honest day's work

"It's been a hard day's night, and I'd been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you, I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright"
The Beatles - 'Hard Day's Night'

yes, that pretty much sums up my day! it felt very good/weird to actually do a honest day's work!! first time since sometime in june when i was working on the archi. dept. cleanups. library is good work though, quite chilled out if it wasn't for the long hours.. and of course if i got paid more than basic wage it would be great.. but we gotta start somewhere i guess..

in fact i got a bit buzzed by this 'hard-work' fever and went to the lab too!! it was not a good sign that all my apparatus was still lying exactly where i left it all some two odd weeks ago!! so i went and moved things around.. washed a few germanium slides, refilled my distilled water bottles, stacked the equipment differently, fudged some data (basically just changed the dates of my spectroscopy readouts from 9/14 to 9/24 - changing a handwritten 1 to a 2 is easy!!), and i was good for another one week sabbatical at least ;-))

it's taking time getting used to not having some 300+ channels.. but we still do have nearly 100!! besides, having returned the cable decoder, its a bit of pain going to the menu channel to find out what's happening next.. it hampers planning of a night's television entertainment!! ;-))

tried listening to the first presidential debate of the campaign.. i had to leave after the first ten minutes.. when kerry was bad, bush was worse, and vice versa.. i pity the american people and the world at large that we have to choose one of two rotten apples out of a completely decomposed bushel. never ever heard so much hogwash.. no wait!! i have!! the last pesidential election!! click here for reviews.

i take back my statement of yesterday that Slash's Snakepit was the highlight of the bunch i bought.. i listened to Mother Love Bone properly today, and they are good!! stone gossard and jeff ament moved on from here to form Pearl Jam, so they come from good stock you can see!! a very early 90's feel to their rock.. a trait shared by slash's gang too.. which he also carried over from Guns N' Roses.

kim (my colleague from the library) was working at the lake effect on the night shift, so mal, nats, vip n i dropped in to have double fudge chocolate cake for dessert.. and it was worth it too.. mmmm!! of course, it also helped that she gave us huge slices, and nats and vip couldn't finish theirs.. and i just happened to be in the vicinity too :-))

FEAT OF THE MONTH: vip and i were ready and out of the house even before anyone was up!! there's gotta be a medal of valour for that somewhere.. a purple heart or knighthood or something!!

great, just great

the cds i bought finally came today.. all three collectors' editions.. Guns N' Roses - 'Lies', Mother Love Bone - 'Shangri-La' and Slash's Snakepit - 'Ain't Life Grand'.. slash being the highlight there, and "ain't life grand?" being the theme of my day too.. those of you who don't detect the sarcasm in my writing need glasses..

woke up at 12ish.. then dropped by school.. my full-time certification is here, so i start work tomorrow, with a big-ass shift of 7 hours (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.).. i can tell you already i am not looking forward to my return to civilian life.. at least my paycheck for all my summer work came through today.. a dollar in the bank is worth two in the bush, or a beer in the hand..

class today was uneventful.. i could not sleep a wink.. i'm becoming used to getting a full night's (and morning's too) quota of sleep.. does not portend good things ahead.. the roswell park parade (med school chicks) also managed to keep us all suitably entertained throught out the two and a half hour lecture..

we went over to 122 for dinner.. nats made great alu-mattar curry and chawal.. i insist, it's the simple indian fare that's the best.. besides the animals of this world need a break from us.. we've been eating too many of them lately! tomorrow being trash day, everyone's put out their trash today.. on the walk back home, vip and i picked up a perfectly good coat-stand, which, being the creative 'engineers' we are, immediately struck us as being perfect for making a hookah too.. yup, now you see where the creativity comes from ;-))?? its metal shaft is a perfect 2" diameter, and has a brilliant golden finish.. with elegant curved legs too.. this will be one hookah that the maharajas would be proud to have.. it will be time again soon to puff the magic dragon!

yeah, getting back to the life being grand bit.. so despite everything seeming perfectly sunshiny and rosy.. i still go to bed now feeling kinda disgruntled.. like a itch in my back that i can't reach.. dammit @#%*^!!

rue the day?

it now appears everton will rue the day they sold wayne rooney to man. utd. for just $43 million.. he had probably what was the most explosive debut ever for any team in soccer history.. scoring a champions' league hat-trick.. i'm happy for the kid, good for him.. but the i day meet him in goodison park.. watch out kiddo!!

i also get the feeling i will rue these days of sloth i spend lounging around.. once i start work on the thesis and run out of money, these days are gonna come back and kick me in the ass!! until then, these days rock!! wake up at lunchtime.. fix up a quickie.. browse for a bit.. watch a bit of tv.. play cricket in the evening.. cook dinner.. eat and watch some more tv.. smoke up.. sit around stoned.. chat all night.. sleep all morning.. wake up at lunchtime.. fix up a quickie.. browse for a bit.. hey!! i've gone full circle!!

watched a very interesting documentary on the lost civilizations that fell victim to the massive flooding that resulted due to the melting of the ice caps in the end of the Ice Age.. graham hancock is one of the pioneers in the search for these lost lands, as well as being one of the foremost authorities among the lateral thinkers in the whole history and evolution field. one very interesting hypothesis he put forward based on evidence found was that the submergence of the bay of cambay region off the rann of kutch drowned two large cities, and this happened around 12,000 years ago, just about the same time that plato reported the sinking of the great (twin??) city of atlantis.. there's something to think about..

another pioneering writer in this field is charles berlitz.. who seems to have the same revolutionary ideas that hancock has.. it would be fascinating to get the two in one room and give a talk about what they really think about the world's civilizations.. now why aren't all my lectures that interesting? damn.. i'm in the wrong career!!

vip and arul made dal chawal while i whipped up a fish casserole.. dinner was good, especially since we caught a rerun of 'Kill Bill Vol. 1', and 'The Frisco Kid'.. which is a '79 movie with gene wilder and harrison ford.. a hilarious western.. definitely recommended, and penny peyser in it is also highly recommended! we caught our regulars 'Iron Chef' and 'M*A*S*H' too for the last night..

Down In A Hole

Bury Me Softly In This Womb
I Give This Part Of Me For You
Sand Rains Down And Here I Sit
Holding Rare Flowers In A Tomb
In Bloom

Down In A Hole And I Don't Know If I Can Be Saved
See My Heart I Decorate It Like A Grave
You Don't Understand Who They Thought I Was Supposed To Be
Look At Me Now A Man Who Won't Let Himself Be

Down In A Hole, Feelin' So Small
Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul
I'd Like To Fly
But My Wings Have Been So Denied

Down In A Hole And They've Put All The Stones In Their Place
I've Eaten The Sun So My Tongue Has Been Burned Of The Taste
I Have Been Guilty Of Kicking Myself In The Teeth
I Will Speak No More Of My Feelings Beneath

Down In A Hole, Feelin' So Small
Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul
I'd Like To Fly
But My Wings Have Been So Denied

Bury Me Softly In This Womb - Oh I Want To Be Inside Of You
I Give This Part Of Me For You - Oh I Want To Be Inside Of You
Sand Rains Down And Here I Sit - Oh I Want To Be Inside Of You
Holding Rare Flowers In A Tomb - Oh I Want To Be Inside Of You

Down In A Hole, Feelin' So Small
Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul
Down In A Hole, Feelin' So Small
Down In A Hole, Out Of Control

I'd Like To Fly
But My Wings Have Been So Denied

"Down In A Hole" - Alice In Chains (Dirt)

moan-day

despite all good intentions of waking up early and going to school, the gods conspired to make me wake up at 12, so the decision got taken for me! so i ended up working from home again. no seriously, i actually got some work done! two biomaterials class tests coming up next week.. good thing i've been awake for at least half the classes, that's 50% already in the bag!!

discovered in class today that ms. heather graham wears glasses too.. hmm, you know what they say about girls in glasses.. me like!! i definitely seem to be getting my full 12 hours of sleep, cos i couldn't sleep a wink in class! came home and played cricket.. sank joined us too, so we could play teams as well..

hurricane jeanne managed to wreck half of florida's east coast.. that's four hurricanes in six weeks.. as someone so succinctly put it "i know florida feels responsible for having made this idiot president, but this is way too much punishment for their sins!!" what odds that bush steals this election too in a florida recount, or any other state for that matter? anyone offering 1,000 to 1 - i'm willing to put money on this one!

early night tonight.. slept at 2 ;-))!! watched 'Monday Night Football', 'Two and a half Men', 'LAX', 'Iron Chef', 'M*A*S*H'.. wow, that's a lot of television!! well, we're enjoying the last few days of having some 300 channels to choose from!

finally, a few messages that are long overdue:

• clouds.. sweet dreams honey, you never know who might call!!
• cherie.. when DO you come online??
• farhina.. looong time no see, where are you?
• lol.. call me!! or else you know what's gonna happen when i come to rolla!
  
• ambika.. good to hear from you, will talk to you again soon.. ok?!
• davo.. jamaa, umepotea wapi bwana?! hata simu umeanza kulenga??
• jo & kin.. yes girls, this is still me, your big bro!!!
• shabs.. sweetie, are you ever gonna mail me?!
• tilova.. long time no see, how's your semester coming along?
• boo.. good luck with your exams!
  

thou shalt not work

slept at sunrise on sunday morning after watching the whole of Kill Bill Vol. 1 on tv.. sometimes when you don't watch QT's movies for a long time you start to forget how good he really is with his shots, and how he creates stark images that get burned in your mind..

woke up around 1ish, threw in a couple of eggs and sausages in a pan and tossed the leftover pasta into it.. and voila! lunch is served! the Bills aren't playing this weekend, so no real tempo to watch NFL either.. but when offensive giants like McNabb, Manning and Favre are playing, you have to watch to learn!! I am offically adopting the Philly Eagles as the 'other woman' in my football life :-)).. also watched a superb passing game when Manning's Colts beat Favre's Packers 45-31!! The two QBs combined for nine TDs and 751 passing yards, which is amazing!!

going with the theme of the sabbath being the day of rest, did no work at all. absolutely none. :-) watched ben stiller and drew barrymore in 'duplex' over dinner, then smoked up and watched the national geographic channel for the rest of the night.. we really didn't appreciate the true worth of having that channel until today.. watched a couple of really cool shows on the curses of the mummies of egypt, the plagues of biblical times and the search for noah's ark..

my team everton is doing so amazingly well that i am stunned!! they are disproving everyone with their current run of form. they won again, away too, keeping them third in the premiership, three points behind arsenal after seven games!! absolutely no one could have predicted this after we just escaped relegation by the proverbial 'skin of the teeth' last season, then all the boardroom wrangling over summer, the shortage of money leading to the exodus of some 10-15 players, and then we sold the family silver - or Wayne Rooney as we used to call him - but David Moyes' men have proven they are all about: no blinding skill or talent, just ordinary hard work and graft. large measures of health and efficiency, and superbly tight hatches at the back have made all the difference.. there have been three straight 1-0 victories.. and honestly, if you're from the blue half of merseyside, it really makes no difference how the points come, as long as they keep coming!! Norman Hubbard has again written an in-depth analysis of everton's current run, worth reading for any toffee fan!

today's post sounds really lame.. i guess it's cos i'm desperately sleepy.. and have also done nothing of worth today either that merits a page of decent writing.. clouds - have you nothin to say?! cherie - too much mystery is not good!!

saturday night fever

great day today.. weather was awesome, i slept well, though my dreams kept getting interspersed with flashes of me running, DEA chasing me, and Pink Floyd showing up at the weirdest times, providing live music for the score. i've been trying to look for airtickets to india for so long, that i've almost become an expert on searching for deals online. my cousin bro rahul is getting married in january, and that is one wedding i definitely HAVE to be there for. he is the one cousin who i am closest to, having run away from college in kgp to hang out with him in allahabad innumerable times! besides, after rahul, i'm supposed to be next in the 'marriage line'.. not that i'm planning to in the near future!! but it would be fun to see the girls my aunts and other relatives have lined up for me!! yes, this is where all the supporters of womens' lib etc. come at me hammer and tongs, but you all know that's exactly how it is :-))

vip n' i were feeling too lazy to get any brunch, so we went down to Just Pizza and picked up a few slices. then we spent a chilled out afty watching the Michigan-Iowa football game, and Jennifer Aniston's film 'She's The One'. In fact that stretched into evening, then night, and finally i hauled my lazy ass off my favourite couch and made a pretty interesting fusion meal: spaghetti, tomato and mushroom sauce, and jeera chicken! anup had dropped in for dinner and a smoke too.

the night was our domain once more.. as first we smoked up, had a couple of drinks then watched 'Iron Chef', and Pink Floyd's 'Live in Pompeii' (again!).. after which we saw barichello win his second gp on the trot as he demolished the field in shanghai.. schumi had to start from the pitlane since he changed his engine in qualifying, and never really recovered from that. then we wanted to have something sweet, which entailed a short walk to On The Run to pick up supplies for the dessert. the result was yet another one of our dessert specials - pineapple chunks in juice, with scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream slathered on top, and chocolate sauce drizzled on all that.. eat your hearts out!!

State Of The Nation

Yes, here we are again, just 40 days to the Presidential Election, and the state of the nation is the same as it was last week. Bad. In fact the news is the same too - Iraq, campaigns and hurricanes!

There are people out there who are taking active steps to remedy this country of its bad leadership; have a look at this site. But it does seem that Bush's campaign machine has done just about enough to nose him ahead. If the election were held today, Bush would receive 301 electoral votes to Kerry's 237. In fact, Bush has taken one state that Gore had in the last election (Stats from CNN/ USA Today/Gallup poll). That really doesn't give the Democrats much hope.

Hurricane Jeanne picked up strength and speed Saturday as it tore through the Bahamas on a path toward the Florida coast with landfall predicted for late Saturday or early Sunday. Jeanne has been upgraded to Category 3, and the east coast of Florida has been evacuated. The string of hurricanes has pummeled Florida's tourism industry, with many oceanfront resorts damaged and some highways washed out.

Finally, here's a problem that a lot of my friends have talked about - this double-standard attitude a lot of people seem to have. Very rarely people say outright what they mean or want. It's very irritating. But the one thing I find even more irritating is hypocrisy. And very often, it's these double-standard people who tend to be the biggest hypocrites. Here's a tip to all of these people - if you cannot be honest with others, at least be honest with yourself. Seriously, if you're lying to yourself then there's really nowhere you're going.

warm days, drunk girls and stoned cats

i am loving this transition period of summer to fall.. the lazy, warm days.. filled with sunshine, when wearing a tshirt, shorts and sandals is not a dream.. class and research work has gone on a long walk off a short pier.. the still cloudless nights, the dark sky filled with twinkling stars, overflying airplanes, and sounds of revelry.. groups of drunk coeds stumbling their way home from frat parties and university heights pubs.. in various states of dress/undress that sharpen the eye, quicken the hand and gladden the heart.. and neighbours' cats, that come to bask on our frontyard.. only to be enticed onto the balcony.. where they are made to inhale copious amounts of weed-smoke.. and lie around stoned out of their wits.. tripping out, dreaming of cat-heaven, where bowls of cream milk are placed at every corner, mice don't need to be caught, food is only a purr away, and hookahs abundant, with scantily dressed cats gliding around.. yes, summer has been good.

once again going to school remained an unfulfilled promise.. woke up at 12.. made french toast for lunch.. then ash sprung a surprise! he came home!! with mal, that too!! ash got 'thank you' gifts for everyone.. a UB Nalgene for sank (who was just leaving to go whitewater rafting), a skincare kit for nats, a Nirvana tshirt for vip, a flashdrive for arul and a swiss knife for me.. thanks dude, welcome back home!

today i did the one stunt that was missing from my repertoire of college stunts.. went to class completely stoned on weed! it was beautiful!! i just kept smiling in class, and kept forgetting what the prof said a minute back.. which was hilarious, cos it was such a challenge focussing in class.. my mind kept wandering back to pompeii, and the floyd video we were watching last night..

imagine the kids sitting right at the back, there in the empty, cavernous amphitheatre, never having heard of pink floyd, just landing up there.. and tripping on the first waterdrop notes of 'echoes'.. and leaving there a couple of days later, not really sure they knew what they were a part of.. innocent bystanders at the junction of sound effects technology meeting rock music, live performances being a treat for all the senses, and years and years later, when they heard about what pink floyd have now become, they must be glad to treasure those memories.

nats thought that we hadn't dressed up and gone out for ages, so we decided to go to chili's.. that was awesome.. had some great cocktails, then we stuffed ourselves, chili's do good on grilled foods, and then gorged on dessert - hot molten chocolate cake with vanilla icecream on top.. beautiful!!

came back home, made some vodka cocktails, and we all sat outside on the balcony watching the friday night traffic.. in that couple of hours, we pretty much saw everything again.. short of that one defining moment, the 'magic moment', after which we can definitely say we have seen everything. for those who really need to know what this one defining condition, the 'magic moment' is.. mail me, or leave a comment!!

as usual, we ended up watching junk tv almost all night.. watched our old favourite 'Secretary', starring Maggie Gylenhaal. this is one site you definitely wanna look at.. and try applying for the secretary's job too, given on the right hand side of the page. an amazing website, for an amazing movie.

and the trip goes on...

yet another day rolled around, where i thought i'd start up early and get some work done, but waking up at 12 or 1 already precludes any such activity. spent the whole afty watching junk daytime tv, and before you knew it evening was here!! of course, with great evenings come great responsibility, so we lit up our chillum before having to make any decisions about who was cooking or not! ash made dal, chawwal and tuna cutlets.. excellent fare.

we failed to find any outstanding movies, so hopped andskipped between various chanels watchign sitcoms.. 'Joey' is pretty good actually.. though his 'playing dumb' is getting worn too thin.. i guess its kinda tough for him to carry this off being in the centre of everything that happens, after having shared the limelight with five others for ten years.

went over to 87M to smoke up.. watched Pink Floyd's 'Pulse' and 'Live at Pompeii' DVDs.. awesome man, just awesome!! we were just tripping off our heads getting into the music and the surroundings and the whole ambience.. beautiful! i even remember having some surges of intense creativity and a rush of words to the head.. but sigh, pen and paper (or even a comp!!) were not nearby, and i'm afraid to say the moment was lost. nevertheless, the seed of an idea has been planted, i guess it shall be cultivated in class tomorrow, when i have nothing better to do.

mon ami cheezz cherie, coment ca va? ca va bien? oui, oui, moi tres bien. parlez vous francaise? je m'appelle saurabh, tu t'appelle?

tv commercial serendipity

what a day.. the boys of 33 all home! sank stayed home, arul got back early, vip didn't even bother, and my voice of conscience spoke again (after years, i think).. so i went to class - just class mind you, the voice was only a whisper after all ;-))!! that class was a marathon session too.. at least some good came of it though: i got some sleep, and i found out the names of five of the med-student girls in the class too!! heather graham is courtney, and yamila diaz is erin.. i think libby is pretty pretty too.. hmm..

went with ash for his phsyio session today.. sigh! i forgot to get hurt so that jennifer there could physio me too.. sank cooked cauliflower curry, which was awesome. we had an awesome evening, having dinner together, watched 'XXX' - vin diesel rocks, you gotta give him that, though he speaks like sylvester stallone at his worst!

got smoked up again as always, and had the ultimate sweet cravings!! went crazy with the ice cream - canned pineapple, couple of scoops of cookies n' cream ice cream, topped off with jam.. half a minute in the microwave and a dessert worthy of being photographed!!

a really really freaky thing happened today.. we were watching "Iron Chef" on the Food Channel, and "M*A*S*H" on Hallmark, switching between the two.. when suddenly we saw the same commercial playing on both channels, with a phase lag of just two seconds!! two completely unrelated channels, two completely unrelated shows.. i mean, what are the odds of that happening??!! its serendipity i tell you!

quick note to my favourite courtesan, cloud.. honey, we must be the two most schizoic people in the world, and i like it!

mini-sabbatical

was woken up by a babble of excited voices discussing partial differential equations.. and i thought i died at night and went to hell. it was actually arul n' sank trying to help ash with his assignment. then they left, so i dived right in too - what sheer fun, doing PDEs first thing in the morning! and if anyone of you here believed that earlier statement, then you either don't know me or need your head checked. after solving the one problem, i went back to sleep, too much mental effort.. in fact i convinced myself that there was no work that was sooo pressing that i had to get up and go to the lab!!

vip n' arul got back in the afty, we rustled up some grub.. then smoked up and played cricket in the backyard.. it was beautiful, the grass was shiny green, the evening sunlight dappled the branches with faded gold and a light breeze blew through the houses.. a perfect end-summer evening. we could see the ball exceptionally well, the bat followed through beautifully, and time came to a standstill as we were able to think out and play every shot as if in a dream.. its a completely different thing that the hands had a life of their own and refused to listen to the mind, so execution of the mind's decisions was not always spot on!

stella dropped in to say hi, and marisha & siddhartha stopped by for dinner on their way back to pittsburgh from toronto. was high and inspired today when i cooked. made a dry stir-fry mince, daal and a mixed veggie.. it came off really well, if i must say so myself. :-)) it was good.. everyone was here today together after a long time. we watched '2 Fast 2 Furious', then our regular double hour of M*A*S*H too.

back to work

entertained ideas of taking another extended weekend today, especially since i woke from a comatose slumber at 11 am!! anyhow, finally did crawl out of bed, made a huge breakfast spread, then left for north campus with vip. finally the fulltime status certification came through, so i started work today! hung out with nats n' mal, who seemed to be having a "it's monday, i'm having a horrible day, so i will take the rest of it off to do some girlie stuff" kind of day, so we won't grudge them that :-))

after pondering for what seemed like forever, i did decide to go to class again - heather graham's legs made it worthwhile too! it wasn't too bad actually, and i didn't doze off for longer than 5 minutes at a stretch! then went to the APL (aka MAL, Malvika's Architecture Library) for my first day at work. jen was working with me, and was really helpful, showing me around and stuff, what to do and what to watch out for, and a good bit of gossip on mal too ;-)) hehehe, mal honey.. i have the lowdown on what you really get up to at work now!!

came home and watched monday night football with the boys (mail recepients don't count here ;-))!!) ate cardboard pizza (freezer dinners) and saw the eagles take apart the vikings, in no small part thanks to the homefield advantage.. so for now mcnabb-owens has the edge on culpepper-moss. resumed where we left off with ms. mary-jane last night, and talked to her some more, while watching even more M*A*S*H.. nice and high now as i write this! watched 'half-baked' after that - it's amazing how many stoned movies are playing on tv these days!! it's a sign i tell you, a sign!! damn, did anyone see the handful dave chappelle pulls?! that would keep us high 24/7 for a whole year!!

read something really interesting today. apparently Victoria's Secret came up to the band TOOL, and gave them some really steamy footage of some models, and asked if they could use a couple of their songs for an ad campaign video, preferably starring the band. the band talked it over, and maynard and the boys decided that this was not what the song stood for, nor the band.. so they turned them down despite the obscene (literally!!) amounts of money that they were being offered.. that is truly amazing.. they refused to sell themselves or their music out to the corporate bastards.. there's a lesson to be learned here people - we can and must defeat the big man!!

PS: TOOL did keep the footage though - no reason why the hard work of the lovely ladies should be wasted right?!

heaven's on the way

it's been a simply blissful weekend, sailed through it beautifully. we made the investment and bought a chillum finally. the vessel of all goodness is a chrome-plated knurled cylinder.. with a transparent red plastic inner chamber.. where the winds of change blow from, filling my intrinsic being with the sweet fog.. the swirling mists of which i rise from, and where i will finally lie

riiight, and i'm back to all soberness again (until my next hit that is!;-)).. woke up around lunchtime, went through the morning ablutions, then had a pasta lunch leftover from last night (thank you natasha, you're a godsend!) watched the colts come from behind to backstab the titans.. then was the stupid bills game.. where we got bitch-slapped all over the black hole that is the raiders' stadium.

quite severely pissed off, we smoked a few more to chill out, then watched 'how high', 'rush hour' and 'gone in 60 seconds'.. that was a good break. had some nice simple dal-chawal for dinner, then rolled a philly blunt.. whassup dawg!! later went over to the love shack to sample some of mal's excellent cake - thank you!!

goddammit.. yet another weekend flashes by, and yet another dreary week rears its ugly menacing head. i can hear it rumbling "there's work to be done.."

"away with you!!" i shout back as i backpedal into a corner, stumbling, trying to avoid the beast facing me.

"you shall be held accountable for this.." it goes on, taking slow, stalking steps towards me.

"nay" i say, "nay, i shall not fear thee, for what you are is nothing but a part of me". i see it wince, so i go on "aye, i can banish you whenever it suits me, for what drives you is what is within me.. and i shall not be brought down by false prophecies." the beast cowers, and falls back! so i drive home the final nail "the light burns bright inside of me, and i am strong.. strong.. STRONG!!"

whew! what was that!! some trip!! some good shit we on dawg!!

dammit!!

so i heard on MTV 2's Rock Countdown that Daniel Johns, lead singer of Silverchair is actually married to Natalie Imbruglia!! aww man! i just had to research this up on the net, and it's true :-(( yeah this sucks, yet another eligible hot chick has left the market, damn!! did anyone see her in johnny english?? woof, woof, grrowl!!

finally, finally finally got access to some dope last nite!! phew!! and it was pretty good stuff too.. smoked up in a chillum, and was goooood!! had been knocking labatt's blues since five in the evening, then made baked chicken in the oven and called in a pizza too.. overall an excellent evening, then we watched the last couple of episodes of M*A*S*H.. slept off around 5.30ish then.

yet another lazy day, spent lounging around home. saturdays and sundays are excellent during football season.. cos u can watch upto four games back to back!! :-)) there's something more open and exciting about college ball.. bigger throws, longer runs, massive plays - of course none of that seems to apply for the UB Bulls - we lost again, when we had the game right until halfway through the 4th quarter, then we suddenly just lost steam like last week too.. damn!

watched a couple of excellent movies at night, very different movies, but excellent nonetheless. first was 'Identity', which i had first seen when i took my cousin sis shabana back home last summer.. i don't wanna say anymore without spoiling the film, but you have to watch it (DISCLAIMER: if you have erratic heart rate and/or high blood pressure, please sit with medication close at hand).. i do remember leaving the theatre with shabs still clinging to my right arm, which by now had ten little nail gouges and no circulation whatsoever!

then, to lighten the tension we watched '100 Girls', which has also been released as 'Girl Fever' - that's a hilarious sidey movie, with some absolutely memorable dialogues, which i am not gonna reproduce here since they are bound to offend more than a few people - catch me online if you reaaaally wanna hear a few!! ;-))

learnt a new word today - "crunk". for official meanings, click here. it's a combo of 'crazy' and 'drunk', which i think quite appropriately describes me!! MTV 2 even have a one hour block on sundays that plays crunk rap and rock!

State of the Nation

This is a new idea I came up with, but I am going to model it a little differently from the weekly Presidential speech of the same name. I was actually inspired by the late Alistair Cooke, who had the BBC World Service show "Letter From America", a weekly 15-minute look at the American nation, which ran from 1946 until his death earlier this year. That is a mindboggling and amazing feat!

The biggest thing on American minds right now is the Presidential Election. With some 40-odd days to go, the biggest issues remain Iraq, homeland security and taxes. The Gallup poll says Bush has a 13 point lead on Kerry, but in reality it's much closer than that. Smear campaigns, tv ads and low-brow-beatings dominate lunchtime discussions.

Those in the Southern states meanwhile are preoccupied saving themselves and their possesions, as hurricane Ivan rumbles into town. What dratted luck, so soon after Charlie and Frances you'd say. But the meterologists say it's not about luck - there's been an increase of nearly 1.5 degrees C in the past few years, leading to the current spate of big storms and hurricanes. Apparently there's more to come too!

day after the night before

so arul, vip n i were up till 5 watching junk tv.. i was good and sozzled too :-)) slept like a drunk dog after that. slept all the way till lunchtime. slept beautifully too cos it was raining, and dreamt of having a microbrewery at home.. nice. the rest of the day also passed in a blurry haze, doing absolutely nothing of any consequence.

we had half the mincemeat leftover from last night, so made cutlets out of them and stuck them in the oven - they came out absolutely AMAZING!! i have discovered a new food item to cook, thats fulfills all of our culinary conditions: relatively cheap, relatively easy to make, tastes great and contains meat!! in fact meat and alcohol have now entirely taken over the lowest portion of our food pyramid - can't complain at all!!

letting the cables sleep

you in the dark you in the pain :: you on the run ::
living a hell living your ghost :: living your end ::
never seem to get in the place :: that i belong ::
don't want to lose the time :: lose the time to come

whatever you say it's alright ::
whatever you do it's all good ::
whatever you say it's alright ::

silence is not the way ::
we need to talk about it :: if heaven is on the way

you in the sea on a decline :: breaking the waves :: watching the lights go down :: letting the cables sleep

silence is not the way ::
we need to talk about it :: if heaven is on the way ::

i'm a stranger in this town :: i'm a stranger in this town

silence is not the way ::
we'll wrap the world around it :: if heaven is on the way

"Letting The Cables Sleep" - Bush (The Science Of Things)

Rosh Hashanah!

the Jewish members of our community celebrate their new year starting today - happy new year! we have thursday holiday too thanks to that :-))

i love my biomaterials class - not only do we have a heather graham in class, we have a yamila diaz-riahi too!! it's as if the gods of education are sending me a sign - "saurabh is not meant to study in this class!!" surely, what could be a more obvious sign than this!!

we had one of the best barbecues ever tonight! made improvised kebabs, hot dogs, baked potatoes and chicken tikka masala.. loads of people were over too.. don't ask me who.. i was too sloshed to notice.. but the food was mostly awesome!! :-))

highly intellectual day

right, lemme make this clear at the outset before i go any further. i am NOT a geek, nerd, muggu, chop, dexter-type of person.. and those who know me well will vouch for that too. so if in the following few lines you get the distinct feeling i am turning into one of the above-mentioned, please dispel any such thoughts as soon as they pop up in your head, like the googlebar does to internet explorer popups (i use mozilla firefox these days!)

like the prodigal son of biblical times i returned to the fold of the lab today after a sabbatical of a week or so. and like that other prodigal idiot, i too was welcomed with open arms, and piles of germanium prisms that require things to be done to them. for those really really interested, i am gonna drop a few catchwords here, make whatever sense you want of them: germanium prisms, infra-red spectrosocpy, glow-discharge treatment, octo-decyl silane, nyebar type Q, hydrophilicity, capillary pull, distilled water, detergent wash, thermal imaging, wavelet absorbance.. if you actually managed to use most of these in one sentence, please leave that sentence here as a comment, so that i can use it in my next progress report. there are numerous attractive prizes on offer too, so set your grey matter to it!!

i think i tweaked my back yesterday playing cricket or something.. i have been in sheer agony at times since then.. the painkillers and spray i'm using are just kicking in.. aargh!! its actually much more comfy to stand than sit!

we have been having some simply glorious weather the last few days! it's quite amazing, cos we were quite sure that summer was over! plans are underway to enjoy the last few days as much as possible - since thursday is a jewish holiday (yom kippur), we're planning to have a last blast on the grill on wednesday evening. if you know us consider yourself invited - of course, admission fee is in kind (either alcohol or meat!!)

finally a quick note to smi - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! hope you have the most awesome day, and a great year ahead! :-))

Post No. 100 !!

this is my 100th post!! wow, time sure does fly!! started off in june, and its already mid-september! it's been an awesome trip mostly.. got to meet loads of new people, and read lots and lots of things too, definitely an informal education of sorts. a very big THANK YOU to all those of you who almost religiously read this everyday, even when its so dull and boring! i am continually trying to make this a bigger and better blog, so feel free to write in with your comments, complaints and compliments!

otherwise today was just another monday like all others. woke up, went back to sleep, then woke again, saw it was only 10, so slept off till noon again. then we went to Aldi's to do the ration shopping, and picked up another $100 worth of food.. dammit we gotta stop freakin' eating!! had a class at 4.30, which was no great shakes. sat next to ms. heather graham jr. and it appears she's not a monday person either - excellent! we have common ground! cooked at home again today after quite a long time: simple fare of cabbage, potatoes and peas, while arul made the daal.

clouds: really really good to hear your voice! having turned my world upside down, it seems you are determined to not let me set it right again! well, i don't mind - hit me baby one more time ;-)) hang in there, and be strong; meanwhile i can sit here and think about 'smudges of once gash-red lipstick staining well-kissed lush red lips and that sky-blue teddy & pink thigh-high stockings... leaning seductively into my car window and saying "hey baby, lookin for a date?"... i knew she was the one for me'

damned weekend

so, another weekend came, and went, with no significant addition or reduction being made to life in general. american football season is here, and despite looking forward to it with so much anticipation and hope, it flattered to deceive.

the UB Bulls got laid low by a rampaging Syracuse team 37-17.. special teams screwed up big time with the punting, and it is time coach hofher realised that randall secky is not half as good as pj piskorik at quarterback.. no probs, we can only get better.

after all the pre-season hype of the much-vaunted new coaching team of the Buffalo Bills, drew bledsoe's west coast offensive line and the double-trouble partnership of travis henry & willis mcgahee.. we still fell at the first hurdle. that too at a home game! penalties and fumbles ruined it as byron leftwich made two crucially huge plays with no time on the clock to lead the jacksonville jaguars to a 13-10 win. the huge sellout crowd had a very uneasy twinge of deja vu when we went into the last quarter with just a 10-6 lead, and a mould's fumble cost us the ball on the jag's 5 yd. line.. this happened so many times last year that it's not even funny anymore.

thank god my fave soccer teams won to salvage something of this weekend. everton maintained their unbeaten away status beating manchester city 1-0 to climb to fifth in the premiership, while juventus looked ominously strong demolishing a baggio-less brescia 3-0.. del piero has truly returned to form. :-))

apart from that, this weekend was largely anonymous. nothing to write home about, lived a largely sedentary life, doing the basic vegetative motions.. eating, drinking, sleeping, playing cricket, watching tv.. the US Open was also on, as was NCAA Saturday and NFL Sunday.. and the slew of mindless movies that cable tv seems to thrive on.

i added a section in the sidebar for blogs i read pretty often, highlights among them being Quentin Tarantino's (shoot yourself if you don't know who he is) and Zach Braff's (star of tv show 'Scrubs').

i'll end this post with a line from one of the most-loved movies of our time:
did you know the greeks didn't have obituaries? when a man died, they asked "did he have passion?"
for those who haven't identified this movie yet,
a.) what were you doing in 2001?
b.) john cusack & kate beckinsale!
c.) someone please comment and put these poor sods out of their misery!!

9/11 memorial

at this time three years back a series of terrorist acts disrupted the world as we knew it, and some things have changed since that will never be the same again. here is a minute of prayer in memory of all those who lost their lives to these acts of violence over the years - may their souls rest in eternal peace. there are just too many to name individually, and we pray that the proponents of terrorism of all forms see reason and come to terms with what benefits greater humanity.

click to play

thank you for observing this silence, and may your life and those of your loved ones never be touched by violence. God bless you, and thank you once again.

brainstew!

haha, got your attention didn't that?! no this post is not about greenday, but about friday night dinner. went over to the 'love shack' (122 heath - what else do you call a house with three couples in it?!) in the evening to try my latest culinary creation on the gang! i made fish stew, which came out pretty good i think, if it wasn't for the red hot chilli pepper which got laid on a bit thick! another point was that by the time it was ready at 11, everyone was so freaking hungry and sozzled that they would have eaten the fish even if it wasn't fully cooked! vip had picked up a shiraz and a bully hill white too, so everyone was full of good cheer, and good alcohol!!

had spent another chilled out day at home, doing nothing. woke up at 1, made another whopping breakfast, watched cartoons and crappy daytime tv, went to class, checked out the chicks, asked a couple of questions, came home, ate good food, drank good alcohol, and slept - if only all the days of my life could be this way!

the Serie A starts again this weekend!! YES!! we are back to big time soccer! forza juve! (Go Juventus!) by the way, alex del piero seems to have resurrected his international career with his first goal in a year in the latest round of world cup qualifiers. phew!

Goddess of Small Things

vip n' i went to the Talking Leaves bookshop on main street to see Arundhati Roy. she is in buffalo on invitation, and was having a book signing. i kinda expected more students to be there, but it was a non-student crowd there. she was quite unlike what mom said she was - when mom met her, she was at the peak of her narmada dam protest, and was a fiery outspoken rebel. today she was almost charming! i got my copy of "The God Of Small Things" signed by her! totally a collectors item now :-))

i am back to what i do best, which is sleep in and chill out all day!! woke up at 11 and made a huge whopping breakfast - bacon, eggs, mushrooms, toast, coffee, juice.. whew :-)) hurricane frances is giving us her tailspin in western new york, so we have lots of rain, and nice chilly weather for sleeping in!! haven't slept this well for years!

talking of goddesses, hey cloud! glad to be of service to you! how you feeling now? and how's the ol' lion doing then? you have completely turned my world around the last couple of weeks, and this definitely looks to be the beginning of something beautiful. thinking of you..

of class, lab and life

blogger was down last night and today morning.. so people were getting all heated up. i've been dedicating quite a few hours to the lab the last couple of days.. the results of which are showing.. i'm getting good returns on the octadecylsilane treated prisms, but not so good on the NyeBar treated ones.. yes yes, i know i'm bragging now!! :-))

had the cell surface science class today.. had to carry a mug of coffee to class otherwise i was going to die.. 2.5 hours of science lectures.. aargh! at least the girls from roswell made an honest effort to keep me awake and concentrating through out the class. by the way, we have a heather graham lookalike in class.. she is the girl of 'shoelace-shorts' fame (refer to Friday, September 03, 2004 - "freakin' friday"), and she was looking as great as always - mine precious, me like..

vip n i were watching 'fight club' at night.. and discussing the very real possibility that if we're still single and working in the city in five years time.. we might and actually will start a fight club of our own!! besides, with vip's air pollution work and my biomaterials training, we can do some serious weird stuff!!

• "Come back to the pain."
• "Don't shut this out. What you feel is premature enlightenment."
• "This is the greatest moment of your life and you're off somewhere, missing it. Listen. Your father was your model for God. And if your father bails out, what does that tell you about God?"
• "You have to consider the possibility that God doesn't like you. He hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. His hate is better that His indifference."
• "We are God's middle children, with no special place in history and no special attention. Unless we get God's attention, we have no hope of damnation or redemption."
• "The lower you fall, the higher you fly. The farther you run, the more God wants you back."
• "Someday, you will die. And until you know that, you're useless to me."
• "Congratulations, until you lose everything, you don't know what it is to have something"
  

complaints?

wow, everyone seems to be saying that blogger is down.. here's a test! by teh way, if people still want gmail invites, here's your chance.. leave a witty comment on any one of the blog posts and i'll send you one!!

Barbecue 101

now after the 'glowing' intro ash has given about the barbecue in his blog, i feel compelled to write some more about it! man has lived on meat since the neanderthal times, and ever since my far relatives realised that meat somehow tasted better when given a spin on a hot fire, they have moved up the food chain.

back in kenya, bbq-ing is a favorite pastime, going by the name "nyama-choma" (literally = "meat-burn")!! we have also discovered over the zillions of years (in darwinian terms) in the plains and savannahs of kenya that pretty much anything on four legs, three legs, two legs - heck, any living thing! - can be used as bbq meat. of course, depending on the source, the meat has to be appropriately prepared. the drier meats have to be marinated, while the saltier ones need to be drained (homo sapiens anyone?); anyways, meats will be handled later on.

well, for those who don't bbq, or are just starting off, lemme start with a quick tour. we use a nice simple charcoal grill, preferring this over a gas-fired grill. firstly there's something to the flavor added by coal that gas doesn't give you. secondly, looking at the safety angle, i'd rather keep my gas very far away from the sparks and fire. a good set of barbecue equipment is very necessary - don't be stingy when buying hardware - this is what will save your hands, and the success of your project is always very directly related to your equipment (that last statement applies in married life too, i'm sure!!) a pair of tongs, large and sharp fork/pincers, a flat spatula, big-ass knife, some skewers and you're good to go. i think the above-mentioned equipment will be good enough to handle a nagging wife in the above mentioned married life too!! :-))

you can always use the activated coal which is so much easier to light, but is quite expensive too. we prefer to use the regular coal, and copious quantities of lighter fluid. interesting observation: at wal-mart, 28 pounds of coal comes for the same price as 40 pounds of dog-food - is there a lesson to be learned in this?? place the coal on the coal rack in the grill, and make sure there is at least an inch of space underneath that grill, as you need that for air flow. pile the coals in a pyramid-shape and douse liberally with lighter fluid, then scrunch up a sheet of newspaper, light it, and touch the flame to the coals individually until you have a uniform flame blazing. once you see the corners of the coals going white, you know the coals have caught, so start fanning the flame (a pizza box works just fine). when you start fanning, the flames will go out - this is your cue to start fanning the coals more vigorously until they glow a deep-red. spread the coals around now, so that you have a even heat base.

pretty much anything that breathes can be eaten, AND put on the grill too. that applies to vegetative life as well. my favorites for grill fodder are:
- hot dogs [don't get the turkey/chicken processed stuff, it sucks!! nothing like a nice beef or pork dog! if you find Sahlen's anywhere, go with it. a wide variety of relishes are available to add to the dogs - ketchup, sweet relish, hot relish, mustard, mayo, hot sauce]
- pork chops [these taste heavenly when done well. marinate in a simple garlic sauce (ground garlic paste, lemon juice, mayo, salt and hot sauce to taste) for a few hours, and place on the grill. turn just once when well done. avoid piercing the chops so as to keep the juices in]
- chicken thighs [much better than drumsticks because they have more meat, are flatter so they cook more evenly, and do not fall apart when you slit them. feel free to marinate as you like. my personal favorite is with an indian touch. tandoori masala, garam masala, red chilli powder, lemon juice, curd, salt, all mixed up, and the thighs left for 4-6 hours in a big container, covered with the marinade]
- baked potatoes [if you get small ones excellent, otherwise cut in halves, wrap in aluminium foil, and toss in with the coals. after about half an hour, poke with a skewer - when soft, pull them out, cut into four wedges, drop a slice of butter in between, a dash of lemon juice and salt, and that is heaven]
- mixed veggies [to ease the 'meat sweats', a few veggies tossed into the diet will do you good. red and green peppers, mushrooms, baby tomatoes, baby onions, paneer cubes all cut to roughly the same size and skewered, then placed on the grill and regularly turned, come out awesome]

finally, a few things to watch out for. if your meat is starting to char, then move it to the sides of the grill, where it is cooler. if the meat starts feeling tough and dry, then you can moisturise it. the traditional bbq way is to pour some beer over it, which does wonders!! another way to go is to baste it with some of the marinade, which also works wonderfully when beer is added to it!! a non-stick cooking spray comes in very handy to spray on the grill before placing the meat.

to end, a little caution is always good. this might sound very condescending, but keep the heroics far from the grill. lighter fluid goes up with a whoosh, and singed eyebrows might sound very cool, but will not work wonders if you're trying to pick up chicks at the bbq! if using a gas grill, then be careful about sparks and smoking around the grill. finally, if you've been smoking pot, the flames are mesmerising!! they are so damn beautiful!! but you'll let the food burn!! so let someone else do the dirty work!! party on people, and have yourselves a good bbq.

work blues

it's great to have a monday holiday - so that the monday blues can be postponed to tuesday. there were hilarious scenes at 33 today: everyone was fighting for a computer to sit and study/work!! ash had h/work, mal had a reading assignment, nats had h/work too, sank had project work, arul had a paper to review - that left vip and i. while vip decided to immerse himself in the world of 'The Hobbit', i was also reading very intelligent and insightful literature: Stuff, sept '04 issue. i may not be a trekkie, but gotta watch out for jolene blalock.. she sizzles!

it's been so long since i sat down to read, that it was a nice feeling to hold pages, and turn them, as opposed to scrolling down on the touchpad!! ended up reading loads of cool stuff in it - 'how to build your own tomahawk missile for under $5,000'; horrific goth teddy bears for psycho kids; stuff girls of the month: jolene blalock, bonnie-jill laflin, colleen porch, cristina scabbia; the ultimate custom earphones; and probably the best hiking knife in the market, the Buck 760 BKX Summit.

labor day shout-outs

it's just as well we have a holiday to celebrate.. so i have an excuse to say 'hi!' to a lot of people who i havent spoken to lately, or mentioned here..

the buffalo crowd.. neil - wassup dude! laptop and india ticket, very good!! lucie - thank you for still reading this faithfully! my ex-roomies - did you pick up the rent deposit on 106 custer?

the RSF peoplz.. ani n grg - all the best with your theses. sv - you dick!! where did you disappear again? kosh - back at work? love your spam/comments on arul's blog. abi - you're working too hard dawg! chill!! pinku - are you in columbus now? call up dude. bunty - dude, hope you're over your heartbreak/angst and whatever tension you had. shiv - where are you dude? no mails from you, don't see you online either? wassup? smi - hope you're enjoying work and stuff. arathi - how's edinburgh? when do you move on to your next stop?

my fellow wananchi from kenya - davo, sasa jamaa! niaje? haven't heard from you in a long time! anne - don't even bother, you know the number, call it if you wanna talk. nick - good luck with the con-job you're planning to pull with the other dentists. masud & iwako - i'm truly sorry i won't be able to make it in december for the wedding. farhina - hey honey, howyudoin? ;-)) which part of the world are you in now? when are you flying into my world? sigh..

ambient chillout

it was such a beautiful day today.. was still tripping from last nite.. that's always the best part of the day after!! though i think my blog is getting kinda boring now.. everyday is "partied, ate, drank, got stoned, chilled out, crashed" with a few variants occasionally!! but what else can i say, that is all i seem to do these days!!

vip, arul n i cleaned up the place today.. it has been a bit of a riot the last few days with marisha & siddhartha and parshu & harsha in town. we played some cricket in the afty too, great fun man! then we landed up inside and watched 'The Guru' after that. definitely a very lucrative market out there (of unhappy, single, blonde women!!) just waiting to be tapped!!

we had a nice old barbecue in the evening.. awesome stuff.. grilled some hotdogs, polish kielbasa and chicken too.. we tried a different marinade with the chicken, and kept basting it with the marinade and beer instead of just beer.. it came off really well too!! honestly, we don't get old, we just get better!! ;-))

taking it easy

nice and chilled out day.. woke up and chugged a beer.. then went food-shopping - there was absolutely nothing at home man!! economies of scale certainly don't seem to apply in this house!! Aldi alone ran up a bill of $90, then we went to I-Tops for another $70 'chuna'! nope, that was not all, we went for another $30 hit at the indian store too. Then we went to Tops for more punishment ($20). all in all a very sad day for the wallet, and a sign of happy days to come for the bellies of 33 heath!! when i told vip we had enough food to feed the US Army for 3 days, he very drily commented "well, that means it should last us the week.."

arul, vip n i finally found ourselves a little cricket ground right in our backyard - really nice way of passing time for a few hours. besides the grass is conducive to heroic acts of fielding. RSF.. bring back any memories? damn, we should have thought of this during the reunion!!

film review time: "Garden State", starring Zach Braff (for those of you saying 'who??', it's the Scrubs guy). the movie's about his life and times in NJ (the Garden State). the movie is equally funny, depressing, intellectual, sad and inspiring at different times, but i would definitely recommend watching it. then again, don't blame me if you don't like it cos i am a bit of a 'cheap date' when it comes to movies - i am easily impressed, and like to appreciate the effort.

by the way, here's a really fun blog to read. zach keeps a garden state blog, and it is definitely worth a read. he is one of those naturally funny guys, and man, i wish i could start sounding half as hilarious as him.

sank, nats, parshu and harsha went to comix cafe for dinner. went over to 122, azmi and mal had made biryani - beautiful. vip n' sank have come back into the fold.. sank had been sinking beers since last night, then vip joined him in amassing our beer empties.. hehe!! we were so wasted before we even got there, then jase started telling us about the underground rave scene in spain where he'd been on holiday!!

we'd been pretty cheesed off that we couldn't get our hands on some 'mary-jane' ;-)).. so when our 87M boys called up, we couldn't resist the offer. much better than getting pissed on Miller High-Life (like the old days!!); that gang is also one wacky bunch! anup, kiriti, madan and the newest inductee to the foreign sadhu scene (The Guru anyone?), "baba rug-munchin", also known as adi in a previous incarnation. what followed was one of the most mindblowing blowouts in our history here in UB.. some six+ beers and some six+ joints.. all in the space of some 4-5 hours.. life is gooood!!

freakin' friday

righto, the way this day started, i'm just glad i haven't been hit by a fire truck, or a shooting star, been arrested by university cops for jaywalking or by the DEA for possession.. or what else could go wrong?? actually i'll take that back.. the last time i made such a statement, i didn't live out the day!! clouds, after such a great start, we've hit a very rocky phase. i don't like it here, can we move on?

ash's friends marisha and siddhartha are here from pittsburgh. showed them around north campus then we all had lunch by the lake. it was a beautiful day to be out, nice and sunny. it was a great day to be out too, to check out the various states of dress/undress the girls of UB get up to!! ;-))

ran into cynthia today in school - she had been to kenya to teach german as part of her summer project, and she was telling me all about it. it appears she had the most amazing time!! still have a lot of catching up to do with her!

these friday 4.30 classes are such a pain!! throughout the class all i could think about was having a 'mexican happy meal' at Third Base on my way home!! for the uninitiated, 'mexican happy meal' is a tequila shot chased by a corona, in quick succession!! :-)) also there was one of those roswell park girls in class, who made a really honest effort of keeping me awake by sitting just about in front of me, wearing these little teensy weensy white shorts made out of the exact amount of material a shoelace requires (note: 'a' shoelace, i said, not a 'pair' of shoelaces!!)

sank's KREC friends harsha and parshu came down from boston, and we had a great time getting hammered!! at last we can put a face to all the stories about parshu that sank, dhuruva n' harsha have told us before!

clouds.. calling clouds.. how you doing? it was absolutely awesome to hear your voice again, and even better to know that you're doing well now. y'know what they say about not getting drunk when you got something running through your mind? well, eight beers down, and all i can see are your big, kajal-laden eyes, staring at me, through me! your nose seems slightly turned-up, do you mock me? as for your lips, your full, cupid's bow-shaped lips, that seem to be bursting at the seams with passion, volcanic, alive, full of desire.. msg me!!

going down in flames

Don’t tell me what to think
Cause I don’t care this time
Don’t tell me what you believe
Cause you won’t be there
To catch me when I fall
But you’ll need me when I’m not here at all
Miss me when I’m gone again, yeah

I’m going down in flames
I’m falling into this again, yeah
I’m going down in flames
I’m falling into this again

Don’t tell me how life is
Cause I don’t really want to know
Don’t tell me how this game ends
Cause we’ll just see how it goes
Catch me when I fall
Or you’ll need me when I’m not here at all
Miss me when I’m gone again, yeah

I’m going down in flames
I’m falling into this again, yeah
I’m going down in flames
I’m falling into this again, yeah

"Going Down In Flames" - Three Doors Down (Away From The Sun)

clouds

the night still, heavy with doubt
even the wind ponders its fate
as for trees, they do not rustle
it is but expectation in the air

clouds, waiting to burst forth
ringed with darkened bands
all-seeing, kohl-rimmed eyes
hah! you mere male mortal!

cloud dominant, yet repressed
needing the wind beneath her
yet hungry, lusty, voracious
pounding earth with rain fists

swirling changing ethereal being
black, white, and red, all over
passion-spattered, the cloud
fine mist descends over time

fine feathered clouds, wispy
lined up jet-liner vapour trails
flippant, carefree, the angst
scattered, life's windy gusts

little puffy clouds, childlike
pure white, like driven snow
captured moment in my eye
yet another persona exposed

the night slowly draws to close
even the stars bid you adieu
for clouds you will be no more
hark, yonder light! 'tis the sun..

clouds, life and various other things

big_doll calling clouds.. big_doll calling clouds.. was it as good for you as it was for me? did the earth move for you too? did you say 'start over'? was that mindfuck? or is it a cry from the inside? talk to me.

i have never felt this lethargic. the new sem has started, and i'm not happy. the TA thingy didn't work out. neither did the internship. research is at a standstill. cashflow has dried up. nothing means anything. am in pretty bad physical and mental shape. i could do with a break. sounds weird to say considering the 4 month summer-break just ended.

dr. baier seems to have reached his limits of patience too.. he asked me upfront what i was upto, and why he wasn't seeing any results.. *gulp*. well, it appears immediate steps will have to be taken to remedy this unfortunate situation - lab ahoy!!

the cell surfaces class was great today - there are like 6-7 chicks from the roswell park institute, and two blondes and one brunette(*sigh!*) were definite keep-me-awake-in-class material!!

oh yes, rahul phondke's funnybone was hilarious again.. a must read!!

it's all good

Take another motherfucking hit of LSD
Let all the love inside the world belong to you
Well, I can't understand just why you went away
Too young to feel the pain & bitterness of love
Well, I can never understand a motherfucking word you'd ever say
And all the people that you hurt came down on you
And I can't understand just why you went away
I sat and waited for the day you'd come back home

But that was all gone, and now it's all good

Take a loaded gun and blow my fantasy away
Turn off the lights and shine the spotlight down on you
Well, I could never understand a motherfucking word you'd ever say
And all the people you hurt came down on you
Well I can't understand just why you went away
I sat and waited for the day you came back home

But that was all gone, and now it's all good

You are my hope, my god, my love, my fear
My God, it's over, it's all good,
'Til the world came crumbling down,
Oh well I said mother it's all good,
Until the world came crumbling down,
Oh well I said mother it's all good,
Until the world came crumbling down,
World came crumbling.. crumbling...

Well it was all good.

"It's All Good" - Cold (13 Ways To Bleed On Stage)