Must find time

I'm planning a super mega post on "THE YEAR THAT WAS" and don't seem to find. 2 days in December left to go. Must..find..time !!

A Modern version of the Orient

One of the fringe benefits of working for a multinational is the fact that, there is the international trip that happens once in a while. Although it was purely for business purposes, it would have been unlikely of me if I didn't make an adventure of it.

So here I was all alone, as I nervously stepped out on foggy afternoon at Pudong International Airport braving an 18 degree chill. Got into one of the snazzy Volkswagen taxis which were to be my conveyance of choice for the next week & headed off to the Wyndham Grand. As the name suggests it was a grand place with all that came with any other standard 5 star hotel.



The week there involved shuttling between Shanghai & the city of Suzhou where our factory is located. Suzhou is exceptionally beautiful considering that it is what we call a Tier 2 city. Jinji Lake at night can be quite spectacular with a colour changing ferris wheel at the distance. I plan to visit the Lingering Garden on my next visit there

Shanghai is a walker's delight. I would like to thank Tony Luo, Lingling Gao & Takeshi Kitamura for hanging out with me on the first night out on the town. I did all that could be done on foot.



The magnificent Bund, on the Huangpu river with the skyline of the Liu Jia Zui Financial District that could give any skyline a run for its money. The brilliant imperial buildings now converted in headquarters of banks or showrooms for luxury brands. Keep an eye out for almost every luxury brand that you might have heard of to have a showroom in Shanghai.Other significant things more to my liking were the Peace Hotel, legend has it this hotel was used for espionage during the World War II era.



You will also find a single statue of Mao & a few hundred metres the financial bull that one can find on Wall Street and now even on Dalal Street. It truly is a place of contradictions where ideology does not necessarily impede growth. Then a short walk from there will take you to Nanjing Road, a pedestrian area mainly for shopping. The bright lights will dazzle your senses, but beware of the hawkers who peddle everything from fake iphones to "ladyfuck".



Xin Tian Di, an area exclusively for bars and restaurants, is also the site of the first ever congress of the Communist party of China. It has everything from outdoor coffee shops to German brewhouses to Italian pizzerias. A great place to walk around, and it also boasts of a great shopping experience in the neighbourhoods nearby. Other notable places for shopping are the AP plaza near the Science and Technology Museum & Huahui Road.




Another fantastic experience is the Maglev train. I had the chance to get on one of them to go to the airport. It touches speeds of over 300 kmph and gets you to the airport in 8 mins which is around 50 kms away.

Food is an issue if you're a strict vegetarian like me, but only good can come after eating a few meals with boiled vegetables and rice. Thankfully there are a few dishes that will come to one's rescue namely - OU(藕）、DOUMIAO(豆苗）、RUOBO(萝卜).
(Spelling & Pronounciation Courtesy - Lingling)

The honesty and the work ethic of the Chinese is clearly something that is commendable and that is responsible for their present position in the international business scene.The sights and sounds of a modern fast growing China will always be afresh in my memories for a long time to come.

My only regret is that I didn't get to experience much of the traditional China, but that will be dealt with on my next trip, I hope.

Will probably Phlog or Picasa most of the photographs. So ping me or leave a comment with your email id incase you are interested.

It happened one night

One of them got back quite late from work. The other was waiting for the power to come back on. Both hadn't eaten. So they decided to go to one of those "late night- roadside-edible but hot food" places close to home.

So the piping hot pav bhaji came, and so did some not great but equally hot coffee. The rain had started off again meanwhile. Some pretty girls came and sat next to the table beside them. SD Burman, Manna Dey & Mohammad Rafi were putting on quite a show on the radio that night.

As the minutes passed by, the thrashing of the raindrops on the asbestos roof got stronger and sunk Rafi's voice into a minute moan. The empty tables on the roadside which were unoccupied rattled for a bit before flying away atleast a 100 metres. The raindrops were now hurtling towards us at a variety of angles.

One of them panicked a little bit, there was no power, trees were being pushed down by the strong hydraulic waves that came from the skies. The customers, the waiter and the cook were now huddled into a small room with a shutter now. The cigarette smoke & the coffee cups seemed to be the only source of warmth as the mercury dipped.

Flashes of lightning whips could be seen from the corner of one's eye. The Thunder claps were remnant of being next to the speakers in one of those rock concerts. Deafening.

The wind subsided. They ran back into the comfort of their concrete homes. It was an intense night. One that definitely deserved to be documented.

A smorgasbord of cultures

So I've been exploring a lot of Marathi Culture in Pune which actually gives you a better oppurtunity of doing so, rather than its cosmopolitan big brother Bombay.But of course this post is not some sort of social commentary on either of the cities.

Its more about how things that we see as alien to one another are actually quite alike. I am what you would call a Madrasi . I probably fit the colloquial definition of a Madrasi as told to me by one of my Bombay-bred friends apart from the Lungi wearing part. A Madrasi is technically anyone south of Maharasthra, he may also be referred to as Anna. But most Telugus, Kannadigas & Malayalis are often quick to react upon the use of this term to correct the user that they are actually from a different state. But I for one am comfortable with the term, born in Mylapore, bred in Ameerpet (till I finished my Engineering), then spending early days of manhood in Powai, before finally moving to Nigdi to make something of myself, its been quite a ride.

But what it has done is, it has made me culturally sensitive. Having parents who were strictly grounded to their roots made sure that I was well versed with Tamil Culture. The friends I have from Hyderabad, made sure that a Telugu gentleman was also bred in me. The folks at Pune are now watching the Maratha in me bloom.

Proof of this is the fact that I have started listening to loads of Marathi music from the late 80s (I love that era fyi). I am in love with Misal Pav & I have added Archana Joglekar to the ideal partner list after - Shobana ,Revathi ,Gayatri Joshi & Amala.

So the next time you find me making racist jokes, you know its because of my love for the plethora of peoples in our country rather than my contempt for them. Maharashtra boasts of great theatre scene due to their tamasha traditions, apart from boasting of great singers like the Mangeshkar family and Suresh Wadkar. Of course, they could do without all the "armies" that they have, but if you looked at it from the eyes of an optimist, you could tell that some of them really think that their culture would get diluted and cease to exist, beats me, but I'd like to think that I'm a puritan in some ways too(I hated it that the IPL had better ratings than test cricket & I also hate that single screens are disappearing one per day). Despite my love for Bombay, I hate the crowds and the insanity of the inter city travel. Sometimes I like to imagine what it would have been to live in the Bombay of the 70s or 80s before the multitudes were here.

Now playing - Kevha Tari Pahate from Nivdung

October - Not my most favourite month

October is here. Its not been my most favourite month in the last few years for a variety of reasons which I do not want to recollect. Unfortunately or Fortunately, I am one of those people who uses discretionary amnesia as a tool for happiness in life.

But thankfully I do not have too many complaints for this month. In a conversation with someone, the someone happened to remark about me dreaming too much. I said of course, remember The Designer Mug.

I often feel like the kid in the bench next to window. I know everyone says that they were last benchers for the coolness of it, but I was a strict window bench person. High School, Junior College, Engineering and whenever I had a chance during NITIE, I was always the occupant of the window seat. I guess childhood habits die hard, I still have a desk next to a huge window at work. Of course the view isn't too fancy, the vista has utilities and the never ending sky. But windows are windows all the same.

In other news, I picked up two books on a trip to find awesome Misal Pav in pune. Bought "The Immortals of Meluha" by Amish Tripathi & " A collection of Short stories " by Kipling. Reviews of that will follow in a while. I'm halfway through the Indian adventure book which is quite a pageturner actually.

Also started watching this awesome series called Spartacus: Blood & Sand, which is a 300 meets Gladiator concept made into series. R rated for sure, not for the weak-hearted. Good plotline, and plenty of grey shaded characters.

Now playing on loop : Idhu Enna Mayam - Oram Po. #Brilliant song

Will these Rains end ?

I was cribbing about the endless rains to a friend. The friend asked me," But I thought you loved the rains? ". Yes I do, when I have a washing machine to wash and dry my clothes, hot coffee and good company to take a walk.

Recently,my complaints to the rain god have also been about one of my most favourite things in the world.
FOOTBALL
See I have this tournament coming up and finally convinced folks from the factory to come play football and a few of us are meeting up every morning before work. But then there is the little problem of the mud grounds that we have. Due to the rains, they become unruly and rugged. We need to legs with shock absorbers to play on those grounds.

On a tangential topic, recently read that Actor Murali passed away at the age of 46. My condolences to his family. But you the weird part, I was immediately reminded of the song "April Mayile" from his biggest hit Idhayam. To the non Tamil cinema follower let me explain the funny bit. Murali was an actor known to play soft romantic roles, case in point - the movie Idhayam.
The song I'm talking about is picturised on a couple of young Roadside Romeos in Madras (led by a young unrecognizable Prabhudeva) and talks about how all the pasumai (greenery referring to the young women) disappears in April May. Woo ! That went over most of your heads, Didn't it ?

Anyway, I need to get back to fantasizing about tomorrow's football session.

Football in the mornings = Getting back in shape = Sharp at work = Overall Good.

Same old Same old

Yes thats something I've been saying too often to too many people. Five days of the week are good, the daytimes keep me occupied, the nights are majorly for entertaining myself & well earned sleep.

As I might be mentioning for the three hundred and forty seventh time, weekends are cool too. Major activities include laundry,napping,TV,reading,Pune exploring and eating out.So they keep me quite busy too. But this post is not about my schedule now, is it.

Its true what they say you know,about the Devil taking over when you are idle and making your head his workshop and all that. I'm sure this would have come up somewhere earlier in this blog incase you've ever had the patience to skim through the older posts or better yet, if you have been a regular in this space.

The commute from Factory to Home and back just scares me, its free time, thats where the Blackberry comes in handy to keep oneself busy. Someone on facebook recently said something very profound, but true, that the key to happiness is a bad memory. That is something I have not been blessed with, but the courage to move on is something that I have imbibed. Thats how life works, right.

It throws shit your away, you maneuver around, use a few counter measures, evade and survive, we move on. But this is something that puzzles me, if we move on, it does not mean that we leave all the happy memories behind. Case in point being,my alma mater. I had immense fun, met some great people, learned so much and even owe where I am in life today to that place. But strangely,I do not yearn of it like so many others do. There could be many reasons to it, and I obviously am not going to sit and analyse them. Purpose of this post - To let everyone know, whatever happens, Forward is the only way to go. The past may guide us, but only the the Future will define us.

*Wow ! Good Line that - guiding and defining. Pats self on back*

Fingerlickin' Good

What more can you ask for on a lazy Sunday morning. Pedro and I braved the rain to go have the most yummmazing breakfast in a long time. A gorgeous dosa with sexy molagapodi(chilli powder) and hot filter kaapi. It doesn't get any better than this ladies and gents. I think I'm so much in love with my breakfast today,that I don't think I want to corrupt the lingering taste by having lunch. So today I shall fast, until I get hungry again that is.

Comic Strip Relief

From NITIE to NIGDI, a new comic strip series from the inner cranium of blogger Aditya Narayanan recently took off on a Friday after some random incidents at his residence led him to the belief that his home is really fun place and that the little anecdotes from there that should be shared with the world.

The characters in the series are mainly based on the residents of the Nigdi Apartment, namely

Adi - The person creating this comic strip,often portrayed as a sarcastic, debonair yet bumbling personality.

Su - The dashing superhero character who is heavily influenced by Bollywood films but is supposedly innocent at heart.

Pedro - The funniest of the lot, naive and goodlooking, often ends up being the butt of the joke.

The Incredible Pulk - His burp is known to be scare the most majestic of lions, The Pulk is usually a friendly character and loves food.

Producers have revealed that other characters who are friends of the Nigdi quartet will also show up on special episodes. Shown below is Episode 2



You can find the series at :

http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/adityagn

Disclaimer: Those of you who do not know these characters might find the strip quite boring, so apologies. But someday, I will expand my horizons

Normal Service Resumed

So I'm back ,after two whole months of web silence I thought it was high time I infused life in my dearly beloved blog. Also, I seem to have caught a break from the everyday workload. Today seems a little lighter.

The boat has been rocked severely in the past month, infact it came close to capsizing also, but God (read as Special Requirement for Resource)threw me a lifejacket. Excuse the metaphors, but I guess it was a much needed wake up call towards the harsh truth of life, since I was beginning to get quite complacent. So now, the shield is back and battle ready. I have since then, come back to Pune and life has probably come back to normal.

I'm working in a field that I'm passionate about, so no clash of heart and head happens. Having a day job saving the world's resources, on a very micro level albeit is quite a brownie point for the conscience. At work, I have a desk which is adjacent to a huge glass slab, so it makes for an energy efficient office and gives me a large scope to look out onto the premises and day dream. It would have been an ideal location for my last bench days during Engineering, which were spent day dreaming of the future. There are obviously many choices, many factors that have influenced my being at this point in time at this place, but I would contribute a major portion of the pie to my day dreams.

Not taking a poke at the much discussed topic of the movie "Inception", I would urge everyone to dream. I know, I still dream. Honest advice though, don't dream while driving.I speak from personal experience.

Now playing - Maathey from Morning Raga

PS: Proud Moment, after 5 yrs, I finally have a new phone. A Blackberry at that.

The rush of one's own earnings !

"How things have changed ?",I smile to myself these days. I've been on my own money for 4 months now. Its more than enough to sustain my expenses and do some spending.

I hang out with Abhijit, a good friend of mine from my engineering days almost every weekend in Pune City, exploring and eating out. He works at a PR firm. So he is doing pretty well too. We often reminisce of the way we were a few years ago. Those were the days when we were always doing monetary calculations.
Budgets for treats.
Sharing dishes when we realised the place was quite expensive.
Cost cutting at every step of the way.
But of course, these statements hold good only for the ones who felt guilty about spending their parents' money.

But now things are different, we have our own cash to burn. Abhijit & I are often spending on each other, occasionally we smile to ourselves and say - if this was back in college, this money would have gotten on the I Owe You list, but not now.

Its a rush to have one's own earnings to blow up. That being said, I still have a bad habit asking my folks for loose change.

- Good to know somethings don't change. -

Is it that easy ?

You would think that you wake up one morning and feel an entire gamut of episodes in your head. You would think that it is easy to just compartmentalise each one of them, and well put pen to paper or literally speaking, put finger to keypad.

Is it that easy ?

To me writing has always been therapeutic, be it on a public forum and an awfully long mail that is, to put it subtly "saved as draft". I always wrote for myself, wrote pieces that made me ponder - either during those lonely travels or those boring afternoons. A wise man once told me that too much analysis always leads to paralysis. Yes, there could be a minor issue, analysing every little detail, every little action, wondering why that happened ? Painful, to the extent of physical pain on the upper left side of the brain. (Don't mind that, its just the overdose of medical sitcoms talking)

But I know I'm not spitting it all out. I don't need to. Things left riddles always keep me interested. Some experiences I just don't want to write about, because my words would never be able to do justice to the experience. Experiences are more often than not associated with people. Good people, each unique, each one more interesting than the other.
Its funny how people get associated with experiences - like the road trips, like the late night movies, like the rains, like those music concerts. Whats even funnier is the fact I get reminded of them each and every time I do that particular thing, albeit for a brief second.

Am I nostalgia freak ? Oui.
But in a good way. I don't sit around and sulk that those experiences won't be happening anymore. I'm like that travelling suitcase with stickers from every country it has ever been to. I don't know if I'll be there again, but I'll proudly wear that sticker.

Nostalgia is actually a far more stronger feeling for those like me, viz those cursed with boon of good memory. Talk about oxymorons. Here's another one - I have started to think that I'm simple in a very complicated kind of way. Well, I believe that should be enough for today. Someday you will find me bruised and plastered thanks to all those complications and I have a bad feeling that day is imminent.

The BAND Wagon

I remember this song called Sadho Re which was often aired a few years ago. With that song, Agnee made a little bit of a statement, with a fresh new sound, not often heard in Indian rock circles.

A few years later, I had the pleasure of chancing upon a few more of their numbers. "Shaam Tanha" has a very sprightly feel to it and a nicely made animated video. "Ranjhana Yaar Di" is a brilliant song, which tells a whole story in a single video. But I think the best of lot, IMHO, has to be the wordless Theme for MTV Splitsvilla. Its a poignant song in which Mohan's enchanting voice & Koko's spectacular guitar work come to the fore.



With this I think I have found my quadruplet of Indian Bands I love made up of Avial, Pentagram, Parikrama & now Agnee

Weekends and Overcast skies

What is it about Pune Summers and overcast skies ? Of course, I know I'm being too fast in judging this place. But for the last 2 fridays, the Pune skyline has been overcast and its the same this thursday evening also.

Of course, not like I'm complaining or anything, today being Earth day and all. The Scorched Mother Earth could do with a shower. The sensual smell of wet mud before the imminent, one of the most brilliant fragrances ever, followed closely by Petrol & Davidoff's Cool Waters(the female one). If someone can actually make a fragrance out of it, I might just be tempted to buy it maybe.

There are lots of movies in the pipeline for me this weekend, apart from the IPL matches.
How to train your dragon
The Bounty Hunter
Lalbaug Parel

Need to find time to visit a mall called Lifecycle, believe it or not, this is a place in Pune which is a mall dedicated entirely to bicycles and their accessories. Should be fun. Also I'm considering doing a "once-a-month-cycle-to-work" day. I'll just have to make sure I don't have any important meetings that day( knowing my tendency to sweat even in the dry environs of Hyderabad and Pune).

Watch this space for more boring tidbits about an average 23 year old's life.

Express Morning

After Weird morning, it is now my turn to write about an express crazy morning.

After a bus ride from Hyderabad, I reached Pune's Mobus Court by 7.15 (45 mins later than scheduled time I might add). As I was getting out, the bus for Nigdi just passed and I was cursing my luck, I could have gotten home by 8 if I had caught that bus. The next bus came at 7.30.

I was nervously counting the minutes,the bus arrived at Nigdi at 8.05. It was pretty quick since it was early Monday morning, otherwise it usually takes around 45 mins. I sprinted for a kilometre, stopping to catch my breath three times while cursing my present fitness levels.

Got home at 8.12, brushed and bathed in record time. Then I put on the office clothing & then things got down to breathing pace again. Caught the bus on time at 8.30 and the rest as they say is History.

Weird Morning

Woke up at 4am.
The sky was overcast.
Walked around the house.
Drank loads of water.
Contemplated reading.
Watched a movie on the Dell laptop instead.
Dell laptop konked off in 20 mins.
Switched on my work laptop.
Finished the movie.
Slept at 5.30 am.
Woke up a wee bit late.
Forgot to take my wallet to office.
But had a good day at work.
Now the weekend is almost upon me.
Making plans to buy a digicam and a bicycle.
Any suggestions ?

Along came April

I started writing this post as soon as I realised I was stuck on the Nelson number. So like David Shepherd, feet off the ground, I shall write. March came and went like it had somewhere to go. But that is the funny thing about time.It just zooms past.

Along came April, with all its blazing heat. It doesn't sweat in Pune, like it does in Bombay. Its more the Hyderabad kind of heat. So I do what I do when I'm in Hyd. Stay indoors most of the day. But then, there are the weekly trips to the air conditioned multiplexes & binge drinking with Tropicana or Coconut water. But do I miss those hot summer afternoons at Worli or what ?

Thanks to my summer intern company's amazing location on Annie Besant Road which is 5 mins from Haji Ali & an all access bus pass, May 09 was SoBo (South Bombay) darshan at its very best. From the crazy electronic shopping lanes of Grant Road to the plush areas of Breach Candy & Malabar Hill to the single screen theatres at Tardeo & random walks near Opera house. All on foot and by bus. No taxi business.

This April, I guess I will be working on weekdays, doing the exploration on the weekends. So man hour wise, I think the amount of exploration will be similar. But soon, Pune will run out of things to see I'm afraid. But fear not, I tell myself. The Sahyadris beckon.

Storytellers

I have often wondered why I have read such few books in my life. I started off reading quite a huge number when I was a kid. But somewhere down the Movies took over and well, the number of books read since then has dwindled. I'm on course to picking that up again of course, but I often wonder why I never get bored of Cinema.

I think I believe in the magic of the storyteller. Growing up, before I hit Primary school, I've been told gazillions of stories be it at bedtime by my mother and father, or at my grandmother's side. Episodes of the Mahabharata & the Ramayana were my constant favourites. I still remember how my father's stories were always about a bus, might have had something to do with him being in the Logistics industry. Ma spent a fortune on books. Walden, Pauline Book store & Gangarams must have profited hugely from my time there. Then it was the directors of films who started telling me their stories through a visual medium, and it has made an impact on my life. An impact and an affection that will always remain I suppose.

But yes, the books are making a comeback in my shelf, and now that I have started earning, a small little portion will go towards the book fund along with many other funds that I have setup. There are innumerable stories left to be told, innumberable yet to be discovered even. And my quest shall be of the "never ending" kind.

The Urban Explorer - Pune

How do we better know a guy who wears Converse slippers & Fossil aviators and walks for insane distances in the scorching summer heat ?

Ans : Aditya Narayanan

This story unfolds on the day of Gudi Padwa/Ugadi. He has a holiday at work. His house seems stifling on a bright morning. Aditya gets out of bed at 8, gets done with breakfast by 0830 & surfs through the paper in another 10 minutes.

If you were there, you might have noticed that he spends a little extra time on the movies section. Then he plugs in his radio earphones, says bye to his flatmates and marches off to the Nigdi bus stop. Once there, he spots a bus to Hinjewadi and immediately leaps in, settling into a window seat which is on the shady side.

The bus heads out, slowly across Wakad phata, and there is acres of open space and the silhouette of IT parks at the distance. The bus snakes its way into areas which were once villages and are now part of the ever expanding Pune city limits. For your information, even Nigdi is not in Pune, its on the outskirts.

An hour later he hops off at the Infosys circle and starts walking. He embarks on what he calls his favourite thing to do which comes a close second to travelling aimlessly - Horizon Chasing. After walking for about 45 minutes in the dry 37 degree heat, better sense prevails and he hops onto another bus headed for Pune station.

After alighting, he settles down near the vendor selling coconut water. He downs two of those coconuts while grumbling about their price. With renewed vigour, he starts walking again, with music in his ears, sunglasses on his eyes, a few beads of sweat on his forehead and a smile on his face. He now reaches the Camp Cantonment area. After walking around the ISKCON temple, he now goes to Landmark at SGS Mall. Here he hunts, for books that have been evading him for many weeks now. After a while, he resigns to his fate and walks away to place an order with the Clerks. But his eyes fall upon a book called "Roads to Mussoorie" by Ruskin Bond. Immediately, he reminisces of the days he spent loitering on Mall Road & at Kasmanda Palace in Mussoorie. Promptly he gets it billed.

Aditya then meets Abhijit for lunch and a movie. Right ya Wrong. Sunny Deol is not one of his favourites, but he comes out of the theatre satisfied after having watched a well thought out movie. Now he has Abhijit's bike at his disposal, so they decide to head to Barista on Law College Road. En route he sees two places that he worships, one is the birthplace of many a Movie Messiah (notice how he thinks of them as Messiahs & not Gods) - FTII & the other - The National Film Archive of India, the resting place of almost every celluloid masterpiece both foreign and domestic.

He sips on his Iced Mocha, a happy man. For he had covered a large amount of the city in a few hours. He then takes a bus back home. He reaches his dwelling, Famished yet Thrilled.

A morning like any other

I was awake by 0630 hrs. It was a chill morning, colder than usual. I got off the bed groggily, switched off the fan and promptly crept under my blanket again.

Woke up after fighting 2 snoozes at 0720, which has become a strict routine now. Went and switched on the TV, and the bugger didn't turn on. One month and already the bloody TV is acting up. Hopefully we'll get it fixed soon.

The regular morning activities keep happening, but the fun part every morning is the Music fight. Pulkit & I put on VH1 and leave the room, only to return and find some Akshay Kumar hit is playing. Courtesy - Our in house Bollywood chocolate boy - Himanshu Deshmukh aka SU. Then there is Dilip Anand aka Paedo (short for paedophile) , who is "AWESOMEY" if I could take the liberty of quoting him. His antics are material for another blogpost altoghether.

This explosive combo could give anyone a brisk start to every morning. Now its off to work and another day of saving the environment.

Sundays are hectic !

Laundry. Sweeping. Swabbing. Food. Getting cable connection fixed. Watching cricket match. Dozing off in between. Getting dried clothes. Pressing them. Washing vessels after official tea maker "Pulkit" makes awesome tea and Maggi. Watching TV. Dinner with Himanshu's parents. Sleep.

If all sundays are going to be like this. I'd better tell everyone I work EVERYDAY.

Does a blog really do that ?

Blogging has helped me on many a time. But what it did for Julie Powell was something different altogether.

Julie Powell was a normal everyday person working in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation who takes on something she names the JULIE/JULIA Project in which she has to cook up 524 of Julia Child's French recipes in 365 days and this she blogs about. Her everyday problems, marriage, rejection, meltdown, lots of amazing food, lots of amazing non vegetarian food I should add, Mayonnaise,a book about her and finally even a movie by Nora Ephron and did I mention Mayonnaise.

So Julie, if you're reading this, good on you. I know many people feel it but have never expressed, THANK YOU ! OH ALL PERVADING BLOG-O-SPHERE. We shall be every grateful and in your service.

For those who haven't watched the movie or read the book yet, what are you waiting for ?

And so it begins...

An oft quoted line, be it wars, movies or books. Definitely brings out the whole "EPIC" that is life itself.

Why am I quoting this ? Simple, because I leave behind a fun filled, carefree, insane and interesting student life to move onto become a responsible (yeah right!)& diligent(not quite)man living a routine(now this part is true) life.

Its sort of fun in a very disciplined kind of way, like a smooth oiled machine. You know when to wake up, when to dress, when to reach the bus stop, when to buy bananas for the elephant that passes by my house everyday,when to have dinner, when to sleep etc.

I have often criticised and made fun of people who have loved routines and have prided myself in making an attempt at walking a different path. I will never know how far I have gone, but as far as I am concerned, I think the effort and the amazing time I have on that path is all that matters to me. But here I am, following a regimen myself. Its all a process of growing up people tell me. Growing up ! Yup ! Scary.

Go Bald
Get Married
Get promoted at work with a pay hike (Is this that bad)
Have Kids
Buy Furniture
Buy Life Insurance
Go to family parties
Impress the in-laws

Bugger off ! That is tough work. Just writing about it scares the hell out of me. But watch this space, for I know a few years from now, this very same "shuddering" person, will be enjoying marital bliss. Manufacturing defect I guess,I seem to enjoy everything.

About home, well its a spacious 3 bedroom flat with 4 people in it. I have a bed by the window which I keep staring out. "People watching" has become a new found hobby.

I think I'm going to buy my garbage guy a pair of gloves. But he wears a gold chain, so I'm afraid he might get offended.

I also like the little girl who takes her dog for a walk every morning.

The old couple amaze me every evening, still very much in love, still making conversation and laughing.

The flatmates are fun. All NITIEans, we go out for dinner everyday choosing from the few restaurants in the area and exchange some stories about work. The night's sleep is fantastic I should say. After a hard day, sleep is the only thing that can get you back for the next day's running around, and believe you me, working at a factory does involve a lot of running around.

My window is east facing, so I even get to see the sun rise every morning. Mornings in Pune are chill and refreshing. The area we live is on the outskirts so has little traffic compared to the bustle of the city.

So far so good, I must say. Its been good, *touch wood*. Lets hope it remains this way.

Hey Ram : Revisited

One thing leads to another. I have been reading the Great Indian Novel, by Shashi Tharoor. A fantastic "must recommend" type book. But this also lead me to suddenly have the craving to watch Hey Ram again.

I had watched Hey Ram as a teenager. Although I saw the entire movie, I just thought of it as another one of Kamal Haasan's rebellious additions to Tamil Cinema. I respect the man immensely, even to the extent that I sometimes quarrel with Rajnikanth fans over his supremacy of the Tamil Film Kingdom.

But this 1 - 4 am late night show, was a pleasant surprise. As the movie moved from scene to scene, it moved with such fluency that it was as simple as different chapters in a book. The acting is stellar, everyone is the parallel cinema world is present - Hema Malini,Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Girish Karnad, Saurabh Shukla, Atul Kulkarni, Vikram Gokhale to name a few. It has an unusual mix of Tamil actors including Raghavan, Delhi Ganesh, Sowcar Janaki, Vaali(a poet by profession) Y.G.Mahedra and a superb debut by Vasundhara Das, even Govardhan Rao from Telugu cinema makes an appearance. Yes it has those Bollywood folks also, Rani and Shah Rukh. A cameo by Tushar Gandhi is a nice finishing touch.

There are just so many layers that one needs to digest through the movie. It is intense as it is intelligent. The anti Gandhian who realises the folly of his way. The man in love. The educated middle class Iyengar. The man who resists falling in love with his wife by devoting himself to a cause.

The setting is superb, recreating everything, from Calcutta to Delhi. Every fine detail is taken care of. And the realism of it, is quite surreal. There is Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, British English and Hindi. All languages that I now easily understand due to variety of people I met at business school. So makes me appreciate the movie even more, but the part I found funny was that, most of the main characters including the Mahatma himself, spoke Tamil. Playing to the gallery I guess. But a fine movie. 4 star I should say.

Day 3 - Penn Masala

What an end to the 3 day fun fair that I managed to find and be a part of.

Penn Masala, a capella group from the states came down to Hyderabad to perform. I had heard of them earlier, and sampled some of their stuff thanks to Soumya. It was thrilling to have them in Hyderabad.

Shifting gears easily between English renditions of U2, Coldplay and Timbaland coupled with popular numbers from Bollywood they had the crowd in awe. And everytime one of them started doing a swara, was a sight to behold.

To couple with the fabulous performance, the psychedelic laser show created a truly electric atmosphere. A huge thanks to the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise for bringing them down. Also, these guys are highly recommended, do attend their performances if you get a chance, otherwise there is always their website and youtube.

Day 2 - Girish Karnad's Nagamandala

This was my first tryst with serious folk theatre and I was not disappointed. After being used to the gripping plays at Prithvi, Ravindra Bharati seemed a little different. Ravindra Bharati has so many memories associated with it, so many performances of my own and quizzes also.

Nishumbita Ballet & Theatre group has done a fantastic job in putting it across. Hats off to Veena who played the main protagonist and Ram Holagundi, the director.

One complaint was about the irritating crowd though. The theatre scene is plagued with the problem of Cellphones ringing and I don't know if we will ever deal with this. Also some folks in the crowd were talking and didn't seem interested. Why do they even come, when they are not interested ? Answer : To disturb easily irritable people like me.

But I'm mighty glad, the Hyderabad theatre scene is alive and kicking.

Day 1 : China Moses & the Raphael Lemonnier Quartet

As soon as we entered, there were finger foods and drinks. A damn good setting for a jazz concert I thought.

The concert itself was fantastic. China Moses was nothing short of spectacular shifting modulations and tones reminiscent of Tina Turner. The whole show was dedicated to Dinah Washington, A famous R&B singer of the 50's. So there were a lot of interwoven stories to each song, which gave the show a real feel good factor.

Now allow me to tell you the story of about a boy from the South of France who grew upto be a pianist - Raphael Lemonnier, his french dimple and the magic that his fingers do when they touch the piano were easily the show stealers.

Then there was Fabien Marcoz on the cello with his brilliant solos and the drummer Jean Pierre Eroauard and his sense of humour.

A fabulous experience of listening to Jazz live in Hyderabad. Now how many people can boast of that.

PS: Random fact. Apparently the Jazz singer always makes best friends with the Cellist.

Home Sweet Hyd

Its only fair that my 100th post had to be from Hyderabad. I still remember, the first time I decided to write, before my Electrical Engineering exam in my 2nd year at MGIT.

Its been a long time from then to now. But some things haven't changed. I'm back at home, thanks to NITIE, I have a messed up sleep pattern. So my day usually starts at around noon and goes upto 2-3 am.

News from Hyderabad. Well it is still awesome, despite the bloody T protests and all that nonsense. The roads were empty on the morning of Jan 1, so I had fun driving around. The biryani is still spicy, the mirchi bajjis still induce tears, the air in December is still chilly and not stopping for signals is still a trend that continues.

Friends still turn up late, Pavan's room is still a favourite place to hangout. loads of them are here in town in this period. So I'm doing a lot of catching up, turns out, I have classmates who are in places like Russia. Interesting.

A ticket for 3 IDIOTS cost me Rs.40, yes yes yes ! And whats more, I walked to the theater. In Bombay, even getting to the multiplex would have cost me more. I like the Economics here.

So wherever I may go, Hyderabad will always be home.