Dec 30, 2009

home stretch

i've been meaning to do this for a while now. this happens to coincide with a day before the new years', but by no means is it going to be anything to do with it. this is what happens when a confused, ill at ease, 20 year old, has internet access and nothing else to do, and, oh, thinks philosophy is his forte. this is a me, over the past few months, solely for my sake, not yours, not anyone else's, but you're welcome to read.

i've backspaced text around a hundred times now. honestly i don't know what i'm doing. there is so much going on, that i want things to be bulleted in my head, those star shaped bullets, thank you very much.

along came final year, adding to that list. there was a point in time when i had six exams to write, a wedding to attend and a toefl test to take, in a span of 5 days. then i had applications to finish, semester exams to take care of, (last semester or first semester, they're all the same to parents), a job to get and an internship to spend the next six months usefully. it was like matrix when all the smiths shoot at neo and he raises a hand and stops the bullets. i raised my hand and almost lost a finger.

gre, toefl and internship fell into place. i found out that i'd have 2 months at home before spending 6 months elsewhere in india, and the next few years, elsewhere. i wanted time to myself. i wanted everything to slow down. everything, but time, did. i was found wanting, in a hurry to get stuff done. i withdrew into a shell i'd made for myself, rather pushed into it by things happening around me. someone took my usual seat at the window, and i had to move on.

things changed. the extent of the effect those "changes"had cannot possibly be explained and the words "things changed" do not do justice to them. priorities changed, some in a good way, some not so good. i finally realised how foolish i had been for the past three years. i took a raincheck from some people, and a reality check from others.

asq and cqc, i love you.

then came placements and the end of the seventh semester. it is that time of the year when people make friends real fast, just a month before they part ways, after having sat idle for 3 and a half years. it is the time of the year that when most people get placed and get a job, thereby fulfilling their purpose to have taken computer science, sadly. it is the time for controversies and celebrations. sometimes you feel like you've been played, like things are so unfair, but you can't do anything about it. i saw hypocrites. i saw people who practised what they, earlier, condemned. i hated how unacceptable acts become justified in a person's view, once they themselves practise them. some have words in their slambook than they've actually talked face to face. I'm making this as obscure as possible,for obvious reasons. i have enough bones to pick.

i'm currently at chennai, interning at ebay. i had to finish my applications for graduate study before i left home. i got tired of saying 'purdue, stanford, umich, ut, uiuc, ucb' again and again. i got tired of proofreading my sop. finally i got it all done, and only the wait remains.

it's been a month here. i already have a lot of firsts to my credit. my first roomies, my first mentor, my first paycheck, first time cleaning the house, disregard for phone bill, first team outing, foosball, song writing/singing, to mention a few. it's been a good ride so far, considering the fact that i landed in chennai with a world of plans and no place to say. we walked,and walked and walked till we found this place we're currently at. i was exhausted, but i felt good.

along came my brother, then, making things infinitely better. :) reunions are priceless. reunions generally portend good news, and if the person in question has chocolates and a polaroid camera, all the merrier. the materialistic me says hi.

so i guess i'm saying things will always change. your rainbow is just around the corner, but only if you dare to look. in order to survive, we cling onto everything we understand and know, and call it reality. so, effectively, reality is skewed, and changes as we know and understand more. reality is a paradigm. it is a consequence of what you do and what you believe in. ignore it, pretend, and you'll fall further than you already have.

on some days, you'll have the best day ever. everything will go your way, like how my dead laptop which refused to boot suddenly booted up, and the random pretty girl got on my bus (in your face, bus no.1). some other days are a pain in the ass. you can only try to make them better. tell her she looks pretty, give him a wide grin, walk along the beach, have a coffee with a sugar and a half, forget you're in a conference room with thin walls and sing, sigh at the moon, take pictures, take some more pictures. don't forget that if you fell in love once, you'll fall in love again, if ever you have second thoughts.

yea, that's more or less what i had in mind, minus the details. another episode in my timesnewroman life.

Dec 17, 2009

....

I mean, how fucked up can it get?

....

Dec 10, 2009

:)

How I look like if you see me now. Perfect round face even, smiley-like.
Reason(s) : work, play and a little salt to taste.

Dec 2, 2009

what the internet can do to you

you don't know some people.
you wouldn't have seen them on the street, or passed them by if you had.
then one day, you'll read about what they've done and you'll be filled with awe.
then you'll realise how little you've done.

Nov 27, 2009

vanity cards

Chuck Lorre is on the list of people I want to meet.
I have long believed that part of our problem with resolving race issues in America is our inability to accurately name what we are. Aside from the occasional Johnny and Edgar Winter, there are no white people. Any child with a box of crayons can tell you that white people are, in fact, beige. The sickly ones are gray. Following this crayon logic, one can easily see that there are really no black people. They are brown. Or perhaps raw umber. Or maybe burnt sienna. Frankly, every time I hear someone comment on America's first black president, I can't help thinking, "No, he's not. He's more like caramel." Which is why I think we should all get in the habit of calling each other what we really are. How can you racially slur a man by calling him "beigey" or "umber?" The answer is you can't. Because that's exactly what he is. The melanin doesn't lie. Buy a box of Crayolas and see for yourself. We are all members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Can I hear a kumbaya?
Visit HERE for more.

Nov 26, 2009

2222

A single tear is much , much sadder than a stream down the cheek. It speaks of the deepest grief in a person, that which has been held inside for long, that which he/she hasn't come to terms with. It is one of the prettiest things in the world that can be sad.

Sigh.

Nov 21, 2009

Happiness only real when shared





Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made
Something more equal to centuries
Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.
The mountains are dead stone, the people
Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,
The mountains are not softened or troubled
And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper.

I don't think I can do justice if I describe how he felt. The bittersweet realization gets to me every time I'm reminded of him.

Nov 19, 2009

Insert Cuss word here

A month ago
Writing my SOP shouldn't be that darn difficult.

A week later
Writing my SOP shouldn't be that difficult.

Another week later
g..o..o...g..l..e.. ctrl+enter ..s..o..p..Search.

Three days later
Wait?! That's all I've done for the past three years?! :O

Day before yesterday
Erm, suggestions anyone?

Yesterday
Bite me.

Now,
Hopefully this is the last SOP I have to write, ever.
Crowded.

Nov 17, 2009

Monospaced

i wish to do enough with my life, that even when my memory starts fading with age, i'll remember that i have done everything that i wanted to, and that is all that would matter. a decent job that pays well isn't what matter. it is but a step-up to do all the other stuff one intends to. money isn't the end, it is the means. the belief is, you live a good life now and you go to heaven, but when(if) i go to heaven i won't be me, so why bother? no matter where you are, if you didn't enjoy the ride, it isn't worth being there.

to be inspired, is a wonderful feeling.



Nov 16, 2009

United we stand!

It's been raining here for a long time now and consequently the passages under the flyovers are flooded, and all the two wheelers are supposed to go through there, even if it rains. So I go that way this morning, and reach the intersection.


We are the ones in red. Some of us want to turn left and some others want to turn right. There's no friggin' police dude to regulate traffic, and there's a puddle of water exactly where we turn. So we can't stop while turning, it's all gotta be in one whooosh!. (Unless you want to put your foot down in a nasty puddle) The only obstacle to this is the blue faction who want to go straight and not wait for us to pass. It's all messy up front, when a poilceman shows up, with awesome timing and all. Now he tells US to stop and asks the blue guys to go through first. We like it that order has resume and wait for him to let us pass but it's been more than a minute now, and the blues are still going through.

Just then, one guy hit his horn. Then all around me horns started blaring. A symphony of horn sounds targeted at the police man. It was so awesome that I laughed out and hit my horn too. It was beautiful.

He let us through. :)

P.s : I still MSPaint like a retard

Nov 14, 2009

'Tis a beautiful day.

So I finish the last exam with half an hour to spare, hand in my paper, and walk out slowly with a smile on my face, background music playing in my head and all, and it starts raining outside, like in Shawshank Redemption.

Redemption. Wonderful feeling, that.

Nov 13, 2009

The last of the lot.

I have exactly 13 hours before I sit for the last exam of my Undergrad study. I mean, last ever.

You know how, sometimes, you look forward to stuff, and then when it happens, you don't know what to feel?

Now is NOT one of those times. I'm glad that the formality that they call exams is over. For atleast a year.

:)

Nov 5, 2009

If watching sachin play yesterday meant I'll be scoring low in DCA tomorrow, I'd do it a thousand times over.

After such an innings, it sucks to see him on the losing side.

Nov 3, 2009

For dummies

The other day, I bought a book titled "Reading, for dummies".

And hit myself on the head with it.

Oct 28, 2009

Kickass!

Chief Running Water: Your mother is what we Indians call, 'Bear With Wide Canyon.'
Cartman: What do you mean?
CRW: She is 'Doe Who Cannot Keep Legs Together.'
Cartman: Huh?
CRW: Your mom's a slut.

Oct 24, 2009

Them good Ol' movie watchin' times.

Finally, I got to see 5 movies in what could technically be called a spree. ;)

The Aviator : Long, but worth it. Leonardo owns.

I Love You, Man : Funny movie. A change from the serious stuff. Not American pie sequel-like brainless humor. :)

The Hustler : An addition to the list of Paul Newman movies I'm hitting off late. He's got style!

The Hangover : Hilarious movie. Worth the hype, IMO. (Well chosen soundtracks )

Inglourious Basterds : The movie I was most anxious to see, this year. I waited this long to get a good print of it, cursing Coimbatore theatres for screening shit like Jagan Mogini instead of English movies. Finally, I saw it yesterday...

It was GOOD. But not Tarantino-GOOD. See movies like Pulp fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs to know what I mean.

In short the Basterds weren't as Awesome as they were on the trailer, save the Bear Jew.

Next up : Rocknrolla, Star Wars - the entire series (amidst all the application madness)

Oct 20, 2009

Time without consequence

So I was looking through my music and cleaning up stuff I've grown out of, and I revisited Alexi murdoch.

Time without consequence - What a name for an album.

I have new found respect for this guy. Get this album, or singles like Home, All my days, Orange Sky, or Blue mind to know why. Or not.

P.s : Project's done and officially life is less-hectic than before. That and restricted internet usage lead to PC exploration. ;)

Oct 12, 2009

the perfect coffee

The perfect coffee is a myth.

The perfect coffee is relative.

What say, thoughtbug?
"Boo!"

"Aaahhhhh!"

Sep 9, 2009

Things that are overrated.

American Idol.
Branded shoes.
Pasta.
Cold coffee.
Pamela anderson's breasts.
Feminism.
Slumdog Millionaire.
Rajat Kapoor's pronunciation skills.
Kadalai.
Uniqueness.

You're not me, and you don't think like I do.

Sep 7, 2009

Sep 6, 2009

This sucks.

Aug 31, 2009

Aug 19, 2009

Coffee, anyone?

I managed to whip up the P.E.R.F.E.C.T coffee I could, with the limited resources I had, and the small amount of energy I was willing to expend. I sipped it till the last drop, slowly, and pleasure spread through me. Coffee is liquid sex. And the more you have it, the less tired you get.

Aug 15, 2009

Big City Life

I'm at cochin now, and folks are taking a nap on a saturday afternoon. This city is quite small as well, like the one I live in, coimbatore. I dug up a few songs from the depths of my computer and this one landed up - Big City Life by Mattafix (Something I'd caught on VH1 when I used to watch TV, by Mattafix; one hit wonder, most probably) Love this song, however weird or retarded he might sound. ;)

You can find it here. (The embed didn't work somehow).

Aug 13, 2009

Listening to rain

Some songs are meant to be window seat songs, like when you look out the window and those songs plays, it fits.

Songs in my head : N.I.B (Black Sabbath), Hoppipolla (Sigur Ros), Daddy's gone(Glasvegas), Blow up the outside world (Sound Garden).

Aug 10, 2009

There are two kinds of pain, Excruciating and liberating.

The former has all the negative connotations of pain, whilst the latter is the kind that is a promise of better things to come.

Aug 2, 2009

The one where I make an exception.

Sunday evenings mean informal quizzes at the CQC (Coimbatore Quiz Circle) and we had one today as well. I was going, after a month long hiatus due to various reasons which made my sundays absolutely not how they're supposed to be. So today I'm sorted into team 3 and by some mysterious rumblings, there are just 3 people in team 3, when there are 6 to 7 in all the other 5 teams (we call out numbers and all 1s bunch togehter, you get the drift).

There's also Dr.Zhivago who's come all the way from team 5 to sit with us. ( Now Dr.Zhivago is how I call this doctor's 7-8 year old little girl. One certain sunday, on one such quiz, there was this video clip and we were asked to identify what movie that was. It was a scene on a beach, and no one was able to get it. This little girl shouts Dr.Zhivago! matter-of-factly, and says "I've seen that movie". Awesome innit? )So, Dr.Zhivago comes to us and says she wants to sit with 3 today. :) So the quiz begins and ten minutes into it, she asks for my hand. I was pretty sure I heard her wrong, when she took it and started tying a satin friendship band around my wrist. She then flashed this wide grin and took my phone and started playing with it.

Man, was I touched.

P.s : I usually am not a fan of friendship bands. Ergo, the title.

Jul 29, 2009

Men of principle

My Industrial management lecturer has a lot of quirks, vices if you may, but there are times when he says things like this, that makes you look up to him.

"I'm against the reservation system. I belong to the Backward community. Around three years back, my daughter wrote her boards and appeared for counselling. My friend suggested me to make use of that loophole and get a seat in the BC quota. I didn't allow it. She got into Sandwich EEE in the general category."

--

Half a globe away, lived a man named Randy Pausch. His last lecture is something that isn't to be missed. However I didn't get to reading his book all this time. Funny how I started reading it exactly a year after he died. The book has much more detail, how he got to doing his lecture, his narrative part. I'm not gonna spoil it for you by quoting him. Go on, read it.

Jul 20, 2009

Final year

2 days of classes attended in 3 weeks. My new record.

Jul 18, 2009

Sour popcorn

Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince - a waste of time, except for the company I had. I'd have been better off laughing at Harry potter-um maya rajakumaranum.

Ginny weasley might as well have been dead, but kudos to her and the director for playing such passion with such listlessness.

And dumbledore was killed off as though he was just another friggin' wizard.

Yes, let's hope the seventh movie is worth the 2 parts.

--------

(I turn 3 today, and it is my ill luck to have a post about this movie to commemorate this. Damn you Ryan. **Happy birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...)

Jul 5, 2009

75 minutes in the corridor of a random complex sheltered from rain.

Good talk.

Jun 27, 2009

Jun 23, 2009

Clifford Lee Burton




"When a man lies, he murders some part of the world
These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives
All this I cannot bear to witness any longer
Cannot The Kingdom of Salvation take me home?"

Jun 17, 2009

my timesnewroman life

putting your thoughts into words is a tough task. on reading it, you should get the same feel as you did when you thought about it. otherwise it isn't worth it.

the thought process is the most unstructured process i've come across. every single thing around you contributes its little something to it. the subtlest of things bring about the biggest of changes, like the random person who sits near you on the bus, or meeting the unlikeliest of people, for however short a while or the temperature of water from the water doctor. everything contributes to how you feel at a particular time of the day, even though you might attribute your happiness solely to the fact that you got the rest of the day off, or your irritation to the bubblegum stuck under the keyboard.

over time, we change, for better or for worse. idle mind is a good measure of the changes i 've gone through. i used to type like a hyperactive 8th grader who fancied the '.' key on the keyboard. poetry was all about the rhyme and music used to refer to pop. walking was a bad thing, and bus rides were a rarity. feels like long ago, times when my handwriting was legible.

the first band i listened to was backstreet boys. i used to think they were good. then i saw how shallow they sounded, how none of their lines meant anything. that realisation came with 'nothing else matters', the first metallica song that i heard. and then i started believing that only when you write your own lines, will you ever mean what you sing. that was the point when i started divesifying, listening to music, irrespective of the genres. i loved songs for their lines, for the way they brought out an involunatary shudder in my spine, for few-second-brilliances.

that's how i got into metal. you need to understand metal to appreciate it. you can't like metal in a day, because metal is so vast. every day you come across a new sound. if you listen to black sabbath, you'll know why the tritone became to be one of the most worshipped sounds, or you probably won't, which is ok. metal was refreshing. what many perceive as just loud sound, has so much symmetry and beauty in it. there's this kind of a filter in my head, which helps me listen to a particular sound at a time, if i want to, like only the lead guitar in fade to black. metal is diverse. metal brings that awesome rush, that sense of wonder which comes when i listen to maiden's dance of death, jimmy page's stairway to heaven solo, enter sandman by metallica or the grungy guitar of nirvana, to mention a few. there's so much to explore and so much you can relate to. metal, to me, is not exquisite because of its select audience. it's all about the lines and structure, and the ebbs and flows. i can feel the angst in the guitar strings, when it speeds up, a volcanic eruption of emotion during the guitar solo. my hair stands on its end every time the crowd sings along with fear of the dark, master of puppets gives me a mini-orgasm, even. there's a part of metal that relates to everyone., but not metal as a whole, in my honest opinion.

a non-metallic song (if i may :p) plays as i type all this out. metal forms a large part of my music for now. but as i mentioned before, it's not only metal that does this. other genres lack the variety that metal offers, that's probably why they have so many genres, one for a particular feeling. the music i listen to now, reflects my mood, or even determines it sometimes. after listening to songs with life in them i can't bring myself to appreciate dance-mixes and remixes. i'm lost when in opeth's deliverance, in mighty popo's carefree african tune, or the blissful serenity of a piano, drowning in it, letting it flow through me. lost, in a strangely liberating way.

as time passed, i realised i think in english. tamil features now and then, but most of them it is english. at college, the avenues for conversing in english are very few. in class, i have like two people i can speak in english with. don't get me wrong here. the others speak well too, but they just don't. and they don't have to. but sometimes i get the feeling that if i don't use the english i have, i'd lose it slowly. so you see, thinking in english is something big. i guess that's one thing i needn't worry about.

i've stopped watching tv, except for the occasional soccer match, or the playoffs, or the grand slams, or the world cups, or the masters. i've lost faith in tamil cinema and tv shows. tv shows in tamil don't cater to young folk. so i shifted my attention to the english ones. what started off with f.r.i.e.n.d.s has now grown into this monster under my bed which threatens to eat me up. before, monday was the blues day, tuesday was the day after monday, wednesday was half way through, thursday was looking-forward-to-friday-day, friday was yay-it's-almost-the-weekend day, and then saturday and sunday were, saturday and sunday. a coupla months later monday became chuck + himym + prison break day, tuesday meant house m.d, wednesay was a day for detoxing, thursday meant naruto. friday, saturday and sunday didn't change. i've maxxed out. no more new tv shows, or so i've decided.

everyday, i walk 5 minutes to my busstop, take the bus to college, sit and let myself be 'taught', pretending to listen while the one up there in front, invariably pretends to be someone he'she is not, talk to a few people, ignore a few others, live my life, go back home by bus, walk the 5 minutes which becomes 7 due to weariness, scribble what i have to, listen to what i want, stare at the wall, think and spit out what i feel occasionally. and when i spit it out, it sounds so mundane, which is just because my mood is mirrored in my words, because it isn't actually so mundane. i sleep thinking i'll wake up to do all this again. and again. and again. or i might change. again.

i've grown, a lot. responsibility has eked into my life, and looks to hitch a ride with me wherever i go. i still find time for myself. to do the things i love;
for dream theater's a change of seasons,
for jack, as he jumps at me, as i walk home,
for that perfect coffee,
for the people in my life,
for the random pretty girl to turn her face,
for hating myself for the ones that faded away over time because i didn't take the effort,

for a few words, now and then.

why?

because i will change,
because change is all we do.
me, you, why, jack too.

i ask myself, "was it worth it?"

Jun 13, 2009

Sleep when you can't stay awake any longer, not because it's time .

Jun 10, 2009

Cinema paradiso


Another one of my holiday movie marathon post. Read if you want some suggestions for a good movie to watch over the weekend. ;)

In no particular order, over the past few weeks, I watched :
  • Scarface : Tony montana's rise to power, and all the dangers and vices that come with it. A fine movie, but you might find it a bit long. Kudos to Al Pacino.
  • The Notebook : Nicholas sparks, you know. Summer romance and a a twist at the end where someone has to have a terminal/sad illness. The summer romance part was good.
  • Seven pounds : Will smith on a mission to make up for one mistake he committed which led to the death of seven people. A pound for each of the seven. Seven pounds. Beautiful, in parts.
  • Chaos theory : I don't know why I saw this. You're not missing anything.
  • Let the right one in : Dutch thriller. Shot with class. A story of a little girl vampire, you know, a vampire as in the ones which bite humans for blood, burns when in the sunlight, etc, not one that twinkles in the sun.
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : Please watch this if you get your hands on it. Brilliant movie. Sundance is class, and Paul Newman (Butch), I don't have to say anything about him. It's about The Hole In The Wall Gang which robbed trains.
  • Cool Hand Luke : Again, Paul Newman brilliance.
The luke smile


  • Wedding crashers : I got this for the cast, actually. But in the end, it ended up being fun. Rachel Mcadams, Owen Wilson and Isla Fisher. Rachel Mcadams is my current favorite, officially.
  • The lucky ones : Again, another movie for the cast, but the one-line-plot was promising as well. Three soldiers who've come home from the war, each with his/her own problems. Rachel Mcadams does an amazing southern accent. I think you might wanna watch this one.
  • Walk the line : The story of johnny cash. Fame and its repercussions. A biography of Johnny cash. Joaquin phoenix fits the role perfectly, though he might have done better with the laugh. And Reese witherspoon's southern accent matches Rachel's.
  • The Pianist : Truth. In all its bitterness. The true story of Wladislaw Spzilman, a pianist in the time of the Blitzkreig and the holocaust. Must-see if you like art movies.
  • Beautiful girls : Really good. I can watch this movie for Natalie portman's "Yo-willy-boy!" alone. A bunch of guys, and their concept of beauty takes a turn at their high school reunion.
  • Fugitive pieces : Very obscure cast. Beautiful poetry and amazing lines. Again the story of a Jewish man who loses his family as a kid during the war, and is taken care of by a greek.
  • Children Of Heaven : Simple. Beautiful. It is relly something, the way the little girl , Zahra, runs.
Making good use of the last few days I have for the movies. GRE-prep will go on during clss hours as well. Feels good, doing something worthwhile. When I question myself whether I wtach too many movies, I always have the GRE prep to match. ;)

Bad Hair Day

What do you do when you wake up and see there's a fault with the motor and there's no water available in the overhead tank? All that after you've run for like half an hour and are probably better off staying away from people? And you've gotta get to college within an hour?

Thankful that there was enough water for a facewash.

Even more thankful that man invented the deodorant.

Jun 9, 2009

If your muscles feel like they're on fire, it means that it's working

Sometimes pain can be a good thing.

Jun 7, 2009

How Federer got married, got hounded and won the French open.

The match wasn't as good as the semifinal though. It was as though Soderling had left his spirit in the lockers. But he was sporty enough with his speech. I wish the match had gone on to four sets atleast. Nothing like a good match. Federer beating Nadal next year would be awesome to watch.

And oh yea, Federer already got a life.

P.s : Pikachus are supposed to be pikachus.

P.P.S : Blimey.

Jun 6, 2009

Happy Birthday, Best Friend

4 years and I've been there for only one, that too, the first year, when I just got to know you. I used to be away and you used to be home, now I'm home and you're away.

This could be a new thing. We could do this every June 6th so the chain isn't broken. :D


Jun 4, 2009

Adolf Pikachu

The Anti-Jew Pikachu.


Found this on Google Image Search while searching for Adolf Hitler. Bless whoever did this. ;))

Jun 3, 2009

Epiphany


Life is like the rollercoaster ride you were forced to take when you were a kid, and never want to get out of now that you know what it really is.

Ideally.

Jun 2, 2009

Eyes Wide Shut

I'm in a state where I don't know whether I'm bored or happy with my holidays now.

I needed change. So I did all this new shit during the holidays. Looks like I've been doing the same different things everyday. :|

Studying the evolution of tamil swearwords with a friend is a change from the ordinary, no?

Or not having Jay Leno for the tonight show, or Nadal not being in the final 8.

I can't wait for college to reopen, though it promises to be the worst semester ever.

Jun 1, 2009

Monkey see. Monkey do.



A product of joblessness. Jobless enough to whip this up. Not jobless enough to use something other than mspaint.

To die hard Nadal fans, this is just for fun. Yes, one loss might not be too big. Yes he might come back harder at wimbledon. But still monkey-boy lost. :)

This would have been way different if Federer had lost today, but he literally clawed his way back. Whattafourthset!

P.s : I mspaint like a retard.

6 in 3. The Sequel

This time I didn't watch 6 movies in three days.

In no particular order :

Into the wild : Methought it was beautiful. some people say it is creepy. (Sonu doesn't think it's creepy but maybe she will after she watches it. My bad! :P)

Monsters Vs Aliens : Animated features, you know how they work. The best thing about this, for me was B.O.B and Dr.Cockroach.

Twilight : I think I've said enough in the previous post. (I should probably add that the baseball scene was shot well. Loved the editing and the background score)

In Bruges : Clap. Clap. Weirdly amazing movie.

Charlie Wilson's war : The cold war. As it was, with Tom Hanks playing Charlie Wilson.
“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. Then we fucked up the endgame.”

The Shining : Now THIS is a creepy movie.

Gran Torino (again)

Munich : Retaliation for the murder of the Israeli athletes at the munich olympics. Well shot but a tad slow.

Angels and Demons : Definitely better than "The Da Vinci code" movie. They did fairly enough to condense it into a movie. I've always considered Dan Brown as a masala-author, but he sure has done his research. There was one major production flaw in the movie however. Like, MAJOR. It is 8 PM when the first killing happens, and the vatican ha sa bright sunny sky. Half an hour or so later, it is the dark of the night, probably because the director realised it.

Word from the GRE front is that progress is good on that side as well.

May 31, 2009

Oh Yea

I've exceeded my internet connection four days back but I'm here. What's the occasion you ask? Monkey-boy-Nadal lost at Roland Garros to an unassuming power hitter who goes by the name, Robin Soderling. To put it in a better way Soderling won it.

I'm a sadist when it comes to Nadal losing. :)

Though I should agree, Nadal is closer to being God on clay than most others, and nothing would be as pleasurable as Federer beating hima nd taking the cup.

May 30, 2009

To Tracy

Mush + Hype + I-read-books-which-are-the-IN-thing-people+shirtless-white-brit --> Twilight

I'm afraid I've read the book and it was a chick lit for the most parts. (Her vampire werewolf thing was decent) But what the book's done to hollywood and audiences all over is something that irks me to no end.

Now all of a sudden everyone wants a piece of Robert Pattinson. You know what I think? They look at him and see Edward Cullen.

Kristen Stewart also has found immense recognition for playing Bella Swan, but her Tracy Tatro in "Into The Wild" was good enough for me.

Tracy Tatro and Alexander Supertramp.

Kristen Stewart, please don't turn into a bitch.

P.s : Watch "Into The Wild". Beautiful movie. Period.

May 28, 2009

I got up early and ran. For the first time I felt what "a stitch in the chest" mentioned in books I've read, would feel like. It was a good feeling. It's good to be back.

The only thing left to do now is to make sure I won't be lying when I say "I got up early and ran", tomorrow, or in the days to come.
-----------

On the GRE front : Barron's sentence example for alimentary - When Sherlock Holmes was asked the name for the digestive tract, he said "Alimentary, my dear Watson."

Outplayed


11:15 PM Sunil: k
i m shit scared
me: i hope we dont concede an early goa;
if we dont do that we re safe
11:16 PM Sunil: hopefully
Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Barca won. 2-0. The initial strike after ten minutes left us stranded, and then Messi finished it off.

Beaten but not broken. We'll be back next year.

May 27, 2009

Fackital!

I prefer typing "Twelve Twenty Five" out on my phone to switching to number mode and then typing 12 25, though it takes more time. I think it is the characters per second count which matters more than the number of characters.

United Vs Barca.
Ronaldo Vs Messi.
Sir Alex Vs Pep guardiola.

Kick off in 'tee-minus 45 minutes'.

I can almost taste the tension.

May 23, 2009

Books, Quizzing, Pretty-Hindu-Girl and Masala Chai

Yea, those are four reasons I had to smile today; four out of a countable few. Today saw the second edition of the Oxford Booklovers' quiz. I had absolutely nothing to do, and so I went, not that I wouldn't have gone if I did have something to do. Last year me and rotti came third. So this year I was defending my third place.(He's gone to dubai) I needed a teammate because my usual teammate ET had his brother's admissions to look after. Bless the three member per team rule which gave me a chance to join another team as the third fellow. To cut a long story short, the quiz happened and we did come third. I managed to defend my third place, but for my teammates nutty and raji, it was a downshift from winning last year. We missed a coupla easy questions, but you win some and you lose some. We got tshirts and a book each. Mine turned out to be a book on deers in North America. Damn, if only they knew I loved wolves and tigers.

Our friends from the CQC ended up winning, pipping us at the post and like always, winner buys dinner, or this time, Chai. The eleven or so of us, had chai, coffee, etc.

That's why quizzing rocks. You have all these awesome people who know SOMETHING about anything, or atleast have heard of it, or have enoug wit to relate it to something else and then you have these brilliant questions. If you're someone who thinks quizzes should be prepared for and will have questions which you can crack only if you know them, then believe me you cannot be more wrong, or is it wronger? :/ Whatever, the point is, you don't sit and prepare for a quiz, it just happens. Whatever you read, see hear around you is preparation. you just need to think a bit to put things in their place. Attend 10 quizzes, sit through them, and you'll do well in the 11th or so. It is all a giant jigsaw puzzle; some pieces are easy to fit, and some will be really tiresome like when you try fitting the bright blue sky, but when you finish it, you have the full picture and a smile on your face.

Hindu covered this quiz. Last year according to them, "I had just passed out of 12th standard". this year, let's see what happens. This pretty looking girl covered the article. Looking bemusedly interested, taking stuff down which she would probably use for the article later. (See, hindu girl as in "hindu" the newspaper, not "hindu" the religion)

Oxford's cha bar was the venue and they have beautiful music playing in the background. So yea, books, quizzing, music, Pretty girl, and masala chai with a few nice people. Need I want more?

So I come home and when mom asks me I tell her we came third and it was so much fun, there's this hint of disappointment in her voice and she says how I don't try to come first in anything, atleast for her sake. For me quizzing has always an awesome time spent with your friends, having fun and getting to know stuff that won't help with your studies/work but stuff that will make you go, "faaaahhk you're kidding me!". And it will always be that way.

Earlier this day, 10th results came out. that day of the year when people judge students based on their marks rather than judging their performances. My mom felt so proud of some boy/girl who got 496 on 500.

May 21, 2009

Ouch.

The most irritating place to get a sore would be the tip of the tongue.

True story.

May 16, 2009

6 in 3

What goes through a reader's mind on reading "6 in 3"?

*6 runs required from 3 balls? (This being the IPL season and owing to Mumbai's hapless finishing)

*6 coffees in 3 hours? (Given my prolific coffee drinking nature at times, which the reader will know if he/she had read this.)

* Or is it 6 movies in 3 days.(Who doesn't watch movies in the holidays?)

Each one as likely as the other, but if you chose movies then you'd probably have won a million dollars if this were some game show.

Just a line or two about each of the six I watched.

Day 1

Atonement : Classic case of look-before-you-leap. Beautiful sounds, beautiful editing, brutal ending.

Rainman : A tale of a man who finds his long lost autistic brother, "Raymond" and finds out that he is the "imaginary Rainman" who sang to him when he was little and how they get to know each other. A little patience is required but the final stretch is beautiful.

Old School : A bunch of friends start a fraternity to spice up life and as all fun-no-brainers go this one kept me entertained.

Day 2

Fast and the Furious 4 : The image of Vin Diesel's car rearing up and surging forward is something that I won't get out of my head for a long time. After 2 useless FnF movies, here's one to match the first "Fast and the furious" movie.

Gran Torino : Must watch. (Refer previous post)

Day 3

Definitely, maybe : April, Summer and Emily. April, Natasha and Sarah. Story of how Toilet paper guy ends up with copy girl told as a bed time story by toilet paper guy to his daughter when she finds out that her dad and mom getting a divorce. Loved it.

Do I have enough time to make it 7 in 3? ;)

May 15, 2009

My Gran Torino




Father Janovich: [eulogizing Walt] Walt Kowalski once said to me that I knew nothing about life or death, because I was an over-educated, 27-year-old virgin who held the hand of superstitious old women and promised them eternity.
[the congregation chuckles politely and somberly]
Father Janovich: Walt definitely had no problem calling it like he saw it. But he was right. I knew really nothing about life or death, until I got to know Walt... and boy, did I learn.


Another reason why it pains me to see slumdog on the IMDB 250 list at where it stands, because Gran Torino deifinitely deserves to be higher than Slumdog. Take a bow, Mr.Eastwood, or should I say Walter 'Wally' Kowalski.

May 11, 2009

Free update-Build 12/5/09

Today I found out that my grandma who just died a month and a half back had been a violinist for All India Radio before my Grandpa forbade her from playing there after marriage. (My grandpa wasan awesome guy btw. one of his quirks, I guess)

My maternal thatha celebrated his 80th a day back. He's happy. :) I was the cameraman at the function. :P
Above mentioned thatha's brother had come even, along with his wife and children. It was great to see them all together, the ones who were there before us. Listening to him talk about his days at the Reserve Bank, and take jabs at his old wife, was fun. Apparently he schooled with the founder of TTK. He was an awesome fellow. Unassuming and super company.

Above mentioned thatha can't see properly after 6 PM and his wife can't hear without an aid. :D Makes for super stories, and witty remarks.

My Paternal thatha's brother was Nehru's personal secretary and a close friend. Scene only.

My Thatha's brother's wife talks so fluently about portland, Oregon and San jose. Grandparents of children in the united States, yes :)

Women turn deaf to outsiders when they display or discuss jewellery. Don't crib about me generalising, puh-leese. Ignore this if you don't.

My Thatha's brother used to receive 32 bucks as his monthly salary. and it was more than enough.

I played cricket with my cousins, after a long long time when they came for the above-said-function. I even won a match. :)

I slept for 9 hours totally in the two days that went by.

Scrubs just got over. It is a truly different feeling to watch the last episode of a sitcom as it gets done. I watched the whole of F.R.I.E.N.D.S after it got over. I somehow find a difference. Btw, scrubs is awesome.

It has become fashionable to say "I can't make head or tail of the duckworth-lewis system". Sadly. Some even mess up the names on purpose to sound extra-bollywoody.

Swapnil Asnodkar may hit 'em hard in the IPL. But he can't manage well in an ODI or a test match, methinks.

Don't tell me you watch cricket, if the only cricket you watch is IPL.

I have registered to take the GRE on the 24th of july. The impending test date will provide the impetus I need to prepare.

It's nice to know that you do play a role, however small, in people's lives, even though you don't get noticed.

A month long holiday beckons, offering GRE prep, Placement studies, Seinfeld, movies, people and 60 nithya-free days.

This got me thinking about when I was in madurai . We used to have those "Pepsi" tubes in various colors which were sold for a buck, two and five. Five for the big ones. You have to bite a hole in the plastic wrapper and suck the icy stuff out. Was all that we needed back then. I also remember one day of my second standard when Americans came outside our school with a box full of jawbreakers. We jumped out of the van and crowded them and they were happy enough to distribute them to us. :D

It sucks to be me, sometimes. This post doesn't look like it though.

"It's time now, My time now. Give me my, Give me my, Wings..."
-Wings Pt 2, Tool

May 7, 2009

Lights. Camera. Action

I was tagged by Tina, a tag after a long long while, I must say.

Q : What's better than being tagged when you've got all the time in the world for it?
A : Being tagged and having to do a post on movies when you've got all the time in the world for it.

----------------------------------

* Choose 12 films you'd want to run at famous theatre near where you live.
*Explain why you chose them however you want to.
*Link back to Lazy Eye theatre's post.
*Tag 5 other people. Ok, Lemme try to bring some dead blogs back to life, and oh, I'm tagging more than 5. ;). I tag Harry, PV, Brinda, Shreyas, Nithya, Upasana, Floo, s w a t, Rotti, Atulaa and Sticky.

1) Psych day


(Usual suspects and fight club. I'd add kubrick's movies and other stuff to this list. :) )

2)Because his momma said life's like a box of chocolates.


(Castaway and Forrest Gump, among many others)

3)It ain't a movie fest if Quentin's not in it.

(Pulp fiction. Reservoir dogs. Quentin. Class. Can't wait enough for Inglourious Basterds)

4)Men on benches day

(Anbe Sivam. Goodwill hunting. Enough said)

5)Cheers to life(aka A few Good Men)

(Of tango and a ferrari. Of a few good men)

6)20 Hour back-to-back-trilogy marathon

(Seriously. Try it. Watch all three of each back-to-back)
7) Mix and match sunday (AKA the thala day):


(Baasha (Rajni Thala!) and Holiday(JackBLack Thala!) )

If only there were more days in a week,I'd add an animation day(Polar Express and Cars), a foreign language day (Les choristes and Malena), a Cheap-laugh-till-it-hurts-comedy day(Seann William Scott, the man!(See Role models, it is superfun!)), a Docu day(Metal - a Headbanger's journey, bowling for columbine) and a movies-for-the-women-in-them day (Natalie portman, Jennifer Connelly)

Asta La vista, baby!
There's nothing like blogging over a beautiful cup of hot coffee.

Now, what it be for you?

Apr 22, 2009

Sacred Heart-ia

When an undergrad who's on his way to finishing three years studying computer science gets a question which goes like this, "What causes abscission in leaves? a)NO2 b)SO2 c)Ethylene d)Ozone" in his EVS semester exam, which had made him wonder why it was there in the first place, you know something's wrong with the system. And when you find out that you find nothing wrong with and still don't realise that the system's got you, then there's really something wrong with you. Or you're just re-he-he-he-he-healy immune to it. And sarcasm. And Rabies because I heard the system was worse than rabies.

No, there's just something wrong with you. See, I agree with myself.

Elsewhere in my head : Every TV Show has that one guy or two says these kind of lines.


Dr. Cox: I love this moment so much, I want to have sex with it.

Dr. Cox: By the by, this moment is so great that I would cheat on that other moment with it, marry it, and raise a family of tiny little moments.


Dr. Kelso: If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't schedule love.
Dr. Cox: I think your credit card statement would beg to differ.

You may open your mouth wide in awe, in 3 2 1, now!

Apr 17, 2009

The devil's horns

And I'm back. Again. This time after a feud with BSNL, who wouldn't repair my connection for 2 weeks. Those who wanted replies to comments, please check. (:P, I sound all pompous, don't I? Not intended, if I should add) .

I initially wanted to do a long general rant on whatever pours out of my head through my fingers onto the keyboard, but then I saw Metal : A Headbanger's Journey fully today (I say fully because everytime I started watching it before, I had to stop in the middle due to some reason or other) and I can't seem to think of anything else but that. Sam dunn's journey is something extraordinary. I leave you with his words.

Ever since I was 12 years old I had to defend my love for heavy metal against those who say it's a less valid form of music. My answer now is that you either feel it or you don't. If metal doesn't give that overwhelming surge of power that make the hair stand up at the back of your neck, you might never get it, and you know what? That's okay, because judging by the 40,000 metalheads around me we're doing just fine without you.

But I set out on this journey to find out the answer to one question. Why has heavy metal been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned? And what has become clear to me, is that metal confronts what we'd rather ignore. It celebrates what we often deny. It indulges in what we fear most. And that's why metal, will always be a culture of outsiders.

\m/

Apr 6, 2009

Sweaty at 7 PM

Disclaimer : This here is a story of my last week. So either don't read or don't complain.

Yes, In chennai even when you walk back from the beach at 7PM, you sweat. It was that stumid
*. But before we go into that, let's rewind a week of my life.
...................

The one where everything went bad

It all started with the old bread that mom had left for me in the fridge in case i needed an urgent fix for my breakfast. Apparently, old bread attracts mould. Fungi baffle me. How they can spawn from virtually everything, is something amazingly trivial, yet amazing. Then I try the dosa maavu(batter) that my mom had kept int he fridge. It has small airholes and a colorless liquid has collected on top. If only it were odorless. But to hand it to it, it was over two weeks in there. And then the vadu mango (ask me or google it if you don't know) got fungus-ed because it wasn't stirred once in two days. Now how did I not know that! :. Next up. Rice. Rice turns yellow-ish. And smells. But it doesn't beat milk. Milk slightly smells AND turns curdy which is helluva lot tougher to wash. I lost a litre and a half of milk. You know what beats milk? Adai(Ask me or google it if you don't know) maavu. Trust me with this. If you have adai maavu more than 10 days old in your fridge, throw it away without looking at it or smelling it. It was about to spawn some living thing and it smelled EVIL. No kidding.

The one where he ironed his shirt while wearing it.

What do 20 year olds who sleep late the previous night and forget alarms do when there is no one at home for a week? Wake up late and find out he has no clothes to wear to college if he doesn't iron the shirt he washed the previous day, among other things :P. So first I have to search for the iron box because my mom trusts me so much that she hid it, only to tell me where when an irritated-me called her up. Then I started pressing it when I see it is useless because the hands are all over the place. So I decide to wear it after pressing the back alone. I look a the mirror. I look at the clock. Mirror. Clock. Mirror. Clock. Tick.Tock. I switch off the power, and press the front of the shirt while wearing it. Yes, it was a little hot but the result was better than before.

The one where he slept while all hell broke loose.

There are some moments in life that you'll never forget, like the first date, the first kiss, etc etc. Now this is one moment, of a totally different genre altogether, that I'll ne-he-he-he-he-ver forget. (Thank you Dr.Cox for teaching me how to change a two syllable word to a six syllable word) It goes like this. We guys at class have this movie making contest, and a movie to shoot for our lab (Media lab). And we have to submit it the next day. Result-> Staying awake the entire night. And also, since I'm the one who knows editing, I have to stay awake the next day too, while all the others sleep. And I don't take bath the nest day either, because then I wouldn't have time to finish it. So in the end, a tired and disgruntled me comes home at 2000 hrs and has a nice hot bath after 37 hours of continuously staying awake. And then I put my pants on.(Something which might seem insignificant but you'll understand as the story goes on). And then I lie down to let my overgrown hair dry. And then, I doze off. Ok, doze is an understatement. I slept like a LOG. Umm, probably a log that won't break even if you hit it with an aze because it is titanium coated, even. See, I get 12 calls from mom on my phone which is near my ear, plenty more on my landline, and by this time, mom and dad, who are in chennai, start worrying. Dad asks his friend to check on me, and he sees that all vehicles are at home and the door is locked from the inside, and three lights are on. Yes, I switched three of them on before "dozing off". He rings the door bell for like 2 minutes continuous, and I was impervious to that also. So dad calls up a few of my friends and Shiva comes to check on me too. He calls the secretary of my apartment, and to cut a long story short, after half an hour more they use ladders, and peer into windows and finally, on the third window attempt, find me sprawled on the bed, dozing away to glory WITH pants on, (there!). He shouts out my name, and then it happened. One mention of my name did what a dozen missed calls, 40 or so calls on my landline, and 2 minutes of door-belling couldn't do. I woke up. And was surprised to find heads peering in through three windows. I opened the door, and asked my friend to come in as though nothing was the matter. He asked me to look at the time and I go "WOAH! 10.30? What are you doing here?". Thankfully, he didn't feel like hitting me, because he was laughing at how idiotic I looked. The next hour was spent explaining this to the people who'd called and were mightily pissed before breaking out with laughter. I had dinner after that, yes.
................
After those few days, I came to chennai where I am, now, for the 13th day of my Patti's last rites. It's been like a reality show in here; Relatives, having the mother of all baseless arguments originating from virtually nothing, like fungi :P, which make me appreciate my sanity; 4 hour scrubs marathon; A ROFLing account settling session among my relatives, where confusion reigned supreme, and when I stated the vazhappazha joke analogy, everyone, yesEVERY single ONE had to say that joke, one after the other, so that in the end there were 8 renditions of the same joke, and I hit myself for saying it in the first place; Food at 98/79, Padmanabha nagar, NOT made by patti; and an evening walk to the beach at 1800 hours because I was bored, are few things that had transpired, before now. I sat at the beach in front of the waves for ten or so minutes and listened to 10000 days by Tool, while the sky was orange. And when I walked back, it was sweaty and windy.
Really.
*Stumid - (adj) A portmanteau of stupid and humid meaning stupidly humid. Chennai is a stumid city.
P.S : Knock-Knock joke fans, this way, please.