You may say I am a beer drinker, but I'm not the only one.

DIY HIGH-FIVE!

How facebook poked me!

The other day, a friend of mine poked me on facebook and I clicked on the notification to poke him back when I suddenly realised that facebook showed me a few people from my friends list it recommended I should poke... the first two were exes who I was still 'friends' on facebook with and the next two were people I was once kinda cozy with. Why I found it creepy? 

1. I never shared on facebook who I was dating. 

2. I blocked updates from them.

3. i DO NOT interact with them.

4. i DO NOT WANT to interact with them.

I  H-A-T-E  FACEBOOK!

How ABS taught me that there is a higher power called God...

Not having a dad around sometimes means that my source of technical information is now scattered. Sometimes, it's my friends and other times, its a client who likes automobiles of all kinds and we have a lot of time to chat on the way to site. 

On one such site visit, my client said something about the Anti-lock breaking system in his SUV. I was curious. I didn't know what it meant so I asked him. Very patiently, he told me exactly what it was all about and promised to email an image which was meant to explain to any lady what this term meant exactly. 

The next few days, I couldn't get it out of my head. Especially when I would drive my new car- the Honda Brio which, incidentally had ABS. One particular day when I was thinking about it, an idiot on the bike decided to cut across the road to the other side on an illegal crossing with absolutely no regard to who/what was coming towards him and at what speed. Unfortunately that who/what was me and I was quite fast considering it was a straight road without any turns and thoroughfare. I had to break quite hard and BAM!

Though any kind of collusion/incident had been avoided, ABS had been demonstrated to me. And I looked up to the heavens and said "Thank you god, for demonstrating to me this magical phenomenon in my car called ABS."

Sometimes, I wonder if it's not my dad up there giving me life and technical lessons while sipping from a tall cool glass of heavenly Beer or whiskey :P 

Oi Jude...

Oi Jude, kuch mat bighado,

Dukhi gane ko, tum badlo,

yaad rakkho use dil me tum jagha do,

Phir tum sab kuch badalte dekho...

       -(With due apologies to the Beatles...)

So long twitter...

And thanks for all the fish... 

Here is where I want to be

27.341275, 92.303352

When all else seems worthless...

I come back to my blog for these reasons:

1. I don't have to continuously read about the current trending topic. Like the demise of Bal Thackeray. 

2. I don't see the links to the obituaries, the well researched articles, the neutral comments and the ones from news channels publishing updates of the situation by the second, the ridiculous jokes and comments about an 86 year old politician who even influenced the Mumbai half of my Maharashtrian family.

3. No body reads my blog anyway. And even if some people do, they seldom reply, so there's no chance of a conversation happening. Just my one sided thoughts.

Today, I drove back from Konkan after an annual diwali vacation with my Grandparents and my Mother. Also, I drove extremely well.

Since people were worried about 'Swedish house mafia' - the electronica group- being stuck in their hotel after the famous death. Obviously they cannot play. So since this is of utmost importance, and so many people tweeted about them, I decided to listen to their music.

Now as I type out my thoughts randomly, I am so glad I am not in Mumbai. So glad I never wanted to be in Mumbai. So so glad that I will never live in Mumbai for longer than a couple of days at a stretch. I cannot support anyone who raised the 'Marathi manoos's' self worth by lowering the others. It's just not done.

The moment they created an 'us and them' situation, we were doomed.

The boy with the broken arm and the lost camera

There was a boy I met once- with a broken arm who lost his camera on a bus. 

His arm isn't broken anymore and he has a new camera; but to me, he will always be the boy with the broken arm who lost his camera on a bus. 

I wonder how it would be if I met him now- without the broken arm, without the regret of the lost camera? Will the image ever change?

But that's my side of the story. I wonder what's his...

Why I like 'Lakshya'

This particular movie is one of my most favourite movies ever. And the reasons are as follows: 

* The protagonist Karan Shergill - And the transformation in his character is quite inspiring! 

*The subtle humour sprinkled about - One of my most favourite scenes from the movie is 'Detail Dhava Position' from GC Karan Shergill's unruly early IMA days. Watch it because description doesn't do it justice. Besides, I was the only person in the movie hall to laugh out loud at this scene.

*The music: Each and every song in this movie is so damn inspiring. Especially 'Payega jo lakshya hai tera'. It just fills my mind with unlimited vigour.

*Boman Irani as Karan Shergill's father: You just expect him to do something funny anytime, but he holds his fort as a credible character without it becoming a caricature, doesn't he?

*The secondary characters: They are brilliantly detailed and played. Each one has a significance and Karan Shergill rarely has the best lines in the movie! It's these characters that give the film so much depth. Think Amitabh Bachchan who doesn't dominate. Think Sushant Singh with his 'Malihabad ke aam' and Ranveer Shorey with his extremely good luck. They stay with you.

*The beautifully shot battle scenes: ('Shot' isn't quite the right word) I've seen other war movies made by Indian filmmakers and I think this movie has some of the best of the lot. After seeing LOC my father said that the scenes in that movie were probably more detailed and accurate, but Lakshya had more heart without it being melodramatic and loud (literally... Imagine Sunny Deol in border... or Ajey devgan's swear words beeped out in LOC)

Lakshya's battle scenes were balanced well by other events like the hospital scene etc. Even though Preity Zinta had the most ridiculous wigs on, and botched up her accent in a scene or two, she adds a feminist flavour to the film which doesn't have noteworthy women characters (Lillet Dubey has an excruciatingly tiny part in the film)

*The fact that I got a running commentary from my father throughout this movie. He was transported back to his IMA days, and I heard stories from him about his time there which convinced me that my father was a wild child! I've seen his photos from his college days and the transition from that long haired-cigarette smoking-bellbottom wearing boy from Bombay to the uniformed Second Lieutenant was quite similar to Karan Shergill's in the movie. 

After the movie, he told me that they made him repeat a semester for disciplinary reasons. That day, my jaw dropped to the floor and my father officially became my No. 1 hero! 

This movie has added so much value to my life as well as to Indian films!

If I ever lose my memory...

...play this song for me! 

(I might not get my memory back, but this will remain my most favourite song ever!)

goodbye old friend... 1999-2012

As I say goodbye to an old friend, companion and extremely good villain to my silly imaginary stories (most of which came to me after I turned 18) nostalgic songs play in my head. 

It was 1999 when this oddly menacing paper mache being came to my life. With a dark brown surface and a perpetual open mouth with pointy plastic teeth and red eyes, it was an intimidating figure for it's height.               

It was a happy chappy. Always smiling whether swallowing fuel guzzlers or posing for toothless fisheye photos. Or taking the flak for my damaged hard drive during a really fucked up semester at college.

It got varnished recently by the guy who was polishing the woodwork at my house recently. I decided to give it away to a kid who I knew would love it the way I did.

Goodbye old friend. Farewell.

There will never be a Godzilla like you in my life again. 

I love arches

Photos of some arches from my ongoing projects

I really do love arches!

Buzzing

Ever since I started architecture college, I have been surrounded by the smell of fevicol. There are two different types of fevicol glue: SH and MR. SH: what carpenters use and MR: what they sell commercially in stationery shops. We made scale models of our designs in class, and fevicol SH was recommended for the fact that it was stronger and cheaper. There were alternatives like bulbond which were even cheaper, but I preferred fevicol.

If you have ever used fevicol extensively, you'll know how much fun it is to play with it. Spread it on your hand and peel off the layer once dried and etc... But sometimes, I've also enjoyed sniffing it. The smell was addictive. and I got a temporary buzz every time I did. I still do.

So today, I used my fevicol MR bottle to squeeze out some glue, and instinctively began sniffing while listening to some good music. Gave me a momentary buzz...

PS: I'd read somewhere that that 'feeling' is from the brain cells getting fried inside... I don't know if thats true.