What an end to the Week it Was

What a weekend it was .....

There was the Russell Peter's Green Card tour in New York City. Watching the show was worth every penny. After an hour, I was tired of laughing. My jaws hurt and the mouth was dry. It was hilarious and grose. If you know that there is a tour going to be in your city - You have to watch it. And do not, remember do not, get the first row seats. You are digging your grave. But then, somebody has to get those seats. So, good luck!

Ishqiya - the movie had a great preview but I did not know anything else about it. Nor had I heard the soundtrack. What a surprise. I have couple of friends from M.P. and U.P. Believe me the language used in the movie portrays the hindi dialect used by people of bhopal and gorakhpur. Some of my good friends are from there and I could literally hear them speak. The movie is awesome if you are well versed with the local colloquial terms used to describe adultery. And then there are punch line gags from Arshad Warsi. I was told that this movie was not directed by Vishal Bharadwaj - but it had all the essence and I found it a blend between Omkara and Kaminey. The story might not be 5/5 but everything else is. This is a great start to 2010 from the perspective of hindi movies. I hope you go watch it.

I am finding myself getting busy & tired every week with just about a lot of work pouring in. I am not sure how I am going to handle all this. But, I have to find something out. This weekend was a real stress buster.

Next week the Grand Dad of All Entertainment - The Super Bowl. Go Colts!!

No bells or whistles to start the Year 2010

There is not much happening these days. College Football is over. NFL is almost about to be done. I hope one of them - NY Jets, Vikings or Colts win (I root in that order). There's Lakers vs Knicks on 22nd which I have tickets for and then Russel Peters on 29th. But these are fillers.

Did I sign up for this not-so-interesting life? I think so. I mean I am just being a lazy ass here trying to put on some weight. I planned to do the following and did nothing:

1. Learn Ice Skating

2. Learn some version of Electronica (guitar, casio something)

3. Learn Badminton or Racquetball

4. Learn to F******* drive.

So, this weekend I am going to resume badminton for sure (hope the Manhattan Club reopens). I am going to find out whats the scoop on Ice Skating. This new year my wallet is just getting emptied on anything and everything. I have to shell out more for my new apartment (> $1100 man). Man! who says you can save in America. To top that, my favorite channel now-a-days on television is HGTV in HD. God damn it! I would love to buy property the way they show in there. At least, I will save something on rent. But again, the fifth thing which is missing in the above list is "Learn to Save money" which I don't think I will ever learn. Hence, there is no point in putting it there.

Past couple of days went like whirlwind and work has taken priority again. I have been listening to a lot of stuff out here Coke Studio. It got some good tracks.

Out of no-where: If I have to name 3 movies last year which you gotta kidding me if you haven't watched, they are (in no particular order)

1. District 9

2. Avatar

3. Hurt Locker

I did manage to watch a lot of movies last year and believe me I have watched 80% of these.

Last, I wish I could go home sometime this year. With every passing day, I think I keep forgetting my roots. Its about time I pay a visit to my Matrubhumi.

Aal is Well

I wanted to put an exclamation mark at the end of this title. But thats so cliched now-a-days. So much so that it is appearing as a strict no-no in many recent design articles. But as "woh kah gaye" ... bad habits kambakhath die hard. Now, blogger is giving me hard time with the spell checker.

What prompted me to write this post? Well, its pretty much obvious from the title that I must have just watched the movie. Yes, I did. Not without a struggle though. I had gone to the cinemas twice returning without watching the film as it was sold out. The turn out is good especially during Christmas. Not that the movie is too good, just that here the Indians stay pretty away from family and there is nothing much to do during holidays. To spoil it further, its raining heavily today.

The movie is excellent. I have not read the book "Five point someone". That must be an eye-opener for quite a few youngsters. If not, please help them. Coz, sincerely speaking I needed some and there was no-one. Those few who were there could not convince me much and "Here I Am" - just a cliched one from Bryan Adams.

So. We Indians deliberate a lot on that word. I mean its so wrong to make such a strong pause there. But we do the mistake and we repeat it a thousand times. It has never been a complete sentence. Still, we use it like it speaks of everything we want to say next. Whats the moral of the story?

Its not that you want to be the next waangdu. You might have already passed that stage. If not, good luck - hope you get to one without that surname. The real one is to believe that life starts at the age when you kick start it. Not when when you are still getting pushed in the blinding crowd. I don't want to elaborate on this now. In 3 words, "Never say Never".

My expectations of the movie were slightly lowered thanks to movie reviews on web and my roomies who did not appreciate the second half. I think the movie was excellent. Though some jokes were too predictable for any engineering college student, nonetheless we can still laugh at our past. I just wished it could have been more hilarious.

So as aal is well, I am going to microwave the paneel butter masala and daal from nearby "Raaz" restuarant (I donno why they keep such names). Enjoy your time.

Just when I was going to hit the publish button, I could not stop smiling that I had completely forgot to mention the virus which created so much trouble for us. I mean if someone can match that template of bhrastbudhhi, it can be khodu (1st prize please). Applause. Applause.

Whats happenning now-a-days?

So the inevitable finally happened today! Florida fell. Superman lost saving the gators for so long. I felt terrible.

Well, 22 games undefeated. I read all posts, followed blogs and read news - it was gators everywhere. And today it all ends in that Georgia Dome. The same stadium where we defeated Alabama last year. This year - Alabama proved that they are the better team. I won't feed to the fact that Urban Meyer or Tim Tebow did anything wrong in this finale. But we just didn't show up. We were lost. I was so unimpressed by the play that I couldn't watch the game for most of the time. Anyways, thats the end of the season. I save a trip to Pasadena, CA. More than $1500 savings - lets say (well it isn't savings actually - I was willing to shell out that much if FL reaches National Championship). I don't have high hopes from next year FL team. Still, I will root for them.

Coming back to title of this post. I am current running 3 OS's. Windows Vista (no 7 for me :(. Fedora 12 - this blog is being typed on Fedora. More or less, I am moving to Fedora and will __NOT__ be working on Vista anymore. The only problem I had with Linux (any flavor) in general was with networking. The wireless card and wireless router are just not willing to mate. It took some effort in making them talk and now we are here. I tried Ubuntu (latest version) but gave up. I found Fedora working and it helps.

Ok, the last OS - I bought my Macbook Pro 13" on Thanksgiving. I am just blown away. Why I am not using it? Its just too remarkable to be touched. Even putting my fingerprints on it makes me tinker. Its perfect. Well, as I plan to do some projects on it, I installed Eclipse on it. I found that eclipse was somewhat different from what I last used on Windows. Don't know its Mac related Customization or Eclipse Interfae has changed in a while. Well, the Macbook Pro 13" is amazing and you should buy one. I got a good deal but what I came to know is Apple is going to launch MBPs with Inter Core i7 and i9 processors in 2010. So, if you want to hold on, you may. I can gift this MBP to someone in India lateron and get a higher end one next year if I click to generate some extra income.

So, I bought a lot of stuff on thanksgiving. Will sending them soon to India. Listening to Fireflies (Owl City) now. Thats all! - over & out.

ps: If I ever get an opportunity to make my "hall of fame" - Tebow & Meyer shall be there. I am inspired, floored and feel proud. I wish: somedayI get a chance to meet Tim Tebow!

Mark Isham

I have been following his music as part of movie soundtracks for few years now. No doubt, he is one of the living legends in putting in some of the finest background score out there.

I watched Bad Lieutanant: Port of Call New Orleans yesterday. Awesome movie. I would suggest you to go forth and give it a shot. You might like it, you might fall in love with it or you might just disregard it. But its one of those movies you should not miss. After so many years, perhaps Nicolas Cage got a movie which fits his characteristic frown. He gels into the script so well - you think that the character Terence McDonah does and should exist. Of course you might question their ways of action but none-the-less you would love the addiction.

My views on Knot

Well, everytime I talk to my friends - I keep getting the updates as to who got married and who is going to tie that once-in-a-lifetime knot. Well, somehow one of my friends who recently moved to NYC with his wife did not turn up to meet me - I spent my time watching ManU vs Arsenal game for a change and then slept off. What happened in sleep is that I got some interesting quotes in my mind. Believe me; these exactly depict why I think bachelors (and that includes me) are afraid of wearing that ring (of death) . Oh well, pardon my "high" thinking!!

"Life is full of uncertain variables. You and me are just two good friends. Maybe, sometime more than that. But then, do we have to tie the knot? That would mean I have to understand your side of equations - mother, father, family. And you have to understand my side and inherit the complications. A study would show that these random variables are so many, that we have to spend more than a lifetime in solving these simultaneous equations and believe me - there is just no answer. And do you want to do this Math your entire life? And then you have relatives which are like solving differential equations; you take the derivatives of the primary and believe me - even in true mathbooks they solve it using approximation techniques. So, lets forget the knot. So much Math is detrimental for healthy living".

Undoing Some Mistakes

Have you got that realization that you have been unjust to so many things in life? That moment kills you.

I have been suppressing this feeling for quite some time now. As always; there have been excuses to kneel on. Life has been hanging between mundane and painful actions. Nothing enjoyable. Why?

Perhaps it is because I am still looking for the right moment. I still cannot define what it is? When I joined MS, we asked our seniors a question: How do you secure an on-campus job?

The answer was simple: "You have to be at the right time, at the right place".

I never did an on-campus job. Reasons many. Excuses galore. I still wish I had done one. Perhaps I never could grasp what it meant in the first place.

I watched luck by chance movie today. An Akhtar trend special, simply put, it should be on your next weekend movie list. It is that simple supper with all the right mix of palatable items with nothing overwhelming the other and exactly filling your stomach, leaving you satisfied and content. Give a listen to song the song "Yeh Zindagi Bhi" by Loy Mendonsa & Shekhar Ravjiani. The overall soundtrack is remarkably light & relaxed.

Diving deep, I found subtle nuances which ask questions so bold that even my soul fell silent and had no answers. I felt alone (and hence writing this blog).

I could relate to few, I got lost in others. Mistakes have been made. Undoing them would take a lifetime now. The question is: Have I realized it yet completely? Perhaps not.

It is today that perhaps I get a feeling what is the right moment. But still it is vague. And believe me I feel the pain.

Thanks to everyone who has been around for so long time with me. I am here now; 25, at the cross-roads - whatever I have achieved it is because of you. So you must know this and I have to speak it aloud - You are the Best!