Been a While

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Imprudent Projects at work. Late hour meetings. 2 states which was strictly ok. More of Ayn Rand. Dheeru’s Visit, which was good. A great dinner at Angeethi. Petty fights with S. A disappointing Arya-2. A bit of Abdul Kalam’s Ignited Minds. A fantabulous AVATAR first Day, top Row In IMAX 3D. A lot of scheming. Above all some Emotional Bonding.

That kind of sums up the last 2 months.

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Diwali

In Shopping malls. In restaurants. In mail forwards. On the Internet. In Innumerable websites. In photo blogs. I have seen countless number of times, these diyas. These ensembles. But never I thought that it will be real fun until someone special does this, all in front of you. Couldn’t understand the enthusiasm while waiting hours when she picked up roadside stuff for making this. Couldn’t get the point of bargaining with a local flower vendor for 200 rupees purchase. Couldn’t admit that I was real bored looking at her trying to make something out of this. But finally on Diwali, when I saw this, I was blown away.

This was the Diwali for me, for this was the Diya.

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Oops!

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-> Saw Inglourious Basterds. Awesome. To me, there is Quentin Tarantino and then there are/were all other directors.
-> I just realised yesterday that I love eating Pomegranate arils, separated from the fruit, all clean and chilled neatly in a bowl…..

D
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Aug 15

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It’s been 9 years. Almost. It’s a vague thought to think of, sounds clichéd but true. Sounds as though we are old enough. But I have loved you as a friend, as a lover and as a wife. I am in the same awe today as much as I was when I even didn’t know you completely. I loved that fuzzy girl I bumped into one fine day. I loved it when you wept at the drop of a hat those days. I love you now equally for your nakhras. I loved you when I thought I loved you more than I could love myself and I love you more now than you can ever love me.

It’s a lovely feeling to grow old with you. I saw you grow from that gawky teenage girl into a complete woman.

Happy birthday, S.

D

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Kovalam travelogue

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It's been more than a month since my visit to Kovalam, but even today I can rewind and relive all that we did in my mind. It was that good. This, I assume is because S liked the place and enjoyed every moment of it.
To start off, we had a nice flight to Trivandrum via Bangalore and both the flights from Hyderabad to Bangalore and from there on to Trivandrum were on time. It helps a lot, if you aren’t wasting any time especially when on holiday for flight delays.

Once we reached Trivandrum airport, the chauffeur from Leela was there. No, he wasn’t ready with a placard or something but somehow he identified us straight off and came to me and asked for my name. I still wonder how he did that?! So there we were in our drive, a Nissan and he greeted us with fresh wet towels to freshen up. Hmm good life I thought, whilst S liked it a lot.

We were invited by courteous staff at the Leela (I must admit there’s something about Kerala girls!!) with antique garlands, teeka and all. Immediately after freshening up, we had a club sandwich (it was filled with ham, regretted it and left it all alone on its own apart from the first bite) and hit the beach. There was a nice private beach very similar to the The Park, Vizag. But this was more secluded, cozy. The sea was wild that day with high tides and the security guy over there was fed up of asking us not to delve too much into the sea. Went back to the room, had a relaxing hot tub bath for good 2 hours and went for dinner at the beach side resto. The beer was chilled, the prawns were too delicious and overall that ended up being the best dinner on our trip.

On the next day we went to see what else but backwaters, which by now is as synonymous with Kerala as Sachin is to Cricket in India. We had a private small ferry boat with a (friendly English speaking) boatman who showed us around for good 3-4 hours. Also visited the place where the backwaters and the sea meet with a small island kind of land thrown in. Great place to be. I went crazy clicking pictures of S, the scenery and what not. Came back at around lunch time and that being Sunday we binged upon nice lazy sumptuous Sunday brunch until late afternoon. It was THE best lunch I had since long time. 10 minutes into our lunch, we saw a huge beautiful peacock flying around, making merry on The Club building. Soon it was joined by its mate, another beautiful peacock. S went crazy and tried and succeeded in clicking a couple of good snaps. That was the first time I saw peacocks apart from, in zoo. Late into the evening, S had an appointment in the spa there (This was one of the main reasons she again said yes for a beach holiday I suppose). While she was at, I had fun all alone guzzling a couple of chilled beers with a view to die for at their bar, aptly named The Bar. Since we ate a lot in the afternoon we settled for light meal in the room (or was it a Cottage?) for that night.

The next day was all for us to chill around. Just relaxing, looking around the property (it’s a huge cliff property) clicking photos, cuddling and having fun. It took us whole day to cover the property though. We also played a game of badminton in their court. Of course, S won. But she cheated me out in the middle of the next game when I was on vengeance to level it out. We had lunch, played some TT, moved around and used the BUGGY way to the fullest. In the evening we settled for the buffet dinner. It was a nice calm cozy dinner. The food was strictly okay.

The next day was a toss between a nearby hill station and Kanyakumari. I opted for Kanyakumari since S insisted that we might never come so long just to visit it. Hence deciding on Kanyakumari, we started the day with a great buffet breakfast, probably one of the extensive spreads I ever saw. In fact all the four nights we were there, we started all our days with their buffet breakfast. It took us good 3 hours to reach there, and the drive was exciting with countless coconut trees, people all around, living everywhere right through the border. In Kerala they don’t believe in highways / countryside I believe. On our way there we went to some Padmanabhapuram Palace which was funny at its best. Kanyakumari was strictly okay. I felt that we could have used the day in a better way, but S was content with some temple we visited on our way back. And as usual, she did shop for some silly antique stuff.

The next day was the day when we were about to return. Just before leaving the Leela, we went for the beach one last time, and 5 minutes into it, I see S getting all excited whilst playing in the beach and gazing at me, for one of her Crocs got washed away by a huge tide. Luckily for us there was a security guy who got it back for her. After that she cooled off, we had a nice refreshing drink and I left a healthy tip for the guy there. Then we reached the airport and the flight to Bangalore was on time. Once we reached Bangalore, I was somehow feeling it’s not done yet. That’s when they announced that the onward flight to Hydebrabad was delayed by a good couple of hours. I knew there was nothing to loose as our holiday was over and thanks to the new airports that have come up in Bangalore and Hyderabad, you always have something to indluge yourself in, in these delays. In a way, this delay was like an extension to our holiday. So I looked around and settled for freshly brewed, neatly packaged KF tin beers and some hot mirchi. That was the fitting end to the “good times” that we had, had.

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Holiday

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Yeah! It’s good to have something to vent out. It’s been a long time.
Long enough to cheer aloud for India in the WC T20, who on their part, did their best to not look like the team they were, when I last posted something on this blog.
Long enough for the world to mourn the death of a messiah, king of pop MJ. MJ, you will be missed.
Long enough for me sticking around, just about enough to see off the scrappy work I do day after day.
Long enough to my patience to evaporate, which obviously is much less than many others. So when there was nothing happening, I planned a holiday. And here I am on the verge of going on a good 6 day holiday. Wow! That’s something, because I have never been on that long holiday for a longtime.

With S, of course...we are headed to Leela, Kovalam. Hope we have a good time there!

Ciao,
D

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Evening

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Great windy drizzled weather, Gitanjali (that great movie by Mani Ratnam) playing in the idiot box, freshly bathed S (with her hair left untied) makes for a great combination. In fact it enhances the impact when you are back from work after a shitty day at the office. That impact stays with you even the next day and compels you to give the blog space it deserves. This, in the month when nothing great to write/boast happened. Also acts as a perfect heads up for the upcoming three and half day weekend (Thanks for the so-called-yearly-day-out-shit on Thursday)

Was good to see the SRM ad in the papers the other day that it was only one private Uni in the top 10. Matters a lot since D (my fav) is doing his grad there.

Will be heading to Mysore for a change with Ma, Pa, Sis, the two kiddos, BIL and of course S. Some combination that is. Don’t know or have any clue how will it turn up.

I think that’s that.

D
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March 4

March 4, 2009

March 4 was, is and always will be a special day in my life. Something that happened on this day 8 years back still stands as the best thing happened to me ever. Some other thing, any other thing, some other day, any other day might become a better day but the 4th of March 2001 stands tall despite of what ever come may.

That day has an uncanny advantage of being the first memorable day and stood its ground till today. And I shall always lobby around and cheer for that day to remain so. That day was when it all began. That day was one of those days, with which you can start a story with. That day was destined to be the day. If the day holds so much importance in my life, I needn’t tell you how much more important is the person who made it so special.

That’s what makes it “That day”.

I did had a couple of things to pen down before this here, which were long due, but then I thought they can wait.

They [read everybody, everything] all can wait.

Make way, for this is March 4th. Today is March 4th.

D

BlogDead. Buzz.......

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This is how this story ends:
“Then they got married and lived happily ever after”

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A boy sees a girl, falls in love, says to self:
Ask. Appeal
Make her accept!!!
Propose. Persuade. Plead.
Make her accept!!!
Say. Sway. Swing.
Make her accept!!!
Induce. Incite. Irritate.
Make her accept!!!
[Didn’t she accept???]
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He is saying to himself:
I cannot change the ending. This is the very reason why Ifell in love.
.
.
.
[Change the story!!!]
.
.
.
D


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Six word stories

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The New Year came in quietly and already dished out quite a thump to digest. Time is jiffy, life is dreary these days.

As usual in a time killing exercise, I came through a brilliant collection of six worded short stories.Some are from quite accomplished names.

Good ones:

Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket. -William Shatner

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.- Joss Whedon

Automobile warranty expires. So does engine.- Stan Lee

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time- Alan Moore

With bloody hands, I say good-bye.- Frank Miller

Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.- Steven Meretzky

It cost too much, staying human.- Bruce Sterling

We kissed. She melted. Mop please!- James Patrick Kelly

I’m your future, child. Don’t cry.- Stephen Baxter

Rained, rained, rained, and never stopped.- Howard Waldrop

Tick tock tick tock tick tick.- Neal Stephenson

Heaven falls. Details at eleven.- Robert Jordan

Bush told the truth. Hell froze.- William Gibson

Help! Trapped in a text adventure!- Marc Laidlaw

I saw. I conquered. Couldn’t come.—David Lodge

Please, this is everything, I swear.- Orson Scott Card

Will this do (lazy writer asked)?- Ken MacLeod

Finally, he had no more words.- Gregory Maguire

There were only six words left.- Gregory Maguire

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PS : Dying to see 'Che' by Steven Soderbergh.

Delhi-6 title track is too good.


D