Filler writeup!!

Here I’m once again to keep myself as active as possible. This is no write-up as such; it’s more of a self assessment. I started of with the Blog couple of months back, only to migrate from another portal. And I said myself to be more active on this, possibly 4-5 write-ups every month. Somehow, I have been able to meet my expectations.

Things are going pretty well. Last week, I had couple of things in my mind to write but somehow time did not allow me to do so. Most importantly, the Australian Open. Nadal Vs Federer. What a match it was. A sporting treat. I had all the highlights in my mind, set by set, but by the time, I sat down to write in, it seems to have faded in some way. Federer has been my favourite, however, Nadal is surely the next big thing. I mean he has already won couple of Grand Slams, even bettering Fedex in most of the matches, but Australian Open 2009 would now surely put him into this elite club. Federer’s tears said it all, how tough it was for him to let it go; I mean he just gave his all, but he realizes someone outplayed him. I was always in awe of the backend Fedex has, but here’s someone who bettered, and boy! How better was he. The unbelievable angular shots, athleticism. Nadal, I’m going to follow him from now; but again, I’ll not forget Roger, I hope he goes on with one more Grand slam to catch up with Pete Sampras and topple him.

Couple of things happening at the personal front. Feeling good about the changes. For once, I went to the Office Gym last Monday. Huh! It was a difficult step. As if I’m entering a temple. I saw the weights, multi gym, benches..and finally the cardio machine. For me, a tread mill is where I belong, I guess I need to stick around with it for the next couple of months. Last year, I was in the same gym only to fulfill my membership( I had bi-annual meaning two days in the year) and done. And yes, this time around, I raised my bar, its been a week now! Hopefully it will continue for sometime.

The Gyming efforts came in only because of the food that I take now. For a change, I’ve having home food, yes! I got myself a new cook. He’s a Bong, so we have the eastern connection. All I have to do is, do myself a DJing act. I play some Kishore Kumar numbers, coupled with some Mithunda & Bappi da numbers from the net, and he’s all smiles, his happiness comes out in the dish. I take food in office as well, to me, it’s a great satisfaction for I have been attending the same cafeteria for ages now. However, I’d rather keep my fingers crossed for now, for this is the third cook that I got in a span of 6 months.

As I’m writing this piece, my TV is on, and ‘am simultaneously catching up with it. NDTV has come up with this noble initiative GREENATHON. Great! Corporate Responsibility is essential, does help in the nation building. Good to see the media getting into it. Specially for a very important cause, lighting up villages that never saw lighting. There’s this solar lantern that has come out, feels like respecting those who invented this. There’s a mass clean up doing in the banks of Yamuna, as part of the initiative. Worth an applaud. Even I loiter around every now and then, but acts like this makes you pause and thing. There’s something that needs to be in the curriculum of every institution, public and private organization, COMMUNITY SERVICE. The west has it in their’s, even we have it in some of our schools. But there’s a mandatory. Hope NCERT takes a note on this. I know corporates show a lot of effort in community service, a lot is being observed in voluntary involvement. People take up causes in Old age homes, free education in orphanages, distributing books and notebooks etc. Bangalore has this whole traffic control issue. There were few voluntaries that supported the traffic police during weekends. But I guess we need to make more on the cleanliness part of the city.

Just saw the announcement in NDTV that the intiative crossed the 2 crores level of donation. My appreciation goes to the Bollywood fraternity, people who are involved in the cause. I like Preity Zinta, she’s always there for such causes. On an overall note, yes! it was all in a noble cause, nation building cause.

And I, definitely shall continue to keep jotting down my thoughts as and when I find time…

BOYS TURNED MEN

I’m just back from a party, rested my ass down and started jotting down on my experience just couple of hours back. I was in a pub, and for a change, I looked clean coming out of a pub. What happened was, last week, we exchanged couple of mails; I’m talking about my college mates Roop, Surya and Saptarishi. It’s been a long time we actually met, so decided to catch up this Saturday. Saptarishi stays in Chennai so can’t make it. We decided on the time and venue.

It was again one of those head banger’s pub, which we usually associate ourselves with. I also suggested this for my own selfish reason, for it is a walk able distance from my house. As usual, we reached an hour late than the said time…knowing each other’s punctuality. And as usual, I was the last to make an entry. The guards cordially took the cover charges before even I could smell the beer. Never mind, I was going to meet some good ol’ friends. Roop guided me towards the table. “Hey dude! How are you?” That’s Surya for you. Not surprised by his pretty long hair…somewhat a Jim Morrison look, with his facial structure and expression, the only exception being the ‘Hetfield’ goatee that he flaunts. We exchanged hugs and sat across. Roop, the married man, the chocolate boy he is, still the same old person with an evergreen smile…point to be noted, he’s happy even after marriage.

Heh!! We all started with our missing friend, Saptarishi. Looked back at how Saptarishi spent hours in the mirror, just to have a glimpse of that perfect jaw line in him, his over-conscious walking style, blah! Blah!! Tell you what, you love this guy or hate him but you can’t ignore him. That’s the impact he has among all of us. We kept shuffling our attention between the finger chips and the LCD screen. The Bose effect does make a difference along with the visual treat. Suddenly, Santana appeared with his ‘Black Magic women’ number and Surya comments- “He’s very over-rated a guitarist”. We had no choice but to agree with the master.

Let me introduce these buggers to you.
Surya, I guess he was born with a guitar in his hand. Had been our source to get introduced to the best chicks of the college. Alright!! Let me correct myself, the so-called chicks turned out to be good friends later and we loved them for what they were. A real rock star. You should not be surprised to find him in any of the live acts that keep on happening in the city. The last being in Mysore Purple Haze. Has a band, along with 3 other tamilians. I felt his band name should have been TherMIL and a quarter. Works with a Banking major and still manages to follow his passion. Great!!

Roop! Ah!! Both of us date back when we were just 12 years old. Lot of fond memories that we shared together. He’s a crowd puller, humorous, an entrepreneur in the making and off course, MARRIED. I have seen many guitarists but never a dedicated student of his sort. I bet no one would ever cover a Satriani number as fast as he did. I cannot forget those days when he had to choose between two of his books- ‘Let us C’ and the file containing ‘best practices of guitar notes’ that he downloaded after hours of surfing. And off course, his fetish for Potato fry. I also cannot forget how he fumed at my ‘No fine’ status versus his ‘Fine for short attentence’. For the benefit of the readers, my friend managed to get 65% (10% short per norms) attendance in one of those years in graduation against my 8%. I just hope my friend understands that fortune favors the brave. He's into Pre- sales technicals.

I would also like to introduce our missing partner.
The gigantic Saptarishi. Possibly the strongest man in the whole batch. Works out like anything, eats like never had before. His legs are always on the move…be it in action or at sleep. He's no exception but also a music lover & and boy! his genre changes from Metallica to Bappi Lahiri. But let me admit for once that he epitomize the perfect Aryan Male, only if he changes that ‘Check my jaw line’ looks. Software professional.

And I need no introduction.
It was with this bunch that we spent the larger part of our monthly pocket money in the just opened ‘Styx’; woke lazily up only to hear our owner, Mr. Police Commissioner crying out loud at the other Mauritian bunch- “Kya Karta, Idher DING-DONG karta kya”?? I remember trying SUPW skills on the bottles just to get that perfect ‘Submarine’. I remember that special weed that came across from the far east, only to witness my nervous system, the CHAKRAS of my soul, the almost OD incident. I remember all jamming up in the terrace, sharing the last joint puff by puff. The terrace has been there for other things as well. It helped us get that perfect position to have a glimpse at the new chicks on the block and betting on the first chick we can get into the house. And yes, I won that…but don’t question the quality! Again, she was a nice human being; respect the girl for what she was. Remember the Management Vs Science debate, it always went on and on.

OH!! It’s Freddie Mercury on the screen. We looked at his usual on stage antics. But we had to make sure this time we’re meeting for a talk, rather than the music bit. We laughed, smiled, mocked but somewhere a bit formal as well. I guess, when these guys will read…they’ll also blush. But was wondering, is it the same bunch that I talked about in the above para? For a change, we were discussing positive things, life in general. How things are at everybody’s end and how are we coping with those? In came Steve Morse and we silently conveyed our respect to him for we three of us went on for the first major live concert in India, Deep Purple, witnessed them from close quarters. Saw another gang enjoying their party adding only to the noise pollution we had around. Then came, James Hetfield. We smiled, for he ruled us for a good 2-3 years during college. We all agreed that Metallica defines thrash metal. However, there were different comments from my fellow friends about St.Anger. Does not matter! We moved.


After couple of guzzlings, for a change we decided to leave for home by 11pm. And also, we did maintain punctuality. For a change, Surya is worried about cops in his area. For a change, I was thinking of getting back home when the BOOZOMETER has just started ticking. And there’s no change, when Roop’s heading for Bhaabi.

Signed the cheques and walked out. I don’t know when and how, we got involved into somewhat a rather uninteresting discussion. Terms like soul, energy, Yoga started flowing. It was a mix of Spirituality and Scientology all involved. I had witnessed some inclination in Roop earlier on, but Surya surprised me, now he was talking about cosmic energy, how the learned lots attain. They went on to recommend books. I was looking them like a curious learner (where they doped). Okay!!

We bid ourselves good night…dispersed from there, hoping to catch up on a monthly basis, considering the characters in this group being the busiest of all.
I was blushing all the way back to my home. I was like is it the same old guys? How things change in life?? It looked to me like the BOYS got converted now; and now could be suitably christened as MEN!!