The Lone Wolf

A Social experiment

2011-10-08T17:12:00.000+04:00

There are two kinds of people out there - those who smile when they are telling something funny and those who don't - I prefer the former - else when im not really paying attention, I get caught out...

take this conversation with Alvin a trainer at the Sheraton gym:

Alvin: i eat 17 egg whites a day

Me: isnt that high cholestrol

Alvin: nope, thats all in the yellow - i feed that to the dog. He's dead now!

Not even the ghost of a smile as he says that...cant make out if i should laugh or walk away without turning my back on him...

But im curious ....how will people react ?? And so I shall attempt the great social experiment - tell people morbid stories without blinking or smiling and lets see how they react...results next week..or next year depending on how much fun i have

the End????

2011-04-16T16:29:00.000+04:00

After many many posts, I have decided it is now time to retire this blog.

I started writing this in Feb 2007 as I was getting ready to leave India for Dubai - had expected to be in Dubai for a year...instead Ive stayed for 4...found my wife....experienced more travel and adventure than any other time in my life till date (I turn 30 next week), made some wonderful friends, acquired some wonderful toys (not what you are thinking, I'm referring to my prized possessions like my laptop, iphone and books), learned a couple of interesting skills..all in all had an interesting journey getting to where I am.

And now life throws another curve ball - one that we've chosen to accept with open arms....we head to Singapore in June 2011 and begin a fresh chapter there.

The Wolf of Arabia has chosen to end his story here..this may not be the very end just yet....but he definitely is making way for a new player....

Readers who enjoyed the wolf of Arabias exploits might consider reading the Lion of Singapore's adventures....coming soon.

A matter of perspective

2011-02-12T00:09:00.000+04:00

I realized last evening how lucky I am. I used to feel envious of other globetrotters since I always felt that they had all accomplished so much more with their lives than I had. Id wish that I was earning in Dollars so that international travel would be so much more affordable. oR that I had a stronger passport so we didnt have to apply for visas every single time.

Last evening I met Chris and Katie from Canada. Married a couple of years with no kids chris is a golf pro while katie was in finance. Theyd been saving up for a few years and were now making this incredible trip. They landed in South Africa, then came to Zambia where we met them, were then heading to zimbabwe followed by Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. They wished to visit Egypt but the riots there had given them pause...they were looking to come to dubai (we extended hospitality) and were then planning to head to Nepal, China and maybe Thailand...a 5 month long vacation

How did they get this much leave? They quit their jobs!!

They were not the only ones. Around us, everyone seemed to be taking massive breaks. Kim from germany had just gotten her license for law and was joining her new company in April. One 69 year old man from Australia working as a school bus driver was undertaking a massive Africa tour. We seemed to be the only ones stuck in this quest for getting leave enough to travel...

and then sharon pointed out something...yes we were only making fortnight long trips or less..yes we were staying in smaller little holes than some of these guys and yes we were not possibly blowing tons of cash everywhere....but we were making these kind of trips every year....Weve seen the Pyramids in Egypt, Vic Falls in Zambia, the rocky outcroppings of Cappodaecia... the volcano of Batur in Bali...Ive climbed Kilimanjaro and seen Ngorongoro..shes visited the Masai Mara and Petra and the Jerita Grotto. We've skydived and shark dived, bungee jumped and cave crawled, petted tigers and cheetahs, ridden ostriches and experienced micro-lites and sunset cruises... accomplished a lot in the few years of our lives...shes currently at 26 countries while im at 13..but ive started only about 4 years ago.

We lead good lives....and I now appreciate it more.

Dracula's Birthday gift

2011-01-03T12:27:00.000+04:00

Spent a lazy Saturday afternoon at my Aunt’s barbecue in Creek Park.
Met with a Romanian lady called Fabiola. On seeing my keen interest in Transylvania, she told me this little story..

Turns out Vlad , known popularly as Dracula used to love impaling his enemies the turks. So, one fine morning, on his birthday when he woke up, his friends had set up a little surprise for him…a gift of 20 Turks all impaled on stakes with 19 of them dead and only one still alive.

Vlad was delighted with his present, clapped his hands excitedly, and asked why was the one turk still alive. To which his friends said…go closer and find out.

So Vlad goes closer…and the Turk says………………
……………….

Happy Birthday to You…..

Things Im learning as the wedding date edges closer...

2010-12-28T10:23:00.000+04:00

• The Foxtrot is a 4 beat … 1,2…3 and 4 and 1,2

• The Waltz is a 3 beat …1 and 2&3…1 and 2&3

• The Jive is a 16 beat….I hate footwork…hands are so much easier.

• My wedding ring cannot have the inscription “One Ring to Rule them All……and in the Darkness Bind them”

• I can’t replace the Wedding March with the Imperial March.

• There are wedding cakes available with little ladders with the bride running away, grooms holding guns, getaway cars and more.

• Average credit card bill is AED 14,000 for the last 4 months.

the she-wolf is here

2010-12-17T22:54:00.001+04:00

Its been two months since my last blog...am i finally giving up on this?,

So much has happened..I don't know where to start.

Sachin's left for UK. Hopefully we'll work together again in the near future.

Gullis got a new job...I hope that works out great as well.

Im getting married. Now, that I really really hope will go well :)

Let me explain point no 3 in detail. To the teeming millions who may one day choose to read this, I am getting married in Jan 2011...to the girl Ive been in love with for close to 3 years now. And as we near D-Day, there are a million things to do..

Truth be told Im more excited about planning the honeymoon (South Africa and Vic Falls). But even there its crazy...we still got to book hotels, visas, car rentals, travel itenaries etc - I dont know wheres the time.

Even the recent vacation wasn't too much fun. There was the visit to the cake maker, and a decorator, and the visits to the church and the visits to the hall and a dress maker , and a suit guy and a civil registration and dont even get me started on the church...lets write a seperate blog entry for that one(these are seperate from the doctors and the dentists and the relatives and friends.) ...some of these activities were fun....but just too tiring.

Had to take a seperate vacation further east just to get a real vacation.

And there is the weight watching regime. I tried the GM diet and couldn't get past Day1.Gaurav at work was motivated by my resolve on Day 1 and attempted it (he lasted till day 4).The swimming has helped my technique (I can now breast-stroke 30 laps across a slightly less than olympic sized pool in under 20 minutes, something I had to teach myself) but i still cant butterfly.

Well, thats all for now. I think this was just to make myself feel better...im not giving up on the blogging..at least not just yet.

Rohan in the food factory :)

2010-10-18T18:31:00.001+04:00

Bombay can be experienced by its unique tastes. heres a sampling from this trip.

Bade Miyan, Baghdadi

Have not visited either of these in well over 3 years, but all sources tell me the food quality has dipped as has the hygiene, so give these two a miss.

Apple Juice at Churchgate Station - As good as ever
(On a seperate note, I also love the Aarey lassi I find everywhere in Bombay)

Jai Sandwich next to National College Bandra

Was shut on Sunday. Hoping to visit and paste a review before the end of this week.

Oh Calcutta, Lokhandwala

Theres no bong food in Dubai, so I make it a point to visit this joint every time Im in town. Great food ...highly recommend the Lychees and Kosha Mangsho as the main course and a particular chicken starter in mustard sauce. Also serves alcohol.

Great Punjab, Bandra

Decent food, nothing to write home about...also seemed slightly expensive. I would recommend checking out Persian Darbar, just a few minutes away on the same road.

Nice Stall near Sacred Heart Church Santacruz
A little stall that serves kebabs and tikkas -40 bucks a plate..up from 20 a couple of years ago. Decent food and one of my haunts earlier. Unfortunately no more seating outside, but still wortha visit.

Biryani Centre
Nice Biryanis. Dont know where exactly it is though... :)

Nandos (In Orbit Malad)
Limited menu; but has a large play area right next to it.Dump the kids there and talk to the adults.

Mama Mia next to Elco in Bandra

Has a pizza known as the mother of all pizzas. It certainly is in size and price (1000 bucks) but not so much in taste.

Snowbite Ice-cream store near Mehboob studio

The black currant milk shake is worth killing for. It was fabulous. I can honestly say ive not had a better milkshake in Bombay.

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream , Bandra
Unusual and tasty...worth checking out

Persian Darbar Bandra
This is on my list of places to re-visit. Order the 3 in one raan for a thousand bucks - you need at least 3 people. It is well worth the experience.Coming up Next : Reviews on the places that serve Goan Food in Bombay - Cafe Goa, Martins and Soul Fry.

Alfredos
A popular haunt in Juhu, this place is still good but seems more pricey.

Return to Bombay

2010-10-17T09:34:00.001+04:00

My first trip to Bombay with S didnt start quite the way I hoped...The most glaring change appeared to be the weather. Bombay had turned from the cool equitable climate i so enjoyed, into a raging furnace...

Still all said and done it was an enjoyable experience. The weather cooled down noticeably after a couple of days and light showers (something I'd been hoping to experience anyways - Bombay rains ). The first week was brouhaha with every lunch and dinner engagement being about meeting different people. In between that, and the suits I had to stich, the clothes she had to shop for, the books I had to buy, the restaurants that I missed, her mom coming down, she meeting my parents, me meeting her mom...well, lets just say hectic doesnt begin to describe the past week.

So, Im going to tell you'll all about this experience in a series of quick posts...but i did feel this time, bombay has lost a lot of its charm - I love the city and am usually fiercely passionate when defending it, especially to Delhiites, but the traffic situation has worsened, food prices have increased by over a 100%, public transport is more expensive , not to mention confusing and the wonderful food experience Ive usually enjoyed here dont seem that wonderful anymore....

So coming up next...a quick look at some of my favourite haunts when it comes to experiencing the taste of Bombay.

My Favourite Things Done in 2010

2010-09-18T17:09:00.000+04:00

Watching Hurley reading a comic of Y the last man in lost and then seeing the names of the writers of the tv series as they flashed on screen - one of them being Brian K Vaughn, (the writer of the above mentioned comic)

Reading Jim Buthcher's Dresden files and the Alex Codera - 18 brilliant books that entertained me for a month .

Also, reading the 10 Gabriel Allon Espionage books. Also highly entertaining.

Finally finishing Supernatural, Lost , Heroes and Prison Break...

Climbed the Wafi Overhang...been meaning to do that for 3 years now

Finally moved to a division when I trust the people around me - another thing Ive been trying to do for 3 years.

to be continued....

Serendipity

2010-08-15T20:15:00.001+04:00

My favourite quotes from the movie:

I'm telling you right now,British women do not age well.You know, I mean, years ago,yes, she was a luscious treat.You know, she probably looked like,you know, Baby Spice.

But now she could look like--Old Spice.
*************************
"Sara, you know,it's a wonderful thought.The idea that all of life,that every single event is part of some master plan...designed to lead us to our universal soul mate.

But if that's really true,then what's the point of living?Or making decisions?Hell, why should we even get out of bed in the morning?

For the cake?
No. Not for cake.So that you make mistakes.Mistakes like this trip.And if you're smart enough,you learn from your mistakes.You figure it out.You-You think.You realize that lifeisn't some elaborate stage play with directions for the actors.Life's a mess, Sara.It's-It's
chaos personified."
**************************

When love feels like magic, it's called Destiny. When destiny has a sense of humor, It's called Serendipity

Corny

2010-07-31T20:58:00.003+04:00

At the climbing walls in Wafi

Guy in a T-shirt that reads "The Children of the Corn"!

Me in a T-shirts that reads " Kilimanjaro"!

Guy looks at me, points at my t-shirt and says "Hey, Have you been there?"

Me: Yeah!

He: You climbed the mountain?

Me: Yeah!

He: Wow that's cool!. Thinks for a moment, looks at his t- shirt and then says "Well Ive been to a corn field! "

Next week, when he comes, I'm wearing my sky-diving t-shirt :)

hang over

2010-07-31T20:51:00.001+04:00

I have discovered that I love climbing. I do it 3 times a week sometimes even 4 and its still not enough...Its right up there with swimming (in a slightly heated pool)

Part of the renewed interest is because I would like to do some serious climbing in South Africa. A popular place for this sport in SA is Waterval Boven which has a little restaurant people call "The Restaurant at the Edge of the Universe"

Anyways, the point of this post is that I finally climbed the Overhang at Wafi Mall. Its a wall about 3 storeys in height which i had been hoping to successfully climb for over 2 years now. Partially due to time constraints, expense, disinterest in doing it alone, I put off the attempt.

Finally after half a dozen attempts (on different days) I cracked it. Its a Grade 5 difficulty route - I need to be a Grade 6 climber at least to be truly content with myself.

Its a plus having S also climbing along with me -so it feels like a fun sport for us to do together. Along with swimming.

To anyone interested I would highly recommend it....you lose well over 900 calories in a single hour more than any other sport..And you learn a fun skill that might be of help if your not a Michael Scofield

Octopussy

2010-07-09T16:07:00.000+04:00

For those who dont know him Paul the Octopus is a popular soul who predicts World Cup matches. Unfortunately not many people appreciate his predictions , particularly when he is right.

Here are a couple of choice phrases I heard over the past few days

#1: Octopuses are meant to be delicious not intelligent

#2"He should just stick to....well whatever it is that octopuses do instead of predicting football matches"

#3: I cant believe that stupid octopus was right. Tomorrow we are having octopus for dinner!

Its a bird! Its a plane! Its ...Blam! A Dead Man...

2010-04-16T19:37:00.000+04:00

Read a headline this morning saying that Superman was dead.

The full story revealed that a mystic called himself superman because bullets couldnt kill him (or so he claimed)

All it required was one non-believer. He shot him.

Turned out Supes wasnt that super after all :-)

Let there be light.....

2010-04-05T17:56:00.001+04:00

Me: I want to get laser optical surgery

She: I can do it at home on you, if you want

And all this before childbirth.....

2010-02-04T16:58:00.000+04:00

Meet D, Mother of two; Works in my office. She had an interesting perspective on a rather common occurrence

D: “You know whats the biggest scam in the world? Its pregnancy. Your body’s sore all day, you bloat up like a balloon, everything pains, yr nauseous, you don’t get sleep, your feet swell up , yr throwing up, yr constipated, yr hormonal and so irritable all the time.....and it goes on for 9 Frikkin months!!!

And then tell you it’s the most wonderful loving experience any woman can have. What a load of bull!!

:) ive never quite heard it described that way, but now that i think of it....she has a point :)

Virgin Sale

2009-12-13T14:09:00.002+04:00

Its been a really good year...lots of new toys to play with (PS2, Merlin, I-Phone, :) ), lots of new stuff to watch (3 terabytes and counting), read some nice books (Outliers, King of Ithaca, Mike Carey's naming of the Beast ), new books Im savouring and will read slowly over the next few months (Superfreakonomics, Howto move Mt Fuji) ( brilliant comic arcs (in case I havent said it before, I highly Recommend Conan, Punisher, Amazing Spider-Man and New Avengers), reconnected with old friends, explored East India, played a nice couple of board games I thoroughly enjoyed (Star Wars Monopoly, Kingdom Quest) , visited Turkey, lost weight, yadda yadda...

I also had a lucky break this year by not missing the Magrudys sale - though I went overboard and bought over 40 Lonely Planets (@5aed when the normal price is 120 AED)

And now comes the purpose for writing this blog entry...the Virgin mega sale only for Citibank card holders. Heres a sample of what I picked up (every one of these has an original price of 200 AED) and was sold at 10%

Roswell Season 2
3 Seasons of X-Files
4 Seasons of Stargate SG-1

Among the classics (all 1930-60's approx)

John Wayne Collection
Humphrey Bogart Collection
Sherlock Holmes Collection
Elvis presley Collection
Leading Ladies (Bette Davis, etc)

All in all a very profitable weekend.

Yum-Bai

2009-12-02T16:55:00.000+04:00

Im a self proclaimed foodie....though my staple diet at home is rice, dal and a side course (usually fish). Every trip back to India has me making a little list of places to go and food to sample...this blog entry is about the tastes that make Bombay...

My favourite Jai Sandwich in Bandra is close to 50 bucks now….my staple college Vada Pav is priced at Rs5 (though the famous Santacruz Stn Vada pav is now gone up to 10 Bucks) Sahibaan still serves good food, I didn’t get a chance to taste the Aarey lassi , did try the sugarcane juice….ate the undescribably glorious Martins food twice …literally wolfed it down…couldn’t catch my favourite Dosa vendor (Godrej beach) but managed to eat the Jamun-e-Jannat of Kailash Parbat (Andheri)….didnt visit Toto’s but spiked a couple of bottles and drank outside a wedding…. Ate a 25 inch Mama Mia special (had help of course) which was delicious, returned home nearly every morning at 2 am - Amar Juice Centre is still open till the wee hours, the quality and portions of Bade Miyan and Baghdadi have reduced, the Lucky rolls still hold their charm, Pop Tates has been renamed to Jugheads, Kalcutta Club recently opened is the 2nd place I know in Bombay that serves good Cal food...(love the fare at Oh Cal but find it a wee bit pricey). My newest discovery in the culinary delight that is bombay was this little hotel just outside lower parel station that serves an excellent Kesar Falooda.

To a non Bombayite, most of the above would sound uninteresting...but i know for a fact that people who have lived here will know most of these places.

This is the third in a series of write-ups on Bombay. This thread shall resume once Ive posted more entries on my Sikkim trip else that will soon be just a distant memory...

The Changing Face of Bombay.....

2009-12-01T14:10:00.002+04:00

Bombay has changed a lot in the past one year. Thankfully though its not a superficial change…this looks like deeper more significant upheavals have taken place in the way people think.

For one, there are now new trains and new buses across the city…the old ones are still present but I feel happy seeing that the city’s infrastrructure is changing…a new suspension bridge is reducing the heavy traffic on arterial roads, walkways are being built at various points in the city (im not quite convinced about how great an idea this is), a metro is in the works which will move from east to west (Bombay’s railways are laid out North-South ) thus making a huge difference to the hundreds of thousands of people switching daily between the Central and Western line during their Work-Home-Work commute….

High Speed Internet appears more affordable since the last time…prices of electronics have fallen enough for people to actually evaluate and decide whether we should buy from India or Dubai (About a year ago…it was definitely Dubai…now its ‘Probably’ Dubai) ...you can even call an AC cab to drop you from one spot to another...Juhu to Borivli worked out to 300 odd bucks by the metre(the device, not the measurement)

Still, the changes Im happiest about are attitudinal…the hutments along Tulsi Pipe on our way to IMRb have been cleared all the way till lower Parel , The BMC invited people to paint their own graffitti or images…hundreds of people turned out….overall though I didn’t actully see it, everyone I know had something nice to say about it…I think its nice that the BMC asked residents to do this rather than having this painted in some garish looking colour because a political party was leaning on them …..(This is a rant related to the local govt’s attempt a few years earlier to repaint the buses of the city in saffron) ...whats even nicer is how enthusiastically people responded...All the way from Colaba and Chembur people came on a Sunday morning to paint the wall..

A , unsurprisingly drew a zombie with entrails hanging out, M even more predictably drew a Superman logo, lots of people did lots of different things….ranging from childish scrawls to seriously good work…

Other stuff happening in the city…Trafalgar Chowk is replaced with Café Bandra…a place with a poetry night, or a short film night…a couple of places have stand up comedy….Cafe Mochas have been replaced with something else…a few cofee shops are now frequented by people playing Board games - I played a few games I quite enjoyed and had never played before….Kingdom Quest , Tribe and Star Wars Monopoly ( wih rules for the Dark Side or Light Side…one that I loved if your on the dark side involves throwing a six followed by a number higher than 4 allows you to steal someone elses property :) etc )
This is the second in a series of write-ups on the city. Stay tuned for the third where I describe the choicest food outlets I visited in my brief couple of weeks over there.

In Train-ing

2009-11-22T15:01:00.004+04:00

Riding trains in Bombay is a unique experience. Just yesterday, I felt a surge of pride when I obtained my favourite spot after a minor clash of wills with one of the other contenders.

To non worshippers of the wind god, this favoured spot Im talking about is the front edge of the door in each coach (for convenience sake I call this the vanguard). Theres another which is the back edge of the door (rearguard). An average of 5 people can stand comfortably at the door but these two spots are particularly preferred since once there you cant be dislodged. On a bad day as many as 7-8 people will squeeze into this narrow corridor that receives fresh air in a regular local. The disadvantage for these poor blighters is that they need to keep getting off as people enter or exit at stations. But you stand in the 2 magic spots and you are protected. Of course veterans of the daily battles within each coach know the necessary tactics to be employed which might dissuade the faint of heart, even if they have occupied these vantage points.

The first of course is the scowl and snarl tactic. Might intimidate an amateur...the correct response is to snarl back if your in the appropriate mood, ignore the snarler or infuriate him by just grinning broadly .

The most commonly used method to dislodge an adversary is the brute force attack. Fortunately the vanguard is invulnerable - I have never yet lost my spot when the competition uses brute force. For the BF can only be employed sneakily at stations during the chaos of the entrance/exit. Non-sneaky BF may result in open conflict and nobody wants that...at least they don't.

There is the creepy butt feel (countered with the toe crush) , the emotional appeal"Can I please stand there - my station's coming" countered with the power of "NO!!" and even the inadvertent Spitting Typhoon aatack (where the guy in the compartment up ahead decides to sneeze or spit and the wind blows it towards you (the only defence to that is to be 'Ever Vigilant')

And Yet there is one weapon that can drive you away...there is no defense against it....there isa select breed who walk around with this weapon..Most deadly within the compartment, it has effects even at the edges.It is called the Smelly armpit WMD. When you, dear reader see, or rather expoerience this...run far away...no spot, no matter how wonderful is worth it.

This is the first in a series of write-ups on my city. Coming up soon....how has Bombay changed since i left?

Forgotten Yearz Trip #7 - The Journey East

2009-11-19T17:23:00.004+04:00

Around 7 years ago, after the first trip made by us (Gaurang, Sachin, Poppins, Nandita, Ashwin, Venkat and Myself) Ashwin made a group on yahoo and labelled it as Forgotten yearz.The name stuck

Every year Fyearz takes abreak from the hustle and bustle of Bombay - 5 times in a row it was Goa...but the past 2 have been different places.

The core composition remains the same - Ashwin, Poppins, Gaurang and myself have successfully attended every trip. Nan has missed one, Sachin has missed a couple, Prateek has missed 3 and Venkat has missed 4..New people have joined us Princila and Renuka for 2, Basi, Kashi, Mihir, Reema ,Arpita for 1 each

This is the story of the 7th Annual trip of Forgotten Yearz - A trip to Darjelling, Sikkim and West Bengal. Will sketch it out in more detail but heres the twitter version of the trip

Day 0 - Landed at Cal - Walked around then caught a train to NJP
Day 1 Landed at NJP - Drove to Pelling
Day 2 Drove from Pelling to Gangtok
Day 3-Guru Dongmar ;Night 3 at Laiching
Day 4 - Zero Point Night 4 Lachung
Day 5 Gangtok Night @ Little Italy
Day 6 Nathula Pass -evening at a Pub called Live and Loud
Day 7 -Gangtok Sightseeing Night @ Khagen's Hotel
Day 8 - Travel to Richenpong.
Day 9 - Travel to Darjelling. Visited Wildlife zoo and HMI.
Day 10 - Visited Lava. Stayed in Jungle Lodge
Day 11 - Went to Rishabh. Stayed there
Day 12 - Kalimpong Market. Night caught a train to Cal from NJP
Day 13 - Caught flight back to Bombay

This was the longest and most travel intensive of the 7 Annual Trips so far. Theres a feeling of accomplishment at the end since we have thoroughly explored Sikkim (I can even scratch Bhutan off my list, since Bhutan is supposedly Sikkim with better roads and a hundred more monastaries). The flip side however is that there is just too much travelling..and the roads are bad, because of frequent landlides. However, travel was a necessary evil. Id rate this as Trip No 6 when I rank them all primarily becuase of the heavy travel. (Trip #1 was Rishikesh in 2008, Trip #2 Was the first Goa Trip)

Id like to write more but I think photos will say a lot more than just words. The total cost of this trip for me worked out to Approximately 35K including tickets to and fro (5K) and all hotel, travel, food etc. Sachin and me did the first leg of the trip until Day 6 by ourselves and were joined by the rest of the gang after that.

To Be Continued...

Turkey

2009-10-05T21:02:00.004+04:00

I'm on the streets of Istanbul , trying to explain unsuccessfully to a bus driver my destination. A turkish man steps in and helps. As I thanked him, the following conversation took place...

Me:Thank you

He: Not a problem. Where are you from?

Me: India

He: India? Hmm? Where is that?

At this point I found myself stumped. I never thought the location of this country of 1 billion will be called into question.

Me: India? Its...well..its (Im struggling to explain this)

He: Is it small country?

Me: Uh..No

He: Hmm, never heard of it

Another individual watching the whole thing unfold interjected helpfully...."Its near China"

Turkish man "Aah, ok China" (He probably thought I was the oddest Chinaman he'd ever met!

The Roads more travelled....

2009-09-17T18:01:00.003+04:00

Its been an interesting few weeks since my return from the Kingdom.

In less than a week, I flew back this time to Jeddah for a couple of presentations.

Working on a top level and strategic document that might win brownie points by the end of this year

Making a quick trip to Turkey. Simultaneously involved in the planning of the India trips to Sikkim and W. bengal in November and S.America hopefully in 2010.

Applied for a field trip to Malawi based on some UNICEF charity work done last year.

Some work lined up in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar...but Im not too enthusastic

Hoping Emirates boy will not forget that we have planned to make a few trips together :)

Random Thoughts

2009-08-25T18:11:00.002+04:00

Found a hilarious link out here which makes fun of facebook

Heres an excerpt :

Surpanakha poked Lakshman.

Lakshman took the quiz – “Who has a crush on you?” and got the result – “Surpanakha”

Surpanakha changed her status from being ‘Single’ to ‘It’s complicated’

Ravana added the application “Mob wars” and recruited Maricha

Maricha took the test “What kind of animal are you?” and got the result – Beautiful golden spotted deer

Click the link above to see the rest. Quite funny!!

Theres a connection between Heroes and Star Trek. Sulu from ST featured as Hiro's father. Uhuru from ST featured as that smart alec Kids grandmother. And now Sylar from Heroes plays Spock. Everything's come full circle.

Theres also a circle of sorts in the David E Kelley shows with everyone criss crossing. Except for Chicago Hope which is too boring, I like all the rest...Practise, Ally McBeal, Picket Fences, Boston Public and Boston legal

Been watching this most amazing History channel programme called Battles BC that I downloaded. One of my favourites so far. Also began watching Tudors a historical programme on Henry the 8th. Not yet as gripping as Rome, it still shows plenty of potential.

According to feedback from all those around me, ive lost a lot of weight and grown fairer. I somehow doubt this will last. Dubai has a way of increasing your waistline.

Finally got Neville to download the Tv serial Jeremiah by J Michael Strazynski (writer of Rising Stars and the most Amazing Spider-Man run ever.)

Im being bitten by the travelbug again. Need to figure out the road ahead...

Tales from the world of Research #1

2009-08-24T15:55:00.001+04:00

Interviewer at a cake product test:

How filling would you say is the cake that you have just eaten?

Very Filling
Filling

Just Right

Not Filling

Not at all filling

Respondent : Hmmm, Not filling

Interviewer: First of all, you are eating a cake for free, then you are saying this is not filling?

Bring yr Dota to the slotta

2009-08-16T12:08:00.008+04:00

A long time ago, I played Blizzard's Warcraft III decided it was strictly an Ok game and walked away.

Last evening Milbert re-introduced me to Warcraft III . And to a particular map called DOTA (Defence of the Ancients)

I played it for 9 hours last evening stopping only for 1 hour in between for dinner. The game is terrifyingly addictive.

DOTA has got 3 roads between your camp and the enemy base. The soldiers for both teams are auto generated…no resource gathering or towers that you can control.

What you have to control is a hero. And the more you fight the more your hero levels up which gives him more hit points, and mage skill. If your hero dies, you respawn back at your base but the delay in spawning could result in your enemies leveling up and pressing further in. Also enemy grunts that you kill gives you gold which you can use to buy armour weapons and magic

There are 96 heroes to choose from, over 200 magical items and 600+ powers. Plus recipes (magical objects used together results in new and different amulets and weapons. The game replay value is virtually limitless. You can destroy your own towers to deny enemies the hit points and gold, teleport behind enemies, blast them with ice, fire poison and stun bolts, summon beasts, become invisible, freeze time, perform combo attacks with your own powers or with those of your companion heroes, heal your troops, kill your allies (absorb their life essence), web your enemies, create illusions, launch a lightning strike, drop a cloud of fog, raise a sandstorm, start an earthquake, shoot a sniper rifle, hack with a sword or axe......I could go on and on and on.

If you are a gamer, Warcraft III : DOTA is a must play.

Random Convos #4

2009-08-09T17:58:00.002+04:00

RM used to live near Juhu beach. He is very passionate about his city :)

SA used to live in Pakistan.

SA : Ive heard Juhu beach is so well known primarily becuase of the people who go there every morning with a lota (vessel)

RM: Ive heard Pakistan is so well known primarily because of your training camps....

Wrist in Peace

2009-08-07T20:31:00.005+04:00

I strongly suspect I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Its probably due to my climbing though I got winked at lewdly by one Phillipino bloke when i told him its caused by excessive strain put on my wrist...

Aug 10th

Its a guy thing... the MD looks at my bandaged wrist and says "Thats a sign of a bachelor alone in Saudi"... :)

Horn OK Please

2009-08-04T10:51:00.003+04:00

Rohan is from India...

Milbert is from Phillipines

The two are sitting in an Egyptian Restaurant...

...in Saudi Arabia.

The following conversation takes place

R: Im going to Sikkim this year

M: Oh. Ejaz was telling me theres a place in India where theres a one horned wolf...Is that near where your going?

R: One horned wolf?

M: Yeah, it grows from the middle of his head

R: Are you referring to a Rhinocerrous

[Meaningful Pause]

M: Is that what he was talking about? Why couldnt he have just said Rhinocerous? I know what that is.

:-D

Riyadh #7 - Scare port

2009-07-29T12:26:00.005+04:00

Part 1 : As I was attempting to exit KSA, we discovered I had overstayed my welcome by a day – the fine for this is 10,000 SAR. Was taken aside by airport security and asked why do I wish to disobey the laws of the land? I told them (quite sincerely) that I have no intention of overstaying (seriously!! Except for the internet, I cant think of what could possibly appeal to me out here) Anyways, I was let off with a warning.

The company has recently paid the fine for another of their employees following which theyve laid down rules ... youve done the crime, then you do the time. I was lucky I got through without a hitch.

Part 2:

Everything seemed perfect in Dubai….the calm before the storm.

Saw a new HP laptop for 3900 AED with 1 GB Video Ram ….Sorely tempted. May buy
Bought an IOMega Passport 500 GB for 439 AED from Sharaf DG (thanks to the gift vouchers for the work done for the SRC
Visited Kinokumiya and picked up a few interesting books

Night of the Dragon (Sequel to Day of the Dragon by Richard Knaak) which should tie up the Warcraft story to a satisfying conclusion
The Silver Eagle (Book 2 by Ben Kane) of the Roman soldiers captured by the Parthians following the defeat of Crassus
Hood (Book 1 by Stephen Lawhead)

Part 3 : The Return

I had my hard disk in my bag. Was stopped, taken aside, asked to give my passport and hard disk to customs….they ran a check but found nothing UnIslamic (ie porn or propaganda) . Which was very good, since my phone battery had died and if I was arrested, I wouldn’t have been able to even inform anyone that I was in trouble. Though as tense as a bowstring, I quietly read a book and looked unconcerned as they scanned my hard disk – there were just a bunch of TV serials on it, but even small flashes of skin could incite the radicals (In KSA, any bare skin gets blurred on television (if its govt controlled)

My air of nochalance had an unexpected impact. One guy from Airport security asks me if Im British. :) With my most polished accent I told him "Oh No, not really!" For some reason that amused me a fair bit, once I was safe.

Walked out with a song on my lips (not too loud though - Singing in Public is banned here)

This concludes the second month of my exile. One more month to go and I shall be free....

Onemaf@#$ingtoepia

2009-07-21T11:00:00.003+04:00

It was a dreary work day.

Im sitting at my desk slogging away when unexpectedly i get this mail

draught
/dræft, drɑft/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [draft, drahft] Show IPA
Use draught in a Sentence
Pronunciation note:Draught is a variant spelling of draft and is normally pronounced the same way, ] is sometimes heard for draught, perhaps because -aught is frequently pronounced elsewhere, as in caught and taught.

I responded promptly as below :

Oh cool!!

A random word game with no background or context!!

Me too!! Me too!!

Onomatopoeia or onomatopœia, from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία (ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for "I make"), is one or more words that imitate or suggest the source of the sound they are describing. Common occurrences include animal noises, such as "oink" or "meow" or "roar". Onomatopoeia are not universally the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English and tik tak in Dutch or tic-tac in French.

Exactly 10 mins later I get another mail....

f@#$ing idiot
A moron who knows absolutely nothing about life or anything at all. Often dig their own grave and jump in as well as ruin other people’s lives and their own. Are basically an all round F@#$ing dickhead.

Guy 1: Man, did you get that email from Rohan about different noises people make?

Guy 2: Yeah, what a F@#$ing idiot!

SOURCE: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fucking+idiot

I ve been laughing for the past 2 days on that one :D

PS vs X-Box

2009-07-20T15:26:00.005+04:00

The votes are in.

About a week ago, I asked people if I should go for a Playstation or X-Box.

I got abt 5 votes for the X-Box and 7-8 for the Playstation. A couple of them also suggested the WII but the lack of great games for that platform made it non-viable.

What swung me towards sony was the Red Ring of Death, people with the X-Box kept encountering .

That and this very well written article comparing the two. My sincere thanks to the author.

So I think I'll buy one sometime soon. Need to figure out where to keep it :)

And whether I should buy the PS2 or spend 5 times as much and go for the PS3.

Fun decisions to make!

Riyadh #8

2009-07-19T12:28:00.005+04:00

A quote from 'If' by Rudyard Kipling, springs to mind...

If you can stake all of your winnings on one turn of the toss...
And lose...and start again at the beginning...and never breathe a word abt your loss.

With all due respect to Kipling...there were no blogs in his time. Im pissed off and this is my space to vent.

I, recently suffered a major reversal of fortune. After downloading 5gb a day for 30 days, my hard disk crashed and I lost everything - a partial list of the same being, Titus, Men Behaving Badly, Picket Fences (all 4 seasons), the Practise, Family Guy , American Dad, Babylon 5, around 20 odd gb of comics.

A mobily USB connection costs 300 SAR for the first time and 350 SAR as the monthly subscription. Ive just lost 450 SAR by that logic (since Im supposed to be there for 3 months). Plus a late payment fee by Citibank of 150 SAR (coz of a signature mismatch) and you can see why this week has left me extremely annoyed.

Fortunately Ceto has promised to download for me, so thats a big load of my mind.

Wael , and Egyptian in office (pronounced Vile) took me to a guy named...... Dr Hard Disk!! I found that name quite amusing particularly as M decided to conduct a little monologue "Why Hello Dr Hard, How are you feeling today? Hard?" The guy must be around 60 with a long beard - his office is at Computer Centre. Unfortunately he couldnt do much - which meant a 400 SAR Hard Disk was now officially useless.

The one (and only) nice thing in this week was the MD handing me a bunch of City Centre vouchers for services rendered in my stint in the Go Green club. Enough to buy me a new hard disk.

Lets hope the next week is better.

Riyadh #7

2009-07-09T16:20:00.003+04:00

One thing about Riyadh is that you will find yourself shocked at least once during your stay here. Literally.Something about the low humidity and hot temeprature results in an electric discharge when you touch metal. Laptops, taxi cabs, you name it - its non lethal of course, but its extremly annoying getting zapped 5-6 times a day.

Anyways, last night I visited Batta. Batta is a market place of sorts. You get stuff thats illegal in the Kingdom like porn and pirated dvds and for this my enthusaistic young friends from the Phillipines decided to make that trip while I mostly from curiosity accomanied them.

A PS2 costs 430 SAR, An X-BOX 360 2000 SAR, A PS3 1800 SAR and a WD 500 GB Passport 380 SAR.
No idea what these stack up like against prices in India or UAE, but I will find out. Overall, from what I gather, stuff in the kingdom is relatively inexpensive.

I dont think theres an equivalent market of sorts in Dubai, in terms of sheer size.

Anil mentioned sheesha cafes here that are massive...close to a thousand people in a single cafe + over a hundred waiters - Id like to visit one of those, Will do so soon and continue posting....

The King Pops!

2009-06-26T16:25:00.003+04:00

Michael Jackson passed away.

I went through one phase in my life where i fervently believed he was the only singer worth listening to (1995-96) .

I used to play Heal the world and Black or white over and over again. They used to be the last song on Side A and the first Song on Side B of the Dangerous album and so I would keep running them through over and over.

Black or White was also (to the best of my recollection) the first video I ever downloaded coz I liked it so much.

As I may have stated before on this blog and through other means, I have always believed he was innocent of all charges.

RIP MJ. Your music shall stay with us forever.

Riyadh #6

2009-06-21T14:18:00.002+04:00

Visited Jarir last evening – the fabled largest bookstore in KSA –

It was a disappointment. It was large and spread over 2 floors but only one floor was books and half of them were Arabic, The lower floor sold Laptops and Computer Accessories , Cameras, mobile phones, and movies and TV serials.
As a bookstore it failed to impress…Very low breadth, number of genres/writers and very little depth (number of books within a writer). One notable exception was Dragonlance – (a set of 3 trilogies that I read before Lord of the Rings and consequently have always liked more) – found quite a few of them (Chance or do Arabs just have a thing for fantasy?) I was surprised to find ‘Girls of Riyadh’ on the shelves – it’s a book I thought would be banned

Books are slightly cheaper than in Dubai by about 10-15 Rials. Computer accessories though are pricey. A WD 500 Gb Passport costs 400 AED in UAE – its 25% more expensive in KSA.

Finished off and went to Tandoor, a decent Indian restaurant within walking distance from Jarir. Women/Families sit in an enclosed claustrophobic area while bachelors sit and enter the restaurant through a separate entrance. Ate a hearty meal - skipped the Saudi champagne (Saudi champagne is a large jug of apple juice that looks quite like beer …or champagne I guess) Its quite popular here given that alcohol is banned.

Something id been meaning to write about which I shall do here. A lot of restaurants use a unique way to cool their premises. 4 poles are placed so as to form a square. A pipe is passed from the top...water is sent through the pipe with a certain degree of pressure and nozzles pointing upwards are inserted at different points on the pipe. The water from the nozzles does not fall on the ground -it evaporates. This is particularly effective in dry and hot climates...the area inside the square feels much cooler as compared to outside. Given the heat in peak summer is expected to touch 66 degrees (something I still cant quite imagine) this is a life saver.

Sam

2009-06-17T16:14:00.003+04:00

Saddened and dismayed on hearing the news about Sampath. He passed away yesterday after a bike accident.

The suddenness of the whole incident has been a big shock.

Wherever you are Sam, I hope its a much better place. Amen.

Riyadh #5

2009-06-08T19:00:00.002+04:00

One of my clients has a wife who happens to be a nurse. He informed us 3 days ago that the first case of Swine flu has just been confirmed last week in a hospital in Riyadh

Of all the places in the world, I honestly thought this was the one which would remain untouched. It almost seems...ironic.

Riyadh #4

2009-06-07T11:48:00.006+04:00

Didnt visit Jarir after all. Visited another place, just as fun. IKEA

A cab to IKEA from my place costs 15-20 SAR. Cabs in KSA arent metered...you bargain in increments of 5. Given my 'disability' when it comes to directions, I reasoned an extra 10 bucks to wait for me is quite good value for money. So I hopped into a cab driven by Pakistani driver Arshad and stepped into IKEA with the promise that I'll only be there for 20 minutes.
But, the plans of mice and men as they say... Soon found myself lost in IKEA and trying to get out. It doesnt help that only one in every 50 people speak English, or that practically everything is written in Arabic and most importantly Sallah (prayers) began and everyone disappeared. And then by chance, I saw a litle door that said "Emergency Exit Only" So i thought to myself - cabs waiting, im lost, this qualifies as an emergency. Pushed open the door and then.....the most deafening alarm began to ring trough the store. I quickly shut the doors but no good...it just kept on ringing.From a distance I saw security running towards the door which I had quickly moved away from

Meanwhile good ole Arshad is waiting for me. Ive recently figured that I seem to bring out maternal instincts in a lot of people (either smother him with love or just plain smother him). Fortunately it was the former. He stepped in, spoke Arabic, waited in a line for me, helped carry the cupboard and mirror on my trolley - It was overall very nice on his part.

To cut a long story short, 2 days later my furniture arrived - I now have a scary looking mirror in front of my bed ,a brown cupboard, a black set of drawers and white walls. Why so mismatched you may ask? Well, becuase as Frasier put it.."It's eclectic" . And if thats not good enough , well anyone else who considers it an eyesore will hopefully be enjoying it a lot longer than me..

Riyadh #3

2009-06-03T11:08:00.002+04:00

Houses in Riyadh are cheap. A 3BHK will set you back by 28000 SAR annually. 1 SAR = 1 AED (approx) . But a 1 BHK in UAE will cost not less than 80K right now (when we are in the middle of the recession) One peculiarity Ive noticed is that there are no terrace flats from which people can look down. Or to be more precise, there are terrace flats but the walls are at least 8 ft high, most likely coz nobody from another house can look at the women of the household.

Winters are harsh here in Riyadh upto -5 degrees centigrade. In Peak summer the heat has crossed 55 degrees centigrade. Most places with harsh climates toughens the people making them more brutal more violent, yet more hardy. Afghanisthan for instance…Or the Mongolians under Genghis Khan. Here however Obesity is nearing the 50% mark.

Jean Sassons book Princess would describe the plight of women in KSA in detail. For a more humorous yet accurate and condensed lesson, watch American Dad Season 1’s Episode titled Stan of Arabia 2. There’s a 3 minute song in it that’s hilarious and sums up things perfectly.

Food here is cheap though its very difficult to communicate what you want since most people don’t speak English or hindi. The exceptions are the Indian restaurants which also (thankfully) deliver if your order is large enough, but these are the exception and not the norm.

My rooms AC doesn’t work. The idiots who designed the building basically made the AC’s of the two rooms face back to back so the warm air causes it to trip.

Jarir bookstore is the largest bookshop in KSA. Tomorrow I’ll probably visit – since tomorrows my weekend. And choices of entertainment are limited…..

Riyadh #2

2009-06-02T11:11:00.002+04:00

A less verbose rant than the last...this place is growing on me...

There are limited movie options here in Riyadh for people who dont speak Arabic. One point of interest is that the city is huge...the roads are very wide and thus traffic is a lot less congested as compared to Bombay/Bangalore/Delhi or Dubai.

For a country with such harsh and severe punishments such as lashing and chopping of hands , crime is still prevalent (Refer my previous post) Im not sure yet whether this is due to poverty...or boredom since being repressed in every other way leads the youth here to more violent urges..

Home delivery is not something most stores or restaurants do here. This is usually because they dont want a strange man coming to the doorstep. (It cant be a female delivery person, because, in case Ive not mentioned this before, women arent alowed alone on the streets unless they have a man with them)

The V-Man yesterday came home ecstatic.He had with him the panacea for all our woes - The secret recipe for brewing wine at home. Im personally not too much of a booze guzzler, but for those of you who cant imagine living in a dry country, here's the magic number - 44211

Decoded it means...

4 Litres of Grape Juice (or other fruit juices)
4 litres of Water
2 Kilos Sugar
11 grams of Yeast
21 Days to Ferment....

Ta- Da!! Stick around ladies! After a couple of weeks out here, I'll be able to post up recipes for bomb making as well.

Riyadh #1

2009-06-01T12:13:00.006+04:00

Im in Riyadh,

Its hot and dry, the AC isnt working and the scarcity of furniture in my "apartment" would make a Spartan cringe. I havent yet unpacked since there is no wardrobe. The lats exhaust fans need to be on at all time else when duststorms take place (which are quite common here) the entire place gets covered with dust.The houses incidentally all look alike.

Still, the flatmates are nice. So far. There are limited Indian restaurants in this area and language is a bit of a barrier. Havent yet met the religious police which is a blessing since my tattoo would cause a problem (Tattos are apparently against Islam)

Despite all that I had heard, I think Saudi airlines were very efficient. My plane took off on the dot and landed 15 minutes early. This was compensated for by the ground staff who made me wait for over 3 hours in the passport control line. But once I got through that and figured where my bags were, it was quite swift.

Getting a local number took less than 5 minutes. Sim cards for Mobily are sold by most retailers and dont require passport copies etc.

The area I stay in isnt safe. A friend of mine got mugged there only last week. Even though the office and flat arent too far (7 blocks away) once the sun sets, you shouldnt walk out alone.

Theres very limited entertainment out here. As one guy put it "Last week, I even spoke to a couple of women"

Seriously! speaking to a woman is considered entertainment . What kind of place is this?? :)

I know I should be worried but Im strangely excited.

The fortnight that was...

2009-05-24T12:25:00.003+04:00

Life’s been fun. Returned from my recent trip to Jeddah with an original Season 3 DVD box of ‘Charles in Charge’ a serial I used to watch while in school. It’s a bit predictable but it’s a nice soundtrack and brings back memories.

Attended a friends housewarming over the weekend – I love the house. It has a pool table in the centre, a mini swimming pool in the back lawn, one of those Gujrati swings facing the front lawn, a little aquarium as you enter through the main door, a miniature golf thingy (course??) 3 bedrooms and a top floor. A little far from the rest of the world though. It brought back great memories of the Villa I was living in until last year. All it needs is a little Shisha bar and it would be perfect.

Sumeet was kind enough to download a very large game for me – Medieval 2:Total War. Its amazing so far. Similar to its predecessor Rome: Total War but with quite a few variations which make it extremely engrossing, such as building alliances with various factions by marrying off my princesses to them, joining Holy Crusades, assasinating Inquisitors, Heretics ,enemy merchants, even the Pope if he excommunicates you . Unfortunately it a wee bit too good for my humble little laptop ( or rather my blasted graphics card). Its a good thing I havent yet bought the latest in the series Empire:Total War

I watched an episode of Californication which involved the hero getting a vasectomy. Decided this is not my cup of tea and switched to Everybody Loves Raymond. Turns out good ole Ray is also out to get a vasectomy. As one girl cheekily put it…”Maybe god’s trying to tell you something”

KK told me he loved ‘Rome’ which pleased me immensely. I also got Sharon to like ‘Sarah Connor Chronicles’ and she likes that as well. Ive not yet figured why I cant be bothered about what people might think of me, but I get all excited when people like stuff I like.

Watched Wolverine and Loved it. Hoping to watch Star Trek this week.

Switched over from Rock climbing to Swimming in part becuase i wanted to take a break and approach it at a later point. Although I am arguably in better shape than I was last year around this time , (based on the number of laps i can do) it doesnt yet show :)

After all the hemming and hawing, all the delays around my trip, its all put into place - I should be flying out end of this week.

And with that ends another glorious blog entry.

Coming up soon : South America : The Planning begins here!

Stuff Im envious of...

2009-05-12T16:58:00.003+04:00

A close friend of mine spend 28 days backpacking through 14 countries in Europe.
A guy ive been friends with for over a decade gets sent by his company to Amsterdam!! Amsterdam - the land of sex and hash brownies!
One chap I keep encountering in my daily "bus" to work has come from Morocco. And went to Kenya on work.
A friend in office is attending a conference in Brussels
My ex-roommate studied in Paris
Me ...Im heading to a land filled with camel humping zealots, blistering heat and sand....

So Queued

2009-05-11T15:54:00.002+04:00

I have discovered a pet peeve. Something I hate. Waiting in Queues. I can feel my life ebbing away as I stand in them. Literally. Even the line pops into my head every single time Im in a queue which goes like “ Your life is just pasing you by while you stand in this queue”

After one particularly long wait in Jeddah, for more than an hour at passport control, I decided Im not going to suffer through this at the Dubai airport. The plane landed, doors opened and …Bang!! I was out of the door like a shot, walking as fast as possible in the closest approximation of a run I’ve ever seen without looking too undignified. Cameras would have probably picked me up as a blur as I zigged and zagged and weaved my way through the people. Mothers rushed to grab their babies, youngsters gave startled looks of fright, there was a mad rush to move suitcases and sidestep out of my way as I went tearing through the airport…

Skipped the crowded escalators and took the stairs , 3 at a time. Though my legs were protesting my mind was urging me on “Rest in the stupid line” I kept consoling myself.

Deep down I am expecting a line regardless since there will be other planes regurgitating their load of passengers as well…

So you can imagine my shock when I race to Passport Control and then look around. I’m the only one there. It felt like an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ –The guy processing my visa kept peering behind me to see where the remaining passengers are….even as i disappear towards baggage claim, still no one has arrived, almost like I had chartered a plane and stepped off ….I had successfully won the race…possibly because nobody else thought of it as such.

The Wheel of Life

2009-05-04T16:13:00.002+04:00

Theres this concept called the wheel of life - Career, Friends, Relationships, Wealth, Family,Health , Personal Goals/Accomplishments etc. You rate yourself on a 10 point scale on each of these parameters.

And then you see where are the places you dont have a perfect 10...and try and do better. Or you can apply a new school of thought (aka Marcus Buckingham, William Gladwell and the rest) and focus on your strengths, since those are where the maximum results of your efforts will be seen.

Without Knowing about the concept until recently attending one of these motivational speakers, I did have my own mental rating process I have been following since I was a kid (except career was school, at that time).

And when I used to take stock, invariably there would be something or the other that wasnt right -somethinn that I would think to myself "If only this would be taken care of, life would be perfect...

Right now, for no apparent reason, though Im not in a relationship, work wise Im heading to Hell on Earth, I ve not done much on Personal goals in this year and Im far from family and friends....Im still incredibly content.

I hope this lasts...

28

2009-04-22T18:25:00.003+04:00

My earliest memory is of me when I was 4 staring out of a window....

The first 10 years since then were joyous and wonderful. I look back wistful when I think of how simple things were then..a time so innocent and happy

The next decade was when I studied. Topic after topic , whether I liked it or not...but learned neverthless becuase it was necessary...in some ways even the early work years could be classified as a form of studying itself...learning the ropes, practicals, whatever you would like to call it...I still love history, still suck at geography and still get boggled down unfortunately by physics and chemistry

My twenties have been a voyage of self discovery - most people are moulded by the experiences of their childhood...i think i just took a while...there was plenty of studying here as well , but this was of my own volition...finally had the funds to really indulge my reading habit, the occult and the arcane, cartooning, a musical instrument. even the quick little attempts to learn French and spanish (languages incidentally are not my cupof tea, though I think Spanish is a waay cooler language than French)...the move to dubai. This phase was stagnant for a while like milk that simmers without overflowing when set to boil on a slow flame....and then like a massive explosion... a quick sucession of events unfolding..bitten by the travelbug, stretching my own boundaries, climbing to new heights, diving to new depths, experiencing life in a hundred new ways...making new friends, living away from home and family.I actually found a model at work (one we sell to clients for potloads of money) that i refer to in social scenarios (who says you shouldnt mix work and pleasure?)

Another year has ended. Id like to hope the next decade is more peaceful, but I know thats not going to be true. My own palm foretells (refer the reference made above to the arcane and the occult...my dabbling in palmistry was one of those experiments) a marriage in the next decade, at least 2 tumultuous events, a major hospitalization, a phase of bad luck, large phases of good luck, great financial success and completely unexpected developments in my life that Ive not planned for....

Ive just turned 28. And Im top of the frikkin world!

A change of plans

2009-04-16T17:00:00.002+04:00

Outside Fab India.

She: Heres the plan. We get in there and select a sofa cover thats red white and black!

Me: Ok, do you mean, 'and'?? Couldnt it be only red? Or only Black?

[Meaningful Pause]

She: Here's the plan. I'll select a sofa cover. You just stand with me. Dont touch anything.

:(

The 9th Circle...

2009-04-09T11:48:00.004+04:00

Im going to Saudi.

I’m not quite sure yet how bad a place it is but I have a fairly good idea. Met a guy just yesterday who owns an ad agency currently but stayed in Saudi for a couple of years when he was 20 – washing dishes to make a living since his work permits got screwed and he was stuck there. He lived in a labour camp – which are hell holes btw, sold raunchy texts for 1 SAR each to make some extra bucks (possession of those would mean being lashed today) and probably execution at that time (10 years ago). His stories greatly amused me particularly one where he's singing La Bamba at Saudi Airport while playing his guitar because the custom guys ordered him to while they clapped and cheered .

Another guy (from work) found himself in KSA travelling between two rural towns in a 6 hr cab ride. For company he had a couple of chickens and a goat in the cab with him.

Fortunately I don’t have it quite so bad. The company will take care of an accommodation for myself, I'll get a little 'kharcha paani' and i think by nature I adapt with only some initial discomfort. But life otherwise may not be too much fun. Id be lying if I said I wasnt a little worried - Its a hot conservative place where one such as myself who anyway isnt very 'socially and politically correct' might land up in a world of trouble.But its also an opportunity and I think this is happening at a very significant time (more on this perhaps later)..

This will give me time to sort out plenty of thoughts that I never have enough time to dwell over under normal circumstances.

Global Village

2009-04-01T12:59:00.004+04:00

The following took place between 22nd March and 31st March...

Me : Hi, what’s your name?
Girl #1 : 3
Me (huh? What did I ask?) : Im sorry, what was that?
She: 3
Me: (I wanted to ask if her surname was ‘some’ :) )
Ok, how do you spell that?
She : T-R-I
Though I didnt ask, I did wonder if she was the third child. Imagine meeting 'First' and 'Second'

TRI was nice and sweet and an air hostess (Emirates) from Indonesia. Also very warm and friendly and very very good at rock climbing.

Girl #2 – Iran

Me: Hi, whats your name?
She: (stamping her foot and pouting) :You always forget my name Rohan!
Me: Huh? (Ive only met her once before)

Girl #3 – Mexico

Hi, Where are you from?
She:Mexico
Me: Aaah, tu hables Espaniol? (You speak Spanish)
She (with a look of delight) “ Si, BLrbbba blrrgga bzzzpooba brabrabra? )
Me : Uh, sorry, I just know that one sentence

Girl #4 - New Zealand

Hi, whats yr name?
She:Andrea
<15>
Me:So what do you do?
She: Well Im a mum, with 2 kids, and thats a full time job.
Me: ........

Girl #5
Hi, where are you from?
Im from Raaa-shhh- eee-aaaaa
Me..... (time to move on)

Save the Planet...go Kill yourself!!

2009-03-28T20:55:00.002+04:00

It's 9'0 clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd trickles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Making love to his tonic and gin.
- Opening Lines from the Piano Man by Billy Joel

All of the above is true except the last line. Today is Earth day. For an hour between 8.30 and 9.30 pm hundreds of thousands of people across the world have switched off theirlights, televisions, Air conditioners and computers in a bid to save the planet, slow down global warming and protect the environment.

So here I am in Gloria jeans - my favourite coffee shop, (thanks largely to its nutty mocha frost) - Will sit for an hour while I leave my home in darkness. I feel nice doing this. ive always liked doing my bit for the environment - and I like to believe every little bit counts.I could think of naughtier ways to spend an hour in the darkness...maybe I could do them next year :)

Old man next to me is attacking some dish with gusto. I cant get the song out of my mind. Keep wondering if Good Ole Billy was referring to the old mans acitviities as a figure of speech or literally :)

To my fellow bloggers - Happy Earth Day. May we all soon live in a cleaner, greener planet

Outliers

2009-03-28T17:53:00.002+04:00

The following are the key takeouts I absorbed from the book Outliers. I quite liked it - its in the same league in my head as Freakonomics - also a lovely book.

Your success is very often dependent upon the circumstances you were born under, the kind of upbringing you received and the opportunities you got much rather than your inherent personality itself.
The difference between being good at something and exceptional at it is quite literally the number of hours of effort invested in it. The magic number is ten thousand.You put in 10,000 hours into somethign you cannot fail to be exceptional at it eg Bill Gates and the Beatles.
No one, not rock stars, not athletes, not even billionaires and not even software geniuses make it alone. They are helped along the way by events, people and luck
In general, the more your IQ, the more edcation you'll get, the more wealth you'll make and believe it or not - the longer you'll live.But theres a catch. After a certain point, it doesnt matter. A scientist with an IQ of 130 is as likely to win the nobel prize as one with an IQ of 170
Social savviness that lets you Know how to say stuff, to whom, and when for maximum effect is aset of skills that have to be learned. Its not innate. In large part, its due to upbringing. But wht it also tells me is that you can develop this with enough effort.
Parents who talked through issues with their kids instead of issuing commands, who expected their children to talk back to adults in positions of authority, had more socially savvy kids.

I give the book a thumbs-up.What ive typed here is distilled widom. But to really understand and appreciate the ideas, you should read the book.

Return to Biblical Times

2009-03-26T10:16:00.001+04:00

It Rained Hailstones here in Dubai. Nuff Said!!

Merengue

2009-03-20T11:00:00.004+04:00

I learned Merengue last wednesday.

Merengue is the National Dance of Haiti and Cubai and is loads of fun. Its a lot like salsa except salsa has some fancy and complikcated footwork. Merengue has flashy arm movements but yr feet are fairly easy to work out which makes a major difference when it comes to someone like me who is mostly tone deaf. One session of Merengue is like 5 sessions of salsa ( I speak from experience since ive just completed 5 salsa classes on Sunday)

Danced with a very hot Iranian chick who was clearly an expert.The whole experience was at Sevilles, the Spanish restaurant at Wafi. 40 bucks for the class, another 40 for the food, great music, dim lighting and hot women (all provided by the restaurant) and thats all you need for a night out of glorious fun.

Dubai Drums

2009-03-16T08:20:00.004+04:00

Finally went Drumming this weekend.

Full Moon Desert Drumming is something Ive been interested in checking out, since I saw a preview of it at the Breast Cancer Walkathon in 2007. At 175 Bucks, it’s a slightly expensive but pleasant experience. As the name would suggest, it takes place once a month during the full moon. And when the moon rises in the sky, we throw our heads back and howl long and mournfully (not all by yourself, your joined in the howling by 300 more people)

Its like the Desert Safari, but there’s no dune basing. Everything else is more or less identical . You have coffe and dates in one corner, Sheeshas in another, Barbequed food, busty dancing girls, dune surfing etc. Within the first 30 minutes my hands were slightly sore . However we (the K’s, P, S and self) spent 4 ½ hrs until midnight just relaxing. It is therapeutic and a great stress reliever.
I had a long but pleasant chat with Guy Odell one of the organizers. He said he was part of the expedition that discovered the wreck of the Lusitania though Im not too certain how accurate this would be. Something else he said that I found interesting was how a lot of people are repeat customers - I imagined this to be a one time experience for most people. But a lot of people would bring guests and friends to experience the drumming so more than 20% on an average would be repeats.

We returned with plenty of sand, lots of little aches and a lot of pleasant memories. Howling at the full moon has a certain appeal and i got the chance i had been waiting for on the night of Friday the 13th, March 2009

For whom the Dell Tolls

2009-03-12T15:44:00.003+04:00

Its a game we play. We steal our client's laptop chargers, they steal ours. So far they are winning. The score is 3-1 - Floyd, IT Support

Me: I misplaced my laptop charger.

Ruso : Which brand is it?

Me:Dell

Ruso: Oh Hell!!

Me:But my client called and said it was in his office.

Ruso: That's Swell!

....

It's been a slow week. Hence Im posting these kind of jokes.

Eavesdropping on Idiots #1

2009-03-09T14:47:00.004+04:00

At Jebel Ali waiting for a fax of my passport

Man (on phone) : Have you sent the fax?

Woman (on other end) :Yes

Man :Why has it still not arrived?

Woman : It'll come. it takes time. The line is busy

Man: How can it take time? its a fax...goes in one end comes out other end

Woman:It goes into memory

Man: Stop sending it to memory. Send it to the fax machine!!!

Fun Weekend #3

2009-03-08T10:47:00.004+04:00

Im having a great day. And its not even noon yet.

Im just happy, cant put a finger on it.

I wasted (literally) 3 hours of my life this weekend watching the Watchmen - one of the most inane movies ever.I didnt do anything productive , just lazed around mostly, have a ton of work to complete, I cant go on leave even for a couple of days though i so badly want to because of the workload, Prasun has eaten all my chocolate powder and yet....Im excited :)

So far, got some photograpy tips from Steve, plus he clicked my snap a couple of times (sounds silly when I type it, but hes really a good photographer, so I liked that a lot) .

Anyway, seriously, Watchmen, dont watch it! Theres a line in the movie which is seen on background walls a couple of times...Who watches the watchmen? Nobody should. To be fair ive not read the graphic novel and people who have, have told me the novel is good. But this movie really seemed pointless. I did have an uncontrollable laughing fit at one point becuase i was suddenly struck by how bizarre everything was.

But i liked this weekend. Started with KKs party and ended with me getting some great new music (old, but i hadnt heard before and now i love ..The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel (the only thing i liked about the movie) and Viva la Vida by Coldplay. And an absolutely scrumptious lunch in between which im still dreaming about.

Smoke, Horses and Atlantis

2009-03-01T10:03:00.008+04:00

Ive decided to go for Quality rather than quantity, so I shall club the past 3 evenings into one single post.
Its been a great weekend - enough for me to slot it as one of my favourites for the year.It started with a visit to Atlantis on Thursday night - the over hyped hotel in Dubai everyones been talking about for a Clients Awards presentation. Got one of my ideas recognized and made some easy money, which I think I shall talk abt on a seperate post.

What i really liked was the MC Dave Crane who is a life designer by profession - He showed us the Wherethehellismatt video which too me is a dream job. It was really inspiring seeing it and I think this more than anything else is why I would classify it as one of my favourite memories. The food btw was F#@$All .The window dressings (aka Playboy Bunny wannabes) were gorgeous and I think the brief they had been given was to pop out of their dresses wherever possible which they adhered to faithfully.

Friday was a Polo match at the Ghantoot Polo Club.Dissapointing restrooms, but good ambience in all other respects.It sorta felt like an English tea party and I half expected a Wooster character to pop up and go "Oh Jolly Good Mate! That was absolutely smashing".
I also got some very nice photographs which Im quite pleased about - Ive posted a couple here. The guy waving is a Prince from the Royal family - the third of his Royal Highness Sheikh Maktoums sons. he saw me clicking him and gave a big grin and wave. Without even knowing him , I like him a lot just for that.

The food was a lot better here. I'll also be getting tickets for the Ferrari thingy in November. I suppose it is a pity Im not interested. I even went for Polo just becuase Ive never been to one and I felt it would be a nice experience. That, and deep down I was hopingthat maybe,just maybe, through somemiracle Id get to ride one of their horses.
Raj from the client side informed us how one polo player named Lucas was like the Sachin Tendulkar of Polo. The commentator certainly seemed to think so. At one point he sounded like he was in the throes of an orgasm when he went "Lucas!!Lucas!! Luuuucasssss!!!!"

Saturday was a quiet evening smoking a sheesha with Sumeet at Aroma. Ive seen it so often from the outside and figured it to be a green house or something. Liked it a lot though . We also played this new soul searching game I invented (its a lot more fun in a group, but even with two people, its awesome - It is certainly useful when conversation stills. ) - More on the game another time.

Tagged #2

2009-02-25T20:22:00.001+04:00

26.Ive always gravitated towards older people. Almost everyone In my group back in India are a between 1-3 yrs older than me(Pops, Prats, Sachin 3 yrs older). My roommates and closest friends in Dubai were also 3 yrs older

27. My favourite movie is 'The Sound of Music'.

28. Fashion / style arent great strengths. If you see me well dressed, I probably had good help.

29. I disliked 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. Too random for me. I did read the comic book version though, coz i dislike the idea of leaving a book Ive begun unfinished.

30. I dont mind reading on the computer. Most people I know dislike it.

31. I learned English through lots and lots of reading. It is why though I know the meanings of most words and how to use them in a sentence, I occassionally stumble on the pronunciation. New Languages arent my forte.

32. Im more of a night person than a morning person. However Im more of a morning person than most people I know

33. I never watched the movie 'Anand' fully. I found it too slow for me. Most people I know give me looks of shock when they find out.

34. I dislike Cricket. Another shocker. However when its India vs Pakistan, I also get into the mood. Usually.

35. I dislike watching sports. I may suck at them, but I'll willingly play them, but not watch them. I was pretty decent at football. I was nicknamed Hathoda (the Hammer)

35. Of all the nicknames Ive been given, I like 'Mowgli' the best.

36. Of all the people I know, Ive got the biggest sweet tooth. (Is there sucha thing as a meat tooth? If yes, I have that as well)

37. I always believed Michael Jackson was innocent. I adored his music between 10th and 12th std. I still listen to it occassionally.

38. Ive got two left feet when it comes to dancing. I make up for that with enthusiasm.

39. I walked by a morgue once in the dead of night and this body lying on a stretcher woke up

40. I dislike intensely the platitude 'Everything happens for the best'. I strongly disagree.

41. Back in college, a Cracker (the so called bad hacker, not the one that gives light) taught me how to break one form of password protections. It was one of the biggest highs I ever had.

42.For the past 6 years running me and a bunch of friends make an annual trip in the months of November-December. last year it was Rishikesh - for the 5 years before that, it was Goa. Its usually the highpoint of my year.

43.My grandmothers name is Rose. My moms name is Lily. Got an Aunt named Daisy. The rest of the brood are also named after flowers in Konkani. The House in Mangalore is called Lhanful Bidar (Lhan=Small, Ful =Flowers, Bidar = Abode) Im glad my parents didnt choose a theme like fruits or soem such

44.On a related note Aunt named Daisy married guy named Donald. For the wedding there was a giant sized Donald and Daisy Duck as the centrepiece. They also have 3 Little Kids

45. A nun when I was little announced that she planned to plant a big juicy kiss on me. I asked her very earnestly if I could get one without the juice

46. There was a guy who used to sit in front of me in 8th standard.We were friends, not close but I liked him. He got Kidnapped and was then killed. His name was Amit Rathi. Its weird how some memories dont leave you.

46.Im one of very few people I know who got glasses due to too much reading.

47. Until my 10th std I was quite naive. Then I met Ashwin and he corrupted my soul forever. He also got me into spending tons of money on comics. Bastard !!

48. I was pretty darn good at Mortal Kombat in 10th. There was this other idiot who claimed he could kick butt with just two fingers. he was left staring at his fingers after ashwin and i each whooped his ass

49. I fired a gun when I was possibly less than 10 yrs old (I dont remember, to be honest) . it belonged to my uncle and i sneaked into his room and fired it a couple of times. In retrospect, a pretty dangerous thing to do

50. I woke up a friend during a sleepover and told him " LAMBS!! GOATS!! You WOULDNT UNDERSTAND!! and then went back to sleep! :D

Tagged! Part #1

2009-02-22T19:50:00.005+04:00

Ive decided to join the bandwagon. Ive been tagged and I need to write 25 things about me.

1.Im competitive. Even if I dont display it outwardly too much, Im constantly setting targets based on people around me and trying to do better and on completely arbit things that have no great relevance usually.Ser sent me a list of 25....Ive already compiled one of 45...splitting this across two blog posts though.

2.Shocking as it may sound, Im not the most enthusiastic person Ive ever known. I know a couple of others who I get exhausted just watching.

3.Im hopeless at Directions - I need to walk down a road between Point A and B to find it again. But if i do it in the day, then i may get confused at night. It's something i put lots of effort into overcoming before finally just accepting.

4.I saw the movie the black stallion in third standard in a theatre as part of a school trip. However, I saw my first movie in the theatre with friends at age 14 (I led a very sheltered life).Even that took place after lots and lots of melodrama with my dad protesting that churchgate is on the other side of bombay (I lived in Juhu - the two are 40 minutes away from each other by train).

5.My favourite food was chicken for a long long time until the doc told my dad not to eat red meat. Since then pork became a rarity at my place and it bcame my favourite choice of meat.

6.Another food thing : Ive eaten chicken, mutton, beef pork, rabbit, pigeon, turkey, goose, duck, frogs legs, eland and warthog. I look forward to trying crocodile, turtle soup and venison.

7.Ive made more than one attempt to eat Sushi, but I cant stand it.

8. I once cried on top of a ferris wheel coz it was too high. I remembered the incident a few minutes before i skydived.

9. I was in a Hindi play in school in 6th standard. The teacher and most of the students had tears in their eyes by the end becuase my Hindi was so atrocious they couldnt stop laughing.

10. I learnt to swim in my 10th std...Something Im really really glad about. Its one of the things Im determined all of my future offspring will learn .

11. Despite being mostly a non-drinker, I can swallow copious amounts of alcohol and still remain fairly steadyand coherent.

12. My favourite fantasy epic is not Lord of the Rings like most people. Its a much less known but brilliant series called Dragonlance. I actually read Lord of the Rings pretty late in my life - around the time the first movie came out.

13. I make an attempt to pray every night before i go to bed. Usually i succeed. Its interesting becuase Im not really a practicioner, merely a believer.

14. I was told by an idiot that he tried healing me when I was unwell through Reiki and there was so much negative energy within, the backlash left him unwell for 3 days.

15. In 10th me and a friend attempted to write a great sci-fi story. I dont know why exactly we quit. we had plenty of sequels already planned out. The lead characters name was Daze and the evil empire they fought against were known as the Quamarions.

16.My favourite comic book character is Batman. Ive strongly considered getting a picture of him as a second tattoo.

17. I ran in the Mumbai Standard Chartered Marathon 2006, hurt my leg, was taken to the hospital, sent my doctor a teddy bear and asked her out on V-Day.

18. I hated 9th and 10th std in school - just couldnt fit in. For a really long time after that I looked back at those two years and wish I could have done things differently.

19. Call me naive but I believe all people are inherently good at heart ( im not talking abt psychopaths and mentally imbalanced people here, just regular people)

20. I find it difficult to lie (Diplomacy isnt one of my strong suits). It has earned me labels such as rude and tactless (you cant make an omlette without breaking a few eggs) but Ive also been labelled as sincere and naive. Theres this story about lucifer and how despite him being called the prince of lies, for an angel whose greatest sin was pride, he would think lying is beneath him - he would rather tell people the exact truth and let them damn him as they see fit. I kinda like the story a lot .

21. At my grandparents place we've had a variety of dogs. Unfortunately their naming has never been very imaginative - In order as i remember them, Whitey, Patty, Bingo, Tina, Dingo, Gundurao and Blacky I and Blackie 2.

22. I love dogs. Ive been bitten thrice by them, once by a St Bernard - those friendly ones who are supposed to help people :(

23. I was 4 years old when a vial of acid fell on me. Fell on my thigh and burned right through my little half pant - fortunately it wasnt very concentrated.

24. I love learning new things. While younger Id wished for immortality just so that I could spend my life doing experiencing every single thing.

25.Again while I was 4, I brushed my cheek when a fly sat on it, forgetting for an instant i held a sparkler (fuljadi) in my hand. The physical scar is still apparently there, though very faint . The mental scar however took a while. It was many years before i held a sparkler again.

to be continued...

life, the universe and everything in between #2

2009-02-20T10:28:00.006+04:00

A decade ago, when i was still a teenager, I doscovered one of life's great truths - Your never perfectly satisfied. Theres always just one tiny detail left that if you could just fix your life would be perfect.
Back then, it would either be a girl, or it would be not enough money :) - Nowadays its invariably just a bunch of women.A while ago it was work! (shudder!)
Still once this little truth dawned on me, ever so often I made this little attempt in my head to CYB (count yr blessings) . Dad being a CA and all (All = CA, CS, LLB, DMA [I shudder again]) this little CYB invariably took the shape of a little balance sheet.

So without going into details Im very very happy with my life.

Im missing a few close friends, (at least one of whom I'll not miss shortly) and Ive got ocassional mild but slighlty worrisome back pains but otherwise lifes perfect. Tons to read, tons to watch, tons to do - I'm set so I wont get bored until 2011 .[ I just realized, I havent used my 'Im bored' refrain in close to 6 months ].

I am excited about

My travel plans for this year (Goals include Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon in this region ) and (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) in S.E Asia.
A bunch (3) of suits and ties I bought
My weight dropping noticeably (I sound like a girl!)
A mega stack of comics that just arrived from ebay
More books that'll release this year. The Top 2 Im dying to read...
Book 2 of Warrior of Rome (HarrySidebottom)
Book 2 of The Forgotten Legion (Bob Kane)
Friends in India breeding like rabbits
My new camera
My new clients
Heck Im even excited abt Yanni's 'Tribute' , 'Renegade' and 'Adagio in C Minor' - I think that man is a genius

Ok, so I have gone into a few details...

Ive also done a bunch of things lately Im quite pleased about (KWVRDS - lets just leave it as an Acronym for now).

Ive also been told by Sampath he could write a book on me (I like that idea ...the one thing I hate abt an autobiography is the work involved ...far better if its a biography :D )

More to come soon on other great things..... :)

FOA #2

2009-02-18T13:57:00.001+04:00

A Pic shot from my office. Far Far away in the distance beyond the pole is a little red car. Using my 20X Optical zoom, I achieved my FOA for the month :D

You can click on either of the pictures to zoom in

A friend at work asked me if I want to switch the sound off, when it clicks ( just in case Im clicking someone, without her permission). But with this kind of zoom, hell i can play an orchestra and they wouldnt hear me :)

Foot in Mouth

2009-02-15T12:23:00.000+04:00

I have had a few occasions when I was younger where I would crawl back into bed in the wee hours of the morning while older members of the working class would be setting out for a day of skullduggery.

I always expected that a day will come when roles will be reversed ie I’ll be giving disapproving scowls when I spot young uns returning to snuggle into bed while all I would have to look forward to would be hours of mind numbing and dreary work at office.

However, the young uns should be “younger” than me …scruffy wastrels preferably. It just wouldn’t do to have older Galahads (from Blandings, not Arthurian romances) hopping about for that would feel really unfair.

Which is why I was surprised (and slightly envious) to see my landlord Aldrin heading back home early in the morning at around 7.45, bleary eyed from lack of sleep while I was getting set to go to work. The guy is at least 10 years older than me –Very Impressive Vitality (would that be the right word?)

So as we pass each other, I say casually “Wow!! You look wasted. Must have been some party! “

First he squints up at me as if to see past the halo ive got around my head…struggles to figure who is talking to him and keeping him away from his door which is just a few steps away. Slowly he figures who I am, then he ponders the statement and then…..

He gives me a look of disgust and responds “What party? I was dropping my kids to the @#$% school bus”

A Modern Fairy Tale

2009-02-14T11:57:00.007+04:00

It was a cold dismal night. Cinderella was at home, sweeping her chimney when suddenly there was a great flash of light.

Her Fairy Godmother was busy jogging on the beach with two other cutlets, so her role was being played by Prince Charming. He did it with great flair and gusto.

"Take off those rags" he said "and accompany me to the Valentine's Day Ball"

So, Cindy and Prince Charming went to the ball

They spotted a pink clad witch, sprinkled a bit of pixie dust, junked the diet they were both attempting and overall had a magical time.

Unfortunately it was way past her bedtime, so after shaking a leg, Cindy fell asleep.

No mice or pumpkins for this bonny lass – She leaped into the carriage and drove it all the way back to her home.

Despite his charm, no souvenir Glass slippers were handed out at the stroke of midnight.

They are living (each in their own apartment) happily ever after.

No mice or evil step sisters were harmed during the course of this fairy tale – Cindy did run over a cat though….but that’s another ~~tail~~ tale.

The ten Thousand

2009-02-08T23:18:00.003+04:00

Day 1 of Aikedo
Im partnered with this girl (also a newbie like myself) who looks like shes just walked off a ramp. Not beautiful exactly, but striking - tall, slim, fair and bubbly. There was also a Punjabi guy called Vikram who reminded me a lot of Sudip.

So anyways, i didnt catch her name and once the class is done im walking towards her to get it and i overhear one sentence that shes saying to Vikram "There are like ten thousand of us"!!

And in the few seconds it takes to reach her, Im wondering what would make her say that..

and a coupleof very random scenarios popped up...

#1
She: We are going to take over the world. Mwuhahhahaha
He : You and what army?
She : There are ten thousand of us!!

#2
She:Im a Victorias secret model!
He: Really? Are there many of you'll?
She" There are ten thousand of us!!

#3
She: I will give you pleasures you've never even dreamt of
He: All by yourself?
She: There are ten thousand of us!!

And so on....

So I meet her at the door and say "Hi,Where do you work?"
She: Emirates, Cabin Crew!
Me: Oh you may know my friend Guru
She:There are ten thousand of us!!

..............

Wanted

2009-02-05T10:35:00.000+04:00

Why are there so many eatables with 'C' ?

2009-02-03T22:20:00.003+04:00

Day 10 of the ABC Diet - and Im hoping theres been a difference.

It's been my own invention - ABC = Anything But Carbohydrates. My sis suggested the C could also be Chips which I agreed to, decided to throw in Chocolates on the no-no list as well ( Ive been chocolate free for a while now though last year Id be eating at least one bar a day)

The 'C' includes Cigarettes (easy, since Ive always been a non-smoker) , Champagne and other alcohols (Coz im not too much of a drinker as well) and Cute little piglings which previously I used to devour 3-4 times a week (in plain speak, much less red meat). I toyed with 'Coffee' as well, then decided to wait and watch on that one for now.

Just to make it more honest I'll also specify that I work out approximately 3 hrs a week wall climbing - its great for forearms enough that I can visibly see and feel a difference though Ive not yet seen the supposedly wonderful effect its supposed to have on the rest of me.Oh and once every day I take the stairs 4 flights up.

Will wait and watch...

ABC's and FOA's

2009-01-31T20:42:00.007+04:00

Lonely Planet (or was it National Geographic) had this nice little acronym that I love - MoN (Middle of Nowhere) which is used to describe a spot you find when you travel that is magical to you.
I have my own such acronym(s) - FOA. Feeling of Accomplishment - Its this little high I need to get every few days else it'll bother me - It could be something as arbit (thanks S) as finally cleaning my room (for the 24 hours that it lasts) or picking up a book that ive been waiting to acquire to something large like doing something on my list - ( there are two joys here - the actual deed which Im usually majorly excited about, as well as the smaller but no less important pleasure I get from the little check mark I put on my list).
While Im on the subject of acronyms, Im just going to clue you'll in on one more that Im quite fond of - the ABC diet. Again my own invention - Its called Anything but Carbohydrates (aka no rice or bread) - I've extended the 'C' to also include chocolates - I'll publish more dtails on the success of this next time.

Coming back ...my FOA for today - a couple of snaps from my new Digicam. A wee bit grainy - will get better once i figure out the best settings.

Sharjah -The Corniche at Night.

Dubai -The Waterline

Notes to self:#1

2009-01-29T08:23:00.003+04:00

#1 Despite the misleading name, Cockburns is a fairly decent Port - one of the nicest Ive tasted

#2 You dont need to furtively rip of the plastic covering around books in KinoKuniya - they will gladly do it for you if you just ask them

#3 If your barber succeeds in conning you once, the whole brood will fall over each other to attend to you the next time

#4 You can have the most amazing time watching a movie in the theatre all by yourself.

#5 - I like Decaf a lot more than regular coffee - Thanks to Lady Starbucks, my current bench buddy.

#6 - Even a small pond can have a lot of interesting fish :)

To be Continued...

Words worth a thousand pictures

2009-01-20T13:24:00.005+04:00

The Olympus 565-UZ -Thats going to be my next big purchase.

Been watching the little thing for a while now - It began its career at AED 2139 6-8 months back and is now priced at 1499 during DSF.
I’m not a camera person - I prefer digitals to SLR's, I dont even click that many photos. But when buying electronics, Im usually well upto date

I have been travelling a lot and there’s a definite comfort in feeling the camera resting snugly by your side or in your hands – particularly when you know that you have the option of clicking a sight you may not see again.

My BIL for instance has a different point of view – For him photography is a waste - if you see something worthwhile, it will stick in your head - if you cant remmeber it later, then it wasnt worth clicking anyway. Ive heard similar thoughts on blogging- why write? if you want people to know something you express it verbally- if you write for yourself, then why on a public forum? if you need to write to remember stuff, maybe its not worth remembering.

In my case this is more true - my minds like a sieve at times - i can recall the most mundane details after years but I may just as easily forget something told to me an hour ago. As they say, the devil is in the details and blogging does have one wonderful benefit - I can recall the details of everything of interest - ive gone back to refer phone numbers, names,dates, coded messages Ive hidden within the entires and the like...

I guess im just rambling here, but just yesterday I was again asked this question by a colleague at work. Why write?
Its a question I dont have a clear answer to - Am i doing it for a point in the future when i might get Alzheimers? Am i doing it because it's therapeutic -Is it coz I find comfort expressing thoughts in the written word rather than in what is spoken

Or is it, like a lot of other things im currently doing ...just a prelude..honing my skills in anticipation of a turning point ..rapidly being approached and on the wings of the winds of change?

Wolf in Sheeps Clothing #4 aka Parting Thoughts

2009-01-15T10:00:00.000+04:00

My two cents :

Iran is a lovely place to visit - They are not Arabs and so behave very differently, are generally much smarter and are very hospitable.

Most Iranians dislike their existing government.

If you do got to Iran, do visit Persepolis - $40 one way by plane but the city there is from 512 BC.

Iranian food mainly consists of kebabs - good stuff!!

Iranian women are overall nice looking - not as good as Lebanese or Jordanians for instance but higher on the scale than Emiratis.

The internet is heavily censored - I typed "teen titans" in wikipedia and it got blocked Mohsen assured me even a word like 'shower' will immediately get blocked.

No real copyright laws so you can buy pirated cds and dvds at a $ a piece.

Liek I said before these guys are real hospitable - they learned Im a gamer, they went and got me a couple of game dvds and a bunch of movies ...just like that.

Internet is capped at 128 kbps - Mohsen explained quite seriously that the govt does not yet understand the difference between a highway and the information highway..they say "Dont go too fast, it could be dangerous, you might get hurt"

Another gem by him " If you kill a man accidentally, theres a hefty fine. But if the mans not a moslem, the fine is just half. Also, if its a woman, the fine is half. I want to see what happens when the person killed is a non muslim woman. 25% ??? "

I had a good experience overall - I even learnt all about Moharram - Iran is a Shia country ie they are followers of the disciple of Mohammed while the Sunni are the followers of the son. I was fortunate to be present there during Moharram since its like being in India during Diwali or in Vatican City during Christmas or something.

Would I like to live there? Possibly not. The food is cheap, rents are supposedly high, people get paid low, and very few people speak English so overall no. Would I like to visit again? Most definitely. In fact, i think as part of work, I might just have to go there. Only next time, I might end up seeing it outside of sheeps clothing.

Wolf in Sheeps Clothing #3 aka Alamut

2009-01-07T22:06:00.005+04:00

I first heard about the fortress of the Assassins in Louis L'amour's 'The Walking Drum' - That book is still one of my favourites - the beautiful gardens, the slave girls, the old man of the mountain, I could actually see it in my head...

Fast forward 15 odd years...

I was heading towards Alamut aka the The Castle of Death but literally translated as 'The Eagle's Nest' - This was where the cult of the Assassins originated..this was the place I had read and dreamt so much about...

Here's my album on facebook btw.

To continue...

Hassan Sabah built this castle in 859 Ad. From here the dreaded Hashassin terrorized the Islamic world for over three hundred years - They were finally destroyed by the Mongols in the 12th century.
Their indoctrination was interesting -Potential recruits would be drugged while eating with Hasan Sabbah and would wake up in a garden with 72 scantily clad virgins - they would thus be convinced they were in heaven - a couple of days later they would wake up in a dungeon - Hasan would then convince them that it was all a dream sent by Allah to show them the paradise that awaits them if they do all that Hasan would instruct...these guys would then go out on the missions he sent them to perform...swift, deadly..and fanatical.

Id also read that Saladin decied to destroy them, but awoke one night witha dagger next to his pillow saying "We can get you here also" which led him to abandon the campaign.

Eventually however, they pissed off the mongols who struck back hard. The ruins are all that remain now...

Alamut also features in the game Assassins Creed - For readers whod like to learn more about the subject theres a paper on it written by Anthony Campbell titled 'The Assassins of Alamut'. Download it here

I saw the castle - pretty impressive mountains surrounding it. I had good company for the journey - Wahid from the agency I was working with, Hamid , a friend of Wahid and Mohsen the 20 yr old who was my translator and who I liked the most.

We also did random stuff like attempting to sit in the middle of a frozen lake which was actually a lot of fun.

Coming up next... I close the chapter on Iran with my final few comments abt the place

Wolf in Sheeps Clothing #2 aka The Iran Story

2009-01-05T23:09:00.001+04:00

The experience was surreal. I walk into a room with 13 women and im the only guy- all of them stand up respectfully, many of them doing little half bows. The dress code in Iran for women emphasizes covering the head and wearing clothes that ensure the shape of your body cannot be determined. Maybe Iran was more progressive or maybe it was me, but i was able to determine every curve and contour present in that room and categorize them into neat little subfolders inside my head within 5 minutes of being there.

Irani women are by and large good looking - Of the 13, there were at least 10 I could sleep with, 3 of whom i might actually be interested in re-visiting, and one of whom I think I genuinely liked. Lets nickname her 'the flirty one' for now...

She: I am at your service all day for anything you might need

Me: ..................

Me: I noticed most of you'll wear heels!!
She: We cant help it..We are all so short! :-)

She:Are all Indian women as beautiful like Aishwarya Rai - (Ash is the darling of this region...even in egypt I was asked this same question by 3 different people)
Me: No, most are prettier!
She:In Iran, the Azheri are the most beautiful of them all(after a minute)...Im Azheri!!

Me:Ive also noticed every single woman in Iran seems to have shaped their eyebrows..
She:We as a people are very...
Me :Vain!
She:Yes! Exactly! (Laughs)
Me: You meant as a gender, not as a people ...(She looked confused, so I didnt elaborate)

[I noticed the above mentioned shaping, becuase it did look quite nice on them]

TFO confessed that she is not really a practising moslem...skips prayers occassionally. She handles qual research there which explains her greater comfort while interacting with me. She told me a few fascinating things I had no idea about...For instance

* Dowry is appreciated and legal in Iran. Its a great status symbol.
* Child marriages ie 14 yrs of age is not uncommon in the smaller cities...again legal.
* Sattelite TV is illegal but everyone has it.
* Dating is illegal but people do it
* Man and woman alone in room...will be warned.
* Man and woman having sex in room...wil be hanged (obviously man and woman cant be husband and wife) [this emad told me]

She: Does my hair look good as it is, or should I colour it brown?
[In my head Im thinking..Im advicing people on hair???]
Me: I think you look beautiful just the way you are

Thus Ended Day 1 - I've shortened my trip, so no sightseeing in this trip- will explore in detail another time

A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing #1

2009-01-05T21:42:00.003+04:00

Emad: that one girl I dismissed her - didnt think she was good enough\Me:Which one?Em: The one on your right..wearing black!! Me:.....We r in #$%^ Iran. Everyones wearing black!!

For those who didnt get the title...Tehran : 9 Degrees Centigrade - Ive wrapped myself in my fleece jacket

Made a quick 2 day trip to Iran. Would have liked to stay longer but couldnt justify it...not on compnay books anyway and with A out of town as well, I was kinda in charge and there were too many things to handle.

Took a visa on arrival (75$) Watched a Jordanian get his visa refused and sent back to Dubai.
An hour ride to the Hotel...in a black Limo. It was cool! It also cost $30

Taj Mahal hotel - $160 a night. Too expensive..Decent Hotels in Tehran can be found for $45-$50. Contact me if yr interested.

Quick currency lesson
10 Iranian Riyals = 1 Toman
10,000 Tomans = 1 Dollar

4000 Tomans = Taxi Rented for 1 Hour
4000 Tomans = 1 Decent meal of Rice and Kebabs

Night 1 : The B@$T^&# of a waiter gypped me into giving him a 20,000 toman tip. Its not much but its the principle behind it..He didnt even carry my bag.. Anyways..

Persepolis is $40 by plane (one-way) and 12 hours by road.
Alamut is 3 hrs away by road
The Caspian Sea is 6 hours away by road

Having been fired up by the the legends of the assassins mostly through Kerbouchard's adventures in the Walking Drum, but also through accounts of Genghis Khan and the Templar Trilogy, I decided on Alamut.

But first, I need to finish the work I came here for...

To be Continued...

life, the universe and everything in between

2008-12-27T00:37:00.000+04:00

TV
I've been watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles. And Boston Legal. Love both these serials. I think Sarah (from the serial, not the movie) is what i have in mind as the perfect woman - I dont mean just in the way she looks, but also the way she acts.

Work
Just pitched for a Million Aed study. Was given free rein to design the pitch anyway I see fit, so I went all out and created my finest proposal till date - Sorta imagined myself like Howard Roarke for the 3 days it took me to finish it.

Reading
Its been 2 months since I read Atlas Shrugged and Ive yet to find another book that I feel so inspired by. This was a whole philosophy that I hadnt even explored. Need to spend more time understanding this.

Im very excited about my book collection - I think my next filler post should be just that...a listing of what i have on my shelf..I especially like the Lonely Planets..they look nice and shiny!! - I picked up 3 great ones in India, One on South America, one on Europe and One on South East Asia - they should adequately cover my travels for the next 5 years Im guessing :)

Shopping
Im going to buy the entire J.Michael Strazynski run on Spider-man . Already place the first big order for the year of $250 from e-bay.

Adventure
Love my rock climbing. And theres a slow but definite effect thats beginning to show

Im off to Iran.Work beckons. And Im off to bed. Until next time.

Kili - The End

2008-12-23T20:20:00.004+04:00

Id put this off for a while because its not exactly one of my proudest moments -But Ive accepted it and moved on...and its like a little thread hanging that I need to tie up so here goes...

For those who've known about my recent climb up Kili, I couldnt reach the top...I was about 500 metres short of the peak and had to turn back on account of AMS - Acute Mountain Sickness . Ive heard all the platitudes abt the journey, not the destination etc and I believe msot of them, but in my head, the goal to successfully climb a mountain isnt yet achieved - I might just go there again next year

Here's the story...
We climb the summit at night since the sun is too harmful during the day due to the air being so thin. We had been walking since 8in the morning till 6 in the evening. After 3 hrs of sleep we began the climb to the summit at 9.30 pm..

On a related note, the 3 hrs of sleep isnt all its cracked up to be - the cold and the altitude prevents you from sleeping well...your head feels kinda heavy and you cant drift away easily.
Typically people sleep until midnight - I reasoned however that if Im not getting sleep anyways I might as well climb in that time.
It's extremely cold and the water in your flask turns to ice...you want to drink it you got to break the ice with something sharp. Your tongue's a bit dry so chewing something like a sweet helps. As we progressed a slight nosebleed developed, but my guide assured me its normal. However breathing started getting more and more difficult. What made matters slightly worse is that the frame of my glsses bent a bit and the lens popped out...so i was sort fo blind in one eye just as we were about to begin the trek
No matter how tempting it is you shouldnt fall asleep - if you do, you'll probably never wake up.Also the moment you stay stationary, a thin film of ice starts forming over you. Given that its also pitch dark and you can only see each other thorugh the torches on your head, plus the fact that youve barely slept enough..this is easily the toughest part of the climb.

What irks me about this is that its not something I could deal with - i had trained for this climb - a petite little girl i know and really really admire who is 2/3rds of my height and 1/3rd my weight was able to reach the top as well as a 75 year old bloke and his 65 year old wife.
Its not abt fitness - though i currently have only 4 pack abs instead of 6, the remaining i justify as a sign of prosperity ;)..but AMS is something thats still not fully understood. One extra day of acclimitization might have made all the difference.But then again, maybe it wouldnt...

So, I reached a point, couldnt walk up anymore and started to head down - you cant stay there, the wind is literally sharp and biting...the headaches would be the least of your problems.
Why couldnt I walk up anymore? A symptom that I experienced and so did a couple of others is what I've nicknamed "Jelly legs" -- your legs dont receive enough oxygen, so they refuse to hold you up - I simply couldnt take any steps forward without my leg collapsing.
By the time i reached my campsite...I had walked for close to 20 hours in total out of 24. Was exhausted, miserable and sick.
After 4 hours of sleep I was completely alright. I then walked a straight 8 hours down the mountain and reached the bottom, feeling right as rain. The moment I reached a lower altitude, everything was back to normal.

So with that, I put an end to this particular chapter - Im not too pleased with it, because by my own standards, its not yet an accomplishment. However the thirst for adventure has been whetted a bit..not yet fully sated but enough to let me lie low for a while.

I will return to Kili - possibly when Im older and married - take a different route, one involving the glacier..will spend more time out there...that should be fun. Can also then become an official member of the mile high club instead of getting in with an id I made by myself. :)

Kili still remains important to me - It's the first step towards a possible new set of goals, the climb itself puts me on the mountaineering map, and the experience of doing it alone was deep and meaningful - Two months down the line and Im still processing just how it makes me feel. There were moments when I was convinced Im not going to make it back to civilzation safely and the whole experiece has given me a new perspective on the world ...and healthier respect for the environment.

Ive turned my sights to South America - thats going to be my next big goal - They have Aconcagua (South America's tallest mountain), Macchu Picchu, the Amazon, Anacondas, the Easter Islands and some of the most scenic waterfalls and jungles the world has to offer.

Set sail me hearties!! A new Adventure begins.....

The Great Ball of Yarn

2008-12-22T19:48:00.002+04:00

Its not often you get a chance to make a really corny speech. Fortunately , the world of MR does allow us occassionally to do so. Here's one that happened 5 minutes ago.

My clients pissed because Ive taken a week to deliver her a questionnaire.To be fair, it should take me just a day. but she's small fry and I had bigger fish i was chasing. Of course , we cant tell her that. So she rants about how long we are taking, how other agencies would deliver much sooner and how next time she wont even mark us on the brief.

Here's where the speech begins...

"Listen R, I know your upset. And I know you think its unfair. But, you know what! It's true! We do take more time than other agencies. We do charge you more...But that's because we also give you real quality in our work.
You say you wont mark us next time in any brief?
I say, you should mark us just so that you can take the proposal we make and show it to the other agencies you want to give this too so they know what really good work is.
Mark us, so when they see that we too are involved, they know that they need to give you the best they could ever do, because they know how good we are..
Mark us so..."

I should point out that its really difficult to say all this with a straight face-Fortunately I didnt have to. My client burst out laughing and said "Ok, Ok, i'll just see the quality when it comes in"

Now all ive got to do, is come upwith something worthy of the yarn ive just spun.

Aunt's arent gentlemen

2008-12-21T23:25:00.003+04:00

So there I was, on the 24th of December 2007..in the last place you would expect me to be...inside a church.

Of course, I wasnt there alone...there was a girl with me. And my aunt, vice president of the parish council, with the eyes of a hawk swooped down upon us (she's a sweet little thing, and to be fair to her, I saw her just a few inches away and waved to her) She smiles brightly says..how nice to see you in church, then immediately scans the crowd to see who would be the wild filly that had dragged me here...the two shook hands, my aunt gives the little secret smile she gives when she's got a secret she's dying to share, then disappears into the throng...i groan inwardly coz my parents are coming down in a couple of days and there'll be a happy family reunion where whatever little thing she's got into her head will spill out so very casually.

2 days later...

Said aunt chats with my mom for a bit when they have dropped by...Aunt, with mischievous glint in her eye asks, so hows -------- ?
Warily I ask "What did you tell mom?" She looks indignant - "Im a good Aunt!! I don't tell"

So, I think to myself..thats done and over with

5 days later...
With entire family in the room, along with half a dozen distant relatives Ive never seen before but who all swear they carried me in their arms when I was little..Good auntie dearest smiles sweetly and asks again "So, Rohan, how is ------" ? :D

As Bertie Wooster would put it " I tell you Jeeves, Aunts aren't Gentlemen!!"

Oh Christ..Mass!! #1

2008-12-21T23:09:00.003+04:00

Im not a fan of this time of the year. Dont get me wrong. I love christmas..its's all happy and joyful. Growing up however, Ive hardly had any christian friends. So ive spent it usually with my family and while I guess that's nice it's also..well a tad boring!!
So Christmas last year was awesome...had a great time..the first one away from home..even went for mass, for the second time in that year. This year though, Im not somehow too inclined.
The limited few catholics I know all seem to have packed their bags and headed to India..Sharon ,Lee, Neville, Neal,Renato, Milbert, Mona (well in the case of the last two the Phillipines)
Larkin doesnt celebrate (need to put up a seperate post on Jehovah's witnesses here later).

Still Christmas is fun. Its got sweets, lots of them! For those who know me there's somethin gcoming up that I actually dislike. And it'll be here in just over a week.. New Year!!!

Rishikesh Part 3 - The Grand Finale

2008-12-14T13:57:00.001+04:00

This was where things began to get exciting – We had heard of this rapid, thats extremely dangerous called ‘The Wall’ ..so named because the water rises to abt 10ft and when your raft hits it, it capsizes, just like its hit a wall.

The reason why its so dangerous is because your raft needs to navigate in between 2 whirlpools –crossing the rapid would just last 10 seconds maybe less but the chances of getting through without your raft capsizing are microscopic. Even if it does overturn,the second whirlpool is still safe because rescuers can stay just out of reach and get you out through ropes or with the help of the kayak. But if you get stuck in the first whirlpool, your sunk…literally. The whirlpool sucks you down, while the lifejacket holds you up. One guy apparently was stuck in there for 7 hours before they were able to rescue him. Its extremely difficult to rescue someone stuck there because getting near him is difficult…the second whirlpool acts as a barrier There is a way to get out of you do get stuck in whirlpool 1 and you know how to swim…Slip out of your life jacket. Crazy as it sounds the whirlpool will immediately suck you deep under but once below the force of the current is less…you can swim out…in theory. It’s a good plan but…well I’ll come to it later.

Ashwin and myself wanted to ‘do the wall’ .
Gaurang had clearly said he’s not interested!!
Poppins was interested, but he backed out after Prateek had a long chat with him.
Nandita and Princilla also didn’t want to do it.
Prateek was interested, but he was worried that since he cant swim, how exactly would he manage out there.

My reasons for this were quite clear – I didn’t believe I would be visiting Rishikesh with these guys anytime after this…this was our one chance to do the wall. No point in regretting later that we didn’t…no guts, no glory. Ashwin, I think had similar reasons.
We weren’t exactly helped in our decision by the Indo-Ganga group. Everyone one of them advised us against doing it. In retrospect, looking at the whole thing objectively, based on the advice given by the tour operators we should have refused. Not a single one of them felt we should try the wall. Those guys had years of experience...we were first timers, only 2 of us knew how to swim. We were told the only people who actually attempt the wall are army/navy troops as part of their training or very experienced rafters. Thankfully my friends are at least in some ways as insane as I am, which is also probably why we get along

So we were outvoted 2 to 5. And that was the end of the matter. Or so we thought.
Rafting Day 2

We hadn’t communicated the results of the vote to the tour guys so the next morning they came up to us and said look lets show it to you and then you take a call. We agreed. The guides had also told us that a lot of people change their minds after seeing it because it is quite terrifying – the sound of the rapid itself is deafening. They did. 4 of those who said no yesterday agreed to do it. Gaurang volunteered to shoot the video of the attempt since he was quite clearly not interested. Its another story that he didn’t shoot the video because of a user malfunction.

We initially decided the girls can look, but not touch..chauvinistic as it may sound they were more likely to panic, we would have to worry about them as well as ourselves, the guides would have more people to rescue when the boat overturned and to top it all they couldnt swim. Pops and Prats couldnt swim either but we were sure they would not panic too much..

But eventually the same argument worked for them as well...Once in a lifetime opportunity blah blah, so all of us with the exception of Gaurang proceeded to raft the river.

So here’s what happened

The front of the boat needs to be heavy since the current will tip the boat front up. Poppins and me thus took point.Left is where the more dangerous whirlpool was and that’ the side which would be affected the most and since I knew how to swim , I took that side . Ashwin also knows to swim so he was at second place also on the left. The girls were on the right behind Poppins.

And we hit the Wall.

Couldn’t have been 3 or maybe 4 seconds into it and I knew why it was called the wall. With crystal clarity I knew when for a few seconds I could see nothing but white…on every side of me. The wave hit me with full force from my left and threw me right off the raft along with poppins. I weigh 90 kilos. The force required to lift me clean off the boat ..well its no wonder the locals were scared to let us attempt it.
In the water I was on the edge of whirlpool 2. I rose up 3 times each time barely managing to get some air before I broke free. Poppins was floating a little distance away and we both held on to my oar and got to safety. What happened to the rest of them…Ive pieced together from their individual stories.

Once Poppins and me fell over the boat overturned. The others held on to the sides of the raft and got through safely.

A couple of seconds after Poppins and I fell - the boat flipped over . It actually reached the edge of the whirlpool , was almost out and then got sucked in and tipped over. Prateek and Nandita were caught under, Ashwin and Princilla on the outside edges but holding on to the ropes on the sides of the boat. No paddles were lost.

We had done the Wall!!

The rest of the day is too insignificant to mention here – The other boat rescued the cow that was still trapped from the previous day, saved another cow from rocks falling from the top of the hills due to a road being built..we were too cold and tired and excited

Rishikesh Part 2 - Indo ganga and Day 1 of Rafting

2008-12-14T11:17:00.000+04:00

Stayed the night in a place called Jayram Ashram – From its name, I expected the place to be sorta sparse..maybe a mat on the floor to sleep on and a common loo. To my surprise, the rooms were quite nice and spacious – 4 beds in a room, a loo for each room, the cost was Rs 90 per person per night – extremely affordable!! The only picture I have of the room unfortunately is this one with Prateek trying on Nanditas clothes with the excuse that it was too cold early in the morning.

We were extremely excited to see the Ganges from our windows early in the morning. A dip in it, according to Hinduism will wash way all of your sins – We got dipped enough to last us several lifetimes Rishikesh is a beautiful place. I loved the greenery. Even if your not into culture or adventure sports, it is a great place to just relax and unwind. And we happened to be with a fabulous tour operator – Indo Ganga tours I seriouslly recommend these guys

I loved Indo ganga tours. I cant think of a single reason to be dissatisfied with them – the wonderful tea and coffee they served us, the bonfire every night,

the delicious food, along with one chicken dish every evening (the entire area being a holy place, there’s no meat served anywhere, so these guys put in extra effort to get this for their customers), the tents were cozy, the beds and pillows were soft. They were also incredibly warm and hospitable.

Day 2 – Rafting Begins

White water rafting in the Ganges is a great experience. And Rishikesh…well lets just say I have wanted to go there for a while. My experience in the Kaveri was nothing compared to this.Id read a few lines about Edmond Hillary which mentioned that hed gone up the Ganges back in 1975 and hence most of the rapids were named by him – Id initially thought he had rafted his way up, but once I saw the rapids, my guide confirmed it…you can only go upstream using a jetboat!

3 Blind mice because there are 3 rapids in quick succession which you cant see, Golf course because your raft like the golf ball is shuffled from one hole to another, Crossfire, Return to Sender and Black Money were just some of those that we encountered.
We spotted a cow trapped in a little cave – she wasn’t fully grown, but not exactly a calf either, probably a teenager – the water level had risen and she was thus trapped. The rafting team resolved to rescue her the next day.

Also met a mad man who threw rocks at one of the guys in the Kayak. Kayaking btw requires a lot of skill at balancing. I flipped twice in rapid sucession into the freezing water before deciding reluctantly to give up...for now. The kayak is a tight fit with your feet covered by the Kayaks helm upto your knees - so the moment I overturned I pushed myself out of it as fast as possible to give my legs space to kick so i could break to the surface...but theres something called an Eskimo flip which an experiences Kayaker can do if his kayak overturns - its sort of a wigling motion which continues the overturn youve done ie if you fall to your left you lean your body to complete the turn so that your body completes a full 360, so you emerge wet but still firmly in the kayak.

One place of interest was this rock 20 ft high which people jump from. The water is 70 ft deep, so there are no stones and its thus safe to jump – Prateek, Nandita and myself made the jump.
Id made one in Hatta as well, but im not qute sure which ones higher… Here are both for comparison

The next day was the highpoint of the trip and the most dangerous thing we did this time around......

To be Continued..

Rishikesh Part 1

2008-12-14T10:18:00.000+04:00

Introduction – Day 0

The 6th Annual vacation of Forgotten Yearz was at a new place this time - Rishikesh. Given that the past 5 years it had been Goa, this was bound to be a unique experience. The core 4 from all 6 years remained the same - Gaurang, Poppins, Ashwin and myself. In keeping with tradition, one new person joined us this year as well - Princilla . Prateek and Nandita who have both attended 5 times ao far were also present

If I had to introduce them like in a movie here is how it would be

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

From left to Right

1.The Drunk eye witness who sees the crime - Arnab

2. The Villain with the long hair - Ashwin

3. The Hero in the Sunglasses -Rohan

4.The Gay sidekick who provides comic relief - Prateek

5. The vamp of the show - Princella

6. The Damsel in Distress - Nandita

7. The AIDS victim who dies in the end - Gaurang

This vacation was unique in several other ways- For one,we were willing to spend the most on this vacation - we had budgets of 17 K each - a little more than double what we have ever spent in Goa.
This was also 3 times longer than any vacation weve taken together.
Lastly in 6 years this was the first time where we would be engaging in such strenuous activity - not that im complaining - it felt great that we were actually doing something instead of lazing about on the beach (which is also something we did end up doing).

To provide a brief background, I’ve been living in Dubai for the past 2 years. Venkat and Sachin who are usually present have both gotten their wives pregnant (dumbasses!!) and with Natasha and Alka in their 8th and 9th months of labour respectively, they couldn’t join us.

So we left Bombay on the night of the 14th of November by the Rajdhani to Delhi – India’s luxury train – Was a 16 hr journey, quite comfortable due to it being fully air conditioned. I taught the guys poker, based on what little I remembered from the few games Sumit, Kashi and I had played back when we were living together in our villa in late 2007. Princilla was surprisingly good at it – Goans seem to have a natural knack for card games :)

Note: As it turned out, I accidentally taught them teen patti and not poker - Sorry guys!!

I seem to have just a single photograph of the train journey unfortunately. Oh well..

Day 1
Freshened up at Prateeks place in Delhi – ate at Bikanerwala (Ive been to one in Dubai, didit know its origins were here) and then set out by Road to Rishikesh.
Heres a better picture – with all of us and Prateeks dad as well

Delhi Traffic is horrible. Took us over two hours to get clear of it – After that it was approximately a 300 Km drive to Rishikesh.
The highpoint of that evening for me was the Massive Shiva statue as we entered Haridwar. At night it looked even more impressive and my first impression at that time was it was in the middle of the Ganges which also looked really good at the time. However a photo taken later on our return during the wee hours of the day showed that it’s feet are very much on land.

Shiva and Vishnu too me have always been pretty cool gods – Vishnu was a regular trickster outwitting demons everytime by taking on an Avatar that circumvented the things they were immune to.
Im going to take a moment and digress here. Back in my office there was a guy from Egypt and I asked him if there were people there who still worshipped Ra, Osiris,Set, Hathor, Anubis or any of the others from the Egyptian Pantheon ( Watch TV’s Stargate Sg-1 to be fully aware of all of them) …He said no.

The Greeks no longer worship, Zeus or Hera, the Roman don’t worship Jupiter or Juno, The people from Nederlands don’t believe in Vallhalla or Odin or Thor, Gods like Ba’al are now almost forgotten – Even England which has not been conquered and had its belief systems replaced by any other may at best have small wiccan societies –their Druids are no longer mainstream, if they indeed exist at all. It’s only here in India that the rituals and traditions of thousands of years have still continued till date . And we were here in the heartland, the holiest and most sacred place in India, about to take multiple dips in the most holy river in the country which just happened to have a temperature of 3-4 degrees centigrade at the time.

One more digression. On our return I learned about a group of people who live in haridwar called the aghori –they are cannibals. They eat the leftover after cremations because it gives them spiritual replenishment…they look completely normal, so you cant distinguish between an aghori and a regular person. Despite the fact that they eat only dead people, Id be terrified of walking alone in Haridwar at night.

To be Continued...

Hibernation of the wolf

2008-12-12T19:13:00.000+04:00

A long much deserved, much desired rest after my return from India. Dubai doesnt have several holidays spread out across the year, but during Id we get 3-4 days at a stretch. I had planned initially to head out somewhere Jordan or Lebanon or even Nepal...but after my really long vacation in India which had white water rafting Rishikesh and safaris in Jim Corbett, i decided i should just take some time off and relax. Also given the fact that I may be heading to Iran on work end of this month and that Im broke from the many many books Ive been buying - (Brought back over 20 kilos of books -Ive got a baggage limit of 30, Im frankly surprised they weighed so much.) , it made sense to take a break.

So the 5 days passed by very enjoyably. Watched Boston Legal all day for 5 days (Love William Shatner's Denny Krane!! ) did my reading. Got some time to pen down my thoughts on Rishikesh, call a few people who had left me messages for months on facebook, update my blog (what you are reading right now) and generally sleep the day away.

I think I could get used to this.

The Mind of a Researcher #1

2008-12-10T19:48:00.000+04:00

Alan : In Chennai i did 25% of the work I would do for my clients in Bombay and yet we would receive higher satisfaction scores from them

Deanne : Yea, in South India they are just easier to please ..

Me (In my head) : So the more you are willing to go down, the happier are the clients you are servicing :)

Some people just dont know how to party....

2008-12-08T23:59:00.001+04:00

Vishal and Vaishali are this couple Im friends with. Vaishali works in my office, is a close friend and is a ton of fun. She decided to throw Vishal her husband a surprise birthday party.I, on the sidelines was providing my 2 cents..

Me: Strippers!!
Vaishali: No strippers!
Me: Belly Dancers!!
Vaishali: No Belly dancers!!
Me(trying a different tack) : You remember Abhijit? He used to have really cool parties. His wife threw him a fabulous surprise party once
Vaishali:What did she do?
Me: She got him belly dancers. Im sure Vishal will love them
Vaishali(without batting an eyelid) : Then he should have married Abhijits wife :)

Another dream brought to life

2008-12-04T22:13:00.000+04:00

Back in college, when I was not yet legally an adult, I had this great business in mind - A large cafe of sorts where your billed for the time you spend in there, not what you do. Youd have a couple of pool tables, sheeshas, dartboards , various board games including chess, carrom, scrabble and scotland yard, cushioned mattresses, snacks (charged seperately), tv screens a couple of gaming consoles, even an internet connection. It would be a place for people to relax and unwind -near different seating areas would be music stations-you could listen to. Most of all however, for an avid reader like myself, there would be a neat little library there which people could while away the hours reading .

The Atrium centre on Bank Street in Dubai comes relatively closer to what i imagined - as you walk into the mall there are sofas in the centre- a miniature library right next to it. People can sit and read all day without a care in the world- a wide and varied spread of books of several genres are present there.Theres a little food court behind in case you get hungry. And this evening ,as i stepped in, just out of curiousity as I was walking back from Computer Plaza, I found 2 pool tables have been set up.

It brought back a host of memories. I so love Dubai.

People I met on Mt Kili #2

2008-10-17T10:21:00.001+04:00

I mentioned Matthew and Simon already, so I'll just add a couple of more details - Simon Costa is the CEO of Costagroup - Australia's 15th largest company. They committed to raising 1 Million Rand for an AIDS charity and nearly doubled the target (1.9 Million) by the time they began the expedition.Matthew works for him from the SA office. Both of them were warm friendly who I liked talking to.

Andrew and Kate were two students from Liverpool University - they worked out a deal with the Tanzanian government where they ship every year hundreds of thousands of textbooks from the UK to schools in Tanzania. These textbooks are those that have been printed but are now to be discarded due to syllabus changes - To do this they wrote letters to dozens of chools acros the country asking them if they can use these textbooks for this cause - a lot of schools responded positively since otherwise these would just be burnt.

Jonathan an Israelite, who's been to India described the Golden temple at Amritsar as the most holy place he's ever seen anywhere in the world. He also loved Indian food he couldnt stop gushing about it.

Johann is from Oregon. She was a teacher for 25 years and is currently teaching at the Oregon state penetentionary. She's 60 years old , yet extremely spry for her age. He friend Ralph was 74 - He reached the top then collapsed and had to be carried down. I spoke to him near Mweka camp - he seemed fine then - we had experiecned common symptoms notably the 'jelly legs' at the final portion of the climb.

These were the people who did reach the top. Next week, I'll talk about my own experiences.

Never Say Die

2008-10-14T12:21:00.001+04:00

They ask what it is that I want written
On the gravestone where Ill lie
Tell em its just my bones that died there
So save the tears theyll cry
My spirit is still riding somewhere
Somewhere in this night
When its these three words that come to me
As I kiss this world goodbye

Never say die
Never say no
You got to look them in the eye
And not let go
When its your own blood youll bleed
And your own tears youll cry
When you are brought up to believe
That its the strong who survive

You Never.... Never say die!!

-Bon Jovi
Never Say Die
Album:Blaze of Glory

People I met on Mt Kili #1

2008-10-09T13:24:00.001+04:00

Matthias and Oliver – 2 German Pilots from Lufthansa –Both in their early 20’s. Oliver has a great snap from Serengeti of a leopard leaping from a tree with a carcass of an antelope in its mouth. He also had a stunning camera

Steve and Kate – Steve is a doctor in the Kandahar Base Camp in Afghanisthan. We chatted a little about Al-Qaeda and how the locals would gladly slit the throats of anyone who steps out of the camp. Kate , also a doctor had stayed in Brunei for a while. She had been practising medicine in Africa for quite some time now. She asked me about Dubai and told me how the idea of living in an Islamic country doesn’t appeal to her J

Matthew and Simon – 2 Blokes from Australia. Matthew has been living in South Africa for a good while now – the two of them were climbing in support of an AIDS charity in South Africa and had already raised 1.9 Million Rand for the cause.

Shalini, her husband, Jason and Atlas Shrugged Guy – Shalini is from Coorg near Bangalore. Jason and ASG are from Canada – spoke less than 3 sentences to her husband – spoke a little more to Shalini on day 4.

Myself- A market Researcher from Dubai.

Don’t yet know the status of Jason, Shalini, Matthew, Atlas Shrugged guy and Simon - all of them made a smart decision and took an extra day to acclimatize.

Don’t know about Oliver, though I would like to believe he reached the top. He had already climbed Oduay Lingui a hill sacred to the Masai and an active volcano that had last erupted in August.

Matthias, Kate, Steve, Shalini’s Husband, Myself – all very fine people who I’m sure Id like to know better.

None of us made it…..

To be Continued.

Kili #0

2008-09-27T17:11:00.001+04:00

24 hours to my flight. The past 2 nights Ive woken up at 4.30 am asking myself 'Why am i doing this?' (According to Leela, this is normal) -In typical chicken counting before the egg hatches, Ive already begun making plans for the next trip (Accanagua in South America) -
Was just telling Jeet at work today Id always wanted to climb a mountain - -this trip satisfies the one mountain goal, but more importantly it puts me on the ladder - one summit at a time, until I attempt the Big one - you'll know the one I mean.

I also just dont feel like working and there is a ton that needs to be done. How I'll finish it before I leave is beyond me!

Im carrying a stack of GMAT problems - I genuinely enjoy solving the math questions in it - its definitely more fun than sudiku and marginally less interesting than a crossword - a recent spectacular success by K has also motivated me to make a more serious effort. Ive got several hours to kill in between transit flights - and except for Atlas shrugged which I simply cant put down and the Lonely Planet of course, Im carrying no other entertainment options, no laptops or ipods or portable players - so I think I'll put any spare time to productive use. Part of this trip involves soul searching so a notebook and pen is also in the backpack.

To those of you reading this.... so long and thanks for all the fish

The Joker

2008-09-25T17:37:00.000+04:00

A friend of mine an avid comic reader made an interesting point. To him, the character of joker was better played by Jack Nickholson than Keith Ledger. It puzzled me at first, but then I realized that the comics he had read was of the Joker in the 70’s and early eighties – where the Joker was a more eccentric character – played silly pranks, was considered dangerous, but was more comical than crazy.
The Joker has evolved considerably over time. The past 2 decades saw changes in the entire villains gallery, including Catwoman from thief to crime fighter, False face from a low rung character to the biggest crime boss in Gotham, the Penguin from a silly squawking bird with trick umbrellas into a broker for illegal information with legitimate businesses as a cover for most of his rackets. Even the crimes changed from clumsy capers to more sinister plots and conspiracies, Legacy, Hush, Bruce Wayne Murderer and other titles brought out elaborate plans and confrontations with a host of deadly foes, with several layers of planning and scheming involved.

But the Joker…his change was far more sinister. From the Clown price of Crime, the Joker acquired a new title – The Harlequin of hate. The murder of Jason Todd – the second Robin was probably the first indication of this change. ‘The Killing Joke’ by Alan Moore where he permanently cripples Barbara Gordon was the second – both of these acts sent ripples through the DC Universe

This was followed by more senseless killings like the murder of Sara Gordon – all of these indicated a ruthless psychopath character who felt no remorse – the insane laugh was still there as was the murderous laughing gas – but the character had changed.

And Keith Ledger brought this out brilliantly. I know this sounds like just another rant but as a character im not fond of Joker in the comics . And yet he really played his part well

I wrote this post 2 nights after watching the new movie but never got around to writing it...It seems out of context now, but its a point I had to make. Keith Ledger is till date the only actor who's played his part exactly like a DC Comic Book villain. Alfred and Gordon were also quite good for their roles. The New set of Batman movies have so far stayed true to their roots. lets see how long they stay that way.

The dangers up in the mountain

2008-09-14T18:53:00.000+04:00

Ashwin: you going to be on top for how long?

me: its a 5 days climb

and then 1 day to return

12:46 AM Ashwin: hmm

and you go in a group

me: no im going solo

i wish i was in a group

Ashwin: oh!

12:47 AM so... how would you know the routes n stuff

for all you know.... you might climb something else

me: well i'll have a guide

and 2-3 porters

and a cook

Ashwin: wtf?!?!?

thats a group fool

me: not exactly

12:48 AM Ashwin: group = more than two people

me: its not a group of us climbing you know like friends or climbers

its me and natives

Ashwin: yea... but there'll be people to verify if you've climbed the right mountain, you've *climbed*, you've not died

12:49 AM me: yea

but theydont feel like a group

its not like me and my buddues hanging out

12:50 AM Ashwin: i dont expect you to bond with any of them man

me: its me and a bunch of fellows thinking..why is crazy brown man climbing mountain alone?

Ashwin: :D

me: maybe we should kill him and steal his stuff

12:51 AM

me: we tell people he was stoopid and tried to fly...

wheeeeee....splattt!!

Kill-i- Monteiro

2008-09-13T23:59:00.000+04:00

The title is what a couple of wise guys in my office have taken to calling me.

I figured I might as well climb for a cause and my company had the perfect cause they wanted me to throw my climb behind - Orphans in Malawi . Its a very western fad - throwing money into Africa - a lot of people have expressed how they would much rather donate money to India rather than Malawi. As someone quipped "Given the way they have been recruiting low cost employees, first from India, then the Phillipines and more recently from Kenya , donating to Malawi may actually be a like a long term investment into future employees."

As part of their PR campaign, TNS will be providing a AED 1000 to orphans in Malawi in support of the climb which I am doing in support of the orphans . And a further AED 1000 if I reach the top. Personally , I think its too small an amount to put in - they would be much better served if they put in the equivalent of however much the employees contribute which has already reached close to AED 5000 in a single day.

But I think the highpoint of my fund collection was meeting Stuart - the Grand Old Man of my office - the owner of MERAC later NFO and now TNS Middle East and Africa who I think is the coolest old guy Ive met. He's so incredibly peaceful, so removed from office politics and so warm and friendly - even the couple of minutes spent with him was such a delight. And his shoulder length white hair gives him the look of a wise sage. In nearly 18 months here Ive only ever spoken to him once before this and Im glad I got a chance to do so again.

This was a pointless ranting post. My next one shall be more relevant :)

The Little Big Adventure Begins here...

2008-09-06T01:47:00.000+04:00

Im off to Kilimanjaro!!

The first question most people ask me is ...Why? As one lady put it with absolute bewilderment in her voice - your spending that much to make yourself climb up a mountain!! I don't get it!!

The answer to those still out there trying to grasp why Im doing this is..

Well, lets see. Possibly Because...

1.Its there

2.I've always been a little nuts

3.I've always wanted to climb a mountain -I dreamt of climbing Everest someday - have to start somewhere

4.I learnt about it in school and its name sounded exotic

5.Its in Africa and ive been dying to visit. What better way to inaugurate than start from the roof?

6.I know that if I dont, when Im old, I will regret not doing this. And knowing me, I will berate myself everyday. Would rather avoid all that by doing this when I can.

7.I need to feel a sense of accomplishment - something Ive not felt in a long while.

8.I feel ....alone in a crowd. Need to know if I feel alive in solitude

9.Its one of the 7 summits.

Good reasons these. Every one of them are true in their own way

But possibly, and most importantly, I do this because I need some time alone to myself -to figure out where my life is heading and what I want to do with it. The past year and a half has been the most intense, most exhilarating yet most distressing, most joyous yet most grief filled time of my life. I love all the new friends Ive made and Im working my way towards the next step -uprooting my life here and re-planting myself in another corner of the globe. And to figure this and a million other things I need to take myself out of the equation and look at things from the top - with a fresh pair of eyes from atop a mountain, on a different continent and in -25 degrees of snow.

I can hardly wait :)

Somethings in the air

2008-09-02T00:31:00.000+04:00

A tingling in the back of my head tells me that there is the tiniest whisker of a possibility of a great adventure about to take place very shortly which I might be playing an integral part in. Its all still in Brouhaha mode, but the next week or so will make things a lot clearer.
Im going to keep this a surprise for now. Quite a few people already know of it, but I'm not making it public just yet because there are numerous tiny little details I need to tie up before I feel comfortable enough to reveal just what this adventure is all about.
For now, let just call it a quest, a journey of discovery and hope, a tapping into my inner explorer and warrior for those who d like to nitpick.

Or for the sake of convenience, lets just call this my pilgrimage.

Beer Fest

2008-08-24T19:41:00.000+04:00

Went for the The Beer Fest 2008 at Irish Village last evening.

Contrary to my expectations I had a great time. I'm not much of a drinker, in general, even less so when it comes to beer. Given that there were more than 60 types I was bound to find one I liked. An apple flavoured beer by Hoegardin's was decent - tasting slightly like a Bacardi Breezer

Highlights - Very drunk chick in black skirt jumped up and down for nearly the entire 3 hours we were there. She even climbed a table, but was pulled down by security. One of our compatriots offered me 500 bucks if i bought her a beer and asked her if she would be willing to dance with a friend "without touching" . I refused the offer , since his 'without touching' condition sounded quite fishy.
Band from Irish Village and the Chelsea hotel were both present. At one point, one of them leaps on to a table next to us and play the violin for a few minutes - I think he singled our table coz we were the most boisterous and some of Viraj's dance moves witnessed that night, may probably never be seen again.
We even had our very own encounter with the Security teams ( who were all huge and muscular) when we started throwing people up into the air (with their consent of course)
Chatted for a couple of minutes with a nice half-Irish girl before my immature playmates (Kashi included) started clowning around.
On a related note, I think I love Irish music. The few songs Ive heard are all jaunty and cheerful
V and I finally ate dinner at Al-Hallabs.The lebanese waiter, after a little cajoling whispered to us the secret of how to prepare their magical garlic sauce. He did so with plenty of melodrama, looking around to see that no one was listening, leant close and whispering softly how the secret ingredient is not labaneh as we would think, but ice. We didnt believe him though. If i've not mentioned it before, nows a good time to state that I love Lebanese food as well especially their garlic sauce. Hommous, made of chick peas is also something a lot of people are fond of, but I'm not too big a fan.

Weekly Update August

2008-08-20T00:18:00.000+04:00

What a week!!

Got tagged by the most vicious spyware till date - called the XP Antivirus 2008. Every thing that i threw at it just bounced off. WIth no other options I had to format my hard drive, re-install every single program and start over. Thanks to me planning for contingencies like this, plus having an exremely professional IT team, everything back to normal...Almost. My net conn isnt working, but I hope to get that fixed soon.

Second, a waitress at Gloria Jeans spilled coffee on me.

Third carelessness on my part got me having to pay 100 AED more than i should for my tickets to India. Its not the money that irks me, its just that I could have given it to those less deserving instead of to line the pockets of an already multi-million dollar corporation

Still it wasnt all bad.

Picked a stack of 8 Enid Blytons for the many offspring I will someday sire. At a throwaway price of AED 5 a book (secondhand) they were worth it.

Watched a fabulous serial called Californication.One of my favourite TV stars a decade ago, Fox Mulder(DD) plays a swaggering alpha male sleeping with every woman he meets while juggling his life and career around. Not ha ha funny, but very filled with irony, sarcasm and wit. - A definite must watch. I end up watching 12 eps in a single day.

Nothing Important!

2008-08-20T00:07:00.001+04:00

"Nothing important happened today"

The story goes that on July 4th 1776, thats what King George penned in his diary.

It took 2 weeks (or was it months) for the news to reach him and the rest of England to realize that America was not a colony of theirs anymore.

I remind myself of the above anecdote everytime I see things happening that I cannot explain - the answer is out there - Ive just not found it yet.

Should I worry that lately I find me reminding self of this again and again?

A case study

2008-08-06T14:32:00.000+04:00

The head of HR at my company decided to send out a little story to boost morale, encourage people to work and all that other crap. The story by itself is an email forward of some sort which has a moral at the end. I circulated it among a few people and got some fun responses. Lets look at what came up...

The Story...

Once a boy went to a shop with his mother!

The shop keeper looked at the small cute child and showed him a bottle with sweets and said 'Dear Child... u can take the sweets... but the child didn’t take. The shop keeper was surprised; such a small child he is and why is he not taking the sweets from the bottle. Again he said take the sweets - now his mother also heard that and said. Son, take the sweets. Yet he didn’t take it.

The shopkeeper seeing the child not taking the sweets... he himself took the sweets and gave to the child...... the child was happy to get two hands full of sweets.

When he returned home, the Mother asked child... Why didn’t you take the sweets when shop keeper told you to take some?

Can you guess the response?

The child replies... Mom! My hands are very small and if I took the sweets I could only take few, but now you see when the man gave with his big hands.... how many more sweets I got!

Moral: When we take we may get little but when God gives... HE gives us more beyond our expectations. More than what we can hold.
We should ask to GOD rather individuals as He is the one who has given to every one with his power.

********************************************************************************************

Any, ways I posted my thoughts to this as...

If big hands gave sweets to little boy, how would be manage to fit them all in his tiny hands? He could only do so by stuffing some in his pockets.
If he anyway has to put some in his pockets, wouldn’t be better if he took the sweets? That way he could put more in

Within minutes I got a few more gems...

Big hands more difficult to put into a small candy jar … so usually only two adult fingers fit into such and hence less sweets come out that way rather than if a small hand was to move in and grab a fistful … moral of the story being big large organizations are usually less effective and efficient as compared to smaller ones!!!

What if the shopkeeper was not such a persevering soul and after telling the boy twice and not seeing any enthusiasm shown by the child, decided that the child was not interested in sweets and so did not follow up on the offer any more … the blighter of a smart assed child would have been left high and dry without a single candy … moral of the story is never let and opportunity go by!!! #Respondent #2 (Qual Researcher)

Respondent #3 – The Kid did not know how to seize an opportunity. He should have grabbed the whole jar! – Delhi Boy

Respondent #5: If it was a gujju boy, not only would he have taken the sweets, he would have sold them outside and made a profit on them - (Gujju Woman)

Respondent #4 -: The real question, we should be asking is why….Why would the creepy little shopkeeper with the big hands want to give sweets to the poor little boy? What was he expecting in return? :D