Monday, February 27, 2006

Aaragorn once told Gimli, there is always hope.
Somebody (guess who) retold that to me.

And I'm going to stick with that thought. It's not going to work. But we'll try. We must. Hope. It's all you ever have right?


> 7 comments
7:08 AM


Friday, February 24, 2006

Ok... this is freaking me out... people I don't want reading my blog... ARE reading my blog...
It's scary... a person came to me today and told me he had read my blog... scared me... I could have very well written about him.. infact I think I did....

I checked my site stats and there are a number of people who have visited my site after searching for my first name on google... why? Why would someone google MY name? Seriously... it's creepy... at first I thought maybe it was people like that weird female on my Yahoo list who insisted I was her Tamil friend.... mistaken identity.. but NO! These people, atleast some of them, were actually looking for me... and they found my blog...

and that's not easy to do... you know why? Because I googled my own first name, and the blog actually shows up on the very LAST page.... the LAST... after 12 pages... now not only did someone google my name, they actually sifted through 12 pages of irrelevance to get to my blog...

I DON'T WANT THEM TO!

I need to fix this... Any ideas?

On the subject... the thing that keep smy blog going... really is Srin's blog... she can hate me all she wants but she is still doing me favours unknowingly... Isn't she brilliant or what? some 58% of my total hits are referreed from her site... some 20% from musicalmosquito.blogspot.com... a lot of the keyword searches that send people to my site are "srin","srin's blog","srin pics", "srin JU" and so on... it's uncanny...

I am not sure if you noticed... but I used the words "srin" and "blog"... now to just sit back and watch the traffic roll in as people google for her... hehehe


> 11 comments
6:05 AM


Thursday, February 23, 2006

Don't watch Boston Legal...

It's just wretched, wretched right wing propaganda...

I used to like the show. Great actors, great characters. Funny yet dramatic. Nice viewing for 10:30 pm on a tuesday.

But the last couple of episodes absolutely shocked me.

The first one was about intelligent design. A headmaster had sacked some teachers because they refused to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory. Now I thought it would really be replay of the Dover trial... but nooooo! In the Boston Legal version, the Intelligent Design supporters actually win the case!! I was shocked! What are they trying to say here...
Then the very next week... it'as about the documentary "outfoxed". A school prinicpal after seeing the documentary bans FOX from school TV's. Because it promotes separatism and right wing extremism. So the student sues him for violation of free speech.... And guess what? THe student wins!! Not only that... Liberalists are slapped a little for beeing extremists as well.
Then there was another one where a cop tortures the brother of a kidnapping suspect... and gets sued... and then there is the whole debate about torture and its legality and broad hints are made at Iraq.... and surprise, surprise... the cop wins!!

I am not watching this show again. It used to be good. Don't know what happened. I feel totally betrayed.... don't watch this nazi show...


> 4 comments
6:59 AM


Wednesday, February 22, 2006

I have corroboration... this is not funny anymore...

Nikhil got in touch with Nadiya... or the other way round actaully.. she's not happy...
"why did you have to break up with me like this! You could have done it like a gentleman! Can we meet up and talk about it? No? You don't care. You'll regret this! You dog! And your cronies as well. I'll see to it that you all regret it."

Then she got on her broom and flew away into the horizon....


> 5 comments
8:34 AM


Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I think there is something positively disturbing going on...

My mother might be setting me up with someone....

Hmmm... more on this after sufficient corroboration...


> 4 comments
9:03 AM


Monday, February 20, 2006

Some people thought I was just blowing steam in the last post... jerk who likes finding faults with other people... who died and made him the great-know-it-all-.... whatever...

But I assure you there is more to it than that.

Now I may have mentioned this to you before. I mention this pretty often. But there is this theory that fascinates me.

It goes like this.

Evolution happens in small groups. That's how it's always worked. Small groups of organisms fight to survive in an otherwise hostile environment and they have to suddenly get smarter or die. See evolution is not really about growing a long neck or suddenly standing up. Evolution is almost always about getting smarter. It's about RECOGNISING the need to grow a longer neck. RECOGNISING the need to stand up. The evolution of an organism is almost always the evolution of its intelligence.

Now coming back to the small groups. Now this is a fact. There is good evidence to support this and if you think about it, it'll make sense to you too. But without the mumbo-jumbo the fact of life is this. Evolution works best in small to mid sized, isolated groups. You put 50 squirrels on an island, they evolve about twice as fast as the island next door with 5000 squirrels. 50 squirrels have to work harder to survive. That's stimulus. Each individual squirrel experiences this stimulus and responds to it. Thus becoming smarter. Thus evolving.
However, on the island with 5000 squirrels, the stimulus is dissipated. Maybe about 50 squirrels at any time to do anything creative, and other squirrels just sort of copy them. So the squirrels still survive obviously, but they are not stimulated. As a result they don't get smarter. They don't evolve.

Now we were just talking about 50 and 5000 squirrels on an islands. What if we put 5 BILLION in one place? Well, in that case evolution virtually stops. It's a fact.

But then that's exactly what the internet does, doesn't it? It puts us all, the billions of squirrels on one giant island, just arms length from each other. And I wonder what that means to us in terms of intelligence, and evolution. Not that it matters, coz we will all be dead far before we can observe any of the effects. This kind of evolution takes thousands of years. But sometimes, I see things that make me think... yup... this is happening... right now. Think about it. If you spend maybe a dull afternoon following one blog from each other... don't you get this overwhelming sense that you are reading the same thing over and over again? That's what I was trying to point out. The tremendous sense of deja vu about blogs..... and pretty much most things on the internet. Somehow, sometimes every blog looks like, reads alike. Same kind of people, writing about the same kind of things, discussing the same kind of music, using the same template. Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying EVERY single person has to come up with a work of art for every post. No... originality, and creativity is NOT equatable to ART. Art, poetry, literature are indeed extensions of originality... but what I am talking about is the originality of THOUGHT, that exists in every person... or should exist. But if you go blog hopping... you don't see that very often. People are much happier to just sort of BORROW other people's original thoughts and try to put some kind of a spin on it. That's why you get 2635 (is that right J.A.P?) reviews of RDB. Not anything else... people could have easily reviewed Brokeback mountain or Munich or Capote... but no... it was RDB because we are 5 billion squirrels on one island. People do things just because they see other people do it. Have you ever noticed the speed at which a thought flies across the internet. Like people telling jokes they read in forwards. They are not the best jokes... but they are easy.... coz you don't have to think that way. You need some kind of an idea, for anything, be it blogging or nuclear fission reactors, you don't bother to come up with one on your own. You just see what other people around you are doing and basically do a bit of this and a bit of that mixed with probably a dash of your own spirit. And you put it out as originality. And that's the problem. We are just too lazy to be original in thought. I mean the evidence of this all over. TV, movies, music, art, science... you have to have seen it.
Think about it. Google might just be making you dumber.

I know I know. I'm sorry. It's really hot. I've had a couple of beers. First day of university. Was up till 3 AM last night. Had BRUNCH. I'm rambling... forgive me


> 7 comments
1:43 AM


Saturday, February 18, 2006

If I see another one of these... I'll scream...

1) Rang de Basanti review - Seriously people.... get over it now... It's just a movie. Not an exceptional one at that. Decent ideas, helf decent execution. That's it. Why would the whole world what you thought of it. The whole world didn't care. Of all the movies in the world.... excellent ones playing RIGHT NOW... you pick this one to have an enormous debate about. Seriously. It's over. Stop it now.

2) The Minima Black template - Ok... I understand not everyone has the time or the interest to come up with something original.... but even then why this one??? This has to be the single most boring and ugly template around. Ok I take that back... It's puke coloured brother is worse... But even then... It's just black. I don't understand it. What can possibly appeal to you so much about black, green and grey. 85% of the people out there (if not more) use this exact template. You flip through blogs one at a time and suddenly you feel like you have gone colour blind... black, green, grey..... come on... change it... use a stock template but use a better one... somebody... muster up the courage to leave the flock...

3) Black and white photographs - Why do people think that black and white photographs are somehow more artistic? There is an art to taking Black and white photos just like there is an art to taking colour photos. But here is the rule... if you want take a black and white photo.... you HAVE to take it in Black and white... you HAVE to use a black and white camera. Because a black and white camera (or even a colour camera in black and white mode) sees things differently. And you have to compose black and white pictures differently from colour pictures. Just taking random record shots on your digital camera, and then hitting "convert to grayscale" in paintshop doesn't add ANY extra artistic crediblity to the photo.... trust me. It's just pretentious.

4) Blog thing quizzes - These I hate so much... you go to people's sites and they have the most ridiculous quiz results up. Somebody actually had TEN of these in a row once!!! Seriously... what's the point. It doesn't tell me anything at all. The first couple of times it was funny. But not anymore! Now it's just a ridiculous waste of space. It's the same stupid quiz, everybody takes it and just posts the same stupid results up.... Does anybody REALLY care what your inner hair colour is... think about it...

5) Lyrics - Ok... this one I just don't understand.... why post lyrics? You didn't write 'em. You didn't "discover" them. You didn't hit pause & replay a million times to take them down. So why are you posting it? I feel like sharing songs with people from time to time... so I PLAY it for them... on radio... but what does posting lyrics to a coldplay song possibly serve... even the whole "song of the moment" thing.... Where do you expect it'll go?
"Song of the moment, Yellow: Coldplay"
"Ah. Good song."
So....???


> 10 comments
7:28 PM


Friday, February 17, 2006

Radio Blog finally updated!

Sorry people. You must have been getting pretty sick of it by now. Just haven't had the time to pick out songs and upload them and stuff.

Anyway. Here it is.

Didn't know what theme to use. So I basically opened up my iTunes and copied the "most played songs" according to the list. So in a way these are the songs I have been listening to most often. Not over all time.... just recently... because the most played count resets every time I update iTunes.
Strangely it's all really mellow stuff. Hmm... Guess I have been a little mellow of late. Anyway. It's a strange mix. All over the place. But that's what you get!


> 0 comments
11:25 PM


See... this is one of things I enjoy about living without the mother... cooking for myself. It's great! I enjoy cooking. Call me pansy or whatever. I really do. Not the regular everyday mach daal torkari... but occasionally... something nice... something that suits my taste... The whole experience is really calming... really relaxing... pour yourself a nice glass of something... put on the radio... and off you go. And I have the whole "play by the ear" policy when it comes to cooking. Like Indian Classical music as opposed to western classical. Basically see what's in the fridge... pull some stuff out at random... then start throwing things onto the pan... somewhere down the line get some ideas... pull out some spices and sauces... throw them in.. taste... see what's missing... throw that in... salt... water... reduce reduce reduce... and voila! all done!! If it doesn't work... there's always tomorrow.

Ever since mom's been gone we have survived on take-outs, stuff from 3 weeks ago frozen, and other people's charity... Today was the first chance I really got to cook. Nothing fancy, Chicken and vegie stirfry (which I had to convert into sort of gravy because I wanted to eat it with rice)... A cauliflower medley (with carrots, peas... some chilli... some oregano... some red pepper)... and plain rice with a few sprigs of lemon rice and kaffa lime leaves thrown in for fragrance... and some left over daal... It was nice... Tomorrow.. Fish... thai style!

Now I'd better get some coconut milk...

Oooh... looks tasty don't it?


Chopping vegies... rustic style

Chicken Stir-fry gravy tasting... if it doesn't make me go blind... then it's good...

The first course.. cauliflower medley..

The father can't wait....



> 4 comments
8:10 AM


Heard one of the funniest bush jokes in a while...

"So when Bush came over to Australia we all went to this big dinner at Fraser's restaurant. And there was this really buxom, really pretty waittress taking orders. She bent over near Bush and asked what he would like. And Bush went "Can I have a quickie please?". The waittress was really offended. She just slapped him and stormed off. And Bush was puzzled and going "What happened? What did I do?

So I leant over and told him "George. It' pronounced quiche."


> 0 comments
2:01 AM


Wednesday, February 15, 2006

So... in my endless pursuit of intellecrual upliftment, I actually forced myself to go see a play. Imagine that. Even opening night and everything. A friend of a friend has links to the theatre company so he got us cheap tickets on opening from his quota.

The play was "The Odyssey" produced by the Black Swan Theatre Company, as part of the Perth Arts Festival. It is basically a modernised and highly modified retelling of The Odyssey. But to be honest it resembles Homer's original no more than "O brother where art thou". It's all there in spirit... the cyclops, the sirens, the lotus eaters.... the underlying themes are pretty close to the original as well... but it's all been brilliantly interpreted.

Frankly I loved it. The stage was just MASSIVE (check out the picture), there were a tone of actors, and there was music and dance and horror and violence and nudity. It was just spectacular. But it wasn't a magic show either. The whole thing was put together very artistically. The main focus was on the theme of war and survival and the quest for immortality (as in the poem)... and even though it is based on a work written thousands of years ago the whole thing was put into a brilliantly contemporary context. You could relate to every bit of it. Visually it was stunning. The stage was a giant rotating disc, and it moved almost constantly and the effect of that... was just brilliant.... really gave you a sense of time passing and change. Overall the theme of change and time was brilliantly done with lights and special effects showing night and day and moving from one place to another. There were no curtains as you would expect and scenes just seemed to weave into one another... brilliant.

I don't know much about arts and stuff as I clarified before. But this is the kind of theatre I like. Original, engrossig, thrilling, moving and overall terrific entertainment but deeply thoguht provoking as well. Not the kind of bizarro psycho-abstractist by-antels-for-antels kind of stuff that is popular among most people these days.

It's really something to see. They are going to tour with it I believe next year. Don't know how many places they'll go, because it's a big expensive production. But if it comes anywhere near you, definitely, definitely see it.


> 2 comments
5:32 PM


So I bought myself a copy of yesterday's Herald Sun. There's a great money saving tip... always buy your newspaper one day later... cost a fraction. And face it... you really just want to read the comics and sports and movie news sections anyway... what difference does reading it a day later make?

Anyway.... I was flipping through the Valentine's Day messages. And boy... some of them are just priceless...

Not your usual "roses are red/violets are blue/ I rooted your sister/ now I'll root you" or "You are my love/My little white dove"... these are something else...
So here is a fair bouquet I selected for you guys. Accompanied by a few words from myself. Every single on'es genuine. You can look it up...



A+ - To the Special One. Love you

Bud. In a category all of your
own. More important than
friends and acquaintances.
Grin. The only one who can
order me around. And yes you, I
did touch you at the tennis.
Smiles _ James.

There is something decidedly disturbing about this... can't put my finger on it.

A. _ My darling beautiful baby
girl, always number one. I love
you. Be my Valentine. _ B.

I am not sure comparing your valentine to number one is a good idea

AAAAAAAAAA TO THE ONE
SECURITY GUARD
I saw last year, I cant forget the
way you looked at me and I
looked at you. I hope the day will
come when we can finally meet.
_ From an Admirer.

This is so specific.... Outside the Alice Springs Heritage Agriculture Museum, the security guard 72 yr old Mr. Dave Smith was sitting quietly keeping his watchful eye on the museum's contents, making sure nobody touched anything, when he suddenly reads this. We can't be sure whether he died of an heart attack, ingesting his coffee too quickly or from misfiring his 303 rifle into his buttocks.

ADAM HILL
I love you so much, I wish I could
find the words to describe how
happy you make me feel. Thank
you for giving me butterflies.
Love _ Caz xx

A girl gave me butterflies once.... mostly it was her cooking.

AF
HOWAPPY Balentine Day! I nub
u more dan wordth can say
(eben when youre nawty). Lots
and lots of Lub always and
foweba, your Cowatt (+ lewsh)

Hmm... you know.... you really shouldn't profess your love for somebody on paper when you're that drunk. If there's one thing we have learned from Ms. Spears is that..

AGENT-RUSSELL
My poem too rude, my big guns
too crude! I wanted to play some
games in the nude! Despite my
best efforts, through anguish
and pain, I hope this last
message gets past that
Lorraine! Luv ya Dork! Bean.

HAHAHA... this one rocks... "my big guns".. he has more than one...

ALAN WHITE
A girl can get very hungry
waiting for that dinner
invitation to materialise!
_ Kate (from the MCG)

Ahhh... the cornerstone of every succesful relationship... desperation... and trying to date strangers you meet at a cricket match.

ALAN/EDDIE
Of Sunbury. Longtime love.
Need mobile number again.

What's with the two names? Alan/Eddie... can't be the same guy... either she is casting a wide net or she has forgotten the name of her love...

ALLEGRA
Ive lost my number,
can I have yours?
Love _ Jazzman X

I have lost MY number???? Come again... how does someone lose their own number?

ANTZ PANTZ
U had me @ "Bout 3 min.
Still nuff time 4 u 2 bolt ":)
Love u muchly xxxxooo
_ Inga und da chickens

There are so many levels to this one... "had me at 3 min"= I am easy.... "still nuf time for u to bolt"=he dumped her OR he dumped somethign else too quickly... "Inga und da chickens"= there is more than one person sending this... it's a whole group... like a team or something

CATHY
Would you prefer football,
movies or a picnic? _ Nigel

Ooooh Boy! Dude. Football? On Valentine's Day.... you reaaaaally know women don't you?


BOETA ``MOMO'''' PATAGONIA
The story of Bunson Bunny
falling in love is about the
pursuit of backwardsies in
Momoland; amid the dangerous
bung bungs and jabbies. With
support from boom boom and
morning kissies, this small
Bunson will prevail.
Love you always _ Momo

I had to save this one for last.... it's just fantastic.... "in pursuit of backwardsies"..."bung bungs and jabbies".... I think I'll frame this one...


> 2 comments
1:29 AM


Tuesday, February 14, 2006

So... it's Valentine's Day... This undoubtedly the most overhyped annual day. I mean surely. You need a day to say I love you? What kind of love is that? As if you don't buy enough gifts and flowers and concert tickets throughout the year to make up for stupid stuff you do... but now you need yet another occasion to buy more gifts and flowers.

Went to the university to pay my fees. The cashier's office was decorated with hearts and red balloons!! They were giving heart shaped candies to every person. I mean.... what? The cashier's office at the university. What is possibly romantic about the cashier's office and queing up for parking permits and fees payments? Don't believe me look at the pics.



The shopping malls had ofcourse gone crazy. Check out the one below...


The way it's going V-day is going to be bigger than christmas. A lots of shops are actually quite dissapointed at not being able to attract more people to their products for V-day... so they are thinking up some approaches to their advertising and marketing... here are some samples

Say it with Broccoli.

Nothing says "I love you" like Ham.

Give him a hint. Give him a broom.

You know she deserves a REAL sausage.

Rat poison... just in case.

KFC. The only thing missing is U.

If anybody cares... this is how I spent my valentine's day.... A schnitzel, yesterday's chinese food, and a bottle of my favourite cheap wine. I love me... atleast today I'm going to pretend to.....



> 4 comments
8:06 AM


Monday, February 13, 2006

Here's another one I remembered....

"What is 2+2"

presi: A coalition.
IIT engineers: Somewhere between 3.995 and 4.005
JU engineers: Somewhere between 3.6 and 4.4
JUDE: Poe-sitive 4 (*this one I just made up*)
Xavier's: 5
Bhaggu: Wait. Let me get my designer calculator.


> 10 comments
4:02 PM


One of the differences between JU and presi and Xavier...
In a most unintellectual fashion we used to sit over momos and come up with these jokes... Alas! We knew little about Poe, Poe-try or Poe-litics...

Presi people: We think we are the centre of the world....
JU people: We KNOW we are the centre of the world
Xavier's people: The world is flat.
Bhaggu: World? Centre? Think? What are those? Who cares? I am going to get my nails done.


> 8 comments
2:37 AM


Sunday, February 12, 2006

Enie Minnie Mynie Mo
Catch an antel by its toe
If it hollers let it go
Enie Minnie Mynie Mo

Initially when I had started this blog (actually the old blog... which is now dead) I had promised to arm you with ways to which you can torment pseudo intellectual bengali university pseudo students... Well I never quite lived up to that promise... Strangely enough today I came across something which reminded me of that promise... and of somethign I had done quite some time ago...

One in a long line of seemingly bizarre decisions was for me to study in Presidency College, Kolkata. Don't exactly know why I did it, but I did. Spent a whole year there. Gave exams and even managed to get a "posthumous" record breaking 88% (but that's another story)...
Anyway... Presidency College... it's a lot like Jadavpur University... except the slight differences ofcourse ( a list of these maybe sometime later)... and nothing like Xavier.

As is often the case, the canteen was the living breathing heart of the college. And the brain. Maybe a bit of the gonads too. The pseudo intellectualism hung so thick in the air you could it with a knife. The floor was literaly littered with circular plans for world domination, other people's dignity and cigarette butts.

Needless to say I stayed away from there. As much as I could. One day out of hunger and desperation bought a chicken roll with an extra helping of diarrhea.

But people kept pulling me back there from time to time... so I went... tried not to say much...

But then I found out about the poetry club...
Mostly headed by English and Benali Hons. students... it was a place for "the meeting minds, free exchange and a genuine appreciation of poetry and the arts". Basically it was a bunch of jobless people sitting together, reading out bits from their favourite poetry and then waiting for somebody to say "that was rubbish" which would be the perfect excuse to launch into a delightful argument. It served one purpose mainly
People who were not in the traditional intellectual discplines of study (namely eng or beng. hons.) could show that they were JUST AS intellectual as the rest of them (if not more) and that they thoroughly deserved the piece of Presidency canteen furniture he was sitting on.

So I was suddenly thrown into this game of organised intellectual one upmanship... at the deep end. Like a pretty boy in a prison I just tried to keep my head down and not draw attention to myself. People would bring verses from the romantics to Ketaki Dyson. Least of all, you could try and bring in a few couplets from an obscure (and deservedly so) Dylan song and tear it to shreds. Then they woudl read it. The unwritten rule was that it would have to be something "different"... something people didn't know.... or your take on it would have to be different... but it could not be something from someone nobody knew... bottomline...it had to be a "find"...

Anyway... after hanging out for a while and trying to make excuses to excuse myself I was finally nudged a couple of times to say something...

And then it hit me...

This was the perfect opportunity for one of my "experiments" (Sphinx once called me a mad scientist... that's proabably the best two word assesement of me I have ever heard). So I took in the poem "The Thorn"...by William Wordsworth.. it was a stupendous hit... wow... a Wordsworth nobody had heard before (except that guy who claims he has read EVERYTHING... there is always a guy like that everywhere isn't it?). People couldn't stop talking about it....wow... just brilliant... the very pinnacle of his romanticism.... the very epitome of his love affair with nature... the brilliant dichotomy of beauty and horror... the pleasures in pain... or is it all metaphorical....
The conversation flowed like the cheap coffee, out of the canteen and into the coffee shop and went on till the wee hours of the afternoon. Only rush hour scared people enough to finally leave.

That's the last Poetry Club meeting I EVER attended.

Well.... the fact of the matter is that "the thorn" is one of the worst poems Wordsworth has ever written. Infact it is one of the worst poems in the entire english literature. It is a shining example of how NOT to write a poem...

Hmmm... interesting isn't it?

So here it is... your weapon... your litmus paper for pretentious pseudo-intellectual poetry phillic bengalis... Wordsworth's ... "The Thorn"


> 5 comments
7:37 AM


Saturday, February 11, 2006

Went on a commando mission today... not just wearing pants without undies (although that may or may not have also applied)... I mean real commando.

But first the background...

My friend Kenyan/Gujrati friend Nikhil goes to a disco a few months ago on a Saturday night. There he meets single, attractive, 2nd/3rd generation Indian girl Nadiya. They hit off. Have a few drinks. Go to his house for... coffee. Next morning.. she's still there... so they have breakfast... which turns into lunch then more drinks, dinner and more... coffee. Following Monday, Tuesday we see Nikhil walking looking really pleased. Positvely glowing. Thursday... he just looks like somebody tried to teach him Hebrew....
"Guys. She hasn't left my house since Saturday. I don't get it. I mean... I hardly know her... I thought we were just having fun. But she isn't leaving. She didn't have clothes to wear, so she was wearing mine. Yesterday, she actually went somewhere and I thought I had rid of her. But she came back before dinner with a bag full of clothes. I don;t know what's going on."

Then things got really interesting.....

Nikhil, is fairly attractive and decently well off. Which is why he doesn't live on campus but rents out a house with a friend. So it's easier for him to have lady friends over once in a while. That's what a bachelor pad is for after all. But this female was just moving in.... no need to ask him... no need to date or anything... they spend one night together and she never leaves. This has got to be really weird. In the beginning Nikhil doesn't even really notice. It's just like she is there a lot of the time. He goes home, she's there. He leaves in the mornign she's there. And all that... coffee had clouded his perception.

But things became serious when she started moving her own stuff in... a toothbrush... a soft toy...a pillow... makeup....Everyday Nikhil would go home and find some new belonging of her in his house.

Then his flatmate dropped the bomb. He wasn't willing to share the place with 3 people especially when only 2 people paid the rent and did all the work. So he just packed and moved out. And that was just perfect for Nadiya. Next day she moves into his room, and fills it with ehr stuff. Including an exercise bike!

Now things are getting out of hand. Nikhil is paying twice the rent, and twice everything. She never peels off a bill.

So he does the brave and honourable thing. He breaks up with her. Only problem is.. he can't... she just won't let him. He tries in every way possible to tell her that it's over... but she still jsut doesn't go anywhere... standard line is "Oh come on... don't be silly... we'll work on it...you want coffee"

By now it's exam time. So Nikhil can't be bothered with this anymore. He just tries to concentrate and pass. Spends like 16 hours a day at the library because he is afraid to go back home. After the exams, he just packs up and leaves for Kenya, hoping the three months break from her will just sort things out automatically.

Except.. it doesn't. Now Tom and I and a couple of his friends did what most honourable friends would do. We stalked his vampiric girlfriend. Apparently, she has had a major fallout with her parents. So they don't want her in the house unless she lives by their rules. She barely passed high school. She said she was in another uni doign bachelors... infact she was just doing some part time vocational thing. She had no money or job to speak off except maybe this and that. She had been living with friends who had already kicked her out. She had lived with an Aussie guy who had dumped her fast.

Then one day... we get the shock of our lives.... she is STILL living in Nikhil's house.... STILL!!! even though Nikhil wasn't there. Somehow she had his keys. And she would just sneak in, keep the blinds closed and do god knows what.

So we tell Nikhil and he was shocked. And asked her to fix it. Do whatever it takes... whatever it takes. And he mailed us his spare keys.
So we did. Today. A week before Nikhil is due back. We got somebody to keep an eye on the house and her for a few days. She has apparently gone out of town or something for the weekend. So we got in. And in two hours falt we packed everything she owned into boxes. I persoanlly lugged that stupid bike out. We loaded it onthe back of Tom's uncles truck and drove it over to her parents house. Somebody kept an eye on them so that we showed up the moment they were out at the shops. So we dumped the whole load of crap on their doorstep. Scrawled a note saying "Nadiya's stuff. She will pick it up." and just left. Then we got a locksmith and had the locks changed on the doors and windows. Upgraded to a monitored burglar alarm with a different code. Now she should try getting in. Nikhil lands Friday. As soon as he does, we have got another girl, a friend of ours, who will pretend to be madly in love with him. They will be seen together everywhere (not difficult because she goes everywhere with us anyway). Infact she is going to move in and be his flatmate for a while as they pretend to be living together. And we keep up this charade and ignore her, until it blows over. Hopefully.

Are we the BESTEST friends in the world or what?


> 4 comments
7:44 AM


Friday, February 10, 2006


Damned heat... just blew up 512MB stick of RAM...
Now I have to spend the entire weekend feeling inadequate...

I left an insidous comment on some guys blog who thought Richard Marx's "Now and Forever" and some weird Michael Jackson song had the BEST lyrics of all time.... but now I can't remember the URL so I can't check his retort....

I have a cold on a day with 40+ degrees C temperatures

Damnit! Nothing's working for me suddenly....


> 4 comments
8:29 AM


I hate my car... it's too big and too thirsty... besides I think I am getting the short end of the stick in this "shared ownership" with my father.

Time to get something sweet and small. Like a Ford Ka or a Daihatsu Sirion.


> 0 comments
2:31 AM


Thursday, February 09, 2006

Here are some of the best movies/Tv shows I have seen recently... you definitely should watch....


On TV:
1) Prison Break... best piece of TV I have seen in a long time.
2) LOST - a bit convoluted... but once you get into it... there is no letting go... must must watch
3) Quentin Taratino's double episode of CSI.
4) The latest season 24... this thing just gets better
5) House - most people will like it... if you are slightly bio or just scientfically minded you'll love it...
6) Scrubs - it's just so so funny...

Movies
1) Sin-City: Director's cut (DVD)
2) Munich
3) Hostel (not a excellent movie.... probably doesn't belong in this list.. but it's just the kind of twisted bizarre trash I like once in a while)
4) Walk the line
5) The squid and the whale (must)
6) Syriana
7) Good night and good luck (must must)
8) Capote..


> 1 comments
7:33 AM


this is probably the worst joke I have heard..... in a very long time...

Q: You know how they call that useless piece of skin around a penis, the foreskin. Then what do they call the useless piece of flesh around a vagina.
A: A woman.


I know.. I know...


> 0 comments
7:15 AM


The countdowns begun... less than 36 hours before they are gone ... the mother and the tyke... off to India...
Ah freedom at last... I tried to bring the ticket forward... but... airlines was too damn inflexible.

I am not sure how this will work though. We (My dad and I) are not to tell anybody that my mother's gone to India. Because then everybody will insist on giving us cooked food and invite us over (u s the poor destitutes)... and then when my mother returns she will have to "pay them back" by cooking for them... So we have to keep this a secret... But she doesn't return till the 14th of April... and I have a feeling people are going to suspect something when we keep telling them that she is in the shower for the next two months.
Hmmm... if you don't hear from me for a while it's probably because my dad and I are in jail for murdering my brother and mother and drowning their bodies and the Swan river.


> 0 comments
12:29 AM


Wednesday, February 08, 2006

It's weird how people don't pick me for an Indian. They don't even pick me for a Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi. Nope. In the past I have been mistaken as an Indonesian, Polynesian, Cambodian, African, Egyptian, Torres Strait Islander, Maori and a Chinese-African mix (political incorrect term- chegro).
What's even weirder is that other Indians don't pick me as an Indian.

For example...
Today while riding on the bus, an obviously North Indian family of four bustle in. Mom, dad and boy about 8 and a girl about 6. The bus was crowded so mummy daddy and the boy take a seat a couple of rows behind me. The little girl sits next to me. And immediately starts talking about who I am, where I'm going, that she'd just been to zoo, the snakes were really scary and so on... cute little girl... so I patronise her asking polite questions and smiling a lot. Couple of stops later, about 50% of the bus empties at the interchange. Suddenly Papa calls out from behind... in Hindi.
"Poonam beti. Idhar chali ao. Seat khali ho giya."

"Nahi papa. Mein thik hoon" she replies back indignantly.

"Nahi nahi. Abhi idhar ayo." papa's getting pretty mad.

"Kiu?". Spirited little girl isn't she?

"Kiu ki, timhare pas jo byatha hai. Woh bahut bura admi hain. Abhi idhar a!"

Hmmm.....


> 7 comments
4:23 AM


Monday, February 06, 2006

blogger's just gpne utterly stupid.....


> 2 comments
2:41 AM


Now people tell me that I speak ill of my mother too often. That I am unfair to her. I should lighten up and give her a break.

Well… allow me to describe to you the events surrounding this year’s Saraswati Pujo and then I’ll let you be the judge.

Now, as Bengali’s in a foreign land, most people are gripped by an insatiable urge to “associate”. Therefore they formed a Bengali Association in the godforsaken town. And they hold certain religious/cultural festivities throughout the year.


Q: What would you get if you put 5 bengalis on a deserted island and came back 3 years later.

A: 2 durga pujas.

Things aren’t better here. The 70 strong community of Bengalis are constantly at each other’s throats. The undercurrents of years of suppressed jealousy and hatred are just deadly. We’ve been here three years and have things pretty much worked out by now.

The thing is, Saraswati Pujo day is when the old Governing Committee steps down and a new committee is formed. Os after worshipping the god of knowledge, everybody just jumps for each other’s jugular.

It’s war out there. Make no mistake. Now if you have any brains you stay as far away as possible. Otherwise you take a side and you fight it out.

As a result, there is an immense lack of willing volunteers to fill up the executive positions in the committee. The only place to be in a mud-fight is far far away. Usually it ends up with one of the two alpha males being elected presidents and his sycophants filling up the other roles.

Now my mother….

Until now we have managed to tread something of a middle line. Smile. Wave. Talk to everybody. And nobody bothers with you. But as loud and opinionated people are often mistaken to be efficient, so the other Bengalis have decided that my mother would be a perfect person to take up atleast one of the roles on the committee, if not the main one. It would be a blatant lie if I were to say my mother was completely disinterested in that proposition. A number of times I have heard her begin sentences with “If I ran this Association…”. But she wasn’t really given a chance to deny that. My dad and I put our foot down. Saying we would have nothing to do with it if she went through. The biggest threat of all, we refused to drive her to the meetings. So she was dissuaded.

But how to avoid this. If we go to the Pujo she would be almost certainly forced and coerced into it. So we decide not to go. But what’s to be the excuse? Now normal people would have said “I have a headache”, but the beacon of truth and honesty that is my mother decided to schedule a long due colonoscopy on the day before. Imagine that (actually don’t.. it’s kinda disgusting). Obviously she would be too unwell to attend the next day. Now this she tells everybody and sympathy just keeps pouring in. With mumbled questions as to why this sudden examination. Did someone say cancer.

Now the hospital calls her up the day before the colonoscopy and cancels it. Uh oh! What to do now? A new excuse. Hell no! This is just too good to let pass. So she plays along telling everybody that she is still having the colonoscopy. Except her close friends ofcourse. Now I was there on Friday morning. The first phone call comes in.

“Hello. Is your mother at the hospital?”

Damn….. “Err.. I dunno… I think she’s in the bathroom.” Now she comes out mouthing “who? Who?”

“Mrs. Pal” I say.

“I’m at the hospital”.. she mouths

“Err… I thought she was in the bathroom… but actually she’s at the hospital. My mistake”….

Next call. “Is your mother there?”… “No.. at hospital.”… “Really? But a little birdy told me she was home.”

Crap! Now what… Run to mom.. “Mrs. Rudra… Mrs. Rudra”…. She grabs… “Hiiiiiiiiiii…. How’s things?”

At this point I just ran out of the house.

At 7 pm… a car suddenly pulls up into the driveway…. 5 large ladies and one large flower bouquet pour out. Headed by none other than Mrs. Pal… and there’s my mother… on the front lawn…. Sitting on her supposedly examined bottom tending to the rose bushes….

Hmmmm….

Anyway…. The story goes that they tried to do the test but found there were “other complications”. So they postponed it and gave her medicines. So she still can’t go to Saraswati Pujo.

So we didn’t go. The forced election was averted. But currently there are three stories regarding my mother’s colonoscopy doing the rounds.

1) She didn’t go. It was cancelled.

2) She went and got it done.

3) She went, but the doctor cancelled it and sent her home with medication.

Only a matter of time until two of these stories cross paths. That’s when the fun will really start.



> 6 comments
2:35 AM


Sunday, February 05, 2006

The blog roll has been due for an update for a while... I was having this conversation with ANc the other day... we were telling ourselves that Srin must get like a million hits a day.... I mean she writes two lines piffle and 3 hours later it has 6 comments on it. Just Fascinating! But to that Anc pointed out that it may not just because of her immense social magnetism (althought I insist that is a factor) but more so because of her enormous blogroll. Good point. Apparently people visit her blog for the blog roll, treating it like a blog portal, a page of bookmarks. Come for the links, stay for the posts. But that's just brilliant. Because all this traffic, the linking and backlinking makes her google rank rise with leaps and bounds. So. Now I am determined to increase my blog roll too. In an effort to increase my google rank. Why do I need to increase my rank? I really don't know. An ego thing. A man thing. Spitting contests, drinking contests... something along those lines.

So I added a few more people. As always, I can't do things without preamble. So here goes. Please keep an open mind. It's not that hard you know......

Anc: I have been meaning to add him for a while. Top bloke ofcourse. Met him once. Not as geeky as you would expect from someone that hung up on LOTR. No buck teeth or weird headgear. Nope. Not at all a weirdo... well maybe just a little...ina good way

Absolutist: Another decent chap. Has good taste in music. Probably studies physics or something. Nice combination. The whole science and culture thing. Kinda like me (except I don't have the culture). Good guy. But you better not have anything he wants.. or he will drive you nuts asking for it.

J.A.P: Now... there really isn't much I can tell you about this guy that you probably haven't read in like 50 other blogs this month. Old school. A true heavyweight of Indian Blogsphere (or blogworld or whatever it is you ppl are calling it today). I truly admire the quality of his posts. They are always the right size, the right topics with the right amount of pictures. No wonder everybody read em. Points to be taken people... pay attention. Does have a endency to launch into poetic monolgues once ina while.... but then which bengali man doesn't?

"sen"sational - is anything but... nah ... just kidding. 17-18 yr old female... know nothing abt her so shouldn't comment. Posts a lot abt her friends and her life. Good fun to read once in a while to know what makes 17-18yr old girls tick...

eve's lungs - Rarely posts, understandably so... because unlike the rest of us she actually HAS a real life. But when she does, it's quality. It's good to read slightly more mature people's blogs once in a while (as with J.A.P.). You get a different perspective. The binds of normal society would usually prevent much casual interaction with people like her and JAP for us (atleast me)... but blogs somehow change that...Strange coincidence.. her daughter and she picked the exact same template.

Ray-deo: Posts quizzes from time to time. The kind of quizzes I like actually. Not impossible, not stuff you don't have a clue about, but it's just that it'll puzzle you. And when you hear the answers, you go "ahhhh damn! I knew that". Once upon a time I had tried my hand at quizzing. Unfortunately, I wasn't too good at gluing my lips to the quiz in-charge teacher's behind, unlike some individuals. SO I gave that up and moved on to things I am better at.... like criticizing people. But yeah... once ina while it's good to log on to ray-deo and take the old trivia bucket for a spin to see if it still got it.


> 10 comments
8:25 AM


So this is the deal... I installed the new template...Made one post... and then I think I should add a little counter... and that's it. The entire blog gets stuffed.
Now I can't make any changes to the blog at all. If I do... it saves... but then the next time I make a change, the old changes get erased and soon enough I am just back to where I started. A frozen blog. Annoyed the living daylights outta me. Apparently it's a bug in the blogger system. Sometimes if you add javascript in a certain way... it'll just go into an endless and completely consumate itself. Be warned! Learn from my mistakes.

Anyway... So I have a new blog... which is really still the old blog.
Doesn't matter if you can't remember this new address. Or if you still have a link to the old blog. It should be fine. It should just redirect you (hopefully).

THe old posts are lost. Well... their still there... but the blog isn't... so you can't see them. I COULD move them but it's really not worth the effort. There weren't any real gems in there anyway.

This is good. A fresh start. I like fresh starts. Wipe out everything... start again. This is actually the kind of start I had planned for my old blog... a nice fancy template, with fancy little gimmicks, a long post. yeah. Nice.

It's weird though. My blog actually exceeded all my expectations. I had planned on making about 5 posts... but ended up about 60 more than that. Had planned on getting about 3 ppl to read it.... I know I have more than that.

So... welcome to Erebus's new blog. Old sins forgiven. New sins to be comitted. No longer about revenge. Was it ever about revenge? Not sure. Srin has officially labelled my blog "the revenge blog". Which is quite unkind. But then... very much like her. I promise repercusions.

So on a balmy sunday evening.... John Coltrane playing in the background. I open my little shop of horrors.

Expect blood.


> 0 comments
2:55 AM


Saturday, February 04, 2006

so far so good.......


> 0 comments
5:45 AM


Hope this works


> 0 comments
5:37 AM

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