Every once in a while a tag salvages the blog from utter obscurity

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No one.My parents wanted a small and a simple name and they wanted a name which would start with an 'R' like my sister
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
About a year and half ago
DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I hate it.People have problems understanding it.I have trouble reading it sometimes.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Do not have meat for lunch or for any other meal.Strict Vegetarian.
DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No
IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Definitely, though I would have problems breaking the ice.
DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Not a lot but a little.I usually hate sarcastic people.Sarcasm is good for British Sitcoms and nothing more.
DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes,I do and I also retain all of my vestigial organs/parts most notable my Appendix
WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Yes,I'd love to.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Have not had much other than Kellog's corn flakes,Chocos and oats.Like Kellog's Banana flavored CFs
DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
No. I untie them when I have to wear them again :D
DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
strong-headed but not strong particularly otherwise
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Choc-a-Mocha of Corner House.I like Coffee flavored ice creams
WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
The first thing that I notice about women is usually their hair.The first thing about men that I notice would usually be shoes or watches if they are wearing any.
RED OR PINK?
Red,I abhor pink.Pink is my least favorite color
WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My tendency to pack in the pounds :D
WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
I miss my friend Dipayan and the long rambling discussions we used to have about music
WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Denim trousers and white shoes
WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
A Pizza (I am still at work and it is pretty late) :D
WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Light My Fire-The Doors-a song which I think is ethereally beautiful(as DC would put it)
IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
I would be blue.
FAVORITE SMELLS?
Any aftershave,the smell of freshly grounded coffee,banana
WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Ankita
DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU?
Yes
FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?
Tennis
HAIR COLOR?
Black
EYE COLOR?
Hazel Brown
DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No
FAVORITE FOOD?
Mom's Rajma :-)
SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Scary movies though I have watched very few.
LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Rock On
WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Red&White
SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter
HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs
FAVORITE DESSERT?
Apple Pie
WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
The Black Book- Orhan Pamuk
WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
I have got David Villa and Michael Ballack(It is a Euro 2008 promotional mouse pad)
WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?
Don't watch TV at all these days
FAVORITE SOUND?
I absolutely love drum solos and Tabla solos
ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Beatles
WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Paris
DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Yes, I can hold my breath for over two minutes :-)
WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Hyderabad,India
PS:I know this blog has been flagging off a bit these days.I,as usual, blame work.I guess the rest of 2008 would be like this.

RAGA:mixed up and indistiguishable

feeling sleepy and nursing bruises and feeling exhausted after the ordeal.Lilith has generally been very aggressive leaving me copies of extremely suggestive books which include Paradise Lost.old moulds crumble leaving behind more sinisterly seductive sensations. :-)

You don't think about it till it happens to you.All the pain and suffering seem distant-till you face it yourself.The first blast spot,the bus shelter is barely 300m from my house.I have walked past it hundreds of time.While driving through,I have seen friends standing there waiting for a bus and it sends a chill down my spine whenever I think what would have happened if the blasts were to happen in the morning.When the messages and the mails started coming in,it was unreal-the first reaction being that of denial-this couldn't be happening to us-in Bangalore-we are away from the epicenters of danger-and then it was frustration and anger at the ease with which the bombs were planted and the ease with which they could rattle us.The phone networks got jammed almost instantly after the first messages came through.Thank god for the internet.The feeling that it could have been any one of us instead of that unfortunate lady is very very disconcerting.It has been a depressing weekend.I hope that whoever is behind this and the Ahmedabad blasts is dealt with very severely.

It will probably never happen again.After seeing half a decade of Domination,seeing countless champions bite the dust ,two nerve wracking finals and four hours forty eight minutes later it was finally redemption.

It was unreal and just very indescribable*.I came back from Jam after a whole day of traveling and was resigned to the fact that the final would probably be over and was scared to even check when Debu turned on the TV but the match was still being played with the score on 6-6 4th set.The tie break that followed was just amazing tennis.Every time Nadal got a breakthrough Federer clawed back.It was won by Federer 10-8 and the rallies were just beautiful with Federer hitting a backhand winner down the line which just had genius stamped all over it.The match see-sawed so many times that it became difficult to sit still and the crowd at center court couldn't keep mum either with oohs and aahs at each and every point.

Finally it was big big relief to see Rafa win.I think all through out the match one could see that Federer was not his usually benign monk-face self and there was just this slight hint of a worry on his face whereas Nadal has become more and more composed as the years have gone by.then there were major changes in his game most noticeably the heavy top-spin on the forehand.He wasn't hitting flat out at all.I have never seen anyone play that shot for every point in a rally but Rafa really did.Another thing which I saw him do quite effectively is alternatively switching between the baseline and the volley game which would be pretty unnerving for anyone. He also combined this with some very acute angles and power hitting and sometimes-deep in a point you could almost feel Federer's helplessness though in the very next moment Fed would come up with one of those magically surreal shots which would sometimes even leave the linesmen gasping.But in the end it was Rafa's mental toughness more than any other factor which finally saw him through.After four and a half hours it was just too much for the 'inhuman' Fedex. For all those people who keep waxing eloquent on Fed and keep saying how perfect he is -all I have to say is that most people don't realize that Nadal was very very close to beating Fed last year.He was broken only in the 5th set last time around and this time not at all.so even though Federer had some twenty six aces to Nadal's six;Rafa still managed to not concede a service game.amen.***Hamilton winning the Silverstone being an added bonus.
**This is not say that I do not regard Fed as a great player but that maybe-just maybe his best days are behind him.

PS:Actually I checked and Federer did break Nadal once in the second set.The error is regretted.

UPDATE: so it was Gwen-the first lady of Rock and her hubby Gavin Rossdale beside Mirka-Fed's girlfriend at the final and even though I was suspicious I assumed it was some dumb Swedish blonde.I hope the final was not too agitating for dear Gwen in her current state:

At home now and technically 'chilling' out though it is quite muggy here in Jam.People tell me that it is pretty cool now but all I know is that I start sweating if I don't sit under a fan.You really appreciate ACs here.Maybe I have become the extremely sensitive to weather asinine Bangalorean.I was wondering why we don't have power cuts here in Jam,then the power went off yesterday and it dawned on me-its impossible to breath without a fan or an AC here.At the steel plant here during most of the summer,all work is stopped between 11AM to 4PM because even the sheltered portions of the plant become as hot as 50 deg Celsius or more.

So all that can be done is done in the evening and the rest of the time is spent reading or sleeping indoors.I have been reading Moby Dick,Gravity's Rainbow and Beyond Belief in turns so that I don't get bored of any one book.I somehow always end up concurrently reading two or more books and this might seem strange to people who swear by one book at a time but somehow I end up finishing books faster this way.I am also very desperate to read Paradise Lost but unfortunately all these fancy bookshops in Bangalore do not bother to stock it.All I could locate was a massive 'collection of Milton's works' or something of that sort which was anyway beyond the price range.So,whoever you are,please mail me a copy.

Spain won in style and quite decisively.They broke their jinx of not having any silverware for the past 44 years.For me the find of the tournament would be Fabregas-his passing is beautiful and elegant and he created that vital space on which the likes of Villa and Torres thrived.The penalty taken against Italy was very clinical too.With this win I broke a personal jinx too.It would so happen that every team I supported lost in the football world cups or Euro championships.in '94, the first I remember seeing; I was supporting Germany being a fan of Klinsmann.They lost in the quarterfinals.Then in '98,it was again Germany and they lost again. in '02,I switched to Argentina being now a big fan of Batistuta,they were in some 'group of death' and didn't even make it to the second round.That was enough for people to start saying that I am jinxed and that whichever team I support is gonna lose. With Argentina out of the way,I supported Spain and they lost to South Korea in the second round.Then Italy collapsed in the quarterfinals.I started getting taunting calls from all my friends.(you know who you are) They supporting the safe bet- Brazil.Then in '06,it was Argentina again and they were playing some amazing football right throughout the tournament.This time,watching the world cup in the hostel common room was amazing.Unlike cricket in which there would be a collective mourning after an Indian loss,hostel had this different groups of people supporting different teams-the German supporters,the Brazilian supporters,the Argentinian supporters and that would spice things up.The '06 world cup ended in July coinciding with the exams and it was pretty tough concentrating in that almost carnival atmosphere.It seemed as though the jinx would break when 80 mins into the Germany-Argentina Quarterfinal Klose headed in a winner and all was lost. Consequently I bungled up my Digital Communications paper.Yesterday was weirdly familiar with Klose still at the helm of the German attack but thankfully there was no equalizer and I could finally after a 14 year wait see my team win :-)

PS:the only thing better than tennis under lights is probably swimming under lights

In which we do asinine* tags for wont of better things to do ..

The tag goes like this:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.


and so:
1.Python Cookbook**-Martelli,Ravenscroft&Ascher(O'Reilly) -which contrary to all expectations is not about exquisite cuisine or fear of snakes.
2.Done- a book of 800 pages no less
3.The fifth sentence-
def workdays(start,end,holidays=,days_off=None)
4. The next three sentences-
if days_off is None:
days_off =5,6 #default to saturdays and sundays
workdays=[x for x in range(7) if x not in days_off]

5.Found this tag on Space Bar's blog and I tag Ankita,Dreamcatcher(who is pretty jobless anyway),Deepika,Solitary Reaper and Indira.

*isn't asinine such a cool word?Roll it over in your mouth and say it slowly.So deliciously condescending.***
** Accusations of being a geek/IT type will not be entertained.
***I sound more and more like my favorite bloggers.****
****welcome to the labyrinth of recursive footnotes :-)

What do you do when you are on the edge?When the world seems too cruel and unfair and exasperating?I write-whether it be this blog or my journal or office memos .I write and listen to the 9th and hope that the mad feeling passes.People say writing tinged with extreme feeling is never good but you write when you have to write and then it is just a flurry of words.I can't do calm,composed writing.I wish I could write like Falstaff churning out post after post of such intensity which leaves you spellbound. I would rather be insanely passionate than coolly efficient.I'd rather be Cobain than Chris Martin.I'd rather be Maverick than Iceman.

An extremely hectic May it has been .First of all there is work which has been quite challenging lately with truckloads of responsibilities and endless sprints*.I want to go home so badly that my head aches every time I think of Jam and my trip is still a month away.Bangalore is unpleasantly cool this summer.It is extremely bright in the mornings with fuzzy sunlight around lunchtime and then around 3 in the afternoon,the light fades away-replaced by dark thunderous clouds and then inevitably-rain just when you have to leave office.innumerable bedraggled evenings-the most agonizing thing being standing at a traffic light with the rain slowly soaking through to your bones-drop by drop.I have always been a person who hates getting wet in the rain.What joy do people get out of dancing in the rain is something that I have not been able to fathom.Also there is this exam to be given and preparing for exams while working is so difficult-you only have the second rate hours of the day at hand not that any studying gets done on weekends.

Traffic in Bangalore is a funny thing.I wonder if it is the same in other places but there seem to be certain windows of time in which there is a lot of traffic on the roads and then there are lull periods in between.For e.g if I leave home at 8:30 then I am often caught in a mild rush on the road-these are mostly people trying to make it to work by 9 sharp but then unusually there is a lull in the traffic around 8:45-8:50 as most of these people would already be close to their respective destinations.but there is no 9:15-9:20 lull as people who have to reach work at 9:30 and also those wanting to reach by 10:00 are already out on the roads with the latter group out by this time in anticipation of heavy traffic!!

Now with Internet at home,blogging would be easier and more frequent(I hope).I am in the midst of a downloading frenzy but hardly have time to watch the movies I have already downloaded.I have a backlog of unfinished books too.There seem to be pending to-do lists everywhere.Work really squeezes the juice out of you.

* After singing paeans for Agile I sometimes do think that it might get difficult if you are the only one in a story point

There is something surreal about War Pigs .The wail of the sirens at the start and the totally stripped down sound with only the faint drumming when Ozzy sings those immortal lines and the guitar lick at the end of each line.The bass being totally not subdued.There is a certain Naiveté to the lyrics even though its an anti-war song.Its got a definite sadness and a finality to it but yet in an eerie way its an all is not lost song.Its got an ambiguity which I can't describe. Bill Ward's drumming is excellent.It's a song that gives me hope.always.It is a song which restores sanity and alleviates pain.

Faith in humanity has gone down a few notches and don't know when I will get it back again.I am tired of playing games all the time.I have a sudden craving for simplistic quick solutions.

Pari' -day 1

Paris takes your breath away - at every corner and at every turn- it meets whatever expectation you have and more and surprises you when least expected.It beats any other city that I have seen by a mile.Here is a brief account of the I spent in Paris.Subsequent days would have their own posts.

I arrive at CDG airport around 10 in the morning.It is a bit chilly but not really cold.The train journey from the airport to Chatlet Les Halles metro station bang in the middle of Paris is quite agreeable to the eyes.You get to see Stade de France and the Sacre Cour rising up from the urban sprawl.A little bit of a perspective about the geography of Paris.It is basically a city with very little variation in elevation which is divided by The river Seine into two almost identical halves.The center of the city being ile de la cite - the natural island on the Seine which is a point of reference .I take some time to locate my hotel which is actually a youth hostel -The BVJ Louvre(which was just a stone throws away from the Louvre as you doubtless would have guessed).I am told on arriving that I would only be able to get inside my room after 2.So I keep my luggage in a locker and head out with a smaller bag to see the Notre dame.I don't have batteries for my camera (having stupidly left my batteries in Helsinki in my hotel room) and am desperate as all shops are closed (it being a Sunday) .I head out towards the Notre dame and I reach Pont Neuf- a bridge on the Seine leading to the ile de la cite and
am just completely spell bound by the breathtaking beauty that is the banks of the Seine.I am also utterly frustrated by the fact that I am not able to take pictures.But then there is this roadside stall which sells miscellaneous trinkets where I finally locate a couple of batteries in a remote corner.I am mightily relieved and click away crazily.I reach the ile de la cite and reach a pavement where I see a long queue and assume that it is for the famed cathedral.I am led through a security check and get inside but the cathedral strangely does not seem to be anything like the Notre dame that I imagined.I can see Gargoyles but then I am told that I cannot go to the top of the spires.

This is the insides of what I then find out is the St.Chapelle(which is exquisite in its own right and quite overshadowed on the island by Notre Dame.The glass work especially is of a fine quality)and not the St.Michel Notre Dame.

St.Chapelle is just adjacent to Préfecture de Police and that explains the stringent policing at the entrance.

Next I headed straight towards what many consider the finest example of French Gothic Architecture.The church of 'our lady'-Notre Dame de Paris.My first impression on seeing it was to wonder how anything could be more beautiful and I was so excited that I did not take a decent photograph of it and none of my front-on pics do any justice to it.This is a pic I took slightly later in the night.

Notre dame is one of the sights which defines Paris.It is so intricately built and the sculpture on it so exquisite that it can rival any Indian temple like Belur-Halebid or Hampi.Its architecture is beautiful with the two towers at the front,the spire in the middle and and huge stain-glass circular windows on the sides.The best part of the architecture are the Flying Buttresses which are basically rib-like support pillars to prevent the roof from falling in because the side walls have been weakened by carving huge holes in them for windows.you can see them in this pic just behind the clump of trees though again, not a clear view.

The insides are a bit unlike the other churches which I visited as Notre Dame served as a major focal point for religious movements in France.(thats about as informative as I can get without committing a factual error!).There was a lot of Christian symbolism and imagery which I didn't 'get'.However I did see a statue of Joan of arc and the plaque said that after she was burned alive by being falsely accused of being a witch by her enemies,the decision to restore her image to that of a heroine was taken in Notre Dame. The insides:

I spent quite some time there and wanted to go up the stairs to the spire where you get quite a view of Paris but was dissuaded by the pain in my legs and the long queue.It was the first Sunday of the month and the entry was free.Apparently you can get really close to the Gargoyle there.

Next I headed towards the Eiffel Tower.The most visited sight in Paris-what the Parisians affectionately call -'The metal asparagus'.I wanted to get over it pretty fast and I wanted to save time for the other sights.The tower was all lit up when I arrived and looked really-like the tower you see in photographs:

There are a certain few minutes in the evening when the lights on the tower go all shimmering and flickering and it is a really beautiful sight.(which you can see in the above pic).The area surrounding the Tower is very picturesque with great sweeping lawns on one side and the Seine on the other side.This idyllic tourist setting is complimented by hordes of people of all nationalities-Spaniards,Brits,Aussies,Sub-Saharan Africans all standing for at least a couple of hours in the queue putting on their best behaviors.The icing on the cake is the generous sprinkling of very well behaved and meek African and Indian(Punjabi) youth selling the eternal have-been-to-Paris symbol.The showpiece which has to be a part of your show-case back home-The Mini Eiffel Tower replica.

Already it was dark by then.It was a pleasant evening with lots of people.I didn't go up the tower to avoid the tremendous rush and instead took a stroll along the Seine eating a huge bag of fries and clicking snaps. I was very tired after the 4 AM flight and the running around and traveling.So I went back to the hotel.My dorm room had 4 beds and there were two Australians and one Japanese.The Aussies were backpacking across Europe having given themselves a 2 month break between school and college.The Japanese didn't say much and was very apologetic and polite.so much for day 1.Day 2 - The Louvre.will continue.....

Sick :(

I am not back as yet but have been terribly sick all this week ...in fact from last Friday.I was sick on my birthday too as many of you doubtless know.I still managed to cut a cake and my roommates managed to polish it off for me.It is a subtle kind of fever....my skin is not actually burning hot but the fever is there underneath...every time I think it is gone,it comes right back.I am depressed and tired.I sweat underneath my bedclothes and it goes away and then I start shivering because of the sweat.I have been taking antibiotics and have been thinking not so rosy thoughts.Not going to office for 5 days means I have lesser number of days of leave to go home which is again depressing.I will probably get a blood test done once the dosage of pills is exhausted.really depressing stuff.Everybody is sick in Bangalore.We almost had an epidemic in our team in office.On the friday of the Megadeth concert only 10 out of 23 turned up for work.Hi Denzyl if you are reading this :-) Leave a comment sometime to cheer me up.
I feel a bit like Rodya in Crime & Punishment not to say that I feel murderous but delirious.Rodya of part 1 and 2.The Wikipedia article on C&P is excellent by the way.I owe replies to some emails from some of you and this is my excuse for the delay.Till I am hale n' hearty again.

I have a sudden urge to eat Singhada with sauce.Not Samosas.Singhadas in all their crispy glory.