Happy New Year!!!

2007 just began. The sky is filled with spectacular fireworks. Most of the TV channels are telecasting music concerts. Is there a way to welcome the New Year better than welcoming it with good music and beautiful fireworks? TMF shows live pictures of a New Year party in ClubCam. Veronica shows a Robbie William concert. They showed live pictures from Amsterdam's Dam Square at mid night for a few minutes. I guess R and the guys are having a blast at Dam Square. Anouk is rocking hard in rtl5. She addresses the crowd in Dutch. Oh... She is from The Hague. I love her Tattoos. Net5 is telecasting some really wonderful concert songs. A huge crowd is counting down by the side of Thames in BBC. New Year begins an hour later there.

We wished each other Happy New Year. Chellax and Shinoj have gone for a walk. I am too tense to move around. I can see that the lane of Margarethaland is pretty alive. People from the blocks around are playing some great fireworks.

I was packing for most of the day. 'Wrestling' would be a more apt word to describe what I did. I think I would be paying money worth my ticket for the extra luggage I am carrying. That is, if I manage to check-in on time. I called up HTM and two other taxi services to book a cab by 4 AM. They all gave the same reply, "We don't take reservations for the New Year Day morning. Drivers are on vacation. Please give us a call an hour before your departure time. We will send a cab if a driver is available. But, we can't promise you anything. Sorry about that". Chauffeur Singh has given some hope. He said that he would send a 'Punjabi Ladka' to give me a ride to the airport in the early hours. I hope he keeps his word.

Wow! That was some firework they showed on BBC from the banks of the Thames. The Big Ben struck twelve and the London Eye glittered in the fantastic firework that followed. The spectacle went on for ten glorious minutes. Wow!

Happy 2007, folks!!! Let us continue to celebrate life in the new year.

Journey home!!!

Last few days have been pretty hectic. Quite a bit of running around, calling people, saying goodbye, shopping... Shopping is one of the things I hate the most. And I hate the things I am not good at.

Visited Sun at Antwerpen. Thanks to him and his wife, Say-Yes-To-Rum, for the wonderful hospitality. Thank you, guys! You rock!! Oops... I guess I have made a mess of her ‘pleasant’ name. I hope she doesn’t mind.

It is time to return home. Home, sweet home! During my last trip, I was too eager to return back. This time around, I am surprised to find that I have mixed feelings. I am very glad to return. No doubt about that. But, I think I would miss Den Haag. Now, that is surprising, isn’t it? Since when did I become emotional?? Anyway, thanks to all the people who made my stay in Den Haag a pleasant one. Without them, my stay would not have been as pleasant as it actually was.

Here is a very important message to people in Madras and Pondicherry. If you find a weird creature roaming around the streets in the New Year, please do not jump into conclusion that the Delhiwala Apeman has traveled South or that the Aliens have finally got over their shyness. It is just me. No need to panic.

Wish you all a great 2007!!!

J and K

The Holiday is one of the sweetest movies I have ever seen. I had this stupid grin on my face for the whole time I watched it. Thank goodness, they screen movies with lights off. Else, the people at the movie hall would have embarrassed no end to have a hopelessly emotional person among them. Everything in this world has got a primary reason and several secondary reasons. All the while I was under the impression that the primary reason for switching off the lights at movie halls was to enhance viewing.

It is what I would brand as ‘my type of movie’ – mushy to the hilt with no trace of melancholy. It has not just one or two sweet characters, but a bunch of them. Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, the two kids – all at their sweetest best. When I stepped out of the movie hall, I made a mental note, “The Holiday is a must to my DVD collection”. Boy! Do I have a crush over Kate Winslet or what? Come on... I got over teenage like a million years ago.

And then I watched Pretty Woman for the first time. Yeah. For the first time. Julia Roberts! Wow! The Goddess of toothy grins. I think that her smile is worth all those 20 million dollars that she charges for her movies.

Wanna watch and hear 'my type' of mushy song? Try this.

It is a Wonderful World!

It was raining in the morning. I climbed down the stairs of the apartment house. The janitor was at work in the ground floor. He is a pleasant elderly gentleman.
He: “Goed Morgan”
Me: “Good Morning”
He then uttered a very long sentence in Dutch.
I made a sincere face and mouthed my customary statement proclaiming my ignorance about Dutch.
He: “Your umbrella. Be careful at the end of the block. The wind. Woooshhh...”
Good God! He cares about me. I instantaneously grew fond of him. I chatted with him for a couple of minutes about the five umbrellas that were broken by the wind.

I saw my bus at the traffic signal and I was quite far away from the bus stop. I started to run towards the bus stop. The bus went past me and stopped at the bus stop. People who were waiting at the bus stop got into the bus. I was still some 30 – 40 meters away from the bus stop. I had no chance whatsoever to reach the bus stop in time to catch the bus. I slowed down. Then I noticed that bus was not moving. The bus was stationary for longer than it was supposed to, in spite of the vehicles waiting behind it. The door was still open. I jogged to the bus. The driver welcomed me with a bright smile and an enthusiastic “Hi”.
Me: “Hi. Thanks for waiting”
He: “No problem. I saw you running”
Good God! He didn’t want to let me wait for 15 minutes just because I was late by a few seconds. I instantaneously grew fond of him.

I was waiting at the bus stop. The bus arrived. The people who were waiting for the bus formed a queue to enter the bus. The teenaged kid dropped out of the queue and offered his place to the elderly lady standing behind him. The lady smiled and said something to the kid in Dutch. She patted him on his back and let him board the bus first. She was smiling at the kid for a long time. He kept staring at the floor of the bus self-consciously. Good God! They care about each other though they were total strangers to each other. I instantaneously grew fond of them.

...and I think to myself, What a wonderful world. I love my life. I love the world around me. I love the people in it. I love everything. After all, it is a Wonderful World!

Prophesy

Mark my words, people. Video gaming is here to stay. A glorious stay it would be. Xbox and PSP are to rock the world.

Video games may become the same to movies that the movies proved to be to theaters - Terminator.

Windy... Rainy...

One moment it was there doing so galantly what it was supposed to do. The very next moment it was no more. One moment it was protecting me from the rain and hail. The next moment its spokes were violently twisted and broken by the wind. In a way, I was the reason for the gruesome end of the umbrella. I should have carefully adjusted its position when I turned 90 degrees at the traffic signal. Well, I have my reasons. My left sock was soaked and my foot was freezing and numb. I was too busy wondering how water got into the my left shoe [I later found out that it is developing a crack at the bottom]. A momentary lapse of concentration and the umbrella was deformed beyond recognition. Nature has got its own vicious ways of getting back at me. Damn.

That was my fourth umbrella that had literally gone by the wind this season. Anyway, life goes on. It had served its purpose so valiantly and it was time to move on. I stuck it to the nearest wastebin. A few more broken umbrellas were already dumped in that wastebin. Mass burial, I suppose. I would rather consider that the brave umbrella found its place among the other members of its own species that met with similar destiny, than using the cruel term – mass burial.

I was drenched, cold and tired by the time I reached office. By some errie coincidence, Zinda hoon main (from 3:15 mins) was playing on Sahana during my journey. A original track and two remixed versions - It was like listening to it on a loop at different beats and pace. When I finally reached office, I was like, “Wow! Zinda hoon main”.

The other morning it was quite windy and rainy and I had some tough decisions to make. Small or big umbrella? I chose the bigger one. Where should I get down – at the bus stop closer to office from where I have to walk across a stretch of open space, or at the stop slightly farther which has buildings along the way to office? I have already experienced how difficult it is to walk along that open space with an umbrella on a windy and rainy day. I even suspect that the wind could airlift me to the office if I am not overweight the way I am. So, I got down at the bus stop farther from the office. The buildings along the path were not as helpful as I had thought. The spokes of my bigger umbrella still got bent and I was soaked when I reached the office.

I still am not able to figure out which one is better against wind – smaller or bigger umbrella. Is the smaller one less effective because it is small and week? Or, is the bigger one more vulnerable because it has larger surface area for the wind to attack at and thereby to exert more pressure? My half-baked knowledge in Physics doesn’t help me to find the correct answer.

Recently I find myself drenched in rain very often. Then I get a running nose for an hour or two. I can sense the viruses conspiring a major strike against me. Haha... They don’t know that I have been through cold very recently and am currently immune to it. Those microscopic morons underestimate Inder’s immunity system. They don’t understand that they are actually strengthening my immunity by their frequent raids and that they have to wait for around a year to make any substantial effect on me.

My favorite thing about cold days is that, on these days I will be able to blow smoke. I absolutely love it. And then the voice-inside-my-head says, “You never had the guts to smoke cigarette and will never have, you loser. No wonder you amuse yourself with this petty-pleasure”.

P.S.: Late in that evening I learnt from BBC that a tornado attacked central London. Oops! That was close. I am right across the North Sea.

Unreasonable reason

“Hey, You didn’t shave today...”
“Yeah”
“Any specific reason?”
“I am unable to shave”
“Why? What happened?”
“You know? I have started working out recently”
“That is good”
“I have started developing biceps”
“So...”
“Biceps prevent me from folding my arms when I try to shave”
“???”

What the hell...

Down the memory-less lane

“Inder, what is your Employee Code?”
“10... Hmmm...” *God. What are the other four digits. It remember it has 1, 3 and 4. Either 3 or 4 occurs twice. But, what is the sequence?*
It was not the first time that my mind went blank on such occasions.
“Shall I mail you my code?”
“Sure”
I use my employee code almost everyday while logging into the intranet. It is like my fingers remember the code and not my brain. What the hell.

I was on my way to Pondicherry for the weekend. It was on one of my pre-mobile phone days. The practice then was – I reach Pondicherry, call my home, Dad or Bro would pick me up. Somewhere along the journey, I realized that I couldn’t remember my home telephone number. I concentrated hard to recollect it, but with no success. Luckily, Sun was travelling with me (It was Sun, wasn’t it? Damn my memory). I still remember his dazed face when I asked him what my phone number is (How do I remember this? This is not fair).

I know people who remember by heart the date of birth of their friends, their phone numbers, the year and occasion when specific movies were released, scores and statistics of cricketers and teams. They remember hundreds of numbers. I don’t remember the PIN of my ATM cards. I have a small set of standard passwords that I use, reuse and thereby overuse for all my online accounts. Some even say that they can remember the things that happened in their previous births. Here I am, finding it difficult to remember what my last dinner was.

I sincerely hope that I don’t get up one fine morning to face myself asking – “Main kaun hoon? Main kahaan hoon?”

Dhoomy weekend

Flatmates went to the nearby gym to enquire about its facilities and timings. The lady at the reception explained them about the floor exercise and aerobic sessions, various machines available muscle building. She then went on to say, “And then we also have Pole-dancing classes. May be you guys won’t be interested in it”.

I didn’t expect Dhoom2 to be an Oscar nominee. I didn’t expect the director to give a sensible movie, certainly not after watching the promos showing Hrithik doing all those Supermanisque and Spidermanisque stunts. All I expected was what the star cast did the best – Hrithik to dance like magic, Aishwarya to look good and not to try to act, Abhishek to sulk, sulk and sulk more, Uday to goof around and Bipasha to just be in the movie. I must say that I got plentiful of what I expected.

With sculptured features and long hair, Hrithik looks like a Greek God. I should start hating him. He makes me ashamed of myself when I wear my sleeveless T-shirts at home. Damn. And boy, HE CAN DANCE.

What happened to Aishwarya? Did her closet suddenly shrunk alarmingly that she decided to cut-down on her wardrobe? Or, is she getting ready for Hollywood? I guess Bipasha’s situation is graver. May be her closet disappeared all of a sudden. Poor girls. But, they look absolutely stunning in the movie.

Mindless movies like Dhoom2 should be watched after safely locking your mind at home. I don’t have such problem as I don’t think that I have much of what is called mind.

Where is my Hubby?

Hi Indhira,

It gives me immense pleasure in inviting you and your hubby to my marriage with A on the 8th of December.
Your presence is of great importance to us on this memorable day!

M

This is the content of a mail that I received today.

Me: “Wow! M is getting married! And he has remembered to invite me”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “Seems there are a few people to acknowledge you existence. That is surprising”
Me: “Yippee!!! I am not friendless as I had feared”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “He has invited you and your hubby”
Me: “Hubby? What hubby?? M knows that I don’t have a hubby. Even if I marry, I will not get a hubby. Instead, I will become a hubby. May be it is a bulk mail”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “He has adressed you specifically”
Me: “May be he used the same template to invite all his friends”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “Or may be he is just pulling your leg”
Me: “Come on. Don’t be ridiculous. Why should he pull my leg”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “Remember, you don’t need a reason to pull one’s leg. May be he indirectly advises you to get married”
Me: “Before December 8? Where would I find a spouse in such a short notice?”
Voice-Inside-My-Head: “Google for it”

I googled for “Where is my hubby?”. Got 1,540,000 search results.

Voice-Inside-My-Head: “Your hubby is somewhere among those 1,540,000 results”
Me: “Damn. It is impossible to find the hubby from those 1,540,000 links before December 8. Thank God, I wouldn’t be in India on that day. Else, M would kick me away from the marriage hall if I turn up there without my hubby” *I think M meant spouse when he said hubby*

P.S.: M said that it was a mistake and that he noticed the ‘hubby’ part only after sending the mail.