Thor rides again!!

we had the most awesome thunderstorm i have seen in years!! buildings shook, trees quivered and mere mortals withered in fear, and i? i slept the sleep of gods! it was amazing.. the Norse believed that during a thunderstorm, Thor rode through the heavens on his chariot pulled by the goats Tanngrisni ("gap-tooth") and Tanngnost ("tooth grinder"), and lightning flashed whenever he threw his hammer Mjollnir. Thor is the son of Odin, the god of war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom. Odin can make the dead speak to question the wisest amongst them, and is accompanied by the wolves Freki and Geri, to whom he gives his food for he himself consumes nothing but wine. Odin has only one eye, which blazes like the sun, and his other eye he traded for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, and gained immense knowledge. i like this bloke!! for people interested in this norse mythology, click here for a simple bare bones guide to it all - the scrollbar on the left has the names of all the gods. the site for the Encyclopaedia Mythica is awesome for those really interested.

was chatting with shruti (mohanty) today.. here's the link to some of her marriage pics.. in case you didn't know she married sarthak, an ex-RKite. spoke to ani & george in the UK on the skype thingy today.. bar the phase lag it's pretty cool!

spent pretty much the whole day packing up my shit.. we're finally moving into the new party house at 33 heath!! it is gonna be the house that party legends are written about!! dan and jessie came over and helped us move a lot of the smaller stuff.. then we went off to mal and nat's for dinner..

the original boyz (sank, vip and i) then had a sentimental reunion on the 55 tyler balcony for the last time, as we reminisced the good old year past.. truly we have had some good and some great times here.. and the thousand-plus bottles and cans of beer we've polished off.. and all the barbecuing, the stuff we've talked about, the jokes we cracked and the fun we had.. come snow or sun, we've seen it all on that balcony.. i don't believe it's already a year since i landed up here!! time to move on and write new chapters in the book of life.. sniff sniff ;-))

long hectic day

woke up very very early to take ranj to the canadian embassy for her visa.. then i rushed back to MAL to finish up the paperwork for my fulltime status and Application To Candidacy.. though i really don't know what the rush is since i have told these people so many times now that i'm in the US i'm not planning to leave for a few years!!

we went to the boulevard mall and then to the prime outlets at niagara falls.. and i think ranj and viki got horribly pissed off with ash, sank and me.. we went wild shopping there.. while they just got dragged along in our slipstream and didn't pick up anything!

we saw the lights and the fireworks at niagara falls, pics will be up soon.. then we went to the Hard Rock there and met up with ranj's uncle and family.. ranj left and viki then pushed off for rochester.. the gang lande up at mal's.. she'd made awesome baked pasta.. then came home and crashed.. really whacked!

just a quick thought - farhina, where are you? if you're reading this mail me or come online sometime!!

party time again

got up bright and early (10 a.m actually!) to go meet my advisor dr. baier.. got my thesis abstract sorted out.. then viki came in from rochester.. we got ash and went to the airport to pick ranj up.. she's looking awesome! we then went to amy's place for a late lunch at 4.. ranj was kinda tired out so we went and crashed at mal's and nat's place..

sank finally let nats do his hair and she took a couple of inches off the back.. interesting.. the gang went downtown for the arrested development show at Thursday at The Square.. it was packed and they had a great time..

we went for dinner to Lake Effect.. then went to north campus to drop off jessica.. ranj and viki slept at mal's.. ash and i went to Third Base on our weekly thursday pilgrimage.. dodi was there looking nice and pretty.. hubby darling was there too so ash couldn't really swing into action! it's beautiful now that we've become regulars.. we had a couple of drinks and shots, then left.. early morning tomorrow.. have to go get ranj's visa, then i have to go submit my documentation for the Application To Candidacy.

i just noticed that the hit counter has crossed 1500.. thank you very much to all the people who faithfully come and check out the blog everyday without fail.. any feedback as to what else you want to see on this website will be very useful.. and please leave comments, it's nice to hear from all of you!! thanks again!!

concert hangover

woke up with my ears still ringing and a croaky throat.. 3 concerts in 11 days is the count!! ash had the car still, so dropped off mal at MAL and vip at VIP.. no, vip went to north campus actually.. had brunch at Paula's, then went to boulevard mall to return the Taboo.. which they said they couldn't accept coz it was opened.. damn!

make it a point to read Rahul Phondke's Funnybone this week.. especially if you have ever gone shoe-shopping with any member of the gentler/smarter/weaker/other sex!!

did an awesome job in the afternoon of concentrating and writing out a draft of the thesis abstract.. sent it off to baier, then took a nap.. too much mental effort ;-)) went over to our new house at 33 heath with sank and ash to plan what goes where.. we're inviting nominations from people as to what to name the house - contenders so far are "The House Of Rock", "Sanitarium".. please friends feel free to chip in!! and "sex, drugs, alcohol and rock n' roll" will not count.. don't want the DEA/cops/feds/traffic police/CIA knocking on our door at 3 in the morning after we paint the name on the door!!

had dinner at mal's n' nat's.. then we had a small macabre film fest, watching Final Destination 1 & 2 back to back! that was fun, as was the walk back home at 2 in the morning.. in the stillness of the warm summer night :-))

Projekt Revolution!!

the day dawned cloudy and dreary, but it got hot today, cos projekt revolution has rolled into town.. linkin park, korn, snoop dogg were all here - wooha!! mallika, ash and i went for it at 2. we tailgated until 3 with the tequila of Senor Jose Cuervo, then went in to the revolution stage where some of the smaller sidey bands were playing - we got bored there pretty soon and when the gates to the main stage lawn opened we rushed in! less than jake started it off, and weren't too impressive either, and the used followed them and they weren't much better either.. at least the opening acts for nickelback and evanescence were much better, but i guess that was the premise of the projekt revolution.. giving smaller bands a chance to play the big arenas.

finally snoop dogg came in and bitch-slapped some ass into shape!! that was good! he got the crowd going in no time.. and it actually wasn't so incongruous getting a gangster rap act on a rock outfit tour!! his version of the "goodbye song" and "next episode" had everyone wild!! he really got the crowd jumping fine for korn coming in next..

"are you ready?!" were the words screamed out at the top of jon davies' lungs as he bounded onstage in a black leather kilt and adidas stripes on it!! "korn!! it's on!!" korn did some awesome shit, pulling out a whole best-of collection in the one hour they played.. "freak on a leash", "blind" and "falling away from me" deserve special mention!! then they blew everyone away by launching into their MTV Icon version of metallica's "one".. and then they really set the roof on fire when they played pink floyd's "another brick in the wall", but in their own style, with their seven-string bass and screaming guitars!! jon davies played the bagpipes as well for "shoots & ladders".. in between taking breaks for oxygen 'shots' for his anxiety disorder.. yeah, if you didn't know that! the scary part is that his wife is always standing there side-stage smoking away to glory next to those damned oxygen cylinders!! the wild moshpits we had for korn were scary too!! there were three large ones in the lawn section alone!! loads of people being taken away with gashes, rips, broken noses and various other injuries!!

the crowd was getting restless, feet tired after standing 7 hours all day.. wondering what the heck was taking so long.. then the explosions, and linkin park was there!! they had so much freaking energy jumping on and off and all about the stage!! i had watched them in columbus in january, but this time was maaaad!! "it's going DOWN, it's going DOWN!!" they did a couple of freestyle raps from unreleased songs, apart from the regular picks out of hybrid theory and meteora. these guys are amazing live.. simply superb! they didn't have lasers or pyros or shit, just simple lights and good hard ROCK!! we ripped out our throats yet again.. and still had some more in the reserve tanks to usher in the encore.. "crawling" and "one step closer"!! ama-f**kin'-zing show man!!

managed to get lost twice (again!!) on the way back from darien lakes.. landed up at 55 tyler where there was biryani leftovers.. good work nats, sank, mal n' vip.. came home, updated this blog and crashed.. sweet dreams. actually, hard rocking heavy metal dreams.. but sweet in their own way!!

happy birthday vip!!

happy birthday happy birthday lalalalaa!! vip kicked off his birthday morning doing what he does best.. sleeping!! who has a birthday on monday anyways!! cold, dreary monday morning.. perfect for sleeping in.

we got the car at 1ish.. so vip, mal, ash n i went for lunch to the chinese place at tops.. then to i-tops to return the 'empties'.. the count was 450 this time.. still nowhere near the 760 cans and bottles we turned in last time in april!! by the way, the second collection came in pretty quick!! we then decided that we would be buying a X-Box.. so we were checking out games n stuff..

went for birthday dinner to chili's.. everywhere else closes by 10 on weekdays!! picked up a margarita shaker there for the collection, then drove down elmwood to go to the marina & waterfront.. it was raining, but still nice.. then came home, and chilled out.. nice quiet birthday eh vip?! nirav got a job today.. 61k plus shares.. beautiful!! well played mota-bhai!!

In my CD changer: Metallica - S & M & Pearl Jam - Riot Act

lazy sunday

a friend called me up asking if i wanted to go bird-watching.. the two-legged, two-winged kind.. now it's his idea of a good time to go off with a pair of binoculars and watch some warblers at it, but it's a thing that i can't see any percentage in. when i meet a bird, i wave a friendly hand at it, to let it know i wish it well but i wouldn't crouch behind a bush and observe it perform its daily ablutions!! now i'm starting to sound like bertie wooster!! results of reading p.g. wodehouse..

richard finally gave me the keys to 33 heath lower, but now he seems to be playing cat-n-mouse with the upstairs apartment, and the girls are losing patience.. i dunno what to do either.

it was vipul's birthday tonight.. we got him a pair of glaring golden boxers as his spoof gift, and a ferrari racing black jacket.. which he seemed to totally like.. we got him to 'catwalk' the boxers too!! i am gonna put up those pics under pain of being contacted by his lawyers, but what the hell.. have already sullied any chances of his political career anyways!! kavin, raghu, reddy, adi, vamshi and shashi also popped in at 12.. and got him to parade the boxers.. again!! we had made margaritas and iced-tea-ritas too.. five of those and a couple of joints and i drifted off into the dreamless sleep which i so yearn for.. :-))

saturday is here

grr.. had to wake up early in the morning to be at the conference by 8.. tucked into a nice well-rounded continental breakfast there.. then slept heartily through the morning presentations.. got up for mine - passed off peacefully, scared the bio people away with the fluid mechanics displays in mine!! - then went for lunch to Ulrich's Tavern.. i would encourage everyone to follow the link and read the history of the place.. had awesome bratwurst and sauerkraut, honey mustard buffalo wings and more salad.. and downed two pints of buffalo's own Flying Bison Red Ale.. good stuff.. no chance i was going back to the conference after that, so i came home to 55 and crashed.

chilled out in the evening; had nice looong chats with my cousin ambika(she's seeing this italian guy, and moved outta home finally), shruti(from kgp, telling me about the joys, trials, and tribulations of married life), loretta(smi's room mate - her laptop decided to give up the ghost.. poor girl!! smi has moved to st. louis and bought a ford focus hatchback for 5k!! WOW!!) and ranj(will be flying into buffalo on thursday afternoon), then went over to 55; sank and vip had cooked rajmaha chawal. malvika had coloured her hair blonde, and was showing off the new look - very nice, very nice indeed. julia roberts eat your heart out! azmi and jason were also there, so we had a couple of drinks, and played 'Taboo'

after everyone left, kavin came over, and we sampled some more of the pleasures of Ms. Mary-Jane ;-)).. were good and buzzed by 4 in the morning.. crashed then to ths sounds of winamp's "ambient chillout sleep sleep sleep" - this station can really weird you out at times, but otherwise its amazing.

In my CD changer: Offspring - Smash & Limp Bizkit - Results May Vary

long hard workday

woke up bright and early today (ok, ok, stop laughing.. it was 9.15!) went to the MAL to finish my poster, then went for the conference - pretty big do it was.. everyone suited out and stuff.. i, in the spirit of kooky biomaterials engineers on a friday - went in jeans, sneakers and white shirt! have to present my goddamn poster tomorrow.. yuck! the speakers were giants in the field and all, but they failed to keep me interested, or awake!! there was an albert einstein impersonation that was funny, but then he started waxing sentimental and i started waxing jim n' cokes.. so all was well again..

the cocktail after the conference was fun.. nice hor d'oeuvres, and free booze!! knocked back a few buds and jim n' cokes in rapid fire :-)) coming back home on the subway with karrishma and ranjini was fuuun after that!! ;-))

passed by 55, helped sank and vip with a bit of the cleaning, passed up on raghu's birthday party at dawg's.. came home, put on pearl jam and crashed.. long day tomorrow too.

In my CD changer: Pearl Jam - 'Riot Act' & Pearl Jam - 'Binaural'

chillout thursday

had a nice quiet day today.. was up till 4 last night finishing up my presentation.. woke up around 10, picked mal and went to the MAL (Malvika's Architecture Library)!! ;-)) well, so many of us hang out there these days that it's like she's the bartender out there! wouldn't it be so cool if you could go to a library and have a drink and chill out with a book? barnes & noble, are you listening? cos that is definitely the way to go!! i would like 35% of all profits in that venture if you don't mind, and another 35% to mal for all the times we have been in her lib and disturbed her and almost got her fired too!!

finished my presentation, must say it looks pretty awesome by all engineering and med. school standards.. though all my archi. and planning friends would beg to differ.. only problem is that i gotta be up and running at 10 tomorrow morning.. what crap man.. there's gotta be a law against this!!

had dinner at home for a change today - how could i not, mayank had made puris!! ash and i went to Third Base at 11.. sorry man, no dodi tonight either.. though natalie made quite an entry in a short strappy black number!! yeeha!! ash got stuck playing 5 games of pool with eddie (people, remember eddie, the weird roommate chandler had in Friends Episode 217?? well, similar bloke!!) nate did us good with a couple of free 'puckschlagers' at the end.. we called it quits early.. saving up energies for the weekend.

In my CD changer: Pearl Jam - 'Vs'; Nickelback - 'The Long Road'

weekend weekend, where art thou..

had to get up early today for the meeting with the board of MGA Research Corp. at dr. baier's office.. that went off pretty well.. and once this is passed by the board, i should be swimming in the moolah again.. ok, wading, ankle deep, not exactly swimming, but it's still money. did a little more work on the poster for the conference. saw the schedule for the conference, there's food every two hours for two days!! i can do with that!!

went back to north campus today for the first time in.. in.. wow.. the last time i went to north campus on work was in april!! scanned in a few pics for the poster in my old haunt - jarvis 310.. the secretaries are still there, as charming as ever ;-)).. carol, linda and bonnie!! even wangled some color printouts for the poster off them!! came home and had a bucket of buffalo wings for a late lunch, and watched 'Charas'.. good movie that.. it had a version of 'The Beach', set in the mountains... sounds awesome.. vip, gandhi, kya bolta hain, yaha se kamaleyte thoda rokra phir jaakey settle hojatey hain?!

got pissed off by Bull on 103.3 The Edge today.. he went on and on about how he found soccer to be the most boring sport ever etc.. WHAT!! just cos soccer games may end 0-0 doesn't mean that it's a boring game. i'll tell you what's boring - baseball's boring. oh yeah, now we are talking booooring!! and even though i hate the sport.. the Yanks still rule!! anytime, especially over the Red Sox (nirav start calling your lawyer!!) talking of lawyers, vip will be calling his too very soon.. he thinks i am ruining his chances of running for president with the daily revelations i make about him.. i think all my lawyer will say is "look at the incompetent, deceiving nincompoop currently in charge" - am sure vip cannot do much more harm than him!!

went over to mal's for dinner - ash, nats and mal had made aloo parathas - yum yum!! had nice long phone conversations with bunty (all systems go for the RSF august reunion), rupi (he's doing great, busy with work & arathi is in assam now) and smi (her co-op thingy finally came through, so she's moving to st. louis until dec, congrats honey!)

In my CD changer: Three Doors Down - 'Away From The Sun'; Puddle of Mudd - 'Come Clean'; Nirvana - 'From The Muddy Banks'

productive workday!!

my wellwishers, critics and ordinary bystanders will be very glad to know that i still have it in me to do some work!! this is in spite of (or is it because of??) partying last nite too!! we ate, drank and smoked, then played pictionary and uno till pretty late!! i thought i had lost the ability of serious concentration, since the last time i really studied was in 3rd year!!

went with mal in the morning to finish the archi. dept. cleanup.. then worked all afty on my presentation for this friday's conference. had dinner at mal's with the gang.. then came home.. did a little more work.. then crashed like the good boy i am at 12!! ;-))

In my CD changer: Stone Temple Pilots - 'Thank You'; Bush - 'Razorblade Suitcase' & Our Lady Peace - 'Superman's Dead'

last weekend's road trip!!

sorry this took so long to put up.. but here it is finally.. the account of the road trip we went on last week. also see the pics in the side bar!!

all set for the road trip.. we did get stuck with a stupid small car (chevy aveo) for a while, but then got the dodge neon... bright red in colour.. a little cramped, but will do.. ash, sank, vip, mal and i.. left around 10 on thursday night.. the time in the car was hilarious.. kept on cracking jokes.. ash and sank did most of the driving.. went the harrisburg PA route to get to baltimore at around 6 in the morning.. drove past the bayside area to get to the marriott where vip's sis deepti works.. she took us to her apartment.. we showered and cleaned up, and ate samosas and parathas.. heavenly!! we relaxed for a bit, then went out to walk around the bay area there.. beautiful and warm.. feels great to be out of buffalo!!

drove to washington then.. and got a bit stuck in the crazy traffic.. we'd left b'lo without our atlas.. so struggled manfully with the yahoo maps.. did get a little lost in a 5 block by 5 block area.. in washington d.c. downtown proper.. it was very irritating, knowing exactly where you are, but at the same time not being where you were supposed to be.. got there, setlled down in the afty, then vip's friends rahul and purva showed up, and we went to 'The Mall'.. and no people, that is NOT the shopping area.. but this mile-long or so strip which has the LIncoln Memorial, Washington Monument on one end, and Capitol Hill on the other - in between are most of the major museums in the area.. pretty awesome place, just that we got tired of walking.. especially after having been on the move all last night.. the White House was also there somewhere.. spoke to aditya saini.. but didn't get a chance to meet him.. at night we met a friend of sank's - thomas and his gf, and we all went out partying in d.c. - area called adam's morgan.. which is a 2-block area with an amazing number of clubs, pubs n restaurants in it.. pretty amazing place.. had dinner at an ethiopian place, then went dancing to a latino club.. but after that we were really knackered, so we walked down the strip, and went and chilled out at the Marriott we were staying at.

next morning we were up bright and early.. a little earlier than necessary thanks to some people's watch alarms!! (grr!!) another one of vip's friends, rishi came over and we drove to blacksburg.. successfully getting stuck in the traffic the I-81 is so famous for.. we got into VTech around 4 ish, and went to ash's friend anamika's place.. had a late lunch, chilled out for a bit then went out to the downtown.. it was a pretty small downtown, just 2 blocks and 4 pubs.. but ok nonetheless.. danced like crazy and were pretty wired up by the time Woody's closed at 2.. so we moved the party to shiv's house.. who is in seattle!! his roomies rohan and bhushan are actually sank's college-mates.. so we took out our stock of scotch and vodka which we carried on our travels.. and got busy!!

woke up on sunday morning arnd 9ish.. really groggy and fuzzy.. we were up till arnd 5 drinking, then got home and crashed.. after breakfast we drove up to this place called Claytor Lake, a pretty little lake, where we chilled out and relaxed the day away.. they had a little artificial sand beach, and we played some beach volley too.. and i spent more time diving around preventing the ball landing on pretty people in bikinis and getting sand on them!! fun times! had an early dinner and piled into the car for the ride back.. the return route was via pittsburgh, though we were quite sure the temple there wouldn't be open at 3 in the morning, so we didn't stop there!!

buffalo rocks!!

firstly, happy birthday shiv (when you buying out amazon?), and happy birthday malvika (you shall always be 21)!! hope you have a completely awesome year!!

woke up dazed and confused around 10.. then we all went to the temple. yes my doubting and atheistic friends, i went to the temple. and i don't mean Third Base either.. though that is also a pilgrimage site for me of sorts!! ;-)) had a nice lunch there, then we just hung out since the weather was kinda crappy.. the concert was at 6.30.. nickelback and three doors down were the headliners, puddle of mudd and 12 stones opening. this had to be amazing since i really liked 3 of the big bands playing today!! i was planning to get good and done before that.. so had some three smirnoff double screwdrivers.. then vip and i smoked up too.. by the time we got there at 5.30 i was totally tripping!! we had a pair of vodka shots each to fortify against the rain, then out we went!! wooha!!

12 Stones were ok.. i remember just one song of theirs 'broken'.. but at least they got the heads bouncing! then came on puddle of mudd!! they had some lights and fireworks, but their music was what totally rocked.. they played stuff from both their albums.. 'control', 'drift & die', 'nobody told me', 'she f**kin' hates me', 'blurry', 'away from me', 'heel over head', 'spin you around'.. they did an awesome jam during 'control', going into black sab's 'war pigs' in it!! my throat was already gone by the time they were finishing up!!

people were smoking up all around us.. it was such an awesome concert atmosphere.. then the lasers came on.. and with them were 3 Doors Down!! now this band kicked serious ass, when everyone thought they were all about soppy ballad-rock.. they had the on-stage split-screens, flame-throwers and fireworks.. along with the lasers too.. it was amazing!! 'kryptonite', 'loser', 'be like that', 'the better life', 'when i'm gone', 'away from the sun', 'the road i'm on', 'here without you', 'changes', 'this time'.. in the middle when the band was taking a break, the drummer did this amazing solo.. giving it all he had.. crrrazy!! when they were done everyone was wondering how nickelback would top that performance!

they did, oh yes they did!! these freaking canadians (nickelback that is!) were jumping around the stage like monkeys on magic mushrooms!! chad kroeger kept telling the crowd to take out their joints and smoke them up.. NOW!! they were a loud band.. and even though chad sometimes went into scream mode.. it still kicked even more serious ass.. they had mindblowing pyros on stage.. which were perfectly synced with the music.. very very cool!! they didn't play too much from their first two albums, giving more coverage to 'Silver Side Up' and 'The Long Road'.. 'leader of men', 'worthy to say', 'breathe', 'never again', 'how you remind me', 'too bad', 'someday', 'figured you out', 'feelin' way too damn good' and of course 'hero' from the spiderman soundtrack!

we got stuck in bad traffic getting out of darien lakes, but got home around 1-ish.. met nats (she came in around 7 in the evening), then went home, had a couple of drinks with vip, smoked up and slept.. with the amps still blaring in our ears and rock burning in our brains!! :-)) this is becoming one very very memorable summer, and this weekend was definitely one of the best ever in my life!!

happy birthday malvika!!

ash and i got up early on saturday at pinku's, then went to have breakfast at lopa's.. hadn't seen her in ages.. she was looking very nice.. :-)) we started back at 10.. and ash drove like a demon.. we were back in buffalo at 3, with breaks and all!! at one point he did get his balls in the vice though when a state trooper slowly crept up on us!!

mal was blissfully unaware of the surprise party for her tonight! ash and i took her to Dairy Queen to throw her off the scent.. then in the evening vip told her he was taking her out.. and he had no idea where the rest of us were.. then he brought her to 55 tyler.. where jason, azmi, ash, sank and i were waiting.. with her birthday cheesecake and 75 jello shots!! one hour and 75 jello shots later.. jason made mudslides.. and vip n' i smoked up too.. and it was all sooo good!!

we then went to Third Base at 12.. when it actually did become mal's birthday.. and nate was there.. so we did get a good amount of shots into us again.. freaking awesome night!! we kept going 'happy birthday happy birthday lalalaa'.. just to see mal blush.. heheh!!

§ėEτhє® ROCK!!

left buffalo at 9 in the morn.. we have a dodge neon again.. beige this time though.. made good time and were in columbus at 2.30.. went to W.G. Grinders with pinku and vibhash.. then came home.. downed a few killian's and buzzed off for the concert..

breaking benjamin opened the show. with a lively half-hour set.. they have a song out called 'so cold'.. then came in three days grace.. freakin' animals man!! they kicked ass with their awesome 30 min. set.. 'i hate everything about you', 'just like you'..

then came what was one of those moments in my life that i wait so eagerly for.. seether!! they were looking awesome, sounding great, and did a no-frills, no-pyros, simple lights 50 min. set.. but it rocked! 'gasoline', 'fine again', 'fade away', 'hang on', 'driven under', 'broken'.. amy lee of evanescence came out to sing broken when they sang it.. then when they were finishing their encore.. they go "and this last song, is by someone we are inspired by, and miss and respect so much.." and they start the church-organ plinking intro of 'you know you're right'!!! nirvana!! yeeha!! totally ripped out my voice singing along to that one!!

finally was the headliners evanescence.. ash and i were tripping when we saw the freakin' double-bass on stage!! wooha!! we both were guilty of grossly under estimating this band man! they played good hard-hitting rock man.. it was awesome! amy lee is not only hot, she has a great voice and rocks!! and oh yeah, she's been seeing seether frontman shaun morgan for a year or so.. lucky south african dog!! damn!!

had dinner at venky and ramanendra's place, then went back to pinku's for some soid drinking and catching up.. haven't been in columbus since january.. so loads to talk about.. pinku got freaking sloshed then called his folks to tell them he was out!! we called up kosh too...

it's a beautiful day

i love these rainy days.. perfect for sleeping in!! unfortunately, too much to be done. went with mal and azmi to see the house at 33 hheath.. the stupid current tenants were acting up.. now richard(the landlord) can sort it out.. then went to APL to to a bit of studying before i met my advisor..
 
blew some high-fundae stuff at my advisor and he was so so thrilled about it.. he's probably gonna make me chief speaker at the conference next week.. aargh!! well, at least i haev some idea about where my thesis is heading now.. plus the bestest news.. he's getting MGA Corp. to put me on their payroll for my funding - beautiful!! saurabh's finally going somewhere with his life!!
 
went to Thursday's At The Square, celtic theme today.. Enter The Haggis rocked.. then we went off to mal's for some awesome baingan bharta, egg curry and jeera rice.. then ash and i landed up at Third Base(again!!).. got pretty hammered too.. mint chocolate chip, jamaican dust, two jack'n'cokes.. then skyy spiced and parrot bay pineapple shots too.. nate was tending bar.. so half of what we drunk was on the house too!! awesome!! 
 
tomorrow ash and i leave bright and early for columbus, and the evanescence, seether & three days grace show.. so this blog will only next be updated when i get back on saturday evening.. take care ppls, see you soon!!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Velvet Revolver - Contraband

do you think that i'm blind, when there's nothing left to lose

ash bought seether's disclaimer.. which is perfect prep for our trip to columbus to watch them.. am crazy about this band!!! have been listening to the cd all day!! had an awesome day today.. called up my aunt in cal in the morning, then garima(again!!).. she's off to baroda for a field trip.. she is planning to study architectural engineering for masters.. hope she comes through with buffalo. went to school around noon.. handed in my timesheet for the archi. dept. work.. then went to UB Micro and bought a few softwares for the laptop.. we ran into jen there.. jen of jen & aaron fame.. from our spring break camping trip - we have to do a barbecue and invite them over.. aaron has this awesome bong!! then went to the APL.. hung out with mal, and did some serious work(finally!!).. chatted with farhina today.. my favourite lovely airhostess is doing very well.. and will be jetsetting again soon!! can't wait for you to land up in the US of A honey!!!

came home and decided to cook today.. so made pretty decent "dahi curry chicken".. ash and vips made chapatis too(thanks boys!!).. sank, gprx(gaurav), mal and emily(hey honey!! long time no see!!) all came too.. we had quite a few beers too.. and as per ash and my discussion yesterday, we went to Third Base.. dunno what's up with the rest of the gang.. no one else seems willing to hang out there anymore?? the base was as rocking as you'd expect on a wednesday night.. natalie was keeping bar.. she didn't start drinking until after 1, but after that was on full form doing splits and dancing on the bar, in her miniskirt ;-)).. nate, john and bo were there too.. we had a good bit to drink too.. as well as a couple of games of pool. sorry ash, dodi wasn't there, again!! kelly had her surgery and is stable, out of hospital too.. she should be walking again in a couple of weeks.. get well soon honey!! missing you behind the bar!!

by the way, my landlord richard dropped by today to say that he's given the people upstairs at 33 heath the notice too.. so now we have the whole house!!! oh my god!! can you imagine the scale of the parties we'll be throwing there now!!! as i mentioned before.. we have already started flicking traffic signs to decorate the house with!! ash, sank, vip, arul n me downstairs, and mal, nats, azmi and whoever else upstairs!! 33 heath will be the party house effective 1st august 2004!!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Seether - Disclaimer II

rest & relaxation

chilled out day today.. recovering from the excesses of the weekend.. there's lots of work to be done, but it can wait until i am back to my regular verve.. though we were discussing yesterday that it has been quite sometime since we last showed up at Third Base.. by the way, heard that nats was really pissed off that we went on a road trip without her.. she's in california, in case anyone's wondering.. sounds to me a classic case of "Hello, Pot? This is Kettle here, you're black!!" we 6 all then had a nice long conference chat in the afternoon.. she will be back this weekend.

chatted with garima today after what must be months.. she is really not enjoying the start to her last year of college in ahmedabad.. not helped at all by it being a dry state, so i called her up and we talked for ages.. she should be coming over next year for her masters - now that is something definitely worth looking forward to!!

went over to dawg's place for pau-bhajji dinner.. excellent stuff.. which just reminds me i have not cooked in over two weeks.. then we went over to Third Base, but it looked kinda dull, so we went over to drop mal, sat around at her place for a bit.. then came home and crashed with a Max Brand Western.. its been ages since i read a cowboy novel!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Pearl Jam - Binaural

back in town

landed up back in buffalo at 5ish in the morning today.. the most unearthly hour possible.. and we kept shuttling back and forth dropping everyone.. what an amazing trip it's been!! will start penning down highlights of the trip when i get a chance.. and as for pics, that will have to wait for next week after ash and i return from our rock-concert-road-trip this weekend.. thursday nite is Thursdays At The Square, friday nite is Evanescence, Seether & Three Days Grace in columbus, then saturday nite is Nickelback, Three Doors Down and Puddle of Mudd back in buffalo.. perfect!!

had lunch at subway with mal and ash.. then straight to work again with baier.. he wants me to write a paper and prepare a poster before the big conference on 23-24th of this month!! aaargh!! chilled out in the evening with sank, vip n ash.. then finally came home at midnite to crash properly for the first time since wednesday night!!!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio

goddamn mood swings

first and foremost, my sincerest apologies to all my friends and faithful readers for the barrage of vitriol yesterday.. i was just in a very pissed off mood.. will try to ensure that never happens again..

was gaurav puri's b.day yesterday.. we threw him a surprise barbeque party at 55 tyler.. had loads of beer, bacardi and black label.. and corn, potatoes, hotdogs and chicken too.. quite a few people landed up.. puri, ashish, parag.. then sank, vip, mal and me.. mallick, guri, malika, sam, payal, anjali, gaurav chetna, gautam.. raghu, reddy, dude kumar.. reddy and puri were dead drunk by the end at around 3ish.. it was oen of those memorably wild drunken parties!! had a good amount to drink last night.. sank and i were sitting around and cursing after everyone left since we wanted to drink more and there was no alcohol to be found anywhere.. then slept around 6ish.. and was up at 9 too.. very very pissed.. hence the outpouring of anger in the previous posting.. am ok now though.. thanks to everyone for their support.

had an uneventful day at the lab.. finished up with the work i was doing in the architecture dept., and met karrishma today after what must be ages.. went to vip's and finished off what was left of the amazing marinated chicken that gautam had brought yesterday.. dropped mal off home.. passed by Third Base, said 'hi' to nate, then walked home like a good boy.. did chill out with some scotch after that, working on my thesis abstract - i need to prepare it so that i can file for candidacy. might have to work on it on my laptop in virginia though.. oh yeah, forgot to mention this.. the 'brownie boyz'(vip - brown nigger, sank - brown neck, ash - brown dawg and i - brown trash) plus mal are going on a road trip on thursday to baltimore, washington d.c. and virginia. poor poor malvika, stuck with a bunch of crazy drunks!!

the florida pics are finally up!! see the sidebar!!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Alice In Chains - Music Bank

grrr..

i'm sick and fucking tired of living like this.. this is one bloody crazy life.. where everything is flexible.. and every road leads to getting drunk, hammered and hungover.. now i don't give a shit about partying.. or working.. or this blog.. i need a break!! just a fucking break.. cos "if my days keep going this way, i just might break something tonight.. and if my days keep going this way i'll break your fucking face tonight".. will start writing the blog again maybe if i feel like it..

happy independence day.. hic!!

again staggered out of bed around 10 and landed up at the falls.. this time to do the Cave of the Winds walk.. which was awesome fun too.. more drenching was in order at the Hurricane Deck.. for those who do not know about this.. you gotta come here and do it for yourself!! we then went to the outlet mall at niagara falls.. generally walking around and buying even more clothes.. we then had lunch there.. and bunty's aunt and cousin picked him up from there.. will see him in a week's time.. then we came back to buffalo.. pinkz, ram and venky packed up and left around 6.. and there came to an end the mini-reunion.. which was supposed to be the appetizer to the real deal happening in august..

and now the really juicy bits that everyone in RSF wants to know about!! pinku is not as fat as everyone thinks/wants him to be!! he's a bit on the plump side, but it's nothing a month's gymming (or a bossy gf!!) can't take care of!! and bunty.. well.. bunty is now going to be called 'phattu' by all of us.. because daroo dekh ke hi 'phat jati hain'!! c'mon bunty, you were supposed to sit with us and get stone drunk.. like them good ol' first year walds days!! what happened??

chilled out in the evening.. watched 'Mumbai Matinee' at my place with vip n sank.. we cooked up some stuff.. made a few screwdrivers.. and had a nice quiet sunday-evening-type nights.. it's very nice being normal again.. after having spent the last week in a stoned-happy, drunk-blurry daze.. but those days had their merits to!!

aargh.. back to work tomorrow.. i will not manage this well at all!! after the amount of non-stop partying that we have been doing the last few days, mundane tasks like seeing my bank manager, returning books to the library (novels, to the public library, before anyone of you start getting weird ideas about me, textbooks, and college libraries!!), meeting my graduate secretary.. and even worse.. going to the lab and doing some work!! :-0!!

soaked sunday at the square

somehow woke up and made it to niagara falls around 12ish.. packed to the gills with poeple.. 90% of them of indian origin.. the falls have become like an american pilgrimage place.. a sort of haridwar or something!! had a nice ride on the Maid of the Mist.. grabbed subs, then rushed back home to watch the Euro 2004 final.. what a drab game.. i don't begrudge the greeks their title.. but yeesh!! play football man!!

after the game, we all caught some much needed shut-eye.. knocked back a few of killian's best red beer.. then went for the Goo Goo Dolls concert.. it was some of the saddest weather ever.. raining buckets and windy too.. by the time the goos started we were all drenched.. and when they finally kicked in.. it was like we were watching the show in the niagara falls, not in niagara square!! and staying thorugh the storm was so totally worth it.. 'iris' was amazing.. rain and all.. and testament to the buffalonians party spirit, the show was fully packed right up to the fireworks display at the end!! thank god the rain let up in the end so that we could enjoy the fireworks.. that was also really awesome..

came back home and got out of the wets, then ate at Lake Effect.. which is so much like the diner in Archie comics.. then went to 55 tyler and had a couple of drinks, smoked up some stuff.. and chilled out playing cards.. finally crashed at around 6..

stoned saturday

woke up somehow at 10 cos bunty should be landing at 11.. and the first thing i did was chat with farhina.. mmm.. sigh! she sent me some pics, and she was lookng astounding.. amazing.. awesome.. i'm short of words!! what a nice way to wake up.. i wish i could wake up like this every day.. then i might even wake up more often.. ;-D

bunty came home.. and we made pancakes.. then we chilled out waiting for pinku and his frnds to come.. they left there at 11.. finally did my laundry.. all 3 loads of it!! pinku, ramanendra and venkat came around 6, and then the games begun!! picked up a biggie of vodka and one of whiskey too, then mal, ash and puri landed up at my place, we had a couple of drinks then went downtown for the holiday weekend concerts.. guster, ben folds and rufus wainwright played.. we then came back home.. picked up pizza and wings and went to 55 tyler.. smoked up, then after getting nice and sozzled there, we moved to Third Base

nice quiet night at the base.. just a few people.. and nate was keeping bar.. so we let him experiment on us with a whole range of weird, wild and wonderful shots.. yet another awesome night out on the town.. though we have to start hitting the place before 12.. we end up missing most of the hot drunk chix!!!

finally friday

woke up still stoned and groggy.. checked my mail and ran to school.. had to meet baier at 11.30.. showed him the test images and he got so excited.. we finally seem to be making some progress with my project.. in fact, he pulled out his camera and started clicking pics too!! thank you thank you!! ;-))

had lunch then hung out with mal all afty.. then we met up with vip to watch Fahrenheit 9/11.. i don't know what to tell you about this movie.. except WATCH IT!!! wow!! you will know the grim truth about messrs. bush, cheney and rumsfeld.. and all the other cronies and how they fit in.. had dinner at mal's.. had some white zin which is slowly turning into vinegar.. but still knocks you out!! ash had come over too.. so we walked back.. passed by Third Base but it was quiet..

landed up at vip's and sat around and smoked up.. then were watching the MTV Icon for Metallica.. kick ass baby, kick ass!! ended up making cookies and waffles to eat at 5 in the morning.. and laughing like two wild hyenas all through it..

it's the weekend!!

seriously.. these early mornings are tough on a man!! was in the lab by 10.. baier was there too.. he did mention that it was very nice of me to drop in to the lab.. thank god it all worked perfectly so that i did not have to use too much mental effort or time on setting up the experiments.. worked a couple of hours in the archi. dept. too..

didn't go downtown for Thursday at the Square.. had to do laundry, and my cooking turn as well.. besides my room still looks like it was hit by a tornado.. and pinku is coming down with ankan and ramanendra.. and bunty too.. this should be fun!
my house is becoming quite the iit guest house.. mayank's two iitian friends are here from pittsburgh.. and i should have four more by tomorrow.. greece pulled off the ultimate upset.. WOW!! i have really never seen that resolute defending.. otto rehhagel has picked up the gritty elements of german soccer and planted them here.. amazing!! they beat czech rep. 1-0 on a silver goal in first period extra time..

went over to vip's.. mal and nats came too.. nat's is leaving tomorrow morning.. sank baked a cake.. then ash came over.. so we went to Third Base (naturally!).. tried 'so-co & coke'.. makes a change from 'jack & coke' and 'jim & coke'.. then we did the jaagermeister shots too.. niice.. went home.. smoked up and chilled out.. this is turning into a very very nice weekend.. we're trying this 'party-streak'.. it started last friday with the cricket team barbeque.. sat. was niagara falls then vip, kavin and i chilled out.. sun. was the cricket final then party at molson's place.. mon. was whisky at gaurav's.. tue. vip n i chilled and disturbed people on the phone.. wed. was movie then Third Base.. thu. was Third Base again.. me like!!

IN MY CD PLAYER: Metallica - Live Shit: Binge & Purge

wednesday weekend

i love wednesdays.. they are a welcome break after two boring weekdays. and they herald the beginning of the 'Buffalo Weekend'.. did some cleanup work in the morning, don't even ask how.. after vip n i slept at 6ish eventually!! then we called it a day to go watch the euro semi-final between portugal and holland.. good game that, the hosts winning 2-1.. and figo totally deserved his man-of-the-match award.. holland looked nothing short of wretched.. and i will not be sad to see the backs of them..

hung around after that at sank's then went to mal's.. then we decided to catch 'Spiderman-2' at 10 since it was opening day.. we were quite a big crowd for the movie.. sank, nats, jason, azmi, dan, jessie, ash, gaurav, mal and i.. the movie was not too bad.. it was kinda mature in fact.. but of the three possible places they could end it, they chose the third.. and that rankles a bit.. it turned into a 2hr 15 min epic!!

landed up at Third Base after that with jason, azmi, ash and mal.. the regular crowd was there as usual doing what they do best.. ash and i finally left nicely-buzzed around 2.30.. bunty and pinku should be coming in on friday.. and that promises to be fun!!