13 June 2009
I went to the stadium with RK, Mohit and the rest. They were all super excited to see the inagural match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils and had tagged me along. I wanted nothing more than to eat some chicken and sleep for 6 hours straight.
A crowd was gathering at the entrance gate. Mohit and RK were discussing excitedly (abe Tendulkar buddha ho gaya hai ab…Mumbai Indians should’ve got Dhoni instead). Think they were expecting a fight (with chariots and horses, swords and half-a body armour, like they used to do in ancient Rome). People were blabbering all over and I was still longing for my chicken…
We got through the security checks and voila, the great colloseum! We got the teeny-weeny burgers and the overpriced water, then headed for our seats. Yay! The cheerleaders were exactly in front of us…Lucky lalit modi came up with that one brilliant idea of importing firangi gals in the stadium. It gives a non-cricket guy like me some initiation into the game and helps generate interest.
Met Karthik and his RayBan there after a really long time. He was clapping, RK was cheering, Mohit was whistling, and I was trying veery very hard to figure out what the heck had just happened. Apparently, the tiny GI-Joe type figure in the middle was Ravi Shastri, examining the pitch. After that, it was all blurry…It was too difficult to find out who was bowling, who was batting and where the heck was the stupid white ball. Finally, I decided to follow the market trend, so I cheered with full enthu when Mohit whistled, clapped when Karthik started shouting and cried out foul words when RK swore. It was starting to get fun…We also started to form waves in the crowd, shouting and waving in equal measure. Then somebody shouted ‘we won’, so I jumped on the chairs. We started to tapori dance, wave and shout some more. And we had chicken biryani after that to celebrate the win… 
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02 June 2009
A hot chick looking directly at the camera and reporting the latest news with the utmost sincerity and dedication. Aah, those were the days…News channels tend to forget the very purpose of their existence these days. I think they get a kick in broadcasting useless stories with pathetic punchlines…and of course the extra moolah they earn for advertising helps. There was some actor making a milkshake on prime time. Then, there’s always the inventive India TV, showing THE God’s chappals, THE physical ‘Stairway to Heaven’ (not to be confused with Led Zepp) and THE blooming love between two chickens, grossly sensationalized.
The other day, I just wanted to see the if the AWACS had been inducted by IAF. It got frustrating when I started to browse all those channels. Most of them were happy to broadcast the same thing all day long. IBN7 was showing ‘Balika Vadhu’ and cribbing about how the girl got herself pregnant…and the sound effects didn’t help. Star News showed Kareena Kapoor at some event with a bold title ‘baccho ke saath kareena’…and the gal herself looking nowhere else but at the cameras the whole time. And CNN-IBN was showing 2 dudes dancing with pompoms…they just needed to wear skirts to be roped in for some gay horror flick. Am sure somewhere veeery very deep inside ‘Dos and Donts – TV Channel’s Guide to Broadcasting News’, it constitutes a gross violation of the law and our fundamental rights, amounting to ‘emotional atyachar’.
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28 May 2009
As they say, being a graduate makes you wiser. I’ve just been hit by this and realize the true potential of this statement. Am in a very ‘pheelosoofikal’ mood here. The answer to life, the universe, and everything may be ’42′ according to Douglas Adams and Google, but engineering’s a totally undiscovered world, a parallel universe. Experience speaks, so here are THE commandments that will help get you through college.
1. Thou shall not attend more than required to keep thyself away from trouble.
2. Thou shall not make more than 1 notebook each year.
3. Thou shall be ready to bunk lectures at a moment’s notice.
4. Thou shall not question the sanctity of thy canteen.
5. Thou shall avoid Satan’s followers (troublesome teachers and pesky lab-assistants) at all cost.
6. Thou shall respect thy lecturer and keep thy eyes open while dozing.
7. Thou shall run like the wind to keep away from the Devil’s lair (principal’s cabin).
Amen!
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18 May 2009
RK (aka Ramkumar) is so sincere these days. But the fellow can’t keep his masti under control when studying in a group, so he goes to the library like a good boy. I tend to think of it as the place where people go to punish themselves when they do a bad deed. Being in an adventurous mood, I decided to check out the phenomenon.
I stepped inside and thought I had gone deaf. As my prof used to say, ‘pin-drop silence’ (used to irritate me quite a bit…if the pin dropped, it would still make a teeeny-weeny bit of sound. Then why call it silence??). Anyway, I went to the clerk to explain that I didn’t have an id card, but wanted a test drive before buying the car. She was more concerned though about the amount of noise I was making.
I saw RK and waved enthusiastically. The guy beside looked at me like I was showing my ‘election finger’. I tiptoed my way to the chair stack and tried pulling one out, but the damned thing was stuck. I put my foot on the stack and pulled out the top one with some force, which sent the stack back with a mighty screech. Almost everyone stopped reading and looked up. I curved my mouth into what seemed like a friendly half-smile and said ‘Sorry’, which echoed on the walls and came on as a boom. The girls in front rolled their eyes. Think they were wondering what the bumbling idiot was doing amongst their species…
I had to carry the chair to sit beside RK, but the path was covered with people of all shapes and sizes, and their books with the 500+ pages. I exhaled, lifted the chair over my head like I would carry Ganpati Bappa and began my journey towards the divine light (sunrays from the open window). The mass of people again turned up their heads and stared. I think they were speechless as they hadn’t encountered anyone making a sound over half a decibel! I kept my focus on RK, who was half amused, half embarrassed, slowly walked upto him and sat down…phew, that was fun!
I opened my book (thinnest paper solution I could find, had less than 100 pages)…omg!! I could feel my concentration level suddenly rise up. After about 10 mins, I looked to my left at RK’s giant sized reference book, then told him I was bored. After pestering him for half an hour, we finally called it a day. I got up and the chair screeched. Before those exasperated eyes hit me again, we ran out. Dang! One more day like this and am through…
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