Get Set...Go!

Well..I have always been a homebody. I've never stayed away from my family for the majority portion of my life. The first opportunity I got was when I had to go to Japan in 2008 for 6 months! It was the first time I was living alone..doing household stuff...cooking!! and what not! Needless to say, it was really fun but I always missed spending time with my folks. Now, I have to leave for the U.S for about 3 months or so. And this time, leaving is even more difficult. I am having soo much fun around here with my bro getting married and my sis-in-law and stuff. Almost every week there's a party. I would really miss everything around here. But well, at the same time, I am also excited to go to a new place, work in a new environment, the new challenges etc etc. Of course with no one there, there's always this li'l feeling of loneliness but then I guess it gives you the opportunity to make new friends. Well..hopefully things would work out well and I make new friends, overcome all the challenges and have a blast! I hope I am not too busy with work and get time to explore new places (and try newer and different types of booze). And I hope when I come back, the parties would still be at the same level of madness as it was when I left. All the best to me!

We are the champions!

We won the finals of our office cricket tournament - NPL on Sunday! With this win, we have won the tournament 3 out of 5 times. This is the maximum number of times any team has won the tournament. Ironically this was also when we were playing without many of our star players..which makes the win even more special.

However, all did not go well for us. On Saturday, one of our team member met with an accident while coming to the ground. Although she is out of danger but she suffered major injuries on her face. She was in the ICU for a day before the CT Scans and X-Rays suggested that there were no internal injuries. Anyways, lets hope for a speedy recovery for her. It was shocking for us to see her in the condition she was in. Hospitals are always a very depressing place to be in and Saturday left us all in no mood of playing the game. At the same time, we all really wanted to win this one for her.

Sunday began with us winning the toss for a change and electing to field. Our opposition started off steadily with no major fireworks. After the first wicket fell, Piyush - their best player and a monstrous hitter of the ball came in. However, Himanshu - our bowler was in no mood to relent. He bowled an excellent over..every ball right at the block hole. Under pressure after soo many dots, Piyush went for a sneaky single but found himself stranded midway. The ball was quickly collected by our keeper Deepak and he hit the stumps directly. We all were ecstatic. However, after that, things dint go as per plan. I dunno if it was the heat or our complacency or a combination of both, the second spell of our bowlers (including me) was a nightmare. We gave away soo many extras and misfields that we suddenly found our opposition back in the game. They reached 98 in 12 overs...which was a very competitive total.

We started off badly. Our opener Himanshu got out after trying to heave a 6 in the very first over. We all got really nervous after that start. However he was replaced by another Himanshu who was in a destructive mood. He went berserk right from the second over itself. He hit 2 sixes and 2 fours to score 20 off the second over. He continued the blitzkrieg clearing the boundary at will before he got out at 33 off just 13 balls. He demoralized the bowlers and made the run rate look like a joke. He provided us with such a big cushion, that all we had to do was to take the singles and get the occasional boundary. Our captain Deepak did just that. He rotated the strike beautifully and made sure the bad balls were dispatched. We reached the target in the second ball of the last over with a huge 6 from Nirmal. He finished it off in style. We won it with 5 wickets remaining. We all ran on the field to celebrate and carried Deepak on our shoulders. There were some nice war of words going on between us since the last week...esp after they defeated us in one of the league matches. The atmosphere was full of emotions running high on the field.

Wow!..what an awesome day it was. Winning always feels great..and this one was special. This one was for you Gunjan! Get well soon and let's party.

Randomizing

Ohh well..the bitter Delhi cold is somewhat over now. It had been really cold these past few weeks. Last Sunday was the coldest day in 46 years...and we could all feel it. We had a cricket match last Sunday, and boy we were all shivering. Anyways, its nice and sunny now. Gradually it will pave the way for the scorching Delhi summer a few months from now.

The past week was full of work. I had a really hectic week at the office. However, the worst is yet to come. It will be like this till March. I just hope everything falls into place by then. Well, apart from all the work, there's our office cricket tournament (NPL) going on. We had 2 matches last weekend. I have another match tomorrow and then again on the next weekend. My team BoB (Block or Bleed B-) ) managed to win both their matches fairly comfortably. We have two more games coming up, of which if we manage to win 1 more, we reach the finals. Lets hope (and pray) we win it this time. That would make us the champions for the 3rd time...the maximum times any team has won the tournament. 

I did not go for my run this wek cuz of the body pain after the cricket matches. I ran yesterday and was relieved I hadn't lost any steam. I need some new shoes though. This ones all worn out. I also need to get a haircut, go to the bank and all these li'l sucky chores around the house! But all I wanna do is laze around. Its really difficult to drag my body to do something useful around the house.

Today's gonna be fun though. I would be going over to bro's house for lunch (and booze)! Looking forward to that and the evening that is to follow. 

No one killed Jessica

Ok..when I saw the trailer..I was very interested to watch this movie. I expected it to be all realistic and dark and stuff. Sadly, I was mistaken. They took a serious issue and made it into a bollywood masala crap. Plus, the overacting was too much to bear. Rani Mukherjee was irritating throughout. She cant curse at all! It felt soo fake. Her role was of this hotshot brash journalist who has a doesnt-give-a-damn attitude..but it was all soo cliched. Right from her referring to herself as a b*tch in every line to the random use of the four letter word (f*ck!, f*ck you, shut the f*ck up..etc. etc.)..she couldn't carry it off at all. Vidya Balan was nice though and very natural in her role as a dejected Sabrina. Well, the movie could have been made much much better if they had got in good actors. All the other actors made everything sooo dramatic (except for the 3 guys who were involved in the murder and the police officer). The scene when Jessica's mom cries on hearing the death of her child tops the charts. I was actually laughing when she was "crying". The second half was a drag! Its almost a 3 hour movie!..and it could have been finished soo easily in 1.5 - 2 hrs. Its strictly an OK-ish movie. I wish it would have been less of a Bollywood drama and more of the real stuff.

Rush - Beyond the lighted stage

I hadn't heard much of Rush before. I had only heard the mainstream hits - Working Man, Tom Sayer and YYZ. I liked them but I never seek to listen to them. When these songs came up on my Ipod, I used to take a note and that was that. I never selected these songs to play. While randomly youtubin', I saw Rush - Beyond the lighted stage in the suggestions bar. What caught my fancy was that it was directed by Sam Dunn. I was in love with his previous documentaries - Metal - A headbangers journey and Global Metal. He has a really interesting way of telling a story. Anyways, I started watching it and was captured instantly.

The movie starts off with Neil Peart drumming in the rehearsal room, followed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson doing their thing. They reach the stage and when the announcer announces their name, Bastille Day kicks off! I had turned up the volume and the song literally burst out of the speakers. I hadn't heard the song before and it was oh-my-god soo awesome. The Robert Plant like vocals, the loud guitars and fierce drums had me gripped. Well, they are a trio, hence, they are automatically cool for me. When I heard their songs previously, I never realized they were a trio! Their songs are decently long. And YYZ is so intricately structured that at first I had thought it was a Dream Theater song. I don't think anyone who hears them for the first time will think they are a trio!

Anyways impressed immensely from the starting few seconds, I saw the entire thing without even taking a break (not even to pee!). Its an awesome story. They have captured the band's journey in a really nice manner. Plus they had this huge lineup of guests like Kirk Hammet, Mike Portnoy, Vinnie Paul, Sebastian Bach and even Jack Black! Jack Black should be there in every rock/metal documentary. He speaks soo passionately about rock and metal that you are bound to fall in love with it.

The movie is very successful in bringing out the awesomeness of the band, something which had not been done till now. No matter how talented these guys were, they never got the commercial success that many other bands (which really suck) enjoy (am looking at you LP!). But Rush weren't looking for commercial success anyways. They just wanted to have fun and do their music and really dint care about what the others thought right throughout their musical journey. Another thing worth noting about them is their humility. There was not a drop of arrogance in them at any point of time. In fact, Neil Peart, when he was at his peak, decided to change his technique with the help of Freddie Gruber and re-invented himself! The fact that someone that huge even thinking that he can improve and needs a change is a big deal. Well, that also explains why they are as good as they are. Its a nice tribute to them. I am now a fan of Neil Peart's drumming, Geddy Lee's vocals and bass and Robert Lifeson's solos. Listen to La Villa Strangiato and be mesmerized with the awesomeness of the band. Every song featured in the movie kicked a*s. I even listened to - Working Man during my run today :) . I would be spending loads of time listening to Rush for sure!

Fun start to the year

I came back at 9:30 pm on a very cold New Year's eve night after an important release at work. Usually I spend New Year's with my friends, boozing the night away. This year, however, none of my friends were around, and also since I had a release, I couldn't really come back early. When all plans failed, Dad came to the rescue (as he always does). I reached home and spent some nice "happy hours" with Dad over couple of pegs of Old Monk Rum. Delhi winters make sure that you enjoy your alcohol. It provides the best ambiance to enjoy your drink. I dint do anything else...saw some TV and wished some ppl at midnight and went to sleep.

Next day, we had to go for lunch at my uncle's place. They had asked us to reach at 11:30 am and consequently my morning began earlier than usual with my mom waking me up (rather violently) at 8:00 am. I also had some chores to do at the bank. I had to send the registration card for the final semester at BITS Pilani positively by that day. Thankfully, ICICI has opened up a branch in Mayur Vihar Ph 1. I reached the bank to find it empty and was really relieved. However being a dufus that I am, I forgot to carry my cheque book for the Demand Draft. I drove all the way back to my home to pick up my cheque book. I started the bike to go to the bank again, but it just wouldn't start. I looked at the fuel tank and it was at Empty. Thankfully, there was some petrol in the reserve. So I had to go a bit out of the way to first fill her up. At the bank, work was done pretty quickly. I couriered all the documents and came back for a quick shower. We were all set to go but there was no sign of bro and bhabhi. They came at 12:30!..a full hour later than scheduled. We reached my uncle's place at 1:00 pm and wasted no time in opening up a nice bottle of Royal Stag. There was wine for the ladies..but it was kinda waste since they dint appreciate it at all. The four of us finished up the bottle by 2:30 and seeing the humiliation suffered by the wine, we decided to pay respects by finishing that too over lunch!

After an awesome lunch and feeling really "happy", we chatted, laughed and spend some nice family moments till the evening. It was planned that we would now head over to my bro's place for dinner. Since he has a really cool Sony Bravia LCD TV, we I wanted to get the Xbox to his place. Prateek and Padmaja also planned to stay over at his place. After a brief stop at Mayur Vihar, we went over to Indirapuram where he lives. The drive was excellent. We reached there to find that my cousin Prateek packed everything except the power cable for the Xbox! I drove all the way back and forth to get it in record time..it had to be done!! Anyways, we plugged it in and it was an awesome experience. We played for like 2 hours before Glenfiddich commanded us to stop. A few pegs down (I frankly dont remember how many :p) we saw Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron over dinner. I have seen it a million times but still cant get enough of the movie. After random chatting up and cleaning up, we all retired for the night at 12:00-12:30.

I got up at 8:30 today. Bhabhi was making Pao Bhaji! After lazing around a bit and an awesome breakfast, I reached back to my place at 12:00 in the afternoon. I wanted to laze around and do nothing today. I plugged in the Xbox and played Splintercell Conviction till lunch. I had a small siesta before I went for my run in the evening. The run was good. I ran faster than my usual. The weather was really cool with a nice cold breeze blowing around. I round up the night with a friend...catching up after a long time.

A nice start to the year with a truly awesome weekend. Hopefully, the rest of the year will be as much fun as it was this weekend.