F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I am very selective while making friends and don’t bother to keep in touch either. So, I have very few friends at all points in my life. Now, I have realized that all my friends (except for my immediate circle in college) are either inaccessible (I mean they live somewhere near ‘The Cape of good hope’) or are loners.

Most importantly we don’t have similar eating habits, i.e., I have them and they don’t.

When we step into restaurant: the first words that come out of their mouth

1. I only eat homemade food.

2. I am counting calories (the reason I get a fit every time one of my friends gains a little holiday weight).

3. I am full.

4. I am boycotting the food processing industry for their overpriced rates and tests on animals.

5. I have a fast (dude, was this the only day you could think of to hang out with friends).

6. Friend: (looking at the menu*) hmmm

(half an hour later)

Me: (banging my head against the table) anything?

Friend: let’s go somewhere else**

7. I don’t eat (true story).

There are others like perpetual stomach ailments, germ phobia, and chronic indecisiveness.

This was until a week ago.

Present day

I met an old friend X..she was distressed and we met after a long time (a common friend also joined us). Although X knew what she wanted and there was nothing we had to do, by the end of the day I knew she felt better (and so did we). Just being around the people you love without the fear of being judged is in itself comforting.

The fact remains that I have a countable (by a 4 year old) number of friends (inaccessible and/or loners), but it is also true that they are the people who are special to me (and hopefully I am special to them) and that’s what matters.

In a nutshell, I used to think that the soundtrack of my social life was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY3kqRRzJP0 and then I realized that it is in fact http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sULsXdDqOBo&feature=related

*contemplating laws of nature, ventilation, sunlight, background track and the crowd to calculate the approximate amount of time for which all the people in the restaurant can survive without getting bored in case we get trapped due to some natural disaster and also the chances of survival in case of a stampede

**probably because the estimate of the time calculated in * turns out to be less than the approximate amount of time for rescue to get there

Dooba Dooba

Today, I was bored sitting at home and doing nothing so I decided to go for a walk.Luckily, after a considerable amount of procrastination, yesterday, I charged(the battery of) my mp3 (yes, I am that lazy) and revamped my playlist.For some strange reason I did not remove the song 'Dooba Dooba'.

In the next scene, I was walking in my society courtyard listening to songs and then this song started playing, instinctively, I changed the song (I always did this whenever this song was played for no apparent reason).

I went back to the song trying to contemplate why I kept this song when I never listen to it.I thought it may be because when Mohit Chauhan (the singer of this song) came to our college and sang this song I was utterly delighted, only to realise shortly afterwards that this song was one of the disappointments that day and that I had even commented that the 'Dooba Dooba' guy of our college could have done a better job than him.

It was then that it dawned upon me, it was the 'Dooba Dooba' guy due to whom the song made it to my list in the first place.

Flashback

(two years ago)

I had just joined college and the much awaited (in a way) freshers party was to take place in the evening.All my friends and I got ready and left for the event.On our way to the Auditorium we heard a beautiful melodious baritone voice of a guy singing this song 'Dooba Dooba'.

While climbing up the stairs, the first thing that crossed our minds was that the Freshers' Party had started and someone was performing.Then I reasoned that had it been so, this would have been the showstopper performance and would have been placed towards the end of the performances.As we climbed the voice grew clearer.It had become clear now that it was just a recorded song playing.

And then came the point in my life when my blind faith in common sense ceased to exist.

There stood this guy on the stairs, facing away from me, singing this song without a mic and the only instrument that was playing was a guitar.The guitarist was sitting on the stairs facing him.I wanted him to turn around so bad and stood there in anticipation, not caring that the expression on the guitarist's face was like 'excuse me, can't we get any kind of privacy even on the staircase of a public college?' My friends noticed that I was transfixed and took me to the auditorium saying that he was not practicing for nothing and would obviously perform in the freshers (at that time we did not have any notion of the World beyond freshers' party).

As can be expected he did not feature in the Freshers' Party.I had lost all hopes of seeing his face in this lifetime until one day

(six months ago)

It was the second day of our annual cultural fest.I was in the ground floor of a Computer Science Department when I heard this voice.I was in the middle of something(can't remember what but definitely of the magnitude of balancing delicate glassware on my head) so I could not sprint immediately.As soon as I was done I ran all across the building following this acoustic like Paro in Devdas.Sadly, it ended like Devdas, he was gone by the time I got there.

(present day)

I smiled and disappeared into the dark listening to the close second to the melody that was.

Stop using your Brain, it ain't the social protocol.

Calling oneself a hypocrite and not doing anything about it does not count as honesty.

Driving a Car

As a female Homo Sapien I wonder if I have a license to kill

Anyway, I am capable of it, so you better do a drill

I drive my way to work

but more of it is required on the way

I suck with gears 1 through 5 and ya of course the reverse

I fear the pedestrians and trucks alike

the former are like toddlers and the latter like bullies and brats

the heavy traffic areas are like a stampede without a rime or reason

on the redlights the frustrated souls have mercy to spare none

consider yourself lucky if you make it alive without damaging your eardrum

Its like Murphy's law all the time

and for me guerilla warfare, ya, that is how I would put it

even a nonexistent wall appears when you least expect it

may be the whole universe is conspiring to transform me into the Hulk

but according to Occam's Razor my only super power , for now, is to sulk

P.S. The blog entry may be a desperate attempt to not lose its readers, the sudden two fold increase in the number of readers in the previous week may have led to the same.But the quality of the entries would be taken care of henceforth.

P.P.S. The content has been inspired by an entry in my friend N's blog but I take the complete responsibility of the rhyme scheme.

Stop being 'pretentious' only if the 'real you' does not suck!

The Other Day

A little background:

We are a group of 6 friends. One of us left our college after the first year to follow her dreams. Let us call her S. Another important member of the tale and our group is Y.

So..

Our friend S had come to our college to meet us. After a few hours, she said her Ex had offered her a ride back. Y declared “We are meeting him”.

A few minutes and a few ‘dog’ jokes later we were on our way to the ‘hang out place’.. Lets call it HOP. So, we reached HOP. She went up to some point in order to escort him to HOP because ,supposedly, he could not locate it. Lame! Considering he lives within 1 Km radius of HOP.

He walked in with her.

I had nothing particularly against this guy, but I saw it as a perfect opportunity for me to conduct an experiment.

· All the people about to be around him hated him at some level.

· He was in a company which could eat him alive even if he raised his volume.

· I had no association with him whatsoever and did not have to see his face again.

· It was a kind of a challenge considering he would try to look like a stud (for obvious reasons).

· I always thought I was of the Caucasian race. But, I am not. He was.

· He said he wanted to smoke hukkah as soon as he entered.

· I wanted to see whether or not I could behave in a manner I generally don’t. I wanted to see if I could act snobbish.

She introduced him to us and the verdict was out, I could not act snobbish. I was all arms and legs. It was time for Plan B : Don’t look stupid.

He went out for a few minutes, perhaps catching up with his hukkah when S confided in us that he was getting into drugs and thus she needed to go with him and talk to him during that period. I told her it was neither her choice nor her responsibility.

When she was about to leave everybody insisted she stayed in the hostel for the night. To which I said to her “you are an adult and you have to make your own choices” and gave her ‘the look’.

To which he said “that was.. that was uncalled for” smiling all the while.

I know what I said was a little eccentric but if I had not taken up the pressure of being a snob and had not made myself nervous in the process.. I could have shot back with a

“Smile as much as you can dear because you won’t be able to do that when you would be coughing blood out of your lungs.”

Or a

“Why don’t you get your hukka so that we don’t have to encrypt our conversation and can talk in ‘a called for’ manner. Don’t mess with me.”

Or a

“You do realise we outnumber you, right?”

Or even a simple honest

“It is not. You will learn. In due time. ”

But.. I did not. I did not respond. Thankfully everybody was still busy convincing S to stay and I was out of focus.

But he did not get to be the snob either, thanks to Y. At one point of time.. she said “stop bothering her more” and at another “can’t even say that it was nice to meet you ” Snap!

So finally I realised that

1. I am biologically programmed not be a snob (while(Somisetty && World) { Somisetty != snob;})

2. Even when a guy (most of them) does not want a girl in his life he would still ensure that he features in the girl’s priority list.

3. And also that we had left our friend alone with a drug-addict ex on a bike.

My Fav Movies

English

Shawshank Redemption-good movie..watch without expectations(contemplate afterwards and google(used as a verb here))..whatever happens..DO NOT GOOGLE BEFORE WATCHING THE MOVIE.

The Silence of The Lambs-I am totally in love with(read am intrigued by) Hannibal or , as I like to call him, the protagonist.

Matrix-we take so many things for granted and everything that happens around us can have so many different explanations also Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind for the same reason (MATRIX provides a good model).

Goodwill Hunting-Matt Damon is gooood..

Forrest Gump-Wondering why this features in my favs? Well..BAZINGA !! It infact, does not..It is highly Overrated.

Notting hill-good dialogues, and don't you just love the way, they(the britishers) speak ?

If Only- because of the above mentioned reason.

Hindi

There is no particular reason why you like a Hindi film

Clubbed according to genre:

Ajnabi, Race

Hera Pheri, Andaz Apna Apna, Chori Chori

Don, Sholay

Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Yeh Hai Jalwa, Badshah

Khosla ka ghosla- Haiya hu

"My" Brother Sandeep

When I was young, I used to think that celebrating Raksha Bandhan was redundant practice. It was obvious that a brother has to take care of his sister.

I remember this incident, way back, when we were kids, I used to follow my brother around everywhere. One day he had plans to play cricket with his friends and he had warned me beforehand that if I wanted to leave in the middle of the match I would have to go back alone. But, because I was stubborn so I “had to” accompany him anyway. After a while, as expected, I got bored. He said, “go on your own!”. I was heartbroken and again, because I was stubborn I “had to” leave. I reached my place and before entering my house I looked back, and there he was, a few feet away, stealthily getting down the stairs J

Now I know why I thought so.

Everybody in school knew him as S.Sandeep and now people know him by all these different names..Sandeep,Sandy, Shetty, Somisetty, Marketing(which is funny now because he has chosen finance). When I tell people he is my brother..People go.."really?!" “siblings!?”..and I choose to believe that it is not due to the stark contrast in our IQs. There are many School- toppers-cum-geniuses around but what sets him apart is the fact that he is charismatic and yet gives utmost priority to his family and friends.

Thanks for being the best Brother a person can have, and also the warmest, wittiest, brilliantest and Awesomest person in the whole whole World!!

May you always be Happy

Happy Birthday :-)

Inception

Layout :

the rules of inception are stated to the audience..point-wise with examples. A story is narrated to them.Now, Assuming that the plot is flawless the audience then judges itself based on whether or not they could understand the plot..and voila! most succeed and thus decide that the movie is good.

Narration :

1) Bland; the initial architect was eliminated from the plot so that a new one could be brought in and the rules of the game could be explained to her(and hence the audience)(Matrix's narrative was better acc. to me).

2) It did not strike a chord and the tone was disappointingly impersonal.I mean it would have had the same effect even if a bunch of aliens did this on human species..on second thoughts..that would have been more interesting.

The tricks of the trade were revealed all at once and nothing was left to the imagination of the audience.All they were expected to do was to pay attention.

Plot flaws :

1)the gravity problem: gravity was not acting on level 2 as it was absent in level 1,yet on level 3 the gravity was impeccable.

2)the time was not set correctly..I mean the van was shown to fall real slow but the on level two was at normal speed

not many can be pointed out as maintaining logical consistency was the one thing they worked on.

Laughables :

1)The reason DiCaprio does all this ultimately boils down to the reason that he did not talk to his lawyer before fleeing the country after his wife's death.

2)Why the hell did they not send the Fischer guy to limbo and be done with?( if the reason is morals then frankly, DiCaprio did not have any,he exposed his friends to what was potentially worse than fatal, he also flees the country after his wife's death leaving his infant kids behind)

I guess most of the people are fooled to believe that the movie was good by making them pat themselves for being able to understand the plot.

I would say the direction was started when the movie was at a concept stage not story stage.

Critics (a minority):

"It's not terrible..just lumbering and humorless and pretentious, with a drag of a hero."

"I truly have no idea what so many people are raving about. It’s as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that Inception is a visionary masterpiece and—hold on … Whoa! I think I get it. The movie is a metaphor for the power of delusional hype—a metaphor for itself".

-David Edelstein

"But though there is a lot to see in Inception, there is nothing that counts as genuine vision. Mr. Nolan’s idea of the mind is too literal, too logical, too rule-bound to allow the full measure of madness".

-A.O. Scott

One more sad thing :

If one says one did not like the movie, it is assumed that one did not get the plot.True story.

The only good thing :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo

Please comment.