Two Rocking Cities
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Yes, I am elated to be back on the site I usually miss so much! Gallons of water has flowed under the bridge since my last blog, and unfortunately I waz stuck in its flow...But I desparately hung on to every bit and straw (read 'weekends') that came my way. So these breathers lead me first to the city where people live their great american dream - New York. I flew their for a get together with my college days roomies K & B. K has not changed a bit; still the same ol cool guy...B has become a typical american patel :) Honestly the guys treated me royally, we drove around generally in Dil Chahata Hai istyle and visited all the cool places : Empire State, Times Sq, Statue of Liberty (my 5th wonder of the world!) , Manhattan, Central park and the stuff. K's friend N and his wifey invited us for a cool dinner at his place. Thanks 'N', it was nice to know u..but all the time these guys kept rediculing me as a village bumpkin, and I kept calling them ABCD :) Well, yes for a Europe familiar techie New York is still an alien place..its a man made wonder...I could not meet my friend 'S' in New York whom I had met in France few years back..She is a school teacher in Ney York and teaches High school...she was out of town :-( 'S' hope to meet you some time in future!

The next straw took me to Chicago, the windy city. I had driven there with some friends here. Heavy traffic on I-94 on the way back killed some of the fun of driving but overall it was fun driving...I averaged 140Kmph:) Chicago resembles Venice in Italy. A river runs right through the city and gives a spectacular view of its modern architecture buildings. Sears Tower (the tallest in US today) gives a awesome view...Navy Pier is a hip place on the banks of lake Michigan. Cool and polished crowd, live music and fantastic road side cuisine completes the picture. But the higlight of this trip was the Inidan Independance day parade which we got to see un-expectedly. It was a complete desi show on the Devon Street (full of desis) like the one we have on Janpath on 26th Jan. Mrs Madhuri Sriram Nene-Dixit and Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt were present as Parade marshals. Took some nice snaps of them to send to some of my madhuri crazy sisters! As for sanju baba, I myself like him as a actor. Best of the breed in bollywood I would say...watch his old movie called 'Hathyaar' its pretty good..!
The water is still flowing in full force, lets see if I can catch some more straws on coming weekends..cheers people!!
~Amit

Umm Nothing Much..
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Ok. What do I write? Don't really know.. Well, I recently had a bad bout of self-introspection. A strain of soulful music and a leisurely drive in a car on a scenic road is enough to put me in that mode. I was on this wonderful "Hines drive" the other day. This time I was thinking about morality. Some email discussion with old friends on this subject few days back triggered it. We were discussing extra marital affairs (most of my friends are slowly giving up and getting married). I am generally the adventurous type and honestly think that I MAY fall for an extra marital affair given convenient surroundings. Why? I really do not know but I am just being honest with my gut feeling. I also strongly feel that any average indian man is pretending if he says that he loves his wife dearly and will NEVER try for any adventure and that too when his history has not been particularly clean! So here it was that some of my friends who had enjoyed many(so called) 'immoral' things in college days have suddenly turned saints after marriage! Almost an overnight change! Is it really possible? People do change its just that they don't want to accept it or realize! One more friend recently blogged (rather bragged) that he hasn't changed after marriage... :-) All I can do is wonder and smile...

Long due update
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Let me come straight to topmost points otherwise I will just go haywire since there is so much to update!
1. Had been to Niagra 2 weeks back. It was a GREAT unforgetable trip,S & M also turned up their. That's it, I am in no mood to repeat the story I told so many times. But would like to mention that with Niagra I checked the fourth landmark on "7 wonders of the world" list:-) Pisa, Eiffel,Agra and now Niagra..Statue of Liberty is next on my wish list...
2. Rented a car few days back, brand new ford focus ZTX, wanted to take a Ford Mustang, but budget beat me first to it :-( Wish I could buy a Ford V6 engine Grand Prix had my stay been a little longer here...Alas..anyway I'm practising my driving now, and may visit chicago and live my dream of driving on a US freeway.....wheeeeeee
3. Bought a nice, expensive digicam (yet another hole in an already ragged pocket),with that my picture in photography equipment is complete...a sexy piece of 35mm SLR and a digicam is all you need to shoot the world...handycam and AK-47 owners, go kick your A**
4. More later:-)

~Amit

Haah! Finally settled down in this place. US is a drag sometimes. I moved in with two other friends in their flat through miindia.com. One great surprise was that the flat is already weel furnished! broadband, TV, cable and all that...I will give my driving licence test next week, got to prepare for it! feels like giving my primary school tests, but still god knows why I am getting butterflies in my tummy! strange feeling...anyway I'm sure I will get through..Just finsihed with my breakfast, laundry, ironing and now back to more household work..Enjoy ppl!

Long time!
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Hey guys! long time I was out of action here. I have landed in US of Mr Bush. Came here last weekend and from day-1 was neck deep in work..blah blah..
Here I'm still trying to settle, this place sucks..its not like Europe, here you are just handicapped without a car! I have yet to get my Michigan DL. So no pubbing, no outings just office N work....haah...
Got to go..will blog more later

Hutch - Bow Wow!
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Urrrhh, I feel like tearing at my hairs everytime I get a call on my Hutch pre-paid mobile.The network coverage is so pathetic, 80% of the times the calls are dropped or I have to shout at the top of my voice (aka those very old days of BSNL landlines)..Have called up customer care 112200098373789 times but still not a single Hutch tail has wagged! I have also noticed that the kid & dog Advts have disappeared from the TV networks...Now you may ask why dont I change to CDMA, a much better technology, agreed that the idea makes sense,but I find prepaid hassle free and I like my number and blah blah.
BTW,If things don't improve soon I'm planning to take a 'Morcha' of all the dogs in my neighborhood to nearest Hutch office, any fellow Hutch sufferrer interested in joining??

I'm Back from my Hiatus!
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Yeah I was on a much needed 10 day holiday. Lazed around,slept,ate like a pig,snored,zipped across,visiting relatives,friends, booze etc, did it all.Scorching summer heat, books and long travels kept me company..I somehow like travels and especially enjoy travelling alone..reading books and gaping at the setting sun through the railway window..Wearing jeans and T-shirt and standing on railway door with cool evening breeze blowing through your hairs! That feeling of freedom is unmatched even by a Ferrari..

I finished reading Pupul Jaykars "Indira Gandhi" during my leave. Its the 4th Political biography/novel that I have read in last 3 months. It was a necessity, because I'm a original congressman who later converted to BJP after seeing the downfall and plight of mighty congress.But,I can indentify myself with 'secular congress' and saffron BJP simultaneously. And with the melodrama that unfolded on the Indian Political scene last week and the Joy to hear that Sonia "listened to her inner voice" and turned down post of PM I was forced to re-examine and revive my congress roots. And this book did wonders for it..It fills you with awe for that Iron lady called Indira and the congress that she raised.There is this episode from 1971 War where she gave a tactical defeat to even US!! Another book that I wish to read next is "Is New York Burning" by Dominique lappeier and Larry Collins, it is a well re-searched fiction on possible nuclear threats from terrorist networks in the backdrop of 9/11 and Israel/Palestine conflict. After reading "freedom at midnght" by same set of authors I'm sure I will like their new work as well...
Now I am back to work,trying to oil my lazy bones to start working once again and it is a herculean task..

Party #1
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Last night I threw an impromptu booze party (first one) at my place for colleagues from my office. Occasion? Well for my new house ofcourse! It was a decent get-together,especially being midweek,I guess it gave all a necessary break.But it had a flip side as well, M and P dropped out,we could not carry it late into night and even hard-drinks were off the menu to avoid hangovers.However A1,A2,A3,A4,V,P and R had come.Thanks guys N gals! However 'S' was the guest of honor:) Wny? just bcoz she is the latest entry into my list of friends! Thanks for coming over 'S'. you seem to be a true blue aquarian! Nice meeting you...

BTW,people did you notice that writing no-names does not affect readability of a story at all.It also augments privacy! I remember getting a forwarded mail on some 'research' done by someone that in any given word only the first and last few characters matter the most for readability by human mind. This fact can be used for optimizing computer AI. Though I was revolted by the absurdity of the idea [Who wants to read a word document full of spelling mistakes in each word!] But now I think,that it can be given a chance! I think by the year 2050AD, we all will be anyway called by some 20 digit number tagged with some pseudo code names! Can someone file a patent on my behalf for this 'original' idea of using pseudonames at least in blogs??

At The End Of The Day!!
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About a month back some magzine in UK conducted a survey to find the most hackneyed, widely used and most hated cliches prevalent in daily use English in UK/USA.Guess what? "At the end of the day" was the ultimate winner,and rightly so.I perfectly agree that this is indeed the most boring,lame and meaningless term that anyone can use! It always goes like this: "Anyway at the end of the day what really matters is who wins" :) Yeah you guessed it, In India, our cricketers abuse it the most. Ganguly, Dravid (especially), Tendulkar, Gavaskar,Sherry all use it very often. But what they forget is that at the end of the day (sic) we feel like hitting them at the end of their bums. Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook, also conducted a mini survey in the last issue after taking a cue from the original survey..the response in India was also overwhelming.I cant remember which one was the winner. But surely it should be "India Shining" :) The whole idea of the original excercise was probably to pass a international law banning use of such cliches (I hope). Here is a list of top 5 cliches that I bear grudge against:-
1.At the end of the day[Instead say "In the evening at 11.59 PM what really matters.."]
2.India Shining [Needs immediate ban!!]
3.Cool [OK,I use it myself, but I'm trying to give it up]
4.Outsourcing [Why not call it "sourcing it out"]
5.Cliche [:-)]

Update!
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I have been irregular off late in updating my blogs. Was kind of tied up...just moved into my new appt,trying to set it up. Its not so easy!! Too many things to do...and as they say the real devil lies in details! I went shopping for collecting basic necessities to get it functioning and was simply boggled to see the varieties available just in types of brooms! All shapes N sizes and colors, it took me neat 10 minutes to pick three of them:) Then came curtains which put me in the "To Buy Or Not To Buy" dilemma. I shopped till my mind went numb running AI algorithms deciding "which choice is best amongst given N choices". Gone are the days when u just call up the marwadi grocery shop round the corner and he dispatches your broom and groceries through a lad..Finally I had to run the "shortest path" algorithm to find way out of the shopping mall fearing that my credit card would run out of credit..but then my efforts did bear the fruit (sic/cliche) and the place is now habitable and infact looks fantastic!

Japanese!!
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Konnichiwa, Watashi wa maverick Desu !!
Bow, bend, bend, bend..Until U Drop Down :-) Thats how you greet in Japanese! ok..just kiddin... The latest news is that I have started my one month crash course in Japanese,with this travel to Japan on the anvil, I better take that seriously,for its a matter of survival their...My first impression was that Japanese is very similar to most of the Indian Languages' grammer, very scientific and visually appealing. Not like English which is a Phunny Language,you can walk English N talk English, but in Japanese you can only draw...And since my folks N teachers never bothered to improve my hand writing when I was a kid, I am now left wondering whether to join some drawing classes also to get my Hiragana/katakana & Kanjis right!
Have you seen the T-Shirts which says "I was born intelligent but education ruined me" That is very true with me, as a toddler I was quite good at drawing all sorts of linear N curved lines on walls, mom tells me...but when I joined a drawing class when I was umm in 6th grade...my teacher saw my pathetic potential and desire at becoming piccaso and gave me homework to fill a drawing book with just Straight N Curved lines until I get at least one of them right :-( and that folks, ruined my natural talent in drawing!! I hope my japanese instructors take mercy on me and this time at least they dont kill a potential japanese scholar:-)

All Time Fav Flicks!!
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Just thought of keying in some of my all time fav movies....

A few days back on a lazy afternoon I caught a fleeting glimpse of a couple kissing (or was it just a closeup shot??) while auto-scanning channels (my fav pastime when the idiot box is spewing cluttered distorted incoherent, nonsense moving pictures...I generally scan from 0 to 100 and back again,until my roomie snatches the remote and kicks butt--mine, not his) sleepy neurons suddenly srung up alert and quick database search discovered that the scene was from the movie 'Dance With Me', a musical romantic flick that I had seen long time back...it is a sheer delight...top class choreagraphy..amazing salsa/latino dance sequences performed by professional dancers...the movie undoubtedly ranks tops in my list of romantic flicks that you ought to see with your wifey/gurl friend...i.e. if they appreciate any form of art other than nagging....yes nagging is an art; which female species use deftly with their hubbies!

Another movie which has a place of pride in my CD Rack..is Top Gun..I picked its original DVD in Europe..this movie serves like booze to raise my sinking spirits...anytime I see it you "feel the need, the need for speed". I am yet to buy the DVD, but "Face Off" ranks second on my must see flick list....have you seen a stud more stylish than John Travolta?? Yes Tom Cruise n George Michael give him a run for his cigars, but then they are in a league of their own....

And for those who are wondering why am I talking only about male favorites, then lemme tell you that I love gods own creation - female specie in any form: mother,sister,daughter, wife and slut ...[man was ofcourse born to a female, the chicken N Egg story does not hold good here..] so thats about it....One last thing... the term "oomphmatis" coined by [V] for sluts N Sexy type females is tops on my vocabulary these days ;)

Dido!
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Have been seeing these Dido videos on YumTV/VTv for quite some time...but overlooked her album on my numerous visits to the nearest music shoppe...but on sunday I visited this new hip shopping mall "The Forum" and finally decided to pick up Dido~Life for Rent instead of Patience~Geroge Michael. Why pick up girlie songs?? well I am abosolutely delighted by the way she looks....perfect Ms Girlfriend types for me....short sporty hairs, atheltic & sweet looks....the album is good, can listen to songs when you are not doing anything in particular...lots of vocals, soothing keyboards and hawaiian guitars in it...good for a change from the currently reigning hip/hop types....

For all Connoisseurs of booze, here is a link (Reference: An article in latest issue of Outlook) that gives all information necessary on the art of drinking...It talks about how to setup an home bar, basics of drinking and also reviews on popular hangouts. It also coordinates guided tours to vineyards near Bangalore.

http://www.tulleeho.com

Lajja!
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On last Friday I reluctantly picked up Taslima Nasreens' "Lajja-The Shame". It was lying at my place for quite someime but I could not muster enough enthusiasm to read it. This book which took just 7 days for Taslima to write and 48 hours for me to read is....not so great. Yes, its umm boring at times...though the narrative is flowing and the English is quite sub-continental. One strinking thing was that I was expecting some religion bashing in it, considering that it was banned and earned a Fatwa...but surprisingly it has nothing objectionable as per my judgement...it just preaches secularism under the guise of a ficticious story based on the post Babri riots in Bangladesh...and that I think, is no crime..anyway, I dont feel like elaborating more....the striking message from her is that "secularism does not mean treating all religions at par, but it means rooting out religion from politics all together!!" I was of the first opinion earlier but now after a second thought I think what she says makes more sense. The ambiguous word Secular is now much more clear and meaningful!...Its high time someone wrote a similar book on Hindu fundamentalism preached by the likes of Modis/Togadias. Secularism is the basic fabric of any democracy..it should not be tampered with...being religious is OK, but making it a premise for political gains is not acceptable....IIMs are suffering due to same reason....My food for thought.....
~A Hindu

The Puppy Night!!
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Last week, on tuesday I went out on my daily after-dinner walk in the park nearby.BTW Bangalore really is living upto its name as garden city, some beautiful garden it is!! It was about 11.30 PM and I suddenly see this month old puppy stuck in a hole in the railing around the park. Quick inspection suggested that a puppy clan was probably trying to get out of the park and this poor chap chose a hole just enough for his tiny head to pass. The idiot could not figure out that he will not be able to wrench his body out of it and got stuck. So here I was..trying to prise his head out of the hole in which I succeded after about 10 minutes of effort. It was wailing all the time. I picked him up, consoled him and tried to find the rest of his brotherhood, who had sadly disappeared. Quite perplexed on what to do I decided to leave him near a ground in the vicinity in the hope that his mother might come searching for him..I had just about done that and turnded around that I see a pack of street mongrels growl menacingly at the poor kid...they attacked him even before I could pick him up..but I managed to shoo them away and was once again left with this terribly shaken baby. It was 12 PM by the time...I stood their for a while patting him...then decided to take him home...so I called up my roomie and we both took him home on bike and I placed him in the corner of the lawns in my appartments. Then we arranged for some water and biscuits for him.The poor kid was so shaken but comforted by our efforts that he waked up every now and then to check if we are there.I stayed up with him till about 2.30 AM!! and when he was asleep I asked the security guard to leave him with some street kids in a nearby hutments next morning...and went home.
Few days later I was again having my regular evening walk in the same park and I saw another puppy playing their:-( I feel awful for separating them but I guess it couldnt be helped...the other puppy is nowhere to be found now..I will anyway keep searching for him....God bless him....

Enrique Live in Bangalore!!
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What an evening! Yesterday had been to Enrique live concert in Bangalore..hot babes all around...that was anyway expected....girls going crazy..I even saw few "I luv u Enrique" posters:-))
Anyway the show was good, slickly packed and presented...It started little late as expeted...so we were there standing for about 4 hours...hairs in a disarray with dust and voice hoarse with shouting...the Latino chorus singer he brought along was hot N sexy...he even gave a sizzling show of love-making while performing one of his songs;-)..the crowd was also boisterous and supportive...so all in all a rocking night....thats one good thing I like about bangalore...it is always the first to host such shows...Bryan Adams, Scorpians, Pink Floyd, Enrique, Richard Clayderman, Elton John...long live DNA....
One life Live it!!

MURDER! Rating 3.5 Star (Parental Guidance Recommended)
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This one's another hot, humid, sultry & sizzling flick from the stables of Bhatts! Mallika Sherawat is indeed one of the boldest siren in bollywood. The first half is value for money...the second an excellent ROI (i.e. Return on Investment).
The movie goes into nested for-loop right in beginning (flashback within flashbacks )...Its about a couple settled in Bangkok whose marriage is in rough weather for flimsy reasons...the hubby is a computer engg who was probably gifted the house of the CEO of his company..because all Comp geeks that I have seen onsite DO NOT live in lavish houses, but in a dingy shared accomodation to save dough....anyway, the USA (UnSatisfied Aunt) Mallika Sherawat bumps into her old time beau (Whats his name??) who went to jail for her sake for some petty fight. This dude manages to find his way into a pub in bangkok as a DJ after his jail term. He then lures and seduces his long lost love back...(lots of filmi "Situations" for hot songs) and is determined to win her back from the clutches of her inconsiderate husband....wont tell you more cause thats what you ought to see....
Acting wise Mallika has no scope, but has covered for it mostly by uncovering herself....good job babe...The hubby (whats his name??) looks cool...and ofcourse the lucky dog Anish Patel has had most of the fun in the movie....worth seeing when your spirits are down.....I suggest see it on DVD with a peg in hand :-)
Enjoy!

"Goodby my friend...." thats how goes one of the Boney M songs. Well this is for another good ol chum of mine, Anand, who is shifting base back to his hometown today. We have been together since college days, were project partners, joined our existing firm together, were roomies for 2/3 Yrs until he got married to his childhood love RJ... this cool chap has got an uncanny ability to get on your nerves for his sheer careless attitude towards life:-) His interests include girls and only girls.. all ages, shapes & size at any given time of day, morn, noon, night...he has had enough girls swooning over him, but he will never have enough of the female species...though he is hopelessly devoted to his wife..he is equally flirtatious to ever reform from this habit of his....for his send off yesterday we went out past midnight searching for a cuppa of cofee a la our college days...on the way came across a...Uhm...C-Girl..were tempted to go for a bachelors night out...but ignored her...(btw, we dont come across them every day!!)...then had a nice filter coffee at 'savera', came back & then slept over late at his place, had nice breakfast in morn...before seeing him off...
So long AJ, lets hope we meet soon again...all the best N Enjoy!

Some sidey friend wished me "Good Morning" early today morning with an SMS. He timed it so well that I received it just about when I got up from sleep and was scrambling to stay wide awake...I too promptly forwarded it to few others to bug them... ha ha!! Here's how the SMS went [ Its in Hinglish, see if you can understand..]

"Arey o peeple ke ped ke sukhe hue patte me chupe hue Bhoot ke panje ki last ungli ke tute hue nakhun se behte khun ke bimar bacteria, Uth Ja! Good Morning!! "

Maan just imagine, U a Sick bacteria running in a ghosts blood! what a wierd concept! I couldnt stop my laughter on reading this, thanx maan for starting my day with such a good laugh :-)