Got them!

The passport & SBI kit arrived within half an hour of each other. What a relief!

Everybody's got me wrong. Perception can give rise to such serious differences in opinion.

Sunday Church

Went to Beldih after a looong gap. Church is such a humbling experience. Pastor Matthews was not present though. Mr. Patnaik took the service in his absence & did a pretty good job of it too. He's one of the few men of honour left among the congregation.

Some relatives from Daddy's side really get on my nerves. If it weren't for their age, they would have heard a word or two from me.

Gudiya is back. She's not looking too good though. The poor girl's health has been down for over 2 months now.

20, Rajendra Nagar awaits a new Honda City.

Still no luck

Still haven't got the SBI kit.

No luck

Still haven't got the SBI kit. Tried calling up 3 nos. No response from 2. The 3rd no belonged to an SBI agent in Bangalore who said that 'u aal will be getting the kitsa'. Hope that happens soon enough. I'm getting a bad feeling about this.

Hot & humid Calcutta

Took the Steel Express to Calcutta after ~ 8 years. The last time was in 1998 probably. The fare then was Rs. 60/-. The train has since been 'upgraded' to a 'Super Fast'. Consequently, the fare has gone up to Rs. 80 (95 with reservation) & the travelling time has increased by 15 mins! Only in India dude, only in India!

Calcutta was UNBEARABLY humid. This was the worst weather I've ever encountered in Cal. The pre paid taxi booth was operating out of an old steam engine maintainance shed! There have been no improvements to the city from 8 years ago. Saw a vehicle other than an Ambassador/City bus (a Honda CR-V) only after reaching the traffic lights near Eden Gardens. Other metros seem filled with the post-liberalisation car models as if in a hurry to shake off the Ambassador-Premier Padmini days. Not so with Cal. They love their Ambys & how!

Anyway, our check up was in a clinic at Camac Street. The central AC at the place came as welcome relief. And who should we meet there but Sweta! Check up over, Sid & me popped into a bar named 'Silver Grill' on Park Street. We had the place all to ourselves & the ambience was pretty good. Returned to Howrah at 4 o'clock. Caught the Steel back to Tata & was bathing at home by 10:30. The bath was one of the most relieving ones I've ever had.

Cultural influence reversed

Saw a hip hop video titled 'What's Happening' by a group called Method Man on Cine world. During the whole song, one can hear the acoustics of RDB's 'Dum Maro Dum' in the backgroung. There have been other examples of this reverse 'lifting' before, the most famous being the 'Kaliyon Ka Chaman' influenced rap video (I forget the name). It seems the West is finally waking up to our music.

Still haven't got the SBI kit.

To Calcutta

Sid & me will be in Cal tomorrow for the WIPRO medical checkup. Arni is accompanying us.

HEAT!

The heat is enough to drive anyone nuts! Plus, the mets are saying that the monsoon is going to be delayed!

Dus reloaded

10 years or so after the audio release of Mukul Anand's incomplete film, the trailers of 'Dus' are back on air. But, the only thing they have in common are Sanjay Dutt & Shilpa Shetty because this time it's an all new film starring Sanju, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan & Zayed Khan. The promos promise a fast paced action thriller what with the 4 guys wearing suits & weilding authentic looking shotguns & MP-5s, jumping over moving cars while firing their weapons, Hummers, Harleys, Lincoln Limos & the quintessential shot of the 4 walking abreast in slow motion, wearing black suits & shades, as a huge fireball results from an explosion behind them. Anubhav Sinha is the director & while all the style looks cool, I hope the film has substance to match. For this genre of movies to be considered a serious niche, it needs a hit & more so, since similar such examples like Kaante, Musafir & Karam in the past have not exactly set the BO on fire. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to it, as I am to Bunty aur Babli.

Condolences to Saurav

Sid SMSed that Bakshi's dad had died in a road accident on NH 33 near Rangamati. I don't even have an inkling of the kind of grief he must be going through now. It's all the more stark considering that we got talking when I met him at MESRA where I had gone to get my original certificates. Just goes to show.........life is too short to be spent in petty squabbles. Stay in touch with your loved ones........& let them know you care.

1 'viva-cious' week

Went to Ranchi on the 12th, a Thursday. Sid, Arni & me were together after 4 months. The bonding was instantaneous & so was the tuning. It's strange, but you get along so well with some people........you stay away from them for a long time & when you get back.........it's as if you were never away.

Our Viva was on the 16th. We were the 1st group scheduled! Arni had got his project printed in Calcutta itself. There were about 350 pages (including code) in 1 copy! Our printing, photocopying & binding took the better part of Friday. The photocopiers in & around Lalpur chowk were having a field day. On Saturday, we met our 'internal guide', Mr. Sanjay Kumar, who wasn't even aware of his having been assigned this role by the institute. Such are the ways of BIT! we should have taken out the slides on Saturday itself, but procrastinated, & left it for Sunday. We were to pay dearly for this as Anupam came on Saturday morning & took us for a 'drink' during lunch. By evening, most of the photocopiers who could have done the slides for us were closed. We (Sid, Neeral & me) went around no less than 10 shops getting excuses ranging from 'machine under repair' to 'machine not capable enough'. It was at the 11th 'jheraaks' shop near Bajrangi on Plaza chowk that we hit some luck.

Monday afternoon (on the 16th), the 4 of us (Sid, Sittu, Sweta & me) were together in the computer lab with rumours of the scheduled 2 p.m. start having been advanced to 1 p.m. doing the rounds. At the practice, my presentation went on for 7 minutes when it should have been confined to about 3! The 4 of us were edgy, Sweta even more so. Determined to be the first off the block, we reached the lab where the presentations were to be held at 1 p.m., only to realize that Saurabh (41) & 'Miss Bobby' had beaten us to it. Sweta was livid. Anyway, they finished soon enough & we were on cue, sans the Extenal Professor who hadn't arrived yet! The 4 of us gave a remarkably cool presentation, only faltering once when we were asked why JAVA was named thus. We took all of 25 minutes even though the alloted time was 12 minutes per group, & Vandana Ma'm was visibly impressed when Sittu concluded 'all our work has gone live & the users are very satisfied with the working'. A trip to the canteen followed, where we aere treated with home made Parathas (courtesy Sweta) & cold drinks (courtesy Sittu), accounts were settled & our team dispersed for the final time.

What followed over the next few days was a whirl of booze parties (at Madhuban & Capitol Hill, no less!), lunches, dinners & card games as G8 made the most of the time we had remaining. The bar & the restaurant at Capitol Hill were pretty good, albeit deserted & we had the place totally to ourselves. The 7 of us (Ajay was absent), cosumed 10 beers, 1 Screwdriver, 5 large vodkas & lots of complimentary chips & sprouts. Anupam picked the tab, God bless him! Neeral was so sloshed out he slept at his place on the restaurant table & sat on the floor in the lift! Div picked up the tab at Madhuban, cause he'd earned 15 grand doing a modelling stint at Delhi. All in all, we made up for all the times we missed each other over the last 4 months. One thing I'm sure of, is that this is one of the best group of friends I've ever had, right up there with the school time ones & the colony gang.

At Shivam, Sandeep Jha regaled us with his interesting anecdotes about life in North Bihar & his visits to Nepal. This was one guy full of stories. Nice timepass. Awadhesh seemed resigned to the fact that Richa was going to marry somebody else. Both of them seemed genuinely in love. The stumbling block proved to be the same old ones......familial constraints & parental pressure. All I could offer him were my sympathies. Don't know when our society will evolve enough to let 2 adults be together & lead a life of their own. I really feel sorry for the two.

Among the others, most of the batch girls seemed to have put on weight over the last 4 months. Among the guys, Deepanjan had put on weight & Santosh & Prashant seemed to have shed years & become smarter! Amit Seth seems to have turned over a new leaf & invited us on his birthday.......to Kaveri! Besides, it's marriage/engaement time for the girls as a lot of them are going to turn Mrs. soon.

The only dampener to the whole week was the running around that we had to do to get signatures on the convocation certificate. 8 signatures (4 in Lalpur, 4 in MESRA), no less! The other sad thing was the poor guy who died in the wall collapse next to the college. One look at the man's crushed face & I involuntarily turned away. Couldn't muster enough courage to look that way again. His face still keeps coming up before my eyes.

Tension!

Everybody (except Sittu), have received their WIPRO-SBI kits. I am still to get mine. Hate these kind of situations.

emp3world.com & BPS

Ever since I came across this site at WIPRO in January, I had been fantasising about downloading my favourite MP3s for free. Today (24th May), I did just that. Now playing on my computer are.......

- Turn Me On (Kevin Lyttle)
- Like Toy Soldiers (Martika)
- In Da Club (50 Cent)
and I'm loving it. Could download only 3 songs in 1 hour. Next time I'll be better organized. It's a fantastic feeling when I finally manage to lay my hands on a long sought after song. Music is such a great relaxant.....almost like an elixir. It's final now, as soon as I can afford it, I'm buying a 40 GB iPod/Walkman.

I still remember B. Parthsarathy (BPS). My batchmate in college, he too was a Scorpio. I had this 'wish list' written in chalk on the inside of the left door of my room's cupboard, which comprised of things like a Honda City 1.5 ExiS (the fastest sedan in the country at that time), a Sony Audio Deck (I forget the model no) & other such materialistic goals. He had picked up the chalk & right on top of the list scribbled, 'Bread & Butter'. He admitably was slightly paranoid but one of THE most down to earth people I've ever met. He always dreamed of being in the US. We lost all touch after college. The closing down of usa.net didn't help either. Wonder where he is right now. Hope he is happy.

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown's book definitely got my thinking about my religion & it's beliefs. The literal definition of belief - 'a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without proof', seemed perfect as I went through the book's contents. The facts about Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' of which there are 2 examples in my house were especially astonishing. But, however sensational it might be, the story is predictable at the best of times & comes to an unexciting, almost tame end. And as far as my faith in Christianity is concerned, it remains as it was. I think this was another of the Lord's tests of faith to which he's been subjecting my family & me over the last 10-15 years. I can almost see Him winking at me with a knowing smile on his face. Don't worry buddy, I am & will remain the God fearing person you'd expect me to be.

Playing catch up

2005 Toyota Landcruiser Prado, originally uploaded by itsvivek.

The side on view of the new Toyota Landcruiser Prado seems to be an exact replica of the SUV I've been doodling on the pages of my text books & copies over the last 2-3 years. Starting from the front bumper, the wheel arches, the glass house, C-Pillar treatment, rear light cluster, rear bumper, roofline, roof rails........everything seems exactly like I would have wanted it to be on my dream SUV. The only incoherencies are the headlights (which are even more futristic than what I'd designed) & the absence of a rear stepney & rear spoiler. It's almost as if they had a look at my sketches & followed it up with a full scale model. Chalo, finally somebody's managed to catch up with my thinking. Shows how far ahead of their time my designs were!

The summer's here

Since last Sunday, it's been one sultry day after another. Half an hour after a shower & you feel as though you never had one.

Sid, Arni & me are going to Ranchi tomorrow for the Viva scheduled on the 16th. God knows my level of preparedness for the same. Hope he knows that I need help too! The bus journey tomorrow will be really taxing.

Ash & Sush

Aishwarya Rai is looking absolutely stunning in the new Longines print ad. Come to think of it, it was in 1994 that Ash & Sush won their Miss World & Miss Universe crowns respectively, setting off the wave of beauty contests & talent hunts that are so much a part of our lives today. It's been 10 years! How time flies! While Ash is undoubtedly the better looking of the two, they're about equal in their talent for histrionics. It's in terms of attitude that Sush literally stands taller. I'm sure if she had been there on The David Letterman Show, she would have given it back to him 'letter for letter', instead of allowing him to lampoon her as Ash did. But,.......you've got to be an Ash to be on shows like that. So that says a lot too.

The genius of RDB

If ever there was a genius in the field of hindi film music, it has to be R. D. Burman. No one else even comes close. His compositions are fantastic to say the least. You could keep listening to them for ages & yet not get bored. And his combination with the God of hindi film playback singing, Kishore Kumar is gob smackingly awesome! Just look at the number of hits they've given together. It's sad that RDB died a sad & lonely man. He deserved all the the accolades he got & then some more. People like him & Kishore are born once in an era. Wonder when we'll get to see the next ones like them.

BhangRap

UK/North America based bhangra ('Bhungraa', as in cockney, not 'Bhaangraa' as in Hindi) groups seem to going the hip hop way, big time. Almost all of their music videos show the singer/s (& others in the entrouge) riding around in the latest cars & SUVs, while incorporating a lot of rap lyrics in the songs. While going along with the latest Bling things is OK to an extent, if overdone, some of these genuinely talented guys may just become a Bling-Bling sideshow of their more illustrious hip hop counterparts. Given the Punjabi propensity for grandstanding & extravagance, I think it'll be a little difficult for them to break away from this trend & evolve an identity of their own.

Misplaced ambition

Saw the new Cadillac STS ad on TV (courtesy Cadillac Arabia). It shows several black D segment luxury cars (the Merc C Class & the BMW 5 series among others) moving around inside a large domed hall when a silver STS cuts through the clutter & parks itself in the middle. The tagline says 'Breakthrough'.

Now, even though its good to see that Cadillac is finally waking up to the fact that there exist car markets outside the U.S., it does seem to be a case of misplaced ambition. I mean, with the looks of a snow plough & a 'desirability quotient' to match, the car has as much chance of surviving in the outside-america luxury/sport sedan/coupe market as a snowflake on a hot summer day. Instead, the general should concentrate on doing what it does best........building SUVs, since in their case, the more butch looking the vehicle (as is the case with the STS), the better are its chances.

My undoing?

Laziness & procrastination have been the twin banes of my life for the past ten years. I sometimes think that it's nothing short of amazing the way I've managed to complete Plus Two, Graduation & Masters. Somebody up there must be happy with me! Even so, it's high time I turned over a new leaf!

Civic sense.....or the lack of it !

Lucky was going to Bilaspur by the Howrah Ahmedabad Express scheduled at 2:45 a.m.. Went to see him off at the station. As you enter Tatanagar station, you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a destitute night shelter, there are so many people sleeping on the lobby floor! During my Nagpur days, the station had been one of the best kept in the entire eastern region. The transformation to what it is today couldn't have been starker. The place has become filthy to say the least. A nauseating stench of urine & shit hangs over platform 3. The filth on the tracks has to be seen to be believed. The parking lot is in somewhat better condition, although the fountains have stopped functioning long back. Wonder when we Indians, especially the northerners, will start showing some civic sense.

Arni is back in Jamshedpur. He's one guy I'll miss in the coming years. Hope we get to work in the same city along with the rest of the gang.

Amelioration?

Sitting at the window overlooking Dolly's quarter this morning, saw her kids Ruby & Shalini leaving for school, dressed in smart uniforms. Dolly herself was dressed in a T shirt & pyjamas. Both the girls said, "Bye Mummy" before leaving & Dolly replied with "Bye beta". Given the fact that her family possesses among other things, a moped, a TV, a VCD player, a mobile (till some days ago), an LPG connection, a pet Pomeranian & that her husband is a teetotaller with a decent job, who's got no problems with paying his 2 daughters' school fees; who'd ever guess that Dolly is a domestic servant living in a 1 room servant's quarter?

Amelioration? You bet! A sign that India's economic progress is finally touching the lives of the have-nots? Sure hope so.

War of the DJs

War of the DJs-3 is an absolutely rocking album, while DJ Aqeel's Disco 82 is good in parts. Aqeel seems to be improving. It would be better if he gave up his propensity for using original playback voices & went in wholeheartedly for cover versions. The originals don't gel with the bass anyway. Friction also has some dance floor burners. Don't be shy by Rouge can get really addictive. I think it's appeal lies in the remixed 'kangna' vocals plus the acoustic guitar that goes on in the background, although I wonder why Dr. Zeus didn't take the credit for the song himself. Am I glad I asked Jolly to bring those MP3 CDs from Jabalpur!

Bunty is tutoring some L.F.S. kids for appearing at call center interviews!

The hardware guy at Aakashdeep says an LG 128 MB thumb drive will cost 800-850 bucks, cable included. Cool!