Ishmael, Male Child Preference & Polygamy

0935hrs
25^th  April 2013, Thursday
Mapletree Anson, Singapore.

Consider:  A hundred men and one woman does not spell a hundred babies, but one man and a hundred women does.

Isn’t this an astounding observation ? Read in the context of the rest of the novel Ishmael (from which this line has been extracted) it becomes even more thought provoking. Though everyone (including myself) might not agree with the novel completely, there are some statements such as these that drive you to look at our world with a new pair of glasses. So get a copy and read Ishmael now!

So what does this statement mean? In simple words it says that “a hundred males and one female ” have the potential of producing lesser babies than “a hundred females and one male” in a fixed period of time. With this insight in mind lets analyze some of the prevailing social conflicts in our world today.  From here on I will refer to this insight as our basic premise.

Let’s first take the case of male-child preference in some cultures. Various reasons like inheritance, “tradition” and burden of dowry are cited as reasons for the existence of this phenomenon. Sometimes peer/societal pressure for a male child even leads parents to extreme acts – female foeticide and infanticide. I am not going to do a detailed analysis on either the various reasons or consequences of this phenomenon; but I would like you to think about this preference (without thinking about the extreme acts it leads to) with our basic premise in mind. I am sure the realization must have hit you by now –  male child preference is a form of population control!  More males than females lead to a lesser potential population than more females and less males. I am not sure if population control was ever a reason for the male child preference phenomenon – but I found this connection intriguing!

Our culture (excluding tribal cultures) over the last few centuries has been one that has encouraged population growth without regard for its adverse effects on other forms of life. We are actually stuck in a vicious circle right now – we produce more food (implies more agriculture, which means destroying habitats of more species, leading to ecological imbalance) in anticipation of a larger population; the larger food production encourages higher population growth, which in turn forces us to produce more food again and so on. In the last century itself we have grown by 5 billion in number! By no means is this sudden rise in population sustainable for the human race in the long term. Keeping this in mind, lets look at polygamy and our basic premise.

There are two forms of heterosexual polygamy. When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny ; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. Polygyny is the more widely prevalent kind. Polygyny seems to be consistent with our lust for population growth but violates the need of the hour – population control. If indeed some pockets of society allow polygamy – shouldn’t they allow polyandry over polygyny?

Next, think about this – if male child preference continues it will lead to major gender imbalance and there will be only two choices – 1) Polyandry 2) Only some men get the privilege of getting married and having children.

I am not justifying male child preference or advocating polyandry here (since these practices may have other adverse side effects which I have not analyzed), but I am trying to document my observations on these issues in light of our population problem (based on the basic premise). Your comments and observations are welcome.

1110 hrs
25^th  April 2013, Thursday
Mapletree Anson, Singapore.

Been a while

0052 hrs

Study Table, Home (Cantonment Close).

Well, its been quite a while since I last blogged, hasn’t it!? 🙂 Since I have started working I have become so busy that I dont know what to do and what not to do! There are so many things happening in my life and I think its high time I prioritize. I remember that as a student I used to set weekly or monthly goals and more often than not achive those targets.

But since I have started working I have realized how much less time I have to myself! Working a 8 to 5 job sucks so much time out of your life! But slowly I am learning how to maximize the time I have and instead of weekly goals or monthly ones, I have set myself half yearly goals! :p

And I am happy to announce that I have successfully achieved my first one. I got my first DSLR. After a lot of intensive research I bought the Nikon D7000. I hope I get time to use it though! 🙂

So anyways, I will keep it short for this time & hopefully my next post wont be too far away.

Gong Xi Fa Cai 🙂

0103 hrs

Study Table, half sleepy.

100 truths, religion and IPL.

Tuesday, April 7th 2009.

0807hrs, NUS Thinklab, Computer Centre.

Yes, its true that I am in univeristy so early in the morning.

April and May are the months of exams, assignments, stress, IPL etc in most parts of the world. Side-effects of these are varied. Depending on who you are (I guess you will identify few of yours here) it maybe facebook addiction (latest trend), excessive sleeping, insomnia, smoking ,drinking, porn, movie or tv-show marathons, getting addicted to some music and anything else to distract you from what you are actually supposed to be doing.

I have been having some of the above mentioned effects and some more peculiar ones. But before I talk about that I would like to start of with FaceBook (FB) addiction. FB being dominated by students worldwide is a very good indicator of stress levels in student communities around the world. If you have a FB account and have 50+ friends you must have noticed the recent high activity rate on the website, a very good indicator of the April-May zone. Let me talk of three most popular trends I have seen over the last month.

It started with people tagging their friends on one picture, which has like many smaller images of variety of characters we encounter (eg. the flirt, the cutie, the jerk etc… I guess you get which one I mean). Then came the quizzes, with so many random-shit questions – when will you get married? when will I get cancer? and equally shitty answers. And then came tagging lists of things you do and passing them on – the ipod quiz, the other randomly self-indulging- chance of making yourself -look-good-which you are actually not- lists etc.

So anyways yesterday night my friends started doing this 100 truths list and tagged me to do it as well. Some of them cited exam-stress as reason for doing the list, others stated joblessness as the reason. Whatever it is I am not here to analyse the reason behind their doing it. The list itself interested me a lot.

Before I touch on the reason of my interest for the 100 truth list I think I need to lay some more foundation.

I was watching the documentary Religulous yesterday night. Last saturday (earth hour night) I was involved in a fierce debate over definition of religion with some friends and I have been reading Bhagavad Gita. So you can see that I have been spending a lot of time on religion and understanding it (side-effect 1?) . If you are a namesake-Hindu like me (one who doesnt go to temple,eats beef etc etc – which I am not saying are true requirements of being a Hindu, but merely stating social norms) , and you probably are looked at in a condescending manner by your staunch Hindu parents,friends etc then what I say will be similar to what you feel !  I hate those so called religious-people who judge others in that fashion. First of all do they really understand their religion? More importantly do they understand the idea behind religion? Or do they blindly follow what other people have told them to be religious or non-religious? Whatever minute knowledge I have gained through my readings clearly indicates that what people perceive today as being religion is not true. What is it then? – Right now I dont know. There are some ideas I have, but they are not cultivated enough.

Is religion a way of life? Is it a guide to reach god? Is it just an idea? – I dont know. Or may be as one of my friends stated – ” Religion is sum of all egos. ” (for more details ask me  personally on the explanation :p). Anyways I can write a book if I keep talking about religion and even put the hardcore-insomniac to sleep with this discussion, but what I wanted to point out is this:

Religion should be our intuition, an experience. It should not be what someone said. If you look into history of Hinduism (accurately, Sanatana dharma) in the vedic period this is what religion was, an experience. You live your life, experience it , learn what is right and wrong. It was the process that was important ,not the destination. So, say if my friend smokes or drinks or whatever, its his intuition to do so, and I should not be judging him to be non-religious or a sinner.

When Avinash wrote in his 100 truths :

” Do you want to get married? – Yes…..maybe i cannot sustain myself properly currently but will make sure to give my family the highest standards to live in.”

 unlike Agastya who found it funny (not judging you buddy 🙂 ) , I found it very heart-warming.  The fact that we dont associate such a response from a guy like Avi might make it funny, but I look at it as what he desires, what his instinct says . Knowing him personally, I highly doubt that while answering that question he mentally referred to any religious teachings or scripts to reach that conclusion. Through his experience and what he has learnt in life and through “thinking” himself he reached this conclusion! I would say thats religion ,not accurately, but in a crude sense. That is probably just a small example from day to day life.

Now moving to something interesting! – Did you know there is a Cannabis Religion??? Their tagline – “We use cannabis religiously and you can, too.”  I personally dont find it stupid, because  ” Realty is unique, wise men see it (achieve it) in different ways. ” (Rig-Veda)  If Cannabis is your way to the truth, so be it (right Shanty?)

From all the intense religious stuff to some light stuff – CRICKET – IPL.

18th April , saturday is the day of the season opener for Indian Premier League Season 2 . Great match to start off with: MUMBAI INDIANS VS CHENNAI SUPERKINGS. Where are all you guys watching (if you are)? Avinash has indicated to me that he might live at  Ankur’s place throughout the season! So do you want to watch the season openers at Ankur-Agastya’s place??  Also guys I have sent you invites for the NTULC Season 2 IPL fantasy (cricinfo). Lots of players to choose this time over and more transfers than last season as well! So Do join! If you havent got the invite let me know your email address– will send again!

Anyways I better get started (my instinct speaking!) on the 3 assignments I need to submit by today evening. I hope Agastya gets his remote working by tonight, I tried helping him over the phone yesterday night, but chances look bleak! As for others keep the facebook traffic alive, its stupid, but entertaining.

0915hrs, 7th April 2009.

 PS: Sorry for the horribly unstructured writing! Havent blogged in a while…hopefully more blogs during the exam period. 🙂

 

Every Dog has his day & NTULC INtl. Pvt. Ltd.

Tuesday, 24th February 2009

0215hrs, Home.

Firstly. Sorry for the long break I took off my blog. Mid term break at uni now, so I am back!

Secondly. Sorry for not having done the shuffle quiz which I was tagged by Ranajay to do. I will do it soon, promise.

Thirdly. Lets move on from the apologies.

Lastly. Today’ s headlines. Crorepati JhopadPatti ka Kutta ( A.k.A SlumDog Millionaire) wins 8 Oscars. I woke up to Rahman winning the Oscar. I was happy for him like many other Indians around the world.  I thought about it. Slumdog is not even among his best 5 albums in my opinion. If a mediocre album by Rahman’s standards (btw Jaye Ho was rejected by Subash Ghai for his film Yuvraaj) can win 2 Academy Awards, imagine how many he would have won say hypothetically if he was either born in England or the US! Also a not so great ‘ Indian’ album  winnimg an Oscar, says something about the standard of Indian Music. 🙂 In my personal opinion it didnt deserve to win 8 Oscars, but thats my personal opinion. I guess it was a favorite among critics and masses equally and so it won. So yeah, every dog has its day, happens to be a slumdog this time.

Enough of dog talk, some updates on what happened over the last month or so, during which i took a break from blogging.

In one of my posts- The week gone by -an update , I had listed out the books I had been reading. Now a progress report on those books. The locations of all those books has changed from my books shelf to my cupboard where they have been untouched since that day. More updates in future posts. 🙂

Was away at Outward Bound Singapore on 7th-8th February.( All PHOTOS here)

Notable activities there :

1. Failed attempt at being messenger boy .(relevant parties know about this,limited disclosure here)

2. Looked like a fool wearing long kurtas and shorts. (you can see in the photos and have a laugh)

3. Led the GSS team in building a raft and paddling it into the ocean!

4.  And this…..

5. Singing on the bus back from OBS like mad ‘dogs’. Agastya was dignified as usual, chose not to sing. Hisham barked as loud as me. Naveed doesnt do singing. Others all contributed in a way or other. Notable song performed by Michael urf Michelle : I am a Barbie Girl ( on someone’s demand :p)

Apart from OBS, at GSS we have been pretty occupied. Launched New Website. Have few new events coming up over next few weeks- Free Weekend Movie Screening Marathons,  SALSA classes, Trip to Malaysia and a Sports Week.

Talking of Salsa, another update. A russian girl asked me to be her partner for Salsa 🙂 . She said she would attend our classes if and only if I dance with her. Exciting??  Dont get excited, turns out she is already married ! Par kuch tho progress hai! I guess that event makes me lose a couple of NTULC credits! Damn! Oh and yeah- NTULC is back – bigger and better– we have gone International – NTULC Intl. Pvt. Ltld (NTULC IPL). And I have been asked to be International Liason.

International just reminded me something else, I am going to tour Australia (northern Territory) this summer (winter there). I have been selected on a cricket tour as part of the NUS cricket team! Best part is almost 60-70% of the cost is sponsored by NUS :))) . Once back from Australia I will be off for the GSS Summer Trip ( place still undecided – Volcano Diving trip to Krakatoa, Diving in Phillipines?, Angkor Wat / diving?) You might notice that diving is there in all the options, thanks to Agastya. He really wants to dive I guess,but then he is try to overcome his fear (deep water), so its justified! He and Naveed are taking swimming classes also in NUS btw!

Talking of Agastya and Naveed, just reminded me to do an update on my friends. Most of them are pretty busy and are rarely in touch. But of whatever I know they have been upto, here is a brief update.

Agastya has been comfortably drunk/high/numb/asleep and learning chinese (kyun?)/swimming/MTbing/bodybuilding etc.

Suchit has been  racist, giving excuses for his rapidly increasing weight, learning German (kiske liye?) /Guitar/ GRE words (3 G’s)

Vanga has been Vanga. Only difference, now  in India.

Avinash has got room in NTU finally, applied for tuition fee loan in his last semester (spent money drinking to celebrate approval of his loan, smart boy 🙂 ) , planning to work as Insurance Agent soon.

Ranajay has been BLOGGINGabout cockblocking/DevD/Super CNY/ Legen-motherfucking-dary drinking escapades. and yeah going to Work.

Shantanu has been stuck in a viscious cycle :  Broke ->Hibernating -> Designing -> Money-> Beer + Smoke + Carls Jr ->Broke -> Hibernati……..

Ankur has become NTULC IPL Emperor.

Deepak has been making a fool of himself, 2 of his ex-gfs got married, has been attempting to build muscles (1.618), recovering from gym fatigue and has now been blogging for more than an hour!!!!!!

The End.

0329hrs, 24th Feb 2009

Home.

Ek Shanivaar

18th January 2009, Sunday

0312hrs, Couch.

Abhi thodi der pehle mai suchit ko Night rider bus stop dikha ke ghar wapas aa raha tha ki mazedaar hadsa hua. Mujhe apne ghar aane ke liye beech mein ek multistorey car park main 3 manzil upar aana padhta hai jiske liye har dafa lift hi le leta hoon. Har baar ki tarah aaj bhi mai lift ki taraf bada.

Ab 10-15 metre ki doori mein lift nazar aa raha tha aur mere aur lift ke beech mein ek chapta tha jo bhi lift ki taraf ja raha tha. Woh lift mein ghusa aur meri taraf muda, main 3 metre se bhi kam ki doori mein tha aur mujhe laga saala mere liye lift ka darwaza khula rakhega. Usne meri taraf dekha aur jaldi se lift bandh karne ka  button daba diya. Saala Chutiya Chapta, haraami, m******……. aisi kaafi gaaliyan mere mann mein aayi. Ek hi jhatke mein mai seedi ki taraf bhaaga jo mere bagal mein hi thi! Maine yeh thhan li thi ke mein usse pehle upar pahunch jaoonga aur saale ka chehra dekhoonga.

Main poori tezi se aur apne lambe taangon ka fayada uthate hue seediyon se upar bhaaga. Mai usse 2-3 second pehle pahunch gaaya aur uska lift se nikalne ka intazar karne laga. Lift ka darwaaza dheere se khula aur woh bahar nikla aur mujhe dekhte hi chaunk ke wahin ruk gaya. Maine uski taraf dekha aur nana patekar ki tarah hasne laga… Mujhe lagta hai chutiya darr gaya tha. Woh jaldi se muda aur doosri taraf nikal gaya. Saala chapta, aukaad dikha di maine uski. Aur phir mai mast ghar wapas aa gaya. bahut mazaa aaya uski lene main…

Iske alaava bhi aaj kaafi kuch huya. Subah utha…dophar ko shaayad…haan dophar ko hi…1 baje ke kareeb. Phir thodi der aise hi tv dekha aur phir tayyar ho ke NUS ke liye nikal gaya. Aaj NUS ke cricket team ka chayan tha isliye mai bhi chala gaya. Suchit bhi shaam ko NUS aane waala tha. Cricket khela. Shaam huyi aur tab tak suchit bhi aa chuka tha, hum dono gaye aur PGPR mai faadoo bharateeya khaana khaaya. Uske baad maine suchit ko thoda NUS dikhaya, library gaye, bollywood pe ek kitab bhi maine le li aur uske baad GSS room mein ja kar baith gaye. Thodi der padhai ki aur phir youtube mai kuch video dekhe.  Uske baad bus leke mere ghar aa gaye.

Neeche food court mein khaana pack karva liya tha aur phir ghar aa gaye. Khaane ke saath philum(chalchitra) bhi dekhne lage… ” A wednesday” dekhi …badiya pitchar hai yaar…mai doosri baar dekh raha tha! Yeh scene sabse sahi tha:

Uske baad hum Night rider ki bus stop ke taraf gaye…Jaise hi hum pahunchne waale the bus nikal gayi…agli bus aane ko 20-25min the isliye humne socha jaake chai pee lete hain. Pata nahi phir thoda sa mijaaz badla aur hum 7-eleven chale gaye..suchit ne Hot Chocolate le liya aur maine rang birangi barf waali ice-cream le li. Thodi der hum bus stop pe duniya daari ki baatein karte rahe, suchit choclate ki chuskiyaan lete hue aur main apne barf ko chooste hue.. Phir bus aayi aur chote sahab nikal gaye aur uske baad lift mein kya hua aap jaante hi hain.

Ghar aaya socha gaane sunoonga…saale vishnu ne phir mere kamre se mera external hard disk le liye. chutiya lene se pehle poochta bhi nahi hai. Har roj jab ghar aata hun to sota rahta hai aur mera hard disk kamre mein rakh kar darwaza bandh kar leta hai. Aaj maine use msn  pe gaali- galoch bhej di hai hai ki abse meri cheezein aise na liya kare…Saala chain se mujhe apni cheezein bhi istamaal nahin karne de raha…

Aaj ke liye  kaafi hai..Tho yeh tha mera Shani-vaar. Ab dekhte hain ravi-vaar kaise jaayega.

0349ghante, Wahin pe

18th Janvari 2009, Ravivaar.

The week gone by – an update.

17th january 2009, Saturday

0131hrs, Home.

First of all sorry that I havent been posting anything for quite some time now. Today finally I have got some time to just recap the week gone by briefly.

Monday. Classes started at Uni. Also some work for GSS. I designed the new poster for Welcome Party (posted it on tuesday). My classes are in evening from 6 to 9. First class was good, Indian Prof, SK Panda. Didnt go to gym…so decided to workout at home. I am using suitcases,bags etc as weights at home now :p . Not bad actually…they are pretty effective, basically, the tougher it is to grasp a weight, the more your muscle develops. Btw turns out that cute girl I mentioned in my post last friday is one of my friend’s roomie. I was warned by my friend to stay away from her. I saw that girl on that day, but didnt bother to go say hi. I was late for class anyways.

Tuesday. Second class for the week- Power Electronics. Again Panda. Nice chap, turns out he is deputy head of Mechatronics Masters Program. I am thinking of asking him for part-time research assistant job. Need some cash urgently. Stupid NUS -Office of Finance are not returning my 1000 bucks of tuition grant refund! Once poster was done I uploaded it everywhere..the facebook group..my blog…forum…etc.Naweed and me decided to make a robot.

Wednesday. Third class in a row.Damn it. Application of Mechatronics. Horrible Prof. Cant understand what he is talking. The man needs speech therapy and english classes! I ignored him and read some Robotics book and messaging Ankita all the while. I dont think she knew I was in class. :p I left class half way when he gave a break, Naveed the sincere student he is, decided to sit through 2 more hours of  nerve-twisting torture.Left for library and worked on some business plan. Got back home around 11 and did some bullshit for sometime and then went to bed.

Thursday. Yes. Fourth Class. Neural Networks.Awesome Prof. Best Lecture Notes I have seen in my life as a student here. Agastya (minus long hair + ear stud + spikes) arrives. Earlier in the day he had called and said he would be coming for class. I was surprisingly not surprised at his new appearance. Dont know Y? During this lecture prof showed two videos which I would like to share here. Real interesting stuff!

Came back home and did some exercise. Then watched telugu movie ‘ Vaana’ . Good songs and locations. Nothing else positive in the movie.  Havent been able to watch live cricket matches since classes started. 😦 So i watch one hour highlights every night at 1:32am on Star Cricket. Now has become a routine.

Friday: No registered class. Went to gym. Met Agas there. Was reallyyy hungry, so went to BK at arts canteen. Amazing view from top floor of arts canteen!!!! Good food as well. BK, Thai food, Coffee joint and cosy sofas, view of sea in the distance. Then went to library to get some books. Was supposed to print posters, but then decided to attend Agastya and naweed’s class – Sustainable Product development.  Nice module- project based. But I want to take neural nets so not taking this one ( cant take 5 modules..that will be too much!)….Anyways during break went to canteen where we decided to meet up on sunday for discussing some robot plans and the other 2 guys have swimming classes. They went back to class, while I went back home to check whether Home Team NS is open for public or not. the last 2 times we went we had to return due to some ongoing- league over there. Anyways today was open and I informed everyone to come down. 10 people . We waited almost 70 min to get our lanes- Super Rush! Then we played. First game was so so.. Second game we played EEE team vs Rest of Waste. As expected we thrased the Rest badly. Vanga was in form and the EEE spirit brought the best out of most of us. I was average. Bowling finished and we all dispersed. Ankur challenged to beat EEE team next week, same place, same day, same team!! I am looking forward to that. ( Guys any pictures of bowling?? Please pass on..) Got chicken pie and chicken puff from FairPrice Express. At the moment of typing, those were still uneaten, but the aroma tempting me to end my post here.

Before I go offline…few more things…tomorrow meeting Suchit at NUS…some work..at 330 got University Cricket team trials….evening house party at agastya it seems…Agastya will be at Attica i think…Sunday meet naweed and Agas, discuss about our robot and I would like to see Agastya swim ( have seen him run, play cricket, bowl…can it be worse?? and how? …just kidding agas!)

Other facts.

Reading List presently. Will keep you updated on my progress on each book weekly)

1. Academic Texts. 5 of them. :p

2. Service robots.

3. Leonardo’s Lost Robots.

4. The Dain Curse & The Maltese falcon  ( Both Mystery Novels)

5. Great Sanskrit Plays.

6. Mahabharata : Book 1 : the Book of the Beginning.

7. Bhagavad- Gita  As It is

8. Camel Club

Yeah I read a lot of books simultaneously!

Songs I was addicted to over the week:

1. Jalte hain from Sorry Bhai.

2. Emosanal Attyachar and Nayan Tarse, DevD.

3. Nee ToliSariga from Santosham (telugu)

4. Mad World, Both Gary Jules version and original by Tears for Fears

5. Aakasha Ganga from Vaana (Telugu)

6. Octavarium by Dream Theater.

7. Downloading DELHI 6 SOUNDTRACK, heard its good. Rahman again.

0224 hrs, Next to untouched Chicken Pie and puff!

Saturday, January 17th 2009.

Quick Update

January 9th 2009, Friday

2358hrs, Dining table@Home.

Been a bit busy last few days so wasnt able to post anything. Anyways today I thought I would just post some quick update before going to bed. Need to wake up early tomorrow!

Well today was pretty interesting. Most of the day had GSS (Graduate Students’ Society)  work at NUS! In the afternoon went to the International Student Orientation. Good opportunity to meet new grad students and make friends. We also promoted GSS and its events. Our next event is NUS WELCOME PARTY 2009 at Bora Bora Club, Sentosa on 24th January 2009 ( Any of you interested??) ! So yeah, we sold a few tickets for the party and also got people to become members of GSS.

Met this girl from India……super-cute!!!….Hopefully I will see her around somewhere in campus! :p …hehe

After that we packed up our booth, counted the money we made (I think arnd 800 dollars), gobbled some free food that was there and then made a move to GSS room. We had a meeting at 6pm. We discussed about the party and other events we were planning for this semester.

We decided probably to go for a cultural trip to Malaysia in Feb. Everyone suggested a lot of places. Michelle suggested A Famosa. So I guess most probably we are going there! (Anyone been there?) Btw we are going to Bali in summer…fully sponsored trip..yaaay!!

This is the last weekend of holidays…from Monday got classes!!….and GSS work!!…but I will try to post regularly….thats it for now (Its short by my standards I knw 🙂 )

0013hrs, Still dining table

January 10th, 2009, Saturday.

Between Sunrise and Sunset

5th January 2009, Monday

2213hrs, Home.

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.” – Cary Grant

After today I completely agree with the great actor Mr Cary Grant.

Today was a good day. Not that I did anything exceptional, but because of the fact that I occupied myself the entire day, a rarity for months. I woke up at 8am.

Sun was shining bright, which made it a ‘ Good Morning ‘ for me. Somehow whenever the sun shines bright I  feel energised. I guess that fact  justifies my name. To maintain allegiance towards my new year resolution (to get the perfect body) , I had decided to go to gym today. But like a good aspiring bodybuilder I needed to have the so called ‘ Power-Breakfast‘ . Having gone through numerous sites yesterday night I had decided what I was going to have for breakfast. I had a multiple-egg omelette, whole-meal toast, ” low fat milk + oatmeal + raisin +banana + apple + apple cranberry muesli cereal ” and coffee. That breakfast itself was enough to exalt me to a state of euphoria.

Shit, shaved and showered.  Then with a clean-shaved face and flashing a big toothy smile I made my way to the bus-stop. Then I had the first weird moment of the day.

I was sitting alone at the bus stop. I saw an old man  at a distance, walking towards the bus stop. As he trudged his way towards me, I imagined how it would be to be that old, like a withered leaf, as pale as death. He came and sat next to me, a wrinkled-face man,  with a stooped posture, he looked to be  around 80+ . I admired the fact that he was strong-willed enough to roam around alone, but sad that he didn’t have any company. I stared at him, he stared at me, no words exchanged. I don’t know why I was staring at him,  but I know what I was staring at. I was staring at his deep eyes, wrinkle-contoured face, but more than that maybe I was searching for a 80yrold image of myself  in him. Screech!! My bus had arrived and I made my way into the bus, yet still thinking about the old man. I got the closest window-seat and immediately looked back at the man before the bus could zoom off. As the bus left the busstop, the old man smiled at me, not as toothy as mine, but a sincere one. I guess he also had mirrored his younger-self in me or probably not. Whatever be the reason the old-man and the bright sun had made my day.

The gym was practically empty. Three other people were there, making the total tally 4. One gal on the treadmill, whose face I couldn’t see as she was facing the window the entire time I was there. Yeah, she had a good derriere (ass). Another guy, who looked liked a veteran bodybuilder powered away at the gym machines. He was surprised at all the innovative exercises I was doing, which are with courtesy due to the extensive research I have been doing in the last few days. The third person reminded me of Vanga. No, he was not that thin but his mannerism in the gym was Vangaesque. He spent 90 percent of his time looking at the mirror admiring himself. And no, his body wasn’t even good. The guy had a paunch for gods sake! Then made my way to the shower. Then the  second weird moment of the day happened.

Old man at the shower room

In the corner of the room was the old man, the one who is always at the gym shower room whenever I go. He sits there always, motionless,speechless and ghost-like. I decided to take his picture. He didn’t react. I went to the shower-area and put my towel over the door. I had forgotten shower-gel, so I turned around immediately to get it…..he was gone. I was taken aback, he had gone so quickly and quietly. For an instant my mind wandered on thoughts of whether he was a ghost, but then I had taken his photo,had’nt I? I assured myself he couldnt be a ghost.

Went to Cheers and got myself two chocolate milk dabbas and gulped them down, as protein replenishment. Had an uneventful lunch at Engineering canteen and moved my ass to the library after that.

Random browsing at the library computer for next few hours. Some interesting things that I learned today:

– Robot fish (Video)

– New two-sided cricket bat, which will be used by David Warner (new Delhi Daredevils IPL recruit as  well) in upcoming matches in Australian Domestic Twenty20. Picture below.

Two sided bat for twenty20 cricket by Gray Nicholls

– Saw the Betfair pink pigeon race as part of  the Jane McGrath Pink Day at Sydney Cricket Ground. The pigeons were named after Channel 9 commentators like Tubby (Mark Taylor), McGrath, Warnie, Ritchie etc. Bill Lawry also a commentator is apparantely a pigeon entrpreneur! Anyways against all odds Tubby (the fattest pigeon) won the race, that too in record time of 52 min approx. More details here : Pink Pigeon Race Australia. Video at Channel Nine WWOS website : Cricket- Pigeon Pink Race link.

– Glenn Mcgrath might have retired, but his son, James Mcgrath, 11yr old is starting off. He was seen bowling to Hayden at the Milo cricket tents at SCG. Hayden, in the bad form he is , was bowled by McGrath Junior as well. Later on Hayden was heard joking, ” He is already quicker than Glenn, but the line and length is also there!”

When I shutdown the comp I was in for a surprise. The computer went in a very sci-fi movie-ishtyle computer generated voice , “ Initiation Shutdown Sequence in 1 minute. ” Hmm…Well atleast NUS library did some fancy change to their otherwise pathetic computer terminals. And yeah they started a computer registration system, like our EEE-ihub in NTU.

Meanwhile in Chennai, Sachin Tendulkar toyed with Saurashtra bowlers in Ranji Semi-Final match and retired after his century,ostensibly ill, but in reality I guess he was bored. Scorecard : Scorecard : Mumbai Vs Saurashtra.

Before I returned home I went to the arts canteen to have a cup of tea. It was raining. Great weather. Mast Chai. I sat at the edge of the canteen,very close to the rain, with a view of the beautiful Pasir panjang  Harbour. Third moment.

Rain in the air...Smoke on the water.

Smoke from the ships was rising against the falling rain forming smoke-clouds over the sea. I mumbled, ” Rain in the air, Smoke on the water, Kya pata Kal ho Na Ho.” I looked at the girl, she was staring at me, I did the same. She was gorgeous, sitting there in the canteen with her hair waving in the sea-breeze. It smelled of rain , it smelled of smoke, it smelled of wet mud – a brilliant amalgamation which resulted in a sensory explosion. I continued looking at her, and then suddenly she left with someone. I had a “You’re Beautiful – Moment” (Video)  I slowly shifted my gaze towards the horizon in the distance, imagining the non-existing sun set.

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” – Elbert Hubbard.

The Modern Drunk

January 2nd 2009, Friday

2348hrs, Home.

New Year Celebrations are still going on and might go on for few more days. Meanwhile everyday morning I see ‘hangover’ and ‘splitting headache’ updates on Facebook. Looking at these updates made me think why people drink alcohol  so much?

After some thought I realized that most of my friends drink regularly and get drunk. More pondering on the same topic and I realized that the world is run by people with hangovers. The President of USA is a drunk, most corporates engage in ‘social drinking’  every night and so on. I mean, obviously the world will go into recession when guys with major ‘hangovers’ make the big decisions in banks,governments etc.

Anyways then I thought why think about all those people when I can think about people around me who drink. So I gave it a thought. Since I came to Singapore I have seen most of my friends booze and smoke. Some of them are so ridiculous they make holiday plans based on the prices of booze and cigarette at those places (hence Langkawi).  I practically myself dont drink or smoke, since I never found a reason to and have always been fascinated to know why they did. Most of them are very proud that they drink.  So over the years I asked them for reasons. I will now list down some of their responses. Some of them very innovative and some insanely stupid. Many of them said, ” I don’t know.” But its just because they dont want to reveal the reasons. For all those “don’t knows” I  will state the more than obvious real reasons. I am not stating any names here, I guess if you are smart enough you will figure it out, atleast recognise your own reasons of getting drunk!

The List

1. It’s cool to drink. ( honest response, stupid reason though)

2. Everyone in my family drinks, so do I.

3. No one in my family drinks/smokes, I want to be the first one.

4. I am broke. ( highly stupid response)

5. No job, No girlfriend. ( how is drinking gonna help?)

6. Its New year’s Eve and I want to be so drunk I don’t want to remember any of the celebrations.

7. I feel like a ‘real man’ .

8. All my friend’s drink, so I thought i should as well.

9. I like copying western culture, its so hip to drink! (unsaid reason)

10. It helps my bowel movements in the morning. ( one of my ex-roomate’s reason)

11. My New year resolution is to remain high on booze, smoke and crack. ( Latest one I heard)

12. I just realised I wasted the last three years on drinking, girls and doing nothing. (Senkang wanderer)

13. Baap Ka Paisa hai yaar, party on!

14. 20’s are meant to get high and enjoy. ( Really??)

15. I am an alcohol-enthusiast.

16. Just out of curiosity. ( when will the curiosity end?)

17. I want to die at 40.

18. I like puking in cabs,public places.

19. I am more confident when I am drunk, so much so, I can throw TVs out of buildings.

20. I want to be like Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. (Best of Luck!)

21. If I don’t hunt the booze, the booze will surely hunt me. ( !!!!!!)

22. Let’s face it: modern life is a shit storm and booze is the only umbrella without any holes in it. ( Innovative answer, but again no sense in it)

23. Drinking acts as a “social lubricant” for me.

24. Only when I am drunk I can spank a girl in a club! ( You know who!)

25. Its Wednesday! and then its Friday! ( 2 reasons every week to drink!)

There are lots more. I guess you might have been able to relate some of the above reasons with yourselves. Anyways any more reasons please let me know!!

I did some research on why humans started drinking alcohol in olden times. Initially alcoholic drinks were used for nutritional and medicinal qualities as well as religious ceremonies. But over centuries people lost any sane reasons to drink, and started drinking just for the sake of drinking. Hence, the Modern Drunk was born. But then what the hell, your body,your wish. Happy Drinking!

0046hrs

January 3rd, 2009.

01-01-2009

1455hrs ,  January 1st 2009

Home.

One of the most laid back New Year Celebrations yesterday. Was supposed to meet Suchit and Vanga but thanks to my stupid phone couldnt meet them. Thinking whether to buy a new phone or just use Suchit’s old phone for now ???Or  New phone for the new year….maybe thats the way. Lets see. Anyways so was at home all night. Had some good dinner, watched a few movies and went to sleep after that.

Woke up in the morning today and did some New Year cleaning, yes still alone, still no help from flatmates. Then went down to check the letter-box. It was overflowing with mail, most of which were ad papers, old tenant mails and bills. Got some mail from NUS as well. One was my exam results. Present GPA : 4.5 . Decent.

Another mail was about subject registration. I so wanted to take the Advanced robotics module but wont be able to since it clashes with my core module …Grrrr… So thinking of going for Neural Networks. Classes start on 12th January. Cant wait for that, getting bored sitting at home! This semester will be busy…classes on mon,tue,wed,thur and saturday! Only free on Fridays.

Some fucking Graduate Employment Survey from NTU also in the mail, 3rd reminder mail, they have even called me 3-4 times to fill it up. Maybe I should just do it now. Anyone else of you got this thing???

Meeting Suchit tomo to get his phone for now. Thats the update for now.

Happpy New Year to all!

1509hrs.

New Year Resolutions && Secret of A Great (Male) Body is 1.618

28th December 2008, Sunday

0600hrs, Home.

Few days back I was discussing with Shankari about our New Year Resolutions.Yes, its that time of the year when people realize that they have wasted the year gone by and plan to change their habits in the New year! ( I guess at this same point last year too they had made resolutions, what happened to those, God only knows).

But anyways the optimistic mammals we are, we list a lot of New year resolutions every year around this time. So yeah,  Shankari’s New Year Resolution was, sms quote – ” Resolution is to keep myself ultra fit and exercise regularly…Never bunk my violin and music classes..thats about it for now…. “. Not bad Shanki!! ..Anyways she asked me what my resolutions were, but for sake of replying I replied something to her…don’t remember what though.

So after that discussion I realized that I have never had any resolutions (maybe because I never actually wasted my past year…lol). But still I did’nt have any resolutions and I felt as if I was missing out on some New year ritual. So I thought and thought as to what I could do in the New Year to work towards a better me. A simple look at the mirror gave me the answer, I needed a better looking body! So I had decided on my resolution, to get a perfect body! (pssst…i told Shanki that I had decided to get a great body like John Abraham, her reply came. ” Oh!  you mean like Agastya‘s Body!” ..I had to reply, ” No the real one”.)

I had decided that I wanted a perfect body, but what is a perfect body?? Everyone has their definition of a perfect body or looking good. Like for example, Shanki said,  being beautiful for her was to lose weight (look thin) and get rid of pimples on her face! Vanga says looking good is crossing the 55 kg mark. For Suchit perfect body is anything above 165 cm height. So yeah, everyone has their own thoughts about it. But still confused I went about searching for the ” Perfect- Body Formula“ . I guess even God wants me to get a great body for the welfare of all gals in this world, so after 3 minutes of searching on the net I found some interesting info about what the perfect body can be or should be!

Building a perfect body is all about getting the right dimensions for your entire structure (some men might argue that only the dimensions of one organ down-under is important). Thankfully, the magic formula for those dimensions has been known for centuries. It’s called the golden ratio- a dividend of two measurements that’s roughly equal to 1.618. Its influence can be seen in the shape of a seashell, the spirals of a pinecone and the Partehnon in Athens. And in blueprints for the archetypal human form: Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man and Michaelangelo’s David.

So it’s no surprise to learn that chicks dig a physique that measures up to the golden ratio. Another search revealed that women are most attracted to muscular men whose shoulders measure 1.6 times the size of their waists. Well I guess its always not practical to measure the width of your shoulders yourselves- you need someone to do it for you. But it seems instead we can use the chest circumference value. It seems a ratio of 1.4 for chest: waist is equivalent to the 1.6 for shoulder: waist. For example, practically speaking, having a 45inch chest and 32inch waist is good! The bottom-line : When women look at men’s torsos, the ” V ” shape is victorious!

So I guess I now have my basic guidelines for a perfect body and will be hitting the gym in the New Year! I guess many of you would also like to have a perfect body! But before you launch into the workout ,know that you don’t have to achieve picture-perfect results to get the girl. There’s some research to suggest that women aren’t too keen on the most attractive men- they consider them too far out of their league. But I have even thought about that- by logic, the most attractive women would then go for the most-attractive men and that conclusion isnt bad at all!

As for me, I feel, the Golden ratio is nice to shoot for, but I won’t be disappointed with a silver or bronze either.

Note:  Hey Guys, what are your new year resolutions??? Would be great to hear from you!! Do post your comments!

0702hrs

28th December 2008.

Just another day & truth about the KP “switch-hit”

22nd December 2008, Monday

2359hrs, Home.

I woke up at 3:49pm to Avi’s phone call. He told me he would come by my place later in the evening to get some software from me as he was doing his sister’s Final Year Project! Geek! I suddenly realised that the house didnt look like civilisation, it was really messy. So I decided to clean up the house as I have no hope from either of my two flatmates of any cleaning help. ( Sreejith too busy and mostly locked up in his own room, and Vishnu is supposedly busy, I dont know busy with what though!).

Took me some time to clean up the house after which I took a nice shower and sat down to watch some cricket. Yuvraj played well in the end on a rather boring day of play. It was as if he was replying to the sledging he got from the English players with his bat rather than his mouth. Kevin Pietersen had called him a pie-chucker balling left arm filth!!…HAHAAHA..!!

And yeah there is something I have to share here..before i forget it. Yesterday Vishnu told me that he had invented the ” Switch-Hit” while he used to play cricket as a child to tackle negative bowling!!… Its sad that its Kevin Pietersen who is taking away the credit when Vishnu Prasad should be getting it! (Hope that through my blog people will realise who really invented the shot.) And I wonder what he is doing here in Singapore, he deserves to be in the Indian Team with such hidden cricket talent in him.

Anyhow after the match got over I made myself some coffee and went online to research on places near Singapore where we could go for Chinese New Year holidays for a mini-getaway. After some discussion on Agastya’s Blog we shortlisted 2 places in malaysia- Langkawi Islands and Mulu Caves!! Still havent decided where but I guess it will be between these two, whichever is cheaper! I personally would love to go to Mulu Caves! Did you know there lies the world’s largest underground chamber, the Sarawak Chamber, capable of accommodating Forty Fucking Boeing 747 airplanes!!!! Here is a pic of the chamber, small part of it!!!

Anyways after that I was getting bored so I made some experimental fried rice dish for dinner. It turned out to be awesome.A few minutes later, Vishnu also supposedly got ” an idea” to cook something after seeing my dish. He fumbled around in the kitchen cooking his dish after that, but I didnt really care what he was doing, as I was eatching (eating food+watching show simultaneously, now a habit) Blackadder and Dexter! Blackadder is an awesome show! Highly Recommended! Go eatch it today!

Today I plan to go early to bed since I have to wake up early tomorrow to help Avinash with Saree-shopping at Mustafa!! He promised that if I accompany him to buy sarees he would buy me dinner! I am jobless anyways nowadays, so what the heck, for a free meal I am ok to go with him to buy sarees also!

End.

0032hrs

23rd December 2008.

Brief review of the last few days

22nd December 2008, Monday

Home, 0146hrs

Well its been some time since my last post, so let me just review briefly what all has been happening in the last few days.

If my memory is right, on thursday I went with Avi,Suchit,Shanty and Agas to watch a movie…urmm..yeah it was Yes Man. Decent comedy movie and had a good laugh about it. After the movie was over we all set on a tour of the newly opened sections of Jurong Point going to each level and scanning what all new food outlets had opened. :p …Agas bought some cookies for us as a part of  ”market research” for his ‘cookie-icecream‘ venture!! (Agas I am marketing your venture here….i deserve marketing fees!!)

Just as we had surveyed all the food outlets and were deciding where to eat (Burger king and KFC among the final contenders), we got a call from Agastya’s shrink a.k.a Vanga (the coach). He supposedly was at Marina entertaining the ‘Gals’ and after his session with them wanted us to come down to Marina. He somehow felt that that 5 people would just come all the way to Marina for him. Anyhow we decided to go bowling near my house. Suchit was initially reluctant to come but we managed to convince him. Agastya was a bit low, and I guess it was good that he spent most of the day with us to divert his mind. (In hindsight maybe that was the reason y Vanga called us to Marina). The matches were close ones and we had a great time. Continuing on the topic of bowling I forgot to mention about the game of bowling that we had on 16th December (historical match for vanga).

The post-bowling-match-analysis of that Match :   A brilliant day of play at HomeTeam NS. The lane turned out to be a belter with out of form bowlers like Vanga,myself and Shanty finding great form,Avinash efficient as ever with his ‘ green balls’, Alex (Alex has changed his name to  Hunter since this match !) being consistent. There were interesting developments in the second session when Avi was heard saying, ”  That gal stole my green balls “.   With such great performances the only thing that could come out of my mouth was , ” This is for Mumbai.”  The greatness of the match were confirmed by the fact that Vanga’s hands were sweating with patriotism at the post-match interview,explaining his 161 point feat earlier in the night. The scorecards looked as follows:

D = Deepak

V= Vanga

A= Alex

A= Avinash

S = Shanty

By the way Vanga maintained the form he had found that day to the match we played on Thursday, with 6 strikes in his 10 throws if I am not wrong.

Friday Night was awesome as we headed to Crazy Elephant(pub) for my ‘Birthday Sabo’. Agas was multi-partying with us and his EEE-club mates! He tried to get me to dance on the stage at Crazy Elephant but the bloke (pretty old one) in-charge of the stage felt otherwise. Instead he performed some song for me, which none of us had any clue about (some song from when he was 22, some 40 yrs ago i guess!).

After a lot of confusion about where to cut the cake we decided to do it at Hooters with the Hooter gals!! It was fun..they sang a bday song for me, clicked some pics with the Birthday Boy (me), while Ankur made desperate attempts to feature in the snapshot.  I havent scanned the picture yet to upload here, but once i do I will surely put it up. ( yes!!…they didnt give us a soft copy of the pic!).Thanks everyone for an awesome bday!

After cake cutting, Agas and his EEE club gang went to Zirca for clubbing, while the remaining of us took our respective Night Rider buses home.

At the end of the day:

Avinash was drunk. Vanga jobless. Shanty dunno! Mithali confident to go home alone. Ankur happy. Prachi tired. Suchit still racist! As for me , admiring the birthday card pic with the Hooter Gals!

End

0245hrs

December 22, 2008.

The Hero

December 16th 2008

0149hrs, straight from the couch.

To give a definition for ‘hero’ is not easy. The definition of heroism changes with the context and time. Heroes of the past are not necessarily heroes of present time and vice versa. But one thing i can tell for sure is the ‘opposite’ or ‘antonym’ of hero – -> George Bush. I don’t want to discuss this in length as this post is not about him, but i could’nt resist raising this point on the day when a common man hurled a shoe at the American President. Watch it for yourself and enjoy.

I woke up at around 2:25pm today and when i realized what the time was my first thought was the final day of first test played between India and England at Chennai. Due to heroics from Sehwag yesterday the final day was set up perfectly for a great test match and possibly a historic Indian win.

I had put 6 alarms to wake up on time to watch every ball played but as it turned out I heard none of them and missed around a session of play ( start time was 12 noon). The next thing I saw was a message from Pooja saying that we might after all NOT witness history in the making! The message made me nervous and I haphazardly turned on my computer to check score on cricbuzz.com. I could have gone to the living room and checked out the score on TV, but that would be a waste of effort to walk all the way from my bed to just watch India losing. I saw on the scorecard that Dravid and Gambhir had departed ,and Sachin and Laxman were playing in the middle. I thought it was a pretty decent situation with India needing around 180 more runs to win with 7 wickets in hand and I thought the game was pretty evenly balanced.

What happened in the next few hours is history. I don’t have words to express the emotions that were running through every Indian on and off the field, in or outside the country…. I think pictures speak better, so have a look…

Over 30,000 people witnessed India’s historic win over England on a minefield of a pitch on the final day at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram stadium. There were a lot of factors that made it a great test match and I guess Indians deserved this win. When I say Indians I dont only mean the players but also the one billion plus people of India.

“Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what happened in Mumbai and we are with those who lost their dear ones”, was what Sachin said after his match winning 103*. Its a statement which is true and false. It is true that cricket cannot solve the problems of terrorism, it cannot bring back the dead, it cannot undo what the terrorists have done to Mumbai. But cricket in India is a terrific healer, more so when India wins.  As Sachin said in the post match conference, 26/11 was not an attack on Mumbai, it was an attack on India. The attacks have left the entire country in mourning and tragedy.  The people of India needed something to put a smile back on to their face, they needed something to unite them. And we all had a feeling before the start of the 5th day of the match that an Indian victory was what the country needed. But as they say the Gods had a much better script in mind.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the Mumbai boy was the hero the Gods had chosen for this script. Dileep Premachandran of Cricinfo summed Sachin’s role appropriately, “ Those that aren’t Indian struggle to fathom exactly what Tendulkar means to so many millions, and it’s doubtful whether even those that live here really comprehend just how much a part of the national consciousness he has become. He is such a unifying force, a personality capable of stirring the emotions in every nook and corner of a vast land. And in these times of distress and anger, it was so very appropriate that it would be Tendulkar who put the smiles back on at least a few faces.”  His emotions have become the nation’s emotions, his achievements the nation’s pride and his happiness meant India’s happiness.

My dear friend Naweed fails to understand how people can watch Test Cricket for five days when alternatively their is a sport like Football available to be watched. I would have to write an entire new post on why people love and watch test cricket but for now I can only say that if a sport can bring smiles to a billion people it must be a bloody good sport. It also makes Cricket a Hero.

As I mentioned before there were a lot of reasons that made this an epic test match. Firstly the circumstances in which this match started ( mumbai incident etc) , secondly how the match has brought joy to an entire nation and how poetic it was for Sachin – India’s Son to do it for them.  But Sachin was not the only hero here. The match is great because it had multiple heroes. The entire English team for being strong and brave to come to India to play a match, even after the terrible proceedings in Mumbai. Not only did they play, they played extremely well, special mention to Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, Graeme Swann and Andrew Flintoff.  All was well for England till the 4th day of the test match with victory in sight, but alas their was a twist in the tale.

4th day of a Test match, in walks Virender Sehwag. 68 balls and 102 minutes later Sehwag walked off the field having score 83 runs with India sitting prettily at 122-1 in 22 overs. He had set up  the match for India. He had turned the game around, he had ignited the torch of hope of a victory, a torch which his idol Sachin Tendulkar made sure reached its destination. Sehwag started it, Sachin ended it. Sehwag is a Hero, a deserved one.  When asked about this victory he said very matter of factly, ” I always knew we were going to win. We had almost  chased around 250 against Australia, this is England, so we can chase anything. I don’t care if it is a good ball or bad ball, if I see it- I HIT IT! ” He is my hero just for saying that in the face of the English!

I can go on and on about this match but i guess i dont have enough words to do so right now. I think David Lloyd sums it up perfectly in the following audio piece.

It has truly been a privilege to watch the match and I would leave you today with a quote by the Little Master himself:

” “What happened in Mumbai was extremely unfortunate and I don’t think by India winning or my scoring hundreds, people who have lost their dear and loved ones would feel better. It’s a terrible loss and our hearts are with them. All I can say is that in whatever way we can contribute to make them feel better, we’ll make that effort.”

End

0336hrs, still on the couch.

Debut post, Rab Ne aftermath

Saturday, 13th December 2008

0454hrs, Home.

Yes, finally I have decided to put up my first post on my blog. Not that I have been too busy to blog till now, but sheer laziness to sit and type was probably the factor stopping me till now. As you can see its around 5 am now and I am still awake. And no its not because its a weekend. This has become a regular thing for me now, sleeping at dawn and waking up at dusk. I dont know y but I feel better living in the night, living like an owl, like a bat…..

But I am not alone in this. I know many of my friends who follow this routine, though they dont sleep till 4 in the evening like me they do sleep in the early hours of the morning like me. I was chatting to Shanki yesterday, it seems even she has been have lack of sleep nowadays. Others being Avinash and Shanty, who i guess have been living the same way for past few years already. 🙂

Anyyyhow, moving on to what else i did today (12th december,friday).

Woke up at around 3pm. Slowly made my way to the living room to watch some cricket on TV. India put up quite a dismal performance today and once Sachin was out I lost interest in watching and decided I had to go out. I was waiting for review of Rab Ne to come out from the time i was awake till around 6, but none did! Anyhow Avi, Suchit and I decided to meet at IMM and see what we could do to spend the evening. We had dinner at Burger King and discussed how stupid ‘chaptes’ were. Especially Suchit, who himselves claims how raceest he has become over the last few days. We discussed how expats were the ones running all high-end business, MNCs etc in Spore and how we expats were exploiting the fact that locals are not ‘smart’ enough. I feel embarassed saying this, but i really enjoyed this conversation and also contributed with my stories which exemplified how Sporeans are darpok etc..

After that we decided to go for Rab Ne at Jurong point. We called BhaiSahab (Srikar) and he told us he would join us there after his annual office party or some shit. Anyways we loitered around here and there trying to kill time, since our show was at 1140pm. We then discussed how Srikar was very sad nowadays that he was the only virgin in our circle of friends (thats what he thinks), these feelings more heightened after his discovery that Agastya had also moved on finally from the V-gang and that possibly only Bhaisahab and Suchit were virgins now.

Note: I am not making conclusions on anyones virginity here, just disclsoing what Srikar feels on this issue about others. But from what I heard he is sure that alex has lost it.

After lot of nonsense talk we finally went for the movie. Movie was good. There were some flaws in the movie but was pretty entertaining and SRK acted pretty well.  Suchit as usual was happy with the comedy moments in the movie but couldnt digest the emotional, love, sentimental scenes in the movie and he made his feelings heard ‘aloud’ during the movie , much to bhaisahab’s disgust. But we knew this would happen since romantic movies and Suchit dont go hand in hand.

After the movie we mutually agreed that movie was entertaining but not without its flaws. But at the end of the day it was a warm, simple movie with likeable characters. I agree that some parts of the story are not easy to digest.

I took a cab bak home after the movie. Avinash called me while I was in the cab to inform we that bhaisahab was not pleased by the fact that we made him sit next to suchit in the movie.

I always look at reviews of movies i watch to see what other people think of the movie. Most of the reviews for Rab Ne were pretty severe on the movie ,criticizing it for its flaws and not appreciating the good aspects of the movie much.

I have to sleep now I guess. I have to wake up and go for cricket practice in the evening. Anyways this aint that bad… I think i will blog regularly from now. It aint that time consuming.

End.

0527hrs , 13th December 2008.