Where’s Waldo?
Posted on January 15, 2010 - Filed Under blog
I’m supposedly Waldo, this tall, thin character with big glasses and a striped sweat-shirt, which just about describes how I looked the first evening our flat-mates threw a party last week, where these students from various B-schools were all invited.
Given how tough it is to pronounce my name, ‘Hari’, I think Waldo will do just fine! This character is basically shown amongst a bunch of people, usually numbering in the hundreds and the task at hand is to spot him in the crowd. There’s apparently an interactive version on video gaming consoles too, which require you to spot him, just like in the original paper versions.
Since I can blend in with crowds easily and slip past unnoticed (Mossad, are you listening?!), I’d say this is indeed a proper nickname! Oh, and just for added effect, here’s Waldo for you!
IIT M Saarang 2010 Update
Posted on January 11, 2010 - Filed Under blog
In a recent development, it turns out that it is not only Hammerfall, but also Skid Row that will be performing that same evening on that same stage. These guys have managed to pull off a masterful coup and signed on two bands to play on the same evening!!
No Sebastian Bach, but instead, Johnny Solinger will do the honours. Two big bands on the same stage on a breezy January night in Chennai is probably one of definitely the coolest thing to have happened so far as Saarang 2010 is concerned!
Hopefully, circumstances will give me an opportunity to take a day out to cover the event. Fingers are crossed!
Violet. Indigo. Blue. Green. Yellow. Orange. Red. Transparent!
Posted on January 10, 2010 - Filed Under blog
Perplexed, he walked along the corridor and repeated said action with Divya. “Skin colour!”, he said and had a near death experience when she slapped him and this almost resulted in him being decapitated by the force exerted in her action.
He walked along to class, twice bitten and mouth shut, wondering why it was ok for those women to discuss what colour their bra was in public, but that he was mauled for it merely because he said what was on their facebook status message back at them.
The times are changing, or are they really?*
PS – My dear cousin, Devrat wants to raise awareness of testicular cancer by doing something similar with male underwear, based on his last facebook status.
Well, here goes – Brown checks in a Tartan pattern. Yes, they make boxers in psychedelic colours. Go figure!
*Incident depicted above is fictitious and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is because you’ve got a warped, perverted mind and only the hot shrink lady next door can save you.
Hammerfall at Saarang 2010
Posted on January 6, 2010 - Filed Under blog
Now Hammerfall isn’t exactly the first band that comes to mind when people think of Swedish metal / power metal and I haven’t honestly heard much thanks to having discovered them a couple of months ago via last.fm, which is why I’m only familiar with songs from their last album, ‘No Sacrifice, No Victory’.
However, their music seems like its good fun to listen to at a concert, and the show at Saarang 2010 should be a good gig to attend. I’m just wondering how many people will now claim to be die-hard fans of Hammerfall, and this should be fun to watch.
@The Devoted Reader – your email address is not working. Please email me. Thanks!
2009: The Year That Was
Posted on January 2, 2010 - Filed Under blog
2009 has been quite a year for me and when I am long gone and my great-great-grand kids want to read what I’ve written (yeah, your great-great-gramps is teh_pwnage!), they need to be shown how cool I was, even if it means writing something completely untrue and fabricated, as some part of this post might turn out to be.
Having said that, most of what actually happened in my life last year is stranger than fiction and hence needs no more fraudness to be introduced for this post to sound weirder. If you’re cheesed off by the post already, here’s wishing you a grand 2010 and goodbye.
Before you go, please check out Aadisht’s stunning preview of 2010 which definitely warrants a read. His years in preview are now a regular feature of his bleg.
Moving on to 2009 in review for me in person. A lot of condensation has taken place thanks to the fact that minutiae needn’t be documented, in the interest of time and space and most of all, your attention span and sanity.
January:
- Went to IIT Madras and interviewed Opeth for the cover story for Rock Street Journal. Got promoted from Correspondent to Staff Writer, though I can’t really tell the difference. The latter title definitely sounds cooler. Never felt more powerful as part of the fourth estate till date, except for while shamelessly flashing press card before boarding domestic flights and getting the aisle seat all the time.
- Got two videos (video 1 and video 2) of me dancing along with Gaurav Basu and Abhinav Yogesh, vocalist and drummer respectively of the Bangalore based Inner Sanctum. It is to be noted that TASMAC shops disbursing alcohol in Tamil Nadu close at 10 PM, and our shenanigans were executed in complete sobriety due to the frustration of not having consumed alcohol, as opposed to being inebriated as it might seem in the video. Potential recruiters, please note that this showcases my light side which might come in handy as a future manager in your esteemed firm.
February:
- Admitted to the Indian School of Business’ class of 2010. Sheer joy at not having to work for a year. Eleven months down the line, I realize I’ve worked more in college than in fifty five months at the office. Go figure.
March:
- Last day at work on 20th March, and the anticlimax accompanying the end of my work at the only company that had me employed made me feel grateful that I could switch companies sans emotion. Being in the system long enough afforded a smooth exit, with all friendly faces helping out with the exit formalities. I still miss my close friends at work, and the fellowship (as we called our elitist clique of ‘cool’ people) shall reconvene again!
- Packed and moved back from Bangalore to Mysore, only to move out again in ten days. Had to bid goodbye to all the good friends I had made over five years in the city which I had just begun referring to as home, along with Mysore. Packing and moving sucks.
- Attended a wonderful surprise birthday party for someone. Surprise birthday parties shall never go out of fashion.
April:
- Turned 26. Was unemployed. Did nothing on my birthday except go out for an hour to meet an old college friend. One of my most uneventful and yet best birthdays till date.
- Finished loan formalities. For the first ever time in my life, I owed someone money that I wasn’t in a position to repay in the short term. I’ve still not come to this bridge that I foresee will be a long and arduous one to cross.
- Joined Indian School of Business’ class of 2010 to become a post-graduate student of management. Yeah, this is most of what my life currently revolves around till date, for better or worse.
May:
- Settled into college life, made friends, played pranks like this one and had a lot of fun. Got adjusted to parties, long hours of working / studying, spending atrocious amounts of time in front of my laptop, answering phone calls like I had to go take an urgent dump and other things that management grad students are usually supposed to do.
- Wore a suit for the second time in my life to get a picture clicked for the student handbook. The contortions involved in getting me to pose that way, as can be seen in my linkedin profile can’t ever be replicated, unless under conditions of threat to my life. The first time I wore a suit was for my B-school interview in December 2008.
June:
- The end of the world as I knew it and I felt fine. Correction. I’ll feel fine in due time, and write another cathartic post like this one and things will be brighter and sunnier again. Until then that far away look where one focuses away into infinity and reminisces about the past when one’s mind wanders shall remain.
- The rest of June 2009 remains a blur.
July:
- Getting used to the academic grind, with B-school keeping me busy enough to not even blog, try as hard as I wanted to. Oh, and I got to be President of the Music Club, which meant that anytime someone’s audio equipment malfunctioned, I was asked to come around and tinker with the wires to set it right, or to play top Bollywood hits music at parties where a DJ was unaffordable, or compile playlists for the most randomest of occasions. In all this confusion, a band was formed on campus (a rock band, no less!) and it was called Conjoint. Bwuahahahaha.
August:
- This was the month of theories when out of class creativity was at its peak, and a new genre of music was discovered, the Samson ratio was discovered and the Infinitely Prolonged Social Interaction theory was formulated. This theory, in some other time and some other place might’ve catapulted me to meteoric fame, but alas, all it got me was a blog post with a reasonable number of hits. I’ve made peace with that. I’m so easy to please.
- New nicknames were given to people, some of which will stick for life. Conjoint made its debut performance amidst as little fanfare as was possible.
September:
- Seems like I’d amassed enough street cred to be considered a judge for rock shows and hence was invited by Xtreme Sports Bar in Hyderabad over three weekends to judge Hyderabad bands doing their stuff. Got acquainted with the music scene in Hyd as a result.
October:
- Tried hitting on a girl at a bar when I was judging the final of the aforesaid set of rock shows. My extent of hitting on was to make hajjar eye contact and then not go up and make conversation. At this rate, I might as well hope and pray that females realize that striking conversation with men is part of the whole women’s lib thing that they’re so proud of displaying or that GSBs can convert easily to Buddhism, whichever comes later.
- Spent a wonderful week in Hampi / Anegundi working on an internship project to develop rural tourism and improve the small scale handicrafts industry in the region. Fell in love with the idea of watching sunsets while walking in paddy fields, listening to Sigur Ros.
November:
- Website told jai, MadMan Madhu Menon repaired it for me. God bless him.
- Fell into the standard issue honeytrap that most stupid people in an educational institute fall for, where someone’s charm is used to extract work from someone else. Guess which of the two parties I was!
December:
- Won a free phone at a quiz. The Nokia 5310 is my first phone with camera, mp3 ringtones, bluetooth, video and a wallpaper that moves!!!!!!!!
- Monkee got engaged, among other fun events that took place on December 13th. His phone bill has since quadrupled and his joy has increased asymptotically. Touchwood, good luck and God bless.
- Opened as part of Conjoint for The Raghu Dixit Project.
- Got shortlisted for a job interview, did crazy things including rush from Noida to the Delhi airport in peak traffic with no less than six near-death instances, beg and plead for a last minute flight ticket from New Delhi which cost a bomb, hugged the Kingfisher attendant who booked me the ticket and showed up in time for the interview. Many days and rounds later, I got a reject. Such is life. The effort made it memorable. Also, it doesn’t snow in Thailand. So there.
- The first of my cousins on my Mum’s side got married. She’s the second, age-wise. Guess which moron is the eldest? Yeah, scary. I know.
- Spent New Year’s eve half asleep while watching TV at home. The tame end to the year was as blissful and relaxing as it could get.
2009 will be relegated to the pages of personal history and has earmarked many changes in my life, good and bad. However, like each year that has passed in living memory, it will, without doubt be yet another year that has gone in shaping life as I know it. If you’ve read so far, Happy New Year once again!
*post fades away into the distance, with Green Day’s ‘Time of Your Life’ playing softly in the background*
Temple Visits
Posted on December 30, 2009 - Filed Under blog
However, there have been many incidents that took place in my life that I can’t consider anything short of miracles, and ergo, the restoration of faith in some divine power that watches over me and knows when to let me screw up and when not to.
I could also attribute this to the fact that I’ve always managed to not fall into a ditch thanks to being self-aware and conscious about it, but believe me, it has happened way too many times for me to dismiss it as mere coincidence.
There’s so much beauty out there (and I hate to sound like Lester Burnham here) that it can’t be dismissed to mere evolutionary chance.
All said and done, I’d like to think that science and God can coexist and both seem to have made peace with each other in my mind, at least. So all religious zealots and scientific naysayers can choose to have another battle ground beside the confines of my mind that is already preoccupied with gazillions of other things.
I visit temples on quite a few occasions. I enjoy going to temples quite a bit because it helps me connect with my spiritual side, which, especially after spending the past eight months in B-school seems to have gone into hibernation.
However, its not all temples I’d like to visit. In a weird parallel, most temples that are famous attract thousands of daily visitors, much like popular bands attract audiences of thousands at their concerts. You don’t want to be part of a crowded unpleasant experience now, do you?
I don’t.
I’d rather go to a smaller concert, or in my case, be comfortable in the press area and be far away from the madding crowd. Similarly, even though I’ve been to famous temples in places such as Gurvayoor, Tirupati, Mathura and so on, which will grant you immeasurable cosmic Karma, I prefer visiting hitherto unknown temples such that of our family diety’s in a small place called Madkai in Goa, where the levels of Karma gained might pale in comparison, but the spiritual experience is infinitely more worthwhile.
Another favourite temple of mine to visit is a small one that is located in the confines of this gated community my folks live in at Mysore, which has a couple of hundred visitors during major festivals, and it is during those times that I avoid visiting the place.
At all other times, this place is blissful because one can only smell the faint trace of burning incense and camphor, and the occasional chiming of a temple bell mixed with birds chirping in the vicinity and the entire atmosphere puts one at peace. It is a state that one can’t describe in words, try as hard as one might.
I’ve visited temples since I have been a kid, formerly due to parental pressure and later on, on my own volition, to connect with the higher powers that be.
I honestly don’t know what protocol to follow when one goes to the temple, save for doing the Pradakshina, where one walks around the inner sanctum of the main diety in circles and then prostrates in front of the idol.
I follow similar rituals when I visit Buddhist temples, save for that the act of prostration is slightly more elaborate, as defined by the Buddhist set of rules for paying respects to the Bodhisattva.
However, I have noticed many people chanting prayers of all kinds and doing so with extreme piety and reverence.
Despite knowing many a shloka (thanks to my having learnt them as a kid), I can’t seem to think of much else except the Gayatri Mantra to chant when I pay my visits.
However, when I circumambulate around the Navagraha (nine grahas or planets), I can’t help but keep repeating ‘My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets’ to myself. It is, for some weird reason, quite refreshing and cathartic. Go figure.
