And that’s my leader

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.comDon't entirely agree with this… but it's their result, not mine!

That’s my movie…

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Interesting…

Imagine there being a movie and a leader to personify you… this test (rather inaccurate, if you ask me), attempts to do that. The questions, though, in both tests are similar (some same). Hell, it's fun to do this once… check out who I am!!

Impressions

I have just returned from a five-day trip of Japan and my first impression, as most of us from India travelling to a developed nation would say, was WOW!
And why not? They have systems that work… systems that are maintained and are fabulously well organised… what hurts even more, is that some of these have been developed, deployed and maintained by Indian companies…
Be that as it may (coz it will be!)… the country is a pleasure to be in… the people are extrememly warm and hospitable and normally go out of their way to help you. Politeness is something they seem to have in excess… I mean, imagine someone waiting to let pedestrians cross through before driving on… in India, the pedestrian would have been on his way to the hospital!
There are some obvious problems too, though, like high cost of living and skyrocketing costs of real estate. Never-ending, serpentine traffic jams are also more the norm than exception. Interestingly, though, these happen without any fuss and drivers wait patiently without honking or cutting lanes to get ahead.
Food, though, for the uninitiated and the vegeterian in particular can be a nightmare! We had a couple of them in our group and they almost died of hunger! For the Japanese, seafood is vegeterian! Eat that!
I had sushi and once I got over my initial apprehensions, it was delicious! Salmon turned out to be my favourite and was spicy as hell without any garnish or even seasoning! Shrimp and squid are something I really like and no one makes them better than the Japanese! If you ever get a chance to sample the exotic cuisine of the Far East, go for it. A word of caution, though: stay away from the Tofu. After one meal (seven courses of Tofu!), I could almost throw up!
But if a Jap ever serves you Tofu, please eat it. They feel bad if you refuse!
I'll add more to this series regularly… I am so impressed, my thoughts are totally mixed up! Need some time to clear my mind!
Arigato.

Our inanimate friends

Through our life, we get attached to certain things—even inanimate—that we are moved by when the time comes to get rid of them. How many times have we really wondered if these are worth the pain we feel?
Take for example a restaurant called Savera opposite my college, Fergusson. I can’t even remember the number of days/nights I spent there… now I wonder why. But one thing is for sure… I can never forget the place. Similarly, there is this regular stop on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway called Center Point where the bus stops for a few minutes for a cuppa chai! But this week, I drove to Mumbai and not stopping there made me miss it. Not that the food is great or anything, but just that it had become a part of something I did regularly. This, in fact, was what set me thinking.
So I started to think about other such inanimate things that are really important to me. The first thing that came to mind was my motorcycle… I haven’t used it in almost five months now but I still don’t want to sell it. Can’t even bring myself to think about it. Perhaps there’s too many memories associated with it… Another such thing is my backpack from college… it was a green one with brown suede at the bottom and black straps… fairly ordinary, but again, has too many memories… a look at it reminds me of the 3 years in FC and the life (carefree, mind you!) I enjoyed back then…
The list is endless and I will add to it as and when I can think of such things. Call me nuts if you will, but I think these things matter and are great.

Music II

I agree with what tinkerbell has to say and also concede to the fact that perhaps even the 'original' I was referring to may not have been so. But, given the 'clandestine' manner in which she supposes it was done, I beg to differ.
Most of the old songs were 'inspired' (at the risk of using this word!) by folk music or other local art forms of the time and what they did was popularised them using the mass media at their disposal. While the intent may not have been of doing this, it sure served this purpose. Today, by remixing, we are not only not helping local art forms and Indian music (which, by the way, still has plenty to offer) but blatantly and blindly aping the west… has anyone heard the rhythms that are worked in Indian classical or folk music? The latinos would struggle to keep up with it!
So while remixes are popularising older songs, there is no agenda to it and certainly no credit given to the original artistes. Unfortunately, in this regard, they even copied their Indian predecessors who lifted tunes and rhythms from folk music without giving them due credit…

Music

I like all kinds of music… Hindi film, classics, some Indian classical (esp instrumental), Western classical, Rock, some pop but what I hate are remixes of old songs. It's like mistreating an elder in your family. Of late, there are enough available that I think flout all copyright laws… just because someone else is singing it with added percussion should not qualify it as a new song.
What's worse, the very industry that's fighting piracy is supporting it by doing this. A case of cannibalism? Clearly.
Why then, do these guys indulge in this? My thought is they have run out of original stuff! Some of the guys that can do some original work are happier working in films making money when they can. Even if they try to do some original non-film work, they don't get the kind of support or exposure a film can get them. Economics rules this, nothing else. By now you would like to know the purpose of this post… I was shopping for some music the other day and came across this MP3 CD that had some really good old songs and without checking for any of the abovementioned details, purchsed it. Much to my dismay, the moment I played it, Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkars voices had changed dramatically! Worse still, their talent had waned! Please, someone, please put an end to this!

She’s here…

Yes! Our new car is finally here and she’s way more than what I thought. Have already had a small drive through the streets of Mumbai, but that’s no fun… I’m now looking forward to tomorrow when we head off to Pune… that’ll be a drive, now!

We are yet to put in all the accessories we planned, but then, what are Sunday’s for!!?

Man, I am so excited, I just wanna leave office now and go drive!

But then again, work beckons. So I better hurry anyways!

Click here to see the photo.

Saturday is a big day!

My new car will be here on Saturday! It's been a while since I wanted one. As most who know me would be heaving a sigh of relief that I'm finally getting one, there's more. Remember guys, you are not spared of the car talk for 'I wish…' is just going to be replaced by 'You know what, my car can fly!' For me, it will after my previous car, an engineering marvel and nightmare all rolled into one! (As a parting gift, she decided to breakdown in the middle of nowhere outside Turbhe station in New Bombay and cost me Rs 600 and 4 hours in the sun… this when I was on my way to hand over the car to the True Value dealer).
I still have sentimental attachment to it and both, my wife and me, spared a moment for the trusted old Maruti 800 (1995 model with A/C as it is referred to) when we bid her goodbye… she was loyal, not very trustworthy, but certainly a part of our lives… Look at me… getting all sentimental…
Moving on, we have booked a shiny new Maruti Wagon-R (LXi) Pearl Silver (a couple of shades darker than beige) and are expecting to get the delivery on Saturday… so most of our current discussions revolve around the furnishing of the car and the accessories we want in it. Thankfully, so far we are in agreement that we do not want any stickers on the outside other than those mandatory and would like a CD+MP3 player instead of the usual cassette player. This after much asking and hearing and then some more from friends and 'experts'.
I'm starting to get a feeling similar to the one I got when I bought my motorcycle two years ago… I could not go to pick it up from the showroom—I was stuck, freezing in Delhi—but this time, I WILL BE THERE. Soon, you shall see photos here!
Vroooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

Who am I?

I am a writer/editor/photographer and (as my wife says) should write shorter sentences. Really? You tell me. The purpose of this blog is to put down the events of my life and while not many people would be interested in this, (don't even know why I'm putting up a disclaimer!), it's for me. So there… we've established who the writer is. More info is available on request. (What?!?)
Cheers!