Another trip.. another get together.. another blog!! From where the title has been flicked will be clearer in a bit.. the most relevant thing about it is that unlike other times when I’ve been to Hyd, there were no set plans made this time. We did things as and when we felt like it.. just about anything yaar!!
Anyways, to get to it.. I reached Hyd early morn and buzzed Sudeep and Thax.. who took their own sweet time getting to that “Paradise” place (Like lakdi ka pul usually, this time around, this drop-off point became the “we pass it every one hour place”... we kept going around it all the time!!) the bus had dropped me off. They came, I sat in the car after the hugs and we were off.
The first stop was Prasad’s where we wanted to get tickets for Woh Lamhe.. Goyal had said he wanted to watch it.. 2 reasons.. coz the review was good and coz he likes Kangana.. I suspect the ordering of those reasons was reversed though ;).. there weren’t any night shows, so we picked up tickets for 3:30 pm. We headed off to the airport after that for Goyal’s scheduled arrival but his plane decided to go around in circles for a bit. We didn’t wanna spend 120 bucks on the high-priced-as-usual airport parking and so we ended up in a bylane. The time here was spent mostly watching the tight security at a nearby ICICI bank building stopping anyone and everyone from entering. We also went for a small walk during which Sudeep commented, “gaon jaisi smell aa rahi hai”.. Thax interjected, “yeh gobar ki smell hai”.. we sheepishly smiled, us 3 nalaayak-city-waalas and turned about :)..
We had a discussion on whether we should leave this dude and push off.. all our points were in favour except for one vetoing factor.. he was getting sweets!! Thax tried calling Goyal (for the 17th time) and actually got through now. Goyal’s plane had just landed and we drove into the airport to pick him up. On reaching the terminal, we found that we were much faster than the slow, ambling, lazy-assed Goyal (I’ll be killed for this adjective-filled description!!).. we obviously still didn’t wanna park (things don’t change in 15 min!), we went about for a round again.. 5 min later, we returned and he still hadn’t gotten out of the terminal (see the description above).. but this we decided to stop in one of the outlanes (not the parking lot, mind you!).. after a search for Accenture/HSBC billboards and a stare from a passing police van, Goyal finally reached.
For obvious reasons, we were more interested in the dodha and the laddoos.. Goyal made some phone calls to meet some junta and Sudeep ended up fixing his plans for him. Can you please also add confused to the list of Goyal adjectives.. coz he really was at this point. Which is probably why we later found out that this particular phone call person (if you ever get to this blog, you’ll know who you are!!) was more interested in meeting the “shayad maine life mein thodi jaldi kar di” Sudeep ;). If I may add here, we’ve also found out that Sudeep is major eye-candy for all the babes in his CAT class in Hyd (oh wait, that’s an oxymoron.. there are no babes in Hyd.. the only good looking women are up on the billboards!!).. This was the first time any of us had flown IndiGo, so we wanted Goyal’s feedback on how the airline was.. “The air hostesses are quite pretty” (He’s a smart (ok ok, you can add that to the adjective list too) chap, comes to the point quickly ;)).. in particular, he liked one named Madonna.. he didn’t quite explain what he liked though.. the name.. or the name-tag!
Let me take a diversion here.. coz there are a few things to point out.. first of all, Ankit, you’ll be very sad to know that the revered Stanza billboard no longer exists.. in Sudeep’s words.. “dekhte sab the khareedta koi nahi tha”.. the second thing is that I haven’t even made it past a couple of hours of the trip yet.. this is gonna be one long blog.. and finally, one of the pleasures of writing a blog is that you get to trip everyone else without a chheeta on your own kurta ((Mu-wa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha (The evil laugh!)) Remind me to turn off commenting on this blog once done!!)
Also.. the roads in Hyd are really screwed up right now.. Though Thax says, “har saal aisa hota hai monsoon mein and har saal ban jaati hai”.. the Civil engineer in me rightreously asks, “Why don’t they fix it such that monsoon has no effect?!!”.. The Comps engineer smirks and asks, “Reeaaalllyyy??!!! Why don’t you help them with it??” That shuts the Civil engineer up and the Comps engineer goes back to wondering what he should do about the kickass salary some people seem to be getting in Hyd!!
Anyways, let’s get back.. we now drove over to (Sudeep and Thax)’s place (with a stopover at a place where the rest of us had juice without ice and Sudeep had ice without juice!).. Hi-hello with Varun happened.. and after about an hour of laccha, Goyal headed out to meet junta while we decided we’ll write CDs.. (every trip has it’s own music and it’s own songs!!) 2 audio CDs were compiled.. one Hindi and one English.. and then the time came for naming ceremony.. My “kya title daaloon” query was duly answered by Sudeep’s “anything yaar”.. and so we have it.. 2 CDs compiled on 30 September 2006.. called “Anything Yaar”.. as apt a title as there ever has been!!
We had plans to go out for lunch.. but we were too lazy to get up and bathe until it was too late.. so we ordered in Pizzas.. Thax was pretty sure we won’t be able to finish ‘em but we did. And then a quick plan was made to buy speakers for Sudeep’s comp (it also needs more songs dude!!).. we headed for this place called Computer Market, which is on Park Lane, behind MG Road (Quite a search happened for it.. as can perhaps be guessed by the detail with which I remember the location!!).. anyways, it was totally worth it.. coz Sudeep got himself this really SEXY Altec Lansing sound system.. totally cool.. and absolutely brilliant for blasting music :D
Quite the driving happened after that.. and we reached for movie just in time. Goyal wasn’t there yet (he came in about 20 min into the movie) and so we entered the hall without him. The movie is decent though all of us agreed the end spelled out too much. And we’d really have liked it to be more subtle.. By the end of it, we had quite a few names for lead actress.. Kangana Oh-The-Eyes, Kangana I-Don’t-Like-Pants, Kangana Weird-Accent and KPS Thakur (yeah right!!!!) are a few examples :))
The next one hour was spent blasting Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai at full volume in the car.. all of us agree that Hindi movie music is moving up in this world.. and we ended up at Eat Street. We wanted to take a fast boat ride (the weather at this point was awesome.. very windy and chindi-chindi bearish once in a while) but things got screwed as they were only allowing 3 people per boat. So we went to this rooftop seating area and put lachha. The period here was marked in particular by flying menu sheets!! Thax warned us that the food is very crappy.. so we just ordered a paav-bhaji and a masala dosa to be shared between all of us.. and it ended up being awesome!! Which was very symbolic of Thax’s opinions the whole of this trip. Whenever he told us that the parking lot was on the left, it ended up being on the right. Even the law of averages fails when it comes to Thax!!
We had an are-we-or-are-we-not-hungry discussion after that and ended up at Ohri’s for chaat. The dahi-vadas and aaloo-tikkis we ordered were absolutely awesome and we had our stomach full. We also met Mehul in the meanwhile and convince Fundoo to come over with us to our place for the night. He carried his laptop along and we spent sometime watching his IIM pics and videos. As we were scrolling through the videos, the “Sutta” tune was heard. We were all obviously very curious to see if some dude actually sang it on stage. So we rewinded to figure it out.. Well, he did.. but all the X-rated stuff had been replaced with “na-na-na-na-na”.. :)
Least Count followed (with beer in hand for Goyal and me).. though we didn’t play much thanks to Sudeep’s “I was just taking risks”.. a show of Hyderabadi Nawabs movie followed and I fell asleep some 10 min into it. The big contribution as far as the movie is concerned, is the word “mastan” which has entered all of our vocabs.. the last 2 letters phonetically resemble “wahan” and not “mahan”.. Hindi becomes a phunny language when written in English :D
The next morning, I was woken up by a phone call from Ankit.. the most interesting part of the call occurred when he asked Thax whether he wanted anything from the US. The quick reply back was “Victoria’s Secret” =)).. I’ve no idea what he’d do with that but the rest of us just settled for catalogs!! We went off to Dundigal after that.. it was an eventful drive, with one truck almost killing us and us almost killing a truck driver :D.. but it was soon forgotten as Aunty served us a brilliant lunch.. we had lots of cake.. Schumi won an action packed race.. it was a very satisfying afternoon. Uncle took us on a round of the Airforce academy, we clicked pics of MIG 25s and SAMs and other whatnot.. very very cool!!!
As we headed out of Dundigal, we had no idea what to do next.. following the anything yaar philosophy, we decided to go for a show of Fast & Furious – III.. there was some time to kill before that, so we thought we’d pay a visit for the Birla temple. After major honking in the parking lot, we began our Birla centric expedition in the Science museum first. It was quite bad, especially when compared to the gem we have at Pilani :D.. the journey from the parking lot here to the museum was highlighted by the major honking as well (some shouting too this time!!).. and finally we ended up at the temple. Beautifully made, the temple was very neat.. and quick tour that we took was totally worth it!! To the movie now, and it was very crappy.. the drifting was cool initially but when we realized that the movie had nothing other than the drifting, it seemed stupid!!
Dinner happened post the movie at “Our Place”.. a joint treat Sudeep and Thax that Sudeep conned Thax into ;).. the ambience of excellent. We somehow ended up at a crappy corner table.. Goyal and I were still ok with it, but Sudeep and Thax weren’t.. I also have to mention here that Goyal definitely doesn’t deserve the wingman position.. my cry of 12 o’ clock was met by a “Huh? Whoa? What?!!”.. we did end up changing our table however.. the food was very good, especially the daal.. though the service was crazy and the waiters a little eccentric!! Though Sudeep said that they were better than most places, so I’m just wondering if Hyd has lower standards or something..
We hit a pub near our house post dinner.. dhik-chak music but the DJ was mixing well.. and there was a Sachin masterpiece on ESPN.. we just got in a pitcher of beer that Goyal and I piled on.. we spent about an hour and a half there.. and then headed home.. we never reached there as Oracle beckoned.. we went straight to the games room.. I was all for a BITS (Beer In The System) vs Non-BITS doubles match but Thax wasn’t in the mood for TT. So the other 3 of us alternated in singles matches.. I won both my matches (beat Sudeep more by fluke though) and both of us took sometime figuring out Goyal’s funky serve.. but in the end, Goyal was down a 0 – 2 score.. not that it mattered, Thax beat all of us at pool (I can hear lots of “yeah right”s!!!).. we headed out, took a drive around the tech city and reached home.. in the next 15 min, Thax and Sudeep had crashed.. Goyal and I dug into the couple of beer bottles we had left over from yesterday.. TV, lachha and beer.. at about 3, we both too slept off.
The next morning was a very lazy one.. characteristically us!! Sudeep’s b’day treat had to happen at lunch and venue had been pre-decided. Though we got lost on our way there, the usual parking-was-to-the-left-when-Thax-had-said-right happened.. but we finally did reach the place. The start was bad as they served the crappiest hot and sour soup I’ve ever had.. but the veg kabab was really good.. and everything after that was pretty nice too. They added some sort of rose flavour to the lassi but that too wasn’t like the now-famous Mirinda experience!!
We decided to spend the next few hours bowling. The first game was very keely contested.. the pendulum spun everywhich way.. and it came down to the final shot. Needing 8 of the last frame to overtake Sudeep, I scored a spare and won it :D.. as addictive as bowling is, we decided we wanted to play again. This time I was on fire (if I may say so myself ;)).. two strikes in the 2nd and 3rd frames gave me a comfortable lead.. Sudeep was particularly unlucky in this one, he bowled 3 gutter balls after all 3 of his spares.. I ended up with my all-time high score of 134.. this was a good sports weekend for me :D
(Thank you Wikipedia for all the bowling terminology!!)
We got Sudeep’s cake from Deli 9.. it was abso-f-ing-lutely rocking!! These guys have a cook who had made dinner.. had that while watching Mummy – 2 and India Blue vs India Red.. cake cutting happened.. some face-putai and the usual.. and it was time for me to leave.. these guys dropped me off and the journey to the bus pickup point was the only time that the “shotgun” call was vetoed by the driver (i.e. Sudeep). Goyal had called it and Sudeep said he didn’t want him up there. This followed a particularly interesting argument between them on a previous occasion where Goyal started doing too much sideseat driving and Sudeep got irritated.. Following Goyal’s gyaan speech, I wanted to quote Shakespeare and his “It is a good divine who follows his own instruction. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow mine oen teaching” but decided to refrain. Sitting in the backseat, Thax and I exchanged grins and then Thax cheekily passed on the water bottle to them both :D
Anyways, the time to leave had arrived.. the Raj Travels bus was punctual.. and I was off.. stuff must have happened after, Sudeep/Goyal/Thax.. maybe one of you can add a comment to this post..
Till next time.. seeya!!
Monday, October 02, 2006
Thursday, February 17, 2005
To tea or not to tea...
This post is dedicated to Saurabh/Sade/Pondy... whichever name you use to call him... and his obsession with tea...
I'm sitting here on my desk and drinking what he calls "dip-tea"... (I really don't know the lingo but I'm fast learning!)... it was more of a mistake, a cramp in the finger (or was it fate??) that made me press the wrong button on the coffee machine... and sitting here sipping this brownish liquid, I really can't imagine what the fascination is all about.
It's not that I haven't drunk tea before... in India, every household expects you to have tea even if it's 45 degree outside. You sit at a place for 5 minutes and a cup is thrust in your hand... and of course, rather than go into answering the quizzical, "You don't drink tea??", it's better to just start sipping.
"Is the sugar ok?"
Hell, I don't know!! And anyways, since I'm sure no amount of sugar would make it taste like orange juice (with ice!!), who cares??!
I've had the discussion with Saurabh many times... and till now, I haven't got an explanation from him... what is it that makes tea irresistable?? For him it's a question that doesn't require an answer... it just is that way...
"Kya Misra, tum chai nahi peete?" is something I often get stuck up with... the dude has even suggested that I should have drunk tea in the change-over breaks during my tennis match... that's the way to win, he implied...
My reply was a "Yeah right!" till yesterday morning... when I woke up to Sania Mirza's first ad on TV... yup, at 8 in the morning I saw Sania drink Tata tea and go on to win the match...
"I told you Misra, I told you!"
And so here I am, with a cup of "dip-tea" in hand... wondering whether I should fill this concoction in a bottle when I head to my next match (God knows when that's gonna be!)...
Well, maybe if they can get Federer to endorse it...!!
I'm sitting here on my desk and drinking what he calls "dip-tea"... (I really don't know the lingo but I'm fast learning!)... it was more of a mistake, a cramp in the finger (or was it fate??) that made me press the wrong button on the coffee machine... and sitting here sipping this brownish liquid, I really can't imagine what the fascination is all about.
It's not that I haven't drunk tea before... in India, every household expects you to have tea even if it's 45 degree outside. You sit at a place for 5 minutes and a cup is thrust in your hand... and of course, rather than go into answering the quizzical, "You don't drink tea??", it's better to just start sipping.
"Is the sugar ok?"
Hell, I don't know!! And anyways, since I'm sure no amount of sugar would make it taste like orange juice (with ice!!), who cares??!
I've had the discussion with Saurabh many times... and till now, I haven't got an explanation from him... what is it that makes tea irresistable?? For him it's a question that doesn't require an answer... it just is that way...
"Kya Misra, tum chai nahi peete?" is something I often get stuck up with... the dude has even suggested that I should have drunk tea in the change-over breaks during my tennis match... that's the way to win, he implied...
My reply was a "Yeah right!" till yesterday morning... when I woke up to Sania Mirza's first ad on TV... yup, at 8 in the morning I saw Sania drink Tata tea and go on to win the match...
"I told you Misra, I told you!"
And so here I am, with a cup of "dip-tea" in hand... wondering whether I should fill this concoction in a bottle when I head to my next match (God knows when that's gonna be!)...
Well, maybe if they can get Federer to endorse it...!!
Monday, February 14, 2005
There and back again...
Someone just asked me whether I blogged... I don't know whether I'll come back and post here again... but for now, I can at least put this up... it's a mail I wrote on the 7th of Feb... Hyd visit... in short...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello people... Well, back from Hyd... And for the first hour, didn't feel like digging into code at all... And since then it's been back to square one... So much that I've only gotten around to typing in this mail now... At 30 past six in the evening...
Hyd is a nice city... But to tell you the truth, the place fell quite short of expectations... I'd heard so much of Hyd aisa hai, Hyd vaisa hai ki I had expected God-knows-what... It didn't measure much... But then anyways, who went there for the city...
To say I had a ball of a time would be an understatement... Reached there real early morn in a very comfy bus (Thax, the Volvo on the way back had too little leg room, when the guy in front of my stretched back, my poor knees had a terrible time!!), had a quiet aloo-ke-parathe breakfast... And then headed for Black... Which is an awesome movie... Totally...
Then lunch at Angeethi's... The buffet was exactly similar to what we get in the Bang version of the restaurant... And just as good... And of course, Thax was majorly surrounded by girls... We have pics to prove it!
Headed to Charminar and Golconda Fort the next... The Charminar area was pretty much like Chandni Chowk, and I guess the kinda place you can enjoy once in a while... Of course, the fact that we reached the gate a minute after 5:30 pm (the closing time) took the cake! Golconda Fort was major Khetri types, especially since we were there at night...(we have our driver to thank for that, who left the car open and walked off because he was worried about our securtiy!)... And we took a few Khetri type snaps as well... There was a sound-and-light show there that we walked out off... Coz it was boring... And coz it was much better sitting amongst the ruins, a cool breeze blowing...
Ankit headed off with Anu after that... And the rest of us went to this NTR park... Which was good fun, the two rides at least... Then Prasad's, a mall-cum-multiplex kinda place... Major Foozball happened... Though we ended up lifting the table more and playing less... And a stupid scary house trip that didn't even scare Divz!! Dinner happened here only... Thax had this amazing dessert (name I've forgotten as usual!) and we all piled on keeping up true BITSian standards!
Headed to Eat Street after that and met up with K... I think out of all of Hyd, this was the only place I really liked, with a brilliant view of the lake... Especially as it got late in the night, and fewer people were around...
There was supposed to be a Divz-violin session after this... But everyone was too tired... Crash happened though Thax and I were up till 3 putting lachha...
The next day started late... And the first thing was Divz on the violin... Man, she's awesome! After that, I headed off to meet Murari and Shubz (DoT seniors) for lunch while these guys had lunch at some place called Tablas... Which I hear was pretty cool...
Then was Oracle time... It's quite a neat place... Major dissection of the elevator algo happened on the way to Sudeep's floor(!)... Sudeep's got a real cool desktop... And some amazing videos in there... And we played hajaar TT... Good fun! Then of course, off to Infy... Which as usual was out of the city... And which as usual seemed like a freaking 7 star hotel... I mean, sometimes I really think they should go for a 3 star hotel and share some of the money with they fresher engineers... Like Sudeep said, "All to impress clients"... Well, if I was an Infy client, I'd be impressed! But to tell you the truth, I feel slightly betrayed when I think that they could so easily be lessening this show a little and paying their engineers more...
Headed back home, it was almost leaving time... Went over to a Pizza Hut nearby and K joined us there... Sat for about 40 minutes for a very chhut order that never came... (we ended up getting the stuff packed)... The delay resulted in a slightly frantic where-the-hell-is-the-bus search... But well, the bus was also late, which meant that we were early... So, stood around... Talked... And like I said to Thax, "kal mail par milte hain"... The bus came soon after, we boarded it... And then it stood there for 10 minutes... The tinted windows were useless... So we made full use of technology, and had a very innovative goodbye session via sms...
And then... We left...
Favourite part... Lying with Thax on the mattress and talking about anything and everything... Out of all the things that the all of us have done together, I think I miss just sitting together and talking the most...
Ab now you guys, come to Bang jaldi se...
Love and hugs
Rahul
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello people... Well, back from Hyd... And for the first hour, didn't feel like digging into code at all... And since then it's been back to square one... So much that I've only gotten around to typing in this mail now... At 30 past six in the evening...
Hyd is a nice city... But to tell you the truth, the place fell quite short of expectations... I'd heard so much of Hyd aisa hai, Hyd vaisa hai ki I had expected God-knows-what... It didn't measure much... But then anyways, who went there for the city...
To say I had a ball of a time would be an understatement... Reached there real early morn in a very comfy bus (Thax, the Volvo on the way back had too little leg room, when the guy in front of my stretched back, my poor knees had a terrible time!!), had a quiet aloo-ke-parathe breakfast... And then headed for Black... Which is an awesome movie... Totally...
Then lunch at Angeethi's... The buffet was exactly similar to what we get in the Bang version of the restaurant... And just as good... And of course, Thax was majorly surrounded by girls... We have pics to prove it!
Headed to Charminar and Golconda Fort the next... The Charminar area was pretty much like Chandni Chowk, and I guess the kinda place you can enjoy once in a while... Of course, the fact that we reached the gate a minute after 5:30 pm (the closing time) took the cake! Golconda Fort was major Khetri types, especially since we were there at night...(we have our driver to thank for that, who left the car open and walked off because he was worried about our securtiy!)... And we took a few Khetri type snaps as well... There was a sound-and-light show there that we walked out off... Coz it was boring... And coz it was much better sitting amongst the ruins, a cool breeze blowing...
Ankit headed off with Anu after that... And the rest of us went to this NTR park... Which was good fun, the two rides at least... Then Prasad's, a mall-cum-multiplex kinda place... Major Foozball happened... Though we ended up lifting the table more and playing less... And a stupid scary house trip that didn't even scare Divz!! Dinner happened here only... Thax had this amazing dessert (name I've forgotten as usual!) and we all piled on keeping up true BITSian standards!
Headed to Eat Street after that and met up with K... I think out of all of Hyd, this was the only place I really liked, with a brilliant view of the lake... Especially as it got late in the night, and fewer people were around...
There was supposed to be a Divz-violin session after this... But everyone was too tired... Crash happened though Thax and I were up till 3 putting lachha...
The next day started late... And the first thing was Divz on the violin... Man, she's awesome! After that, I headed off to meet Murari and Shubz (DoT seniors) for lunch while these guys had lunch at some place called Tablas... Which I hear was pretty cool...
Then was Oracle time... It's quite a neat place... Major dissection of the elevator algo happened on the way to Sudeep's floor(!)... Sudeep's got a real cool desktop... And some amazing videos in there... And we played hajaar TT... Good fun! Then of course, off to Infy... Which as usual was out of the city... And which as usual seemed like a freaking 7 star hotel... I mean, sometimes I really think they should go for a 3 star hotel and share some of the money with they fresher engineers... Like Sudeep said, "All to impress clients"... Well, if I was an Infy client, I'd be impressed! But to tell you the truth, I feel slightly betrayed when I think that they could so easily be lessening this show a little and paying their engineers more...
Headed back home, it was almost leaving time... Went over to a Pizza Hut nearby and K joined us there... Sat for about 40 minutes for a very chhut order that never came... (we ended up getting the stuff packed)... The delay resulted in a slightly frantic where-the-hell-is-the-bus search... But well, the bus was also late, which meant that we were early... So, stood around... Talked... And like I said to Thax, "kal mail par milte hain"... The bus came soon after, we boarded it... And then it stood there for 10 minutes... The tinted windows were useless... So we made full use of technology, and had a very innovative goodbye session via sms...
And then... We left...
Favourite part... Lying with Thax on the mattress and talking about anything and everything... Out of all the things that the all of us have done together, I think I miss just sitting together and talking the most...
Ab now you guys, come to Bang jaldi se...
Love and hugs
Rahul
Friday, December 03, 2004
stairway to heaven!!!
the past one month has been a roller coaster ride for me... farewells... partying like crazy and a lot of other stuff... it has now finally begun to sink in that what seemed improbable perhaps just a month back is true... i am gonna have to leave and that my friends is not a happy feeling...
neways this is not about my writing a psenti article... that time will come but it is not this day... today i wanted to write about that special thing that we here at bits pilani refer to as the psenti music nite... Joy this one is for you...
hmmm... now... lemme see... how to begin... this perhaps was one of the very few psenti nites that chose a very good mix of songs... from rock (both English and otherwise) to dance numbers... from psentimental stuff to absolutely leg shaking music... that too arranged in a very nice order... while hallowed be thy name and turn the page made the day for me dhoom machale had many more dance to its tunes... another thing was that ETV Rajasthan was recording this music nite as new year special and will run it on 2nd Jan... we are def going places... as it always happens though... the best was saved for the last... kandisa and the oh so psenti mustafa and how can i forget with or without you... though the rendition wasnt very great who gives a damn... i am pretty damn sure everyone had a lump in the throat when it was being played... a combination of the knowledge that this was gonna be the last song of their last music nite as well as the sheer brilliance of the song... all in all the whole affair was a very psenti one...
psenti why??? i have no idea... it is supposed to be the chance to party one last time on those hallowed floors of the audi... then why psenti???
perhaps its the knowledge that this maybe the one last time you can freak out without caring about other stuff of life... one last time when you can shake a leg with your bud knowing well enough that you may not have the guts to do that outside... its quite a scene... everyone, no matter if they know how to dance or not, trying out dances right from the DD to the jive and the bhangra... it also is the one last time you can just hold hands and listen to nothing else matters or mustafa or pal or purani jeans... that feeling of knowing that this may not be possible for a long to come...
we walkedaway from that emptying audi the one last time fully aware that our lives are never gonna be the same again... memories are all we carry and that hope that we shall meet once again... but that was the time that it first sank in that i have to go away... man i hate psenti stuff...
neways this is not about my writing a psenti article... that time will come but it is not this day... today i wanted to write about that special thing that we here at bits pilani refer to as the psenti music nite... Joy this one is for you...
hmmm... now... lemme see... how to begin... this perhaps was one of the very few psenti nites that chose a very good mix of songs... from rock (both English and otherwise) to dance numbers... from psentimental stuff to absolutely leg shaking music... that too arranged in a very nice order... while hallowed be thy name and turn the page made the day for me dhoom machale had many more dance to its tunes... another thing was that ETV Rajasthan was recording this music nite as new year special and will run it on 2nd Jan... we are def going places... as it always happens though... the best was saved for the last... kandisa and the oh so psenti mustafa and how can i forget with or without you... though the rendition wasnt very great who gives a damn... i am pretty damn sure everyone had a lump in the throat when it was being played... a combination of the knowledge that this was gonna be the last song of their last music nite as well as the sheer brilliance of the song... all in all the whole affair was a very psenti one...
psenti why??? i have no idea... it is supposed to be the chance to party one last time on those hallowed floors of the audi... then why psenti???
perhaps its the knowledge that this maybe the one last time you can freak out without caring about other stuff of life... one last time when you can shake a leg with your bud knowing well enough that you may not have the guts to do that outside... its quite a scene... everyone, no matter if they know how to dance or not, trying out dances right from the DD to the jive and the bhangra... it also is the one last time you can just hold hands and listen to nothing else matters or mustafa or pal or purani jeans... that feeling of knowing that this may not be possible for a long to come...
we walkedaway from that emptying audi the one last time fully aware that our lives are never gonna be the same again... memories are all we carry and that hope that we shall meet once again... but that was the time that it first sank in that i have to go away... man i hate psenti stuff...
Sunday, October 31, 2004
The time of my life....
I have undertaken what perhaps will be till date the toughest thing to write... a review for my psenti Oasis... i might get psenti quite often... please forgive me for that...
lets start with some pre oasis fun... the website, lifted from Oasis 2k3 is terribly out of shape and i try and point out out all the mistakes i can find... in a positive way... so that we donot become the butt of jokes... the schedule link still leads you to Oasis archives... and the ie bar still shows Oasis 2k3...
23rd night... Euphoria has to cancel its show on the 25th because Palash Sen lost his voice... everyone is in a state of shock and disbelief... no idea what to do and how to do... they try getting a new band in also...
24th morning we come to know from reliable sources that Euphoria thing is happening but on the 27th... more problems... scheduling... the mood in the Controlz booth was of frustration and they had almost given up hope... for the first time in my bitsian life i sympathised with them... i mean this was a bolt from the blue... it was a test and i believe they did well enough... though scheduling could have been better... but thats a different story...
25th morning... the d-day is here... for the first time in any BITSian inaug there is no huge mass of junta waiting at the gates trying to get in... everyone has been allowed inside and hats off to the audi force group for their absolutely amazing work... then comes another big surprise... Oasis inaug starts on time (i actually pinched myself to see if i was awake)... then the CCTV animated show begins with cool animation effects but a really poor dialogue writing and even more pathetic storyline... its time for introducing the stucca body and every fuckin outsti in the audi would have believed tat BITS was full of homosexuals... writeups 4 out of 7 stuccans on stage had gay references... they say time changes everything... earlier it used to be girls falling for the idiots in the writeups... now it is guys... then comes the time for the big let down... the prez speech.. he praises the "extra... extrava... extragav... extragavant" work the clubs and depts do during oasis... diro speech... man i missed Prof. Venkateswaran... and then time for the vote of thanx... and the gen sec describes Oasis as a cultural "exragavannza"... enough blushes... neways thankfully the shit gets over... then while Art 'n' Dee goes out for the inaug of the structure the we have the CCTV show... for clubs and depts... all i remember is that music club thing was hogged by jeete and that the audi force group did a better version of our very own fash p team... and then the most awaited part... the peformances by dance and mime clubs... mime started off in a dull fashion... but it was okay... the the dances... the most brilliant ones for the past quite some time... really well choreoed and well performed... chinnama chilkamma (meenakshi-tale of two cities)... kandisa (indian ocean)... fanaa (yuva) and finally main aisa kyon hoon (lakshya)... the mime meanwhile did brilliantly with amazing jokes and one real good Matrix sequence... thus ended the best inaug in a long time... then was the days other event for me... av quiz elims... i qualified due to my team (i always missed one)... neways till then we had brought to the notice of controlz the stupid mistake of scheduling two quiz events in a parallel fashion which they thankfully rectified... nd then Tarang and Fusion... Shrek rocked on the drums in Tarang... Jeete and Divs however stole the show in Fusion and after their solos there was not a soul in the audi who did not clap for them...
26th... second day... major events... choreo and prof shows... i cudn't attend choreo as i had to do the interview of Antaragini... a cool interview... and then spent the afternoon with aparajith i guess talking about stuff, something i did a lot this oasis... spending time with people talking about stuff... neways then came the evening and the the antaragini thing began at 10 or so i guess... started of slowly... me and bansal in the front row... but then the show gathered steam and i witnessed one of the most mesmerising shows ever... the lyrics made sense... hey bhagwan, i am in mumbai and lookin for a miracle... really good ones... the music mind blowing... i am sure gonna buy a tape whenever they release it... btw before the show me and bansal did the Mother Jane interview... it was gen thing i guess... then the screw of the fest... two hours gap... at 3 in the morning most of the audience was half asleep... but we still did manage to head bang at pull me under and also hallowed be thy name... great vocals... but too sleepy...
27th... did nothing all day log except put gen laccha and try for a euphoria interview... accha bhool gaya... also watchewd andholika... this girl from icfai tech... amazing voice... and music club performed fusion with prof sounds and sounded amazing... finally went to audi again at 7 to somehow get the interview done... most of the group except palash had come in to do a sound check... palash sen came in at 9 and till then we had witnessed a good testing with some cool music being played... palash comes in and agrees for the interview and goes for the sound check... he did look ill... neways he sung annes song (denver) and shine (collective soul... name inspired by one roark chappie btw).. sounded okay... then came the totally awesome interview... they were so cool... bansal and me doing the questioning and lightz, backstage, jai, rungta, jeete and akanksha being the sizeable audience (around 20 ppl i guess atleast)... at the end of which bansal and me requested for Ab Naa Jaa... and he asked who was doing the interview... we said ohp and oep... then the show begins at 12... on time... me and bansal and jeete and many others again in the front row... nice show... quite decent... most amazing part... he dedicated us the song... and i actually called up you guys for the song... just had to... it was brought back so many psenti memories of the last sem... a very lonmg show at 3 and a half hours... came back and enjoyed western jam till 7 in the morning...
28th... after that last day seemed like a dull one with me not watching anything except a bit of fash P in which i dunno how BITS won the first place... they were well choreographed though... and haan we also participated in the av quiz finals where finshed 4th after a late fight after being on 0 for long.... neways with that came the end of Oasis 2k4... after that was putting some psenti with jeete, bansal, dev and sanghi... we had all first become friends in Oasis 2k1... and after that some time at the club...
the most amazing Oasis ever... but that is what i say after every Oasis... i guess each one is special... just soak in all you can...
lets start with some pre oasis fun... the website, lifted from Oasis 2k3 is terribly out of shape and i try and point out out all the mistakes i can find... in a positive way... so that we donot become the butt of jokes... the schedule link still leads you to Oasis archives... and the ie bar still shows Oasis 2k3...
23rd night... Euphoria has to cancel its show on the 25th because Palash Sen lost his voice... everyone is in a state of shock and disbelief... no idea what to do and how to do... they try getting a new band in also...
24th morning we come to know from reliable sources that Euphoria thing is happening but on the 27th... more problems... scheduling... the mood in the Controlz booth was of frustration and they had almost given up hope... for the first time in my bitsian life i sympathised with them... i mean this was a bolt from the blue... it was a test and i believe they did well enough... though scheduling could have been better... but thats a different story...
25th morning... the d-day is here... for the first time in any BITSian inaug there is no huge mass of junta waiting at the gates trying to get in... everyone has been allowed inside and hats off to the audi force group for their absolutely amazing work... then comes another big surprise... Oasis inaug starts on time (i actually pinched myself to see if i was awake)... then the CCTV animated show begins with cool animation effects but a really poor dialogue writing and even more pathetic storyline... its time for introducing the stucca body and every fuckin outsti in the audi would have believed tat BITS was full of homosexuals... writeups 4 out of 7 stuccans on stage had gay references... they say time changes everything... earlier it used to be girls falling for the idiots in the writeups... now it is guys... then comes the time for the big let down... the prez speech.. he praises the "extra... extrava... extragav... extragavant" work the clubs and depts do during oasis... diro speech... man i missed Prof. Venkateswaran... and then time for the vote of thanx... and the gen sec describes Oasis as a cultural "exragavannza"... enough blushes... neways thankfully the shit gets over... then while Art 'n' Dee goes out for the inaug of the structure the we have the CCTV show... for clubs and depts... all i remember is that music club thing was hogged by jeete and that the audi force group did a better version of our very own fash p team... and then the most awaited part... the peformances by dance and mime clubs... mime started off in a dull fashion... but it was okay... the the dances... the most brilliant ones for the past quite some time... really well choreoed and well performed... chinnama chilkamma (meenakshi-tale of two cities)... kandisa (indian ocean)... fanaa (yuva) and finally main aisa kyon hoon (lakshya)... the mime meanwhile did brilliantly with amazing jokes and one real good Matrix sequence... thus ended the best inaug in a long time... then was the days other event for me... av quiz elims... i qualified due to my team (i always missed one)... neways till then we had brought to the notice of controlz the stupid mistake of scheduling two quiz events in a parallel fashion which they thankfully rectified... nd then Tarang and Fusion... Shrek rocked on the drums in Tarang... Jeete and Divs however stole the show in Fusion and after their solos there was not a soul in the audi who did not clap for them...
26th... second day... major events... choreo and prof shows... i cudn't attend choreo as i had to do the interview of Antaragini... a cool interview... and then spent the afternoon with aparajith i guess talking about stuff, something i did a lot this oasis... spending time with people talking about stuff... neways then came the evening and the the antaragini thing began at 10 or so i guess... started of slowly... me and bansal in the front row... but then the show gathered steam and i witnessed one of the most mesmerising shows ever... the lyrics made sense... hey bhagwan, i am in mumbai and lookin for a miracle... really good ones... the music mind blowing... i am sure gonna buy a tape whenever they release it... btw before the show me and bansal did the Mother Jane interview... it was gen thing i guess... then the screw of the fest... two hours gap... at 3 in the morning most of the audience was half asleep... but we still did manage to head bang at pull me under and also hallowed be thy name... great vocals... but too sleepy...
27th... did nothing all day log except put gen laccha and try for a euphoria interview... accha bhool gaya... also watchewd andholika... this girl from icfai tech... amazing voice... and music club performed fusion with prof sounds and sounded amazing... finally went to audi again at 7 to somehow get the interview done... most of the group except palash had come in to do a sound check... palash sen came in at 9 and till then we had witnessed a good testing with some cool music being played... palash comes in and agrees for the interview and goes for the sound check... he did look ill... neways he sung annes song (denver) and shine (collective soul... name inspired by one roark chappie btw).. sounded okay... then came the totally awesome interview... they were so cool... bansal and me doing the questioning and lightz, backstage, jai, rungta, jeete and akanksha being the sizeable audience (around 20 ppl i guess atleast)... at the end of which bansal and me requested for Ab Naa Jaa... and he asked who was doing the interview... we said ohp and oep... then the show begins at 12... on time... me and bansal and jeete and many others again in the front row... nice show... quite decent... most amazing part... he dedicated us the song... and i actually called up you guys for the song... just had to... it was brought back so many psenti memories of the last sem... a very lonmg show at 3 and a half hours... came back and enjoyed western jam till 7 in the morning...
28th... after that last day seemed like a dull one with me not watching anything except a bit of fash P in which i dunno how BITS won the first place... they were well choreographed though... and haan we also participated in the av quiz finals where finshed 4th after a late fight after being on 0 for long.... neways with that came the end of Oasis 2k4... after that was putting some psenti with jeete, bansal, dev and sanghi... we had all first become friends in Oasis 2k1... and after that some time at the club...
the most amazing Oasis ever... but that is what i say after every Oasis... i guess each one is special... just soak in all you can...
Sunday, October 10, 2004
A well spent weekend....
Just wanted to write something after a long time...
A weekend that starts at 9 on Saturday night... Movie (a classic one at that)... Rain and rains all night and next morning one more movie... life definitely is good... what an amazing weekend... to top it off Schumi again is back in winning ways and polishes the Suzuka Grand Prix... fastest practice... fastest pre-qualifying... fastest qualifying and then winning without ever losing the top spot even in pits... sheer dominance... by the way did you know he had the fastest pre qualifying time in the Chinese GP before he spun, had a collision and a punctured tyre... and then what does the champion do to prove his greatness when everyone starts questioning his skills... he goes out in the last lap and sets the lap record for the race and the track... greatness... I haven't seen Senna but I am sure Schumi would easily measure up to him if not outshine him...
Neways coming back to the movies... First one... Rain Man... Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise... Dustin plays an autistic person who is the brother of Cruise, who plays a yuppie to perfection... Their dad dies leaving everything to Hoffman and rose bushes and an old car to Cruise, who is pissed off... and moreover he doesn't know he has an elder brother... then he takes Hoffman away from asylum to demand a part of the legacy but ends up "connecting" with his only family member during a week long trip... Dustin Hoffman is brilliant and though I haven’t seen many of his movies i do believe it is as good as All The Presidents Men... Tom Cruise plays the bad guy for once initially though... but looks good all through the movie... A must see..
Next one... American History X... A movie based on the Skinhead and Neo-Nazi culture that has plagued America after the KKK... Edward Norton (Italian job ka villain) plays a reformed skinhead amazingly and shows the transformation he undergoes during his incarceration... the transformation and his efforts to stop his younger brother from going down the same path as he did seem so realistic... the movie on the whole brings out the futility of the whole racial hatred thing... it can only further screw up things rather than solving them and can never let one be at peace... it proves that hate spawns further hate and only makes living tougher... the best dialogue... though the movie is filled with brilliant ones sample this...
Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time.
If you haven't seen it, do it at the earliest possible....
A weekend that starts at 9 on Saturday night... Movie (a classic one at that)... Rain and rains all night and next morning one more movie... life definitely is good... what an amazing weekend... to top it off Schumi again is back in winning ways and polishes the Suzuka Grand Prix... fastest practice... fastest pre-qualifying... fastest qualifying and then winning without ever losing the top spot even in pits... sheer dominance... by the way did you know he had the fastest pre qualifying time in the Chinese GP before he spun, had a collision and a punctured tyre... and then what does the champion do to prove his greatness when everyone starts questioning his skills... he goes out in the last lap and sets the lap record for the race and the track... greatness... I haven't seen Senna but I am sure Schumi would easily measure up to him if not outshine him...
Neways coming back to the movies... First one... Rain Man... Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise... Dustin plays an autistic person who is the brother of Cruise, who plays a yuppie to perfection... Their dad dies leaving everything to Hoffman and rose bushes and an old car to Cruise, who is pissed off... and moreover he doesn't know he has an elder brother... then he takes Hoffman away from asylum to demand a part of the legacy but ends up "connecting" with his only family member during a week long trip... Dustin Hoffman is brilliant and though I haven’t seen many of his movies i do believe it is as good as All The Presidents Men... Tom Cruise plays the bad guy for once initially though... but looks good all through the movie... A must see..
Next one... American History X... A movie based on the Skinhead and Neo-Nazi culture that has plagued America after the KKK... Edward Norton (Italian job ka villain) plays a reformed skinhead amazingly and shows the transformation he undergoes during his incarceration... the transformation and his efforts to stop his younger brother from going down the same path as he did seem so realistic... the movie on the whole brings out the futility of the whole racial hatred thing... it can only further screw up things rather than solving them and can never let one be at peace... it proves that hate spawns further hate and only makes living tougher... the best dialogue... though the movie is filled with brilliant ones sample this...
Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time.
If you haven't seen it, do it at the earliest possible....
Monday, September 27, 2004
TV and sound bytes
Ya, Goyal, it's a very valid point. I think there are quite a few reasons for it. First of all, it's the fact that we all like to have our time in the spotlight... and with half a dozen 24 hour news channels hiding mikes in every nook and corner for sound bytes, you only have to be remotely famous to get your share. And making absurd statements is the easiest way to get you there... Praveen Togadia is a fine example...
As far as this Dhananjay chap is concerned, it's a debate that shouldn't even have happened. I, personally, am not against death penalty... I agree, you can't go around killing everyone but I feel our legal system gives enough scope for appeals and reappeals... if in nothing else, here at least it's quite thorough in making sure that the case really is "rarest of the rare"... and if the high court, the supreme court and after that the president also decides that a person should be hanged, he must really deserve it. As definitely did Dhanajay...
You know what the basic problem is... I feel it's that people don't know what they're fighting for... they forget that if they're against death penalty, that doesn't mean they're for Dhananjay... coz how can they support a heinous killer. If they're against death penalty, they shouldn't be coming out on the streets a week before he is hanged and then forget all about it... the debate should be happening now... at this moment. I'll listen, give me a convincing argument and I'll listen. But don't you tell me Dhananjay deserves my pity... coz he doesn't... coz it's not a convincing argument... coz no one in his right mind would say that... coz if you're saying that, you're not against death penalty, you just wanna be on TV... you don't know what you're talking about...
Many years ago, I had read somewhere that after Nathuram Godse was hanged, they buried his body in some unmarked field and then planted grass all over so that the spot couldn't be recognized and idolized later... I often wondered why that was needed... there might come those who criticize Gandhi but would they really idolize Godse...
Hmm... maybe... I guess our forefathers knew us really well...
As far as this Dhananjay chap is concerned, it's a debate that shouldn't even have happened. I, personally, am not against death penalty... I agree, you can't go around killing everyone but I feel our legal system gives enough scope for appeals and reappeals... if in nothing else, here at least it's quite thorough in making sure that the case really is "rarest of the rare"... and if the high court, the supreme court and after that the president also decides that a person should be hanged, he must really deserve it. As definitely did Dhanajay...
You know what the basic problem is... I feel it's that people don't know what they're fighting for... they forget that if they're against death penalty, that doesn't mean they're for Dhananjay... coz how can they support a heinous killer. If they're against death penalty, they shouldn't be coming out on the streets a week before he is hanged and then forget all about it... the debate should be happening now... at this moment. I'll listen, give me a convincing argument and I'll listen. But don't you tell me Dhananjay deserves my pity... coz he doesn't... coz it's not a convincing argument... coz no one in his right mind would say that... coz if you're saying that, you're not against death penalty, you just wanna be on TV... you don't know what you're talking about...
Many years ago, I had read somewhere that after Nathuram Godse was hanged, they buried his body in some unmarked field and then planted grass all over so that the spot couldn't be recognized and idolized later... I often wondered why that was needed... there might come those who criticize Gandhi but would they really idolize Godse...
Hmm... maybe... I guess our forefathers knew us really well...
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Of capital punishment...
Ah... lot of psenti stuff put up in a lasr few posts... Here is one of those not so psenti ones...
Last Monday there was this huge debate on NDTV about capital punishment being awarded for rapists... And I started thinking but this post is not about that issue... After a lot of thinking what I started to think was that we Indians have a habit of trying to make heroes out of villains...
I mean how else can one describe the huge number of so called "intellectual" people coming out and claiming that it was injustice to award Dhananjoy a death penalty... And that too for all pathetic reasons... They say his parents have no other support... Did anyone give Hetal's parents a thought... Again they say that he has been in imprisonment for too long and his mental state is not good... Ha... what a joke... was it ever ok??... and in any case the remedy for that is a quicker justice process and not letting him go free... But then the Bengali 'bhadralok' would be happy if he was set afree... but will they employ him as a gaurd in their own houses??
Boy I digress a lot... Neways getting back to the point now... Why do we have to make heroes out of such people?? Is it because or public figures have failed us too often... I could not think of anything better...
Anyone got other ideas???
Last Monday there was this huge debate on NDTV about capital punishment being awarded for rapists... And I started thinking but this post is not about that issue... After a lot of thinking what I started to think was that we Indians have a habit of trying to make heroes out of villains...
I mean how else can one describe the huge number of so called "intellectual" people coming out and claiming that it was injustice to award Dhananjoy a death penalty... And that too for all pathetic reasons... They say his parents have no other support... Did anyone give Hetal's parents a thought... Again they say that he has been in imprisonment for too long and his mental state is not good... Ha... what a joke... was it ever ok??... and in any case the remedy for that is a quicker justice process and not letting him go free... But then the Bengali 'bhadralok' would be happy if he was set afree... but will they employ him as a gaurd in their own houses??
Boy I digress a lot... Neways getting back to the point now... Why do we have to make heroes out of such people?? Is it because or public figures have failed us too often... I could not think of anything better...
Anyone got other ideas???
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Best days of my Life
This is my first entry in this blog.....after reading rahul's and goyal's entry, i m also in psenti mood....i just spoke to bansal and jeete convincing them to come to pune on sudeep's b'day...i know you guys are psenti semites and you have enough time but no money...don't worry i 'll sponsor your trip...just plan and come.....
seriously life is moving so fast.....i still remember rahul saying in railway station on our last meeting...dear bang is not that far from pune....we 'll meet on alternate weekends. but we are so busy that we are not even getting time to mail.
I am listening "with or without you" and "Ab na Jaa"....which is reminding me the old days...Nice days of psenti sem and those four years of BITSian life....
I am eagerly waiting for you people.......
seriously life is moving so fast.....i still remember rahul saying in railway station on our last meeting...dear bang is not that far from pune....we 'll meet on alternate weekends. but we are so busy that we are not even getting time to mail.
I am listening "with or without you" and "Ab na Jaa"....which is reminding me the old days...Nice days of psenti sem and those four years of BITSian life....
I am eagerly waiting for you people.......
Three years and so many more.....
Rahul wrote a blog sometime back about how quick time is and how we lose contact.... It brought back a lot of those old memories.... The movies, ANC trips, music nites and so much more.... Was it just three years??
I still remember that sleepy Sunday afternoon when I was introduced to four seniors.... Ankit, Thakur, Sudeep and Rahul.... and God knows that the three years was too less a time.... It almost seems like yesterday when we used to play NFS2 till late in the night.... just a few days back we had a movie marathon.... and that FRIENDS episode.... But if I look closely it was much more.... It wasn't just three years.... seemed like decades.... almost like I had known them for all my life....
Mails and sms are a farce and maybe that is why physical presence of a person is so necessary.... But then they provide a much needed contact.... just imagine where we would have been without all this.... aren't they a connecting lifeline.... 850 kms for just 24 hours doesn't seem at all foolish.... atleast not to me.... I remember travelling to Guwahati for a cousin's marriage.... more than 4500 kms just for 36 hours but then they were worth it....
Life will always move on keep moving and you know what we can get left behind.... but then thats what friends are for.... to always keep pulling you along.... and you will always be with us.... and you know why you cannot get left behind.... because then a part of us will be left behind....
And distances do not matter.... and thank you all for always being there....
I'll be there for you ... when the rain starts to fall.
I'll be there for you ... like I've been there before.
I'll be there for you ... cause you're there for me, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)