Pressed for words

There is no such thing as an amateur geek.I proved that today.I tried fiddling with WordPress and all the import export business and ended up screwing my blog.The result is in front of you.

Feeling too silly to go on.

It’s Alive!!

In case you ever wondered what happened to our group (he he that’s a tough word to use) on Jamshedpur our lovely hometown,wonder no more.

In a sudden act of altruism,I decided to spring it back into action from it’s extended spell of dormancy and you can find a new post there:

back2jsr.blogspot.com
You could always have checked it out with the ‘All the way home’ waala link on the LHS but then it wouldn’t have added to the dramtic effect.

I hope I update it more frequently.Or hope that the word ‘group’ is justified in the phrase group blog.I’ll keep hoping.You keep reading.

The Manchurian Candidate,LSD and other things

The Manchurian Candidate,the original version, is the best,best movie I have seen in a very long time and probably will remain so in a very long time to come.The movie watching experience was made even better and spookingly co-incidental thanks to the circumstances in which I saw this one.Only some stroke of cosmic luck,probably like this time round,can recreate such an experience and that’s not going to happen pretty soon.Enough exaggeration you might think,so let me explain.

I just came back from Acoustic Dusk,our amateur intra college band performance organised by the western music club Staccato.Nothing on the performance here,but I was with some friends there and as the bands played we discussed some music and other things.Now with Rock ‘n Roll these ‘other things’ pretty easily lead to drugs and their influence on the music.So LSD came into the picture when Sheel quoted someone “It’s not dope,it’s just bad acid”.This led to a 10 minute lecture from me about LSD and it’s effects and the famous people behind it like Dr. Leary,Aldous Huxley and Steve Jobs comment that taking LSD was one of the two-three most important things he has done in his life.They were amazed by my dope,rather acid saviness-even more so as I don’t smoke or drink or intend to pretty soon.But I’m one of those persons who reads a lot about things that interest me and the history and effects of LSD are pretty interesting.Just on paper though,I don’t see myself being brave enough to try that thing out,certainly not in the foreseeable future.Anyway one of things that LSD was used for was the Project MKULTRA which was the secret CIA programme for mind control during the cold war era.This is just one part of the story.

The X-Files is one of the earliest TV serials I have watched,since ‘96 if I recall correctly and I like that show.Science fiction and conspiracy theories:very few people don’t like them.And even those who don’t Gillian Anderson would surely give them a reason to watch the show-too bad the show developed into major crap in the last 3-4 seasons and lost fans like me.Anyway I was watching old episodes of the show and decided to watch a movie after watching a particular one,it’s pretty evident what it was about.[On a personal note I may add that though I'm not that ring tone savvy,never tried to download those things,I made it a point that my cell rings with the opening sequence of the X-Files on both my stolen and new cells.] The movie I chose happened to be The Manchurian Candidate,thanks to my recent fetish for black and white movies.If you happen to figure out the phrase it was the ‘perfect setting’ which resulted in a ‘good trip’.Too much LSD literature I know.

The movie was absolutely perfect for me.Science fiction,satire,Red Scare,Cold War,witty dialogues,Frank Sinatra,conspiracy theories-basically everything I dig.The ending was again brilliant and it left me in awe that someone could have made a movie on such unfathomable things that far back.To add to that this movie has one of the funniest,funny if you have seen the movie,thread titles in the IMDb dicsussion boards:What girl picks up a psycho on a train?

After a heavy dose of spooky Mulder’s logic,the experimental use of LSD in Project MKULTRA and now this movie,I am beginning to form theories of my own in my head.But I’m not on dope,or acid, so it’s pretty likely these will evaporate when I wake up tomorrow.

Till then,I want to believe or The truth is out there.Whatever.

Reliving the Sensation

I got a huge shock when I visited The Sportstar website today.The Sportstar is no more,it’s just Sportstar now.Not only this,they are changing the magazine format to a more ‘youthful’ tabloid format to appease the newer generation.I felt there was nothing wrong with the old form,but then I might be getting older and more ‘retro’.This news is even worse.

I’m overwhelmingly nostalgic right now.I still remember the day when my brother told the newspaper wala to bring The Sportstar-way back in 1992 when I was 8 and he was 9.In 2nd standard I was supposed to read about Hiawatha and The Man who ate too much,but that was replaced by a Jim Courier interview or a special on Senna after that.So when my classmates had a tough time figuring out why SA lost the ‘92 semifinal to England,I had all the explanation with extensive rules at my disposal.While people were quoting cliched sayings out of essay books in their essays,I was writing things like ‘Football is not a matter of life and death,it’s much more important than that’ when asked to write about my favourite sport.The Sportstar started and fuelled my fanaticism for sport.

The poster was a huge thing to look forward to every week,and ensured a minor fight between two brothers when it finally came.I wanted Mark Waugh and Nigel Mansell on my side of room while my brother insisted on keeping them with Brian Mcmillan and Sabatini on his side.A very worthy thing to fight for.After my dad got transferred and we moved to another house we decided to make things special with the huge collection of posters we had accumulated till then.The front room wall was plastered with all kinds of posters,many of whose taglines I can still recall.I think it took around 40 to cover the wall and we made it an annual affair.Anyone who entered our house had a word or two to say about our efforts and the awesome display.Looked nice and felt real good.We of course kept the special ones to stay beside our bedsides.Even now I have a Mark and Steve Waugh poster from ‘93,Cronje,Mika Hakinnen,Richard Krajicek,Hingis,Jordan,Mark Taylor and Roberto Baggio adorning my room wall.My brother being a fanatic Azhar supporter has 3 Azhars and a Pistol Pete staring at his now unoccupied bed.Those days can never come back again,and with The Sportstar being revamped,they really can’t.

From ‘92 to ‘01 we had,until recently,almost each copy kept in the store room.One of my favourite pastimes when I went home was to sift through those innnumerous copies and relive those moments while turning the pages.Denmark’s amazing victory in Euro ‘92,Senna’s tragic death,Pete’s unbeatble streak,Sachin’s long awaited ODI hundred-moments just came flooding back.It was almost like a diary I never kept.

Brijnath and Lokpally had become a part of my life.Glanville made sure I knew things about the football world before ESPN et al made them so popular here.Ted Corbett’s diary was staple diet without which the week could not go on.Sunny and Simpson provided views that mattered.And of course all the stats I ever knew was courtsey Menon.Thankfully they should still be there.

TARGET was the only other magazine I read this regularly and loved till it gave way to the rather pathetic Teens Today,which made sure I stopped subscribing.I just pray to God that something similar does not happen in this case.

And I hope they stick with the tagline ‘Relive the Sensation’-such an appropriate one.

The Quiet American

We had this story called ‘A case for defence’ in our 10th std. ICSE text book written by Graham Greene.When I read it,I decided that Greene was my favourite writer,and if he wrote novels he would be my favourite novelist as well.I agree it was the sort of choice you see people making when they say that Coldplay or for that matter Bryan Adams is their favourite rock band when quite clearly they don’t know who CCR or Grateful Dead are.Or when they say Oasis,Radiohead are the best British bands ever when they haven’t heard of the term British Invasion.But they remain happy and enjoy their choices,and I did the same then.Afterall I was but a schoolboy.

In these 3 days,I’ve seen The Third Man,read The Quiet American and watched the movie adaptation of The Quiet American too.Now after reading novelists other than Greene and reading stories other than by him I still don’t think much different than I did then.Of course I won’t go on and say things like ‘he is the best ever’ or ‘he rules’ or ‘he is my favourite’ but given a chance I would like to read his more serious novels now.These,I gather,he termed as entertainment.True they had the entertainment and mystery that such novels are meant to have but I think there was a much profound thought process behind them,especially ‘The Quiet American’,which rise above the premises of these jargon terms.

If you have read the novel and are then watching the movie it will feel like re-reading the chapters.Almost every dialogue,every setting,every situation is portayed exactly as it is in the book.Michael Caine was nominated for his performance and might have just won it hadn’t it been for Adrien ‘The Pianist’ Brody.

Both these plots by Greene have something in common though.War ravaged cities of Vienna and Saigon provide the backdrop for a complicated set of dialogue exchanges between the two main protagonists both of who think their ideal to be the right one.There’s a love triangle too-much,much pronouced in the latter case and infact forming the primary story.I can think of more if I strain myself but I am not sure it a worthwhile thing to do.Just one of those habits from trivia and quizzing.

I’m missing the Jethro Tull concert because I’m broke.If only I had been a better quizzer

Sunset Boulevard 2

Finally after a long time putting off,I decided to watch Sunset Boulevard.I’m not a great movie connoisseur or critic so I won’t waste my and probably your time re-iterating what has already been elaborately discussed in so many more worthwhile places.It’s a complicated way to say I liked the movie,but then it saves a lot of explanation.

I figured out the plot and the narration scheme in first few minutes itself but that didn’t ruin it for me.It made it more exciting and gripping on the contrary.The script infact inspired me to write an analogy,with a sci-fi element based on the world of blogging which I could not help but put down here.

The protagonist is a blogger,most appropriately anonymous,whose sex,age let alone occupation and location are unknown to his (making a safe assumption to be male,got a 50-50 chance you see) many,many admiring readers.His posts are the talk of the town,having been nominated for awards that appreciate such stuff and sometimes having won them too.Not to mention the colossal number of fan mails in the form of comments,which he has not disabled of course,for the world to see and be awestruck.So enchanted is he by this virtual recognition that he creates this parallel universe of his own,cut away from what people deem to be the real one,and dedicates his entire life,whatever little he must have had,to it.His observations are all to the tone of ‘Bloggable’ or ‘Not Bloggable’ and he paints a valiant,heroic sometimes dark and scary,just to try something different,image of himself.Everything he writes is the story of his life,the way he wants it.So basically he is the hero of the play his life has become.And the playwright too.

But all this was past,long lost glory.These days Silent blogs are stored in 20 GB HDD’s kept in some dark corner of archival library wrapped in 2 year old (yeah that’s got to be old considering how fas things are changing up here) newspapers.Reality simulation blogs have taken over.They have got sound,mostly in the voice of the author filled with all the emotion and modulation that Silent blogs could only deliver inadequately by stupid graphic smileys like this one .
Smell also become an integral part.You can smell the flowers that someone gave to his girl on V-day or smell what someone’s mom is cooking for birthday.Foul smells used to be taboo at first but the cynics thought that this was hiding the harsh way real life was.Pretty much like the f words and stuff.There were few takers at first but then it became the new outrageous and rebellious thing and however vile it seemed,it caught up.So now you can smell the puke at the night club and the sweaty sock and I don’t know what else.Freedom of smell was enforced much on the lines of freedom of expression.And anyway it is a matter of choice.Softwares were made to create new ‘nannies’ who tried to prevent underage kids from getting the stink,but kids are smart these days.Nevermind some early lessons,no harm done.

Getting back to the story,our protagonist being of the old school did not like the new innovations.His past readers on the other hand adapted to the changing times and moved on.Now there was nobody to applaud the blue tee he had worn on the weekend or thank him for the lovely tips on lovemaking he gave out for free.Or even thank him for some great referrals and applaud his piece of prose about his new flat TV with studio sound.The entire world he had created had fallen apart.He wasn’t ready to accept it though.He kept checking his hit counter stats from the year gone by and reply to fake comments he himself made on his blog with scores of different ID’s.He had run out of audience and he ironically tried to create them virtually too.

Tired of his life he terminated it.The virtual one I mean.He wrote an obituary for himself,declared that he was killing himself-no one could ever know for real-and discarded his account.This post of his was declared as the best ever of a fading Silent blog era and won him many virtual awards.He was past care though,not even there to take a bow on his swan song.

Thankfully he had a real life to fall back upon.I am not sure if he lived happily ever after but I like happy endings.So there.

Yup I need to get my brain checked,pretty soon.

A festivus for the rest of us

Our annual technology festival,appropriately named Techfest,will complete another hugely successful edition today.Always better than the year before,always bettered by the year after.Hundreds of colleges will have attended,thousands of students held in awe,lakhs of prize money distributed.That’s what I will come to know of surely and probably you would too.

My association with festivals is very limited.This techfest it was restricted to roaming around in pyjamas and sneakers with tennis ball in hand after a game of cricket,entering a place where they were asking questions and coming back with a cap I so badly needed in five minutes flat.That’s it.I tried to get excited by robots cutting grass and sowing saplings (a much needed technology you might argue in a country where farmers can’t afford tractors) or hideous ensembles of cardboard,wheels and engines disguised as cars in a drag race.It’s tough to get involved if you’re not taking part.I with all my persuasive skills couldn’t ask my friends to attend a quiz I was hosting and I could not blame them.So I expect my good friends incharge of these events to see me under the same light.Forgive me.

But,in a more serious tone,I do not appreciate of the major favours and space and money the virtual gaming thing got.It may require skill,it may be very popular but I fail to see why the tech events which required some innovation,knowledge and ingenuity should be sacrficed at their altar.I still believe it would require much more skill to design a car powered by only chemical reactions than hunt down and kill an enemy in CS.Maybe I form a part of the minority.

Most of the people I came across were mostly disinterested in the proceedings.This reminded me of the rather brilliant idea that George’s father came up with in Seinfeld.A Festivus for the rest of us.So those without any inclination towards the tech or cult side may celebrate a festivus of their own.Details to be chalked out soon.

***

I came up with a plan to deal with the ever annoying forwards and offlines.I discussed it with friends and decided to start the backward.Everytime I get a message with the fwd: tag,I’ll change the tag to bwd: and mail it back to where it came from.So the mail would read:’Very interesting backward,read and backward this to atleast 10 people’

No,I haven’t implemented it yet.

***

The Book Fair as a part of the Mumbai Festival was a disappointment,especially with the international tag in front of it.Having attended the ones at Jamshedpur and seen one at Kolkata,I shouldn’t have even thought of comparing.Cramped space,most of the tiny stalls filled with 30-50-100 bucks useless mass books which looked straight out of Flora Fountain.Then,I thought,I wasn’t going to buy anything anyway and that thought brightened me up.A little bit of aesthetic appeal and food as cheap as Jamshedpur would have helped though.Obviously both of them can’t be expected here.

Ah..some things never change !!

Anurag just told me that our school,of all things possible,has a website now!!

rvjsr.com

For everyone who is familiar with RV,at least with people until our batch,this will come as a huge,huge shock.It’s like Mozambique having launched a space shuttle,or Vatican building a nuclear bomb.I don’t know who’s behind this but I’ll make sure that I find out when I get back home.

But,there had to be a catch.Afterall it’s RV.I kicked myself for having underestimated the potential of my alma-mater.Like a normal nostalgic idiot,I clicked on the alumni-register-here link.And WHAM! I was knocked back into my senses.If you read the bottom of that form,you’ll probably notice the supposedly modest charges that they are demanding from us to get registered.Now for ex-RV’ians to shell out 500 bucks for filling up a form-that would probably be the undoubted shocking news of the year.This is probably the only school alumni list in the world where you will have to pay to get registered.A brilliant idea if you ask me,there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of fake registrations.How could I not sense this earlier,12 years and I haven’t learnt my lessons yet.

And if you notice further,as I was bound to,you’ll probably see the URL of the link as some strange thing which has got nothing to do with RV.Then out of curiosity you’ll remove the excess tags and get to the original website.What you’ll then see is the website of some NGO,involved in Tsunami work.Then when you click on the get involved link,what you’ll see is pretty much self evident.Now if there is some tie-up,and the money will go to that NGO,it’s a very nice gesture and whenever I earn my first 500 I’ll surely give it to them.It would have been lot better if they had mentioned it there to avoid confusions.If it isn’t,well..

I love my school.I have to thank it a million times over for making me as I am today.Ironically this over-critical,thankless,non-sentimental,zero sophistication attitude that I grew in,and grew up with means that I have no place for nostalgia,at least for those I have to pay.Before this our school did not even have a mailing group,or get togethers etc. and nobody cared.I have dealt with this earlier and I don’t need to explain again.But time and distance hardly change the nature of relationships as far my friend circle is concerned.I hardly meet,interact with someone I haven’t talked to my entire school life,nothing to be proud of,but nothing I can help either.

And now a website from my school-which did not even organise a farewell for our batch,there were reasons I agree,but it would have helped.An alumni list where they expect RV’ians to pay.Where did things go wrong?

Note:If any one from RV webmaster team reads this,tracing the referrals,you must realise the vein in which this is written.If you’re offended,I’ll write another one and remove the link.

Once an RV man,always an RV man.

Open Sports Quiz

I had a feeling that it would be random, and it proved right today. In my defence I just have to say that it was the first quiz I set and that too all alone.

Here is the Rapidshare link if you stil want to download it.

Note: Q 20 and 21 in the elims are visual conncets,so connect both the pictures. Q22 identify the player, Q23 just tell what is happening and what Q24 what World Cup, Q25 name the band whose latest album is that.

I guess that’s all.
And don’t worry about the answers, I don’t think I’ll have time to complete and upload again.In case you really need some answers, I’m here.

I’m feeling lucky

It’s amazing how sport can make you feel all excited and happy.There is a bad side too,for more often than not Indian cricket has left me and people like me depressed,but such thoughts do not cross my mind right now.They did just 2 days ago,when Afridi was going berserk and Akmal was destroying the bowling.Not any longer.

I am feeling very privileged that I watched most part of Sehwag’s innings today.This makes it the 4th double century record I have watched in the last 4 years.You would feel elated too if you watched them all.First it was Thorpe in 2001 against NZ,nothing spectacular in terms of hard hitting but a beautiful one indeed.Then it was Gilly in the same year.He blasted the attack in that one in a way only he can.And the best one was the unbelieveable Astle mauling when he hit anything that came within his range.I remember waking up at 4 AM to watch that NZ Eng match,with NZ needing 500 odd to win.With nothing to lose Astle starting hitting everything,and chose Caddick for some special treatment.Some of the straight sixes he hit out of the ground are etched in my memory,and I still talk about them enthusiastically.

Sehwag gave another such moment today.29 fours with only 3 on the leg side pretty much tells the story.And a make shift opening pair is about to beak a 50 year old record of 413 runs.What more can I ask for? A Veeru triple maybe.

When I saw Afridi hit Bhajji for 27 runs in that depressing over,I realised that I was again lucky enough to have watched McMillan and Lara score 30 runs in an over,the latter hitting every ball to the fence with 4 fours and 2 sixes.That goes on top of my cricketing memory with the Shaun Pollock debut for Warwickshire where he took 4 wickets off consecutive deliveries.I feel blessed to have watched this all.

Thank God I watch cricket,whatever of it comes my way.Just hope the cricketing Gods keep smiling on me this way.

Amen.