Something Different From Normal

We are the Champions

2008-06-17T22:28:00.002+05:30

So it was monday night and i couldnt sleep ... the usual me. So I switched on the TV hoping for some good viewing.

The final round of US open golf was on and I was seeing Tiger woods 1 shot back with 2 holes to go in the 18 hole playoff. He managed to get into the playoff by birdieing the 18th on the last hole in regulation.
so what does he do ... Birdie's 17th and ties with Rocco. Both par 18th so we go into sudden death playoff and he birdie's in sudden death & Rocco pars. And he wins his 14th major.

This was probably his toughest major. in the past he has blown off his competitors on the final day but this was a real test because he was injured and he came back from one down to win. I'm amazed at the levels people like him , Federer, Schumacher n others over the years in their sport excel and manage to raise their game when it really counts. What separates them from the rest is the mental toughness in the battle. Truly inspirational...

Euro Cup Footy is back

2008-06-08T12:14:00.002+05:30

End of EPL and all other seasons in Europe meant no football but not for long. Euro cup is back. cant wait for the big guns slug it out in the later half of the tournament.
Yesterday's matches were all cagey affairs and hardly any entertaining football which is expected nowadays. Gone are the days of world dominance and superiority by the big names.

Radiohead gave us a new song , Super Collider in one of their live shows last week. check it out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB8TXwxwftY

I'm rocking out ... Laters.

Turn Off the Radio ... Turn off the Radio

2008-06-05T22:53:00.002+05:30

I love listening to 107.1 FM rainbow in the mornings going to work because the music is usually very good. So just like every weekday traveling to work , 8.30 am to 9.30 am is usually 107.1 & me rocking along the journey.

So these 3 songs come up in the span of 2 days and today when I was thinking about them ...
I go , WOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHH ...

first one is i have heard this before but I haven't heard it in a really long time and I'm going all weak inside and confused ... What song is this , why cant i recollect this one, I've heard a woman sing this one, not a band etc etc...

The second one i guessed the band and i have this song so i think know this one...

the third one i got the artist from the RJ but not heard any of his solo work , i couldnt believe i have missed such a good song

So in office , i start googleing the lyrics and i find out...

1. UB40 'Dont break my heart'

2. Maroon 5 'Nothing lasts forever'

3. Mark Knopfler ' True Love will never fade'

this is really scary , what do i read from this now :confused:

You know you're getting there

2008-06-04T22:45:00.004+05:30

when you go on a meet of 70+ people from an online group and you are the oldest member ( joining date of the online group)

when the 'M' word sneaks in conversations with just about everyone known & "dont care about you known" to you

when you realize that extreme forms of music is not much existing on the play list anymore

when the chemist shop guy no longer smiles/smirks while handing over you a pack.

when women take a sneak peak downstairs ( ring finger you filthy little creatures :P ) to find any visual evidence or lack of it to carry the conversation in the appropriate direction.

when people you know start helping you involuntarily

when you start turning to songs rather than friends to spend free time

when the world seems smaller than it is

when you see the current generation and wonder how can they be wilder & stupider than you were then

when the number of people you knew grow distant exceeds the number of people you dont know come in to your life

and finally,

You know you're getting there...

when you start thinking things like these and penn them down in your blog thinking it actually make sense.

2008-06-02T20:40:00.004+05:30

Many, over the period of last couple of months have asked me why have i stopped blogging. There are a lot of reasons to that more so because I have a separate blog for a long time now whose password i give to random people who visit that blog because i give a lot of lectures & knowledge sessions on things where people need help & support, so a lot of things go in there which cannot be put in here. So the answer is NO, if you know me you are not getting the password or if you pretend to be an unknown entity ;)

So,back after a long hiatus here where so much has happened, i kind of have less clue what happened or is going to happen in the future.

9 to 9's everyday , intense partying on weekends, out of town visits , volunteering work , family , friends , discovering new music has meant I've hardly had time for myself. Ive always been the kind being the only child that having too much alone time and then overworking my brain cells just about anything & everything which has worked to my advantage and disadvantage in many situations.

So finally I've decided to just let go and let things happen. I no longer analyze things to death, contemplate & procrastinate on whats going on to happen, just letting my surroundings take control of the situation and being carried lazily around by external forces.

That has brought a change in me which has been evident in people around me who say that you finally look happy and not looking like you are thinking something all the time.
There have been times in the past when I would just stare into other people's eyes making them uncomfortable to the point of they making it evident to me of this behavior. I am to be blamed partially because it would so happen then i would be thinking 10 other things while talking to the person and go into a zone of unknown depths and basically forget to blink lol and have no clue where the conversation is in the present or the person is waiting for me to reply or continue the talk :)

Now i just care a damn about the present & future. Am i happy? Well even i dont know this one properly but I'm getting there one difficult day after another.

So, things i could possibly end up doing now or in the near future :

Walk away from everything and join the UN mission in Darfur
Go for a PhD abroad
Get married and finally settle down to the relief of everyone around
Learn a Music course somewhere in the world and try to become a professional musician, something i always wanted to do but was not bold or crazy enough.
Take my backpack and go around India to places that i have always wanted to see
Continue living the present life and letting things happen

My guess is the last one but I dont know , i have finally let others & situations decide my future so i could be doing any of the other things. I will obviously put it here before doing that to let you all know what I am going to do next, or maybe I won't this time haha :)

Cool Mom

2008-05-30T23:52:00.004+05:30

When do you know you have a cool mom

When she goes to see the New Indiana Jones Movie, First Day First Show :)

You rock mom :D

Friends

2008-05-30T23:50:00.000+05:30

Bright light almost blinding
Black night still there shining
I can't stop keep on climbing
Looking for what I knew.
Had a friend she once told me
"You got love you ain't lonely "
Now she's gone and left me only
Looking for what I knew.
Mmm I'm telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now
It's very easy just.
Met a man on the roadside crying,
Without a friend, there's no denying,
You're incomplete, they'll be no finding
Looking for what you knew.
So anytime somebody needs you,
Don't let them down, altho' it grieves you,
Some day you'll need someone like they do,
Looking for what you knew.
Mmm, I'm telling you now,
The greatest thing you ever can do now,
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now,
It's very easy just...ooh, yeah

More Movies

2007-10-27T01:10:00.000+05:30

1. A Mighty Heart - 8 /10
Based on the death of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Angelina Jolie is really good in this ... acting wise. all around a fair presentation of the events . well made

2.Apocalypto - 9 / 10 .
Brilliant. Watch it if blood / gore doesn't deter you. Mel Gibson knows how to put out a story on Screen

3. Mysterious Skin - 8/10
Shows the lives of sexually abused children and the issues they have when they grow. lot of graphic sexual scenes, not for everyone.

4. Godfather Series - 9 / 10
Finally i see the series. What more to say , awesome. 3rd one was a bit of a drag , the 1st two are great.

5.The Believer 8 /10
story of a confused guy about his religion ,roots and ideologies and his views. Really heavy on the brain but works great.

6. The Short Films of David Lynch - 9.5/10
Art in Movies ( not exactly ) at its best. Really some twisted work of visuals i have ever seen.

7. Children of Men - 9.5 /10
Underground movie with great non stop action , brilliant acting. a must watch.

8. Pi - 9 /10
Story of a man trying to get some answers about the number Pi and associations with life.

9. Manorama Six Feet Under 7 / 10
a good different movie from the normal bollywood thing. mystery thriller , good suspense but a loose script. still watchable once.

10. Things we lost in the fire - 9 /10
great movie , about a family & a friend who is a drug addict. touching and realistic . must watch.

Radiohead - In Rainbows Review

2007-10-10T20:05:00.000+05:30

4 Years in the making and finally its here. Till now i resisted watching those youtube videos of the songs , wanted to hear the album as it is in the entirety.

An ingenious marketing move of offering the album for free or pay whatever you feel like for online download legally. People will download , whether its free or not so why not give it away for free or atleast make whatever they can cause they know people will pay for quality music and band loyalty. I don't think money has anything to do with this but hey its the first in the industry so a big thumbs up to the band. Not being in contract with a label helped too so - Screw the MAN :D

Quality 0f Songs - 160KB/sec so not audiophile material but will do for now.

[Download the album from here : http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex2.html ]

So how is the Album.

1 word. Masterpiece.
It doesnt get better than this. Well, we can expect Radiohead to come out with something better. Its right up there with Kid A & OK Computer. Better than either of them , questionable but will have it own place in the Discography because 'In Rainbows' is possibly all Radiohead albums combined till now in this one. The tracks are layed out beautifully with slower mellow tracks to calm down the aggressiveness of some tracks. This has some of the most heavy aggressive Radiohead ever like 'Bodysnatchers'. Even the slower songs are a bit heavy on the ears like 'All I Need'. The Bass is used in plenty and and really deep in the songs. Excellent for the bassheads.

The lyrics are not yet released yet but you can tell they are written with as much emotion and depth to come out of a brilliant lyricist Thom Yorke is. If you thought OK Computer had deep stuff , wait till you hear this.

Tracks which stand out -
Bodysnatchers , Nude , All I Need , House of cards & Videotape ( the best track by far )

Finally some good stuff from artists who know how to put out quality music in this age of crap music in general. Get this one folks... Its free for god's sake and if you haven't heard of Radiohead , give this one a try. You will not be disappointed.

Cant wait for the second CD to be released in December.

Catching Up on Some Movies

2007-08-12T00:50:00.000+05:30

finally got into watching movies thanks to my LAN sharing in my local area. jai ho LAN & ze downloaders :D

1. Zodiac - great movie , a bit slow but goes well with the entire plot. one of the best this year for sure. must watch if you into mystrey / thriller

2. Simpsons Movie - hilarious . really really good. must watch if you are a simpsons fans or not. the jokes are great and the whole thing is good. another must watch

3. die hard 4 - decent . too much action and overbearing at times , story is ok. but some of the action sequences are well shot.

4. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - i liked this. a good story but some flaws here and there. still worth watching for something different and new.

5. transformers - another same old action film wiht modernized robots or whatever. not worth it.

6. bourne ultimatum - really nice ending to the series i think. the whole series of bourne movies is well made and this one is too. good story , action and fast paced. worth watching if you have seen the previous ones.

PG Meet ... Awesomeness :mg:

2007-06-18T01:19:00.000+05:30

Wow. what a meet. Pagalguy raises the entertainment value bar every year and the meet was awesome from start till end.

I was expecting real pagalpan so had slept well in anticipation of less / no sleep . reached Gateway of India a bit early trying to find pguys here and there . met pendyal n LBHIC . I congratulated you both then but forgot to say good luck . saw mahip doing offline mod duties who directed us to a group of people already arrived before us situated under the tree for protection from the blazing sun. slowly members started dropping in and our PG banner was up in the air which caught the attention of one very curious police inspector. after a bit of discussions , he left inteliigently and the banner was up again but a little lower .

After munching on couple of McD burgers ,we got on the rocking catamaran/ ferry and as soon as we started , almost everyone was in front of it looking like stage diving any moment. some people just sat around enjoying the breeze. Reached our destination and being the huge group were deciding which bus to board . when the bus people instructed the next bus is like after 3 hours , we got distributed on 2 buses till our next destination. after a small doze , got off to board tum tum's on the long journey to where we were staying. the place is really picturesque and calm until we all arrived to raise hell.

after lunch and a bit of chilling talking to people , headed to the beach a short distance away for some beach soccer. some of the boys and girls decided to hit the water and get wet mtv grind style ( only the boys ) . Then after multiple sessions of roaming around between the beach and our guest house ,

the night started to fall and people started getting impatient and wanted the party on the beach started. but had to wait for sometime till estranged and gang could arrange for the all the important itenaries to arrive without which it would have caused a riot for sure . soon began the introduction sessions. one by one , every member came down and introduced themselves and what PG meant to them. heard some great experiences and all has been recorded by our professional director grondie who kept on requesting everyone to stay near the light bulb but no body listened to him . The bon-fire had started to burn in full swing now.

after that , the music system was set by pranav and some tunes were played but people were very thirsty by now . curtz did an awesome job being our resident bartender for night and sadly , no one even left him a tip. next time you are in town , a drink for you from me the music got fast and people started to swing faster than gyrating arabic dancers. many decided to head towards the beach for moonlit beach walks only to return for multiple refills for the drinks . the beach walk was good fun and soon as time went by and the number of drinks people had by now had increased in multipe counts. skipped estranged's skit as i had already seen it at PG HQ but heard this was much more interesting and hilarious than last time.

The looong moonlit beach walk for some of us had was just awesome. turned around and we realised we had moved far away from humanity and returned back to see very few people left on the beach and some still dancing around the alcohol cart and not the bon-fire... went back to our place to have dinner . everyone was tired by now so many chickened out and went to sleep and some us stayed up till the wee hours of the morning for some interesting conversations , guitaring and singing sessions , and some muscle flexing for entertainment purposes only.

finally decided to crash at 4.30 am only to be woken up at 6.30 am . many had woken up with headaches n hangovers and some of us headed to the beach for early breakfast and tea. slowly people started waking up contemplating whether to go to the "blue water white sand beach". pagalneha was the most enthu in the bunch and found some generous volunteers to accompany her . many decided to give it a miss and head to the beach for cricket and bike rounds ( thanks to generous ali ). props to eka and his team who got out for single digit runs and allwin hitting one four and the match was over before it started.

grondmaster distributed some gifts he had got for some other purpose ( the tee rocks man ). many had to leave early to catch their evening flights and so early lunch had already begun. so after the good bye's , only 15 or so of us were left who had decided to head home later. on reaching the ticket counter for ferry , we realised the ferry service had shut down. apurv and I headed to the ST bus counter to find all the buses to mumbai were full . went to a tour n travel agency who somehow managed to book 2 cars for us and we got lucky otherwise we might have had to stay at alibaugh for another day. reached mumbai and people headed to their destinations.

Rock on Pagalguy.com and a final cheers to many such meets in the future

MEET PICS :

http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa237/punspans/AIPGM%202nd%203rd%20June%202007/

Old Fashioned Punk

2007-05-13T03:07:00.000+05:30

Long time since an update ... all because my insomniac mind has kicked in and the high is too much for comfort to lie down , so im here.

Life has been good to me and a lot of activity has been happening in and around . It sucks to be the centre of attraction but then its not all that bad either , im used to it.

The journey for the most difficult exam has begun in earnest with the sorting through papers has began to not a very auspicious way. Ok , my standards are a bit high ( maybe a lot higher ) than your normal being but it just seems like there is nothing out there which impresses you. Its like one after another the same history being repeated with just the geography being different. History was seriouslly boring in school and reading it all over again hasnt tickled me much. C'mon the god of Difference , did you kind of go through a rough patch during the 80's that all there is is just 100 % replicas with a couple of malfunctions on the way one after another with nothing that would get eyebrows up and go 'Woah , what do we have here'. its all good to have great credentials , great looks but nothing which puts you in a different genre of people atleast on paper who are the special alpha superiority which you know cant go wrong even though they have the most complex wiring of parts inside for the regular to decipher to atleast match up in the arena to call it a fair duel.

As i discuss this with my great alphafemale , whether to keep the standards this high or in the end , we will be brought to our knees just to equate things on a level field by the the earthquake spells we endure. I wish you well too on this journey for the race between us has began with slow start and frankly letting the other one win is a gracious act but not buyable in all its attempts so may you win before me and take home the 1st prize , ill be happy with a close close second ... or maybe we just need to break all rules and cross it together holding our left and right, wouldnt that be a slap to the face of us by the our other ;)

Its going to be a lengthy treasure hunt as the clues are invisible till now and frankly the first step itself was with a nudge and couple of cheap leg trip attempts by the close departed for me ... not a good begining but all the big ones start off that way.
Bows down to the almighty paganus , bless me.

18/2/2007 Will Forever be Remembered - Cause I Was There

2007-02-20T23:53:00.000+05:30

1992 - Bon Jovi

1995 - Deep Purple

1995 - 2006 - Several Other Gigs i went to

18 - 2 - 2007 : The Best Ever I was waiting for this day since a long long time . Having secured the passes very early ( Rs 1000 only cause Iron Maiden Bangalore , March 2007 is also on cards so had to spend appropriately ) , I couldnt sleep much the night before in anticipation. The day had finally arrived. How big of a Pink FLoyd fan i am ??? Trust me , you dont want to know ( or see 1 post below just to get an idea :D ) .Reached the venue which I was familiar with having hosted many big acts in the past ... MMRDA Grounds , Bandra. Went with a friend to experience the whole thing cause a large group might spoil the experience.

As soon as i reached the venue , the anticipation was in the air along with the smells I hadnt smell in a long time if you know what i mean ;) ... The venue was filling up fast
with youngsters with Pink Floyd / DSOTM tees , Oldies who knew whats it all about , people like me who are somewhere in between and a lot of foreigners who will never get to see
such a gig so cheap :DAs the sounds of Neil Young and Chuck Berry classics were being played ,people were waiting patiently for Roger & his band to come to stage. After a lot of waiting , came the image of a good old wodden radio player on the huge screen with a bottle of whisky and glass

7.10 pm : a hand with a cig moves to tune the radio to sounds of Elvis , Ella Fitzgerald and then onto 'In the Flesh' and there he was , Roger Waters with his band already dissing the first notes with the lights low and the roar of the thousands of people happy to see their dreams come true finally. As soon as the song finished , 'Mother' sounded oh so sweet next. Then onto a song which sadly many dont know , appreciate - 'Set the controls for heart of the sun... One of my favourite PF tracks ever. The perfect song to light the joint/cig :D , or just close your eyes and feel the unknown and be free ,Roger did a great vocal on this comparable to some live performances ive heard. There was no gong but still , the song was done excellently.

Till now the visuals were ok and then came One of the special songs 'Shine on you crazy diamond' & the screen was bright with the radiant energy of the late great Syd Barret looking straight at us and lot of old SYd photos and also of the band during the awesome decade of 60 & 70. 'Have a Cigar' was next and the hands flew in unision for the first time and a lot of smoke in the air :D. Next up was 'Wish you were here' , one of the most famous PF songs so you knew the crowd will be into this as soon as the acoustic note was played. The crowd sang and sang , every note perfectly around me atleast. The song brings back memories of all those special people
who have graced our lives but are no longer there for whatever reason and the mixed emotions can be overwhelming ( atleast for me but I didnt cry just so you know :P).

'Southampton dock/Fletcher memorium'with the backdrop of visuals of the times toughest for humanity with wold leaders was something you could just look on and wonder - How come we still see this on TV nowdays.'Perfect Sense' was a song i wasnt much aware of so it passed by quicly on to the brilliant 'Leaving Beirut' with Roger telling a little history of the song and it was a great narrative to listen to with lot of bush ,tony bashing and the crowd was loving it :D.

Another one of my favourite 'Sheep' was done next and somewhere in between the song ... the moment had arrived. The Pig flew .. slowly moving upwards ... the huge pink Pig soared above all over the crowd in the front with lots of sentences on it ... 2 of em most striking 1) Sarv Jaati Ek ( Every Caste is the same ) 2) Impach Bush now on the ass of the Piggy :D... and then for what Roger almost got into trouble in the US ... Th Pig was released in the air to the roar of the crowd as it soared higher and higher into the clear mumbai sky and that was when the 1st half of the show ended. Then the band took a small break to return to perform one of my favourite albums of all time ...Dark Side of the Moon ( DSOTM) .

The quadrophonic sound arrangement till now was only roaring to guns , planes but I knew the real experience of the sound will be felt as soon as DSOTM will be performed.The Sattelite on the screen moved closer , closer right towards us and the crazy mixture of sound samples from all around was building into a release of the 'Speak to me / Breathe in the air 'to which the crowd gave the largest roar in agreement. people started moving side to side , cell phones in hand waving hands in unision ... a sight to behold. 'On the run' had the best visuals of the day with all the psychedelia in full flow ( acid trips , pills , liquid bubbles etc ).'Time' sounded amazing with all the clocks , bells ringing real loud to the soothing mid portions of the chorus. 'Great gig in the sky' was played to the amazing vocals of the backup singer who i must say did an awesome
rendition of the original ... may i say as beautifully with anger as on the album. The sounds of coins , cash register on 'Money' sounded great and suddenly you felt like rich greedy royalty.The saxophone sound was to be heard in person to admire the great artist behind it. then came to one of those song you can just listen to over & over again and never get tired - 'US & them'. It sounded so good that i just closed my eyes to feel the inital part and then as the chorus began , hands went up in the air in unity. 'Any Colour you Like' played while people were just recovering from the earlier song and then moved into 'Brain Damage' with the sounds of the lunatic laughs and another massive roar as Roger sang the line Dark side of the moon.'Eclipse' was played with all the anger , passion , emotions of all sorts to the fact that the entire DSOTM set done non stop and the sattelite finally moved away on the screen.

For people who knew the setlist for the show , they knew there was more but ROger almost created ruffles when he said Thank you , good night at around 9 - 9.15. But soon the anguish of many was overcome with 'The Happiest days of our lives' with the helicopter sounds among the thumping bass and drums and the little famous piece of narration into 'Another brick in the wall - part 2 )... the crowd sang loudest with passion and support of the lyrics than you will ever hear. 'Vera Lynn' on the screen and Mr Waters vocal sounded the best on this on the night.'Bring the boys back home' the small little request was played the loudest with fireball explosions on stage and the perfect theatrical piece. As loud as it was , then the short silence was replaced by the last song 'Comfortable numb', an unbeleivable 6 minutes of life you would want to last for much longer.And suddenly you realise its over ... the band graciously bowed down to the audience in applause , claps in appreciation of giving one of the best experiences a person can have in their lives.

Mobile network jammed up , we leave the place ... walking a couple of kilometers as there were no autos , taxis to have dinner and a lot of drinks to end the night you never wanted to end.
Being in India , we dont get to experience great international bands , performances... thats why the review was so personal and the experiences shared mutual with many others.The scene is improving to many gigs lined up in the future and lets hope to have such evenings more in the future for the sake of keeping good music alive and get the exposure it deserves.

Project DSOTM Finally Completed

2007-01-24T00:31:00.000+05:30

After a lot of calculations , measurements and acrylics , its finally on my WALL :D

Thanks MOM , You are simply Awesome :D

I Will NOT Buy New CD's , I Will Download

2007-01-20T15:31:00.000+05:30

If i want to listen to crap , i might as well download crap and listen to crap.Compact Discs aka CD of artists nowdays are just crap. They are compressed to hell. Analysis of wave output of any song using software show how compressed the output is. Also to mention LOUD as hell. Its like listening to distorted pieces of rambling instruments and some dude / gal trying to sing over them ... I am apalled at the quality of some of cd's i bought recently compared
to yesteryears quality CD's.
And its not the fault of engineers who master them. We have amazing technolgy , equipment nowdays to give out quality medium but its the label and artists who demand loudness and higher sound outputs rather than quality.
Do any A/B testing of any Pink Floyd album to a recently released albums ( californication - red hot chilli peppers was the biggest insult to music production ever i think ) and you know its just not worth spending money to buy the albums...Artists should realise if they want us to buy CD's rather than downloading , put out quality stuff ... not only in content but the medium too. Vinyls are dying and looks like so will be the CD's in the next couple of years and we will be left with online downloading of compressed loud mp3's legal DRM Locked / illegal.
Its about time artists , labels and Us to do something about this. Its not being talked about discussed or debated. Rather than complaining about how we are getting lesser rich than we out to be due to music piracy , how about the "experts" explain the slow death of music delivery to Us.

PS : Its not all gloomy .Recently released Beatles ' Love ' is mastered beautifully and probably one of the best sounding CD in recent times.
If you want to undersatand about more on this topic , go over to Steve Hoffman Forums , its the holy grail when it comes to understanding Music more than just audible pleasure.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/

What a Difference a Couple of Hours Make

2007-01-04T01:52:00.000+05:30

So the other day I was at Brigade Road( Bangalore ) in the afternoon confused as to what to have for lunch ( Pizza corner got my nod in the end ) & I get this frantic call from an over axious friend asking me about my CAT results. I said I have no idea they were out . So I headed in to Reliance Webworld and checked and the usual No thank you note from the IIM's .

Well I wasnt dissapointed cause just about a hour after the phone call, I got a nice deal confirmed by a client which ensures I still remain a Boss and get paid decent enough ;)
Hows Life works in all its Glory & Gloom, I will never understand.

Anyways , Yaay I think :D

Happy New Year people who still visit this place and all those who glance by .

Best Lessons in Business - Live & Not in a Classroom

2006-11-29T01:46:00.000+05:30

So as i sat across the dinner table in a swanky upscale restaurant , i looked at the people around me & i knew im going to learn a lesson like never before.

The conversations began with light hearted jokes about the industry & its functioning . All the usual India bashing & international praising began with counter arguments about how 'We' are not that far off & its only a matter of time. Well the international fellow agreed to this point wholeheartedly & I knew the alcohol was just kicking in...

As the meeting went ahead in full swing , the level of intelligence in the conversation actually became better & better & i was left in awe in understanding of how larger businesses work , survive , grow , fall etc where its really how Darwin's thory is best put into practise ( survival of the fittest )

In a matter of 3 hours , i was mentally tired but like a hungry young one craving for knowledge drooling brain juices all over , it went on & on & I realised a couple of things which I knew were possible but realistically , i didnt have the cahones to think of doing ;)

a) how much more i can do in business ... its unimaginable
b) how much stuff is out there just ready to be grasped by that smart businessman only if the vision is there
c)Money is as important as you want it to be & make it to be & that Reputation , Respect are probably as important.

I must have gained enough exercises in business to last me atleast a year or two of implementation... I was able to contribute whatever i could to the best of my abilities but i was no match in the company i was but glad to say , i gave a pat on my back for the effort :D

So the evening ended with the customary handshakes & goodbye's and the gentlemen were pleased with the whole exercise and maybe someday in the future ... there will be another one, cant wait for it :)

Thanks for going through this with a yawn or two ... well ill simply put it as

I'll never forget the evening when I met

1) Chairman of a Big Indian Chemical Laboratory Company
2) Marketing Director of an International Pharmaceutical Company
3) Owner of a World renowned Lab for testing of some breakthrough medicines.

Men Cry Too

2006-11-21T03:43:00.000+05:30

Yes they do , rare as it may be . Its not supposed to be experienced but when you do , it can be life altering in someways. Sending that special person away from you for probably the rest of your life caused those salty waters to flow & its not easy for tough hearts to melt for when they do , you are taken back to first moments of your life on earth , crying & scared.

It will never be the same. I am what I am because of you & I thank you for everything.

Hard Rock Cafe - Mumbai

2006-09-30T00:44:00.000+05:30

Yes it is open n running since this month ... People never knew when it opened , shut down n then reopened...

So tucked away in Worli near Kamala Mills Studio , its a swanky place n quite large. The traditional ( ive seen a couple of HRC's in this world :P ) dimly lit place , memorabilia of artists and good old rock n roll music in the background makes it a nice place to have a drink or just for some nostalgia catching up with mates.

The food is alright ... well im Vegetarian so its the same everywhere :D
Non veg as suggested by my friends is good ... very good infact , the platter is a definite order for all u non vegs
The drinks are quite nice with lots of cocktails n unique combinations to have you tripping hippy style ... thank god the price is steep enuff for you to realise this is not the place to OD :P ... Quite an expensive place ... well comes with the brand name.
The classic choclate cake is a must too

The rock shop is loaded with HRC custom teeshirts & some other stuff like caps etc ... good quality merchandise

All in all , nice place to go to ... I have to say its better than the ones i have been to singapore , malaysia n thailand ... simply because the music played was nice & it didnt feel cramped ... its seriouslly big

2 complaints, far off for suburb people & I saw all the page 3 like crowd in there ... no sense of where you are & what the place is all about ... Kya hoga is great desh ke wasiyon ka :D

Stuff that made me Laugh this week

2006-09-18T01:20:00.000+05:30

1. Something on TV about Gandhism v/s Gen X ...
Dehati TV channels dont know that Gen Y already began some years back ROFL

2. Strike in Mumbai from monday of petrol pumps by their owners ... massive lines of cars outside the pumps by sunday evening time ... petrol over before the strike began in some pumps ROFL

3. Overheard in BEST Bus :
Person 1 : Kya ho gaya is city ko pata nahi ...
Person 2 : Kyu hua
Person 1: Bola na , pata nahin

LOL .... ROFL

4 ) Me : Ek cutting chai please ...
Chai Wala : Kya Sir , aaj ke time mai cutting se humara kya hoga ... pura hi bechta hoon abhi ... Intelligent Businessman n funny ROFL

5) Me to a friend : U know a woman was robbed in one of the mall's loo recently by another woman on knife point...
She : Fuck ... Now we need security in there too ... talk about No Privacy

ROFL END

Place Called Mangi Ferra

2006-09-10T12:31:00.000+05:30

I had heard so much of this eating joint that i had to go to check it out. A special occasion demanded such a visit finally wanted to see what the fuss is all about.
Its close to reliance world, juhu circle ... 7th cross road

Its a high end Italian joint. No Sopranos like people but the place is packed with people like they are distributing free food,Indians love to eat in style. The ambience of the place is great... Thankfully , i had the reservations done so got the table in no time. Bob dylan's music was on so it was perfect in many ways :). We ordered a Carribian cooler for my friend which i selfishly drank half cause it was that good... Never offer a drink to your friend if its good :P

The main course list is pretty big & very expensive . The pastas are around 200 /250 & the pizzaz upwords of 300... I hoped the quality justified the hole drilling in the wallet ... Ordered a Lasange first ... too good. Ive never been to Italy so that was the best Lasagne i have ever had. Then we ordered the Napolante somethin pizza. The pizza was as thin as my heart at that moment ... 35o bucks for a 1/2 cm thick pizza... oh wait , thats how thin authentic pizzaz really are. But the thing made up for the taste.
The quality is top notch but the quantity was nothing much to speak of ... all in all , its a place for those special occasions only ... 8/10

... Half filled we went to Barista for good old choclate excess & dark temptation [ usual suspects for pampering :D ]

Missed My IRock Today

2006-08-16T00:55:00.000+05:30

Going through RSJ forums today and the thread of Rang Bhavan no longer associated with the event
& for the fact the tradition of Independence Rock being celebrated much later on again this year is kind of dampening to the whole event & its message but still the event happening is a big deal in itself

Anyways , here are the details

INDEPENDENCE ROCK XXI

Date: 25th & 26th August 2006 (New Dates)
Time: 6 PM
Venue: Chitrakut Grounds, Near Fun Republic, Andheri, Mumbai

Day 1: Contest
1. Brute Force (Pune)
2. Split (Mumbai)
3. Evergreen (Chennai)
4. Faith (Guwahati)
5. IIIrd Sovereign (Delhi)
6. Nemesis (Pune)
Headlining Band - Pentagram

Day 1 should be awesome for everything excepting Pentagram. I dont want to hear electronic shit from a "rock" band. I cant wait for what the people of Mumbai has instored for them cause it will not be pretty, MC - BC galore :D

Day 2:
1. Demonic Resurrection
2. Sceptre
3. Them Clones
4. Dinosaurs Of Rock Feat. Gary Lawyer, Shazneen, Suraj, Farhad and Pervez.

Ill go just to see Dinosaurs of Rock \m/ ... , Cmon , i want to hear Deep Purple , Doors , every year these guys rock & troo music right there :D

Get your Eyes Off Me

2006-08-13T01:42:00.000+05:30

Well travelling around the city , and its evident security is tightened in malls & other public places . From large banners of important tips of do's / dont's to private security guards searching every bag you are carrying to police hawaldars roaming everywhere with one eye on me ( odd looking bloke )& the other one on the girl next to me ( usual guy thingie ) , its like your actions are being monitered to the levels of uncomfortability. All these measure put in place after US issues a notice to its citizens of travelling carefully in India and nothing in particular. Its all important & stuff but dont make people uncomfortable & aware of the already programmed
function to be careful of uncertainty around .Today was probably the 2nd time my parents told me to be safe ( 1st being travelling again in the trains after coming back from my trip ).
I can sense the fear in people eyes and minds even though they wont speak or show it evidently.

Well after somedays , when things will return to " normal " , the train victims forgotten and then when you would least expect it , it happens ... isnt that the way how the terrorists do their jobs ? So how can we stop that ... Prevention is better than Cure , we all know that but never follow , arent we the most intelligent organisms on earth ?

Fast July

2006-07-31T17:19:00.000+05:30

Life has been pretty fast paced all this month.

Firstly the trip down south to meet friends.

Hyderabad was good fun. Lots of old friends had moved there over the years and it was cool to meet them after such a long time. Surprisingly , most of em are married now so it wasnt like old times but ya it was more of matrured ( lol ) adults meeting up for a get together ( hehe )
I enjoyed the city a lot , the feel of old traditional town reminded of me my hometown , Aligarh in UP.
Saw Ramoji filmcity on the outskirts , one huge place ... the fun part was biking all the way there as its quite far from central town. Also saw the Golconda Fort , Birla Mandir ( beautiful ) , Charminar , Nizam's Palace n Museum ( awesome place ) n some other places. Loved the food and wont forget the 'Chai' at Hasnain cafe ... too good.

Only sad part was the day i reached Hyderabad , the same day the bomb blasts happened. Had i postponed my trip by just 1 day , i might have been in the one of those ill fated trains returning home. Well , it wasnt my time so thats about it i guess , trully sad event... After i returned to mumbai and started travelled to office , i could see that the people in the trains were pretty much muted during the entire journeys . No longer you would hear loud conversations of people in , the fast paced hustle bustle of people getting in and getting out from the compartments , the set of people whom i would meet regularly in the train ... some of em i dont see since the incident. It was truly sad what happened but as they say .. Life goes on with or without some...

From Hyderabad to Bangalore for 2 days , the place reminds of Mumbai more so now than ever before. It rained quite a lot while i was there ... Nothing much to say about the place , its cold , cool and all that.

After coming back to mumbai , shortly later on had to go to Singapore ( annual client meet ) with my cousin bro this time. It was quite hot this time and 2 days there was like one whole week cause i had to attend like 4 meetings in 2 days at different ends of the country lol . Cant complain much cause you are doing business with international clients :D
Ventured out this time to see a lot of places i had missed last time , Hard Rock Cafe was cool and the area around that is definitely a cool place. The metro MRT system is really impressive and its a breeze travelling in them.

In between somewhere Mr Pagalguy left for Wharton to spread his insaness there :D
Everything happened so fast with people coming in town and leaving at different times and me leaving , it was crazy in the end but definitely cool of all of us meeting up ... All the best with everything and NASEOH will go on ... and the OnToes treat will definitely be remembered :D

Saw Omkara ... Nice movie but not all that as people are saying. Sure , compared to what Bollywood churns out every week , its worth watching one time for the story adaptation and the setting has been nicely potrayed . Better than english Version 'O'.

Back to work like always , jeez im missing my vacation time already :D
Hopefully i get time to eat mushrooms and chase white rabbits ;)

Mixed Emotions

2006-07-11T00:43:00.000+05:30

France lost which was a big dissapointment yesterday... I was at this place called Seven ... a pub /nightclub 6th flr shoppers stop Bandra ... nice place ... I and friends came in early to get the best seats ... later on people were forced to stand and watch the whole match. The place was packed and the atmosphere was awesome. Nice to see the women out in full support , for the game or hot Itialians ... i think latter judging by the comments and reactions to Pirlo corners , Totti free kicks
n Grosso attacks :D

It was a fun , most people were supporting Italy and they were dancing in the end... Being an Henry fan , i had to support France :) ... but they lost which was sad and seeing Zidane the way he reacted was surprising. Rumors on football forums is that Materazzi called him a " terrorist" ... so his reaction was fitting if that is what he was called. Fifa sucks when it comes to off field decisions n review committies over the years so lets see what is the outcome. Another intresting outcome will be this weekend Italian match fixing scandal results. If the teams get thrown to lower divisions , will the teams be able to pay the salary n wages to the big name ( now even Bigger ) Italians or will they be swooped by Other leagues... It will be intresting none the least...

A good friend Apurv has been blogging about his journey experience with stunning pics way up north ... do check it out here

Off to Hyderabad tomm and bangy then to party n chill ... Cya folks :D