The .net classes start tomorrow. It'll be some time before I'm back in EC.

The Wonder Years

Sittu posted something on his blog about "The Wonder Years" today, & it took me instantly into flashback mode.

Circa 1992, & I had just stepped into adolescence. The gang comprised of similarly aged dudes such as Bittu, Abhishek, Dhiraj, Harpreet & of course, my the then best bud, Swapnil. Those were the days when cable TV had just taken off in India & Star Plus (the Star Plus that was, not the K-soap-trash laden Star Plus of today) started airing this serial - The Wonder Years.

Kevin Arnold, Winnie Cooper & Paul Pfeiffer were just the age we were then, & we identified almost totally with whatever was shown on the series. Kevin's first crush, his relationship with his parents, the community he lived in, his gang of friends, the pranks at school ...... it seemed as if the makers knew what was happening in my life & decided to show various aspects of it in every new episode.

Of course, some of the stuff shown, such as the kissing, Kevin's own car, the drive-ins etc were concepts that you couldn't be much exposed to living in the India of that time, so we had to keep a wary eye on the proceedings, so that the parents didn't catch us viewing something they didn't approve of. I remember, once the whole gang had gathered at Swapnil's place to watch one of the episodes (since his parents were out) & they chose to drop in halfway through it. Swapnil had a pretty hard time explaining what all of us were upto !

I also remember the excitement with which we had discussed Kev & Winnie's first kiss, on the school bus the next day. In fact, Swapnil was inspired to do a Kevin in pursuit of Roona after watching that particular episode (while I fitted into Paul's role perfectly!). Wonder what Roona's reaction will be, if she ever gets to know that Swapnil had a crush on her, especially now that she's getting married/is married already.

Good times, great memories ...... the guy doing the adult Kevin's voice over (in the last episode) summed it up perfectly when he said, "Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of other houses, a yard like a lot of other yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back, with wonder."

Victorious again !!

The Aussies beat the World XI by all of 210 runs to finish the 6 day 'Super' Test in 3 days !

While the concept of the Aussies squaring off against a best-of-the-rest-of-the-world team was novel, I don't think the World XI team members got to jell together well enough. So, for all those who thought that the Aussie dominance of Cricket was on the decline (after the Ashes, that is), there's only 1 message .... wake up, & smell the Coffee.

So near yet so far ......

The F1 season has ended. Alonso won the Drivers' Championship 2 races ago, & Renault clinched the Constructors' Title in yesterday's Chinese GP. Montoya's DNF did not help matters. Mclaren came up second best on both counts.

To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement.

Hot Wheels

I've had this fascination for American Muscle Cars ever since I was a kid. The fuel for this came partly from watching Knight Rider & other American TV serials of that time & partly from the Hot Wheels collection that Jolly & me were proud owners of.

The 2 of us derived great thrills simply from organising the cars into a sort of starting grid-like display & then taking turns at driving them around & putting them back where they were 'parked'. Daddy knew about this & after every 'successful' exam season, the 2 of us would be rewarded with a Hot Wheel car / G.I. Joe figure of our choice.

Some of my favourite cars from the collection were .....

the white Pontiac Firebird,

the brown Chevy Z-28 Camaro &

the white Datsun 200 SX.

I dreamed of growing up & owning my own black & red Firebird with the bird prominently displayed on the bonnet. Strangely, to this day ........ that dream is still alive.

Changing demeanour?

3 people have bought this up in the past 2 days ... Arnie, Prav & Sweta. They say I'm not the guy they knew in college. And now that they've said so, I'm forced to ponder over it .... have I changed to somebody who's 'serious', 'alag-alag', 'chup-chaap'? Maybe, .... the last 3 months haven't been easy, ..... the sense of betrayal, the frustration at not being able to take hold of my life as much as I'm used to, the constant comparisons with peers, the uncertainty over the future, tensions back home.... a lot has been occupying my mind lately. Maybe this is what life does to you. I guess I'll just have to wait it out till the time is right. And then, ..... life's not getting me down so soon.

Scar tissue that I wish you saw
Sarcastic mister know it all
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you ’cause
With the birds I’ll share
With the birds I’ll share
This lonely view
With the birds I’ll share
This lonely view

From 'Scar Tissue' by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

From 'Lose Yourself' by Eminem

Dashmi Party

Seth & his gang at J.P. Nagar invited us all for lunch yestarday. Met lots of batchmates after a long,long time .... Santosh, Abhishek Anand, Manilal, Mritunjay, Gautam Mishra .... apart from the usual suspects Shyam, Shail, Ankesh, Manna .... those guys certainly have spirit.

J.P. Nagar seems to be a nice enough place, though it's too far for my liking. We'll soon have to move out from # 398. Praveen arrived on Tuesday (He joins TCS today) & Arnie leaves the hotel on Sunday. The 2 BHK is getting crowded beyond it's means. Finding a good place to stay in Bangalore is more of a pain than I had imagined.

Cold

My old friend, the Cold is back. What I hate about this, is the fact that Cetrizine is the only medicine that seems to work on me when I have it. Apart from causing massive congestion in the ENT region, there's a sense of drowsiness long after I've had a pill. Yesterday was a holiday, on account of Dussehra (spelled & pronounced Dasara, here in Karnataka), & the whole day was spent in a trance like state because of it.

The Cold makes me absolutely miserable for the duration of time that I have it. And there's no escaping it.

DP in Bangalore

Visited the 8th block Durga Pooja at Kalyan Mandappa. It all seemed really out of place. Sort of like the gravy-less 'egg rolls' on sale. A true blue easterner like me would cringe at the thought of having those kind of egg rolls. But that was precisely what was on sale! It's probably the first time I'm not in JSR for DP. And it sucks. Even the Bong babes aren't as good as the ones back home.

The rip-off called Vaahan Yaatra

Went for Vaahan Yaatra '05 ("South India's biggest auto show"). Turned out to be a damp squib, literally.

First, it was raining (the rain's really turning out to be a spoiler these days, especially with most Bangalore localities' propensity to get flooded).

Second, hordes of car audio stalls & big bass DO NOT an auto show make. There were more (and bigger) car audio company stalls than there were auto manufacturers! The show people seemed to have seriously got their priorities wrong. Hell, there was even a stall showcasing Lazboy couches! I mean OK, people interested in buying 1.1 crore Beemers (the 7-Series was on display) will definitely be interested in buying 40k couches, but where is this taking us ... they'll start having motorcycle stalls at consumer electronics expos next. Having said that, the car audios showcased (Blaupunkt, Rockford Fosgate, JBL, Pioneer .... India's got all them big brands now) were absolutely top class & the stall designs & installations were very imaginative. And the girls in these stalls were better than those in the 'proper' car stalls.

Third, the entry fee charged was Rs.49/- (Soumya demanded that the ticket guy return the Rs. 2/- due to us after we had paid 100 bucks for 2 tickets). This was probably because the show was meant to be fully air conditioned. But once inside, the 'air' didn't seem the least bit 'conditioned'. One could hear pedestal-fan like loud whirring, but ACs .... don't think they were working.

One thing that caught the imagination was a 40 lakh 2 seater airplane (in an auto show!) meant for private use. Years earlier, when MG & me were leafing thru 1 of the National Geographics that his sis had sent from the U.S., we'd come upon this ad for small Cessna 2/4 seater aircraft for private use. The advertisement said something like, 'own your own airplane & forget about those traffic jams'. The 2 of us were left amazed at the kind of lifestyle the Americans enjoyed. That kind of thing was unthinkable in India. And here in our very own Bangalore, I was standing at the stall of Indus Aviation in front of this small plane whose print ad said pretty much tha same thing. India's living standards are improving ... & how!

Mighty Aussies !

They beat the ICC World XI for the 3rd time in 5 days to romp home in the ODI series 3-0. So complete was their domination, that the World XI (really??) was left looking like a B-Division club side.

And to think of the time when the Indians were running the Aussies close.

Dreamzzzz

The Acura RSX. When I get mine, it'll look something like this.

Missin D. P.

Here in Bangalore, it's life around the usual routine. But I can't help thinking about what it must be like in good ol' JSR right now.

A pleasant nip in the air. Half constructed Pandals every half a kilometer or so. The feel of something big coming up. Markets crammed with shoppers in the evening (prompting Dad's favourite this-time-of-the-year comment, "bazaar mein pair rakhne ki jagah nahi hai !"). Most of the citizenry loaded with cash bonuses from the TATA group companies. Young people stocking up on the latest in fashion trends.

JSR students studying in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Bombay, Nagpur (& sundry other university towns all over the country) coming back home for the 'Pooja Holidays' & meeting up with colony friends. The beginning of the picnic season. It always used to be a great time of the year.

Living & growing up in a small town has a joy all it's own. Sadly, Bangalore has none of that. And I miss the ol' home town.

The 1st ODI got over moments ago. Aus 255/8 beat ICC XI 162 all out.

Sehwag, Kallis, Lara, Dravid, Pietersen, Flintoff, Afridi & Pollock produced a combined total of 65 runs (of which Flintoff made 38).

Stone Cold !

He was back on the RAW Homecoming last Monday night (when RAW moved back to USA Networks from Spike TV). Layed the Stunner on the entire Mcmahon family ! Wish I could have seen it.

On to .net

It's official. I'm moving on to .net. Training's scheduled for the coming week .... hope this turn of events proves fortuitous.

Raut the sadist

Ever since Samir Raut bought for himself the modern communication tool, the cell phone, he's discovered a new means of driving his BIT batchmates, like me, up the wall, in trying to derive a semblence of meaning from his SMSs. Some samples presented exactly as they appear on the screen of my Nokia 3310. Let me warn you beforehand, subtility is not one of his strong points.

U to muje pyaar
kam m ta tnha te
par eska gum m
ta mohabat jese
ke main uska
ashique n ta
khabar hue jab
unko sub te
magar maim n ta

MUJHI DAR NHE
KE MERA KAYA
HOGA JO AAJ TAK
M HUA WO AB
KAY HOGA BUS U
HE SAMAY
BETATA HO KALE
SMAY ME KALE N
RAHU ES LEYA
HUMESA YADO ME
KESE KO BSTA HO
WRE R U

MAKING FUN IS N
ART
U R SMART I M
SMART
U R ALWAYS
BEHIND ME I M
LOKING KHADA U
R GOING 4 KAEE

Evo !!

THIS is what the latest version of Mitsubishi's supercharged AWD monster will look like. Awesome !!

Remembering 2PAC

Never forget, that God hasn't finished with me yet
I feel his hand on my brain
When I write rhymes, I go blind, and let the lord do his thang
But am I less holy
Cuz I choose to puff a blunt and drink a beer with my homies
Before we find world peace
We gotta find peace in that war on the streets

From 'Ghetto Gospel' by 2PAC Shakur

This guy had awesome talent. It's a pity his career was cut short so brutally.

Busy weekend, providence? ..... & Arni's back !

Friday: WORST traffic jam in Bangalore ever!! Reached home at 8:15 pm. Usually it's 7:15 pm. Contrast this with Thursday when the Reds & their constituency (autos in B'lore, pretty much the whole working class in Calcutta) went on strike .... reached home before 7 pm! Radio City said that the whole city was jammed, right from ITPL to Airport Road, Jakkasandra through to Hosur Road. Soumya got his first pay & treated us to some Royal Stag ..... good stuff.

Saturday: home -> Fax PCO (Fax not connecting) -> phone home (got new Fax no) -> Fax PCO (success) -> home -> Bengaliana (luckily, no queue) -> Madiwala bus stop -> Sittu's place -> St. John's O.P.D. (long #*&%! queue) -> St. John's Opthalmology Dept. -> Lords & Kings -> Koramangala MusicWorld -> SBI ATM (longer #*&%! queue) -> Landmark @ Forum -> Big Bazaar (biggest #*&%! queue) -> Madan's (Providence? ... the script will play itself out in a few months ......) -> home -> back hurts like crazy!

Sunday: Arni calls up & says that he wants to meet up near Jyothi Niwas College when I'm walking right next to the place (on my way to get delivery of the spaecs from Lords & Kings). Took him home. Nobody was expecting him. The surprise on the faces of Ajay, Anupam & Sid was something I'll remember for a long time. The triumvirate .... is back !