Xmas and beyond

Spent Christmas at home doing absolutely nothing. Cut a small cake in the evening and dropped off some sweets at Jayanthy's.

Off to Mumbai tonight, so no more updates till New Year's eve at least. Happy Holidays, everyone !

Where's Joseph Heller when you need him ?

The office has about a dozen VOIP phones installed in the conference rooms and in a few cabins. Making calls to the US using these phones doesnt cost the company a cent. The marvels of modern technology. But...

The IS department says they can install an IP phone in my room only if they have me marked as a frequent user of the normal phones, with a high ISD bill. Now the reason why I do not have a high ISD bill is that I try to use the IP phones as much as possible, good employee that I am.

In essence, I need to spend a lot of the company money for me to save the company money.


Sindha got a job offer with MVJ Medical College, Whitefield. She has resigned from her current job but needs to serve the notice period till Jan 17. The college has a bus, so the commute should be better in the New Year. (The driver didnt turn up, btw. I still double as the driver).

We are off to Mumbai on the 26th, back on the 30th. Taking the Udyan, returning by IA. Another family get-together which I'm looking forward to. This trip has the bonus of meeting up with as well.


current book: The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Deja Vu

India are 40 for 5. How very surprising.

Defective jeans

I should stop wearing these old black jeans of mine. I dont remember when I bought them - could have been four to five years back. Now they are faded, frayed at the bottom and sport pale patches and numerous holes at various places. However I still wear them to work. Guess there's nothing as comfortable as old jeans.

Frankly, I'm scared of buying new clothes. Shirts are okay, but I keep fighting a long drawn battle with all the pants I buy. Sindha bought me a pair for my birthday a couple of years ago, which I've worn just twice. They are a lovely pair, but just dont seem to fit my waist. Must be a manufacturing defect. This defect has strangely spread to a few of my other pants too.

current book: The Tintin Companion by Michael Farr

As expected, the BJP won in Gujarat. Not sure why...

As expected, the BJP won in Gujarat. Not sure why this scares the heck out of me.

I dont think I've written about my New Zealand fixation. I've always had this dream of migrating to New Zealand and settling there. People tell me its a very cold country and they have more sheep than humans. Sounds like a good deal.

Wants

Saturdays still piss me off. I'm here working at office when I could be chilling out at home. All because of that stupid bandh call last Monday.

Want to play Black and White. Want to try out Age of Mythology.

Want to watch India win overseas for a change. Want to see some spine in the batting, some sting in the bowling.

Want to be at Pecos, beer with beef on the side and rock bands I never heard before but sound oh-so-marvellous.

Want to be home with Sindha, listening to music and reading a good book, birds near the window and all's right with the world.

Man, I'm a spoilt brat.

Four Parties

Sindha and I had received party invites from four people, spread out over the past three weeks. The first was a birthday party of the son of a friend, the second was a dinner invite from a newly married couple settling down in Bangalore, the third the first wedding anniversary of another friend and the last the house-warming ceremony of our neighbour.

The birthday party was a typical Mallu male affair. Wives and kids in the ground floor, sitting on chairs around the dinner table and talking about cookery, knitting and other delightful things women do. The husbands were on the terrace downing Old Monk, Kingfisher and McDowells. The wives waited patiently, dutifully, obediently till late in the night for their husbands to descend. The husbands drank, went down for dinner and cracked jokes which were much appreciated by all. The menu included chicken curry, kerala parotta and veg fried rice. There was merriment all around. Oh, one of the wives had a spot of bother with asthma, but her husband was busy with his third shot of rum and so she had to wait till he was done. Strangely enough, yours truly didnt drink that night.

The second party had Sindha and me seated in the living room along with 4 to 5 other couples. We spoke about our jobs, our ex-companies, our common friends and classmates from college. My friend's in-laws hovered in the background, making sure we had everything we wanted. Dinner was masala dosai, idli and pongal. Sindha and I got home by 1030, feeling much better about life in Bangalore.

The third party - my friend's first wedding anniversary - was on the terrace of his house. There was a caterer who catered hariyali chicken, chicken tikka, veg kababs, veg biriyani, chicken curry and veg kadai. Smirnoff, Teachers, Bacardi and Kingfisher were available in plenty. There were couples in ethnic Indian wear (kurta pyjama, salwar et al), western wear (midriff revealing tees, figure hugging tops, etc) and there were couples like Sindha and I who wore their sole set of decently ironed clothes. Music was by The Doors, Eagles, Nirvana and Clapton. Champagne flowed after the cake was cut. We got a small portion of champagne, but not the cake.

The last party was held on the terrace of the apartment next to ours. The invite said 1230pm, so we reached there at 1240 to be fashionably late. Sadly, we hadnt accounted for Bangalore time. The hosts reached a few minutes after us, the rest of the invitees reached on time at 1:30. The buffet had pulao, puri, kurma, curd rice and halwa, catered by M/s Kanthi Sweets, Thippasandra. Returned home to a good afternoon's sleep.

current book: The Tintin Companion by Michael Farr

Buffet Redux

I managed to sneak in half of my BPCL stock (20, to be precise) just before Arun Shourie made his announcement on divestment. Sold them at Rs 230, at a fat profit of 40 bucks a share. They are currently trading at Rs 200. I think I will keep the other half for a while and wait for it to go up again. I will also hold on to my 50 HLL shares for at least 6 months, maybe a year. Getting HLL at Rs 159 a share is a real good deal, IMHO.

I had also speculated on IDBI Bank. Made another good deal there, sold off 100 shares at a profit of Rs 4.5 each. Nice, no ?

On the flip side, my Reliance purchase (15 shares at Rs 297) will take a while to become profit worthy. My Franklin Templeton equity mutual fund is also in the red - invested Rs 20,000 at an NAV of Rs 31, the current price is in the Rs 29 range. Oh, well. I can wait


By the way, does anyone have an invite code to spare ? My long time friend from college, Mathew Kuruvilla, would like to open an l-j account.

Went to the Strand book fair. Very crowded. The s...

Went to the Strand book fair. Very crowded. The selection wasnt anything to post about either. Did get some amount of discount on a few books, though. Picked up:

1. The Stories of Ray Bradbury


2. A Doll's House - Ibsen


3. Kiss of the Spider Woman - Puig


4. A set of 3 Ripley novels, including The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith


5. A new Cinema quiz book

I had read Spiderwoman and Bradbury, always wanted to own them though.

Running to stand still

There was this prof at SP who used references to Alice in Wonderland (or Through the Looking Glass) in almost all his lectures. He was particularly fond of the part in Through the Looking Glass where the Red Queen and Alice run like crazy but wind up where they started. I now understand how that feels.

Lots of work, lots of stuff to do. But nothing changes. In fact, "do more with less" is the mantra. When do we get to take a step forward ? If at all.

This just in...

Har de har. Sehwag and Bajji fined for taking along dirty shoes to New Zealand !

Sheesh...

Hungry. At office. All alone. Aaaarggghhhhh !

AoM

At last ! Read the review here. The game costs over Rs 2,500, which prevents me from buying it outright. Available at Planet M, Music World et al.

Have started on blackandwhite again. The tiger is my creature of choice. I havent yet decided to be evil or good this time round. Maybe I'll be a mix of both. What fun !

Gaming sure helps in releasing a lot of stress. Oh yes.

Hu's on first

(Playwright Jim Sherman wrote this after Hu Jintao was named chief of the Communist Party in China.)

HU'S ON FIRST By James Sherman
(We take you now to the Oval Office.)
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?

My stock is up

Sold my Zee Telefilms stock today, at a healthy 10 buck profit per share. Feels nice to have made money on my first online stock deal. Good people, you can now switch to other channels.

My portfolio (ahem !) includes some BPCL and HLL stock. BPCL is risky as the government has yet to make its stand on disinvestment clear. HLL appears to be a good buy for the long term.

Just call me Buffet.

Sindha got a job at Satya Sai General Hospital, W...

Sindha got a job at Satya Sai General Hospital, Whitefield. So I drive 14 km, drop her off, drive another 14 km to my workplace, work till 430pm, drive 14km, pick her up, drop her home, drive back to my office...you get the drift. I need a driver. Or I need a job at the hospital.

current book: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Was out sick

Bad flu. Better now. Rasping cough persists, though.

Changing Specs

I broke my specs while cleaning them yesterday. Have been walking around with a lost look on my face since then (yes, I know I always had that look, ha-ha, thank you very much). My left eye is less myopic than my right, so I can pretty much see all right. However, its been a strain. Plan to go to the opticians today and get a new pair. Should I try contacts ? I dont think I'll like them even if I did. Am prejudiced. Maybe I'll see if there is a free trial offer or something.

Thanks for wishing my journal on its first anniversary.

And in case anyone was wondering about my IE problem, it got resolved by installing Windows 2000 over my existing Win NT. *sigh*.

current book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The IEHelper saga continues...

Thanks for the help, , and ! However...

• I tried looking at the registry, the only thing which had an 'IEHelper' entry was Acrobat. I happily uninstalled the poor soul but that didnt remove the problem.
  
• I use WinNT, so msconfig wasnt an option. I checked the startup stuff, didnt find anything remotely suspicious
  
• Tried checking the Task Manager to figure out what gets kicked off when I launch IE, but didnt find anything useful.
  

This is what google gave me. All it did was confuse me more.

The local sysadmin wants to reinstall IE 6.0 to solve the problem. Age old remedy. Hope it works, but I have my doubts. Whats more, I dont get to know what the darn thing was all about !

Halp !

I think I've accidentally installed some spyware software on my machine (no, I did not go to any porn site). I keep getting this dialog box each time I open Internet Explorer - the title is IEHelper and the content is 'Failure sinking events from IWebBrowser2'. Google searches didnt really help me apart from pages displaying dire warnings about spyware installations.

Does anyone know what I need to do ? Help much appreciated.

Yesterday

I hadnt used icq in ages, so downloaded the lite version yesterday and started playing around with it. Was surprised to find I could send sms messages through it. Of course, the supported networks for India is limited, but thankfully Airtel is on the list. I could also receive replies on my icq chat window, which I found quite cool.

I also downloaded Netscape 7.0 and the latest version of Yahoo messenger (yeah, !!). Netscape sucks as expected (flame bait) and I couldnt see any major improvements to the messenger (flame bait #2). Oh, well.

I made my first online purchase of stock yesterday. Bought Zee Telefilms on a whim after seeing their recent ads which show a long list of over-hyped movies appearing soon on a boob-tube near me. Felt accomplished till I saw the market wrapup at the end of the day where Zee was the biggest loser of the day. How very surprising.

But hey, mark my words. Zee will do well in a couple of months and I shall rake in the moolah. Muhahahahaha....!!!

Hey everyone, go and watch all the Zee channels ! Now ! Hurry ! They are showing The Legend of Bhagat Singh tonight !!!!!!

Oops I did it again !

Went for a friend's housewarming ceremony on Saturday. Reached there with some difficulty, found out that it was actually scheduled for the next Saturday (12th). Gave him the gift and returned home, sheepish grin in place.

, I bet you are not surprised. I think I'm getting senile in my old age.

Been a long week

Lots of work, lots of chores and hardly any time to put my feet up and relax. Well, thats not completely true. I did get some time to sack out and play Warcraft 3. Would love some more, though.

Bought a cd of the Rolling Stones album Forty Licks and a cassette of Elvis' No 1 hits. Both sound good. I've never listned to Stones much before. However this collection is really good. The Elvis album is of course a great listen - Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock and Love Me Tender are some of my all time favourites

Food World Wierdos

I never knew Food World was home to wierdos. I have been accosted twice by two different men, both interested in presenting me a unique business opportunity. The routine goes like this - I stand near the counter, trying to get the ordeal of shopping over with, generally minding my own business. The person behind me passes some remark on the lines of "Isnt it hot today" or "So we finally won, eh?". Genial soul that I am, I nod and smile. El wierdo then proceeds to get chummy, asks me where I work and comment that i2 is a great place. After a few minutes of buttering up, he slips me his visiting card and asks me for my phone number/email id. The next day I get an email from him, inviting me to take part in an extremely profitable business venture. I dont reply, merely add his id to my ever increasing list of spammers.

Being rather slow on the uptake, it didnt hit me till yesterday that these people might be agents of the dreaded Amway network. Horrors ! I might have been reduced to a low level marketeer with a smarmy smile, shunned by friends and foes alike.

Good people, please do not talk to strangers at Food World. Please circulate this to as many people as you know. Thank you and God bless.

Current Book: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

From the email rounds dept...

> On the 55th anniversary of India's Independence, the major problems facing India are:
>
> * Corruption
> * Old people acting like teenagers
> * North Indian actors speaking Tamil.
>
> This is the impression I got after watching the new Rajnikanth movie Baba, which was released on August 15th. Rajnikanth had not acted in a movie after the super-hit Padayappa and that was three years ago. As a result, Tamil Movie fans were forced to watch movies like Alavandhan, Hey Ram, Panchathanthiram, and Tenali. All these movies explored subtle nuances of the human psyche using character conflict resulting in some powerful human drama and their resolution required Kamal Haasan .
>
> So when Baba was released, we, Tamil movie fans were excited and became insane. 21-year-old Vijaya pawned his mother's jewellery to buy tickets on the first day. Another person, Mr. Parasuraman, requested the doctor to perform a cesarean operation so that his child's birth would coincide with the release of the film. One of the first things the baby did after coming out was to ask for a beedi, which the baby caught in his mouth after flinging it up in the air.
>
> I saw the movie on the first day itself here in the San Francisco Bay Area because I saw Chandni Bar the previous day and needed something strong to offset the depression. Chandni Bar is a hard-hitting look at the life of beer bar girls and their family. It is the kind of movie where the director's idea of humor is when a local goonda comes into Tabu's house and asks her uncle to stand up. When the uncle thinks of shaking hands with the visitor, the visitor stabs him many times to death.
>
> The story of Baba, penned by Rajnikanth himself, goes like this. Baba is a child born to a middle-aged couple by the blessings of Babaji, a 2000-year-old Y2K-compliant saint living in the Himalayas. Baba grows up to be a young atheistic ruffian played by a middle-aged Rajnikanth with the help of industrial strength makeup. In the first half of the movie, he drinks, smokes and fights with the son of the Deputy Chief Minister, because the interval of the movie has been scheduled couple of days later.
>
> Even though Baba is a goonda at heart, in some issues he is very naive, like for example, love. He falls for his neighbor, Chamundeshwari, played by Manisha Koirala (not the body double) with the help of a dubbing artist. The dubbing is so perfect that Baba thinks she is a Tamilian. The fact that Manisha's mother's role is played by the Malayali actress, Seema, would have triggered the attention of any Intelligence Agency. A Malayali mother, a Tamilian father and a Nepali daughter; if this had happened in the United States, F-16s would be escorting Manisha's family to Guantanamo Bay.
>
> One day a beggar who is actually a saint comes to Baba and tells him that his fake beard is constantly falling off. So they both decide to go to see Babaji who is in the Himalayas. Baba follows him even though the beggar is Sayaji Shinde speaking Tamil.
>
> They enter a nearby tunnel in the mountains in order to reach the Himalayas but actually end up in Switzerland because the Indian Government denied them permission to shoot in Kashmir. According to the Government, various people from Pakistan were shooting there already without permission. The official policy was to deny permission to anyone who specifically asked for it. This is the answer to all those critics who have been saying that the Government is not doing anything in Kashmir.
>
> In Switzerland, Baba meets Babaji, the 2000-year-old saint who gives him seven boons. Baba would have tried the boons immediately but for A.R. Rahman, who interrupted him saying, I have composed these songs, many of> them over the phone from London at unearthly hours. So Rajni breaks off to sing a few songs with Manisha Koirala while the rest of the cast go back to apply more makeup, especially Goundamani who has to act as a teenaged cool dude.
>
> After verifying some of the boons (including a thrilling three-hour scene where a kite chases Rajni), Baba becomes a believer. Soon Baba had to face something very evil, something that no Tamil Hero had ever faced before -- Amrish Puri speaking Tamil. He was brought in by the evil Chief Minister, Bharat Dabholkar and his evil Deputy, Ashish Vidyarthi, both speaking Tamil to grab Baba's Divine Powers (elder brother of Austin Powers).
>
> But all these people were no match for Rajni. He elivered some dialogs with political overtones such as: I will not forget the salt I have eaten of Tamil Nadu because it did not have iodine. Sitting right behind me was a Rajni fan with a towel around his head, 'Baba' style. For each dialog Rajni uttered on the screen, he whistled with such force that often people had to collect his internal organs from various corners of the theater and return it to him.
>
> Seeing all these North Indians in a Tamil movie I was reminded of a Hindi play, which some students of my college performed during one of the college Youth Festivals. I studied in Kerala and the only Hindi that we were familiar with was the one spoken by the Krishi Darshan anchor. The play was set in Bombay. A bunch of strangers are playing cards. They introduce themselves and find that all of them are from Kerala. So one of them suggests that they all speak in Malayalam instead of struggling with Hindi. For the rest of the Hindi play, they spoke in Malayalam. The judges of the play were last seen standing in front of an oncoming train.
>
> Similarly, I thought Rajni would suggest that they all speak in Marathi. Instead he decided to renounce the world and become a sanyasi. But as Baba along with his sanyasi mates were going back to Switzerland, the person he had chosen as the Chief Minister gets shot. At that point people expected that he would turn around. But he did not. He turned back after 30 seconds because the camera was not set in slow-motion mode. The End. At this point I was willing to see Chandni Bar again.
>
> To the usual ingredients in a Rajni movie, like style, political punch lines, the much-expected introductory song, coriander and MTR sambar powder, the filmmakers tried to add some spirituality and it was not well cooked. If you are cooking spirituality, you are supposed to wait for three whistles in the pressure cooker according to an old jungle saying. The story and screenplay of the film was by Rajnikanth himself. Director Suresh Krissna in an interview said that, When he narrated the story to me, I was amazed by his vision and clarity. The media thought that Suresh Krissna was referring to the story of the film, but it turned out that he was talking about Rajni's contact lenses.
>
> In Tiruchirapalli, an unruly mob ransacked the theater and ran away with the film rolls. The mob also damaged a special screen erected for the release of the film at the Sri Ranga theater at Jayamkondam and burnt giant cut-outs of the matinee idol. This was their way of saying, We saw this movie and lost our money, so please don't watch it.
>
> A 24-year-old woman committed suicide allegedly dejected with her husband for not taking her to Baba at the suburban Korattur area. She reportedly rushed to the kitchen and set herself ablaze after dousing herself with kerosene. She died of severe burn injuries at a hospital, police said. This is a story which can be made into a movie with Nandita Das playing the role of the woman, Raghubir Yadav as her husband, and Bobby Deol as the can of Kerosene. If she had seen the movie, she still would have committed suicide.>
>
> But at the end of the movie, when Baba turns back to face the people in slow motion, the words that came up on the screen sent a chill down my spine right into my Muladhara Chakra causing my Kundalini energy to rise up. The words read: To be Continued. If anyone knows the location of that tunnel to Switzerland, let me know. I plan to go there to meet Babaji and ask for just one boon, In the next movie, give us the Padayappa Rajni back.

Why I dont update no more...and why I will

I started off on Live Journal a year ago, mainly because of and (the late lamented) . That was when I was alone in Bangalore, Sindha was doing her MD at Manipal, Kichan was just completing his engineering and had packed up and left for Mumbai. Posting updates to l-j was a good way to keep myself from going crazy.

Cut to the present - the wife's back, the brother is at home and the late nights at work have vanished. Ergo, no more updates, no more sob stories and no more raves 'n rants.

Well, I just realized that I do want to write. Meeting a bunch of fellow l-jers the other day at Barista's also helped. You feel you have a space of your own out here on Live Journal. Marking entries personal and friends-only has its advantages too.

So here I go again. , , and other irregulars, wake up !

Could be a joke, but anyway...

This is scary. Went and changed my password right away. And is on my friends list....

Leh Lo

I've written up some stuff on the Leh trip here. This is very rudimentary html and the pics havent come out very well after scanning, so be warned.

Read and enjoy !

Mumbai Meri Jaan

Got this from a link on rediff. Great pics.

Tandem Theory

Remember the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"? Here's a prime example offered by an English professor at an American University.

"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted), and Gary (last name deleted).

THE STORY

(First paragraph by Rebecca)
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile,which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(Second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geo-station 17,???*?? he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of
resistance so far...". But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when
the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things round her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret Mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"

(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)
Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FUCKING TEA??? Oh no, I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels."

(Rebecca)
Asshole.

(Gary)
Bitch.

(Rebecca)
DICK!

(Gary)
Slut.

(Rebecca)
Get fucked.

(Gary)
Eat shit.

(Rebecca)
FUCK YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!!

(Gary)
Go drink some tea - whore.

(TEACHER)
A+ - I really liked this one.


Maybe we should do something like this on l-j as well. Start off on a story and everyone pitches in. One would need a community for that and I am all out of codes. Sounds interesting to anyone ? Want to try ?

I do a Maveli

My recent visit to Kerala left me with mixed feelings. The trip was good on the whole - was able to spend some quality time with Sindha's folks at Trivandrum, met , visited Binoy at Cherthalai, attended my cousin's marriage and pigged out on food. However I have this feeling that Malayalees have changed a lot. They drink more, they appear more superficial, cynicism has increased... there's an air of restlessness and instability. "Ellolam undu poli vachanam", to paraphrase. Hope I'm wrong.

Saw a good malayalam movie after a long time - Meesha Madhavan. Its not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but its enough to keep one amused for a good two and half hours. Loved one of the songs - "ente ellam ellam alle...". Dileep has improved a lot, Sindha says that he must have got training from his wife Manju Warrier (one of the finest actresses in Malayalam, career wound up after marriage).

The first half of the Leh pics have come out quite well. Watch this space for links and a note on the trip

Current Book - The Collected Works of Roald Dahl, by Roald Dahl

Onaashamsakal

A Happy Onam to one and all !

B2B

Back from Leh - had a great time. Will put up a detailed post later.

And yes, finally got the Palio - hurrah !! Remind me to tell you the whole story sometime...how I almost went to court and how I was described as a "thorough gentleman" ....

My parents are home for a week, they've brought yummy chips and halwa from Kerala....aaah !

Current book - Candyland by Evan Hunter and Ed McBain

Whats up

Phew, we entered code freeze at last ! The release is not over yet, but I finally feel like most of it is behind us. Plan to go out for dinner with the team on Friday, havent yet decided the venue.

Went around with Sindha to a few more hospitals and diagnostic centres, her CV in hand. Hopeful about a couple of options, but nothing appears likely to materialize in the next two weeks at least.

Plan to take a vacation - to Leh ! I'm starting to feel quite excited about it. I cant find anyone who has visited the place. Dont really know for sure if it will be good, too ! But what the heck, its never that interesting if you know in advance what exactly is in store for you ! This trip should happen between Aug 8 and Aug 14, if all goes well.

I finally took a survey on l-j. I'm not sure if it covers all my favourite books and authors, but it was nice to put cursor to screen and write it out.

I will not write anything about the Palio till I get my hands around the steering wheel. Should happen by this Friday

Current Book - Once by James Herbert

Halp !

I think I like the new Eminem song - Without Me ! Should I buy the cd ? Should I buy his first album ? Am I going crazy ?

Current Affairs

• Current book - The Fourth Hand by John Irving
  
• Current movie - Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino
  
• Current cricketer(s) - Yuvraj Kaif and Mohammed Singh
  
• Current game - Heroes of Might and Magic IV
  
• Current thought - whats for dinner
  
• Current joke - A UserFriendly Strip
  

Married again

Sindha is back home. She is right now busy getting the house straightened out, trying to undo three years of bachelorhood. Out go the wine and beer bottles, in come the atta powder, the jeera packets, salt, pepper and garam masala. The kitchen cleanup took all of yesterday and if reports from the eastern front are to be believed, the living room and a bedroom ate up her entire day today.

She plans to start applying once she gets the house back in working condition. Or rather, living condition. Ha ha.

On the rant front, our Palio has not appeared yet. The story put out by the dealer is that Fiat India has recalled all red Palios due to a manufacturing defect. He can oblige us with a silver one. I asked him to give this in writing which was when the call turned ugly. Ultimately, we need to wait till end of the month. *sigh*.

And hey, hats off to the Indian cricket team. Outstanding stuff.

Woo hoo !

Sindha passed her exams ! She is finally an MD ! She will return home this weekend !!!!!!!

Reason for post-less-ness this week

Big heap work. Me plenty busy. You savvy ?

Wishes

• Navjot Singh Sidhu gets strangled
  
• People stop passing judgement on live-journal entries
  
• The next ten days pass in an hour
  

What Madhav Did

And oh, I won a customer satisfaction award today.

Maniac Monday

Monday - is fake

Monday - is real. Or is it ? Its too silly to be real.

Oh, these consultants....!

Shamelessly copied from 's journal, I found this ...

Shamelessly copied from 's journal, I found this quite interesting:


Go to google and search for "your-name is". Here's a selection from what I found:

1. Madhav is the founder of Pratham, which was initiated by UNICEF in 1994
Maybe thats why this was the first search result - Pratham ??

2. Madhav is none other than the husband of her sister, Hemangini...
Now both Sindha and her sister would have a problem with that

3. There's an Interpol red alert out for him but, for the moment, Madhav is well underground. ..
Yeeaah ! You seek me here, you seek me there...the elusive scarlet pimpernel

4. Dr. Madhav is not home and it is revealed that Dr. Madhav had premarital sex with Rekha and the kid is Dr. Madhav's son. ...
I swear..the kid is not my son (do moonwalk, squeal "oooohh")

5. Backed by his nearly 20 years of trekking experience, Madhav is always willing and ready to make your holiday an unforgettable adventure. ...
Yeah, right. I just love to trek !

6. Madhav is dead!
Do you see dead people ?

7. Madhav is a college hero who basks in the adulation, admiration, and aura attributed to him
Excuse me while I bask a while

8. Madhav is working with indigenous missionaries in India who are training him to become a missionary to the Nepali people
Good position to be in, eh ?

9. Chintan's father Prof. Madhav is a magician of good repute.
Chintan ?

10. When Madhav is not at home, Rekha with her kid visits his house and reveals that Madhav had an affair with her and fathered a child.
This is getting to be a habit...ole adulterous me...

11. madhav trusts: none yet. madhav is trusted by: none yet
tell me about it

12. Surely not. I have not seen Madhav. Yet what I know about Madhav is that he possesses a Hitlerite moustache
That was old hat. Now I have an Osama moustache

13. Mr. Madhav is involved in many cases and was an active member of the Guerilla Squad of East Godavari
Maybe this is why I am wanted by Interpol

14. Such a sparkling source of ethereal pleasure lovely, little Madhav is!
awww...shucks, gee..what do I say !

15. Madhav is a flea infested mongrel
sigh...the perfect ending

A few more professions I am involved in - sales executive in a pharmaceutical firm, eye specialist, lawyer, signalman in the armed forces, sun certified java programmer and in the us doing masters (sic).


Other news:
- I cant believe that Sindha will be home for good in two weeks !! Her last exam gets over on July 9. Woo-hoo !!

- I had bought a James Herbert and an Ed McBain at Chennai. Forgot to bring them to Bangalore, hopefully my cousin Pavitra will get them when she comes to Blr next week.

- Need to call the Fiat guys and do some ass-kicking, like quaintly put it

- Invested some money in Equity Mutual funds for the first time. So now I have cash tied up in Debt and Equity. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday Night Fever ?

Just when everything was looking better (Kichan is fine, Sindha is less tense), my Cold returns. Not (yet) with a vengeance, but with a nasty attitude for sure. Body Ache lurks around the corner, wooden club in hand. Sore Throat is considering its options - to be or not to be.

And oh, thanks to g.k vale, irfan view and symonds.net, posted the wedding pics online.

Brazil !!!!

Yee-haaa !!!

My prediction of Beckham lifting the cup be damned

Back in Blr

Back after a hectic 5 days in Chennai. Will put up a detailed post later, but here are the highlights:

1. Wedding was grand, had a lovely time.
2. Extremely tired after all the running around and the late nights (playing cards, heh heh)
3. SMS'd , but couldnt get around to meeting him. Maybe later, maybe in Canada, eh dude ?
4. Realized (today) that I should have checked l-j from time to time. Catching up on 5 days of friends posts is next to impossible. Or at least, not possible while working.

More later. But hey, it feels great to be back in Bangalore !!!

Chennai Ahoy !

Off to the cool climes of Chennai tonight, back on the 20th. I'm feeling happy since its my cousin Anu's marriage; we havent had a wedding in the family since mine 5 years ago. Should be great fun.

I also plan to catch up with a few old friends - Deepak from my Blue Star days (93-94) and Puthran from my school and pre-degree days (81-89). Might bump into (aka ). One place I'm really looking forward to visit is Landmark, my haunt of yore. I still believe its the best bookshop in India - at least I couldnt find a better shop in Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore and Trivandrum. I'm told that they have opened a new, bigger shop at Spencer's - not sure how it compares with the Nungambakkam Road one.

I don't know if I will get time to check mail and post on l-j. "So if I dont see you later, good morning, good evening and good night !" (yeah, name the movie).

Pip-pip.

Top 100 Romantic Movies

The American Film Institute released their latest list of top 100 movies, this time on Romance.
Here's the list:


AFI's TOP 100 ROMANCES

Rank Movie Year
1 Casablanca 1942
2 Gone with the Wind 1939
3 West Side Story 1961
4 Roman Holiday 1953
5 An Affair to Remember 1957
6 The Way We Were 1973
7 Doctor Zhivago 1965
8 It's a Wonderful Life 1946
9 Love Story 1970
10 City Lights 1931
11 Annie Hall 1977
12 My Fair Lady 1964
13 Out of Africa 1985
14 The African Queen 1951
15 Wuthering Heights 1939
16 Singin' in the Rain 1952
17 Moonstruck 1987
18 Vertigo 1958
19 Ghost 1990
20 From Here to Eternity 1953
21 Pretty Woman 1990
22 On Golden Pond 1981
23 Now, Voyager 1942
24 King Kong 1933
25 When Harry Met Sally . . . 1989
26 The Lady Eve 1941
27 The Sound of Music 1965
28 The Shop Around the Corner 1940
29 An Officer and a Gentleman 1982
30 Swing Time 1936
31 The King and I 1956
32 Dark Victory 1939
33 Camile 1937
34 Beauty and the Beast 1991
35 Gigi 1958
36 Random Harvest 1942
37 Titanic 1997
38 It Happened One Night 1934
39 An American in Paris 1951
40 Ninotchka 1939
41 Funny Girl 1968
42 Anna Karenina 1935
43 A Star is Born 1954
44 The Philadelphia Story 1940
45 Sleepless in Seattle 1993
46 To Catch a Thief 1955
47 Splendor in the Grass 1961
48 Last Tango in Paris 1972
49 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946
50 Shakespeare in Love 1998
51 Bringing Up Baby 1938
52 The Graduate 1967
53 A Place in the Sun 1951
54 Sabrina 1954
55 Reds 1981
56 The English Patient 1996
57 Two for the Road 1967
58 Guess who's Coming to Dinner 1967
59 Picnic 1955
60 To Have and Have Not 1944
61 Breakfast at Tiffany's 1961
62 The Apartment 1960
63 Sunrise 1927
64 Marty 1955
65 Bonnie and Clyde 1967
66 Manhattan 1979
67 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
68 What's Up, Doc? 1972
69 Harold and Maude 1971
70 Sense and Sensibility 1995
71 Way Down East 1920
72 Roxanne 1987
73 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947
74 Woman of the Year 1942
75 The American President 1995
76 The Quiet Man 1952
77 The Awful Truth 1937
78 Coming Home 1978
79 Jezebel 1939
80 The Sheik 1921
81 The Goodbye Girl 1977
82 Witness 1985
83 Morocco 1930
84 Double Indemnity 1944
85 Love is a Many-Splendored Thing 1955
86 Notorious 1946
87 The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988
88 The Princess Bride 1987
89 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966
90 The Bridges of Madison County 1995
91 Working Girl 1988
92 Porgy and Bess 1959
93 Dirty Dancing 1987
94 Body Heat 1981
95 Lady and the Tramp 1955
96 Barefoot in the Park 1967
97 Grease 1978
98 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939
99 Pillow Talk 1959
100 Jerry Maguire 1996


I've seen 42 of them. Havent thought about it in detail, but there could be a few movies which I liked that are not on the list.

What a Cup !

France out, Argentina out. Who's next, Italy ?

This has been one heck of a world cup.

..and England progresses to the second round...

Ze boot is on ze other foot

I'm at office at 845pm, waiting for Kichan to finish his work !

Nostranair

A month before the 1990 World Cup football finals, asked me who would win the Cup. I confidently answered "Germany". He asked me the same question in 1994 and 1998, when I replied "Brazil" each time. I was right on the first two occasions and very close in the third.

This time round he asked me the question last month, when we met in Bangalore. I told him England will win. Yeah, get your rotten tomatoes ready. ;-)

I'm not a football fanatic. I dont follow the clubs nor the inter-nation matches. I can barely make out Batistuta from Veron (Veron doesnt have hair on his head, Batistuta has a lot). In my heart, I would love to see Brazil or Argentina win. Maybe even Nigeria, though thats a lost cause now. So dont ask me why I said England. Maybe they wont even qualify for the second round.

In other news (to borrow the phrase from ), I discovered a nice community, something I've been looking for all along - . Looks promising.

Went for driving lessons today. I've lost count of the number of people who've attempted to teach me driving over the years. I think I started in 1992, when my father pushed me into it. Was never interested, so kept running through a series of instructors - friends, cousins, drivers, etc. Now that the Palio is just a couple of weeks away, I'm scared. Who'll drive the car from the showroom to my house ? Who'll start it ? Can I drive up the road leading to Siddhaguntapalya ? Aaaarggghhhh !!

Actually my driving today wasnt so bad. I need to be a bit smoother when I change gears and my starting could use a lot of improvement, but I wasnt as bad as I thought I'd be.

Today I'm setting off on what could be my last trip to Manipal before Sindha's exams. I'll be there for a day on Sunday, back in Bangalore on Monday morning.

Ar-gen-tina ! Ar-gen-tina !

The Argentina - England match is on. Damn, I'm at office...

...but I can see Brazil play tomorrow

Discworld characters

Nice




Find out which Discworld novelty you are.


Find out which Discworld girl you are.


Find out which Discworld guy you are.

Pride Day

Yesterday was i2Pride Day - had a whale of a time. Drinks, music and dance were the highlights.

Organized Dumb Cs for the show - was reminded of college (, those were the days, eh ?). I made the prelims tough and the finals very simple. Prelims had 3 rounds (2 on movies and 1 personality). Finals had some very easy stuff - eng movies, hindi movies, phrases, personalities and a pictionary round.

If any one's interested, here are some of the questions I used in the prelims. The questions for the finals were easy and quite i2-specific, so I'm not posting them


Movie List:

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES
DONNIE DARKO
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
GATTACA
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
THE BLUE DAHLIA
OSMOSIS JONES
THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
JEZEBEL
THE OX-BOW INCIDENT
THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ
JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
NATIONAL VELVET
THE PERILS OF PAULINE



Felt quite evil after the prelims. Had to run to avoid getting bumps from the participants.

Saw three offbeat movies

1. Mulholland Drive - yesterday
2. Being John Malkovich - last week
3. Rushmore - week before last

Liked all of them, though I didnt understand Mulholland Drive at all. Is it necessary to understand something to like it ? Interesting thought.


1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Sound and the Fury
3. Elipathayam
4. Dali's paintings
5. Linux
6. Waiting for Godot
7. Krish Srikkanth's batting


More offbeat movies I've downloaded and plan to watch:

1. Donnie Darko
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
3. The Wall

I think my definition of 'offbeat' is offbeat.

Doom 3 screenshots

Awesome !

Madhav vs the Mosquitoes

The mosquitoes won, I'm sorry to say. I did fight the good fight, however. Closed the bathroom door, closed the bedroom door. Used a torch to find out the mosquito camps and went in hot pursuit. My bedroom walls are now bathed in red, a silent testimony to the battle which was waged at 2am today morning.

The enemy had the final say, however. There's just so much a tired Madhav can do. My forehead feels like the Mahabharat written in Braille.

But I'm not done yet. Not by a long shot. Tonight I arm myself with the best of anti-mosquito machinery - Tortoise Mosquito Coils. Of course, if the Gods of KPTC decide to bless my house with power at least today, I can have a Good Knight's sleep.

Powerless

No power at home since 4:30 pm today. Mosquitoes are having a field day.

I plan to be online till my laptop runs out of power. Don't know what I'll do after that. Aaaargggghhhhhh!

Game Show

Back to playing Age of Empires after a long time. Keep switching between AoE and AoK:TC (Age of Kings:The Conquerors). If all goes well, hope to get my grubby paws on Heroes IV and Return to Castle Wolfenstein pretty soon. Buhahahaha !

Reminder - watch the 8 hour comedy starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight. Rumours are that Dravid will keep wickets and Laxman will share the new ball with Zaheer.

Neat and nifty

Feeling much better today. The larks on the wing, the snail's on the thorn and pippa passes without comment.


Actually I'm just trying to show off what I read in . Rather neat, no ?


...and thats why I'm happy.

Exactly what we need

A war is exactly what India needs now. Gives people a lot more to do and think about. No more Gujarat, Godhra, Ayodhya, Mandir and Masjid.

Anyone seen Wag the Dog ?

On a rainy evening...

Headed to GRS Water Park (or some such) tomorrow, along with the team from office. This is close to Mysore, so another long bus ride in store. Should be fun, though.

My bike refused to start today morning. Sindha says this will be a thing of the past once we get the Palio. But what if the Palio doesn't start ? I know zilch about cars. I know zilch about anything mechanical in fact. I don't have a black thumb.

Checking hotmail is bliss now that I have filtered out everyone apart from the folks on my address book. And since my address book contains just three addresses, I don't get any mail nowadays. I wonder why e-mail harvesters haven't started on my yahoo id.

My day is made

Buhahahahaha....I got Star Wars Episode II, too ! And I agree with this article.

Rain !

Woo-hoo ! Its raining heavily in Bangalore...!!!!!

The Devil in Mr Nair

I normally don't like Deepa Gehlot's articles too much, but this looked good to me

Got Spider-man on DivX. Now all I need is Star Wars Episode II to lord it over you lesser mortals.

Being cranky is fun, really. You don't give a damn what others think, you can piss off anyone you like and you get to stare down the poor souls who smile at you.

I'm evil today.

Who is John Galt ?

Why spend time trying to convince others ? If you know that what you are doing is right, why waste time getting the world to do the same ? Getting everyone to agree is a problem with no trivial solution. Might as well channel your energies into doing something productive for you. You as in your group, your team, your family - whatever you take responsibility for.

Hats Off !

The first episode which cheered me up on Sunday was Ajay Ratra getting his hundred. A gritty, fighting effort.

The second was watching Kumble bowl today morning, when I saw the highlights. Its so rare to see Indian cricketers display courage, this was really heart warming.

Saintly guy

Man, I used to love The Saint books...

Everyone on l-j seem to be changing their userpic these days.

Strange...

The problem with being in management is that you end up looking like an asshole no matter what you do. You side with the developers and complain to senior managers, they shoot you down like a dog saying "you need to take hard decisions". You side with the execs and the developers give you nasty looks and think you are a spineless jellyfish.

All kinds of crazy stuff seem to be happening these days. A few samples:

- Gujaratcontinues to burn
- A Shiv Sena chappie becomes the new Speaker of the Lok Sabha
- India considering Vikram Rathore as keeper for the one day series and Deep Dasgupta for the tests
- Australia considering playing Pakistan in Morocco. Morocco ??
- And finally, the BJP calls for a bandh in Karnataka to protest against the power tariff hike.

Current Book - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Day today

Berry berry busy these days. Is it Thursday already ?

Did it !

Yeah, went ahead and paid the advance booking deposit for the Palio. 1.2 ELPS, preferred colour being red and secondary colour silver. The red is more like maroon, its going to match the colour of my Hero Winner.

The negotiations with finance companies never cease. Just when I thought I'd zeroed in on ICICI, I get calls from Citibank and HDFC, both offering better rates. Monday is going to be a bloodbath, when I pit them against each other.

The Woodman cometh

Woody Allen's new film 'Hollywood Ending' is going to Cannes. How do I get to watch thisinterview of him ?

Movie time

Hindi films of today can be classified into three categories:

1. The ones with a chocolate boy hero (Rahul) and a candy floss heroine (Pooja). Villains are optional these days, usually its a twist of fate which separates the two. Throw in songs shot in Switzerland, England and Australia and you have the entire tale.

2. A crime caper. Mastermind who looks fiendishly intelligent, not to mention wicked. Two to three cronies to provide comic relief, romance and action. Heavily derived from The Matrix, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

3. Bhagat Singh movies. A bearded bloke, a hat and a patriotic song.

May Day

and I'm labouring away at office.

Sic transit Gloria mundi. (Loosely translated as "stupid Gloria, there she goes...")

Bad Company

I didn't like Company, found it a big bore. Ajay Devgan looks menacing and Manisha does her best to emulate Sharon Stone (Casino). The new kid on the block, Vivek Oberoi, looks constipated throughout. And the less said of Mohan Lal's accent, the better.

Still Angsty

Got so depressed on Saturday I went on a shopping spree. Picked up four vcds from music world - Sathya, Deewar, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Four Weddings & A Funeral. Got chewed out by Sindha immediately after, so returned to the depressed state.

Another year, another disaster at Mastermind. This is now my fourth attempt at the prelims. I dont know why I even bother. My best chance was the first time when I was in touch with quizzing. Oh well, at least I know of one l-j-er who cracked the prelims and appeared on National TV. , take a bow !

I feel fat and bloated. Havent gone walking for a week now. Need to start again. Actually I should start running again. Wish was here.

Current book - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Hashish eaters

The l-j spell check had a nice suggestion for the word 'sysadmins' in my previous post: 'assassins'. How very appropriate.

Better

Feeling better now. Got the monitor on the CD-writer machine to work, so have been burning CDs like pappadams now. And the sysadmins at Dallas have fixed the problem.
Alls well that gets postponed to tomorrow.

Hmph !

I hate Saturdays.

Am at the office right now, trying to help my team in getting a patch release out. Its not going too well due to some problems with the servers at Dallas. Frustrating. I think we'll need to come back tomorrow and try again.

Had lunch at Nadhinis, alone. Which is another thing I dislike. I'd much rather buy lunch and take it home if I am to eat it alone. Put my feet up, read a book, put the TV on, listen to music - multitask while eating.

Feeling angsty, if that's a word. Other stuff happening at office is also getting on my nerves.

Miscellaneous rants - the monitor on the machine with the CD-writer at office is not working, its very hot outside, I haven't yet renewed my vehicle insurance, my loan application at office is in some goddamn queue, I need money to pay the booking advance for the Palio, don't have good books to read, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I hate Saturdays.

Current book - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Books and booking

Stopped reading Anil's Ghost, found it very boring. By a strange coincidence, a recent episode of Seinfeld was about The English Patient. I thought both the books (by Michael Ondaatje) were quite overrated. Didn't get around to finishing either.

Started on The Information by Martin Amis. Gave up after a dozen pages. This typically droll modern British writing doesn't do anything for me.

Now I've started reading The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey, this years Booker winner. Promising beginning, lets see how it shapes up.

And oh, we've decided to go for broke - finalised on the Palio 1.2 ELPS. Currently negotiating with finance companies to get a good deal. Expect delivery only by end June though, as it takes 6-8 weeks after booking.

Current book - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Chennai in the summer...

Had a great weekend. Sindha and her parents were home, so pigged out on food. Checked out a few cars - Santro, Indica and Palio. The dealers actually bring the cars to your house these days, to give you a test drive. Talk about customer delight.

We are trying to chose between the Indica and the Palio. The former is slightly bigger and has a cost advantage of Rs 60,000. However the Palio is classier and appears to have a smoother finish and better engine performance. The mileage is lousy for both the cars, so I'm screwed either way.

My cousin Anu is getting married in June, at Chennai. Everyone is feeling extremely excited. This will be the second marriage in the family since mine five years back. (Has it really been five years ?? Maaan....)

Sindha wont be able to attend, but I am thinking of taking a few days off and be there from the 14th or 15th. Thought - how about driving down ? Heh heh heh....

Current book - Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Of nifty tools and cars

Did some TP (time-pass) over this. Couldn't come up with anything very funny, so left it at what you see below.

Sindha and her parents arrive tomorrow. Look forward to eating some home cooked food again ! Yum !

I also plan to start looking out for a car. Narrowed down my choices to:
- Fiat Palio
- Second-hand Esteem
- Tata Indica
- Hyundai Santro

I'd like to arrive at a decision when Sindha is around, so want to finalize at least on the make over the coming weekend. I can worry about the money part the next week !

Still at office

From my previous post:
..Thankfully, there aren't any meetings in the evening today...

Boy, was I wrong ! Had an open house to discuss this. Personally I think its a positive move and will be good for i2 in the long run. Still, a change is always associated with instability, so there are some concerns...

Current Book - Anils' Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Cold weekend

Developed a slight cold after the concert. Renovation work at the office added to it today. There's sawdust, fevicol, paint, varnish and lots of dust close to my cube. Plan to go home early, cant concentrate on work. Thankfully, there aren't any meetings in the evening today.

Saw Fight Club last evening. Liked it, so David Fincher scores 3 out of 3 on my list - Se7en, Fallen and now Fight Club.

Brilliant !

That sums up the Waters concert. Brilliant music, brilliant sound. The visual effects were below what I had expected, but the music was simply outstanding. Very professional, very Waters.

He played selections from The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here, A Saucerful of Secrets, Dark Side of the Moon, Amused to Death, Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking and a few others I couldn't recognize. There was a new song called The Flickering Flame at the end.

Thought: the world is divided into
- those who think The Dark Side of the Moon is the best Floyd album
- those who believe its The Wall
- and those who know its Wish You Were Here

Current book - Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Serious Heroes

Got the demo of Serious Sam: The Second Episode from a friend's Digit CD. Have heard rumours that the game is available in Mumbai. Heroes IV is also out in the US, the review looks great. Cant wait to get my paws on both.

Current book - Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Bad Day at Black Rock

Yesterday was totally crazy. Rolled my bike out to discover it had a flat. Left it at home as I had to rush to a day-long training session. Reminded myself to get it repaired the next day so that I could pick up from the airport. Had the surprise of my life when I saw him at my door yesterday evening itself. I had got my dates mixed up. *sigh*....

The day was however redeemed by the old reliable Long Island chappie. Had a good time with Jayasankar and Kichan at Kapalua. Returned home and chatted till 1:30. Alls well that ends well, I guess.

Current book - Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Collector's Items

's last post set me thinking. I didnt collect Floyd albums, but I was interested in various stuff during school and college days. Started off with philately, of course. Collected some Dutch stamps (my aunt lives there) and a few South African stamps (had a pen pal). I swapped one of these for a rare Surinam stamp and had added it to my collection when my co-collector cousin Biju came home. He had bought the latest Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Supremacy) and was taking it back to Adoor. I shamelessly exchanged the stamp for the book and that was the end of my stamp collecting era. Actually, it marked the end of my Robert Ludlum era too. Ludlum went on to write one more sequel - The Bourne Ultimatum - and died before he completed The Bourne Idiocy. But I still think a few of his books were good, fast reads - The Matarese Circle and The Bourne Identity are examples.

Then there were numerous attempts over the years to collect albums of Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, AR Rehman; books by Stephen King, Ed McBain, John Irving, John Fowles, PG Wodehouse, the Asterix series, etc.

Since this is meant for family reading I wont mention my porn collection.

Docs don't dock

Thought I'd land up with fever on Saturday, but didn't. Reminds me of school, really.
You get up in the morning with a sore throat and mild body ache. Stagger downstairs where your mother makes you coffee. You look at her with bleary eyes and cough twice. She checks your pulse and says there's nothing wrong. Pats you on the head, you are back in your room. You put up a brave face and get ready for another day at school.

My mother is a doc, by the way. So is my wife. I don't think I have any escape. Maybe my daughter will be a pilot.

Current book - The Van by Roddy Doyle

Irutthinte Aathmavu

Its 7:30pm on a Saturday night and there's no power at home. This is getting to be a habit, by Belenos !

Current books - Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, The Van by Roddy Doyle

We are like this wonly

Movie stars and film mags
Pepsi ads and cola wars
Cricket in the Caribbean
Models, celebs, women and wine.

Burn, kill, trash and rape
Bribe, pay, wink and nudge
Crammed in a southbound train
Lie and cheat all the way

Long Island Iced Tea

God's greatest invention since sliced bread.

Had three of them tonight with the office folks. Long live long island ! Long live Vercingitorix...hic..!

Entering the last two months of the release. Work...

Entering the last two months of the release. Work is steadily increasing, not to mention the meetings. Need to manage my time better. Maybe I should buy a PDA.

Yeah, right. :-)

Current books - The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, The Van by Roddy Doyle

Thanks

Thanks for all the wishes.

The weekend went off very well. Sindha got her thesis signed, her microscope fixed and spirits uplifted. I had a nice birthday though it was slightly sad at the end when I boarded the bus back to Bangalore.

Lots of work piled up. Banzai !

Last weekend

Going to Manipal tomorrow. Sindha is having a few problems with getting her thesis signed (among other things). My place is by her side.

And oh, I'll be 30 when I come back.

Colours

Dark blue splashed on black. Red in a corner, flaming bright. The canvas is big, huge, vast. And black. Black all over.

Black.

About a ditch

There is this plot of land next to my house which is used as a pathway by people moving from one corner of Siddhaguntapalya to the other. The owners of the plot dug the place up last weekend, and have dug a ditch all around. I get a good view of the path from my bedroom window. I find it quite interesting to watch different people tackle the ditch - its probably close to three feet wide and lots of folks have problems crossing it.

Most schoolboys immediately jump across it and sneer at their friends who hesitate. There are a few who jump back and forth several times, encouraging their buddies to try it out. I can relate to those who hesitate, I don't think I've jumped across anything wider than a foot when I was a kid.

The girls mostly move around, looking for a place where the gap is smaller. They usually stop at a spot where its about the same distance, carefully step into the ditch and climb up the other side. Smoothening their uniforms, they walk away.

There are also the overgrown kids on their motorbikes who come to a screeching halt when they see the ditch for the first time. They rev up the engine a few times, look all around and then return the way they came.

Yesterday I saw a young boy jump across and urge his sister to follow. She couldn't gather up the courage to jump, was on the point of crying. Our hero calmly stepped into the ditch and helped her across. He climbed back up, held his sister's hand and walked to school.

Current book - Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

So the Oscars are over. At least now I can open t...

So the Oscars are over. At least now I can open the papers and not have Bhuvan and team glowering at me.

The best moment of this years Academy Awards was Woody Allen coming on stage. I never expected him to turn up, and hats off to the Academy for giving him a standing ovation. The Woodman's speech had me in splits. How do I go about collecting his films ?

Is A Beautiful Mind all that great a movie ? I'm already prejudiced against it, without seeing it. Maybe it is. I had liked Ron Howard's direction in Apollo 13.

Current book - Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

Down

Sounds like quite a few of my friends were down in the dumps over the weekend. I am, too. Maybe its the phase of the moon.

Things that could make me happy:

1. Sindha coming over
2. Sharing a drink with and talking about life, the universe and everything
3. Watching one of those classic comedies like Some Like It Hot, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Angur, etc.
4. Watching a feel good movie like Its a Wonderful Life.

None of these are possible right now. Sigh.

Current books - Jingo by Terry Pratchett, Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre

Switch

Switched to Netscape to read my friends posts in L-J. I just couldn't read them in IE because of the refresh problem.

Maybe its all a conspiracy to convert me to geekdom.

No more Popped Yahoo

Yahoo is going to charge for POP3 access from April 24. Now I need to check my mail on a browser - yecchhh.

Game time

Am feeling the urge to get back into gaming. At home of course. There's this large collection which I have only sampled, never completed.

I'm trying to think of games I've completed - very few, really. And most of them are the older games:
- Prince of Persia 2 (yeah, that was fun)
- Wolf 3D and the Spear of Destiny series
- Doom (but not Doom 2 !)
- Age of Empires (completed the campaigns)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III (the default campaigns)
- Grim Fandango
- Serious Sam

Games which I've played a lot but never completed:
- Doom 2
- Quake
- Quake 2
- Halflife
- Alice
- Caesar
- Age of Kings: The Conquerors
- Hexen II

And games which I have sampled and liked, but put off playing in earnest:
- Starcraft
- Homeworld (both 1 and 2)
- Diablo 2
- Myst
- Riven (wanted to finish Myst first, sigh...)
- Black and White
- System Shock 2
- Empire Earth
- Undying
- Civilization 3
- No One Lives Forever

Must be more in each category, cant think of the names right now though.

Hope to get Max Payne shortly. I have the no-cd crack downloaded. Waiting for the CD from a friend...

Powerless

No power at home, must be an unscheduled cut. Luckily the batteries on my laptop are good for some more time...

504, 404, 500

Funny how all the cricket web sites become inaccessible when India is playing well.

Friends online

Most of the people who read my journal - or have me as their friend in l-j - are folks known to me. Updating l-j has taken the place of sending them email. Which is not a very good thing. My fault really, since guys like still continue to mail me every now and then. But not the other way around. Sorry, buddy !

The good part is that not all the l-j friends are people I know personally. I was surprised to see add me to his list of friends. Went to his page and thought that the name 'Kiran Jonalagadda' was familiar. Poked around a bit and found that he used to work for Chip, a magazine I was addicted to some time back. Small world.

Ditto w.r.t. , who remained mysterious till a couple of months back. :-)

Maybe I should get out and meet more people. At least online.

Sanjiv

i2's founder and Chairman Sanjiv Sidhu made a surprise visit to Bangalore today. Met him during the company dinner and spoke to him briefly. His speech at the gathering was just superb. Beats every other speaker I've listened to, hands down.

Wizards of...

Even though I love to hate them, these guys are really amazing

Some more

Just remembered a few more movies I've watched and enjoyed multiple times on the screen:

- Roja
- Bombay
- My Dear Kuttichathan

I think there is a simple reason why there aren't any English movies in the list, apart from the Star Wars series. Eng movies don't run for long in theatres. And Star Wars was a reissue.

Multiplicity

The Ides of March are upon us. My prediction of this being a great year is going the route of all my normal predictions. March 15 and Ayodhya loom ahead.

Amma is in town. Sindha was too, over the weekend. Good food at home. Watched Kannathil Muthamittal for the second time and didn't feel bored. But no, I cant see it again.

Movies I've seen - and enjoyed - multiple times on the screen:

1. Manichitrathazhu
2. The Star Wars series
3. Kireedom

Hmm..very few, actually. I don't want to list the ones I've seen multiple times on TV, that would be too many. Sholay would top the list, though.

About last week

My home PC got fixed last weekend, phew ! Immediately installed Clive Barker's Undying. Resumed where I left off on Halflife. Burnt a few CDs. Kreegah !

Saw Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal last week. Good movie, one of his best. Its extremely difficult to extract good performances from children. Its tougher to get the likes of Simran and Madhavan to act. However Mani Ratnam has managed both in this movie. The camera angles are good, the photography first rate and the music excellent.
The title song is haunting and you don't mind listening to it twice, once in either half.

The characters are natural and people whom you can identify with. Emotions are underplayed and the whole issue of adoption is handled quite delicately. The director doesn't appear to take sides in the Tamil-sinhalese conflict, which is another blessing.

I think Ratnam could have been inspired by the Elian Gonzales story which happened in the US a while ago. Quite possible.

73 on my scale.

Back in action

My back continues to bother me, off and on. Maybe I'm on the road to being crippled for life. Maybe I'll walk around with braces on my neck and back. Maybe I'll stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to work.

Today

Kill them, maul them, kick them, maim them.

Slit their throats, drink their blood.

Burn them, char them, Cut them, fuck them.

Blood down the sewers,Blood right up my alley.
Blood on my face, Blood on my hands.

Dance, dance on them. Dance and sing. Wave your sword, pour your venom. Burn, burn, burn.

Eat. Cut their hearts out and eat. Gorge. Drink their blood. Bathe in it.

And you, yes, look on. Watch TV. Read the papers. Shake your heads. And switch channels to the latest soap.

Yesterday

Yesterday was Sindha's birthday. She had a good day. I didn't. Got stuck in the lift, was buried in another round of meetings and some other stuff which I didn't like very much.

But hey, the better half was happy ! :-)

Here we go again

...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
..
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one

Change of Outlook

Meetings, meetings, meetings galore. My calendar runneth over.

Am seriously thinking of using Lotus Notes calendar, since Notes is the e-mail client at office. Yeah, it sucks big time, but its better than having two e-mail clients (Notes and Outlook) open at the same time. One more advantage is that I can access my calendar even on my laptop if I use Notes.

I'm off to Manipal for the weekend. Need to help Sindha with her thesis, its at the last stage now. I've learnt quite a bit of Excel over the past two weeks. Chi-square, anyone ?

Hello world

Yeah, I'm still here.

Back in business

Updating L-J after a long time. Was busy with my back. Then with work. Right now both are under control, so have some moments of breathing space. (take a deep breath...)

Hunted all over Bangalore for the second and third parts of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Finally found the second, The Subtle Knife, in the unlikeliest of places - Gangarams ! My opinion of this bookshop went up marginally after this. Was so happy I picked up a couple of other books too - Peter Carey's Booker winner A True History of the Kelley Gang and Terry Pratchett's Guards ! Guards!

I read in a web site that the Carey book doesn't use commas. Interesting.

Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards is the 8th in his Discworld series. The book is dedicated to all the guards who appear in movies around the 10th minute and are summarily dispatched by the hero. Poor souls.

Completed 2/3rds of The Subtle Knife. Quite good. Comparisons with Tolkien and JK Rowling are inevitable, according to critics. To my mind though, I don't think Pullman should be compared with Rowling - they are in two different leagues altogether. Not to pull Rowling down, but her books are targeted primarily at children. Pullman is also classified as a kiddies writer, but the two books I've read can be appreciated at multiple levels. Tolkien however wins the battle hands down for the sheer depth and range of his writing in The Lord of the Rings. Suffice to say that I think all three authors have their own space and market. The good part is that both Rowling and Pullman are alive and continue to write !

Tried to see Robert Altman's Gosford Park, but the audio was quite bad. Didn't like it much and switched off without bothering to find out who the murderer was.

King of Pain

Woke up in agony at 3:30 in the morning today. The pain was just incredible - couldn't lie down, couldn't sit, couldn't stand. Took a dose of pain killers, but by the time it kicked in I had been through hell.

So went to HOSMAT without further delay (should have gone there the first day itself, of course). Doc takes an x-ray, mutters something and says I've got a pain in the neck. It masquerades as a pulled muscle, but is apparently due to a thingamajig between my neck bones. I've signed up for a week of physiotherapy at HOSMAT, starting today. And oh yes, he also recommended the tablets which asked me to take. Thanks, buddy.

Anyway, I guess that's enough on the subject.

I've almost completed Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. Its not bad, but of course nowhere near his best. To my mind, these are the best of King:

1. Salems Lot
2. Night Shift, a collection of short stories
3. It
4. The Stand
5. The Shining

PJ for the day

Q: Who is Joe ?

A: Kambhakt Ishq, because "Kambhakt Ishq Hai Joe...."

Hey, I'm just the messenger ! :-)

Monday Morning

First the bad news:

My home PC refused to start on Saturday. No amount of coaxing could make it budge. I've put in an SOS to Vinod Chandran, my dealer. The strange thing is that Mr Chandran now sells Pru-ICICI insurance policies. So though sympathetic, he was more interested in selling me life insurance. I'll wait for a day or two before calling someone else.

and , you can take it easy for some time. I wont be regaling you with my movie reviews till my PC gets cured. And , you wont get to watch LOTR till this gets fixed too.

I've learned to live with my back pain now. It greets me every morning as I rise, brings me coffee, sings with me in the bathroom, etc.

The good news was that Sindha was home. The weekend got over in two hours.

Awaiting the weekend...

Aaah, the weekend approaches. Look forward to a good two days, as Sindha will be home. Moreover, my product release went off well and everything looks under control. Till the next fire, of course !

Haven't seen any new movies, after lots of hate mail from my fellow bloggers and . No, I'm kidding. Just didn't have the time, though I managed to watch American Pie 2 on my laptop the other day. Didn't like it very much, old pie on new pan.

Have a good weekend, everyone !

Budhavara

Funny kind of day. Had meetings all day long. The product release was today. The Airtel salesman came down, as did a sales rep fromParasmoney. This is a company which helps you in managing your money. Or so they claim.

In spite of the above, I still managed to do some TP like uploading a couple of pictures to use on Live journal, play around with the settings, etc.

dropped by and left a couple of CDs to burn. Didn't get to meet him though, as I was in a meeting.

Am reading Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. Hasn't started well, unlike other King books which start well and then fizzle out. Maybe it will turn out all right in the end.

Mobile pain

Bought an Ericsson cell phone for Sindha yesterday. Plan to go in for a scheme where she can call and receive calls from my number for free, and I need pay just Rs 75 a month to call up any Airtel number. The salesman from Airtel didn't turn up today though...

My neck and shoulders have been aching like crazy for over a week now. Trying all kinds of exercises. Maybe its my posture, maybe its driving, maybe its using the mouse too much. Maybe I need a massage.

(now why am I reminded of Pulp Fiction ? )

Lord !

Saw The Fellowship of the Ring on Divx yesterday. Absolutely fantastic. Its a great adventure yarn which should appeal even to those who haven't read Tolkien. In fact - dare I say it - it could be better than the book !

The movie starts off with a nice prologue which gives you a brief idea of the one ring and its origin, thus giving the film a linear look which wasn't so evident in the book (the story of the ring appears in the middle of the first book, narrated by Elrond). The tempo builds up as the fellowship is formed and the travel begins. The sequences in the mines of Moria are spectacular. But to me the best - and most chilling - part of the movie was the picturisation of the Ringwraiths. The Nazgul Riders are truly awesome, you tremble with Frodo and the other hobbits as they approach, you urge the heroes on as they flee , you heave a sigh of relief as they are swept away in the flood...but you know they will be back. Awesome.

Peter Jackson has taken the best of the book, distilled it and presented it in his own vision. A lot of detail has been left out, but I do believe this will help those who are new to Tolkien. See the movie, then read the book. You'll probably enjoy both. Then of course, see the movie again !

I saw it on a small 14" monitor and loved it. What would it be like on the big screen ? I cant wait.

86.

Cool Weekend

Watched Ocean's 11 today at office. A really cool movie. The music is just right, the actors play their parts to perfection, the director never insults your intelligence and the ambience is spot on. The last crime caper I enjoyed like this was The Sting.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt take the definition of being cool to a new level. I thought Julia Roberts was wasted in a small role and Andy Garcia's character could have been developed a bit more. But no matter. Ocean's 11 is a movie you can really sink your teeth into. Delicious. I'd give it a 73.

Oh, I also saw Don't Say a Word yesterday night. I didn't have high expectations, so cant say I was disappointed. However the movie is full of cliches and ends with the biggest of them all - climax set in a cemetery in the night, graves being dug, precious gem buried in a doll...come on, I've seen Hindi films which have done this better. The first half was watchable, though. 41.

Deb and were with me for the movie and dinner thereafter. Had a good time, helped a bit by Senor Bacardi.

Kay three ji

Ha ! Did it. Saw the darned thing on my comp, at office on a lonely Saturday.

Amitabh is good, so is Kajol. Mr. Khan walks away with the Hammy and Ms Kareena Kapoor gets the Darji award for saving lots of money on clothes. There is this itty bitty red dress which she wears...and the pink..and the black..wish she looked half as pretty as she thinks she is. The story is about rich daddy Amitabh and estranged rich son Shah Rukh who are brought together by rich second son Hrithik. The women (not so rich) are either elderly, middle aged or young, making them daadi-maas, maas and soniyas. A kid sings Jana Gana Mana, Amitabh sings Aati Kya Khandala, Rani Mukherji sings Happy Birthday and Yash Johar sings all the way to the bank.

This film gets 34 on my scale, only because of Kajol and the Big B. Eminently avoidable.



Q: What do you call a bisexual male ?

A: Kabhi Pussy Kabhie Bum !

Hyuk Hyuk !

Weak days

Sindha and I really should learn Kannada. Or at least mug up the days of the week in Hindi, since I think they share the same root. All we know now are Budhavara and Shanivara, as they are similar in Malayalam. The conversation last Sunday between Sindha and our maid servant Lingamma, went like this.

Lingamma : "so when should I come next ?" (in Kannada)
Sindha: "Tuesday banni"
Lingamma: "eh ?"
Sindha: "Tuesday....er...chovva varam banni. Chovvazhcha"
Lingamma: "eh ?"
Sindha sighs and says: "Budhavaram banni".

Postscript: Its Thursday today and Lingamma hasn't turned up yet

T & L and HP & PS

Saw Thelma and Louise yesterday. Liked it a lot - lovely acting, photography and music. Great ending too. I'd give this movie a score of 75.

I don't think I mentioned that I saw Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the other day with Sindha. VCD, of course. The print was good and the conversation was clear, thank heavens. Did I like it ? Sure I did, as I liked the book. Watching the movie gives you a feeling that you are reading the book, it more or less pictures things the way you had imagined them. 70 points, on my new scale of rating movies.


This scale shamelessly copies the rating used by the old Mr Showbiz site some time back before they shut down. Scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the best. A few sample ratings:

The Godfather - 90
Raging Bull - 92
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - 55
Sholay - 95
..etc

Pirate of the 21st Century

Ran into some Divx stuff - lots of movies, amazing quality. Found out a good web page where one can get tools to convert these files into formats which can be played on vcd players. What more can one ask for ? Bliss...Of course, this is all theory. Need to try it out and confirm if everything works.

Hot Topic of the Day - was voted as the Man of the Year in a recent Web event. Bravo, Mujib ! We always knew you had it in you !

Sindha has gone back to Manipal. We were together for over 2 weeks, what with Christmas, New Year and other stuff. Being separated after a long time together is tough.

Kichan might be coming over to Bangalore to prepare for his Civil Services prelims. I am on the lookout for good coaching centers. Haven't zeroed in on anything yet.

Busy Me

Busy with work at office. The next release is coming out in a couple of weeks.

Sindha is home for a few days. Life's good lately.

A New Year !

Probably doesn't mean anything, since time is a human invention. Anyway, hope it will be a happy one for you and me and everyone.