M.J

When mys sister first called me up & told me the news, I couldnt believe it. M.J was more than just the king of pop for me. He defined english music for me. He was M.Tv. We used to watch a show on DD 10 years back sponsored by Pepsi where the latest english music songs were played, and invariably MJ’s songs would be lions share of the entire show. I actually bought the orignial casettes of Bad/thriller/dangerous as and when they came out, which was an event @ my house. I can still recall going through the leaflet of dangerious as I’d try to sing along to the songs with the lyrics in my hand. The anticipation we had when one song got over and the next was gonna come was something that I can still recall to this date. …as I write this, VH1’s doing an awesome tribute to the king, playing all his songs back to back which is just taking me down to a trip on the memory lane.

Some of my personal favourites would have to be  History, Who is it, Smooth criminal (the video still gives me the goosebumps) ,man in the mirror stranger in moscow. Every video of his would be so unique and invariably feature a cameo from a A list star(liberian girl) or animation which was ahead of its time( why you wanna trip on me). Stating the obvious,MJ’s dancing would inspire even 2 left footers like me to secretly try to ape him in my room. Legends never die, they will live on through their art.

R.I.P

The Hand that Rocks the Dance Floor!

 

 

An amazing night at Some Place Else, with Hip Pockets belting out rock songs & had the audience eating out of their hand. I did a solo act there and it was turned out to be quite a fun experience. As usual  the bartender had to get my lime juice order wrong and give me lime juice with soda. Ughh. Anyways, more than just the music, the crowd is equally intriguing. I saw a 60 year old guy who seemed to be completely at home  with the 20’ish crowd. You can spot a 1^st timer/socially awkward guy in a flash. He would come in with his hands in his pockets & try to look cool/try to fumble around in his cell phone/lean against the bar pretending to wait for his imaginary friend. Been there done that.

 

And of course, one of the better parts of the night is the inflow of the PYT’s (Pretty young thangs) that keep the place hot & happening. There was no dearth of ‘em last night too [ one of the pluses of going solo ;P ] . The payment system here is one for the books, you just give your credit card at the beginning when you order, and the waiter comes over every 30 mins to refill your drink and after your  done, he will automatically give you the bill (your too wasted to care/count). To keep track of so many customers with no real lighting speaks volumes on the caliber of the staff. It’s a pity that the band wound up by 12:30 which seemed quite premature. Am going there to get my 2^nd helping though!

 

The one time the crowd waits for a guy, it’s the TOI Page III dude. He would come in here Hi Fi the regulars and keep his eye out for the PYT’s/ Foreigners who would grace us with their pompus aura of being agreeable with the desi crowd as this place is worthy enough for them to feel at home. As the camera went clicky, I was totally ignored (understandably) by the same but as you can see, my hand (circled in green) managed to make the cut. I was just a flash in the pan, but you’ll get the complete picture once things develop J  I give myself a +5 for punning. Time for the 2nd greatest act in 2 days, another visit to S.E!

Music appreciation Musings.

All hyped up with my new Ipod Nano (courtesy sis) + a drink at T.C in Delhi has got me very curious about the english rock music scene. I was blown away with Yes-Owner of a lonely heart and decided that there’s more where than came from.
Got AC/DC, Led Zep, Guns & Roses, ,Bob Dylan..either I am not musically inclined or I just don’t get what the big deal is. I did listen to most of them, and honestly barring the famous ones (stairway to heaven, sweet child of ,mine etc), I did not fancy a real ‘adoption rate’ for anything else..hmm i guess being 24 makes you a laggard in this rock song appreciation business! For now, its back to my original select few songs & my nostalgic tamil mp3 songs. For those down south, I highly recommend www.tamilmp3world.com . Its more of the memories that each song brings then the actual melody!

Pray.

Just in case, you never know when and where, but if you have to.
www.postaprayer.org

I hope yours is answered as mine will be.

Pop Culture in everyday life

An interesting concept from The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell-    One chapter, for example, deals with the very strange epidemic of teenage suicide in the South Pacific islands of Micronesia. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Micronesia had teen suicide rates ten times higher than anywhere else in the world. Teenagers were literally being infected with the suicide bug, and one after another they were killing themselves in exactly the same way under exactly the same circumstances. 

 

  This news spread like wildfire and eventually acted as a ‘permission’ for others to commit suicide.- A Tipping Point. Moot Point at that.

 

The reason I quote the above is because you see the world based on events that affect your everyday life. I just saw the Final Destination series – for those who are not aware of the cult hit, it’s about how the protagonist has a vision of seeing his death and people’s around him based on certain signs. After seeing FD-1, I skipped using the water geyser in my hotel room as that is the no #1 cause of people getting pwnd in the movie I ended up freezing my butt in the cold shower for the next two days. What’s worse, the towel of the hotel was the size of my shoe cleaning cloth. Wet, Cold , alone and  freaked out at 1 am in the Not a good state to be in.

 Continuing the ’signs’, I recently went to a garbage dump (its part of official work, don’t ask.) I could see about a million kites/hawks there looking at me menacingly waiting for me to become their dinner menu, a scene quite reminiscent in FD-2 where doves are indirectly the cause of death of one of the victims of fate. Moving on, I saw a  donkey  with a rope around to his neck, the other end of the rope fastened to the ground with a 4 feet wooden stopper. Suddenly,  the donkey went mad (probably from chewing a Bengali rap video DVD or something), broke free from its shackles and started  running around the dump with the wooden shrapnel stump flaying about dangerously- another scene directly out of Final Destination 3 – Except it was a pretty white horse in a carnival in that.

 

I recently started to take an affinity to swimming , and I soon realized the worth of the clichéd term- ‘ I can’t swim to save my life’. I just went from my so self imagined Ian Thorpe in a pool to Govinda playing a game of chess. Let’s just say that I’m now stuck practicing my so called strokes at the kiddie end of the pool.  Hell , if Richard Branson can learn how to swim the first time(Screw it, lets do it, his book, there’s no reason why i can’t follow suit is there ? – Ironically, he has nearly killed himself swimming, flying on a plane, flying on a hot air ballon – I’m not here to tease Grim Death as much as he did- seeing the Final Destination series is fateful enough!

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve heard a lot about the Saw franchise(listen to the theme song- the final test, its kick ass)  and couldn’t resist myself when i finally got hold of the same a couple of days back. It talks about a crazy psychopath who places his ‘victims’ in traps/games that they must beat to survive for petty crimes they have committed.   A very long shot parallelism can be drawn to the Tamil Film- Anniyan where the chief anti-hero character Vikram kills people in a very graphic way for the sins they have committed. I can get on board with Anniyan atleast, since the victims were sinners guilty of crimes of quite epic proportions. Whilst in Saw, it seemed very absurd that 1 man tries to put people through hell and convince the fuzz that he is doing it for ‘peoples on good’. Sorry, that just won’t do.

 

 

 

 

 However in the Saw series, the the chief baddie (Jigsaw ) has 1 simple message for all his victims-  ‘Those who do not appreciate live, are not worth living’.

Although that does fit the bill for a striking movie line – it seems a           bit over the edge. But a grain of truth is present in that statement , and I’ve come to realize it (luckily without having to be a part of the movie brrr). We sometimes take a lot of stuff for granted- family/friends and even our own lives. Don’t wait for your wake up call to remind you that you’re lucky

I hope you have not gottten the impression that I’m a maniac depressed goth or something, I’ve been wanting to write about something that has really got my imagination working overtime for the last month or so- Out of the ordinary books like Tipping Point/Black Swan and crazy over the top movies like F.Destination and Saw

There is a tipping point for everyone . Every event, although seeming irrelevant, is part of a bigger purpose, part of a plan. Nothing seems to make sense if seen in isolation. You just need to look at it closely and connect the dots. 

 

As Jon Locke said in LOST- Everything happens for a reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                         Do you believe it?

All you need is a little faith

A sudden flash of light
a simple yet bold solution
a ray of light shone
on the indefatigable void

Luck awaits those
who make it.
Wait for it,
it seems to run out on you.

Indecision will kill you faster
’tis a cancer that will eat
till nothing is left, a soulless
body trapped inside a hollow shell

The truth shall set you free
And sometimes, people can handle the truth.

All you need is a little faith.

Enjoy the present. You may not be there for the future.

Merry Xmas ya’ll

Status Update

Ah, such a warm fuzzy feeling wrting this from my old laptop. Finally got her out of hibernation, with a spanking new battery and charger (which set me back my 1st months salary post college). A lot has happened the past 2 months and although I would like to share and go into detail, Im afraid that I must resist the same. Lets just say that I have come to learn more about my job here and even more about people. It almost seems as deja-vu to me…A similar chain of events occured within the same timeline at hrd. Anyway. I just needed to get that out of the way

Hmm..lot of stuff has been happening around the world too. Lehmans’  Collapase, India beating Australia, Mumbai Blasts.. . But as humans, our toothache is of more concern to us than the poverty of 100 people. But Im glad to see that I am being proved wrong. I hope mumbai just dont forgive and forget.

‘Cause I don’t.

Rag-a-Tag

I’ve been tagged by my school friend NivEdita, and there is an informal blog code that thou-shall-who-hath-been-tagged-must-comply. I never break the rules. I already am toeing the line professionally with the Govt of India anyway next post was my revelation  to the world how I lost 30 kgs in 6 months. I guess they will never know.

Here it goes..

1.What have you realized recently?

-> Bengali I guess now I can speak and understand mota-moti.  At first I would when people spoke bangla around me, I would try to pass time by wondering how many mouse pads if vertically stacked up would reach the ceiling fan above me.

-> Loneliness is your best friend & worst enemy. I’ve made some decisions that I would have never otherwise, and have appreciated the value and viciousness of silence . I’ve spoken to more people in these 3 months than I did when I’ve meet them physically. Even some random guy who was there on my gtalk list for 2 years with a chat name like  -FND5<><3#$$* How he/she/it got on my list also I don’t know -.-

->  It’s not the price of the product, it’s how much the consumer perceives it to be worth.  

-> Entrepreneurship is overrated.  IIM grads starting their own ventures ,making the front page of ET will be humbled by the grit displayed by the people I’ve run into. I’ve meet a dealer who made a million buck business from a capital of Rs 13 at the age of Rs 12!

 

 

 

 2. Have you given your first kiss away?

I really can’t understand the import of the question. Does it mean have I kissed or kissed and told someone about it? My 1^st kiss was of course given to  my Starcraft cd case  , the

 most memorable and unforgettable one. It’s not blanked out, highlight to read Nothing more on this subject please. I could land into hot water..Amongst my other game CD’s.

3.If you were to be stranded on a deserted island, who are the 11 blog buddies you would take?

Most of the people on my blog roll are either guys/ economists/marketing experts. So no one really. It defeats the very purpose of a deserted island. Does anyone know if Cameron Diaz blogs?

4. Where is the place you want to go the most?

A trek @ The Amazon Forest with my closest friends/LAN party every night – gaming with  CS/SC/Dota!

5. If you have one dream to come true, what would it be?

Travel the World/ To work for Blizzard Entertainment @ Irvine, California/ Become a Starcraft game commentator / Win  the finals of a Tata Crucible Quiz /

 6. Do you believe in seeing the rainbow after the rain?

Hmm..If that happens I know a fox is getting married to a dog, based on school days legend!

7. What are you afraid of losing the most now?

My debit card. If I do, I’m as much use as  sand in the Sahara

8. If you win $1 million, what would you do?

Not invest in Lehman Brothers would be the 1^st smart thing. Then I’d do #5 !

 9. List out 3 good points about the person who tagged you

-> Nivedita.., known her since school.   Tenacious, Similar-to-me (a good thing?! Oops..) and ambitious.

10.  What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?

To be as close to the 1^st half as possible

11. What type of people do you hate the most?

Terrorists. The real ones, I love the guys in Counter Strike.  

12. What is the one thing you can’t live without?

Nothing really. Yes, I’m made of stone.

13. If you have faults, would you rather the people around you point out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?

I’m beyond repair with a rock for a heart and a skin of a buffalo. So…

14.Are you a shopaholic or not?

Not in the least. Window shopping at best. I’m scared of mannequins too actually.

15.  Find a word to describe the person who tagged you

Independent

16. What’s the last shocking thing you’ve seen or heard?

That the entire 24 girls in my class had a major crush on me after they saw my baby photos!

17. Would you rather have love but no money or money but no love?

Put me on The Moment of Truth to get that one J

I tag…

è Atlee

è Akshat

è Vishal

è Nikhil

 

  As for the above four..Spill your beans !!

 

 

Changu, China & Yak Rides

 Talofa!  (That’s hello in Sikkim language aka sikkimise..Yes I coined it.  Contrary to the awesome scenic ride from Siliguri to Darjeeling, the one from Siliguri to Gangtok was a dampener. The sun was blazing and I was actually sweating in the car dampening my T-shirt!  Reached Gangtok in about 4 hours and reached the main market road- M.G Road. This is the best, cleanest and well maintained street that I have ever seen. . It was such a relief to see such a clean street, compared to Calcutta where one can witness people having their shower (with soap mind you), cooking food and other unmentionables  Picture this, there are no vehicles allowed, not even cycles, only walking.  The entire road is tiled, and there are benches placed on the road to encourage people who I guess too tired from walking to have a seat and enjoy the scenery. And yes , trust me, this is one place where it actually pays to be on the bench J (no offence/reference  to my IT colleagues who are in a similar situation), just for the eye candy that passes by and this is not even tourist season yet      

 

 

If I thought learning Bengali was difficult, then sikkimise was  something that just did not even register..But surprisingly, they do speak Hindi when I make the attempt. That is the 3^rd priority in the language list after Sikkim & English. So, some saving grace although I must admit their English accent is quite stylish which made me subconsciously try to drop my thick south Indian accent and pass off as a francais dude..Did not work apparently. So much for my 98% in Verbal Ability. After the market, spotted a cable car ride  and got into one. The counter sign mentioned that in case of death (adult 18+), I would be compensated a hefty sum of Rs 1 lac. I suddenly had great respect for my official insurance agent Royal Sundaram who promises me much more than that , plus I got a cool health card with my mug on it. Anyways,It lasts for about 20  minutes and you can see entire Gangtok. During the ½ km ride , the cable car suddenly stopped for a minute, the longest of my life. So there I am hanging in mid air about 500 feet from the ground.I look at the operator panic awash my face, he seems to be more interested in knowing which finger nail in his left hand he hasn’t chewed off with conviction. And then, incredibly, without even looking up,  he lazily points at a sign board in the cable  tucked away (‘The cable car will stop midway for a minute for your pleasure to take pics and have the scare of your life- just a small joke from Lil old Sikkim Govt. You  . Funny, my funny bone wasn’t tickled so much. As my heart rate changed from a humming bird to a normal human being, we were done with the ride and I was glad to get out in one piece. I gave the operator an ugly glare before I left though. Same for the other passengers including a married couple and their 3 year old kid who was probably the bravest amongst us. Ignorance is bliss huh?

 

 The next day morning left at the crack of dawn to beat the fog. Our 1^st stop was  Baba Mandir, built in honour of a soldier who died and still is said to protect those who go into battle now. Opposite to that was the world’s highest ATM point – courtesy Union Bank of India at 13,000 feet. I did a transaction there just for kicks and it actually works! Not some goddamn PR gimmick and much better than the SBI located @hinejwadi that would never work when u need money most (like paying the laundry guy @ scmhrd..he is more dangerous than a bank agent whose loan’s due). 

 

 The entire Mandir is surrounded by huge valleys which I planned to climb as one of them separates India from China. I asked the BSF guy there if I was allowed to go for my saunter up the valley but he told me that there are jungle dogs there that are well, very junglee. And, oh btw, it is littered with land mines to keep away illegal immigrants and there are good chances of you getting blown up. I could sense the nonchalance in his voice when he mentioned the landmine issue so I guessed more people died of the jungle dog rather than mining. Although I do not suffer from the remotest cynophobia, I did not really want to push my luck. I guess I’d wait till nathulla to see China!

 So, headed off to Nathulla Pass (connects India to China) and there was just a barbed wire separating two countries! Stereotypically, on the Indian side there is a guard with a mustache that would make Verappan roll over in his grave. There is a Chinese guard too and everyone was queuing to get their photo taken with him, like he was some kinda rockstar! He couldn’t have had a more plastic smile on his face wondering what he done to stand all day and smile into cameras whilst shaking some strangers hand after going through elite counter insurgency military school. I guess he was the biggest loser there or something . After coming 14,000 feet and still not going to China , I would never live it down. So, I did stick my foot across the border to finally say I’ve visited a foreign country I know there are a lot of skeptics that this foot could be a pic taken in my backyard, just like the moon landing blah blah..So I got a certificate done just in case.

 

 

 Next stop was Changu Lake, also called lakeTsongmo, a sacred lake and a very famous tourist spot. I was two months early, so missed on the frozen sheet of ice that covers the lake. Apparently, people can actually skate and even play shuttle on the frozen sheet of ice. There is actually a sign warning people not to walk on ice as the horizontally challenged ones are now sleeping with the fishes. Amen. The lake has to be seen to be believed, it’s really a sight surrounded by green mountains all over dotted with brightly coloured flowers. It is actually dead silent and you can hear a flower bloom! There is a yak tourist point and I went for a ride on of them across the lake and was glad that it did not go off like a rodeo!  

I consider myself the laziest person in the world, but after seeing such places, travelling has become 2^nd nature for me..Sikkim especially is  a place that has to be visited during winter! Anyone interested, do let me know,  I’m learning how to make a snow man on the internet now for December

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via Darjeeling ;)

 Whew..What a month it has been. I’ve finally got a new cell phone for myself – Moto Rokr E6 . Regular reader(s) would know that I’m not the splurger, but I decided to get this for three reasons:-

1. The no 4 dial does not work, I had to hit it with a jackhammer every time to get it to work. And frankly, you don’t get the 4” x 2” jackhammer now-a-days in your local hardware store. I guess customers just found a better way.
2. The guy in my office who hierarchically is 2 levels below me hinted that I replace the ‘cover’ of the    phone..Then in a flash whipped out his N 73 and showed me where we were eating in his GPRS map application. The map also showed a dog under the table that I couldn’t see otherwise.
3. I had the sinking feeling that I was going to be deported to some other God-forsaken in Bengal and might as well capture the images of the same

So after much research and reviews, I finally got my new phone. But I had to sell off my beloved sony ericsson k510i to them..I asked the nice people what they would do with it, but the store manager whispered in my ear that the process is too painful for attached old phone owners..so I let it go. Not before Atul took the final departing pics..

TIll a new phone do us apart..fond memories..

I was to head to siliguri for my next fmcg stint and turned out to be quite an interesting place (atleast according to wikipedia. Yes, I wiki everything!). It connects China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Even Bhutan if you take the right turns ! And since its such an economically well connected place, you can buy anything from electronic gizmos to Nike shoes. I got a Kingston pen drive (32 GB) for 400 /-..yes, GB.

Darjeeling beckoned my assistance ASAP and since there was no one else, I was the man deputised to go tame the flames. Well, actully in case of darjeeling, its more like clearing the fog. The sumo trip from siliguri to darjeeling was amazing and is even better when your top of the car taking pics

Taking Pics from the top of the car!

Darjeeling..what a beauty!

Buddhist Temple in Darjeeling

With Tibetan Refugees..cute kids!

At 9 am in the dealer point after the business talk, the store boy offered us a round of tea, which instinctively I refused (given the horror stories I’ve heard about the water used and more than 121^5 ways you can die in FMCG)- saying ‘Chai nehi chahiye ji’ . Little did I know that it was the authentic darjeeling tea that the world (well the stuck up brits atleast) crave for. I then saw a chain of events that unfolded right in front of my eyes.

1.The Gorka Land protestors stopped chanting slogans of freeing their land and tuned to look at me. They had a pretty catchy tune, but that’s not really relevant now.

 2. The old venerable dealer nearly had a stroke and was about to fall off his stool

 3. My manager who came with me had a look of incredulity and awkwardness on his face and tried his best to signal to the others that he did not know why he came along with me in the first place

 4. I stared at all of them stupidly.

Then the bulb finally lit up and I tried to cover up my big faux pas by actually having 2 cups and tried to make desperate small talk on how the aroma is intoxicating and the colour is something that Da vinci would like to have had on his canvas. I actually thought it was a bit too thick and might have been made from a billy goat that I saw a mile back on the road. I let that thought disseminate in my head.

Talking of tea, we entered a joint called Nathuals (named possibly after the pass connecting china and sikkim?) which had a motley of Tea samples. I pretended to be a connoisseur and sniffed the sample jars to select some to send back home and decided on the Ruby Coral . The dukaandaar after giving me a quick double take seeing me in my rag-tag-100 rupee -jeans-from-palika-bazzar & politely informed me that a kg of the same would set me back by Rs 6,000. I realized that maybe my folks would understand if I get something a little less fancy.

Ruby Coral Tea…most expensive tea in India..6000 rs a kg!

The hotel that I stayed had a very unique name- Hotel seven seventeen. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked the receptionist why is it named so? Apparently the 2 brothers who started this joint, 1 was born on the 7^th & the other on 17^th of the same month. I probed further asking him was it the younger one on 7^th/17^th? I guess most of the tourists stopped with why. He was stumped and promised me that he would find out and let me know. It became his #1 Agenda for the week.

I was quickly escorted to the Royal Suite which among other amenities had its own private movie video screening room, a library with the latest English paperbacks, a view of entire Darjeeling and the Kanchenjunga. Every room here is built for tourists so you the room is the bomb.

Kanchenjunga..from my hotel room!..

Hotel Suite..built for luxury!

I don’t think anyone would have even thought of reading a book from the library given the numerous other activities that are possible ;P Wanted to have some authentic local food and a plate of hot sizzling cheese Tibetan momo’s did the trick..simply delicious!

Tibetan Cheese MoMo’s..Yum!

Went to a Tibetian Refugee Center and also saw a couple of very well designed Buddhist Temples, followed by a very popular tourist spot- Rock Gardens. True to its name, It had a lot of rocks and flowers of all colours growing next to them. The main attraction is a stream that flows apparently from the Himalayas (We would have like to believe that)..had a plate of Y-Y noodles , (akin to maggi, more spicer and u can eat it raw with the onion paste and masala that comes along bundled). Ive bought like 5 packs of them and smuggled it across the border into siliguri..this stuff rocks! We were planning to see the sunrise from Tiger Hills but the fog was so thick at 4 am, forget seeing the sun, putting your pants on itself would have been a challenge!

At Rock Gardens…fresh air for once!

That ends my sojourn at Darjeeling….  next stop..Gangtok !!