1. The release which was due on Friday has to be completed by tomorrow.
2. Going with zero preparation for my exams on Saturday and Sunday....gonna flunk for sure.
3. Have to find out stuff for the office technical newsletter and submit them by tomorrow.
4. Have to spend long nights in the office next week for a release on 31st March.
5. Have exams again on April 3rd (my birthday!!) and 4th. Needless to say, I dont have time in between to study for them too.
6. These mosquitoes are driving me crazy!!!!!!!
Life's a b*tch.
P.S. The only good thing going on is that somehow I am getting time for my runs.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Power Song
There's this "Power Song" selection on my Nike Ipod app which allows you to set a "power song" to help you get over those moments during your run when you just cannot take another step, but still have a decent distance to cover. During my running heydays, it was the 7km mark. After being out of touch with running for almost 6 months and consequently gaining 3kgs consistently every month, it now comes at the 3 km mark. Thats when I switch to the Power song for that last surge of adrenaline to take me towards the end of the run. Although the choice of the songs have changed over the period, but all of these songs have some inherent similarities which got me wondering about 'em.
The perfect running song for me is a mid-tempo song overall, but kinda changes gears mid-way and keeps the momentum going till the end. It should have a crunchy chorus which keeps that adrenaline going. The mid-section should have nice monster breakdowns and the song structure should be kinda intricate with lots of tempo changes. Basically, it should not be like the usual verse-chorus-verse structure. I dont mind the ultra fast songs while I run...for example I would love to listen to a Lamb of God or Kreator while I run but they burn me out very quickly. The adrenaline rush is too much too soon and hence choosing them as a power song turns out to be a big mistake (most of the times). Right now, my Power song is Endless Sacrifice by Dream Theater. Its a nice song which starts off slow and has a really dirty chorus riff. The mid-section is awesome with the entire band going berserk and literally playing out of their skins to match each other. Its a long song stretching to 11 minutes but it really pumps me up esp during the chorus. From 2:00 onwards, its mayhem and things get darker at 4:30 but just when you think things couldn't get better, the monstrosity is unleashed at 7:35 till the end of the song. Its an epic song which is gonna stay in my running play list for the times to come. Check it out!
I couldn't find a studio version..its too long to be a single video on youtube I guess. Even this live version is split into 2 parts.
The perfect running song for me is a mid-tempo song overall, but kinda changes gears mid-way and keeps the momentum going till the end. It should have a crunchy chorus which keeps that adrenaline going. The mid-section should have nice monster breakdowns and the song structure should be kinda intricate with lots of tempo changes. Basically, it should not be like the usual verse-chorus-verse structure. I dont mind the ultra fast songs while I run...for example I would love to listen to a Lamb of God or Kreator while I run but they burn me out very quickly. The adrenaline rush is too much too soon and hence choosing them as a power song turns out to be a big mistake (most of the times). Right now, my Power song is Endless Sacrifice by Dream Theater. Its a nice song which starts off slow and has a really dirty chorus riff. The mid-section is awesome with the entire band going berserk and literally playing out of their skins to match each other. Its a long song stretching to 11 minutes but it really pumps me up esp during the chorus. From 2:00 onwards, its mayhem and things get darker at 4:30 but just when you think things couldn't get better, the monstrosity is unleashed at 7:35 till the end of the song. Its an epic song which is gonna stay in my running play list for the times to come. Check it out!
I couldn't find a studio version..its too long to be a single video on youtube I guess. Even this live version is split into 2 parts.
Friday, March 12, 2010
TGIF
Whoosh!..the week whizzed past like a tracer bullet. It was the same ol' story..work..eat..sleep..repeat. I managed to go for a run yesterday morning. I covered 4kms in 30 minutes..a full km behind what I could do a year back. Nevertheless, with the Sunfeast 10K coming up I am planning to get my lost momentum back. Although nothing's for sure but I am thinking to go down to Bangalore to meet up with Rohit and participate in the run. Everything depends on what's the mood at the office. Hopefully by March end my project would be somewhat in a stable shape. Keeping my fingers crossed though. Apart from the usual stuff..I have my exams on the 20th and the 21st (..or was it the 21st and the 22nd?) and I have loads to study with very li'l time on my hands. Although I was saved the last time, this time I dont think I would be that lucky. I just hope everything goes alright. I have nothing much up my sleeve this weekend. I would be playing cricket tomorrow morning and I would most definitely catch up on my running too. Hopefully if I squeeze in some good hours of studying I might actually be able to write something in my exams. Lets just hope for the best and .. f*ck the rest!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
A full weekend
After almost 4 weeks of half/no weekends working in the office...I stumbled on a full weekend this week. I somehow managed to finish my work before the deadline (or so I believe..we will find out in 10 hours from now). Anyways the weekend started pretty well. All of us went to Superstars on Friday to booze the night away. The crowd was pretty hot that day too. We had a nice time staring at the pretty girls and making fun of how their boyfriends looked (you say jealousy..I say f*ck off!) After our usual number of rounds (which is quite large).. just when we thought of winding up..the hip-hop loving DJ started playing Maiden! That was it man!...we sat down for 2 or 3? (faint memories) more rounds of beer and the music became better and better. I reached back home at 1 in the morning after dropping off my friends. I straightway dove into my bed and woke up at like 9 the next morning with a li'l hangover. I also couldn't really remember whether I had locked the car or not. I frantically ran downstairs to check to see that everything was fine. I gave a silent high-five to myself and came back without letting anyone know why I came down in the first place. I have really come to believe that I become more careful when I am drunk.
Saturday was spent in getting my laptop fixed and some other mindless chores around the house. I went for a run in the evening...and basically spent the day doing nothing useful. You could say that it was a typical day in my life.
Sunday was nice. We had planned to go to Chandni Chowk and have them famous parathas at the Parathe waali gali. With the metro and all being a stone's throw distance away from my home..travelling has become an easy affair. I met up with my friends at the station and headed towards Chandni Chowk. We reached the place at like 11:00 and straightaway went to a small restaurant where we saw pictures of Nehru and Indira Gandhi having parathas. After trying about 9 varieties of parathas..a lot of us were reasonably full (I dont come in "a lot of us"). And so we headed towards a lassi shop where we had some lassi and rabri. We went for a nice li'l stroll till the Red Fort to ease our stomachs a lil. And thats when the other guys were "too tired to go anywhere". I was really irritated. It sucked big time. I was in no mood of going back home sooo early after coming such a long way. So me, Viral, Negi and Harry thought of staying back and spend some time in CP. We reached CP and headed to the United Coffee House (which happens to sell beer as well). Inside the coffee house we had everything but coffee. I was kinda excited to see them serving pitchers. We had 3 pitchers for the 3 of us and a measly ice tea for Harry. We stopped eating at 5 in the evening and decided to head out. We went to this nice li'l park called the "Central Park" where we heard some band playing Summer of 69 and subsequently Greenday's Boulevard ... . The guys pretty much sucked..and then stooped to an all time low when they started playing songs from Rock On and the "Gay"street Boys. As it is I was irritated by the Backstreet Boys coming to headline Rock In India .. the songs were like a slap on my face...blech..puke!! Anyways, we lay down in the grass..saw the sun go down...made fun of Harry...a lot! and then headed back. Back at home, I had more food and lay down in front of the TV before dad drove me off to my room.
All in all a really cool weekend indeed...the right mix of laziness and fun..like a well made cocktail (I should really stop relating everything to booze!)
Saturday was spent in getting my laptop fixed and some other mindless chores around the house. I went for a run in the evening...and basically spent the day doing nothing useful. You could say that it was a typical day in my life.
Sunday was nice. We had planned to go to Chandni Chowk and have them famous parathas at the Parathe waali gali. With the metro and all being a stone's throw distance away from my home..travelling has become an easy affair. I met up with my friends at the station and headed towards Chandni Chowk. We reached the place at like 11:00 and straightaway went to a small restaurant where we saw pictures of Nehru and Indira Gandhi having parathas. After trying about 9 varieties of parathas..a lot of us were reasonably full (I dont come in "a lot of us"). And so we headed towards a lassi shop where we had some lassi and rabri. We went for a nice li'l stroll till the Red Fort to ease our stomachs a lil. And thats when the other guys were "too tired to go anywhere". I was really irritated. It sucked big time. I was in no mood of going back home sooo early after coming such a long way. So me, Viral, Negi and Harry thought of staying back and spend some time in CP. We reached CP and headed to the United Coffee House (which happens to sell beer as well). Inside the coffee house we had everything but coffee. I was kinda excited to see them serving pitchers. We had 3 pitchers for the 3 of us and a measly ice tea for Harry. We stopped eating at 5 in the evening and decided to head out. We went to this nice li'l park called the "Central Park" where we heard some band playing Summer of 69 and subsequently Greenday's Boulevard ... . The guys pretty much sucked..and then stooped to an all time low when they started playing songs from Rock On and the "Gay"street Boys. As it is I was irritated by the Backstreet Boys coming to headline Rock In India .. the songs were like a slap on my face...blech..puke!! Anyways, we lay down in the grass..saw the sun go down...made fun of Harry...a lot! and then headed back. Back at home, I had more food and lay down in front of the TV before dad drove me off to my room.
All in all a really cool weekend indeed...the right mix of laziness and fun..like a well made cocktail (I should really stop relating everything to booze!)
Monday, March 1, 2010
Holi Day
As I had mentioned before, a bunch of us were planning to play Holi this time around since they were all available and had nothing better to do. The plan was to assemble at Subhash's place in Mayur Vihar, have bhaang, play Holi, have more bhaang and finally lunch. As expected, nothing went as per plan.
Firstly, the jugaad for the bhaang was not successful. Subhash had to fight his way to the local shop to get some booze yesterday at the last minute. Since its a dry day on Holi..the entire MV had come to the theka. However, he managed to get a bottle of Romanov Vodka. Although we were a bit disappointed not having bhaang and all, but as the story would unfold, we would get over it soon, after 2 quick shots, the following morning.
Today morning, I reached Subhash's place sharp at 11:15 am (as promised). We wished each other a happy holi in our own style (3 words: quick vodka shots). We finished breakfast but there was no sign of anyone else. I called up Abhijeet who had just woken up (because of my call I guess) and was whining about how late it was and how difficult it is to come to Subhash's place. I tried my best to make him understand how cool it would be and stuff but the guy just did not stop whining. I finally gave up and called up Partha who was not picking up his phone! Me and Subhash were really pissed. So pissed that only vodka would have cheered us up. After promptly cheering ourselves up, we tried to think of what could be done to save the day. That was when we decided to screw it and go to Noida (Needless to say, it was the vodka talking). I had brought my super sleek Wind 125 today after almost a year and was kinda feeling as if I was driving a Tobu cycle (no offense). However, I have to hand it to the Bajaj guys; after a whole year of non-activity, it took just half a kick to start it. Anyways, there was one small problem. It had no petrol and I had come without my wallet or my phone or my license or my helmet since we were supposed to be in MV!! That was the f*kcin plan!!. Anyways, Subhash had the license and the helmet, so he did the driving. I was the pillion rider, secretly taking sips of the vodka which we had neatly distributed into 2 ready to drink bottles. We traded places as soon as we reached Noida cuz the policemen are quite laid back there...and also cuz Subhash caught me finishing up the vodka and wanted some of the action. Anyways, we reached Abhijeet's place and rang him up. He dint believe us at first and it took some nice crisp profanity laced arguments to make him believe that we were really there. He came out his usual smiling self and was promptly colored. We wished each other, shared the vodka with him...and thats when we realized we had already finished one of the two bottles. We made a mental note to go slow...to which I heard my inner voice go like .."HA!!". Anyways the next stop was Sec. 50, to Partha's place. However we were facing a dilemma. There were 3 of us and my super sleek Wind 125. As it is, it was choking under my weight. Then there was Subhash who is like average. To top it, there would be Abhijeet who is as big as me. However there was no stopping us today. We went tripling on the poor bike till Sec. 50. We saw a multicolored Partha already ready for us. We went to his place..and met his roomies. Then all of us went down to the ground where there was some pretty loud music. We played Holi for quite some time. By the end of it..we were out of Vodka...fully drenched and barely recognizable with the color on our faces. We headed back to Partha's place where he surprised us with bhaang!! Now that was a surprise which was worth travelling all the way to Noida. Already high...we took it to the next level. We had some bhaang and some food and decided to visit our friend Kamaraj at Sec. 82. He had never played holi and we wanted to make him a part of the experience. Fortunately we had an extra bike at Partha's and we did not have to put my bike in misery anymore. We played some more holi and went to Vivek's place who stayed nearby. There was a swimming pool at his place where we saw ppl celebrating Holi in it and stuff. There were some chicks there as well who were needless to say .. really wet. It kinda helped us make up our minds to go into the pool ourselves. We quietly went down and since no one could recognize whether we actually lived there or not, we had the guts to jump right in. We swam for a while (in jeans mind you)...and came out for some late lunch. After lunch, it was time for us to ride back home. We were still a bit high and the entire dusky atmosphere made the drive really enjoyable. There was an empty road in front of us with the sun gradually setting into the horizon. It was beautiful. You dont normally see scenes like these everyday. Usually your mind is always occupied by the traffic, the yelling and more traffic. Anyways, I came back home at 6:00 pm in the evening ... out for almost 7 hours. I had a quick shower and a maggi. I dont know whether it was my natural apetite or the bhaang or both which made me eat barely minutes after my lunch. Anyways with a full stomach and an entire evening before me..I would laze around in front of the TV before tumbling into my bed. Needless to say..it was an awesome day.
Firstly, the jugaad for the bhaang was not successful. Subhash had to fight his way to the local shop to get some booze yesterday at the last minute. Since its a dry day on Holi..the entire MV had come to the theka. However, he managed to get a bottle of Romanov Vodka. Although we were a bit disappointed not having bhaang and all, but as the story would unfold, we would get over it soon, after 2 quick shots, the following morning.
Today morning, I reached Subhash's place sharp at 11:15 am (as promised). We wished each other a happy holi in our own style (3 words: quick vodka shots). We finished breakfast but there was no sign of anyone else. I called up Abhijeet who had just woken up (because of my call I guess) and was whining about how late it was and how difficult it is to come to Subhash's place. I tried my best to make him understand how cool it would be and stuff but the guy just did not stop whining. I finally gave up and called up Partha who was not picking up his phone! Me and Subhash were really pissed. So pissed that only vodka would have cheered us up. After promptly cheering ourselves up, we tried to think of what could be done to save the day. That was when we decided to screw it and go to Noida (Needless to say, it was the vodka talking). I had brought my super sleek Wind 125 today after almost a year and was kinda feeling as if I was driving a Tobu cycle (no offense). However, I have to hand it to the Bajaj guys; after a whole year of non-activity, it took just half a kick to start it. Anyways, there was one small problem. It had no petrol and I had come without my wallet or my phone or my license or my helmet since we were supposed to be in MV!! That was the f*kcin plan!!. Anyways, Subhash had the license and the helmet, so he did the driving. I was the pillion rider, secretly taking sips of the vodka which we had neatly distributed into 2 ready to drink bottles. We traded places as soon as we reached Noida cuz the policemen are quite laid back there...and also cuz Subhash caught me finishing up the vodka and wanted some of the action. Anyways, we reached Abhijeet's place and rang him up. He dint believe us at first and it took some nice crisp profanity laced arguments to make him believe that we were really there. He came out his usual smiling self and was promptly colored. We wished each other, shared the vodka with him...and thats when we realized we had already finished one of the two bottles. We made a mental note to go slow...to which I heard my inner voice go like .."HA!!". Anyways the next stop was Sec. 50, to Partha's place. However we were facing a dilemma. There were 3 of us and my super sleek Wind 125. As it is, it was choking under my weight. Then there was Subhash who is like average. To top it, there would be Abhijeet who is as big as me. However there was no stopping us today. We went tripling on the poor bike till Sec. 50. We saw a multicolored Partha already ready for us. We went to his place..and met his roomies. Then all of us went down to the ground where there was some pretty loud music. We played Holi for quite some time. By the end of it..we were out of Vodka...fully drenched and barely recognizable with the color on our faces. We headed back to Partha's place where he surprised us with bhaang!! Now that was a surprise which was worth travelling all the way to Noida. Already high...we took it to the next level. We had some bhaang and some food and decided to visit our friend Kamaraj at Sec. 82. He had never played holi and we wanted to make him a part of the experience. Fortunately we had an extra bike at Partha's and we did not have to put my bike in misery anymore. We played some more holi and went to Vivek's place who stayed nearby. There was a swimming pool at his place where we saw ppl celebrating Holi in it and stuff. There were some chicks there as well who were needless to say .. really wet. It kinda helped us make up our minds to go into the pool ourselves. We quietly went down and since no one could recognize whether we actually lived there or not, we had the guts to jump right in. We swam for a while (in jeans mind you)...and came out for some late lunch. After lunch, it was time for us to ride back home. We were still a bit high and the entire dusky atmosphere made the drive really enjoyable. There was an empty road in front of us with the sun gradually setting into the horizon. It was beautiful. You dont normally see scenes like these everyday. Usually your mind is always occupied by the traffic, the yelling and more traffic. Anyways, I came back home at 6:00 pm in the evening ... out for almost 7 hours. I had a quick shower and a maggi. I dont know whether it was my natural apetite or the bhaang or both which made me eat barely minutes after my lunch. Anyways with a full stomach and an entire evening before me..I would laze around in front of the TV before tumbling into my bed. Needless to say..it was an awesome day.
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