What Blogthingies am I?

Noopur's post on blogthings got me going to write my own version. The results were insightful and fun to know. If you feel like taking up the same, consider yourself tagged ;)

You Should Play the Trumpet

You are a natural leader. You have a very dominant and strong personality. Working with others suits you. As long as you're in charge, that is! You are aggressive and strong in your approach to most things. You feel like no one is as competent as you are, and you rarely make mistakes. The limelight is where you feel most comfortable - and you'll take risks to get some extra attention. You definitely would bring your own flavor to any music you were a part of. Even if it means being a little loud and obnoxious. Your dominant personality characteristic: you're a showoff Your secondary personality characteristic: you like to be in charge of other people

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

Blowing my own trumpet, am i? That is TRUE but i definitely prefer the guitar

You Are 68% Good

You are a good person. You do the best you can to be ethical, fair, and moral. And as you know, being a good person means making hard decisions... and following them through. If you're confronted with an ethical dilemma, you will usually do the right thing. Of course you do slip up. No one's perfect. But you do your best to correct your missteps. You are also probably: incredibly honest, especially with yourself Right now you are on track to being: A respected leader To be a better person: Be kind to someone who is not very kind to you

How Good Are You?

So, what is the pass mark here? ;)

You Are a Roller Coaster

You live for excitement, adventure, and the most intense of thrills. Nothing is better than feeling you're truly alive, and you're willing to take risks to feel this way. In relationships, people often feel a bit nervous about what they're getting into... But generally, everyone enjoys the wild ride you take them on. Unless they stay with you too long - then they're apt to feel a bit nauseous! Your life has more low points and high points than most people's lives. But that's okay - you love them. You figure that a smooth ride is boring! Besides, you know that super high highs only come from knowing super low lows. You cherish every emotion you feel and feel it fully. Why deny what life is truly about? At your best, you are loving life and sharing your wild times with everyone you know. You are able to open your friends up to a whole new world of experiences. At your worst, you feel extremely disoriented and even a bit dizzy. There's only so much intensity a human (even you!) can take.

What Carnival Ride Are You?

Smack on target... Hop on for the ride of your life, mate

Your Fragrance Profile

The best calming fragrance: vanilla The best fragrance for everyday wear: orange The best fragrance to boost your sex appeal: lavender The best fragrance for energy: pine

What's Your Fragrance Profile?

Okay! Time to go perfume shopping

You Make a Good First Impression

You probably are making a much better impression than you realize. Social situations can be a bit awkward for you at times, and you tend to over think what you say and do. If you make a social faux pas, you remember it a lot longer than anyone else does. Just relax and do your best. There are little things you can do to improve your social image. Express more of an interest in the people around you, and be a good listener. The secret of fascinating people is that they find everyone else fascinating!

What Kind of First Impression Do You Make?

Ah yes! The result of hard work talking to loads of people has finally paid off...

Your Superpower Should Be Manipulating Fire

You are intense, internally driven, and passionate. Your emotions are unpredictable - and they often get the better of you. Both radiant and terrifying, people are drawn to you. At your most powerful, you feel like the world belongs to you. Why you would be a good superhero: You are obsessive enough to give it your all Your biggest problem as a superhero: Your moodiness would make it difficult to control your powers

What Should Your Superpower Be?

Playing with fire seems to be a piece of cake these days... yawn

You Are Cereal

Playful and lighthearted, breakfast is likely your favorite meal of the day. (In fact, you're probably the type who sneaks cereal as a midnight snack.) Your culinary skills are probably a bit lacking... and you are a sucker for junk food. Some people accuse you of eating like a kid, but you prefer to think of yourself as low maintenance.

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

Bite me, bite me, bite me

You Are Paper

Crafty and creative, you are able to adapt freely to almost any situation. People tend to underestimate you, unless they've truly seen what you are capable of. Deep down, you're always scheming and thinking up new plans. Your mind is constantly active. You are quite capable of anything you dream of. You can always figure out a way to get what you want. You can wrap a rock person up in your sheet of trickery. A scissor person can sneak up and cut you to pieces. When you fight: No one can anticipate your next move If someone makes you mad: You'll attack them mercilessly when they're unprepared

Are You Rock, Paper, or Scissors?

Paper? Where did all my toughness go?

You Would Be a Pet Dog

You're friendly, loyal, and an all around good sport. People love to be near you. You are very open with your feelings, and you're quite vocal in expressing them. You are sincere and kind. You love many people - without any sort of agenda. Why you would make a great pet: You're content to chill out with your friends Why you would make a bad pet: You always find yourself getting into trouble What you would love about being a dog: Running around and playing What you would hate about being a dog: Being left home alone while everyone else is out having fun

What Kind of Pet Would You Be?

Woof, woof! Time to pee on someone...

You Are a Turkey Sandwich

Conservative and a bit shy, you tend to stick with what you know and trust. You are very introverted, and you prefer to blend in whenever possible. Though you may be hard to know well, anyone who does know you considers you a true friend. Your best friend: The Ham Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Tuna Fish Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Yummy! I wanna eat me

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from Spiderman

"I have always been standing in your doorway. Isn't it about time somebody saved your life?"

What Famous Movie Kiss Are You?

Okay girl! I am gonna get my web shooters... u ready?

Your Psyche is Red

You are bright, bold, energetic, and intense. Your upbeat, zany energy inspires those who are down. Spontaneous and playful, you also have a courageous and fearless side. When you are too red: you are angry, overprotective, and truly scary. When you don't have enough red: you are depleted and lifeless.

What Color Is Your Psyche?

Introducing Red Rejoy...

You Are a Mac

You are creative, stylish, and super trendy. You demand the best - even if it costs an arm and a leg.

Are You a Mac or a PC?

And i wasn't in apple tech support for nuthin...

You Are From the Sun

Of all your friends, you're the shining star. You're dramatic - loving attention and the spotlight. You're a totally entertainer and the life of the party. Watch out! The Sun can be stubborn, demanding, and flirty. Overall, you're a great leader and great friend. The very best!

What Planet Are You From?

Am i hot or what?

You Are a Dragon

You are very charismatic and incredibly popular. People are drawn to your energy, but you are a very difficult person to get to know. You are very active - you are usually hard at work or play. You enjoy drama, and you enjoy anything unusual or eccentric.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

I AM the Dragon Reborn!!! ;)

You Are Superman

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. And pretty cute too. No wonder you're the most popular superhero ever!

What Superhero Are You?

Its a bird, its a plane... its Rejoy!. Frankly, i prefer spiderman in honor of us sharing geeky ways in school days and the longing for the one hot girl who got away. And not the mention, the excellent one-liners he throws at villians along with his webbings

Losing my...

beep! beep! and my mobile tells me that my axis bank account is recharged with the finances needed for the coming months. I never liked the name uti bank but even thats better than "axis" (for those not in the know, uti bank has changed their name to axis bank)... i am guessing that george bush's dig at the Iraq-Iran-N.Korea axis of evil was the source of inspiration. But i digress. Not really. I just tried to think up something to say so that i could "i digress" about somethin for the first time in my blog :P. So i think to myself, its time to cash in and go hunting for my debit card. Where is it, where is it... ooo debit card (musical lilt in my voice and a memory of cash registers going cha-chung in my ears)... and thats when it hits me: the damn thing's lost!!! Now, you might not know this but i am very particular about where i put my things (the phrase "a place for everything and everything in its place" comes to mind here) and due to this i rarely lose the stuff in my keeping, borrowed or otherwise. And to balance this God/Destiny/Fairy-Godmother/Coincidence given blessing, the All-Mischevious Loki/Fate/Entropy/Bloody-Watchamacallit makes mighty sure that if i ever lose anything it should follow the Law of Loses*:

"If there is ever a choice on what it is one should lose from a number of items (where n = 1 to infinity ;), it WILL be the one which costs more than the sum of the prices of all the rest added together"

Flash back to college days when i lost Dhs 500 (dirhams people, not the blessed-rupees... multiply it by 11 if u dont know foreign exchange) and dad was somehow not convinced that i had lost it due to my tendency to "borrow" a few coins now and then from the coin box on top of the refridgerator when i was a kid. And fast forward to Bangalore days where someone else borrowed not one but two of my nokia handsets while i used the public transport. It all just goes to show that even the most careful of us do get greasy fingers from time to time.

So, there i was now, debit card lost and rummaging through the bank manuals for a customer care number and when the damned leaflets refused to throw up any thing, went running a kilometer to the nearest browsing center to get it and call support to report that my debit card was lost. Phew! That was close. But then i was not overly concerned since before the money got credited to my account, the balance was a just a measly sum of Rs 80 and if any one had tried to use my card then, they would have gotten an "insufficient funds" message and i would like to take the opportunity to say "haha! gotcha pal" and give them the finger ;). Vengence is mine and boy, is it sweet! Mmm...

*Loses rhymes with Moses :)

The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Me

Since roshan (aka The Doc) had tagged me in the "seven interesting things about me" department, i am left with no option but to say the least worst things about me cause believe me, my life's no moral science book mates ;)... so here they are without further ado:

1.
i scratch your back, you DON'T scratch mine: I do walk around with this "i am better than thou attitude". So, while i shower my friends with generous dosages of help, i refuse to take help from them. I guess it must be some crazy habit i picked up many years back when memory was vague and foggy. I simply can't explain it. An extension of this strange behavior was when i came down to bangalore in search of a job, my friends suggested faking the resume and taking references, to which i staunchly refused (Ironically, my first I.T. job happened when i caved into the reference pressure. It was either that or going back to live with my parents. Brrrr! ;)

2.
dust particles enter my eyes when i see mushy, makes-you-cry movies: Okay! i admit it's quite embarrassing when i have this urgent need to cry a river when i am watching film scenes involving loss of a loved one or the poignant separation of lovers blah blah blah. I mean, i even cried while watching the animated movie shrek which means i am beyond redemption. When one of my work colleagues came to know of it, she told me that men should never cry. I retorted with "i bet you make the exception for Shah Rukh Khan" and i added "you double standard !@#$%^" not quite aloud.

3.
my smile: during my early twenties, i realized that i had the God-given gift of stopping people in their tracks like forest deers caught in high beam head lights when i smiled at them. I kind of learned of this by accident when i showed my dimples to a girl in the office and she mouthed the words "nice smile". And i was like, whoa! when i tried the same in the mirror :)

4.
i eat implies i read: talk about multi-tasking. This habit's one i definitely don't regret having around since i can get twice the amount of work done if i read something while i am eating. And somehow the food tastes better when i read fantasy like Lord of the Rings or the Wheel of Time series. But my parents insist that its dis-respect to the food when i do this. Hah! i say and i get back to burying my nose in said book and my mouth into breakfast/lunch/dinner.

5.
a gallon of tea, please: my grandma (mom's mom) used to replenish my beer-mug-sized-tea-cup all the time when i used to stay with her. And that's how i got addicted to the thing. And when i ordered my first Rs. 2 half-tea from the authentic tea-shop over here in bangalore, i squinted at the tiny cup (and the even lesser amount of tea) and asked myself: "thats it?"

6.
people open up to me easily: i had heard this urban legend that said that if you had a disability, you will be gifted with some other talent which would more than make up for your deficiency. And since i have the advantage of not taking my ears for granted (courtesy of moderate hearing loss which i am diagnosed with), it came as a very big surprise to me when people started to talk to me about things which they don't usually talk about. After they are done, they usually add the comment "I don't know why i told you this" to which i nod and say, "Its a gift". Must be that i concentrate on the person when they start to speak since i am not so fortunate in the hearing department and this signals to the person that he/she has a captivate audience in this person. I also tend to nod my head like a wise old sage when i agree and/or understand what they had said. Frankly, i don't give a damn about this scientific explanation and just like to think that Listening is my Talent :).


7.
the ABCD aka arab born confused desi: well, i was born outside india for starters (U.A.E. to be vaguely specific and sharjah to be kinda accurate). While i was young, and since both my parents were taking on the big bad world through their careers, i used to be baby-sitted by a goan family where they fed me english as a first language. My parents half-jokingly tell us that they had to learn english because they couldn't understand what their own children were talking about ;). And when i used to go to kerala for the holidays, i used to feel a little odd among my cousins. Defensive action was in order and whenever someone made fun of my accent, i would give them them the same stare of disgust i'd give to someone who said a racist joke and they would sputter into embarrassing mumbles. If someone asked me whether i knew malayalam, i would say that i did know enough to marry a mallu babe ;). Later, i took it in my stride after i had learned to accept myself for who i was (and i was not THAT bad considering my above average intelligence and obvious charm :P).

And since i have to pay this tag forward, the ;) unlucky losers are: reji, reni, hemlyn, pravin, kalpana, georgi, and arnab

The Journey So Far

i looked back on what was
And i realized that
now was not the end,
but just another would-be past

26 years... thats a lot of seconds in there. But then i dont feel comfortable thinking in seconds. They always seem to have the knack of slipping through my fingers when i am doing something... or maybe i am old enough to put on the "time flies fast" mindset. Well, as long as i dont spout those "in my days" lines, i think i'll do just fine.

So, what's the story so far, you ask? Time for a timely flashback:


Just Another "Boy Who Lived"
The tale starts with a kid born in sharjah and named Rejoy. There's a lot of stories revolving round the name given to me. The most official one, according to Dad is that, when i, his first born child, came into this world, i gave him joy again. After this sound explanation was given to me, i used to always wonder what was Dad's first occasion of happiness before i had happened. It was not until several years later that i realized that that must have happened exactly 9 months before i flew out the womb. You do the math :).

The Wonder Years
Most of my time in this category was devoted to what stories i could make up so that i could act them out with my toys. Major sources of inspiration were cartoons for the action elements and hindi movies for ideas on romance (i shudder even thinking of the latter. Remember, we are talking of times when mithun chakraborty was cavorting round trees).
And then , there were my sisters. Yeah, we used to fight a lot just like very many siblings. Rejy and me used to find some insane pleasure in scaring the shit out of Reni which would lead the youngest to screaming "MUMMY!!!" for divine intervention.
Other than that, I used to be a hungry little kid (I still am, but now there's that thing called self-control fortified with "what will girls think of me if i am nothing but a fat ass" syndrome). I use to eat and eat cause there was nothing else to do. And Mom used to enjoy keeping me satisfied. Add this to the fact that Reni was not a big fan of eating and i used to "help" her in eating her meals and you had a Big Boy in the making. Dad later told me that he and his family had suffered financially during his teenage years (when his father had passed away), and during those times, they would rarely get to eat. He had vowed then that it wouldn't happen to his own family.

School Ties
And thats how i transformed into hulk, without the super-dooper strenght and even cooler leaping-capacity, by the time i hit high school. Strangely, this never effected my social standing in school. I mean, my classmates and teachers loved me cause i was too nice and always right. My grades were never as high as in during those days. I even topped the charts... er 10th grade in my school. Life was good except for the -11 powered pair of glasses i had to lug around.
Around this time, i was also diagnosed with partial hearing loss (which would later turn out to be a recurring theme in my mind and the source of all my frustration to lead a normal life... the day i made my peace with this issue was when someone commented "the one thing I noticed about rejoy is that he gives you his undivided attention when you are speaking to him"... ha! finally! i totally kicked my ear's ass :P)

Rebel Without a Cause
And along came college, and... the typical rebellion phase. I labelled myself the black sheep of the family and started practicing debates with Dad and Mom, questioning their way of doing things and more importantly, their way of making me do things. When i got my driver's license, i used to literally drive my dad to desperation as i sped along the roads in sharjah on our mitsubishi pajero.
Studying suddenely became less important. I used to read up everything else except books on computer engineering on which i was doing my degree.
Luckily, my teenage angst never went so far as to making me pick-up smoking, boozing or drugs.
My friend Thomas made this ride a little easier. Thanx dude!
side note: at around this time, the lasik center in coimbatore did their bit in making my life easier by blasting laser into my eyes and giving me my eyes back. Thanks to dad for sponsoring this major life turning event. i remember the moment when dad saw me for the first time without glasses after this and told me that i looked like hritik now ;)... it was august the 15th that day and certain independence from the damned spectacles that have been weighing me down for almost a decade.

The Other Silicon Valley
After 23 years of sharjah, i got tired of the place and thought that a change of scenery would do me good. And there was the chance to enjoy the much dreamed about concept called independence. So, i came down to Bangalore looking for work. After a short stint at a call center, i moved into the software industry. Its been more than 3 years and i am still here trying to make the most of it.

The Moral of the Story
If i have to be honest with myself, i have a long way to go yet. There is this matter of career still having to lift off. But boy have i learned a LOT about life by just throwing myself out there. I learned about friendship: Denny, Naveen, Sampath, Sanal, Prakyath, Ajai, were few of the many chaps who made the process easier. Thanks fellas. Learned about falling in love, and getting up quickly after it :). Learned about money and expenses: theory's not enough for this one guys. Learned about patience: you need to go through the furnace to get even a drop's worth of tolerance but its worth it in the end. Learned about family: distance doesn't matter as long as you keep in touch. Learned about happiness: how its really a choice, even if a very hard one in the face of circumstances trying their best to make you frown. And that just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. And the moral of the story is: a very happy birthday to me (you deserve it, old guy :).

PS: seems like the number of messages in my orkut scrapbook peaked today (and a molehill of the same in facebook when compared with orkut's mountain). Thanks for the wishes guys. But then again, i can see the dangers of having lots of friends since i had to reply to each of them. ouch :)

why i dont answer my mobile phone calls these days

1. telemarketing calls: i got so tired of calls trying to sell me credit cards, loans, country club memberships, and better post-paid plans that i quote this as the number one reason. Its also an easier way of saying "no"

2. wrong numbers: this is kind of irritating. Some of these callers don't know english either and they tell me they want to talk to somebody with some random name. Imagine my surprise when a small subset of these privacy intruders used to actually get angry when i replied that it was a wrong number. One guy was rude to the point of swearing to which I calmly replied "up your's, buddy"

3. friends: i don't really mind them calling but they usually start the conversation with the inevitable "what's up?" question and i wonder what that means. I mean, i do know what that means, but where do i start? It gets more embarrasing when they ask me where i am working and i have to say some shit like "i am studying" or "not working dude" and they naturally start giving me unwanted advice. Oh well! "Hang in there, guys... have to get this job thing fixed before i get back to you"

4. God: so that i can be my mischievious self, ofcourse. Being the All-Knowing and All, He/She/Thing usually calls me right in the middle of my favorite naughty past-time and start quoting the Bible/Koran/Veda/etc. Relax Dude! Its live and let live down here. But i am sensible enough to send an sms occasionally: "i am alive and kicking, thank You very much... and see You on sunday!"

In Your Face(book)

U moan: "Oh no! Not another online community to join! Seems like rejoy has nothin better to do than send these damned requests to orkut-like websites. Humph!"... And if u'r a girl: "Yeah right! Another place to get flooded with annoying messages from losers"... well... nope nope nope... thats the beauty of facebook... allow me to list a few of its advantages... not just anybody is allowed to message you; only those who are in your network or those who are already friends with you can do so... if that doesn't satisfy you, you can also adjust the privacy settings to satisfy your own degree of paranoia... and the interface is more sexier and closer to google's philosophy (hmmm... google should have bought facebook rather than orkut, but that's another story...). so there u go! now all u have to do is sign urself up on FB and bring urself closer to me :)

PS: if u want to do more r&d before u signup, here's the link.

Tabbed Windows Ahoy!

Tired of all the multiple instances of windows explorer you have to open up everytime you have to drag and drop a thingy from one folder to another? Fed up with waiting for another new explorer window to open up while you tap your mental feet in frustration? Feel like pulling your hair out (or bang you head against a wall, if you're a baldy), when you find it hard to locate the particular explorer window in red alert situations similar to those movie moments where the hero has to snip a particular colored wire off the time bomb, seconds before it goes off? (yawn)... alright already!!!

Time to get your hands-on/cursor-to ExplorerXP. Basically, it has tabbed browsing which makes it easier to open/use multiple instances of explorer (similar to the firefox browser and the new internet explorer, which has the equvalent tabbing for surfing the web).

If you're (still) running Windows XP, go get this neat freeware for yourself.

PS: Its been a long time since I posted anything. And my little sis' bugging me to post somethin on my blog has finally paid off ;)

Thus Spake The Wussy

1. I will always apologize to people for every small mistake I make so that they know I have good intentions.
2. I will give gifts/presents to as many people as possible (especially women I like) so that they will like me.
3. I will always be "humble" (have low self esteem) so that I won't hurt anybody.
4. I will try to help others by solving their problems so that they will help me when I am in need.
5. I will wallow in self-pity when people reject me. I will think to myself: "what have I ever done to deserve this?.. I helped them so much and look what they did to me now..." and other "feel good" thoughts.
6. I will try to make friends with people on online communities (especially with those girls who have beautiful profile pics belonging to some random actress or model).
7. I will flatter people so that they will do the same to me (which makes me feel good).
8. ...

and ofcourse there are loads of other things which one might do in the same situation but I am fast phasing out and thus finding it hard to remember (wink wink) and capture the perfect example of the nervous, huddling bundle of less-than-nothingness.

PS: There's nothing wrong with helping people out. I still do it. But now I don't associate it with getting something back. The problem is finding the delicate balance between giving your time to someone else and to yourself. I better not give any advice on this since for some people sacrifice is important where as others stress on the importance of self service (and some people like to do both). The only point I would like to make is that if you feel the need to help someone then it would be preferable to "teach them fishing, rather than giving them fish every time they need one."

Home Is... Wherever You Decide It Is

Today, for some strange reason, I started humming the UAE national anthem. After being done with it, I tried to think back and remember whether any thing triggered such "patriotic" feelings. After finding no evidence of the same, I shrugged it off and thought that maybe the memory might have escaped from some inner recess of my subconscious mind and must have found its way to explode... or rather whimper out my vocal chords.

For those of you guys who don't know my history, I was born of Indian-Keralite (yes, they are a different political scenario, altogether) parents in the blazing hot deserts of the United Arab Emirates, in the then, small but rapidly growing, city of Sharjah. It was there, far away from the spiritual motherland of India, that the doctor, upon my silent and dignified entrance into the real world, slapped my butt to get me howling (no wonder we are, one and all, fated to get our asses kicked from that point on...).

Some things, you don't remember learning. You just know that you know them. The anthem was one of those. Must have memorized it while my brains had not yet received their ability to grasp thoughts and keep them. Those recordings are like the morning mists where one finds nothing when they probe into it. My school teachers must have made me learn it by rote before understanding was born between my ears. Another testimony to the power of parrot-like rote memorization.

Sharjah... where I will always find my way back to... Home and not home... but where I desire to be and long to see when rainy days lash out on me...

I Like to Move It, Move It

There was a time when I used to keep my mobile on ringtone mode. It became a thing of the past when the following scene repeated itself until i got the lesson:

me with friends
ring ring
me (oblivious to ringtone): blah blah blah
ring ring
me: more blah blah blah
ring ring
me: blah blah black sheep
ring ring
me notices people checking their mobile phones
ring ring
someone else to me: Rejoy! Your phone's ringing!!!
everybody else except me: hahaha

...me try to melt into the shadows,
cheeks red like a couple of tomatoes...

After that, I started putting the damned thing on silent-but-vibration mode. Of course there are circumstances when I am moving around and its not enough to just have it in my pants in said setting. Sometimes I feel that the perfect place would be to shove the thing up my @$$ to know whether the thing is vibrating when there is an in-cumming er... in-coming call. Fortunately and unfortunately (for my heterosexual ego and my callers respectively), thats never going to happen. I did think of ways to circumvent the issue. What about headphones? I thought. Naah! Too weird. I had been at the providing end of mocking smiles/chuckles when some random guy takes his call using a headphone giving the appearance that he is talking to thin air or worse, looking at me while he shouts at the top of his voice. But then again, there is this eternal debate of getting your brain fried on mobile phone induced electromagnetic waves (for and against). I am tired. You do the homework.

A Little B.O.B.

Nope. I am not talking about some guy named bob but do say hello to my theory initialized by B, O and B again. You might have had one of those days when some friend of yours (or maybe you but I would not want to put it that way since you might get offended... oops) is going on and on about some side they are taking on an issue. For example, is it nature or is it nurture which decides the development of a child? And they/you press on, quote the authorities, shout themselves hoarse, spit in the opponents face and do all that can be done to make the other party believe you. And sometimes its not so much that the others believe what we say as much as we trying to convince ourselves of the principles we have chosen to live by.

There is something going for debates. That you can actually intimidate others by presenting facts is some new kind (or the ever old tradition) of tactical warfare, is something which I call uniquely unique. And what any woman would immensely relish... I can almost hear them smacking their lips in anticipation ;). I remember that the very mention of the word "debate" used to freeze my blood in my halcyon school days. It always summoned up images of violence and gore. As if the contestants would at any moment just jump from the stage and at each others' throats while I could have participated as the active audience with popcorn in hand. Unfortunately that didn't ever happen otherwise we would have borne witness to our forefathers mode of resolution management which is "might is right" (is it me or is some types of related world politics scenario still in the dark ages? Clue: BUSH fire).

To cut to the chase, what I am trying to say is that the answer usually lies in embracing both options and suspending judgment. A little Bit Of Both (and from henceforth referred to as bob courtesy my-lazy-fingers). So, to the question of Nature/Nurture? bob! Creation or Evolution? bob! God or Nothing? bob or another bob! Love or Lust? Definitely BOB! Murder or... ah ah aah. And of course like any good theorists, I must know when to make the exception. So, next time you get to an argument, see if this works for you. If it doesn't, to hell with it, write to me, or we could go out for coffee to argue between bob and... any other three lettered acronym you want to throw at me.

PS: I would like to take a moment here to pray that the soul of Bob Woolmer rest in peace. If he was murdered, let justice be carried out against those who dared to lay their hands on the life of a teacher and a human being. Over and out...

Get Moving to Blow up Your Mind

Study shows that the ever exercising jock is actually the best potential nerd-to-be. Here's another excuse to get/remain fit.

Its Time To Give A Damn

Sometimes, one of your friends/acquaintances gives you their inattention when you are talking to them(assuming that you are not speaking something obviously stupid ;). This happens due to one of the following reasons:

1. Something else is on their mind.
2. They are playing power games with you.
3. They think you below their "status"

You can make out its case (1), if he/she immediately apologizes and asks you to repeat what you were saying. The story continues and case closed. Case (2) means that he/she thinks that one way to enslave you is to make you crave for their attention. If they give less of it, you want it even more. And case (3) is similar to case (2) except that your supposed friend actually believes that you are not worth it. Here's the best way to handle 2 and 3: Ignore them for a change. This sends out the message that you too can be hard-to-get and you do not need to be with people who either give a damn or don't. And don't get hung up over it. Move on. Its time to get yourself real friends.

PS: The same can be said for people who want to get your money, stab you in the back, don't pick-up/return your phone calls, talk negative shit and leave you bleeding after you have been there for them, as long as you had known them. That's when you know that its time to tell them goodbye.

What Are We About?

After spending time with Ajai yesterday, on what would have normally been a slow Sunday for me, it reminded and confirmed the fact again to me of how important goals are for living a fuller life. My friend's passion to fulfill a certain ambition of his was an inspiring testimony to just how we need that extra anchor in our lives besides having a family to love and good friends to cherish.

I guess the goal doesn't matter as long as it has a personal significance to your own yours truly and become what we want ourselves to be, on our own terms.

Makes it easier to jump out of bed, early in the morning too...

PS: While Ajai was making his "great escape" from Orkut, he forgot to rescue the testimonial I had written for him. So here it is, the upgraded version:

Ajai is Mr. .NET :-). He is very interested in programming and will write a lot of useful/useless applications in C# just for the fun of it. I remember him jumping up and down when he was trying out the new .NET development IDE of Visual Studio 2005.
When he was my neighbor, we used meet over at his residence on a regular basis to watch loads of Popeye, Richie Rich and Tom-and-Jerry shows if there was no Jackie Chan movie running :-)
We share a lot of similarities, one of which is the rare commonality that both of us won't have anything to do with cricket. "Run Ajai! They are picking up stones to throw at us!!!"

Honeymoon Travels

This hindi film surprisingly clicked for this hopless and optimistic romantic. Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby present you the Not-Fair-Too Awards (Name changed due to copyright reasons)

The Krish Award goes to Abhay Deol and Minissha Lamba. Great chemistry, idealism and red-caped costumes.

Best Realistic Couple Award goes to Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi. For an excellent, all round, power packed, softened in a silk glove performance.

Most Entertaining, Opposites Attract Couple Award goes to Kay Kay Menon and Raima Sen. KK played to perfection the role of a stuckup husband until a bottle of coked-coke gets him loose. But the unexpected package was Raima. She sizzles at letting down her raven black hair, naughty bedroom tricks and martial arts. Go girl!

Typical Aggressive Hero and Submissive Heroine Award goes to Arjun Rampal and Dia Mirza. The guy is in your face, tough as nails. The girl's in god's face, mumbling request after prayer request and cries herself rivers on demand.

Most Irritating in a Sweet Way Award goes to Amisha Patel. Cute in the way mouse Jerry is.

Really Gay Couple Award goes to *Censored*. No comments ;)

Tough as Nails But Spunky Award goes to Sandhya Mridul. Its not easy to put up with being cheated on. Even harder when it happens twice.

Best A$$-h*** Award goes to the guy playing Dia Mirza's husband. Post Arjun Rampal, gets him relegated to being the ex-hubby.

Best Soundtrack Award goes to Sajani Vaari Vaari. A very groovy and funky number. I couldn't help my legs going out of control. Click on play to get the hint:

Warning!!! Music is catchy but gets SCRATCHY at the end. Lower volume @ 1:22 minutes

The Will to Go On

Throw me some of your stares,
mixed with disdain and scathing reviews
Would i give a damn or show some care?
Its like diamonds meeting the morning dew

In the end its me to be answered to
not another heart which beats semi-silent within
Even conscience i spit at, its protests noting nothing new
old as me is its tired, grotesque and guilt colored prism

Dig out the rotting caracass,
from the ancient grave of my soul, with passion
The tree bears fruit no longer, its all a farce
And the fire, its roots and leafless limbs, shall gather and ashen

The lessons of the giants are plain and simple
Just climb up and stand on the top mosts' shoulder
Lookout to see whats they have seen and treasured
Be open and ready to be the foundation of another

Propel the soul and the harley's motor,
since the highway's clear and the sky's not so blue
Then stick out the leather jacket collar
and ride into the inevitable storm thats always waiting for me and you

Wimbledon

Wimbledon. I don't want to waste my time hinting at the plot. Its worth the mention because it has a lot going for it. The old under-dog comeback, Kirsten Dunst playing the muse, family/friendship/love/business/(fill in your favorite relationship) ties getting fixed (we are speaking of all types of permutations and combinations here like father-mother, father-son, between-brothers, between-friends, bf-gf, tennis-star--ball-boy, client-agent, and the list goes on), hero-defending-heroine's-honor, the guy-n-gal's great paparazzi escape, the ever reliable British humor (Here's a sample. Bad guy Jake : "I tried to warn you about her. By the way, how's the weak back?" Cool dude Peter: "It's fine. Thanks. How's the weak mind?"), and one memorable/sticky soundtrack (This Year's Love).

Hide and Seek for the Peek a Boo

Since getting the peek-a-boo comment-feature up on our shiny New Blogger has left Hem feeling "finicky" and me scratching my head like a monkey for quite some time, here is the solution, once and for all!

(Thanks to Stephen Paul Weber for this great stuff)

The Anti-Climax

The scene: one of those Bangalore-Kerala trips for the vacations
The venue: a random semi-sleeper bus with LOUD t.v.
The thing: I was making my way, to and fro, between those blurry states of sleep and wakefulness when I notice that there was a new tamil movie playing on said television. Hmmm... here's something new. I see the villain going around with his somehow uglier looking sidekick. What's this? It seems that baddy is looking to take a wife! And surprise of surprises! He is actually quite decent about it by going about visiting families and formally asking the girls' parents etcetera. I am wide awake due to this unusual turn in events and resolve to see this through. An hour later, the hero has not shown up and I am drifting to dream-world... when WHAM! I am feel this giant psychological whack on my head and suddenly realize that it was not the bad guy I was looking at this whole time but the hero! That's when my system finally shut's down early in the morning and I get back to my world of sweet, zipped z's.

Wings Over The Seas

(21/12/2002)
(For my sister Reni)

Little bird,
Your wings are grown
For a long time, you were our baby,
the youngest, the apple of our eyes

We see you take hesitant steps
into the outside world
That heart in you is growing stronger
and those arms are willing to be tested

You swoop down,
and for the first time
no help is needed
Be steadfast, we encourage you

Step out of our shadows
O fiery one
Fly yourself, guide yourself
and do not forget the prayers
that we learned together
Chirp and sing out, trilling
Let your songs be heard
in all valleys
And may the mountains be your resting places

The world waits for each of us
Choose your part, do it well
Go! God Himself has sent you

Our prayer is that
you will find the Way
Our desire is that
our little one will remain True
God is all around
and mankind waits for healthy springs of Love

We give our blessings
may He multiply them
May sorrow strengthen you,
allow Joy to lift you up
And let peace be that
constant companion
who never deserts you, O flying one
as you soar above the seas