Tuesday, March 21, 2006

The journey called Life...


To think is to play with a double edged sword (I never did understand this one...i always thought that both the edges of a sword have sharp edges...but wont digress now...).
If you don't think, you would end up meandering like the Mithi river without purpose, path or direction. People who be able to hold you at ransom (figuratively) and play with you at will. If you do think, you would end up dissecting your life and analysing each and every miniscule event in your life. The idea I guess lies in moderation, something that is a tough art to practice, let alone master.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Mourinho's men!

Looks like the arrogant Mourinho is going to eat humble pie today!
The scores are level at the lemon break!
And the Giants from Catalunya are leading on aggregate!
Looks like its the end of the road for Chelsea at the Nou Camp!
Yipee!!!
Someone is finally teaching them a lesson or two...
Hope the scores stand this way!
I'm off to sleep!

The Sony Walkman

There is a interesting story behind the marketing strategy of the Sony Walkman.
When it was first introduced in Japan, its punch line went something like this...
Enjoy your music without disturbing others!
When the same Sony Walkman was introduced in the USA, it had the punch line
Enjoy your music without others disturbing you!!!
Doesn't that make for an interesting piece of conversation? :)
Kudos to Sony for having studied its markets and their culture so keenly and acclimatising itself to the needs of the market!
No wonder that they are SONY!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

The Future is bright...

This came along with my Orange bill. I refuse to call Orange by its new name..it sucks! So does that sissy pink that they've adopted! Talk about negative publicity!
This however doesn't take away from them the accolades for their sense of responsibility in educating les ignorants!

Mobile Manners


Common sense tips that help maintain peace and decorum.

Speak Softly
You can speak softly and still be heard. You are not George 'Dubyaman' Bush that the world needs to hear you!

Lights off, mobile off
At theatres, keep your mobile phone off so that you don't disturb others.
I am sick and tired of these people...they act as if they are the National Security adviser who will have to advise the prime minister to press the nuclear button in the case of a nuclear holocaust.

Pray in silent mode
God may call you when you're in a temple or church. But it is unlikely that He'll use a mobile phone. Or is it that they think that they are Bruce Almighty who will have to respond to the queries of lesser mortals?

Don't speak while eating
At restaurants, enjoy the food and company. Calls can wait.If you don't have company... i suggest that you should introspect. If you don't like the food, why stop the others from enjoying it? Multi-tasking is good only in Microsoft Windows. It isn't a smart thing otherwise. And please... telling your loved ones as to how good/horrible the food is can wait for a few minutes.

Anybody can tell a bad tune
Choose your ringtones wisely. Ringtones which do not annoy your neighbour or the people around you. Some people need to add 'low volume', 'silent' and 'meeting' to their dictionary if not their cell-phone profiles. If you think that your ring-tone is chic, listen to it in private. Imagine if your neighbours favorite ring-tone is Altaf Raja's 'tum toh tehre pardesi' or 'who let the dogs out?'. If it is yours, please get in touch with Bayer's pest repellent division. Ever considered filing a patent???

A word before a picture
Ask for permission before you take anyone's photograph on your mobile phone. Imagine if your photograph appeared in Times of India, clicked while you were mining for the Kohinoor in your nose! Imagine if you appeared on TV while you cozied up with a 'friend' or were caught kissing on camera...and your significant other saw the same!

Be sensible...be understanding...and don't be pig-headed. Remember! Man (and a woman) is a social animal. Never forget the social bit...


Copied almost verbatim from the Orange bill...hope that no copyrights are infringed. The idea is to merely spread the word. ;) The text in italic are comments from yours truly.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Class always lacks numbers

As the lights came back to normal, the adrenaline was getting back to normal.
It had been a wonderful roller coaster ride. Wasn't a heavenly experience...but definitely deserved credit!
Watched Cellular over the weekend!
It wasn't a cult movie or something...but it was good! Pretty good if you ask me.
A simple story...not many threads spawned...
and that was the beauty of the movie!
Kim Bassinger, with all her wrinkles would have been okay..but somehow it didn't feel like her.
Overall a great time spent...the only regret coming when the intermission happened.
Reminded me of Phone-booth for some reason...although that was a cult movie.
There weren't many takers for the movie though..guess that the 'Junta' was watching Fight Club at the adjacent screen...Crowds conspicious by their absence.
Class ALWAYS lacks the numbers.

PS: Heard 'that' background music after a long time...its this techno beat that i've heard a lot of times...just can't get the name.

PS PS: Have to watch Crash...heard some rave reviews for this...care two hoots for the fact that its got the oscars..just that the movie sounds like a good option.

PS PS PS: Crash reminded me of Alicia SilverStone in Crush!!! :D

Friday, March 03, 2006

Wedding Crashers

Well...I saw the movie. It was inspirational. Some hated it. Some loved it. I, for one , loved it totally! I was so inspired by it, I decided to do it myself!
Well..before you let your imaginations run wild (mine certainly did!) with boundless freedom, let me put things in perspective. That was a movie! I am neither Vince Vaughan. Nor am I Owen Wilson. This is India. You are awake. So am I!
This is merely what the name suggests...about crashing a wedding. In case I have disappointed you, sorry for that! One needs material to attract attention. Else, movies and stars help gain that. If even that doesn't work, remember...controversial statements and sex always sells!
Enough of unrelated un-pointered talk. Lets get back.
Most things in life are best unplanned (unless your a manager and your a** depends upon it). This incident was one just interesting incident.
I was leaving for the day when a colleague came to me with the most insane of request. I was asked if I wanted to go for a wedding. I had the 'what the f*** are you talking about?' quizzical look on my face.
Here's what the deal was: A friend of this colleague of mine was getting married. With no company and with no conviction to go there alone, the question was popped to me...would I like to go...uninvited of course! I pondered over it.
To do...or not to do...is one of the most interesting questions that you can ask yourselves.I had nothing in particular to do than to go home and pour over the Economic Times to try and make sense out of the Budget. Also, I hadn't done my 'whacky' thing for the week (something crazy once a week is a resolution) and time was running out. I said....'what the hell'..i might as well do it.
Once decided, the next question was the mode of transport. I was adamant on biking it down to Ghatkoper which is where we assumed it was supposed to be held. Actually, the card was in Gujarati and I couldn't make head nor tail of that. Any which way, I was supposed to be gate crashing! How did I care about anything other than a sumptous dinner spread.
We rode down there and after a minor confusion with the roads, we were finally there. But this was not before an over-zealous Auto-rickshaw guy nearly got us lost with his sense of directions.
Finally, we found the venue! It was my first time at gate crashing and I was feeling queer. But, as I entered inside and mingled with the crowd, we realised as to how facile it is to get into and out of a wedding without as much as the raise of an eyebrow.
It was a Gujarati wedding and a lavish one if I may add.
We got down to business! We hit the food counters! The groom was busy with a sizeable crowd of people. Not that I was getting onto the stage to greet him anyways.

5 mins into the food binge and I thanked my stars for the moment that I decided to crash the wedding! The spread was lovely and I was having a ball of a time!
Ever seen a 5 year of kid with 7 toys. He/she doesnt know which one to play with. My situation was pretty similar. I didnt know what to have. Hence I tried a bit of everything!
There was Chaat, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, South Indian dosas, juices...besides the Gujarati of course!
Had a bit of everything! The diet(???) went for a complete toss! All that hard effort down Chaat-Street!
Met these two sweet females and had a good conversation with them.
We raided the desserts like there was no tommorrow and as though we had just landed in a flight from the sub-saharan desert country.
The mousse, bengali sweets, pastries...YUMM!!!
Topped it all with this atrocious pan that was so huge (but innovatively packaged)that my mouth was stuffed for well over 15 minutes after which I decided to dump it all into the bin. I was quiet for the while. Everytime I tried to open it, the only acoustics that were emanated were the 'ummmphhh' thanks to the stuffed mouth!

We finally left with a burgeoning tummy and no phyical strenght.
All in all a wonderful event and my first Wedding Crashers!
Maybe the next time I'll ape Vince Vaughan/ Oven Wilson...
The above reminds me...DubyaMan is in town!

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Are you game?

People!!

Well, we are planning a trip to this place called Jayalgarh (near Rudraprayag, up north) and Shivpuri (near Rishikesh).
The trip would include a package (offered by an adventure activities organizing firm) for white water rafting (on the rivers Alakhnanda, Bahgirathi and the Ganga), Bridge Slithering, Rappelling, Rock Climbing etc.
Besides this, we plan to do some sight seeing of our own (no tours and travels/packages here) before we actually join the camp. This would be in and around places near Haridwaar.

The Plan

The final itinerary isn't out as yet, but the dates are!

10th April - Evening - Leave for New Delhi from Mumbai via the Rajdhani
11th April-13th April - Sight seeing around Haridwar
13th April - Afternoon - join the camp
16th April Early Morning - Leave for Delhi
17th Morning - 8 AM - Touch down at Mumbai by Rajdhani. Back to mundane life! In comparison that is...

The 14th of April (Good Friday) may be a Holiday for some of us (It isn't for me). Some others may have an holiday on Tuesday the 11th of April (again, not for me!). In case you merely have the 14th of April as an official holiday, we can actually plan the whole trip with just three "leaves" (vacations/holidays or whatever it may be). This would be applicable only for those from Mumbai. The ones from Pune may have to take another day off to manage the same. People from other places (if any) are requested to do their own calculations.

The Cost

The Adventure package would be around INR 5,500 for a 4 days and 3 nights package.
The remaining cost would be that of the travel. The return trip from Mumbai and the travel in and around the place would be around INR 4,500. This is inclusive of the additional sight-seeing that we may do out there as well. One a whole, we are looking at our pockets being lighter by around INR 10,000. This is a rough estimate and could go either way. In case of it costing lesser, it would be returned. We are in it for the fun, not for the money!

In case this happens to interest you, please drop in a line...

Please refer to this post for further details and snaps!