Zzzz...... I'm Sleepy ........

The last few days have been crazy.

Waking up at 6:30, reaching office by 9.
Sitting around, trying to break all the legs of my chair till 9 in the evening and finally home - just to have dinner and a quick nap to repeat the whole process again and again and yet again.

And than I meet old friends asking me questions - So what's up ?
And seriously, I dont know how to answer that question.

Maybe life has become a bit monotonous (No. I haven't reached the mid-age crisis yet)
Work has started sucking a bit.
Want to wrap up things before any one notices it but only if I could !!

Will have to start doing something new.
Maybe, taking up guitaring seriously or even renewed interest in biking.

Hope I never say these words - Life Sucks.

P.S. That's a bloody dipressing bullshit that I just wrote. I'm squinting to read the screen properly. Someone is headbanging in my head. It's taking too long to download these Skinny Alley songs. ZZZzzz..................

Livin it up at the land of Maharajas
As I got up last Saturday, with my head spinning from the headiness of Pink Noise (awesome band, btw), and the beer still gurgling around in my system, I could'nt help but curse myself for agreeing to go to Jaipur for another damned wedding of a kin long forgotten. Dammit, a not-so-wise dude once told me that I go to a lot of weddings. Can't help realise he was actually right.

But the multitude of experiences crammed into 2 days was all that was needed for me to actually end up having a uniquely wonderful time at Jaipur. After all, to me going to the city of Kings, was like a second homecoming itself...
Anyways, as the 2 days were filled with events so entirely distinct, I'm having a hard time trying to build them into a coherent paragraph. So lord praise the man who invented bullets (not real ones, but these stupid things I'm gonna use here)

* Well these are actually not bullets.

* Wore a PAGDI for the first time in my life. It gives the same feeling you may have if you eat too much food, which would then go up ur brain than down your tummy.

* This reminds me, though I very happily took the digital cam, looking to capture some royal beauties in the rustic backdrop of a Jaipuri wedding, I forgot it at the hotel room itself. It was only when a thousand camera flashed were going on in my face that I realised that I could actually join them.

* So no pic of the PAGDI either :(. But did manage to visit some spots the day after and get clicking...



* At the wedding, I had a startling revelation that I actually tend to merge better with the Dadajis & Dadjis rather than folks of my own age. Maybe this reflects on my current state?

* Got drunk and played bluff with my cousins, and ended up employing the same tactic Abhay used the last time I was in Jaipur, to save my pennies. Hope the paper was sterilized.

* In the morning after, I had a breakfast comprising of milk and cereal...what, no... milk a.k.a.rabri and jalebi. And lots and lots and lots of it. Had to loosen my belt by 2 slots afterwards, but what the heck. Royalty doesn't really care about such stuff...

* In the evening, went to Nahargarh fort, the place where the RDB gang supposedly went to chill out after a hard day at DU :((...god these hindi movies can bluff. There was some kinda fest going on there, with some reeeally out-of-this-world characters roaming about...



* On the way back, with the car burning serious rubber at around 120 kmph, the endless trees rushing past my window, I was put in some kind of a trance where the entire 4 hour journey seemed to end in a moment...or span an entire lifetime...

And now, even as the damned admin (wierd thing, these words rhyme so well) at office have decide to even block out blogger, as I fight the ever growing force trying to push me into slumber, I make this resolve to tell that not-so-wise dude to mind his own business, and never pass up the chance of going to another wedding ever again. Hey, you may end up enjoying things other than the endless, free food... 

Rang Barse....

Flashback...March 13th,2006..... its yet another boring Monday evening and I am sitting at my desk thinking how quickly the weekend had whizzed by (it was quite an amazing weekend, more on that in the next post :)). To make matters worse Holi is less than 48 hours away and what I can't get over is the fact that we don't even have a bloody holiday that day!!!! Well anyways, I was able to convince some friends to drop the idea of celebrating holi at dinner time and called them over to my place in the morning to celebrate holi 'Dilli Ishtyle' >:). Well just as I had 'not' expected this Holi turned out to be one of my most enjoyable Holis ever. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll stop here and well...this is what we looked like at the end of it all.......

Haha :)...I was just kidding when I said I would stop there. As I look at my still-partially-pink-around-the-edges nails I can't help but describe the entire sequence of events. So I was woken up at the crack of dawn (read 9am :)) by 5 of my friends happily ringing the doorbell away to glory. And before I could prepare for the war ahead by covering myself with cold cream and oil I was looking like a high quality cross breed of man and monkey with half of my face pink and the other half my own handsome self :). Unfortunately, the half-man-half-ape look didn't last too long because we moved to the terrace where with each passing moment we started looking more and more like our ancestors :).

Anyways, fun as the holi was it lacked the 'dilli' touch. So cleverly making an excuse to get my roommate (the guy in the photo who looks like the victim of an explosion in Tom& Jerry) I went downstairs to pick up those gifts of hens to mankind which we have shunned these days thanks to avian flu....eggs. Well it was here that things took on an interesting turn. Now studies say that different people react differently to eggs. The effect it had on my first victim is worth documenting and should provide valuable insights to pyscho-analysts all over the world. A cracked egg on my friend's head seemed to rouse the sleeping Bruce Lee in her. And before I could help it I got 5-6 taekwondo kicks squarely in my butt. The sequence of events was so shocking to me that I got a bout of apoplexy and ended up like this :).....Well so that was that for Holi. After scrubbing myself for nearly an hour I headed off to office looking well....still pretty pink....but clean. The moment I stepped into the office and opened my laptop I was jumped by one of my team mates who covered my face with purple color.
while(i!=I-lost-count-how-many-times-this-happened)
{
Thinking this to be a one off event I went and washed my face only to be colored back to purple but this time by another colleague;
i++;
}

The rest of the work day was pretty much the usual...had a heavy lunch and slept on my desk :). In the evening all of us were invited over for dinner at my friend's place (lets call her PowerpuffGirl for ease of reference...those reading this post with care would not find it difficult to relate this character to the Bruce Lee descendant mentioned above). Had an awesome home-cooked dinner because another friend's, who happens to be PowerpuffGirl's roommate and a fellow colleague (unfortunately she isn't there in the picture above...I think she took the picture)...well yeah so her mother and sister had come down for Holi. In all it was a very nice Holi. However, fate, as I have said before, was quietly slipping lead into the boxing glove as it prepare to punch poor-ol'-unsuspecting me. It seems that PowerpuffGirl, on account of being a pure vegetarian, had gone into shock after the egg incident and decided to get back at me once again by squashing a tomato on my head. And so feeling like how Adam would've felt had the bible said that the actual sin was not the consumption of the forbidden apple by Eve but simply the fact that Eve whacked Adam with a tomato, I headed back for home thinking that this Holi was quite an 'eggs'perience.

And the story goes on....

Well...march has come and gone. Brought with it some amazing weather. It rained, was windy, sunny, even foggy on couple of mornings. It's only now that proper summer seems to be setting in.

The last time i wrote on Mostly Harmless was on 2and March. Whoa!! lots of stuff happened since then. Infact, it's been a long long week. Worked late almost every day, went out a couple of times with friends (on friday and saturday). Felt happy, sad, bored, interested, fustrated...hell i didn't sleep one night coz i was ill and up shivering n pucking away. All in all an interesting week - had fun and came to know new stuff about myself which helps for more battles ahead.

Some events that happened and i remember (2-25 March) :-

- Played holi with pals after quite a few years
- Got really drunk n wrestled with friends....awesome fun
- I worked :) ya it really did happen
- Attended a gig by one of the best guitarists in India (more on that later)
- Couple of IIM interviews
- It rained cats and dogs in delhi one day and i drove in such rain for the first time with a coupla high (drunk) people as co-passengers!!

The long, dark tea-time of the blogging soul......

Hello there!!! After a long hiatus from the world of blogging, I am back!!! (I know you all have tears of joy in your eyes and are wondering what good deeds you did in your past lives to deserve the honour of my return to the blogging community :), but its ok....as the saying goes 'Life is beautiful' or is it...'Every dog has its day'..ahem :)).

And another feature of 'Marvin, the blogger' v 2.0 is that he's totally new and improved.....pretty much like all new releases...except that after some time 'new and improved' bugs are also discovered in the 'new and improved' releases :)......god this software industry is getting to me!!

So I will start by trying to update you guys on the incidents in my life. So expect a free flow of posts in the near future. For the moment, I will sign off with another wise saying from none other than Bruce Wayne aka Batman.....'I am your worst nightmare....' >:).

bliss

10:50 AM

My entire team decides to ditch me and go on a mass bunk today.

Sitting at my desk, alone in the aisle, I feel disoriented. Just wanna run away from all this myself. As if under some kind of a spell that binds me, pulling me away.

But wait. Not again. Can't waste more time this way. I desparately need something to jerk me out of this feeling.

Ah! A ray of hope. A half-eaten bar of bitter swiss chocolate in my drawer, saved from the client meeting last week for desparate times. Call it manna from heaven if you may.

As I dig my teeth into the heavenly Lindt, put on Time of your life on the headphones, and just sink back into the chair, I am pulled back into my cheery self.

Feels good to realise that Bliss ain't that hard to attain.

Y didn't she just stick a dagger in me

I wish my computer had crashed today. Or been attacked by a virus which would have corrupted that satanic piece of software called yahoo messenger. Or at least god should have prevented me from making the first mistake of logging into it .Because today a seemingly harmless chat almost gave me a heart attack.
7 p.m., and here I am happily chatting to a a good 'ol chap, listening to his take on the contenstants of Miss India this year. Then suddenly, out of the blue, a msg window poops in my face, and there she is. One of my best friends. And more importantly, my high school crush. Damn that wretched soul who gave her my msgr id.
Anyways, I try to put up a bold front, though I'm literally stammering even on the msgr. And then comes the second mistake of the day. In reply to her-so-whats-new-me-nothing yaar, I ask her back the same question. This is the moment when she decides to launch a tirade of accomplishments that make me feel like digging up a hole in the earth and bury my face in it-

She tells me tht after school she got into NID, where luckily her industrial project client in final sem was none other than BMW. So a month later, she's in Germany, where after the project she gets absorbed into BMW itself, simultaneously pursues a 1 year PG degreee in advanced automotive design, then moves to the US, pursues a 1 year degree in Business from harvard, joins Boeing, finds an Indian bloke who also happens to be a high-profile neuro-surgeon.
She goes on to tell me that she just bought a Porsche, she's getting married this summer, and took my address to send an invitation. And no, she does'nt stop at this. She starts photo sharing, and one after another, I'm presented with proofs of her feats.Ohhh, does she look gr8...

And u knw wht, I saved the (almost)last 2 lines frm the chat, which actually form the worst part:

kaustubh_bhatnagar: Hey if u ask so much...I'll tell...actually I had a crush on you.
heena kalra: I knw tht,and u knw, i did too. But i guess it worked out for the best for both of us
kaustubh_bhatnagar: [Remind me to ask the yahoo guys to make a smiley for "Hang Thyself"]

Can't recall much after that cause that's precisely the moment when I blacked out.

Holy Holi !! (And the week before that)

Was asked recently - Why is Holi celebrated?
Must confess, was totally dumb struck.

Apart from remotely remembering someone called Holika getting burnt on this day, I knew nothing about the festival (Also, people getting drunk drinking bhaang and acting stupid)

But the girl, who asked the question, said that there were more than 3 reasons, so googled around and look what i found:

- An agricultural festival celebrating the arrival of spring

- An evil king named Hiranyakashipu wanted to kill his son, Prahlad (a devotee of Vishnu). So he challenged his son to sit on a pyre with his wicked aunt Holika who was believed to be immune to fire. But, as it always turns out to be in Hindu Mythology, the good guy is saved and the evil person dies. Thus we burn the effigy of Holika on a day prior to Holi.

- According to legend, the young Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about why Radha was so fair and he so dark. Yashoda advised him to apply colour on Radha's face and see how her complexion would change. (And that explains why girls are the target on this day)

- Kama (Cupid) tried to kindle lust on God Shiva, but, instead, was burnt alive when Shiva opened his 3rd eye. Later he forgive Kama for the sake of Kama's wife Rati (passion)

So now that we have the complete reference, let’s talk about what we did.

Bertie called up, asking to come over. play holi ?? (after a gap of 8 years :D)

So I and ZZ9 went to Bertie’s place, where he was ready with eggs in his hands (disgusting!! Especially during these days of BirdFlu)

Similarly Shubh was ready with balloons in his hands, but this time around I was the one with egg in my hands and Shubh’s head as its target.

Rest of the day went ok, with us playing a strange game hitting each other with balloons and Bertie getting assaulted by a kid (the kid was throwing water, color, pesticide etc on Bertie :D)

What did you learn today?
Filling a bucket full of balloons takes an hour but bursting them hardly takes 5 minutes. (Does this signify something ??)

Part 2

The week before

What if you put four guys and a bottle of vodka and gin each – together, at a place where they can’t do much for entertainment?

Chaos!!

So there we were, after having watched Walk the line and our tummy full at Kebab King.

The night started well, with me deciding not to drink anything.

Same old stuff - forming a circle, pouring liquor in steel glasses, drinking, talking in hush tones.

Suddenly, Bertie declared – Let’s play Bhooth – Bhooth (!!). He got his share of kicks for the stupid game.

Shubh then came with the idea of wresting and soon there were people all over each other, kicking each other’s butt. With Bertie excusing himself for puke, every time he was getting beaten.

Everything cooled down after a while (an hour or so with the finishing photo shoot) and people started discussing about girls, life, marriage, work, more girls :D and so on.........ZZZzzzz.......

And for the sake of record keeping, ZZ9 puked after drinking too much (Welcome to the puker’s club)

P.S. Checked with Google. There are no ill effects of having Vodka + Rum together.

Wierd Weekend

There happen to be days that go by without you lifting more than a brow to acknowledge their passing. And then there happen to be not.
I don't really know what I was trying to say previously, but I do know that this particualr weekend, still on right now, definitely did'nt fall into the former category.
-Well to begin with, after being home alone for an entire week, it finally dawned on me on Saturday that how much I missed my parents. I swear to god, if i have to spend another week eating out of the fridge ever again, I'm commiting suicide.
-For the first time in my life I ate a breakfast of a bag full of popcorn.
-The evening was slightly better. Watched Crash, probably one of the finest pieces of cinema I've seen in recent past. After a long time a movie made me jump off my seat and say "Oh Shit"...something I last remember having done while watching Fight Club (not that recent piece of crap, the Brad Pitt-Ed Norton classic)
-After the movie, spent several rather uncomfy moments with Blatherer and Rawale, hearing Fauji's coming-out-of-the-closet speech! Seriously, spent 4 yrs in the same class and I had no idea he was gay.
-Forgot to mention, also had to hear about Fauji's endeavours with salsa :-(
(BTW, he told our Marvin was also trying his hand, i mean legs at salsa!? :-(( )
-After that, as Fauji thankfully ditched us much to Rawale's distress(?), the three of us went to my place for a rather uneasy night-out, comprising of watching a slapstick movie and sharing a tiny bag of cheese balls in a manner so gentle and civic, it was hard to believe.
-Another surprise. The next morning (today, that is), Chinki was in a hurry to go and did'nt even ask for breakfast, whereas Rawale on the other hand had to be fed on a feast of 1 bread slice+half a pack of tomato maggi before he finally went home.

So now, as this wierd weekend draws to a close, and as I devour another bag of popcorn, I can't wait to rush to the stn. to get my parents, and normalcy, back into my life. God I can already smell those paranthas...!

Its a bird, its a plane, shit its a football!!!!!

Football...the sport that unites europe is a sport which I should not play. But who cares about what one should not do ;)........yeah man....it was a bad experience...mistake....foolishness :) but I did go to play soccer yesterday morning. Anyways so after a tiring 15 minutes of play I was panting like a dog in the Sahara on an extremely hot day so I decided to become the goalkeeper instead. But fate, silently slipping the lead into the boxing glove as always, chose just my turn as goalkeeper as the opportune moment for there to be a penalty against the team. So here was this big guy from the opposite team all set to kick the ball at me but I maintained a calm facade quietly confident that all I had to do was not move and the ball would pass me by. But alas!! the fellow decided he would might as well utilize the opportunity to break a couple of bones of mine. So suddenly I saw the ball come towards my unsuspecting self like a multi-colored canonball. And so with the speed and agility I often display I tried to move out of the way but was beaten and the ball hit my dear ol' thumb making it turn a dark shade of blue. Hence ended the soccer career of a future football star.

Shut up, a$$#ole !!

- Nearly got my right big toe crushed. Turns out it's not broken...but is swollen and hurting. It was throbbing throughout the day n paining. Got used to it though, i think i'll miss the pain when it goes away.

- Had a conversation about : flowers in spring, birds, getting punched in the stomach, need for constant attention by us from ourselves, name of a beer, songs that stick in ur head throughout the day and about how energetic and lively the bougainvilleas are this time of the year. This was a 10 minute convo!!

- Hurt a friend, by making some stupid remarks....oh i ought to think sometimes before i open my mouth. Totally unintentional though, but we are judged by our words n actions and not intentions. Righty too. Realised it rather late in the day, but i hope i learn from it.

- Btw Marvin also hurt his right thumb. How ?? Well......playing football...huh ?!

One more for the Alumni Meet

Would like to add more to what ZZ9 said (btw what does it mean) -

The Alumni Meet at Moksha (NSIT '06) was more of a home-coming for the people who had just passed out the previous year.

And I dont think that being an year out of your alma mater qualifies you as an alumni. It was more like being back to college after vacations.

There were no nostalgic feelings about the place. It seemed the same as we had left it. The same unfinished Advanced Computer Centre, The same grass growing over the BH3 building (sic!), the same rowdy batchmates of mine :(

And since around 97% of the people meeting were from 2005 batch, you can't even term it as an Alumni Meet. (The rest 2% were not from our college and 1%, who were the actual alumni's were wondering if they were at the right place)

Moksha, eh?
So our enthu juniors decided to hold a special jig for the Alumni at Moksha this time around. Nice idea, I thought, 'cause the alumni network of NSIT sucks bigtime. Also, it would have been cool to be treated with repect at the college, for a change.
But all my dreams of a red-carpet welcome and fancy dinner were shattered at the college. Not only were the juniors quite indifferent in their attitudes, they also showed no hesitation in letting us know of their one and only motive :(. Even the dinner sucked, with people having to scrape food out of the utensils. Hey, maybe it was purposely done to revive the nostalgia of the hostel mess...

But the surprise of the evening was definitely the jam-session. The basketball-court had been efficiently transformed into what resembled an acces-controlled, grooving upmarket disc. The elitist snob of a premier engg institute (that some of us were so proud of) was changed into a bohemian ghetto of smoking, drunk and doped teens/post-teens, grooving to the tunes like B.C. Suttah (seriously!), and even singing along the unparliamentary-lyrics with full zest.
Maybe these ppl took the name of the fest too seriously!