Here I am..On the road again!

So finally after millions of light years of wait ( I know its a unit of distance, that was meant to stress on the hugeness of it, Mr. Oversmart!), the day arrives or perhaps the night which is supposedly the last one for some time to come at home for me. Tomorrow, I embark on my journey which shall land me in a place which has been talked about for some months now and has more negative connotations to it than their opposite ones. But I am excited ( a state which has switched between the present one and a bit of disbelief of leaving this place after 22 long years of my life, about 5 times in the past 5 minutes). Obviously there are cons to attached to it also (Am i switching again?). Delhi has been a place which has got itself such a rocksolid place in my heart, that I am sure I can complete my mission of touching all the continents before 35 but it will still remain 'the' place of my life. There is an aroma, a flavor(the Americans ruling the world) to the place which just cannot be missed if you have been in Delhi a bit close to the length of time I have been here. The people, the eating out places, the pubs, the new found greenery, the fast tracked life, the purpose in life which everyone has here and yes, the Metro just...rock! And yes, I have to leave those special friends who are primarily the ones made in the past four years of my stay at iit for some time. But I am a strong believer of the power of communication and the low std call rates does not make the situation that grim. At the same time, phone calls are phone calls after all, and meeting someone in person is altogether different, so the situation is not too gay also. Family? I don't think one needs to say something on this regard. However, the stay at hostel has helped to ease out this problem as well. But now I cannot call home for any and every small thing which was out of reach to me. Lastly, the thing where there are no two faces of the coin (or its the Sholay wala coin), is Kumaon House. The days (the nights have been more eventful though) cannot just come back, and whatever I am in my life, I completely owe everything to this great place. Hats off not to the building, but to the spirit, the philosophy and the way of life this place imbibes in most of the inhabitants. Jai Kumaon.
Ok, before I get any more sentimental, I ll move to the positive things...Or i do not know, probably those things deserve a separate post just as this one does!

Of stupidism of Murphy, my love and a bit of truism

As fate would have it, an IITian is born to show last minute acts of brilliance in tasks which are meant to take a few days if not less with a deadline over a month away. But this species of homo sapiens (a species inside a species, isn't it spectacular?), will never ever finish it on time, but would rather wait for the last minute to beckon on its face and challenge it to show its mettle. So as this philosophy is an example of truism, it has to be proved to everytime. So just to prove it right, Murphy and his laws also keep coming into play everytime. I know you must be wondering, what the hell has gone wrong this time. And though I hardly ever care about what you think and what you are not capable of, I will pardon you this time and tell, its nothing but my medical tests (HIV included). They have been there to be done for ages now, but I with my wisdom of such high order, waited for the last couple of days to get the job done. And now when I am supposed to come out with an act of magic, I am understanding the importance of not eating ( and not not drinking by the way ). So the task will have to wait for a day and now I can just wonder, how I am going to change my plans and alter the jampacked schedule which I had for the coming three days which are left with me before I knock on a place remoter than this but much better than all Saharanpurs and Mungers.
Anyway, one committement which I cannot meddle with is a play at LTG by an organization called Jamghat, on which you can have a look at http://jamghat.blogspot.com , so I hope that would be a good show. So the brighter part is I will get to meet my love after a long time. She is so cool and beautiful that I just cannot help but wonder how come I found her out so late in my life. I am in complete awe of her. Her name? Delhi Metro. I mean its the best thing that could have happened to the ever black transport of Delhi, and for a change you want to travel, rather than travelling on need and at times avoiding too because of the pathetic state of the public transport system. I am dying to spectate the time when the whole of Delhi will be covered by the Metro. Patience bears fruits and hope they are mangoes this time.
As I get ready for my first corporate stint, I have thought of changing myself a bit (though it requires a gigabyte of change). For a change, I will stop to be extravagant and for a change start imagining myself to be in US because then only I can wake up at 5 in the morning, as I am supposed to do in a few days. But my time at IAF reminds me of similar times, and I believe it was quite an enjoyable experience, but that can be told perhaps sometimes later.

Absolute crap of a post!

With the confusion of dates and days, I find myself with one additional 'day' in my life, which compensates at least a bit to the days and dates that have been lost after those long nights with aged monks and some special directors. How do I plan to spend that extra day? I will probably push everything by a day and laze out a day more and I know you will be saying 'what a waste of a complete day!'. But I have said before, your opinion does not really matter, but you still continue to embarrass yourself by coming over here, I don't mind BRPs (that s the blog counterpart of TRPs).
Anyway, the tomorrow which had been awaited for decades now arrived, at least the mornings, as I shopped around 30-40% of my never ending list. I know that I have to wear uniforms, and don't dare to show that grin, I am quite looking forward to it, now don't show that pack of 32 which might be reduced to 10 if you continue that. The uniforms might bring the school flavour back and remind me of the lovely days I had, what with the waking up at 5 30 just adding to the experience. Ok, its not an experience one can look up to especially when one is in a habit of sleeping around that time, forget waking up, and then the school used to end at 1, this can go on as long as 8 in the night and then the 1.5 hrs of travelling. But hey, one is not paid in school, so I have one bullet point there. Can someone opt for making my food though?
Enough of cribbing about the job, lets talk something constructive. A movie heater (the one who is opposite to being a fan) to the core, i watched three movies simultaneously today, all for the third time at least, Before Sunrise, Lakshya and Parineeta. I know you will be wondering a person who sleeps through each and every movie can watch three at time, with at least two which can make anyone go asleep. The remote control which let me shuffle between them, kept me awake.
If you ask me what have I done in the two months or more of these vacations, its probably the same as what you have done all your life and continue doing, at least you did it in the last 5 minutes.

This was not expected of you.

For those who insult me by visiting this page first and not my 'real' world, there is a new post waiting. So in future don't repeat this mistake.

Bits and Pieces about Indian Television

So a long day in terms of emotions, a strange parameter you'll say to measure length, but its a fair one. I mean if you have gone through a roller coaster of emotions on a single day, at the end of it, you feel like living through a lifetime. Anyway, I don't care much if you agree or not on that, the day which started with some real bad news, soothened out but not without a very high peak. I am sorry you will be looking forward to hear both the start and the peak, but I am seriously not interested in writing on any of them, not because it is too personal, but simply because I don't want to be in the same mode again.
So just a week remains before I start my corporate bandwagon and as I told you earlier, there is a hell lot which is to be done, and you guessed it rightly, the much awaited tomorrow continues to elude me.
Interestingly, after being at home for a real long time (I don't remember the exact date to be precise), I have started getting comfort while watching something else than CNN IBN and NDTV. No I am neither talking of all the family sops, nor the greatest hindi news channels (though considerable time has been spent on them just making myself believe that I am awake and not dreaming to see an old man selling grapes as news , even my dreams are better). Its more of the Greatest Indian Laughter Champions, a show called Business Bazigar, and things like that. I think we all know about TGILC, but Business Baazigar I guess needs a bit of introduction. It is a nice reality show which I have been trying to follow for sometime now. Its on the theme of making entrepreneurs out of very normal common people. Powered by Zee Tv, it does not lack funding of any sort. The contestants though appeared real stupid to me in some of the earlier episodes, have become better after fine tuning, the most interesting part is the marriages they are supposed to handle these days, what with being asked for cowdungs for some ritual at the last instant. So its fun and you can add it to your must watch list if you have as much time in hand as I have these days.
Of all my loyalities that you have been getting to know with every post, Sherlock Holmes remains one of the topmost. I have read so much else and I love dozens of books but this masterpiece by Sir Doyle remains among the very few at top. I think there is something about detective stories and serials which keep you interested until the last moment unless its been really poorly done. The good ones on Indian Television would be Karamchand, Tehkikat, I don't remember in this category any more of them. The real poor would be CID, it was disgusting. And the best would be Byomkesh Bakshi, which was absolute class to me. Though inspired by Holmes a lot, Byomkesh Bakshi had an aroma and flavour which couldn't be matched. Remembering that great time of Indian television, if I am permitted to get away from detective serials, I clearly remember Malgudi Days and a serial called Stone Boy. I don't know if you remember Stone Boy or not, but that serial still has a stark impression on my mind. If you are just wondering why did I start this detective discussion, there is a new serial on the same lines, DON, whose quality can be adjudged by the fact that its still going on while I write this and I saw that its next on Star One.

Just another post.

So the news is out (no, I m not talking of the Indian cricket team selection, there are more grave issues in life), Entry no. 2002287 that is me, shall not get the coveted degree of Bachelor of Technology in Industrial and Production Engineering in person at the Convocation. For any confusions whatsoever, this does not mean that I am not getting the degree at all, this basically means that the great receiver of this degree won't be able to do the honours on the 12th August 2006 himself. It is a moment of deep concern for the whole nation and after 5 minutes from now, the whole country will observe a silence of a couple of minutes, you may also join because anyway I don't expect you to be speaking while sitting on your PC. This calamity has occurred because of the great HR of the greatest company of the world thinks that there is so much to be done that even a day cannot be wasted. I did not have the courage to ask what were they doing for the past couple of months, when I have surpassed all records of meaningless timepass, the present being shared by you, which brings me to the conclusion that you are not any gram better, you also seem to be in one of the greatest companies of the world.
Anyway, I am not that sad either, because the whole exercise would have brought me down by some thousands of bucks, which is a lot or a person who is just starting earning, and for a person who enjoys a thousand bucks in a suave pub than anything else, though it is a different argument altogether that the place where I intend to go are devoid of any such avenues. No I am not one of those who keep nigging about their places and it is not going to be any Saharanpur. Baroda or Vadodara, to be politically correct, is my life's next destination ( in fact second for all practical purposes ). It suprises many just as it does to me that I have lived all my life in Delhi. Though I don't regret it, I am not the happiest one too. I am of the belief that one should visit as many places in the world as one can in his life. I have been late in takin off in that direction, but have covered most of Northern India in the past few months except Rajasthan, which I intend to go this year itself. So though I am 100% loyal to our Incredible India, I would still like to visit the US, Europe, Africa, Australia and Antartica too. Everyone close to me knows how big an optimist I am, and my intuition makes me believe that I ll at least touch each one of these, and yese Antartica too, before I turn 35. Anyone interested can contact :).
With 10 days to go, I continue with my everyday resolutions for tomorrow, to start shopping, start packing and God know what else. But I am sure the tomorrow which has eluded me for so long is coming tomorrow. Wish me luck.

HT and a bit more

Of all the things I wake up with in the morning(if one might like to say them mornings at 11 30 am), a newspaper and that too HT is one thing which has remained constant for around 13-14 years of my life. It is not that I am one of the biggest loyalists of brands, its just that no other newspaper comes closer to make me comfortable. Though I'd prefer the centre page writups and editorials of Hindu anyday over HT, but somehow the south Indian feel of Hindu has not been able to shift my preferences. Times of India is too clumsy for me, a bit too voluminous too ( notice the too many 'too's in a sentence). The only thing that works in favour of TOI are the advertisements of it during intermissions at any cinema hall ( especially when you don't have the money to get some popcorn and cold drink for yourself and when everyone else around has moved out so you are left to watch the TOI advertisements). The Ads are just brilliantly done and I wonder how they keep coming up with such appealing ones everytime.
But that is diverging from the topic. I know lots of people just hate HT so I am not here to market it to you. The thing which pushed me to make this tribute to such a long bonding with HT was the centre page article on the latest drive of the Government of India to block certain blogs, which according the them are supporting terrorism. This does not make much sense to me. When we call ourselves the biggest democracy in the world, we should learn to respect it too. Democracy is not just about making a government out of a billion people. It is about respecting the opinion of each one of those one billion. If ninety nine percent of them think likewise, that should be given more respect, but that does not make them any bit more correct than the remaining one percent.
Blogs have been a revolution in terms of freedom of expression. Thousands (if not more) of people are being heard now against the very few who used to make it to the offices of all these newspapers a few years back. And can the Government of India just let the people decide themselves, who are given the right to elect it, what is right and what is wrong for them rather than enforcing itself on them?
Again I digressed, so if you are one of them who are still thinking that what has gone wrong with blogspot and how to read your favorite blogs, just log on to www.pkblogs.com and.... start reading HT (who knows they might have a referral scheme?).

Der aaye durusat aaye!

Finally, after heaps and piles of requests to write something on the real part of me, I have given up and intend to use this space to write some of the observations I keep making everyday, which cannot always be made into stories, not because I want to open my life to anyone and everyone, but primarily to remind me of these incidents which I will start narrating from my next post, when I have grandchildren thanks to the acute shortage of memory I have. Do you realize that it was just one sentence which you just read? About why I chose Malgudi Nites as the blog adress, don't think about it much, it is simply because Malgudi Days is kept on the same table at the moment which hosts my comp, the same comp that has forced me to move from wordpress simply because it does not allow me to login there.
Actually there is no hiding the fact that I love people reading my musings, especially who are close to me. And if you are one of those whom I am talking about and if you keep coming here frequently, I shall keep posting.