The Days Of Our Lives

Today began slow and boring - getting up after noon, getting a haircut for placement season and finally shaving off that goatee, after an year I think. :(

Then it took off.

A couple of friends accompanied me to buy some formal clothes, of which there is a serious drought in my wardrobe. First stop was a Provogue showroom, where I realised that, what might look good on their brand ambassador, does not look good on everyone (read me). (To be honest, I don't think anyone can wear an orange-base-with-red-stripes formal shirt!) Then for some fun, we decided to spend some time hanging out at a mall. My purchases there consisted of a formal black tie and 3 tennis balls. I'm pretty sure that the attendant at the sales counter had never seen a weirder combination of items. :)

While driving, we ran across a peculiar sight on the road - "Gazal Bar and Restaurant". The obvious question was "Is it a Gazal Bar or Bar and Restaurant?" We felt that there was no harm in trying it out. But just as we were about to enter, I saw the scene inside - it was a Dance Bar. And I'd always thought that Dance Bars were banned in Mumbai for good. (Whose good is debatable) So as soon as the security guard opened the door, I literally ran away. And when I say ran, I mean ran. It must've been a unique sight for the guard but some instincts in life you just can't ignore.

The original plan was to see King Kong. But the movie being 3 hours long and the show starting at 10:20 pm didn't leave us all this thrilled. So off we went, to venture south Mumbai's best place to be - Marine Drive.

The drive till there was interesting. The female accompanying us was a non-stop radio station. In about 10 minutes, we had heard every advertisement jingle ever made for the Indian television - the perfect dose of entertainment and nostalgia.

For the uninitiated, the most awesome thing you can do at Marine Drive is to roll down your car windows and cruise at a speed of 60 kmph. No guesses for what we did there. Then, at the beach, we couldn't help but buy 2 cardboard swords and a bow-and-arrow set. Our immature actions can be blamed on the childhood ad jingles, I guess, or the fact that our combined mental age (we were 3 pretending-to-be-grown-up adults) was about 15. :) It was fun walking in south Mumbai at about 1 at night, pretending to have these LOTR battles, without a care in the world. Its like one of these things which people think of doing but never actually get around to, because it would be oh-so embarrassing. Sometimes these are the things which you end up enjoying the most.

...And to think that in a few days we'd all be getting jobs and starting our lives in the professional world.

Meet my lovable next door neighbour Onkar.

I ran across an old friend after a long time today. The thing I loved about him was that although he was 4 years senior to me, he never treated me as a freshie in my first year. This made me develop oodles of respect for him. Although he's a little short in height, he more than makes up for that with his coolness; and his name is CMS.

As I found out, he recently went on a (sort of a) blind date with some bandi (slang for woman) who he had met over the net. The bandi not only turned out to be hot but also filthy rich. She was also a techie - which I consider a pretty unique feat as I don't know many bandis who are interested in tech. Infact, one of my most favourite persons on Earth completely loathes computers and prefers not even laying her hands on them. I, on the other hand, was born an internet baby. Not only do I surf like crazy, I'm also a member of almost all online social communities like Orkut, etc. (Believe me, if you're a member of such a community try searching for my name; you'd be amazed!)

Anyway coming back to the hot date; now comes the interesting part. When CMS showed up for the date, the bandi was shocked. The first thing she told him was "You're supposed to be 6'1 !" Obviously CMS was confused, but after a little introspection he concluded that I was to blame for the this misunderstanding. You see, I had once written him a testimonial on Orkut which went "...very nice person with a sense of humour which is hard to understand at times but u have to laught along anyway 'coz he's 6 1/2 feet tall and has a pretty hefty body!" Yikes!!

Obviously the date turned out to be more awkward than most first blind-dates, which is a real something!! Personally, I feel that a bandi, who does so much research before a first-date with a guy, by going through the testimonials others have written for him, is a bad choice anyway. I mean theres nothing left to explore on a first date if you already know the guy's entire history, habits and all. CMS, ofcourse, had an altogether different opinion. Actually, I'm sure I would too if my date was hot and interesting.

So, heres wishing CMS luck with his future encounters with the opposite gender. I've promised him that I would not be writing any more misleading testimonials. BTW, one interesting thing to note, is that he has still not deleted that testimonial which I had written for him. :P

Inspired by Pritam's blog (and Harumi Murakami), I though I'd try my hands at short stories for a change. So here goes my first original piece -

I haven't been blogging regularly b'coz I've been busy. Yes, all my exams are over and my holidays are supposed to be going on, but I've somehow managed to keep myself busy; and I don't know whether that is a good thing or bad.

Anyway, had fun today. One of my friends was celebrating his b'day today and instead of the routine run-of-the-mill IIT b'day celebrations which involve a swollen ass, long lasting cries of absolute pain and a pepsi treat to all, this guy decided to celebrate with a bash at a hotel near Juhu beach. Ofcourse none of us were complaining; for obvious reasons. :)

I was unable to take my car out at night due to malfunctioning headlights so I sat behind on a bike for the ride. Normally I don't do that since I have no need; the last time such a thing happening being a couple of years back. Since I have this morbid fear of bikes instilled in me by my dad thanks to his own innumerous bike-accident stories, I am shit-scared while sitting on one; but every time I get through one ride safely, that fear get pushed back little by little.

Anyway, the guy riding the bike, my next door neighbour Pungi, was a safe driver. So instead of feeling all scared, I was actually enjoying the ride. I even managed to take pics of a couple of interesting sights which I encountered along the way.

The first was a sign shown below. It was just plain old weird and made no sense what-so-ever. If it does to any of you, please do comment.

The second was the sight of our fellow bikers - a sardar and an extremely tall man, aptly christened Bamboo, who somehow seemed to resemble a couple of pirates. I've tried to recreate the scene from my imagination, which is posted below. Needless to say, all thoughout the journey I was shouting "Ahoy land lover!" loudly every time we passed them which sometimes made the other people on the road take notice and stare. They probably thought I was drunk or something.
See the resemblance? :P

Then came the party. Now the thing is that recently I've been putting on a lot of weight due to massive consumption of cheesey products - the main culprit, ofcourse, being pizza, which I love so dearly that if it were a woman I would marry it. So these days, much to my dismay, I'm on a self-constraint diet of sorts, which turned out to be a really bad thing considering all the free food which was there. I ate minimal and barely touched the desserts. My friends were "considerate" enough to sit right besides me and make lots of "yumm" sounds every time they took a bite. I was even given lots of detailed descriptions about the almost-unresistable desserts. With friends like these who needs B-52 bombers? The interesting part came when the b'day boy's mom put loads and loads of kulfi (ice-cream) on my plate and I had to go around feeding huge scoops of it to everyone who was willing to eat it. (Actually, everyone is willing to eat ice-cream so I didn't have that much of a trouble getting rid of it)

Food was followed by crazy dancing fits (which I stayed out of, trying to maintain the little dignity that I possessed), a couple of games (including one which is regarded as one of the most fun activities these days - "Spank Shaggy" (Shaggy is my pet name) - fun for everyone except me that is) and a request for a catfight between a couple of females, which was, surprisingly, turned down. And to think that I was really really looking forward to that catfight. :(

Anyway it turned out to be a really fun night enjoyed by all. I wish more of such bashes follow - as soon I have lost that extra weight that is! :P

The day started early. Somehow yesterday night I could not sleep so I kept reading Stephen King till about 4 in the morning but surprisingly got up at about 9 am on my own. Since I had no idea what one does this early in the morning ('coz its been a while since I've woken up before noon), I decided to do what all red-blooded males dream of doing - I washed my car. :) After a pain-staking 1/2 an hour work, my car was looking spick-and-span, and I was looking proud.

At about 11, I had a pre-placement talk to attend which, surprisingly, I really wanted to, because it was the same company where I had done my summer internship and I had grown really fond of the guys who were coming over for the talk. I entered the hall 5 minutes before the starting time and I was greeting by a loud "Hi buddy, how come your phone was off?" from across the hall. That felt nice.

After the talk, I took the guys, who had come from Bangalore, around for some Mumbai lunch - mainly this Mumbai dish called 'Pav-Bhaaji'. Throughout the time, not for a single moment did I feel that I was sitting with my one-time employers - it felt as if we were friends. Those guys were only too anxious to ramble on about their student-lives. At the end of lunch I was gifted a $20 copy of the history of the company - and it was personally signed. Again - nice!

Another talk followed in the evening by some bald US dude who somehow looked funny getting out of the good-old yellow-and-black Indian taxi. He gave a damn good talk but every time he smiled he looked like the lead from the movie 'Natural Born Killers'. That was a little scary!

After the talk, I had to go buy some formal clothes for myself. I was joined by a couple of friends who had nothing better to do the rest of the day. So off we went to a nearby mall. Although my original intention was to buy a single formal shirt, I also ended up buying a Rs. 6000 formal suit. I learnt two things though - 1. Never enter a formal suit shop wearing a Nirvana tee and cargos; 2. I look DAMN GOOD in suits.

Dinner was at McDonalds; it had been a while since I'd been there. It was followed by chocolate mousse donuts for dessert and, boy, were we feeling bloated.

Came back to IIT where I was offered a chance to become a core member at a new start-up.

Today my academic commitments for my semester ended. No more acads till January now. To celebrate, I watched a Japanese movie called Cassern. I had heard somewhere that it was similar to Sin City with the same kind of comic-feel to it. So I was only too excited to watch it.

The movie was about a breed of re-animated (almost human) beings called Neo-Sapiens who emerge as a result of a cloning experiment gone horribly wrong. Being considered freaks and hunted for no apparent cause, they declare war on humanity and construct a massive army of robots to do so. Then comes this super-hero called Cassern, a former soldier brought back to life, who gets his superpowers as a result of his reincarnation. Ofcourse, like any other superhero he tries his best to save the world.

Being a Japanese movie, it was filled with fantastic 'anime like' action which made the action scenes from the Matrix trilogy seem as if they were filmed in slow motion. And the movie was pure art. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Each frame of the movie was a piece of art - infact each frame could have come straight off a panel of a comic, as was the case with Sin City. But probably this is where Sin City ended and Cassern began.

As it turned out Cassern was much, much more than your average run-of-the-mill superhero movies. Most of those are aimed towards teenagers anyway. The ending is always the same - superhero defeats the supervillian in the end. Plus he gets the girl. Plus the world is saved. Blah Blah. Cassern was, fortunately, aimed at a more mature audience, making it probably one of the very few such movies to incorporate a strong complex storyline.

Towards the ending, the movie took a completely unexpected turn. The villians weren't really the villians anymore. The good guys weren't exactly good. The superhero wasn't really fighting a 'good' battle. It was superb. Pure storytelling - at its very best. The superb ending got me thinking on some accounts. Mainly 3 things - war, love and purpose.
The movie presented a gory picture of war - unlike usual one-sided war movies. I was left wondering about certain issues - Who are the good guys in a war? Who are the bad guys? Who gets to win a war? Who decides? If you're fighting a war for your country but don't really believe you are doing the right thing, where do you stand; are you a traitor?


On love - What is the extent to which you can love someone without hurting those around you? Can love really transcend all boundaries? What is love anyway?


And finally on purpose - What is our purpose here on Earth? I mean, there must be a purpose for which we were sent down here, right? Are we really serving it? And that all-time favourite unanswered question - What is the meaning of life?

Come to think of it, I was taken for an unexpected ride by Cassern. I wasn't quite expecting what was thrown at me by the movie. But whatever was thrown, hit me quite hard. I doubt any of these questions has a definite answer or even one which makes sense. Or perhaps these questions weren't meant to be answered at all.