Christmas Weekend

Wow..what a cool Christmas this has been. Usually its just a normal weekend with me usually going to the office on Christmas Day (it being a Restricted Holiday and sh*t), but this time I took the day off. I had a nice 3 day weekend for me...and with still 1 day to go, its lined up to be awesome one, considering the events that are to unfold. On Friday..I woke up late to a chilly Christmas morning. I had an awesome lazy breakfast followed by an afternoon of brandy delight! Ever since winter kicked in, my folks have switched their drink to Brandy. Nevertheless, me being an "in-discriminating" alcohol paramour, I joined the gang to some afternoon happy times. I baked a nice li'l chocolate cake in the evening...something which I had done after close to 3 years. I had a nice time and it came out soo awesomely well that I was about to finish the entire thing yesterday night itself. However, I was stopped because I had some guests the next day. Saturday saw me waking up at 9:30 a.m. by my mom, who was frantically shouting (literally..with waving menacing hands) to get ready. I had to go pick up my cousin from R.K. Puram who would stay at our place till Sunday. Guests at my home obviously means more booze. I reached back at 12:00 pm..all ready for yet another Brandy afternoon. After lunch, my friend Rohit called up to make plans for the evening. We would meet up with Harman who had to do some shopping. We headed for our (my) favourite hang-out - Superstars afterward, for a couple of beers. A couple of beers down, Harman suddenly got this craving to have Shwarma at some place in New Friends Colony. He promised more beer...which sealed the deal and I was up for it. We reached the place at 8:20 or so...had 5 shwarmas (dont judge me...there were 2 of us and they were pretty small)..and headed for a pub called Pebble Street. Its a nice joint..where we spent 2 beers (yah..I have started counting time on "beer" units)..and had a nice time chatting up. Harman left me at my place at 9:30 much to my folks' delight. Tomorrow, we would be going to a rock concert to see one of my favourite band Zero performing at Cafe Morrison. I would be attending a gig after sooo long. Hopefully it would be awesome! Anyways..its dinner time..let the celebration continue!

RROD again!

Damn..yesterday evening, I was happily playing away on my precious XBox when it suddenly froze...and so did I .. thinking of what it meant. I was really afraid to restart it but I really had no choice. I restarted it ..and this time it froze right at the starting itself. Upon restarting it again, it flashed the dreaded 3 red lights. My fears had come true. The fix lasted barely a month. However, this time, I am planning to do the fix myself. Yup, you heard it right. I see no use going all the way to the repair guys who make you wait and treat your box like sh*t. There's loads of info on the net about the fix. I plan to try and do it on my own this time...maybe include dad as well who is really interested in fixing broken things (like all dads). Come to think of it, it would be really interesting but really sad if I mess up something. However after seeing the guy who repaired it the last time, I kinda get this cocky feeling inside me that if he can do it...so can I!!

God bless the CGPA

I just got my first sem results for my M.S. programme and I was totally expecting to flunk atleast in one subject (if not more). But surprisingly (believe me thats an under-statement), I passed in every subject and actually ended up inside the top 35% of the class. Trust me, I dint study a word...atleast not before the last minute..and that too did not help. I totally f*Cked up my exams but I guess so did everybody else. Wohooo \,,/ . God bless the CGPA!

Roadtrip

Me, Viral and Jain were dying to go some place once they were free with their CAT exams. They were raving about this place called Neemrana Fort, 198 kms away from my place on the Delhi - Jaipur highway. We had heard a lot about that place from our colleagues at the office. We had heard of a really cool adventure sport called Zipping being offered there by a company called the lying fox. Zipping or zip lining consists of a pulley suspended on a steel cable mounted on an incline. The incline along with the momentum of your body takes you from one point to another at speeds close to 70 kmph. Its at a decent height as well. Basically...loads of fun. Reading about it really made us excited to venture on this roadtrip. We packed the booze for the day...which was Vodka..cuz its winter and all, packed in some snacks for the way and headed towards Neemrana fort at 6:00 am in the morning. Actually I started at 6:00 am by my car towards Jain and Viral's place. Being the bitch*s that they are, they dint even get up when I started from my place. Anyways I reached their place at 6:30 as promised but waited for them to get ready and also had some much needed breakfast. We left Noida at 7:30 and started cruising the highways. Delhi has awesome roads esp when they are empty. I was cruising at 90kmph on the DND to the airport and finally on the NH8 which is not bad either. The drive was awesome..nice sunny day...heavy metal blaring into our ears and empty roads. We opened up the Vodka at about 9 in the morning..and finished half of it. I dont know what it was. but we were sufficiently high after having around 2 pegs each. We kinda stopped after that since we had to trek and other adventure sports stuff. We stopped around 15 kms away from the place at a small tea shop and enjoyed a nice cup of tea. Tea after the vodka was somehow really nice. I never had tea while I was high...and it does kinda take it to the next level. Anyways I can go on and on about alcohol. We reached the place at 10:00am. Its a huge fort...with loads of sculptures and the works. We reached the Flying fox guys who told us that they can move our slot to 11:00 am instead of 1 pm. Since there wasnt much to do in the fort, we agreed. We were all really very excited...and also a bit high. We trekked for 1.5 kms uphill which sobered us up real nice. We had a small practise session before the real thing. There are 5 zips in total. Zip 2 is like the longest in south asia. Its close to 400 mts. That was awesome. Zipping does get your adrenaline right up there..its like flying!..the wind on your face feels awesome. Sometimes if your weight isn't completely balanced, the wind sways you to the sides. Its a nice feeling to just let go..and for fatsos like me..the momentum really helps. After the zip lines, we headed for lunch at the fort. We were informed that lunch would cost us Rs. 1100 (or 1400?) per person. We promptly decided against it and thought of having lunch at a roadside dhaba. Since there wasn't much to see on the fort, we left for Delhi at about 3 after having lunch at a restaurant nearby. The drive back was equally fun except for the small rush near the Delhi Airport...but the second half of the vodka kinda lifted our spirits. We reached at 5:30 and since we were crossing South Extension, decided to head towards Cafe Morrison. Its a nice little pub which plays rock and metal. However, maybe because we were tired or the crowd wasnt that cool...the entire atmosphere inside was pretty boring. The music was not loud, there was only chinese on the menu and they were offering 1+1 happy hour beers only for Kingfisher pints. Anyways we had a couple of beers and headed back. I reached my place at 8:30 or so but hit the sack early since I was really tired. All in all an awesome trip...would love to do it again!

MTV What the hack (continued)

Damn..I couldn't help but browse around for some more videos. I think this is some new kind of a TRP improvement strategy. Show some shitty things on TV and ppl will keep on seeing the show to know how shitty it would be the next week! Anyways I cant post all the videos..but you can find it here. In the meantime, here are some priceless answers to the questions given by the hacking extraordinaire.

How do I restore deleted files?
Answer: Go to recycle bin and click restore! (F*ck ..really? I dint know that!!!)
Answer: Use a recovery software! Aarrgh!

Best Answer: Make a copy of it in your pen drive and hang it around your neck like a necklace. Seriously..watch episode 2.

How do I remove my embarrasing online photos ?
Answer: Untag yourself if you are tagged. Upon being asked further that the website would still have the pic..he goes like.." A better way is to not do those embarrasing things" or "Lodge a police complaint"

How do I access blocked websites?
Ankit Fadia goes like..."Do you mean boyzone.com??" Shit .. he really is Ankit Fagia!

There's loads of stuff on him on the net. Here's a nice read which I got from Rohit.

MTV What the hack

I was watching TV at my friend's place and stumbled onto something which was called MTV What the hack. Intrigued by the name, we stopped. We saw some VJ named Jose (pronounced as Hose..infact.. होज़े) with Ankit Fadia..the "ethical hacker" fag. Anyways he promised to show us some very cool..mind blowing "google hacks"!! Wow...the terms he uses. Anyways...here we go.

1. How to find the local time in Sydney?
Answer to this was believe it or not....type "time in Sydney". No..thats seriously what he said. Can you believe this guy??!

2. How to convert between units. i.e. say 6 Inches to cms..and stuff like that.
The answer was to type "6 inches to cms". I swear...everyone of us in that room slapped our foreheads. I mean..cmon!!

3. How to find the meaning of a word.
Type "define:" and the word. Me and my friends are like watching literally with our jaws dropped.

.. there were more and each and every one was hilarious and sooo god damn obvious.

This guy is on MTV!..there is a channel which actually pays for guys to say this on camera. I really think (hope?) MTV wants to secretly expose this guy. I could not see any other reason he's on TV. I mean he doesn't look good...he's not funny...zero personality...hell at one point of time I am pretty sure होज़े was being sarcastic when he said "hacking extraordinaire" after all this!

Catch this episode where he tells how to protect your accounts from hackers. Really priceless stuff like you should have long passwords, never click "remember me" in Cyber cafes...hell at one point he says "You should always sign out after visiting a web site". Yah...thats how email accounts get hacked...hackers lurk around till you forget to sign out and swoop right in!! I mean this guy is on TV!!! I still cant get over it! Watch on..its hilarious...I couldn't find the google hack episode but this one is fun as well!

Motor problem

My mom and dad had to go to some alumni function organized by my mom's college. I mean where my mom teaches and not where she went to study. 5 minutes after they left, I hear the door bell ring. It was our fridge mechanic. He promptly came in and went straight for the fridge, opened up the freezer and started checking stuff. Now lately the fridge was producing more sound than usual. I thought my parents had called him to fix it. I usually dont know stuff like these. In fact, in the past, it has happened that there was something to be fixed but I did not allow the repairman to come inside, since I did not know that something had to be fixed. This obviously has resulted in loads of unwanted screaming targeted towards me. Hence, I usually act as if I know and let the guy come in. Anyways I recognized the fridge mechanic and allowed him to come in. In fact he was soo eager that he came in even before the door was fully open. I wanted to double check and called my dad about this. He told me that he hadn't called anyone. I came back and this guy goes like.."There seems to be a problem in the motor." I go like "Thanks but we dint call the shop." He was like .. really??..isnt this flat number 120? Thats when I realized the confusion and told him that its 119. Not believing in me!..he continued to ask..isnt this 2275 (some number)?? I was like .. No..really..this is not the flat you are looking for. Anyways, we had a good laugh, he went away and I figured out that there is some problem with the motor in the fridge. All's good.

Foundation Day Celebrations - The award, the songs and the booze

Well..it happened a week ago. I was too lazy to write about it then. The Foundation Day celebration is one of the major events in my office. Its a day of boring presentations, awards, cultural events and the most important part - a booze-filled evening. Its fun. We dont have to work the whole day since we leave the premises at 1:00 pm .. and the time before that we discuss what would our drinking strategy be. This is important because the bar opens at 7:40 and closes at 10:00 (sometimes before if ppl get out of control). Hence, me and my friends decide on how to go about it to make the most of it. As Sumit puts it...increase our CTC. The day began with me getting late to the office since I had to come on my own. I took the metro for the first time to Noida...and damn it was really crowded. There was some space left by the time we reached Sec. 16..but before that, it was jam packed. I met up with Viral and Rajesh at Sec. 18 and we took an auto to the office from there. The office was in a festive mood..not many ppl were glued to their seats working on the machines like usual. We had an elongated coffee time and soon it was time for me to leave for the venue since I was performing with my band Segfault. Segfault is basically just me and Alesh and bunch of volunteer singers. Come to think of it, its just the volunteer singers with me and Alesh playing for them. The set list consisted of the folksy song "Country Road", some other "popular" Hindi songs - Wake up Sid, Hai Junoon and a "remixed" version of We will Rock you. Remixed because it had hindi songs bits in the middle of We will rock you. Although it sounds bad but it wasnt that bad. Anyways we practised with the sound at the conference room and we were pretty happy with it. However the cultural event was outside and hence there was this feeling that there would be last minute glitches...and trust me what happened with me and Alesh was a more than a glitch. Anyways, the conference began...there were presentations from the top management, some ppl from NEC and stuff. There was a break for tea where I ate a lot of cakes. Back inside, the award ceremony went underway. I managed to get two awards - one for the L3Switch team - the project which literally made me spent my days and nights in the office and the other for a category known as a Team Player. Happy with all of this, it was soon time for the cultural events. We were up last. First up were the Japanese interpreter/translation team with their trademark Japanese songs. Thats when I realized we would suck since the sound was terrible. We took the stage after 20 minutes..and started off with Country roads. Barely into the song.. my vocalist forgot to sing into the mic and she was singing with her mic in her hands beside her waist!!. I kept shouting "Sing into the mic...sing into the mic". She finally heard me and started singing again (all out of tune)..but by that time, the chorus who were singing into the mic had messed up the song. Hence there wasnt much that could have been done! It was soo bad! Next up was Hai Junoon. The singer went into fast forward. The song ended up being twice as fast as the original....and to make matters worst, my mic suddenly went off. So it was just the vocalist who started singing the same stanzas again and again!! Next up was Wake up sid. It was going well..till again my mic went off midway into the song. It was hell...we finished up We will rock you without my guitar because nobody actually waited for me to plug in. They started without my go ahead! One can hear ppl shouting "Ruk jaao..ruk jaoo..Rakesh ka guitar kharaab ho gaya!!" in one of the videos. Nevertheless it was all over in about 20 minutes. I had had enough..and was dying for a drink. I spent the rest of the night boozing and dancing with my friends, colleagues, managers..basically everyone there. As expected, the bar was about to close early since some ppl had some pent up frustrations within themselves which they couldn't hold and vented it publicly. We had our dinner and the cab ride back home was bad. The cab guy was drunk and out. There was a lot of mismanagement and there were cabs which were empty and there were cabs which had 12 ppl in them. I, sadly, was in the 12 ppl category. I finally got back at about 11:30 and straightaway went to sleep. It was kinda sucky this year..I couldn't enjoy much because my mood was off thanks to the sucky performance on stage..although really happy with those 2 awards..it was kinda cool.

The Demosquitonator

My dad bought this "racket" from the local market which electrocutes mosquitoes which come in contact with it. Its really fun to use...and apparently a nice workout too. Its like playing badminton..instead of hitting the shuttle, you hit mosquitoes. Its more fun though, because in badminton, the shuttle doesn't burn up, but here, the mosquito does. Hell you can smell the protein burning when a mosquito gets electrocuted. Sometimes they die a real tragic death..they get electrocuted first and upon receiving the electric jolt, they bounce back into the electric mesh again to receive another shock and this repeats till they BURN in totality (*evil laugh*)! Its like a fatality in Mortal Kombat for the mosquitoes! Me and dad have taken the battle back to the mosquitoes. We spend close to half an hour finishing each one of them in the evening. Most of them stick to the ceiling away from our reach. Hence, we have to make use of le old desi household broom and poke them. This makes them fly to some other place which buys us some time to jump and finish them off. You can also "play" doubles..in the sense that one guy can use the broom and the other can strike the racket. I dont care how cruel or evil I sound .. but these days me and dad are trying out new skills like the backhand, the jump shot and the sneak attack. The sneak attack is when you slowly place the racket on top of the mosquito without it realizing it. Its not showy but its classy. Its definitely a healthier way to ward off mosquitoes...it takes effort..but its better than inhaling the fumes of those mosquito sprays.

Xbox's alive

I finally got the time to get my Xbox repaired and buy some new games as well. I am now a proud owner of Batman - Arkham Asylum and Fifa 2K10. I spent hours last night playing 'em both. Fifa has come a long way. The new controls actually remove the need for a separate buttons for tricks..the joystick is soo responsive that the dribble-stop is effortless. Batman - Arkham Asylum is really pretty with its comic-like artwork and animation. The Detective mode is awesome..wherein you can interact with the environment in a much better way since it shows you important information about the objects you might be interested in like grapple points and vital stats of your enemies. The stealth is awesome..you can do tricks like hang down from Gargoyles and take out enemies silently. At any point of time when you are falling down you can fire the grapple gun and climb to safety. It gets your adrenaline going...since you need to act fast and everything happens in seconds..its really cool. The AI too is awesome.
I had got the RROD on my Xbox while playing Gears 2 a few months back. It is a heat sink problem which is pretty common for an Xbox 360 owner considering so much information on the net!! Hell..there's a RROD fix pack on sale which can be bought by those suffering from it! The processor overheats and the thermal fluid actually leaks onto the processor. I hope it does re-occur again since the repair guys dint promise me that the fix is permanent. I am always nervous while using it..atleast for the time being. Anyways hope it lasts long or atleast till there's something cooler than the 360 in the market.

Funny Story

It was a nice family evening yesterday..everyone was home, sipping their drinks and mom started off with some really funny anecdotes about hilarious answer sheets. There was this one time in some economics numerical, her student wrote the most hilarious statement known to man. Apparently he might have been cheating from the guy in front. An intermediate step in the numerical involved calculating factorial of 3, the result of which was used subsequently in the next step. Anyways but the guy who was solving it, wrote 31 = 6 instead of 3! = 6 i.e. he forgot to write the "." in the factorial sign. Hence the guy who was copying it wrote 31 = 6 and suddenly started wondering..how the hell can 31 be equal to 6??!! And obviously the guy who solved the problem did not see a reason to explain why 3! (remember..without the ".") is 6. Hence, he did not write anything. The guy who was copying it, thought..he should supplement this step with some explanation and hence wrote

31 = 6 (Because, sometimes 31 = 6)

Damn! I wanna be a teacher!

All hail the metro

Wow..the metro is here! I woke up to the sweet (?) sound of chuga-chuga-chuga-chuga sharp at 6:30 am in the morning. I am pretty much sure that I would hate it in a few months time ...nevertheless..public transport is never gonna be the same again. No rush hour traffic jams..or the merciless heat..I plan to find a way to go to the office (and subsequently to Superstars) via the brand new metro which was inaugurated yesterday. It goes up till Noida Sec-31 after passing Sec-16 and Sec-18..the more popular stops. Its the first time it leaves the capital and enters another state. And the U.P. wallahs celebrated in style by mobbing the stations..breaking some railings and getting down right on the tracks and dancing and "welcoming" the metro. It was soo funny...and also a bit disturbing. No other country would have seen the scenes I saw on TV yesterday. A huge mob rushing...pushing their way through to catch a glimpse of the metro train. Screw the yellow line..they wanted to see it up close..and hence came down to the rail tracks..much to the helplessness of the poor police wallah wondering what the hell is wrong with them! Anyways I just hope the metro lasts long cuz one of my friends said that people were soo "happy" with the metro that they broke one of the railings on one of the stations! Jeez..the things people do sometimes makes me feel we dont deserve all this. Anyways but its here..and I hope it stays!

Why are we like the way we are!

Episode 1
This happened on Thursday. My office timings had changed to 8:30 am. Since I go to the gym at the office itself, I usually start at 7:30 from my house. The roads at these times are generally empty. Its a nice time to ride a bike. Anyways, there's a red light as soon as we enter Noida. Normally during rush hours its pretty common to ride on when the signal has just turned red and stuff since you are in a hurry and there's loads of traffic honking and sh*t. I usually "try" and follow traffic rules as much as I can. I was about to cross the signal, when it turned red. I stopped. There was this car behind who didnt like the idea. He kept honking and honking...I tried to ignore him as much as I can. There was plenty of space on both the sides...I mean how much space can a bike take on the road. Anyways I heard him calling out to "me" from his window. I looked back to see a scowl on his face.. really angry and asked me to move on. I politely showed him the signal...to which he even more politely showed me the finger!!! I was like .. whats the problem with you man..and with my hands I directed that he could go around me and turned around. He honked a bit more but I did not relent. He finally went dangerously close to me ..hair length away..and showed me more of his fingers. Damn he really loved that middle finger of his. I gave him a smile when he went by. I was really upset on the inside though. Soon the signal turned green and I was on my way again really thinking what did I do to deserve his wrath.

Episode 2
Same night, it was about 11 I guess, when I was in the lift. I got a call on my cellphone. I thought it must be from my home but it was from Viral. I picked up and the first words I heard was "Rakesh!......Me and Abhijeet met with an accident!" I was scared sh*t. Both of them left together on Viral's bike some time before us. Bike accidents are really ugly. He said that the Sec-18 flyover was being repaired and there were these li'l pebbles strewn around the road. He skidded on this and fell down really bad. Thankfully there wasn't any traffic...they could have been crushed under some other vehicle. Anyways they were waiting for my other friend Jain to come. They were sitting on the footpath in pain. Myself, Partha and Heera rushed to the spot with our bikes and I thought of giving him a lecture to drive slowly! However when I reached the spot I saw soo many of these pebbles covering the entire road. I myself was about to skid..had I not known about this earlier. It was scary...hell..while waiting for Jain, we ourselves saw other cars skidding!! However Viral and Abhijeet were safe. Abhijeet had got some nasty bruises on his legs..and Viral had pain on his butts ( :D ). We could afford to have a li'l laugh at him about this since they weren't hurt that much. But we came to know from other ppl on the road that there were about 5 more accidents. To top it all Viral said that they put the "Work in progress" sign board AFTER their accident!! Damn..it took 6 accidents for the repairmen to realize that they should post their f*ckin signboard!!

Back home after going to the hospital to get them checked up, I couldn't help thinking about the day I had as I lay down on my bed. Why are we like this? Its time we grow up! We have a long way to go..screw economic development...we should improve ourselves first!

Getting better

I ran a 5K for the first time after my injury. As of now, there seems to be no problem. I covered the distance without any pain..except for my left ankle..but it went away a few minutes after I stopped..so I dont think thats a problem. I was a bit slow..running at 8.5 kmph since I did not wanted to strain that much. Hopefully tomorrow's gonna be good as well. My office timings changed to 8:30 am till 5:30 pm which is kinda good. In case I miss running in the morning..I have an extra hour in the evening as a backup. Nothing more to add..hopefully I would be doing my 10K next week.

Cosmic Egg

Wow!..what an awesome album...all bow down to Wolfmother..finally a band which would become a legend in the times to come. I always wanted to really witness a band making it big. Wolfmother came out with their first self-titled album 3 years back and they made everyone sit up and notice with their classic rock sound. They are back with their second album titled - Cosmic Egg. I finally got my hands on one of the copies and was really excited to listen to it...and it didnt let me down at all! Infact they sound better than their old self. The new members are kick-ass and Andrew Stockdale is brilliant as ever! I am just addicted to his voice. Right from the first song till the last one..this album is a masterpiece.

California Queen
The intro riff is so damn awesome! It kinda sounds like a perfect beginning to a First song in an album. The bass kicks in with the drums and you get the feeling of the incoming onslaught. Andrew Stockdale with his "Plant-like" voice starts of the proceedings of this first song. Its definitely more heavy than their previous songs..and for the better. The mid-riff is a dirty li'l awesome piece which would make you stand up raising your li'l metal horns and nod your heads; literally embracing the new band and the song. The new bass guitarist Ian Perres steals the show in this first track.

New Moon Rising
If it was the bassist in the first song, I felt the drummer Dave Atkins takes the credit for this song. Andrew Stockdale is at his best with his vocals on this one. This one is on the lines of Dimesion from their first album. The sudden rushing of the guitars are I think their trademark sound (you never know..they always surprise me with their vareity). I had already listened to this song since its video was released before the album. The lyrics seem to tell about how they want to rise up after being disbanded. A nice listen.

White Feather
The stop time guitars on this one and the bluesy licks make you go crazy. This song is a nice catchy one which makes you relax a bit after the initial onslaught. The lyrics especially the refrain "Its alright now"; I think describes the current state of mind of the band. I dont know maybe I am too fixated with initial band's "disbandment" that I am trying to relate this inside every one of their songs. I was very sad when they disbanded since it was one of the few bands which I looked forward listening to in the coming years. If you have a trio and 2 of them back out; normally you get the feeling that its over..and I am so glad this one isn't.

Sundial
The intro to this one is a nice groovy riff and the keyboards come into the picture adding some serious depth to the intro. An awesome song which would be in the back of my mind constantly. The guitars are nice and chunky and the main riff is really catchy. Its a nice song and would definitely be right up there in your playlist esp during your daaru parties.

In the morning
This one takes things a bit slow. Kinda reminds me of Vagabond from their first album. The difference here being its heavier sound. The third guitarist really adds to the sound of Wolfmother. A nice breather which would make you sit back and raise your horns during the chorus. Its here that you can really see the resemblance between Robert Plant and Andrew Stockdale! The solo is awesome...big thumbs up to this track!

10,000 Feet
This is an epic song with the violins coming into play along with the heavy guitars. The guitars are nice and heavy taking us back to the old school heavy metal era. They are nice and aggressive and the crescendo which starts at the beginning and peaks almost at the end of the track literally makes you want to jump up and crave for more. Andrew Stockdale screaches with his banshee like vocals to end this one.

Cosmic Egg
The intro is a nice fast bluesy lick followed by some loud guitars and drums. Its a groovy li'l track which would make your head go into a perpetual up down motion. There is a solo almost at the last minute of the song which adds to the bluesy-ness of the song. The main riff is soo catchy that it would ring in your ears for the times to come.

Far Away
The ballad song of this album. The acoustic guitars kick in to add sweetness to the sound. Nothing else really..its a nice soft number with a kickass solo and a nice catchy chorus. One of the songs that would end up in mixed tapes/cds that you gift to your girlfriends.

Pilgrim
It picks up the pace of the album and sounds awesome. The drums on this one are really cool. Right in the middle of the song..it changes its tempo and damn that makes you raise those metal horns right up in the air. The solo follows soon and its mayhem all around.

In the castle
The intro takes you back to the Doors era. The misty keyboard sound..and the first words "Do you want to walk into the kingdoms of the sun." makes you look forward to whats in store for you. There's this chunky li'l piece before the track explodes which is soo awesome \m/. It would definitely make you do the "air drums" if not the "air guitar". Full of psychedelic sounds..this track is soo cool..makes you wanna go back to the 70s (not that I have experienced the 70s but I have this perception of the 70s and this song is exactly that!).

Phoenix
Reaching almost towards the end of the album..Phoenix talks about "Rising into the sky" pretty obvious by the name of the track. It has nice li'l segments especially the chorus with Andrew Stockdale wailing like a banshee.

Violence of the Sun
Wow! what a kickass title for a song eh? It begins with a slow rhythmic intro but promising some exciting times ahead in the track. The mid part of the song has some really loud guitar slams which again makes you feel something is in store. The song soons comes to a slow break with Andrew Stockdale literally screaming his lungs out and guitars sound really powerful along with the rolling drums of Dave Atkins. It ends with a nice li'l solo.

Big 10 thumbs up!!

GIR XIII

I missed last year's GIR and I was really looking forward to this one. However as luck would have it..my exam dates were on the exact same weekend! Nevertheless I went for the last day's show after my exam today..and it was awesome! I finished my exam at 4:30. in the evening.and straightaway called Viral. He was at the office waiting for my call. We decided to meet at his place in like 15 minutes. Subhash was suffering from fever and so was Jain..so it was just me, Viral and Partha..who btw thought that we were going to Superstars till the half way of our journey. It was only when we crossed Superstars, he asks "Where the hell are you guys going!?" Poor guy..he was worried he wasnt "dressed for the occasion"..but he found out later..he was one of the best dressed ppl at the venue!! Anyways we reached the place at like 6:00 pm only to find that the show had begun exactly on time at 4:30 (something which has never happened in the history of GIR). We missed Boomarang and AVR. However we were in time for Bhayanak Maut. They weren't their usual self today..I have seen them perform better. However that said...they weren't bad! They had their moments and were f*ckin awesome with their sh*t. They were good enuf that I bought their new album! Next up was Superfuzz who were awesome as always. They have a third guitarist who is a li'l kid!!..but he's awesome..he adds depth to their songs. They performed their hits Sing to Me and some new songs which was a treat to watch. After Superfuzz, came Scribe..the best band of the day. They were mind blowing..even better than Bhayanak Maut. They interacted wid the audience pretty well..managing to get some of 'em on the stage along with them. It was really cool. After Scribe came on the international acts. Legend has it that International Acts apart from the bands from Norway (and John Myung \m/) generally suck! This time there was a band called Intronaut which was really bad! They had like zero energy! The growling vocals dint match with the slow pace of their songs! They were soo bad that we decided to head back for some dinner after the 3rd song on their setlist. We had met up with Sam and Naren at the venue and the 5 of us decided to spend some time boozing before dinner and hence headed straight towards Noida. We had a couple of beers and finished the night off with some really tasty food. I am just back after dropping the guys at their home..tired but happy..still listening to Bhayank Maut!..damn my neck's gonna hurt tomorrow!

Sonic Boom

I was just browsing around the net for some new music, when I stumbled upon Sonic Boom by KISS! After 11 long years, they released a new studio album and damn its awesome \m/. I am soo hooked to it! Kinda brings me back to the good ol' days of loud music, catchy riffs and easy lyrics :) Too lazy to write a review. In case anyone's interested look here.

In a bad shape

Last sunday me and Rohit went running in the morning. We went to Nehru Park..I had never been there and was kinda looking forward to it. Its a really nice place to run. The park is well maintained and it has a nice 2.7 km loop. Anyways, we started running and after completing 5 kms, we stopped for a water break. After the water break..I think roughly about a kilometer through, my back started aching bad...bad enough to make me walk the rest of the loop. I thought it must have been a muscle problem and stuff..but as it turned out, yesterday the pain came at less than 5 kms..and today less than 3 kms!! I was advised some rest by Rohit and hence I would be taking the rest of the week off. This also means that my much awaited Half Marathon debut will have to wait. The Delhi run is on the 1st of Nov but sadly I would skip it. Sad but true :(

Cosmic Egg

After mesmerizing the whole world with their "old school" sound, Wolfmother are days away from releasing their next album Cosmic Egg. They have already posted a music video of their single "New Moon Rising" on their site and they sound awesome. They were disbanded soon after their first self-titled album, which left loads of ppl shocked (including me) and I guess that explains the long 3 year wait. However, the brains behind the band Andrew Stockdale, still wanted to venture forward and hence formed his new lineup which is even better than the old one. He mentions in one of his "episodes" as part of the "Transmissions from the Cosmic Egg" videos; that instead of auditioning for new members, he sought after old friends to form his new band. Anyways am just glad they still maintained the old school hard rock/heavy metal sound. I must say the music industry is getting really good at publicizing their stuff. From a Facebook page, which is very active to online streaming serving as sneak previews of their album tracks, they kinda build up the excitement for music lovers all over. Metallica too did the same for Death Magnetic and were pretty successful with their "Fly on the wall" series similar to "Transmissions from the Cosmic Egg" series. But the bands better be able to pull off their stuff after raising the expectations. Anyways looking forward for their release on the 23rd of October. Too bad the pre-order is not for people in India. Still wondering how will I get my hands on it after the release. Below is the first single from their album "New Moon Rising" - kinda speaks about the rise of Wolfmother after they disbanded.

Randomizing

Wheew..coming back after a loong time. I was down with procrastination..dint go running for close to 1.5 weeks..no guitar for 2 weeks..got loads to study...I was mainly just going to the office..coming back..eat..sleep..repeat. Anyways I caught up with each of the activities today though. I was happy that I went running in the evening. Last time I ran for like 15 minutes and my back started cramping up. I stopped and gave the rest of the week off. I went back again today, a bit apprehensive, but I finished strong. Dint run much though..just the usual 5K but I could have gone further. I dint mainly cuz I was fed up of swallowing mosquitoes (I swallowed like 5 of 'em at least). Also I dint want to risk my back.
Anyways tomorrow's Diwali...you can smell it in the air. Everything just brightens up during this time. A nice festive feeling indeed. Sadly there aren't many crackers going off. I know..I know..its bad for the environment and sh*t but its soo damn fun!! I pity the kids of today. They have me to blame though...I have had my fair share of crackers when I was kid thus, contributing to the environment mess we have today :) .
Rohit would be back in Delhi tomorrow. Looking for a nice time with him. The weather is soo cool at this time of the year. I have my first half marathon on November 1st. I am dead scared. My mileage sucks! Just when I had to pick up the pace I loosened out. I am running anyways..lets see if the adrenaline takes over on race-day (I seriously doubt though). We also have this Foundation Day coming up at the office. The one mega event of the year. Looking forward to the free booze and the fun. That's all I guess...Rake signing off! :)

Shortest week

Its been the rarest of occasions. Getting 2 successive long weekends..and that too one for monday and the next for a friday in the same week! Its been really fun. I have been lazing around the entire time which I am a bit ashamed of. I have loads of stuff to do. I have a freakin' half marathon in a month and I really need to pick up my training! I hope I am able to finish it. Office is pretty cool these days..just had a release at the end of last month. All the more reasons to feel lazy.
I dint realize it but I saw Shrek thrice in this week..and its up at 11:15 tonight as well! I dunno if I want to stay up cuz I was thinking of going for ye old running tomorrow morning. But sleeping early is again a problem since I have been dozing off the entire afternoon!!..arrrghh!!! its soo confusing! My X360 is wrecked..gotta get that repaired as well. Its been close to 3 years now, I had started to feel that I was the lucky few who ended up with good consoles but sadly the other day it gave up on me :( . But thats ok..I think once its fully repaired it might function better. Microsoft was cheap enough to settle for an inferior xclamp..but I wont. Sumit would be coming back to India tomorrow...really looking forward to that. He'll get me a really awesome looking Death Metal City action figure! Something to add to my existing collection. Anyways I will stop here...gatta waste some time doing nothing!

We are the champions!

Wow!..winning always feels good. We won the final of our intra office cricket tournament in style. We suffered from an initial batting collapse after our openers Shubhojeet and Harry were back in the pavillion within the first 3 overs. However our captain Partha and Amaresh stuck to their wickets and scored some meaty blows before getting out after putting 60 odd runs on the board. We had a 15 over match and at that stage we felt we were lagging behind. Thanks to Subhash and the tail-enders (including me)..we ended up with 114 after 15 overs. Although it was an acheivable score, we backed ourself with some awesome fast bowling (including me..again!). Subhash opened up his spell with a screaming fast yorker. The poor batsman only had 1 thing to do...get out!! I got a run out in my first over and then it was all downhill for the opponent. Our tight bowling with a nice furious pace did the trick. Soon they were 4 down in the 6th over itself and badly demoralized. All that was left was to finish up the job which was done in style. It was nice to see soo much aggression from all the team mates. After the win, we just had to celebrate..although most of the players were tired..the hardcore beer drinking guys (including me...again!) got together at our favourite venue - Superstars and spent the afternoon basking in the glory. Wow!..winning feels soo good. Read more here.

Bang Bang!

Whew..am back..I had my midterms this weekend. Needless to say I totally fucked them up :( .. I really have to be regular with them books from now. For the last few weeks I had been really busy trying to study for my midterms but really in vain. There was soo much to do and soo li'l time (blame it on my procrastination) that I literally broke down and with a come-what-may attitude I gave the exams. But sadly I totally screwed em up. Anyways, after all the sad news..I'd like to announce ... there's more sad news ... Rohit is back but he's down with Jaundice (the mother of all sucky diseases). So even if he's here, I cant meet him and we cant go out for beers. And continuing with this trend as it turns out I would miss the office cricket tournament (shamelessly named NPL) next week too because I have to go to Kerala next friday. If my team makes it to the semis, I would be able to play the semis and the finals..I pray to god we win defend the crown.

Wtf!..whats wrong with Firefox ?..My browser is sooo slow. Woahh..check this out!

I guess I would stop here. I cant go on ..even if I want to! Damn you Firefox developers! Fix them leaks first. I suggest this.

Great Day

A really cool day.

1. It was raining all throughout the morning and afternoon.
2. Had a nice whiskey session with Dad and Bro during lunch.
3. Went for a nice run in the evening. Happy to see some kites flying in the evening sky.
   
4. Spent some quality time with my cousins playing video games.
5. Grand dinner with the finest Vodka in the house and ice-cream for dessert.

A really cool independence day indeed.

Google is never wrong.

I hate to steal this from Rohit but I just had to post it. Its waay too cool.

Got my groove back!

Finally I am back on track with my running. I was struggling to get back to my usual pace for a long time now. I blame it on The Office. Not the series (I love that!) but the real one. I was stuck in the most hectic time of my life..I am talking of nightouts..no weekends..no friends...no sh*t for an entire month and a half! Things are a lot better now. After wheezing all throughout the last week, running..I finished pretty strong today. I couldnt run much mainly cuz I was getting late but the quality of the running was noticably better. My back dint hurt..I wasn't panting like crazy..although my feet hurt...but you know when you finish strong. I plan to wake up early tomorrow and try running a 10K. Hopefully I am back to my old self this week.

My mom says..

My mom says pretty amusing things which just has to be recorded.
Here's No.1:

Me: I am going out for lunch with my friends.
Mom: Are there any girls in your group.
Me: No..just us guys.
Mom: Ohh..so its a gay group!
Me: !--Speechless--!

Running with the cops

I had stopped running for about 3 weeks but I had vowed that I would restart it this week. I managed running thrice this week, I would be running tomorrow as well to make up for the loss on the weekdays. I couldnt get up early today since I slept at 3 a.m on Friday after finishing up work at the office. But in the evening, the weather was really nice and my mom too kinda forced me to go out since I was lazing around at home the entire day. It was around 7:15 and the sun was about to pack up for the day. I went to the park just behind my house and started to jog. I completed 2 rounds and it got dark and all of the other aunties and uncles and chubby girls headed back towards their homes. I had to finish 2 more rounds. The parks near my place are kinda shady..with only one or two street lights lighting up the place. I saw a bike with two cops enter and kinda patrolling to see whether everything was alright and stuff. They saw this guy (me) running and thought that I was up to something. I too realized that they were looking at me in a menacing manner. They stopped me and I was like "f**********ck I knew it!". Anyways they asked me in the most tacky Haryanvi accent "Kitne chakkar kaatega" and like a moron I answered "Kuchch nahin!". Damn!..I expected more like "what were u upto?" and stuff. Anyways they repeated the question. I told them that I was just jogging and would head back as soon as I cover my rounds. These guys asked me how much do I run. I told them about my half marathon plans and all. Thats when they lightened up. They were pretty impressed. I was like phew! They went on describing their heydays and how much fitness they had and how it got lost once they got married and had kids (all 4 of em!). They even gave me healthy advice on how to continue my running even after I get married. Some healthy tips to manage my time when my wife would be nagging away to buy groceries. It was funny.. I was getting lectured about how to keep my fitness levels high by two pot bellied cops. Anyways, thankfully they realized that I have to continue my running before my body cools down and allowed me to complete my rounds. They also headed back towards their job...or to buy groceries..whatever. I completed my 4 rounds and went back home with a silly smile on my face thinking about what just happened.

Long time no see

Whew!..am back after a long dry spell of not blogging. After being pushed to the limit at the office..things are back to normal. In the process I missed out on soo much:

1. No Running for almost 2 weeks.
I am planning to restart today itself. And I am afraid...very afraid of what my present fitness condition would be. The only thing that can be done is to be regular for a couple of weeks and thats what I plan to do.

2. Guitar -- whats that?
I took up the guitar and it was soo dusty that it looks like a million years old. I couldnt play any of my usual songs (in the manner that I used to)...which is again scary! But I think after a few warm up exercises things would improve.

3. The booze
Who am I kidding..the booze never stops.

4. My precious
The Xbox is there waiting for me to play. And I plan that as soon as I finish this blog...and hence I finish it right now!

Update
-------------

Hmm.. I am not used to having a 2 day weekend these days. It had been a long time since I was home for so many hours continuously. Its soo cool..there's soo much time to kill. Anyways after weeks we went out yesterday in the evening for biryani and booze (the ultimate combo in the history of the universe). I came back my stomach full as ever and straightaway dropped off to sleep. The morning greeted me with nice grey cloudy skies. Although it hasn't rained yet..but by the looks of it..its gonna come down pretty hard. Its a few minutes to beer time here at home..and am listening to Black Clouds and Silver Linings..the latest by Dream Theater. First impressions are nice but I dont know why these guys keep repeating their songs. Obviously they "extend" their old tunes but I fail to realize why cant they come up with an original continuation to their songs. Having said that I cant stop listening to them either. I am missing the weekend rock shows in Delhi. Somehow all the gigs are either scheduled on weekdays or at odd times. Hmm..nothing much to write really, I would go for my run in the evening..hopefully the weather would be nice.

fckd@work

Late night meetings...Groggy mornings
Stuck with reports that don't mean a thing!
No time for friends...no time for booze
Damn it!..my neck's around a noose!
Bad estimations...work on weekends
Hell..when will this ordeal end!
Gone are those lazy sundays ..
Say good bye to all the fun
For you really are
f*ckd at work my friend!

Bruce Lee

Was wandering on youtube..nice video. Reminds me of the countless martial arts movies I used to religiously follow when I was a kid.

Sad Song

need sleep..
gatta work..
life sux..
wat the f*ck!

Randomizing

Work's been really hectic these days. I was moved to this new project which is a 2 month ordeal...literally! Its entirely new for me and the time is really short. Although I am maintaining a good pace but it comes with a price. Its been a week since I played my guitar...2 weeks since I played my precious Xbox..and I guess add another week of missing the World Cup action! However I do get to see the repeat telecast of the NBA finals which comes on late at night. Lakers are playing well...infact..come to think of it..Magic is playing bad. They are lacking on the Field Goals and Free Throws front. I just saw game 2 and 4..and thats what I could infer from those games. I would try and catch Game 5 early morning tomorrow. The good thing is that I am still regular with my running. I have started to run outdoors during weekends. Although it gets pretty warm by the time I am done..but its bearable. Hmm..wat else?...my phone is back. Got a nice li'l lecture from mom..again (the first time was when I came back from bangalore without it). Anyways all's well that ends well. It would be a one day weekend for me this week as well as for quite a few weeks now. Gatta squeeze everything in 1 sunday...lets see how it goes.

Xbox360 - Project Natal

wow! .. I really hope it ends up like that!

Sunfeast World 10K

It was a nice breezy day. I was woken up by Rohit at 6:00 am who was pacing up and down the room "preparing mentally" for the big event. I, on the other hand, was in no such pressure since it was my first race and I wanted to enjoy it. Anyways we left at about 6:45 am and reached a rendezvous point where we had to meet up with Rohit's running buddies. They would take us to the venue in their car(s). We reached the venue to see loads of runners all geared up for the event. There were different categories of events. There was this Elite - Men's, Elite - Women's and the Open 10K run (which we were a part off). The Elite - Men's had already started. Infact it had almost finished. As soon as we entered the stadium, there was this one "elite" guy throwing up in the middle of the track (ok..on the side). But the point is, just before your first race..you should not be subjected to scenes like these. There were some butterflies in my tummy at that time. Anyways that guy stopped throwing up and was on his way again to finish the final meters..but he stopped again and threw up some more. Poor guy...must have given his everything..all in vain. Anyways the women's elite run began right on time with some 15-20 odd runners on the starting line. They completed one lap around the stadium and went outside. Again there was this one girl who was out in the first 300 meters or so. So, not encouraging signs at all. My expectations for myself fell down a few points. Anyways with the elite women's on their way..it was time for the open 10K event. The open 10K was divided into 2 groups...the ones with a "timing chip" and the others without it. The timing chip guys started a few minutes before the non-timing chip guys. As soon as they were on their way..it was our chance. Now..if it were some place other than India..ppl would gradually move towards the "legal" entrance on to the tracks. However, this being India and we being Indians did what we do best...break the rules. People started jumping over the stadium barricades directly onto the tracks. The organizers never in their wildest of dreams thought this would happen. This continued for a few minutes till the cops began doing their stuff with their lathis. Me and Rohit were not interested to jump so we patiently waited in the holding area till we got our chance. So I began my run with Megadeth blaring from my headphones. At that time my adrenaline was really pumping. But it was not to last long. After the 2K mark my shins and ankles were in pain. It must be because I could not run that much during the entire week. I dragged my feet along till the 5K mark where psychologically I am always at a better position. No matter how tired I am, whenever I reach the 5K mark, I feel a bit relieved. Now running in the Sunfeast 10K was a different feeling altogether. There were soo many different kinds of ppl I saw on the way. You had these ppl who stood along the circuit, cheering you up on the way. It makes you feel really good about yourself. Especially for me, since all I am used to are angry looks that I get for hogging the treadmill in the office gym. Then there were people who took some big illegal shortcuts every chance they got , which was kinda stupid. It was like if you don't want to run..why take such a big pain in the first place. Then there were these "walkers". They are the most dangerous of 'em all. They would get to you and would make you wanna stop and walk for a while. I had a tough time..especially on the inclines. I soo wanted to stop and take some rest. But I kept telling myself to go on. Its moments like these where music takes you along. Atleast it helps me to get really pumped up and go for it. Anyways after the 5K, although I was comfortable, I saw so many ppl take the water break that I too went to the next stand and drank some water. I dont know if it was because I drank while running or not..somehow it dint feel good at all. That's when there was this nice incline between the 6K and the 7K mark to make matters worse. That was the toughest part of the circuit. Once that 7K mark was reached..I knew the race was pretty much over. Firstly, because almost all of the remaining part was down-hill and secondly the view was much much better. There were things to look around. That really gets your mind to divert from all the tiredness and exhaustion. Soon enough, I saw the 9K mark and was near the stadium area. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see the time. I was running exactly at the same pace as I do on the treadmill. I was expecting that I would be slower than the treadmill. The final meters were in between large crowds cheering you up and I crossed the finish line with 63 minutes and 11 seconds on the stop watch. Its the same as the time I take normally on my 10K runs. Rohit was there waiting...and also disappointed that he could not cover it under 50 minutes. Nevertheless I was kinda happy. We went to collect the certificates and thereafter went to Purple Haze to celebrate. A nice time overall but I want to improve upon my timing. The next race would be the Delhi Half Marathon. I have plenty of time to prepare but loads of training to do. This time I plan to follow a training routine. Lets hope Delhi is nice to me.

The Trip

Whew!..just back..and damn!..what an awesome trip!!..as good as it gets. I reached Bangalore on Friday and as soon as I landed, I got a call from Rohit that he wont be coming to pick me up! He was not on time for the shuttle bus and since the distance between the Airport and Koramangla is H-U-G-E, taking the next bus wasn't an option. Anyways he gave me directions to the bus stop from where I could board a nice Volvo to his place. I boarded the bus which had loads of space and after waiting for almost 30 minutes, we finally started to move. It was a cool ride..the AC kept me very comfortable..in fact I started feeling a bit cold by the end of it. I reached Koramangla at 11:40ish and waited for Rohit. Back at his place there was Blender's Pride waiting for us. We finished off the daaru session and some of the Coffee Liqueur which was lying around and went to sleep at 3:00 am. We were up bright and early at ..uhh...10 am on saturday. Hungry for some breakfast, we ventured to a place called Krishna Cafe. However we were a bit late and the cafe had closed. Hence, we went to some other place where we had some Masala Dosa and a nice cup of coffee. The next item on the list was some games for my 360. I was hoping to get Gears 2 and Street Fighter 4. I could not find them anywhere in Delhi (ok..i dint really look for them but the places near my house dint have them). Anyways we went to Forum mall and headed inside Landmark...the place for a lotta cool stuff. However, even Landmark dint have Gears of War 2..but after searching for a bit..I managed to find SF4. Next up we went to this Toy Shop. We had nothing particular in mind to buy, but we were impressed with some really cool Robots. Rohit had these gift coupons he won in some excercise competition in his office, and he thought spending it on the robots. However, sadly, the coupons were not valid at Landmark and hence we had to return empty handed. I was really looking forward to having some fun with the robots. Anyways we headed towards Windsor Pub for lunch. It was a long way..plenty of traffic jams before we finally reached the beering place. Its an old joint with a nice ambience and an even nicer beer. The food was also awesome. After having lunch it was nearly 4pm. We headed back..had a nice afternoon siesta. I woke up at around 6 and we went out for some coffee. It was dinner time soon but as soon as we started the bike, it started pouring. We waited for a while inside the house and ventured out again once the downpour was reduced to a mild drizzle. We headed over to a place called Rendezvous. We decided not to have beer too much beer for dinner since there was this big race the next day (I wont mention the race here..it deserves another blog for itself). Anyways we slept at around 11 and got up at 6 and left for the race. It was fun to run in the marathon...and I wasnt under much pressure since it was my first race and I dint have huge expectations from myself. After the race, we headed back home to freshen up and decided to go to a new place called Jimi's for breakfast. Its a new beer cafe and we were really interested in checking it out. However, when we reached there, it was closed. We headed to Purple Haze and our breakfast was 2 pitchers of beer..chilly chicken, french fries and masala peanuts. Hey! we just ran for 10 kilometers..we have all the right to indulge! We headed for lunch at a nice li'l restaurant and stuffed our stomachs with more food. We headed back to the house and decided to rest for a while since we had plans for a "herbal" evening before going to Haze again in the night. We reached Rohit's friends' place at around 7pm where the "herb" was kept. It was my first time and damn!..its nothing like I had experienced before. It went straight to my head. I was really high. In fact so high that I had to pass off the booze plan at Haze. I was really out. After lying around for dunno how many hours..it was time to leave. I enjoyed the ride back home though. The effects of the herb had lessened and it wasnt as strong as it was earlier. Also there was this nice li'l drizzle which helped calm down my nerves (even more :D ). I went straight to bed because I had an early flight the next (today) morning. I left from Rohit's place at 5:45 am and was kinda hoping to catch up with some sleep on the way. Sadly, the roads were totally empty and I reached the airport in like 30 minutes. I slept all the way to Delhi though. Ohh...I also realized when I reached the airport, that I had forgotten my cellphone at Rohit's place. After cursing myself for several minutes..I finally accepted the situation and thought of calling up Rohit as soon as I reach home. As it turned out he already noticed the phone and called up my folks to let them know of the situation. That did help a lot. I am pretty sure my mom would have been very scared. Anyways back at home..I had a nice lunch. I was really hungry since I dint have dinner and no substantial breakfast. I tried the SF4 on the 360 and man!!..its soo cool...its really fun. Again, I wont mention it here since it also deserves a separate blog. Whew!..it was an awesome trip. The booze..the race...the weather..everything was sooo cool. Truly one of the best trips ever!

Junkyard Groove: Its OK

Nice simple video of a nice simple song by a nice simple band! \m/

Good game!

Wow..the finals of the IPL just finished with the Deccan Chargers lifting the trophy. What an awesome game of cricket. All of us were really excited about the finals and we had done our part of the preparations for the same. There was loads of beer..plenty of snacks and nothing else to do! I just loved the way Kumble started the proceedings. It was really aggressive of him to come on in the first over and get Gilchrist out. It was as if he wanted to take the momentum from the Chargers. I thought he was exceptional. But that was the problem..none of the others joined the party. If there was one more bowler who was as good as him, the Chargers would have had a tough time. Nevertheless, the total they posted was not that big. I thought the Challengers would win easily. But when Harris started his first over..I could feel they were all pretty pumped up! It was a match of nerves at the end. Gilchrist is an awesome campaigner in situations like these. He took the game away from Delhi in the semis and he was exceptional today behind the wickets. He is a nice motivation for the others on the field. Phew! It was a cool match. Two teams who were equally pumped for the finals. I had prayed for Royal Challengers to win..but sadly they lost. Anyways it was a fun atmosphere at home...cheering for every big hit that was hit and every wicket that fell. A good game at the end of the day.

My mom - the TV addict

Ever since her vacations started, she has turned into a TV maniac. She spends her entire time in front of the idiot box. An average day starts off with 2 back to back episodes of FRIENDS followed by According to Jim. Then comes My Name is Earl. Its a bit "vulgar" for her taste but she watches it anyway! Then, on some days she watches My Wife and Kids, whenever thats on. But the thing that gets on my nerve is when she doesn't let me watch and in turn spends time watching "Jugni Chale Jalandhar"!! I mean .. cmmonn!!! .. and "Kabhi main saans banoongi"!! Thats hell..I don't know why she likes that program! She says she can easily relate to it! Damn!!.. To top it all she elaborates the storyline as soon as I come back home from the office! Also, whenever I catch up on the re-runs of my fav shows during the weekend, she's there spoiling all the fun since she has already seen it before and gets into the constant I-know-what-happens-next mode!! Oh lord!..please open up the colleges early this time. I remember my mom to be this studious book worm kinda person when I was in school. Well..thats all history. I know I am sounding like a parent worried about their kids going spoilt (except its the other way round) .. but thats exactly how I feel! Also I want to be the spoilt kid of the family... not mom!!

The best Rock-off challenge!

This clip's a bit old but its funny as hell. Jack Black's awesome.

Roadtrip!

It was the first time the entire gang was together for an outing. There was booze, music, the never-ending blabber, pretty scenery and awesome weather. We had to leave Delhi at 8pm but we only managed to start at 10 pm. I was kinda mad at some ppl for being late and stuff but beer calmed down my nerves and it was all fun again. Viral had brought his Bose Soundock speakers which were truly awesome. Although I dint get to play my music on the bus (hail bollywood loving crowd), I used 'em in my hotel room. After getting drunk on a few beers and a round of dumb charades, we reached a dhaba for dinner at about 1 am. We resumed our journey and slept the rest of the night away till cool breeze from the window woke me up. We had reached the mountains. It was pretty cool. Although I was sleepy as hell but I really could not miss the view. A bunch of us tired of seeing everyone sleep..created a ruckus soo bad that everyone had to get up. We stopped for tea at another tiny li'l place..where we also got the chance to freshen up. After tea we were told there was rafting on the way to Manali. We reached the place in the evening. We suited up and I got this really tight water suit which showed off my "assets". Anyways, the rafting was soo much fun. It was a much needed activity..since everyone had started feeling the tiredness of the travel. The ultra cool water rejuvenated us all. We headed for the hotel which was around half an hour from that place. The hotel was awesome...there was a bar ... a discotheque and the rooms were nice and luxurious and had awesome views. We freshened up and went for Mall Road. Its a shopping street similar to Sarojini Nagar. I couldnt find anything interesting but did manage to get soda and some snacks for the daaru party. We headed back..opened up the bottles and spent some time boozing away. We couldnt drink much since me and subhash had to meet the manager and talk to him regarding the sightseeing and all. As it is everyone was really tired..and hence we all went to sleep. We were I was up bright and early and got dressed by 5:00 am. However none of the others were ready..so I had this huge task of waking everyone up and screaming at them to get ready. With our packed breakfasts, we were on our way to Rohtang Pass. It was the most scenic drive ever. It was awesome! I just could not stop clicking away my camera. We reached the ski point...ohh yah I had my first experience skiing. It was soo much fun and I picked it up very quickly. The trick is to keep your weight forward all the time...and you wouldn't fall. We were not allowed to go on bigger slopes...sadly. We spent loads of time in the snow..clicking pictures and drinking tea. It was time for us to head back for paragliding to Solang Valley. It was a long trek to the bus but the panoramic view kept us interested all the way back. Also Shruti falling in the dirt also kept us in good moods. Back in the bus, we enjoyed the drive down the mountain. A bunch of ppl who were sitting in the front starting singing ol' sappy bollywood songs. Unable to bear the songs, me, Viral and Mukul went into this raunchy mode and started singing all the vulgar Bollywood songs to counter attack. And damn what ensued was a battle won by cheapness and vulgarity. We laughed our asses off the entire time. Easily the best time ever. We soon reached Solang Valley. It was getting cloudy which was bad news for us since the weather has to be totally clear for paragliding. As expected, the paragliding guys had packed up but asked us to wait for sometime for the weather to get cleared. We had lunch in the meantime and took some pics since it was a beautiful spot. However, the weather gods played foul and we could not paraglide. On our way back we visited the Hidimba temple which was pretty cool. We reached the hotel and spent some time at the riverside. Its always a nice feeling sitting by the river. When it became a bit dark we ventured back to our rooms for the much awaited daaru party. We boozed the night away and asked the room service guys to get our dinner upstairs. We finished boozing up till like 10:00 - 10:30 and went downstairs at the discotheque. After about an hour we came back still sufficiently drunk, tired but happy about how the day went. The next morning we had to pack up and leave for Delhi. We stopped at Manikaran on the way. There's this gurudwara and a Shiv temple. It also has a natural sulphur spring bath. The water was waay too hot for me and I dint go inside the bath. We spent an hour there and had breakfast at the langar. We resumed our journey and we were all too tired to do anything. My voice had gone phut! I was barely able to talk and hence decided to give my mouthpiece a much needed break. I slept all along the way..and after almost 20 hours of travelling we reached back to Delhi. I was sleepy, tired, my throat was bad and my legs were aching as hell..wow what an awesome trip!

Randomizing

I have been out for a few weeks now. My last twitter update was like 4 days ago! Blame it on laziness, IPL, booze etc. Anyways, Delhi is turning on the heat. Its 40 degrees in the afternoons which has made us spend less time on our daily "after-lunch walks sitting in the lawns " activity. I hate it!
I am looking forward for the Manali trip. The packages have been booked. We leave next thursday. Hopefully the trip would be awesome. Its kinda the first time my entire office gang is going out. Every other time someone or the other had some "prior commitments".
Ohhh..I finally organized all my music on my Ipod. That was a huge task. Now every song has the album information, the artist information and the Albumart. It looks so much cooler now. These days I am hooked to Kreator and Lamb of God. I found a new liking to these genre of songs..especially on my runs. Helps the adrenaline flow. I have also picked up this new annoying habit to go into death metal vocals while I speak.
Anyways I am thinking of getting back to my long lost hobby of sketching. Its been a loong while since I made something. But these days I can rarely keep my eyes open after dinner. I doze off minutes after my dinner. Hopefully I would start today.
My saturday mornings are spent fruitfully playing cricket with my office friends. We found a nice li'l park which has a decent bounce for bowlers (to my delight). I love making their lives difficult with my super fast pace. There were some talks of some inter organization matches to be held..god knows whats up with that. It would be cool if it gets organized.
Apart from all this, it was my bro's birthday this week. I thought we would go out but he had to stay up late and mom ended up having me help out with dinner at home! It was soo frustrating. I came back home early so that we dont miss happy hours and there I was, cutting vegetables for dinner! I somehow have this feeling my bro did this on purpose! Anyways he hasnt stopped growing though. He's growing bigger by the day..in breadth..not length!
Thats it for now I guess. Gatta make rotis now..damn..I hate Rajesh for telling my folks at home that I cooked when he stayed with me!

Old is Gold

The IPL started yesterday with 2 awesome matches. It was the senior players who took the cake in both the matches and it was a refreshing change. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble all playing key roles in their team's performance. I love it when people who are down and out fight back to shut their critics. Thats exactly what happened to Dravid and Kumble. Rahul Dravid was pinned as a test batsman in a 20-20 and he showed everyone that it takes more than just blind hitting to win matches. Same goes for Kumble. He ran through the opposition which was so reminiscent of his early days. I felt that the pitches weren't easy to bat on and only those who had a sound technique could play well. Sachin and Dravid were at total ease when they played, whereas everyone else (esp the youngsters) just wanted to hit everything out of the park and succumbed. I thought Shane Warne was awesome too. He took those 2 wickets where he bowled 2 youngsters (Kohli and Akhil) with classic Warne deliveries. The one which pitches outside leg stump and then spins to hit the timber. It was awesome. Not only the bowling but his fielding was immaculate as well. He took that awesome catch to dismiss Dravid. I personally feel this IPL is gonna be the young vs. old .. the flagarant vs. the old school..arrogance vs. experience. Well..all I can say is..game on f*ckers!

Catching up

I am enjoying these days. Its been a relaxing 2-3 weeks or so with my project entering into the maintainence phase. I finally got the chance to catch up on my pleasure activities. I am hitting the gym with a vengeance. I kinda spend an hour on the treadmill everyday. I am participating in the Sunfeast World 10K run. It would give me a chance to visit Bangalore, meet up with Rohit, go to Purple Haze and head bang like crazy. I would also get to participate in an official marathon race. So really looking forward for it. Apart from that I also caught up on my long lost habit of reading. I read Fish. Its a feel-good book on how to change your attitude to make your workplace a fun place. Although its nothing new .. but a nice read nevertheless. Although I stay away from such books but my GM gifted me the book, so I thought I might as well read it. Apart from that I also finished The White Tiger a few days back. An amazing story. Its about a poor taxi driver who fights all odds to become an entrepreneur. How he does that would make you hate his guts..but the sheer sarcasm and the anger in his narration would make you smile right till the end and actually make you respect the guy for the way he is. It has some of the wittiest, funniest descriptions/comparisons of people I have ever come across. It would keep you snickering away till the end. It did leave me a bit scared of Taxi drivers though. Anyways, nowadays, I am on the verge of finishing Ignited Minds. Now thats what you call a motivational book. APJ's account of his old working days at ISRO, DRDO literally made my adrenaline flow and gave me goosebumps. His description of India's great history is worth reading. I especially loved the chapter on "Visionary, Teachers and Scientists" and "Patriotism beyond Politics and Religion". Up next I have Salman Rushdie's - Shalimar the Clown. So really happy to be in the midst of books again after quite sometime. Apart from all this I got some travel on the cards this month. I already came back from Kerala a few days back. I would be going to Kullu-Manali and Rohtang Pass the end of this month and then to Bangalore for the marathon in May. So..pretty eventful times ahead...not to forget all the daaru parties in between.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Metallica got inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last weekend or so. I got a mail from the mailing list today, that its available on Fuse. I just watched it and it was soo damn awesome. Catch the induction ceremony here . It was cool of them to include Jason Newstead for the ceremony. It includes a touching speech by every member plus a finale jam which includes Master of Puppets \m/ and Enter Sandman. They later performed the cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin" with an awesome lineup which included Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Flea..and i dunno there were sooo many...phew..what a f*cking awesome show.\m/

Insomnia

I was hit by insomnia yesterday and stayed up till like 4 in the morning. In the quest for sleep, my eyes fell onto the cover of my Ryu action figure. It has this pose of a roundhouse kick. I remember me and sumit wondering if it could be possible for that figure to stay balanced on 1 leg. Well, as it turns out, if you get the weight distribution perfect, it can stand on one leg. However, the slightest touch makes it fall. Anyways its a little over than 8 hours and the guy is still standing. I just had to click some pix cuz it looks awesome. It took me about 1.5 hours to get it standing and another 2.5 hours to make it perfect. But an effort truly worth it! Btw..I couldn't get the roundhouse kick properly..but a sidekick worked well. I also brought my Venom action figure into the action.

Off to Kerala

I am going to Kerala today for my cousin bro's engagement. I am looking forward for a week long vacation which would include loads of food..loads of fun..and loads of pix!

Birthday Doh!!

I turned 25 yesterday. It was an awesome day. Viral came back from Japan and joined office. It was after a long time my entire gang was together and it was soo much fun. Amidst all the fun and laughter I had a major "doh!" moment which would be retold countless times by my mom to all my relatives and her friends. After yesterday night's awesome party..I came back at 12. I entered my room to see a gift all wrapped up and neatly placed on my study table. It was a pleasant surprise indeed. I wasted no time in opening it. I found a really cool G-I Joe action figure of Snake Eyes. I was soo happy!..finally someone who gifted me something I loved. I went to sleep and the next morning (today)..my mom asks me "Did you see the gift??" I was shocked...did my parents gave me this?? After all these years they finally understood me??!! I asked them unbelievingly "Did you guys get this." My mom goes like "Yes..its nice ryt?". I said "Yes...its awesome..I plan to keep it on top of my computer table". Thats when they go like..."What!!!??" And what followed was mad laughter. It was not the "with you" laughter but the "at you" laughter. My mom told me (taking time in between her giggles) that it was not for me but for my li'l nephew in Kerala. Since I would be going to Kerala next wednesday for my cousin's engagement, my folks got it for my li'l nephew!! Damn!!..the way they mocked me the entire afternoon..with questions ranging from "When would you grow up??" to "Do you really want this? Should we get you another one?" to "Did you read the box?..it says 8 and below!" Damn..it was soo embarrassing. Anyways my nephew is a lucky kid..Snake Eyes is awesome.

Awesome drummer

Damn!..the cutest li'l guy playing awesome drums!

Joke's over

Ok..for all those who believed the autopilot feature. Click me

Google Autopilot

Got this from Rohit. F*ckin unbelievable!

Whiplash

On the road like a flash.

The beast rides on ... black as ash.
Take cover, or dare to get smashed.
As I name thee - Whiplash!

Mother of all coincidences

My uncle who is a commandant in the BSF had this seminar today in Gwalior. He went to Gwalior via Delhi. My aunt also came along and is staying with us till the seminar gets over. Anyways his name is Ajit Kumar (I will explain why the name is important..read on!!). He is like one of those ultra lucky ppl who get a wife who does all the work for him :D . He just sits and orders...and is very used to that lifestyle especially since there are soo many jawans to help him at home. Its a complete VIP treatment. Anyways so today my aunt who was responsible for packing his uniform and all, forgot to pack his name plate badge which has to be pinned on the uniform. Damn I cant even remember the last time someone packed my bags for me. Infact I dont think anybody has done that ever!! Anyways so he calls up in the morning asking my aunt to check if the badge is here. Thats when she realized that she had forgotten to pack it. Damn..the look on her face made us realize the seriousness of the situation. A commandant is the head of a battalion. Just to think that a commandant forgot to wear his badge is really unthinkable. The seminar also had D.I.Gs and I.Gs. It would have left a very bad impression if they noticed that he was without a badge. Its like a part of the uniform. A commandant who is not dressed properly can attract severe consequences. I left for office a bit worried about what would happen. However, when I came back..my aunt was her cheerful self again. I asked her if everything went fine at the seminar. Thats when she told me that my uncle found a malayalee driver who worked in the BSF with the name Aji Kumar!! He borrowed his badge and used it for the seminar successfully evading attention from anyone. Damn!...just think of it! .. pure coincidence ?? My mom doesn't think so. Anyways she gave a piece of her mind to her li'l brother...which was kinda funny. I never imagined a fully grown man - a father of a child - would get to hear statements like "How careless can you get? You should mend your ways. You cant expect people to take care of your li'l things." and so on ...and that too in front of his wife :D . Anyways guess if you wish for something hard enough..it can happen. See ?? .. Walt Disney has taught us so many things..its a pity ppl dont understand the importance of cartoons. Anyways I cant wait to hear the first hand account of the story from my uncle himself when he comes back tomorrow..hopefully over a glass of daaru.

My new pet bird

After envying everyone who owned it for the past dunno how many years, I finally bought one for myself. Behold the new beast - my very own Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark. Needless to say its big..its black..and when its 350 cc engine purrs, it sounds like a double bass drum line on a thrash metal song. I went for a drive and covered nearly 50 kms today itself. Now my bro has taken it out for a ride. Normally the things I buy attract loads of criticism/mean jokes/sarcasm/etc. from all my family members. Be it the Xbox 360, my precious Ryu action figure, my donald duck mug..each one is a topic of conversation to embarras me in front of friends and relatives. But this was one buy which was approved by everyone. Anyways I hope I have loads of fun with it. I gatta think of a name for it. Hmm..that requires a lot of thinking.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings

Dream Theater is set to release their 10th studio album sometime in June, titled - Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Their last one - Systematic Chaos was awesome. I hope this one turns out to be a hit as well. The title speaks of optimism .. something we really need these days with chaos all around. Eagerly waiting for them. I hope pray they tour India!

Happy Holi - the herbal way

Its days after holi...but I couldn't really get the time to fill in my blog. Anyways, Holi was spent the "herbal" way..for the very first time in my life. Bro knows this paanwaala (yes, he has contacts all over the place) who promised to make bhaang for him on Holi. Excited, he broke the news at home, that he would be getting this stuff for the entire family. Apart from mom; who is scared of bhaang, everyone was very excited. So on the D-day..bro wakes up at 6 am (for the very first time in his life..I think) to get the thandai. He comes back at 8 after having some of the stuff on the way..or as he puts it "assuring the quality" of the product. Since it wasn't cold, we promptly put it in the freezer. At 10 am sharp..after breakfast..out came the thandai..milk with the lightest greenish tinge mixed with loads of sugar and dry fruits. We lapped up a glass each and since I was asked not to hurry up with the thing..we spent our time watching Sehwag making a mockery of the Kiwis. After 5 glasses of thandai each..a little more than a liter, carefully spaced over 4 hours, my stomach was full but still no sign of "happiness". We finished up the leftover bhaang and proceeded for lunch. I had an unusually heavy lunch. Although things were stable but I could realize that I was eating more than I do normally. After lunch, I dropped myself on the sofa..my stomach full as ever. Thats when the stuff started to kick in. It all started with a feeling of this strange calm and contentment inside me. It was the best feeling ever..slowly and steadily things were fuzzy...my head became light and I was feeling the "happiness" all around me. I couldn't help wear a constant smile on my face...and I could see it on my bro's as well as dad's face. The stuff started kicking in as the hours went by. Its one of the smoothest ways to get high. The slowness of the process makes it a lovely experience. Obviously different people have had different experiences with this stuff..but for me..it was kinda like time had stopped. I felt this light tickle in my stomach and I was feeling this strange warmth inside me. It was really cool. I never experienced anything like it before. I slowly dozed off and woke up in the evening..still feeling the effects of the herb however, very subtle, by this time. I had a nice dinner and as I lay on my bed..watching the fan go round and round on the ceiling...I reminisced about the day that went by as I slowly allowed sleep to take over me.