The results are out

The trainee batch that I was a part of had it's 1st test today. Prateek finished 1st (in 41 mins), beating everyone else including ex-IITans, BITSiites & NITians. Hail BIT!

Kasliwal also managed to make the grade. The guy couldn't believe it himself.

Also among those successful were Arun & Prem Pratick (sic). Congrats guys & may at least one of you join Shell & alleviate me of this boredom.

The weekend that was

- Friday evening: Chatted with Soumya till 2 in the morning. He's been on a calling spree ever since he got the job at Accenture & on Friday, he talked to Shobha in Pune. She's married & got a 9 month old baby boy now! How time flies! It seems like yesterday when we were all in the same class at school. Incidentally, Soumya & Shobha were sworn enemies then & wouldn't see eye to eye! As I said, how time flies.

- Saturday: Went with Soumya to National Plaza at Brigade. I got my MP3 CD (60 bucks! .... Ranchi was way better at 15/- and bargainable) & Soumya managed to snag a pair of goggs for 100/- after the price quoted was 150/-. In the evening, it was Ajay's turn to throw the 'my-first-salary' party at Madan's. Anupam joined in & after the usual quota of drinks, it was off to Transit at The Forum for dinner. Ajay was totally sloshed out while returning & propositioned a girl ("chalegi kya?") talking on her cell outside Cafe Coffee Day. He was convinced that she had replied in the affirmative! He later turned his attention to 'The Hutch Shop' & took the mothers & sisters of the company to task for serving him a bill for Rs. 2700/-. Anupam stayed over that night & the guys along with Soumya & Netaji played 29 till a power cut interrupted, at 3 in the morning.

- Sunday: Woke up to find Pritish staring down at me & asking me to get ready pronto. Went to Bengaliana for lunch. Then, it was off to Brigade with Sittu who had made up his mind to buy a new cell. He opted for a Nokia 3230 which I think was a great decision. Samir called up from Ranchi. He's finally bought himself a cell. It was nice to hear his voice after such a long time. Checked out Bangalore Central & The Garuda Mall on the way back. Bangalore Central has no shops as such, but each brand has dedicated corners where everything is kept in the open for the customers to go through. It's a novel concept but will take some getting used to. Garuda had a display by Omega, with life sized replicas of the moon buggy, Mars rover & a NASA spacesuit. Very nice. Garuda is a good mall but is beaten by The Forum when it comes to size & free space. At the moment, nothing in Bangalore comes close to The Forum. Back home & the evening was spent listening to FM.

So much for the weekend. It rained heavily on both Saturday & Sunday nights. But today morning was a revelation with crisp sunlight, a cobalt blue sky & absolutely no clouds anywhere. It was the kind of morning which tells you that Durga Pooja & Diwali are approaching. Great!

My Brother Nikhil

Heard this movie's songs on raaga.com. The music is by a new guy called Viveck Philip but he's done a fantastic job. The songs are slow, soulful numbers with simple lyrics & among them 'Le Chale' stands out. It has 3 solo versions by Sunidhi, Shaan & KK & each of them is absolutely brilliant.

Love in the age of the Internet

I've always believed that people who fell in love with people they met on the net were two bricks short of a load. That was until what happened to Prabhu, who otherwise is a brilliant programmer. He's apparently head-over-heels in love with some girl he met on a matrimonial site, and I've become his unwilling confidant!

The grass on the other side ...

Caught up with lots of my training-time batchmates ..... Shiva, Shailu, Nitin, Deep .... everybody is busy with their 'mini projects' & say that I was lucky to have skipped training & got straight into a project. Well, I guess that saying about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence is true after all!

Now Playing

# Chandigarh kare aashiqui (by Jassi Sidhu) - rockin' punjabi number. Perfect for the car.

# Kangna (by Dr. Zeus) - no wonder it was U.K.'s No. 1!

# Aap ki kashish (from the movie, Aashiq Banaya Aapne) - Himesh Reshamiyya has outdone himself with this one. Great!

# No entry; Just love me (from the film, No Entry) - 2 fast paced fun numbers.

# Bankelal (from Ravindra Upadhyay's debut album) - an absolute hoot with 'out there' lyrics.

# My dil goes mmmm english club mix (from the movie, Salaam Namaste) - if you thought DJ Aqeel was behind DJ Suketu (after his recent monster remix hit, wo lamhe) in any way, then you have to listen to this one. It's almost entirely in english & Shaan & Caralisa Monteiro have sung brilliantly.

When the remix trend started with Bally Sagoo's 'Ballywood' (the one that had the 'Chura Liya Hai' remix) sometime in 1994, the songs being remixed were at least 15-20 years old. Then more recently, we had remix versions of entire albums coming out about 6-8 months after a movie's release (Pardes, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai ..., Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham). Now, we have the phenomenon of albums being released with remix numbers included. I think Wo Lamhe's phenomenal success has a big hand in this. At this rate, we'll soon have remixes releasing first followed by the original film songs!

More music

It's raaga.com today. Even better than crazefm. It's got all the new releases, but the Punjabi collection is disappointing. But it is more than made up for by letting users listen to whichever song they want, whenever they want to. Cool! I love Tower 11!

Music is back

Brought my headphones back to the office for the first time since joining. Downloaded some mp3s from the net, got Sittu to send some over & heard Crazefm for the first time. Great site. I think I've got my stable timepass for the coming days (as long as I'm in Tower 11). It's great to be listening to music in the office again.

Mind blowing pay packages

Gunakar manages a placement in Zensar. His room partner Abhishek got through Indus Logic ..... his package is 6.25 l.p.a.!

Saturday Night!

It's always great when you expect less & receive a lot more than you thought you would. Something similar happened last Saturday.

Got up at about 12 to find myself in an empty house. Both Sid & Ajay had gone to their respective offices on a Saturday! Had lunch at Mirch Masala & went to Soumya's house. There was a marked silence. Probably because Princi, Kumar & Satish aren't here in Bangalore. Soumya came & asked me to accompany him to The Forum, since he wanted to buy shoes & a belt (he joins Accenture today). In the midst of the shopping, Pritish called & said we'd go out for a drive. Soon we were at his house in BTM, 1st Stage.

This guy really knows how to live it up. He's got a rooftop pad the size of ours @ 4500/- p.m. stocked with all creature comforts possible ... geyser, TV, Audio system, WorldSpace sat radio, laptop, Reliance landline, Sify broadband, microwave, washing machine ... cool! Besides, he's got a bike & a car! He's done well for himself in 2 years (with some help from his Mousi).

We went to his office in Basavangudi (Caritor) & got the car. Thus began the drive (at about 7 p.m.) which was to go on well past midnight. At Richmond circle, we drove into what, according to Pritish, was Bangalore's only drive in restaurant (called Airport ..... something, dunno). Had coffee & went out to cruise on MG/Brigade/Residency. All the lights at the Chinnaswamy were on since there was a 20-20 tournament on. Looked great. Soumya said he wanted some beer. So it was off to Yeshwantpur then amidst some freewheeling debate on religious fundamentalism, RSS, suicidal tendencies etc. Beer over, we proceeded to Outer Ring Road, Marthahalli to a restaurant called Bandhini where they served some great chicken for dinner. On the way back, Soumya went on an empty-beer-bottle-flinging-spree (on the road!).

Soon, we were back on MG via Airport Road & Rajajinagar (some serious Bangalore darshan, this) for some ice cream. It was midnight by now & the most requested number these days, 'Dus Bahane' was playing on Disco Nights (Radio City).

It was then that I saw what looked like a gang of bikers, with the guy in front doing a huge wheelie with a pillion! On a Yamaha RX100! He managed to keep the front wheel in the air till as long as I could see him! Looked like we were in for some fun and sure enough we soon had a Yamaha R1 & a Suzuki GSX-R doing wheelies & drag runs amidst catcalls & whistles from the crowd. There was more to come as they were soon joined by a Honda CBR, a Ducati & the big daddy, a Suzuki Hayabusa. Everybody was into wheelies majorly & the speeds they were achieving on the drags were awesome. There was even a guy timing their quarter miles! A Karizma rider took it upon himself to perform a burnout. And the cars weren't missing either ... there were heavily modded Ford Ikons, Esteems, Zens, Honda Citys with the works ..... neon lights, flashers, skirts, double deck spoilers, low pro tyres shod on fat alloys ...... it was awesome. I had never seen so much of performance machinery in one place together before. It was a mind blowing experience. But, just when it looked like these blokes were going to go in for some serious racing, the cops showed up & started shooing everybody off. Spoilsports!

Anyway, we still hadn't had enough & cruised around Brigade with the music blasting ..... & came upon a sight for sore eyes ..... two really hot babes emerging from the Spinz disco in minis. Soumya & me got outta the car pronto & ogled to our heart's content. That was some sight!

I wanted it to go on but all good things must come to an end ..... and so we returned to Pritish's place at about 3 in the morning after dropping Soumya at Koramangla. I stayed over. It had been the best night out in Bangalore ever!

Moolah

Got my hands on my first ever khoon pasine ki kamai ka hard cash. Strangely, I didn't feel a lot elated. But there was the sense of something special. Which evaporated soon enough as I blew up 330/- on a pre paid recharge & ~1700/- on repaying debts that had been racked up over the last month to Ajay & Sid.

Meanwhile, Ajay seems to be down in the dumps, what with Hutch having presented him a bill of Rs. 1000/- for GPRS. He had initially been told (or maybe he was under the impression) that unlimited surfing was allowed from his cell @ Rs. 49/month! Poor guy! I don't envy him.

New PM

Got a new PM, Sandipan Dutta, on Thursday. Spent the day whiling away my time.

Went to princi's place in the evening. Most of his packing was done. He was visibly happy. Since Hutch would not be returning his post paid deposit, he was going to make the most of the Rs. 1200/- credit limit. I also contributed by making a call to Bunty. He said Stanley Uncle had left for Canada on the 15th & he too was thinking of emigrating! Seems to be enjoying his English coaching classes.

Princi took the Air Sahara flight to Pune at 9:00 a.m. today. Must be close to Pune by now.

Shifted

Coming to work on Wednesday morning, I had a gut feeling that something was going to change today. And sure enough, Rajesh was not on his chair in office. Darshan informed me that the two of us had served our purpose in C-Force & had to meet Rajkumar to know where we had been shifted. That proved to be some wait since Raj was a busy man today. Bummer! Will meet him tomorrow.

Dead drunk

After returning from the movie on Monday, the 3 of us decided to have some drinks at Madan's, a pub near Microland at Koramangla. The rates were the lowest I've seen in Bangalore. That was probably why I decided to dunk down more than my capacity. BIG MISTAKE! Not only was I unable to eat a morsel of dinner, the hangover on Tuesday morning was so bad, I had to miss going to work. This is the highest price I've ever had to pay for drinking & I'm planning to abstain now. May God strengthen my resolve!

Mangal Pandey

Ajay, Sid & me decided to go for the much talked about Amir Khan starrer to Swagath. The ticket rates (in black) were exactly double the normal.

The movie doesn't disappoint. Amir has again delivered a flawless performance & has got into the skin of the role as only he can. But, wonder of wonders, he's been overshadowed by Toby Stephens who not only has more lines to say than Amir but does so fantastically well. For me, the line of the film has got to be the one said by Toby when he tries to defend Amir during his court martial, "if you hang this man, Mangal Pandey, there will be bloody rebellion, which will spread through this whole country like wildfire". That line really fills you up with nationalistic pride & you can feel you hair stand on end.

Good movie, but I don't think it matches upto Lagaan.

Independence Day

15th August dawned with an invitation from Abhishek Anand to attend an I-Day do that they had organised at their place. All BITians from the batch were invited. Sleep had eluded me through most of the night, & I decided not to accompany Ajay & Sid, who were in pretty high spirits. Slept till 11:00 a.m. Radio City was playing patriotic nos. Couldn't help feel nostalgic about JSR. They must also have played some patriotic nos in the morning, switching over inevitably to bollywood item/dance nos as the day wore on. I miss my home town.

Anyway, it feels great being a part of an independent democracy. May our nation rise to greater heights. And please, could we have some more ODI final victories while doing so?

Princi gets a raise

Princi finally got his offer letter from MBT. His pay is bumped up to 5.2 l.p.a., even before joining! Yeah right, chappar phaad ke is the line for it.

Soumya gets a job!

What a coincidence! Soumya & Princi did the Siebel course together, & managed to get jobs within days of one another after waiting for almost a year. Soumya's got into Accenture with a pay of 3.5 l.p.a. The joy on his face told the story.

He took about 16 of us (his Gondia batchmates & seniors & me) to R.K. Motel on Hosur Road, that reminded me a lot about Madhuban in Ranchi (but it was not as classy). Drinks & chicken were in full flow & I managed to down 3 pegs of Rum. Princi managed a lot more & was predictably sozzled (he must have asked me about his jacket 10 times!). Amit Shirke had got his Nokia 6600 which had all the MMS clips that have been in the news recently (DPS, Kareena, Riya ....). Returned to Bangalore by 3a.m. on Kumar's Splendor driven by Netaji (Divya Shekhar) who had the throttle wide open most of the time but was confused why the speedometer wouldn't show beyond 10 kmph (it was broken, that's why!).

A great night for a great guy!

Numb !

i'm tired of being what you want me to be
feeling so faithless
lost under the surface
i don't know what you're expecting of me
put under the pressure
of walking in your shoes

[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
every step that i take is another mistake to you

i've become so numb
i can't feel you there
become so tired
so much more aware
i'm becoming this
all i want to do is be more like me
and be less like you

can't you see that you're smothering me
holding too tightly afraid to lose control
cause everything that you thought i would be
has fallen apart right in front of you

[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
every step that i take is another mistake to you
[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
and every second i waste is more than i can take

but i know
i may end up failing too
but i know
you were just like me
with someone disappointed in you

Don't know why, but ever since I heard it, the lyrics of this song (Numb by Linkin Park) have always appealed to me

Pensive

It usually happens once a year, & I think it's happening again. It's another period of intense self reflection & that feeling of life controlling me, rather than the other way round. Hope it passes over soon & I emerge stronger.

SPs

I'm facing an overload of Stored Procedures. So much so, that I've started seeing SPs in my sleep ! If the first 2 days of this week are anything to go by, I'll be bed ridden by the time Friday comes to an end. And who knows, after this I may be asked to come for work on the weekend too.

Lotsa work

Got loads of work early in the morning. Looks like it's gonna be a long, tiring week.

Princi gets a job

After months of patient waiting & dogged self belief, Princi finally managed to get a job. And what a job! Dude gets a pay package of 3.8 l.p.a & is supposed to join MBT at Pune on the 22nd of this month itself. This one again proves that nice guys don't come last.

I've never been closer to him than I am now. In fact, back in JSR we would hardly meet once or twice a year. In Bangalore, on the other hand, he had become a part of my life. I'll miss his simple ways after he's gone. All the best, bro. Like you used to tell others, "Make it!".

Dream Friday

Finished the week's work before lunch. Was wondering how to pass the 2nd half while returning back after lunch. Just then, I see Darshan with his backpack leaving in a bit of haste. Back in the office, the air is cool & relaxed & most of the people are chatting. Thinking of striking while the iron is hot, Sittu & me decide to leave at 4:30 p.m. so as to be able to catch the 7 o'clock show of Dus at PVR.

Everything falls into place. Dus turns out to be a bit expensive at 150 bucks per head but the movie is good. There are some continuity jerks & authenticity problems (Sanjay Dutt as the head of the 'Anti Terrorist Cell' drives a Honda CR-V ........ a black Ford Endeavor would have been more apt), & the background score jars at times, but it's OK on the whole.

Days @ work

The project deadline is coming up fast & Darshan is a busy man. We've had meetings with the TM (Rajkumar) & the clients themselves (Glen from K.L.). We've even been asked to work on Saturdays & Sundays with the promise of a comp-off (whatever that means), later. In the face of all this I envy Sittu, who's literally got nothing to do. Enjoy it while you can dude, it ain't gonna last forever.

Travelling to & from EC remains a great source of time waste. I'm trying to put it to some use by sleeping during the mornings & reminiscing & ruminating while returning. The misery is compounded on seeing the convenience available to Ajay who wakes up when we leave at 7:30 a.m. & welcomes us when we return at night. Sid as usual is immersed in work. Rarely does he catch a bus home before 8:30 p.m.

My first ever salary in life ........... hmmmm, this is historical ........... will be ~7880/- for July 11th to July 31st. But, the credit card & account no is yet to reach me. Don't know when I'll be able to get my hands on it.