Aimlessly walking around on the weekend, 30-08-08

A few things (^) u usually dont pay attention to in Mumbai. Had to dip the exposure, a couple of clicks, to prevent the signboards and the roof of the building from coming in the frame.

the song in my head, "I walk the lonely streets on the boulevard of "Mumbai" dreams..."

I luv this day!!!

drunk and back ... :D been a while ...has'nt it :D
celebrating with a couple of shots of glenfiddich in my system and I have reached my "happy place" ........one of the best days in a while....
an awesome performance appraisal, rated among the top of the group, amma finally agreeing to letting me buy a car (hopeful still), entering the top 10 list in Accenture F1 teams, India winning the Asia cup (Affy later corrected me... so it was the Idea cup...who really cares... :) :) hic), I planning to join a gym... anymore of "wow" situations I just might aswell start believing in god... :) :)

Manor, 09-08-08

old friends, unlimited tandoori chicken with beer and pouring rain...that's the best way I could describe my weekend!!!

Travelling to Manor ("ma","noar"), might have been the worst journeys I have been on over the last 2 year. The potholed NH8 highway kept bringing back the disgusting question "Is this why I paid an additional 50K tax this year???."

But the destination was well worth the trip... Manor is a tiny village on the way to Ahmedabad, about 130km from Mumbai. There ain't much to see there...so if u ever go down there...don't bother to look fr some thing exciting... just walk around the village, and let your eye feast on the green around you...

opps..all b/w pics...damit..I am sorry :P

Old Mumbai, 04-08-08

This weekend, I spent wandering around the Muslim populated areas of Mumbai. The regions around Mohamed Ali Road, have some of the oldest buildings and its absolutely lovely feeling when u walk into them. The winding wooden staircase, the cobwebs, the huge meter boards and the dim lighting, all add to the charm.

a window in the fort

This pic means a lot to me...

in a nut shell, it defines the new India...

To a serious photographer, it may be full of flaws (the yellow tarpaulin in particular and the composition in general :) )

But to me, it shows the determination... As small a symbol as it may be, its a symbol of a new emergent India... a desire to change, to break the chains (the barb wires in the pic)...a country selectively and slowly, shedding its past to define a new way...

It maybe be a tiny step into making a difference (some may argue that I am reading too much into the pic)...but little drops of water make up an ocean ....don't they?

PS: I was a little "happy" when I wrote this...needless to say I guess :P

street photograpy...my new fetish :P

From the rick...some pics are best left out of focus :)

Dotted for extra pleasure :P
the dark passage...
writings on the wall

U'v come a long way...

Pen,Raigad 20-08-08

This weekend, I found myself in Pen, Raigad. A small town, 70km from mainland Mumbai. Contrary to what I read while I planned this trip, its not a sleepy village by any stretch of the imagination...its a decent sized town actually.
Pen is famous for its intricately carved Ganesh idols and with the festival approaching near, my friend and I, armed with our cameras, decided to take this trip and see the charged atmosphere for ourselves.

Literally every galli had ganapathi's flowing by the dozen and in various stages too. These are a couple of places we visited...

I went in to ask permission from the owner of this place, if I could shoot a few pic...not the best idea if u ask me... supposedly the electrcity had just returned and this meant, the spray painting work had to be completed. And with the dispatch truck expected in the evening, he did not want us to distract his workers.

With this he allowed me only 10 min inside. Thankfully, the workers let me stay for a good 30 min :)

A few other pic I took there before heading out...The one with the kid is by far my favourite :) Just luv the twinkle in his mischievous eyes.

Our way back... my friend was doing over a 100kmph, and the second I got a straight road, I asked him to slow down a little and not overtake for a while...the idea was to capture the speed...

Mahalakshmi, Mumbai 05-07-08

These are a few pic I took near Haji Ali, Mumbai this afternoon. The heat was a killer and what better way to cool down...

This guy down here is supposed to be the "don" when it comes to diving (well, thats what the chaps in the above pics said :D) He actually came running half way down the steet behind me executing this summersault!!! O ya... and I forgot...he was on "desi daaru"... brilliant :P

One of the "patrons" of the show. You can see him in the second pic as well :)

Lonavala 29-06-08

These pics were taken on my 14km walk at Lonavala. I managed to cover "Bushi Dam" and a couple of sightseeing spots that came after the dam. I got caught in the rain a few time and was practically soaking wet by the end of it. Luckily, I managed to protect my camera :P

Too exhausted to walk downhill, I managed to hitch a ride back on a Tata 407 tempo. It was filled with labourers from Assam and West Bengal. After scaring them with my broken Bengali, I got a few pics :D

Fat Snubby!!!

It struck me suddenly how this "fat wonder" was never mentioned in my blogs. So I decided to compensate it with bunch of the best pics I have.

Ladies and gentlemen.I present to u .................FAT SNUBBY!!!!

P.S. Note the characteristic "pink tongue out of the face" look. He has that look whenever he is in a naughty mood :P

Marine Drive 14-06-08

My romance with Mumbai continues. I was in South Mumbai this weekend. First stop, Cafe Shaheen. The chicken and mutton biriyani here can put even the best 5 star hotels to shame and all for 60 bucks. So after devouring 1 plate of the former and washing it down with a Thums Up(Yes, in Mumbai,Thums Up still rules the "roost"....pun intended), I continued on my walk to Marine Drive.

In 30 odd minutes, I was there. The weather was unusually windy and everytime the waves crashed into the rocks, it sent a spray of water into the crowd. And not just people, even the crows seem to be having a blast there. Never before have I seen a crow do a hover. They would launch themselves into the air, hover for a while, then a few would either dive to the ground or lift up and be thrown 50 mts away.

For the 1 hour or so I was there, this spectacle didn't stop. I tried taking a few snaps lying down on my back, hoping to catch a crow perform the hover. I managed to get a few of them with there silhouette against the bright sun.

But what amused me the most were people who were tickled pink(it includes the barber in the pic) , when they saw me lying down on the pavement with the camera trying to take the "crow pics" :D

The rest of the evening was much of drag and not worth mentioning. Therefore .........tada!!!!

The colours of Van Gogh!!!

Mysore skys on a single evening.

The Finger :) :) :)

do I have an eventful life or what.....first it was my screwed up back and the ride to India on a wheelchair........now its my "bloody" finger.........quite literally.

I was moving into my new pad @ Mumbai....the unpacking was getting tiring and I was beginning to sweat real bad....so me went to take off me shirt and ...........bang....... me hand hit the fan.....which needless to say was on full speed :) :)

Now Mumbai has one problem.....yes, just one.....the ceilings are too god damn low....and to top it, when one puts a false ceiling, it gets even lower......so, as I was saying.....the blow created a cut....deep enough for two stitches.

.....now for the cool thing ..... I find it much easier to show some one my finger and get away...... with a sympathy, of all the things.... :) :)

Bald and the Beautiful :) :) :)

I had two options ...... no hair (courtesy dad) or premature grey hair (courtesy mom)......I got the former .......... thank the good lord I didn't get both :)
So now that I am blessed with this sparsely populated foliage over my head, which only seems to be getting thinner every year, I found myself spending considerable amount of time in the departmental stores looking for the right shampoo....you know..... miracle types.
My rommie saw me in one such situation, and being type who has "been there and done that" (he is bald), decided to share his wisdom on hair loss. He said I was in what he describes as the Stage 2 and that as time goes no I shall progress from one stage to the other only to end up with his version of "eternal peace" a.k.a Stage 4.
The stages as he mentioned were:
Stage 1. - Denial
Stage 2. - Trial
Stage 3. - Frustration
Stage 4. - Acceptance
So now with this new found knowledge, I decided save myself the time and the money of Stage 2 and 3. I decided that if its meant to be, so be it. I shall use all the gels in the world, spike up my hair, try and grow it longer than 1.5cm (which has been my hair style for over 7 years)......in one final act of defiance ....go down in a blaze of glory.......... or so in a nutshell, "make hay while the sun shines"
...... and then......... it happened..........
Dove launched a new hair fall control shampoo....I am now 2 weeks into it and yes..........hoping for a miracle !!! : ) :)

The Darjeeling Limited

My first and possibly, the only movie review I'll ever write.

My head is still buzzing with the slow humming music, a tune which can do wonders when drunk:) The movie is ....hmmm....let me think of the right word.....DISTURBED ...and I like it. Its got no beginning and no end. It stops as abruptly as it starts. To be very frank...it stops exactly as it starts.

The story ....I think......... is about 3 brothers in search of their mother in India. They meet each other on a train in India and thats where the story begins. The story takes some crazy twists and turns, including a touching scene where they rescue 2 of the 3 boys from drowning. Thee scene in the village has practically no words spoken, yet leaves u a little moved.

It end with them meeting their mother near the Himalayas, only to return without her. The story end with them running to catch the train again......

I luved the movie and from this review its amply clear....I have no future as a movie critic.....but hey thats y I am an Analyst :) :) :)

Simm"b"ly :)

Just a bunch of snaps I took!!! For no reason what so ever....

....colours of Mumbai in monochrome!!!!

I am back......back to the 7.18 am and the 6.42pm locals, the vada pavs and the cutting chai, to the city with the eternal "frog skin" feeling (courtesy 90% hubidity), to sounds of "pudhe chaala pudha chaala" all day everyday, to the only Indian city that never sleeps ..... yes .......I am back in Mumbai :) :) and this time for good!!!!!!!!!!!

Maggi and me

I felt nostalgic yesterday....... I had just had my last "Maggi", the last of 15, I brought from India...that meant just one thing........"mama I'm coming home" :) :) :)

I actually very consciously kept the last one for the last Sunday in US.

It feels like just yesterday, when I landed here and this big African-American immigration official looked me in the eyes and asked...." so how much Maggi you got in there????" When I replied 5....he went "that's it".....I then said "family packs", only to hear a sigh of relief from him. It was more like, "he just like the rest of them" :) :)

Must have really baked his noodles for a long time (pun intended) when he asked me, "tell me something, how expensive is this thing all you guys bring from India?"

On hearing the prices his jaws literally dropped and then with a big smile he let me go.

Kemah Boardwalk, TX.....would luv to own one of these someday.....

Me, she, snubby, a clear blue sky and an open sea :) :) :)

Guess what .....the name "Nitin" has a meaning!!!!!

NITIN:

Nitin comes from the Sanskrit word Nitya. Nitya means "order". In the Vishnu Sahasranaama (1000 divine names of Lord Vishnu), Nitya is the name of the Vishnu.

"Nityaaya Namaha Anityaaya namaha."

Meaning, order and dis-order is nothing but Vishnu. The darshanaas, the Laws of Vedas, speak about the Cosmos as Nitya as it follows a regulated mode of expression and evolution.

Nitin means, that, which exists in the regulated order. The energy aspect of the Lord which is called his maya or sakthi is the one that exists in the Lord and his creation.

So Nitin is the energy of the Lord and is popular among the Huindu Vaishnavites .

pretty neat ain't it!!!!!!!!!!

Drunk and blogging :) :) :)

One of my brothers recently remarked.... " on your blog, your either drunk, almost drunk or will be drunk"

I smiled and and replied politely ..."shut up!!!".

hmmm....but now that I start this blog, I wonder...I guess he was right. I feel this sudden urge to blog only when I am drunk!!!!

lol and a hahaha....I know...but no kidding....

I am drunk now and I am on blogspot....... :)
what is it about this combination????????????

guess its this hidden urge to show .....3 large JDs' and still in command :) :) :)

Mahavir....ur right!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

looking back with 2 weeks to spare!!!

So as another weekend passes by without much happening , and as the final date for leaving the US draw near, I am actually starting to feel that I might.....na......I will... miss this place!!!

Its still snowing here, even 3 weeks since the so called beginning of Spring. On seeing my disgusted face, my senior exec, remarked," I wonder how a person would feel, coming from a place which was so very hot, and then finally landing up in a place like Minneapolis, for the only dastardly 3 months in a year, when all u get it sub zero temperature ". I couldn't help but laugh. He was right. I have seen the weather change more erratically than a woman's mood swings during her period!!! and this is the exact weather I always hated from the bottom of my gut, dull gloomy and downright pathetic. For me, this is more than enough to screw up a perfectly good day....and to tell you the truth, I have had more than enough of them here.

The food here was all together another story. Potatoes all day....different sizes...round, square, cubes, flat, round...guess u get the picture!!!! Initially it was good, then got boring, then disgusting......now indifferent :) For person who has no dietary restrictions, and more or less, eats anything and every thing served, I got tired of the food. Too bland, too raw and to repetitive. I loved the lunch....for its variety but the dinner and breakfast started to bore me (I actually skipped breakfast today to blog.....and I don't miss it much).

But after all this whining....I must say that the work and the people I met were just amazing. The freedom and the respect you get for your views is something that's missing in India. You can be anybody and anywhere on the corporate ladder and you can still have your voice heard. In a nutshell, the work culture is different. I am yet to put a finger on the right word...but I like it :)

Now, about the people....at work it all fine...but the people you meet outside....hmmm ...its a whole new experience alltogether. Though most dont give a damn, a few look at you like u as though your the next Bin Laden in the making!!! Cant blame them though......if I could have one of my colleagues mistake me for a Muslim....even though she knew my name. Its not like in India where your attacked my maniacal Pakistani militants all day, everyday...to the extent that you get desensitised to it. The wounds fresh here and the Iraq wars is only adding salt to the wound.

But the best part here is, life is a lot more systematical....filled with rules...I LIKE RULES!!!!! I like when u have rights and wrongs all laid out in front of you. Call it human nature...... but it definitely makes you feel safe.

So the simple question that I am asked after all this is.....would you want to settle down here? No way!!!! Its all great place to visit......but its still not home :)

Blue Bonnet

off all the places this pic was taken at NASA, Houston :)

Urban legend
It is a persistent urban legend that it is illegal to pick bluebonnets in Texas, possibly because the bluebonnet is Texas' state flower. In fact, it is perfectly legal to pick them.Part of the confusion may stem from illegal activity associated with the picking of the flower, such as parking along busy highways or trespassing on private property....wikipedia

Mediocrity and work.

So another frustu blog !!!!!!!!!!! :)

When was it a crime to give 100% to your work? When did the proverb "when a jobs worthwhile doing....its worth while doing it well" loose significance?

But, I get told (and its only gone up lately), "you are always so "excited" about what you do!!!!", "why do u show the same gusto to a boring job as you do to an interesting job???", " You know what, u'l make a bad manager if you go on like this" blah blah blah.....

To my defence, I'd say...how could some one ever settle for mediocrity in anything??? I do accept that 3 out of 5 people I have worked with have had a problem keeping pace with me or even working with me and my style of approach....but then is it possible I have only met the wrong type of people??

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW), Houston

2 plates of 12 Blazzin Buffalo Wings..................$ 16
2 Blue moon beers....................$ 8
Doctors appointment...........$ 100
Loosing a few microns of stomach and intestine lining...............$ 5 (Based on the price of Tab. Rantac)
Leaving your mark in USA, Houston on the "BWW-Hall of Fame"...............PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!