Obama, Change, and Raj

Obama built his campaign around what I call the "Change" rhetoric. I've mentioned this because I read an interesting counter-arguments to this in one of my pro-republican colleague's office and it's worth a mention in my blog. It goes like this:

"I'll keep my freedom, my guns, and my money, and you can have all THE CHANGE ---- Vote for McCain/Palin "

Now Obama has won, and McCain, Palin & Co. has gone into hibernation. So, why am I mentioning it now? To be honest, I wanted to write something but was out of ideas (as usual) as to what should be the opening lines of my new post. This, at least, has given me some sort of a start, no matter how good or bad it might be.

Talking of change reminds of the change my life has gone through in the past few weeks. For a guy who can sleep 24x7 if given an opportunity, getting up at 5:30 everyday, working 12-13 hours a day with no weekends off is quite a change. Even though I get a weekly off on Fridays and I make full use of it by remaining inactive the whole day, I am not satisfied. There was a time when I used to get a 2-day or a 3-day weekend and I used to nap, munch, nap again, and then cherish the nap-munch cycle on Mondays while awaiting the next weekend to go back to my favourite routine. But with the current schedule and my apparent, never-ending want of sleep, normal Earth-Fridays seem to have turned into Venus-Fridays . And then working on weekends afterwards is not what I had asked for when I relocated to US. But there is a positive side to it, which is the hands-on experience that I've gained. Let's leave it at that as I am in no mood to discuss the technical stuff I've learnt.

Two more weeks and my work schedule will be back to normal. There are a lot of pending items on my to-do list, which I hope will take priority over the nap-munch cycle when those eagerly awaited long weekends are back. Despite this hectic schedule and the fact that I haven't able to follow cricket matches live, life here in US has gone pretty well till now. I am fairly content with the highlights posted on the net. My regular cricket discussions with Akshay have kept my enthusiasm alive. With so much of cricket going on these days, there is always something to discuss. But it's not the only thing we discuss. In the past few months we have had some really long abuse-a-politician discussions over the weekends, which have been really constructive. Besides being an effective way to exchange ideas and views, these discussions are great stress busters. Just imagine the morale boost and the confidence one gets by cursing and denigrating someone like a Raj Thackrey without the fear of being attacked by some MNS supporter in Louisiana. Some people might find it a waste of time but it's better to waste time like this rather than "utilize" the time in propagating a North Indian-Marathi divide or a Hindu-Christian divide.

Well, it's time to go back home so I must stop writing now . I'll be back soon.

PS: I think an arbitrary title like Obama, Change, and Raj befits the random thoughts I have penned down in this article.

Me, Myself & Laziness

Imagination knows no bounds, and so does my laziness. It's been more than 2 weeks and I haven't cleaned my house. Everything, including myself, is scattered all around.......

Well, I wrote these lines 2 hours back and am back after playing pool. I have forgotten what I had in mind when I started writing so it's better to start afresh.

It's been an eventful last few days. Indian intelligence drew a lot of flak, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and I got loaded with a lot of work in office....

I am stuck. I am trying to write something sensible but can't think of anything right now. But why should I write anything sensible? After all, the blog is titled 'Desultory Meanderings'. It's a way to express whatever I have in mind. The last time I tried to write something sensible was to vent out my anger after the Delhi blasts. I wrote a few lines but laziness got over me and I went to sleep. And when I woke up, it was too late as everything that I wanted to express was already expressed in some way or the other on various news websites. Anyways, I'll still publish whatever I wrote that day.

"September 14, 2008. The day when the Indian polity was humiliated once again. Humiliated because it's repeated mistakes in the past and not learning from them even a single bit. Delhi blasts are a latest addition to India's long battle with terrorism. It's a battle being fought in our own backyard but unfortunately we are not the ones in control and we are being constantly reminded about that. Terrorists are striking at will; openly challenging us and how do we reply? We discuss. We debate. We condemn. Time and again, our intelligence agencies and police have been caught off guard and it seems that our government is oblivious to this....."

I dozed off again. Enough of this. I am going to finish this post in one go. But I don't feel like writing anything now. I got this sudden urge to overcome my laziness and clean my apartment. I hope to finish it without napping again in between.

Scribbler's back

It's been a long break since my last post. Somehow I managed to overcome my laziness to write something. As usual, I am not sure as to what I am going to write so let's see whether it would make any sense.

It's been almost 2 months in USA and a whole new experience all together. The state where I am living in, Louisiana is quite different from rest of the country. Almost all the locals are crazy about food and that's why obesity is a big problem here. And by obesity, I don't mean the desi definition, i.e. a few extra pounds above the waist line. Here, it's a lot of extra pounds precariously bulging from wherever you could possibly imagine. As a part of the initial settling-in process, I attended a cross-cultural workshop where I was given some sort of a check-list to make out whether I've adapted to this place. Here are some excerpts from that list:

"You know when you've adapted to New Orleans when….

Conversations when you go out to eat are restaurant meals that you've had in the past and restaurant meals that you are going to have in the future.

You have gained 10 pounds and you don't care.

Every time you hear sirens, you think it's a parade or a wedding.

You know how long you have to run to a store, get what you need and get back to your car before you get a parking ticket …. "

Well, I must say that I am far from being fully adapted but the indoctrination is slowly but surely going on.

Another thing that's totally new for me is to prepare, eat, and most importantly, appreciate my meals. Given the fact that my resume boasted of culinary delights like maggi, tea, and coffee in the past; it was a challenge for me prepare something like a moong sabut or a masoor ki daal, which seemed to be in a completely different league of cooking all together. But thanks to my 22-year "mummy ko cook karte dekha hai" experience, I have fared well and have managed to prepare edible meals. After a terrible and traumatic paani to kaagaz transition, I've found out that there is one more thing I sincerely and truly detest. That's ironing and after all my sincere efforts, I've come to the conclusion that wasting nearly 20 minutes on ironing a shirt when it's going to get wrinkled within the first few minutes I step in my car, is not worth the effort.

It's time to sleep now. Decent comeback, if I may say so. Hopefully, the scribbler will be back soon.

Krazzy 4: Somewhat bore

The very fact that the most enjoyable moment was Hritik’s song post movie speaks for how mediocre the movie was. There is nothing in the movie that you haven’t seen before. The story is about four mentally challenged guys, played by Arshad Warsi (Raja), Irfan khan (Dr. Mukherji), Rajpal Yadav (Gangadhar) and Suresh Menon (Dabbu). But before I go further, I must mention the few things that I liked. First, credit must go to the director who kept the crap short so it was a bit easier to tolerate. Second, Suresh Menon had a total of five dialogues only in this two-hour flick. Out of these, he said “kidnap” four times and “kidnap, issi ne Dr. Sonia ka kidnap kia hai. Maine dekha hai” the last time. His mere presence is annoying so had he been given more dialogues, my senses would’ve smothered to death. Last, it was Irfan’s good comic timing, which assured me that the investment of Rs 240/- has not gone waste after all.

Getting back to the story, these guys are suffering from various disorders. Raja has no control over his temper and can do anything in a fit of anger. If a man can slap his father-in-law-to-be, then he can do “anything”. Gangadhar is a schizophrenic patriotic writer who thinks that it’s still 1947 and India has just been freed from the “Firangis”. Dr. Mukherji is suffering from an “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” (that’s how it was described in the movie) and is a cleanliness freak. He wants everything and everyone to be “Saaf-Suthra” and “Swachh”. Dabbu has some strange speech disorder, which was explained as: “ Wo akhiri baar kab bola tha, koi nahi jaantaa. Aur wo agli baar kab bolega, wo bhi koi nahi nahi jaanta”. These guys are under the supervision of Dr. Sonia (Juhi Chawla) who thinks that taking these guys to see an India-England cricket match would inculcate team spirit in them, which would help them recover. She called this method some sort of “team recovery therapy”. So that’s how they get out of the rehab centre. On the way, some goons kidnap Dr. Sonia (who turn out to be cops half-an-hour later) and the group “Krazzy 4” is left all alone. Explaining the reason behind kidnapping would be too much of an effort so it's better to leave the details. These guys then decide to rescue her and that’s how the story proceeds. In the middle it’s revealed that it was actually her husband, Mr. Oberoi, played by Rajat kapoor, who was behind the whole kidnapping plan. Apart from this there are two sub-plots that are also wired in. One is Raja’s love life and the other is Dr. Mukherji’s married life. There are a few unnecessary cliché-ridden senti scenes, like the one where Raja says, ”aap hume waapas hospital le jao, hum pagal is duniya ke layak nahi hai”, to which Dr. Sonia responds, ” Raja, tum galat ho, ye society tum logon ke layak nahi hai”. However, Irfaan’s comic timing is good and some of the scenes would certainly make you giggle. As far as Rajpal is concerned, fortunately, he is not at his annoying best and therefore, bearable. The music is bad and lyrics are worse. “O Re Lakad, Iikad-Pikad, Pingal-Chungaliya”, I didn’t expect this from someone like Javed Akhtar.

“Saaala kaun si khundas mein aake likha tha ye gaana?”

Sharukh’s item number comes in as a refresher in the middle and is worth a watch. Overall, story is so-so, Irfan is good, rest of the bunch is OK and few patches are certainly comic. So, if you don’t mind watching stereotypes and are not willing to spend more than 60-70 bucks then go for this movie.

Disclaimer: Follow the advice at your own risk. The Author shall not be held responsible for any losses incurred.

Introductory Note

A year after I turned legally marriageable, a sudden thought lead me to make use of my fingers and type anything that comes to mind spontaneously. But wait, how can I just pen down my spontaneous thoughts? That won’t go down many people’s throat. But why? Those who’ve spent last four years of their life with me know exactly why. For the benefit of the ignorant ones, it’s nothing but my straightforward manner of speech, which others (especially those who, at some point or the other, have found themselves at the receiving end in an argument with me) would tend to describe as blunt, heedless, obscene, etc. But then, why should I even listen to them? I don’t even give damn. I am what I am. (Note: It’s not the Rbk tagline that you’ve already seen umpteen times as I’ve interchanged the two I’s.)

Dinner Break…

Well, the dinner is done and I am back. Dinner has broken my rhythm and I am not able to think of anything specific. This is exactly what a drinks break does to a batting side, which usually results in a wicket going down. I wonder why does the break always affect the batting side? Why doesn’t a bowler get smashed all around the ground just after the drinks break? Strange, Isn’t it? This reminds of India’s dismal performance against The Proteas but much has already been said and written about that so I am not going to waste my time as I still remember from my studies that X+DX→X. Studies remind me of my time in school and college. I am not going to dwell on this aspect as I think my educational background is of no interest to the reader. It’s enough for you all (who don’t know me) to make out that I’ve studied “limits and discontinuity” (or continuity, whichever is correct) that further indicates towards my science background.

If you’ve reached this point then there are two possibilities- either you are under-loaded with work (as I am these days) or you are too lazy to work and enjoy reading such random articles, which make no sense at all, both to the writer and the reader. If you are able to derive some sense out of it then let me know.
Hopefully, I’ll be back soon.