I have a bunch of word docs on my office comp. Stuff I had written a long time ago. I was reading them now and one doc had just one line - "My pee is not ver yellow because I drink a lot of water". What was I thinking?

I haven't written in a long time. Have a major case of work and writer's block.

 

It is still not over.

Don't know if I will write. Might start over. Chronicling books and movies and food. Don't really want to write.

 

Blah.

I am back. 2 weeks in the US. Lots and lots to drink. The first 3 days I had red wine, white wine, red, white, red... Then it varied. Margaritas, mohitos, honey wine, german beer, italian beer, american beer. You would think I was a real tippler.

 

Yesterday, I hurt all over. Then I had a huge lunch and about an hour later, life was ok. Then I went home and watched LOTR 1 and 2 on my new laptp in my newly air conditioned room. Hmm. Then I played scrabble with D and lost by a few points. I really suck at it. The only reason I didn't totally embarass myself was because I got Q and Z and X and managed to make triple word/letter scores on them. Phew.

 

Anyway, I like the US. Whatever little I saw. Elbow space (except on airplanes), buses that have time tables (gasp!) and come on time, wide open spaces, clothes that fit me, awesome food (but way too large servings) and maps! I have discovered a new love for maps. I love maps. Can you imagine navigating chennai with a map? Crazy.

 

Anyway, food. I had italian a couple of times (it tastes pretty much like it does in India. I was surprised.), mexican (ditto), lebanese (not so much), ethiopean (first time!) and american. Yum. I liked everything I had. One good reason not to live in the US. You'd need a crane to lift me out of the house.

 

My cousin asked me which place I liked better - Dallas or San Francisco. I told him I'd have to think. He was very offended. Apparenlty Dallas doesn't have any personality, being all flat and brown and dusty. Ok.

 

I found one thing weird. So many people whom I asked directions didn't speak english. So, I got into a lot of buses and trains that were going in the wrong direction. Not fun at all.

 

More later. Going to watch Cheeni Kum today.

 

Somebody, get me another job.

On the way to work today, I saw guy wearing a T Shirt with this - "I'm with Stuped ->"

 

Last night, we went to a restaurant we hadn't yet been to. Food was good, as usual, we all ate too much. I learnt that zafran meant saffron and had a very sweet Zafran lassi. But the food was good. Definite visit again.

 

I was going to say something else. I had it all written in my head and when I started typing this out - poof, all gone.

 

More later.

First post in a week.

My brain hurts.

There is an elevator here that scares the shit out of me. It is very slow, creeeeeeeaaaaaks and sometimes randomly stops between floors. Everybody panic. I still don't take the stairs - I'm lazy. Big surprise.

The funny thing is, the other 2 elevators have been shut down "for repairs" for the past 2 months. This one hasn't been "repaired" even once since it started getting weird. I wonder what it takes. A plunge from the 3rd floor (which is as high as this building gets)? Ok, maybe not funny.

There is a Cocaine energy drink? Seriously? Also, does cocaine give energy? Why call an energy drink Cocaine? Coke and Crack were already taken? How did they not see this coming? And, what did it taste like?

"Of course, we intended for Cocaine energy drink to be a legal alternative the same way that celibacy is an alternative to premarital sex..."

Anyway, our yucky vending machine is broken. So no coffee all day. No coffee sucks. Give me coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

Some random guy talking on the phone just walked ast my cubile and gave me this huge, all teeth gleaming, grin. I was sitting. He looked down and grinnnnnned. Scary. He had Beatles hair.
Some guy sent me a forward. FYI & A apparently means For your information and attention/action. I HATE ACRONYMS. DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE
Ugh.

The water suddenly tastes like paint.

The Power of Suggestion

Shrek 2 on TV last night.

 

Green poop this morning.

2 false fire alarms in the past week.

 

I don't think anybody would even get up from their seats the next time; then there would really be a fire. Boy, meet wolf.

The world is going to the dogs. Among other things.

 

I turned on the TV before leaving for work and I saw that Boris Yeltsin had died, First thing that came to my ming was Birthmark! That was Gorbachev, wasn't it?

 

Life sux. Hyderabad is hot.

 

Still blocked.

 

So much work. Drowning.

 

Anybody reading the new Tolkein? Did you know that they called Silmarillion Sellamillion when it first came out? I wonder if Children of Hurin will be good. Reviews haven't been great.

 

My Co.'s annual results came out. Everything was great. Everybody is very happy. Everybody did great. Everybody is on the top of the world. Everybody but me. I think I am biologically inclined to be morose when people around me are happy.

 

I want to do something. Anything. Help.

 

The only thing I look forward to is sleep. It is very depressing.

 

 

Weekend!

 

My work PC is super tempramental. It crashed 3 times in one week, 2 months ago. And today, it was stuttering and blinking. Painful. It is so bad that of the 15 numbers that I have scribbled on the whiteboard in my cubicle, 8 are helpdesk numbers. 8. Ofcourse, 4 of them never pick up the phone or are always busy and a couple have no idea what to do, whatever the problem is, but I can generally get someone to a) tell me what to do when the comp gives up or b)come and fix it.

 

One of these days, it is going to die. And I will not miss it. To hell with it.

 

We have to fill out this thing every week. About what we did all week and submit it to the project manager. Ideally, we keep the program running and add a line whenever we "change tasks". I have 3 months pending. The last time I filled it out, I did 5 months in 2 hours. It is really tiring. Speaking of tiring, Tired.com is apparently a very popular website, or so Slate.com says. I dont have the link, but they have an interesting article. Go check it out.

 

I lost my funny.

I am bored. Not a new state of affairs for me.

Vish - that's why I haven't been writing. Nothing to write AND a major case of writer's block.

Will write when the block goes away. If.

I have to cut my toe nails. Thought you might like to know.

Need to wax my arms. Immediately. I look like a close relative of the Indian Black Bear. So.

A lot of billboards in town have nothing on them. They are bare, metal skeletons of their former colourful glory. Seriously. Awesome winds last week, blew a lot of stuff away. And since I have a graveyard outside my windows, I get it all, unobstructed by buildings. "Open the windows and let the air force come in." Indeed.

Not so awesome, one was toppled. It fell on an icecream kiosk and (the rumour is) it killed the guy in the kiosk. It has been a week since that happened, and all the metal is yet to be removed.

I saw Bheja Fry yesterday. A lot of fun, if you are in the mood for some leave-your-brain-at-home silly comedy. There is no real story and everything happens in two rooms and in one evening. But still, great time pass. Of the 5 of us who went for the movie, only two of us liked it.

I also saw Eragon, about two weeks ago. What a sad, terrible movie. The dragon was awesome, though.

The rains are here and the evenings are awesome, as long as you don't get caught in the rain. I lost my umbrella today. Last year, I lost 3 umbrellas. Apparenlty, the rains will stop sometime next week and we will have another month of horrible summer and then the rains will start again. Not looking forward to the heat. Heard that Delhi is 40 degrees already. Shudder.

I lost my phone again. I have no idea where I lost it. I think I left it in the auto on the way to the airport. Maybe I left it in the airport. Or on the plane. Or in the auto on the way home, from the airport. I just know that when I got home, I didn't have the phone.

Airtel is surprisingly efficient. I gave them my old phone number and a copy of my driver's license and I got my old number back!

So, if I had your number, send it to me again.

I told amma that I lost the phone and she went, "you keep losing it. be more careful." Keep losing it? Twice in one year is not "keep losing it." Twice a month, maybe.

It drizzled last night. We had high hopes for rain. No such luck. It is a bit early for rain, but there was a cool breeze after that. Awesome.

How is the weather where you are?

Go work.

I like phdcomics.com. And Doonesbury.

I read somewhere that people who read a lot of fiction tend to lie more, and more convincingly. Soph also told me that when she was here. Apparently she lies really well. Maybe she does. Maybe it is because she reads a lot of fiction. But I can't lie worth a damn. I read a lot too. I really, really suck at lying. (Also, Lie=Lying. Why?) I, a)don't like to lie, b) am not very convincing when I lie. Am I not convincing because I don't like to lie? And why do I not like to lie? It is not a "it is wrong to lie, and thus I won't lie" feeling. It is more of a why bother? and who gives a shit? feeling.

My point is this - I am worried. If I am in a situation where I absolutely HAVE to lie to, I don't know, save my life or something, what if I totally blow it? What if I suck so much that the villains just laugh and shoot in me in the head, all in the same breath? This could be a huge personality flaw. Also, is my unimpressive lie-ability because I am *gasp* unimaginative? Seriously, folks, I could be in deep shit and unable to dig my way out because I blushed or stammered or looked at my feet or up or stared too much at the other guy or said a load of crap.

 

I need help. 

State wide bandh today. Called by "BC Parties" and supported by Congress. What do you imagine a bandh would be like? Empty streets, shops closed, people standing in crowds yelling for whatever they called the damn bandh for, offices, schools closed? Nope. The streets were just as chaotic, shops hadn't opened when I left for work, but they anyway open only at 10, and offices were open. Only public transport and schools were off.

 

Respect the bandh. Give me a day off.

It is only Tuesday. I have friday off!! Awesome. I love 4 day weeks.

I saw bits of Tremors a couple of days ago. It is, without a doubt, the worst monster movie I have ever seen. They took the worm from Dune and turned it into an underground Anaconda (the movie with Jennifer Lopez and John Voigt wading through some swamp and getting chewed up and spit out by a monster snake was Anaconda, right?)

My love for Sean Bean has been well documented on this blog. I have whined a lot about how he never gets good, fleshy, yummy roles. He plays Sharpe (awesome) in a mini (?) series that comes on History Channel (yummy) and I religiously turn on the TV only to turn it off again because IT IS IN HINDI. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I like watching crap dubbed in hindi. Like Jurassic Park 3. I can even watch Harry Potter in Hindi or Tamil. But Come On. I beg the cable guy everytime he comes to get paid. But no. Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel and History will continue in hindi. It could be worse. It could be telugu. Yikes. (No offense, Al.) I want. I'll stop whining when somebody buy the DVDs for me.

Speaking of Bean, Rowan Atkinson has apparently retired the Mr.Bean character. No more Mr.Bean. Thank god.

Post-concerned? I didn't know it was a word. It is used in this article many many times. What else can it be used for, other than "not bothered by gay people"?

Diarrhoea. Don't know why.

 

Soph sent a message on Gtalk when I was in a meeting. I had my monitor projected on the wall (what is the right way to say this?). The message popped up. "Butter Cookies! Lemon Icing!" Everybody laughed.

 

I have some mandatory training stuff to do. I had to do 1 day of training before the end of this quarter. There is a list of stuff I can do online. Most of it is completely dumb. I did "Questioning Skills". I passed. I wonder what the person who makes these stupid multiple choice questions is told about the target audience. IQ of a 3 year old and attention span of a toad? Mandatory. Gah!

 

Anyway, diarrhoea. Hate. It.

I have a backache.

 

I had really sweet tea. With 3 teabags. And hot. I am not a tea person, but the coffee from the Nescafe vending machine sucks.

 

I have 15 phone numbers scribbled on the white board in my cubicle. 10 of those are of the computer maintenance guys. My comp crashes a lot. They recognise me by my voice these days.

 

I didn't recognise a guy in my department - he was away for 3 months. We came up in the lift together. Somebody told me later that it was him. I still didn't recognise him.

 

I leave at 5.30pm almost everyday, these days. Unless I have something that absolutely has to be done that day.

 

X-Men last night. I like Ian McKellen more than Patrick Stewart. And Halle Berry not at all, at least in that movie.

 

Food. Sleep. Air Conditioning.

 

The Soph was here for the weekend. She is still here but I'm at work. I was supposed to have a long call this morning, so I came early. As it always happens, always, the thing I was supposed to be here early for was no longer going to happen. My life. It. Sucks.

The Sis was pissed that I did not ply her with alcohol. And that I was such a lazy bum. She has known me for 21 years, how did that come as a surprise? She got me brownies pretending to be fudge, so I'm not going to say another word. Yummy.

Anyway, we saw Pursuit of Happyness and 300. Pursuit - very good. I liked it a lot. The kid was cute, Will Smith was good. Nuff said.

Spoilers -

300 - what were they thinking? I had no expectations for the movie and fully expected it to suck, Gladiator style. Then I saw it. I had totally overestimated it. Everything I expected was there - the burnished bodies, the stilted conversations, the beautiful women, the horrible monsters, the poncy persians, all that I had heard and read about.

It was much much more than that. There were the charging rhinos and elephants, the 10 ft tall god-king, the hunchback, the gleaming eyes of the wolf, the corrupt politician, the faithful soldiers, the dying "It was an honour to die by your side", "it was an honour to have lived by yours", Faramir! the narrator, the "council", the gorgeous oracle, the lecharous priests, african persians, whipped slaves, trolls, giant, twisted men, the 10 ft tall king, the jewellery, the thrones, the rhino and the elephants ... I could go on and on.

//I wrote a load of stuff here but Blogger lost it. Damn you Blogger.//

Overwhelming East versus West crap - West good, East bad. We got it. Move on. East - fat men, dark men, slaves, pompous, arrogant, delusions of divinity. West - strong, fearless, honorable (except the politicians, but seriously, does that surprise you?), free, victorious even in death, blah blah.

If they had to make a movie about the Battle of Thermopylae, why did they not use The Gates of Fire instead of a half assed, unresearched, uninteresting, comic book. Sorry, Graphic Novel. I felt like I was watching a video game on the big screen. I was more emotionally involved during Monster House. It was very blah. Not even the cute kid getting his head chopped off made me wince. How terribly sad is that?

Watch the movie. Enjoy the popcorn.

Keith - I googled my full name and to my horror, this damn thing was on the first page! Last link, but still, Holy crap, Batman! So I went through a bunch of my old posts and deleted my name. That's why your RSS thingy is throwing up my old posts. Also, you are not helping. You wrote my name! In caps! So.. Yeah, about the poop, sorry about that. Can't help it. It comes naturally to me.

Ugadi on Monday. That is the Telugu New Year, for those of you who don't know. Seriously, we are a weird people. Each state has a different new year? Or is this confined to the south?

We were supposed to have Tuesday off and Monday working, so most of the people here took Monday also off - 4 day weekend! Much fun. Airports cried. Then earlier this week, the HR boss man here sent a mail.

Just this morning, the Government of AP has changed their holiday from the 20th of March (Tuesday) to the 19th of March (Monday) based on what they have heard from the experts on this.

Who are these experts? I think these new years are based on the lunar calendar. Does that mean that the moon speeded up a little? Or did they do their math wrong?

The Soph is coming for the weekend.

Did I tell you that I have a temporary roommate? A friend of D's is staying till she finds a place. She has really long hair. And she lisps, which I found funny earlier. Now, I don't notice it anymore.

I went to a restaurant I had not been to before, a couple of days ago. D's treat. I don't remember why. Anyway, it was fashioned after the first train that ran in India (and Asia, I think) between Bombay and Thane. Food was good; a bit bland, but still good. They had this really weird thing though. They played this recorded "train arriving at platform 1" sort of thing over and over again. It arrives, it departs, it arrives again and departs again and keeps arriving and departing. Horrible.

Happy Ugadi.

Have you ever been constipated that your legs hurt and you could hardly sit without wincing? And then, when you finally shit, your asshole burns but you have this overwhelming feeling of relief that that this pain, this agony is finally over and you can stop drinking water by the gallon?

I get that feeling after meetings some calls.

I found this website called Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics and it is brilliant. It explains why some things in movies could have never happened. Most of the stuff they have is obvious and you'd have figured it out when you saw the movie but it had some stuff I didn't know. Much fun. I have spent most of today reading it. Did you know that if all the icebergs in the North Sea melted, there would be no change in sea levels? It is obvious, but I never thought about it. And how did the mother ship still hang in the sky after it was destroyed, in Independance Day?

 

Also, National Geographic's website is pretty cool. Check out the articles about the Collosal Squid and the giant sinkhole that swallowed houses and people in Guatemala. Unbelievable. And Mud Volcanos! Reality is way freakier than fiction.

 

I had a big thing at work that went off well today. Phew, that's one down, many more to go.

 

Saw Gosford Park last night. Brilliant movie. I have never seen the whole thing before. Clive Owen! Helen Mirren! Stephen Fry! Maggie Smith! So awesome.

 

Has anybody seen Eragon? Is it any good? I want it to be good, but I saw a trailer and the dragon doesn't look all that great. You know what was a cool dragon? The one in The Goblet of Fire. And Reign of Fire. Don't get me started on dragons.

 

I saw a bit of the BAFTAs and the a bit of the Oscars earlier this week. The Brits were so much funnier than the Yanks. Or maybe I just like their brand of humour more.

It snowed. I took the bus to work, not trusting the traitorous, icy sidewalks and winds blowing in from Sweden. Work over, my colleague decided he wanted to walk back. In the freaking snow. It was still snowing and the wind was heavy. The forecast was for a snow storm. But the guy wanted to walk. So walk, we did. The cold was cold and wind was windy. My clothes were heavy and my backpack felt like a small person. And we walked on. Conversations died down as we concentrated on not slipping. Cars whizzed by; people safe in the warmth of the car looking out at the two fools braving the elements. It was a short walk, maybe 2 kms, but it felt like many many miles. The last bit was the worst. The road was open to the sea, there were no buildings shielding us from the wind and the snow was slushy, slippery and scary. Then we were there. One apple later, I feel human again.

And they all said, this morning, "This is nothing, you should have been here in December." Thanks but no thanks.

I had a lot of fun today. Walked a lot, had good food. Now I have so much work to do.

K, S just pointed to where the red light area was. We didn't actually go there. But now I know where it is if I ever want to go. So.

S was sure we'd get lost but we didn't. He was so embarrassed to be seen with a map. But nooo, he won't ask for directions. We walked a lot. Anyway, now I have seen the Little Mermaid and what is the big deal about it? It was tiny and had bird shit on it. S warned me. I should have listened. But did I? Of course not. Other than Tivoli, it was the only thing that I had heard about Copenhagen and I am not a big amusement park fan, so off to the little mermaid it was. But the walk was nice. Now I can say I have seen the Queen's Palace, NyHavn(?), the outside of Tivoli and the little, little mermaid. Check it off my non-existing list.

A paper clip is holding the glass in my frame. A screw came off. I was going to bring my spare, but then I thought, "it is just a week, what is the worst that could happen?" Always. Always. I should have known.

It was really cold yesterday evening. Today was so much better. Sunny and not very cold. A sweater was all that I needed.

Now off to do some work. Wish me luck.

I'm here. It is cold.

Happy birthday to me. 24 is bloody old.

I had a very uncomfortable flight from Bombay to Frankfurt. There was a guy sitting next to who was fast asleep even before the plane took off and his head was on my shoulder pretty much all the time. I tried shrugging him off, I woke him and told him to lean away and elbowed him half a dozen times. Nothing worked. I think I slept for about an hour.

I'm bored. It is cold and I'll probably eat alone tonight. Because the guy I have come here with bought a loaf of bread and a bunch of spreads and wants to have that for dinner. No way. I'll take my new P.G.W and go eat at the restaurant here. When he bought bread and cheese and shrimp salad and stuff like that, I bought a six pack of beer, chips and some wafers. Go me.

We were walking on the road that runs along the sea here and the wind was biting cold. It is going to take a couple of days to get used to this weather. But it is beautiful here.

On the way from the station to the hotel, we met a Iranian woman who showed us the way. She was damn cute. All praises for Denmark and Hindi movies. She said she could understand the movies even though there were no subtitles and she didn't know the language.

I saw Lage Raho Muna Bhai on the plane. I was listening to some german music and reading the subtitles. It was hilarious. Almost as funny as Jurassic Park in tamil. And speaking of JP, I saw JP 3 for the first time last week. What an unbelievably terrible movie! It was horrendous. And the main dinosaur looked like a clay model. What the hell were they thinking? I wanted Tea Leoni's character to be ripped to bits. I was very sad that she survived. Hellfire and damnation!

I met a Swiss woman at the Mumbai airport. She said that she was standing in a queue at the Goa airport when a couple of Europeans cut the queue and went ahead of her. A guy standing behind her said that they were probably Germans, because Germans can't queue. She was a little put off by the stereotype and a little amused that such a stereotype even existed. Those guys were sitting next to her on the plane and what do you know? (is this to be follwoed by a ? or a !) They were German! Anyway, she had seen more of India than I had. It was a little sad. The only places she hadn't been to was the North-East and J&K. I was very J.

What plans for the weekend?

I apologise for the lack of capitals.

yesterday, post lunch, i got off at the wrong floor, went to where my cubicle in the right floor would have been and sat down. At somebody else's desk. I wondered why my desk was so clean and why i didn't recognise anybody. then i wondered where all my papers were and was close to freaking out when i realised that my comp was suddenly different. everybody looked at me weirdly. i was wondering why strange people were sitting in the cubicles next to mine and were the hell were all the people that i knew?

then i went to my project manager's cubicle to ask her if anything drastic had changed while i was at lunch. then it struck me that the giant hole in the ceiling, opening up to the floor above, was not there in my floor since i sit on the top floor. Aha! Now it all became clear.

for a few minutes, i was totally creeped out. knowing that something was wrong and didn't belong in that place, not realising that the only thing that didn't belong was me.they should really do something to make these places look a little different. colour schemes, maybe?

last week it got really warm. now it is pleasant again. i like this weather. i know that the rest of the world is getting screwed up with rain in shrinagar and snow and hail in shimla and floods in rajasthan but this weather suits me. i am not looking forward to april. my skin will burn off, my eyes will beg for moisture and head burst.

the comp i use at work is screwed up. again. 3rd time in 2 weeks. we have people to take of such things here, being WFII and all that. but getting to actually come and do something is such a bloody pain. they probably do have a lot of work and they have to move between buildings to fix stuff but still.. wouldn't it be nice if there was a "Fix my comp" genie. It bet it would be the most overworked genie in the world, next only to the "make me skinny" genie.

have you seen those new ponds "age defying" cream ads? they have women who look like they are in their 20s talking about wrinkles and how their husband/boyfriend pay more attention to them now and more of that crap. my roommate goes "yuck" everytime those ads come up.

visa, tickets, hotel done.

I crib a lot about the place I work in and the people I work with but it has to be said - in some cases, these people are horribly efficient. Case in point, Visas. I had to file my visa application today and when I came in to work today, I had nothing, just my passport. By noon, I had filled out the forms, taken copies, got addresses, got everything checked, got invite letters, printed out salary slips and bank statements and got them verified, stuck my photos on a bunch of stuff, stapled it all together, removed the staples, stapled them in bunches, put them in a folder, clipped a few more photos in the folder, just in case, stuck my passport in the folder and handed it over to the visa guy on the ground floor who gave me another form to sign and then, Done!

No, wait. I am the horribly efficient one here!

Anyway, visa application - done.

There was a competition a while ago on SmithMag.com - submit a six word memoir and some telecom company (I think AT&T) users could win a bunch of stuff. So I wrote a few six word things (in spite of not having anything to do with said telecom people) and forgot all about it.

3 days ago, I received an email from them saying "We got a book deal! And you know what, so did you! In 2008, HarperCollins will publish NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: And Other Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. I'm writing to about 400 memoirists out of over 5,000 who submitted in hopes of including you guys in our book."

Heh. And I don't even remember what I wrote. They covered that: " If you don't remember what you submitted, that's fine too. Just ask and I'll remind you." How nice of them. I have sent them a mail; I'm really curious. "If you're getting this email, it means that your six-word memoir was hand-selected by the editors of SMITH Magazine as one of our very favorites."

Like my cousin said, I'm going to be published! Nice.

Among other things, I might be going to Copenhagen in 2 weeks. On work. Oh, I feel so important. I am going only because the guy who was supposed to go doesn't want to go or is not able to go or something like that, but still... So Sid? I'll be there for 4 or 5 days.

What do you do when people piss you off but you can't tell them off? Do you have a frustration-relieving techniques? I think bad thoughts about them; mostly involving fire or bullets or high buildings or knives. What can I say? My levels of frustration go high very easily. Sometimes they get mauled by werewolves.

Ass-coverers, back-stabbers, rabid, deranged morons, the whole lot of them.

 

Put me out of my misery, please!

When I sign into blogger, on the right side of the dashboard, there is a panel with links that those in power deem interesting. One of those, today, was "Learn how to start mobile blogging" and "blogging was in the next line. I wasn't looking too carefully and it initially looked like "Learn how to muddle". I already know that.

I come to Chennai way too often. I wanted to go to Kerala with the sis and a cousin and an uncle and an aunt but I thought I'd have work this weekend. I do. But I decided, 2 days ago, that I was bored and didn't want to spend a weekend at work AND I wanted to come for an Ayush Homam. I couldn't come in time for that but... Well, I'm in Chennai again. Chennai is bored of me.

My cousin is taking her son, the one whose had the Ayush Homam that I missed, to Thirupathi to get him a mottai. I remember when his sister came back from Thirupathi, all her gleaming, messy hair gone, she was hardly recognisable. She was very proud of her bald pate and told everyone, pointing to her head, "mottai". Yeah, we can see.

But why shave the heads of kids? India, and Thirupathi in particular, is the biggest provider of human hair to the west for making wigs. I think it was economics which made the people of places like Thirupathi publicize this tradition so much. Why does god care about your hair? Shouldn't he have bigger things to worry about, like World Peace?

In related news, I was mottai'd twice. I have no idea why. There is a picture of me, about 2 years old, freshly shorn and holding a baby deer. Apparently they showed me the deer to stop my crying or something like that. Seems to me that they just waited for my hair to grow back and bang, shaved it off. 2 times! Sadists. I have always had problems with my hair. Maybe that was why. I'm almost 24; I shouldn't be holding something that happened 20 years ago against them. For a very long time, I was very proud that I was mottai'd twice. I have no idea why.

Just spoke to my parents. Apparently first time was normal mottai that they did when I was a year old in Thirupathi. Then after about 6 months or something, I had trouble breathing and my grand father prayed over me and I became okay and he said I was to have another mottai in Uppiliappan Kovil in Kumbakonam. So I did. Because god (my grandfather) said so. I think this was the time the deer was around. I hope they did more than just pray for me.

D bought a car. Maruti Suzuki Estilo. I think that is how it is spelt. We come even later to work, now that we don't have to worry about bus scedules.

Wouldn't it be nice if I just knew what I had to do. Just like that. A flash of understanding.

Wouldn't happen, though. Too easy.

With great power...

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Green Lantern 75% Robin 70% Hulk 70% Catwoman 65% Iron Man 60% Superman 55% Batman 45% Supergirl 45% Wonder Woman 20% The Flash 20%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

I saw Dodge Ball last night with D. She was very amused. Maybe it is not as bad as I remembered it. I still maintain that Ben Stiller is gross, very cringe inducing. Less said about him the better.

Why would somebody call himself Rip Torn. It boggles the mind.

Charlie's Angels was next. I fell asleep 15 mins into the movie. Apparently the power went out. D was very sorry that she couldn't finish the movie. Does Drew Barrymore look like Preity Zinta?

Have you noticed that some people (naming no names) stand too close to you during a conversation? There is this really short woman. She stands so close to me, she is looking more at my boobs than at me. Weird. I move back, she moves forward, till I am against the wall (of the cubicle). Then I end the conversation and leave, mumbling something about a meeting or a phone call. Uncomfortable, Very.

Vain? Me? Huh.

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 83% Lex Luthor 78% Venom 76% The Joker 73% Magneto 73% Apocalypse 73% Two-Face 65% Kingpin 59% Mr. Freeze 58% Riddler 55% Green Goblin 53% Dark Phoenix 52% Poison Ivy 46% Juggernaut 45% Catwoman 42% Mystique 41%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

I found this saved as a draft. I think I posted it and then removed it. I don't remember why.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

Why does the word "fuck" generate so much anger? Why is it bleeped out on TV? i can understand "nigger" seeming offensive or "parayan", given the long history of discrimination, but why "fuck"? Say it to yourself people - fuck me, fuck you, fuck the world, fuck off... how is it any worse than go hang, go to hell, piss off, jump off a cliff, or anything else that people so regularly come up with to yell at others??

Yesterday on a rerun of Inside the Actors Studio, Drew Barrymore said that her favorite curse word was bleep. And then she tried it out a few times - bleep bleep bleep bleep. She might have meant fuck. James Lipton is weird. Like an alien behaving how he was told most people behave. Maybe not so weird.

What is your favorite curse?

Check out en.wikipedi.org/wiki/fuck if you ever feel the urge to know more about fuck (the word).

308! Whodathunk?

I went to an uncle's office last night. It was 8 pm. The offices weren't completely ready. Assembled cubicles were lying around and electrical cables and chairs were all over the place; Cardboard and paint everywhere. The 3rd floor was partially done. Most of the cubicles were up and there was a semblance of order, the sort of order you would find in my sister's bedroom. My uncle was in the conference room, so I sat down to wait. There were 4 men, early to mid twenties, neatly dressed, a few feet away from me, playing tennis on Wii, on a large flat screen TV rather scarily perched on a desk. I waited for about 45 minutes and they played tennis twice, bowling once and golf rest of the time. I also heard Age of Empires sounds coming from the far end of the room and other sounds that I didn't recognise, but they were definitely video game sounds. They had that tinny effect.

My uncle came by later and said that those guys were "testing" and "doing research" and "comparisons". I want that job. He said it doesn't pay very well though.

Work work work.

My work is weird. Most of it, right now, seems to be sitting in meetings or making calls to people in different time zones; the time in between these meeting, I set up the other meetings. When do I do, you know, actual work? It's lunch time now, so don't be snide.

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, addressing a convention, saying that his company estimates that a new blog is created every second of every day, and that the average readership of the average blog, according to Google, is now one.

So, would you say I'm average or above average? You are not allowed to say below average.

The only Indian serial killer/rapist I had ever heard of was Auto Shankar, who claimed that tamil movies made him want to kill/rape defenceless young girls. (I must admit, some tamil movies can provoke sheer rage/anger/vomit because of the bad/non-existant story lines/wardrobe changes/dancing around trees/annoying cast.) In the past 4 days, I have learnt, from our completely vapid/imagination free news channels (NDTV, CNN-IBN, Times Now, Headlines Today, Aaj tak, blah blah) that there have been quite a few serial killers in India. Even now, there is a guy who has killed 4 people in Mumbai in the past 2 months and leaves a beer can at the scene.

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Also, Barkha Dutt is very annoying when she goes all judgemental and her moralizing seriously pisses me off. She gets so strident and loud and looks like she's going to have an aneurysm on screen. What happened to journalists reporting the news and not making the news? And in her interview thingy with Kiran Bedi a few days ago, all she seemed to want was a confirmation of her view (Police bad, nasty, hate poor, want money) and she kept badgering Dr.Bedi till that woman too started getting pissed and started ranting (Police badly trained in small towns, villages; procedures not followed; politicization of system, blah blah). Dutt wasn't happy and moved on to someone else - Mohinder Singh's school friend who hadn't seen him in 30 years or something. The guy who, 2 days later, said he was going to be defending Singh, and said that he (Singh) was a good guy in school and he dosen't think he could have changed all that much in the gazillion years that followed. Okay.

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And yeah, Nick Leeson, the guy who single handedly brought down Barings Bank (Book - All the Glitters, Movie - Rogue Trader??), is giving lectures on why you should not hire rogue traders or something.

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I'm so hungry.