I have been frequently getting minor electric shocks every time I get out of a car and try closing the door behind me. It has been such a frequent affair that nowadays my hand sub-consciously goes for glass window or the plastic handle.
It didn't intrigue me much, for it was always with the same car and I thought there must be some earthing problems leading to a small leak, and hence the tiny electric shocks. But then, it started happening when traveling in some of my friends' cars. And it also started happening with random metallic things like the fridge, the steel plate and what not.
Now it did intrigue me a lot. It was like the feeling spider-man must've got when he realized that he had superpowers. Ok, I may be exaggerating, let me try again. Its like the feeling, the mutants in x-men must've got when they realized that they had special abilities. Ok, I am lying, one last try. Its like the feeling Newton must've felt when the proverbial apple fell on his head. Really, that was how I felt, or probably that was how I felt I felt, or probably I am lying again, again. In any case, it was a weird feeling with a reasonably happy air of achievement around it.
And then one day it all came crashing.
A colleague of mine who travels by the same vehicle to office as me, casually remarked that he has been getting those shocks too. I was ready to believe that he too was gifted like me and is having the same realizations. But that was not to be. He continued, saying that these are because of static electricity and that the combination of dry skin and woolen garments in winters lead to such electric shocks.
So that was the sad story of how I became the "electricman" from a "normalman" , or probably its the reverse. Nevermind
ElectricMan
Relief
I really don't know why but I felt a great sense of relief when I read that the endless Saas Bahu soap opera Kyunki... is finally coming to an end.
Not that I have anything against people who watch such soap operas out of choice or having nothing better to watch. Its just that its success spawned a multitude of similar senseless serials on every damn network!!
Now that its gone, I can only hope that something more original and less contrived takes its place
More about the news here
Pure Genius!
Its a joy to see pure genius at work. I always wondered how it would have felt when Einstein's Theory of Relativity was first published, or when the news of the Wright brothers' first flight got around. How it must've felt to have witnessed history in the making.
I guess it wouldn't have been different from what I felt during the recently held Wimbledon Finals between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It was an epic struggle lasting for 4 hours and 50 minutes!!
Well that's beside the point. All I want to say is that it feels really good to have grown up in a time which has seen its own share of geniuses( a fairly large share at that ! ) and feels even better watching them create history. Like watching Federer make a sublime backhand return, or Sachin hitting a boundary with a cover drive, or Amitabh delivering a dialogue in his trademark baritone or Rahman dishing out fresh songs with even fresher sounds!!
Of Democracy & Intelligence
Just came across today's (1st July, 08 ) news article on CNN-IBN regarding the nuclear deal with the US and the UP chief minister, Mayawati's reaction ,titled : Maya lashes out at UPA, calls N-deal anti-Muslim
Her logic , as the article states .... ‘‘the deal is being made at the cost of cheaper gas from Iran and the Muslims are vehemently opposed to it.” ...
She took a stand on the n-deal, and is now giving reasons far more worse than what a 5 year old kid might give. I mean, the only Muslims who "might" be affected in an adverse way would be the ones in Iran.
Take two hot issues ( in this case, the n-deal , and the Muslim vote bank ), use them in a sentence and you've got a nice press statement. Way to go !
Of Suicide Squads & Leadership
Thackeray calls for Hindu suicide squads
As the title suggests, Bal Thackeray wants a Hindu suicide squad to counter Islamic terrorism in India.
My only question - will he volunteer to be a member of such a suicide squad? will he give up his life for the "cause" and blow himself up ?
Me, Myself and The Elevator
I believe that the most embarrassing and wasteful moments of my life have been spent either waiting for an elevator or being inside it.
Imagine all those wasteful moments ,doing nothing, waiting for the elevator to arrive. If you sum them up they might even add up to a day.
It often happens that I reach the elevator, and finding it unavailable I pace around, walking and moving in circles until the elevator arrives. I mean, how unfair is it to first walk briskly to reach the elevator then suddenly having to stop. Its like Newton and his laws of inertia being put to test. And in case the elevator arrives early, I walk around inside it (only if its empty, mind you :D). Must be a bizarre thing to even imagine for most , but for me it happens all the time!
The trouble doesn't end with the arrival of the elevator. Then starts the embarrassing/boring phase of getting into the elevator and looking blankly around waiting for your floor to arrive. It becomes even more difficult if you have some really beautiful girls sharing elevator space . So microscopically close yet all you end up doing is either looking up the ceiling or looking at the watch ( with an astounded look suggesting that it has stopped working all of a sudden ). But in case the elevator is crowded,wriggling your way in and excusing your way out can be quite an ordeal.
Sometimes I just feel like pressing the red alarm button or the emergency stop button just to see what happens if I do that. One day I gotta try that.
Elevators are one of those places cursed with deadly silence. Even the most boisterous and loud-mouthed ones get tamed once they step inside. People just get lost and seem clueless. They look around trying to read/observe ( things which they might've read/observed a hundred times ) every damn thing that's there on the walls. Random ads, phone numbers, scratches on the steel doors, the dust on the fan, the do's and don'ts, the manufacturer's note. Effect of the closed spaces I guess.
Too much of cribbing in a single post. So here's how I sometimes have fun inside the elevator. Whenever its empty, that is. I walk across from one side of the elevator to the other just when the elevator starts. So when its going down, you can feel lighter and when its going up, you can feel heavier. Now that, relatively speaking, is a lot of fun:)
Minutes Before The UFO Landing
But then, UFO draws attention.
Just like the Times of India newspaper headlines.
Random Thoughts on Republic Day
I was watching 300, the adaptation of Frank Miller graphic novel yesterday and couldn't help reflecting on the way history has been taught to us, through books and other popular media.
The moot point - how did the small army of Spartans led by Leonidas lose against the mighty Persian army of Xerxes. It was a traitor who betrayed the secret of a goat's trail which helped Xerxes surround Leonidas's army from all sides.
Doesn't it sound similar to all that we have read about our Indian history? Be it Rani Lakshmi Bai, Siraj-Ud-Daula of Bengal, Tipu Sultan, Prithvi Raj Chauhan and countless. Why is it always that people lose because of a traitor. And I think , if there was no traitor could they have won the wars ? Why is the failure just attributed to the betrayal of some confidante? or will their bravery be lessened if we were told that they lost because the opposite army was just more powerful, more sophisticated and had better weapons ? I really don't know the answer.
But I feel happy that I could question that which is almost a given truth.
Deft Hands & European Pickpockets - Part One
The first story that I am going to relate is about the pickpockets of Europe.
The first one happened to my friend, who is one of the four who went to IAG UCL , Belgium on student exchange. The story goes such. We had a great week in Italy, and had taken the night train to Munich from Milan. The train passed through the austrian alps and it was snowing like crazy and everywhere you could see the white blanket of snow. So we decided that we would traceback our journey after reaching munich and check out the snow and so we did. We had a great time. So everything went well here, so why am I telling you this? Well, its quite central to the whole story, just have some more patience.
So where was I? yes, we went to Austria, and had some fun in the snow and returned to Munich to take the 3 pm high speed train to Brussesls. We were in time and we finally started on our journey back. But as fate would have it there was a railway workers strike the very same day and so after some two hours of journey we found ourselves stranded along with thousands of other passengers in Cologne. All was not lost though, there were still some local trains operating, and we both boarded one such train which took us to the last stop on the German border. Unlike India the railway people felt responsible for the inconvenience we faced and they booked a bus for all the passengers who had to go to Brussels and Liege in Belgium. And thus we found ourselves on the bus, hoping that the time it takes quite some time to reach Brussels. Basically, we wanted to spend the night in the bus rather than in the station where there'd be no heating. But to our badluck, the bus driver drove really fast and by 12 15 in the night we were in Brussels-Midi train station. The last train was gone, the first train in the morning was at 4 45. We had no option but to spend our night in the railways station.
The stage is set -more in the next post
Ciao.
The European Sojourn
Student Exchange Program( STEP, as we call it in IIMC) means that you get to spend a full term in a foreign university. Thus I was in Belgium for the last three months in a university which i am sure you will have never heard of. Nevermind. I was not there for the university in the first place.
Travelled a lot. 12 countries to be precise. Thats like the avergae number of countries any stepper in europe travels with some people even touching 18.
So whats in store for you?
There are so many things you know about Europe, about foreigners, about foreign land ... but I believe there are so many other things you don't really know. For example, roaming around on the streets of Amsterdam you realize that a place is not just people passing by on bicycles, the trams the canals, the monuments ... its much more ... And that much more will I try to express in the posts to come through personal anecdotes, observations and plain description ... for your sake and for my sake ... so that I never forget ... so that its for keeps...
I leave you with a picture of a place called Cinque Terre in Italy on the Mediterranean Coast. Probably one of the most beautiful places I have been in Europe.
Why this to start with - probably because I sat on the rocks of the craggy coastline, and sat still for an hour on the rocks, feeling like a traveller. Ironic you may say, but thats how I felt :)
So Long.
I've Got Taxi Power
One thing I will surely miss when I leave Calcutta is the ubiquitous yellow taxis. There's nothing great about them. Normal Hindustan Motors Ambassador models painted yellow with a black stripe running along the sides, with electronic meters and more often than not a Bihari driver.
But then, its the whole experience.
Standing at the bus stop, still undecided whether to wait for the bus or opt for the more lucrative taxi waiting at the corner. Pacing up and down the bus stop, letting a few empty taxis with drivers craning their neck in search of passengers , pass by and then finally deciding to call out for the next empty taxi that comes by.
Sometimes that "next taxi" never comes ( the bus arrives earlier ), and sometimes the taxi does come but the driver isn't ready to go. And sometimes when you have not even decided about your journey ( the choice of bus vs taxi hasn't cropped up yet ), pop comes an empty taxi, you raise your hand, the taxi stops, you alight the taxi and thats it.
Funny. The way things happen.
To think of it, the whole process of hailing a taxi, opening the door, and giving out instructions to the driver to take us to a certain place has some different feel to it. Perhaps a combination of power, expectation, and hope.
Say Cheese & Die!!
Well, certainly not a nice thing to say if you are photographer.
To rest the confusion, Say Cheesse & Die is a book/novel in the goosebumps series by RL Stine ( never heard of him?? same here :O ) . The story revolves around two kids who get a camera which when used depicts terrible events which eventually occer. Quite a premise.
No, I haven't read the book and this post is not about it either.
Remember standing in a group ready to be photographed, when we were kids ? Yes, you get the picture right. Saying Cheese, and holding on to "Saying Cheese" till the photographed clicked away was one of the most arduous and unsurmountable things to do during schooldays.
I mean, the act was so unnatural, that I always dreaded the day when the school group photographs were to be distributed. Trust me. And during the photographs, that itchy feeling to either widen it, skew it .... and God knows what ... certainly scary ...
I dont remember when i stopped "Saying Cheese", but I am happy I did and I hope I dont do that to others :)
More on saying cheese :
"By saying "cheese", most people form their mouths into what appears to be a smile-like shape. Additionally, the absurdity of saying "cheese" for no apparent reason can incite glee in some persons"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_cheese
Help!!!
No matter how much i try to bundle up the wires, tie them up, i end up unbundling them when moving the laptop from the table to the bed, or when the ups line goes offline for a while, and i have to plug the laptop charger to the more distant plug point.
So much of my real 'desktop' space being eaten away by these black ,snaky wires. And I thought having a laptop would make life easier. Somebody Help Me!!
Mumbai - Things I Liked
Before I start with the list, the Standard Disclaimer - the views are my own, and are representative of what I observed and felt during my two month stay .
Things I Liked
1. The City Never Sleeps - You can always find people hurring down the road at all times of the day and night.
2. The Ubiquitous Autowallahs - You will find them everywhere, engaging customers in the most matter of fact way, as if it were not a business but a 8 hour regular job. They insist on meters, and unlike other cities are not that eager to con innocent passengers. maybe they are better off otherwise.
3. On Time Local Trains - Yeah, most of the times they are, and the fact that they are on time does indeed make a hell of a lot of difference to the way as Mumbai is.
4. Pleasant Summers - Maybe it was because of me staying very close to the powai and the vihar lakes, but all in all the summer experience was pleasant.
5. BEST buses - Yes, they rock. The build, the drivers, the conductors ... Much underrated among all the public transport systems in mumbai.
6. The Common Man/Woman - There's something about mumbaikars. Its strange, it always seems as if they have sense of good or bad perhaps, some intrinsic knowledge ... some vague things that actually comforts you and convinces you that the struggle they take up everyday ( read life ) has some purpose... its the understanding perhaps... but there is something ...
7. The Uncommon Man/Woman - Oh yeah, the city is full of them. The party hoppers, the filmstars in huge cars, the brokers ... its a melting pot of some sorts
8.Vada Pav - Half the mumbaiya snacks are a pav ( bun ) combination ... pav bhaji, misal pav, usal pav ... and the king of them all the vada pav. Its a divine combo and its gets better as u go into the interiors
9. The Sea - Do I need to say anything???
10. Goan/Mumbai Music & The Party Scene - We had this huge company sponsored party, a dance floor with 500 people . People all dressed up for the occasion. And dressed up like anything. It was an 'eye' opener. Literally.
Mumbai , the Maximum City, is all about people. It has transformed me in some ways. The crucible that brought out the best in some and the worst in some.
Saludos. Mumbai.
~Rossos
A Little Less Sugar And Lots Of Bullets
No, I am not talking of some mumbaiya dish. Nor am I talking about some presentation that I have to deliver this thursday.
Its about this weekend. Two movies in two days. Cheeni Kum and Shootout at Lokhandwala. Hence the title for the post. Not that clever you say? well, maybe.
Cheeni kum has a brilliant performance by Amitabh Bachchan, if you are a fan ( not necessarily a BIG fan ) then you must watch this. The way he has grown as an actor and also as an individual is clearly evident in his portrayal. Its not just the portraying of the nuances of a egoistic 'old' man but also the air of having lived in London for more 20 years that makes him so special. He seems more comfortable speaking of love in more 'physical terms' than most other actors ( younger, of course ) would be. Tabu flounders once or twice, but otherwise she's as graceful as always. That swagger and easy going charm.
Cheeni Kum also scores high on my scorecard because of its excellent script, especially the way it highlights the sarcasm of Amitabh and the naughtiness of Tabu. And then there's the acceptance that physical attraction is an integral part of the process of two people falling in love. Believe me, thats quite a departure from the usual Indian movies and it DOES feel good.
But it fails in the second half. Stereotyped people, stereotyped ending, stereotyped emotions.
Overall , definitely worth a watch.
Shootout at Lokhandwala is a forgettable movie. Its pacy, but there are too many sidetracks at the wrong times, like those bar dances, like those 'emo' scenes the policemen have with their wives and the gangsters have with their kins. It can give you a headache. Only good thing - Vivek Oberoi. Back to Company days, eh? Hopefully. Luckily for me, there was a rock music piece ( though awfully placed in the movie ) which actually rocked. The movie didn't.
Overall, you should rather spend the time reading my blog than this movie :D
Leaving you with pictures of the ' Breakout Zone' of my office. Nice place.
Breathe Easy.
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