Friday, February 29, 2008

scary things i think i just saw

the roads in bombay get scarier and weirder day by day.

yesterday evening, on my way home, i saw a car that was being driven by a 2 year old kid. he was standing in the driver's seat and steering, while his dad calmly looked on and (presumably) operated the pedals.

just now, i spotted a man with 4 (yeah, 4!!!) kids on a bike.

that's right, 5 people. one bike.

the smallest kid was being held with her neck in an armlock (and scarcely much else) of the eldest. freaky.

(un)pleasant spasms (or why p. g. wodehouse is best read in private)

i've been reading a bit of wodehouse recently (after a 10 year break), and it's not been good. for my image, that is.

this guy has the knack of cracking me up when it's least appropriate. like when i'm hitching a ride home in my manager's car. or the rickshaw driver asks me for directions to my office. and i happen to be reading gems like this one:
"it's amazing," she said, drinking me in once more. "to look at you, one would think you were just an ordinary sort of amiable idiot - certifiable, perhaps, but quite harmless. Yet, in reality, you are a worse scourge than the black death. I tell you, Bertie, when i contemplate you i seem to come up against all the underlying sorrow and horror of life with such a thud that i feel as if i had walked into a lamp post."

knowing my weakness at resisting irresistible things (of which wodehouse books definitely are one of), i'll probably read on anyway.

right ho!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Music and Life

Alan Watts got it right:



Life is a musical. Not a Start -> Finish goal. I wish *some* people would try and understand that.

(Copied straight out from ess dee's blog. thanks for this gem, dude!)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

the battle between busy and lazy

as usual, i have more than my share of things to blog, but no time (and when i have the time, no inclination) to do it.

a super-sneak preview of things to come:
  • my review of the movie "enchanted"

  • someone really hates me

  • (un)pleasant spasms (or why p. g. wodehouse is best read in private)

  • blogging vs maintaining a personal diary

in unrelated news, i've decided to screw up my personal life in the hope that i'll come out stronger. wish me luck.

Monday, February 25, 2008

my 'look like a pirate' day

in a fit of adventurism, i decided to stray from my usual goatee and adorn my face with something a little fancier this weekend. the results seemed decent enough in the mirror, and laziness got the better of me so i decided to wear it for the rest of the week.

that was till i looked at myself in the restroom mirror today afternoon.

i should look at the mirror while dressing, not a few hours later. pirate beards and formal office wear apparently don't quite go together.

anyway, this is about the closest i can get to having a bad hair day so i guess it's not that bad. my only worry is that i'll forget to look into the mirror tomorrow morning and so forth, and i shall have a bad hair week instead of a bad hair day.

ah well. who cares? yaharr, me mateys!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

freudian typo

some typos are confusing and some are amusing, but some are downright hilarious. like this conversation with my manager a few weeks ago, on the office communicator:

K: good morning. how's it going?
M: hey, things are good, how's you?
K: i'm god.

five minutes of silence later, i realised what i just said. i wish i could see his face when he read it. it still brings a grin (or a chuckle, depending on whether people are watching/listening) to my face when i think of it :D

to quote dipti:
"some mistakes are too much fun to not make twice"

voice mail messages

i just thought this one up. unfortunately, most of my friends hate leaving me voice mail, so i'll have to save it up for later :(
"i think you've dialed a wrong number. if you want to leave a message anyway, here's your beep."

Friday, February 22, 2008

i'm vegetarian too!!!

recent (i.e. 20 minutes ago) conversation in the cafeteria:

K: so are you really a vegetarian?
T: yeah. i've only tasted non-veg, in bits and pieces.
K: oh, i'm vegetarian too.
T: what!
K: yeah, only tasted non-veg in bits and pieces. not got around to eating the whole chicken yet.

blogger's block part 2

looks like the tables have turned.

i blog daily, i've started writing my diary again, but haven't seen the gym since the last time i mentioned it in my blog (two weeks, to be precise). and i haven't touched my google reader in all of february now.

if it's win some and lose some, i guess this is the losing part.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

attachment and detachment

for the past few days, i've been depressed, too lazy to make a change, and too unmotivated and dispassionate to try. i was thinking of making a list of things i should be doing but am not, but i've decided against it. the list might just motivate me to make those changes, and i'm not willing to risk that.

no, i'd rather be here for a while.

last night, i realised there are two kinds of happiness. the sort that comes from attachment and the sort that comes from detachment. attachment and detachment both concern people...it's very stupid to assume any sort of happiness can arise out of attachment to material things.

i also realised that the happiness from attachment is so much stronger than that from detachment, but that happiness is also short-lived in most cases.

the quote "if you love something, set it free" probably refers to the same thought.

that leads to my next observation - i've been pursuing a life of attachment. i'm addicted to that high. i guess it's time i went back to my former life of detachment. but it won't be easy.

a few days of depression might just help.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

mood swings

the mind is a beautiful, but sometimes strange thing. one of the strange things about it is how it can colour everything around with whatever happens to be in it at the moment.

i was pretty depressed last night. somehow it had got into my head that something in my life had changed for the worse in the past few days. suddenly everything that i said or did, everything that happened to me, seemed to agree with that thought.

i asked a good friend if she noticed any difference. she said no. i thought to myself that she's just trying to be nice and not depress me any more than i already am.

i somehow still don't believe her. maybe it's time i did.

Monday, February 18, 2008

secrets

i've kept a diary for quite a few (but short periods) of the last few years of my life. just like anyone else would, i've kept my diary private and made it clear to everyone who has had a chance to sneak a peek at it, that it's off limits. i guess that's because i just assumed that diaries are supposed to be kept that way.

yesterday, when a fiend hesitated and thought ten times before leaving me alone in a room with her diary, i was struck by a realisation.

the only secrets in my diary are things that i could have told someone but didn't have the time to.

that could only possibly mean two things:

i don't really have any real secrets

i have friends who i can tell absolutely anything

it looks like both are true :)

side effects of the "tourist" look

i went to hyderabad recently. it was an amazing trip, since i did everything i wanted to (including tripping my heart out while dancing less than 20 feet away from dj tiesto), but it started off on a scary note.

the scene:

my friend and i have been sitting in a bus for around 15 hours. it was a luxury volvo bus (courtesy of raj travels) and we did have plenty of breaks, but it was exhausting anyway. so we finally got off at the bus' last stop in hyderabad. two bags and a backpack in tow. three men crowded the door to help us with our bags. and mayhem struck.

they started fighting over our bags. and they weren't just heckling or abusing, but using their fists. on each other. and the bag. that's right, they started fighting with the bag.

a couple of minutes of my screaming and their fistfight-cum-tug-of-war later, they succeeded in tearing my friend's bag strap and apparently decided that they had fought enough for the day. they then decided to run instead. with the half-torn bag.

unfortunately for me and my friend, they were better runners and knew where they were going, while we did not.

apparently they wanted to drive a rickshaw. except that all 3 of them wanted to drive the same one.

so my friend and i are sitting in the back seat of the ric while *3* guys who just fought over and with our bags shared the driver's seat, and proceeded to take us to an undisclosed hotel.

that's when i had a panic attack.

my friend talked me out of my panic, but i was still apprehensive. i asked a passerby at a signal for directions. apparently the place we wanted to go to was just a kilometre or so, straight ahead.

the signal turned green. the rickshaw turned right. something mumbled about a road being blocked. the three men drove well over a kilometre ahead.

panic struck again.

i took off all my valuables (i.e. phone and wallet) and kept it in my friend's backpack. she did the same. we then asked the guy to stop.

they refused.

they then stopped but refused to let us get out till we told them why.

we wriggled out and paid them off (they even refused to return our change) and camped in in a roadside dhaaba till they rode off, sorely disappointed (i'm guessing if they were in a cartoon they would have had dollar signs painted on their eyes or something).

my friend and i both decided that if we ever go to hyderabad again, either together or alone, we're taking a plane.

and we will never wear tracks and a tee when getting off a bus with large bags. ever.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

super elite

I used to love l33t. It used to be some sort of code, something of a secret geek-to-geek communication medium. i never passed any secrets using it...but it felt good to use it for cool stuff anyway. I used to teach the concept only to people who, in my eyes, were geeky enough. unfortunately, now that total n00bs use it for their orkut profile names, it's somewhat lost it's charm, although it does give me the "i was there first" satisfaction, just like gmail and blogging and windows nt do.

So yeah. I still occasionally use leet. I freaked myself out yesterday at work though.

I typed out a whole sentence in leet. In fact i was speaking on the phone while i typed it, and i wasn't even thinking about what i was doing.

Scary. Or maybe i've just graduated from l33t to 5up3r l33t :D

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

moving on to greener pastors

ever wonder if someone quit his job because the postal department was irritating him?

wonder no more. this guy did. or so his farewell email claims:
Hi,

It has been a wonderful experience working with such good guys out here.

Its time to say good bye and I have decided to move on and pursue my courier some where else.

This world being a small place and round too :)
Will meet soon.

Have a great life ahead.

Thanks
...
this is true. i kid you not. name has been withheld only for legal/ethical reasons.

Friday, February 08, 2008

blogger's block

bucking all recent trends, i haven't blogged for almost a week.
excuses include:
  • i'm too busy

  • i'm too bored

  • nothing's happening in my life

  • interesting things are happening in my life, but they're to private to blog about
in related news, i haven't touched my google reader for 10 days, and my diary for 3 weeks, but i'm keeping up my exercise resolutions with a vengeance. ah well. win some, lose some. i think i got a fair bargain :D

Saturday, February 02, 2008

extreme overcrowding

you know that mumbai is at the brink of bursting at the seams with its population when:
  1. 3 women share a 4' x 3' restroom at the same time.

  2. 5 women share a 4' x 4' changing room at the same time.

i was witness to both today: the former at five spice, and the latter at globus, both in bandra.

as the doors said: "save our city!!!"

Friday, February 01, 2008

amazing facebook apps

of late, i've been recieving invites to some absolutely amazing facebook apps. the sort that make me wonder why no one ever thought of them before.

for exmaple:

what kind of girl am i (hmmm...the surprised-to-find-out-i'm-one sort?)

What Color Nail Polish Best Fits me? (dunno...is none an option?)

am i Too Picky When It Comes To Men? (oh yes!!! absolutely!!!)

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