NEW YEAR REVELRY

Ideally this post should have been written 3-4 days back but thanks to wing fart sessions,visiting some relatives, some outings, sem starting works etc didn't materialize. I came to Chennai on 31st ,well in time for a new year bash with hostel junta.After hazaar dillydallying and beating around the bush we finally decided to do something at 8pm. A casual perusal of the New Year Special which had the "hot spots" in the city and the various parties around resulted in a mini heart attack. Firstly everything had the wretched word which brings loads of anger and disappointment on every single guy's face - couples only. Next the rates which never even came close to a 3-digit no. Finally we embarked on a wild-goose chase with just the name of the destination - Farm House on ECR and absolutely no idea about the conveyance,location,costs etc. 10 of us got ready and after some smsing and gtalking decided to go by share auto via Taramani. The usual haggling ensued and we reached the place in 2 groups.We had a small squabble with the manager regarding seat allocation. Ego and pride got the better of us and we moved out only to realize there was nothing nearby. Better senses prevailed now , Alfa and me decided to dole out a dose of Gandhigiri,went in with "vinamrata" and were told to wait for 10 mins and finally got a seat.

The ambience was amazing,very much like a farm house and the place was tastefully decorated.I had a slight inkling that this too would be hazaar costly and the mini heart attack resurfaced after seeing the menu card. Wodehouse would have said " I would have broken the record for the sitting high jump". Then was the time for some "strat putsing". 2 guys who got placed recently were coaxed and convinced to foot the bill . (Actually it was a part of the "hidden agenda" for the night ). The bill being taken care of , we ordered left,right and center. We veggies had no cribs, apparently the non veggie food wasn't that great. However I have to admit that the quality and the service were in no way commensurate with the rates. The inordinate delay left many of us fuming. Somehow finished everything without leaving a grain, watched some pyrotechnics at 12 and then dispersed.

We decided to do something out-of-the-box and went to the seashore sans people . The eerie road that led to the shore, dark and chilly night, barking dogs etc all added to the fun (and fright!) but somehow mustered enough courage to go the shore. We stopped at a point but Murali and Chenna went further upto the water. ( Mallika Sherawat would have said " These are men with balls " :P). Sea,Sand,night,no junta etc.What will guys do? Obviously take a leak! Having relieved ourselves we now set out to go to back to the city,first to Besant Nagar beach and then to IIT.

We walked a good distance greeting all the revellers along the road and finally found a share auto. Again the usual haggling, stuffed ourselves into the max-7-seater and then started the real fun. Throughout we morphed popular songs with a generous dose of expletives and sung at the top of our voices at a CelineDion level pitch. Surely any passerby would have thought we were drunk and totally out, which wasn't the case. Bessie beach was unusually crowded at 2-30 am. We got hold of an ice cream each and just sank into the sand.The guys with oodles of energy ventured out into the waters while the less enterprising just decided to "eat the air" and relax.After some farting and recollecting good old memories we just slept. The pic shows a natural pose,totally oblivious to the surroundings. It was already 3-30am. Finally we made a move fearing a lathi spanking from the policeguys who were shooing away junta and reached our hostel at 4 .We started off the new year in the hostel with football under lights. Scored a goal somehow and the aching legs finally told me to go and crash.

This was certainly a cracker of a night. One thing which I shall certainly miss next year is this bunch of friends and the wing camaraderie . Any time,any place be it cofee or mess or any outing one can find enough company. This will be sorely missed next year. Anyways many more placements/apping treats in the offing and hope to have a blast this sem. GRT,Chola,Park,Mayajaal etc are just some of the places which will soon be blessed by the
Sixth wing junta of Jamuna!

HOW NOT TO WASTE MONEY

A look at some of the movies seen in the past month:

Dhoom 2: Abhishek Bacchan,on a high currently after Bunty aur not-bubbly,Bluffmaster etc and also seen in Banaras,Siddhivinayak temple with Aishwarya finally gets back to his deserving place of second lead.Hrithik simplY steals the show.He is amazing!The film disappoints after an exciting first half due to some extra hamming by Ash and a totally unnecessary love track between Hrithik-Ash and Uday "I apply lipstick.Do you know?See Neal n Nikki" Chopra and Bikini Basu.Worth watching once ( typical Hyderabadi) only for Hrithik and the first half.

Jaan-e-Mann: Salman in place of SRK.Akshay Kumar in place of Saif.Rest very very similar to Kal Ho Na Ho.Salman is as usual awesome.*He is still India's most handsome guy*.Btw today is his birtday.Happy Birthday Sallu bhai. Hope you do some hair-weaving,hope you stop being a
psycho,hope you get to work with the better directors and show the other two Khans that you are no less. (Your HAHK is the highest grosser in the history of Bollywood.Sholay and DDLJ come next).Akshay Kumar as the nerdy,geeky astronaut has done a great job.Otherwise nothing special. Arachu maavu only.

Babul: *Sad* Sallu bhai why the hell do you work with these directors? Absolute rotten,faecal matter.Hema Malini looks better than Rani!!Give it a miss peacefully.

Bhagam Bhag: Theatre se bhag jao.Once again Akshay Kumar is the only saving grace.

Casino Royale: Get a DVD.watch the first 20 min for some amazing chase sequences.Then pause it,learn the fundas of poker and get back.Else you will bulb royally like I did.Wasted 100
bucks.Could have watched Sallu twice in Jaan-e-Mann :P

Khatarnak(Telugu): Someone take a stick and spank me.How on earth could I have watched this shit!If I were to add the total amount spent on worst movies like this,it would have fetched me a Lee or Levis jeans.

Godfather: Ajith is simply superb in the second half.What could have been a great movie has been pushed down into the average slot thanks to the boisterous comedy by Ramesh Kanna,unnecessary songs etc.Rehman disappoints.Only "Innisai" stands out.After "Raa Raa" this is one of the best songs with a classical touch in commercial flicks.One can infact count the no of words spoken by Asin.Absolutely no role at all!Ajith is too good as the hazaar effeminate dancer.Otherwise nothing worth mentioning.

Heard:
1) Himesh Reshammiya is going to act in a film.God save Bollywood.
2) Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is going to be remade.As if one was not enough.Hold-your-breath its going to be an animated with dogs replacing humans.Karan Johar ,you please stick to
animation.Atleast we will be spared of KANK,K3G etc. All of you take an oath .
" Even if I get a free ticket for a Karan Johar movie,I wont watch it"

DON

As the titles flashed by , I was transported to the good old school days when weekends meant checking out SONY MAX or ZEE CINEMA for some old Hindi classics . I became a huge fan of Big B after watching Deewar and Zanjeer and the fan became a devotee after Namak Halaal, Laawaris,Don,Sholay,Trishul etc. The timelessness of these were mainly due to Big B,cutting dialogues , R D Burman or Kalyanji Anandji- Kishore combo,masala story and pace of the movies.I would have watched DON,the 1978 blockbuster of Chandra Barot , completely atleast ten times and partially infinite times. Infact I even remember watching the Tamil remake BILLA starring superstar Rajni in Kumbakonam many summers ago and the gult remake YUGANDHAR with a disproportionate NTR . The gult version was horrible and left a bitter taste but the Tam one was pretty good. Thanks to LAN I watched yet another remake of one of my all time favs with the so called Baadshah of Bollywood teaming up with the suave, urbane, gen next director Farhan Akhtar.

SRK has done a great job, given his limitations like lover boy image, diferently abled talents like stammering etc. Though not very convincing as a top notch gangster, he has been able to carry the film on his shoulders well.Kareena in the item number is scorching hot!I wont say the same with respect to her other films though . However the choice of the side actors leaves much to be desired.Thankfully Farhan didn't commit the blunder of showing how martial arts can be learnt in ten days as done by the sexy Zeenat Aman in the original by showing an already trained Priyanka.Sadly the beautiful babe can't emote or dance.Seriously! And Arjun Rampal playing the role of a limping criminal, hell bent on taking revenge on the DCP (Boman Irani) was by far the worst choice. The master of the hamming code ,Pran had great dialogues in the original and made a huge impact. Some of the finest actors in Bollywood like Boman Irani and Om Puri (as the Interpol officer) have been wasted. Boman, though having decent footage doesnt get a chance to display his varied histrionic skills and was a little disappointing. These two chaps didnt get much roles in Lakshya too.

Like any Farhan movie this too has great locales, plush apartments,amazing gadgets, some sensational chase scenes and breathtaking photography which give a totally Hollywood look. The songs were a bit of a letdown but the rocking background music with electric guitar generously being thrown in compensated for the loss .Surprising that Indian directors have no qualms in blatantly copying famous scenes, promos etc.The green posters all over the town give a Matrix feel and the fights have been directly lifted from Bourne Identity. The chase and escape sequences , though well shot , are slightly out of the world though. Can you believe SRK escapes from a plane and fights in mid air for a parachute ?Oh yeah.He thulps his adversary , lands down and sings "Khaike paan banaras waala" after a few minutes !Or Priyanka snatching an injured Don from the cops in the first half by lifting the ambulance with a crane over a flyover when she could have easily lifted Don alone as the cops were already cornered by the gangsters and were unarmed :P. Some thought should have gone into these small aspects atleast.

The last few minutes offer some thrilling , edge-of-the-seat moments like Arjun walking across the Petronas Towers connecting bridge, Boman being made to run over high altitude cliffs and bridges etc ably supported by the stringing of the electric guitar and the camera work. The final scene will surely leave you bewildered and it is the trump card of the film! Farhan's talent comes to the fore in these scenes and one is bound to applaud them.

The bottomline is that first timers will fall in love with the flick , while others can only rue about the current acting talent , which is on the wane. Worth watching once mainly for the plus points mentioned above and to an extent for SRK. But one thing is for sure. SRK cant be Big B. As goes the trademark dialogue Yeh to mushkil nahi, namumkin hain!!!

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

Note to self:

1) Mug probability,DI,integral and differential calculus like hell and become an expert by next November. After doing so,mention that you are one prob stud in your resume.The probability of being shortlisted in many companies is pretty high. You might atleast go the last round of Deutsche Bank - 125,000 $ p.a ,Lehmann Bros Tokyo - 110,00 $ p.a, Cap one - dont know, some other company offering 90,000 $ etc. Who knows if luck doesn't desert you,you might even end up grabbing some plum offer ;). Aiming high is not a crime

2) End sems from Nov 22nd. Mug for that. This is also essential for the extra dollars.

3) Watch The Departed,Dhoom 2,Godfather and Guru ASAP after Nov 31st.

4) If time permits watch the film with the same title. You can shout from rooftops that you know Clint Eastwood.

Orkut

The word on everybody's lips seems to be orkut now.All my cousins in the vetti age (>18) are there and I have re-established ties with many of my long lost school friends .Infact thanks to orkut we were able to meet this summer.Ok,everybody knows this,so why an entire post extolling orkut and Orkut Buyukkokten?Well ,read on.Here are 2 interesting conversations.

Firstly my mom seems to be knowing about Orkut now.

Mom: Do you know about orkut?

Me: Yeah,its a social networking site (with the usual nonchalance)

Mom:So what exactly is it about?

Me: Well its open to all.You have to create a profile and then sign in.You can add new friends and also keep in touch with the old friends.

Mom:Is that all?

Me: Hmm there are many communities too.We can join them and participate in the interesting discussions.

(The million dollar question now)Mom:So what do you do?

Me: ( Tightlipped for 4 secs,A 1000w bulb.I cool down,come back to my senses and then shoot out) I keep in touch with my old friends.I participate in fruitful discussions in Iyengar community.I follow other communities which interest me like quizzing,Hindu crossword,Cricket etc.Thats it.

Mom: Ok I heard something called scraps.Dont waste your time scrapping everyone.Do it only if necessary. Also I have read some disturbing articles in the paper so be careful.

Me: Oh yeah sure.No tension.

We digress and that was the end of the convo. The "what do you do" was an interesting one. 339 friends,66 fans, 4669 scraps and 84 communities.That should speak for itself.The things which I do are the usual writing scraps,keeping in touch with friends,scrap book intrusion,etc.I read the scrap books of many of my close friends and follow the replies too. Of course,along with the replies some innocous babe watching. An interesting proof of what I do-

Guy(Some friend's friend) : hi XXX!..how is life going on...good to see u here in orkut....its always good to have good old friends back...so how has life been for so many years...... ("SO MANY YEARS" .rofl)

Girl: who's this?? I don't know u...

Guy: Hey I was your classmate in school.

Girl: Well i dont seem to remember.I really do not know you.

Guy: hi....that was just a way of getting a reply from u....sorry if it annoyed u......nyways....wanted friendship with u .....so what do u do....

Girl: better luck next time!! plzz i can't maintain so many friends... tk cr..

Girl (again) : hey! plzz don't feel bad!

Guy: simply amazing.....the way u denied it....hi funda... i mean i have never seen such a decent refusal.....that matches with ur pic....chalo it was nice talking to u.....as u say i wish i have a better luck next time.....hey dont worry nothing to feel bad about........chalo bye..take care.

Girl: Bye

I do not know either of them. Just felt like posting this,thats all. Anyway me off to Hyd for Diwali ,so advance wishes to all my beloved readers .

P.S : When is the probability of rain in Chennai 100%?

Ans 1) If the Indian team is in Chennai
Ans 2) 1 or 2 or 3 days before Diwali.

It has been raining incessantly since morning . Bunked the entire morning session.Well I would have become a "mamu" if I had donned a raincoat and put fight cycling all the way only to find the class cancelled.So did not take the risk.

I WANT TO...

Tagged by Naren.This one seems to be easy. In fact no fight at all. One of my shortest and quickest posts-10min.Surprisingly I found ready answers to the questions and I am so happy for that.This is after spending so much time for every question in the now weekly affair called quizzes.

1) Read

The count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.

2) Listen

All songs of Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi and A.R.Rehman.Hehe no pattern there.

3) Watch

The Usual Suspects,Pulp Fiction,Fight Club-all with subtitles.Tried watching them before but couldn't make out anything apart from four lettered words.I really want to watch these to know why they figure in the list of all time favourites of so many people.Btw I dont find Quentin Tarantino appealing at all.Kill Bill was crap to say the least.Captain/Balayya atleast provide some comic relief unlike Thurman.

4) Visit

Munnar. A few friends of mine went there recently and I fell in love with that place after seeing the pics.

5) Buy

Oh so many!!! Digi Cam,Pseude mobile,Swatch :D

I shall also brand my wants as "realistic" as that seems to be the buzzword now.

SALAAM NAMASTE

Hi, Hello ,How do you do,Fine thank you!It has been a long,long time and I thought it would be fine to clear the cobwebs and dust my blog. It has been gathering dust for a month.Even my room generally breathes life once in 15 days. My body thankfully hasnt been subjected to an IITian form of life and I can proudly say that I take bath daily albeit at odd hours.Guess some of the guys who chat with me between 10-12pm would have known my erratic bathing timings.

The sem was damn painful initially mainly due to the long distances. Of course I dont mean travelling 1-2 hrs as most of the engg guys do. Any distance greater than Jamuna to MSB,which might be 1km is "long" for me.I have been fortunate enough in having my places of study quite closeby .The farthest I have encountered was my school which at the max would have been about 4 km . Actually I cant believe that I used to cycle down 4 kms then because I find cycling so painful now. Probably with advancing age things which seemed pleasurable once stop being so.

By an odd quirk of fate I suddenly find myself too busy.I have a quiz almost every alternate week and a spate of assignments to do. Assignments have been there every sem,only that this sem we cant copy most of them and some require original ideas. Of course original is a euphemism for googling or askjeeving on your own computer.Atleast this has provided the impetus to do something on my own and its surely time to rejoice as I have finished almost all the assignments on time.sadly laziness got the better of me and I am yet to submit two of them.A couple of assignments require some sort of a survey.And one of them is about FMCG etc.Surely we will be shown the out gate without any mercy whatsoever unless we hang our ID cards and produce them first like some FBI agents.What tragedy has befallen me! An engineer doing a salesman level job :P .Thanks to the turn of events in the past month I can now proudly claim that I am no longer vetti (=jobless, for those unacquainted with the word). I shall go a step further and announce that you will be offending me by calling so. Henceforth people are advised not to even inadvertently address me as a vetti,as its tantamount to insulting.

I have started playing football.Its interesting,only that more running is required.Cricket is so peaceful in that way.Of course I dont run much even in cricket.Let alone running, my footwork is also pathetic and after 15 odd years of batting I still cant get the cover drive right.Somehow my legs simply refuse to move when required despite my having a predilection towards cricket.Coming back to footer I am still in the learning process and have just learnt how to take a kick.I now play (I mean weekly once or twice)as a striker ,thereby masking my inability to run much and also in the process being able to play football. Dribbling ,hoodwinking etc will take time.All is fine with football,only that the term "beautiful game" somehow doesnt go well with me as I find it a tad "unbeautiful" and violent.

Btw if you haven't watched Salaam Namaste you haven't lost anything.Just check out Jaaved Jaffery's comedy track in that.Really hilarious. DON's audio has been released and the title song is really cool and sung beautifully as always by Shaan.The music is too good in that song.The rest are ok types.Udit Narayan,SRK and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have murdered "khaike paan banaras waala" with new beats,SRK chipping in with limericks and all crap.It will be interesting to see whether this Farhan-SRK combo can match one of Big B's biggest hits. Post KHNH only Swades was good. The rest sucked big time. Once again continuing the talk about movies sadly Chiru's Stale-in {Stalin} isn't doing well.The mega star seems to have lost his touch with 3 straight flops. JIllunu oru Kadhal has been dismissed as a worthless movie and even ARR didnt give his best. The biggest hits this season have been Bommarilu in Gult and Munnabhai in Hindi and haven't watched both of them. What about Hollywood? Bole tho??? :P

And finally posting this on a day after writing two quizzes on the same day,followed by preparing the ppt for the intern viva tomorrow.This is supposedly the break. Atleast now are you convinced that for a change I am really doing something??