Oiseaux Cereveau

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2006-05-26T22:07:00.000+04:00

Although I stole the topic for this post from this academy award winning movie featuring Jim Carey the following post has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Ever since I came home last week I have noticed a certain trend that has been unfolding here................ie. everything seems to be going horribly wrong. The most burning issue in India these days seems to be that of the 27% reservation for OBC's. I was planning to write a post about this but Im sure the topic has already been beaten to death on the blogosphere by those more informed and capable than myself. Students protesting, protestors (mostly students) getting lathi-charged by the police and the general apathy of the government towards the whole situation. Not exactly the situation you want to have in the 'worlds' largest democracy'. Apart from the reservation issue, several other things seem to be taking a turn for the worse.

Prominently figuring among these are the stock markets. The bears took over the markets as the BSE sensex crashed to below the 11,000 mark and the NSE Nifty experienced a similar crash. I dont know much about the stock market but I know that the sensex going down is a bad thing ;)

Apart from this our own dear cricket team also seems to have hit a bad patch of sorts as they seem to be getting their backsides handed to them by a paplu-taplu team like the west indies. Also Mr.Tendulkar declared himself unfit for the test series and judging by the current form of the team he shall be dearly missed.

Then there was the contorversy surrounding the release of the 2 most eagerly awaited releases of the month. Ron Howards adaptation of Dan Brown's Classic The Da Vinci Code and Aamir Khan starrer Fanaa. While Mr. Joe Dias and his friends at the Catholic Secular Forum inisist that they be the judges of everything the general public should and should not be exposed to regarding the catholic faith, the BJP seem to think that by stalling the release of Khan's film they are going to get him to change his chance on the Narmada issue. Both controversies in my opinion were highly unecessary and aviodable and just a waste of everyones time. To all those opposed to the Da Vinci Code I say, if you dont agree with it, dont watch it!! Its fiction for God's sake! And to all those trying to stall Aamir's film, the man is entitled to his own opinion about the Narmada issue, leave him alone.

So how how come so many things are going wrong within the space of the week???
Heres what I think:
1) Arjun Singh is the devil incarnate.
2) The Congress Government are doing Satans work on our good earth.

Co-incidence or conspiracy? You tell me!

P.S. Before anyone gets offended and calls me a heretic, disbeliever, upper-caste chauvenist, nerd, etc.,etc., this post is meant to be a joke and should be taken in light vein.

Okay so I lied....

2006-05-03T00:36:00.000+04:00

.....when i said in the last post that I would try to post soon. I have made so effort whatsoever to try and conjure up a post. I blame this posting drought partially on laziness and partially on the fact that its the end of the semester. So what? you may ask....well I guess the laziness part explains itself and since it is the end of semester Ive been spending more time hanging out with the kids here because im not going to see them for 3 months once break starts. Also my workload increased exponentially becasue of end of sem exams, tons of assignments and lab reports due and papers that needed to be written. Well, as of now, im all done with all that crap...only finals to go. So ladies and gentlemen the time has come for me to study my backside off and I shall take your leave until finals are done. Actually I dont think there shall be any more posting here until im back home. Wish me luck! Adios

Im around

2006-04-06T09:48:00.000+04:00

Hey everyone, sorry ive been slacking on the updating of blog front. But College is keeping me really busy right now. And plus my poetic skills seemed to have deserted me for the moment
:-( . Tried writing a few more poems but didnt have any good ideas. I had to register for classes online this morning. The only thing it achieved was to make me realise that the IT department at Emmanuel College is compltely useless. I was supposed to pick classes at 10:20am but the server had some 'problems' so ultimately i ended up wasting another 2 hours sitting in front of my computer screen waiting for the damn web registration thingy to work. Anyhow, will try and put up a good post over the weekend maybe. If anyone has ideas about anything I should write about Im all ears.

By the way I found this blog where this dude Rajeev has highlights of all the ODI matches between India and England. For those other poor souls like me that have no access to live cricket.

Ciao

This one is dedicated to the bane of my existance....

2006-03-25T02:27:00.000+04:00

....Organic Chemistry

Guys I know my poetry is not even worth ath anna
But you know me, I just need a bahana.
And its amazing where i find them,
Like this one, inspired by Organic Chem!

Ab organic chemistry ke bare mein mai kya kahu,
Its more boring than those shows about saas-bahu.
But everyone says stop complaining buddy,
Why dont you just sit down and study.

Alright I said i'll go over my notes,
Although id rather feed them to some goats.
Wait, I think that would be a chook,
Those notes will probably make them puke!!

Anyway, I opened up my book,
Decided that I might as well take a look.
The first thing one there was an Alkane,
My God! Orgo is such a pain!!!

The Alkane was followed by an Alkene,
Proabably some of the most boring stuff I've ever seen.
Just looking at that double bond,
Made me want to drown myself in the nearest pond.

Alkenes ke baad came triple bond wala Alkyne,
This definitely was not a good sign,
Reactions padhte padhte ho gaya mai itna bore,
Twiddling thumbs never seemed so entertaining before.

Aldehydes, Ketones, Alcohols, Esters numbing my brain,
I studied and studied so much my eyes I did strain.
Trust me guys organic chem is not a cruise,
I definiately like alcohols better when they are booze.

So after studying for a week I put my mind to rest,
Mujhe laga theres no way I'll do badly on the test.
But lets not talk about my marks on the test dude,
Lets just say it makes the Indian teams scores look good.

Ive been trying to write this post for well over a day,
In the end this is all I have to say,
I cant wait for the end of this sem,
Because I freakin HATE organic chem!!!!!!!!!!

That feeling....

2006-03-24T18:33:00.000+04:00

Dont you hate the feeling when you study really hard for something, and then still mess it up. Thats what I just did on my organic chemistry II test. I wasted a number of hours last week scruntinizing the reactions of Alkynes, Alcohols, various reagents used to give a variety of other organic compounds, blah ,blah,blah. These hours wasted could have been more constructively utilized by engaging in actvities like sleeping, doing timepass, sleeping, going to the gym, sleeping, flirting, sleeping, hanging out with my friends and......sleeping. But no! I decided to be a nerd and study. And now im up at 8:30 am, slept for just 3 hrs at night and I still have more classes today. I hate organic chemistry so much....................so Goddamn much!!!

Another one?

2006-03-21T10:38:00.000+04:00

I think yesterday's attempt was rather dry,
So doston, im giving it another try.
Was reading about the smuggler Veerappan,
Do you guys know who he looked like in his bachpan?

None other than my good friend Aquil,
Man! that boy has looks to kill.
Yaar Singhania ke kisi bhi student se poonch,
5th std. se hai Aquil ko dadi aur mooch.

Ek bar yeoor ke jungle mein mili dono ki jodi,
Aur Veeru ke saath tha Adrian Brody,
What he was doing there I dont know,
Maybe he got bored of playing the piano.

Anyway, Aquil was wearing a mask on his face,
and seeing this Veeru started taking his case.
Said he,"Abe Adrian look at this baccha"
"Isse toh mai do second mein kha jaoonga kaccha."

Par isse pehle ki Aquil kehta kuch,
He took off his mask and brandished his mooch.
Aur phir bola,"Kyon be Veeru, jyada shana banega?"
"Kya tu is mooch se panga lega??"

Dekhke Aquil ki mooch, Veeru ki pant hui gili,
Standing there with his insufficient mooch, he felt quite silly.
Palat kar, bhag gaya Veeru kahin duur,
Never after that was he seen in Yeoor.

That gunda Veeru was trying to be a hero,
par Aquil ke samne toh ban gaya zero.
Aquil celecrated his victory with much band-baja
Aaj tak yeoor mein kehte hain usse 'Jungle ka raja!'

Turned to check the score of the match,
Arre nahin!!!India dropped another catch :-(
By the way, Mumbai crowd whats wrong with you??
Mat karo yaar mere hero ko boo!!

For all you guys that are giving Tendulkar dosh,
One more great knock and you'll all be khamosh.
Aur phir garv se kahiye Sachin ji
"Boost is the secret of my energy!"

Arz kiya hai.....

2006-03-20T10:53:00.000+04:00

Baitha mein aadhi raat ko post likhta,
kash kisi free stream par cricket match dikhta,
Aur mein yahan trying to be a shayar,
Waiting for my laundry thats in the dryer.

Arre dekho isse, likhne chala katha,
poetry ke bare mein toh kuch nahin pata.
What to write about that is the question?
Maybe Josh McCabes constant indigestion.

Nahi yaar, have a heart
Oh no! theres another rancid fart!!
Sorry boss, mein kya kar sakta hoon
I guess air freshner will have to do.

But guys, he's not the one to blame.
Yahaan ka khana khakar everyone's the same.
Miss good old home food and how
Khila do yaar ek vada-pav.

Kahaan hai woh rajma-bhaath,
made by mummy's loving haath.
Khaani hai mujhe pani-puri,
Food situation toh hai bahut buri.

Ab choddo yaar khane ki baat,
varna rote rahunga sari raat.
Padhai ki baaten toh karunga nahi,
jab tak dimagi halat hai sahi.

Wish I could atleast watch some cricket,
Chillaoonga jab girega dushman ka wicket.
Ye firang toh sirf daude from base to base,
I'd rather watch some donkeys race.

Socha tha mumbai mein India jitegi without a doubt,
Score dekha toh sehwag, tendulkar, dravid out!!!
If you have to, throw some fists,
But beat those damn imperialists.

I feel there is a bit more to be said,
but unfortunately its time for bed.
Neend toh ane wali hai jhakas,
par 5 ghanto mein hai orgo ka class.

Update

2006-03-16T12:15:00.000+04:00

Well, this update is basically for the principle of the thing, ie. updating my blog. Ive tried updating quite a few times since my last post actually but due to problems varying from my internet explorer being as stubborn as John Howard(give us that nuclear fuel goddamnit!), homework taking up all my precious time and me simply oggling at piya trivedi on my background everytime I want to use my laptop.
This time around however, my internet explorer seems to be behaving itself, i changed my wallpaper and I just wrapped up my homework. Which actually is the subject of this post. I dont know how many of you who read this blog are English majors or have every had to write literature papers or papers analyzing literature. I have had the oppurtunity or rather misfortune of doing a few English papers over the last year. And I have a few general observations about these assignments:
1) Writing them is boring, very boring, i mean in the same category as golf, country music and most shah rukh khan movies. You cant even source stuff off the internet because you dont really require any information, just the ability to bullshit.
2) No one (except maybe people majoring/graduating in English) find any of the articles assigned for such papers even remotely interesting. The paper I just wrote was about how the 'creatvity' of African women was repressed due to 'contrary instincts' and how despite these 'contrary instincts', the creativity managed to express itself in ways such aszzzzzzzzzzz.........................
3)As I mentioned in point 1) you dont really need to apply yourself because half the time the topics are ridiculous and the list of instructions, is as long as the paper is supposed to be. for example, the paper i told me that my "job is to invent a way of describing how the author works and how her methods-her way of gathering information materials, of thinking them through, of presenting herself and her thoughts, of imagining a world of speakers and listeners-might be related to the issues she raises and conclusions she draws", please note that this 'instruction' is all one sentence and there are around 10 of them i was supposed to follow. So ultimately all you need to do an english paper is to be able to bullshit well, use big words now and then and use a thesaurus to make you paper sound intelligent.

I think english papers on the whole are a bad idea. They're fine as long as the topics are restricted to stuff like myself, my family, my favourite sport, my favourite festival etc. but anything more advanced than that is highly unecessary. Josh had earlier put up a post ridiculing English majors here at our prestigious catholic institution(where art majors dont even have face paint or non-toxic color powder) where he has largely ridiculed english majors. Although I agree with many of the things he says, I do not think it is fair to ridicule people who choose to major in English. Anyone who can manage to get through 3/4 years of being an english major is in my opinion worthy of admiration just for not having dropped dead of boredom somewhere along the way. So English majors, I applaud your ability to numb your mind to a point where it is not affected by boredom, and rest assured if I am ever in a position where i need to hire someone to bullshit for me you guys are first on my list.

Well, thats it for this update, Im hoping to put up a post about my trip to NYC over spring break soon because it was a lot of fun.Cheers!

P.S. If you are wondering why im ranting about art majors not having face paint and powder colors, it was Holi today and I felt like celerating but apparently art majors serve absolutely no purpose to humanity whatsoever.

:-)

2006-02-22T01:16:00.000+04:00

I love Garfield. :-)

The battle resumes......

2006-02-10T22:52:00.000+04:00

As many of you who have known me over the past 6-7 years will know, I suck at Math. Well I dont really suck at it, I just never do well on any Math exams. My dismal results for math at the ISCE and ISC examinations are testimony to this fact.(I got a 72 and 76 respectively, if I recall correctely). I remember being overjoyed after my ISC board math paper, not because I had done well, but because i thought that would be the last time I had to put up with trigonometry, differentials, integrals, functions, quadratic equations, blah,blah,blah,blah...........So happy was I at the time that on my way home from school that day, I sold that dreaded maths text book to the neighbourhood raddiwala for a princely sum of Rs.10
But alas, my hopes of never crossing paths with math again were dashed this semester as the registrar at Emmanuel College informed me that I need to take the Calculas II course(curse) before I take Physics. So me and my old foe Calculas have to go at it again for another semester. However, all that mugging in school seems to have had a positive effect because I find myself recollecting formulae that I for the life of me could not remember during exams at school.
So I took my first test in my Calculas II class and I pretty much kicked its ass (translation for parents if they happen to read this: I did well). But this is only the start and I know that Calculas is hiding some tricks up its sleeve to screw me over later in the semester. And so the old battle has resumed once again....but the score right now -> Varun 1 Calculas 0 :-D

My Name is:

2006-02-10T00:36:00.000+04:00

Yeah found this pretty cool software called flicker that replaces letters with random pics
Check it out: http://metaatem.net/words

A second revival

2006-02-06T19:40:00.000+04:00

Well, Im back. I thought this blog was dead and buried but guess what? Its back! Im not making any promises on how long this new found enthusiasm is going to last though. I just have nothing to do right now(well actually I do have to study for a genetics test) but Im waiting for a friend of mine to get out of class.
Before I began writing this post, I was going over the archives of this blog and it made me kind of nostalgic. I say kind of because I started this only after ISC was done with and I was at Xaviers(which was a lot of fun). I must make a note here that Xaviers has a very weird appeal. When I say weird I mean that it is amazing if you are a student there, but having visited St.Xaviers post my 'college career' there (snicker,snicker) I felt like it wasnt that big of a deal. While glancing through my archives I came across my post about Malhar 2004, I remember how exicted I was about it, how much fun it was being involved in the preparation for the event. Malhar 2004 itself was a fabulous experience. Im glad I was able to be part of it and Im also glad I left St.Xaviers right after. I think if I had hung around a little longer, the place would have grown old on me.
Being home in the summer of 2005 gave me the chance to attend Malhar 2005 and it was a damp squib to say the least. Firstly, I think I had a cold and a sore throat or something to that extent which was only aggravated by travelling from thane to cst in the rain. All the events started late, the crowd control was pathetic to say the least and I ended up having a miserable time and left just when everything seemed to be getting organized. I actually wish I hadnt attended Malhar that year and that I hadnt got to see the other side of Malhar, the one you see as a non-Xavierite.

Life in Boston has also slowed down. Freshman year was all about parties, meeting people and just general craziness. Sophmore year however, is all about attending classes, making sure all my work is done and keeping an eye on that 3.5 GPA (it does involve parties, meeting people and general craziness but to a much lesser extent). But its still fun, although a different kind of fun.(not studying though, that is definately NOT FUN!). Well,I guess thats enough for this post. Maybe I'll be inspired enough to continue writing for a while at least, maybe I wont. Lets see.

Btw, I just came up with this most excellent pj: Someone asked me what I do in Boston when its really cold. My reply: I just chill :-D

The Great Deluge and other news

2005-07-31T22:09:00.000+04:00

It was a sad day for Mumbai on tuesday the 26th of July. 944 mm of rain that claimed the lives of more than 350 Mumbaikars from all over the city. But it was also a time when the resilience of Mumabikars came to the fore. Ordinary people helped out those trapped, isolated or affected in any way by the floods that had submerged the city. Food, water and shelter was provided by compassionate residents to people that were complete strangers. I have been reading of many such stories in the papers and they are truly heart-warming.
We can debate about weather the govt. and BMC did enough to prevent this catastrophe but the fact is that their inaction after the event is pretty appalling. There are still parts of the city with no power and clean drinking water. We oursleves are having an acute water shortage because the municipal corporation has not resumed its supply but atleast our power situation seems to be stable. I guess this is what comes out of electing Govinda's to parliament.
The thing that worries me the most is the possibilty of an epidemic since there are many animal carcasses all over the city that are fast decaying and need to be disposed of very soon. I guess the BMC has its hands tied in this case because it first of all it is short on time and secondly it needs to find a place to dump all these carcasses!

Thankfully, no one i know was injured in the floods but my condolences go out to all those who have lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy. I also wish to salute the great spirit of Mumbaikars who have withstood yet another of the many calamities and tragedies that our magnificent city has been subjected too.

In other happenings i finally got to watch India play cricket after more than a year. Although they lost to Sri Lanka it was good to see them trashing the Windies today. The other day I watched Soojit Sircar's Yahaan and it wasnt too bad. The only thing is that my friends and I were too busy passing silly comments to actually watch the movie. It had some fighting and apne log bashing jihadi's and paki's and that was more than enough to satisfy me.

By the way, following up on my last post about London, I think they could take a few lessons from Mumbai on how to deal with adversity.

London, welcome to our world

2005-07-15T16:50:00.000+04:00

Last weeks terrorist attacks on London were just another example of what can happen if the world doesn't take these jehadi's seriously. 52 people died and many more were injured and although my heart goes out to all those affected by this terrible tragedy I cannot help but be a bit cynical about the whole incident. Scores of people in India are affected by terrorist attacks every month if not every week, more than half of which im sure we do not even hear about. But it takes the death of a bunch of white people to make the world stand up and take notice. British investigators have discovered that the suspected terrorists responsible for the 7/7 bombings were either of Pakistani descent or had been trained in Pakistan. BIG SURPRISE!!!!
We have been crying ourselves hoarse about Pakistan's support to if not involvement with many terrorist organizations for as long as I can remember, but only response this has ever elicited from the West is indifference.

Apart from the incessant terrorist attacks on innocent civilians and army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir the casualties of which are pretty catastrophic, major Indian cities have also been subject to terrorist activities in the past couple of decades. Just recently, between December 2002 and March 2003 Mumbai witnessed a series of London-style blasts in the suburbs of Ghatkopar, Vile Parle and Mulund but who cared except for our media and maybe our government. People died like they did in London, they were innocent civilians who were just getting on with their day like those in London, families lost loved ones, lives and livelyhoods were destroyed just like in London but the only recognition the blasts received in the west must have been a few seconds of coverage on BBC and CNN and possibly a few words of condolence and empty promises of fighting global terror from the likes of Messrs Bush and Blair.

I know that my views make me sound apathetic to the loss suffered by Londoners but the point that I am trying to make is that countries like the US and Britain cannot just decide to "fight terrorism" when it comes knocking on their doorstep. If they are really dedicated to eradicating terrorism from the world in the near future they must abandon selfish ends and self-interest and take action against countries really responsible for breeding terrorists like Pakistan, Syria and others. Unfortunately, I for one do not see that happening.

I am sorry if I have upset anyone with this post but I am just very very pissed of with the whole situation.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

2005-05-26T01:35:00.000+04:00

Goddamn Liverpool!!!! Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!! I hate them, I friggin hate them. I dont believe it, how the hell did Milan lose that match after being 3-0 up. I dont understand it!!! I am soooooo pissed off right now. What the f#@! just happened in that game???Why? How is it possible???? I need to find a corner and cry :-(

P.S I will try and put up an unbiased analysis of the match once im done being agitated and pissed off. On second thought, f*&% Liverpool, I dont care, Milan cant lose, someone cheated somewhere, its all a conspiracy. DAMN IT!!! That match never took place, it never happened, NEVER!!

Saturday Night Live : Divertor

2005-05-24T10:57:00.000+04:00

I saw this cartoon on SNL:Saturday Night Live this weekend and then found a link to it online at a blog called PolyScifi, it really hilarious, thought I should put a link to the cartoon on here.
http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/05/22/1500/ , watch it, its pretty funny.

Realllllllllly BUSY!!!!

2005-04-28T23:18:00.000+04:00

Hey everyone,
Im typing this literally seconds before I have to go to sociology. As it is end of semester my workload has incereased exponentially. I dont even have time to brush my teeth (just kidding, hehehe). Anyway, do not expect another post here at least until the 6th of May. Ciao

American English

2005-04-25T04:33:00.000+04:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

25% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

The Wailers

2005-04-19T04:01:00.000+04:00

Last friday I had a chance to go see the Wailers (the guys a certain Mr.Marley used to play with) Live at the Paradise rock club on commonwealth avenue. Now i had to show an id at the door to get in, so I showed my college id whcih says just my name , the name of my college and a picture. Nowhere on it does it say my age, despite this the person at the door gave me a drinking bracelet! The drinking age here is 21, so obviously the bouncer thought I was 21. Im sure this guy has had lots of underage people pass off as 21 year olds with fake id's and stuff like that. So obviously he can tell when someone is 21. This leads me to the conclusion that I am actually 21 and that my parents and everyone else I know back home have been lying to me all this while.
So we get inside and the opening act had already started playing. Some pseudo-mexican band called De Sol, they were horrible, they were all obviously tripping on some sort of drug or the other. Well the less said about them the better. The wailers were awesome though, some really good reggae I must say. The played some bob marley songs too. The whole place of course reeked of marijuana with the intermittent legalize weed chants. Then all of a sudden one of the huge bouncers at the place comes up and taps me on the shoulder and tells me to follow him. I thought they had figured out I wasnt 21 and wanted to know how I procured the drinking bracelet. I followed the bouncer to a side door and out into an alley and found cops waiting there. At this point i had my heart in my mouth, i really thought I was going to get arrested for underage drinking and get deported. The thing was that I had'nt been drinking at all because I had no money [and Im not saying I would have bought drinks if I had money ;-)]. I didnt even know how I was going to explain why I had a drinking bracelet when I was obviously not 21. As it turns out though, they had got a report that someone wearing a yellow cap was carrying a gun and I happened to be wearing a yellow cap that night. So the cops just frisked me, didnt even ask for an id or anything. It took just about 2-3 minutes and I was trying to be as co-operative as possible. After the cops were done, the bouncer said that he was sorry for the "mistake" and that he would but me a drink. And what a drink he bought me, a bottle of premium Sam Adams, without a doubt the best tasting beer I have ever had, wah maza aa gaya!! See mamma, this is exactly why i wanted my yellow topi back so bad. Its a good luck charm!

The rest of the concert was pretty "dope" to put it in the words of one of my stoner friends. I think I got high just off all the pot smoke in the place. They played a few bob marley numers really well like No woman no cry, buffalo soldier and the redemption song.

The weather has improved a lot, its been absolutely splendid for the past 4 days in a row and Ive just been outside the whole time and not done any work. We play cricket almost on a regular basis and some of my friends are showing some promise. I also watched Salaam Bomaby the other day, its a really good movie, I would recommend everyone to watch it if you ever had the chance. The Boston marathon was today, I wanted to go watch for a bit but ended up watching the red sox beat the blue jays 12-6 .Atleast they're doing better than apni pyari cricket team. Im not even going to talk about them, ab kehne ke liye hi kya reh gaya hai??? I best go start studying for Dr.Kurtz's bio test now, I'll try and update again before the end of the week.

A whole lot of stuff

2005-04-04T00:08:00.000+04:00

Well...Well....Well, I never thought the day would come and now Im convinced that miracles happen. Boston has GOOD weather. Its been bright and sunny and not cold for a few days (consecutively!!!). Since the weather started to look up my buddy Josh McCabe and I decided to take a trp to Downtown Crossing. I havent really been around Boston too much since Ive been here, primarily because its always been cold and depressing and not really he kind of weather you want to walk around in. (Unless you're going to a party of course, then it cant be helped). Downtown crossing is quite a nice place. It has a lot of shops and resteraunts. Its right by the Suffolk University dorms so there were a lot of students and hippies around. The purpose of our visit was to buy tennis balls to play criket with. We purchased the said items at a place called city sports which is by far the biggest sports store Ive seen in my life. Then we went back to campus.

Once I got back to campus I tried to teach some of my frineds to play cricket its was absolutely hilarious. I wish I could have videotaped it just to show it to everyone back home. Some of them were playing pretty well though, i mean for people who are playing for the first time. They could atleast chuck the ball overarm and make it reach the batsman. Most of them batted like they were playing golf, without any foot movement, I was just cracking up watching them. My friend Phuc Tran though was quite good with the bat and got in a few good hits. It was an entertaining experience overall even though people kept trying to make sense of the rules in a baseball context and then it didnt make sense to them.(Of course it wouldnt make sense, baseball was invented for people who sucked at cricket or who were'nt bright enough to understand the rules!!!).

Continuing with baseball, the red sox lost their first two games to the yankees (goddamn the yankees), showing pretty much the same spirit as the Indian Cricket team. Actually it would be quite interesting to watch a game featuring the aforementioned teams as they share many common characterisics:
1) They both consistently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
2) Both consistently let down crazed fans
3) Both make sure to embaress themselves when losing to arch rivals (ie. the New York Yankees or the Pakistan cricket team)
4) Both are supported by the author of this post (who is very disillusioned at this point of time)

Moving on from sports, I wanted to mention a very interesting concept Ive come across here in Boston called Daylight Savings time. Basically people turn their clocks 1 hour back at the beginning of winter so that the days to follow have an extra hour of sunlight. A couple of days back daylight savings time ended and we all had to turn our clocks ahead by an hour. I find it fascinating that people could think up of such a concept of manupulating time.

Please excuse me for any typing errors on this post beacuse of 2 reasons:
1) Becasue the keyboard im typing on is all messed up
2) Rich is playingsome stupid, annoying rap music, which has "nigga" as every 3rd word(and "bit**" as every second word). Not only is he listening to this sad excuse for music but he is playing it realy loud and it is giving me a headache.!!!

Movies i recommend

2005-03-30T10:40:00.000+04:00

I watched 2 really good movies last night which I would highly recommend to everyone at home. The first one called Menace 2 society is about a black kid growing up in the ghetto's of LA. The movie is basically about how he is trapped in a life of crime and gets shot just when he is about to get his life together.
The other one called trainspotting is a british movie starring ewan McGregor, that guy from the full monty and the guy from snatch who gets his head stuck in bullet-tooth tony's car. Its about how Mark (Ewan McGregor) overcomes heroin addiction. A really fascinating movie although its hard to pick up the accent.
If anyone who happens to read this gets a chance to see these movies- Do it!!!
Kevin Guicho has hi!

Boston Weather

2005-03-29T20:37:00.000+04:00

Yay! The first post from the US of A. Due to my hectic college schedule (sleeping, parties,videogames,laziness and ummmm.......sleeping) I have not been able to put up posts since I got here. I also forgot my username and password, which I somehow remembered the other day.So im back. :-D
Now the weather in Boston is not pleasent to put it mildly, to put it bluntly - it SUCKS!!!! Ever since I came here last september, barring that month the weather has been very shitty. Its been cold (not pune cold but really COLD). For months on end, I had to walk around with 3-4 layers of clothing on my body so that I wouldnt freeze. I was really exicted to see snow for the first time but then as it grew on me that snow=cold, well lets just say that im not a big fan of snow anymore. After more than half a year of being oppressively cold, the weather looked like it was finally going to get better. We had a couple of really beautiful days and I thought that spring was finally here. But alas! it was just nature's deception, because soon after it started being rainy and gloomy. Which leads me to the question, when does it end???????????????????????? Does this godforsaken place every have decent weather???????? Trust firangs to find the worst places in the world to inhabit! Ab ke liye itna bas.

Im back

2005-03-29T00:44:00.000+04:00

This blog shall soon be resurrected because I finally recovered my username and password. woot!

Malhar Mania and missing teeth

2004-08-13T09:30:00.000+04:00

Well, there’s just a day left for Malhar and the hype is reaching its zenith. Everyone is all excited and anxious, hoping that everything goes well and there are no glitches. The elims day was awesome and if it was a taste of things to come then I’m sure Malhar 2004 is going to be an amazing experience. On a more personal note, my social life seems to be hitting a high note. I’ve got to know a lot of new people, mostly in the Malhar workforce and become quite good friends with a few of them. Today we had a photo-shoot for Bombay times where a few of us had the tricolour painted on our faces. But it turned out to be a damp squib because it started to rain and also the stupid photographer guy kept us waiting for 20 mins. before he took the worst possible photo. Even though there were quite a few second years and OG’s around, he made this stupid FYJC irritating surdy guy (who I’m sure is going to get beaten up one of these days) stand in front and all the rest of us are going to be blurs in the background. I hope the photo doesn’t make it to the paper or I’m going to start telling people I’m from Jai Hind (actually no, Jai Hind sucks!). I’ve started playing Unreal Tournament in the comps. Room and am discovering the immense pleasure that can be derived by ripping bots to shreds :-D. We’ve had pretty decent weather for the past few days apart from the occasional crazy shower. I had a tooth pulled out yesterday and had to have cold, sweet stuff for the whole day. It was a very educational experience; I learnt that there actually is a limit to the amount of ice cream that I can eat. By the end of the day I was so fed up that I started to drink plain water just coz it wasn’t cold and sweet. It had its upside as well because I kept showing people in college the blood and gore in my mouth (caused by the extraction) and freaking them out. The trick question was “Do you want to see my cool thing?” One guy asked if I was going to pull down my pants!! (Well, there just are some people who seriously need a life, can’t be helped). That’s about all the mentionable stuff happening right now. Here’s to a great Malhar 2004. Admin rocks!!!

Train to Dombivli

2004-08-01T22:19:00.000+04:00

Yesterday we finally had the satyanarayan pooja at home; I actually got to perform the pooja so it was pretty cool. Lots of people I was seeing for the first time in my life showed up and wished me luck. So what if I didn’t know them, I can sure use the luck. Most of my immediate family was also around and the whole affair was pretty fun. After the pooja was done I had to go to college for malhar work. I was doing a double shift so I had to be in college at 4:30pm. I think the Rain God is very fond of me because he makes sure there is no shortage of rain whenever I step out of the house to go anywhere and yesterday was no exception. I reached college by 4:45pm all drenched. I saw the foyer absolutely empty for the first time; it kind of freaked me out. At the malhar office I was expecting to see everyone all busy and stuff but as it turns out everyone was either bored out of his or her wits, listening to music or sleeping. No colleges came for registration for the first hour, then Jai Hind, Mithibai and Sophia showed up (bunch of losers) but that was it. I tried to flirt with one of the chicks from Sophia’s but I was just too bored to come up with anything good. One of the OG’s – Mohit, who is like an overgrown 5 year old with a major Cyrus hangover was trying to be funny but was as usual failing miserably. Then some stupid fat girl almost broke the floor by jumping on it because Bharat Dhabolkar was going somewhere to do something. Well, I’m not here to pass judgment so I’ll just carry on. Since there was no work, I managed to get out of college by 6:50 instead of 7:30 and caught a 7:00pm fast local to Badlapur. I thought I would reach home early and spend time with all the assorted family who had stayed on after the pooja. But it was not to be. In the train there was this prick who was kept fighting with someone over his cell-phone all the way from Byculla to Ghatkopar (for those of you who are not aware, that is a looong distance). Anyway since there was nothing else to do I closed my eyes and fell asleep. Imagine my horror when I woke up and found Thane station passing by outside the window. It was too late to get off as the train had picked up too much speed. As it was a fast train it stopped next only at Dombivli, which is like a village (seriously man, everything after Thane sucks, actually quite a bit off the stuff before Thane sucks too!). Luckily there was no T.C around and I got an empty 1st class compartment all to myself on the train back to Thane from Dombivli. In the beginning I thought this would be cool but when the train stopped just above the bridge between Thane and Kalwa and all the lights went out, it became really scary. I finally reached home at 8:45 pm and as expected I had the rain to accompany me all the way from the station to my house.

Nothing really interesting happened today, India lost the match (why am I not surprised?), I watched a lot of F.R.I.E.N.D.S coz today is apparently friendship day and they were showing it all day on Zee English. Anyway HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY! to all my pals who happen to read this.

2004-07-29T21:56:00.000+04:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

A close encounter of the 'im never eating anything again' kind

2004-07-29T17:41:00.000+04:00

It's not everyday that you get to eat the worst thing you've ever eaten and its not everyday that you have to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for an omlette.In most cases you wish these days would never come but unfortunately for me they happened to arrive within the space of a week.Let me start with the worst thing I've ever eaten(coz the omlette story is'nt that interesting,I just had to wait and hour and fifteen minutes for an omlette,thats it.).It was just a regular day,I was waiting for an admin. meeting in college(which takes place around 3 hrs after my lectures get done). Lamaan and I were sitting around and getting bored so I suggested that we go grab a bite at Kyani's,which is this cake shop cum fast food thingy near college.Little was I to know that I was heading right towards the worst assault on my taste buds in quite a while.My earlier experiences at Kyani's were not bad,they had quite a decent cheese roll and good chocolate mousse. We were joined at the scene by another friend Divyesh,who is sort of horizontally gifted and a very nice guy.So we started to pig out,I had a cheese roll and the guys had 2 chicken pattice each.This turned out to be the lull before the storm.After we finished our first course,Lamaan and I were still hungry,so Lamaan ordered a chocolate eclair and my eye,God knows directed by what evil influenece happened to chance upon something in the menu called 'Veg.potato Pattice'.This 'preparation' was cheap(only 10 bucks) and for some absurd reason i thought it sounded cool.So i ordered it.Lamaan's chocolate eclair turned out to be a piddly little thing that would'nt even feed an ant,so i had a good laugh at it but had I been prepared for what the 'Veg. potato pattice' would look like,I would'nt have dared to laugh.When it finally arrived,the three of us were shocked into silence for a good 15 seconds and then I began to cry and laugh at the same time.Its the kind of reaction you get when you see something thats terribly funny but at the same time horribly depressing,sort of hard to describe,you have to have experienced the feeling to know what im talking about.For the next ten minutes I just looked at the Veg.potato pattice and just laughed and cried.It looked like a batata wada. I had just paid ten bucks for one batata wada. But that unfortunately was not the end of my shock and misery. When I was able to gain some semblence of control over my emotions I grabbed a spoon and carved out a piece of the wada. This is an action that I will regret as long as I live. When i opened the wada what fell out(the stuffing) looked like some shit that had been assorted when the resteraunt itself was opened in 1935. I could not discern whether it was vegetable or meat or god knows what.Believe me, I have seen roadkill that is more easily identifiable. Unable to stand the sight I smothered the whole plate with tomato ketchup.By this time Lamaan and Divyesh were laughing so hard you would think they were breathing in laughing gas. This was the day I discovered that hunger can drive a man to perform great acts of bravery.Ignoring all the principles of sanity,I picked up a spoon and stuffed a morsel of the crap in front of me into my mouth.How my stomach did not turn inside out I shall never understand,let me just say that my tongue and stomach are very very tolerant of my brain and the decisions that it takes. Needless to say,I stood up,paid the bill and got the hell out of there as fast as I could.They say each cloud has a silver lining and so it is true in this case.After hours and hours of desparate contemplating I have discovered a lining that is not at all silver, rather a dull gray.Lamaan now has a story to go telling everyone he meets and all you people who think Dhananjoy Chatterjee should be hanged, just feed him nothing but Kyani's 'Veg.potato pattice' for a week and you have my guarantee that he will commit hara-kiri.

The 'Rag'ged Shirt

2004-07-29T15:30:00.000+04:00

One of my principal aims of attending college was to find out what it is like to get ragged,but much to my dissappointmnet people told me that the subtle art of ragging is all but dead in bombay.Anyway without giving up hope,I gave in an application for the admin dept. at malhar because I heard the guys in charge of the dept. ragged prospective volunteers during the interview.So I went for the interview hoping to get ragged and I was'nt let down. The OG's(guys in charge of the dept.) took my case left,right and centre.On that day I was wearing this shirt which has skulls printed on it(which I think is pretty cool).Since that day I have'nt been ragged again but yesterday I wore the same skull shirt again and presto! some seniors caught hold of me.They had put up a poster in the canteen asking for voluteers for an organisation they called Animals for People-An organisation against Maneka.I was quite amused by the poster and stood and mulled over it for a few seconds,thats when the senior guys pounced on me.But I must admit its fun to get ragged and the seniors were really nice guys so they bought me a drink after they had their fun. Actually it was more like an ice-breaker so I made a couple of new friends.Unfortunately,there was this SYJC idiot who the caught after me who was'nt as lucky,he tried to be all macho and sarcastic and shit and the seniors 'raped' him (to put it mildly).In any case,the moral of the story is that if you ever feel the urge to get ragged just ask for my skull shirt and if you are in SYJC learn to keep your mouth shut!

The first post

2004-07-27T23:29:00.000+04:00

Well actually im just following the trend.Now that I have absolutely nothing to do but go to college,bunk all the lectures and sit and oggle at the girls, I am glad that i have found this new and ingenious way of wasting my time.Its actually quite late and I should be going to bed if I want to make it to college in time but for some absurd reason im sitting up and listening to sweet home alabama?! and writing this stuff. For those who are interested Oiseaux Cereveau means bird brain in french although it might be spelt wrong.This is about the only thing i learnt in one month at alliance francaise.I watched parts of the India-Sri Lanka match today but was more interested in the biography of Fidel Castro on the history channel.He is the quite the dude! Otherwise im all busy with malhar (xaviers fest, for those of you underprivilaged few who dont know what it is).Well enough for the first post.