Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigaam were in town! And that simple sentence is probably enough to get your attention. They were performing at the APS college grounds in Basavanagudi as part of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. And the cost of the entry ticket was.. wait for it... zero!! That's right. It was free.
And as with everything free in India, the number of attenders was indeed a lot. Young and old alike stood in the queue to enter the concert. And as usual, there were the few self assuming "senior citizens" who bulldozed past many of us who were standing in the queue just because they are old. Now, I have nothing against old people or queues. Its just the combination that I'm not too fond of. A note to all people who might organize such concerts... please have a separate special queue for "senior citizens", and you will be able to cope with half of your problems. Have separate seats reserved for "Senior Citizens" and hence put all party-poopers in one basket.
What is the main intention of attending a concert? To have fun and to listen to music. and what to these housewives and old grandmothers do? come to the concert and talk family politics. Such killjoys. And then there were the ones who believed that they were attending a serious classical recital. They sat there with their strict, emotionless pokerfaces and expected everybody to do the same. Another category of people included the ones who wanted to have fun but feared their lowering in social stature if they went with the flow.
All in all, the Bangalore crowd (read, basavanagudi crowd) is a very boring one. If anybody is planning to go, please go there with a large group if you want to have fun, ?If not, enjoy listening to family problems along with bits and pieces of every song.
P.S. Shreya Ghoshal... You rock!!!
Ciao
Monday, September 20, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Height of Inspiration
College started at last! And there came an end to our seemingly never ending holidays. Now that classes have started in full swing, I did find it difficult to get back to the serious listening mindset. (in other words the tactical, repeated nodding of the head, irrespective of whether the teacher is making sense or not) My college campus is pretty good. Much better compared to Jain college anyways. The canteen is nice and the cup noodles bloody expensive. Other than that, this actually seems like a good place to spend 4 years.
Mr. N.R.Narayana Murthy was the chief guest for the inauguration function. It sounded as though BMS college had borrowed the old speakers from our very own railway station. The sound quality was horrible and I was forced to lip-read in order to understand what they were all saying. This was the only bummer in an otherwise pretty good program It seems Mr.Murthy had 100% attendance in his Engineering college!
The first two days in college were boring. We were introduced to our respective departments, visited the library and the sports dept. We had some Self motivational classes which were intended to inspire and motivate us.
The lady who talked seemed to be teaching us english rather than motivating us. She finally put across a few motivational points and one of them was asking all of us to smile at each other.
After enduring all that for a couple of hours, I say a classmate of mine (dunno the name though) grinning maniacally at me from across the parking lot. It was a very weird experience.
A bit of advice to all the "easily-motivated"... Please think a little before you try and implement all that people ask us to do.
Ciao
Mr. N.R.Narayana Murthy was the chief guest for the inauguration function. It sounded as though BMS college had borrowed the old speakers from our very own railway station. The sound quality was horrible and I was forced to lip-read in order to understand what they were all saying. This was the only bummer in an otherwise pretty good program It seems Mr.Murthy had 100% attendance in his Engineering college!
The first two days in college were boring. We were introduced to our respective departments, visited the library and the sports dept. We had some Self motivational classes which were intended to inspire and motivate us.
The lady who talked seemed to be teaching us english rather than motivating us. She finally put across a few motivational points and one of them was asking all of us to smile at each other.
After enduring all that for a couple of hours, I say a classmate of mine (dunno the name though) grinning maniacally at me from across the parking lot. It was a very weird experience.
A bit of advice to all the "easily-motivated"... Please think a little before you try and implement all that people ask us to do.
Ciao
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Marriages
And once again I find myself writing about marriages!
I just came back from a certain marriage. It sucked! Sucked because I didnt know anybody there. The only person I knew in the whole hall was my Grandpa along with whom I had gone there.
9 30 AM sharp, we reached there. And at first we thought we were in the wrong place as even my Grandpa couldn't recognize anybody there. Finally we found one old person who was giving us a look as if thinking "that fellow looks familiar". And after talking to him for about 5 minutes and going back 5 generations, both my grandpa and him were convinced that they were related in some way. Thank god for that... I was hungry.
And after having a frugal breakfast of a couple of idlis, we went to sit down... believe it or not.. right in the first row! There was my grandpa happily waving to people who politely waved back... not having a clue who he was. And with every person who had the misfortune to smile and wave back had to endure another 10 minutes of finding out how they were related to us. Even at this time folks, I had no clue whether I was from the bride's side or the groom's side.
All this time I was happy looking at the fun and then came someone who actually knew who my grandpa was. As they exchanged pleasantries, his eyes fell on me and after studying me intensely for a moment, the following conversation took place.. I'll call the other person X and Grandpa G
X: Is this your grandson?
G: Yes.
X: (Looking at my face again) What is his name?
G: Shreyas
X: Ok... (again looking at my face) What is he doing now?
Me: (clearing my throat) I finished my II PU uncle
X considered me talking to him an insult and walked away.
After that particular incident, we had nothing to do and sat in the front row and watched the festivities going on.
I don't understant why all the women who attend a marriage think it is a sin to wear the same saree for more than 2 hours during a wedding. Looking at the number of women who attend a function and considering the number of sarees they have to change, every marriage hall invariably has one room set aside for all of 'em to change their sarees. Such a room is usually guarded by an elderly lady who's job it is to view every member of the opposite sex who is over 5 years old with suspicion and they shout "Ladies are changing here. Go away" at the top of her voice everytime an unsuspecting kid walks by.
Then there are the cool gangs of cousins who take pleasure in defying their parents' every command while with their cool gang. It was fun watching mothers tell their teenage kids to do some work and then watch as the teenagers coolly said "no".
The worst thing you can do when you go to a marriage, especially one of a far away relative.. stay out of sight of the Grandpa gangs. You will invariably be drawn into conversations related to relationships between individuals which refuses to get any lower then 5 generations.
Its worse for someone who has just completed his II PU as almost everyone you talk to will appoint themselves as the Career counsellor you were searching for all this time and talk nonsense about how an MBA is useless and then talk to you of some relative's son/daughter who is doing his/her MBA and is having a horrible time.
Finally! there was food. And the food was pretty good. So I hogged and came home as early as possible.
End of day1... I'm dreading day 2 which is tomorrow.
Hope I fall sick long enough to bunk tomorrow's marriage.
CIAO
I just came back from a certain marriage. It sucked! Sucked because I didnt know anybody there. The only person I knew in the whole hall was my Grandpa along with whom I had gone there.
9 30 AM sharp, we reached there. And at first we thought we were in the wrong place as even my Grandpa couldn't recognize anybody there. Finally we found one old person who was giving us a look as if thinking "that fellow looks familiar". And after talking to him for about 5 minutes and going back 5 generations, both my grandpa and him were convinced that they were related in some way. Thank god for that... I was hungry.
And after having a frugal breakfast of a couple of idlis, we went to sit down... believe it or not.. right in the first row! There was my grandpa happily waving to people who politely waved back... not having a clue who he was. And with every person who had the misfortune to smile and wave back had to endure another 10 minutes of finding out how they were related to us. Even at this time folks, I had no clue whether I was from the bride's side or the groom's side.
All this time I was happy looking at the fun and then came someone who actually knew who my grandpa was. As they exchanged pleasantries, his eyes fell on me and after studying me intensely for a moment, the following conversation took place.. I'll call the other person X and Grandpa G
X: Is this your grandson?
G: Yes.
X: (Looking at my face again) What is his name?
G: Shreyas
X: Ok... (again looking at my face) What is he doing now?
Me: (clearing my throat) I finished my II PU uncle
X considered me talking to him an insult and walked away.
After that particular incident, we had nothing to do and sat in the front row and watched the festivities going on.
I don't understant why all the women who attend a marriage think it is a sin to wear the same saree for more than 2 hours during a wedding. Looking at the number of women who attend a function and considering the number of sarees they have to change, every marriage hall invariably has one room set aside for all of 'em to change their sarees. Such a room is usually guarded by an elderly lady who's job it is to view every member of the opposite sex who is over 5 years old with suspicion and they shout "Ladies are changing here. Go away" at the top of her voice everytime an unsuspecting kid walks by.
Then there are the cool gangs of cousins who take pleasure in defying their parents' every command while with their cool gang. It was fun watching mothers tell their teenage kids to do some work and then watch as the teenagers coolly said "no".
The worst thing you can do when you go to a marriage, especially one of a far away relative.. stay out of sight of the Grandpa gangs. You will invariably be drawn into conversations related to relationships between individuals which refuses to get any lower then 5 generations.
Its worse for someone who has just completed his II PU as almost everyone you talk to will appoint themselves as the Career counsellor you were searching for all this time and talk nonsense about how an MBA is useless and then talk to you of some relative's son/daughter who is doing his/her MBA and is having a horrible time.
Finally! there was food. And the food was pretty good. So I hogged and came home as early as possible.
End of day1... I'm dreading day 2 which is tomorrow.
Hope I fall sick long enough to bunk tomorrow's marriage.
CIAO
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Send d msg again pls..
I am ashamed to admit it. But I have become addicted to my mobile. And its not even an year old! I got my cell phone on Gandhi Jayanti last year. There were blessings from Gandhiji and curses from my parents as they strongly believed that it will spawn an addiction. It is very funny how your parents' warnings fall on deaf years only to sheepishly accept after a few days that they were right. Pride and Ego prevent me from actually telling my parents this but everyone knows the truth eventually.
Coming to the point, I had to give my phone to a cousin for a few days as his brand new cell conked as soon as he stylishly took it for a swim. Thus, I was mobile-less for a couple of days. It was shocking how dependent I had become on it and every now and then there was an imaginary vibration in my pocket. Another alarming sign of mobile addiction is the sudden and drastic fall in your ability to write grammatically correct english without any spelling mistakes. The only way to counter this is by reading lots of novels and the newspaper is a compulsory read.
Vodafone seems to have made up its mind to irritate me. None of the SMSes I have sent are going in their entirety. And my inbox is filled with "pls send the msg again" msges.
All this free time is infuriating actually. There are moments when you lose interest to do anything and the only relief is shouting in frustration. Keeping a sane head at these times is a challenge indeed. An idle mind is indeed a devil's workshop. ( I seem to be catching the Geetha Madhusudan bug here). Life becomes as irritating as seeing Rakhi Sawant. Coming to Rakhi Sawant... I would love to see her married to Rahul Mahajan! That will be the TV show of the century. especially if their day to day activities are captured on film. There will be no need for further comedy.
Things I do when I'm bored...
1) Identify a route through your house which visits all rooms and keep walking on the same route over and over again. It helps if there are small tiles on the floor as you can then concentrate on keeping your foot inside the tile without touching the edges.
2) Watch sitcoms... They are an amazing way to kill time.
3) Brood on philosophical mysteries... you feel ridiculous after some time. But the longer you can keep the act up, the more time you will kill.
4) Plan perfect marriages.. Example: Rakhi Sawant and Rahul Mahajan..
I'm bored of typing as well now!
Ciao
Coming to the point, I had to give my phone to a cousin for a few days as his brand new cell conked as soon as he stylishly took it for a swim. Thus, I was mobile-less for a couple of days. It was shocking how dependent I had become on it and every now and then there was an imaginary vibration in my pocket. Another alarming sign of mobile addiction is the sudden and drastic fall in your ability to write grammatically correct english without any spelling mistakes. The only way to counter this is by reading lots of novels and the newspaper is a compulsory read.
Vodafone seems to have made up its mind to irritate me. None of the SMSes I have sent are going in their entirety. And my inbox is filled with "pls send the msg again" msges.
All this free time is infuriating actually. There are moments when you lose interest to do anything and the only relief is shouting in frustration. Keeping a sane head at these times is a challenge indeed. An idle mind is indeed a devil's workshop. ( I seem to be catching the Geetha Madhusudan bug here). Life becomes as irritating as seeing Rakhi Sawant. Coming to Rakhi Sawant... I would love to see her married to Rahul Mahajan! That will be the TV show of the century. especially if their day to day activities are captured on film. There will be no need for further comedy.
Things I do when I'm bored...
1) Identify a route through your house which visits all rooms and keep walking on the same route over and over again. It helps if there are small tiles on the floor as you can then concentrate on keeping your foot inside the tile without touching the edges.
2) Watch sitcoms... They are an amazing way to kill time.
3) Brood on philosophical mysteries... you feel ridiculous after some time. But the longer you can keep the act up, the more time you will kill.
4) Plan perfect marriages.. Example: Rakhi Sawant and Rahul Mahajan..
I'm bored of typing as well now!
Ciao
Sunday, August 1, 2010
No passion.. no curiosity...
The title describes my mindset of late. No enthusiasm. No interest to do anything other than sit idly and stare at the computer. I had been warned many times about the apparent dulling influence that a movie or a TV show has on you if you watch too much of it. Much to my dismay (and the delight of my mother) it is true. The mind goes blank and often stays blank after watching a movie. And there is still the annoying part after the movie where the movie starts replaying in your head. Often at dangerous times like while driving or dodging a particularly nasty bouncer.
It is true that we are all very much influenced by the company we keep. That story, about two parrots who get separated during a storm and end up in a sage's ashrama and a dacoit gang respectively, is ringing in my ears. I have started acting quite unlike myself when in my gang of cricket friends.
1) Swearing now sounds like a way of talking. A sentence without any expletives is usually replied to with another sentence which is usually loaded quite heavily with the ones that you didn't want to use.
2) I am learning the art of laughing at defeats and the humbling, ego destroying revelations that there are always people who are better than you. It is quite a blow to your ego when you are made to sit out on a match you badly wanted to play. And the punishment for even a little whimper of disappointment is another match as a waterboy. I felt this is a wonderful way of beating into people like me that we are not bigger than the team and that the show will go on even if we're too hot headed to notice it.
3) There is no use being a little good at everything. One has to be good at everything or there is no place for him in this world. There should always be a drive to attain perfection.
Enough about cricket. Read a Sidney Sheldon during the past week. Was an awesome read!
Saw a death during the past week. And I did not realize that you should try and squeeze out a few tears while the mourning period lasts. Its nigh impossible for a person like me. So had a brilliant idea! stood in front of the smoke and volunteered to keep it burning. The smoke from the fire automatically brought the tears to the eyes and then it was just a simple matter of putting up a face which goes well with the tears. It sounds scandalous I know.
Lets hope this post marks the beginning of another bout of regular blogging. Comments welcome as always. May the starts watch over you. Use some sunscreen lotion if you want the stars to watch over you in the mornings as well :P (bad joke bad joke)
CIAO
It is true that we are all very much influenced by the company we keep. That story, about two parrots who get separated during a storm and end up in a sage's ashrama and a dacoit gang respectively, is ringing in my ears. I have started acting quite unlike myself when in my gang of cricket friends.
1) Swearing now sounds like a way of talking. A sentence without any expletives is usually replied to with another sentence which is usually loaded quite heavily with the ones that you didn't want to use.
2) I am learning the art of laughing at defeats and the humbling, ego destroying revelations that there are always people who are better than you. It is quite a blow to your ego when you are made to sit out on a match you badly wanted to play. And the punishment for even a little whimper of disappointment is another match as a waterboy. I felt this is a wonderful way of beating into people like me that we are not bigger than the team and that the show will go on even if we're too hot headed to notice it.
3) There is no use being a little good at everything. One has to be good at everything or there is no place for him in this world. There should always be a drive to attain perfection.
Enough about cricket. Read a Sidney Sheldon during the past week. Was an awesome read!
Saw a death during the past week. And I did not realize that you should try and squeeze out a few tears while the mourning period lasts. Its nigh impossible for a person like me. So had a brilliant idea! stood in front of the smoke and volunteered to keep it burning. The smoke from the fire automatically brought the tears to the eyes and then it was just a simple matter of putting up a face which goes well with the tears. It sounds scandalous I know.
Lets hope this post marks the beginning of another bout of regular blogging. Comments welcome as always. May the starts watch over you. Use some sunscreen lotion if you want the stars to watch over you in the mornings as well :P (bad joke bad joke)
CIAO
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Where have the divas gone??!
Wimbledon 2010... lots of memorable events. Federer failing to make the semifinal of a Grand Slam after a long long long time. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut playing that marathon 11 hour match. The women's section has been really boring though. The upsets have stopped surprising everybody because they have become so common. And as usual we have Serena Williams bulldozing her way past everybody and in yet another Wimbledon final.
Full credit to one little known Philipp Petzschner. It was a sight indeed seeing the long lost serve-and-volley game being put to such effective use. Damn it.. its good to just see someone attempt the serve-and-volley as almost everybody is content to keep putting ball after ball in the opposite court. The very essence of Wimbledon is the serve and volley. But very few playing it. That is why I Was a great admirer of Frenchman Fabrice Santoro a.k.a The Magician. That guy would attempt drop shots on the opponents' first serves'!! A brave man indeed!
Just where have the pretty faces in Womens' tennis gone?! where are the new Kournikovas? All I see nowadays are big burly Europeans with horrible grimaces and painfully loud grunts. Tennis seriously lacks the pretty faces.
Tsvetana Pironkova... the semifinalist is a pleasant enough face. As usual we have very pretty Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova. Elena Dementieva to some extent... but absolutely no drop-dead-gorgeous women. Caroline Wozniacki, the ill fated Dane who partnered Sania Mirza is one helluva nice girl. She managed to smile through the whole match. If it was me with Sania, I would have beaten her to a pulp because of the sheer number of unforced errors. Well done Wozniacki!
I remember a certain Czech player.. Likhovtseva, a leftie who was pretty good looking. Justine Henin was not too bad herself. Anyway, I hope we get to see more pretty girls playing more pretty tennis rather than big, burly, muscular women trying to tear the fur off the ball.
Keep the Serve-and-Volley alive!
May RAFA lose!
Full credit to one little known Philipp Petzschner. It was a sight indeed seeing the long lost serve-and-volley game being put to such effective use. Damn it.. its good to just see someone attempt the serve-and-volley as almost everybody is content to keep putting ball after ball in the opposite court. The very essence of Wimbledon is the serve and volley. But very few playing it. That is why I Was a great admirer of Frenchman Fabrice Santoro a.k.a The Magician. That guy would attempt drop shots on the opponents' first serves'!! A brave man indeed!
Just where have the pretty faces in Womens' tennis gone?! where are the new Kournikovas? All I see nowadays are big burly Europeans with horrible grimaces and painfully loud grunts. Tennis seriously lacks the pretty faces.
Tsvetana Pironkova... the semifinalist is a pleasant enough face. As usual we have very pretty Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova. Elena Dementieva to some extent... but absolutely no drop-dead-gorgeous women. Caroline Wozniacki, the ill fated Dane who partnered Sania Mirza is one helluva nice girl. She managed to smile through the whole match. If it was me with Sania, I would have beaten her to a pulp because of the sheer number of unforced errors. Well done Wozniacki!
I remember a certain Czech player.. Likhovtseva, a leftie who was pretty good looking. Justine Henin was not too bad herself. Anyway, I hope we get to see more pretty girls playing more pretty tennis rather than big, burly, muscular women trying to tear the fur off the ball.
Keep the Serve-and-Volley alive!
May RAFA lose!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Books that I read...
This is probably the twentieth that I have attempted to write something on this blog. The nineteen previous times, I spent looking at the monitor with a complete blank expression waiting for something to miraculously appear on the screen. No luck so far.
One cn say I have made some use of the holidays so far. That makes a few extra hours spent at home even more tiresome to spend. Read quite a lot of novels since the exams, most of them begged, borrowed and stolen (then duly returned back of course!) Will try and summarize the few that were good.
1) The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni...
Heard of "The Mistress of Spices"? the Aishwarya Rai starring English movie? The book was authored by this lady.
The Palace of Illusions is the Mahabharatha itself. The only change is this time, the story is being narrated by Draupadi. The narration is beautiful. Though somewhat blasphemous, it captures the more humane parts of the epic which I'm sure our grandparents conveniently forgot to tell us. Not a book recommended if you are a staunch believer of the devoutness of Draupadi. Truly, the Mahabharatha revolves around Draupadi. A book worth reading.
2) The Jeeves Omnibus - Pelham Grenville Wodehouse...
Amazing writer! Looking at his face you will never imagine that he is the kind who can make you execute a proper ROFL. His witticism coupled with an amazing sense of timing makes him one of a kind. Go read his books for a true feel of comic writing.
3)If you love someone... - Harimohan Paruvu...
The second book of the author. The first being "The Men Within". A short novel which is a love story with a difference. It is not the stereotypical teenage boy meets teenage girl - they fall in love - get married - lose interest in each other- finally love conquers all kind of story. A very refreshing take on love, life and sacrifice. A must read is you are a die hard romantic. (have always been amused by this phrase "die hard romantic", it sounds ironic)
4) I Robot - Isaac Asimov...
Isaac Asimov is a genius. These stories revolve around the three laws of robotics which govern all robots working in the world. The earth now has colonies on the Moon, Mars and Mercury. The stories are narrated by Susan Calvin, a RoboPsychologist. Weird term.. but a very nice read.
5) One Amazing Thing - Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni...
What do you do when you are stuck amidst the ruins of the Indian visa office in America after an earthquake with people from different ethnicities all having no hope of survival? you sit in a circle and tell each other stories from your life. Beautiful storytelling this time as well.
6) The Immortals of Meluha - Dont remember the author :P
This is Shiva's story. Written by someone who obviously has no sense of the devoutness which comes with the name "Shiva". The first of a trilogy, it tries to tell us the story of the lord of a mountain tribe who becomes the savior of an advanced race called Meluha.
Looking forward to reading more books. I'm reading "The temple goers" by Aatish Taseer. The book has started promisingly. Let's see if it lives up to expectations.
Good night folks! X men origins on TV now. Dont want to miss it.
Ciao
One cn say I have made some use of the holidays so far. That makes a few extra hours spent at home even more tiresome to spend. Read quite a lot of novels since the exams, most of them begged, borrowed and stolen (then duly returned back of course!) Will try and summarize the few that were good.
1) The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni...
Heard of "The Mistress of Spices"? the Aishwarya Rai starring English movie? The book was authored by this lady.
The Palace of Illusions is the Mahabharatha itself. The only change is this time, the story is being narrated by Draupadi. The narration is beautiful. Though somewhat blasphemous, it captures the more humane parts of the epic which I'm sure our grandparents conveniently forgot to tell us. Not a book recommended if you are a staunch believer of the devoutness of Draupadi. Truly, the Mahabharatha revolves around Draupadi. A book worth reading.
2) The Jeeves Omnibus - Pelham Grenville Wodehouse...
Amazing writer! Looking at his face you will never imagine that he is the kind who can make you execute a proper ROFL. His witticism coupled with an amazing sense of timing makes him one of a kind. Go read his books for a true feel of comic writing.
3)If you love someone... - Harimohan Paruvu...
The second book of the author. The first being "The Men Within". A short novel which is a love story with a difference. It is not the stereotypical teenage boy meets teenage girl - they fall in love - get married - lose interest in each other- finally love conquers all kind of story. A very refreshing take on love, life and sacrifice. A must read is you are a die hard romantic. (have always been amused by this phrase "die hard romantic", it sounds ironic)
4) I Robot - Isaac Asimov...
Isaac Asimov is a genius. These stories revolve around the three laws of robotics which govern all robots working in the world. The earth now has colonies on the Moon, Mars and Mercury. The stories are narrated by Susan Calvin, a RoboPsychologist. Weird term.. but a very nice read.
5) One Amazing Thing - Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni...
What do you do when you are stuck amidst the ruins of the Indian visa office in America after an earthquake with people from different ethnicities all having no hope of survival? you sit in a circle and tell each other stories from your life. Beautiful storytelling this time as well.
6) The Immortals of Meluha - Dont remember the author :P
This is Shiva's story. Written by someone who obviously has no sense of the devoutness which comes with the name "Shiva". The first of a trilogy, it tries to tell us the story of the lord of a mountain tribe who becomes the savior of an advanced race called Meluha.
Looking forward to reading more books. I'm reading "The temple goers" by Aatish Taseer. The book has started promisingly. Let's see if it lives up to expectations.
Good night folks! X men origins on TV now. Dont want to miss it.
Ciao
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