The Return

Moving back to India after almost 2 years in Africa. Having access to cinema halls once more, look forward to more active reviews and blogging in general. Muhahaha. See you you soon!

Stage 2

It's surreal. This is the moment my parents have secretly been conspiring towards for the last 10 years. All those days as a 15 year old, ogling at school girls walking around and giggling at 'inter-school fests', all those dinners pulling my Reddy friend's legs about the thousand of hectares of Mango plantation dowries, all those endless discussions of 'love marriage vs arranged marriage' by a bunch of guys who hadn't managed to get a girlfriend.. all that has built up to this. It is true. Lalbadshah has finally agreed to bow down at The Altar.

In 17 days, I shall be a married man (Inshallah). And I do know, that these 17 days will be filled with people walking up to me, with a knowing look on their face and a wry smile asking 'So, how does it feel?'. It's sometimes odd. What exactly do they expect me to say? A congratulation can be answered to in simple words. But complex questions like these, in my opinion, should be reserved for one's doctor, or a shrink if you please. For everyone else, it's like a 'What's up?' for a very specific target audience. All you can give in response is a wide grin and a reminder to try and make it for the wedding.

These and many other profound thoughts, such as stage flower arrangements, occupy my mind as my life hurtles towards a new dimension. I can only be glad to have found the right companion to attempt to solve all such riddles of the universe with.

See you folks soon!

Passing out

Reflecting on what seem to be the last few days of my student life, I can't help seeing patterns from my past experiences of passing out of college.

Be it undergrad or postgrad, it's always the same. College seems to be a lot more dearer. All the things that you hated about your hostel are exactly what you can't stop raving about to your friends outside. Women seem prettier. Girls of the senior batch suddenly adopt straightened hair in a bid to pass out 'unsingled', while senior guys seem more keen on bagging a junior girlfriend.

Careers are discussed and so are failures. Failure of systems, aspirations and interviews. Parallels are drawn with peer institutes and faculty is dissected and blamed for. Reasons for education are questioned with a few interjections from reasons for existence. All this over experimental experiences of alcohol and other substances. And in this elevated state, resolutions are made: of a life that will be led the way it should be lived.

Getaways are planned with friends that have survived, singing antakshiri en route to boring destinations that never really were. The journey is all that will be remembered. And before you even begin to read all these patterns, your time runs out. Faster than you ever imagined. Damn I'll miss this place.

Beating the system

Frank Maus is my new hero. Who is Frank Maus? Honestly speaking, I don't have much of a description. But I can guess.

Frank is the climax of every Anurag Kashyap movie that promises you a real insight into life and ends up in cliches. He is Arindam Chaudhary who dares to think beyond IIMs and even dares to charge fees beyond them. He is Oprah, who makes you concoct fraud soul moving experiences just so you can visit her show and win that car she might give away to everyone in the audience. He is Enrique Iglesias who makes millions by distracting you with 10 hot supermodels while constipating about his Bailamos. He is all this and he ain't sorry about it.

Frank gets laid. Frank even gets paid. That is why Frank is my new hero.

On Independence Day

We all know that WWE is staged. The wrestlers don't really wrestle, that they are just well built actors. Knowing this, and watching the live audience going mad on TV, you are either disgusted or plain amused. Right? I mean, how can they fall for such a hoax?

Now, lets talk about patriotism. Do you think you are proud of Abhinav Bindra who won the gold at the Olympics because you are patriotic? Or is that happy feeling just something you get by knowing that you belong to a country that has been placed at a slightly higher rank in a medal tally than it was 4 years ago and hence a symbol of higher power?

Lets go back a little. Countries were formed by rulers and people in power because they got a kick from being in control. Sure, obviously they had to be "nice" to their subjects else they would be overthrown by rebels. Hence, good governance was a way of avoiding losing power. The Indian border that we are so "patriotic" about is largely the extent to which the British and Moghuls could control a piece of land as a single entity and the rest by efforts of rajas, maharajas and other arbit empires to hold their ends together.

All these rulers all over the world at all times had one task at hand - To retain and grow in power. Hence they started building armies to conquer more. Now it takes more than just monetary benefits for a man to risk his life, hence they introduced the concept of patriotism. "Die for your motherland!", they said and people did die. Compare this to the WWE stage where they yell "Fight to the finish!", and the live audience goes mad in throes of fanatic orgasms. What's the difference?

What I'm coming at, is that patriotism is overrated. Symbols like flags, Independence days and National Anthems in movie theaters are just tools used to make us feel emotionally attached to the country and hence cloud our judgement about keeping the corrupt as our leaders and actually giving our lives for such an idea. The government is supposed to be a set of people we choose to take care of our roads, electricity, food, law and order and we pay them for their services in the form of taxes. Now these same people you hired, are asking you to stand up at home or stop on the road every time a song called the national anthem plays on the road when most of us don't even know meaning of this song.

Task for this year: sit back and carefully think from scratch and without any biases as to what is patriotism and to what extent is it a fraud emotion. What exactly do you mean by "Love your country"?

Note: I'm not asking you to hate your country. You will inevitably feel patriotic about things. That's the way it has always been and that's the way it will always be. I'm asking you to realise why you feel that way.

And oh, Happy Independace Day!

Updates

It's 02:02:00 hours on a dark sunday morning. I'm in Lucknow sitting inside the computer center right after the Insti Party as it is called. Whew! Hadn't danced in a while, but had a blast! Not exactly inebriated but slightly high. It has been one heck of a week here. In fact, feels more like a month or so. The weather here sucks compared to Bangalore but getting used to it. Getting back to academic life hasn't been easy. Deadlines are always around the corner as you seek those elusive 4 to 5 hours of sleep per day. On the plus side, the campus simply rocks. I'm among some really smart people, so thats a good thing too.

I would be getting my laptop sometime towards the end of july after which I intend to resume regular blogging. If time permits that is.

Try not to miss me.

L'ed again

For those of you who haven't heard, I've secured admission into Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow known to many as IIM he(L)l or simply L. After 4 CAT attempts and of all the varied combinations of letters of the alphabet, it had to be this. Obviously the L club launched 6 years ago was prophetic in its formation. Known for its nightmarish course and an equally appalling sex ratio, this is one of those 'screaming L' landmarks of my life. I should get the letter tattooed. Suggestions for a strategic location for the same are not welcome.

Still, I look forward to the legendary Tundae Kabab and Lucknowi Biryani. Also a chance to redeem my Urdu. Nahin is definitely more delicate than Nakko.

Earlier, I was contemplating taking up this college called AIM, Manila . Pretty reputed in Asia. But then, figured that if, in the long run, I plan to stay here in India, L was a better brand to stick to. Besides, parents and sisters were overly concerned over the promiscuity levels in Philippines. Yeah. Same "ladka haath se chala jayega" line. Sigh. That was gonna be my first international visit. Damn. L'ed again.

Job Prospects

Check out these statistics (Screenshot included below).

Er.. Why MBA?

More Eclectica

Watched 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' yesterday. Was very impressive and there is never a dull moment. Fantastic creatures galore. Ideal Popcorn movie stuff and not just for children. Watch.

Watched the IPL opening ceremony and the first match. Was very impressive with never a dull moment. Hot Chicks galore. Ideal popcorn stuff though not recommended for children. Watch more.

On an aside, I'm serving my notice period at work. Feels good. I'm high on Collective Soul. Shine.

Updates

Been really busy for the last few weeks. Form filling, applications and interviews all leading to me joining the pitiful MBA rat race that I somehow cannot avoid for unknown reasons.

Finally went out on a trip with friends to Ooty. Was good fun. We visited Black Thunder close to Coimbatore on our way back. The place used to be the biggest water park in India earlier on but now half of it is defunct. Have heard that Wonder La in Bangalore is much better. Plan to visit in the near future.

Watched a few movies too - Shutter: a brilliant Korean horror movie that has a twisted ending, Stardust: Decent Fantasy movie based on the book by Neil Gaiman, and Om Shanti Om. This last movie did live up to my expectations. A complete popcorn movie with enough spoofing makes it even better than Main Hoon Na, although the last section is directly lifted from Madhumati. I particularly liked this dialogue:

Itni Shiddat se maine tumhen paane ki koshish ki hai,
Ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai.

The original lines in English are from The Alchemist, but I never realised that it could be put in so beautifully in Urdu. Hats off to Javed Akhtar for that!