Spinning....

11:23 pm - A bittersweet walk down Marine Drive, Mumbai

:-)

07:20 pm - Mumbai (Redux)

Bangalore first (and forever!)

02:23 am - Unhip

The LJ is unhip? I think not. Does anyone really feel that they will be taken less seriously if they don't move to a Blogspottish place? Then you shouldn't be blogging.

So, LJ was a fad. Like Facebook.. every teen had an angst ridden livejournal. Strict no no tchya?

Thats Ok. Unhip is the new hip. Yeah, go on, admit you like to drink Rasna!

Current Mood: ditzy

02:15 am - ...and how we've grown!

Happy new year folks.

I hate it that I don't write anymore. And many on the LJ friends list have become busy too. Oh for the undergraduate life!

I shall.

Shall, I say!

***

The Neuromancer is frightening in the visions it shows. All too real. The server this message is on will one day read all the crap that is posted on it, and kill itself. No point in being sentient in hell.

***

Want more music like the Juno OST. Folk music of our times...

Current Mood: stressed

02:39 am

Apagachi squirrel...
occasionally takes it nuts
and them it stuffs
in a place the sun dont shine

In that dark recess
dev/null, that hell
the nuts wait, utill
extracted next day by some
random admin and then,
polished and put back

lather, rinse and repeat
until next time.

04:01 pm - The Bifurcation, and a confluence.

LJ has been unbanned, and I have fallen in love with my blogger account...  but inetia tears me towards the knife's edge. 

Fortunately, there is the safetynet of the wonderful Goofle Reader http://www.google.com/reader/view/ and one can view as many blogs/other stuff as they'd like.. anythingn with an RSS/Atom feed.

Musicwise, let me suggest a band called "The Fray", they play Piano Rock.

07:20 pm - Ban'd-o-Bust

..and during office hours i occasionally lurk at autopsyche @ blogspot.

08:30 am - Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same...

Current Mood: amused

06:22 pm - Dilemma

I bought an Old Spice after shave lotion last year from Bhopal. Haven't used much.

Went to the local Fabmall the day before, in search of a Hair Conditioner (dont ask :) ) when, Ulse, that Imp whispered into my ear that it was time to purchase some Deo spray.

In the mids of Fa/Rexona/Axe(clicking on?) and some other crap, I picked, without trying, the Old Spice Deo. What the hell, at least it wont smell ambigous like the others!

Stashed it away, and opened the cupboard today to find it lying still sealed. Broke seal, and applied generously to the appropriate regions.

Just realised that my face smells likes my underarms now...

Current Mood: No, this post was not necessar

05:25 pm - The age of horrorism: Martin Amis

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, one of Britain's most celebrated and original writers analyses - and abhors - the rise of extreme Islamism. In a penetrating and wide-ranging essay he offers a trenchant critique of the grotesque creed and questions the West's faltering response to this eruption of evil.

 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868732,00.html (Part I)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868743,00.html (Part II)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868746,00.html (Part III)

An amazing essay on Islamism, human nature, history and our current anthroplogoical landscape. (what the hell does that mean?)

Please do have a dekho...

Current Mood: awake

05:35 pm - Been there.. Done that (Part II)

Aka: The Balli, phatta and rassi..

05:30 pm - Been there.. Done that...

Thats the MiG-23 shop at BRD-11 at Ojhar (MiG-City,  Nashik). My posts from summer 2004 were from there. I recognize 1 officer from this photo. Played cricket with him in the evenings you see :-)

Current Mood: nostalgic

11:22 am - Boys

You'll recognise Siddharth above from 'Rang de Basanti'.

Watched 'Boys' some time back on the telly. Loved it for it's freshness and enrgy. I don't know Tamil (yet :-) but there are some movies in which you dont need language to enjoy (or experience) them. (another example 'Kya Kool Hain Hum' comes to mind :D).

Had been listening to the soundtrack (AR Rehman) in office for the past several days. One day, post five o' clock, i took the ear-phone jack off the computer and asked my Tamil colleagues what the song meant. They remarked that I was listening to the Telugu version of the soundtrack! (Egads, I'd been had!) Immediately, was given the Tam (original) version of the soundtrack. Immediate comment (which almost caused the author to be the 'Late author' was): "I prefer the Telugu version!" Well, I do! It seems to have more vigour, and Telugu being a Sanskritik language, a Hindi speaker can make out a little of the lyrics.

So, in my 'Tamil phase' I also got the 'original' version of 'Roja'. All my Tamil friends, without fail, have said that this is much better than the Hindi dubbing. After hearing it, I disagree. It's a travesty to call the Hindi version a 'dubbing'. It takes an enormous amount of creative effort to come up with such spectacular lyrics as they did. The fact that this was done in Tamil first does not take anything away from the Hindi version, rather adds to majesty to have produced such seminal lyrics under the constraints of translation.

One point though, in the Hindi version, its "Bharat humko, jaan se pyaara hai... Hindostani naam hamara hai... 
The Tamil version of the same song goes:

"Thamiza thamiza naaLai nam naalae
thamizha thamiza naadum nam naadae
en veedu thaii tamil nadu endrae sollada..."

Though the song does mention 'Indian' later on, I was kind ot taken aback by this latent regionalism. Ah well, just show's how much I have to learn.

Anyways, I strongly reccomend the Boys' soundtrack, in Tamil or Telugu.

04:22 pm - Why the Indian English publishing scene is worse than Bollywood: Jaideep Varma

So, you'd like to write fiction in English? Does it cater to a Western audience, so that you can get it published in the US or UK? Does it have exoticised, romanticised depictions of the most colourful aspects of Indian life? No?

Then, you might be setting yourself up for a big disappointment. Here's why. The Indian English publishing scene is worse than Bollywood.

The latter, despite its much-reviled intellectual bankruptcy, in the last few years, still came up with films like Lagaan, Satya, Company, Hazaaron Khwaashein Aisi...films that tell original stories (even adaptations like Maqbool) and raise the bar for Indian cinema.

But can you name one English fiction title in the last decade, first published in India, that can lay claim to a similar impact? Just one? 

10:33 am - On Target

Current Mood: nostalgic

03:20 pm - Truithy

You mean with the experience of the first term. What areas do you think he would have learnt from his experiences and improved on given a next term?
First of all, a much better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of politics and politicians. Because politics is basically a game played by politicians largely in self-interest, although the outward excuse or elaboration is always in terms of the nation, the state, the people, especially the poor. 

http://indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/9632.html

11:16 am - Pet Grouse #8765

"Life at IIM-X" blogs.

Every goddamn arsehole who's riding the express gravy train in one of the IIMs feels that it's his/her solemn God-ordained duty to torture the rest of us unfortunates by giving a blow-by-blow account of their miserable excuse of a life there. What surprise tests, the stalinst profs, the placements (ooooh the placements... Zero day, -1 day, blah-fuckin-blah.. wax on ad nauseum).

Yes yes... that's right... the whole cyber dunia is quavering in their striped dungarees waiting for the next installment of your insipid excretions. Really, go shove that IIMX specification laptop up your u-kno-where.. Don't worry.. since your heads are already way up there, and with the wonder of Wi-Fi you can still blog about how 'GMD' is the best song since .. uh.. BC Sutta... Please remember to set your Winamp Auto-Load Equaliser Preset to "Cave". (Hell.. even 'cave of wonder'.. the self obsession and self-love is that much right?)

That's right folks... every IIM-Xtian and their kutta writes a blog, and the kutta writes better!

Current Mood: kuch bhi kya?

01:12 pm - Zizou: Coup de Boule

And the podcast:
http://loiclemeur.podemus.net/Audio/coup_de_boulela_plage.mp3

Addictive I tell ya!

Current Mood: jumpy!

02:56 pm - Escape-Goat

It’s simple: we all know that to be an adult, to exist within the world of grown-ups, is to encounter pain and disappointment as well as joy and fulfilment. Every day friends fail us, lovers abandon us, we don’t get the rewards we deserve, we make decisions that are wrong and then we have to live with the consequences of those mistakes. But turning to religion means we don’t have to think anymore, we don’t have to make decisions anymore – we are told what to think, what to eat, what to wear, who to meet, who to talk to. Some people might say it’s serenity, but to me it’s an escape! Yes the world is unjust, but we shouldn’t want to escape from it or try to find solace only on a personal level – we should try change the world for everyone. So don’t run away – get involved. 

-Nadeem Aslam

Current Mood: sleepy

07:44 pm - For beating me at Scrabble...

Office has blocked LJ (but not blogger though).

Obligatory...obligatory Vikram Seth, from 'Mappings':

Sonnet

My generous and exhuberant love
As the slow moon coldly slopes down the sky
The pines hum to themselves and you to yourself
And you pass your hands across my face.
My hands stray - stray? - to your breasts,
small, such as angels probably are permitted.
You are forgiven, solely because of them
For beating me at Scrabble.

Dear friend you cannot know
How much you fill my days - and the long nights,
When outside the whole world is threatening silence,
The pine is swaying in a senseless dream,
Your hand within my hand, your warm body
Close by me, and in the dark your unseen smile.

Current Mood: Hmm....