Something Different From Normal

We are the Champions

2008-06-17T22:28:00.002+05:30

So it was monday night and i couldnt sleep ... the usual me. So I switched on the TV hoping for some good viewing.

The final round of US open golf was on and I was seeing Tiger woods 1 shot back with 2 holes to go in the 18 hole playoff. He managed to get into the playoff by birdieing the 18th on the last hole in regulation.
so what does he do ... Birdie's 17th and ties with Rocco. Both par 18th so we go into sudden death playoff and he birdie's in sudden death & Rocco pars. And he wins his 14th major.

This was probably his toughest major. in the past he has blown off his competitors on the final day but this was a real test because he was injured and he came back from one down to win. I'm amazed at the levels people like him , Federer, Schumacher n others over the years in their sport excel and manage to raise their game when it really counts. What separates them from the rest is the mental toughness in the battle. Truly inspirational...

Euro Cup Footy is back

2008-06-08T12:14:00.002+05:30

End of EPL and all other seasons in Europe meant no football but not for long. Euro cup is back. cant wait for the big guns slug it out in the later half of the tournament.
Yesterday's matches were all cagey affairs and hardly any entertaining football which is expected nowadays. Gone are the days of world dominance and superiority by the big names.

Radiohead gave us a new song , Super Collider in one of their live shows last week. check it out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB8TXwxwftY

I'm rocking out ... Laters.

Turn Off the Radio ... Turn off the Radio

2008-06-05T22:53:00.002+05:30

I love listening to 107.1 FM rainbow in the mornings going to work because the music is usually very good. So just like every weekday traveling to work , 8.30 am to 9.30 am is usually 107.1 & me rocking along the journey.

So these 3 songs come up in the span of 2 days and today when I was thinking about them ...
I go , WOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHH ...

first one is i have heard this before but I haven't heard it in a really long time and I'm going all weak inside and confused ... What song is this , why cant i recollect this one, I've heard a woman sing this one, not a band etc etc...

The second one i guessed the band and i have this song so i think know this one...

the third one i got the artist from the RJ but not heard any of his solo work , i couldnt believe i have missed such a good song

So in office , i start googleing the lyrics and i find out...

1. UB40 'Dont break my heart'

2. Maroon 5 'Nothing lasts forever'

3. Mark Knopfler ' True Love will never fade'

this is really scary , what do i read from this now :confused:

You know you're getting there

2008-06-04T22:45:00.004+05:30

when you go on a meet of 70+ people from an online group and you are the oldest member ( joining date of the online group)

when the 'M' word sneaks in conversations with just about everyone known & "dont care about you known" to you

when you realize that extreme forms of music is not much existing on the play list anymore

when the chemist shop guy no longer smiles/smirks while handing over you a pack.

when women take a sneak peak downstairs ( ring finger you filthy little creatures :P ) to find any visual evidence or lack of it to carry the conversation in the appropriate direction.

when people you know start helping you involuntarily

when you start turning to songs rather than friends to spend free time

when the world seems smaller than it is

when you see the current generation and wonder how can they be wilder & stupider than you were then

when the number of people you knew grow distant exceeds the number of people you dont know come in to your life

and finally,

You know you're getting there...

when you start thinking things like these and penn them down in your blog thinking it actually make sense.

2008-06-02T20:40:00.004+05:30

Many, over the period of last couple of months have asked me why have i stopped blogging. There are a lot of reasons to that more so because I have a separate blog for a long time now whose password i give to random people who visit that blog because i give a lot of lectures & knowledge sessions on things where people need help & support, so a lot of things go in there which cannot be put in here. So the answer is NO, if you know me you are not getting the password or if you pretend to be an unknown entity ;)

So,back after a long hiatus here where so much has happened, i kind of have less clue what happened or is going to happen in the future.

9 to 9's everyday , intense partying on weekends, out of town visits , volunteering work , family , friends , discovering new music has meant I've hardly had time for myself. Ive always been the kind being the only child that having too much alone time and then overworking my brain cells just about anything & everything which has worked to my advantage and disadvantage in many situations.

So finally I've decided to just let go and let things happen. I no longer analyze things to death, contemplate & procrastinate on whats going on to happen, just letting my surroundings take control of the situation and being carried lazily around by external forces.

That has brought a change in me which has been evident in people around me who say that you finally look happy and not looking like you are thinking something all the time.
There have been times in the past when I would just stare into other people's eyes making them uncomfortable to the point of they making it evident to me of this behavior. I am to be blamed partially because it would so happen then i would be thinking 10 other things while talking to the person and go into a zone of unknown depths and basically forget to blink lol and have no clue where the conversation is in the present or the person is waiting for me to reply or continue the talk :)

Now i just care a damn about the present & future. Am i happy? Well even i dont know this one properly but I'm getting there one difficult day after another.

So, things i could possibly end up doing now or in the near future :

Walk away from everything and join the UN mission in Darfur
Go for a PhD abroad
Get married and finally settle down to the relief of everyone around
Learn a Music course somewhere in the world and try to become a professional musician, something i always wanted to do but was not bold or crazy enough.
Take my backpack and go around India to places that i have always wanted to see
Continue living the present life and letting things happen

My guess is the last one but I dont know , i have finally let others & situations decide my future so i could be doing any of the other things. I will obviously put it here before doing that to let you all know what I am going to do next, or maybe I won't this time haha :)

Cool Mom

2008-05-30T23:52:00.004+05:30

When do you know you have a cool mom

When she goes to see the New Indiana Jones Movie, First Day First Show :)

You rock mom :D

Friends

2008-05-30T23:50:00.000+05:30

Bright light almost blinding
Black night still there shining
I can't stop keep on climbing
Looking for what I knew.
Had a friend she once told me
"You got love you ain't lonely "
Now she's gone and left me only
Looking for what I knew.
Mmm I'm telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now
It's very easy just.
Met a man on the roadside crying,
Without a friend, there's no denying,
You're incomplete, they'll be no finding
Looking for what you knew.
So anytime somebody needs you,
Don't let them down, altho' it grieves you,
Some day you'll need someone like they do,
Looking for what you knew.
Mmm, I'm telling you now,
The greatest thing you ever can do now,
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now,
It's very easy just...ooh, yeah

More Movies

2007-10-27T01:10:00.000+05:30

1. A Mighty Heart - 8 /10
Based on the death of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Angelina Jolie is really good in this ... acting wise. all around a fair presentation of the events . well made

2.Apocalypto - 9 / 10 .
Brilliant. Watch it if blood / gore doesn't deter you. Mel Gibson knows how to put out a story on Screen

3. Mysterious Skin - 8/10
Shows the lives of sexually abused children and the issues they have when they grow. lot of graphic sexual scenes, not for everyone.

4. Godfather Series - 9 / 10
Finally i see the series. What more to say , awesome. 3rd one was a bit of a drag , the 1st two are great.

5.The Believer 8 /10
story of a confused guy about his religion ,roots and ideologies and his views. Really heavy on the brain but works great.

6. The Short Films of David Lynch - 9.5/10
Art in Movies ( not exactly ) at its best. Really some twisted work of visuals i have ever seen.

7. Children of Men - 9.5 /10
Underground movie with great non stop action , brilliant acting. a must watch.

8. Pi - 9 /10
Story of a man trying to get some answers about the number Pi and associations with life.

9. Manorama Six Feet Under 7 / 10
a good different movie from the normal bollywood thing. mystery thriller , good suspense but a loose script. still watchable once.

10. Things we lost in the fire - 9 /10
great movie , about a family & a friend who is a drug addict. touching and realistic . must watch.

Radiohead - In Rainbows Review

2007-10-10T20:05:00.000+05:30

4 Years in the making and finally its here. Till now i resisted watching those youtube videos of the songs , wanted to hear the album as it is in the entirety.

An ingenious marketing move of offering the album for free or pay whatever you feel like for online download legally. People will download , whether its free or not so why not give it away for free or atleast make whatever they can cause they know people will pay for quality music and band loyalty. I don't think money has anything to do with this but hey its the first in the industry so a big thumbs up to the band. Not being in contract with a label helped too so - Screw the MAN :D

Quality 0f Songs - 160KB/sec so not audiophile material but will do for now.

[Download the album from here : http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex2.html ]

So how is the Album.

1 word. Masterpiece.
It doesnt get better than this. Well, we can expect Radiohead to come out with something better. Its right up there with Kid A & OK Computer. Better than either of them , questionable but will have it own place in the Discography because 'In Rainbows' is possibly all Radiohead albums combined till now in this one. The tracks are layed out beautifully with slower mellow tracks to calm down the aggressiveness of some tracks. This has some of the most heavy aggressive Radiohead ever like 'Bodysnatchers'. Even the slower songs are a bit heavy on the ears like 'All I Need'. The Bass is used in plenty and and really deep in the songs. Excellent for the bassheads.

The lyrics are not yet released yet but you can tell they are written with as much emotion and depth to come out of a brilliant lyricist Thom Yorke is. If you thought OK Computer had deep stuff , wait till you hear this.

Tracks which stand out -
Bodysnatchers , Nude , All I Need , House of cards & Videotape ( the best track by far )

Finally some good stuff from artists who know how to put out quality music in this age of crap music in general. Get this one folks... Its free for god's sake and if you haven't heard of Radiohead , give this one a try. You will not be disappointed.

Cant wait for the second CD to be released in December.

Catching Up on Some Movies

2007-08-12T00:50:00.000+05:30

finally got into watching movies thanks to my LAN sharing in my local area. jai ho LAN & ze downloaders :D

1. Zodiac - great movie , a bit slow but goes well with the entire plot. one of the best this year for sure. must watch if you into mystrey / thriller

2. Simpsons Movie - hilarious . really really good. must watch if you are a simpsons fans or not. the jokes are great and the whole thing is good. another must watch

3. die hard 4 - decent . too much action and overbearing at times , story is ok. but some of the action sequences are well shot.

4. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - i liked this. a good story but some flaws here and there. still worth watching for something different and new.

5. transformers - another same old action film wiht modernized robots or whatever. not worth it.

6. bourne ultimatum - really nice ending to the series i think. the whole series of bourne movies is well made and this one is too. good story , action and fast paced. worth watching if you have seen the previous ones.

PG Meet ... Awesomeness :mg:

2007-06-18T01:19:00.000+05:30

Wow. what a meet. Pagalguy raises the entertainment value bar every year and the meet was awesome from start till end.

I was expecting real pagalpan so had slept well in anticipation of less / no sleep . reached Gateway of India a bit early trying to find pguys here and there . met pendyal n LBHIC . I congratulated you both then but forgot to say good luck . saw mahip doing offline mod duties who directed us to a group of people already arrived before us situated under the tree for protection from the blazing sun. slowly members started dropping in and our PG banner was up in the air which caught the attention of one very curious police inspector. after a bit of discussions , he left inteliigently and the banner was up again but a little lower .

After munching on couple of McD burgers ,we got on the rocking catamaran/ ferry and as soon as we started , almost everyone was in front of it looking like stage diving any moment. some people just sat around enjoying the breeze. Reached our destination and being the huge group were deciding which bus to board . when the bus people instructed the next bus is like after 3 hours , we got distributed on 2 buses till our next destination. after a small doze , got off to board tum tum's on the long journey to where we were staying. the place is really picturesque and calm until we all arrived to raise hell.

after lunch and a bit of chilling talking to people , headed to the beach a short distance away for some beach soccer. some of the boys and girls decided to hit the water and get wet mtv grind style ( only the boys ) . Then after multiple sessions of roaming around between the beach and our guest house ,

the night started to fall and people started getting impatient and wanted the party on the beach started. but had to wait for sometime till estranged and gang could arrange for the all the important itenaries to arrive without which it would have caused a riot for sure . soon began the introduction sessions. one by one , every member came down and introduced themselves and what PG meant to them. heard some great experiences and all has been recorded by our professional director grondie who kept on requesting everyone to stay near the light bulb but no body listened to him . The bon-fire had started to burn in full swing now.

after that , the music system was set by pranav and some tunes were played but people were very thirsty by now . curtz did an awesome job being our resident bartender for night and sadly , no one even left him a tip. next time you are in town , a drink for you from me the music got fast and people started to swing faster than gyrating arabic dancers. many decided to head towards the beach for moonlit beach walks only to return for multiple refills for the drinks . the beach walk was good fun and soon as time went by and the number of drinks people had by now had increased in multipe counts. skipped estranged's skit as i had already seen it at PG HQ but heard this was much more interesting and hilarious than last time.

The looong moonlit beach walk for some of us had was just awesome. turned around and we realised we had moved far away from humanity and returned back to see very few people left on the beach and some still dancing around the alcohol cart and not the bon-fire... went back to our place to have dinner . everyone was tired by now so many chickened out and went to sleep and some us stayed up till the wee hours of the morning for some interesting conversations , guitaring and singing sessions , and some muscle flexing for entertainment purposes only.

finally decided to crash at 4.30 am only to be woken up at 6.30 am . many had woken up with headaches n hangovers and some of us headed to the beach for early breakfast and tea. slowly people started waking up contemplating whether to go to the "blue water white sand beach". pagalneha was the most enthu in the bunch and found some generous volunteers to accompany her . many decided to give it a miss and head to the beach for cricket and bike rounds ( thanks to generous ali ). props to eka and his team who got out for single digit runs and allwin hitting one four and the match was over before it started.

grondmaster distributed some gifts he had got for some other purpose ( the tee rocks man ). many had to leave early to catch their evening flights and so early lunch had already begun. so after the good bye's , only 15 or so of us were left who had decided to head home later. on reaching the ticket counter for ferry , we realised the ferry service had shut down. apurv and I headed to the ST bus counter to find all the buses to mumbai were full . went to a tour n travel agency who somehow managed to book 2 cars for us and we got lucky otherwise we might have had to stay at alibaugh for another day. reached mumbai and people headed to their destinations.

Rock on Pagalguy.com and a final cheers to many such meets in the future

MEET PICS :

http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa237/punspans/AIPGM%202nd%203rd%20June%202007/

Old Fashioned Punk

2007-05-13T03:07:00.000+05:30

Long time since an update ... all because my insomniac mind has kicked in and the high is too much for comfort to lie down , so im here.

Life has been good to me and a lot of activity has been happening in and around . It sucks to be the centre of attraction but then its not all that bad either , im used to it.

The journey for the most difficult exam has begun in earnest with the sorting through papers has began to not a very auspicious way. Ok , my standards are a bit high ( maybe a lot higher ) than your normal being but it just seems like there is nothing out there which impresses you. Its like one after another the same history being repeated with just the geography being different. History was seriouslly boring in school and reading it all over again hasnt tickled me much. C'mon the god of Difference , did you kind of go through a rough patch during the 80's that all there is is just 100 % replicas with a couple of malfunctions on the way one after another with nothing that would get eyebrows up and go 'Woah , what do we have here'. its all good to have great credentials , great looks but nothing which puts you in a different genre of people atleast on paper who are the special alpha superiority which you know cant go wrong even though they have the most complex wiring of parts inside for the regular to decipher to atleast match up in the arena to call it a fair duel.

As i discuss this with my great alphafemale , whether to keep the standards this high or in the end , we will be brought to our knees just to equate things on a level field by the the earthquake spells we endure. I wish you well too on this journey for the race between us has began with slow start and frankly letting the other one win is a gracious act but not buyable in all its attempts so may you win before me and take home the 1st prize , ill be happy with a close close second ... or maybe we just need to break all rules and cross it together holding our left and right, wouldnt that be a slap to the face of us by the our other ;)

Its going to be a lengthy treasure hunt as the clues are invisible till now and frankly the first step itself was with a nudge and couple of cheap leg trip attempts by the close departed for me ... not a good begining but all the big ones start off that way.
Bows down to the almighty paganus , bless me.

18/2/2007 Will Forever be Remembered - Cause I Was There

2007-02-20T23:53:00.000+05:30

1992 - Bon Jovi

1995 - Deep Purple

1995 - 2006 - Several Other Gigs i went to

18 - 2 - 2007 : The Best Ever I was waiting for this day since a long long time . Having secured the passes very early ( Rs 1000 only cause Iron Maiden Bangalore , March 2007 is also on cards so had to spend appropriately ) , I couldnt sleep much the night before in anticipation. The day had finally arrived. How big of a Pink FLoyd fan i am ??? Trust me , you dont want to know ( or see 1 post below just to get an idea :D ) .Reached the venue which I was familiar with having hosted many big acts in the past ... MMRDA Grounds , Bandra. Went with a friend to experience the whole thing cause a large group might spoil the experience.

As soon as i reached the venue , the anticipation was in the air along with the smells I hadnt smell in a long time if you know what i mean ;) ... The venue was filling up fast
with youngsters with Pink Floyd / DSOTM tees , Oldies who knew whats it all about , people like me who are somewhere in between and a lot of foreigners who will never get to see
such a gig so cheap :DAs the sounds of Neil Young and Chuck Berry classics were being played ,people were waiting patiently for Roger & his band to come to stage. After a lot of waiting , came the image of a good old wodden radio player on the huge screen with a bottle of whisky and glass

7.10 pm : a hand with a cig moves to tune the radio to sounds of Elvis , Ella Fitzgerald and then onto 'In the Flesh' and there he was , Roger Waters with his band already dissing the first notes with the lights low and the roar of the thousands of people happy to see their dreams come true finally. As soon as the song finished , 'Mother' sounded oh so sweet next. Then onto a song which sadly many dont know , appreciate - 'Set the controls for heart of the sun... One of my favourite PF tracks ever. The perfect song to light the joint/cig :D , or just close your eyes and feel the unknown and be free ,Roger did a great vocal on this comparable to some live performances ive heard. There was no gong but still , the song was done excellently.

Till now the visuals were ok and then came One of the special songs 'Shine on you crazy diamond' & the screen was bright with the radiant energy of the late great Syd Barret looking straight at us and lot of old SYd photos and also of the band during the awesome decade of 60 & 70. 'Have a Cigar' was next and the hands flew in unision for the first time and a lot of smoke in the air :D. Next up was 'Wish you were here' , one of the most famous PF songs so you knew the crowd will be into this as soon as the acoustic note was played. The crowd sang and sang , every note perfectly around me atleast. The song brings back memories of all those special people
who have graced our lives but are no longer there for whatever reason and the mixed emotions can be overwhelming ( atleast for me but I didnt cry just so you know :P).

'Southampton dock/Fletcher memorium'with the backdrop of visuals of the times toughest for humanity with wold leaders was something you could just look on and wonder - How come we still see this on TV nowdays.'Perfect Sense' was a song i wasnt much aware of so it passed by quicly on to the brilliant 'Leaving Beirut' with Roger telling a little history of the song and it was a great narrative to listen to with lot of bush ,tony bashing and the crowd was loving it :D.

Another one of my favourite 'Sheep' was done next and somewhere in between the song ... the moment had arrived. The Pig flew .. slowly moving upwards ... the huge pink Pig soared above all over the crowd in the front with lots of sentences on it ... 2 of em most striking 1) Sarv Jaati Ek ( Every Caste is the same ) 2) Impach Bush now on the ass of the Piggy :D... and then for what Roger almost got into trouble in the US ... Th Pig was released in the air to the roar of the crowd as it soared higher and higher into the clear mumbai sky and that was when the 1st half of the show ended. Then the band took a small break to return to perform one of my favourite albums of all time ...Dark Side of the Moon ( DSOTM) .

The quadrophonic sound arrangement till now was only roaring to guns , planes but I knew the real experience of the sound will be felt as soon as DSOTM will be performed.The Sattelite on the screen moved closer , closer right towards us and the crazy mixture of sound samples from all around was building into a release of the 'Speak to me / Breathe in the air 'to which the crowd gave the largest roar in agreement. people started moving side to side , cell phones in hand waving hands in unision ... a sight to behold. 'On the run' had the best visuals of the day with all the psychedelia in full flow ( acid trips , pills , liquid bubbles etc ).'Time' sounded amazing with all the clocks , bells ringing real loud to the soothing mid portions of the chorus. 'Great gig in the sky' was played to the amazing vocals of the backup singer who i must say did an awesome
rendition of the original ... may i say as beautifully with anger as on the album. The sounds of coins , cash register on 'Money' sounded great and suddenly you felt like rich greedy royalty.The saxophone sound was to be heard in person to admire the great artist behind it. then came to one of those song you can just listen to over & over again and never get tired - 'US & them'. It sounded so good that i just closed my eyes to feel the inital part and then as the chorus began , hands went up in the air in unity. 'Any Colour you Like' played while people were just recovering from the earlier song and then moved into 'Brain Damage' with the sounds of the lunatic laughs and another massive roar as Roger sang the line Dark side of the moon.'Eclipse' was played with all the anger , passion , emotions of all sorts to the fact that the entire DSOTM set done non stop and the sattelite finally moved away on the screen.

For people who knew the setlist for the show , they knew there was more but ROger almost created ruffles when he said Thank you , good night at around 9 - 9.15. But soon the anguish of many was overcome with 'The Happiest days of our lives' with the helicopter sounds among the thumping bass and drums and the little famous piece of narration into 'Another brick in the wall - part 2 )... the crowd sang loudest with passion and support of the lyrics than you will ever hear. 'Vera Lynn' on the screen and Mr Waters vocal sounded the best on this on the night.'Bring the boys back home' the small little request was played the loudest with fireball explosions on stage and the perfect theatrical piece. As loud as it was , then the short silence was replaced by the last song 'Comfortable numb', an unbeleivable 6 minutes of life you would want to last for much longer.And suddenly you realise its over ... the band graciously bowed down to the audience in applause , claps in appreciation of giving one of the best experiences a person can have in their lives.

Mobile network jammed up , we leave the place ... walking a couple of kilometers as there were no autos , taxis to have dinner and a lot of drinks to end the night you never wanted to end.
Being in India , we dont get to experience great international bands , performances... thats why the review was so personal and the experiences shared mutual with many others.The scene is improving to many gigs lined up in the future and lets hope to have such evenings more in the future for the sake of keeping good music alive and get the exposure it deserves.

Project DSOTM Finally Completed

2007-01-24T00:31:00.000+05:30

After a lot of calculations , measurements and acrylics , its finally on my WALL :D

Thanks MOM , You are simply Awesome :D

I Will NOT Buy New CD's , I Will Download

2007-01-20T15:31:00.000+05:30

If i want to listen to crap , i might as well download crap and listen to crap.Compact Discs aka CD of artists nowdays are just crap. They are compressed to hell. Analysis of wave output of any song using software show how compressed the output is. Also to mention LOUD as hell. Its like listening to distorted pieces of rambling instruments and some dude / gal trying to sing over them ... I am apalled at the quality of some of cd's i bought recently compared
to yesteryears quality CD's.
And its not the fault of engineers who master them. We have amazing technolgy , equipment nowdays to give out quality medium but its the label and artists who demand loudness and higher sound outputs rather than quality.
Do any A/B testing of any Pink Floyd album to a recently released albums ( californication - red hot chilli peppers was the biggest insult to music production ever i think ) and you know its just not worth spending money to buy the albums...Artists should realise if they want us to buy CD's rather than downloading , put out quality stuff ... not only in content but the medium too. Vinyls are dying and looks like so will be the CD's in the next couple of years and we will be left with online downloading of compressed loud mp3's legal DRM Locked / illegal.
Its about time artists , labels and Us to do something about this. Its not being talked about discussed or debated. Rather than complaining about how we are getting lesser rich than we out to be due to music piracy , how about the "experts" explain the slow death of music delivery to Us.

PS : Its not all gloomy .Recently released Beatles ' Love ' is mastered beautifully and probably one of the best sounding CD in recent times.
If you want to undersatand about more on this topic , go over to Steve Hoffman Forums , its the holy grail when it comes to understanding Music more than just audible pleasure.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/

What a Difference a Couple of Hours Make

2007-01-04T01:52:00.000+05:30

So the other day I was at Brigade Road( Bangalore ) in the afternoon confused as to what to have for lunch ( Pizza corner got my nod in the end ) & I get this frantic call from an over axious friend asking me about my CAT results. I said I have no idea they were out . So I headed in to Reliance Webworld and checked and the usual No thank you note from the IIM's .

Well I wasnt dissapointed cause just about a hour after the phone call, I got a nice deal confirmed by a client which ensures I still remain a Boss and get paid decent enough ;)
Hows Life works in all its Glory & Gloom, I will never understand.

Anyways , Yaay I think :D

Happy New Year people who still visit this place and all those who glance by .

Best Lessons in Business - Live & Not in a Classroom

2006-11-29T01:46:00.000+05:30

So as i sat across the dinner table in a swanky upscale restaurant , i looked at the people around me & i knew im going to learn a lesson like never before.

The conversations began with light hearted jokes about the industry & its functioning . All the usual India bashing & international praising began with counter arguments about how 'We' are not that far off & its only a matter of time. Well the international fellow agreed to this point wholeheartedly & I knew the alcohol was just kicking in...

As the meeting went ahead in full swing , the level of intelligence in the conversation actually became better & better & i was left in awe in understanding of how larger businesses work , survive , grow , fall etc where its really how Darwin's thory is best put into practise ( survival of the fittest )

In a matter of 3 hours , i was mentally tired but like a hungry young one craving for knowledge drooling brain juices all over , it went on & on & I realised a couple of things which I knew were possible but realistically , i didnt have the cahones to think of doing ;)

a) how much more i can do in business ... its unimaginable
b) how much stuff is out there just ready to be grasped by that smart businessman only if the vision is there
c)Money is as important as you want it to be & make it to be & that Reputation , Respect are probably as important.

I must have gained enough exercises in business to last me atleast a year or two of implementation... I was able to contribute whatever i could to the best of my abilities but i was no match in the company i was but glad to say , i gave a pat on my back for the effort :D

So the evening ended with the customary handshakes & goodbye's and the gentlemen were pleased with the whole exercise and maybe someday in the future ... there will be another one, cant wait for it :)

Thanks for going through this with a yawn or two ... well ill simply put it as

I'll never forget the evening when I met

1) Chairman of a Big Indian Chemical Laboratory Company
2) Marketing Director of an International Pharmaceutical Company
3) Owner of a World renowned Lab for testing of some breakthrough medicines.

Men Cry Too

2006-11-21T03:43:00.000+05:30

Yes they do , rare as it may be . Its not supposed to be experienced but when you do , it can be life altering in someways. Sending that special person away from you for probably the rest of your life caused those salty waters to flow & its not easy for tough hearts to melt for when they do , you are taken back to first moments of your life on earth , crying & scared.

It will never be the same. I am what I am because of you & I thank you for everything.

Hard Rock Cafe - Mumbai

2006-09-30T00:44:00.000+05:30

Yes it is open n running since this month ... People never knew when it opened , shut down n then reopened...

So tucked away in Worli near Kamala Mills Studio , its a swanky place n quite large. The traditional ( ive seen a couple of HRC's in this world :P ) dimly lit place , memorabilia of artists and good old rock n roll music in the background makes it a nice place to have a drink or just for some nostalgia catching up with mates.

The food is alright ... well im Vegetarian so its the same everywhere :D
Non veg as suggested by my friends is good ... very good infact , the platter is a definite order for all u non vegs
The drinks are quite nice with lots of cocktails n unique combinations to have you tripping hippy style ... thank god the price is steep enuff for you to realise this is not the place to OD :P ... Quite an expensive place ... well comes with the brand name.
The classic choclate cake is a must too

The rock shop is loaded with HRC custom teeshirts & some other stuff like caps etc ... good quality merchandise

All in all , nice place to go to ... I have to say its better than the ones i have been to singapore , malaysia n thailand ... simply because the music played was nice & it didnt feel cramped ... its seriouslly big

2 complaints, far off for suburb people & I saw all the page 3 like crowd in there ... no sense of where you are & what the place is all about ... Kya hoga is great desh ke wasiyon ka :D

Stuff that made me Laugh this week

2006-09-18T01:20:00.000+05:30

1. Something on TV about Gandhism v/s Gen X ...
Dehati TV channels dont know that Gen Y already began some years back ROFL

2. Strike in Mumbai from monday of petrol pumps by their owners ... massive lines of cars outside the pumps by sunday evening time ... petrol over before the strike began in some pumps ROFL

3. Overheard in BEST Bus :
Person 1 : Kya ho gaya is city ko pata nahi ...
Person 2 : Kyu hua
Person 1: Bola na , pata nahin

LOL .... ROFL

4 ) Me : Ek cutting chai please ...
Chai Wala : Kya Sir , aaj ke time mai cutting se humara kya hoga ... pura hi bechta hoon abhi ... Intelligent Businessman n funny ROFL

5) Me to a friend : U know a woman was robbed in one of the mall's loo recently by another woman on knife point...
She : Fuck ... Now we need security in there too ... talk about No Privacy

ROFL END

Place Called Mangi Ferra

2006-09-10T12:31:00.000+05:30

I had heard so much of this eating joint that i had to go to check it out. A special occasion demanded such a visit finally wanted to see what the fuss is all about.
Its close to reliance world, juhu circle ... 7th cross road

Its a high end Italian joint. No Sopranos like people but the place is packed with people like they are distributing free food,Indians love to eat in style. The ambience of the place is great... Thankfully , i had the reservations done so got the table in no time. Bob dylan's music was on so it was perfect in many ways :). We ordered a Carribian cooler for my friend which i selfishly drank half cause it was that good... Never offer a drink to your friend if its good :P

The main course list is pretty big & very expensive . The pastas are around 200 /250 & the pizzaz upwords of 300... I hoped the quality justified the hole drilling in the wallet ... Ordered a Lasange first ... too good. Ive never been to Italy so that was the best Lasagne i have ever had. Then we ordered the Napolante somethin pizza. The pizza was as thin as my heart at that moment ... 35o bucks for a 1/2 cm thick pizza... oh wait , thats how thin authentic pizzaz really are. But the thing made up for the taste.
The quality is top notch but the quantity was nothing much to speak of ... all in all , its a place for those special occasions only ... 8/10

... Half filled we went to Barista for good old choclate excess & dark temptation [ usual suspects for pampering :D ]

Missed My IRock Today

2006-08-16T00:55:00.000+05:30

Going through RSJ forums today and the thread of Rang Bhavan no longer associated with the event
& for the fact the tradition of Independence Rock being celebrated much later on again this year is kind of dampening to the whole event & its message but still the event happening is a big deal in itself

Anyways , here are the details

INDEPENDENCE ROCK XXI

Date: 25th & 26th August 2006 (New Dates)
Time: 6 PM
Venue: Chitrakut Grounds, Near Fun Republic, Andheri, Mumbai

Day 1: Contest
1. Brute Force (Pune)
2. Split (Mumbai)
3. Evergreen (Chennai)
4. Faith (Guwahati)
5. IIIrd Sovereign (Delhi)
6. Nemesis (Pune)
Headlining Band - Pentagram

Day 1 should be awesome for everything excepting Pentagram. I dont want to hear electronic shit from a "rock" band. I cant wait for what the people of Mumbai has instored for them cause it will not be pretty, MC - BC galore :D

Day 2:
1. Demonic Resurrection
2. Sceptre
3. Them Clones
4. Dinosaurs Of Rock Feat. Gary Lawyer, Shazneen, Suraj, Farhad and Pervez.

Ill go just to see Dinosaurs of Rock \m/ ... , Cmon , i want to hear Deep Purple , Doors , every year these guys rock & troo music right there :D

Get your Eyes Off Me

2006-08-13T01:42:00.000+05:30

Well travelling around the city , and its evident security is tightened in malls & other public places . From large banners of important tips of do's / dont's to private security guards searching every bag you are carrying to police hawaldars roaming everywhere with one eye on me ( odd looking bloke )& the other one on the girl next to me ( usual guy thingie ) , its like your actions are being monitered to the levels of uncomfortability. All these measure put in place after US issues a notice to its citizens of travelling carefully in India and nothing in particular. Its all important & stuff but dont make people uncomfortable & aware of the already programmed
function to be careful of uncertainty around .Today was probably the 2nd time my parents told me to be safe ( 1st being travelling again in the trains after coming back from my trip ).
I can sense the fear in people eyes and minds even though they wont speak or show it evidently.

Well after somedays , when things will return to " normal " , the train victims forgotten and then when you would least expect it , it happens ... isnt that the way how the terrorists do their jobs ? So how can we stop that ... Prevention is better than Cure , we all know that but never follow , arent we the most intelligent organisms on earth ?

Fast July

2006-07-31T17:19:00.000+05:30

Life has been pretty fast paced all this month.

Firstly the trip down south to meet friends.

Hyderabad was good fun. Lots of old friends had moved there over the years and it was cool to meet them after such a long time. Surprisingly , most of em are married now so it wasnt like old times but ya it was more of matrured ( lol ) adults meeting up for a get together ( hehe )
I enjoyed the city a lot , the feel of old traditional town reminded of me my hometown , Aligarh in UP.
Saw Ramoji filmcity on the outskirts , one huge place ... the fun part was biking all the way there as its quite far from central town. Also saw the Golconda Fort , Birla Mandir ( beautiful ) , Charminar , Nizam's Palace n Museum ( awesome place ) n some other places. Loved the food and wont forget the 'Chai' at Hasnain cafe ... too good.

Only sad part was the day i reached Hyderabad , the same day the bomb blasts happened. Had i postponed my trip by just 1 day , i might have been in the one of those ill fated trains returning home. Well , it wasnt my time so thats about it i guess , trully sad event... After i returned to mumbai and started travelled to office , i could see that the people in the trains were pretty much muted during the entire journeys . No longer you would hear loud conversations of people in , the fast paced hustle bustle of people getting in and getting out from the compartments , the set of people whom i would meet regularly in the train ... some of em i dont see since the incident. It was truly sad what happened but as they say .. Life goes on with or without some...

From Hyderabad to Bangalore for 2 days , the place reminds of Mumbai more so now than ever before. It rained quite a lot while i was there ... Nothing much to say about the place , its cold , cool and all that.

After coming back to mumbai , shortly later on had to go to Singapore ( annual client meet ) with my cousin bro this time. It was quite hot this time and 2 days there was like one whole week cause i had to attend like 4 meetings in 2 days at different ends of the country lol . Cant complain much cause you are doing business with international clients :D
Ventured out this time to see a lot of places i had missed last time , Hard Rock Cafe was cool and the area around that is definitely a cool place. The metro MRT system is really impressive and its a breeze travelling in them.

In between somewhere Mr Pagalguy left for Wharton to spread his insaness there :D
Everything happened so fast with people coming in town and leaving at different times and me leaving , it was crazy in the end but definitely cool of all of us meeting up ... All the best with everything and NASEOH will go on ... and the OnToes treat will definitely be remembered :D

Saw Omkara ... Nice movie but not all that as people are saying. Sure , compared to what Bollywood churns out every week , its worth watching one time for the story adaptation and the setting has been nicely potrayed . Better than english Version 'O'.

Back to work like always , jeez im missing my vacation time already :D
Hopefully i get time to eat mushrooms and chase white rabbits ;)

Mixed Emotions

2006-07-11T00:43:00.000+05:30

France lost which was a big dissapointment yesterday... I was at this place called Seven ... a pub /nightclub 6th flr shoppers stop Bandra ... nice place ... I and friends came in early to get the best seats ... later on people were forced to stand and watch the whole match. The place was packed and the atmosphere was awesome. Nice to see the women out in full support , for the game or hot Itialians ... i think latter judging by the comments and reactions to Pirlo corners , Totti free kicks
n Grosso attacks :D

It was a fun , most people were supporting Italy and they were dancing in the end... Being an Henry fan , i had to support France :) ... but they lost which was sad and seeing Zidane the way he reacted was surprising. Rumors on football forums is that Materazzi called him a " terrorist" ... so his reaction was fitting if that is what he was called. Fifa sucks when it comes to off field decisions n review committies over the years so lets see what is the outcome. Another intresting outcome will be this weekend Italian match fixing scandal results. If the teams get thrown to lower divisions , will the teams be able to pay the salary n wages to the big name ( now even Bigger ) Italians or will they be swooped by Other leagues... It will be intresting none the least...

A good friend Apurv has been blogging about his journey experience with stunning pics way up north ... do check it out here

Off to Hyderabad tomm and bangy then to party n chill ... Cya folks :D

Update Time

2006-07-09T01:04:00.000+05:30

Long overdue...

I am going on mini vacation to Hyderabad between 11th & 14th and then to Bangalore 15th n 16th... Time to meet old friends , new friends , special people in your life who make the difference in their own unique ways. Always wanted to see Hyd , heard so much about it and the place and food :D , should be good & then Bangy ... been there only once 3 yrs back , work related trip ... was a good place then with awesome weather ( jealous of it actually , the only thing mumbai doesnt have ... only for 2 days but worth for all the 48 hours :D and back to work from tuesdays lol ...
All the people married to their jobs and work , raise your hands :D I

Then on to Singapore 22nd to 25th for business purposes only. Its been a year since the last trip which was memorable for giving a 24 yr old young guy quite inexperienced in business an oppurtunity to do business with international clients ... how many can say that and im proud of it :) ... time to get more clients and more business hehe , you have to be selfish :D

Otherwise , life has been same old work ... home routines . I miss the old times in college where all we would do is hang out and care less about responsibilities ... study last moments , be in a band and create some good music and have fun and those trips with your family , friends ... you have to sacrifice a lot to achieve other things which you are happy for but somewhere inside you dont feel too happy about it cause of all the things you would think you would have been still doing do but cant ... So all you college people , enjoy as much , create hell and more for you will be bound in shackeles of responsibilities in life OR lead a life not bound to the norm and do the unthinkable ... Freebird ;)

Tommorow world cup finals , Ill be in some pub cheering Henry to score ... who said he isnt a big game player ... did that in the semis and now its one more game :)

Time to GO PAGAL

2006-06-10T14:25:00.000+05:30

## Start of GoPaGaL Tag ##

If your blogger friend has tagged you, follow this link to participate: http://www.pagalguy.com/goblog/

GoAir and PaGaLGuY.com bring to you the GoPaGaL Campaign where you can win free return tickets to the destination of your choice. Winning is simple, just copy paste this tag on your blog after adding answers to the questions below and publish this as a blog post on your blog! Then head out to http://www.pagalguy.com/goblog/ , fill in the form and send us your Name and Blog post URL & Finally, tag 5 more blog users and let the world know. Promise! Its that simple and should take you no more than 5 minutes!!
--- Answer the question below ---

Q) On which GoAir Sector would you like to win a free air ticket?

A) Mumbai - Delhi

( Answer the above question after you visit http://www.goair.in )

[ Link (Tag) 4 other blog users in your network so that they too get a chance to win the tickets. Without you tagging 4 other bloggers, your entry will stand disqualified.]

TagI would like to link the following bloggers!(Please include the full URL to the blogger you are tagging)e.g: http://insane.pagalguy.com, http://whatblogmen.blogspot.com etc etc

1 -- Ranjitha ( http://ranjhu.blogspot.com/ )
2 -- DJ K ( http://www.djkrishkay.blogspot.com/ )
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Jab Hum Chote Bacche The

2006-05-19T12:19:00.000+05:30

I rarely link to other websites but this one made me to.

This is more applicable to 24 -25 yrs & older :)

Back in school days when we were very young , summer vacations would be OK . Lot of relatime playing cricket , football rather than spending time on a PC like nowdays. TV would be restrictive viewing thanks to the abysmal content . During Vacations , if you all remember , there used a special 2 or 3 hours of quality shows for the kids called Funtime. You would get to see Johhny Sokko & the Flying Robot , He Man & masters of the universe & one game show whose name i cant recollect. I distinctly remember my best friends would alternate to see Funtime at each others places & competition to throw the best Tv house party with chips & thums up :-)

I went to this page of a dude who has put up nicely of all things we guys would go crazy in the 80's , From tinkle & indrajal comics to Chacha chaudhry etc , it was some serious fun times for us. Nowdays , the quality of cartoons really suck . I do watch em with my nephews & nieces &basically cant get the new stuff ... maybe the kid is no longer in me or i cant relate aboviously cause im a bit older , but when i ask the tiny tods if the like the cartoons , they say " they are ok , our favs are he man , tom n jerry , disney etc" ... lol , we got the best real enetertainment value back then.

Oh yes , they would rather spend hours gaming on my PC playing NFS rather than watch any cartoons , its always good to have options :-)

It was Nice to Recollect the days & fun we had ... Pass it on to your mates .

Vishal Patel

Art & Lack of It

2006-05-02T23:21:00.000+05:30

I Love Art. Most people dont know this but Art is close to me for lots of reasons.I used to be good at drawings in school , but never took it forward ( thanks mom for them genes , she used to good in her days too ). My house if full of arty stuff mostly Paintings ( 8 & counting ) & some really "different" show pieces :-)
Buying paintings can be an expensive hobby. Its tough finding the right balance of quality stuff at the right price. I have to choose paintings which can be put on my medical journal every 3 months. So im always on the look out for that masterpiece to adore the cover of the journal and trust me its tough. I cant put something really abstract. It has to be within the realms of decency for a cover to understandable for the masses.

I have met many artists , gallery owners & its one tough business to sell paintings in India.
People generally associate with rich man's hobby. Normally , people spend on anything & everything on themselves but wouldnt really want to spend on something they consider " to hang on their wall ".When was the last time you went to someone's place and you see original works of an artist/s.Couple of reasons for this

1.People mostly do not understand art
2.Price factor
3.Its mostly a hobby
4.Misconception that paintings are always expensive.

The 4th one needs a bit of explaining. Being in Mumbai which has lots of galleries where artists always put up their works. You have to talk to the art gallery owners. You need to enquire about the artists who will be having a display of collections & generally what price range does their work sell for. I have seen amazing works being sold off for Rs 10000 & some really "ok" paintings for Rs 1,00,000 ( Just my opinion )
You just need to look out a bit to find some good art within decent spending levels to adore your plain walls of the square home. It is worth the time , money & satisfaction.

PS : If you or anyone in your family is an artist & does "good" paintings , get in touch with me . I might buy it you know ;)

Universal Lines Forever

2006-04-22T01:44:00.000+05:30

Eye on the the TV
'Cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor it happens to be, like...
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used a poison
in his tea...kissed him goodbye"
THAT'S my kind of story
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie

While the mother holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying,
"Why, oh why?"

Cause I need to watch things die... from a distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
YOU ALL NEED IT TOO, DON'T LIE

Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing
Neither the brave nor bold
ARE RIGHT as the story's told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing

I need to watch things die... from a good safe distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same, so...

Why can't we just admit it?

Blood like rain falling down
DRUM ON brave and proud

Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and Voyuer
Stare at the TRANSMITTAL
Sing to the death rattle

La, la, la, la, la, la-la-lie

Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
But pull your head on out
YOUR HEAD PLEASE, and give a listen
Shouldn't have to say it all again

The universe is hostile, so impersonal
Devour to survive... so it is, so it's always been

We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire

Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I

For Every

2006-04-18T03:10:00.000+05:30

For every yes, there will be ten no's
for every high, there will be three lows

For every wrong reason, there will not be a right
for every decision, no black and white.

For every ounce of confidence, a pound of doubt
for every dollar in, three will go out.

For every false start, there need only be one that is true
for every idea not pursued, denies the entrepreneur in you.

- Mike O'Donnell

Resurrection 5 - Back with a Bang

2006-04-10T01:03:00.000+05:30

The mother /father of all gigs was back to the place it belongs - Razzbery Rhinoceros. The place looks good now , little more room on the floor , gave it much more larger feeling i.e more bodies on the floor. The gig was charged up since days and everyone just couldnt wait fot the gig. So loaded with ethyl aclohol & a small army of men & women, we marched to the place.

The gig was a brutal gig. Mumbai raises the bar again of how insane & brutal a music show can be. A Death/Black metal gig got ugly in no time. With the breaking of barriers to throwing out people from the place , it had it all. Demonic resurrection , Kryptos & Myndsnare were the great bands that they are but the band IIIrd Soverign from Aizwal were the best band of the day . The vocalist was awesome with absolute wonderful covers of Carcass , Death . A small set which really raises the bar for a death metal band on stage. The big moshpit & the headbanging females in the front of the stage made the band much more charged & give a great performance.

The sound on stage & in the audience was great and the jam packed place was a testament to the needs of more such gigs in Mumbai , the capital of Metal in India \m/

M I A for some time

2006-04-01T15:56:00.000+05:30

Due to some personal reasons , i have been away & will be away for a while .

For all you thinking the dreaded 7 letter 'M' word , YES its that. I know it comes as a shock but sorry folks , everything happened suddenly and i cant help it.

I should be back in the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck people ;-)

PS :

1)The Dreaded 7 letter M word is MISSING ;-)

2)MIA = Missing In Action

3)Have a great April Fool's Day ;-)

Close your dropped jaws and get back to whatever you were doing :-)

Virtual V/s Real : Which to Believe

2006-03-09T00:59:00.000+05:30

This is a very interesting thought i had . I have experienced it couple of times about how different a person is online in different capacities & when compared to offline. He or she may be a real talkathon online and goes off totally offline and vice versa.There will be many vice versa examples . I was thinking about why this is so & this is the best i could come up with.

By the way , i do fall in this category of people as i have been told more than often , you got to meet the real me to know me really :-)

Internet is safe. You can express more openely compared to real life. You can be what you want to be as you have the freedom of choice of expression. You can have one type of personality in one forum a totally different one on another which is dependent of the forum type. I would be the most helpful on one and be totally cool while a total flaming smartass on another. And then we come to real life which may or may not be different from atleast one type. So why do we have different demeanours in the virtual world &/or the 2 worlds and not be the same in both.

People have different qualities when it comes to writing and speaking. You can quote shakespere offline while you may be the quite one online. So that moulds your personality that you take while interacting with people. Also the fact you may get away with saying stuff online while you would never do that offline.So does that mean im mostly faking stuff or just displaying a part of my personality which i would not in the real world. So on a forum , im talking in general when there are 10 people around so i talk accordingly.
And then Online Chat. Youy are interacting one on one with the person , but still you remain online and do act like your real self or a hybrid depending on the other person and kind of interaction you are having .

And then you meet the person in the real world and wooooah ... your perception about the person/s was kinda wrong and they are to say ... different.

So it is rediculous to judge or percieve how a person is online. The only real thing remains an offline meet when the whole physical meeting and the chemistry building starts and over time of interactions you get to have a fair idea about how a person is & how different or same they are from your perception.

So how people fall in love online and how successful is the relationship when they meet offline is a statistic which would really help in understanding this strange concept much better.

So what has been your experience in general with a person in the virtual world & then when you met the person in the real world ?

Baby Looks so Fine

2006-03-05T02:55:00.000+05:30

Modding my baby took a lot of effort but it was totally worth it , I Love you Sexy Blue Jean Baby :-))

Still needs a bit of hardware , config details later.

School Reunion

2006-03-01T00:33:00.000+05:30

Had a Mini School reunion ;-) ... WOW , 10 years have passed by since we left school , in a way you get reminded of your age in odd ways :) . Certainly a decade passed by and the teens 15 - 16 are now Boys 25 - 26 . 10 years was enough time to share our experiences over a couple of fosters and still we felt we didnt talk even 10% of what could be shared , time just flew by so quickly ... It was great to meet all the fellows you stayed in touch but didnt see all the years , the folks who dissapeared from the country to come for this one occasion. Certainly , school reunions is one great occasion not be missed no matter which part of the world you are ... It was a great day which will be remembered forever

Special props to the people who made this successful :D

St Xaviers Rocks ... GO SXHS :D

Im Back

2006-02-13T01:01:00.000+05:30

Back to blogging after a mini break. Quite a bit of stuff happening which i would put down when the time is right.

Life has become kinda routine since the business has finally settled and i am taking it easy on myself to not explore many areas of oppurtunities. I had failed to realised that and was blindly roaming many paths expored and unexplored and had drifted away from people around and was given a good timely introspection lecture from a dear one which in summation reads
"While working , concentrate on the job at hand. When not working , concentrate on the job for future , In between is Quality time for Yourself and the dear ones".
Thank You if you are reading this :D

Coming to that time of the year when the memories roll , emotions waves are on fever pitch. Yes good ol 14th Feb. For many its a time to rejoice their love , for many its a little daunting and for many they would care less.
My views were well expressed in last years post so i wouldnt start again ;-)
http://sdfn.blogspot.com/2005/02/14th-feb-of-different-kind.html

A tag from Shrutz has been in the backbench for couple of days.Although ,i am not very good at tags dealing with very personal thoughts beacuse of my nature and the haunted past roads travelled , on this auspicious time of the love week ... i thought lets give it a go and i wouldnt want to anger my new dear conversationist elite too :-D

8 qualities in my Soulmate i would like to have. First , the concept of soulmate is very intriguing. I would like to believe it exists, but people believe in a lot of things.

1.Common sense . one of the most ignored qualities , hardly talked about too. If she has a good common sense about life and things , ill be the happiest king around.

2.Beauty. Yes , she should be beautiful in my eyes , i care a damm about others perception of beauty. As for my perception ,it is simple : Whenever i look at her , she would make me smile :-)

3.Honest & Trusting. She must be honest open and frank about any issue. Keeping thoughts and feelings locked in a corner of the heart or the back of the brain gets troubling. Irrespective of the situation , thoughts whether right or wrong ... a smiling moment or a cursing heart blow , let it flow and i shall hear you till eternity. Lack of this & it hurts the most :-(

4.A good Conversationist. I talk a lot about things of importance and or something that would be the least talked around [ i was once called 'Communist Smartypants', now i do realise why :-) ]. My range of topics of conversations is more varied than the melodies of a guitar. From music to world politics to business practices to computer hardware to horror movies to medical science of life , if she can manage to stay with me on a couple of em,i will survive.

5.Common Activity .Must share atleast 1 common interest or hobby like listening to music, dip in the pool, plays a musical instrument or sing or just an intriguing conversation.

6. Respect . Respect and value everyone from the little kid to the oldest people around , respect other opinions no matter how south they are from yours , and i will repsect you like my eternal god.

7.Self Confidence. Very important to me . Whether its working place , 4 corners of the house or a happening party ... just be herself and a confident being

8.Take me as i am. I am supposed to be a weird human and people have a lot of trouble understanding me .Only a few have been able to peek inside and cross those no strict zone barriers. If you are that soul mate , accept me for who i am cause im not perfect and neither is anyone.

Tagging part ... the one which makes folks tremble ... I will tag these people for who WANT to do this tag and for who HAVE to do this tag

Zarine - My Favourite Tag as always :-)
Allwin - He loves doing these things ;-)
Apurv - I will and am sure others will look forward to your response :-)
Rohit - He need to start blogging again :-)
Aparna- Her verbal skills are quite impressive , she need to get back to blogging too :-)
The World - Whoever has gone through the trouble of going through this post and is itching to write something down , be my guest and let the 8 facts out ... just let me know about it :-)

So to end todays sayings,
From the 8 points mentioned above , if you do fit the bill on a couple of em ( i would like to believe that 50% is a safe mark oh rare breed ) and particulary the last one , slip me a nice original jump seat phrase ... Be sure , you will get my response , im never short of letting one drop by too ;-)

Pet Peeves Tag :-)

2006-01-09T00:09:00.000+05:30

God Bless Ranjhu for such a lovely tag, that too 20 of em :-P

1. Lazy slackers in life , work and especially the shops and stores . If you dont attend to me quick , im out of there.
2. People dancing in a metal concert.
3. Throwing garbage , spitting everywhere on roads
4. People who think they are superior to others and actually show it in their behaviour
5. Potholes and constant digging of roads
6. Cell phone loudspeaker mouths
7. Jargons n the experts at it
8. Generalization of black tshirts , blue jeans , long haired guys to be junkies , trouble makers etc etc . How we prove them wrong.
9. People who actually find you useful when they neeed help.
10.Seeing top level company officials stoop down to vegetable vendor levels when negotiating a deal with them.
11.Those banks and credit card offers on my cell... F O ...i already have it .
12.Critics an their "expert" views.
13.People who say you are wrong without any justifications
14.People who consider your friendship as just being a phase in their life because we just happen to be there at the same time.
15.Honking specialists on roads and bullock cart drivers in their stretch 4 wheelers.
16.People who criticize particular kind music in whichever form it is and do not accept other genres as others music
17.Crybabies who think life is only bad to them.
18.Pessimists who think it cannot be done and especially telling me " You cant do that , its not possible "
19.People not giving back to society.
Last but not least , the worst one
20.Girls with attitude and the attention whore kinds.

Tagging
Allwin
Vishy
Zarine

Let it all out :-)

Small Little Traditions Loosing Out

2006-01-04T01:03:00.000+05:30

Today is my mom's birthday . So I went to Archies gift store to get a card and a gift for her. This shop is quite big , probably the biggest in mumbai . Rows and Columns of cards ... New Year , Christmas , Friendship , Proposals etc . I was searching around my Mother bday cards , finally found them in one corner , one single column of cards , next to Father Bday cards.

So I asked the pretty sales girl " why there are so less card for mother and fathers bday " . Her reply was intresting " Nobody nowdays buys cards for them ( moms n dads ) . This bunch of cards have been around for 4 months. In fact all the cards you see for new years are leftovers , we already had ordered lesser than usual , still they didnt sell enough as we thought "

Sending Virtual cards when you are miles away from love ones is acceptable , but to see the small tradition of going to the gift shop to buy a card for your parents vanishing slowly is not . We will happily buy a huge card for her [ or you know the consequences ;-) ] , but not for parents , uncles and aunties ?

I guess the traditions are changing with times.

Happy New Year :-)

2006-01-01T22:13:00.000+05:30

Getting a New Baby for Myself ;-)

2005-12-31T01:42:00.000+05:30

Before your minds start working , getting myself a New Rig i.e Personal Computer.

Being a computer geek and suffering from the dangerous Updating Bug , finally getting an almost dream rig :-)
Due to higher prices in India on computer parts and lack of availibilty of many products of the best in business, one is restricted in choices available . Still try to do the best of things possible within acceptable budget level ;-)

Will post pics of my rig as soon its assembled

PS : BLUE is a very nice colour :)

Give Peace a Chance

2005-12-08T00:41:00.000+05:30

25 years on , the message remain the same

:-)

Only in Mumbai

2005-12-05T00:17:00.000+05:30

On friday , i went for this rock show . The band RASMUS was in town . they were judging the competition. When the band came on stage , the traditional Mumbaiya welcome was given to them wholeheartedly [ BC , MC chants for those who dont know ;-) ]

When they said " we do hope you come to our show tommorow" , ive never heard so many kinds , types of indian and phoren abuses hurled at any band in one minute . no wonder the band left the next minute :-)

As for the show next day , I have no information cause nobody i knew went , free passes down the drain :-P

Only in Mumbai \m/

Tagged

2005-11-04T02:00:00.000+05:30

Geetu has tagged me with a new round of tagging fascination of saying 20 Random Things about oneself. Wasnt too hard :-)

1. I love to play my guitar and disturb the neighbours ;-) . Next Im planning to buy and play the drums , god save them .

2. I Love to work ... workoholic

3. Im an insomniac ... i sleep for only 5 hrs average ( 4 or 6 generally )

4. My best friend is a girl and Who says a guy cant have a girl as his best friend.

5. I hate mondays and cant wait for the weekends on monday itself

6. I wanted to be a Rockstar when i was 10 and sang Bohemian Rhapsody in School and came in second , sadly im born in India and accepted the fact pretty early. The guy who came first , sang Sare Jahan se Acha , so i have no regrets :-)

7. I bite my nails

8. I almost got killed when i slipped 300 feet down skeeing on a mountain top in Shimla

9. I admire Bill Gates and i adore Kate Hudson

10.I used to weigh 55 kgs in school , i weigh 60 right now.

11.I go swimming almost everyday. Thats how im still 60 :-)

12.I got my nicks Puns for making too many sarcastic jokes and comments in college ( no Puns intended ) and Casper for scaring a girl , long story ;-)

13.My favourite quote is "Yesterday is History , Tomorow is a Mystrey , Today is a Gift , Thats why they call it Present.

14.I love football more than cricket , cricket is so over rated

15.I fell in love with girls who never liked me and had girls who fell in love with me whom i did not like.

16.I like community service and always wonder why people generally dont do it at all.

17.I love mumbai , its a great place to live in but its not all that great as people consider it to be

18.I once drank 1.5 litres Pepsi in 1.5 min , its possible :-)

19.People have a hard time figuring me out ( only those who have met me and known me for a long time )

20. I want to achieve world wide fame one day.

Ok so me now Tagging

Allwin
Vish
Ranjitha
Zarine

Some Friends Are For Life

2005-10-31T02:00:00.000+05:30

With 100's of forwarded messages running around mailboxes about friends , friendship ... we tend to take it for granted and just pass it on as a habit or just laziness. Recently i saw a forward ( or so i thought ) ... an old friend from 11 th 12th standard college , had mailed after 7 yrs , it didnt have any hi's hellos ... just a couple of para's with couple of friends pictures here and there like in those forwards ... during 12th , this guy was in utter shambles with drugs , alcohol and little chance of a great future ... i clearly remember , 4 months before 12th boards , during a group night out for studies , this guy came to our place ,explaining how he is ruining his own life . We spent next couple of days helping him out to gain enuf confidence to atleast go for his boards and try to stay off substances for atleast these 4 months ... he somehow managed to do it , joined us regularly in study groups and managed to clear boards just :-)

We were happy about the outcome and the guy thanked us all and left for future studies suddenly , we never heard of him where he went , what he did ...

After 7 years , we get an email saying ,
"Today Im the most happiest guy in the world . I have a great job in Automotive industry here in US , a great salary , now a wife . Ive been volunteering whenever possible in Alcoholics Anonymous and a Drug Rehab Counselling Centre. Ive been clean last couple of years and doing well. Thanks for the effort you and the guys put in those 4 months , God knows where i would be today if it werent for you guys ... I cant thank you guys enough and cant wait to meet you all if i come down to India or you guys come to here .
Friends come and go, You call some good freinds , some great friends , some ok friends and some friends for the sake . I was in the last category for you guys but still u guys did everything possible .
You guys Saved my life ... I cant say anything more than THANK YOU".

What more can I Say , this makes a nice Forward :-)

Working , Nothing Else Sadly

2005-10-24T01:03:00.000+05:30

Life has been Hectic for which im solely responsible . The only entertaining thing to have happened is to have recieved a marrige proposal...Sadly folks , i have said No :-/. The remark i got from the pundit who was the mediator , A Hindu guy from UP , 24 and doing business and earning money , Beta Abhi Nahin to Kab Shaadi Karoge , LMAO :-)

No more guitaring in a band , no more gaming for hours , No more fun and masti like it used to be. Only thing im sticking by is NASEOH . That is something i always love to do and intend to do for a long run.I can spare couple of hours in helping someone change their lives for the better, whats more rewarding than that.

Finally my journal is now being distributed to 6 Asian countries :-)
What a struggle it has been , learning the rules of trade for all these countries, modes of shipments and the problems associated , payments to be made in local currency to be converted and transferred to my account in Indian rupees via a bank in New York - all the hassels and brainstorming with CA's so that i dont have RBI or CBI knocking on my door asking - Paisa kidhar see aaya ;-)

Now Im planning to distribute the journal to Pakistan and China , 2 countries which seems so inaccesible . And trust me ... they really are . Our trade relations with both countries are quite complicated and seems impossible to work. Ive been endlessly trying to figure out if its even possible to trade with these 2 countries . Dealing with Pakistan is somewhat scary with many rules and regulations , permissions , checks on every step of the deal. China is an unknown territory with a big language barrier but a huge market and intrestingly it is much more open and accesible than one would think.
And for sure i will create more headaches if i even think about entering in these 2 countries , it will be some challenge if i take it on ;-) ...

Finally , got 2 clients in Boston and Virginia ... looking forward to a trip to Uncle Sam country next Year. All my US pals , here i come :-)

I Rock Rocked

2005-10-07T19:38:00.000+05:30

I Rock rocked again this year . It took place on the 1st and 2nd Oct. Both days were cool , the 1st day was better in my opinion

1st day

Prestorika didnt come , instead there was Bhayanak Maut :) , they did lamb of god and slipknot ... great set . Moshing was in full swing with fire breathers and all around .
then came vertigo , sledge , joint family and HFC . the competition was won by vertigo but did they deserve it ???

Then came vayu with their classics hendrix , zepplin and deep purple ... great set as very few bands plays classics
Next up was ZERO . did a lot of OC's and zero rocked as always

Day 2

Demonic Resurrection was 1st up and the crowd was ready for some fun ;) , many of the newcomers and no clue junta got shoved aside and the wall of death , headbanging , moshing started in full swing . these guys are great with their death metal OC's .
AFS was next joined by PDV members , did sabbath and RATM , ok set
Next up , PDV . as always , the metalheads were out in full swing. good set but honestly , not the best
Sceptre did Ocs and metallica and slayer covers , good set
Then came the real pros . people like Nandu Bhende , Ryan Mendonca and some other joined them.

Then was Farhad Wadia and gary lawyer with their usual setlist for all years :) . but they did a great set and it was totally enjoyable .

This maybe the last I ROCK as Farhad Wadia doesnt want to do the organizing and go thru the whole bullshit of government and police domination . lets see if he changes his mind or somebody else takes over .

All in All , I Rock Rocked :)

A Black Day for Music Lovers and Freedom of Expression

2005-09-05T01:00:00.000+05:30

I made my way down to Gateway of India on saturday for my 9th visit To Independence Rock gig, the biggest music festival in India. Since , 1996 i made it a point to be there come what may (missing just 1 year in between ) . As i headed there with my friends , i was expecting something big this year . it was the 20th anniversary of I Rock. As we broke the line to enter to collect our passes ;) , Farhad Wadia , who has been responsible for all the I Rock's till date , stood on a platform and announced - The show is cancelled. The police comissioner of mumbai has refused us permission to play.

Here is what he had to say - picked up from gigpad.com

Dear Friends, What happened today at the Gateway of India is a travesty & mockery Of Fair play & justice in our City. Today The Commissioner of Police for Mumbai City did not just Stop Independence Rock He basically told all of us that the police will control what Kind of Music can OR Can’t be heard at the Gateway of India; a monument that belongs to all Mumbaikar’s . In one stroke his Diktat didn’t just cancel a Festival that was about to celebrate its 20th Year at the Gateway … but it stabbed at the heart of Democracy in our Country. As certainly as that madman stabbed an innocent girl at the Gateway a few weeks ago this unfair Diktat has stabbed all Rock musicians, Fans & lovers who had come from Far & wide to perform & witness History in the making ---- The 20th Year Of Independence Rock! From over the last 15 Days I have personally been making the rounds of every Government office in the City . We applied and got all the following Permisions & Noc’s : 1.) Maharashtra Government for the use of the Gateway . 2.) Cultural Secretary for the use of the Gateway . 3.) Archaeological Survey of India – NOC for the use of the Gateway. 4.) BMC - NOC after paying their Venue Charges & Deposits. 5.) BMC SHOW departments NOC 6.) Fire Brigade NOC 7.) PWD electrical & Stage Compliance report . 8.) Collector Mumbai for Entertainment Tax Clearance after Pre – Payment of Entertainment Tax of Rs. 40,000 9.) Colaba Police Station NOC 10.) RTO – NOC 11.) RTO – Bandobast charges of 11,474 were paid for 30 - 40 Traffic Cops 12.) DCP ZONE 1 & Zone 2 Clearance 13.) Rangbhoomi Permission for Lyrics 14.) Censor Board Clearance. 15.) Loud-speaker License issued by the Colaba Police Station Along the way I got the runaround of a lifetime wherein I had to beg, plead, cajole grovel, namedrop & Bribe at virtually every turn. However I kept telling myself it will be worthwhile come the 3rd & the 4th of Sept when the concert takes place. My friend & fellow musician Hon Milind Deora MP helped and made a hundred calls every time we got stuck … Vinod Shekhar Municipal Corporator for A WARD too helped us immensely… However the last 2 permissions the Ticket Selling License & The Performance License which are a mere formality once you have the above 15 in place; were denied to us at the 11th hour after being told all along the way that they were “just awaiting Saab’s Signature ” After spending 6 hours at the Comissioner’s office at 4:30 p.m. I was informed that the Joint CP Mr. Subhash Awate had refused to give us the permission, When I met him he casually told me that he will meet me later… When I informed him that the show began in 1 Hours time he just got into his car & drove off. I begged and pleaded with Mr. A.N. Roy’s PA Mr. Kulkarni if I could meet with him & plead our case … I was informed that Sahib did not wish to see anybody. In desperation I dialed Milind’s No and apprised him of the situation he immediately spoke to the Commissioner, who assured him that he will take a favorable view of the matter and that he would see me. Milind Called me back immediately and said that He was hopeful that the Commissioner would relent . When I went into the Cabin there was Mr. AN ROY ( Commissioner Police ) , Mr. Patnaik ( Joint Commissioner ) & Mr. Naval Bajaj (DCP Zone 1). The commissioner started by telling me that - How Could I have wanted to stage a ROCK CONCERT at the Gateway? He kept stressing repeatedly that the Gateway was an inappropriate venue for this Kind of Music and told me that the Sound will Damage the monument. I assured him that this was the same Contractor – Roger Drego and the Same Sound system that had been used 4 times in the past 6 months for 4 different shows at the Gateway and authorized by his office. : 1. The Mumbai Festival featuring Al Jarreau & other Jazz – Rock artists . 2. Shakti featuring Zakir Hussain & John Mac Laughlin another Jazz Rock / Fusion Act 3. The Mumbai Mirror Launch function 4. Bal Thackeray’s Book Launch . To this he kept insisting that these were all Government Shows & not commercial events. When I told him that the Al Jarreau Gig was an MTV & VH1 Show which Charged an average of Rs 2000 & the Shakti show was organized by my friend Shashi Vyas who owns a private event company and had an average ticket price of Rs. 1500; & also the Launch of a private newspaper is a Commercial event …. & that Balasaheb Thackeray is a private Citizen with no official Government Post . He said that those shows were all right BUT ours was not Suitable for the Gateway . In spite of me repeatedly reminding him that Our Show had all INDIAN BANDS, & no Foreign Acts… Our 20th year Anniversary… and a Ticket Price one 1/10 th of the other events he had allowed … he still told me that he would not permit it . In desperation I told him that not only did I stand to loose over Rs. 10 Lakhs that I had spent on the event but also 3000 kids who showed up from all across the Country would be disappointed , he told me that this was not his concern. He rejected our application on the grounds of Sound Pollution & Law & Order problem. This too me reeks of a simple prejudice that Rock listened to by Middle Class Non-Affluent College Kids is Sound Pollution & Jazz Rock Or Fusion patronized by the Page 3 Crowd was Sweet & Appropriate Music …. Once again a Government Official who has been invested with these Absolute powers by the Government has let his personal taste in music / perception of Rock Music influence his decision. Dejected & shattered by this unfair decision I made my way to the Gateway and informed the Huge Crowd that …Once Again Rock Music Had been made a Scapegoat Of and asked them to disperse quietly & peacefully . What happened next Amazed me … Rock Fans who have been stereotyped as violent & abusive & other unflattering adjectives by the Police quietly left the venue . Had this been a Ganesh Utsav, Durga Pooja , Or Navratri Celebration there would have surely been a riot there ! The question’s we need to ask ourselves now are: 1.) Are we going to let the Police decide what type of Music can be played at a National Monument? 2.) Are we going to have one set of Rules for Jazz, Indian Classical, & Fusion and a different set of rules for Rock? 3.) Are we still suffering from a Post Colonial Hangover that Foreign / White Bands can perform at National Monuments & Indian Bands don’t have the same Rights ? 4.) Are we going to have Separate rules for Big Newspapers & TV Organizations , & Politicians and different ones for ordinary citizens like me ? 5.) Are we going to let Government officials whose Salaries get paid by taxes that we pay cause irreparable Loss of money Time & effort to citizens like me? 6.) Are we going to let shows get cancelled after 14 different Government Departments have okayed it, just because someone did not like the idea of the Gateway of India to be used for a Rock Concert ? What has happened today thus is not just a Concert that has been cancelled. It is an infringement of our Constitutionally Guaranteed Fundamental Right to listen & enjoy different types of music without interference by Police Officials. I would thus like to request the Court’s of our Country to intervene and correct this Gross Miscarriage of Justice and ensure that Independence Rock 20 Happens at the Gateway Of India towards the end of September! Please forward this to your Friends & ask them to forward it to their Friends … Somewhere along the Line some one in a powerful place might wakeup to the fact that an injustice was done here and it should be corrected! On a dfifferent note all those who bought tickets .. they will be valid for the concert which will take place sometime this month. If you want a refund you can get this too by emailing SAHIL - THE DEMONSTEALER Hey, Hey, My, My Rock & Roll Can Never Die !!! – Neil Young
Yours Sincerely, Farhad K. Wadia

All i can say is it was a sad day indeed for all the people involved and more so the fans , the thousands of people who had come from all parts of the country to return back ... with dignity as there was no incident following the cancellation which was truly remarkable .
I Rock will happen either this or next month , i know that ... and we will be there always to support it \m/

As i and my friends sat near marine drive with the wind blowing hard , we just couldnt imagine what had happened and imagined what it would have been like ...
Standing next to the gateway to our country , with music in our ears and true friends by our side , celebrating music, freedom and independence in a different but memorable way"

Rock on .

Doing Business Internationally

2005-08-13T01:15:00.000+05:30

This is a heavy duty post for all you MBA people ;-) and business people , entrepreneurs wanting to know a little bit about what goes into trying to do business abroad.

How does one do it ? How to go about it ? Is it possible ? Will i see a positive or a negative outcome from all this on the first go ? Will i see results?

These are some of the many questions that came into the mind before venturing into it. Well , it took a lot of research , lot of good contacts , lot of luck a little bit of risk and lot of moolah to do it :-)

What im about to say is solely based on my experience and relative to my field of publication business . It may or may not help in a different field of work.

I personally believe it is very essential to do a LOT of research in your area of field before going into to do something of this sort. By research i mean trying to find out if something like this has been done by someone else you know ( persional experience of someone ) or dont know off ( on the internet or a book ).
If you dont get much or any information , then i guess you have to evaluate the pros and cons and go ahead accordingly and be the first :-).

Try to get information of your prospective clients before hand like contacts which may be the most difficult part. You can try to get them by local contacts ( best bet ) or online ( may or may not be there ) or use international market research agencies whom you would have to pay to get information. There are many online information directories which can offer you information however they generally charge a hefty amount for it. Getting the phone nos and email addresses is the biggest obstacle and once you have done that , you are ready to go to the next step.

Next up is a plain old Business plan with which you will be contacting your prospective clients. You must obviously release as much information to your prospective clients about your business and basically ,What you can offer to them and how they will benifit. In the end of describing your business and what kind of services your are offereing , what might be helpful is a description of how you can take it to the next level as they say by communication to them

1) How you can offer them things which other might not be able to to ... in terms of pricing , quality , time factors etc and ease of doing business. A lot of time clients dont like to get involved with compicated businesses which involve a lot of risks , time consumption , excess loss of revenue at their end etc. Keeping it simple is the best way of going about it , which means you do the hard work of doing the most so that your prospective client has to do the least.

2) Also if possible you can include your vision about this project i.e how it will be mutually benificial to both , yourself and your client . A lot of times , clients are not able to comprehend or see what you have in your mind with this project. They sometimes miss the point of this whole deal. Although this can be a risky move as it can be taken in a wrong way that they assume you are being a smart ass with all this visionaory talk and that they are morons who cant understand business , it can be dicy and you basically have to go by your instincts as to how much you should open your mouth :-)

Then sending all this information via email is the next step. Give a period of some days/weeks and see if the clients respond.If they do , well and good and you can then go accordingly. If they dont , then telephonic conversation comes next. When it comes to international clients from non english speaking countries , you have a problem on your hands. It so happens many times your contact knows english but people in the offices like telephone operators , receptionists , assistansts dont know much english. You have to make a lot of effort in this case to somehow reach to your MAIN person. In one case , i must have talked to 4 people before i was handed to the right guy , so i hope u get it :-). Now that you are in conversation with the person , it all depends upon you and your skills. There are people who can get a client while calling on the first try. Then there are them who would have to follow up a couple of times to see if something is possible or you have to actually fix an appointment with the client to tell them " you mean business with all this and im ready to travel 1000's of miles to talk to you in person".

At this point of time , you should have contacted all your prospective clients .Once you have an appointment fixed with atleast one of them , you can use that as a leverage on your other clients so as to say - i will be there from this time period in your country , lets have a causal meeting .Key here is getting atleast 1 appointment so that you know all the money and effort you are spending , its worthwile . Most of the time , clients are willing to give you atleast 15/ 30 mins seeing the effort you are putting in to visit them personally all they way.

People abroad are very very professional . Here in India , if you got to do business , most of the time it is initially developing a personal bonding with your client like a trust , a friendliness personality match between the two and then when all this done , you move on to the actual business part ( although nowdays all this is becoming obsolete as most of the people are becoming more proffesional in the approach of doing business ). One of the meeting clients in another country was one such professional encounter. From the moment i sat down , i knew this product manager meant business and business only[ a lady at the other end :-) ]. She just wanted to know 2 things : a) financially , how much will it cost them b) Sum up your whole proposal to me in 10 mins as i have a meeting to attend.
What im trying to say is 90% of the time , people inernationally and now very much here in India wont have the time or even feel the need to do getting to know you as a businessman , your personality and would just want to talk business straight up and say goodbye for the next meeting ( if your lucky) or forever ( dont call us , we''ll call you types ).

Then its down to your skills in that meeting to strike a deal , negotiate there and there itself with very intelligent clients ( varied intresting personalities ) who will try their best to get the most of it while you are trying to keep a healthy profit in mind too [ Cmon , you got ot earn money , isnt it ;-) ]. Sometimes , it helps when you let them know that your are talking to other clients ( their competitors ) so that they could be looking at a loss if they loose out on the deal or an indication that dont try to be a major stuborn with the deals as you can go to someone else [ which is the last resort as you always try to get the person you are talking to seal the deal right there :-) ]. And all said and done and with the meeting over , you may or may not have succeded , if you have ... give yourself a pat on the back for doing it correctly or if you havent , take the experience of the whole thing in your stride and then move on to the next client :-)

In the end , Keep it Real and Simple and give it a shot . Who knows you will succesful the first time or maybe on the 2nd try or maybe not this time but sometime in the future after learning from this whole experience. You wont know unless you TRY :-)

What an Experience

2005-08-10T00:30:00.000+05:30

Back home sunday after a loong trip of 20 days , 3 countries , 7 flights and lots of memories and experiences .

The trip overall was relatively smooth. It was a great experience overall , learned a lot about cultures , people , work style and other stuff and how it is same or different to India.

Highlights of the trip was the satisfaction of being able to do successful business abroad on the first go , an international football match , making contacts with a hot italian woman , a sotc tour organizer , a doctor , a national geographic photographer and a local musician who all were next seat neighbour on the planes.

Kuala Lumpur was the 1st stop on the journey and the hotel i was up in pretty much sucked. But the area around the hotel was rocking with huge shopping centres , malls , theatres ... lets say THE place to be in KL. The trip to the twin towers was cool and when i was there , there was a fashion show going on which was cool. One thing i definitely noticed is that guys are a lot into fashion and such stuff. you would see them dressed up , various hair styles and definitely IN people as they say.The girls anywhere on this earth are into fashion and so was the case here. The big brands from Versace , Hugo , Issey Miyake etc sell well here, i saw people window shopping and actually buying stuff from designer brands in the lots , no wonder the economy is good and you can sense it . The local people shop and shop big time like its their only passtimes in the evenings. There was one mall which had a freaking roller coaster ride inside the mall which i think is the only one in the world. Found a nice indian/pakistani restaurant near the hotel and seriouslly , one of the best indian food i have had anywhere including India.

Thailand was one intresting place.When i boarded the taxi to go to the hotel , it reminded immediately of andheri flyovers but smoother roads and the sense of similarity to mumbai.To be greeted by the ladies before i enter the hotel was nice ;-). The hotel i was up in was excellent.My first dose of travelling by sky train came in Bangkok.The whole city is connected by 2 lines and the travel is cheap. Basically in 25 bucks you could travel from one end of the city to the other with no hassels of traffic and in the comfort of air conditioned sky train. Tuk tuk ride i took was also cool and yes , as everyone says , you have got to ride it once. If you are a tourist , you need to be careful here cause most of the time shops , local people try to rip you off.Bargaining is a necessary skill here. Night life was rocking in a couple of places limited to certain areas. The are near Hard Rock Cafe was THE happening place. Motorcycle gangs , drag races, modded cars , loud rock and metal songs blaring from the cars and the pubs mixed with techno and house music and the neon lights of brothels , this is one place i wont forget. Since most days were lined up with meetings , couldnt get a chance to see pattaya which i will surely miss.

Singapore is one heavenly country , i believe its slightly larger than mumbai so i can understand how easy it is to maintain and develop the place . It is one beautiful place. My hotel was in a place called Little India. I reached on a sunday and saw the most amazing thing. Hundreds and hundreds on Indians out on the streets which took me by surprise. It seems there are a lot of south indians have settled and working here since singapore was in its developing phase. The boat ride here was the highlight taking you through the heart of the country to see the mixture of early singapore with the new high rise concrete jungle as the say.Taking a stroll on the famous marina bay to seeing the beautiful chinatown to having a cup of coffee on basically the highest point over singapore were memorable.

The computer malls were huuuge , floors upon floors of 100s of shops selling all kinds of boys toys was really tempting. You could basically get anything that can be associated with electronics in one buliding basically which is great.

This was basically my whole trip summed up in a small post. Other than all this , other times i would be busy travelling around for meetings , establishing business and personal contacts for the future and it was a great learning experience , one which would help me personally and professionally.

Some of the pics i have uploaded here , do check em out :-)

Trip Pics

Thailand -OK Place

2005-07-30T16:34:00.000+05:30

Maybe after Kuala lumpur , i was expecting a good place , but bangkok didnt match up. Relatively cheaper but language problems among other things was evident right from the time i landed.Had an ok time in Bangkok , a very intresting place to say the least with prostitutes hanging around at most streets , massage parlours to "massage"and some other stuff too , . Since most of the days were lined up with meetings , couldnt find 1 full day off to head out of bangkok like pataya , phuket and other places . Sight seeing was limited to couple of places , had real difficulty finding indian restaurants here which was surprising. Yesterday had free time and went to see Real madrid v/s Thailand match , didnt know when i will get another oppurtunity to see an international match. Great atmosphere and had lot of fun . Clicked snaps of the stars of RM from some distance in the stand , upload them later. Next up Singapore .

In Malysia

2005-07-18T12:52:00.000+05:30

Im on a business trip for atleast 1 month upto August . Came here yesterday and gonna be here till Sunday . Then to Bangkok and finally Singapore . Its a cool place , lotss huuge of shopping centres. KL is shopping , everywhere you go , hopefully i should get the time to do some sight seeing and stuff outside KL , planning to visit sepang circuit . Commuting is mostly by taxi and some monorail . More from moi later with pictures and stuff .

Rock n Roll - 1

2005-07-12T20:30:00.000+05:30

Rock Star INXS . A new reality tv show im looking forward to . INXS was a great band with Michael Hutchence . His death marked the death of the band . Or we thought so . Now , the band is using reality tv to pick a new lead singer for the band. No one can fill those awesome boots of hutchence but its a great concept and going by the promos , it should rock . Hopefully , it should match the hype created and INXS rock again . From the promos , female singers are also gonna take part which is good for music , i feel they can really add a different and personal touch to the genre of rock and metal . Right from early years of Janis Joplin to Amy Lee , we have seen good talent emerge but no one which has taken music by the scruff of its neck and knoced us over compared to the guys . If this is successful , who knows ... we might see comback of bands like Queen and so many others who didnt see their prime . Many people would not be happy with such a move but history will look as it is - Commercialization of the art of making music.

Last Thursday , there was a show arranged by Record Magazine in mumbai featuring top rock n metal bands at Mikanos . It was a good awesome show , thanks to the place which was cramped up with around 1000 real people and around 500 others who thought " Where is the DJ tonight " ;-) . Anyways , the ladies were out in full force to support the scene :-) . We even saw a female mosh pit LOL ... a decent effort i must say compared to male counterparts which even saw " wall of death" among the moshers , couple of injuries , bleeding mouths , broken bones ... mumbai has violent people :-)

Ive been listening to
Orbituary latest album - Frozen in Time . Intresting name . This album kicks serious ass of other acts . Worth listening to over and over again.

Other stuff i got latest:

Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth --- Nothing like the oasis of before but a decent album ,this one seriouslly reminds me of Beatles

Coldplay - X & Y --- Well after their great debut , they had to raise the bar or atleast try to match it and they have done the latter . Great album to listen to with the lights way down late night . Awesome band.

Audioslave - Out of Exile --- Much slower than previous stuff and its a good Rock album .We still have to see the best from them.

Alanis Morissette Acoustic Sessions --- This Girl rocks , all her hits acoustic , what more do you want . Rock on

Queen Live Wembley 1986 - Great concert ,One of the best ever .

Rock on \_/

No Vacations :-(

2005-06-26T14:36:00.000+05:30

Well im still in mumbai . Due to to unavoidable circumstances , no vacations this time :-( , vacation gods aint smiling on me ... Anyways , Back to Work , as usual :-)

PS : Internet Service Providers SUCK ... Couldnt access the net for 2 days , why ? ... Sir , its raining too heavily and the wind is blowing so connections are becoming loose ., cant help it ...

Now what more can i say .

Tagging Mania

2005-06-21T01:30:00.000+05:30

Moi got tagged too ( lol ) thanks to Zarine

PS : Im not much into reading Medical Journals :-P

I admit im NOT a good reader at all , basically i suck at it . I would pick up a book to read to help me sleep . I do like reading e books and have read quite some.

No of Books I Have : Not many , can count on fingers but a lot of e books.

Last 5 books I Bought : Loosing My Virginity ( brilliant ) , Marching Ahead with Science ( Eye Opener ) , Using Your Mind ( a really different self help book ) , The Story of Philosophy ( one freaking heavy book )

5 books that meant something : Sorry , i cant relate to a book.

Last book i read : Bill Clinton - My life

Im reading Currently : Maximum Performance - Nick Forster ( Must Read for any Entrepreneur )

Now i have to tag people , anyone left :-!

Edited : Tagged Zarine , DJ K , Ranjitha , Appy and Ashish.

Vacation Time Baby

2005-06-19T22:30:00.000+05:30

Wow it has been long since i blogged ,totally responsible for the laziness on my part.

Im finally going on a full time vacation this weekend i.e only 9 days i could manage to get out of the schedule .No more usual faces , usual routine and im eagerly awaiting to leave Mumbai and get the hell out of here . Going with a good friend of mine to DUBAI , it should be a blast with boys toys shopping , rocking sand dune driving and just travelling around and just chilling in a hot place ;-) . Got a great deal of 8,000 bucks for a return flight to Sharjah ala online bidding of Indian Airlines . While even i was hesitant if it would work , thankfully the whole process was a chill all at the comfort of home via internet :-)

This whole month i have just done 2 things , work and more work . Since i knew the vacation is coming up , i had to settle everything before leaving . Now its just pack my bags and kiss this town goodbye for 9 days , im all excited to go on a vacation especially since its after 6 long hard years.

Recently Ive indulged in discovering different styles of music . From the likes of legendry Pandit Ravishankar to ghazals of the beautiful voice of Mehndi Hassan to deep thought provoking lyrics of Bruce Springsteen to the absolutely honest Alanis Morissette . Some years back I would hesistate to listen to anything other than good old metal but when i listened to such stuff which i got from here and there , i realised im missing out on some good stuff . Music is in my blood and infact it enhances my creativity when i try to understand lyrics of these people , dont ask me how . When i need new ideas or having a block or just tired from a daily routine and need to revitalise myself , i put on something intresting to listen to and voila, im back up ... so discovering new styles has been rewarding , Thanks to A :-) .

Today was the last day when the Original NASEOH group had our final session . Wayne would be moving to IIM I and Vish to IIM A . PG , Simba , Me and Wayne have been there right from the begining and Vish joined in later who have been regular to NASEOH week in and out and taught 3 batches till now and had a good time each n every week teaching students and then enjoying later over a cup of coffee , so in ways this is an end of a great association with a great group and with Simba leaving in couple of months to Duke , it would be the end of a small era :-( . On a brighter note, we now have new members who have come in and contributing to the cause and hopefully have more members joining in to keep our small effort going and hopefully building new association with people but Im sure it wont be like the Original group [ taps a cup of coffee with others ;-) ]

More updates hopefully while on vacation and when im back . Arios :-)

I Met GOD And Saw Him In Action

2005-05-14T01:00:00.000+05:30

I met up with Joe Satriani on Thursday :-) ... what do i say more. At Planet M , Powai , there was the biggest crowd that can fit in a Planet M full . Thanks to ma Guitar Sir , i got to meet him for probably 30 seconds cause Satch was intrested in meeting Mumbai Rockers and guitarists especially . It was just briefly but it felt Heavenly . He just asked about the band and some other stuff . Then he gave us Free passes :-) of 500 Rs for todays Show . Sadly , we were not allowed to carry ANYTHING inside due to heavy security , we all were told to keep our guitars , cameras outside ( one guy had got 3 guitars for autograph , he broke down when he heard nothing allowed inside ... and when Satch came to know that , he gave him an autographed CD :-) and a Tee signed by the ENTIRE band ( Lucky SOB )

Today show can be summed up as AWESOME . Mumbai rose up to the occation. I saw band members from Gary Lawyer , Parikrama , Zero , PDV , even Indus Creed etc ... it was like a Rockers Meet . No intro bands , J S just came and started playing and NEVER took a break . Played like 3 hours . Played around 25 songs and it was mindblowing. I never thought such a day would ever come , and here we are ... Part of History . Again due to the F***ing security , no cameras allowed :( ... only managed pics from cam phones.

He was flawless , a Real God on his awesome array of guitars ( must have atleast 10 of them )... and most of the real knowledgable crowd had come . Got the Whirpool going on some of his songs , people tripping , getting High on all kinds of stuff ;-) ... it was like Woodstock 69 ... hendrix playing with the Hippies doing their stuff . And when he said Thanks for Coming and Good Night , mumbai wasnt ready to let him go that easily . The barrier seperating the 500 , 1000 bucks section was broken , ripped and crowd became one . People chanted ... Once more ... More , More ... and he didnt dissapoint , got his guitar ... told his band " Lets get Crazy " with 3 more songs Going Down , Friends and Bamboo ( Extended versions than the ones on his Albums ) ...

To sum it up , it was one awesome gig and Prolly One of the best till now ...
In terms of international artists Ive seen
Bon Jovi ( when i was 12 )
Def Leppard ( the infamous lip synching gig)
Deep Purple ( One great gig that was )
Junoon ( Talented Guys )
Joe Satriani

PS : Yesterday , J S said ...Seeing the Crowd , i wouldnt mind doing a G3 down here ;-)

Long Time , No Update

2005-05-07T01:20:00.000+05:30

Me not blogging is an issue , Wow :-).Anyways , nothing great to update as i have been on and off busy with the work . Infact,my work schedule online and offline has increased much more than i imagined [ what did i get myself into ].

Working for 2 years , a regular Routine of saturday , sunday off ... evenings around 7 leaving office had been fixed in my brain . Suddenly , now I'm at the mercy of myself which can be quite troublling , Even more late nights , late mornings , Work as u like , at ur time , ur own convinience ... u have the options initially and quite tempting to exploit but you are brought to earth pretty quickly as time passes by .

So what are the difference i have observed up till now.

1. When u are in a job mode , u do what u have been told what to do i.e restrictions or limits and not being able to take risks to go a little overboard to try to get more out of the project . While in a business , u can do a "little " more than reqd , a risk here or there , try things differently , experiment as they say to maximise output , you will succeed , you might fail , all part of a learning process.

2. There is no longer a Cheque kept at ur table at the start of a month . The pressure of "Business Earning" is much much more . Being salaried , u know u r getting a particular amount and there is no tension simply . But now , its a Wave effect ... there are crests , troughs and neutral period earnings and you are trying to achieve the highs or atleast neutral high to maintain a level of profits .

3. From being controlled , to Controlling beings . Everybody nowdays seems pissed off with their colleagues , bosses , aka the entire office for some reason or the other . Now You are the Boss and you have people working in the office . So after already being in the shoes of the latter , it helps to understand how to work accordingly with the people , to keep the people working for you motivated and simply - 'Happy' and 'Excited' to do tasks n jobs which come in now n then knowingly and unknowingly.

4. Finances - Being a science grad , its never been my strong point . I would find it hard to understand million different terms , taxes , rules , regulations etc etc . Now i have started to get an idea of these things and "ins and outs" of it , what are CA's for :-)

5. Lastly , what keeps me motivated and excited everday to go out n work, may sound cliched and stuff , but its true :-)

The oppurtunities in business are endless . Everyday , you learn something ... something new , something different . You learn it in nice ways or harsh realities simply put. The ability to grow in business ... as they say sky is the limit . All you got to do is to work hard to the best of your abilities , working around with good people who know at the end of the day to - Get the job done to the highest proffesional degree to everyones satisfaction and Always try to maintain a good PR ( public relation ) with every damm individual around you be it your current clients, your potential clients , your office worker , as nothing can do more good than say a good client recommending someone to get the job done from you ... simply put
1 >2>4>8>16.

The Bad News & The Good News

2005-04-10T23:30:00.000+05:30

The Bad News :-(
I have finally quit my job . after giving a 30 day notice last month ... friday was my last day . Friday also happened to be when i completed 2 years at the job exactly , all so fitting , coincidence or what! wow these 2 years have seen so much , it will take a lot of time to post :-) ... but to say it simply , these 2 years are surely going to help me for the rest of my life . People always complanit about their jobs , their boss , their colleagues n tons of other things . ok , i did face few of such things but i guess i have been one of those lucky ones who didnt face much problems .

The 1st year was extremely hectic since i was the newbie , and lot of responsibilities given to manage outside maharashtra work . this lead to visiting so many cities , i lost count . got to do so much travelling , meeting new people , establishing contacts in different states for the future , getting to know work cultures in these places and learned quite a bit of PR stuff and how to get a job done outside mumbai cause it aint easy , there's a definite difference in work culture everywhere . I happen to do a good enough job that during the whole takeover bid by the now parent company , my job was secured which at the time looked highly unlikely .

My bosses , colleagues ( not many in my department. ) were utmost helpful . I cant remember a time where i had some major issues with any of them . my boss is the best boss one can hope for . totally cool guy and one person who helped me keep my job during the takeover period . i wont forget the day ... he called me to say ... dude ,your job is secured , dont worry or why the **** u cut your hair or time for some REAL work ;-) ( international proj ) ... The 1 guy above all who taught me the in's and out's of the whole JOB thingie to which i will be always grateful and thankful and who actually was sad and dissapointed when i broke the news to him about my resignation but wished me luck and said " I hope to do business with you in the future " :-)

The Good News :-)
This was a concious decision on my part as the workload from my business had increased tremendously and the time had come to call it quits from the job.People have asked me about the business and stuff , so ill post.

The company , Puneet Publications is into publishing Medical journals in India and Asian region. It has the rights to print Asian editions of the Journal Diabetes Care ( American Diabetes Association , USA ) .As for now , we have customers in India, looking to get customers from Asia .Also publishing reprints here ( single article journal ) for the same. Soon hopefully ,we will get the rights to the journal Diabetologia ,( Springer Publication , Holland ) for the Indian edition or probably Asian edition . Also publishing Indian Journal of Internal Medicine , our flagship local journal containing articles by indian doctors on national research in the field of medicine .

Also i and a friend have started a little Computer assembling thingie as a small start up . We are providing with supply of all kinds of computer components in mumbai and also Custom Assembling according to customer needs . So anyone in mumbai who wants and is looking to buy an assembled computer , get in touch with me [ best rates offered :-) ] . As for now we dont have a website , but here is a temporary site , soon will be having a proper site.
www.computerindia.blogspot.com

Well from now on , i guess will be a lot free in terms of no more 9 to endless hours working but then equally busy or probably more , guess time will tell :-) . Also an end probably to future attempts in CAT , atleast for this year , moved on :-)

Risky Decsion no doubt , but what is life without a risk and when things get monotonus , do something different with all factors understood , analysed and executed accordingly for the next step in life.
Rock On .

Trip Update

2005-04-01T15:00:00.000+05:30

Long back from the trip , thought would update .
Holi was great . After a long time , i played holi for a change , delhi holi is a little subdued mostly because of the bunglow housing style whereas in mumbai you would have 50 families in 1 building coming to play holi .Drank the traditonal bhang ... LOL , after a long time , i slept peacefully :-)
In between made trips to Gurgaon, Faridabad to meet up with relatives who always complaint of me not meeting them . Journey by buses and train are a freaking nightmare . Bumpy roads , takes ages to travel ... and since it was so freakin hot , it made it worse . But you know the whole family blah blah which one haaas to DO .
Nothing comes close to a pani puri, chat at haldirams or a Nirula sundae ... i had one sundae everyday :-) , gained a couple of pounds , no worries as always .
Delhi chicks ... How can i leave the topic out ;-) ... Loads of Attitude with little Backup on slow brain system is what i get everytime i have been here . And hell , since im from mumbai , the attidue becomes +1 more , and im talking about old friends from mumbai who have been there for quite some time ... seems like the place does make a difference to the mentality . Guys ... will always be guys wherever they are .
The nightlife has definitely improved from the last time i was here . Saw a lot of people out shopping , clubbing , pubbbing pretty late ... earlier after 8 , everything would be closed and delhi would look deserted ... this time around , loads of improvement.
Barista here did taste different ala Choclate Brownie and the coffees i took , arent they supposed to taste same everywhere :-?
What can i say , once a Mumbaite ... Always a Mumbaite :-)

All in all , a welcome break it was , now back to usual :-)

In Delhi

2005-03-24T19:00:00.000+05:30

Writing this from Sify web centre in Priya Complex Delhi :-) . Came here yesterday and going to be back in mumbai on monday , a mini vacation of sorts . i had not taken one in a long time and so decided to pack my bags and head over here to meet up with cousins and little nephews n nieces :-) . Comin here after a year and yes its freaking hot , different kind of hot from mumbai with no humidity but real hot loo's ( hot winds ) . Have to meet up with so many of old friends here and holi this weekend too , so going to be fun :-) .

On a different note , i didnt get thru MICA on the 1st list :-( seems like there's going to be some 2nd list , lets see . Anyways , out of here :-)

Latest Trend ... Marry Early

2005-03-14T00:45:00.000+05:30

Suddenly i seem to be surrounded by people who want to take the ultimate plunge ... the ultimate union of souls blah etc etc . And the most intresting part is ... these people are my age ... not older ... same year borns and even younger.

1. Last week attended an old building friend's marrige ... guy is 23 ... Bakra no1 ... says he is all settled and the time is right ... What settled , what right ... is 23 old enuf to make a judjement or am i missing something ? Arranged marrige.
2. Another friend ... 24 ... getting married in july ... love marrige ... god bless ... calling me all the way to Hyd to attend . Arranged marrige.
3. 2 common friends, both 24 ... Got Married in Court ... didnt call me cause it was ala Vegas style ( dont ask me further details :-P ) ... Love marrige.
4. Attended 2 marriges already last yr ... both friends 24
Thus making 6 in all ( Holy **** )

Well all these ppl are not just everyday folks cause i dont surround my self with such friends ...
1 enterpreneur , 1 Market research proffesional , 1 international businness , 1 owns a freaking mall in mumbai .
So whats the whole psychology of this generation of getting married and settling early ... pressures of family , jobs , relatives , life in all ... makes me wonder how easy or hard such a decision is for people to take ... At work , decisions like a yes or no for a project takes days , even months at times after analyzing A to Z of it ... Decisions in Career take hell lot of thinking and future in mind ... But for such people , it seemed the ultimate decision is not that hard . They analysed the RISKS involved in probably the most important decision and also THE next big chapter in one's life with such ease at such an age which leads to me to questioning their thought process and decision taking ability . and seems oh so confusing and funny too
Well im not complaining ala Parties galore , dinners , old and new friends meeting up

SO when 1 of them asked me : Dude , when u getting married ?
ME : Girl , by the time i get married , at my wedding reception , u would have your husband holding Jr 1 and u holding Jr 2 :-)

I know one thing ... Dammm , This is making me feel Old at 24 :-(

Looong Week

2005-03-07T00:15:00.000+05:30

Wow , more than 7 days since i last posted ... it has been a long intresting and also a boring week , how somedays one is so active and then on others , nothin productive to do n oh so borrring .

The project i was working on finally got over on friday ... Phewww , it was one tough project but all worth the effort . I have never worked that hard on anything , but this one took the cake of pushing me to my limits and thankfully , the cake was nice :-)
Saturday , was the day to let off all the steam with the Mithibai Reunion . Woohooo ... the party rocked and i hadnt been excersing so time to shake a leg or two ... nice meetup of people , some regular , many who were long lost "friends" of couple of yrs back , remembering old times and catching up . the dinner was excellent and as usual , me left no stuff untouched . Had the miss the Mark Knopfler show because of the reunion but concerts do happen here and there , reunions ... who knows when the next one will be .
Also saw the movie RAY . The movie is just ok , nothin great , only Jamie Fox's acting was good . Reminded me quite a bit of Val Kilmer as Jim Morrion in the movie The Doors . To play some real life guy who has died is way up there in the league of difficult roles and they certainly had to be in that " Zone " of personality depiction of the artists to pull it off . Although i thought Kilmer did a much better job mainly due to Oliver Stone who had directed The Doors .
Ray is worth the watch if you are a serious music buff , you like R n B , JAzz and Soul type Music but overall the Movie was just alright.
And what else , got my self new shoes ( Adidas Shell Top Sneakers 900 bucks , a total steal thanks to my friend who told me about the last couple of pairs left at the factory outlet in Parel ) . Im a sneaker freak ... Love sneakers and this makes it my 6th pair of sneakers , all for different places n occasions :-)
sneakers.pair.com is the site i have always referred to to find out the latest in sneakers and the history of sneakers on the site is amazing .
Also gave CET last sunday . The paper went well , the person sitting next to me was one of my friends ( what are the odds for that ) so the usual long boring wait before the paper wasnt so , we chatted around until the moderator of the exam told to keep quiet :-0 . 2.5 hrs is long paper and i was drained at the end of it . GD n Pi is in may ( god pless mumbai university and thier mentality n functionings ) , another long wait just like the wait for MICA results . No confirmed info as to when they will be out ... some saying 15th march , some saying in May . Now i know what it feels like if you have just 1 call and you have to wait unknowingly for the day either next week or after 3 months , gap of eternity . Fingers Crossed x.

M I C A - L A L

2005-02-25T22:30:00.000+05:30

No im not , just that today was Mica Test n gd pi . When i first got the call letter , i wondered how they called me as my percentile in CAT is pretty low , but then im not complaining . Got up at 6 ( hate it as always ) ... centre Jamnalal Bajaj , churchgate ( not a bad place :-) ) ... find a couple of known faces here and there , chatting around laughing , discussing champions league , soccer , much to the dismay of people studying around me for MET n gd n pi ( god save me from such people ) ... again usual , parents accompanying "children" ... i and my friend were lauging our asses off and people were wondering whats up with these guys.

First thing i notice around is Guys in Suits ... WTF , am i at the right centre ... MICA ... advertising ... cool people, an alumni had told me you might find the panelists in jeans , t shirts and some students too dressed up in shorts etc ... girls , always at their revealing best ...
Head over to the test seating area ... 1.5 hrs test , me had gone totally unprepared , i saw ppl studying some test from IMS ... again WTF ... anyways , MET was totally different ... psychometric analysis .... wowie . it was totally crazy psychoting and psycotesting me royally ( no puns intended ) ... all kinds of weird stuff ... and in the end , lot to write on slum development ( ummm , sorry no experience in that , had a tough time ) and last q'n was fun ... write a speech of 200 words ... how would u advice 5 -7 yrs olds in slums to drink clean drinking water

From there , waiting time for gd pi's , me hungry as usual , but was told not to leave the premises ... they served Tea ( umm im hungry , buiscuits pls dammit ) , getting to know the junta there , as soon as i mentioned am Puneet i hear arrey Pagalguy ka Puneet ... LOL , Respect ;-) ... i had ppl asking me , hey what u think abt MICA , what is ideal specialization , im confused as to what to do ... hello , WTF are you doing here then ... anyways ...

GD --- Case Study based but not exactly one .. it was about development of the India 21st century ... they had given 10 areas where development is necessary and asked us to rank in order of preference . then discuss with the group on these areas and finally reach a consensus as to which should be the top 3 ranking areas , me made entries quite a no of times as the gd was long 25 mins ... great group ... no fish market , everyone got to talk excepting 2 ppl . great discussion with good points being discussed and the grp managed to reach a consensus . thankfully , no hitler in the grp to mess up the gd , very cool gd.

PI -- aaha , now we are talking ... to be at the recieving end for a change ;-)
same gd panelist interviewing ... 2 guys G1 and G2 n a lady L ( G2 never spoke , just looked at me for the whole PI :-?

G1 and L : hello Puneet
Me : hello , hello.

L : so mumbaite , whole life
Me : yea , its a great place
L : ya , i know

L : Ever lived in a hostel ?
Me: umm , NO , why mam.

L: See if you get MICA , you would have to move to a hostel , would you be comfortable with it ?
Me surprised by the q'n : sure mam , ive heard hostel life is very cool and it would be a great experience and i have lived outside mumbai during fieldwork in various parts of India ALONE for months , so no problems.
L1 smiles

G1: so what you do , job kya hai
Me : Market Research

G1: Acha , great ...
Me thinks : Gaya , looks like he's MR prof

G1: Blabbers about MR stuff , fundae , questions me abt my job profile , what kind of projects i handle , role in the company ( at one point he says , intresting ... i like to hear more )
ME : blabbers about MR stuff , fundae ... ( when he says i like to hear more , ok ... ill blabber more ;-) ... 10 mins he and i discuss MR

L : So Why Mica
Me : Why Not Mica .... then more blabbering on my part

G1: Hobbies
Me: Gutiaring , My band
Everyone smiling :-)

L to G2 : you want to ask anything
G2 nods firmly NO and continues staring ( is there something called facial analysis :? )

L: Ready to leave your job and everything and join Mica , justify
Me: Answers yes , how it will help me , how will i contribute to Mica ... more fundae

L: So what u thought abt the GD , the group , your personal performance .
Me: Answers ( what i wrote above)

L : Thats it i guess , thank you Puneet.
Me : Thanks everyone , hope to see you at Mica smile.

20 mins PI ( 2 guys before me got out in 5 mins , so they took jolly good time with me )

Good thing was i was in the 1st group gd n pi so got off by 1 pm , hungry as hell ... met up with a friend . she's a JB student , so knew what to order ... so had nice canteen food . stayed on there , chatting with jb students , trying to see what kind of ppl are there and what has 1 yr of JBIMS done to them , sadly nothing great came out in the discussion and me was like hmmm , so this is the kind of students jb has , just 4 of them i talked to , so wouldnt generalize . Left Jb at 2 and went to office .

PS : Me personally thinks I wont get it ... several reasons
1. 120 seats ... approx 1000 - 1100 ppl would be interviewed ... odds aint helping
2. Percentile on the lower side , ppl were shocked when they heard my percentile ;-) ... way to go mica .
2. I was questioned why mica n leaving job , ur current pay and investing 2 yrs etc etc .. to which i responded , dont think they were convinced but who knows . lets see what's instore ...

Mumbai And Mumbaites

2005-02-21T00:10:00.000+05:30

Today was another weekend at NASEOH Community Service . What was special about it the reality check of the kind of different profiled people who land up here and work towards one goal of Community Service.This was more evident today at the Treat Party given by One of us for her getting admitted to Duke Fuqua ( Awesome ) . 8 people and the kind of people ... interesting would be an understatement ;-)

4 people working in Top MNC's
1 Well Established Entrepreneur
1 Bubbling Engineer soon starting up who makes great choclates :-)
1 Engineer with experience of workin in 3 companies
1 Engineer With BLACKI calls

Now where in the world will you see and get to meet such people every sunday here in India and the interaction is amazing and one gets great perspective of the different industries around , the kind of work handled , gyan abt MBA n future prospects here and outside the country , ( People have applied and got " calls " from likes of Wharton , Duke ,Stanford , Oxford , ISB , IIMS , XLRI , NMIMS , SP JAIN , MICA etc ) , managing a buisness and so on . Apart from this we have an IITian and many others who arent able to make it every week but do drop by whenever possible . This is one hell of a group which makes visiting NASEOH well worth the effort along with the CS which is our 1st priority . And when it is time to enjoy n let loose , the other side of us shows up , creating hell at coffee joints , vada pav stalls , basically wherever we go , we are noticed for some reason or the other ;-) . Mumbai ROCKS n more over Mumbai Wala's Rock More :-)

PICS OF TODAY's TREAT MEET :-)

http://community.webshots.com/album/278115772fMIBib

14th Feb of a Different Kind

2005-02-14T19:45:00.000+05:30

14th feb , yes its here . already said what i needed to say couple of days back . now to say what the heart used to say :)

Im damm sure youre not gonna find V day cards with these lines / poems in them , so
1. If this is the day you thinking of doing something totally outrageous OR
2. Youre finally convinced about the circumstances surrounding you OR
3. You have been in pain due to someone

Say it to him/ her , pour ur heart out but dont blame me for the consequences of your actions , im a mere messenger.

1. Against the walls of my heart I throw the spears of hate and rage
An attempt to find the exit from my lonely cage
To break away from all the feeling caused by you in my life under pressure
Takes the fear of change from a mind lost tonight
I feel a tear inside my soul and growing insane
With each passing word from loving haters of my beautiful pain

2. Yours may be not to always question why, yours may be to do or die...
Mine is not to do or die mine is to once and for all question you why...

3.I was left alone to die
Alone in the limits of my mind
My footsteps don't leave marks anymore and make no noise
I walk to you, who i thought was my loyal friend;
Are you happy now?
It's been a long time since we met
Silent pain
Worthless tears
Let me live
Cant you see I'm dead?

4.

I used to feel Your presence everywhere
To believe in Your words and kept them next to my heart
In my mind You were the only real truth
Where did you go? Why did you abandon me?
Now I can only see lies in Your truth
Glory is only reserved to You
Ignorance is what You are seeking for
I cant be like you, I’m not perfect
I would give anything I have just to understand You
To make Your words mine again
Such a hopeless world without You
You betrayed me
Every time I open my eyes, You punish me
I’m exiled from You
This is Hell
I'll never Forgive you.
I felt I’m an excuse to you
As if you can wash the memory from your skin
Your eyes cry tears that don’t fall
Your fears ordered in lines of nothing
Outside rains illusions remains
And its shadows color your wall
As if they were frustrated trophies
Far away a blurry image
Dances with the death's tune
And your failed dreams
And hear that I’m drowning in the emptiness
I wait for your fall too.

And something universal for the millions of people ;-)

5.Those that simply do are merely a tool...

Because they who do not question why, do not think...

They who do not think are merely a tool...

Because a tool does not think...

It merely does...

Like all in this world and they.

PS : Happy Valentines Day , folks . Even im going out to have fun , you can too :-)

D R E A M

2005-02-10T00:15:00.000+05:30

Silence sounds peaceful to soothe the violent mind
Negate from everything to feel the beauty, one of a kind

Day dreaming lost in a mosaic of thoughts
A new world to explore, complex maze not to be lost
Different facets merged as one for a final story
The characters are me and my darkly shadow
We exchange our roles because it suits us better
Another excuse to get me a sorry makeover
Sweat trickling forehead, confused wandering between two states
Consciously asleep to slow down mind’s pace
Awakening to reality sounds disturbing
Dominatrix control of my slave alter ego
Jealous of freedom of thought forces me to loose my mind
Rewind to an unknown time
Little arms and feet dangling free looking up to an open sky
Listen young man, who are you and what are you doing in my dream
Share your secret to your happiness n glee
Slap me to remind me of forgotten childhood memories
What happened to you, you used to be so happy he says
Don’t you remember, you were the happiest one around
Now look at you, searching your destiny wandering dumbfound
And then it transforms into this monstrous alter self
Got you again, dumb self portraying being
My life is just going to end, death doesn’t induce fear
Wake up from your dream boy; you still have a world to face here
Eyes open to this thought of burden
At least my darkly shadow will give me company, wont you dear
How can it, we had exchanged our role
Then I realized I had slept with a mirror in my hand, I hold

Let the Mind Games Begin

2005-02-08T21:00:00.000+05:30

The grand day of 14th feb is right around the corner . The V day , Love Day , Couple's Day etc etc etc . Ive recieved mails from the likes of fabmall , bazee , amazon , sify to buy something for your valentine like cutlery ( for beating later ) , cakes ( to get smeared ) , cd's ( bah , who buys those anyway ) , flowers ( they die after sometime u see ) , lingerie ( hmmm , what if i get the size wrong ) and what not . Lets start pressurizing those customers out there by bombarding them with emails ... BUY , BUY , BUY ... if you dont , u r a loser , moron , you will have a sad valentine , she will be angry BS shit and the prices , wowie , no wonder guys always crib about being cashless and empty wallets . Living close to lokhandwala , it seems a different part of the world , with decorations on the entrances of shops , special offers , buy 1 get 1 free blah blah and then to see vunerable kiddos ( 18 n above ) falling into the maze , . I aint against V day , we have all sorts of stupid days , this is another 1 , big freakin deal , but i am against the marketing aspect of it for just 1 day , blame my job for being critical and my ideologies on this right from the time i had to give a V day gift , i never gave one and never accepted one ever cause i dont believe in the fact of giving it for the sake of it ... give a gift when the other person least expects it , give the person that is useful and meaningful and last give it with the worth MRP of your heart .
One of my colleagues ( female ) who recently got married asks me , hey dude what should i buy for him for V day ... i was like , huh sorry i didnt date him so i wouldnt know , wrong dude to ask . i told her , if you really want to buy something for ur husb , give him what he wants REALLY from you and trust me it would be a good gift , introspection time , lady .

And my friend ( and many others soon to follow im sure ) asks me to make a custom cd for his gf , cool i say , i make the cake and you enjoy the desert ;-) anyways , i told him ill see what i can do as im no expert in washed out , recycled love songs ... so generated a list , comments welcome from all the love songs listeneres as to any other songs i can put or should i remove some from this list .

I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight - Cutting Crew
Sweet Child of Mine - Guns N Roses
Wicked Games - Chris Isaak
Something About the Way you Look Tonight - Elton John
With or Without You - U2
More Than Words - Extreme
Nothin Gonna Change My Love FOr U - George Benson
Everything I Do , I do it for you - Bryan Adams
You're a God - Vertical Horizon
Love Will Keep Us Alive - Eagles
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
Nothin Gonna Stop Us Now - Jefferson Starship
I Need You Tonight - INXS
Your Body is a Wonderland - John Mayer
Faithfully - Journey
I'll Be Right Here Waiting For You - Richard Marx
Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
Forever And For Always - Shania Twain
Angel - Aerosmith
Cant Help Falling in Love with you - Elvis Presley

So to a day of utter chaos , huge gimmicks , cash lowering wallets , more plants being harmed for those huge bouquets , monsterous almost alive teddy bears , house full crap love movies , and yes more traffic on roads and best part , It's a Monday so another big weekend fiasco excuse ... Have a Happy Valentines Day :-)

The Movie BLACK - My Perspective

2005-02-04T21:30:00.000+05:30

Today i saw the movie BLACK thanks to uncle who had Complimentary tickets and mum really wanted to see it and dad isnt in town . so i had to take her and all i can say
Brilliant Movie.

The movie is a cinematic brilliance . small movie 2 hrs 15 min , no songs ( my kinda movie ) . This movie is not like anything seen or made before . Classic movie and will go down as one of the best hindi movies ever Critically but Publically i have doubts . The movie goes into something we dont see nowdays in movies . All the actors n actresses did their job well , Amitabh n Rani very good , the little girl - superb performance. The director took a huuuge risk making this cause I feel such kinda movie wont work in India , it might be infact a so so movie for many but I personally liked it .

5 stars out of 5 . Definite Watch .

PS : Girls n some guys too , do remember to take lots a tissues n hankies , u might cry a lot at least thats what i saw in the theatre.

Destiny knocked and I Let Her In

2005-02-04T01:15:00.000+05:30

Jim Morrsion Once Said

There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.

This door(s) is highly uncertain and u never ever know when it opens to let the known or unknown enter your life to shock you ( for good / bad ).

Something took place today which took me so offgaurd and by surprise that I thought I need to get CPR from a Baywatch Babe to bring me back to life. Just another same old office day like any other day , sippin coffee on a cold morning in mumbai ( yes folks , it cold down here ) ... I get this call from my boss , Please come right away to my cabin . Uh oh, where the hell did I screw up? The walk of uncertainity seemed quite long. Boss tells me good news man , it seems one of the projects you had handled around 8 months back somehow had reached Malaysia , Asian Headquarters and they were impressed with it . That project I remember was a success and had boosted sales of the particular drug unlike anything before and to everyone's liking. For me, if u ask, it was just another proj like the ones I have handled before, nothing special. However, folks in Malaysia thought otherwise (yeah baby), it seems they have decided to use my whole research as a Model to use it on similar lines in 4 South East Asian countries.

I was then told to immediately start working on the project right away as there's gonna be a teleconference in the evening. I had handled quite a no of proj's after that so much so I had trouble finding the file [ hope I didn’t loose it :-( , at last found it :-) ] and then after working on it and breaking my head trying to recollect minor details of the proj( 8 months is way too long ) all day , headed for conf room 4 ( the elite huge room ) and there it was , my first international teleconference . On the other end, director market research and director marketing in Malaysia. A 45 minute experience to remember.

At the end, they asked me MY opinion as to whether I thought this same research could be implemented and if so, what all changes are needed to it, for each specific country. I paused for a moment to think ...

1. My proj being used for 4 countries, hello ... someone pinch me.
2. This thing is HUGE in terms of everything for the company and myself ;-)
3. I have to decide right now as the final outcome would be dependent on my decision, whether my answer is a simple YES or No and trust me, I was nervous like hell .

After 30 mins of consultation with the people in the office, The answer - Hell Fucking Yes ( i mean it was just a Yes at that moment ) to which they said OK , go ahead with it and good luck.

What this means is I have now to work my lazy ass off and do everything possible given the tons of data I am going to receive from market research groups of the 4 countries and rip the whole thing down to countable slides and present the whole thing finally to the respective country heads to implement it in their region , not bad eh ;-)

Always be prepared and take very project SERIOUSLY and be prepared for anything to happen (for good or bad) and be ready because you never know when destiny knocks unknowingly and out of the blue.

PS: After this is done, Boss I think we need to talk about my Salary ;-)

Business Venture = Headaches

2005-01-30T00:25:00.000+05:30

Setting up your own business is not an easy job and I’ve learned it 1^st hand in the last couple of months. Initially, the idea seems great and your mind become so involved with it, that u tend to forget things around you ( Like i forgot all about CAT amongst other things )
WORTH it ? Hell Fucking yes now i look back :).

It is always helpful to talk to people relevant in the areas that have had prior experience. Try to get as much information as possible. Try to ask open ended questions and basically to get them to talk. I know it sounds difficult but if you are really keen about the whole thing, asking helps. People are generally shy to go to someone and ask for advice which I feel is wrong. Even in work, you can seek out the best minds in the business and the industry if you have the opportunity to do so. Explain to them what you have in your mind but do not give away the idea completely. Convincing them that you are contemplating the idea and will look at it in the near future shows your interest in the topic and genuine advice need from the concerned person so that if you want to have a 2^nd interaction with the person , he / she would be approachable.

Market research is a great tool to be utilized after having talked to a lot of people.

Good research done enables one to identify areas where the business can have great opportunities to succeed and also where it may face most problems. A great research involves developing a right kind of question list with an area of adjustment to accommodate further questions with a single question. Getting information out is what is going to help you in the direction one needs to follow in the future steps .The biggest challenge is to acquire honest opinions from potential customers.

The main areas of focus are the product, customer, market, finances, legalities, time and effort to put as the most important.

The product is represented by its features, what a product does is described by its benefits.

This sentence ( which i heard somewhere very early) helps to develop the right kind of approach one needs before going ahead with any future actions. The customer is the key and you need to market yourself and the product benefits because it is that which the potential customer would be acquired. Finances could be quite the deciding factor starting up, lots of risk involved but no gains without risks n pains , needs immense planning before investing the first buck but always have room for adjustments cause unknown expenses will creep up , so always have room for maneuver here and there . Legalities another issue, best handled by professional people like CA. Time and effort , well what more can I say , more the better , but the important point being quality time ahead of quantity any day but quantity is quite large too , damm u 24 hours ;)

This is just to give a basic idea of things at start up no matter what business u start up with and things to keep at the back of the mind.

The Memory Remains

2005-01-26T23:51:00.000+05:30

Yesterday , 25th - i went for the rock show at IIT , it was an awesome show , no college / institution comes close to hosting a show like the IITians do it . simply superb and ROCKING.

Today was our Republic Day and remembering all the fallen for the peace and freedom we have now . Salute to All of you , who did so and continue to do so day in night out . And time to show India's military capabilities in the parade . i caught glimpses of the whole thing and have to say , every year it seeems better than the previous . Arms race is a very sensitive topic as it is the reason for most war n tragedies but man has always had the mentality of showing their might and arms race is one race where there will be no winner in the end.

Also , today met up with old college friends and i mean old friends ;) ... this was a big meet and a meet after 2 long years , around 25 of us . the fun part was some of my friends whom i used to hang out , party , study night outs had married , some even had kids :) , oh my god im fuckin old ... when ur friends have kids , u know ur getting old , trust me . the look on everyone's faces was a kodak moment and many of us couldnt stop laughing , cracking up ... joking abt Seniors having Junior ( kids ) so early and since i was the juniormost ( in college ) , technically whose my father / mother n stuff :D . Also a moment to reflect of a dear friend of ours who had passed away couple of years back. i had so not wanted to bring the topic up at the meet but one friend brought it up and the silence that followed was Loud. it has been over 5 years since that day and we all remembered and missed him .
This the Poem i had written in 1999 .

* was a real friend when one needed one

1+1 = 2, but with him it still was 1

Hanging out in class or outside was always fun.

His antics would make a clown serious

A real genius, the man was practical

Aced all exams, theory and practicals.

Never did he let us know about his dark side

How we never knew, emotions only a man could hide.

Deep into our friendship, I knew there was problem

And it was evident day by day; something was not right inside him.

So finally the day came of confrontation.

He was asked one simple question by all of us.

*, are you doing something or are you having some serious issues

First he smiled then he shouted, I don’t give a shit about any one of you.

As we saw him leave, I wondered what was wrong

I lifted my head and he was gone

We tried to contact him to no avail

Every attempt of ours, everyone failed

Time passed by, he left college and his rented home and we accepted we really Failed.

Then that fateful morning, the phone rang too early to my liking

At the end of the line was a stranger talking

Do you know this boy called *, I said yes

Well he is in hospital right now, what happened to him he addressed.

I couldn’t believe my ears; he had overdosed on some drug

How I wished I had him right now so I could hug

I called our friends and we reached the hallowed place

On a bed in a room, there he laid

His relatives were there, next to him crying loudly, his eyes wide shut.

We were just couple of hours late, he had sadly passed away

Our world turned and it still hurts me today.

How we could have done more, so much more to our abilities

* was gone, we never really took him seriously.

So this poem I write in memory of you man

I know u can hear it, I know you can

*, we are sorry you were in the end alone

You don’t know how sad and broken we are,how we wished if u had just called anyone of us on the phone.

If I had the powers, the hour glass I would turn.

As the sand trickles down, your memories still there with us.

So *, I hope you can forgive your friends for we never got to tell you

How special you meant to us in our hearts and in our mind, it’s overdue

As I end this little prayer we all are saying together

Holding our hands for you, your hand we miss and we miss you brother.

3 Hours of Real Entertainment n FREE

2005-01-22T01:00:00.000+05:30

No , i aint talking about a hindi movie ( i dont watch them ... only exceptional cases where my butt was dragged to the theatre as i consider most of them time n money waste ) , but this is 3 hours of real entertainmentl . im talking about Band Practise

My band is really not that good cause we really dont practise much . it's just occaisional stuff , around once a week or once every 2 week for just 3 to 5 hours . today was such day , and what 3 - 4 hours it was

00.00 :4 memebrs supposed to meet up at x hours . 2 of us there , other 2 no sight . geting the gear in place , connections etc

00.20 : remaining 2 guys show up . greetings take place ( not friendly ) , Why the f*** u late ? Replies : oh traffic . my replies : wow , u should have come with me on my private jet ***hole

00.30 : everything in place , everyone set . oh wait ... where's the booze ? need a kick thats all ... my reply : ill give u a real kick if u want , just bend ... more arguments ....

00.45 : booze comes n 2 of them get mildy drunk and now they r fired up ( i dont need no booze or anything to get fired up ... im 99% of the fired up when it comes to playing n the other guy doesnt drink and also gives 101 % everytime )

1.00 : practise begins , just some sound check ... getting in tune ... checking if everyone is on the right tune in their area of expertise

1.15 : real practise starts ... way off today ... everybody doing their own shit . no cordianation ... STOP ... team meeting ... pep talk ... NOW COME ON GUYS ... WHATS WRONG TODAY .

1.30 : start off again ... much better than before . vocalist n drummer doing nicely . me not so well ... bassist , also aint at his best ... sound seems crappy today ... dont know why

1.45 : Lets get serious guys . once we meet in a week ... lets rip :)

2.00 : the thing is in 5th gear now . everybody fired up ... sweat dripping , vocal bursting , riffs hurting , bass thundering ... now we r talking :o ...

2.30 : played about 2 songs in half an hour ... good enough . atleast took our time n did them well enough to our liking . continue ? YESSSSS

2,45 : another song done , 2 drunkards ( vocalist and drummer ) , almost fully drunk and sound more violent n brutal than before . me ., fingers paining , back hurting , my vocals sound ultra bad ... looks like i ripped my voice during backup one of the song , here goes my voice , yet again , bassist ... always calm n composed ... knows what he's doing .

3.00 : Let the gloves come off and LETS PLAY , meaning ... no holds barred playing ... sound as heavy , as brutal we can be ... agreed ... god knows what we did , what we played ... at the end of 15 minutes ... ears buzzing , half dead ... 4 tired guys ... n we r done for the day...

3.15 : recovery time. ... more booze for the 2 , water for meee n pepsi for bassist ... half an hour later , chatting , talking about sad life in general .... what each of us did during the week ... bla bla blah

3.45 : pack up the gear n lets leave ( greeted warmly by the neighbours ... **** , *$&&$&$ ;" thank you for creating so much noise and not letting our kids do their homework and us watch TV " look on their faces along with nice artificial smiles )

4.00 : F*** off guys and have a nice week , please show up next week . Thank you

Free time = Time pass

2005-01-19T01:00:00.000+05:30

Today , i had too much free time on hand , so tinkered around with the blog template . looks good i think , will stick to it for some time until i get bored looking at it ;) ... Was visiting all those old bookmarks , webpages i havent visited in ages . some of them still active , most 404 errors . well lotsa similarities with life in general , once webpages not updated , no one visits , end of life of the page . Blogs rule thesedays in terms of popularity , people are actually spending more time visiting blogs rather than surfing the web , im always surprised how new things come up n swarm us in totally and then one day , the magic dissapears and then something new comes up . i wonder whats next in line after blogs ???

Another one of my writings

For the last time I saw a light that bright

Right on top of me, lying on a hospital bed so white.

Colored now red, and people around me

Helping me to live in this world of misery.

Let me go I said, I want to go away to see THE light

How many get to see that wonderful nature’s sight

That light so white but still murky like the Milky Way.

What’s beyond the way or within the black hole, no one knows

The more you think, the more the mystery grows.

Then I see it, the spotlight's on me

Time to play the lead role, a million $ celebrity.

I get up and touch this light to experience its brilliance

How could I, I never could when I was on the other side of the fence.

Suddenly the reality hit struck that I’m no more an entity

I pinch myself to feel experience reality, but fail completely.

The white light took everything away

Now that I have seen and felt it this way

Let me reveal you the eternal secret today

All I can say, live life fullest now and everyday.

Ran a Marathon ... Almost :)

2005-01-16T20:33:00.000+05:30

Today i ran for the Standard Chartered Marathon Dream Run ( Yeah , Unbelievable but True )
www.mumbaimarathon.indiatimes.com/

7kms [ 2 kms would be dream run , 7 kms uhh oh ;) ] . I wanted to actually run 21 km but none of the friends were into the idea . I should have practised seriously cause its been a really long time since i did something this strenous . 12 of us ran for a good cause as all procceds we have collected will go to NASEOH which is awesome . 20 k runners , it was a different kind of traffic jam :D ... also it was so cool seeing flora fountain , marine drive without cars ... good change .

The race started with everyone running off like it was Pamplona bull run ( WTF ) ... dont know why ??? i , Geetu n PG decided to take it easy and run for short distances and then walk ... others were running like they were trying to make some records or something . it was a dream run , should be in the form of a dream not a nightmare . running , walking , kms going slowly :D ... 1 , 2 , 3 ... when will i see no 7 ... biscuits and lotsa mineral waters down ( he he , eating buiscuits while running , not to be tried at home for personal safety ) , walked the green mile ... i have to say the crowd was awesome ;) and saw all kinds of funny dressed people too ... saw a couple of celebs too.. .not many ran the whole distance i think . 7 kms completed in 1.30 hrs ( sad time but nothing was competetive , it was all fun ) .

Sad part ... We didnt come on TV :( ... i was hoping we would be seen somehwhere on tv but i guess they were too busy catching glimpses of celebs running for a km probably ... ironic isnt it .
Must have lost some weight ( i hope ) but after the race , gained a couple too as lunch was great.
By the time i reached home , i fell on the bed literaly and dozed the hell off for 2 hrs ... got up to this nice pain in the legs ... took one hell of a loong hot shower . ... prolly go late to office tomorow ;) ... off for 2day ...

Tired soul wondering his destiny
for now till eternity
cause its all confusing
anyone for explaining ?

My Passion for Music

2005-01-12T22:16:00.000+05:30

I was first introduced to rock music when I was 10 when I heard a screeched out tape of a band called Nirvana and another one of Metallica thanks to this half aussie friend of mine Dirk , and I was hooked from day 1 . One small shop in andheri used to sell tapes 14 years back, we both would chip in to buy tapes of the likes of the 2 above bands and pearl jam which were our favorites. When I was 12, a band called Bon Jovi came to Mumbai at andheri sports complex. I don’t know till this date how I managed to convince my parents to let me go to my 1^st ever “ ROCK SHOW “ and there was no looking back . Those were the days of growing up, rebellious teens belonging to the infamous generation X.

Listening to parikrama , pralaya , psychomotor , agni , Bombay black in the hay days was something . Independence rock at rang bhavan when your 16 is an awesome experience. Touched a guitar for the 1^st time when I was 17 and started to strum it on my own and thanks a couple of mates, covering bands in those days was close to impossible with no tabs sheets as internet was just in and damm expensive, I remember my first song I did was Strings – Sar ke Yeh Pahar , arguably one of the earliest local rock band video and that to from Pakistan .Did that on my friends guitar , at that time I didn’t own one as it wasn’t cheap thosedays . After an unsuccessful and a real bad experience of forming a band , I gave up ( I matured like anything thanks to my 1^st band , taught me a lot about management at 17 ) … late 90’s , my influences grew thanks to MTV to listen to megadeth , slayer and pantera n so many others , that too when there were no cd’s , no mp3’s , only tapes and some friend of mine whose father used to get vinyls from chor bazaar . In many ways, mtv of those days was much better than any damm channel now and had a huge influence. Also my parents were very supportive , never questioned what is this “ loud shouting” u listening to , u want to b a musician kya stuff , mostly cause of my dad as he used to listen to elvis , bee gees when he was in college in xaviers Calcutta so he understood , mom still is a bit apprehensive but its all cool .

Then came 10^th and 12^th, time to decide about careers , lost touch with guitaring , band split , and a time in college when every soul around you listened to stuff I could never listen to . So there was always this problem of fitting in and “what’s wrong with u dude, why u dressed in black t shirt blue jeans, do you do drugs, why you keep long hair blah blah.

Those days, drugs usage was so rampant that I remember behind NMIMS, the lane would be filled with cars with dopers. It was very easy to get hooked on to these things, but thank god, I never tried it. I saw how it destroyed people, friends, friendships, people who were great in school dropping out of college and never to hear from them again and the worst when I lost a friend as he overdosed and he died in front of my eyes in the hospital , never touched booze or any other stuff since then ( God Bless u Dude , wherever u are ) .

Razz the disc here , started allowing bands to play on Sunday nights around 1998 . we would have 1 show like in 2 months and I wouldn’t miss it for anything . I have seen so many Indian bands, I have lost count . Some great , some not so good . , some out n out real shit. Then came the pop revolution and remixes . Indian rock n metal suffered even more than before. a time came when we had no shows , no news about bands , only I Rock once a year thanks to farhad wadia , and then u had morons not knowing a , b or c of rock n metal coming to the shows and cheering and dancing when someone played a heavy metal cover , I thought its an end of an era . Let me tell you , metallica was so damm close to coming to Mumbai , we all were thrilled , but in the end it was the shiv sena who never allowed them . I heard the band was like a month away from coming here but it never happened alas .

Then an unknown band called PDV ( Pin Drop Violence ) came at IROCK and blew everyone away . For the 1^st time, someone covered slipknot. Rockers were left stunned, me too. I couldn’t believe my ears what I was listening to. A revolution began in Mumbai, bands started coming up out of nowhere, Gigpad.com and rsjonline.com came up on the net for fans to discuss about the scene, shows started happening regularly. Soon things moved out towards other parts of the country and bands from Calcutta, banglore came down to Mumbai to perform. Still an album, sponsorships was a dream for many. A Day job at offices and rockers by night was and still is for all of us. We formed like a community meeting up at shows, bonds stronger than friendship trust me . .PDV album came out in 04 followed by some great albums from the metal bands, compilations and a couple of days back, saw a video of PDV and I was like …. Things are improving for the good or is it so?

The current generation doesn’t seem that enthusiastic about rock and metal music . All I see at shows is guys n some girls like me who know what this thing is all about and have been quite regular and keeping the thing alive . I don’t blame them in a way cause they don’t see or hear rock n metal on TV ( we had MTV in the 90’s) , Radio ( 107.1 fm did have shows in the 90’s in the night ) and all they see n hear is pop , bollywood and SRK n Priety zinta wannabe’s ( she is hot by the way J , so was Janis Joplin , ever heard her ? ) . Rarely do I see a 16 / 18 yr old coming to shows with the passion of rock music .Its all about pop, remixes, half naked chicks in music videos which everyone is into. The whole rock n metal scene in India will have a hard time in the coming years if this new generation or the coming ones fail to accept it. As for me and people who I know since I was 16 visiting shows, encouraging bands to do their shit, we will hopefully stay loyal for years to come and in our 30’s still go to shows like we do now and yes after some years probably let our kids listen to metallica, nirvana, slipknot, PDV, Demonic resurrection and do their own thing and keep the whole thing alive for years to come.

Rock on \_/

Sunday Spent in the Best Possible Way

2005-01-09T22:30:00.000+05:30

A loong day literally ... began at 5 am , yeah fuckin 5 in the mornin , has been ages since i got up this early as on weekends i sleep around at 3 / 4 am .

I and the PG gang ( www.pagalguy.com/cat ) had this medical camp to attend at Mhasa , lets say a long way away from my place . Met up with Raj at 5.45 to catch a train upto dadar and then dadar to kalyan . After meeting up with rest of the gang and early morning chai nashta n meetha ( listening sowmya ) , headed off for Mhasa . The whole jeep ride reminded of me college days picnics and biker rides at manori islands some years back ( those were the days :D ) . quarter , half asleep gang reached there and the activities began . Basically , it was camp where villagers n their family members came for checkups of members who had some kind of physical disabilty . Since we were > 10 volunteers , work was distributed . around 150 patients landed up ... mostly children . it was very touching to see them still smiling and their family members having the patience to sit all day for their turn . I had seen such similar scenes when in college i n my colleagues used to do some hospital management , meeting up with disabled patients , guiding them around , so it was ok for me . lunch was great and yeah , sitting on the ground and using hands to have chawal dal was cool .

NASEOH ( www.naseoh.org ) and Rotaract club had organised the whole thing free of charge for the people which was great .

Typing now somehwere in la la land after a 15 hr day , let me tell you it was worth every minute . These are days which u will remember when we grow older n remember some good worthwile stuff we did when we were younger ;) ( apart from some great hell raisers :evil: ) Pics would be up in a couple of days , will post .then . Monday morning , back to work and screwed up routine
zzz .zzzz Going going gone asleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

PS : I have cut my hair , yes yes sold out guys ... but had to ... u know ...

My Writings

2005-01-06T23:25:00.000+05:30

One of my hobbies is to write my own poems . Earlier in college when i had free time , i would just pick a pen and write n write . Nowdays i just write here and there , whenevr i get the time . some of my stuff is nice , some of it highly explicit and weird ( not recoomended for the weak hearted ) , maybe ill put up those lets see , as for now this one i wrote some years back , its a good one i think ...

I had opened my eyes sometime back , to this world unknowing

Everything around me was a world always glowing

Trashing my hands , tried to move

Unsuccessful attempts but I could not loose

I tried and tried , hard with all my might

Like a shell on a beach , with waves thrashing day and night

I could see the world around me moving

I knew something big was about to happen , I had this gut feeling

Somebody was trying to steal me , from my beautiful place a high ceiling

As time passed by , I felt a pain

So strong it was , I cried in vain

But my voice no one heard , I was alone of course

Suddenly I was pushed with this unknown force ,

Telling me to free myself , separate from the source

I tried to resist , I loved my place

It’s been such a long time in heaven thanks to god’s grace

But the force was mightier than anything I had felt before

I knew it was time to move to a new place for sure

Then it happened , I had moved to somewhere new

I was In this new place , the air was cool , strongly it blew

I felt the warmth of these two hands

Guiding me , holding me like a cactus on desert land

It was an out of body experience , suddenly I felt like a king

I got confused , I was just thrown out from my castle on the hill

I took my royal bath and patted by a soft cloth of linen

I knew I was the centre of attention , glaring eyes smiling at me

I was still crying , maybe my subjects laughing at my misery

I then felt this heavenly touch , on my cheek

It was this soft lips of an angel sent from above

I cried no more and saw who it was

The angel is my mother of course

2005-01-04T23:32:00.000+05:30

Happy Birthday Mom , ur the greatest . Love you .

1 great link i found related to relief work for the tsunami victims ishttp://tri.htmlplanet.com/ ... u can follow the link to find out how can you help DIRECTLY if you are still confused wether ur funds will reach where required .

Here's a pic of my niece , welcome to planet earth :)http://community.webshots.com/photo/244154839/244160485WdodxW

Great day .

Also a Rock concert is arranged for the 6th ( great work guys , rock on forever ) and all proceeds from the show will be sent for the tsunami victims , be there ( go rakshit dude , rock the fuck out of razz this time )
http://www.gigpad.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=456

Blog Squad

2005-01-04T11:40:00.000+05:30

WTF am i doing here . yesss , started blogging or atleast an attempt at it . I had thought about this in 2004 and thought lets give it a try in 05 , so here i am . Well im no expert in html and stuff , so lets see how i change the look of this page . Will try to look up on the net abt HTML etc etc n lets see if i can make this into 1 dhaasu page.

Hoping 2005 will b better than 2004 ( numerology says so , im no ****in expert , 2 +5 = 7 ... lucky 7 ) , 04 was quite bad with the war n then natural disaster . biggest issue with such situations is that the long term effects are going to be tremendous n thats where the problem arises when the world community FORGETS abt it . The earthquake in iran led to similar outpour of funds initially but in the end only 15% of pledged amount was gioven to Iran . was this due to Iran being a " Evil " state ? or was this just like any other issue , no body wants to b involved long term with such issues . US raised its pledge from 35 to 350 million , was this only after Annan n his chief associate said that developed countries r stingy and that too before any 1 from US admin doing a survey of the whole region . Hmmmmmmm
Indian response has been good but again the problem arises with co-ordianted channel distribution mismangement . Like they say , Indians have a big heart and donate for those who need it , but these situations demand more proper ground research n them implementation of the findings to help the people . Rahul Bose doing this in A n N islands speaks volume of commitment but where are the government officials for such kind of research with over a week already gone . Lets hope things will improve n the relief effort becomes more organized .