2010

Well I am not too satisfied with 2010. Firstly, it went by sooo damn fast and secondly..it was mostly sh*tty. This was the year I met with an accident, got really fat and missed Lamb of God's gig in Bangalore (f*ck)!! 

Almost all of my friends left the office and there were others who even left the country. Basically, my social life took a major hit. If 2009 was the best in terms of the sheer number of parties I had, 2010 was the worst. I dunno..it was not fun at all.

Well..there were also some moments which were pretty cool though, like when my bro got married! That has to be the highlight of this year. I had an awesome time with all the family celebrations and the parties and the booze. Every weekend was like a celebration for the last month or so. 

I was also happy with my first "team award" in March. With that I have won all categories of awards there are in the company. 

There was also this awesome trip to Lansdowne and Rishikesh which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also cannot forget my promotion to Project Lead this year which was pretty surprising! 

But 2010 mostly revolved around work. I must have spent the maximum amount of time at the office this year. I had soo many plans to accomplish in 2010 which I couldn't. I am most embarrassed about me not participating in the Airtel Half Marathon. That was the biggest failure this year. 

Anyways I am scared to put up a list of resolutions so I'll just take it as it comes in 2011. Hopefully its good to me!

Half Step Down - Overtures in Outer space

I first saw Half Step Down (HSD) at a pub gig @ DV8, CP waay back in 2006 and was instantly a fan. They play a mix of classic rock and blues with some elements of funk. Well, they have a unique sound. They really like to mix and match. Their piano player (Shiv Lamba) adds a different flavour to their songs and really spices up their already tight rhythm sections. Some of their songs have a distinct "Indian" sound to them. Indian rock can be best exemplified by this band. Without going into too much fusion, Half Step Down best characterizes how an "Indian" band sounds like. Anyways, their setlist is usually mix of high energy OCs and covers which normally no other band performs. I have heard them churn out awesome renditions of Jet's - Are you gonna be my girl, STP's - Plush and even Lynyrd Skynrd's Sweet Home Alabama. 

Anyways, they had released their debut album - Overtures in Outer space last year I think. I bought their CD when I went for GIR this year...and I'm really impressed. I'm in love with the title. Overtures in Outer space is a sweet album. Its an awesome mixed bag of songs. 

Working Hour

It starts with a nice catchy bluesy riff before Dhaval comes in with his strong vocals. "Another 9 to 6, thank you very much I'll give that a skip. Donning suits and ties, why do these mornings exist?" Something which we can all relate too..esp on mondays! It has a nice li'l rhythm section in the middle and a catchy chorus.

Not for Sale

After a small slow melodic intro, the rhythm guitar churns out this nice li'l riff which would get your feet tapping. The drums take over and creates this happy happy atmosphere around you. Dhaval voice is amazing...and has a hint of a classical flavour to it. This song has a very "indian" feel to it. The solo and the breakdown sounds reminiscent of Indian ocean. I like it though. Very high energy and a peppy track.

Knocking at the back of my head

It starts off in a really cool manner with the bass going pummm...baaaap...taaaoon waaaon waaaon...pummm baaaap! .. :) .. well its really cool and I had no other way to describe it! I had heard this song loads of time. They play it every time during their gig. Its a nice li'l roller coaster of a song with the pace keeping on changing. Its a fun track..lively and brings a smile to your face.

Girl Not Guitar

"Coz someday I'll be a big big star. And remember baby, that your're just my Girl and not my Guitar!" \m/ .. how cant you like this song! Awesome song to put off your girlfriend when she gets too irritating to handle :)

UKJ-18

The best track on the album for me. Its like a high energy ball. It reminds me of Zero. Really catchy and I swear you cant keep yourself from swaying to the music. It has a nice melodic bluesy solo and the chorus transcends the song to awesome newer levels of...well..awesomeness \m/ 

Circles

Circles is a different track musically. Its..I dunno...it has everything in it. It has elements of electronic, the chorus is full on rock and roll and it has these nice li'l piano interludes in between which gives it a classical touch. Nice mix of everything. 

Roll over

Another peppy, groovy track. The piano kicks in with this awesome melodious fast crescendo of notes before the drums explode and the guitars kick in. Its a fast song and it'll make an awesome song while going for a drive or drinks :). Lyrics wise its a bit cliched. Its a break up song and it has all the elements of it..lies, deceit etc. etc. A nice song though.

Stories of the Sun

Dhaval is simply awesome on this one. Really melodious and has a very Indian rock feel to it. Its a mid tempo song and has an awesome piano solo in the middle before the chorus takes flight with "I'm leaving, I'm going home". Although I never heard this song live, but I think it would sound awesome..esp unplugged. Dhaval has a nice strong voice which really carries this song forward.

Overtures to Outer space

Awesome song to end an awesome album. Its again a roller coaster. Slow verses with a fast crunchy chorus. "Change the world..you got every power in your reach today. Change your way..you just got to find the right notes to play". A message to all those who feel lost in life and are at that helpless li'l phase where they want to quit everything and just leave their lives behind. It has awesome musical sections in between with the guitars and the piano fighting it out. Amazing song.  

Overall, its a nice classic rock album. Something you can sit back and enjoy. It'll make you feel good..its a mood changer. The songs are fun and catchy and I have been listening to it for a week continuously...at work..while sleeping..while driving..and I cant get enough of it. 

GIR Day 2 -- where's my neck?

Well GIR Day 2 was a more familiar GIR for me. Yesterday, except for one band, every band was an international one. Today was the opposite. Except one, every band was from India. 

My friend ditched me at the last moment and hence I had to go alone..but thats really ok..as it is you cant talk and stuff inside with all the noise. Also, there will be no one cribbing about reaching early and stuff! I'm waay too excited for such events and I always make it a point to reach the venue at the specified time. I really dont mind waiting. 

I started from my house at 4 pm..and reached there at 4:20 or so. The line was short and the gates opened early. I entered inside to see a bunch of kids with their guitars on stage doing the soundcheck. It was funny. They must be schoolkids..."unki twacha se unki umar ka pata nahi chal raha tha". Anyways, the first thing I noticed was better sound! Waay better sound in fact. Everything was louder than yesterday which is always a good sign in a rock gig. The show went something like this.

Colossal Figures

They are the "kids" that I was talking about. They were the Redbull band which dint get a slot yesterday. Their lead vocalist is such a li'l guy :) .. but you forget that when you hear him growl. He was awesome I thought. The band themselves sound metalcore and very lamb of god(ish). The vocals are a mix of growls and clean singing. They sounded pretty good. Nice crunchy riffs and awesome drums. I liked them a lot. The only thing that was missing was the showmanship part. They dint interact with the audience at all and Delhi audience needs someone to get them going. Most of the ppl were sitting throughout their setlist. There were claps instead of screams from the crowd. Well..they could have made it better if they took the audience along the "ride".

Digital Suicide

As soon as the "kids" left, a man came holding his guitar wearing a silver shirt and a silver pant! Then came another with a coat and a hat. Yet another sat on the drums who was skinny as ever! They were the second band of the day. They are from Assam and a three piece band. 3 piece bands always fascinate me. Its really tough for a 3 piece band..all of them have to be spot on. The best 3 piece band in India for me was Superfuzz. I remember seeing them for the first time at GIR and going crazy. Those guys were simply awesome. I was expecting Digital Suicide to be similar. However, they weren't. Although they weren't *that* bad..but something was missing. They played well in patches. Some parts were awesome and the others seemed empty. They were OK..cud have been better.

October

If metal was the flavor of Day 1, it was plain ol hard rock for Day 2. October again played well in patches. Actually none of them were interacting wid the crowd at all. The vocalist just kept muttering something and laughing nervously. They are a talented bunch..some of the songs were nice. Others were a bit boring. To make matters worse, one of the guitarists' guitar strings broke. He had to rush and get another one. They were a bit on the slow side and weren't peppy enuf. I was beginning to worry a bit about how the show would go on.

Lucid Recess

They were again a 3 piece band from Guwahati. Seeing Digital Suicide, I had lost hope. However, they were pretty good. Some of their songs were really awesome. The drummer was out of this world. Awesome guy. He was soo comfortable with his thing and the drum solo at their last song (which was a tribute to a band member who passed away) was breathtaking. They were nice. Had a nice time with them.

Undying Inc

The only Indian metal act of the day. I went to school with their vocalist Shashank Bhatnagar. He's also a close friend of my close friend - Harman. Anyways, I had heard a lot about this band but hadn't seen them live. Well one thing's for sure .. they really know how to put on a show. I mean Shashank was all over the place..jumping from the monitors..working up the audience...and screaming his lungs out. Delhi loves its metal..and boy did they love Undying Inc. They went crazy. There were mosh pits..wall of deaths..everything! Personally, I think my music taste hasn't developed to their style of music. I found them to be really distorted and unclear. I cudnt make out much of the riffs. The drums were awesome and Shashank's energy was out of this world. 

Meshuggah!

Ohh man..the most awaited, anticipated band of the festival. They made us wait for almost 40 minutes. The wait was killing us. Wow..I dont have much to write about them. Well, I thought for like 10 minutes right now about what to write. I swear, I dont know how to describe them to justify how awesome they were and how monstrous their set was. All I can say is that ppl were literally in a trance. They were swaying and moving as if they were possessed. And I must say that at some level, we were. They were mind blowing. Everyone enjoyed like hell. The pits were the biggest I had seen in Delhi. It was insane. When they finished, we all were still screaming for like 5 - 10 minutes...unable to fully understand that the show was really over. They distributed some guitar picks and drumsticks and were on their way promising that they would be back.

Ohh man..what an end to an awesome festival. It had been a long time I had been to a gig and this totally made up for the lost time. Still a bit sad that the next one would take place after a whole year. Phew! what a night! The echoes of the amps are still ringing in my ears.

Great Indian Rock - Day 1

Every year I look forward to this event in Delhi. Its the only major rock gig Delhi has, apart from the handful of pub gigs. I have been attending it since I was in Class 12th. I remember going for it the first time with my brother's friends. I fell in love instantly. It has been 8 years now. Everything about it is magical. The music, the venue, the sound checks, the crowd, the oh-so-pretty rock chicks, even the li'l fillers they play between bands..I love 'em all. I swear the Killer Tomatoes tune still rings at the back of my head. In fact that song, rather those riffs are the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of GIR. Previously, they used to schedule it in Feb every year but ever since 2008 (I think), they shifted it to later in the year - Nov-Dec.

Well, today was the fateful day. It was Day 1 of the festival, featuring a monster line-up of mostly international bands. There was Demonic Resurrection (the sole Indian band) to start things off. It was followed by the norwegian metal band - Purified in Blood. Next was Tesseract from the UK and the finale was by Enslaved. There was supposed to be one more "Red Bull" band which was to perform but somehow they dint show up.

Our plan was to meet up at Mayur Vihar Phase 1 metro station. Viral, his bro and his friend Panshul were coming from Noida. As soon as the train came, Viral came out looking for me and I went inside the train at the same time. There was some confusion; he couldnt get back in the train and was left all alone at Mayur Vihar! It was soo funny. We waited for him at the Pragati Maidan station though.

After walking for 20 minutes or so, we reached Hamsadhwani Open air theater. Hamsadhwani always gets my adrenaline going...there's something bout the place. We got our tickets and stood in a long line which looked more like a circle. We could hear the bands doing their sound check. I love the sound check..its a nice preview of what's gonna happen and you are never bored while standing in line. Its like a nicely made appetizer.

Anyways, the show started at 6 pm, an hour later than what was scheduled. The show went something like this:

1. Demonic Resurrection

They are awesome. Although I must admit when I heard them for the first 2 times, I dint like 'em. I was not used to death/black metal at the time. Now, I have matured :) Anyways, they were really tight on the stage and after the first song, everyone was on their feet with the mosh pits happening in every song. They sounded so badass during Bound by blood, fire and stone and my favourite - Apocalyptic Dawn. They were really good...and a perfect start to the gig. Their set list was very short though..I think just 4 songs..cuz they started late and stuff. That was the sad part.

2. Purified By Blood

They are from Norway and a relatively new band. They sound really cool. They have these sweet crunchy guitar bits in their song which makes your head go in a perpetual up and down motion. I have their album Under black Skies. I had heard of 2 songs in their setlist - Thunderheads and Death Priest. They were all awesome though. Usually the international acts suck at GIR (except for Enslaved and the one lucky night when John Myung had come). They kicked as*! It suddenly sunk in that the show had indeed begun!

3. Tesseract

I had my doubts when they started off. I dunno, maybe their guitars weren't loud enuf or there were some sound problems..but after the first song, I was like..they would be a waste. However, from the next song onwards, they were bang on target. They were different...they had various time signatures in their song..and they used to change it *snap* - just like that. It was awesome. Their drummer and their bass guitarist were awesome! I loved the tempo changes and their song structures. I hadn't heard of them before but now I would definitely look them up. I had never heard a progressive metal band perform live and Tesseract certainly nailed it!

4. Enslaved

Ohh man!..these guys are f*ckin amazing. Last time when they had come here, they literally tore everything apart. It was the same story today as well. They were awesome. The best band of the night. I absolutely loved the song Ground which they dedicated to Purified in Blood. They were a perfect finish to an awesome night. I head banged like crazy throughout their set list. Ppl moshed like anything. They are a treat to watch and were no different today as well.

Tomorrow's gonna be another huge day. Meshuggah would be the headlining act!! Tomorrow, all are Indian bands except for Meshuggah (doh!). I can't wait!!

The only sad thing about all of this was the attendance. Usually the place is jam packed. But this time, the last rows were empty. Maybe it was due to the exceptionally high ticket rates. The pretty girls weren't there today..the only sad part of the whole evening.

God Bless the CGPA

My 3rd sem results are out! And I passed! It was such a relief! I seriously dont understand how I was able to make it through 3 sems without flunking! The final semester is the Dissertation. I'm totally blank as to what has to be done :D .. but then again..that was my state for all the previous semesters.

The CGPA is the best system ever! You dont have to be the best, just ensure that you dont end up being the worst.

Breaking the barrier

This week 2 years ago (2008), I ran for an hour non stop. I was hoping to repeat the feat this year at the same time (like an anniversary of sorts). The exact date was 8th Dec. 2008, when I broke the barrier for the first time. I went running on 8th Dec. this year too, but was rudely stopped by the gym instructor at 15 mins. He said I shouldn't run for more than 15 mins and made me do all kinds of funny exercises! It was crazy. Anyways I aint goin back there anymore. I decided to brave the cold and ventured out today in the evening for the run. My target was 5 miles...a distance I hadn't run since quite some time now. I started well...with a measured pace and was able to complete the distance in an hour (+1 minute). I finished strong..in fact seeing that I had crossed 1 hour, I sprinted the last 200 meters or so. An awesome run after a long time. The endorphins are kicking in.

Well the 1 hour mark is special for me..it gives me confidence. The distances wont be scary anymore. The next step is to gradually build up speed. I am targetting 6 miles in the same time (1hr). \m/

Monster Nominee list for Best Metal Performance

Wow..the 53rd Grammy awards nominee list for the Best Metal Performance is a monster!

El Dorado - Iron Maiden
Let the guilt go - Korn
In your words - Lamb of God
Sudden Death - Megadeth
World Painted Blood - Slayer

I'm not too sure bout the Korn song on the list..but every other track is insane. For me, the best among the list is Lamb of God - In your words. May the best band win \m/ The entire list can be found here.

Awesome Sunday

It had been a while since the "gang" hadn't been on a booze cruise. Well..today was the day. We had planned to go to Chandni Chowk for some parathas and then to Gurgaon for some beers, today. However, since the paratha ppl weren't interested, we ventured for the beer nevertheless. I had asked everyone to assemble at 12:00 pm at the Mayur Vihar Ph 1 station. We were to leave for Gurgaon on the metro. Partha called and told me his friend Shauvik would come. I was like..sure..the more the better. But, he suggested it would be better if we go by the car or a cab. Since my bro was on his honeymoon, his car was available. I told 'em that I would get the car. So the plan was rescheduled. We were to go by the car to gurgaon...a place which is virtually unknown to me. However, Shauvik knew the place. So we started the trip at 1:00 pm from Partha's place @ Sec. 50. The drive to Gurgaon was amazing! The DND..and the airport road were awesome to drive. On the way we discussed bout how howzatt was and stuff...and Shauvik (who had been there) told us its good..but Rockman's Beer Island has more variety of beer. We started wondering which one to go....when I came up with the idea to go to both since whenever in doubt..we should go for both!

We reached Howzatt at 2:00 pm and were very impressed  by the place. The chairs were pretty comfortable and the music was awesome. They played AC/DC at 2:00 in the afternoon which I had never seen any other pub in Delhi play!! The food too was excellent. Howzatt is a micro brewery and their stout beer is pretty good. We ordered one pitcher of stout and 2 pitchers of normal draught beer.

At about 5pm, feeling decent amount of high"ness"..we left for Rockman's beer island. After going around twice, we finally found our way into Ambience mall where the pub is situated. We entered to find really fancy seats inside the pub..I mean there were barrel shaped booths for ppl! We took our seats and ordered a strong (relatively) beer pitcher and some sausages to go along with it. Now, the name suggests, the place is all about rock (Rock man)...but sadly, the place - musicwise...is shit! The DJ was playing old ... really sh*tty pop songs! I went to the DJ..asked him to play AC/DC..he said no...I asked him to play Van Halen!..he said no..I asked him to play Gun's and Roses!! and he said no he couldnt for some f*ckin reason. Upon complaining to the waiter, he told us we were in Barrel and Kegs which is not really a place for Rock. We should have gone to some "Bavarian" or some such place..which altho a part of Rockman's beer island but played rock! We were too lazy to switch places and hence decided against it. The beer altho was pretty good. We had a pitcher of strong beer and 2 pitchers of wheat beers! Before we knew it, it was 10:00 pm. We left from Gurgaon..had an amazing ride all throughout and reached Noida at about 11:00 pm. The cold winter air of Delhi was sooo awesome that I just felt like driving and never stopping! I dropped off Partha and the others at Sec. 50, Negi @ Mayur Vihar Ph 3 and myself :) at Mayur Vihar Ph 1. I reached home at 11:15 pm.

Although dad was a li'l pissed off..he dint say much to me (maybe I would have it tomorrow!). Anyways. it was an awesome sunday..a sunday which had never been for a quite a long time!

Status - Nov 2010

Good beginning! After Nov., my mileage is greater than what I had in Sept. and I almost touched June, which is my highest mileage of this year. Hopefully, December would see me right at the top.

26/11

They came in to our homes

Went door to door

Shooting at sight

Killing more and more

They robbed us of our lives

But failed to take our soul

This day, 

2 years ago

We lost our pride

But strengthened our resolve

Baiju leaves Motherjane

Nothing saddens me more than a band breaking up. Motherjane has been the face of Indian rock for years now. Their live shows are amazing. They are one of those bands who can really scale up to the international scene. They were awarded as the Band of the Decade in 2010 by RSJ and won the Most Popular Act of Asia in the AVIMA 2010 awards. Their lead vocalist Suraj Mani was awarded the Best Rock Vocalist too @ AVIMA 2010.

And just when I thought nothing could go wrong for them, they announced the departure of their super-awesome lead guitarist Baiju Dharmajan. He would be joining another band called WRENZ, a band he was a part of before. Its really sad..they had a good thing going. Wonder who will replace him.

The vacation

Ohh man! I had an awesome week. Kerala was amazing. My brother's marriage went really well and ... I have a sister-in-law now .. and a really cool one too :).

We left for Kerala on Monday morning, too early for my comfort. Our flight was preponed to 5:55 a.m. much to my disappointment. I was rudely awakened from my slumber at 3:00 in the morning night. Needless to say, the feeling was not at all nice. Half asleep, I dragged my body to lift the heavy luggage to place them in the taxi. It was a bit chilly in the morning. I kept dozing off during the ride to the airport. We boarded the flight on time and was looking forward to go to sleep again. I did sleep for about half an hour just to wake up to find that we hadn't moved an inch! For a second, I was taken aback since I expected us to be flying and not on the airport. My bro told me that the pilot was stuck in a jam and hence the delay (I dont know how true this is btw). Anyways, we finally did took off, 40 minutes later than the scheduled time. We had a halt at Mumbai where my future in-laws were boarding. We "kids" were promptly separated from the seniors since they all wanted to sit together (or was it the other way round?) Anyways, my time was spent in sleeping and reading The Sound of the Beast. Breakfast in the flight sucked. We landed in Cochin 40-45 minutes later than scheduled. The pilot informed the temperature was 23 degrees much to my delight. We collected our check-in baggage which is always a tension filled atmosphere. On reaching outside, we faced some more delay after finding that our taxi was waiting for us in the international terminal for some strange reason. Anyways, from the airport we had to travel to Ottapalam which was a 3 hour drive away.  The drive, however, was amazing. Road trips in Kerala are always breathtaking. There's soo much to see. There'll be paddy fields, rivers, coconut trees all neatly lined up and the bright blue skies with these li'l foamy lumps of clouds make up a truly majestic scenery. 

We checked in the hotel in the afternoon and went to my grand-uncle's ashram for lunch. I was famished by that time and the food was soo good that I just had to overeat. We came back to the hotel to leave for Calicut to my father's sister's place. She had just had a surgery and informed us that she wont be able to attend the marriage. Hence, we went to meet her. The drive again from Ottapalam to Calicut is 3 hours long. The weather was awesome..really nice cool breeze. We reached there at 8:00 pm and were there till dinner. Dinner at her place is always amazing. Thats one of the few places we can feast on yummy non-veg food. My father's side of the family are non-veg but my mom's side are veg. They realize this and hence always prepare something special for us. It was no different that day. We feasted on 2 types of chicken dishes, fried fish and malabar parathas. Ohh man..just writing about it is making me hungry. Since we were late, we couldn't spend much time on booze..sadly. Anyways, the drive back was very tiring..all of us were sleeping the entire way. We reached the hotel at 1:30 am or so. 

Next day, we had to visit my dad's and my mom's place. We left early from the hotel after an ordinary breakfast. First, we went to my dad's place. Its a small football crazy place called Tuvvur near the western ghats. We can see the western ghats from his house if the weather is clear. Its an awesome peaceful place which gets really scary at nights due the absence of street lights and the large population of insects. Being a forested area, the place comes alive at the night time. I remember being scared sh*t when we used to go there when I was a kid. I swear, it gets soo pitch dark that you cannot see your own hands. However, there are loads of fire-flies flying about which makes the place simply magical. Anyways, apart from the gorgeous scenery, its dad's nostalgic stories from his childhood which make these trips memorable. He showed us his classmate's homes, the place where he used to play football, his old school..even the tree on which he and his friends used to pee :D. After meeting my cousins and playing with the house dog and the newborn calf, we left for my mom's place in the afternoon.

Mom's place has this huge paddy fields en-route to her house. We have to walk through the fields to reach there. Sadly, nowadays, farming is not as economically viable as it used to be and it was shocking to see these fields filled with weeds and undergrowth. We had tea and met my other grand uncle. It was the first time I was meeting him...the reason however is still unknown as to why we dint meet him earlier. I remember always going to the pond that he had in his house but we never met him. I learned swimming in that very pond. Anyways, we headed back to the hotel in the evening. We had to discuss about the marriage ceremonies and other important stuff at the ashram. We did all that and had a wonderful dinner. There was a small daaru session with Glenfiddich which was ohh soo nice.

The next day, all of my other relatives were to come and hence the day started pretty early. We dint have anything else on the agenda except see them checking in. My bro supervised all the room allocation and stuff. We found some time for a small daaru session before lunch which was pretty nice. It was almost 3 p.m when we had lunch. In the evening, we had to assemble at the marriage hall for a dinner feast. As luck would have it, just when we had to leave, it started pouring real bad.  It went on throughout the night. Fortunately, the next day, the D-day, it was bright and sunny.

We all got up early for the marriage and got ready on time. The video ppl had come and started their stuff. The best part about a Kerala wedding is that it gets over pretty quickly and unlike a north indian wedding, its action packed. The ceremony was simple and was over within the muhurtam. After meeting and greeting a lot of guests and taking millions of photos, we finally had lunch. We rushed back to the hotel to check-out. We had to check-out by 3:30 and leave for Guruvayoor. We packed off the bride and the groom early so that they can check in at Guruvayoor by the time the other guests arrived. 

The others had to leave in a tempo traveller; which is basically a 14 seater bus. However, we had soo much of luggage that we could not go in that. Hence, me and Babu hired a separate taxi just for the luggage and us. So, it was me and Babu with all the luggage in a Qualis and the others in the tempo traveller. Both of the drivers were really adventurous while negotiating traffic! The drive however was the best among all the drives. The sun was setting down painting the sky bloody red and orange. It was such an electric mix of green and orange that me and Babu were literally mesmerized by it. That was all we talked about, the entire way...and trust me, guys like us seldom spend time talking about nature ;-).

We reached Guruvayoor at night and checked in at about 7 pm. We were pre-occupied with the day's proceedings that it really did not feel as if my bro got married. That happened when we all crashed in the room. Right then, when we all were resting our tired legs, was when it all sunk in. It was exciting indeed. 

We had a small visit to the temple and ended the night with a much needed dinner. 

The next day, we planned to visit the temple before starting the long journey back home. We checked out at 9:30 and started the return journey. It was nice and sunny and I was busy clicking away with my camera. However, midway, we got to know that the flight was postponed to 6 pm in the evening (from 3:00 pm). That was soo irritating. We had reached the place at 1:00 pm and had 5 hours to kill. Well..apparently, NO. We had to wait for 7 hours! At about 4 pm, it started pouring...and pouring real bad. I swear I hadn't seen such huge lightning crashes and thunder ever. Our flight had been delayed further by 2.5 hours. After an agonizing 7 hours, we boarded the plane all exhausted from the waiting. We landed in Delhi at 1:00 am at the new T3 terminal. The place is soo huge that it took almost 40 minutes to collect the baggage and reach the prepaid taxi line. I reached back at 3:00 am..ironically at the same time that we had started our journey from Delhi. I hit the sack straightaway. 

Phew! I had an awesome time last week. My body is still in the vacation mode and I really hate the fact that I have to go to the office tomorrow :( However, the celebration would continue, since we have the reception next Sunday. Ohh good times!

     

Off to Kerala

In another few hours..I'll be leaving for Kerala for my brother's marriage. Its a huge event indeed and everyone's very excited about the same. Packing is almost finished. Mom's been constantly screaming for the past 2 days to gather everything. We were ignoring it till it got unbearable..and finally started today afternoon. Everything is almost done now. I gatta transfer some music to my ipod. These days I've been listening to these awesome new thrash metal bands on the scene. Specifically, Evile, Purified in Blood and Warbringer are keeping my ears busy and simultaneously irritating everyone else's in the house. Daath also released their new self-titled album which is again awesome. This new movement (referred to as the new wave of thrash metal) is really keeping me very excited. Its all I do these days. Anyways more on it later.  

I had to make a painting for my grand-uncle (mom's uncle) in Kerala. He had asked me to do it in February. My superhuman ability of procrastination resulted in me not starting the thing till yesterday. Mom had been continuously asking me to do it all these months. She gave up hope saying that I wont do it. However, I stayed up and finished the entire thing...much to my mother's surprise. She was astonished as to how I was able to complete it on time. Well..mom..thats how we software engineers roll! B-) 

I've resumed my running. I am averaging 13 kms for the past 2 weeks. Well..its a start. I am consciously spending more time on it. They say the night's darkest before dawn..lets hope the dawn is not far away. 

However, I am a bit apprehensive about the li'l break that I'll be having next week. Lets see.

I've a flight at 5:55 am tomorrow. That basically means I've to get up at the wee hours tomorrow morning. I slept in the afternoon which will make things really difficult as well. But, when you have the loudest alarm clock in the world screaming at you constantly to wake up (reas as: Mom)..you shouldn't worry.

Down in the dumps

And the half marathon goal goes down the drain...all thanks to my superhuman ability to waste my time doing nothing! F*ck!!

Dear Lord, please give me the strength to turn it around!!

Sunday

Sunday's are meant to be lazy. After all, God wanted it to be like that! I had a really hectic week though. There's a big release at work tomorrow which had me busy almost all through October. I had to go to the office yesterday too to finish things up. Anyways, it looks like we would be able to make the release tomorrow, unless Murphy's Law decides against it.

I had a much needed haircut yesterday. Dad kinda forced me to have one. I was planning to grow my hair long at least till December, for the GIR festival.

Anyways...the day began pretty late, at about 9 am. I had a nice li'l breakfast and lazed around a bit watching TV. The house is still getting painted, and the workers came in to polish the furniture and to do some final touches. Getting the house painted is a pretty irritating affair. Unlike many ppl, paint fumes aren't the worst part for me..its the cleaning up after, which sucks real bad. I am pretty used to paint fumes now...in fact kinda addicted to them too (as scary as that sounds!). Anyways, I despise cleaning up. I mean firstly, you collect all the existing trash in your room..and once they paint and stuff, you try and figure out how to put them back again! And I swear nothing is thrown away in my home. We are the conservationists! Every time I go like "Lets throw this out!", out comes a li'l story or an anecdote which literally makes us keep it. There was this calculator in the showcase in the living room. It was red and had a panda over it which had "Join the party" written over it. It was a kiddie calculator. I was like.."it doesn't even work..lets discard it!". Thats when Dad started telling the story of how when you opened the flap, there was music and how it cracked us (me and bro) up when we were li'l kids. Needless to say, its still sitting right there. We wanted to clean up the entire showcase, but ended up with almost everything that we had..except for the things dad broke while cleaning up!

Anyways, after lunch, we had to go shopping...the other thing which I really hate to do (unless its for food or video games). Its my bro's marriage on the 18th and I hadn't gotten anything for myself. I had to sacrifice my precious afternoon siesta for it. I ended up getting 3 shirts, a suit and a pant. Back home, I played Modern Warfare 2 for a while before dinner. Dinner was good today. There was an awesome Chicken biryani and mutton fry. We also managed to eke in some nice "Bacardi time" in between while straightening things out after the painters left. All in all a nice day. Hopefully, tomorrow's kind to me and things work out fine at the office.

Evile

Sh*t..its been a long time since I did anything useful with my time. I've stopped running..I haven't played the guitar for 2 weeks now .. I stopped reading Brave New World midway (even though its really awesome). I dont know whats goin on? I wake up late..go to work..come back late and repeat. Anyways I just needed something to get me going and I found it in the form of Evile. They are such an awesome band. They play like the old school thrash bands. If I may dare to say..I feel they're a nice mix of old Metallica and Slayer. The vocalist - Matt Drake, is capable of both singing and shouting his throat out..which is really very impressive. They are from UK and kinda new to the scene. They have released 2 albums - Enter the Grave and Infectious Nations. I got my hands on the former and its epic indeed. It's the only thing I'm listening to these days. Anyways, they are fast, ruthless and have this nice chunky, raw sound. Hopefully they would get me out of the rutt! 

CWG - Everything's ok

Ohh man..I had such a laugh reading today's newspaper. Everyone is suddenly very happy about the arrangements for the CWG! The Australians...who did a sting operation to "expose" security holes at the venues (which was claimed to be bogus by Delhi Police), gave a thumbs up about everything. Fennel says there have been "considerable" improvements and that he is very happy. England who said that the decision rests on a "knife-edge"have confirmed their participation. Although there are pullouts but those very ppl who were going on and on about how sh*tty everything has been, have suddenly made a U-turn. The newspaper suggests it's because of India's presence and importance in their economies. The TOI says (and I quote :D) "Diplomats agree the consequences of walking away from Delhi, capital of a rising economic superpower would be grave".  Hahaha..dont mess with us bi*ches! \m/.

P.S. All said and done, this would still not repair the image which has already seeped into the minds of the international community. It would have been so much cooler if all of this was handled like it should have been.

CWG - The embarrassment continues

I woke up today to the news that the delegates who came to see the Commonwealth Games Village deemed the place as "unlivable". It was appalling to read that laborers had defecated inside the flats and stray dogs were all over the beds and stuff! What made me even more disappointed were guys (foreigners) commenting stuff like - "Get over it India..you cannot host the commonwealth games" and "Third world stuff expected from a third world nation". Damn..that was when it really hurt. The worst part is that we cannot even deny it! India has been stereotyped for all the wrong reasons in the past and this episode has confirmed that stereotype. India's image has definitely been damaged for sure. I wonder how embarrassing would the OC be feeling right now. Considering the c*nts that they have been...I don't think it would have affected them. Up till now, I was kinda feeling for the OC. Right from the starting everyone had been against them. The media had been highlighting whats wrong about the entire thing right from day one. Ppl abroad were always raving about the lack of security and mismanagement. It was like everyone wanted the games to fail...even before it started. I wanted the OC to pull it off and then have a thing or two to say to the media and the others. But it did not work that way at all. First there was this corruption issue, then, the deadlines going bust...venues not being ready...flyovers coming down..the list is still going strong. The worst part about all this was that it could have been so easily avoided. If there was this sense of pride about hosting such a big international event among the ppl managing the entire thing, it would not have been THIS bad. Its a shame really and it sucks. As bad as it sounds....we don't deserve the CWG.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

It was 9:00 am and I was still in bed. I did not realize it was this late..I thought it was like 6:00 am or something. In fact I was kinda happy with myself for waking up early! It was still dark outside and it was raining heavily. For a moment I thought the AC was still on. Thats when I got up to see and my eyes fell on the clock. It showed 9:15!! It was literally a downpour outside and the weather had become sooo cold. We dint even switch on the fan the entire day! It lasted for like 8 hours or so..dad told me that it started at 7:30. By the time it finished, it was 3 pm. Well its technically over now..but there are signs of more rain by the looks of it. Anyways, the rain made me very lazy (i mean...lazier than I usually am). I was soo lazy today that I din't even play on the Xbox! After breakfast, I messed around with the guitar and saw The Simpsons marathon. I kinda fell asleep midway through it. I woke up for lunch...and slept after that till 6! Seriously..this has been the laziest Sunday after a very looong time. I hope to make up for it now though. According to my training schedule for the half marathon, (which I still cant believe how I got myself into it), I have to run 6.4 km today. I usually run a 4.5 these days. Pretty sure would be wheezing after the run. Thats why I am kinda afraid to start.

The ol' Sunday sulk (the sulking feeling you get on Sunday evenings about going to work the next day) has crept in. Kinda sad that the weekend's over. Loads of stuff to do next week. To make matters worse, my office timings shifted half an hour before the usual time. We have to reach the office at 8 am and leave at 5pm because of the CWG lane and stuff. My cab is scheduled to pick me up at 7:40 in the morning!! I remember waking up for school at these timings! Its ridiculous. Waiting for the cab with the school kids in the morning is kinda weird. They keep staring at you with their big eyes seemingly saying "Are you waiting for the school bus?..How come you are soo old (and fat) and still go to school?" Man..just writing about it is making me sad. I want a holiday!!..loads of it.

[Update] Ohh man..I had the most awesome run. I was scared for nothing. I did not run 6.4 km...I ran 7.2 km instead \,,/. I just went on and on. I finished strong. Thanks to Iron Maiden - Angel and the Gambler and Lamb of God - Vigil; two great songs which made my run feel liberating. And it made me stop sulking too..the endorphins are kicking in :)

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon

I went for a run in the evening and when I came back I took an impulsive decision to register for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. I was all pumped up and the extra adrenaline in my blood at the moment gave me the confidence for doing the same. Now that my parasympathetic nervous system is back in control..I realized that I am soooo f*cked. The half marathon is 9 weeks from now and the fastest/shortest training schedule for training is 9 weeks! However, the pre-requisite is that the person should have been running continuously for 2 months. My past 2 months were spent in boozing...eating and sleeping! Sh*t!!

Rohit's leaving

My childhood friend Rohit...who was actually one of the first friends I made when I moved to Mayur Vihar; is leaving tomorrow to the U.S for higher studies. All of us..i.e. the rest of my childhood friends...Harman and Sam decided to meet up for dinner (and drinks) in the evening. The plan was to meet up at Mayur Vihar, spend some time and head back...cuz Rohit had to reach back home early. Since I had to stay up at office for sometime, I told them that I would meet up at 8. My cab request was at 7:30 from the office. When it was 7:30..it started to rain but I somehow reached on time. We kinda sat at CODE...reminisced over the good ol' times and had some beers till about 9:30 when Harman started to rave bout this place in Kailash Colony called Salim's. He told us that we had been there...but I swore I dint remember. It  was decided that we would have dinner there even if Rohit was late @ home :) . Anyways at 9:30..I still had some leftover appetite for beer. Harman promised we would have some on the way. So, we headed off to Kailash Colony after grabbin' 3 more beers from Mayur Vihar. On the way...it kinda got finished pretty early (with no fault of my own contrary to popular belief). We grabbed 2 more from the way and reached the place. On the way, Rohit learnt the skill of opening the bottle with his teeth...a skill we all already possessed. This was something spl...atleast for him. 

Anyways...we reached Salim's...ordered a truck load of food...finished 'em all up and went to Giani's for ice-cream afterwards.  Phew..I was soo full! The drive today was pretty awesome. It had just rained and it was nice and breezy. I had an awesome time. It was one of the rare moments when all of us met up and had a blast..maybe cuz we all realized it was a rare occasion and actually took the time out for it. I wish Rohit all the best for the U.S and hope he doesn't change his sexual preference and get married to a guy!!

The Final Frontier - Iron Maiden

I had pre-ordered the CD on Flipkart long before it got released. This was one album I was desperately waiting for. It finally arrived a few weeks ago and I've been continuously listening to it ever since. After 35 years of metal, they are still going strong. The cover art is brilliant as usual with a nice, mean alien Eddy this time . As the cover suggests, the theme is sci-fi with plenty of songs about venturing into the unknown and flying into space. 

Satellite 15 .. The Final Frontier

The first track is very different from what you expect. It starts with a fast heavy bass line which literally makes your woofers shiver like anything. Nicko McBrain comes in with his drums sounding like a fast approaching train! The guitars come in with shrieks...like a revving engine coming closer and closer..creating a nervous atmosphere. It goes on for quiet sometime before Bruce comes screaming in with "I try to call the Earth's command, desperation in my voice. I'm drifting way off course now, with very little choice..." As soon as the verse ends, everyone comes in again and I swear it'll give you goosebumps. There's this li'l solo and suddenly everything goes silent. The track then explodes with The Final Frontier. Phew! what an intro!! Its soo not expected from Maiden. Usually its just some solid fast riff which opens the album but this time around it was different...good different. The Final Frontier is a nice catchy song...it welcomes the listener and warms him up for the onslaught that is to follow.

El Dorado

This was up for a free download a month back on the maiden website. If the first track was different..the second track is classic Maiden. The galloping bass is soo freakin' awesome...sounds like 50 f*ckin horses coming straight at you! If anyone really wants to know what heavy metal is all about, this song is a perfect example. The opening riff is a nice stop-start guitar with the trademark heavy metal gallop at the background. The verses are low, almost like a sneer, the chorus is high and the solo is a twin guitar attack. This is where maiden is really good at...plain ol' old school metal. Awesome track.

Mother of Mercy

Mother of Mercy is an epic song which anyone can hum along. It sounds great during drives and drinks :). The theme is of war..a theme not new for Iron Maiden (or for that matter any metal band). The song is about soldiers not knowing why they fighting and who they are fighting with. "Why are we here? In this place..here to kill. Please god forgive us for what we've done.".. thats how the verse goes. And when Bruce ends with "I'm a soldier of war"..the chorus punches its way in, destroying everything in its path! Bruce sings with passion in this awesome song.

Coming Home

This is when you sit back and soak up the album. This a slow track..in fact its the ballad of the album. Its a nice slow track with a strong chorus bit which kinda mixes really well with the verses. Just when you think the song is slow..the powerful chorus reminds you that you are still listening to Maiden. It has a very catchy riff which sticks to the back of your mind. The solo is really soulful and melodic.

The Alchemist

This song picks up the pace after the ballad. It takes us back to the quintessential maiden tune... fast..loud..and an immensely catchy chorus. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith start the proceedings with their blissful harmonies. I'd like to compare it with The Trooper (due to the harmonies) but I rather should not. Its everything that characterizes an Iron Maiden song. Short and sweet.

Isle of Avalon

The intro is nice and slow with a crescendo brewing...indicating the track is about to explode! Bruce's voice is so passionate on this track..esp when he sings "Mother Earth you know your time is near".. you cant help but feel the sadness in his voice. The crescendo finally culminates into an explosive chorus when Bruce screams "I can hear you!!..Can you hear me?? I can feel you...Can you feel me??" After that, I swear you cant help but move your head back and forth with those metal horns right up there. Its an epic track. The chorus is excellent on this one. "I hear her crying..the tears of an angel. The voices I hear inside of my head. Blessed the fruits are the corn of the earth..Mother Earth holy blood of the dead." Its soo bad a*s!!

Starblind

The song really takes off with this nice li'l riff at the opening seconds of the song. Its a nice mid-tempo song which has an awesome solo. In fact the song structure is really progressive...with nice smooth tempo changes. Starblind is a powerful song (almost like a power ballad) with Bruce singing at the top of his voice during most parts of the song. It's brutal..esp towards the end, everything slows down and then there's this small crescendo before they all erupt to create this awesome metal experience.

The Talisman

My favorite track of the album. The intro is kinda similar to "The Legacy" from their last album - A Matter of Life and Death. It has an acoustic intro..nice and quiet..yet indicating that something's gonna happen soon. And soon enough..the song breaks into this classic fast, powerful sound that Maiden is soo familiar with. The chorus is soo incredibly catchy with a nice li'l solo which everyone can whistle along. At a li'l over 9 minutes long..this takes you at levels which one can only expect from an Iron Maiden song. Its pure magic.

The Man who would be king

The intro is so graceful with Bruce narrating the story in his most soulful voice. The song weaves in an atmosphere similar to the seventh son album...esp till the chorus. Midway, it suddenly takes a U-Turn. Its crazy..its something inexplicable. I swear..its surreal. Everyone comes along with everything they got. The guitars..the bass..the drums...they all sound incredible. The track comes back to its original pace after this li'l interlude. It ends with a nice slow outro with Bruce singing "Far..far away..the man who would be king" indicating an end to his tale.

When the Wind Blows

This is a 11 minute song..the longest in the album. Its epic..its a magnum opus. This track reminds me of The Nomad or the The Blood Brothers. Its really melodic and it would be awesome listening to it live. The crowd would definitely hum along like they do during Fear of the dark. It has this nice li'l solo which comes in the middle at 5:00..which is soo cool!! Everyone comes together during this last song. During the end at about 9 minutes or so..there's this flash of brilliance again. Its a perfect finale to a monster album.

The Final Frontier is an epic album. I like it better than their last album - A Matter of Life and Death. Although there is no song which beats the classics like The Number of the Beast, The trooper or Hallowed be they name, but collectively, I feel, this album is right up there amongst their greatest. Up the Irons \,,/.. may heavy metal live forever!

The Real Great Indian Rock

I was just randomly youtubin' when I came across this nice li'l short film titled The Real Great Indian Rock. Its kinda like a montage of all the old GIR shows in Delhi and some moments with Killer Tomatoes. One might recognize Bumpy in the video..he is now a producer in MTV. I think I saw him in the Roadies series. It made me smile and all nostalgic and sh*t. I have been going to this fest right since I was in 12th. Its gonna happen this year in Dec. And I cant wait for it!! Anyways, it was nice to hear those old songs esp "Sneak Preview" by Orange Street (6:20) and the Killer Tomatoes song which is the signature tune which we hear @ GIR always. Its a well made film but it as the director (Bann of Orange Street) says..it could not have been completed due to lack of funds. I just hope people stop listening to sh*tty Atif Aslam stuff and start listening to some real music! Here's the video though.

Online shopping is a curse

F*ck!...I had bought this book online called "The Brave New World" last week and even before it reached me, I blew up about 600 bucks on yet another book...just now!! I have been spending soo much money shopping online that its crazy. I cant help it..its soo damn convenient! The slightest of provocation makes me do it. For example, I was listening to Iron Maiden's Brave New World when I came to know that its inspired by the book with the same name. I went to flipkart and 3 clicks later, I was a "proud" owner. Just now, I was listening to Black Sabbath and reading a bit about them on the web when I came to know of this book called "The sound of the beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal". Seconds later, I found myself buying it! A few days back, I saw Assassin's Creed video and got reminded of how badly I wanted to play this game when my Xbox was wrecked. I had promised myself that I would get it as soon as my Xbox gets fixed. Suddenly, I started feeling guilty of going against my words!! It was crazy!! Needless to say, I bought it!

Its the ease with which one can get the stuff and the feeling that you are not spending cash from your pocket which makes it addictive and seem harmless. I am always like..its ok..just this once..I dont need anything else. But there's always "something else"! With every arriving shipment my folks give me a piece of their mind and seek an explanation. However, instead of controlling the urge, I changed the delivery address to get the shipment delivered at my office!! Damn..am soo screwed!

Good news galore

Things have been going great around me lately (touchwood). My bro's marriage has been finalized and the in-laws are super cool. They are a perfect extension of my family..and its real fun being around them. We went for this mini vacation to Mumbai last week and had truck loads of fun. We got to try all the street food of Mumbai and loved every moment of it. I also got to try out single malt for the first time in my life and although I dint get much to drink but whatever I had..it was awesome. Our stay was at the IIT Mumbai guest house which was a beautiful place to hang out. Our guest house was overlooking the Powai lake. I also got the chance to interact with some of the IIT professors who were dad's colleagues/friends. 

We went sightseeing to Lonavala which was another awesome experience. The drive there was super cool with us going at speeds upto 130 kmph in the car. The view offered by the place was breathtaking. All in all a nice vacation.

Back at home, I got another good news. It was almost 5:25 pm yesterday, me and Negi wanted to go out for some beers in the evening after the office when I got a call from my manager. When I went inside the conference room, he congratulated me. I dint know what the hell was happening. Thats when he told me that I had been promoted to Project Lead! It was really cool. I called up at home and got the lamest reaction ever from my folks!!Anyways, but I was happy. We ended up having an occasion for spending our evening with a couple of beers...which is always nice.

I also got my bike today all repaired and sh*t. It looks brand new and feels absolutely great. Although I had to shell out quite a bit, but hopefully insurance should cover most of it. Although the bike's still off limits for me..but the return of the bike somehow makes me feel that I have recovered fully from the accident..weird.. but thats how it is!

Anyways like a metaphorical cherry on top of the metaphorical ice-cream, I finally received Prince of Persia - Forgotten Sands and Red Dead Redemption. They are here for me to waste my precious time on. Reviews of those coming up shortly. The thing which is spoiling all this fun is the thought of my mid-sems next week :(

The new schedule

Things have changed after the accident.  My folks have confiscated the bike and I have being asked (strictly asked) to follow a strict time schedule. The result is...really awesome evenings. I go to the office by the office cab..which means that I have to get up at 6:30, get ready by 8 and reach the office sharp at 8:30. I come back at 5:30 in the evening and have the entire evening to myself. I get more time to practice my guitar, read stuff and also do a bit of studying for my mid-sems later this month. As I fully recover, I plan to continue my running as well. I lost 2 weeks due to the accident. Dunno how bad it would turn out to be. Hopefully this change is good for me.

The accident and Alan Wake

I was involved in a bike accident last week. It was crazy. I had a bruised fore arm and 8 stitches on my head. Fortunately no bones were broken and nothing major happened (touch wood)...the accident could have been a lot worse. Its a terrible thing to happen. I was kinda in a state of shock for about 2 days esp. during the nights when I used to lay on my bed waiting for sleep to come over. My mind kept racing about the events that happened. I did have a nightmare or two about the whole episode during the course of the week. Anyways I dont wanna talk about it much cuz it kinda brings back the experience to my mind which I really dont wanna go through again.

However, due to the accident, I was stuck at home for a week with absolutely nothing to do but rest. I used to wake up pretty late, have my breakfast in peace, plug in the Xbox and played till lunch. I had got this new game - Alan Wake, which once you start playing, is very difficult to put down. Its a thriller and its awesome. Its written by Sam Lake, the same guy who wrote Max Payne. Its a story driven game with loads of cut-scenes. The game is about an author called Alan Wake who writes thrillers and is facing his worst Writer's block. He is on a vacation with his wife Alice at a quiet li'l place called Bright Falls. Bright Falls is a nice picturesque place during the day. At night, its total nightmare. Anyways, Alice gets kidnapped by a mysterious force called the "darkness". While looking for his wife, Wake gets pulled into this "horror" story of which he has to write his way out. Most of the game takes place in the dark. You are equipped with just a torch and a gun. The torch, apart from showing you the way, serves the purpose of fighting against the Taken - ppl who are possessed by the "Darkness" and out to kill Wake. The Taken cannot attack in the light. The idea is to beam the torch and finish them off with the gun. Over the course, you get cool flares, a flare gun and flash bombs to take out multiple enemies. The best part is the sheer lack of resources and the degree of difficulty while facing your enemies. You cant go boom boom and finish off your enemies because you dont get that much ammo. You need to be accurate and most of the times, run away rather than be Gears of War about the entire thing. Running also does not guarantee safety since Wake gets tired pretty soon and the Taken on the other hand are pretty fast. You can dodge their attacks but you need to time your dodges to perfection. Its a thrill though when you get a successful dodge cuz its turns all cinematic and sh*t.

The presentation and the sound effects are awesome. The entire atmosphere is pretty scary with the Taken creeping up behind you or coming out of the bushes all of a sudden. You actually end up being really edgy while roaming about in the darkness at Bright Falls. You gatta look in all directions. There are some spectacular moments in the game. There's this one "boss" battle kinda thing where you are at this old house of 2 old rock stars who used to play heavy metal in their prime. Suddenly you are faced with an army of the Taken. What comes to the rescue is the pyrotechnics these guys had in their homes. When the pyrotechnics come on, heavy metal music also starts blaring from all sides. You have this amazing background score as you beat the crap out of the army of Taken with these super awesome fireworks all around you. It was sooo badass! Undoubtedly, the best moment in the game for me.

Anyways, over the course of the game, you get manuscripts pages and these TV clippings which give you clues and important pieces of the story. At first you would be tempted to leave them and go on with your objectives but as you play, you realize their importance. I am very keen to play the game once again. Once you finish the game, you get the nightmare mode. I am pretty interested to play the entire thing on the nightmare mode just to see what I missed esp during the first half of the game.
All in all a game which is really gripping and delivers what it promises. Next up, I am dying to buy Red Dead Redemption and/or Prince of Persia - Forgotten Sands.

Batman - Arkham Asylum

Ever since my Xbox's back, my weekends have been a lot spicier than before. I bought Batman - Arkham Asylum ages ago when my Xbox was free from RROD (for the first time). Midway through it, my xbox got the RROD again. It was frustrating. However, instead of going to these local repair guys, I sent it to one of the service centers. Although the fix was expensive but I think the problem's fixed (touchwood). The console is quieter and dissipates less heat. Anyways, I thought that I could restart the game from where I left, but somehow it did not detect my previous saves. Basically this meant to play from scratch again. It wasn't really a problem..I dint mind...I had actually forgotten most of the plot.

Anyways, the story takes place inside Arkham Asylum. For those who are not familiar with Arkham Asylum, its an asylum/jail where all the psychopaths in Gotham City are brought in for "rehab". Basically its a sh*thole with the meanest criminals/psychopaths anyone has seen..to cut short..a place where no one really wants to be.

The story begins with Batman catching The Joker and escorting him to the asylum. Batman kinda gets this feeling that something's fishy because Joker never let himself get caught this easily before. Needless to say he is in the middle of a conspiracy. The Joker gets the prisoners from Blackgate to get transferred to Arkham Asylum as well as part of his plans. Once inside the asylum, he beats up the guards and escapes through one of the gates with the help of Harley Quinn (his "girlfriend") who has hacked into the security system (being a doctor @ Arkham before getting brainwashed by the Joker) and helped Joker get away. Batman follows him inside the asylum only to become a puppet of Joker. The objective becomes to go after The Joker and foil every one of his plans.

The graphics are very pretty. They have kept it very comic-like. The entire Arkham asylum is creepy, dark and detailed very well.

The game play is unique with combos which when executed perfectly, kinda is like a stress reliever. Beating up Joker's goons to pulp with those elaborate combos gives you sheer pleasure...you actually get the feel of a superhero. There is obviously the stealth angle to it since Batman is someone who quietly comes and does his job and scaring the crap out of ppl. The detective mode shows the enemy locations so that we can plan our attack easily. The inverted takedown is soo cool where you grab guys as they pass directly beneath you and leave them hanging on ropes for their comrades to see. The enemies too undergo a change in their behavior from normal to nervous to terrified...the AI changes accordingly. They start moving in pairs and sometimes fire a shot in the air assuming they saw something. There are loads of cool weapons to choose from. From the batarang to the bat claw..each one is is unique and serves its purpose.

The level design is very detailed. Its an open world and you can climb onto rooftops and glide away for hours..it looks awesome. The scare crow challenge is very innovative where the game changes to a 2D scrolling one. Its kinda creepy the first time around. The game has loads of bosses, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Bane, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and ultimately The Joker. All in all a game which has everything, mind blowing graphics, a gripping plot, stealth, combat, big boss battles phew!..a tad too short by the end of it though...but I wont complain. Its fun!

Living up to the name of the blog

Jeez..ever since my project finished @ work..I have become sooo lazy. I sleep late, I wake up late, I do everything at a super slow speed. I dint go running for almost 2 weeks now. I dint update my blog for about the same time. Its crazy! I just want to laze around. I finally took the first step today of updating the blog. The next step would obviously be to start running again. I just hope I get back into the rhythm again. I am literally scared sh*t to go running..not knowing how much I would have deteriorated. Nevertheless, I guess its time to face our fears.

Randomizing

I woke up today feeling cold...a feeling which I had forgotten in these hot Delhi mornings. About to grab my blanket in my sleep, I realized something was different. This is not what usually happens. Usually, its the heat and sweat that wakes me up. Surprised, I got up and looked out of my window to see everything dark and grey. There was this nice cool breeze blowing across and lovely li'l puddles outside. It finally rained in Delhi! I just hope this is the much awaited onset of the monsoons.

This week was a mixed bag. It started off badly..got worse but ended nicely. We had this huge release @ work on Wednesday. Needless to say, Monday and Tuesday were busy as hell. After finishing up stuff, just when we had to release the thing on Wednesday, all hell broke loose. There was this li'l fix that we had to do. It was a minor issue (on the face of it). Once that was fixed, it uncovered a major bug. On fixing that in record time literally, 3 more were uncovered! We really had no choice but to postpone it to the next day. Damn..it was soo frustrating. However, the next day was better. There were no major hiccups and we managed to do the release. First signs of things getting better.

On Friday, our clients acknowledged the release and were all praises of how well we had done. That was such a relief! We guys also bagged the best team award for the Jan-Feb-Mar quarter which also lifted our spirits. I lifted the "spirits" at home too in the evening, while celebrating with my folks.

Phew!..things would be a bit relaxed at least for a few days. Hopefully if the weather stays as it is, it would be nothing like it.

Apart from all that, I stumbled upon this great old school heavy metal band - Annihilator. I have been listening to them continuously for 2 whole days now and just cant stop. They are f*cking awesome.

Weekend

Sigh..another weekend gone by like a blink of an eye, but the weekend was awesome. My precious Xbox 360 was back on Friday evening all repaired and sh*t. It was also Partha's birthday on Friday. Although initially we did not plan anything, but by 7 pm, me, Negi and Partha couldn't resist from going out for a couple of drinks. I mean it was Friday night and Partha's birthday and the return of my precious Xbox 360...it definitely had "celebration" written all over it! We crashed at Partha's place for a change and had a nice time drinking and chatting up till bout 11:30. I dropped Negi back and reached home to "test" my Xbox 360. I swear I was soo nervous plugging it in but I was relieved seeing the ring of light flashing on the console. I put in Gears 2 and played till like 3 in the morning. I hadn't lost my touch..in fact, I realized that I could make those head shots more frequently when I'm drunk.

It might be the placebo effect, but the repaired console is more silent than before and does not heat up as much as it used to (touch wood, fingers crossed, god..please dont jinx it!).

Anyways I went to sleep at 3 and woke up at about 9 in the morning with a heavy head. I had some work at the bank on Saturday and had no choice but to get up. Me and dad set off in the merciless Delhi heat..and roamed about quite a bit too to get the things done. We reached back at about 3 in the afternoon, exhausted as hell. Sadly there was no time for beer. Dinner was fun though. Dad made an excellent egg curry and we kinda had a small daaru session while making rotis. After dinner, I played Gears 2 again. Its an addictive game...very difficult to stop. There's loads of action in the sequel...much much more than in the first part. Its much more grander and has an even greater "epic" feel to it than the first part.

Sunday was spent doing nothing but finishing up Gears 2. Never have I finished an entire game over the weekend. I started after breakfast and played till lunch..had lunch...and played till the evening. Before I knew it, the credits were rolling in. Its an awesome game. I am really looking forward for the third part which is releasing in April next year. The evening was spent in watching the England-Germany match. It was a nice match. Although it started slowly but things changed after the first goal. England was very weak on the defense and was out of luck too! They dint play well at the end of the day, Germany was a superior team.

Nothing much left over this weekend. I have a hectic time till the middle of next week since I have a release coming up on the 30th. But things would slow down a bit after that. Hopefully I would get some new games; I have a lot of game time to make up for!!

Power Cuts are back!

We had forgotten what it felt like during a power cut in Delhi, courtesy the power backup @ my society. We were rather rudely reminded of how it used to be in the good ol' days, this weekend. The society's generator went bust on Friday and as luck would have it, the weekends were marred with power cuts in the afternoons and in the nights. To make matters worse, it was the 2nd most hottest day in Delhi on Sunday (Saturday wasn't all hunky dory either). It kinda reminded me of the times when I was a kid. Power cuts in Delhi were a very common affair. Majority of the time, only some of the flats would be affected and unfortunately, my house always used to be one of them. The only plan of action was to call the DESU guys, who would not pick up the calls for whatever reasons. We would then have to go to their office, lodge a complaint and wait for them to arrive on their cycles. In most of the cases, it would be a busted fuse in the feeder. Contrary to popular beliefs and Science!!..the solution was not to replace the fuse with another fuse, but to "innovate" using a make-shift "fuse" by using a normal wire across the two terminals!! The advantages of doing so were, that its quick, cost effective and it would prevent the fuse from going off again and again!!. I mean thats what we want right? .. a fuse which doesn't go off quickly...which is sturdy and can withstand a lot of current!! I cant believe these guys were electricians. Never have I seen them replace a fuse with another fuse. Upon asking them, they used to retort in a typical Delhi accent "Ohhhhh koi farak nahi padta sir!". Things changed drastically since the Society bought its own generator. The power backup was a lifesaver. There are loads of times when we don't even realize that we have a power cut. The TVs work, the coolers work, the computer works..all the necessities work.

Anyways, the last 2 days have been awful. Thankfully the mosquitoes are all dead during Delhi summers. So there wasn't any trouble from them. Hopefully the generator gets repaired soon. Its coming in the way of my lazying around time. Its hard to just lay around and do nothing when its 32 degrees inside your room. Phew!

Bhajji steals it for India

Its been ages since an Indo-Pak match or for that matter an ODI had been soo much fun to watch. Although I couldn't watch the Pak innings (had to go to the office), I was looking forward to watch Shoaib vs Sehwag. Clearly, Sehwag was rusty and pretty tied up in his innings. I mean .. he did not score a run for 11 balls! It has got to be a record of some sorts. Although the Shoaib - Sehwag encounter was a damper, the game definitely had its moments. Gautam Gambhir and Kamran Akmal staring down each other's throats...Bhajji and Shoaib Akhtar's verbal spat...these moments made the game fun to watch. Sports has to be played with aggression indeed. I just loved how Bhajji hit Shoaib for a six and then repeated the feat in the last over and thumping his chest all pumped up. India made it to the finals..lets hope the adrenaline continues to pump and they win the tournament.

Critical Mass

Finally I reached equilibrium (or as my class XIIth physics teacher would say - iklibeerium). My monthly run score is at an all time high. I hope I get into my old rhythm with this and start running seriously again. Although I am not as fast as I was but I think my stamina levels are OK. I dont get the side-stitches or the shin/lower back pains that I used to. I run comfortably (although slow) and have been managing to finish strong for the past few runs. Some ambitious ppl would suggest to increase my speed..but I think I would take my time.

The graph kinda tells exactly what happened during the course of the last 6 months. June and July '09 were very hectic at the office. I was literally spending night-outs every other day. Hence, the running slowed down considerably. In August 2009, work wasn't hectic and hence I started running again and was fairly regular too. However, I started experiencing lower back pains in Sept-Oct and hence took a break for a few weeks. I just couldn't get back up since then. Laziness and procrastination have always been my old enemies. They got the better of me. Also the Delhi winters kinda force you to "hibernate".

With the new year, I decided to loose weight and start running again. However, work again became too hectic to manage. From Feb onwards, I started running whenever I could get the time...whatever the distance...I did not care. I figured, work would always be hectic and I would always be lazy. Actually the laziness was self-induced. I wanted to lay around doing nothing the entire day as a reward for working till late hours at the office. Also, I kept telling myself that I don't have the time to cover my usual distance (which was at least 5-7k at the time I stopped running). It was only when I went running that I realized that I was not in the shape I used to be in 2009. Forget 5K...I was badly out of breath after running for 10 mins. Thats when it hit me that I got to be regular. I stopped smoking (whatever li'l I used to) and I took the time-out whenever it was possible..weekends..late nights..for whatever distance. Soon...well...not that soon...it took me 4 whole months to get the laziness out of my system. Well.. not ..entirely ..out of the system.. at least lower its intensity. Anyways I think I can get back into my groove from here on and I guess in 4 more months..I would be thin again! I hope I don't get back to my usual lazy self after all this big talk about defeating laziness and procrastination. One of the reasons I wanted to write about it..so that I feel the pressure to fall right back into place in case I do so.

P.S. Spirit of the Marathon - A must watch for ppl who are lazy like me.

Progress Report

I am finally getting my groove back. With 7 days left in this month, I think I would be at the same position as I was in Aug' 09...atleast distance wise.

The song which saved my run

I wanted to cover 8K today. It was an ambitious target since I was just back from a really hectic journey. My body was still hurting at parts. Anyways, I started running at my usual pace (which is too embarrassing to quote) and also felt quite good. But around the 3.5K mark..I started breathing heavily and sweating more than usual. I dunno if it was the heat or just plain ol' fatigue but my strides became shorter and weaker with every step. I was about to quit since I felt kinda dehydrated. Then ... a song came up in my ipod which literally gave me the adrenaline boost that I needed. It felt like a jolt of electricity through my body. Set to fail - by Lamb of God has the meanest intro ever. At 2:21..things go insane. It helped me to focus and go on a bit longer. I continued till the end of the song and although couldn't cover 8K but I finished a decent 6K. All hail metal \,,/

Mini Vacation

It had been a year since me and my friends went for an outing together. The last trip was to Manali ... when I was thin ... which makes it a long time back. Anyways we had started planning ages ago for an outing. In fact, it used to be the only topic of discussion during lunch breaks, beer time and anytime we all were together.

One fine day, my friend CP, gave us the news of his marriage in Kotdwara (pronounced as Kotdwar). Since it was on a Saturday, and for once, everyone was free...we decided this could be it. Hence, the planning began. Subhash...our quintessential travel guy...was in charge of the itinerary..the travel booking..the booze, basically everything. After some last minute back outs by ppl, travel agents, EYL ppl..and loads of shouting at them over the phone for our advance money, me and Subhash finally contacted the HCL cab vendor for a tempo traveler. We were to start on Friday night, reach Kotdwar at around 6:00 a.m, roam about at Lansdowne - a hill station about 40kms away, attend CP's marriage in the evening, come back to Delhi via Rishikesh. It was a hectic schedule but it had to be done. The bus driver gave us some nervous moments when he arrived an hour late than he had to. He finally reached Mayur Vihar which was our assembling point. The journey began with all of us opening our beers...and some really loud music thanks to Viral's portable Bose speakers. Although I couldn't play much of metal on it...but the beer kinda made it easy to enjoy the bollywood playlist. We were all high in no time..and after our dinner at a roadside dhaba...we found 3 more bottles of beer in the box to our utter surprise. We thought we had finished the entire thing. I swear nothing was more blissful than when Amaresh uttered those 5 sweet sweet words "Abhi 3 aur baaki hai!!" After finishing up...things went crazy and fuzzy. All I could remember was there was a lot of dancing...loads of crazy laughter..and loads of "gay"ish activities by some of my friends which really creeped me out! We all fell asleep by 4 am...I think.

We reached the venue at 6 in the morning..with our body still in the sleep mode. We checked-in to our hotel and slept for an hour or so before being woken up for breakfast. We cleaned up..and I swear we were all a bit high even at7:30 in the morning. After breakfast, we headed towards Lansdowne. The drive was pretty cool...the view was excellent and gradually the temperature became cooler and cooler. Lansdowne is the home of the Garhwal Rifles and they pretty much maintain everything there. Its a nice clean place, very peaceful and quiet. We reached a place called Tip-in-top which is one of the tourist attractions there. Frankly, there's nothing much to see there..just a place called Suicide point from where you can see the entire town. However, the experience the place provides is awesome. You can totally chill out, spend time with friends..chatting up and relaxing under the deodar trees..just soaking up the moment. We did just that. As it is we were pretty tired from the journey. We just sat and joked around the entire time. Lunch was simply awesome at a restaurant called Holiday. The waiter however was an angry young man. Maybe it was because we ordered huge quantities of food or something, the guy somehow dint like it when we ordered our seconds..and thirds and our fourths.

Finally, with our stomachs full, we rested for a while, sipped tea and headed to an artifical lake (dont remember the name). The lake sucked big time. It was nothing much to see. It was a waste of time really. The lake was very small. In fact the Sanjay Lake in Mayur Vihar Ph 2 was better than that.

Next up, we headed towards the Siddh Bali temple in Kotdwar. Its a famous temple at Kotdwar and being high up, it offered a nice view of the town as well.

It was soon time to head back and attend the marriage. We checked in to a different hotel, had a shower and 4 quick pegs of Vodka. We wanted to be high since there was dancing involved and our feet dont move unless we are high. We danced the night away at his marriage. CP was very nervous and tense. He was like a stick. He dint talk or smile or anything. I have never seen someone this scared in my life. We dint get much time to talk and stuff...we just danced, had our dinner..wished him and went back.

Tired as hell, we all went to sleep at 12:00-12:30 am. We had to reach Rishikesh by 10:00 and hence had to start early, at about 6 am from Kotdwar. We eventually started at 6:30 the next day for Rishikesh. We stopped for breakfast at 8:45 and were pretty confident that we would reach Rishikesh before time. However, the restaurant guy had other plans. We were in this restaurant called Anuradha Palace which looked pretty decent but it sucked big time. They took almost 45 minutes to serve us. And the food was sooo bad and overpriced. It cost us time and money. We had to reach Rishikesh at 10...and it was 9:45 already. We were stuck in a jam and finally reached Rishikesh at about 11:00. We had to go for Rafting and the rafting guys escorted us to the starting point.

Rafting was sooo f*cking awesome. It was a 26 km course and stretched up to 3-3.5 hours. The rapids were named by Edmund Hillary and sounded pretty cool too. The first one was called Black Money where our instructor made us stand on our raft. It was sooo cool. Then there was "3 blind mice" which is a set of 3 rapids one after the other, "Roller Coaster" which literally throws the raft in the air and back down again, "Golf course" and many others. Each one was fun. There are some rapids which are called "Bodysurfing" rapids, where we can get down from our rafts and swim in them. That was really fun. Our instructor, impressed with the way we were handling the entire thing, let us body surf on 2 of the rapids. It was scary and loads of fun. In between the rapids, when the currents aren't that strong, we can float on the river. Floating on the river Ganga was a peaceful experience. The calm waters and the awesome scenery made it a blissful affair. I almost spent an hour and a half in the water just floating and soaking up the sun. The excitement of the rapids and the peaceful experience of floating in the river made the entire episode memorable. In between there's cliff jumping. We had to jump from a decent height into the river. It was an exhilarating experience. You experience almost 2 seconds of free fall..which literally scares the sh*t out of you...but the adrenaline rush that you get makes up for everything. After a short break we continued our rafting adventures and ended the course at 4:00 pm. We waited for a while to dry ourselves and headed back to Delhi.

The return journey was pretty hectic. We had the vodka for company though. After dinner however, the roads were pretty bad and we were stuck in traffic jams constantly. We reached back at 2:00 in the morning and I went to sleep right away with my body aching mostly due to the posture that I was sitting in. I woke up at 12:00 in the afternoon today!! I had to take the day off...I don't remember anyone waking me up! I slept like a log.

It was an awesome journey, very hectic but an awesome experience. The Rafting episode made this trip the best one among all my trips. Hope I get to do it again soon.