The buzz of the cabinet AC,clickety-clack of muffled keys invigorating tired muscles at the end of the wire,the metallic flickering of a thousand tubelights giving you solace, some even winking.The soft almost soothing droning over late- night, long-distance, inter-cultural conference calls from across the aisle.The clipety-clop of a high heel walking down the hallway. A car backing up, breaking the silence which descends like a fog , evoking some long lost shard of memory glistening in remembrance.Far away sounds of traffic.A sudden gust of wind and the slight rattling of window panes in their grooves.The sudden groan of a chair being relieved of it's burden for the day.
The urgent,almost angry gurgling of the entrails-It is time to go.

Managed to vote for the first time this time around .I cast my vote in Jamshedpur for the constituency of the same name.It was your typical Jam morning with mercury in the forties but I was excited nevertheless having spent days trawling election websites and watching countless debates on Television.What I particularly like are statistics and the numbers in the exit polls.One thing about statistics such as the number of Lok Sabha constituencies per state is that it makes you starkly aware of the population distribution across states.Do you know that if UP was a country of it's own,it would be the sixth most populous nation on the planet?UP elects 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.But this is along expected lines.But which is the state with the next biggest contingent of MP's?It is Maharashtra with 48 MPs and then next in line is AP and WB with 42 seats apiece.The polling booth was DBMS school and when we arrived there were very few people with 'stalls' of political parties set up outside to help people find their identification numbers in the copy of the electoral roll.We found our names but there were no photographs against them.We walked into the polling station and there were two classrooms earmarked for voting.Each had a security guard standing outside but the whole set up was anything but intimidating.When my chance came,one officer checked my Electoral ID card and before I could step into the Booth another officer inked my finger but surprisingly no part of the ink touched my nail.I walked into the booth and took a minute to gaze at the EVM and all the candidates and their symbols and then pressed the button against my chosen candidate.There was a loud beep registering my vote and I was done.It was all over in practically ten seconds because the officer was coaxing me to vacate the booth quickly.It was my mom's turn after this and she took some time to put on her glasses,look at the list and then press the button,she did not take more than fifteen seconds but the officer was already mumbling about people taking time which infuriated mom and she turned around and gave him a piece of her mind.

It was as good a voting experience as it gets,quite often people have to wait for long hours sometimes in adverse weather conditions but there is one thing I would like to point out for people who are confused about the procedure of procuring voter's ID card and getting their names on the electoral roll.There is no clear link between getting a voter's ID card and getting your name on the roll.The voter's ID card is to be seen as an Address proof.The reason it is usually insisted upon is because most rural and poor voters have nothing else which can act as a proof of residence.But us Urban voters have a plethora of cads such as driving license,Passport,Ration card or PAN card.The more important thing is to get your name on the electoral roll and technically it is possible for you to vote in more than one constituency if you have names on more than one electoral roll (you can furnish your Election ID card in one and your other card in the other constituency)

PS:This was in draft mode for a long time.

I was going through my drafts and I found this Tag.I am just incredibly busy these days and so have been unable to post.Went home for a couple of weeks mid-April, bought a new phone(A N73-I am in love again....ah the seductive joys of seamless wireless file sharing! I love Bluetooth(Yes it is a big deal if you consider the fact that my last phone would switch off every time I pressed '9' on it ) , voted for the first time(this would go into another post),managed to finish One hundred years of solitude,The Black Book(which was on the list since last July!) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist(really not up to the hype-a big letdown)Also was gifted the Entire Sandman series on my birthday! :D(I know you guys are sick already with all the gloating but seriously...do you know anyone as lucky ?).This tag is kinda sappy and I still can't remember where I flicked it from but here goes:

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your first thought be?->Screw Everyone!I hate this world.Then probably go and listen to some Nirvana.

2. If you can have a dream coming true, what would it be?->Spending all my life reading in a room full of books.
3. What is the one thing most hated by you?->The current misuse of the world 'culture' to depict seemingly legal activities in a bad light .E.g. 'Pub Culture','Eating-out Culture' etc.This is being done quite frequently and I am sick of it.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?-> invest some and spend some to buy a house for myself. will stop working and tour the world.Perhaps start my own firm if I am not too bored.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?->I don't think so.It is too complicated and is not fun.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?->loving someone because in this you can improvise.You just have to accept what you get when you are being loved by someone but loving someone can be done in unique and myriad ways.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?->I don't have to.I am already in love.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?->think of someone else.simple.lot of fishes in the sea :D

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?-> No one.I would perhaps like to watch Jack Nicholson or Leanardo di Caprio when they shoot for scenes.

10. What takes you down the fastest?-> I don't know what this means but what totally demoralizes me is disinterest esp in people you care, for you.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?-> probably a lot more fitter and slimmer and surer of what I want to do.

12. What’s your fear?->The only fear I have is of not being able to live upto my own ideals.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?-> Like I said,I don't even remember where I got this from.

14. Would you rather be single and rich, or married but poor?->married but poor.I think poverty is a lesser curse when compared to loneliness.

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?-> look at my cell phone to see how late it is.

16. Would you give all in a relationship?->I would certainly want to give as much I can but not give up on things which I think makes me what I am.

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?->The one who loves me back more?

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?-> No.I hope I won't get into such nasty situations.

19. If you get to go back in time and fall in love all over again , would it still be with the same person?->Yes.I am not allowed to say anything else. :D

20. What will you do about climate crisis?-> try hybrid cars and solar heating and lighting systems.probably convince people to become vegetarians.

25 random things you did not know about me:The facebook tag

I was tagged on Facebook by The Diva.

1. I am an early riser.I am happiest if I can be up at 5 before sun rise which doesn't happen too often these days.
2. I can't understand the whole fuss about "How I met your mother' and don't find it particularly funny.However I am a big fan of Seinfeld and Will&Grace.
3. I've never read any Shakespeare (if you discount A mid summer night's dream in Sandman)
4. I love eating a variety of fruits except Watermelon.That's because when I was a kid I ate a whole watermelon and promptly puked my guts out.My favourite fruit is Orange.
5. My favourite characters in books are angst-y troubled people like Raskolnikov,Ameena Sinai,Gregor Sampsa,Rorschach (can't think any more right now :-) )
6. I am a big sucker for museums.I try to check out at least one museum in every city that I visit time permitting.Paris was a very difficult city in this regard.
7. When I was a kid,one of my favourite pastimes was to pore over Atlases.I can still recall a frightfully big number of countries and capitals.At the risk of sounding bombastic,I might just beat you in a geography quiz unless you happen to be a Geography major :-)
8. Just to clear the air on the confusion created by my various testimonials on Orkut-I support Chelsea very casually.I started supporting The Blues when Crespo used to play for them.Actually I am big Argentina fan so back then,among the major English clubs,it was only Chelsea which had an Argentinian player.Now,it is quite different so you might just catch me celebrating a Tevez or a Messi score for ManU or Barca even against Chelsea. :-)
9. I prefer Nokia phones(other than for obvious reasons) because they let me drop them from crazy heights.Once back from Goa,I was able to extract a fistful of sand (and I am not fibbing) from my Nokia phone after I disassembled it :-) They are magnificently sturdy.
   
10. I am an optimist by nature.
11. I am a tea drinker.I was once a coffee drinker and would plead with mom to put some drops of decocotion in my milk when I was a kid.When I was a little older,I even tried milky coffee with my Chocos.But now, I prefer the unhurried mellowness of tea.
12. At precisely this point I was interrupted in office by my manager looking over my shoulder into my screen.Somehow whenever he strolls by he always catches me at some random work unrelated website.This has led him to believe I am an Anarchist and a Satan worshiper.
13. I am somehow the attractor and retainer of bad genes in my family.The tendency to put on weight and the tendency to lose hair from my father's side.Being hard of hearing at an early age from my mother's side* and random facial injuries-the work of my sis(Its not a genetic thing but I had to mention this :-D )
14. I think all tongue twisters are just too lame when compared to the baap of all tongue twisters( courtesy Vineet Jain)-"Upper Roller Lower Roller"-try it and I shall treat anyone who can do this continuously five times without faltering
15. I prefer Facebook over Orkut
16. I think Obama rocks.The man justifies the hype.I especially like the way he is trying to address the Iran issue.He exemplifies the fact that most great leaders are also great men of words and rhetoric.
    
17. I agree with those people who say that 300 the movie was overtly sexist and contrary to expectation,this is what I found out about the Spartans
18. I find it amusing that Frieda Pinto is suddenly the talk of the town and that people are suddenly going gaga over Slumdog's soundtrack when it is most easily Rehman's worst composition.Just gets to show that the world knows zilch about India.
    
19. I prefer Beer,Whiskey the way it is supposed to be had and Scotch.I think Guiness is undrinkable.Not also too big a fan of Fosters.I once tried to convince a friend that VAT 69 is actually a government-made Whiskey and is a brand to promote V.A.T. I don't remember much before or after that.
20. I would like to have a house with wooden floors.Concrete just doesnt feel right under your feet.
21. I can eat Pasta anytime of the day.I prefer Penne,Macaroni,Fusili in that order and don't like Spaghetti or Lasagna
22. Indian states that I have not been to-Himachal Pradesh,the whole of North East,Andman and Lakshadweep,Punjab,Haryana.
23. I am once a skeptic then a firm believer and now I would call myself agnostic
24. I turned 24 this 24th of March
25. ending with a Jim Morrison quote-"I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown."

*though my mom still retains her hearing and my dad is not overweight I am referring to thier respective sides of the family

PS:Happy Ugadi to all!

ooo what does this button do or the attack of the :DD's-Dev-D and Delhi-6

The problem with posting late is that fellow bloggers would have already stolen your thunder when it comes to reviewing Movies or albums.

I recently saw DevD and Delhi-6.I would give DevD a lukewarm rating-not a movie which you should miss but definitely not worth burning-a-hole-in-your-pocket-by-watching-it-in-a-multiplex-in-these-recessionary-times like I did.I was expecting a slightly different plot than that of Devdas and going by the comments of Abhay Deol(He said he wanted to explore the drug 'culture' in urban India) I thought it would be similar to other drug stories that I know of like James Frey's A million little pieces but the impression you get after watching the movie is that the Dev of DevD is basically a drunkard gone awry in a BMW.The audience primarily gets the impression that it was alcohol which caused the problems and not cocaine.Mahi Gill as Paro was simply mind blowing in the way she oozes raw sexuality whether sending her nude pics to her lover or the most amazing scene of all-carrying a gadda on her bicycle riding in the middle of fields of Sarson.I have a vague feeling she is somehow related to actress Priya Gill.(?)I did not like Chanda played by Kalki Koechlin as I was not too impressed by her potrayal of a foreign embassy child turned part-time prostitute cum student.Finally,Abhay Deol as Dev does quite convincingly seem to be the delusional arrogant bade baap ka beta but for someone whose last Abhay Deol movie was "Oye lucky lucky oye" -to escape the similarities in both the movies seems impossible.Both are based in Delhi and both involve a second half in which Abhay Deol rambles around Delhi-in one case drinking and wrecking his life and in the other case carrying out a serious of thefts to prove a point.It seemed like a repeat of the performance in Oye lucky.I definitely like the alternate ending and it finally helped me purge my mind of the horrific run-to-Paro's-gate-and-die-with-bottle-in-hand Shahrukh in SLB's Devdas.I think DevD is a movie which grows on you more the number of times you watch it and I am definitely looking forward to watching it on DVD.

Delhi-6 was a complete and utter letdown.Saw it on the saturday of it's release and I was pretty disappointed.The most frustrating thing about Delhi-6 is that none of the songs are picturized(except Masakalli and Dil Gira) and I kept waiting and waiting but was time and again horrified by hearing all my favourite songs being frittered away as background score.Actually when it comes to ARR's music,it is usually very difficult for filmmakers to picturize them.Ram Gopal Varma has go on record saying that he had quite an headache trying to imagine how to picturize 'Aye rama' in Rangeela.The only Bollywood filmamker who has done justice to Rehman's music is in my opinion Ashutosh Gowarikar esp. in Swades.Most of the characters in Delhi-6 are very well fleshed out but the plot is horribly weak.Nothing much happens in the first half and the second half is one of the most silliest I have seen in recent memory.The only silver lining is Sonam Kapoor who just looks very very yummy :D and this movie proves that she can be a good actress as well.Overall,something which you can definitely avoid if you have not wasted your moolah already.

PS:The movie I am waiting for with utter impatience is Gulaal releasing Mar 13

It's time to turn out the lights here and prepare for a long hard climb.

even though 8.33% of the year has already gone down the drain (near that pub)

Better late than never is what they all say-So here I am-back on ICISIF after a hiatus of exactly 40 days-a period spent giving a plethora of MBA entrance exams and getting fatter and not watching movies which people keep recommending.The time was also spent rediscovering my lost love for AOE and A R Rahman's music(thanks to Akhil's awesome car stereo-more precisely time was spent in analysing his songs to figure out each and every instrument used-maybe a post for some other time)

Cannot believe it is 2009!I like January's and usually the half of the year on this side of July.My spirits are the lowest during the rainy season.So my question to all of you is:which is your least and most favourite season of the year? and why?Since this is my first post of the year-I promise that this year I shall post frequently and less about Formula 1 and music and more about the gargantuan pile of books which I have managed to amass and keep wanting to read.So expect to see more posts on books. I wish all of you all the happiness,excitement,love-making and fun which you can expect to eke out for the rest of the year.Thanks for hanging around and commenting every now and then.Your comments mean a lot to me.For the rest of my start-of-the year post go here (This is all I wanted to say anyway too :-) )

and also:
Ghar tera Saloni, Badal Ki Colony, Dikhla de thenga in sabko, jo udna na Jaane

Tujhe kya gum, Tera Rishta Gagan ki bansuri se hai, Pawan ki guftgu se hai, suraj ki roshni se hai,

The weather in Bangalore is just perfect-blue cloudless skies and glorious glorious sunshine and you can see Jupiter and Venus almost everyday,only a bit farther away each day.The azure afternoons diffuse into golden evenings and then the sky becomes indigo once the sun sets .I just discovered that there are a lot more colors with names out there which I was totally unaware of.There is cream which is like dirty white and there is beige which is the color of very milky coffee and there is scarlet which is like bright red and is almost pink :-) How did these colors escape me? Quite long ago in the middle of a serious discussion- somebody(you know who you are!) talked about Turquoise blue and I was pretty confused.So all you men(women usually don't have problems with such things right?) who have problems with these things Wikipedia comes to your rescue here and here and here.So now you know why all these paints have corny names for shades even though they all look the same to you.Talking about Wikipedia,you can make contributions to the Wikimedia foundation here and cmon all you Wiki-junkies you have credit cards right?Wonder what I would do without Wikipedia.

Anyway,so what I really wanted to talk about was some of the lyrics of The Doors.Some of you might remember a Gtalk status message that I had once-"Mute Nostril Agony-carefully refined and sealed over" and DC had even asked me what it meant and I did not know then,but did a little research of my known.What I found out left me in awe of Jim Morisson's abilities as a poet and just how deep and beautiful his lyrics can get.These lines and the lines below are taken from a Doors song-Horse Latitudes-a spoken word piece from the album Strange days.

When the still sea conspires an armor
And her sullen and aborted
Currents breed tiny monsters
True sailing is dead

Awkward instant
And the first animal is jettisoned
Legs furiously pumping
Their stiff green gallop
And heads bob up
Poise
Delicate
Pause
Consent
In mute nostril agony
Carefully refined
And sealed over

Horse Latitudes are the latitudes on both sides of the Equator close to it where winds drop to a bare minimum and is a geographical term but is a terribly frustrating place to be when you are in sea as there is no wind in the sails to push you forward at a brisk pace.Hence Spanish sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries would have to resort to some very desperate measures to offset the prolonging of the voyage which would include killing and eating the horses on board or throwing horses overboard and this is precisely what is captured in the lyrics above.It just gets to show that most of Morrison's lyrics are still very under-appreciated .Because Horse Latitudes is a spoken piece it was usually included in the middle of an even more mysterious song-'Moonlight Drive' and it was inserted between:

Come on, baby, gonna take a little ride
Goin' down by the ocean side
Get real close
Get real tight
Baby gonna drown tonight
Goin' down, down, down, down
Goin' down
Goin' down, way down
Down, down, down, down, down
Down, baby low
Children of the caves will let the
Secret fires glow

and

Easy, to love you
As i watch you glide
Yeah, we're falling through wet forests
On our moonlight drive
Moonlight drive
Moonlight drive
Moonlight drive

Quite impressive considering the fact that Morrison wrote these lines when he was still in school.

It's been ages since I wrote anything about me self here. The last six months on ICISIF read like a news website.I wouldn't say nothing's been happening but at the same time not a lot :-).I realize that in a fortnight I'd be one and a half years old here in office;that seems like a lot of time only the nagging feeling that you have not learned much.Damn, I did not even want to talk about my work but it just creeps in .I switch off completely once I get home from work.This year has been nice to me(alright,this is not the year end post there is still time for that)So that's that and see you around. :-)

PS:Five points to anyone spotting a small attempt at recursion above ;-)

The blackest Thirty six hours that we have ever seen in our lives.

Hamilton Wins!

I am just immensely relieved and ecstatic at the same time* at Hamilton's maiden Championship win after a Brazilian Grand Prix of epic proportions with an absolutely nerve wracking last 30 seconds where all seemed lost at the penultimate corner but thanks to Timo Glock and the irrational Toyota decision not to switch to wet tires,Hamilton snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.It was as dramatic as it can get though you can't help feeling sorry for Massa.All I can think of now was that Hamilton deserved it.It was a season of many ups and downs with fortunes see-sawing like mad but Mc Laren did pull it back in the last few races.The most defining moment award of the season (after the finale of course) would go to: Massa coming out of the pit lane in Singapore with the fuel hose attached :D **. Let's hope we see more and more such Hamilton championship wins and such great entertaining races.
Previous post on F1 here

PS:Nicole Scherzinger of PCD was there to cheer her man on.no wonder he held his nerve :)

*it has been such a great year for sports in general isn't it? First we had India winning the Perth test, then Rafa winning Wimbeldon,then India winning three medals at the Olympics and Phelps single-handedly changing the way we look at swimming and now this.

** Ferrari snarks keep away-I might delete all anon comments on this post

Brahmin's Coffee Bar

Inspired by Akhil's this post, I have finally decided to come out of the closet and declare my love for Bangalore's variegated South Indian eating joints.Bangalore has this concept of Darshinis-which are small eating joints where one would usually have a quick breakfast or a cup of coffee for very nominal prices.Darshinis are optimized for the morning rush hour crowd and you would usually find everyone from college students to Business execs jostling for a bite of that crisp Vada and a swig of that hot aromatic South Indian coffee.Because of the low cost model of such places,there are usually tables at which people stand and eat.You pay for your order beforehand.I have seen Darshinins only in South Indian cities and this is one 0f the things I would like to see in North Indian cities- a place where you could have breakfast on the fly without spending a lot of moolah and wasting a lot of time.

In my 5 years in Bangalore,I have been to numerous such places but my favourite would always be-Brahmin's Coffee Bar in Shankarapuram.This easily beats other also-rans in this category by a mile.BCB is basically a garage converted in to a kitchen at the back and an open area at the front with a counter just in front of the kitchen.It was started by two bored engineers in the 70's who realized that they could make a profitable business out of this sort of an enterprise.BCB opens at 7AM and closes at 12PM.It then again opens at 4PM and closes by 7PM.These are the timings from Monday to Saturday and BCB is ( very famously) closed on Sundays.So either you make BCB a part of your daily routine or you make time for it on Saturday evenings.BCB's menu consists of six items:
1.Idli
2.Vade/Vada
3.Kharabath
4.Kesaribath
5.Coffee
6.Tea
7.Butter(optional with your idlis)

Because it is usually very crowded,you have to make sure that you have made up your mind when you go up to the guy sitting just outside who hands out the tokens.Then you step inside the shop which would usually be choc-a-bloc with(if its in the morning)joggers,people carrying large bags for parcels,college students(usually NHS and Jain college students-who have deserted Food street in droves and chow down here these days) and lots of people in safari suits.I have seen many a swanky car parked near BCB-just gets to prove that BCB is popular not only among us lesser mortals but also among moneyed folks.When you reach the counter,you are supposed to state clearly what your order is when handing over the token to the guy over the counter.This is to make sure that the order is dispatched as quickly as possible and no time is wasted in reading and interpreting the order.As soon as you get your order,you trudge out carefully,trying not to spill the contents of your plate and go outside and set your plate on one of the tables or hold it in your hand.If you run out of chutney,you don't have to go back all the way to the counter again as there is 'uncle' with cups of chutney waiting for you under the tree near the shop.Once you are done with the mouth-watering idlis or whatever you are having,you go inside once again to get the coffee.The coffee is brewed from a copper decocotion filter which looks pretty antique but serves the purpose and you usually ask for two glasses as the glass is too hot to be held.You can have all kinds of combinations depending upon the number of people for whom the order is meant including the ubiquitous By-2(which literally means one standard size coffee in two glasses).I have heard pretty complicated orders like 4 by 7 and have never seen the coffee guy bat an eyelid!The only caveat is that BCB is priced a bit on the higher side,with one coffee costing Rs. 8 but in the end the taste just makes up for the assault on the pocket.I vouch that nobody can make Vadas like BCB.

I discovered BCB when I was in final year and the moment I tasted the idli,I was hooked.Usually BCB would be the first stop in the long rambling walks that I would take in college days.I would head out from college on KR Road and walk pass the BAC(Basvangudi Aquatic Centre) and reach BCB where I would have a leisurely coffee and finaces permitting,a plate of idli vada.Then I would take a walk around the shop lined with opulent houses and quiet streets that makes Shankarapuram one my favourite places in Bangalore.I would walk for about an hour and muse about a lot of things and many happy memories of college times are tied with these walks.Always used to give me a lot of solace.

So now you people know what you are missing if you are in Bangalore and what to look out for when you are next here.Here is a pic of the place on a very crowded Saturday morning.