres form that i can fill up with the guy [ 'abhi laaajjj' ] which will nullify my vote, that theres no electronic provision for it presently.

So Dear Naresh Gupta Ji (Dhyaan Deke suniyega)

When you come on NDTV or CNN IBN and declare that it is every citizen's duty to vote please make sure that there is a button marked " NO DEAL ! I DONT WANT TO VOTE FOR ANY OF THESE BUGGERS " because otherwise there are only 2 options left:

1. Become an immoral citizen by bunking election (I cudav continued reading about the Mittal - Arcelor deal in the loo)
2. Chicken out and be FORCED to vote for some1 uve never heard of / dont give a damn about / dont like 1 bit

if such a button existed, iam positive that 80% voters will use that and make the point felt. That, along with another rule which will say' " There will be president's rule imposed if more than 50% of the state's citizens feel that way" - will make sure that politicians do a better job

***Yawn*** friggin long post . gotta go

[ A link for my blog will be out on Orkut from today and will stay on for 3/4 days. It was strongly suggested that i do this by a friend, while i still am sceptical :). We'll see, wont we ? ]

Mixed Messenger

I took the famous OKCupid test again (Remember i took it about an year ago? - theres an older post)

The results suprisingly were the same:

Iam a ' Mixed Messenger'

" Just...take...the...fucking...flower...darling. The Mixed Messenger apologizes again. You're looking for love, but you'll always maintain your independence. You're prepared for a real commitment, but it's also likely that you're ambitious, which creates a certain romantic tension and ambivalence within you. So although you can be very affectionate to someone, you are also capable of pulling some dubious shit.

In a relationship, you're usually the emotional leader. With your friends, you're a little bit more part of the pack. You're well-liked but you're not the uninhibited type, so the spotlight's often on someone else. In both social and romantic situations, however, you almost always get what you want. Influencing people is something you do very well. "

More insights:

Deliberate - Makes decisions carefully, is aware of and weighs consequences. Takes time to think things through

Brutal - More selfish than average. Selectively moral

Wants Love (as opposed to sex)

Dreamer - Relatively innocent, unjaded, possessing undiscovered potential

-- Hmm, a rather close assessment, id say

Girl types to avoid: The Playstation and the Peach

I can consider: The Priss

So hey if there's any1 whos 'the priss' go gimme a buzz. Iam game

A Quickie thought

Um, this is one of the strangest things that happens to me. But it happens a lot.

I started on an assignment on my comp about an email lead that i received in the morning. I was feelin on top of the world, id ben waiting for the email for a month.

And then now, at 6 in the evening after 4 straight hours staring at this LCD, i suddenly feel like shit, like my whole lifes gone to waste and all.

I dunno, i just got so fucken depressed that iam about shut the fucken thing down and get the hell out

(dad sees me banging my bag on the table and says "go out and take a walk". he does not realize that the whole fucken problem is that there is no fucken place to go around here )

well, FUCK man !! iam fucken pissed !!

Black Saturday

"Utd were, Outnumbered, outplayed and (a pause) Outclassed today" Andy gray, Sky Sports commentator

Chelsea 3 - UTd 0

Gallas, Joe Cole (Phenom goal! He's one guy United Missed buying), Carvahlo (This was phenom too).

Rooney broke his ankle (so it seemed) and the poor boy was crying as they carried him out in the strecher.

Today is BLACK indeed !!!

Munich !!

Just got back after watching Avner, Ayelet and the rest of em in Munich.

Iam left breathless! I have to say that it is an amazingly intense movie - my first one after maybe Crash (that was Yesterday ;) ).

People these days make such amazing movies consistently - i mean not just spielberg and the likes, even unknown junta seem to be such great directors and scripters.

Munich is just,um, so full of soul. Eric bana beats every other actor ive known - playing intense roles seems to be just about his niche.

Prince Hector, big vile Hulk and now Avner :) whew. Maybe, i'd like to see him in a romantic comedy next.

Psst, just in case any1 is looking at this and have not seen Crash or Munich - then im sorry dude, ur gonna die without seeing 2 special movies.

Sleepy !!? Yes, sure as shit iam sleepy.

HOKPABRAWTH

Heh heh, wondering what that is ?

HOKSPABRAGH - stands for How Kaavya shamelessly Plagiarized and became rich and got into harvard

:))

The poor gal !

I happend to be reading HOW OPAL GOT KISSED GOT WILD AND GOT A LIFE (whew!!) when the whole controversy came up. I initially thought that this was some kinda setup to promote either her book or the other original until i caught sight of other articles on stuff like:

how kaavya paid tutors from her million dollar book deals to get into harvard

how kaavya is a shining example of today's morally degenerate authors of 'teen fiction'

how kaavya used to be the poster girl of the Indian american community and how shes now become the bad un' overnight

u know what, poor thing, shes only 19 and guess what, the books not too bad either. so what if its slightly 'inspired' from another similar book. :))

I dont think she'll be too perturbed by all this, remember OPAL came out of it all with flying colors - she got into harvard, got Sean, got to crack the formula and got to get back all her friends too

Um, iam sleepy again. Dunno whats causing all this sudden lethargy, too much reading

(ive done about 5 books last month including HUGE ones like Two Lives & Shantaram. Freakonomics was fun - someday, il write one like that in the Indian context. i ve got ideas on a few lined up too )

Cant think of something to blog about. Dunno whats wrong, sleepy ? i dunno

Shantaram mostly, and a few other things

Holla world

Iam in the middle of this amazing book called "shantaram" - truly phenominal, lucid, un put downable (please pahdon my vocabulary :)) ). Will try and dedicate a post on Linbaba when i can. In case i cant and in case you are visiting a bookstore - remember - any1 whos not read Shantaram is missing something really really special

Visited Mumbai, Aurangabad in the meantime. It is a wonderful world out there - i only hope that i have the dhum and the luck to see it all

Umm, other things:

1. Air hostesses in AI are SHOCKING. None are less than 35 years of age and wear more makeup than Shanaz Hussain. I got the jolt of my life when one of these aunties came near me and said "Coffee Please !!" in a stern, grandmotherly voice in the middle of the flight.

See those chicks in Kingfisher in their fiery red minis - i mean, people wud really pay maybe 200/300 more to fly Kingfisher - on board with those chicks serving apple juice (I mean i wud ;) ).

[ Not that all the Kishfishers are pretty, i saw a few of em up close and i warn you in advance. nevertheless my heart does leap up n down once or twice when i see one of those red minis :0 ]

2. Man UTD 2 - Arsenal 0. Ahh, Bliss ! Henry the #@(^(*&@# was missing (Rested - says wenger, F@#@ you say I )

3. Visited Bessi Beach on the Sunday and by God, there was this HUGE crowd like it was New Years Night or something. Fuck man, too many IT junta floating around speaking Malayalam and Telugu around there. I was disgusted and turned back only for my Cousin's Scooty to crack up - I finally took the bloody train home.

It has been quite a while since my last post. The Sensex went upto 11900 and then fell back - I suspect there is a lot more falling in store.

As I look at my previous post, iam tempted to repost Preity's Zinta delectable picture from there. I'l stop here, Shantaram awaits.

Oopsie !!

I am reverting back to my old template.

The new one seems way too gaudy :) Soft, old fashioned colors work best :) Like priety's clothes in the pic above.

Iam getting my laptop serviced tomorrow (the keyboard is covered in drool :o)

New Look, New feel

Holla all !!

My blogs just gotten a new look.

I even tweaked some colors to give it a nice feel that i like (with a nice quote in the sidebar and all, hee hee).

I wanted to put this picture as part of the template too, but the image linking HTML code somehow is not working properly (DRATS!!).

Anyways, here it is and welcome to my newly refurbished blog!!

Random Thoughts !!!

1. ManUtd 2 - West Brom 1. Two goals from Saha. Rooney still is the best footballer on the planet (Henry is the BIGGEST @#@$@$, buhhaaa haaa - He scored twice, brilliantly, the other day. He is still a @#@$@$)

2. Chelsea have written out a cheque for Mikail Ballack, who will join them next season to become the highest paid footballer in the history of the game. (Bayern openly admit that their own offer cant even near chelsea's :) ). Hail Roman Abramovich !!! EPL surely is floating in Russian Oil.

3. Saw Rang de basanti on DVD. Gud movie, great songs . Luved it :)

Onto serious things - well too many of em actually. so will write separately on each of them as and when the opportune moments arrive.

Life & Choice

Staying up after 12 is taking its toll on me once again. heres a bit of,um, thought

Its amazing what 'Choice' does to you in Life. Its like all the junta do the same damn things for a few years and then finally what they 'choose' to become in the 'next' stage brings so much change to what they do and what they will become.

It is true that most junta do not really have or WANT more than 1 choice, but imagine the magnitude of difference it makes.

Imagine three guys:

All write the CAT 1 year - All get raped that year.

Tom writes CAT the next year - gets into IIMA and goes to join HSBC in HongKong after 2 years.

Dick says, fuck the CAT and writes GRE to join a Ph D program in Wisconsin (I know wisconsin is a wee bit too far, nevertheless just for the effect) and finally ends up with a Professorship in the university of Alaska at Anchorage ;)

and Harry says he'll dish it all and join TCS. He does and then moves to Verizon the next year, Satyam the next year and so on till he finally becomes 26 and 'settles down' (techie term :) ) in CTS.

(Note: Iam purposely avoiding Thermax or Reliance just to keep the discussion dispassionate and fair)

Note that tom, dick & harry had pretty much the same amount of grey cells and all of em were pretty vague about what they wanted to do before,say, going to college.

The point here is that this 'choice' is majorly influenced by things such as 'peer group', 'location of college' and other,um, smaller things that we dont think about. But imagine what difference it makes to what you become.

But what the heck, my whole argument might just be completely wrong because - a guys' formative years only begins after he leaves college and enters the real world.

But, i can counter it saying - if a guy joins a phD program, there is very little he can do in terms of thinking of anything else for the next 5 years - his,um, 'choice' is already made.

IT guys have it a bit easy, they can quit any job anytime they want and sit and home and think for a week. the next week they have another job :) of they want to.

Hmmmm, Iam sleepy - iam sure it shows up in my analysis of the whole issue.

G'ngt <yawn>

Basic Instinct 2 :)

As the title suggests, the,ahem, sequel is here.

Oh yeah, with Dr.Catherine, the clit shot, lesbian kissing, red negligees & the works.

Trouble is that Sharon Stone was like 40 when the original version came along, now shes pushing 50 (A cursory google search revealed that she was born in 1958, so thats,um, close to 50). So whatever,um, fun you derive out of watching this new promo gets lost with the bad taste that gets in your mouth.

Life in the movies is truely bad indeed - I cant imagine what despicable state of affairs pushed Sharon stone to do a movie like this, with this dicky hero and all.

Alas, it is a wicked world that we dwell in.

http://ropeofsilicon.com/trailers.php?id=1960

About abortion rights & a few other things

I was reading a blog the other day and there was this mention of this other person - who had her birthday on valentine's day and who iam supposed to know about. I was like looking at this blog today, to find out who it was.

The first post i got to see was something on abortion rights - which ended with a majorly feminist declaration which said something like: " Fucking Idiots ! lets go rape some men and let them struggle with the babies and then they'll understand ".

Coo!! what the heck do girls think of themselves these days !! :) whoever that was

I have a few things to say about this whole abortion thing as well. Here goes:


Rules & Regulations concerning any issue like this should be "pro choice" (So, i side with the feminist junta here :) )

But if forced to commit to something (Like changing a law) , the decision must be made from "a moral high ground" - as in 'I hate buggers' or 'Adultery is a sin'.

Point is - people commit adultery all the time and there are far more fags & lezbos in the world than any1 can count. So, if people from the old school (as in purists) believe that endorsing Abortions is like endorsing 'accidental pregnancy' (Any1 care to explain 'accidental' - in this context :) ? ) or endorsing things that are (and should be) considered Taboo, then i believe that they have a point.

Part of human tendency is to exploit any such 'rules'(here the pro-abortion bill) , to aid all of
its,um, 'wrong' activities. So if Abortion is endorsed then the fear that 'accidental pregnancy', 'teen pregnancy', 'moral degradation' etc will become mainstream in, say, 20 years down the line becomes very real

(As in some mum & dad discussing their 15 year old daughter's pregnancy & abortion over breakfast in 2030). And Iam sure that as soon as abortion is made mainstream, umpteen gadgets/pills/contraptions will make the process much more simple, healthy & accessible - adding fuel to this fire.

This is not exaggerated - Today, my 12 year old Cousin (a guy) grows up watching emraan hashmi & udita goswami eating each other's lips , thrice a day - while i got to see such things only when i went to college. Imagine Kamasutra III making a debut in the theatre next door.

I know directors & actors will argue about these things as "Denial of freedom of expression", "purity of art" and all - their point of view (Much the same as Feminists saying that Anti Abortion rules are denying women of their "Reproductive freedom" - In this case they are somewhat right, but once again it is their point of view) - the law makers have a greater responsiblity - In the long run, touchy issues have to be considered.

No one likes to go to sleep worried that his/her granddaughter will not think twice about getting
pregnant ( Iam sure she'll pass billboards saying "An abortion for as low as 30$ - Now have all the fun you want, what the heck, its only 30 dollars" on her way to school daily ).

If you dont get it its like this - A 40 year old today will not discuss the issue of guys being gay. We, as 20 year olds joke about it, discuss it all the time - guys who will be 15 or 20 in 2030 will say, 'hey what the heck, lets try buggering each other once' (Much like 16 year olds making out, 'necking' on those MMS clips these days) "

So thats that. No - its much more than teaching men a lesson by raping them, thereby making them pregnant. LOL

:)

Last week in review

(Thats the corniest post name i can think of)

1. Restarted my 'workouts' after growing concern over my,um,growing weight

2. Watched sarkar again on DVD. Two people that stuck out - KK Menon & Katrina Kaif (who looks eatable, but cant act or even lip sync for all the nuts in the world)

3. Spoke to Suchan from TCS after about 6 months, then spoke to Sriram from IITM after about 4 months (on Google talk, was cool) about PIVs, PhDs, Greece, Jobs & grants

4. Ben reading lotsa repeats like "Pigs have wings" & "The Interpreter of maladies".

5. Listened to all the latest Emraan Hashmi'ish tracks that have been the rage in recent times.

Himesh Reshmiyya sings (shall we say, MOOOs) like a wild buffalo in heat. He must be castrated first and then shot in the head to end his misery :)

Nevertheless, a few of his songs are catchy, no doubt

6. Man U won 2 -1 thru a last minute own goal against wigan. Cool :). I wish Joe Cole joins Man U. He ROCKS BIG time - possibly the classiest guy ive seen since Rooney.

7. Dana Reeves (Christopher's wife) died of lung cancer today. After what she & and her husband went through and what they stood for and fought for - this seems a gruesome end. Cancer, really is a dastardly disease to have.

Lest I end on a morbid note, I'l mention something cheerful.

Iam still in love - the more i think about it, the more iam flustered by how impossible & daunting it all seems :)

But what the heck, lets see ;)

You're Beautiful

"You're Beautiful"

My life is brilliant.
My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,Flying high,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.You're beautiful, it's true.

I saw your face in a crowded place,And I don't know what to do,'
Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.You're beautiful, it's true.

There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,I will never be with you.

-- This amazing song titled "you're beautiful" by a James Blunt, funny looking chap with an even funnier voice.

In my present lovesick state, this song - 'an ode to love that cannot be had' as it is described by some junta - sounds wondefully fresh.

The best thing i believe is the guy's voice and his way of singing it.

@#$% !!!

What the heck, I think ive fallen in Love.

It not like, ive fallen in luv with Jessica Biel or Priyanka Chopra - this is a real skin & flesh person

But, Yes, i definitely think that iam in Love - Iam not sure how i arrived this surreal conclusion, i dont even know anything, and dont think we'll ever meet again -

But sure as shit, the bells have been ringing - as they have been all the time.

Hell man, Iam was a fool, a moron and an asshole - probably will continue to be so, ever after.

Bryan crooning

" Every, little, piece of her is right,
Just thinking, of her, takes me through the n(aaaah)ight.... "

in 'Puzzle of Heart' has been replaying in my ears over and over again

Hell, i guess more Insomina and 'Heartache' is in store tonight :)

p.s - this post is not meant to be some kinda practical joke - so,um, be informed likewise

Insomnio (Insomnia in Spanish)

My kazillionth post titled "insominia"

i have been tossing around in bed for over an hour thinking of many, well, things

i feel rotten, wasted and foolish (the words reflect my present state of mind - i cant seem to think of better epithets)

Iam realizing the flip side of choosing to live in a dump working for my 'business'

in college, i was a raving nerd in the first year, slightly less so in the second.

In the third year, i caught this whim of making truckloads of money and cut classes like crazy to trade shares, cheating in exams like crazy (i attended about 7 lectures with Dr.Anandam and still got an S :), copying off chits and suraj's papers)

wasting time without achieving anything concrete (the money of course came and went at the end of it all, i ended up becoming sleepless over Calls, Puts, Futures, State Bank , reliance and ranbaxy).

By the fourth year i was totally convinced that my college course was not going to teach me anything and took to bunking, cheating and OB on a GRAND SCALE.

My grades started showing up too. I got an E in CRE II, where i had gotten an A in the previous semester - same prof, similar stuff (The whole trouble was that CRE II had these formulae which were like 3 miles long - much too long for my palm or the drawing board in Hall A and we are seated in Alphabetical order all the time. ABhilash sits next to the prof with Agnel behind him.

Gayathri or Jayshree in the next row always thought my twisting around and chatting / swapping stuff with Agnel in exams was not exactly normal and always regarded me with obvious disdain :)

My 7th sem was the worst ever - i got 8.

My GPA goes like this 8.68, 9.21, 9.63, 8.94, 8.84, 8.5, 8, 8.75 CGPA: 8.7 (give or take a few - i dont remember too well). I have all grades S, A,B,C,E with the exception of a 'D'. I asked Dr.Sai to give me a 'D' in Professional Ethics (Ethics. my foot, my face and my Ass !!) but he refused point blank to give me an 'A'.

There was this other fiasco about the CAT/GMAT and all that bull that came with it. Somehow, i realize now that ive ben such an imbecile in this regard.

my math skills very always ordinary. so if i wanted to get into an IIM in earnest, i shud av whacked myself and gotten to work in the 3rd year or something. I started in earnest in mid August. there was time only for Mock cats, fake cats and similar tests and the coaching classes.

somehow, i always knew that i wud come back home after college atleast for a few years and then decide about things later on. i still went along with the other junta for this CAT fiasco.

i got 98.84 Percentile overall. Math: 98.6 (i was kinda happy) Verbal: 98.9 (i had hoped for a 99+) and DI 85. Surprising, turns out that 2 more marks in DI wud av fetched my 95% there and an overall of over 99.2 - giving a minimum of 4 calls. All i got was a letter from SP fu*#ing Jain, which i threw in the litter bin.

I had earlier wasted 11,000 on booking/rescheduling a GMAT. In all my trials id gotten 740s and 760s. In the center, i suddenly realized that the English was pretty tough - all goddamn answers were similar looking and it was like 'spot the best answer based on minute bugs in the grammar' - my least fav question pattern. i had a real tough time and came out with 710 - which all the uncles who wrote GMAT with me assured me was a 'phenom' score as one especially bald uncle who worked for satyam (for 8 years) put it. all of em were wondering why i gave GMAT so early ( i mentioned to one of em that i will be 21 on the 20th of November)

Iam wondering about that too.

So when i shud av done something useful in my last year - i ended up fucking myself so hard that i was left reeling at the end of it all. i knew deep down that there is no way in the world that i can do an MS or convince myself to ask my Dad sponsor a 40lac MBA at Dartmouth or Colombia.

So here iam, 'working' for myself in this chicken shit little town, still hoping that there is some way out of it all :)

I do see the light at the end of this tunnel -and hey iam going towards it

swoon !!!

A couple more of 'em

Question # 1

What connects a pastime for public schoolboys, mutual one-handed slapping and Marilyn Monroe in bed?

Answer

Five. Eton Fives, high-five, Chanel No. 5 (heee heee)


Question # 2

Put the following words in order:

HAT, YES, FIRE, TRY, OPT, PUMP, SET, DUE

(If any1 knew the complete answer to that without looking below, i'l eat my bathroom chappals)

Answer

These English-seeming words are also the cardinal numbers from one to eight in various languages:

yes (1 Spanish Romany)
due (2 Italian)
try (3 Belarussian)
fire (4 Norwegian)
pump (5 Welsh)
hat (6 Hungarian)
set (7 Catalan)
opt (8 Romanian)

Whoa !!!

Question # 3

Which literary work links Robin Cook, Benjamin Franklin, Ismail Merchant, Arthur Miller, and Christopher Reeve?

Answer

"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer. The people in the question all have medieval professions as surnames, and someone from each of these professions had a tale to tell in Chaucer's work:

Tale 2: The Miller's Tale
Tale 3: The Reeve's Tale
Tale 4: The Cook's Tale
Tale 10: The Merchant's Tale
Tale 12: The Franklin's Tale

I can only sigh !!! Maybe i can attempt these quizzes next time with some help from Google and Wikipedia

What the heck!! Guess il have to go to bed feeling like an inadequate moron :(

Quiz Time !!

I saw this AMAZING puzzle somewhere and I really MUST post it - sure as shit, i had (to use another killer expression) ' a snow ball's chance in Hell ' of solving this one :)

Anyways - heres that puzzle and its answer

Question:

Someone like Elvis, someone like Elton John, a homosexual or someone who favours Elton John, a bird and someone who'd probably like to be one. (A red one rather than a black one).

What is the link?

Answer

*Someone like Elvis - a KING

*someone like Elton John - a KNIGHT

*a homosexual or someone who favours Elton John - a QUEEN (synonym for a homosexual or the Queen of England who made Elton John a KNIGHT)

*a bird - a ROOK

*someone who'd probably like to be one. (A red one rather than a black one) - a BISHOP would probably aspire to be a Cardinal

The link is that these are all CHESS PIECES.

Lotsa stuff happened

Like the topic says, in the last weekend - lotsa stuff happened.

Ive heard people speak of 'life-changing' experiences, work experience, pressure, the real world, bluffing, smooth talkers, hoodwinkers and so on.

All that happened to me - in one weekend. I wont talk about specific incidents - which will compromise my professional position's integrity (meaning, i wont spill beans about my work here)

I will, however, talk about a shitload of other things:

1. The ipod nano is the coolest gadget on earth. (i still dont have one)

2. Aaaal Paadhi, aaadai padhi - meaning - "The person is one half, how he is dresses makes the remaining half of him"

3. There are people who are WAY rich and still not very special. Meaning - not all rich guys are special guys. some are born lucky, some very lucky to be at the right spot at the right time.

4. Andrew flintoff - was standing in a queue (at the Mumbai airport) for about 15 minutes like, 2 feet in front of me. He was with the whole England Cricket team - en route Baroda for playing a 3 day match against the President's Eleven. The fuckin funny part was that i cud not recognize any1 else on the team, the guy next to me pointed out Ian Blackwell (from a photo in the DNA in this hand) and thats it. i was still hopin that Darren Gough and Alec Stewart or maybe even, guys like Trescothick were on the team. I could not recognize i single face apart from these two guys.

I was kinda embarrassed to go and say hi to Andy Flintoff maybe even ask for an autograph ( will fetch some money on ebay :)) ) coz, i felt i wud offend the 10 or so guys (his teammates) none of whom i recognized.

5. I can speak Hindi comfortably enough actually talk to business associates one of whom actually said " hey man, have you been in North India before. You speak good colloquial Hindi - not usually you find that in fresh south Indians"

6. Sriram's paper got published in "Journal of Fluid Engineering : ASME". Great News. Its even got my name on it in the last page "acknowledgments section". Sriram is going to Greece as well. iam happy for him

Lots happend and lots can be written. i choose to stop with this.

Puzzle of my Heart

After yesterday's bout of Nostalgia, there was more today.

It's the way she fills my senses
It's the perfume that she wears
I feel I'm losing my defences
To the colour of her hair
And every little piece of her is right
Just thinking about her
Takes me through the night
Every time we meet....The picture is complete
Every time we touch......The feeling is too much
She's all I ever need
To fall in love again
I knew it from the very start...She's the puzzle of my heart
It's the way she's always smiling
That makes me think she never cries
I feel I'm losing my defences..... To the colour of her eyes
And every little piece of her is right
Every time we meet....The picture is complete
Every time we touch......The feeling is too much
She's all I ever need
To fall in love again
I knew it from the very start...She's the puzzle of my heart
Like a miracle she's meant to be
She became the light inside of me...
And I can feel her like a memory
From long ago
Every time we meet....The picture is complete
Every time we touch......The feeling is too much
She's all I ever need To fall in love again
I knew it from the very start...She's the puzzle of my heart

-- Westlife "Puzzle of my Heart". Love song of the Century.

**sigh** Looks like another long n lonely night is lying in wait for me ;)

Tu Aaashqui Hai !!

I chanced upon this song on TV tonight:

Tu Hai Aasmaan Main Teri Yeh Zameen Hai
 
Tu Jo Hai To Sab Kuch Hai Na Koi Kami Hai

Tu Hai Aasmaan Main Teri Yeh Zameen Hai 

Tu Jo Hai To Sab Kuch Hai Na Koi Kami Ha

Tu Hi Dil Hai Tu Hi Jaan Bhi Hai

Tu Khushi Hai Aasra Bhi Hai

Teri Chaahat Zindagi Hai 

Tu Mohabbat Tu Aashiqui Hai Tu Aashiqui Hai

Tu Hi Dil Hai Tu Hi Jaan Bhi Hai

Tu Khushi Hai Aasra Bhi Hai

Teri Chahat Zindagi Hai 

Tu Mohabbat Tu Aashiqui Hai Tu Aashiqui Hai

Tu Aashiqui Hai

----Really really nice.

November 20 - On this Day

Was ambling thru a lot of trash on the internet when i suddenly came across this chickenshit article which had interviews of college kids from various metros in India about what they thought about the valentines day - it sucked.

That reminded me of some1 i knew back in school, whose birthday was on Feb 14 :). Cool, isnt it? This particular girl was hardly the type who'd be inclined to follow St.Valentine's ways - she wore glasses thicker than mine, weighed almost the same as i did (back then, my BMI was higher than the BSE Sensex - it still is formidable :) ) and was a nerd to boot. She sure had a tough time when all my 14 year old classmates taunted her on V day.

Now, i thought maybe lets check out whats special about my BirthDay. Wikipedia was not of much help (I already knew that Scarlett johanssen, Avril Lavingne are all my age and born pretty much around Nov 20)

Heres what 'BBC World - On this Day' had to tell: Link

Main article: "1995: Princess Diana admits adultery in TV Interview" - 20 Nov 1995

- Whoa !! im floored. Never had a high regard for the BBC anyways - pompous pricks !!

'The New York Times - On this Day' had this to tell me: Link

1620: Peregrine White was born aboard the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay - the first child born of English parents in present-day New England. (Not Bad man)

2001: Federal health officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.
(Holy Cow ! Not again)

2003: Singer Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (The absolute last straw)

An elaborate 10 minute session on Google to fish for anyother special thing about November 20 leads me nowhere.

*sigh*maybe iam not a special somebody :)

The World according to America

Heres something I found on the web tonight. Some guy called Xah Lee, who appears to be a Chinese american runs this amazing website with opinions, articles on every damn thing from Stanley Kubrick to feminism.

Heres a map of the world as it is seen by americans. :)

http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/_p/usa.jpg

The magic of Wi Fi

Holla World!

Iam back and blogging.

Heres the fun part - Iam blogging from my own laptop from the International departure lounge in the Chennai International Airport - Pretty Cool, dont you think?

Whatever you think, iam thrilled to bits and can barely blog.

Iam seated next to this maami type girl (not too older than me, by the looks of it) with her dad, who i'l bet is a retired post master... waiting for a flight to singapore. This girl was explaining - in the most shocking brahmin baashai ive heard (my mom's own baashai is baby talk in front of this girl) about what is immigration and why they were objecting when he had mentioned that they will be in Australia for 90 days.

forget her, forget everything else - Welcome to Wi fi dudes - its here, it ROCKS and best of all its FREE !!! (here, back in domestic its billed, dunno why)

Imagine carrying a comp around and still able to check email, chat, blog whatever.

I am luvin it !!! ta ta gotta dash, i do have a flight to catch :)

Blog posts are one thing, naming em' posts is entirely another

Dunno if this happens to every1.

I opend up this new post screen after deciding on the contents of a new post.

Now this is what happned:

I came to the text box which said "Title"

Suddenly i feel, hmmm, what do i type here. Last time i had the same problem and wrote "Hmm a lil something i thought of". (turns out that there is an identically titled blogpost from a couple of days ago)

Today too, this was the first thing that came to my head.

what the heck, ive seen other junta who have blogged with titles such as

"zoolander" : for a post with the author's pic

"Globe trotter": for a post about a guy's visit to singapore

or even vettier ones like

"bloody mary"- for a post which had some stuff about tomato juice

or "sundance showdown" or "the last revelation" or someother chickenshit like that, all of which seems, um, stupid to me

The best course of action is to think of a nice blog title or just skip titles altogether.

( I can hear a voice in my right ear: "Hey dummy, if you cant think of witty lines to write as blog titles then atleast stop bitching about others who seem to be able to write them off at will")

(Another voice, this time in my left ear (probably belongs to the other side of my conscience) says:

" Ignore that idiot whos blabbing in your other ear.

Think of the scum who name their blog posts

"The seventh coming"

"The 13th warrior"

"Sanjay's List"

"Thursday, the 19th"

"Dubai macchan, Kuwait kaavaali "

Your outburst in the earlier part of this post is thoroughly justified.

I dunno, the left seems right (Now the right says, "Gotcha! thats not exactly original, is it?")

STOP

It is mighty pathetic in retrospect - not the whole thingy about giving blog titles - But the fact that i wasted 10 minutes on such trash

um, a little something that got me thinking today

Today is the Republic day and thusly a Holiday.

I was watching Dr.APJ meet a bunch of school kids on CNN IBN. He was ranting about his usual India 2020 (twenty/twenty as he puts it) , dreaming, corruption, prayers and books. I was transfixed for a while watching him speak in his usual slow and um, granpa like way.

I wish i had a Granpa like him or something who can talk to me like that. Ive never seen both my Grandfathers, my dad's dad - um, even my dad did not get to see him properly (he passed on when dad was 8 or 9 ) and mum's who had passed on about 10 years after his Sambandhi when my mum was around 11 or 12.

I dont want the Gyaan, dont get me wrong, i get enough of it from my other sources :), heck, i cud use an old man in the house who'll do nothing but sit around reading papers or weeding gardens maybe shoot me crap like what Dr.APJ says on TV.

And shit man, i dig his voice, i really do

HERE's nother thing- I was watching TV again this afternoon - saw this amazing Tennis match between David Nalbandian (the cold looking argentine) and the new guy from Cyprus called Marcuso Baghdhadi (baag daa deee). The unseeded guy won the match against the 4th seeded argentine to reach the final.

Heres the funda - while this guy looked like,um, 28 or 30 years of age, with nose hair, a small thoppai and all - Vijay Amirthraj told me something that really shocked me. This Baghdadi guy was 20 Years Old !!

No Shit, 20 !!

Guess what, I am 21 ! Whats more, Sharapova is 18, Sania is 19, Irafan Pathan is 20, Pankaj Advani is 19, Armaan Ebrahim is 16 the list goes on.. (Scarlett Johanssen is 20 too)

While, i was 16 or 17, even 18 or 19, i always thought, heck, whats all this hullabaloo about tendulkar's debut at 16, when Iam 21 I'l show em.

I guess Iam one of the ordinary ones :))

A mere, one in a Kazillion 21 year old who is just flesh, blood, bone and skin.

2 Must see pics

Picture 1

Catherine Mccormack in "The Tailor of Panama"

Picture 2

This handsome guy apparently shares my name. I googled for "Abhilash Narayanan" and found him. Cute, isnt he?

( he looks like he is a wannabe tollywood hero, doesnt he?, with is moustache and all! )

Hmm, a little something i remembered

I just chanced upon one slightly older post of mine. i had promised to put up book reviews and stock analysis reports and all. While i have finished reading all the books in question and done the things on the stocks too, i cant bring myself to type up stuff like that.

Strangely, i dunno why. This pattern seems to repeat in all my posts.

Theres no Funda or Fun stuff in my posts, only Gyaan - thus making my whole blog HUGELY boring. Not for me, its not, but for any1 else who might chance upon it.

Nother thing: Iam thinking of planning a book which will have about a 100 blog posts on various themes from various blogs around the world - all the bloggers will be paid royalties or something on booksales while, there can be a core team of 'editors' who'll look for the best posts and get em together.

One blog book that reads extremely well (;) and sold extremely well was "Belle de jour". Go visit the Belle's blog (google for it) sometime, it is really a fantastic read.

Iam sleepy now, ciao

O Brave New World (aah sheez, Stop it!!)

Three days of hibernation inside the house. No kaam. No nothing. Only me, my dabba and the world wide web. (Pongal,erm, vacation)

I called a few people today, you know, just following up on old correspondence on various things. heres the list of people:

1. The kind kenyan lady, who i think went to study in England or something. When asked "How are you, Ma'am - she says, "Oh! Abhilash, Not too bad myself ! Not too bad ! How nice of you to ask! Hows been the New Year ?", had a great chat with her for quite sometime after that. Lets see what comes off that this year.

2. The New Argentinian guy - who has already emailed me 4 times in as many hours asking for this or that. My old Argentinian guy emailed me only 2 times, the whole of last year. This guys a welcome change.

3. Kabir bhai, back in Dhaka. the same old, "yes sir, already done sir. dont know what the delay is sir".

4. The old Argentinian guy. will ditch him for sure if i get the chance.

5. The Costa Rican guy - sure seemed as interested as ever in all that i told him today. what the heck, maybe i can get to go on a business trip to costa rica sometime.

6. The Old Mexican guy - hmm, a boring, lying, lazy specimen.

7. The french speaking, giggly Moroccon lady who was covering for her boss who was out of town
I tried my best to get her spell out her name for me. all i got were a couple of giggles & a few noisy breathing noises, like she was talking on the phone while on a treadmill or something.

8. A New Turkish guy, who responded to all my enthusiatic "Good Afternoon!" and Business Proposals with a sour, "duhh, we dont do that line of business. duhh". Reminded me of Big Moose from Archie Comics.

well, i guess iam atleast a thousand bucks poorer and hopefully all that International calling is making me that much more wiser.

Hey, i almost forgot my Brazilian friend who is the nicest guy of the lot. He even invited me to Brazil this year so that he'll show me around and meet a few customers who might be interested. (heck. il stick to calling for now)

I guess the brave new world will always keep throwing up interesting people, who will continue to provide me with fun opportunities to keep myself occupied, hopefully making myself wiser and richer in the process.

I spent most of this afternoon watching this amazing inning by Sehwag, who is now on i dunno 230* from 220 balls. India are some 350 for No loss with Dravid on some 125 or something. Where is this world coming to?

Somnipathy hits back, with a vengence !!

Yo all!

Its 11:20 at night and i believe that this is the longest ive stayed up all this month. Looks like iam firmly back to my old ways, wakin up, blogging and all.

I had a pretty interesting chat with my dad today as always covering a wide array of subjects. One thing that struck me as pretty important:

Dad tells me how hard he used to work every day when he was 20 or even 30 for that matter. Patti used to wake at 4 in the morning to make his tiffin, packed lunch and all, and he usually left to work in the factory (not his own, his old boss's) at 6:30. This was pretty much the routine for him even in 1990, when he quit his job and started on the same routine in another factory, this time his own. He says, he has done a lot of wacko things with stuff, money on which i wont go into detail.

But the point is that he worked so hard because he knew he had a family dependent on him. He knew he had to run the next day and get something going because he knew, he somehow had to. Not that he was feeling frustrated with his life (on the contrary, i know he enjoys his kind of work) but he had a HUGE incentive, motivation - you know, a wife, kids like that.

Now, he says hes sorry for us because he feels that i dont have that kind of powerful force pushing us on. What he actually said was like, "hey iam not saying anything about anyone. But somehow, iam feeling worried that you fellows will turn out too soft, protected and not pushed too much for anything"

I know, thats partially true and partially NOT. I believe (and i told him) that people can also be driven by things like "hey, what am i doing sitting around. Look at Warren Buffett and the Ambanis, iam going to be rich" and "look, i want to prove what i can do", which are,well, emotional, ego related things. (though this cant match the other kind of motivation my dad had)

Besides, who the heck says we are well off !! I want penthouses in Stockholm, Vienna and on Marine Drive and they dont come cheap. And right now, we can only afford bathrooms at such places.

Talking about Bathrooms, i had a row with Amma about reading books while in the toilet. what the heck, she only found out today, when i stayed in for about an hour forgetting everything else reading "Beyond the Last blue Mountain" and she had to knock when looking for me.

Ive been doing this since i can remember, my earliest memory being "Jurassic Park" back in Ninth standard at our Old House.

I was labelled "pundi" (meaning,um, "dirty"), "thukirri" (um, "blasphemist") and that "the 4 years i spent away from home have made me disobedient and stubborn".

heh heh, what does she know?

Heres some sad news:

Premiership Saturday:

City 2 - Utd 1 (Thankfully i missed seeing this one somehow)
Middlesb'gh 0 (or 1 doesnt matter) - Arsenal (phew, hold your breath!) 7

Henry and his troop of cheating b!#$^&ds actually scored SEVEN goals. F^%k them! My whole saturaday was spoilt.

Hmm, what else,

I fell in Love, again.

Bye Bye, Jessica! Was fun while it lasted ( :)) )

The object of my unwavering affection (this time) is called Catherine Mccormack (remember 'Murron' from Braveheart?)

I have an exciting month ahead of me and iam rarin and ready to go.

Spam acche Hai !?

Listen to this

My bulk email folder showed 4 new messages which looked as follows:

1. From: "Alanna Smith" Subj:"90% of members got laid in less than a week: join us for free"

2. From: "Business Week MBA" Subj: "Heady job market for MBAs: A Business Week exclusive"

3. From: "Webpharm" Subj: "Viagra, Levitra at never before prices. Try before you buy"

4. From: "Ebay Inc" Subj: "We're giving away a 1000 free iPods. Do you want one?"

I have to admit, my Bulk email folder is giving me funnier messages than my Inbox these days.

Hey nother thing:

Premiership midweek: ManUTD 0 - Arsenal 0

Time out from work

As the title suggests : a little time-out from work (huff puff :) )

1. T has 3 calls. I, K and L. Gud on ya Mate! Gud luck to ya! Iam glad you cud make it this time.

2. Have read through (or was it ran through) over 4 books in the last 5 days

a) "The memoirs of a Geisha" (thomas Golden ) - stunning, super book. read it through in 1 sitting. more later

b) "Sea Biscuit" (like the movie) by a certain Laura Hillenbrand - as refreshing to read as the movie itself. wonderfully written narrative.

c) "A Place called Freedom" - which i beleive was the last follett book i had not read. Disappointing really, it wasnt upto a few of the others. Strangely, guys like Follett, Archer all seem to write stories which are almost in the same stereotype. Read one, you feel on top of the world (Pillars of the Earth, A dangerous fortune) read a few more you suddenly have had enough (Jackdaws, Lie down with the lions (yuck) )

d) A quickie, re - read of Archer's "Not a penny more, not a penny less". Good book.

Now, remember i said 'over' 4 books. Thats right, iam in the middle of one right now.

"Losing my virginity" - Richard Branson's autobiography

Somehow, i cant bring myself to blog these days. i do have a lot of wonderful things about some of these books i have ben reading lately.

what else, hhmmm, saw a preview of "King Kong" where he was tearing up a T Rex's mouth to save Ann Darrow (Naomi watts, who looks Yum :) ). Must watch it when i get the chance.
Must also try to see 'Geisha'.

aha, i forgot - its New Year. Happy New year world !!

Resolutions?? Hmmm, :))

"Cut the crap, get to work".

Gotta go