The Hindi Connection

Being a very proud metalhead, I seldom listen to Hindi songs; no offence, but most of the Hindi stuff that I get to listen to is sheer crap. However, once in a while comes a song which appeals to something primal in me and puts a break on my usual playlist. One such song is Balram from Abhishek Dasgupta. What I like about this song (apart from the groovy song structure..duh!) is firstly, its retro bollywood theme and secondly, the hilariously fun lyrics. The song is about an innocent girl - Irawati, who is about to get her izzat looted by goondas, when Balram comes in to save the day. I just love how the song first describes Irawati's sad plight, cuts to the solo and then erupts with the entrance of Balram. Fun stuff! Its on loop since yesterday night.

Promoted

Ohh boy..talk about mixed feelings! Work's in a crisis. Its a full on race to the deadline. And I get this mail about my unexepected midterm promotion! From now on, I am an Associate Project Manager. Sounds fancy but the job more or less remains the same - रगड़ते रहो! 

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!

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! 

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

     

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!!

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 :(

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.

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.

Holi Day

As I had mentioned before, a bunch of us were planning to play Holi this time around since they were all available and had nothing better to do. The plan was to assemble at Subhash's place in Mayur Vihar, have bhaang, play Holi, have more bhaang and finally lunch. As expected, nothing went as per plan.
Firstly, the jugaad for the bhaang was not successful. Subhash had to fight his way to the local shop to get some booze yesterday at the last minute. Since its a dry day on Holi..the entire MV had come to the theka. However, he managed to get a bottle of Romanov Vodka. Although we were a bit disappointed not having bhaang and all, but as the story would unfold, we would get over it soon, after 2 quick shots, the following morning.
Today morning, I reached Subhash's place sharp at 11:15 am (as promised). We wished each other a happy holi in our own style (3 words: quick vodka shots). We finished breakfast but there was no sign of anyone else. I called up Abhijeet who had just woken up (because of my call I guess) and was whining about how late it was and how difficult it is to come to Subhash's place. I tried my best to make him understand how cool it would be and stuff but the guy just did not stop whining. I finally gave up and called up Partha who was not picking up his phone! Me and Subhash were really pissed. So pissed that only vodka would have cheered us up. After promptly cheering ourselves up, we tried to think of what could be done to save the day. That was when we decided to screw it and go to Noida (Needless to say, it was the vodka talking). I had brought my super sleek Wind 125 today after almost a year and was kinda feeling as if I was driving a Tobu cycle (no offense). However, I have to hand it to the Bajaj guys; after a whole year of non-activity, it took just half a kick to start it. Anyways, there was one small problem. It had no petrol and I had come without my wallet or my phone or my license or my helmet since we were supposed to be in MV!! That was the f*kcin plan!!. Anyways, Subhash had the license and the helmet, so he did the driving. I was the pillion rider, secretly taking sips of the vodka which we had neatly distributed into 2 ready to drink bottles. We traded places as soon as we reached Noida cuz the policemen are quite laid back there...and also cuz Subhash caught me finishing up the vodka and wanted some of the action. Anyways, we reached Abhijeet's place and rang him up. He dint believe us at first and it took some nice crisp profanity laced arguments to make him believe that we were really there. He came out his usual smiling self and was promptly colored. We wished each other, shared the vodka with him...and thats when we realized we had already finished one of the two bottles. We made a mental note to go slow...to which I heard my inner voice go like .."HA!!". Anyways the next stop was Sec. 50, to Partha's place. However we were facing a dilemma. There were 3 of us and my super sleek Wind 125. As it is, it was choking under my weight. Then there was Subhash who is like average. To top it, there would be Abhijeet who is as big as me. However there was no stopping us today. We went tripling on the poor bike till Sec. 50. We saw a multicolored Partha already ready for us. We went to his place..and met his roomies. Then all of us went down to the ground where there was some pretty loud music. We played Holi for quite some time. By the end of it..we were out of Vodka...fully drenched and barely recognizable with the color on our faces. We headed back to Partha's place where he surprised us with bhaang!! Now that was a surprise which was worth travelling all the way to Noida. Already high...we took it to the next level. We had some bhaang and some food and decided to visit our friend Kamaraj at Sec. 82. He had never played holi and we wanted to make him a part of the experience. Fortunately we had an extra bike at Partha's and we did not have to put my bike in misery anymore. We played some more holi and went to Vivek's place who stayed nearby. There was a swimming pool at his place where we saw ppl celebrating Holi in it and stuff. There were some chicks there as well who were needless to say .. really wet. It kinda helped us make up our minds to go into the pool ourselves. We quietly went down and since no one could recognize whether we actually lived there or not, we had the guts to jump right in. We swam for a while (in jeans mind you)...and came out for some late lunch. After lunch, it was time for us to ride back home. We were still a bit high and the entire dusky atmosphere made the drive really enjoyable. There was an empty road in front of us with the sun gradually setting into the horizon. It was beautiful. You dont normally see scenes like these everyday. Usually your mind is always occupied by the traffic, the yelling and more traffic. Anyways, I came back home at 6:00 pm in the evening ... out for almost 7 hours. I had a quick shower and a maggi. I dont know whether it was my natural apetite or the bhaang or both which made me eat barely minutes after my lunch. Anyways with a full stomach and an entire evening before me..I would laze around in front of the TV before tumbling into my bed. Needless to say..it was an awesome day.

God bless the CGPA

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

Roadtrip

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

All hail the metro

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

Cosmic Egg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big 10 thumbs up!!

Xbox360 - Project Natal

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

Sunfeast World 10K

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