Quitting

Well been trying to quit smoking for some time now..
Its been a strange attempt.. Not that i consider myself as a serious smoker.. 6-7 a day is max i have reached so far..

Any way.. the news i have stopped smoking now.. and its been a week..
Today afternoon i had a strange feeling...
A friend of mine was smoking.. I was like.. i can not smoke now.. but let me go near to him and enjoy a bit of passive smoking.. whats harm in that :P

But i avoided :)

Lets see how far i go.

2008

Well there have been many new year resolutions so far.. One special.. in fact kullu also shared that with me.. better not talk about it right now.. its gone ..

So whats the new year resolution this time.. Well i will try to post something regularly... Can't promise but will try that surely...

cio

Sunday ho ya Monday roz Khao ANDE!!

april 24, 2006 9:00 am
well lately i have not been sleeping well (for those of u doubtful people mujhe pyar nahi hua hai). its quite routine that i try to sleep at 3, 4am and then after straining my eyes tring to close, drop the idea and then do something "useful". its because of this reason that i was able to observe my roomie in the morning (else it wouldnt have been possible). there are a lot of things that people do after they wake up. the first i do is shit.. but then some brush, some wash their face etc. etc.. then u tend to have some tea, read newspaper....and the list goes on. there have been many strange habits observed by me over the years (being in a hostel) that people do after they wake up. obviously because of non disclosure agreements i cannot reveal those to you.. but then this one has come out as a clear winner.....
now imagine the situation..
i am sitting on the couch probably reading some shitty article in some junk website (coz i cannot sleep) and then i hear the sound of running water. (as a rule in our house this is an indication for preparing tea and involuntarily everyone asks u whether u actually are, and if yes.. add one for him etc.) taking the cue i ask him whether he is preparing tea. unfortunately i get a negative response and i get back to reading my article. then after some time i hear a strange sound something like "bud bud"... i.e. of sound of something boiling. perplexed by the strange sound i manage to lift my butt and make my way towards the kitchen. i see water being boiled in a utensil and 2 eggs being placed meticulously into the corners of the container. then after some 10-15 mins my friend walks in drains the water, cuts some onions, removes the egg skin, cuts it into half, puts some salt and pepper over it, places some cut onion over it and eats it.
now this stand alone "phenomenon" would seem inconsequential if not viewed in the perspective. but then when u hear the sound of running water, of boiling water everyday u would get the picture. now for the last 3 months this routine has been followed by my roomie, would seem commendable at first, but then is very strange in hind sight.
now the subject of eggs has been very much talked about in our house, the sheer number of eggs eaten by him, the absolutely strange routine of eating 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening (well could be compared to 1 love balloon by subodh in DCH :)) and some peripheral topics like hard boil, soft boil etc etc..
lastly i would only like to say that if at all the egg federation of india needs a brand ambassador it is him. there can be no other person. someday i would be proud to see him on national tv and say "Sunday ho ya Monday roz Khao ANDE"
kullu

Creativity Ki Ma Ka...

well this is my first post from my new location i.e. gainesville, us. anyways i watched a movie deewane huye paagal (i manage to see almost all the hindi movies..i am amazed by this quality of mine). it was literally a remake (scene to scene) of there is something abt mary. well this post is to all "creative" people in bollywood who take so much pains of buying a dvd and then remaking the film calling it an "inspiration"
it all started like this:
well as the semester starts there is not much to do in this place. being short of cash cannot hang out to places. so we decided to bring a dvd from next door gujju uncle. we had a fight over which movie to bring home but after much deliberations we brought home deewane hue paagal. the movie started with a song "chakle chakle" and reminded me of the song turn me on. (well this brings pleasant memories of night life in bangalore when i used to listen to "turn me on" watching babes dancing on the floor) anyways that aside after forwarding the awful song we watched the movie and as the story unfolded i couldnt but be depressed at the total lack of creativity in bollywood.
this being an old phenomenon, i am sure the people "involved" may as well say it has been done by everyone. and that is what worries me. barring a few people all the music directors have copied some or the other songs from hollywood (well saying hollywood would be wrong but i couldnt think of any place for music industry). also mr mahesh/vikram/pooja bhatt have left no movie that can be copied. they unabashedly keep coming with new movies "inspired" from hollywood movies. i suppose its time we being the audience we reject all these movies and reward creativity.
well i suppose after reading this blog all those people in bollywood would say "Creativity Ki Ma Ka..."

kullu

Wafa ya Bewafaa???

0700 hrs. on Mumbai Bangalore Highway.
Kareena Kapoor: main tumhe hamesha ke liye chhod ke ja rahi hoon. ab yeh wafa hain ya bewafa tum tai karo.
not the best time to see a movie (0700 hrs) but then travelling in the bus from pune to bangalore i had to see it. and of all the movies "bewafaa" but then once again no choice in that too. i would like to clarify that this is in no way a review of the movie but a insight into the indian mentality based on the story of this movie.

first the brief story. a guy and gal are in love but her parents are not exactly open to the idea. her sister is ok with it but then she dies when she gives birth to twins. now the "family" requests the gal to marry the sister's husband so that she can "nurture" the kids. "rising to the occasion" the girl marries her sister's husband and life goes on. he ignores her for 3 years and then she is now longing for some love. coincidentally she meets old love and the fire of "love" is rekindled but then they run into some problems when her husband (prev. her sister's husband) comes to know abt this. things are kept in front of the gal and then she says the dialogue written above. and thus ends the movie.

not a wonderfully gripping story but nevertheless had pretty good box office collections. the issue to be discussed is this that the gal marries her sister's husband (obv. after her sister's death :) ) and makes a "tyag" of her feelings for raising her sis's kids. now the question to be asked is that would she love the children less if she were to raise the kids as their aunt; and was it necessary to marry her sister's husband for the kids. the logical answer to the question to be NO. but then mr. dharmesh darshan (the honourable director of the movie) differs and creates a mess of a simple story. the fact that the movie had reasonable success and people were akin to the ending shows the utter lack of "out of box" solutions to family problems. well even the great family movie maker mr. suraj barjatya thought of this (obv. in hum aapke hain kaun) makes the story of the movie even more ridiculous.

the whole argument behind the prev. para was that indian families are too rigid in their approaches and lack a great deal of inventive thinking. also it makes a ridicule of the whole system of marriage which itself is based on a sacrifice made by the girl (or guy depending on the situation). the result is obviously disaster. but then as people get disgusted with their arrangment they do something they wanted to do but then its too late then. and suddenly all hell breaks loose because "uske sanskar" do not allow her to do it..

another perspective to the whole thing is a recent movie i saw i.e. pyar main twist (i canned this blog but then came back writing this when i saw a picture with differing views) this was a wonderful depiction of how people feel when they reached their retirement and sometime they live for "themselves" (ofcourse for a change).

anyways whatever the arguments Ms. Ayn Rand wouldnt be very happy with these as they invovle too many sacrifices and "living for others" kind of things...

atlast would like to say that its hard time that people start living for themselves. its not bad to be selfish because everyone is. going the ayn rand way would obviously be difficult but then living for the society is completely ridiculous (remember peter keating guys..:))...
kullu

disclaimer: this blog is written in parts. if you feel some parts are out of place then probably you are right :D

6 thinking hats

Yes that was the workshop we attainded recently..
It was in hotel Excellancy.
Could never get what was so excellent about it..??
Except the thing i learned that the hotel does not serve Non-Veg food and i can be a good artist :)
Here is the sketch i was making through out the session.
Tell if u can figure out the theme..

smoke on the waters....

Here is a nice forward i got.. enjoy..
and hang in there.. i am going to post something good soon..

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

A monkey is sitting in a tree, smoking a joint, when
a lizard walks past.
The lizard looks up and says to the monkey "Hey!
what are you doing?"
The monkey says "Smoking a joint, come up and join
me, my cold-blooded friend."
So the lizard climbs up and sits next to the monkey
and they have another joint.
After a while the lizard says his mouth is 'dry',
and that he's going to get a drink from the river.
At the riverbank, the lizard is so stoned that he
leans too far over and falls in.
A Crocodile sees this and swims over to the stoned
lizard, helping him to the side.
He then asks the lizard, "What's the matter with
you?!"
The lizard explains to the crocodile that he was
sitting in the tree, smoking a joint with his new monkey
friend. He then explained how his mouth got dry, and that he
was so wasted that, when he went to get a drink from
the river, he fell in!
The inquisitive crocodile says he has to check this
out. He walks into the jungle and finds the tree
where the monkey is sitting, finishing a joint.
He looks up and says "Hey, MONKEY!"
The Monkey looks down and says "Shiiiit, DUDE....... how much water did you drink?

The Partial NightOut

it was a long time since i watched a tennis match with real interest. in the hey (or hay; i am not sure what to use) days of the "beautiful" steffi graf and the "talented" pete sampras i was a total wimbledon freak watching all the matches and admiring the talents of the players. yesterday was one of the days when i relived those moments. watching the davenport-clijsters (i hope i got the spellings right..i hate misspelling people's names) match was a revelation. the strengths of both the players were on display; davenport with her unflinching serve and clijsters's unbelievable baseline play. in the end the crown (not the rolex crown which is the sponsor of wimbledon) went to davenport. after watching this match, the federer-ferrero match was a real let down leaving the last set where things were a little more interesting. in the end i could a see a hint of sampras in federer which would certainly fuel my interest in his future matches.
the quarters will start today and 16 and 24 are the seeds of the least seeded players in the line-up. certainly a wonderful showdown...... so guys (now officially even gals are refered to as guys) watch wimbledon and enjoy the game. (i hope this blog is sponsored by wimbledon people..:) )

note: the blog is refered to as partial night out coz the matches went into wee hours the night in india.

kullu