Tuesday

Tuesdays are usually hectic in the office and today was no different. I had to collect my car from the garage in the morning and hence had to take the metro till the service station. My skepticism turned to surprise when I found the usually over packed metro to be...well, accommodating....that too at 9 am in the morning. I reached the Sec 15 station at 9:10 or so and took an auto to the service station. As promised, the guy turned up on time and after the usual protocol of paying the bills and checking the car, I started towards office. The day was pretty occupied; but by 8 pm, I thought of catching up with my childhood friend - Harman, who works just next door to me. It had been ages..literally..easily more than a year since I saw him. Its funny...we live 10 minutes apart in Mayur Vihar and here we were, meeting up 10 kms away, at our workplaces. We met up and chatted the night away. I reached back home at 10:15 or so. My brother was back from Mumbai and came over for dinner. We finished up dinner by 11 and here I am, listening to Skyharbour - Chaos: Aphasia. Overall a mixed day. Not too dull..not too exciting..just ...right.   

Super Procrastinator

True to the name of this blog, I have been procrastinating since a long time to write a blog entry; or for that matter, everything I used to do. Hence, I vowed to myself today that I would mend my ways. Although, I have to say, its not the first time. 

I was in a bad mood throughout the day and I was looking for a stress release. The weather outside tempted me to go outdoors for a walk. I got dressed up, created a new playlist on my Ipod and had a drink of water when I thought - Let's make it interesting. I went to Runner's World and chose the Beginner's Training Program. Its a bit embarrassing because I used to follow the Intermediate program and never thought I would need to do the Beginner's. But oh well!, I am used to embarrassing situations and hence it does not matter! Surprisingly my run went pretty well. The first day involved running for 2 miles (1 minute running and 2 minutes walking * 10). Not only did I finished stronger, I shaved 2 minutes of my time. I ran 3 miles in all.  

Anyways, the endorphins are kicking in and I swear I never enjoyed water as much as I did just now!

Ending on a delicious note, we have Chicken Kebabs, Chicken Korma and Romali Rotis for dinner.Not a bad Sunday evening at all! 

The Utopia of a control freak

The idea is to give them a sense of control over you. 

A false sense of control...a pseudo control of sorts.

You let them believe that they have control.  

Every decision they make must be followed, 

but the decision in itself should be yours, 

just coming from them.

You will soon realize that Utopia is inevitable then.
The puppeteer yields control to the puppet to become
the ultimate master of the puppet.
(Master!, Master! *Hetfield voice*) 

Randomizing

The Delhi heat seems to be merciless as ever this year. I wake up in sweat every single day. Its 11 pm and 36 C right now!!, probably hotter than most places during the day time! Jeez..and people dont expect me to say these things because I stayed here all my life. 

Anyways, apart from the weather update, I had gone to Kerala for 13 wonderful days! I was going there after 2 long years and needless to say, my relatives were happy to see me (contrary to others beliefs). All 13 days were filled with one yummy feast after the other. I get the taste of prawns and mussels in my mouth just thinking about my trip. The monsoons just reached Kerala the week I was there and it was soo beautiful all around. My body was back here but my mind was still on vacation when I landed here. The Delhi heat, however, sucker punched me back to reality within 2 days. The first thing to be done now is to get my body clock back to the state that it was. I dread waking up in the morning. I have to reset my system back to waking up early and go for my run as soon as I can. I plan to participate in the Noida 10K (yah..you heard it..Noida is becoming hep as we speak baby!) next week. Its a bit ambitious but achievable if I control my urge to procrastinate. Anyways, speaking of early mornings is making me sleepy. I'd better retire for the day.

Damp Week

Oh boy! It never stopped raining since the last weekend! There was a brief sunny afternoon on Wednesday but other than that, the rain has been a major damper. And the cold winds are making it worse. Its 2:00 pm now and its like 5 degrees outside! The worst part is that the forecast for the next week is no different. 

Anyways, I had my welcome party here on Thursday night. We went to this tempura place in Musashi Mizonokuchi called Tempura Tsunahachi. It was fun. We hung out, had a couple of beers and tried various tempuras..including an unbelievable Ice cream Tempura! How did they manage to deep fry something which had ice cream inside it, is a mystery. I also tried raw squid...something which is surprisingly not as bad as it sounds. People who like fish..I mean like who *really* like that fishy smell would be able to handle it. And hey!..it goes very well with beer! Anyways, it was a different experience but real fun!

Well apart from that, the week was a dull one. The weekend would also most probably be an uneventful one with the rain messing up all our plans! :'(

Randomizing

Its Saturday morning again. We had thought of going to Odaiba but decided against it. Both me and Mustafa have to catch up with work. Its been a difficult week. Shifting release deadlines is a b*tch! Worst of all, its embarrassing. Bah!..lets not talk about work! 

It snowed on Wednesday! It was soo cool. I got up on Wednesday morning and it was very dark and cloudy. By the time I finished making breakfast and was enjoying my morning coffee (the one good thing during weekdays!), I saw an update on Facebook about "heavy snowfall in Tokyo". I rushed to my window just to find ...."heavy snowfall in Tokyo" indeed!!! It was really awesome. The train ride to office in the snow was soo beautiful and magical! It snowed for 5 hours straight ... almost till the evening. But to our surprise, by the time we reached Kawasaki, it was spic and span again! There was no sign of snow on the streets or the roads. In fact the snow was neatly wrapped around the base of the trees and lined along with the flowers on the street landscaping! I swear, Japanese are awesome in this. I love the integrity with which they do things! If a receipt gets torn off abruptly at one end, these guys take a scissor and cut the edges to make it symmetrical! 

Anyways,  its bright and sunny now. Probably I will go around for a walk in the evening. Nothing much to do over the weekend. Mustafa is going off with his mysterious friends tomorrow. I bet its his girlfriend...he's not telling me clearly who, what, where, why he's going! So that just leaves me here. But I'd also rather venture out on my own rather than spend time locked in the apartment. I just hope the weather is fine. 

Lastly, check this out. I was there...and right now I'm feeling soooo nostalgic *sigh*!

TGIF

Phew!..its the weekend finally! I had one of the most hectic week of my life! I had the CMMI interview and a project release in the same week. Needless to say, I got very little sleep.  Since last Thursday, I stayed up late ... in fact till early morning every day. But at least  now, the CMMI interview is off my back! I can at least focus on my usual activities!

I dont have any specific plans for the weekend but my bro who had gone to Kolkata for a meeting would come back tomorrow. So hopefully there would be drinks! Ohh I soo wanna get drunk this weekend!!

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 :(

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 :)

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! :)

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.

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. 

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.

Off to Kerala

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday

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

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

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

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

Sunday Bloody Sunday

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

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

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

Randomizing

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

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

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

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

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

Randomizing

Not much going on lately. Work's pretty eased up these days. Our technical newsletter team (of which I am a part an integral part) released the first issue of Insight. The effort which went up in the artwork was huge...and it came out pretty well. Myself, Viral and Amaresh were able to make it look awesome. It was real fun.

NPL is on next week. Being the champions for the last two times, we hope to win the championship again although I do feel the enthusiasm about the whole affair is a bit on the lower side. Everyone's worried about the heat and stuff...speaking of which it was 37 degrees outside at 7pm in the evening day before yesterday!! Its crazy and I dont blame anyone who is worried about playing.

I am still in a dilemma about going to the Lamb of God concert in May. I dont know about how the situation at the office would be..which is kinda making it very difficult to make up my mind. I guess I should give it more time.

I am reading the autobiography of Slash these days. Its a nice easy book. The way he speaks so passionately of the guitar...it literally makes you lift the guitar and play. I am still midway into the book and unlike other autobiographies, its not getting monotonous. Looking forward to finishing it.

Nothing much going on...I have my first match on Sunday. I hope we kick a*s!