We’ve been mugging up from childhood the famous proverb that Time and tide wait for none. So it’s proven once again. The year 2008 has come to an end in no time. In some parts of the world, the celebrations might already have begun.
2008 has not been just another year for me. It’s something different because:
• This is the year when I’ve made a lot of good friends on the Bloggerville, some whom I call brothers and sisters.
• This is the year where I’ve learnt a lot of things in professional life, particularly people management. The main lesson among these professional things is: don’t ever let your superiors think that you are at your disposal, anytime.
• This is the year when I met some wonderful people in the real world.
• This is the year when my little sister got married.
• This is the year when I saw happiness in some helpless eyes when they are helped.
• This is the year which helped me realize that there’s nothing called “mine”.
And coming to the “personal” front,
• This is the year in which I’ve learnt some cooking.
• This is the year when I first watched an F1 race.
• This is the year when I first rode a jet-ski.
• This is the year in which I’ve bought some real cool gadgets(Guys are guys na?)
Well, I end this year here. I wish you all an extremely prosperous, recession-controlled, financially-stable, job secure, debt-free, investment-profiting, promotion-assured, hike-replete, war-free, air/water/rail/road-safe, earthquake free, terrorist-free, friends-filled, romance-blooming, healthy, joyous and cheerful New Year 2009.
Note: Those wishes are lifted from some mail. Don't think too big about my creative brain. It's too small.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Ghajini Rocked
The wait is over. The most awaited movie of the year(at least for me), Ghajini, is released. Being a die-hard fan of Aamir Khan and also to the original flick(?) in Tamil, I was eager to see the movie ASAP and I was lucky enough to watch the premier show last night.
The verdict is out. The movie rocked. I already saw both the Tamil and Telugu versions on the big screen and was a bit doubtful about the Hindi flick. Surya was absolutely awesome in the South Indian version and even though, Aamir developed the required physique and all, there was a small doubt somewhere in me. But all my doubts are cleared.
I won't write anything about the plot, except that the makers struck to the original storyline, almost. Performance-wise, Aamir Khan outperformed himself and did complete justice to the role. Asin did a marvelous job, even though she did just what she did in the original flick. Jian Khan is OK in a small role. The villain, Pradeep Rawat, was good(but not as good as the Tamil flick).
Coming to the technical aspects, the narration of the movie was awesome and free-flowing. The way the flashback unfolds was very neatly done(something novel). The director, A R Murugadoss, did a splendid job. The camera work was very well done by Ravi K Chandran.
But you should give a bow to the maestro, A R Rahman, for his music. As you all know, the songs were a big hit with the people. The background score was awesome. Something which cannot be expressed in my words.
Overall, the movie has a big BLOCKBUSTER written all over it. My rating will be 4 out 5.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Atrocities on females
I don’t know how many of you know what Mahatma Gandhi has told about Independence. His words were something like – India will get its true independence only when a woman(or girl) can walk alone freely at midnight on the roads.. Does anyone agree with this? I, myself, strongly agree with it. Independence is not just for individuals but it’s the same for the whole nation(humankind).
Now, let’s talk a little about LOVE. I know that it’s tough to talk just a little about it, but let’s try to do so. LOVE is between two hearts and it can’t just be confined to one heart. It’s not meaningful to say either that one should do anything to gain success in life or that one should do anything nasty to cover up his/her failure in love. I am bringing up these issues to show the increasing crime rate in my home state(or the whole world) just showing failure in love as the main motive.
About a week or ten days back, an incident happened in the town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. Two final year engineering students(Swapnika and Praneetha) are attacked by some people who threw acid on them. Both the girls are seriously injured. Swapnika’s condition is still said to be critical. Police somehow caught the three assailants out of whom one Mr Srinivas was harassing Swapnika on the lines love for quite sometime. It’s another irrelevant story that these three guys were shot dead in an “encounter” by the police.
In another horrific incident, again in Andhra Pradesh, one guy attacked a married lady after she rejected a request of intimate relation by him. He cut her hands and neck.
And just yesterday, a budding actress was said to be murdered by her husband(her parents disagree that their daughter was married). The guy, after killing her, died by consuming poison. The motive was found in a letter that the girl started ignoring him after she started getting more chances in the film industry.
And one good friend of mine was a bit dull while we were chatting some days back. When I asked her for the reason, she said that she was in love this colleague of her for the past one year and when the matter was put in front of their parents, his parents didn’t agree for the marriage. And now, the guy was telling her that their relation can’t continue as his parents didn’t like her.
Com’on guys, why do we play with lives? I know it’s not just the guys who play the tricks always. I heard about some girls too. But, the majority of these issues are blamed(!) on guys. Let’s be an example to the other guys out there.
I don’t exactly know what I want to say with this post. But I hope you got the whole idea behind it.
Now, let’s talk a little about LOVE. I know that it’s tough to talk just a little about it, but let’s try to do so. LOVE is between two hearts and it can’t just be confined to one heart. It’s not meaningful to say either that one should do anything to gain success in life or that one should do anything nasty to cover up his/her failure in love. I am bringing up these issues to show the increasing crime rate in my home state(or the whole world) just showing failure in love as the main motive.
About a week or ten days back, an incident happened in the town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, India. Two final year engineering students(Swapnika and Praneetha) are attacked by some people who threw acid on them. Both the girls are seriously injured. Swapnika’s condition is still said to be critical. Police somehow caught the three assailants out of whom one Mr Srinivas was harassing Swapnika on the lines love for quite sometime. It’s another irrelevant story that these three guys were shot dead in an “encounter” by the police.
In another horrific incident, again in Andhra Pradesh, one guy attacked a married lady after she rejected a request of intimate relation by him. He cut her hands and neck.
And just yesterday, a budding actress was said to be murdered by her husband(her parents disagree that their daughter was married). The guy, after killing her, died by consuming poison. The motive was found in a letter that the girl started ignoring him after she started getting more chances in the film industry.
And one good friend of mine was a bit dull while we were chatting some days back. When I asked her for the reason, she said that she was in love this colleague of her for the past one year and when the matter was put in front of their parents, his parents didn’t agree for the marriage. And now, the guy was telling her that their relation can’t continue as his parents didn’t like her.
Com’on guys, why do we play with lives? I know it’s not just the guys who play the tricks always. I heard about some girls too. But, the majority of these issues are blamed(!) on guys. Let’s be an example to the other guys out there.
I don’t exactly know what I want to say with this post. But I hope you got the whole idea behind it.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A real longggggg weekend
Hi folks, my sincere apologies for being away for the past 10 days or so. We got a real looonggggg weekend of 6 days here - a couple of days for the weekend and 4 days for the Eid-Al-Adha(also called Bakrid back home in India). I thought of making this weekend an Internet-free one and never checked even my office mail, except when I went to office for a couple of hours during these 6 days.
Well, a lot of things happened during this weekend, including a Bachelor party and some unwanted shopping and lot of sleeping. I played cricket a couple of times and my weakness for fuller straight balls showed up yet again. I was bowled both the times and the last occasion, I sprained my shoulder while fielding. Now, it almost healed.
Coming to the bachelor party, guys from the Telugu community here wanted to host a bachelor party for quite some time. Don’t assume that all those guys were bachelors. Out of the total 16 people who attended the party, only 3 of us were bachelors and a couple of forced bachelors were also present. The party was held at my flat as it was the only bachelor flat around which can hold so many people. We hired a cook for the cooking and I had to clean the flat all by myself because most of my friends had office the day before the party. Believe me, I never thought that my flat had so many items(I saw some crockery which I never saw before)!!!! Anyways, I was too tired after all the cleaning as it’s been a long while since we cleaned the whole flat. I cleaned a whole 4 kilos of prawns while helping the cook(I never even touched a raw prawn before).
The day of the party has finally arrived. The age groups of the guests varied from 25 to 62. The eldest guy had a son who’s older than me. The menu was long but all the items were prepared at home itself. The menu included chicken 65, mutton sukka, pepper prawns, chicken curry, fried fish, onion pakodas, fried rice and carrot curry. The beverage list included Chivas Regal, Fosters and Grants. A total of three and half bottles of whisky made its way down the throats of attendees along with a couple of crates of beer. Another interesting aspect in the party was the rummy game which I played with a huge group after a real long time. I lost money in almost all the games except the last game in which I made some profit too(the stakes were higher in this one). The party finally finished at 4 45 AM the next day(it was the time when I bid adieu to the last of the guests).
So far, everything looked fine. But, our troubles started the next day when we had to do the cleaning of utensils, glasses and the whole flat all over again. The cook, who promised to visit us the next day, was nowhere to be seen and again all my friends had to go to office. It took us(me) almost two days to clean the whole mess one-by-one(we made plans to finish everything off in phases). Now, we are almost back to normal(hey, where’s my tiny aquarium which used to be right next to my laptop?).
Next big thing during these holidays was my unwanted shopping. My stupid shopping list included a 256 GB external hard disk, a 10.1 mega pixel CASIO digital camera, an electronic shaver(all are on discounted prices) etc. The main reason why this shopping is called unwanted is because I don’t really need any of these items and the second reason is this shopping was done when I was really running low on cash.
And yesterday, it was the Indian night at the Nation’s Art Festival here in Bahrain. I was very much depressed with that program because out of some 15 events during the night, only 5 or 6 really depicted the true Indian culture. Only Andhra Pradesh and Assam did their part well in depicting their culture. All other events are Bollywood based dances. But believe me, it was too hard to hold a handycam steady for long with the cold wind blowing hard at you.
Well folks, this is what happened during my absence from the Bloggerville. Will be around from now on.
Well, a lot of things happened during this weekend, including a Bachelor party and some unwanted shopping and lot of sleeping. I played cricket a couple of times and my weakness for fuller straight balls showed up yet again. I was bowled both the times and the last occasion, I sprained my shoulder while fielding. Now, it almost healed.
Coming to the bachelor party, guys from the Telugu community here wanted to host a bachelor party for quite some time. Don’t assume that all those guys were bachelors. Out of the total 16 people who attended the party, only 3 of us were bachelors and a couple of forced bachelors were also present. The party was held at my flat as it was the only bachelor flat around which can hold so many people. We hired a cook for the cooking and I had to clean the flat all by myself because most of my friends had office the day before the party. Believe me, I never thought that my flat had so many items(I saw some crockery which I never saw before)!!!! Anyways, I was too tired after all the cleaning as it’s been a long while since we cleaned the whole flat. I cleaned a whole 4 kilos of prawns while helping the cook(I never even touched a raw prawn before).
The day of the party has finally arrived. The age groups of the guests varied from 25 to 62. The eldest guy had a son who’s older than me. The menu was long but all the items were prepared at home itself. The menu included chicken 65, mutton sukka, pepper prawns, chicken curry, fried fish, onion pakodas, fried rice and carrot curry. The beverage list included Chivas Regal, Fosters and Grants. A total of three and half bottles of whisky made its way down the throats of attendees along with a couple of crates of beer. Another interesting aspect in the party was the rummy game which I played with a huge group after a real long time. I lost money in almost all the games except the last game in which I made some profit too(the stakes were higher in this one). The party finally finished at 4 45 AM the next day(it was the time when I bid adieu to the last of the guests).
So far, everything looked fine. But, our troubles started the next day when we had to do the cleaning of utensils, glasses and the whole flat all over again. The cook, who promised to visit us the next day, was nowhere to be seen and again all my friends had to go to office. It took us(me) almost two days to clean the whole mess one-by-one(we made plans to finish everything off in phases). Now, we are almost back to normal(hey, where’s my tiny aquarium which used to be right next to my laptop?).
Next big thing during these holidays was my unwanted shopping. My stupid shopping list included a 256 GB external hard disk, a 10.1 mega pixel CASIO digital camera, an electronic shaver(all are on discounted prices) etc. The main reason why this shopping is called unwanted is because I don’t really need any of these items and the second reason is this shopping was done when I was really running low on cash.
And yesterday, it was the Indian night at the Nation’s Art Festival here in Bahrain. I was very much depressed with that program because out of some 15 events during the night, only 5 or 6 really depicted the true Indian culture. Only Andhra Pradesh and Assam did their part well in depicting their culture. All other events are Bollywood based dances. But believe me, it was too hard to hold a handycam steady for long with the cold wind blowing hard at you.
Well folks, this is what happened during my absence from the Bloggerville. Will be around from now on.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Mumbai seize
Everyone of you might have known about the siege of Taj and Oberoi hotels in Mumbai. You might have read about this issue in many of the blogs out here. It’s sad to hear that more than 200 innocent people and policemen died in this ghastly incident. The way in which the commandos and the army tried to take over the seized hotels and the Nariman Point, without much harm to the hostages, was really worth a salute. And it’s because of the unspoken heroics of the Taj Hotel staff that most of the guests are able to escape the hotel much before the bloodshed began. I read somewhere about the way a hotel employee came in the line of fire so that the hotel guests can escape unharmed.
I don’t want to write anything about the terrorists or their strategy or the failure of the government. All I want is to appeal to the terrorists is – “Brothers, we are also normal people like your family members and friends. We too deserve the right to live just like your people. What harm did we or our government do to you or to your people? Who told you that your people can live happily ever after, if you take the lives of innocent people?”.
Whoever might be responsible for this, every second person is blaming the government and Intelligence for this fateful incident. Particularly, it’s sad to see that every opposition leader is blaming the government for this incident.
Friends, it’s not time to blame others. It’s time for us to stay united and stand by the authorities to sort out the issue. Let’s not make the issue a political one. I appreciate the way in which NDTV brought us the live updates of the issue, particularly, for not airing any political remarks. In one of the snippet of their news, when Murassoli Maran, a prominent Congress Leader, while giving out some statement to the public about the issue, started to bring some political flavour to the issue, the channel simply cut off the transmission of that interview.
We are Indians and we are proud of it. Let us stand united and do all that we can do to bring peace to our country. For the first time in my life, I was angry with myself for not taking up the dream career of my childhood – to join the Indian army.
Btw, does anyone know anything about the great leader of Mumbai - Mr Raj Thackeray. I am sure that he still believes that he would have handled the hostage situation better than anyone else with his elite MNNS commandos.
I don’t want to write anything about the terrorists or their strategy or the failure of the government. All I want is to appeal to the terrorists is – “Brothers, we are also normal people like your family members and friends. We too deserve the right to live just like your people. What harm did we or our government do to you or to your people? Who told you that your people can live happily ever after, if you take the lives of innocent people?”.
Whoever might be responsible for this, every second person is blaming the government and Intelligence for this fateful incident. Particularly, it’s sad to see that every opposition leader is blaming the government for this incident.
Friends, it’s not time to blame others. It’s time for us to stay united and stand by the authorities to sort out the issue. Let’s not make the issue a political one. I appreciate the way in which NDTV brought us the live updates of the issue, particularly, for not airing any political remarks. In one of the snippet of their news, when Murassoli Maran, a prominent Congress Leader, while giving out some statement to the public about the issue, started to bring some political flavour to the issue, the channel simply cut off the transmission of that interview.
We are Indians and we are proud of it. Let us stand united and do all that we can do to bring peace to our country. For the first time in my life, I was angry with myself for not taking up the dream career of my childhood – to join the Indian army.
Btw, does anyone know anything about the great leader of Mumbai - Mr Raj Thackeray. I am sure that he still believes that he would have handled the hostage situation better than anyone else with his elite MNNS commandos.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Random ramblings
There's nothing important to write in this post and also, I'm very busy in office these days, thanks to the rapidly shrinking free space on my server. So, this post will contain some random ramblings rather than some specific point.
1. Stopped eating ice creams. Frankly speaking(or writing), I can write a biggg post on this issue as ice creams are something dearer to me and they mean much more to me than an edible item.
2. Saw Dostana last week. I loved that movie(even though, I started feeling some weird sensation when my friends touch me). It was one of the best comedy movies of recent times. The chemistry between AB n JA was awesome. Btw, Priyanka Chopra was at her sexiest best.
3. Went to an ice cream shop next to my house, about a week back. Thought of eating one but later withdrew the idea because of sudden rush of calorie-consciousness. Looked around and found some hot samosas. Took half a dozen of them to my flat and as soon as I took a bite, I felt that there's something wrong. Instead of the normal curry inside the samosa, they kept cheese. This is what the people call "cheese samosa". And for this stupid thing, I gave up my fav ice cream...... :(
4. Daily, a couple of friends visit my flat(as they are paying guests at some family's house) and leave as soon as we finish dinner. The day before, they left normally and I got up at 5 AM feeling thirsty. To my horror, I saw that I didn't close the door the previous night after my frnds left. But thank God, nothing happened. My wallet, laptop, handycam, watches..... everything were in tact.
5. Is anyone following Indian Idol 4? Sonali Bendre's looking gorgeous in it.
6. There was this arabic guy in my gym, whom we consider as a decent arab. But last week, when one "big fat Indian gal"(I picked this from Kungfu Panda where our hero was called Big, Fat Panda) talked to him in the health club, he started showing his attitude. Too bad!!!!!
Well, I end my list here(so that no one blames me for the head-ache they got after reading this). Have a nice day.
1. Stopped eating ice creams. Frankly speaking(or writing), I can write a biggg post on this issue as ice creams are something dearer to me and they mean much more to me than an edible item.
2. Saw Dostana last week. I loved that movie(even though, I started feeling some weird sensation when my friends touch me). It was one of the best comedy movies of recent times. The chemistry between AB n JA was awesome. Btw, Priyanka Chopra was at her sexiest best.
3. Went to an ice cream shop next to my house, about a week back. Thought of eating one but later withdrew the idea because of sudden rush of calorie-consciousness. Looked around and found some hot samosas. Took half a dozen of them to my flat and as soon as I took a bite, I felt that there's something wrong. Instead of the normal curry inside the samosa, they kept cheese. This is what the people call "cheese samosa". And for this stupid thing, I gave up my fav ice cream...... :(
4. Daily, a couple of friends visit my flat(as they are paying guests at some family's house) and leave as soon as we finish dinner. The day before, they left normally and I got up at 5 AM feeling thirsty. To my horror, I saw that I didn't close the door the previous night after my frnds left. But thank God, nothing happened. My wallet, laptop, handycam, watches..... everything were in tact.
5. Is anyone following Indian Idol 4? Sonali Bendre's looking gorgeous in it.
6. There was this arabic guy in my gym, whom we consider as a decent arab. But last week, when one "big fat Indian gal"(I picked this from Kungfu Panda where our hero was called Big, Fat Panda) talked to him in the health club, he started showing his attitude. Too bad!!!!!
Well, I end my list here(so that no one blames me for the head-ache they got after reading this). Have a nice day.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Why I USED to love James Bond
Being a guy who loves fantasies, action and adventure, I love the world of movies a lot. My favorite filmi characters range from a wide variety of roles donned by some real good actors/actresses. I sing along with them, play along with them, cry along with them and laugh along with them.
Being an adventure lover, I always had this soft corner for super-heroes and action heroes. My all time fav super-heroes are Spiderman and Superman(it’s another bitter truth that I love to see them in cartoons that movies). My list of fav action heroes are James Bond and Ethan Hunt(Mission Impossible series).
Coming to James Bond, I always had this fascination about that character and many times, I dreamt of being a real life Bond(blushing). I loved his style, his girls, his ways of flirting with girls(obviously he can flirt only with girls, I don’t like my fav to be a gay), his nerves of steel, his coolness, his dress sense, his gadgets – in fact, I adore the character of James Bond. As far as I can remember, the first Bond movie I’ve seen in theater was Tomorrow Never Dies. I’ve seen almost all the others (older ones) on TV/DVD later. Post “Tomorrow Never Dies”, all the new Bond movies are strictly first-day-first-show-in-theater.
But off late, the character of Bond, in his movies, is losing its originality. We noticed this change from his penultimate movie, Casino Royale, which is more like a love story than a spy thriller. In that film, Bond cries, pledges and do all that we don’t want him to do. And this change is apparent in the latest movie, Quantum of Solace. too. Believe me; I was terribly disappointed with this movie. Somehow, I felt that the previous movie was better than this one. Here are a few reasons why I don’t like this movie (as a Bond movie):
1. I don’t like the idea of Bond carrying out his revenge instead of his duty.
2. This movie doesn’t have any of his cheesy one liners like the famous introduction dialog “Bond, James Bond” and his “vodka martini, shaken but not stirred”.
3. No Aston Martin fitted with loads of weapons n state-of-the-art gadgets.
4. The climax doesn’t fit at all.
5. Many stunt sequences look as if they are lifted from earlier Bond movies.
6. Bond looked tired(even though his character required that look in this movie).
7. The latest Bond actor, Daniel Craig, is a strictly OK guy who can don the roles of the super-spy convincingly but definitely not with ease. He doesn’t have that manly look of Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery.
These are only some of the flaws found by me(others may like them, but I don’t). Bond is made human in this movie and its predecessor. But do we really want to see a Bond who cries? After all, we want to be a Bond but we definitely don’t want Bond to be one among us!!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Alvida season
Hello folks, it seems to be retirement time for everyone. Be it in the Bloggerville or the real world. First of all, it was my dear blogger brother, Samby, who chose to be silent without any prior notice. And then it was one of my favorite blogger, Sneha, who decided to call it a day here. Believe me, I'll miss her posts terribly. But, I strongly believe that they chose to say alvida after giving it a lot of thought. All the best Sneha n Samby. And Keshi frightened me with those bubye hints, but thank God, nothing happened like that.
Well, coming to the other retirements in the real world, the news of Jumbo's retirement came as a blow to us(we were in office at that time). We never expected that out-of-the-blue from him. He was a great player, who helped India win many matches single-handedly. OK, I won't write much about him as you might have read about him recently in many blogs.
Coming to the central theme of this post, it's about the man who changed the whole Indian scenario of Modern Cricket. Ya, you guessed it right. It's Savrav Ganguly, the most successful Indian Test captain of all time. It was him, who made cricket look like war(I hope all you heard those cries of victory at the famous NatWest trophy finale), it was him who brought the team under one shade after the infamous match fixing allegations, it was him who showed the world how a captain must think(I strongly believe that he brought Yuvraj, Bhajji, Dhoni n co into limelight).
Ok, now you think that am a die-hard fan of Dada(as fondly called fans). No, you are mistaken. There were days when we used to fight in college about who's great: Sachin or Saurav. I always took Sachin's side. In fact, at some point of my life, I used to hate Dada. But slowly, I started enjoying his batting. I understood his emotions, liked this tactics, savored those moments when he used to take room on the leg side n slashed the ball to the off side - I enjoyed everything. I remember those days when I used wait for spinners to take the ball and Dada take on the spinners.
Now you may ask, why am I bothered about his retirement if I'm not a great fan of his? The truth is, I come from times when children used to grow watching Sachin, Saurav, Dravid and Jumbo win matches for India. The Indian Cricket team doesn't make any sense to me if none of them are present in the team. Now, already, two of the above four people announced their retirement. And Dravid is running through a very bad phase and we may hear his retirement news soon. And Sachin, the run machine fights on.
ALL THE BEST, DADA. YOU MADE WATCHING CRICKET A PLEASURE.
You can check this link for the career highs n lows of Dada and this link for the overall statistics of Ganguly's career.
Btw, did I mention that I cried when I read about Pete Sampras' retirement?
Well, coming to the other retirements in the real world, the news of Jumbo's retirement came as a blow to us(we were in office at that time). We never expected that out-of-the-blue from him. He was a great player, who helped India win many matches single-handedly. OK, I won't write much about him as you might have read about him recently in many blogs.
Coming to the central theme of this post, it's about the man who changed the whole Indian scenario of Modern Cricket. Ya, you guessed it right. It's Savrav Ganguly, the most successful Indian Test captain of all time. It was him, who made cricket look like war(I hope all you heard those cries of victory at the famous NatWest trophy finale), it was him who brought the team under one shade after the infamous match fixing allegations, it was him who showed the world how a captain must think(I strongly believe that he brought Yuvraj, Bhajji, Dhoni n co into limelight).
Ok, now you think that am a die-hard fan of Dada(as fondly called fans). No, you are mistaken. There were days when we used to fight in college about who's great: Sachin or Saurav. I always took Sachin's side. In fact, at some point of my life, I used to hate Dada. But slowly, I started enjoying his batting. I understood his emotions, liked this tactics, savored those moments when he used to take room on the leg side n slashed the ball to the off side - I enjoyed everything. I remember those days when I used wait for spinners to take the ball and Dada take on the spinners.
Now you may ask, why am I bothered about his retirement if I'm not a great fan of his? The truth is, I come from times when children used to grow watching Sachin, Saurav, Dravid and Jumbo win matches for India. The Indian Cricket team doesn't make any sense to me if none of them are present in the team. Now, already, two of the above four people announced their retirement. And Dravid is running through a very bad phase and we may hear his retirement news soon. And Sachin, the run machine fights on.
ALL THE BEST, DADA. YOU MADE WATCHING CRICKET A PLEASURE.
You can check this link for the career highs n lows of Dada and this link for the overall statistics of Ganguly's career.
Btw, did I mention that I cried when I read about Pete Sampras' retirement?
Monday, November 03, 2008
Ramblings
My blogger account had been screwing me from yesterday. I was not able to access my blog but I was able to read and comment on all other blogs. It was saying something like "403 forbidden - your query resembles a virus threat.... blah blah". At last, it allowed me in now and I don't want to leave this opportunity to blabber something here. Put on your seat belts n get ready for a bumpy ride.
1. Last Thursday, I went for a indoor football tournament with a severe headache - just because my roomie's playing in it. It was so boring that I stated playing games on my mobile and everyone was looking at me in a weird way.
2. After a long long time, we went for a real longggg shopping to the newly opened City Centre. It was on last Friday. We were walking that day for a little more than 7 hours without having a seat!!!! I bought a couple of three fourths n a track pant in Lee Cooper(they were offering a flat 50% discount).
3. The climate began to change in this desert country. It's getting cold these days. The same Friday night, I had a couple of pegs of Glenlevit(it was an awesome single malt whiskey); went out for a little walk around midnight; had an ice cream; sat at the entrance of my apartment thinking about my past, present n future; helped a kid retrieve her balloon(that family's just returning back from shopping, I guess) and the way she said "Thank You, uncle" was sooo chweet. Overall, that night was pretty eventful.
4. Saw "Heroes" and loved the movie. It's a commercial patriotic movie with a novel theme but the movie seemed to drag a little bit. Had they shortened the movie by about 30 minutes, it would have been accepted by all classes of audience. For the first time, I loved Sohail Khan's performance. But the real bad thing is, I had to watch this movie outside India.
5. Ferrari's Felipe Massa lost the Formula1 championship by a whisker. The prerequisites for him to win the coveted crown are he should come first and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton should not come in a place better than 6th. Massa did his best and he came first and for a few seconds, everyone thought that he won the championship and there were celebrations in the Ferrari dugout. After almost 38 seconds(after Massa crossed the finish line), Hamilton dramatically overtook Toyota's Timo Glock for the fifth place and won the crown by a mere one point. Bad luck, Ferrari. Let's give it our best shot in the next season.
So friends, these are my random ramblings from the past few days. Will b back with something meaningful in the next couple of days(Blogger.com allows me to login).
1. Last Thursday, I went for a indoor football tournament with a severe headache - just because my roomie's playing in it. It was so boring that I stated playing games on my mobile and everyone was looking at me in a weird way.
2. After a long long time, we went for a real longggg shopping to the newly opened City Centre. It was on last Friday. We were walking that day for a little more than 7 hours without having a seat!!!! I bought a couple of three fourths n a track pant in Lee Cooper(they were offering a flat 50% discount).
3. The climate began to change in this desert country. It's getting cold these days. The same Friday night, I had a couple of pegs of Glenlevit(it was an awesome single malt whiskey); went out for a little walk around midnight; had an ice cream; sat at the entrance of my apartment thinking about my past, present n future; helped a kid retrieve her balloon(that family's just returning back from shopping, I guess) and the way she said "Thank You, uncle" was sooo chweet. Overall, that night was pretty eventful.
4. Saw "Heroes" and loved the movie. It's a commercial patriotic movie with a novel theme but the movie seemed to drag a little bit. Had they shortened the movie by about 30 minutes, it would have been accepted by all classes of audience. For the first time, I loved Sohail Khan's performance. But the real bad thing is, I had to watch this movie outside India.
5. Ferrari's Felipe Massa lost the Formula1 championship by a whisker. The prerequisites for him to win the coveted crown are he should come first and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton should not come in a place better than 6th. Massa did his best and he came first and for a few seconds, everyone thought that he won the championship and there were celebrations in the Ferrari dugout. After almost 38 seconds(after Massa crossed the finish line), Hamilton dramatically overtook Toyota's Timo Glock for the fifth place and won the crown by a mere one point. Bad luck, Ferrari. Let's give it our best shot in the next season.
So friends, these are my random ramblings from the past few days. Will b back with something meaningful in the next couple of days(Blogger.com allows me to login).
Monday, October 27, 2008
Blood donation
After coming to Bahrain, I got smitten by a few qualities, one of which being the "Blood Donation" bug. So far, in my two year stay in Bahrain, I've donated it 5 times. I know that it's not a big deal, but considering the fact that I've never donated blood during my stay in India, this is some achievement for me. A picture of mine, donating blood at a blood camp arranged in my office, came in an Arabic newspaper too.
However, the real reason behind this post is not to brag about me donating blood. I noticed that many healthy people around me(some close friends too) just brushed off the very thought of donating blood citing different reasons. Some said they are weak(one of them looks like a goon), some said they are under medication(I know well that the only medicine they take is alcohol) and some just because they are scared. I tried to encourage them(not bullying) and educate them, even though it's up to them to decide, in vain.
What else is a better medium these days than a blog to educate people? So I gathered some valuable information on net which might help you in knowing the importance and myths of blood donation.
Some interesting facts about blood and blood donation:
1. There is no substitute for human blood.
2. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.
3. Every two seconds someone needs blood.
4. Anyone who is in good health, is at least 17 years old, and weighs at least 110 pounds may donate blood every 56 days.
5. Only a maximum of 470ml of blood is taken at one session, which is just less than a pint.
6. Giving blood will not decrease your strength.
7. You cannot get AIDS or any other blood disease by donating blood.
8. After donating blood, you replace your red blood cells within three to four weeks. However, takes four to six weeks to restore the iron lost after donating.
The need for donating blood might be well understood by the fact that Statistics indicate that everybody will need blood(from a donor) in some way or the other. The approximate amount of blood needed in various incidents is as per below:
1. One cancer patient can use up to 8 units of blood each week.
2. One leukemia patient can use up to 2 units each day while waiting for a bone marrow transplant
3. One sickle cell anemia patient can use up to 4 units each treatment.
4. One organ transplant can take up to 40 units of blood (a liver transplant can use up to 100 units!).
5. One heart bypass surgery can use up to 5 units of blood.
6. One bleeding ulcer can use up to 30 units of blood.
7. One hip replacement can use up to 5 units of blood.
8. One brain surgery can use up to 10 units of blood.
9. One auto accident or gunshot/stab wound victim can use up to 50 units of blood.
I get a happy n content smile on my face when I remember about my last blood donation. The reason behind that happiness is just because of the simple fact that I helped in saving someone's life. I'll be more happy if this post helps you to understand the need for donating blood.
However, the real reason behind this post is not to brag about me donating blood. I noticed that many healthy people around me(some close friends too) just brushed off the very thought of donating blood citing different reasons. Some said they are weak(one of them looks like a goon), some said they are under medication(I know well that the only medicine they take is alcohol) and some just because they are scared. I tried to encourage them(not bullying) and educate them, even though it's up to them to decide, in vain.
What else is a better medium these days than a blog to educate people? So I gathered some valuable information on net which might help you in knowing the importance and myths of blood donation.
Some interesting facts about blood and blood donation:
1. There is no substitute for human blood.
2. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.
3. Every two seconds someone needs blood.
4. Anyone who is in good health, is at least 17 years old, and weighs at least 110 pounds may donate blood every 56 days.
5. Only a maximum of 470ml of blood is taken at one session, which is just less than a pint.
6. Giving blood will not decrease your strength.
7. You cannot get AIDS or any other blood disease by donating blood.
8. After donating blood, you replace your red blood cells within three to four weeks. However, takes four to six weeks to restore the iron lost after donating.
The need for donating blood might be well understood by the fact that Statistics indicate that everybody will need blood(from a donor) in some way or the other. The approximate amount of blood needed in various incidents is as per below:
1. One cancer patient can use up to 8 units of blood each week.
2. One leukemia patient can use up to 2 units each day while waiting for a bone marrow transplant
3. One sickle cell anemia patient can use up to 4 units each treatment.
4. One organ transplant can take up to 40 units of blood (a liver transplant can use up to 100 units!).
5. One heart bypass surgery can use up to 5 units of blood.
6. One bleeding ulcer can use up to 30 units of blood.
7. One hip replacement can use up to 5 units of blood.
8. One brain surgery can use up to 10 units of blood.
9. One auto accident or gunshot/stab wound victim can use up to 50 units of blood.
I get a happy n content smile on my face when I remember about my last blood donation. The reason behind that happiness is just because of the simple fact that I helped in saving someone's life. I'll be more happy if this post helps you to understand the need for donating blood.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The great EID weekend
I've been thinking of posting this one for the past two weeks, but due to lack of time n interest, I kept on postponing it. But, I realized later that the sooner this is posted, the better for me(so that I can't carry on all these details in my tiny brain). Well, let's start.
Many of you might have enjoyed the Ramadan holiday early this month. Being in a Muslim country, we got 5 days holidays during that time(3 days for the festival and 2 days for the weekend). It's rare to get holidays like this in this part of the world and hence, we decided to enjoy them to the core. We started to draft plans and finally, came up with none solid enough to satisfy our enthusiasm. All we can think of, at that moment, was a small island called Al Dar, which me n my batch left unexplored. So, here's a brief description about all the nasty things we did in those 5 days.
Day 1: As planned, we went to the Al Dar Island, with a small group of friends(usual batch). It was not a great place to hang out, but we had enough fun there(we believe in lighting up the roads we travel). As soon as we got down, we ran into the water and with a jerk, found out that everyone in the batch got their feet cut by the sharp rocks and by the time, we realized the pain, it was too late. We then played cricket(the West Indian one - in the sand), where I was the top scorer. The good thing is my team won and the bad thing is I sprained my shoulder while hitting a six. Then we played volley ball in the water(awesome) and had some drought beer(which was awesome too) and had a tasty buffet. We, then, got back into our usual photo sessions by giving some weird poses(i'll keep only li'l weird poses here). Because of all this, by the time we reached our respective houses, everyone was so tired that we canceled all the plans for the evening and called it a day.
We read in news papers after 4 days that the boat which was taking tourists to the Al Dar Island capsized and luckily a patrol boat rescued all the people.
Day 2: This was a day of mixed emotions for all of us. Here, in Middle East, normally Hindi movies release one day prior to the Indian release. So, Drona was released here and we were excited a lot about the movie(one reason for me being so excited is this movie's directed by Goldie Behl, my dream girl Sonali's husband) and we all ran off to the first show itself. Believe me, I didn't see such a bad movie like Drona in recent times. It was dumbass, right from the word GO. The background score was the only thing which was good.
In the evening, we attended a felicitation function to Mr S P Balasubramanyam(one of my fav singers). He's such a down-to-earth person and the speech he gave that night was one of the best I've heard in my life.
Day 3: This day, we thought of doing something out of box and finally decided to go on a long drive into the desert. We took some parcels of Hyderabadi Biriyani and water with us and took off. As usual, we started with taking photos everywhere and then had our lunch as it was too late in the afternoon by the time we started. Then, the real fun started. We lost our way while coming back and we kept on going rounds n rounds in the desert. Of course, there are roads everywhere, but what's the use of them if there are no signboards(directions, to be precise). Just after an hour or so, we got into the highway, somehow. I was thankful for my roommate who made sure that the fuel tank was full, before starting.
That evening, we went to Bahrain City Center(you might've heard about Dubai city Center). It was opened quite recently and we had a good time bird-watching there.
Day 4: A Telugu couple invited us for lunch today, which we accepted with glee. They took the pain to cook lots n lots of dishes. We all ate so much that I had tough time walking back even to the car and postponed our evening plans. I had a sound sleep and then we went to Adhari Park. But it was so crowded that we can do is to walk through the park and come back making a note of what ride to get on, the next time we come here.
Day 5: I was alone today, as all of my friends had to go to work and so I decided to spend it for myself. Read a few magazines, prepared a few chapters for GMAT and then saw a couple of Black n White Telugu movies. They were fun to watch with all those sword-fights n weird dances of the hero.
So, this was how my loooooongggggg weekend went.
An important update: Please don't watch Max Payne. This was the most boring English movie of the recent times. It turned out to be "Max Pain" just like Ceedy Bhai predicted.
Many of you might have enjoyed the Ramadan holiday early this month. Being in a Muslim country, we got 5 days holidays during that time(3 days for the festival and 2 days for the weekend). It's rare to get holidays like this in this part of the world and hence, we decided to enjoy them to the core. We started to draft plans and finally, came up with none solid enough to satisfy our enthusiasm. All we can think of, at that moment, was a small island called Al Dar, which me n my batch left unexplored. So, here's a brief description about all the nasty things we did in those 5 days.
Day 1: As planned, we went to the Al Dar Island, with a small group of friends(usual batch). It was not a great place to hang out, but we had enough fun there(we believe in lighting up the roads we travel). As soon as we got down, we ran into the water and with a jerk, found out that everyone in the batch got their feet cut by the sharp rocks and by the time, we realized the pain, it was too late. We then played cricket(the West Indian one - in the sand), where I was the top scorer. The good thing is my team won and the bad thing is I sprained my shoulder while hitting a six. Then we played volley ball in the water(awesome) and had some drought beer(which was awesome too) and had a tasty buffet. We, then, got back into our usual photo sessions by giving some weird poses(i'll keep only li'l weird poses here). Because of all this, by the time we reached our respective houses, everyone was so tired that we canceled all the plans for the evening and called it a day.
We read in news papers after 4 days that the boat which was taking tourists to the Al Dar Island capsized and luckily a patrol boat rescued all the people.
Day 2: This was a day of mixed emotions for all of us. Here, in Middle East, normally Hindi movies release one day prior to the Indian release. So, Drona was released here and we were excited a lot about the movie(one reason for me being so excited is this movie's directed by Goldie Behl, my dream girl Sonali's husband) and we all ran off to the first show itself. Believe me, I didn't see such a bad movie like Drona in recent times. It was dumbass, right from the word GO. The background score was the only thing which was good.
In the evening, we attended a felicitation function to Mr S P Balasubramanyam(one of my fav singers). He's such a down-to-earth person and the speech he gave that night was one of the best I've heard in my life.
Day 3: This day, we thought of doing something out of box and finally decided to go on a long drive into the desert. We took some parcels of Hyderabadi Biriyani and water with us and took off. As usual, we started with taking photos everywhere and then had our lunch as it was too late in the afternoon by the time we started. Then, the real fun started. We lost our way while coming back and we kept on going rounds n rounds in the desert. Of course, there are roads everywhere, but what's the use of them if there are no signboards(directions, to be precise). Just after an hour or so, we got into the highway, somehow. I was thankful for my roommate who made sure that the fuel tank was full, before starting.
That evening, we went to Bahrain City Center(you might've heard about Dubai city Center). It was opened quite recently and we had a good time bird-watching there.
Day 4: A Telugu couple invited us for lunch today, which we accepted with glee. They took the pain to cook lots n lots of dishes. We all ate so much that I had tough time walking back even to the car and postponed our evening plans. I had a sound sleep and then we went to Adhari Park. But it was so crowded that we can do is to walk through the park and come back making a note of what ride to get on, the next time we come here.
Day 5: I was alone today, as all of my friends had to go to work and so I decided to spend it for myself. Read a few magazines, prepared a few chapters for GMAT and then saw a couple of Black n White Telugu movies. They were fun to watch with all those sword-fights n weird dances of the hero.
So, this was how my loooooongggggg weekend went.
An important update: Please don't watch Max Payne. This was the most boring English movie of the recent times. It turned out to be "Max Pain" just like Ceedy Bhai predicted.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Twenty Questions Tag
Tagged by Ceedy.
RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.
Note: 12 is the one I introduced.
1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Follow Aamir Khan's golden words from the movie, ISHQ. They are something like Ladki, Rail aur Bus ek hi jaisi hai. Ek gaya toh dusra jaroor aayegaa.
Frankly speaking, I never know what I'll do if some situation like this arises, as I never had any similar experience before. And it's too worst to imagine also.
2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
A backpacker's trip around the world.
3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Everyone, who made my life go this way. And believe me, I'll kick just like this:
4. Why do you blog?
Just to make my virtual life interesting, as my real life sucks sometimes.
5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Never ever. Can't imagine that situation. And also, most of the girls in my best n good friends list are married.
6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
People say that the latter option is the best. But I was loved by the person who was loved by me. So I never knew the difference.
7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
Long enough, if I had the confidence that the person will return to me.
8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Nothing. Just because, it breaks many hearts n lives if I do anything.
9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Fight against corruption n poverty. I had some plans for the future about fight against corruption but poverty is something which's yet to be thought.
10. What takes you down the fastest?
A roller coaster, I suppose
11. What resurrects you the fastest?
Anything interesting
12. What’s your strength?
My frankness and sense of humor.
13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Arey yaar, mein apne bade bhaiya ke baare mein kaise batawoon. Woh toh Chintan Maharaj hain.
14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Being single and rich is a good idea as long as u get all the love you crave for in marriage.
15. Whats the purpose of such Tags?
Piling up posts in blogs.
16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
Gharwali - Baharwali nahin dhekha kyaa?
Anyways, this is some weird situation which'll never happen in my life. After all, if you love someone, you should love him/her in such a way that there's no more love left in you to share with some other person too.
17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Giving up every relation for one relation is not a good idea, right?
18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Forgave many people like this. After all, what'll we get by holding a grudge against him/her?
19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
I prefer to be in a relationship, just as Ceedy wrote Grass's always greener on the other side.
20. Tag 6 people.
Phew, toughest question of all. Ok, here goes the list:
Keerthi, KK, Anvita a.k.a Princess Mia, Broca's area, Sree and Swathi.
RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.
Note: 12 is the one I introduced.
1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Follow Aamir Khan's golden words from the movie, ISHQ. They are something like Ladki, Rail aur Bus ek hi jaisi hai. Ek gaya toh dusra jaroor aayegaa.
Frankly speaking, I never know what I'll do if some situation like this arises, as I never had any similar experience before. And it's too worst to imagine also.
2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
A backpacker's trip around the world.
3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Everyone, who made my life go this way. And believe me, I'll kick just like this:
4. Why do you blog?
Just to make my virtual life interesting, as my real life sucks sometimes.
5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Never ever. Can't imagine that situation. And also, most of the girls in my best n good friends list are married.
6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
People say that the latter option is the best. But I was loved by the person who was loved by me. So I never knew the difference.
7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
Long enough, if I had the confidence that the person will return to me.
8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Nothing. Just because, it breaks many hearts n lives if I do anything.
9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Fight against corruption n poverty. I had some plans for the future about fight against corruption but poverty is something which's yet to be thought.
10. What takes you down the fastest?
A roller coaster, I suppose
11. What resurrects you the fastest?
Anything interesting
12. What’s your strength?
My frankness and sense of humor.
13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Arey yaar, mein apne bade bhaiya ke baare mein kaise batawoon. Woh toh Chintan Maharaj hain.
14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Being single and rich is a good idea as long as u get all the love you crave for in marriage.
15. Whats the purpose of such Tags?
Piling up posts in blogs.
16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
Gharwali - Baharwali nahin dhekha kyaa?
Anyways, this is some weird situation which'll never happen in my life. After all, if you love someone, you should love him/her in such a way that there's no more love left in you to share with some other person too.
17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Giving up every relation for one relation is not a good idea, right?
18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Forgave many people like this. After all, what'll we get by holding a grudge against him/her?
19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
I prefer to be in a relationship, just as Ceedy wrote Grass's always greener on the other side.
20. Tag 6 people.
Phew, toughest question of all. Ok, here goes the list:
Keerthi, KK, Anvita a.k.a Princess Mia, Broca's area, Sree and Swathi.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
A feel-good movie and a sad good-bye
Yesterday evening, I was too lazy to do anything and started doing my favorite time pass - watching TV. As usual, I was flipping through channels(believe me, remote control tops my list of wonderful gadgets). After a couple of rounds through all that exhausting list, I stopped at Star Movies on seeing Russell Crowe's face. He was one of my list of good actors, thanks to Gladiator.
I saw 5 minutes of the movie and slowly started liking it. I didn't switch the channel till the movie finished(which's quite surprising for me) and for the first time in my life, I saw even the whole ending credits of the movie. It was just because, I don't know the name of the movie. And at last, there it was - A GOOD YEAR. You can find the plot and details about it in this site.
The movie is a feel-good one with simple storyline and awesome screenplay. I liked it maybe because it's been quite sometime since I saw something without violence.
A small update: There was this dialog in the movie which I liked but I can't agree with it and even the protagonist(who says it) disagrees with it at the end. It goes something like this - "Money isn't everything. It's the only thing".
Coming to the second part of this post's title, it's about the retirement news of Saurav Ganguly. I somehow felt very bad to hear the news of his abrupt retirement even though he was never in my good books. This issue of the Fab Four's retirement just shows the monopoly of BCCI. Whatever it might be, all the best for the days ahead, Saurav.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
F1 - Singapore Grand Prix
I knew it. And now, most of you also might have noticed it. For those who didn't notice it, let me tell you what it is. It is the truth that I've been so lazy in Bloggerville these days. I promise you that I'll be back to normal soon. Now, soon means very soon. Anyways, let me get back to my crap.
It was around 9 years back, when I was first introduced to the world of F1. I was mesmerized by all those mean machines at the first look itself. Right from that moment, I was an ardent fan of Ferrari, thanks to Michael Schumacher(aka. Schumi). It was my dream to watch a race on the track and this year, it was fulfilled at the Bahrain GP.
I try my best to not to miss a race, if at all I don’t have office during the race. But I never bunked office for F1(except for the Bahrain GP). But last week, I left office early to catch the Singapore GP. It was because of the fact that this race is the first night race in the history of F1. There were lot of expectations from the track.
As usual, being a bit lazy, I missed the first couple of minutes of the race. The track promised a lot, as overtaking was a bit tough on this one. I fell in love with the track, until the safety car intervened. My fav for the title contender, Felipe Massa of the Ferrari team, became a zero from hero within a few seconds. He was leading the race when the safety car intervened and had to join at the end of the pack of the cars. His(and my) hopes further crashed when he got off to a horrendous start at the pits with the fuel pipe still attached to the car, thanks to the green light. He was awarded a 10 second penalty and had to fall back further.
By now, I lost interest in the race but continued to watch for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. But Kimi smashed everyone’s hopes by crashing in the final laps. And Fernando Alonso had won the race, despite starting the race from 15th position.
Overall, the race was a good one with a few great moments, like Hamilton overtaking
David Coulthard. But, sincerely, I felt that the safety car rules should be modified after witnessing what happened to the race leader, Felipe Massa. There are still 3 more races left in the season and there’s a 7 point difference between the championship leader, Lewis Hamilton and the second placed Massa which means that Massa has to win at least one race with a big margin. Let’s wish all the best for the red team.
Image Courtesy: The Official site for Formula One
It was around 9 years back, when I was first introduced to the world of F1. I was mesmerized by all those mean machines at the first look itself. Right from that moment, I was an ardent fan of Ferrari, thanks to Michael Schumacher(aka. Schumi). It was my dream to watch a race on the track and this year, it was fulfilled at the Bahrain GP.
I try my best to not to miss a race, if at all I don’t have office during the race. But I never bunked office for F1(except for the Bahrain GP). But last week, I left office early to catch the Singapore GP. It was because of the fact that this race is the first night race in the history of F1. There were lot of expectations from the track.
As usual, being a bit lazy, I missed the first couple of minutes of the race. The track promised a lot, as overtaking was a bit tough on this one. I fell in love with the track, until the safety car intervened. My fav for the title contender, Felipe Massa of the Ferrari team, became a zero from hero within a few seconds. He was leading the race when the safety car intervened and had to join at the end of the pack of the cars. His(and my) hopes further crashed when he got off to a horrendous start at the pits with the fuel pipe still attached to the car, thanks to the green light. He was awarded a 10 second penalty and had to fall back further.
By now, I lost interest in the race but continued to watch for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. But Kimi smashed everyone’s hopes by crashing in the final laps. And Fernando Alonso had won the race, despite starting the race from 15th position.
Overall, the race was a good one with a few great moments, like Hamilton overtaking
David Coulthard. But, sincerely, I felt that the safety car rules should be modified after witnessing what happened to the race leader, Felipe Massa. There are still 3 more races left in the season and there’s a 7 point difference between the championship leader, Lewis Hamilton and the second placed Massa which means that Massa has to win at least one race with a big margin. Let’s wish all the best for the red team.
Image Courtesy: The Official site for Formula One
Monday, September 22, 2008
My India trip
We, the Indians working outside India, look forward for annual vacations more than anything else(at least I’m like that). So far, I’ve been to India 4 times on vacation. But this vacation has been the most happening for me. One major reason might be my sister’s marriage while the other might be because I got to explore rural India more than my previous outings. Some of the highlights of this vacation are:
1. I spent more than 3 whole days of my 3 weeks vacation in trains (my favorite mode of transport).
2. I met a policeman who shares his lunch box with an old beggar daily. He told me that he wants to take that old lady to his house but his wife doesn’t agree for that.
3. Drank tea prepared with fresh milk (the buffalo was milked just before me) at a relative’s house in a village.
4. Plucked some guavas at the same village and ate them without even washing them. I even saw some people making curries from the vegetables which grew in their backyard there.
5. I went to Hampi, in Karnataka, for a day’s visit. I never knew that the historic city is such a beautiful sight. It was really an engineering marvel. I felt that it’s one of those must-see-places in India.
6. I met a mother who feels that kids should not be scolded for some wrong thing which they do. She says that if you scold them for doing so, they’ll be more inclined to do so in future. You might feel what’s special in me writing this. But I was awestruck when she was laughing at her 3 year old kid who was shouting very bad words at everyone.
These might not seem to be of great importance to you, but I found some difference in them. Something that we are not used to. Anyways, I now sign off to be back tomorrow in the Bloggerville to read some more of your blog posts.
1. I spent more than 3 whole days of my 3 weeks vacation in trains (my favorite mode of transport).
2. I met a policeman who shares his lunch box with an old beggar daily. He told me that he wants to take that old lady to his house but his wife doesn’t agree for that.
3. Drank tea prepared with fresh milk (the buffalo was milked just before me) at a relative’s house in a village.
4. Plucked some guavas at the same village and ate them without even washing them. I even saw some people making curries from the vegetables which grew in their backyard there.
5. I went to Hampi, in Karnataka, for a day’s visit. I never knew that the historic city is such a beautiful sight. It was really an engineering marvel. I felt that it’s one of those must-see-places in India.
6. I met a mother who feels that kids should not be scolded for some wrong thing which they do. She says that if you scold them for doing so, they’ll be more inclined to do so in future. You might feel what’s special in me writing this. But I was awestruck when she was laughing at her 3 year old kid who was shouting very bad words at everyone.
These might not seem to be of great importance to you, but I found some difference in them. Something that we are not used to. Anyways, I now sign off to be back tomorrow in the Bloggerville to read some more of your blog posts.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Back to Blogger n Bahrain
It rained in Hyderabad on Monday evening. The sky was cloudy from the morning, alerting people that there's lot of rain to pour down. It started as a slow drizzle which was welcomed by everyone on the road. And then after some 30 minutes, it started raining cats & dogs (well, I've never seen one falling down the sky). It rained heavily for some 90 minutes, making a lot of pools on the roads(Hyderabad became like Mumbai when it rains). Everyone enjoyed the pleasant weather, but the aftermath of that downpour was very bad. There were traffic jams everywhere; shops were closed because of the wind; there were power failures etc. But life became normal slowly after a few hours.
I wrote all this just to say that my vacation was almost same as the above situation. I was aware from the past few months that I was going on vacation in mid August, just like the people were aware of the rain before hand. My vacation started normally, without much happening in the first week, just like it drizzled before the downpour for 30 minutes. My vacation changed its look two days before my sister's marriage and I was extremely busy for 10 days. It was only in the last few days of my vacation that I sat leisurely at home and enjoyed mom's cooking. Just like the aftermath of the rain, my condition is very bad now(after returning from India). I feel solitary, deserted etc.
Well friends, I'm back to Bahrain yesterday morning. Straight to work from airport. Felt sick as I didn't sleep for more than a couple of hours during Sunday and Monday. Had a sound sleep yesterday night after taking a couple of pegs of fine Scotch whiskey(well, it has been an alcohol-free-vacation). There's loads of work awaiting me at the office and my flat badly needs a makeover. So, it'll not be soon that I write more on my blog or check out all your blogs. Please pardon me if I miss some of your posts(I am sure that lots of posts are awaiting me in your blogs). I may start visiting all your blogs from next week.
For Pavi, who kept forward her concern about my mobile number in my blog, "Pavi, that number doesn't work now. It'll wake up the next time I come to India".
I wrote all this just to say that my vacation was almost same as the above situation. I was aware from the past few months that I was going on vacation in mid August, just like the people were aware of the rain before hand. My vacation started normally, without much happening in the first week, just like it drizzled before the downpour for 30 minutes. My vacation changed its look two days before my sister's marriage and I was extremely busy for 10 days. It was only in the last few days of my vacation that I sat leisurely at home and enjoyed mom's cooking. Just like the aftermath of the rain, my condition is very bad now(after returning from India). I feel solitary, deserted etc.
Well friends, I'm back to Bahrain yesterday morning. Straight to work from airport. Felt sick as I didn't sleep for more than a couple of hours during Sunday and Monday. Had a sound sleep yesterday night after taking a couple of pegs of fine Scotch whiskey(well, it has been an alcohol-free-vacation). There's loads of work awaiting me at the office and my flat badly needs a makeover. So, it'll not be soon that I write more on my blog or check out all your blogs. Please pardon me if I miss some of your posts(I am sure that lots of posts are awaiting me in your blogs). I may start visiting all your blogs from next week.
For Pavi, who kept forward her concern about my mobile number in my blog, "Pavi, that number doesn't work now. It'll wake up the next time I come to India".
Monday, August 18, 2008
Taking a short break
Will be out of Bloggerville for a few days(err... weeks). Am now in India for my sister's marriage. It's on 24th of this month. So, being the lone brother, I've to carry some works on my shoulders(OK, I've to act so even if I don't do them). For some friends in the Bloggerville whom I'm not able to inform about my absense personally, I am leaving my Indian mobile number(temporary) here. It's +91-9704159560. Feel free to call me anytime, except at midnight. I'll be India for 3 weeks(my company nearly died n died to sanction me this leave). Let's hope that they don't call me back before the completion of this 3 weeks!!!!! Bye bye, folks.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Money sucks
Sometime back, I wrote this post. These days, I was feeling angry(in fact, very very angry) on the guy who invented money. OK, forget about getting hold of him/her, I know that I can’t even get the name of the guy but am still very angry on him. All these days, I believed in everyone and everything and I was thinking like human relations (friendship, love etc) were above all these money matters. Let me tell you what's wrong with me.
There was this childhood friend(say A) who left his job because of some personal reasons. I know guy from about 15 whole years. He needed some financial help to do some course that helps his career growth and I helped him readily. This was about a year back. He still talks big but never got into any job(I never know the reasons why). This guy called me some weeks back and asked me for ten thousand rupees. I told that I don’t have the money with me as I sent to my parents and he was a bit late. This guy started pleading with me and told me that this was his life and death issue and he needs money urgently to repay some debt. I was stupid enough to fall for those words and told him that I’ll arrange it somehow. This guy told me that he’ll repay this in a couple of weeks. I asked a close friend(say some X) to pay A that money. I told A that even X was in some financial crisis as he bought some flat and he should pay X this money in a couple of weeks as promised.
I completely forgot about this issue after some days. After a few weeks(maybe after more than a month), I wanted to call A to ask him to recharge my Indian mobile number as the validity date was fast approaching. He never answered my call even though I called him some 20 times on the same day. I was a stupid enough to start worrying about his health and safe condition. He was not even replying to my repeated mails. It was then that I remembered this money issue. I mailed him a bit severely about this and he replied about a week later saying that some relative died and he went there, leaving his mobile in Hyderabad. He returned just the other day and saw my missed calls(???) and mails. He said that he’ll return that money to X in a week. It’s about 3 weeks since he promised to do so and now, there’s again no response when I tried to call him yesterday.
I paid X that money yesterday evening, but I was thinking what the hell should I do to this guy, A. I believed him completely and he played with my confidence in him. Is this the way to show your gratitude to someone who was your friend for 15 years? Now, as a result, I started doubting everyone around me. I know it’s not good to do so but my mind is so fucked up with this double crossing that I can’t do anything else.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Flickr Tag
This is the picture mosaic tag that's been going round the Bloggerville for quite a few days. Seems to the most happening tag, as I can this tag being taken up every third person. So, as a humble follower of other bloggers, I too take it up.
Here are the rules:
1. Type your answer for each of the questions into Flickr search.
2. Using only the 1st page of the results, choose one random image.
3. Copy and paste the URLs of each of the images into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the chosen pictures.
And the questions are:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food right now?
3. Which high school did you attend?
4. Which is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your user name?
The resulting picture for my answers to the above questions is:
Well, the answers might not relate much to the picture. I found some interesting, funny and completely irrelevant pictures in Flickr, which I put up here. The answers are:
1. Satish, as you all know.
2. Ice cream. The picture's funny, right?
3. SSVP Public School, Visakhapatnam.
4. Black. I don't know why I liked this bird pic but I liked it.
5. Sonali Bendre. I just love her.
6. Fresh Lime water. So refreshing.
7. Europe. I don't know the country in this picture but I liked it.
8. Strawberry Mousse. Ate it recently n loved it.
9. A good Samaritan.
10. Friends.
11. Simple.
12. There are no matches for my username, Satish Bolla. So I put up a picture with tag word "none".
Here are the rules:
1. Type your answer for each of the questions into Flickr search.
2. Using only the 1st page of the results, choose one random image.
3. Copy and paste the URLs of each of the images into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the chosen pictures.
And the questions are:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food right now?
3. Which high school did you attend?
4. Which is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your user name?
The resulting picture for my answers to the above questions is:
Well, the answers might not relate much to the picture. I found some interesting, funny and completely irrelevant pictures in Flickr, which I put up here. The answers are:
1. Satish, as you all know.
2. Ice cream. The picture's funny, right?
3. SSVP Public School, Visakhapatnam.
4. Black. I don't know why I liked this bird pic but I liked it.
5. Sonali Bendre. I just love her.
6. Fresh Lime water. So refreshing.
7. Europe. I don't know the country in this picture but I liked it.
8. Strawberry Mousse. Ate it recently n loved it.
9. A good Samaritan.
10. Friends.
11. Simple.
12. There are no matches for my username, Satish Bolla. So I put up a picture with tag word "none".
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Happy Friendship Day
I read somewhere that LIFE can termed as a journey where the co-passengers are your family members, relatives, friends etc. But the most important of these co-passengers will be friends(for anyone). Also, I saw in some movie that you can't decide who your
parents/relatives are going to be but you can decide who can be your friends/lovers. That's the beauty of friendship.
Just imagine the world without any friends. Well, I can't even try to do so. It's been friends who were there with me throughout every up and down of my life. They were the people who were giving me morale boost when I lost her, when I was in search of a job, in fact every important phase of my life.
It was my neighbors when I small enough to stay away from school, it was classmates when I was in school/college, it was other job seekers whom I met at interviews when am in job search, it was colleagues when I got myself a job, it was Indians when I came all the way to Bahrain - but no matter whoever they are, they gave me their best and they got my best in return. After all, what's in friendship if we don't share things with friends which we are unwilling to share with any others?
If it was these people who were my friends in my real life, it was all of you in my virtual life here at Bloggerville. I wouldn't have lasted here if it was not for you who were patient enough to read all my stupid posts. Thanks for being patient.
I thank GOD for giving me all of you, and you also know that we, Indians, drink PEPSI a lot and so we believe in the motto "YEH DIL MAANGE MORE". So I ask GOD to shower more of his blessings on you all.
HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY TO YOU ALL.
These are best of friends whom you'll ever find(everybody has their own captions, right?)
Update: My friendship day finished with a couple of Margaritas and some sea food at a Chinese restaurant. How was yours?
parents/relatives are going to be but you can decide who can be your friends/lovers. That's the beauty of friendship.
Just imagine the world without any friends. Well, I can't even try to do so. It's been friends who were there with me throughout every up and down of my life. They were the people who were giving me morale boost when I lost her, when I was in search of a job, in fact every important phase of my life.
It was my neighbors when I small enough to stay away from school, it was classmates when I was in school/college, it was other job seekers whom I met at interviews when am in job search, it was colleagues when I got myself a job, it was Indians when I came all the way to Bahrain - but no matter whoever they are, they gave me their best and they got my best in return. After all, what's in friendship if we don't share things with friends which we are unwilling to share with any others?
If it was these people who were my friends in my real life, it was all of you in my virtual life here at Bloggerville. I wouldn't have lasted here if it was not for you who were patient enough to read all my stupid posts. Thanks for being patient.
I thank GOD for giving me all of you, and you also know that we, Indians, drink PEPSI a lot and so we believe in the motto "YEH DIL MAANGE MORE". So I ask GOD to shower more of his blessings on you all.
HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY TO YOU ALL.
These are best of friends whom you'll ever find(everybody has their own captions, right?)
Update: My friendship day finished with a couple of Margaritas and some sea food at a Chinese restaurant. How was yours?
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Dark Knight
Most of you know that am an ardent lover of movies. I love the world of fantasy as I already know how tough the real world is. Well, enough of crap. I love superhero movies a lot, in particular, Spiderman movies. Next comes Superman. Batman was always my last hero as I saw his movies in my childhood and was unable to understand anything. Batman's movies always revolve around some story which was hard for me at that age to understand.
I saw the headline grabbing movie, The Dark Knight(TDK), last weekend. I think the last time I saw a Batman movie was way back when I'm in School or Junior College(in one of those movies, Alicia Silverstone plays the BatGirl and I saw that movie solely for her). One of my friends saw TDK the day before I saw it and told me that the movie was OK and he was not able to understand some part of the story. So I was in a dilemma whether to watch it or not. But staying away from the theater for a week was a bit tough task for me these days, so I decided to go ahead with the plans(I was ready to watch any crap after I saw The Happening).
Believe me, I felt that TDK was one of the wonderful superhero movie ever made. Batman became an overnight hero in my world of fantasy. It was more like a drama than a superhero movie(I think most of the Batman movies are like that). The viewer is always in the grip of the narration, right from the start to the end.
The storyline is simple. I'll not write much of it as some of you doesn't want it to be leaked before you watch it. The capped crusader, Batman, was fighting the organized crime in the Gotham City and he want to call it a day as soon as the city is free of any sort of crime. He feels that the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, might be the hero the society needs than someone like him. Harvey Dent grabs the attention of the society, Batman and even Batman's love interest with his dynamic deeds. Meanwhile, a new evil starts rising in the city's underworld. This villain is none other than the classic Joker. Joker wants all the hell to break loose in the Gotham City but he wants to do it his way. He makes the citizens turn against Batman for the cost of their safety. The rest of the story is about the fight between the good and the evil.
Coming to the performances, Christian Bale is back to don the role of Batman once again and he carries it off with ease. But it was Heath Ledger who steals the show as The Joker. Playing Joker wasn't a simple business as Joker is termed as the toughest villain ever faced by Batman. Heath Ledger simply awesome and it was hard to believe that it was Heath Ledger in front of us, but not the Joker. It was sad to hear that such a talented actor committed suicide. Another surprise package is Aaron Eckhart. He also played the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face with lots of promise. Morgan Freeman was OK with one of his "usual" roles. The girl who played Rachel Dawes also did a good job but it would've been good if that role is donned by someone more pretty.
The narration of the movie was simply superb, as stated earlier. The special effects were OK, if not super. The Batmobile is as robust as ever, however, it was the Batpod that steals the show from the Batmobile. I liked the scene where Batman runs into a wall on his Batpod after pulling by Joker's truck.
I rate this movie 4.5 out of 5. It was worth a watch if you are someone who goes by the plot rather than the special effects. Finally, I sign off with the dialog of the movie which Joker tells to a mob member: "If you are good at something, never do it for free".
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
A hint of sadness followed by lots of happiness
Friends, time's flying by fast and still I can't find much time to get back into full action in the Bloggerville. Neither could I post anything on my blog nor can I comment on others blogs(as frequently as I used to). But I'm visiting some blogs whenever I find time and I promise to visit the rest ASAP. Now, here are some ramblings on mine:
1. I feel sad as I've been pretty busy at office, not finding time for my usual routines. Sometimes, I'm not having time to at least take my daily cup of tea in office(I drink it only once a day but now...). But I'm happy because, being this much busy is just increasing my importance in office. And the good part is everybody started noticing this.
2. I feel sad for being away from the Bloggerville. But immediately when I open my blog, I'm happy because of you, who are taking the pains of visiting it and commenting on it. Thanks for remembering me.
3. I feel sad when I look at the piling DVDs(pending ones) at my home. But I felt happy last week, when I picked up from the pile and saw the cartoon movie, Tarzan & Zane. I loved the movie. I liked one particular dialog which Terk(Tarzans' chimp friend) tells to his elephant buddy: "I don't believe in those who wear clothes". You've to see it to feel it.
4. I was sad when it was her b'day, about ten days back. But later for some unknown reasons, I felt that this year, the sadness was less than that of the previous years. Sounds good to me as I never wanted to feel sad for her demise, I just want to hold on to my love.
Ok folks, will be back soon.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
B'day weekend
Hi folks, hope u r all okie. I was busy for the past few days with work. There were a couple of trainees who came for the project/field work, whom I had to train in my domain. All these clubbed together shortened or negated my visits to the Bloggerville. Today, I took a small break from work and thought saying you a small HI and a big thanks for making my b'day wonderful with all those warm wishes. And please read through the below content only if you are free(it contains nothing but my b'day weekend details).
As most of you know, my b’day was on last week. I was awaiting it with lot of enthusiasm and eagerness (don’t know the reasons why). So, at last, it came as silently as any other day. I started it by cutting a cake brought by my friends at midnight. I felt so happy when I had my first glance at the cake. Please check the pic below to find out why. Then we went to a hyderabadi restaurant and had some biriyani.
The next morning (on my b’day), we all woke up late as all of us slept late. In fact, I didn’t sleep for more than a couple of hours as I was attending calls from all over the world (everyone was thinking that it’ll be morning here as soon as the sun rises at their place and hence, totally fucked up my sleep). Then we went to a temple after a lot of days. I was thinking to go to the temple for more than a month but it was not possible for some or the other reason. Then, we bought parcels from a vegetarian restaurant(this has some reputation in this place but we never visited it). So, we all ate lunch and again slept in the afternoon and got up late in the evening. Then, with some more friends, we all went to Hancock. It was an OK movie. Hilarious one but got wavered in the last 15 or 20 minutes and screwed up the whole movie. Then went to a bar and gulped down a beer each.
The next day was an awesome one. Felt quite lazy in the morning because of the lack of sleep on the previous day. Afternoon had lunch at my colleagues’ place and again slept. In the evening, I took four kids(children of my colleagues) to an awesome movie, Kungfu Panda. Loved every frame of it. I recommend it every one of you. Maybe the company of the kids made me enjoy the movie a lot more.
So, this was how my b’day weekend went.
So sweet, right?
Cake cutting(in a typical tapori style)
My roomie
My Junior
My friend
After having a cake face-pack
The B'day bumps turned out to be like this
The veggie lunch we had on my b'day
As most of you know, my b’day was on last week. I was awaiting it with lot of enthusiasm and eagerness (don’t know the reasons why). So, at last, it came as silently as any other day. I started it by cutting a cake brought by my friends at midnight. I felt so happy when I had my first glance at the cake. Please check the pic below to find out why. Then we went to a hyderabadi restaurant and had some biriyani.
The next morning (on my b’day), we all woke up late as all of us slept late. In fact, I didn’t sleep for more than a couple of hours as I was attending calls from all over the world (everyone was thinking that it’ll be morning here as soon as the sun rises at their place and hence, totally fucked up my sleep). Then we went to a temple after a lot of days. I was thinking to go to the temple for more than a month but it was not possible for some or the other reason. Then, we bought parcels from a vegetarian restaurant(this has some reputation in this place but we never visited it). So, we all ate lunch and again slept in the afternoon and got up late in the evening. Then, with some more friends, we all went to Hancock. It was an OK movie. Hilarious one but got wavered in the last 15 or 20 minutes and screwed up the whole movie. Then went to a bar and gulped down a beer each.
The next day was an awesome one. Felt quite lazy in the morning because of the lack of sleep on the previous day. Afternoon had lunch at my colleagues’ place and again slept. In the evening, I took four kids(children of my colleagues) to an awesome movie, Kungfu Panda. Loved every frame of it. I recommend it every one of you. Maybe the company of the kids made me enjoy the movie a lot more.
So, this was how my b’day weekend went.
So sweet, right?
Cake cutting(in a typical tapori style)
My roomie
My Junior
My friend
After having a cake face-pack
The B'day bumps turned out to be like this
The veggie lunch we had on my b'day
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Am I childish???
Last Sunday, as you all know, there was grand final of the EURO cup. My roomie asked me whether an acquaintance of him can drop over to our flat to watch the match. I said OK as this person had already been there for a cricket match before. He was an elderly person in his fifties. So, this person came in the night, just before the match. We played cards, had a couple of beers and cheered for Russia. But the Russians, apparently, didn't hear our cheers and lost the match.
Then, we were cleaning our dishes and each guy had to clean his plate. Our elderly visitor went to the kitchen and washed his plate and somehow fumbled with a glass that was not supposed to be there. It was my favorite glass which I've been using for the past one year or so. I don't know why it's my favorite but I love it so much that I never drank any alcohol in it. All I used it for, is to drink juices, that too very rarely. Our guy simply broke the glass and came mumbling to the hall. As soon as I heard the sound of the breaking glass, I suspected the worst and rushed to find by priceless glass shattered to pieces. I was very angry on that person but couldn't do anything as he was my roomie's guest. The same guy didn't flush the toilet the next morning. I got up, as usual, at around 6AM to get ready for office and found that the toilet was stinking. My anger turned to hatred for that person when I coupled this incident and the last night's. Then this thought of me behaving like a child came into my mind, as I'm never like this. I'm soft, most of the times and was surprised by this change of behavior.
Then, just the day before, after reaching home from office, I found that one of my goldfish died without any warning. Ever since I lost my other gold fish about two months back, I was keeping the tank clean, feeding them in time(sometimes, skipping some parties just to be sure that my fish are fed), in fact, doing everything for long life. Now, suddenly, this one died and I started crying like a child who lost his pet. I didn't go to my usual workouts in gym, I didn't call my home as promised. The whole day was dull and gloomy for me. Another incident which made me feel as if I'm too possessive like a child.
Then yesterday, I saw this cartoon movie called "Tarzan 2". I bought this DVD more than a couple of months back but had no time or interest to watch this one. But, I loved every frame of it. Even though, I enjoyed many movies like this, this childishness thought made me wonder whether is this also the act of childishness?
I thought and thought about this and then came to a conclusion that this might be because of the reason that my b'day is just a few hours away. Upon further pulling-of-hair, I was sure that this is the reason. So friends, wish me on the occasion of my successful completion of 26 years of life with all those regular ups and downs. It was my dream to touch the coveted 100 mark and so, all of you please wish me all the best for the next 74 years too.
Btw, they celebrate my b'day in US too, but with a different name of the American Independence Day. But who cares about the name, all that matters for me is whether all those friends in US got holidays on my b'day or not.
Meanwhile, enjoy these cool cartoons about being childish. You don't need to be a child to laugh at these.
Then, we were cleaning our dishes and each guy had to clean his plate. Our elderly visitor went to the kitchen and washed his plate and somehow fumbled with a glass that was not supposed to be there. It was my favorite glass which I've been using for the past one year or so. I don't know why it's my favorite but I love it so much that I never drank any alcohol in it. All I used it for, is to drink juices, that too very rarely. Our guy simply broke the glass and came mumbling to the hall. As soon as I heard the sound of the breaking glass, I suspected the worst and rushed to find by priceless glass shattered to pieces. I was very angry on that person but couldn't do anything as he was my roomie's guest. The same guy didn't flush the toilet the next morning. I got up, as usual, at around 6AM to get ready for office and found that the toilet was stinking. My anger turned to hatred for that person when I coupled this incident and the last night's. Then this thought of me behaving like a child came into my mind, as I'm never like this. I'm soft, most of the times and was surprised by this change of behavior.
Then, just the day before, after reaching home from office, I found that one of my goldfish died without any warning. Ever since I lost my other gold fish about two months back, I was keeping the tank clean, feeding them in time(sometimes, skipping some parties just to be sure that my fish are fed), in fact, doing everything for long life. Now, suddenly, this one died and I started crying like a child who lost his pet. I didn't go to my usual workouts in gym, I didn't call my home as promised. The whole day was dull and gloomy for me. Another incident which made me feel as if I'm too possessive like a child.
Then yesterday, I saw this cartoon movie called "Tarzan 2". I bought this DVD more than a couple of months back but had no time or interest to watch this one. But, I loved every frame of it. Even though, I enjoyed many movies like this, this childishness thought made me wonder whether is this also the act of childishness?
I thought and thought about this and then came to a conclusion that this might be because of the reason that my b'day is just a few hours away. Upon further pulling-of-hair, I was sure that this is the reason. So friends, wish me on the occasion of my successful completion of 26 years of life with all those regular ups and downs. It was my dream to touch the coveted 100 mark and so, all of you please wish me all the best for the next 74 years too.
Btw, they celebrate my b'day in US too, but with a different name of the American Independence Day. But who cares about the name, all that matters for me is whether all those friends in US got holidays on my b'day or not.
Meanwhile, enjoy these cool cartoons about being childish. You don't need to be a child to laugh at these.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
One hour
I had a childhood friend who was my best best friend and partner-in-crime most of the times. This chap is settled in the US of A for quite sometime. We talk often on the cheesiest invention of all-time, the mobile.
Last night, I returned from a farewell party at around 11 30PM and thought of giving him a call to say "hi". We started talking about our schooling days, love affairs, marriage plans, movies, this, that etc. I paused in the middle to see the time and the display of the mobile showed 1:02:37 as the duration of the call. I felt as if we just started talking but.... I've to hang up the call as it was already around 12 45AM and I've to wake up at 05 30AM to be able to reach office in time.
All I can say is "Friendship rocks". We never feel bored to talk with friends.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Lost Paradise
Had nothing much to write. So decided to pen down my weekend. Here it goes.
I was looking forward for the weekend throughout last week as I was very very stressed up in work. A friend came up with the idea of visiting a water-theme park. Overall, the weekend was fun, except for the movies I've watched.
It started with me coming late from office, catching a small nap before going for a Telugu movie, Bujjigaadu. These days, Telugu movies are so rare here that we started watching whatever comes to theater for the fear of the theater guy stopping bringing movies if the collections are dull. The movie is not bad but at the same time, not good. End of Thursday.
Friday morning, we went to Lost Paradise, a water based theme park. It was long drive from my place(not so long as most of the people in US say) and en route, we missed a terrible accident. I was filming the roads n the surroundings on my handycam(hey, did I tell you that I bought a new handycam, Sony DCRSR65, about a month back?) and my roomie was driving. He wanted me to shoot some place where am not concentrating and all of us in the car were looking in that direction. Suddenly we turned front and there it was - a L turn with a big ditch a few feet away from us. Good that my roomie was alert enough to avoid it, otherwise, everyone would be shouting by now "Satish Bolla, amar rahe".
Anyways, we reached the park just a little late(which always happens) than the pre-decided time. There, there were different types of rides(I don't know the exact word for those, but you can see them in the videos) which we enjoyed a lot. The only problem was to get to the top of those. It's frustrating when you have to climb 3 or 4 floors n then you free fall from there, in a few seconds. Anyways, the pain is worth it. Even though I don't know how to swim, I enjoyed to the fullest. There, you need guts more than swimming skills, which we all had tons n tons of it. Also, there's no need for you to swim except in the wave pool, which I managed with a life-jacket.
There were quite a few phirangis in bikinis which our batch enjoyed to the fullest with our eyes. Overall, the whole trip was fun. It was around 7 PM when we returned home. We had a movie plan then but we dropped it later as some friends complained of body pains.
Saturday was a holiday for me but it was a working day for most of my friends. By the time I woke up, my roomie left for his office. So I woke up and started cleaning the flat(it's been a while since I cleaned it). Then I washed some clothes n went out for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted and watching TV.
Evening, my friends dropped by, as usual, and one guy wanted to go to a mall as his glasses broke the other day. We went to a mall called Dana Mall and as soon as we reached there, another friend wanted to watch The Happening. As the reviews were OK, we went for it(also because the director's Manoj Night Shyamalan and we had a li'l pang of patriotism).
But the movie is one of the worst that I've watched in the recent few months. The movie's good in bits n pieces but the problem with it is, the movies itself is in bits n pieces. However, the photography was excellent, showing us some untouched and unexplored terrains in the US of A. But, I liked the way people die in this movie(God, am I becoming the maniac just like my idol, Jigsaw of the SAW series?)
Anyways, this was how my weekend went. Expect an interesting n stupid love story(??) in my next posts. Adios for now.
(Keep checking this space for videos n photos of our trip to Lost Paradise).
I was looking forward for the weekend throughout last week as I was very very stressed up in work. A friend came up with the idea of visiting a water-theme park. Overall, the weekend was fun, except for the movies I've watched.
It started with me coming late from office, catching a small nap before going for a Telugu movie, Bujjigaadu. These days, Telugu movies are so rare here that we started watching whatever comes to theater for the fear of the theater guy stopping bringing movies if the collections are dull. The movie is not bad but at the same time, not good. End of Thursday.
Friday morning, we went to Lost Paradise, a water based theme park. It was long drive from my place(not so long as most of the people in US say) and en route, we missed a terrible accident. I was filming the roads n the surroundings on my handycam(hey, did I tell you that I bought a new handycam, Sony DCRSR65, about a month back?) and my roomie was driving. He wanted me to shoot some place where am not concentrating and all of us in the car were looking in that direction. Suddenly we turned front and there it was - a L turn with a big ditch a few feet away from us. Good that my roomie was alert enough to avoid it, otherwise, everyone would be shouting by now "Satish Bolla, amar rahe".
Anyways, we reached the park just a little late(which always happens) than the pre-decided time. There, there were different types of rides(I don't know the exact word for those, but you can see them in the videos) which we enjoyed a lot. The only problem was to get to the top of those. It's frustrating when you have to climb 3 or 4 floors n then you free fall from there, in a few seconds. Anyways, the pain is worth it. Even though I don't know how to swim, I enjoyed to the fullest. There, you need guts more than swimming skills, which we all had tons n tons of it. Also, there's no need for you to swim except in the wave pool, which I managed with a life-jacket.
There were quite a few phirangis in bikinis which our batch enjoyed to the fullest with our eyes. Overall, the whole trip was fun. It was around 7 PM when we returned home. We had a movie plan then but we dropped it later as some friends complained of body pains.
Saturday was a holiday for me but it was a working day for most of my friends. By the time I woke up, my roomie left for his office. So I woke up and started cleaning the flat(it's been a while since I cleaned it). Then I washed some clothes n went out for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted and watching TV.
Evening, my friends dropped by, as usual, and one guy wanted to go to a mall as his glasses broke the other day. We went to a mall called Dana Mall and as soon as we reached there, another friend wanted to watch The Happening. As the reviews were OK, we went for it(also because the director's Manoj Night Shyamalan and we had a li'l pang of patriotism).
But the movie is one of the worst that I've watched in the recent few months. The movie's good in bits n pieces but the problem with it is, the movies itself is in bits n pieces. However, the photography was excellent, showing us some untouched and unexplored terrains in the US of A. But, I liked the way people die in this movie(God, am I becoming the maniac just like my idol, Jigsaw of the SAW series?)
Anyways, this was how my weekend went. Expect an interesting n stupid love story(??) in my next posts. Adios for now.
(Keep checking this space for videos n photos of our trip to Lost Paradise).
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The 30 Question Tag
You might wonder why I chose a gloomy n rugged image for this post. The reason is simple. This is quite an old tag and I'm lazy enough to ignore this for quite a few months, errrr.. weeks. It's high time to take it now as this tag started its second round around the Bloggerville. So, here it goes...
1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATER?
Dashavataram. Saw this flick in Tamil just yesterday. Couldn't understand Tamil but was so interested in this movie and went along with a couple of Tamil friends.
2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING??
Been quite a few weeks since I read something. Got to get hold of something soon. For now, I'm content with reading magazines.... :(
3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
Scrabble. But I prefer card games than board games... ;)
4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?
Reader's Digest and The Outlook
5) FAVOURITE SMELLS?
What can beat the smell of mud when it rains? The smell of a new book comes next.
6)FAVOURITE SOUNDS?
The sound of thunder, the sound of rain drops on the roof and most importantly, the sound of silence.
7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
When someone holds me responsible for something I didn't do. This feeling is worse than being guilty.
8) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?
Why does the sun rise so early? And sometimes, I wish today is weekend.
9) FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE?
In Bahrain? No way. But in India, I love the small pani puri stall at ESI, Hyderabad.
10) FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Tanmayee, if it's a girl. Tanmai, if it's a guy. But, we have to pay heed to our partner's wish too. So can't say.
11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT---'IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D'
Well, there are a lot of people in the world without money. A minimal amount will be with me to aid me in my "Motorcycle diaries" kinda lifestyle while the rest goes to the poor. Satish is always content with what he has. I hate the green paper. That's the one drawing hidden lines between people.
12) DO U DRIVE FAST?
I never drove a car. I don't know why, but I prefer bikes. On bike, I'm a ghost rider.
13)DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Sometimes, sleep with a pillow next to me. But there are many occasions when I slept with a fully stuffed stomach.
14)STORMS--COOL OR SCARY?
Cool, as long as there's no loss of life.
15)WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
Car!!!! Still a long way to go. A sports bike first.
16) FAVOURITE DRINK?
Fresh lime juice. Love it.
17)FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD...
Who said I'm busy now???
18)DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Yes, what sin did they do for me to leave them?
19)IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Arey yaar, I'm suffering from hair loss and you people are asking me what dye I'ld apply to my hair!!! :(((
20)NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Manama.
21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Cricket, Tennis and F1.
22)ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Many people tagged me with this tag. All these people are nice and warm to me. I love you all.
23)WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?
I'm sleeping in sofa these days, as I'm finding it more comfortable than bed. There's nothing under it other than the carpeted floor.
24)WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN??
Would love to. It complete with all the ups n downs. Quite challenging to. And most importantly, people love me for what I am.
25)MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
Night owl but due to office timings, trying to be a morning person for the past two years.
26)OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Hmm, didn't get this one. Can anyone help me out?
27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Any peaceful area bordered with lots of greenery and some sort of water body nearby.
28)FAVOURITE PIE?
Not a pie freak. So whatever it, won't matter much.
29)FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?
Hmm, interesting question. And most of you know the answer too. Anything will do as long as it's an ice cream. Right from the 50 paise one(in our childhood) to the Baskin n Robbins one.
30)OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Not tagging anyone. So no answer to this question.
Buddies, I think most of you already completed this tag. Ok, I agree that I'm lazy. If there's anyone who's lazier than me, you are welcome to take up this tag.
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