Flying in a blue dream...

Recommendations!

2020-04-26T03:04:00.002-07:00

What if life came with a search algorithm that had a recommendation algorithm like a Youtube playlist. Would the recommendations be a perfect match incorporating all my searches in life? Nahh....that cant be.
For one, my YT recommendations are shit. Using the same algo, my life reccos would also be shit. But then YT has been around for the 15years and they dont event represent half my life's search terms. My life algo would have a LARGER sample set with my whole life's data set to work with. And i scope my search terms on YT to videos. My life search would have infinites to domains worth of data.
It COULD be perfect !

Sigh...I would never know, because there would always be this 23 worth of time gap in the inputs. I will never experience it. I am too old.

But....SOME kid out there who was born in the last 15 years could.
That is just an mind boggling thought to think of!

Lennox, Annie

2020-04-26T02:55:00.002-07:00

One of the most beautiful songs of the 90s.
The wiki page for this song took me to a line which described Annie Lennox and this song with the following:

"successfully bridged the gap between Nineties pop sophistication and her ritzy hits with Dave Stewart".
Pop.Sophistication!

The 70s would have baulked at those words being used in the same sentence. Fuck broodiness.
The 80s were campy. Fuck bubblegum colors.
The 90s were serious, aware, conscious.Sophisticated.

And above all they were beautiful. Like this song.

I want to watch the original. But then I cringe. It cannot compare to this. Will it destroy my love for this song, forever? Fuck it, its worth a shot. Wish me luck!

2020-01-29T23:16:00.000-08:00

Where did the idealism of the 90s go? The bands then wanted to change the world. The bands from then would now want to change the world back to then. Staley, Cornell, Cobain are all dead. So is MTV.

Would they look forward to today. I bet ya not!

Smack 'em hard

2008-09-24T05:06:00.000-07:00

The kind of people whom I hate to share a film theatre with :

1. Mr I-hate-the-movie-and-so-should-everyone-else - typically seen asking for a "nayee pikture ki ticket" at the box office. Doesn't give a fuck what movie he is watching as long as he gets to sit in a movie theatre for 2-3 hours and watch some TnA action. True form of this creature emerges when he realises that instead of a Salman Khan/Rajnikanth/K-Jo flick, he has got a ticket to a Rituparno Ghosh or a Sweeney Todd kinda movie. Proceeds to lament his fate for the "bundle/bogus/bakwaas movie" to all and sundry and in the loudest possible voice. Repeats the phrase every 2-5 mins addressing it to everyone around him looking for approval. Usually finds support from another creature of his species who is sitting 5-6 rows away. They then proceed to have a conversation across their rows with a lot of "madarchod/behenchods" thrown in for effect.

2. Mr How-can-i-put-my-phone-on-vibrate: Thinks that vibrate mode on cell phones is only for desperate ladies. Wants to also find a lay for the night by playing his latest Himesh Reshammiya ring tone. Ergo, has his phone on the loudest possible volume so that even the heroine of the movie can hear it. Typically will get atleast 25 phone calls during the course of the movie. And being the extremely important person that he is, Mr. How-can-i-put-my-phone-on-vibrate will take atleast 60 seconds to pick up a phone call. Upon picking up the phone, will proceed to explain the exact location of the theatre that he is currently in, so as that he can be traced in case Mr George W Bush wants to call on him. Alternately uses this phone call to also explain to his assistant how important his 2 crore consignment is. Can be easily spotted in the crowd sporting atleast one or more of the following:

1. Tight Armani Exchange t-shirt over a big fat paunch

2. White snake skin shoes with pointy toes that are from the nether regions of the Texan Wild West

3. Gold chains around the neck and the wrist ala Bappi-da

4. A fat potbellied aunty wearing a tight kurti which was featured in the latest K-Jo movie.

3.Mr Trivia-freak-from-Hell: Knows anything and everything that has ever been written/blogged/insinuated about the actors/director/producer/make-up man of the movie. Will proceed to inform his companion of the same with extremely irritating alacrity at regular intervals and ensure that everyone around him also knows how well informed he is. Prime candidate to be featured in the next episode MTV's "One Tight Slap".

Uggghhhhhhh!

Current Music: Jane's Addiction - Jane Says.

The verdict....

2008-06-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

Aamir gives me hope for Hindi cinema.

Watch it before it disappears from movie screens. I sure am watching it again.

The life force of our people

2008-02-29T02:14:00.000-08:00

Ok so I am not quite as dead as this blog might make you thing. Life's just been a lil' hectic of late y'know. Work life has been gnawing into the remnants of my personal life and its not such a pretty picture I tell you. But I am back. Atleast for now.

Anyone following the NBA season would have heard of the big trades. Pau Gasol to LA to perform the perfunctory Robin act next to Kobe's Batman. I predict a championship ring for both next year. Kobe is getting his brains back in place and with his prodigious talent all he needed was a wingman to get him the through. And the 7-foot, free flowing, 18 feet jumper hitting Gasol is what Dirk Nowitzki was 3 years back. A European novice biding his time to prove his mettle. With Kevin Garnett moving to Celtics, these 2 teams have really put their hands up to be counted as contenders for the title.

On the flip side was the entire Jason Kidd to Dallas fiasco. Read a really funny take on it while the deal was going through the not-happening phase here. Pretty funny stuff.

So a quiz at KCircle is being done by me this Saturday. Have not had the most time to set a quiz but nonetheless, fundae would be unleashed. The KQA Music Quiz done by Thejaswi Udupa( which we narrowly came 2nd in, damn that WALTWO) was a super quiz which has set me up in the unleash mode. The question of the quiz( ..and the crack of the quiz by yours truly ;) ) was this funda about how the song got its name. Dont we all love the decadence of 80s hair metal.

Now onto the obligatory video that would go with this post. If you haven't heard KillSwitch Engage then do it NOW!! Their 4th studio album As Daylight Dies is currently ruling my Ipod right now( along with Eagles' Long Road out of Eden) . This is their second video that album which incidentally is for my favourite song of the album titled " Arms of Sorrow".

Current Music: KSE- Fixation on the Darkness

Time to emancipate....

2007-11-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Ok so software folks are typically not the kinda people who you would really want to meet up for dinner and with and have an engaging conversation with. Most of the folks that i have spent time with, and maybe thats been my misfortune, have been the kinds who haven't really gone beyond pink floyd, "nothing else matters", "so cool yaar", coffee day,nose hair, butter chicken, tight tshirts over paunches, nokia n70s,robin cook, karan johar and template classes. There are a few who I have met, but not that many.

And then there is Mr I. M. Wright. To any Microsoft guy who doesn't know him...get the hell away from my blog. This guy is the funniest guy to ever write about very serious software. Frankly, I am not the kinda guy who would really go out looking for tech blogs unless my job depended on it. But this guy is one guy whose columns I would really search for on our internal newsletters. He was the guy who would compare triage meetings to blood thirsty wars. Who compared his 40 year old life to Microsoft's evolution. Who wrote about important stuff in the way that you could actually read about it and remember.

And now, this guy has his own MSDN blog. Hallelujah! Eric Brechner aka I.M. Wright, welcome to the net.Its about time the outside world read you. Read his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_brechner/ . It has about a microcosm of the stuff that he writes for internal MS consumption, but it is appetising enough.

Now onto the video for today. Well, this one is a special one. Its a song that made me fall in love with Pearl Jam. Watch this video and you will know why. They were so 90s, so raw and so fucking angry with the world. And this song is my favouritest car song ever. It made scribble song lyrics in text books, carve Pearl Jam on the classroom desks. It makes me wanna jump in my cube right now as I listen to it. The energy of this song is just something else. If you ever wanna catch me in a crowded place, you just need to play this song. I cannot not start headbanging!

Current song: Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror

An endless journey into the morbid

2007-10-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

The search for the arcane is killing quizzing. Some of the recent quizzes that I have been to, have simply been mind numbingly boring. In their bid to set uncrackable questions, QMs are getting questions from the arbitest levels of obscurity. Blame wikipedia for it, if you will, it has made fundaes too readily available for easy consumption. A small piece of advice to wannabe quizmasters. Read BOOKS!! They provide some really good fundaes if you can put in some effort.

Which brings me to the other point of this entry. Some voucher's won in some quizzes funded some really nice reading material. The first was "The Man who knew Infinity" , a biography of the Ramanujan. Excellent reading, a tad too impersonal though. And from an engineer's perspective, would have loved to see more in depth mathematical explanations in it. But nevertheless, this gave me some impetus to get the rust of my brain and search the net for some good reading material on the same. This is what I found. Read it at leisure for it will keep you absorbed for days if you are caught unawares.

The next book that caught my fancy was "Celebrating the best of Urdu Poetry". I have managed to read quite a few vernacular writings, but unfortunately never had a chance to lay my hands on real urdu poetry. Nay, probably my lack of understanding of the Urdu language has been the reason behind this hesitancy to pick up Urdu text. But this book turned out to be a nice surprise. Urdu poetry in Hindi for a change and with English translations. I am sure it hardly reflects the best of Urdu Poetry since 300 odd couplets can hardly do justice to such a genre but what the hell, its good for a start. Zauq,Meer, Ghalib, Iqbal all the doyens are suitably represented here. A nice read through and through.

Which brings us to the video accompanying this post. Some people have questioned the fact that there haven't been any good metal vids put up as yet. So here's the fix. Archenemy- My Apocalypse

Every dog has its day, every day has its way

2007-09-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an information worker stuck in his cube must be in want of a holiday. No,no ... its not that we be a Darcy wannabe, but a vacation does entice us tremendously at the moment. However the conditions for the same are not quite conducive (dont ask us why...its a road that we have been down too many times in the recent past) ...so we shan't be doing that for a bit. Lovely word eh, that shan't. Heard Eddie Vedder use it once in a concert at Wembley. Always wanted to use it since. One more thing to cross of our list of things to do before we die. Damn where did we keep that list. Must find it and update it with recent occurences. But we digress. Since we cannot go on vacations for a bit, we shall instead compile a list of places that we want to see before we die. Due thought of precisely 30-oh-so-precious seconds has been given to this list, so expect major lacunae/omissions. A worthy commission for us nevertheless. So here goes.

1. Scotland : After duly watching tons of British serials/movies set in this wonderous part of the world, we are just in awe of the majestic beauty of this place. Plus, we have always wanted to pretend to have a Scottish accent after watching this and talk to the MacGregors, the MacLaughlins and the MacLeods and figure out the mystery behind their cool surnames. Someday...

2. New Zealand : Yes,we be might ashamed of admitting this one. The inspiration to visit this place came primarily after watching this which is only because this hadn't come out by that time. But a country that has so much beauty and so few people is definitely worth visiting.

3. Egypt: When we be of impressionable age, we happened to come across this book titled "River God" by Wilbur Smith . And the young impressionable us developed such an impression of the Egyptian way of life, that it has been a dream to visit this land for long. Agreed, the Pharaoh's are dead but from what we understand they left a lot worth seeing, behind.

4. Alaska: Blame the fascination for this on a number Husky stories that we read when we were young. Always wanted to go on a sled pulled by dogs with nothing but the color white all around.

5. Brazil : Primarily want to see the Amazonian rain forest, if such a thing still exists. The things that we could do their in no particular order of importance are:
a. Fight an anaconda
b. Say hi to a jaguar
c. Get a specialised private treatment from a true-blue shaman
d. Find our own WonderWoman

The number 5 looks appealing enough to stop our visions of fancy for the moment. Our ever-vigilant reader must have noticed the absence of any places desi in this post. Well we shall keep stories for such places for another day. Till such time enjoy this fine example of the art of remixing as demonstrated by the Maestro Eric Prydz in his wonderful rendition of the song "Another Brick in the Wall" which had been originally conceptualised by Messrs. Waters, Gilmour,Wright and Mason who went by the moniker of "Pink Floyd" at one point of time. The video depicts certain uncouth young children supposedly commiting vandalism and other such despicable acts, which children of their age are wont to do, only to later reveal that they were actually trying to put forth a very important social message. Jolly good show, lads, we say to them!

Heard it through the grapevine...

2007-08-31T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am a recent convert to the Ipod family...my excuse is that I got it as a gift and that means quite a bit to me. And the one thing that i cant seem to get enough are Podcasts!!

I mean think about it, what is so unique about it as a product in itself. Its just a glorified mp3 file after all aint it. But Apple must get a lot of credit for promoting it the way that they have, which in turn has almost made Podcasts a fashion statement. I am still quite a bit of a newbie to this world of podcasts but here are a few of my faves( I am still figuring out all the podcasts available for free via Itunes so all of these are available via Itunes)

1. Best of YouTube - no need for a plug for this one. Really what more can you ask for then somebody sorting out all the good stuff from youtube and sending it out to you

2. Tiesto's Club Life - One hour mixes by Tiesto. Whoopeee!

3. NPR Jazz Profiles- Full hour specials on Charlie "Bird" Parker, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis. From the best radio channel in the US.

4. The Ungodly Hour - a weekly show featuring some really nice Goth and Industrial Music. Plus the hosts have this habit of making of fun of all things religious so it makes the really very funny.

Something new for the blog today. Posting a video of a song that i really like from Youtube. Hoping to make that more of regular feature from now on, on this blog. Song from the Claire Danes starrer Brokedown Palace called Damaged by some band called Plummet. This song became quite a rage when it was remixed by Andain sometime last year or the year before that. But i really love the original though.

The kombuja mushroom people sitting around all day

2007-06-22T04:03:00.000-07:00

Ok as a patron of all kinds of non mainstream indian music, nothing warmed by heart more than when i saw this:

www.radioverve.com

A online radio service that has multiple channels that play independent indian music from all the non-mainstream genres. Dont go there if you want to listen to Himesh Reshammiya or anything from Bollywood. But go there if you want to listen all that is good and not available at Music World and Planet M. Zero, TAAQ,Skinny Alley,Demonic Resurrection, Bhayanak Maut i found them all during my 30 min surf of the Rock and Metal stations. A welcome relief for someone who has Pentagram and Colorblind *tapes* bought from obscure music shops. If only they would also play such classic indian stuff. But atleast its a start, so junta please go there and make them feel wanted :)

Well typically i dont have any techie posts on my blog, but this one deserves a mention so here goes. http://radio.mundu.com a client that lets you play online radio on your mobile phone via GPRS. I know, i know there are some other clients out there which do pretty much the same thing, but hey this one's an Indian company and how can i not mention them when they have a name like "mundu" :) More power to them,

Current Music : Level 9 -All that Jazz

Spiders on drugs..

2007-06-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Watch this and savor!!

Maybe this is what they should have done to poor old Spidey in Spidey - 3!!

:)

Current Music: 40 Below Summer - Falling Down

Arrey mian, mein boltu na....

2007-05-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

So i have been asked by Adi to comment on my favourite eating joints in Hyderabad. Quite a tough task cuz i believe that Hyderabad sorely lacks variety in its cuisine and it has a long way to go before it can catch cities like Delhi,Bangalore, Bombay or Goa when it comes to dishing good food. Note since this is an ask to rate restaurants, i will try and stick to places that specialise in food only and stay away from waterholes that also happen to serve food.
For me a restaurant is good only if it tries to stay away from being one of the regular run of the mill kinda places. It has to have its own SOUL, y'know. It might come from the ambience but in more cases than not, in my case, it comes from the good food that it offers. Every good restaurant has some kind of food that it absolutely specialises in and thats what i am going to highlight here. I dont believe that any of those multi-cuisine restaurants can work cuz i just dont understand how you can have a cook that happens to specialise in North Indian,Chinese and Andhra fare for eg. Also, i have a slight bias i guess, cuz i love trying out different cuisines, so if a restaurant has a dish that is not served in most other restaurants, it automatically goes higher in my opinion for just trying something else. Also, i dont mind paying good money for good food so value for money may not exactly figure high here, but its not like as if i dont eat in street side joints also, so i guess that makes up for it. Also did i mention that i am veggie, so that might also create an inherrent bias :). Enough said, here's my list, in the order of my recollection:

1. Roll Call - simply the best rolls and mughlai paranthas in town sold in a nondescript tiny hole in Nagarjuna Circle.Extremely popular with the ICFAI crowd around i hear. Their pudina paneer tikka roll is to die for and from what i hear from the people who go there with me, so is the chicken tikka roll. The fish rolls are good to, however they always seem to be not in stock. And the best part is that its not to heavy on the pocket too. Only wish is that if they were to move to a more clean area and provide better seating.

2. Tewari Bros - a heaven for northie street food lovers like me that masquerades as a sweet shop located bang at the Khairatabad junction. Their gatta subji ranks second only to what my mom makes and their chaats are simply amazing. The real surprises on their menu though is their lassi and their tawa pulao, since i never thought that the pulao could be made this exciting. Go there on sunday evenings to see the gujju and maaru crowd hog the pure veg fare.

3. Four seasons - well the first thing that anyone ever does when they get to Hyderabad is try and find out what the fuss about Hyderabadi biryani is all about. I sampled the fare at all possible places Paradise( sucks), Hyderabad House( okayish), Bawarchi(not that great), Ohris(way too heavy), etc etc. And I had made up mind that Biryani is way too overrated. Then somebody took me to this place in tolichowki called 4 Seasons. Boy, the biryani there is something to be sampled. The smell itself is bloody intoxicating. Am yet to sample Shadab which people tell me is better, but as far as the places that i have tried this is the place in Hyderabad for good biryani.

4. Bombay Vihar - a relatively new addition to my list of nice hyd restaurants simply for the fact that it serves different food. Good Gujarati, Marwari and Maharashtrian thalis. Much like the Rajdhanis and Mayurs of bbay and pune. Besides that they have some delicacies from Marwar and Gujju cuisines too. Nice ambience, efficient service and good quality food. Try out their Bajre ki Khichdi which absolutely rocks!

5. Dadu's - well again a sweet shop that serves some food, their pani puri and kulfi are the best in town in my opinion. Thronged by the Secunderabadi hordes the only downside is that its too crowded and serves food only at certain timings.

6. Dosa Plaza - 100 + varieties of dosas...what more can i say. I never have had the same thing there twice and each time i am absolutely amazed by what all they can do with a dosa. Mexican beans in dosa, chopseuy dosa, schezwan uttapam, you name it they got it. Surprisingly, it is always empty and i have a strange feeling that they are going to close down soon :(

7. Kafulok - best chinese food in town. Period. Their weekend brunch is a treat if there ever was one. And the best part is that each dish on the menu actually tastes different which is surefire sign of a good chinese place

8. Fusion 9/Grill room - above average continental and grilled food and laid back interiors. Nice place to lounge with a meal that will surely delight you.Thanks to ashanka for reminding me of this one :)

Honorable Mentions

1. Mainland China - decent chinese food. Very predictable, safe tasting fare though.Could do with more variety.
2. Friday night buffet at Taj Krishna - an all you can eat Italian and sea food buffet for 800 bucks!! The desserts itself make it worth the money in my opinion. But just one day in a week :(
3. Ohris Jiva - best veggie buffet for its price. Everyday seems to have the same menu and you quickly get bored of the place though.
4. Angeethi - good north indian place. Too bloody crowded in my opinion.
5. Jeet's Dhaba - a quaint place in Trimulgherry with awesome Anda Tadka Daal. Service leaves a lot to be desired though :(
6. Little penang - good chinese and continental food but the place feels absolutely dead with no ambience and mood to speak of. I actually get depressed when i go there.
7. Koyla/Our place - decent food, but outdoor restaurants just cannot work in a hot city like Hyderabad
8. Dine Hill - supposed to be the best Grilled Chicken place in town,located in Masab Tank. But is strictly non-veg so haven't had the good fortune of going there.
9.Sahib, Sindh, Sultan - their paneer dishes are the best in town and their karara palak chaat is so good that i can almost make love to it. A new entrant to hyderabad so lets hope that it can maintain its quality and service.
Addendum- sigh sahib,singh,sultan could not keep up...see the ps below :(

Most overrated places in Hyderabad

1. Ohri's Banjara - could they please design a buffet that is actually worth the 250 bucks that they charge from a veggie. I am not gonna pay that much money and eat roti dal. And their service is the worst ever. I just cannot understand why Hyderabadi's love ohri's so much !!
2. Zafraan Exotica - a good ambience alone does not a good restaurant make. You cannot have 5 dishes on the menu and expect me to choose from that.
3. Al Fresco, Taj Krishna -ditto as Zafraan Exotica
4. Terrace Bay - ditto as Al Fresco. Could somebody please actually taste the food that their chefs make..it tastes of only chillies!!
5.Bombay Blue/Copper Chimney/Noodle Bar - just need to go to these places to see how bad a restaurant's service can get!
6. Chutneys - Have they heard of telephonic reservation ...i am not waiting 1 hour outside a restaurant no matter how good it is. 60 bucks for a dosa - i dont give a shit if Chiranjeevi gave them its recipe, maybe they should ask him to pay for it also then!
7. Mocha - food is again manageable, but could a place get anymore pretentious. The bright pink and blue make me puke the food that i manage to ingest there.
8. Ofen - Man, can somebody please make them understand that cheese alone does not make a good pasta. And no, their portions aren't worth the money they charge. You cant charge money for being cool.And could they please hire more people to serve ...
9. The buffet at Novotel - Rs.1000 for a 10 dish buffet - are you kidding me??

Where are they now??

1. Chawla's Chik Inn - i got the most pleasant surprise of my life when i saw a franchise of this famed Delhi based chain in Somajigudda. They had the best butter paneer,dal maakhni, tikkas and from what i heard, butter chicken,in town. I didnt speak for full 15 mins when i was told that it had closed shop.
2. Indian Harvest - a precursor to Bombay vihar and used to serve really nice Gujarati thalis. Was a little ahead of the hyderabadi palate i guess.
3. What's Kooking? - used to serve nice Sindhi food. Their service was pathetic though and their end was nigh..

Sigh, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that i am quite a foodie now does it :-). Also did anyone notice the absence of any Andhra joints in the list...well that's primarly because i frankly have been hughely disappointed by the Telugu food places in Hyderabad, none of them can match the Bangalore andhra joints in food,taste,variety or value for money. Surprising,eh??
Hmm...and who do i tag now..well i leave it for my discerning readers to do as they please. Anyone willing to do this can pick up the gauntlet...just drop a line in the comments so that i took can learn about some more restaurants.
Some day i will write a similar one on my favs in Delhi and Bangalore. And include watering holes too :)

PS. Just heard that Saheb, Sindh Sultan has stopped taking telephonic reservation...i had a fight with their manager and his manager for over 20 mins on the phone trying to make them understand how it made more sense to have an organised system where in you give preference to telephonic reservations and reduce the rush outside their joints. But no...they just would not listen ...those numbskulls!! So they are being bumped to being an also ran...

Current Music: Stone Temple Pilots - Plush

Just like the pied piper led rats through the streets..

2007-04-12T04:54:00.001-07:00

The farce that is known as Indian cricket has hopefully been exposed. We can all hopefully let our collective breath out and stop giving a shit about the game of cricket. There are other sports out there too, y'know!!
Sometimes it makes me wonder how people like Mel Gibson and Manoj N Shymalan ever get money to make movies. Anybody who has seen Apocalypto would like to shove a Jaguar's Paw up Gibson's ass for giving them a migraine that just wont go away. And the less said about Lady In Water the better. Seriously, i pity the IQ of Shymalan's children; if this movie was actually inspired by a bedtime story that Mr Shymalan told them then I am sure they are having quite a traumatic childhood. Isn't this so symptomatic of all the one hit wonders that this world has seen? They give you such a rush when they burst on to the scene with their flash-in-the-pan talent, but then give you nothing but migraines after that. Maybe their should be a worldwide body to govern their infiltration of popular culture. Once classified as a one hit wonder you should officially be forced to retire so that the people can remember you for all the good stuff that you did and not the shit that you will come up with in the future. I hope Mr Dhoni is listening cuz he's the next one that i would want to ban and soon...

Current Music: Metallica - Master of Puppets

Kanha,Bandhavgarh,Pachmarhi

2007-04-10T04:15:00.000-07:00

Photos and videos from the trip are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/nkhadiya .

Kanha

Bandhavgarh

Pachmarhi

Tiger, tiger burning bright...

2007-04-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better than a 10 day long vacation in tigerland i.e. the sanctuaries of Kanha and Bandhavgarh for worldly weary souls. I must make it my yearly pilgrimage destination. Almost 2000 pics need to be sorted from but here are a few samples.

Watch out for more pics in the coming few days.

Musings!!

2007-02-23T00:36:00.000-08:00

Rage against the machine reuniting....that could be the best news that i have heard in centuries!! Yes, there are rumours abounding of a comeback after a band reunited for a one time show. Yesterday i also got the news of a possible Genesis reunion happening - minus Peter Gabriel but atleast the rest will be there. This world seems like a better place to live in after all :)
Bullet for My Valentine, AlexisonFire, KillSwitch Engage and Pink Floyd's Animals( for some vague reason) have been pounding my ear drums of late. And to think that Roger Waters performed Sheep and the entire Dark Side of the Moon during his show in bombay. And I missed it. This trip to bangalore this weekend better be worth it.

Current Music - Tool - H.

An epidemic of mannequins

2006-11-29T01:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so its been a long time since i rock and rolled but then life's been kinda hectic. And then you really dont feel like doing much else when you have 2 adorable nephews around to play with also now do you :)
Last few weeks included a nice looong trip to Delhi, in which i had hoped that i would get to taste the Delhi winter after ages...but alas it was not to be. Damn that global warming, i think i better put in my lot with Al Gore after all this.
Coming back to Hyderabad is always a pain given the nature of the city, but coming back to the prospect of 10 hour workdays, shitty food and zero social life after a vacation where you literally got breakfast in the bed was a little painful. The bright sparks in Hyderabad are few and far between but when some of them come up you outta grab em with both hands. I was unfortunate enough to miss a Zero show in Hyderabad( for the unintiated Zero is one of the better Indian bands, for any doubts listen to an instrumental of theirs called "Christmas in July", i had the good fortune of catching them live a few times in Delhi,Bangalore and Bombay and man they rock) but when i heard that there was a nice play about to be staged in Hyderabad i decided that that was an opportunity not to be missed. The play was titled " Hamlet - an original spoof" done by this group of people from Chennai called evam. A little apprehension crept in since I dont know squat about Hamlet, but then i said to myself "why not" and decided to go and watch this play. So the plan was rolled out, a saturday evening it was to be, spent in an auditorium and i was to come out all the more wiser about some Shakespeare fundaes.
So i reached the audi and grabbed some nice seats and was kicking myself for not having attended some more plays in Hyderabad, cuz the female population was actually overwhelming. The play started just about in time and these guys started off with some nice covers ( is that a word that you can use in the context of a play??) of some Monty Python episodes. They didn't cover my favourite MP episode( "The ministry of funny walks" :-) ) But they did do the petshop owner and the dead parrot one and they did do it quite well so i was more than happy. Post interval they informed, would be the actual Hamlet spoof so i was left wondering as to how they can do a Shakespearean play in 45 mins, but then bigger things have happened in lesser time so i laid my mind to rest and watched as the post interval session began. And what a session it was. Those guys transformed the usual boring Shakespeare stuff into an interactive in house spoof, where they got in people from the audience to come up on stage and do some theatrics and it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. The 3 guys had quite a wacky stage presence and it kept the audience more than enthralled and more importantly laughing their collective ass off, so all in all it was an evening well spent.
On the music front here's a list of songs of the top of my head for the moment, that you should give a listen to:
1. Madonna - get together ( off her new album....sooooper track)
2. Stone Sour - Through the glass( this is Corey Taylor of Slipknot's side project. An awesome power ballad of sorts. The whol album is worth a listen actually.)
3. Atif Aslam - Tere Bin ( of the OST of "Bas Ek Pal"....a very hummable ditty)

Current Music: Messhugah - Organic Shadows

I believe in the kingdom come

2006-09-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

You really start feeling old"er" when:

1. You start paying taxes and abuse the govt for not utilising them properly.
2. You realise that you joined college 7 years back.
3. People ask you whether you still follow metal at your age.
4. Kids around the street start calling you "uncle" instead of "bhaiya".
5. You subtract a 2 digit number from your age and are still left with a two digit number.
6. You realise that there is nothing else that you can be, other than your present occupation, when you "grow up". And believe me, that sucks.
7. The bands that you grew up listening to or which burst upon the scene in front of you, start releasing "best of" albums.
8. You actually have to stay at home, because the carpenter is going to come to fix the door.
9. You realise that Roger Federer is "actually" your age and has already won so many titles.
10. You talk about old TV shows, which nobody, other than a couple of people can seem to recall. 11. People are actually talking about Sachin Tendulkar's retirement. It always seemed so far away :(
12. You are the seniormost guy in your team in terms of experience. ( ...whoa!!)
13. Your father is no longer the superhero he seemed to be.
14. You start paying back for something that you bought, via monthly installments.
15. You actually start repaying your debts to your friends :)
16. When people your age are busy buying land and houses and other such stuff...(and you dont know head nor tail of what's going on :-D )
17.People who care about you actually want to know what you plan to do with your life....
18. ..... and when " I dont know" is not a good enough answer to that.

Current Music: Byzantine - Ancestory of the Anti-Christ

Of Unrelated Geometry

2006-09-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

This seems like a familiar place. Reminds me of my blog somewhat? Wonder what happened to it? Maybe it too fell on bad days ...poor thing...i can only sympathise with its author who must be busy earning his daily bread much like me. Trying to get more and more work squeezed out of his fatigued body, nay soul maybe.
Ok enough of the oblique excuses, the last day has seen me stumble upon somethings that are worth propagating. First is a wonderful book of short stories titled "The Red Carpet" by Lavanya Sankaran. I have read just 2 of the stories in the book so far, but have been smitten by this lady's subtle wit and immaculate picturisation of the Bangalore youth and spirit. Lets hope the remaining stories too match up. The book was actually a worthy recommendation from a friend of mine, who we call Bib as a tribute to his clumsiness, when we got around to discussing why there werent too many books that had ever tried to capture the feel of living in Bangalore. Yup, i agree that not many would want to write about living in Bangalore today with its traffic and other monstrosities but there are a bunch of things that do give that city a whole lotta soul. The second would be these awesome radio shows that go by the name of Global DJ broadcasts that any self respecting trance fan should listen to. Just checkout the roster for the guest DJs on the show and you would know. Look up http://www.globaldjbroadcast.com/ for more details.

On an absolutely unrelated and tangential note, did anyone see this ( http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/258516.html) . No no, forget the stories, just scroll down to the 2 nd pic and well ...ya ..pick your jaw back up. And yes that is Vinod Kambli with one of the hottest chics that i have seen in a long long time. Man, how the hell is it possible i have no clue, but that guy must have done something right in his lifetime.

And then you get to hear news like this (http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowbizNews.asp?Code=ZK44187L&headline=steve_irwin_killed_in_diving_tragedy) . The Crocodile Hunter is no more. Struck rather ironically by a sting ray and not a croc as would have been much more poetic. RIP steve. Animal Planet would not be the same without you.

Current Music: Bonham - Wait for You

Drawing pictures of mountain tops...

2006-07-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

Thoughts and patterns have been alternating between the story of Rama and the nature of karma. Rama, primarily cuz I have been devouring the Ramayana series byAshok Banker. And karma, well, cuz somehow I seem to be associated with it :).
The sale at Walden gave me the opportunity to pick up 31 songs by Nick Hornby. The same guy who wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy. Imagine telling the story of your life through songs. A song for a year. A song for every incident perhaps. Happy songs and sad songs. Angry songs and mellow songs. Songs that I jumped up and down to when i was a kid. Songs that I turned to in the darkness of the night.Which one would it be for now? "Shimmer" by Fuel ? "Epiphany" by Staind? Ahh...where are my Pearl Jam cds.....

Current Music : Immortality - Pearl Jam

And there it goes...

2006-07-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 12/07/2006 5:45 pm

Normal boring office day. Some plans to play basketball in the evening and then maybe go off to catch some late dinner. Was thinking about what to do over the weekend. There was Superman to watch, and my new Megadeth and Silverchair DVDs to watch. And then there was basketball to play and some books to read. All in all a weekend that I could look forward too.

Wednesday 12/07/2006 6:30 pm

On the basketball court. The whole MS team has met up after a long time. A few jokes shared, some warmup and then we get into a game. A make a clean swish with the first shot i make :) It feels good. Then I again get the ball and make a clean break.A team mate is running to my right. Somebody comes over to guard me so i think about a pass to my open teammate.He has a good open shot . All it requires is a nice fake and then a swivel on my right leg. Fake comes of well. Then i swivel. But my knee refuses to hold me up. And i crumple to the ground,writhing in pain. I dont know what went wrong. It was meant to be a nice move.

Wednesday 12/07/2006 7:30 pm

My roommate is rushing me to Apollo Hospital's Emergency room. I am on a wheelchair. My knee feels as if its been crushed by a hammer. "Oh god! Not again! Not again! Anything but that pain..."

Friday 14/07/2006 10:00 am

I wake up all groggy and can barely see around me.I am in a delhi hospital. My knee is all bandaged up and i know that i am just coming out of anaesthesia. My mum's in one corner giving me a reassuring smile. The doctor tells me that I have torn a cartilage and a ligament in my knee and they cleaned that up during the operation. I was lucky to have not ruptured the ACL ligament that he had reconstructed in 2002 in the same knee. However it does have a 20% tear. I ask him what I can do to give it strength again . He says " Nothing...just dont fall again." He says that no sports for me ever again . No basketball, football, badminton or squash. If i tear the remaining 80% then there isnt much that they can do. Its only treadmills, weights and swimming from here on for me.

Life sucks...and how!!

Joga Bonito???

2006-06-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

I was a witness to the farce that they called a World Cup football match between Portugal and the Netherlands. And i can safely say that i feel ashamed to have witnessed such a deprecation of football.
The game seemed to be more of a celebration of the might of the elbow and the beauty of theatre than what it was billed to be; a meeting of 2 teams that have a lot to prove given their perenial underachiever's tags. In Scolari and Van Basten, the game had in it 2 unbeaten coaches, who were supposed to be at the top of their arts. However the game would have sadly reminded Van Basten of the kind of injuries and tackles that cruely cut short his career, a career that would have made Cryuff seem like a pretender. And from Scolari, i expected an amalgamation of the Brazillian magic, Iberian flair and Europena grit which Portugal had presented to the world in Euro 04 and their first round matches.
And what a disappointment it turned out to be!!! Figo, Robben and Van Bommel, it seems have been perfecting their thespian skills in the past few months and decided that this was the best opportunity to show case their skills. Where were the cutting runs that Robben had shown in Euro 04? Is this what Mourinho's Chelsea has done to this prodigiously talented winger?? And was it a deliberate plan to put Ronaldo out of the game so early? Surely, the tackle by Boulharouz seemed to suggest nothing else but that. And the head butt by Figo or the hand ball by Costinha? I mean what the hell were these guys really thinking!!!!!!
But first things first, I find it hard to imagine how Van Basten could leave out people like Roy Makaay and Klaas Jan Huntelaar out of this squad, especially since its known that Ruud Van Nistlerooy is going through a really lean patch. And the effect of this was for all to see in the 2nd half of the match when Holland missed chances a plenty in the 18 yard box. And even when all this was going on, was Van Basten really justified in putting his ego before the interests of the nation and not bringing on Nistelrooy?? I mean come on are you really telling that that Vesellink of whatever is a better striker than either of the 3 aforementioned gentlemen. Mr Marcel Van Basten, i think you quite lost the plot there.
And then there was the Portugese team which seemed to have collectively let their brains go to graze in the nearby meadows( ..with due apologies to the Hindi language). Why the hell did Costinha handle the ball? Did Figo really need to head butt Van Bommel? Why, oh why in god's name did Deco not give the ball to Cocu? If ever there was a classic case of a pyrrhic victory then this was it, cuz i see no chance in hell of Portugal going any further given that they have lost 2, possibly 3 players if Ronaldo is unable to recover before the England match and half their remaining squad are sitting pretty with their deck of Yellow Cards.
And after all this both the coaches had the audacity to actually put the blame on the Russian referee and say that he messed up the game for the 2 teams. And how he did that, i dont know cuz maybe, maybe Messrs. Van Basten and Scolari think that it would have been better if the referee had turned a blind eye to the things that either Bouhlarouz or Costinha or Deco did. In my opinion, Costinha should have been out much earlier and Figo deserved a red card for what he did, but nah.. the 2 coaches think the referee screwed it up for them. Convenient, I say very convenient. And what do you think we should do to Bouhlarouz for kicking Ronaldo in the thigh and effectivly ending his match, Mr Van Basten? Garland him and put up his posters shall we??

And that brings me to the other point that has been constantly pricking me throughout this WC. Is it just me or has anybody else noticed the clearly below par level of football that most of the top teams have displayed? It seems shades inferior to the club level football that most of us see in the Champions league or the national leagues. Ok i agree there have been certain exceptions like Brazil's second half against Japan or England's first half against Sweden or most of Argentina's playing minutes but somehow its not been what i expected. And i would pin the blame sorely on the club football cuz the clubs nowadays are so reluctant to release their star players for national duties that these players hardly get a chance to play each other. And as you all would know, throwing in a few stars does not make a great team. They have to play with each other to understand each other's game. Take Ronaldinho for example. His passing has been way short of what we have seen him do for Barca cuz he's not able to predict where Ronaldo or Adriano would be in a few moments simply because that they havent played enough together. Germany on the other hand have been revelation cuz they seem to have a played a lot more football together, since quite a few of the players are drawn from the handful of the big German clubs and hence have that natural cohesion that comes from playing together. And its a real pity that its come to this cuz club football is one thing, but it should not be at the expense of international football. A case in point to have Champions league once evey 4 years and World Cup every year maybe ?

Current Music: Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots

Punch

2006-05-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

Really nice interview with the jinxed Anurag Kashyap.

http://www.naachgaana.com/2006/5/2/naachgaana-s-exclusive-anurag-kashyap-interview

"Somebody just asked me, is your ultimate dream to win an Oscar? No, my dream is to sit across from Scorsese and serve him tea."

Cant believe that this guy has not been able to get even one film released as yet? What a pity!

Current Music: Scum of the Earth - Get your dead on

In too deep

2006-05-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult things that people can ask of me is to tell them my list of favourite musicians. I mean, i find it really tough, nay excruciating, to come up with a list of favourite anything. And musicians....man that's the pits!! If somebody really wants me to come up with a list of my favourite artists then they probably will have to lock me up in a room and leave me there with some food and water for a month or so, cuz thats what it will take for me to go through all the artists that i have heard in my lifetime and figure which ones will make the cut. And even that might not be enough cuz seriously they are so many variables involved. And so many questions. How can i compare different genres of music? How do i rate a one-hit wonder whose single masterpiece might have overshadowed all the other below par stuff that he might have produced over a nondescript career ? Or for that matter how much credit is due to an artist whose been on the verge of my tolerance list because of a ton of consistently average music that they might have produced over a long career? And how, and this is the toughest one, how do i get over the biases that might come from the music that is currently in my playlist and hence those artists are number one on my recall list. Hence, if you ever walk up to me and ask me for a favourites list, then either arrange for an all-expenses paid trip to a lonely island for me or expect to hear a random from-the-top-of-my-head kinda answer.

But there is one band that i will put down without any hesitation on to this list.And they would be Pearl Jam.

They have been close to my heart for a long long time. What is it that I like about them? Well, for one, they have a strong sense of melody attached with their music and their initial albums had the 90s sound in them which initially drew me to them. Eddie's lyrics for the early albums, were just too compelling to ignore and they have provided solace time'n' again. I had not been too impressed with their last album, Riot Act, but there's no denying the fact that they are destined for musical immortality more along the lines of bands like CSNY or Rush or The Who rather than say an Ozzy or an Aerosmith. The last of the Seattle bands left standing, while the Grunge movement fell to the wayside, they are probably the only band that truly understood what endeared the Grunge movement to an entire generation and have carried it through their music. It was not the flannel and boots look, nor the dreadlocks or the low tuned guitars, nor was it the improbable mix of the 70's punk's brashness along with the lyrics of say the Classic Rock movement that these guys mixed, that drew the hordes. It wasnt even the fact that most of these guys came from broken American families that the masses could identify with, which made them popular. For me, the 90s music was all about one thing - sincerity. Here was a bunch of guys who came in as a breath of fresh air in an era which had grown sick and tired of the over the top 80s pop and hair metal bands, the rockstars' excessive debaucheries, the filthy materialism and senselessness of the pop acts. These guys were exactly the opposite of that. They sung about everyday issues and they kept it real. Their music was unprententious, raw, edgy and unapologetic. For once, they were even willing to sing about the one thing that nobody really wanted to stare at - politics.
But then somehow somewhere, the plot was lost. Cobain went and shot himself. Chris Cornell got an ego the size of Mt Everest and Scott Weiland discovered cocaine. Layle Staley, well lets just not think about him, its too depressing . And the music executives of the world discovered the market potential of the 12-16 year olds and gave them the mannequins that prentended to sing - Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. The lone rangers of the era past, Pearl Jam went to surf the farthest oceans and decided to stick with what the held closes to their heart - the issues that plagued the society around them. They kept churning out albums that were nothing short of fuckin' brilliant ( Vitalogy, No Code, Yield, Binaural) and were also happy and content that could still walk down the street without being mobbed. Their music matured, they got married and sobered themselves down, Eddie got a new haircut and Mike McCready a new disease, Stone got a look of a software geek that went well with his Seattle neighbourhood, Jeff went back to Montana. Their drummer problem was solved with the arrival of Matt Cameron, the best thing that probably resulted out of the dissolution of SoundGarden. They were happy with what they had. The shouted out to the world to throw out Bush and threw their lot in with Ralph Nader, sung for kids at the Bridge School benefits, jammed to free Tibet and fought( and lost to) corporate leeches like Ticketmaster.
But then their record label, Epic, realised that their multi-million dollar deal for the what they hoped would be their multi-platinum rock act for the new millienium was going sour, so they decided to dump them. Nothing could have been better for PJ who now discovered that without the commercial pressures they could be more forthright with their activism and signed up with the granddaddy of folk rock management Clive Davis' J Records. And have now come out with their latest album, which is self titled. Critics have called it the heaviest PJ album in years, which makes rub my hands in anticipation, but what i am really looking forward from them is their brand of sincere rock. Soft or heavy, old or young, blues, folk or grunge, nothing can take away the sincerity from Pearl Jam. And thank god for that.
I haven't heard the album myself as yet as i am awaiting my own copy which should be with me soon.

Current Music : Papa Roach - Getting Away with Murder