captain ahoy!

Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

what a beautiful saturday.. the joy of a weekend completely unfettered.. i have made my peace with all the issues in my life.. happily lubricated by copious amounts of the Captain's best.. Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum!! woke up late.. purposely shunned all things biomaterials - related.. played cricket all afternoon, went grocery shopping.. had free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme (free food rocks!!), then got home.. cooked fish stew, and we listened to some oldies.. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Eagles, Dire Straits and Iron Maiden, and we drank lots of rum n' coke. lots.

Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

from 'Treasure Island' by RL Stevenson

not your saviour

i am not your saviour.
i can help you lift your cross, i'll give you a starting push too.
but i shall not carry your cross for you.
if you stumble and fall, i will drop my cross and rush to help you.
but i will not carry you and your cross.
i will give you my shoulder, to rest upon as we climb up the hill.
but i can not carry your cross with you.

if near the top you waver, i'll whisper two words of encouragement.
but i could not carry you and your cross.

i am not your saviour.
i will be there for you through it all, share with me all you want.
but i shall not do anything that hurts you.
if you promise to love and cherish, then i will give you all of me.
but i will not be dishonest, nor be lied to.
i will give you every second of every day, any time and any where.
but i can not give my own life to you.
if ever you decide that this is what you want, then i will be here.
but i could not say that i'll wait forever.

i am not your saviour.

things that make you go 'hmm...'

we've all been stuck in ruts at some time or the other in our lives. when it all feels like one mindless routine, and you just wanna get out of it, but can't find a shallow bank on the sides of the ditch to clamber out.

yesterday afternoon around 4 i was headed to the supply room for some liquid nitrogen for the experiments i was doing.. to get there i gotta go across this parking lot, and i see this youngish guy pulling out in his Mercedes convertible, top down and Greenday blaring. he's got his shades on, shirtsleeves rolled up and tie off. i can imagine him heading downtown to Thursday At The Square, knockin' back a few beers with the boys and enjoying the concert. hell, for all i know he's prolly heading out to Grand Island or Lake Erie over the weekend with the gf/wife for a spot of tanning and lazing around, catch some fish and ride the sailboat too. and me? i was going to the lab to do some experiments. and over the weekend? yeah, i'll be writing the thesis and wondering if a 0.237 radiance really means anything.

fuck it man, i gotta get out of college. seeing that bloke yesterday in the parking lot really pushed it home. i've gotta finish this thesis, get a job and start making some money, if its the last damned thing i do.

HNT-6

this is me, from OzzFest last thursday..

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!!
(scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

10 things ..

NB: severe gripe post.. feel free to skip.

ten things that are kinda worrying me, or are on just my mind, or i wish i could complete, or that should just go away

10- this damned humid summer.. when the air lies still with all the menace of a lurking beast, but it never really rains properly, just a spitter here and a spatter there, which only serves to increase the humidity.. rain damnit

9- FDA Substance Screening rules and regulations being embraced wholeheartedly by corporate america. what's wrong with the management? they had their fun when they were in college, and now they wanna spoil it for us

8- need a holiday.. yes, i need to get away from buffalo for a few days.. party like mad, drink some alcohol.. no wait, make that a lot of alcohol.. chill out on a beach and swim in the surf. alas, no time and no money either

7- no time to read properly all the blogs on my list, nor to read all the comments, and no time to click on the 'Next Blog' button and discover more weird and wild people.. in fact i think up my posts and just type them out when i get a chance

6- no time to vegetate and watch junk tv, or any of my favourite TV shows.. no time to catch up on what's happening with my beloved Buffalo Bills.. or watch stupid cable movies.. no time to even flex my unlimited Blockbuster account

5- not getting nearly enough sleep.. throughout college i've slept either 3 hr/nights (when i've been partying and doing other non-academic things) or 10 hr/days (when partying till dawn and bunking classes).. and now, i'm a zombie getting by on 5 hours a night

4- this hectic, monotonous schedule.. work at the library from 8-2, then off to do experiments in the lab until 6/7.. come home, send out resumes, cook (sometimes).. eat and write the fuckin' thesis, then crash

3- the severe shortage of money.. this library job pays nowhere nearly enough what is really needed, and monthly bill-balancing is all a matter of keeping my head above water, and legs kicking out under me, barely

2- the employment scene.. i hear everywhere, on the bus, in bars, even up in the trees that it's getting better, and it's looking up, and other assorted horseshit. i've sent out nearly a hundred resumes, and.. nothing. fuckin' nothing

1- the research and thesis.. everytime i think it's near the end my advisor decides more needs to be done. everytime i start writing the thesis another research paper shows up telling me i need to know more and more

i'm just venting.. don't mind me.

join the Vince Vaughn fan club

it had been a quiet weekend, which apparently is a thing of surprise to a lot of you.. what sort of a hellraiser do you make me out to be eh?! okay, you're right.. we have been known to wake the dead, and steal road signs, and other assorted activities that lead to one spending the night in lock-up under the Civil Disobediences Act.. but let's not get into that now shall we?

watched 'Employee Of The Month'.. which i kinda liked! i'm not really surprised it got by under the publicity radar and quietly disappeared onto the DVD shelves.. as it doesn't really win any screenplay awards, but does have a plot as twisted as a cow's four stomachs (raise your hands whoever did not know that!) and an ending you certainly did not predict! it's like the first half and second half belong to two separate movies altogether! Matt Dillon is good, as is Steve Zahn.. this is a cableflick kinda movie, so call in a pizza if you see this playing on TV anytime soon.

went to watch 'Wedding Crashers'.. now this is a movie that started of with real potential of being one of THE funniest comedies ever, it just lost the plot somewhere 2/3rds down the road. Vince Vaughn was very, very good and Owen Wilson was quite plastic, but the two together do a great job as a pair of buddies who crash weddings to sample the wedding cake, the dinner fare and pretty guests.. not necessarily in that order either! no wedding is uncrashable, no alias too improbable, no venue impenetrable. and of course, no woman unattainable!

unfortunately, Christopher Walken was underutilised, the 'villain' Brad Cooper was just pure evil and a lot of possible threads just frayed out. do watch this for a bag of rolling-in-the-aisle laughs and not-so-subtle sexual innuendoes; do not watch this if you think you will learn anything you didn't already know about scoring with the ladies! oh yes.. do watch this for the pretty women :-)

had dinner at IHOP.. the Monster Cheeseburger is a beast, but pretty bland tasting.. keep some space for banana-nut pancakes for dessert.. yummy!

two more move

two of our closest friends moved to the City this weekend. that really makes it sound like we live out in the boondocks doesn't it?! Jason & Azmi moved to NYC as they've both graduated and gotten jobs there. you'll never meet a more mild-mannered and unlikely couple anywhere. they have a few things in common, which are what make them so great together.. they are madly in love, both brilliant architects, love offbeat foreign films, and can talk, analyse and discuss the boots off a weathered cowboy!

Azmi is indian, from a very orthodox family, with a very rebellious streak in her. and she has the poise and mannerism to carry it off with aplomb too! so her undergrad years in india were filled with substance delinquency and other assorted small misdemeanours, while her parents remained blissfully in the knowledge that their daughter was an angel. she is some sort of angel i gotta say, i have never seen such a hardworking and patient woman!

Jason is a man's man. hailing from Jamestown, NY.. he has switched careers more often than he has switched cigarette brands.. spent time in the Army Reserves in Afghanistan as a surgical intern.. absolutely loves DIY projects - he gets himself a new power tool everytime he feels happy/sad.. can barbecue anything that is edible with a choice of three home-made marinades.. spent time working as a bartender at his mom's bar - he makes a mean mojito!.. *pause for breath*.. has wildly-varied music tastes (Rage Against The Machine, BB King, Apex Theory, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tori Amos).. loves his beer, so much so that we go on monthly beer tours.. has the most hilarious stories from his high-school and college days.. and is really funny and patient too!

we've had some great times guys.. fare thee well! :-)

roller coasters ahoy!!

it's quite unbelievable, we've been in Buffalo for close on two years now and never been to the Six Flags at Darien Lake! well, they have a great scheme this year.. for an extra $9, any concert tickets at Darien Lakes can be upgraded to a combo amusement park plus concert!! (well, concert tix were $35 too!!) during OzzFest yesterday ash & i decided to try it out too..

so we were there bright and early, having had no breakfast cos we were determined to try on the biggest baddest rollercoasters! first we hit the Mind Eraser, thinking that this would be the worst of the lot, and after this all else would be easy (yeah right!)

whew.. that was some jolt! man when we went spinning around and around in a corkscrew, that shit was wild!! nerves somewhat settled, we headed to the Viper! this baby was a more conventional coaster, in that it was like a car.. and your legs weren't hanging free. while we were walking to it, this corkscrew looked scary.

afte riding that, i can say with quite some conviction that it was scary!! on wobbly legs we headed to the Predator, which apparently was a completely wooden rollercoaster! yes, completely wooden!

it was wild again, especially on the banked turns when you felt the wheels of the car clattering against the rails and the whole wooden structure shook.. whoa!! finally we queued up for ages to get on the Superman Ride Of Steel.. and it looked scary enough, but we had to try it man! Will Smith came in with his entourage to ride that.. wonder why he's in Buffalo?! well, he screamed his head off too on this baby!

you get completely weightless on the 200 ft. first drop, and that is really unnerving, as it feels like the cars are falling away under you, and then before you catch your breath, your ass is plonked back on seat and you're thrown into a banked left turn, and suddenly your head is lolling out under you and pine trees are flashing by very very close!! we had seen the strobe cameras before we got on, and made a sincere effort to smile for them, but ended up with these garish faces, eyes popping out and fingers stretched out in devil's horns!! but hell yeah, you gotta do it!!

done with the coasters, we decided to mellow it down a bit.. and headed for the waterpark and chilled out on the Barracuda Bay waterslides.. it was a hot day and was a relief to get into the water.. did a couple of very relaxed water-splashy boat rides after that, then dried out, and headed to the OzzFest parking lot for the tailgate parties.. for the OzzFest account check out the next post!

666, The Number Of.. Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath

Ozzfest is the arena where nu-age metal meets classic heavy metal.. and gets bitchslapped. of the multitude of young bands who played all day in the scorching sun.. and tried their best to show the legions of dysfunctional youth the way forward.. their efforts went largely unnoticed. Mudvayne were the best of the lot, and that wasn't saying much either.. they still have a long way to go before they gain the appropriate skill and talent to really play some heavy metal.

as the sun slowly dipped over the distant horizon, and the day faded into an orange dusk.. a black banner fell and hung from the rafters above the stage.. upon it the sneering skeletal figure of Ed Hunter.. and a wall of sound exploded over the wildly cheering masses.. Iron Maiden was here! as all the banners fell away, there were four guitars crashing away wildly and a bass drum pounding away the sounds of 'Wrathchild'.. but where was Bruce Dickinson.. the vocalist?! and then from the back a figure in the classic English army redcoat, waving a Union Jack came marching onto the stage..

"cos i'm a wrathchild, well i'm a wrathchild..
yeah I'm a wrathchild, i'm coming to get you, oh yeah."

that melded into 'Trooper' before he announced that they would only be playing stuff from their first four albums today due to the one hour set.. which was kinda disappointing, but hey.. it's fuckin' Maiden baby! they had an amazing stage, with the 60ft by 30ft backdrop changing for every song.. and as they belted their way through 'Phantom Of The Opera', 'Number Of The Beast', 'Sanctuary', 'Run To The Hills', & 'Iron Maiden'.. then with darkness creeping in around 9, all four guitars lined up alongside each other, and they proceeded to shred the riffs of 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'..

"mark my words please believe my soul lives on, please don't worry now that i have gone
i've gone beyond to see the truth
when you know that your time is close at hand, maybe then you'll begin to understand
life down there is just a strange illusion."

a long prolonged period of cheers, and then a hushed silence.. as people slowly absorbed the beat down the Maiden had just laid on the 20k crowd.. oh yeah Iron fuckin' Maiden!! it did get a bit irritating cos this wasted middle-aged man kept on insisting i hi-5 him every song Maiden played.. dude, it's a Maiden concert, of course they're gonna play Iron Maiden!! we were wondering how good Black Sabbath would have to be if Maiden kicked so much ass..

and in the darkness, from the hustle and bustle behind the curtain as crew set up the stage.. a banner dropped, Black Sabbath in black letters on a blood-red background, and came a piercing scream! Ozzy was in the house!! before the curtain came up they played a recorded medley of pretty much all their stuff.. and then lights, camera, action..

"now I have you with me, under my power, our love grows stronger now with every hour
look into my eyes, you will see who I am, my name is Lucifer, please take my hand
oh yeah!"

i have to say, i was a bit skeptical about Black Sab, and i gladly repented at leisure as Ozzy ranted and screamed, impassive Tony Iommi's magic fingers played enchanting solo after solo, bassist Geezer Butler plucked his bass hooks and drummer Bill Ward tossed of his shirt then crashed and banged like a man possessed.. for a band that has been around for over 35 years, they have enough energy to put a pack of wolverines to shame!

as twenty thousand people put up their lighters and sang 'War Pigs', one felt that somewhere George Bush and others of his ilk would be cringing..

"politicians hide themselves away, they only started the war
why should they go out to fight? they leave that role to the poor

time will tell on their power minds, making war just for fun
treating people just like pawns in chess, wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah!"

they also played 'Black Sabbath', 'Dirty Women', 'Iron Man', 'Fairies Wear Boots', 'Gipsy', and some stuff i haven't heard either.. and finally ended off with 'Children Of The Grave'..

"so you children of the world, listen to what i say
if you want a better place to live in, spread the words today

show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave
or you children of today are, Children of the Grave, yeah!"

classic rock just showed once again why there is nothing quite like it.

back from ozzfest!

early HNT-5

i'm posting my HNT entry a bit early.. that's cos tomorrow i'm gonna be away, and will not be able to see all your HNT entries.. have a great time!

did i hear someone ask where i'm gonna be? well.. i'm going to OzzFest!! this year it's being held at the Six Flags (Darien Lake), so we're going to go ride the rollercoasters, waterslides, and do all sortsa crazy shit.. then get smashed, wave our hands and do some serious headbanging at the concert! 20 bands.. 2 stages.. 10+ hours of brainthumping, earblowing heavy metal!

this here is the view from the grad students' lounge, where i take my lunchbreaks..

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!!
(scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

want not, waste not

i remember when i was little, my parents instilled this attitude into me.. about never wasting food, and always finishing what i had on my plate. there would be times when i was around 4-5 years old, i would be so exhausted from a long day in school and sports afterward, that i would be too tired to finish eating and my eyelids would droop. rice and lentils happened to be one of my favourite foods, and a regular staple at my parents' house. when my mom would see me wavering, she would mix the food for me and make little bite-sized mounds of food, and arrange them on my plate.. and i remember counting them, and manfully struggling to get them down.

it might seem weird, and that it was like being force-fed.. but it was them teaching me to only take on my plate what i could finish, and eat all of it too. it was a good lesson, as to this day, i absolutely never return food from my plate, nor do i throw it away. i think that is a good thing to teach kids too.

Blogger's counter tells me this is post no. 400.. and i am nowhere near done with all the stories i have for you people! see you all here tomorrow! :-)

organisation & efficiency

what an ideal world it would be if we all were perfectly organised, and thoroughly efficient. all things that have to be done would be done, and people would go about their lives with clockwork precision. there would be a regular monotony of course, but after all, who needs unpredictability, eh? (is that what it's like to live in Germany, land of faultless proficiency?? hehe, just kidding!)

anyways, being painfully human is a part and parcel of all our lives, and i must say i admire a person who set targets, define schedules and meets his goals unerringly. however, i wouldn't want to be that person. no sir! i think the spice of life, and the reason why i enjoy being me, is that i am asymmetrically impulsive, wittily hedonistic, and delightfully optimal in the effort i put into life. how do you approach your life?

i leave you with a line from George Orwell's classic 'Animal Farm':

all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

aussie rock

yes mate! the happy folks down under do know how to rock.. their biggest gift to the world of rock being hellraisers AC-DC!! and they made the jagged thunderbolt famous eons before wand-waggling harry potter was even born! anyways, the Young brothers Angus & Malcolm, formed AC-DC and proceeded to kick the asses of anyone who came in their way as they laid down powerful guitar rhythms, accompanied by Bon Scott's guttural screaming. Scott died in '80, choking on his own puke after a drinking binge, further promoting the myth that gruesome rockstar deaths prolong a band's fame! they peaked in the years after that.. and once the '90s came in, they faded away, becoming airtime staple of classic rock stations all over the world.

in the mid '80s came another aussie band.. by the name of INXS. led by frontman Michael Hutchence, they sort of bridged mainstream music with the hitherto 'forbidden' world of rock.. and although purists will say they were never really a rock band, i guess they did have a part to play in aussie rock. songs like 'need you tonight', 'suicide blonde' & 'elegantly wasted' still adorn sleazy karaoke bars and jukeboxes in dimly-lit pubs all over. i read somewhere they're still touring.. probably playing concert fillers for county fairs i guess.

the '90s heralded the onset of a rock genre known as grunge.. yeah!! characterised by three-note, jarring riffs and angst-ridden, sobbing lyrics.. a bunch of teenagers from down-under burst onto the scene, and had the mantle of being the next Nirvana thrust upon them (a title which has been bandied about so much that it means absolutely nothing anymore). these kids called themselves Silverchair, and were pretty good.. but couldn't maintain the searing pace of their own earlier albums ('Freak Show', 'Neon Ballroom'), and faded away eventually.

the newest heavy act to come out of the land of oz is called Full Scale.. currently based in LA, their sound is part Slipknot/Static-X, part nu-metal (as exemplified by any bunch of bands from Chevelle, Crossfade, 12 Stones, etc).. one doesn't see them going too far though.

the long and short of it all is that if any one ever mentions australian music, the lyrics that definitely come to mind are: "do you come from a land down under!" ('Land Down Under' - Men At Work).. hehe, have a great week everyone!

another tequila sunrise

the day after a tequila night usually passes by in a slow daze.. spirits flag and energies fade after a while.. and by afternoon everyone passes out again, to wake up at 5 sweating raw alcohol.. whew!

spent a pleasant evening watching 'Romeo & Juliet', in the Shakespeare In The Park series, down town in Delaware Park. today was the last run for R&J, and 'Hamlet' starts next, albeit this is gonna be a more contemporary version. the open-air stage and free shows, and the hill on which everyone sits with their own picnic hampers are a trademark of Buffalo summers, after the Thursdays At The Square concerts downtown.

there are gonna be a lot of things i am gonna miss about Buffalo, which i can talk about pretty fondly now, but will not be waxing so lyrical when winter swings around and blizzard winds howl over Lake Erie and dump shitloads of snow every damned day. hopefully if all goes well then i should not be around to see another winter here.

i don't need to say anything to you about R&J of course, and though it is not my favourite Shakespeare, it is one of the more favoured.. 'The Merchant Of Venice' holds that title. i don't really know why i like it so much, though it was the first one i read, and that might have something to do with it. what are your favourite Shakespeare works.. and why?

happy friday..

so we haven't done anything this crazy in a while.. sank was in El Paso (Texas) last week and picked up a bottle (or three ;-)!!) of Mexico's finest agave tequila.. so we ended up downing a few shots.. and then went to the nearest Blockbuster to pick up 'The Doors'.. it's been a while seen we last watched it.. put the volume up to Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' and raced a couple of cop cars heading elsewhere! ;-)) haha!

this is the result of one liter of tequila, a few Yuengling's, buffalo wings and Mighty Taco's mightypacks.. and Jim Morrison!

heavy metal summer

yeah baby.. Ozzfest '05 next thursday is my first real kickass concert of this summer, and what a way to start it off man.. check out the band listing!! rock on people..

                                          

                                          

so long and thank you for all the fish

natasha left today.. she's moved to california in her job-hunt. if you need an architect, or a virtual reality designer, then you don't have to look far.. she is the one! obviously, buffalo's loss is california's gain.. the last one and a half years have been a ball honey, and we're gonna miss how you say the word 'sweetie' every sentence.. and your stir-fry chicken.. and your sunshiny morning personality (i don't believe i'm saying this!!).. and of course, passionate arguments where you just wouldn't let up damnit!! but most of all nats.. we'll miss you!

take care of yourself hon, and don't get all mushy and sentimental and teary-eyed now.. we shall see you again, we still have lots of cooking to do!! :-)

HNT-4

my friend Natasha is an architect who just graduated with a Masters.. this is her project installation, a study of virtual reality.. if you think this looks cool, drop her a note on her blog..
and yes, that is me!! ;-)

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!!
(scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

no shelter

his lips bear the sharp taste of blood, where he bit himself
his nose blocked, in the morning chill. bathed in acrid sweat
the sheets matching his wild hair, dishevelled and scruffed up
his face fixed in a daze, confused by the maelstrom in his head
his eyes hollow and gaunt, red veins spiderwebs upon the white
the stark images flashing in his mind, at speeds quite varied

spanish film fest

watched four spanish language films in the last few days.. all have their own merits.. though i must say i really like Gael Garcia Bernal for his acting (he's in all four), and the range of films he's acted in. indeed, he's already been dubbed the Johnny Depp of latin cinema! oh yeah, i think the women think him eye-candy too!

Amores Perros (2000) - [Love's A Bitch]
A film of three interlinked stories, across the span of the social classes in Mexico City, with a strange common theme to them all - dogs. 'Octavio and Susana' is the story of a young man trying to make ends meet, amidst domestic troubles, and gang wars. 'Daniel and Valeria' is the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and how they handle the blows that are faced by common people everywhere. 'El Chivu and Maru' is about a teacher turned revolutionary turned derelict man, and how he lives with his own guilt at his life's choices.
Fast paced, twisting and turning, flashing from one scenario to the other, and a very interesting medium of the character's relationships with their respective dogs as a thread. This film brought a host of awards for the novice director Alejandro Iñárritu on his maiden attempt.

Y tu mamá también (2002) - [And Your Mother Too..]
About two teenage boys and an impulsive journey with an older woman that involves sexual discoveries. About the two Mexicos. And about the fragility of life and the finality of death. The movie is happy to advertise itself as a carefree road-trip, but there is a more serious level, and below that, a dead serious level.
This is definitely one of the best movies i've watched in a while. A narrative style is used to great effect, and the drama in the storyline gently but insistently knocks the lessons this movie tries to tell you. Get your hands on this one.

La Mala Educación (2004) - [Bad Education]
Watching a Pedro Almodóvar film, you just feel that a smart mind is at work, in each shot, and the amount of information you get from it. This story of abuse in a religious boys' school is designed to confuse, and right until the last third we are not clear what really happened!
Gael Garcia is excellent as fresh-faced actor Juan, scraggly-bearded Ángel and jaded-transvestite Zahara.. indeed its his multi-faceted personalities that keep the movie ticking when all semblances of plot comprehension fail you. Almodovar completely succeeds in both confusing and entertaining at the same time!

Diarios de motocicleta (2004) - [The Motorcycle Diaries]
The story of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and his friend Alberto Granada as they travel on a 10,000 km journey across south america on a road trip, which is more an eye-opener.. and went on determine very strongly the political affiliation Che was going to take later in life.
Shot in a slow, narrative style, the film sticks true to the transcript of the diaries, and doesn't make any pretenses about plot development and character building. At the end of the movie though, you are left feeling overwhelmingly sad that a young man whose ideals were so bright, somehow got disiilusioned along the way and he turned out no better than the oppressors he set out to overthrow.

the 3-tag

i've already done this one, so before anyone else tags me on this one.. here you go

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
saurabh - pronounced saw-rub :-)
soray - always easier to say!
jolly - *blush* it's what my family calls me..

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
yeahbaby - oh yeah baby!
soraystud - my oldest id..
djcalvin - from my college radio days

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
designer stubble - the first redeeming quality on my face!
wicked eyes - the other redeeming quality
sheer laziness - it IS a physical thing, i just don't get up!!

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
kinda short - i kinda missed out on 6', by a few inches :-(
the rest of me i can pretty much live with!

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
indian - origin, kenyan - born n' bred, american - settled (hopefully!)

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
little kids in horror movies - what is with that shit man?!
driving fast between two trailer-trucks - don't ask, it just happens
running out of women/food/beer/cigarettes/pot on a deserted island - haha ;-)

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
lots of food, aimless lounging and some kickass rock

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
nothing but a smile! hah, kiddin'!! jeans, t-shirt and sneakers (i'm at work, hello!)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
wild, crazy and kinky sex! (is that three things, or one?!)
good, honest conversation
trust in personal space

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
i'm an eternal optimist
i sing pretty good
i'm a one-girl guy

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
nothing like a fine ass, baby!!
hot lips
smartness (i guess you can say brains are a physical thing!)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
finish my goddamn thesis, now!
go to california - wish i had the time and money :-(
sleeeeep..

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
biomaterials engineer - it's what i'm studying
engineering consultant - it's an option
wanton playboy - it's playtime baby.. yeah right! ;-)

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
lying on a beach in bahamas
going backpacking in europe
exploring australia properly

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
errm, kids? you kidding me right?!

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
try a home microbrewing operation
grow my own hydroponic 'plants'
hold down a decent job, and a good woman.. literally ;-)

mom, dad & me

it has been a while since i last wrote about my family here. probably brought on by a tepid fever, and the associated homesickness. nothing quite turns a gutsy guy into a blathering baby like a touch of illness. the smallest hint of a restless cold, or a subsequent rise in core temperature, and i start missing home, and some fawning attention.

of course i exaggerate about the fawning. mothers come built in with a seventh sense for detecting when kids are feigning sickness, when kids have been sneaking off to play pool during class hours, when kids are helping her in the kitchen coz they have a report card due soon, and so on and so forth. at such times, she adopts a stern tone and a few biting comments tends to brace one up like the proverbial boot in the butt.

as you might have discerned by now, Madre del Dios (literally, Mother of God) is a battleaxe, and my constant run-ins with her iron-fist in iron-glove temperament have left her with a few worry lines on her venerable forehead, and me with the cheery wit of the indefatigable wisecrack. i was totally dominated until the age of 11, when a book, a bunch of classmates and a pretty girl, aided and abetted by hormones that lead a boy's voice to crackle and pop with a confused baritone, led me to break the shackles and be my own man etc. or so i thought, as she still retains the role of Queen of the Empire, and can still make me cringe like a manacled hyena when she raises her voice over the phone line, a million or so miles away.

the pater on the other hand is an ode to diplomacy. he adopts the quintessential "Yes dear" tone and calmly walks away from the path of destruction Hurricane Mom wreaks, hair and poise unruffled. his solutions to all my issues and problems? "grab us a couple of beers sonny, the game's on"!

no matter how old one gets, one does tend to miss that rollicking home, sitting calmly with dad in the eye of the storm while mom fires salvo after salvo, quite like playing Battleship with both hands tied behind your back. really looking forward to going back home again, some time.

high hopes

the banner said it all.. "PINK FLOYD REUNITED - PIGS HAVE FLOWN!!"

yes, Pink Floyd reunited after 24 years for the Live 8 concert in London last weekend.. i got my hands on the DVD rip.. man, what an emotional show! as i read somewhere, even if all this hullabaloo comes to nothing, at least all the potheads of the world will have been aroused from their stupors for long enough to enjoy a great half-an-hour set of Gilmour on the same stage as Waters..

they played four songs.. 'Breathe', 'Money', 'Wish You Were Here' (very poignantly dedicated to the late Syd Barrett) and 'Comfortably Numb'.. Waters played most of the show with tears in his eyes, and Gilmour looked just glad to be up there again.. while the crowd slowly swayed from side to side, wishing that this night would never end.

NB: this is in no way an endorsement of the promoters of Live 8, who i still deeply distrust,
but i feel just as strongly about the cause they purport to advocate

The Music

first things first.. thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected in today's bomb blasts in the UK.. i don't want to say anymore here, as i have tried to avoid making this a record of current affairs etc.. there are much better places to go read and watch that!

kinda ironically, the last week or so i have been playing this one british band over and over again.. a band called The Music!! i know, what kinda lame-ass name for a band is that?! my thoughts exactly! and when they came to UB and opened for Incubus, i wasn't really impressed.. but their show was powerful, they have great stage presence, and their lead vocalist and songwriter Robert Harvey reminds one of two other Roberts.. Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin, you heathens!!) and Robert Frost (the poet, c'mon folks!)

randomly browsing for music, i came across both their CDs (the eponymous 'The Music' and sophomore effort 'Welcome To The North').. and decided to give them another spin.. and i was impressed! there is a polish to these boys, they know how to play great music!

the blurb: amalgamating the psychedelic swarm of the Stone Roses, the bite of Jane's Addiction and the majesty of The Doors, they were also inspired by the Chemical Brothers, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, and whenever anyone asked them why the name 'The Music', they'd reply, "We don't give a shit what we're called. We just want to play music."

the sound: driven by dizzying guitars, powerfully mysterious vocals and a repetitive rhythmic pulse.. they love jamming, and most songs have a dreamy trance to them. The Music are energized and upbeat throughout, rising and dipping in intensity, climaxing in a wash of layered guitars that ends with a loose, bluesy guitar line.

the songs: my pick of the best from both albums: 'Take The Long Road And Walk It', 'Human', 'Getaway', 'The People', 'Float', 'Welcome To The North', 'Freedom Fighters', 'Breakin'

the future: those old fuddy-duddies Oasis & Blur have been shown to the door and kicked out on their proper arses with all the politeness of an axe-wielding Viking butler by this powerful wave of new age brit bands: Coldplay, The Vines, The Music, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs..

so in the spirit of giving you all good music to listen to, i write about this band.. feel free to mail me if you want any of their songs.. i also like what i've heard of Kasabian & Kaiser Chiefs (thank you Grrrace!!).. have some of their stuff too.. buzz me up.

Disclaimer: if the RIAA hear about this i have no idea who you are! you have been warned!!

HNT-3

i know there was a theme for today's HNT.. but it's just that i'd been spending almost every waking hour in the damned lab.. this is all i have, presenting.. nudity in the workplace! ;-)

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!!
(scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

monday blue, tuesday too?

as we all know, yesterday was the 4th of July.. for the unsuspecting, that is the American Independence Day.. and it being a monday, it was a three-day weekend (a four-day weekend for the more enterprising of the lot!).. hope y'all had a great break.

now there are people who suffer from monday blues, and then there is me. i have serious issues with monday mornings, the kind that do not get resolved in a dark alley with a baseball bat, but get carried down generations, a la mafia gripes. i often get the feeling that my grandkids will be woken up by bleak mondays in the future.. laying cold, clammy hands on the napes of their necks, telling them.. "gotta go, sonny.." so, to protect them, i made mondays an offer they couldn't refuse - don't disturb me before the p.m. hour on monday, and i will make a serious effort to get work done in the afternoons. of course, both of us often renege on this deal, but an uneasy kind of truce still holds.

it appears tuesday has got wind of this deal, and has been quiet for years.. silently throwing me to the lions in the coliseum.. way back in high school tuesday was the day i had both english and kiswahili literature classes and biology practicals to boot. now where is the justice i ask you? then in undergrad, tuesday was the day i had full days, all my hated labs and all the professors who treated me with the disdain they reserve for single-celled organisms stuck to the soles of their shoes. and even in grad school, when i didn't have classes on tuesday, i would be stuck with submissions and TA office hours, where abjectly vapid undergrads expected me to teach them that F is indeed = ma.

i think i can be forgiven for concluding that tuesdays have officially drawn swords and would like to see if this issue can be handled with all the subtlety of a hatchet being used to slice onions. the last straw being of course these three-day weekends when i wake up on tuesday morning wondering if mondays and tuesdays have definitely been scheming plots to injure my fragile self-worth.

since cutting a deal with tuesdays is quite impossible.. that would be tantamount to selling my soul to the devil, considering i have already made ol' lucifer a principal signatory to my living being after that accord with mondays.. i grin and bear it when tuesdays hit me with sucker punch after sucker punch.. but one of these days i shall be tempted to sit with tuesday and see if we can't come to some sort of agreement too.. ;-)

word tag

hope y'all had a great 4th of July.. and no one got hurt.. and everyone drank a lot.. and ate like crazy.. i had a great holiday, chilled out and watched some Chappelle Show, had a barbecue (baked lemon-pepper fish, roasted potatoes with butter, juicy burgers and tandoori chicken.. mmm hmm!).. this is the good life!!

aparna tagged me with this one.. this is a really tough one for me to do.. considering how and what i speak changes from day to day depending upon what i watch (konichiwa, bitches!!), listen to (ahh skeet skeet skeet), and read (that's a rummy state of affairs now, old chap).. but there are a few words that are in my head right now as i write this..

dude - such a multipurpose word, used equally to describe greeting, surprise, amazement, disgust, and many other feelings, all depending on how it's pronounced..
e.g. "dude!"

thesis - need i even say why this word is on my mind?
e.g. "dude, i need to finish this goddamn thesis!"

wasted - i simply love how this word completely conveys how drunk/stoned/whatevered one was the night before..
e.g. "dude, we were so wasted!"

solitude - something i think about quite often, and well described by Jerry Cantrell in the eponymous song..
e.g. "i feel this solitude like a belly full of lead"

puta madre - a by-product of watching too many spanish movies.. let it suffice to be said that 'puta' refers to the oldest profession in the world, and 'madre' refers to matters maternal..
e.g. "puta madre, cabron!"

kwenda! - one of my favourite swahili words, meaning 'to go', but often used to describe sentiments more of the nature of 'get lost!'
e.g. "kwenda huko, jinga!"

lacerate - such a harsh word, especially for one that has 'lace' in it..
e.g. "She lacerated me, exposing me piece by piece.."

eclectic - i love this word, cos it sounds so much like something eccentric, and yet means diverse..
e.g. "my interests tend to be quite eclectic"

awesome - probably my favourite word, cos it's very very rare that i am not awesome!
e.g. "i'm awesome, as always.. howudoin?"

anyone who wants to do this.. consider yourselves tagged! :-)

Retrospect

i'm caught in your look, when i'm lost in the magic of your voice. sitting here on these steps, watching you talk, watching your lips move. the gentle curve where your upper lip puckers as it ripples in innocent mirth. people come and go around us, but you and i, we're swimming in our own private bubble of space and time. and you laugh. that fills me with a wondrous joy, emanating from an unknown core of my being, one that i never knew existed until you walked into my life.

the sun sets, sighing orange-red rays heralding the end of another long day, and bearing upon the gentle breeze the promise of night. conversation never fails us, for when tongues don't talk, they meet as if to welcome each other home. your hand slips into my shirt, seeking the safety that closeness brings us. your eyes are closed when we kiss, as you let yourself go and jump into the surf, where you see me already splashing in the waves. i've never hesitated to go anywhere, whenever you've wanted to come with me.

i spend so much of my time just gazing at you, answering a million times why you are the one. the flush in your high cheeks, the way you wink and hold me. each finger extended in a perfect syllable, your whole hand a sonnet, and your body an ode to beauty. lying here by your side, my hands gently sliding across your flat belly, raking it occasionally with my calloused fingers, just to hear your laugh as it tickles. the trees cast long shadows that ripple and roll over you. i breathe gently upon your navel, and watch as the goosebumps hustle for space upon the fair velvet of your skin.

in the dark stillness of the night, is the sound of a single breath, as two bodies in perfect harmony play notes hitherto undiscovered in the grand symphony of the cosmos. fingertips touch and travel, seeing and talking as if each curve were etched in braille. a short gasp here, a slow moan there, as the music slowly fades out, and nocturnal sounds come back to plug the holes of nothingness in space. i hold you close, tight, just the way you like it when i do.

at times, insecurities and priorities, responsibilities and culpabilities, all rear up like a four-headed dragon intent on breathing fire on the tranquil meniscus of a stable relationship. alas, we considered every possible thing but one - ourselves. time plods on steadily, sometimes we go through the machinations, sometimes the passion is reignited. but it does feel that daylight has slipped a couple of rays in between us. and we are drifting, not always being able to hold on to each other. time changes everything.

i never really understood you anyways. you never really loved me anyways.

NB: for the newer readers, this is the 12th in a series of the so-called blue post collection.

a summer saturday

A Saturday in July, 1995 - Nairobi, Kenya.

Wake up with a vaguely uneasy feeling that there must be more to life than high school. Up and about at 7.30 in the a.m. cos detention starts at 8.15, and as usual, my benevolent presence has been required of.
With detention formalities over and done with at 12.30, off for lunch ('chibas' & 'ndaos' - french fries and pancakes), and then soccer practice, with a friendly match at 4 - we were preparing for the interschools league.
A shower, nap and "hi mom, hi dad! - bye mom, bye dad!" later, it's off clubbing.. staying out all nite, having an early breakfast at a roadside kiosk, and crawling into bed before dad wakes up..

A Saturday in July, 2000 - Kharagpur, India.

Wake up with a vaguely uneasy feeling that there must be more to life than college. Of course, being summer, the place is too hot and humid to be dynamic in the daylight hours.. so download and watch movies until 5-ish, toke up some and have a 'tinku' & 'andha-ramen' (fried egg-sandwich and scrambled eggs in Top Ramen) to sate the munchies, and sleep till afternoon.
After a glass of mango-milkshake, it's time for night-soccer under the floodlights. A quick shower, pick up the gf and rustle up the gang, then dinner at Waldorf's, and a drinking binge at Park after that. Pick up some weed, and cheapass whisky at Venky's.. and off for another all-nighter. Listen to the customary Floyd bootlegs, slide into heavy metal and grunge.. and watch more movies..

A Saturday in July, 2005 - Buffalo, NY.

Wake up with a vaguely uneasy feeling that there must be more to life than gradschool. If these are one of those lucky weekends when i don't have an experiment scheduled, then i can sleep in till lunchtime. Leftover pizza and buffalo-wings always in the fridge, and a couple of beers to wash it all down.
Slouched in front of the comp, watching whatever was picked up at Blockbuster, or downloaded off DC++, and before you know it, it's evening. A leisurely game of cricket in the backyard, the quick shower, and then off to the movies. Pubbing usually means dropping by Third Base, a few shots, a few drinks, a few frames of pool.. and it's 2 a.m. soon enough. Put on the trippy lights at home, play some ambient chillout and pass out soon after, these old bones can't take it anymore..

drive-thru office

yes, no kidding! it's finally happened! the new BMW plant in Leipzig, Germany.. designed by the architect Zaha Hadid.. the assembly line actually runs through the offices!! On silver conveyor belts overhead, the bodies of the new BMW 3-Series cars make their way from fabrication to the paint shop.. winding above the design workstations, and the cafeteria too.. the theatrical flow of car shells is visible from almost all points of the open-plan offices!

i apologise for the grainy images, my paparazzi-at-large was using his cellphone for these!

i'm not really sure how i feel about such an office.. on one hand it would be great to see the stuff i make, as it's being fabricated and shunted around.. on the other, when i'm on my lunchbreak, and it's been a particularly frustrating day, the last thing i wanna see is another damned car hovering above me like a damned satellite!! but one thing's for sure, it's one helluva plant to be working in.. with the ice-cool BMW blue ambient lighting!

pix courtesy of The BMW Group & Zaha Hadid Architects