Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth

Evile has been regarded as potentially one of the best New Wave of Thrash Metal bands that emerged in recent times. Their debut album Enter the Grave was soo f*cking insane! It got the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I heard Thrasher and the title track - Enter the Grave about a year back. It was sooo aggressive and refreshing to hear those insane tremolo laced guitars after quite some time (at least for me). It was like a blitzkrieg on the speakers. I fell in love with the band from their very first song. I started searching more about them when I came across this new term called The New Wave of Thrash Metal and instantly I got introduced to a whole new set of bands which I dint know existed. They include Warbringer, Gamma Bomb, Municipal Waste etc etc. Anyways, from then I started following the scene pretty closely and I'm really excited about the new offerings. It got me nostalgic. I got the same feeling when I heard the old thrash metal bands for the first time.
So coming back to the post, after their debut album - Enter the Grave, came Infected Nations. It was a bit slower and more progressive with most of the songs being longer and the grooves being more melodic than their epic debut album. But, tragedy struck in 2009, when their bassist Mike Alexander died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism! After that tragic loss, they did a couple of shows as a metal requiem to Mike and they were all kickass. You can find the videos on youtube too. Joel Graham joined the band as their new bassist and the show was on the road again thankfully.

Evile released their third album Five Serpent's Teeth a month back (or two months back maybe?). I just got it in my hands yesterday and boy it sounds like a monster!! It starts off with the title track - Five Serpent's Teeth which is an awesome first song for the album! The riffs and the stop start rhythm sections would make your head go in a perpetual motion.It shifts gears towards the second half of the song just before the solo and becomes even more faster than when it began. Ohh and it has an amazing solo! 

In Dreams of Terror is a straight off thrash classic. The opening riffs gives way to this amazing drum section which gives way to this second set of riffs (at 0:34) which will blow your f*cking minds! The solo is again excellent. In fact all the songs have got incredible solos and tight drum sections.

Cult is a bit melodic and slower in tempo than the first two songs. Well, it kinda relaxes you after the initial assault. It has interesting bits but following In Dreams of Terror would always be difficult.

Eternal Empire begins with this eerie vocals and starts off slowly, before picking up the pace! It gets you right back to where you were after In Dreams of Terror. Its kinda like a roller coaster, tempo-wise. It has an awesome ending. The drums go crazy on this one!

Xaraya starts off with this chuga-chuga typical thrashy intro which is pretty cool. Its again a melodic track, bit slower as compared to the others. It has nice harmonies at various junctions through the song before the solo takes control. Its the longest song in this album at 6:04.

Origin of Oblivion and Centurion are typical Evile songs very much similar to the ones they did on Enter the Grave. Fast and aggressive.

In Memoriam is a surprise. It's a slow, gentle ballad dedicated to Mike Alexander. It uses clean guitars and Matt Drake sounds pretty comfortable singing with clean vocals.
[Update]: The opening bass riff used to be played by Mike during sound checks.

Descent into Madness and Long Live New Flesh get you back to the aggressive mood that was there when you started listening to this album. It's a full on thrash metal assault on your ears.

Five Serpent's Teeth, for me, surpasses their previous albums. It's definitely better than Infected Nations and I would say at par (or a tad bit better) with Enter the Grave. All of them sound excellent. Even Matt Drake's vocals seems improved. The drums are pounding away and the guitars are nice and crisp. They do sound similar to the old Metallica sound. That's what everyone's complaining about. But I dont really care. I loved the old school Metallica sound and I love Evile too. In Dreams of Terror, Origin of Oblivion and Eternal Empire are definitely going in my running playlist.

       

The day that never came

Ohh crap! The saddest day ever for a Metallica fan in Delhi. Although I would have missed the show anyway but the news about what happened today pissed me off!! I was soo excited when I heard that Metallica was coming to India in Oct 2011!! At first, everyone thought it was a joke because the "rumour" started on April 1st (or that week). However, it was soon confirmed on their website that they would indeed visit Delhi for the inauguration of the F1 circuit in Greater Noida! I was waiting for October with bated breath but as luck would have it, I had to travel to the US for 3 months starting September. The thought of missing the show definitely made me sad. I even complained to my colleagues here about how much I would miss this day.

In fact yesterday night during dinner, I reminded them that if I was in India, I would be attending the gig on Friday.

Anyways, I was waiting to check out the reviews about the gig and was browsing the internet for some news, when one of my friends tweeted that the show has been postponed due to a "technical snag". But soon, came the dreaded news that the gig is actually cancelled because of some stampede and unruly crowd behavior at the venue!!! I was aghast! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! All metal websites soon caught up with the news of the gig being cancelled but worse still, with videos of the unruly crowd behavior! I couldn't believe my eyes!! Ppl were on the stage and literally destroying every inch of it. They were breaking sound equipments, throwing stuff, tearing posters....hell..someone reported ppl started burning banners too!! It was the most embarrassing feeling ever to see ppl commenting on how Delhi doesn't deserve it or India doesn't know how to behave etc etc. The saddest part is that Delhi has been stereotyped countless number of times of being rude and unsafe and what not! It all came true today. I bet the cynics would be loving it. Some of my friends had already warned me this would happen ever since the day we got to know Metallica was coming! I hate the fact that it all came true.

On many sites, ppl were complaining about the mismanagement being of epic proportions and how it was soo late and there was no sign of any music etc etc. Whatever said and done, I dont think vandalizing the stage was necessary. It was really uncalled for. It takes patience (a lot of it) in gigs as huge as this, but in the end its really worth to see your favourite band up there. I have been to a decent number of gigs and I have never seen ppl acting this way. I can safely say, these ppl were not true metal fans. And clearly they would never realize what they missed with the way they reacted. Having said that, DNA networks screwed up big time. I cant believe they screwed up this bad! I mean you know there would be easily 30,000 ppl and yet there was no crowd control whatsoever. Ohh man..its just soo sad. I wished this day had ended differently. I hope this does not screw up the Bangalore gig on Sunday. 

Other videos are here.

What a pity

I used love this band called Prestorika in my college days. I saw them first time at the Campus Rock Idols gig waay back in 2004. They blew me away with their songs. They used to open their setlist with Hangar 18 or Holy Wars!..leaving everyone dumbfounded. And they used to nail it! Their OCs Shameless Pride and Sycophant from their debut EP - Emergence were sooo kick ass. I used to follow their gigs pretty closely. Then, sadly, they broke up. Lokesh Bakshi, their lead guitarist, left the band saying that they were moving towards a nu-metal sound and that he dint like it. He started his own band called Metal Force One promising their fans that the metal would be back. But recently I stumbled onto this video and there was Lokesh Bakshi playing guitars to a Rang Barse remix!! Ohh man..I'm sooo disappointed. This is soo sad!!

And this is what he (they) used to be.

The Story of Anvil

With nothing much to do over the weekend and the TV also not helping, I stumbled upon this documentary called - The Story of Anvil. Anvil's a canadian heavy metal band which started waay back in the 1970s and never got their due. Its a heart-aching underdog story of a heavy metal band whose members truly epitomize the metal attitude. Its a struggling tale of Lips and Robb who never give up despite getting sh*t from everyone. The story starts off as them being a quintessential metal band of the 80s with loads of promise but they just die down because of poor management and straight up bad luck. Struggling through 30 years, they still go out in front of meagre crowds and perform just for the love of the music.Its fascinating just to see how positive these guys are and how strong they believe in themselves despite of the things that happened to them. There's this amazing scene where Lips breaks down saying "We are gonna get there. We are gonna f*cking do it. We're gonna be rockstars! Its our f*cking dream. I'm gonna make it come true!" An amazing feel-good inspiring movie.

    

Settling down

Wow..after a insanely quick week, I find myself on a Saturday afternoon, filling up my blog. I reached Princeton last Sunday afternoon. The journey was pretty cool (unlike the last time). I was upgraded to First class while coming from India till London. And oh man!..it was soo luxurious. For god's sake, I slept on a bed on the plane!!! Plus the food and the drinks were awesome. I dint want to get down by the end of it. 

Heathrow airport's huge! I had an English breakfast of Sausages, bacon, egg and toast at Huxley's and waited for the next flight to Newark. By the time I checked in the hotel, it was 3:00 pm. 

The weather is rainy these days. The past week just whizzed past me. I am really surprised how quickly the weekend arrived. During the course of this week, I got an amazing news in my mailbox Thursday morning. The paper that we had written the last time I was here got accepted at FoVeOOS 2011 (Formal Verification of Object-oriented Software). Its gonna be in Italy in October. I hope I get the permission to attend it from the office. That would be just awesome!

I got my guitar along this week..but I dont get much time to practice these days because of the jet lag. And it now feels weird to play an acoustic because there is soo much less sound!! .. and I miss the distortion :(

I am also starting up with some new cooking experiments. More on that later!

Off to Princeton

Oh well..in an hour, I'll be boarding the British Airways flight to Heathrow and 4 hours hence, I would be on my way to Princeton. I'll be gone for another 3 months. I have mixed feelings right now. It would be nice to work with my colleagues at NEC Labs again and also to meet Rama - the "beer" guy, but I would be missing soo many of my friend's marriages and other important occasions (read as: "Beer celebrations"). Plus I would also be missing the Metallica concert :( .. something which I was looking forward too..well ever since I was a kid. I am still coming to terms with it. In the words of Chandler Bing - Can the timing "BE" more wrong??!. The weather this time around would be much better though. Last time around, I landed in the midst of a fierce winter snowstorm. This time of the year, its generally sunny. Although Hurricane Irene showed up its ugly head last weekend, but its pretty much back to normal now (or atleast that's what they are saying). Anyways, I hope to meet my friends Rohit and Varun this time around, if my schedule allows me. I would also like to go to Six Flags, something which I missed last time around. I am looking forward to Family Guy marathons, my cooking experiments (and this time, its only gonna be meat!) and insane varieties of beer that I would try. And I also hope to make new friends while I'm at it! 

Rockin' out

Ok..it was time I did a cover and uploaded it on youtube...esp after I got myself an electric guitar. So, here it is. Its not perfect. I can play it much much better but I'm ok with it. This is played over a backing track which I found here. The audio quality sucks a bit too (or is it my playing) :(

Foo Fighters win

Foo Fighters won the Best Rock Video award in the recently concluded MTV VMA awards. They won it for their song Walk from the album Wasting Light. Its pretty cool!

Bad day for Sports

Aww man..bad day for sports!..Usain Bolt disqualified...Arsenal getting thrashed :( To make matters worst..tomorrow's monday!

Randomizing

Woah..its been a long time since I wrote anything here. Well, work is keeping me really busy these days. I have a release at the end of the month and the things are getting a bit too hectic. I really hope (and pray) it goes well. 

Other than work, my parents had been pestering me to buy a car for myself ever since I came back. Although I was fighting it out the last few weeks, I finally relented when my folks excitedly showed me a Chevrolet ad 2 weeks back in the newspaper. They were offering some discount on Chevy Spark. We went to the dealer that same evening and booked it. I bought the top model and it cost me 3.6 Lakhs (including everything). The dealer threw in a gear lock and central locking system free (for which I have my bhabhi's exceptional negotiation skills to thank!)Needless to say, my bank balance saw a H-U-G-E drop! But, come to think of it, I am enjoying the ride every morning to the office. It comes with all 4 power windows, ABS, Airbags and an integrated stereo (the best part). Its red in color and pretty cool to drive. The best part of course are the celebrations which come along the way.

I have been running fairly consistently these days despite of my schedule and the sucky weather. I am running faster, but I dont run the usual 4 miles that I used to, mainly because of the lack of time in the mornings. On weekends, I end up fighting a hangover from the previous night. Anyways, but I would try harder to get my rhythm back. I think this might be the year when I finally run that half marathon! 

In other news, I finally got my 4th sem result of my M.S. programme at BITS Pilani. I passed with a "Good" for my dissertation grade (which is outstanding given the manner in which I had made the final report). So, finally I hold a masters degree now. My mom now wants me to pursue a PhD! I swear my bro is making my life hell! He is already planning to do it, and my mom has started pestering me to do the same! I tell you ... sibling rivalry is the worst! 

Apart from all that, all my friends are either getting married or busy getting engaged or getting into new relationships! It sucks! I can see how badly it would affect my social life. I had seen the same thing happen to my bro and it was sad indeed. Things were soo much cooler back in 2009 when life was all bout work and beer with nothing in between :(

Howler

Inside TGIF at Times Square, after a couple of beers.

Akanksha: Why is there a "non-veg" sign on that TV.

Me: That's not a non-veg sign. Thats the Japanese flag!!!!
Akansha: * embarrassed*

P.S. I was just browsing through my drafts to find this one never got published. But it certainly deserved to be!

Its Electric!!

After toying with the idea of buying an electric guitar for years now, I finally had the guts confidence to really pursue it since the last few weeks. I coaxed mom and dad to no ends as to why I need a third guitar! They finally agreed. So, all of us (bro and bhabhi also tagged along) went yesterday evening to Bhatia Musicals - a shop introduced to us by my bro's violin teacher - Hari. I had already bought my Yamaha acoustic guitar from them and they are our one stop shop for music. They know their music and their suggestions are right on the mark. I had a budget in mind which was 15K for the entire package.The guy suggested a Fender Telecaster California series guitar which was decent for an intermediate level player and a good value for money. It costs Rs. 9500 or so. It has a nice deep crunchy tone. I coupled that with a Marshall MG 10 amp and had a nice time jamming in the shop. I was a bit apprehensive as I had never played an electric before but as soon as the distortion was on, I was able to belt out some AC/DC tunes with ease. We wrapped it up and the entire package cost me 14K or so.

Coming back home, I couldn't resist plugging it in right away and I was up all night yesterday playing. Its awesome! Its really good for hard rock, but for heavier stuff, I would have to get a processor to really unleash the metal. But for now, I'm pretty happy with this. Rock On!

Power Weekend

Ohh man!..what a weekend. I did everything! I mean just every damn thing! I saw 2 movies, drank beer, partied till late night, played charades, practiced guitar and lazed around with a 4 hour siesta! It was insane!

It all started Friday afternoon when bhabhi called to watch Kung-fu Panda II with her, bro and some of his friends. I was game instantly! I started from the office at 7:30 or so. The show started at 8:20. There was a massive jam at the Sec. 18 underpass which made me a bit nervous. But thankfully, the traffic was smooth after that. I reached there at 8:00. As usual the others were running late, but somehow managed to reach in time for the show.

Kung fu Panda II is awesome! Although ppl dont buy my word when it comes to animated movies (because I love 'em all), but this one truly was! The animation, the dialogues, the coolness..it was all there. It was a laugh riot from the very first scene. Its a lovely made sequel. I loved how they showed the flashback scenes in awesome manga style 2D. And the climax! ... ohh what a climax ... its simply breathtaking!

Anyways, after an hour and a half of Kung fu awesomeness, we had dinner at Pizza Hut. It was ok..somehow I dint find it as good as it used to be. I remember I used to simply adore it when I was kid.

I decided to crash at my bro's place for the night. One of his friends Vikram also stayed. It was midnight by the time we reached his place. Tired, we went to sleep right away. I woke up at 6:40 or so with the bright sun misleading me. I thought it was 11 am but the relentless summer sun showed up its evil head early (ohh how I hate the sun). After an awesome breakfast, I lazed around watching TV before it was time for Beer. Me and bro bought us some Carlsberg and had a nice time finishing it. Lunch was spent watching Stanley ka Dabba..another awesome movie.

We had bhabhi's cousins come over for a small get together in the evening. It was really cool. We had a nice time drinking, laughing and watching the one sided IPL finals. We played charades and I ended up staying till 2:30 a.m..before I started to feel really sleepy. I retired for the night but all the others stayed up till like 4 a.m (thats what they said!) Man!

Anyways, Sunday morning, everyone was groggy and wanted to go back. After tea, they all went back. Me, bro and bhabhi had brunch and went to sleep at 2:00 pm only to get up in the evening at 6!! I dint realize I slept soo much. Soon it was time to leave. They dropped me back in Mayur Vihar in the evening. Sunday evening was spent relaxing, catching up with the guitar and the Xbox. I went to sleep after an early dinner after sulking a bit for Monday morning :(. But anyways, one of the best weekends ever!

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat was the first 16 bit game that I played waay back when I was a li'l kid. Thanks to my friend Rohit who was a total video game addict at that time, me and Harman were sucked into the vortex along with him. Mortal Kombat was really fun to play. It was pretty realistic for the time. The game used digitized sprites for actors and consequently looked a lot real than their animated counterparts. The blood and violence made it even more fun. I remember Mileena's fatality in which she ate the person and puked out all the bones. Classic!

Over the years, MK had lost its touch. MK2 was the best. MK3 was also good but it was downhill after that. Their 9th installment named Mortal Kombat was showcased at E3 2010 and it left everyone dumbfounded (including me). Their latest offering looked awesome and was gory as hell. I was desperately waiting for it to release. The release was due in April 2011. I had made up my mind to buy it as soon as I reach India. And I did just that. It was shipped last Monday...but I got to play it only yesterday. 

Needless to say, it has delivered its promise. MK fans would be really happy with the latest MK game. It  looks awesome, gameplay is really fast and the controls are pretty cool to work with. It has a story mode, the conventional arcade mode and a challenge mode.

The story mode is pretty interesting. I am playing the story mode for 2 days straight now. It retells the story of the MK trilogy with the player getting to play with all the main characters in the plot. Its truly awesome and really fun to play. You start with being Johnny Cage, move on to Sonya, Scorpion, Cyrax, Liu Kang, Jax, Smoke, Sub-zero, Kitana, Jade, Kung Lao, Stryker, Kabal, Cyber Subzero, Nightwolf and finally Raiden. So you kinda get to play all the characters. The gameplay is pretty fast and you are as good playing with the fists and kicks as with all the super powers. It has this brand new X-Ray move which lets you see the damage on the internal organs and ohh man! its brutal. When you see knives and swords going into the eye sockets, knees and loads of "creative" places, you are bound to cringe. I think the MK guys are a bunch of sadists. I mean the creativity that they have shown to think of such brutal assaults, is a bit shocking. But thats what every MK fan looks for in Mortal Kombat. 

The cut scenes are of the in-game engine itself and hence the story and the fight blends in seamlessly. Although the backgrounds are spectacular, the players look a bit funny at some places...esp the bare chested ones like Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Other than that, its flawless. Some of the character models like Subzero, Scorpion, Nightwolf and Smoke are brilliantly done. Even Jax looks really cool. The backgrounds are interactive and you will have something or the other moving. 

The sound in the game is mind blowing. When you get hit, you really feel the hit. The character themes also make the atmosphere around pretty cool for fighting. 

This beats all the other MK versions both in all respects, be it story, graphics or gameplay. It is surely gonna win some awards this year.

Randomizing

We had a lovely rainy morning today. It was a relief R-E-L-I-E-F from the dreaded Delhi summer which has been pure evil this time! Its 30-32 degrees at 7 am in the morning! I know this because I run in the mornings these days \m/. Anyways, but it was a nice to wake up to such an awesome weather. I wish it continues for a few more days.

I went for a small trip to Amritsar and Gurdaspur with my bro and bhabhi. My uncle who is a commandant in the BSF, is posted there. He would be getting transferred to Kolkata soon. And he has an awesome campus in Gurdaspur. We go there frequently, but it was the first time for bhabhi. We get such a VIP treatment there..its awesome. I just go there to get spoilt from all the luxuries. Since he would be moving to Kolkata soon, we had an impromptu trip for one last time. Anyways, although it was the peak of summer there too but we found ways to "cool" off. I came back Monday morning amidst huge drama. The bus in which we had come was an AC Volvo bus. But the AC stopped working just after a few kilometers. Ppl started screaming and demanding their money back. The guys yielded and promised to give the money when we reach Delhi. However, when we reached Delhi, the guy only gave money to those who had booked the tickets from him. Two families (including ours) had booked it online. For those, he said he would take us to the vendor who would give us money. As soon as we reached the vendor's shop, it was closed. This guy said he would park the bus and come. but he took off! We got hold of some assistant who was sleeping there and called the cops! We finally managed to get the money, which was a big relief.

Other than that, I am hooked to Mortal Kombat these days. I had just bought the latest one for the Xbox last week and its sooo much fun. I spent all morning playing. Bashing ppl up is a nice way to release stress esp if it can be this violent and brutal!

These days, I am toying with the idea of buying an electric guitar. I am looking for it online. I plan to visit Noida tomorrow to check if the stores have anything good. I would also most probably hang out with the guys for beer tomorrow too. And I also hope to get up early for my run. Phew! big day tomorrow huh!? Lets see how it goes.

Fighting the jetlag

Ohh man..its the worst feeling ever. I feel sleepy all through the day and stay up till odd hours. Somehow, I feel the jet lag is worse here than when I was in the US. I get up at like 8:30 as if its dawn. I wonder how long it would last. Its been a week today but I'm still fighting with it..and loosing.

Weekend

Well, this was my first weekend back in India and it was just what I had hoped for. I joined the office on Friday. It was really cool to meet up with the gang again. We had made plans to party after work..but the entire day was sooo unbearably long for me. I was stuck in meetings for 5 hours..and the rest 3, I spent catching up with everyone. The day was a total waste..but the night sooo wasn't! We reached Superstars at 6:00 pm and partied till 12:00 am. It was insane! I reached home at about 1:00 am after dropping off Subhash and Amaresh.

Saturday began with a lazy morning. I spent my afternoon watching The Big 4 DVD that I had bought. Man!..its literally insane jaw-dropping stuff. It has 5 hours of concert of Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica (in that order) and whoosh..its one helluva ride. After a much needed siesta, all of us went to my bro's place. We opened a couple of beers and saw the Delhi Daredevils sink to Mumbai Indians. I planned to stay with them for the night. When Mom and Dad left, me, bro, bhabhi and Karan (my cousin who was with us for a while now) played cards till 2:00 am. It was soo damn fun. Although am not a good player and I usually dont participate, but it was real fun yesterday.

We had huge plans for Sunday as well. Mom and Dad were going to come for lunch. They reached at my bro's place with a bottle of Singleton. Needless to say, we totally enjoyed lunch and man I was sooo full after that, I dint even have room for dessert (and I always have room for dessert!). I slept through the afternoon again, thanks to my jet lag. Mom and Dad left for home after lunch. The rest of us decided to go to GIP in the evening for some bowling action and subsequently for dinner. I had loads of unused coupons from my office which we decided to utilize. We could only play one frame because we were getting a bit late and Karan had to leave to Gurdaspur early morning on Monday. We headed towards Desi Vibes and had an amazing dinner. I was having Indian food after soo long and boy I could not stop eating. We ended up things with a nice ice cream at this new place in Sec. 18 called New Zealand Naturals or something. There, we saw two policemen harrassing the store guy for a free ice cream! They left when the guy said, "Let me tend to the customers", pointing towards us. But when we left, we saw those guys coming in again.

Anyways, I just reached home now and boy! I'm soo full and I'm soo tired and..I'm sooo happy :)

Touchdown!

What an eventful return journey! It was 10:00 pm Sunday night. We were partying for the last 2 weeks and hence thought of keeping Sunday as a "rest" day. Me, George, Saurabh and Akash had an early dinner and called it a day. After they left, I was randomly surfing the net when someone tweeted Osama is dead! I frantically opened CNN's website where they just said Osama bin Laden is dead as per confirmed sources. I switched on the TV and there it was confirmed that he was indeed dead. There was jubilation all over. It was an awesome piece of news .. really heroic. Almost the entire night was spent in front of the news. When they mentioned words like "extra security for flights" and "All forces on high alert"; I was a bit tensed since I had to fly the next day. I really hoped it would not affect the flights. Anyways, next day, I had breakfast for one last time with the guys and waited in the hotel room. I had already finished packing and had nothing much to do really. Soon it was 2:30. I had booked the shuttle for 2:45. I grabbed all the luggage, and went to the front desk waiting for the shuttle to come. Soon 2:30 become 2:45 and 2:45 became 3:00, but there was no sign of the shuttle. I called them up, to which they said, the guy will be there in 15 minutes. But soon, it was 3:15 and still no sign of him. Thats when Paul, the engineer at the hotel, was on his rounds. He asked me when was my flight. I told him it was at 6:05 and suddenly he goes like "Dude you should have been at the airport by now!" I swear that was when my heart sank! He went on an on about the traffic and how it could take more than an hour to reach the airport! I called the shuttle guys again and they said, he would be there in 2 minutes! I was losing my patience and gave them a piece of my mind. Anyways, it was 3:30 by now and I was about to call some other taxi guy. Just then, an SUV comes up and asks me whether I had booked the shuttle. I dint even waste my time answering his question, I just took all my bags and opened the trunk. I asked him to rush to the airport! Thankfully, there wasnt much of traffic and I was there at 4:15 pm with plenty of time. Anyways, everything was pretty smooth after that. I reached Amsterdam on time. Had a very rough 3 hours at the stopover because I was sooo damn sleepy. Anyways, soon it was time to board. I slept throughout the way from Amsterdam to Delhi. Man I was soo exhausted. By the time I claimed my baggage and the custom clearance, it was 12:45 a.m. My li'l cousin Karan and Dad were there to receive me. I reached home at 1:30..chatted with everyone till 2:15 or so. Everyone had office the next day, so we retired for the night. I woke up at 9 (after a very sleepless night) and lazed around the entire day. Thanks to the jetlag, my afternoon siesta lasted 5 whole hours. My bro and bhabhi came in the evening and we spent some time with beer and some awesome egg curry. Ohh it feels soo good to be home. 

Coming Home

The last week never seemed to end. Each and every day of the week was painfully long. But now when the week did end eventually, it feels just like yesterday I had come here. I cant believe its May already! 3 whole months have gone by. 

Looking back, the trip was really fun. I dint imagine it would end this way, considering the start I got. I was mostly alone for the first 2 weeks and had deemed the trip a disappointment. But I ended up with soo many friends by the end. Its amazing. There's Akash whom I hang out with the most. George and Saurabh are the others whom I party with. Then there was Rama - the "beer" guy. He owns a liquor store here and is an expert on everything! Thanks to him, I got to taste close to 32 varieties of beer and enjoyed every drop! Then, there was Dave - our shuttle guy. A fun loving person to the core. He has the happiest dog in the world - Marley. There's Rachael who gave an awesome BBQ farewell today in the evening. And the hotel guys who have been soo cool to take us around when we needed groceries. It was awesome. Last two weeks have all been farewell parties. By the end of it, I really began to think, these ppl are soo happy that I'm leaving! 

Anyways, but I am really looking forward to be back in India. Ohh man..just the thought of landing in Delhi tomorrow makes me smile. I am really looking forward to party with my family, play the guitar - ohh man!..its been sooo long. I am afraid just how much would I have to practice to get back where I used to be. I am dying to party with my gang @ Superstars! But most of all, I am looking forward to mom's food. 

Turning 27

AC/DC's playing - Back in Black ..and am sooo happy right now! India won the world cup in style. The day actually started pretty bad, with me having a nightmare that India lost the world cup. I actually woke up with that! I got soo shook up by the entire thing that I got up at 7:00-7:15 am eastern time and rushed towards my laptop to see the score. Thankfully the nightmare was only a nightmare. India were managing pretty well at restricting the Lankans. I freshened up...talk to my folks at home and got back to the match. That was when the last 5 overs were left and when the Lankans went berserk! I couldn't believe they reached 274! Well, at that time I thought anything less than 300 would be easy for us. However, we could not have a worse start than Sehwag getting out at the 2nd ball off the innings and Sachin getting out before the 10th over. The entire cyberspace was like - "Its over!" .. "It's so dissappointing" and shit. And thats exactly what makes the Indian fight back sooo beautiful. All the so called "loyal" supporters had thought that the game was over and that India had lost the cup. Well, that's when we had a match at hand, Just when the chips were down...we scripted the most memorable world cup win. I swear, I spent the entire day glued to my seat, "reading" the match. I watched the entire Indian innings on cricinfo. But I enjoyed myself. I had my speakers blaring out metal as I saw India chase down a total that skeptics thought it wasn't possible. 

Anyways, after the match, me and Akash just HAD to celebrate. We went to our usual liquor shop and got us some beer. We just finished all of it just now. Well, it was my b'day and India had won the world cup after 28 years...so we had to right!? Well..all I can say right now is that I'm happy my b'day was a day after we made history! Although I miss celebrating it in India but I guess we made most of it. What an occasion! 

Awesome weekend

What happened??? Beer happened!!

Research paper

I was working at the office when my colleague Franjo comes in. In his typical matter of fact manner, he goes like, "We are writing a paper on the stuff that we are working on these days and we would like you to be one of the contributors. Can we do that ?? .. or do you have to take permissions?". On the inside, I was like..."HOLY SH*T!! HELL YEAAAAHHHHHH!! " but I told them (in the most matter of fact manner that I could) - "Let me ask and I would get back to you". But when he started going away, I couldn't stop but saying "It won't be a problem though" with the biggest silliest grin on my face!

But who cares...I'm really looking forward for this! \m/ Oh lord..please help me not screw this up!

Thursdays are dull

Thursdays are soo dull man! They suck. They are worse than Mondays. I guess you are well prepared for Mondays. You have wasted an entire weekend (or is it just me?) and finally accept that life is not only about the weekends (or some other such philosophical sh*t). But Thursdays are ridiculous. Its too far down the week and yet 2 whole days behind the weekend. Ohh man..I need to do something to cure me from this depression. I think I need to go for a run beer!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Well..its almost gonna be a month for me in New Jersey..and here are my first impressions.

The Good

1. The weather

The weather is simply wonderful. Although ppl here hate it..but I love the winters. And its snowing all around. I think its really pretty. Somehow the cold makes you feel alive.

2. The hotel

I could not have asked for a better hotel. I stay at the Staybridge Suites. The room's are huge and the amenities are really cool. The best part is the free breakfast and the evening snacks tues-thursday with complimentary beer (although it takes talent to pour it out from a tap).

3. My office

NEC Research Labs is the coolest. My colleagues are real fun to hang out with. However I am a li'l (ok..a lot) over-awed, when I see their resumes. Everyone is a PhD and have got numerous awards for their papers and what not.

4. The Food.

Food is not at all a problem here unlike Japan. The only downside is eating out everyday would definitely make you fat. New Jersey, being the desi hub, there are a lot of Indian restaurants. I haven't really been to an american eat-out (except for the usual McD or the Subway)..but that is definitely on my agenda.

5. The beer.

Ohh man!..there is sooo much variety of beer that its insane. I haven't been too adventurous though. But I would be.

6. The TV Shows

It has all the shows that I used to watch in India. Plus Cartoon Network here is soo amazing. It has Family Guy and awesome anime shows late night. Although there are a lot of reruns. I mean..I have seen these episodes number of times in India itself!

The Bad

1. No Car, No Fun

Going around is really difficult. Unless you dont have a car, people dont advice you to venture outside. Till now, we had been travelling in cabs and stuff which is a bit expensive..esp when you are alone. But, today we walked around the entire place on foot. We walked for like 4 hours and hunt down exactly where everything is. I think people are not used to walking, hence say its tough and stuff..but not for us indians :)

2. Convenience Stores

Japan was full of convenience stores which were open 24 * 7. And there were soo many of 'em that we really did not have to make a shopping list to go shopping. Here, we need to plan because we wont be going shopping for groceries frequently because everything is so damn far off!

The Ugly

Well, nothing much but I guess people aren't that friendly. No, let me put it in another way. Some people are kinda rude esp. when you go ask for directions. I have experienced it twice in my 4 weeks. I was roaming around New York and I ask this guy for directions to Times Square, and he goes like, "I'm not your map dude!..I'm not your GPS! Well maybe it was by chance that I met someone who was (were) in a cranky mood..but this never happened in Japan. Anyways, but majority ppl that I came across are really nice. I like when they smile and stuff when you walk by even if they dont know you.

[Update: 01/03/2010: 8:30 pm] One of my friends Saurabh found out some one broke into his international credit card account and stole 2400 $. F*ck!! .. can you believe it!?.

New York

Wooh!..boy did I have an eventful week! I had loads of work over the week but I managed to have plenty of fun over the weekend! It was President's Day on Monday, hence, we had a day off. With the long weekend in front of us, we decided to go for some sightseeing (finally!). 

Plans for New York were already under way since last week. Although there was no news from the guys for the initial part of the week...we finally got together on Thursday over beer and decided to go ahead as planned. 

New York was really fun. Although it wasn't the perfect weather to roam around..but coming from Delhi..we are pretty used to roaming around in lousy weather. So, regardless of the bad weather we ventured towards Princeton Junction in our cab. The weather in Princeton was pretty good..it was sunny with mild breeze. However New York welcomed us with cloudy skies and wind speeds of 30 mph - 60 mph! (it was on display..am not kidding!). Anyways, we boarded the metro towards South Ferry Island from Penn Station..or at least we thought we did. We actually went the opposite way. We realized this at the next station but we were not quick enough in getting down. So, we had to go 1 more station in the wrong direction. Unlike the awesome Delhi Metro, the New York Metro is old and noisy. When we got off the next station, there was no bloody crossover!! We sought the help of the station master and asked him what could be done. Being an Indian, he pitied on us and let us through the emergency exit and told us to get off at the next station which had a crossover. Going 3 stations in the wrong direction is certainly not a perfect start for a trip but oh well..wat can you do? 

We finally ended up going in the correct direction and reached South Ferry Island by 10 a.m. We walked a bit for the ferry towards our first stop - The Statue of Liberty. Being very miserly ppl, we dint go for the audio tour and just went there to "see" it. The Statue of Liberty was pretty cool..but what was better was the ferry ride.

Next up, we went to see the WTC site. We went walking this time, since it was nearby. New York streets are pretty cool..narrow roads with HUGE skyscrapers. In fact they are soo huge, it barely gets any sunlight. On the way, there was the NY Stock Exchange..something which the others were very excited about. I dint know what the fuss was..it was just a building and nothing else! Anyways, the WTC site was huge. I cant imagine how it must have been when the towers came down. We also went to the WTC memorial where they kept all the remnants of the tragedy. Some ppl were soo emotional that they were crying seeing the videos on the giant screen.

Anyways, we stopped for lunch at Subway - the one place I dint want to eat! I wanted to have hot dogs from the street. But as usual, vegetarians always spoil the party :) . After lunch, we boarded the train for 42 Street Bryant Park. The Empire State Building and Times Square was on our agenda. It was 3 p.m by the time we reached there. We stopped at some malls on the way. I bought an awesome Wolverine action figure for myself. They had Batman too, but it was funny looking. This one is really mean! Anyways, after some shopping we went to see the Empire State Building. Here too, we dint go in...we just "saw" it. Oooh .. imagine all the money we saved right!?! It was pathetic. I mean, nobody was interested in going up!! And it pissed me off a li'l. I dint see the logic behind just seeing the building from the outside. 

But anyways, it was getting dark already and the weather was becoming even worse. It was sooo cold and the winds were literally making our hands and faces numb. But we walked towards Times Square nevertheless. And it was awesome! The entire place was lit up and the atmosphere was pretty exciting. Since there was very li'l traffic there, roaming around was pretty fun. We walked around the place before finally going to TGIF for some dinner. We had to wait for like 20 minutes inside before we could get to our seats. We were cold and hungry and the sight of hot food was making things difficult to handle (the waitresses however, made it a li'l better as far as the temperature was concerned). We were finally escorted to our seats. We had a couple of beers and relaxed our aching feet. We dint realize we were this tired..but the moment we sat down, we dint want to get up. Anyways, after a nice dinner, we headed back. Everyone was tired and slept most of the way back to Princeton. We all reached  back at around 11...and went straight to bed. The trip was nice..hopefully there is more in store for us in the U.S. 

And the winner is MAIDEN!

Ok..am a bit late on this one..but the Grammy's best metal performance award went to Iron Maiden for El Dorado. This year featured a monster list from Megadeth to Slayer to Lamb of God to Maiden (and also Korn). Anyone could have won (except Korn ofcourse). I do feel a bit sad for Megadeth though since they have been nominated soo many times but have not won yet! It has always been difficult for Dave Mustaine. I am currently reading his autobiography and damn the guy has to fight for every little thing! Anyways..I hope Maiden tours India this time. It was soo much fun the last time.

Saturday

Wow...if yesterday was depressing..today was the exact opposite..at least by the end of the day. The day started off in the usual manner. I got up late at bout 8:30 or so, got ready for breakfast at bout 9:30. My morning was mostly spent in watching Get Thrashed - an awesome documentary on Thrash Metal. After that, I had to go out to buy some groceries. I booked a taxi for Plainsborough where there was an Idian store. I was hoping I would get some beer there, or at least in that area. I reached there..got my veggies and stuff..but saw no sign of beer. It was disappointing indeed. I did not want to spend 5 $ for another measly pint at the hotel again this weekend! I tried searching around but there was no sign of beer. Anyways, I came back and had lunch. I slept for sometime after lunch..which I usually do over the weekend. I woke up at like 7:00 in the evening. I had planned to get up at 6:00 and to go to the gym. Getting up at 7:00, I was a bit doubtful whether I should go to the gym and stuff. However, thankfully, I got the better off my procrastination and went to the gym. Inside the gym, I met Akash - a guy I used to meet every morning in the cab but dint really get a chance to talk and stuff. We started talking soon and realized we both share a common interest on booze. And boy!..we hit it off! We finished our routine and went to our respective rooms promising each other to let the other know whenever we have plans to go out and stuff.

I reached my room at 9:00 and started making dinner. That's when I get this call from Akash. Apparently, he was in the reception and the receptionist had got a large pizza as a gift which she was not interested in. So she gave it to him. Obviously, he couldn't eat the large pizza by himself, so he invited me to his room. I went to his room and spent some time eating and chatting away with him as well as his roomie Saurabh. So we shared the pizza and opened up a Jack Daniels and spent the night away drinking. Since Saurabh had been here before, he knew all these cool places to visit. We talked mostly about where to go and stuff and chalked out a plan to visit Washinton DC and New York. Ohh man!...things suddenly got interesting here! I am somehow relieved..because I was beginning to think how the hell I would spend most of March and April here...but I think..I will be fine. I think I am in good hands! :)

Friday

Ohh man..the dullest friday night in my life. Here I am..all alone..in my room...trying to make the most of it with the help of some beer and some really loud music. But its not working. Damn I miss those friday nights in India. There are somethings which even beer and music cant solve. 

Yah..am a bit drunk right now. 

Randomizing

This would be my first weekend in New Jersey. The news was all about the storm that was gonna hit this Saturday. They went on and on about how everyone should stay home and postpone all their outdoor activities till Sunday. As it turned out, there was not even a thunder or a lightning crash! However, there was rain..well a constant irritating drizzle.

I got up pretty early..well I still have some jet lag inside me...so bound to happen. I went for some breakfast in the morning drizzle. The weather was cold, but bearable. Since I had nothing much to do for the day, I decided to spend some time with my friends - the beers. I went to this convenience store in the hotel to get some. These guys were selling a Budweiser pint for 5 bucks! I know!..*shock* *horror*. Plus there wasn't any six packs or anything! This really sucks here..there is no convenience stores outside which is at a walkable distance! Anyways, I bought 3. Well, if I'm spending money..I might as well feel good about it at the end.

I spent the day watching random stuff on T.V., doing my laundry and also ventured out for a walk which was kind of a bad idea. Firstly, there are no sidewalks here..not a problem for me since I come from India..where ppl drive at sidewalks!!! But it was a problem for the cars..since they had to stop and let me pass and then drive away. So, I came back from my walk earlier than I had planned.

I had this reception to attend in the evening. One of my clients got married recently and he was throwing a party. That was fun..it was at a place called Anjappar Chettinad Restaurant. The food was pretty good. Had a nice evening chatting up wid some ppl from the office. There was also a grocery store nearby, so I also went shopping for some veggies and stuff.

Sunday, too began pretty much the same way. But there was no rain..in fact it was nice and sunny! After breakfast, I decided to hit the gym. I hadn't gone for a run since quite a while. I took it easy today..my ipod was all discharged and running on a treadmill without an ipod makes it boring. Anyways, I am back now..all set for lunch. Planning to make a mean bhindi masala..hope I have not lost my touch.

New Jersey

Well..after an eventful last day in India..I reached Princeton, New Jersey yesterday evening. I was to reach at 4:25 a.m but actually landed at 5:30 p.m! The story goes on something like this.

I took Tuesday off since I had some packing to do and considering the kind of person I am, there would be stuff I had forgotten, stuff I had to re-do and loads of stuff that I hadn't even thought of doing. Anyways, it started off with my usual procrastination till I just HAD to start. I started by finishing off some leftover work at the office. The plan was to finish my work, do some last minute shopping, complete packing, have dinner and move out by 8:30 p.m. to catch the 11:30 p.m. flight. 

I started my work but midway through it, I get a phone call. It was the travel agent and he goes like.."your Continental Airlines to Newark has been cancelled!!". I was like wtf!!..what to do now?! Well..the guy said that he can book the next available flight, but for that, I need an approval. And thus started a series of phone calls to my office's travel desk..my manager..his manager. After an hour of anxiety and unlimited phone calls, the agent mailed me the new tickets. Now, previously, the flight was a non-stop one till Newark. This one, had a stopover at Amsterdam and a connecting flight after 8 hours!! Well, I had no option but to go with it. One good thing was, there was extra baggage. The Continental flight had no extra baggage..which meant that I could carry only 1 piece of luggage and a handbag. Me and dad had painstakingly put everything in 2 bags the night before. Now, it had to be repacked into 2 bags and a handbag. By the time, everything was done, there was only time for a very quick drink and dinner. My bro and sis-in-law joined us as we had dinner. 

We left the house at 9:15 pm or so and reached at 10:00pm. My flight was at 1:50 a.m! Thankfully the T3 is big and there are a lotta things to explore. I was roaming around in one of those bookstores when I saw a fridge which had beer in it!! I ran towards it only to find that those c*nts were selling it for 245 Rs. for a pint!!! Sadly, I had to pass. I waited and waited before it was finally time for my flight.

On the flight, there wasn't much to look around, since it was night time. But they did have a nice collection of movies. I saw 127 hours and found it absolutely amazing! I loved it. I mean I started the movie at 2:00 am in the morning and it made me forget that I was sleepy! Anyways, it ended at like 4:00 am or so. I slept till they served us breakfast. 

I landed at Amsterdam before the scheduled time. In fact, the pilot told us even before taking off, that we'd land before time! I envied that guy's confidence. Anyways, when I reached the airport, nothing was open. I cleaned up before deciding to have some breakfast. The menu had coffee at 4.60 Euros, Water at 4.00 Euros and Heineken draught at 4:20 Euros!! Logic said that I should buy Beer!..it's what anyone will do. Especially if you have logic like mine! Anyways, but it was 6:30 in the morning and I was in a what-would-the-others-think mode. I bought a coffee instead and had a muffin along with it. Thats when I saw 3 separate guys having beer! And I was like screw it!..I am having beer. But by the time I finished the muffin, I was feeling full. I lazed around for sometime, reading my book and dozing off in between. I woke up to find it was 10 a.m..still 3 more hours to go. I had a couple of beers finally and enjoyed every moment of it. Soon it was time for the flight. The flight was an 8 hour one till Newark. But I slept through most of it. 

After landing, it took almost an hour for baggage claim and immigration. I had asked the office guys to send a taxi for me. I found the guy holding a placard with my name outside. Well, after a 40 minute drive, I reached my hotel Staybridge Suites.

The entire New Jersey is facing a merciless winter with snow storms every other day. There's snow everywhere! Its all they are talking about in the news too! 

My room is pretty cool..its really big with a small living room, a kitchenette and a bedroom! Cleaning is included and they have free breakfast every day! The best part is that they serve free dinner Tuesday-Thursday with free beer!!...yes..if there's anything better than beer....its free beer!! Anyways, I was just back from dinner and looking forward to laze around fighting away my jet lag. I have 2 T.Vs in my room to laze around with! Unlike Japan, there is stuff to watch as well. Anyways, thats it I guess, gatta fight sleep for another 2 hours!

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.