shine on you...

There comes a time in every sportsman's life, when he must decide for himself... to be or not to be... To listen to the mind which says FIGHT, or listen to the body which says I CAN'T... There comes a time in every sportsman's life, when he decides to call it a day.

But there in no sportsman worth his salt, who would like to step into the oblivion without giving giving himself one last chance. One last chance to re-live those magic moments which will be there no more. One last chance to rewrite history.

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

Last night, as I watched the US Open, I saw Agassi go for that one last chance. There was not a person in the entire stadium (including the opponent, Benjamin Becker, I'm sure), who, in some small corner of his heart, did not want Agassi to win. The crowd cheered every stroke of his. They cheered every mistake Becker made. What must it feel like to have 23,000 people willing you to go on? What must it feel like to have 23,000 people hoping you lose? What makes a man go through so much pain?

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you

For a man who has played tennis for more than 2 decades, and remained at the top for a larger part of that time, the emotion was understandable. Three match points down, Agassi had tears swelling up even before he faced the final service. Another minute or so while he completed the handshaking formalities, and then the dams burst open. 23,000 people at the stadium gave him a standing ovation. Many more at home must have done the same. I suppose his entire career must have flashed before his eyes, much the same way your life is said to flash before your eyes just before death.

My hands are tied
My body bruised, she's got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose

This US Open was not about who won and who lost. It was not about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It was not about which player wore what. It was about Andre Agassi. Everyone wanted to know what time his matches were. Everyone wanted to be there for his match. Everyone wanted to give him his swansong. Agassi himself said before the match, "I dont want to go out limping." 3 hrs later, he was still standing, physically and emotionally drained.

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you

From a wild-child that he was to the class act he now is, it has been a memorable journey. Truly, some men go on to become just another statistic. Others go on to become legends...

Of rubber ducks...

For lack of anything better to write, here is an excerpt from P.G. Wodehouse's 'Right Ho, Jeeves'
"The discovery of a toy duck in the soap dish, presumably the property of some former juvenile visitor, contributed not a little to my new and happier frame of mind.What with one thing and another, I hadn't played with toy ducks in my bath for years, and I found the novel experience most invigorating. For the benefit of those interested, I may mention that if you shove the thing under the surface with the sponge and then let it go, it shoots out of the water in a manner calculated to divert the most careworn. Ten minutes of this and I was enabled to return to the bed-chamber much more the merry old Bertram".

Chuddy Crisis- sometime in 2003

[For those not familiar with the hindi language, your chuddies are your undies]
[The setting:- Akshay Kawale (AK) is sitting on his desk, the lamp is on, its light illuminating the Student Series of DBMS. Saurav Palit (SP) is on the bed, with a toothbrush in his lap. I too am perched on the bed, my antique mobile beside me. For reasons known only to him, SP moves off the bed and squats on the floor 'neath the dining table.]

SP- So are those your 'I'm getting lucky tonight' chuds?

AK- hahahahahahaha

Me- So do you go out to buy your own chuds or when your mom is out on a shopping spree, you tell her to get them for you?

AK- Ya I tell my mom.

Me- So do you ask your mom to pick a specific colour? 'cuz you went from like camouflage green to electric blue!

AK- No actually the plan was that my bro would have white chuds & my dad & me would have a different set of colours. But we never got around to it.

[At this point of time, the duo (SP & Me) start rolling in peals of laughter, him on the floor and me on the bed]
[... some unimportant, unrelated conversation follows. Then...]

Me- So what will happen if one day your bro decides that he has had enough white in 20 years of his life, and he now wants to go technicolour?

AK- Then I guess we will sort by size... [after a brief (pun intented) moments pause]... How does your mom separate the chuds from the washing machine? How are they despatched in your house?

[Needless to say, the duo at this point are pealing again, on the floor and on the bed]

blurred vision

I lost my spectacles today. Someone knocked them off my face while I was getting on the train. Is it my fault? I don't know. I am angry with myself.

Questions...

Why is it that we don't give security measures prime importance in our country? Why is it that we take reactive measures, instead of proactive ones? It is only now, after the blasts in the Mumbai trains that the government has decided to install CCTV cameras in some of the major railway stations. Shouldn't this step have been taken years back, especially after the metro blasts in London and Madrid? Why is it that the security in our airports is worse than that given to some politicians (goons?) in the country? The Mumbai airport does not even have a boundry wall, for crying out loud. The slums merge seamlessly with the runway and the grounds surrounding it. Convenient. Have you ever noticed that passengers (especially foreigners) who have just exited from the departure gate can walk right back in the terminal, with their luggage, without anyone questioning them? Can they not bring back something in the premises this way? Can they not switch their bags and get in, jut so easily?

The intelligence tells us that terrorists are now being trained in Bangladesh, and it is from there that they are able to enter the country. Must we not ensure that the Indo-Bangladesh border is unbreachable? Or are we leaving that job to the tigers in the Sunderbans? Bangladeshi immigrants have been entering India since partition. Most of them work as domestic help. There are even legal settlements for them, atleast in Mumbai. Does it not occur to the powers that be to keep a record of who's there? How tough would it be for a terrorist to lie low in one of these settlements, until called upon to do his dastardly act?

Why is it that the different departments of the state find it so difficult to interact with each other? Why is it that there is no one to be held accountable for anything in this city? Why can we not have a single person in charge of co-ordinating the various departments of the state. We all know what Mayor Rudy Giuliani did for New York after 9/11. Must we not try and emulate their model? What is the point of forming committee after committee, year after year, and yet achive NOTHING. 13 years after the Mumbai blasts, we have yet not been able to convict the accused. What does that say about our judicial system? Our itelligence could barely manage to extradict Abu Salem back to India, after numerous gaffes. What does that say about our intelligence?

Why do we (me included) not treat our soldiers as heroes? When a U.S. Marine dies in Iraq, he is given a state funeral and the entire country mourns. Our soldiers are dying every day in Kashmir. Must we not honour them? Must we not honour the people who die everyday in terrorist related activities. Must we not give them the money they are promised each and every time?

Too many questions, too few answers... think about it....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm tired of the bombs
I'm tired of the bullets
I'm tired of the crazies on TV
I'm the aviator
A dream's a dream whatever it seems

I'm tired of the news
I'm tired of the weather
I'm tired of the same thing every day
I'm the aviator
A dream's a dream whatever they say

The Photo Page

The Photo Page is finally up. It took me forever to figure out how to do it, but here it is nonetheless. Am starting off by clearing the backlog of the Goa snaps! Sun, sand and...



















... a drunk pig maybe :o)

meri pant bhi sexy, meri 'skirt' bhi sexy...

It seems that the State Woman's Commission of Madhya Pradesh has taken a cue from the Shiv Sena, and decided to play moral police. The state is among the top when it comes to crimes against women, and the commission thinks that women themselves are to be blamed. So a fortnight after banning fashion shows in government run colleges, the commission has suggested a ban on the wearing of skirts in educational institutes. While restrictions on the dress code have been suggested and even enforced in many a college and university across the country, schools have been spared so far. Not any more. If this ban comes through, and you can bet it will, one can imagine little girls running around in full length pants. But only for a while. After that some XYZ commission will again propose that pants promote western culture, and girls should wear 'traditional indian clothes'. So now we would see little girls running around in salwar kameezes and sarees. So Cute! Soon enough even pre schools kids would be banned from wearing frocks. Can any girl even think of growing up without having worn a frock. Meanwhile, some idiotic student defends her right to wear skirts, by stating that not wearing skirts would hamper the chances of the state's girls at beauty pagents and contests at the national and international level. Deep. I am sure the commission will revoke their plea after hearing this. They must!

But but but, there is some silver lining at the end of the dark cloud. The commission is also thinking of serving a notice to small screen serial maker Ektaa Kapoor. It contends that her soaps are polluting the mind of the young. BRAVO!


...yeh rumaal, bhi sexy hai!

more mobile pictures

carrots being washed at dadar market

The fourth seat on the local train dosen't seem so bad now

She's got the whole world, in her hand

turn the page

Hmmm... So it has been a long time since the last post. Two and a half months, no job, and a goa trip later (more on that some other time), things haven't changed much. Things are looking down again (yes you read that right). So we decided to get inspired by reading them back-pages from them engineering books of yore.

The following is my take on 'Turn the Page', originally sung by Bob Seger and later covered by Metallica. I wrote this sometime during one of the preparatory leaves I guess. Anyone who has had a KT should be able to identify with the modified lyrics. Anyone who has had multiple multiple KT's WILL know that nothing could express their mental state at the time better.

The lyrics are to be sung to the Metallica version for full effect. The Bob Seger version is far too beautiful to be tampered around with. Metallica did that, thereby letting me mess around further. I would suggest you listen to the cover by Metallica before you read this, else this will seem like hogwash.

Note- The beanpole was one of my roomies. The groans are whatever you may make of them. Enough of history lessons. Here it is:

TURN THE PAGE

By the long and lonesome Vashi creek, east of Greater Mumbai
Listening to the beanpole droning out his long groans
As you think about next papers, or the ones you gave the day before

Your thoughts will soon be wandering, the way they always do
When you're cramming 16 hours, and there's nothing much to do
When you just don't feel like cramming, you wish this trip was through

Here I am, on my desk again
Here I am, up on my ass
Here I go plagiarising again
Here I go, turn the page

You walk into the exam hall, like your second home
You feel the eyes upon you, as you're giving papers old
You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode

At times you can hope to pass, other times you can't
The same old cliches, is it a pass or a fail
And you always feel out of numbers, you dare not take a stand
Take a stand...

Here I am, on my desk again
Here I am, up on my ass
Here I go plagiarising again
Here I go, turn the page

Out there in the exam, your nerves are totally frayed
Use every ounce of imagination that comes by your way
As the sweat pours down your body, you now begin to pray

Later in the evening, as you lie awake in bed
The attempt of the paper to be figured in your head
End of the day lost all hope, remembering what you wrote
What the fuck you wrote...HUH

Here I am, on my desk again
Here I am, up on my ass
Here I go plagiarising again
Here I go, turn the page
Here I go turn that page...

Bounce?

This is the most ridiculous article I have read in a long time. I contemplated highlighting the interesting 'bits', but then I thought it would be better if you figured them out on your own. You may say I'm a pervert, but I'm not the only one...
I still think people have too much time on their hands to indulge in studies like this. Read on...

Danish Cartoons

As I was browsing through the blogosphere, I came across this
post somewhere. Its by some woman living in the USA and what she feels about the entire Danish cartoon fiasco. What follows is my thoughts on her post, and what I think of the issue. Make sure you read her post first, else you may be a little lost. Also, anyone wishing to see all the cartoons, click on the title of the post.

Young as you may be, but you are filled with a lot of bitterness in you. And in your moment of anger, you have managed to move away from the topic. Let me clarify a few things for you-
1. The point here, as you said it yourself, is that different people have different customs. So in your society something which is considered very normal, maybe totally unacceptable in another society. A united world is possible only if it is peaceful, and peace in turn can be achieved only if we respect the sensitivities of others. To give you an example consider this: As much as you respect your freedom of speech, I'm sure you even respect the freedom to wear what you want to, that is given in your country. But inspite of that freedom, you cannot be seen in the nude in public places. Why is that? Well, it's because you will affect the sensitivity of others. It is for the same reasons that you will not find any European or American or anyone from the western world wearing a bikini in Pakistan/The UAE or any other Muslim country for that matter.
Showing sensitivity to another culture does not mean that you are letting go of your freedom of speech.

2. That being said, I completely agree with you that these acts of violence are instigated by a few religious leaders who will do anything to gain more power. As you said, these acts of violence harm only the people who cause them, and their respective countries. Also they are completely unjustified in blaming the USA for something it has not done. But this is something which happens in each and every country in the world, including 'The America' which you truly love and admire. It is like a primal nature of man. For example, you had gangs running amock raping and looting and pillaging in New Orleans when it was flooded. Now weren't those people harming themselves?

3. You said, "You do not see us killing, destroying, burning everything or everyone who is not muslim." You may not have done this against Muslims per se, but there are other people like the Native Americans and Africans against whom you have heaped centuries of injustice. Just because there are a few stray incidences of terrorism (although on a mass scale) by the Muslims, this makes your blood boil?
Forget not that there were cults like the Ku Klux Klan in your own America, who thought that only those having fair skin deserve to live. The Ku Klux Klan and many others like it have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of dark skinned people. In your country, you may not kill because you disagree with someone's opinion, but you do much worse: You dont even give the person a chance to give his opinion. You kill on the basis of caste and creed. Even today, you all look down upon the African Americans. Isn't that opression too?
Also as far as crimes against Muslims go, your soldiers in Iraq have torn the Holy Koran, and urinated over it in front of the captured Iraqi's. How would you feel if tomorrow someone was to get into your house, take your Bible, rip the pages off and use them as toilet paper? Or if some Arabic newspaper publishes a cartoon depicting Mother Mary as a two bit whore flashing her titties in some parade for some beads?

4. You say," These people do not get to see the news like us, it is edited. They only see what they want them to see on the TV. They never get the whole truth or story." Do you REALLY think that all that is shown to you on TV, or that which you read in the newspaper is the ultimate truth and nothing but the truth? Haven't you read a word about Iraq? About how CNN 'chose' to do selective reporting to show America in a good light. About how the American war on Iraq was supposedly about Weapons of Mass Destruction, but was actually about the capture of Iraqi oil fields and to gain a strategic army base in the Middle East. About how the US Marines comitted the same attrocities that were comitted under Saddam Hussein's regime, from raping the Iraqi women to torturing their prisoners in ways that you can't even think of.
American's have been made to believe that they are the greatest country in the world (it is in many ways)and can handle anything that is thrown at them. This is what your news channels and papers feed you. And then one day 9/11 happened. Although it may not have destroyed your economy, but it shattered the smug sense of (false) security that the Americans had.
You may have your heroes from 9/11, but there are many who consider Osama Bin Laden as their hero and saviour. Your acts of violence too feed their hatred and makes them grow stronger and believe in their cause.

Just as sitting in your home you feel that blaming USA for something it has not done is unfair, imagine how the Iraqis, North Koreans, Vietnamese, etc etc feel about having USA poke its nose into their affairs, inspite of them having done nothing that affects USA. If you meddle in others affairs, you must be prepared to pay the price.

5. You must remember that most of the Muslim countries are under developed or developing. There is high iliteracy and unemployment in these countries. In such a scenario, it is easy for someone to take advantage and mislead the people in the name of God. By saying that you hate all Muslims, you too are blaming millions of peace loving Muslims who have nothing to do with all of this. Just like you hate them, there are many who hate all Christians.

Lastly, I would like to say that reading all of the above you may think that I support all that which is going on. All I say is that there are two sides to every coin, and one must see the entire picture before getting all worked up. This goes for the Muslims as well as the non-muslims.
Hope you are more enlightened now.

Mithun

Early morning today, Saurabh sent me this link. For all fans of Mithun and Bappida this is a great find! Read it and you shall know what true fans are!
For the benefit of those wanting to download the entire works of Bappida with Mithun, I have uploaded the torrent file here at Rapidshare. Enjoy then... and keep the spirit of Mithunda alive!

Rapidshare and all that

Remember the good old Doordarshan telefilms on National Integration and Family Planning? As kids, we must have seen them thousands of times. I'm sure us Indians can still vaguely hum their tunes... suraj ek, chanda ek, ek, ek, ek karke taare bane anek!
Wish you could see them telefilms again?? Worry not! I give to you my very own Rapidshare folder.

Follow the link and you shall be able to download... well anything that catches my fancy & anything that I feel the world deserves to see.

Presently there is the above mentioned telefilm from the good ole days. And a surprise item for all you fans of Bappi Lahiri. If you thought 'You are my chicken fry' was the ultimate, wait till you hear this undiscovered gem! Cyberjunkie and Satish are already die hard fans. You don't want to be the one to miss out on this one, trust me!

There and Back Again

Guess who's back... Back again... Shady's back!
Well it's been a long time since the last post. Frankly speaking, I got sick of blogging. Maybe it was lack of juices (of the creative types man... grow up!), maybe it wasn't, who's to know.
And then one fine day, today, we traversed the great gap of Mankhurd. No one knew what fate awaited us there on the other side. Anxiously we looked up to see our result...

5.5 YEARS IN THIS MESS I HAVE BEEN,
NOTHING THERE IS I HAVE NOT YET SEEN,
FROM THE LOWS OF MANY AN ATKT
TO THE HIGHS OF MARIJUANA TEA

ITS BEEN MORE THAN HALF A DECADE
WHEN WE HAD STARTED THIS CRUSADE
WHEN NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL WOULD PEEK
METHINKS I AM GOING TO DRINK FOR A WEEK!

Yes! I am now A(B.E.)er Garg, Engineer! It took hell long, but I finally made it! To all those who know what this means to me, Ladies and Gentlemen...
AND SO IT BEGINS!