29/12/2008

Well,

http://www.wikihow.com/Pick-Up-Men

27/12/2008

The last few days

Empty offices. No calls, thank christ. An impending dead-line seems to have no effect on me. I got to merge a few things tomorrow. I would have normally got very excited, and might have even thrown a few tantrums around. But I just dont seem to get excited about it. Good in a way.

One of the senior architects in our team always asks "how is life?" first thing when he meets someone. No good morning. He just smiles and asks this. I tell him whats up and whats down with work. Till one day when i realised the joke. Halfway through discussing some work, I stopped and said, you asked hows life and i am giving you a status report. He smiled and said almost all did the same and that's a joke he has been enjoying for years.

Wednesday, i shot myself in my foot, quite literally. I disabled the connection on which i was working. And then an angel from US offers to drive down and set it right. On his christmas eve. Well, that guy started it all.The pseudo vacation is going fine.

Thurday, x-mas day, i woke up at 230pm , ate, slept again at around 430 woke up at 830 and i think we saw a movie or was i reading a book ? anyways i slept again at around 12 and woke up the next morning at 9.

Friday, i worked for a few hours, played tt for an hour,worked again, stopped whatever i was doing at around 8 pm, and went to ghajini. Well, the movie was ok. Bhai feels the songs are cool, i am yet to feel it, but with arr, you got to hear the music again and again before eventually you start liking it. What i felt good about the movie (even in tamil) is the way he wants and exacts revenge. I am sure my mom is never gonna read this, But thats one of my primary criteria before getting married. I should be able to physically protect the girl from atleast two persons if not from a bigger gang. Well, you may understand now why i feel i have very little chances of getting married. Ouch, reality hurts.

Saturday, woke up at around 230 again, ate (Full meals at jubilee hills chutney - 110 rs - it was worth it), went shopping. I hadnt really indulged myself this year. I had bought a electic rice cooker and a violin last year, very impulsively.(It all comes swimming in now. I had once asked V to play the guitar. The answer came amidst giggles - "it's a voilin"). And i had also joined violin classes. And i had almost bought a watch for a few thousands. Is it already a year since all that happened?

Listen to Paarthale Paravasam - tamil Audio Songs at MusicMazaa.com

Well, last new years eve, Me, Cheta and naresh were sitting on top of a core dump. I was sulking and cheta understood. We went to gardenia and then we made naresh drink a couple a pegs of signature and went home. I know, this is kinda turning out to be a year end post, something i had decided to avoid. Me and my decisions!

But somehow i stayed away from it this year (I will wait for arun to say if i missed something). Anyways we three went, bought tt rackets. Set back by 3500 now :( . I hope somebody doesn't ask abdul khaadar-ukkum amaavaasaikkum enna sambandham. :P
Anyways, i damn it on the absence of volleyball players.

Well, saturday continues, I come to office to work, But my partner has already left, probably angered by my 3 hour delay. So i sit there idly because there is no mail from him. And then i watched "A wednesday". Whoa. It was enthralling. I droppped whatever plans i had for work.

And i went home with parcelled chapathis. I had half stopped at the wine shop to make it a perfect saturday. And then i dont know why, i just continued and came home. While taking a dish out of the kitchen, i saw it. A beer bottle that i hadnt opened last week. Well, if destiny had it this way. I had the beer, ate the chapathi, watched football, read for some time and slept.

Now that we are to it, I am reading "a fine balance". Its so far so good. Not essentially a page turner, not much masala, but its nice. (I am really happy about what i am reading these days. I am borrowing both the choices and books from S and V)

And now its sunday, i again woke up late, and came to office. Now there lies a pile of stuff to do. Baselining, building, Testing, merging. I am not starting it and instead made this post bulge and bulge.

22/12/2008

the song - the backdrop

Not the greatest song.(though i have a bias for veena)
Anyways, the backdrop is I can no longer hear music online for long periods since b/w usage is being monitored in my company. Thanks to the friendly guy who tipped me off, i promptly closed the window which had been playing to nobody from friday. This is one the few songs i have on my hard disk and i heard it all afternoon.

18/12/2008

for God's sake

YOU shouldn't have been her namesake.

14/12/2008

near who ?

I gave 200 rupees. He gave me back 70 rupees.

Isn't it 60 ?

No answer. It was 22:45. maybe its the night rate.

(Loudly this time) Isn't it 60 ?

Ledhu sir, 65.

From when?

Hasnt it been like this from the past fifteen days or so ?

Ahan, I bought it at 60 yesterday from you.

reluctantly handed me another 10 rupees.

Since you are a regular customer, sir.

13/12/2008

astachamma

a direct lift from "the importance of being earnest". The fact that the play was in our fifth standard syllabus might give you the hint of what to expect.

P.S: watch for the heroine swati.

10/12/2008

random

sweets at my cube:
The familiar "I am engaged mails". Raghu was more enterprising with his engagement mail subject. It read - "something something". and he gave some fruits i suppose. He is always the more enterprising of the lot.

Anyways someone said something about life throwing lemons. Sweets are better. So catching them without counting or thinking.

#2:
And i am continuing to have good luck with books and movies. The reluctant fundamentalist was good. And its just a 8-12 hour page turner. So much better.

The bourne supremacy was more light stuff. you know what to expect. Anyways it helped me kill all the time in the trains. I was living in trains that weekend.

And now Twilight is promising. It might end up as yet another M&B. but so far so good.

#3:
And project seven-five has started. More about it later. For now imagine that its a coup at nature, the struggle of a generation.

08/12/2008

Infringement

No Nothing about the bombay blasts. My personal(ok, professional) space is being infringed. And i dont know what to do about it.
link from R.Ka - http://www.codecomics.com/
jokes apart, If i dont gaurd my space, i will lose out. If i do gaurd my space, i will be called a non team player. Its a catch-22.
Fuck, why am i so cowardly ? i am afraid to do anything that s not in the books.

And yes, I do have my view, not on the blasts themselves, but on the hue and cry all over the tv, blogs, lunch tables.
There are several cases of ambulances getting stuck in hyderabadi traffic jams or people dying because of lack of medicines. There are so many things like this,lapses, which require no big intelligence, that lead to loss of lives. Because India is a poor country and because some politician couldn't care less and because somehow we never have a system to force this. I understand that living in hyderabad, I have a equal chance of dying of a bomb blast as i do of a road accident or in an ambulance in a traffic jam. Do you think it makes a difference as to how i die ?

I am not an egotist.I have no pride in saying that i am a particular national or relegion. I dont care whether an Indian killed Indian or a pakistani did. or a hindu/muslim scenario or such. I would be more angry on an administrator who lets down his fellow men than an enemy.

we dint have any pride in the way the country was run, did we ? In which case, i feel this sudden outrage in many blogs is vain emotional response of sudden patriotism.

07/12/2008

random

one night at the tea shop :

Nasty jokes doing the rounds. We are seven guys and a lady.

" I am one lady here" - lady protests to the talks.

Cmon, you are not too much of a lady.
(not said : you are in trousers, with seven guys, beyond ten pm, at a tea shop.)

If a donkey is in a stable, it still isnt called a horse.

(The person who had been absolutely silently til now - )
Well, Who is the donkey?

I don't know how funny it is to read this, but it was the classical vaaya koduthu vaangi kattikkara kind of scenario. We enjoyed it.


Kotha bangaaru lokam :

I stopped at 30 minutes. I continued. I stopped again at around 1 hour.
Mudiyala.

jeyam kondaan

Disclaimer : Watching it immediately after the previous mentioned film might have introduced some relative judgement.

One of the best hero characters(and the hero too) from the recent past. I am tempted to say, on the lines of pursuit of happiness.

The movie is a must watch.

P.S : dont get pissed off by the first fifteen minutes. The movie starts after that.

02/12/2008

vaaranam aayiram

The movie was good. The negative reviews only helped me to go in with a skeptic mind set and come out satisfied. Had the movie been any less, i would not have been able to watch it alone in a stinking theatre, myself fully drenched from a meaningless 3 km walk in the pouring chennai rains. I just saw the theatre, got that the movie is starting in 5 mins and bought a ticket and went in.

What impressed me in the film was the ninety days, surya, the lucky bastard that he is, gets with the girl. Ok, this, and the whole story as such, is a unrealistic, beautiful world, that we want to believe in.

Sometime back i had written about one young friend (http://odyssey-intoxicated.blogspot.com/2008/10/good-luck-guys.html). We were chatting today and he was going for a booze. I am bothered because he is an ardent surya fan and watched Jillendru quite a number of times. I am almost sure he must have liked the anjala song (Setting : Surya is a broken heart and the whole song is about him drinking and dancing kuthu"). Even i liked it. Even as i was watching it, I longed for a cigarette. The song is good, and awfully well placed. It compulsarily evokes a emotional response.
So did "ennai enakkae pidikka villai" in autograph. And for me, "poomaalai vaangi vandhaan" from Sindhu bhairavi. There are innumerable good songs of this genre.

But this trend of showing drinking and drugs as a solace to the broken heart is dangerous.

Verdict - watchable. If you are still skeptical, come out after the anjala song.

P.S : guess what the label means ?