Naveen's blog

  • Nat so geo(d) a mission

    The objective – To stand the test of time in the process execute tasks that test the strength of character, endurance and above all mental grit.
     
    The incentive – A once in a lifetime opportunity to venture out into the deep choppy seas with one of the wings of the elite armed forces of India – The Indian Navy.
     
    The outcome – A complete let down!!
    Starting from my perception of the Navy personnel taking a huge blow – one which pictured the Navy Men having an aura about them, Men that commanded respect due to the manner in which they conducted themselves and to an extent, their eloquent ways. The other let down was the self centered - irrational behavior of the human race when it comes to anything to do with acquisition – be it a job, in this case a chance to train with the Navy or for that matter, something as trivial as getting crappy free food. I don’t mean to be judgmental but I comprehend this sort of conduct is acceptable when there is a lot at stake and people are in need, but here there was neither a desperate time nor the guys auditioning were in times of strife. All that was required was, to go out there – abide by the rules, give your best shot, in doing so get noticed on TV which is great, and just bust some stress on a Sunday morning by having a ball of a time. But no!! When there is an incentive, greed always prevails and unethical demeanor isn’t too far away as well, is it?
     
    If you’re wondering why the outburst, let me get down to business right away then, NAT GEO MISSION NAVY was the name of the game and I shall provide my perspective on all that happened there, primarily focusing on the naïve, irrational, greedy, inhumane ways of the competitors. Well, to be fair, not all of them embodied the adjectives stated but the bitter fact is that more than a handful epitomized these... Ooh I can’t wait to get started, all the cynicism is just bustling in me and egging me on to gripe away to glory.
     
    So here we go... Nat geo Mission Navy – A show formulated by the National Geographic channel where in, 5 civilians are picked up from all over India to get an insight into the Indian Navy for 30 gruesome days in the process, experiencing everything from battle stations, live weaponry to murky depths of the elusive international seas. The second pit stop for the show's auditions was none other than Bengaluru, and one of the competitors in the event was none other than – moi.
     
    Sunday, Oct 19th '08
     
    06:00 hours:     A crowd of 1000 odd gathers at the Navy Officers Mess, with the remains of the early morning knife-cutting chill lurking in the air, jitters among the crowd of similar magnitude build up as the gates to ‘battle ground’ open and people flow in gearing up with high expectation and anticipation levels, bringing along all the valor in their arsenal. The first stage of eliminations was held at the training ground of the Navy quarters and about 300 of the first entrants were to battle against each other for a chance to progress further. The participants were clueless as to what was expected of them and were kept waiting for a skittish amount of time until the officials arrived.
     
    07:00 hours:     The 'high end' Navy uncles arrived and briefed the contestants about what was expected of them - An easy 1.5 km run around the ground with the first 70 out of the 300 odd contestants going through to the next round. The officer instills a lot of 'josh' in the crowd with a few cheers to Bharat Mata and the Navy, also stating that the armed forces requires 90% josh and 10% miscellaneous (I respectfully disagree), so all that the competitors have to do is, go out there and compete with a lot of josh, rest assured they would go through to the next stage. Anyway, the gun's fired high into the sky and the guys get going. The start comprises of a lot of pushing and prodding since its hard to fit in 300 guys into a 7 lane slushy uneven track you see. A great deal of guys tumble like 9 pins all over the place and few choose to abnegate within the first 100 meters of the race (dorks!!), I keep a steady pace and  my strategy is as simple as to remain in the top 40-50 without letting go of too much air from my lungs for most part of the run. Half way through the race I realize I'm faster than I thought, as a result I switch gears and push for a spot in the top 20, steadily accelerating I fancy my chances and smoke past each runner, eventually with 100 meters to the race and me being somewhere at position 8 or so I sprint to the finish completing the race at a commendable (as surprising and conceited as it sounds) 2nd position. Mighty impressed and exhausted, I gesture at the cam with fist pumps and all the lame stuff one does when excited. Coming at 2nd place was a pleasant surprise to me and the heartening part was that before the race there were a lot of guys who seemed like professional athletes (at least they had physiques of that degree) and all of them were warming up like they were on the brink of breaking the world record and after all that fuss, a guy as feeble as me comes along and trashes them. Swell!! So brawn doesn’t count for much after all, does it? Oh by the way, just another reason to brag - the world record for a 1.5 km (for the lesser privileged in math - 1500 meters) run is 3:26 and my run was 5 odd minutes. Not too bad, is it?
     
    08:00 hours:     Batch 2 of the run sees another elimination, putting through 70 more to the next round, in all, 140 guys making it to stage 2. Breakfast is served to the guys who remain - McAloo Burger. For starters, the vegetarian aspect of the burger put me off, and to add to that, the fact that it was a McDonald burger didn’t help matters, hence I decided to skip breakfast, drinking lots of water, also keeping in mind hygiene factors - oil, aloo and to top it, a burger, not too good when you want to conserve energy for stamina (I guess the Bear Grylls influence rubbed off - eating smart). 
     
    09:00 hours:     If stage 1 tested the endurance levels of the aspirants, stage 2 was based more on physical skills mixed with speed testing factors. The 140 odd guys were split into batches of 15. The test again based on individual excellence, 15 guys pitted against each other in a race comprising of a mere 150 meters. 50 meters of monkey crawl, another 50 meters of backward run and the last 50 of the good old fashioned forward sprint. The task seemed and sounded pretty easy, but that wasn't to be as people tend to be foolishly pansy at times. The first two aspects of the race saw people falling all over the place again and some of the competitors going at snail's pace in the backward run like their life depended on it. As expected (by me) I was quite apt at this as well. Finishing the race again in 2nd position. 
     
    10:00 hours:     The diverse aspects of stage 2 meant that there were various means by which a competitor could get disqualified, implying that there was no straight forward way of knowing who made it to the next stage. Hence, the officials took their time, judging us not only with respect to speed but how skillfully well the tasks had been overcome within the parameters of the event. The results were announced in a pretty cheeky manner, misguiding us into believing that the names they called out were the ones of those selected, however half way through the calls, the smart ones picked up that the names being called out were the ones eliminated - A very subtle way of easing out contestants in a non offensive mood is what it was, as explained to me by a guy in possession of a psychology degree. About 69 elated few remained after this round and were awarded with coffee and maddur vada.
     
    11:00 hours:     Stage 3 was underway and as I dreaded about there being a group task somewhere during the course of selections, this event was to be specifically that - a "group" task. We were split into groups of 14 and me being a part of the first group, were guided to an enigmatic area in the quarters which comprised of an uneven pair of parallel bars and about 9 feet away another pair of bars - parallel again but one bar simulating a T and the other a rectangle. We were briefed about what was to be accomplished, this time focusing on the group and how well people worked with each other in order to overcome the task at hand. The intent was to get across from one pair of parallel bars to another using a few props provided (2 planks of wood and 2 ropes), keeping in mind that no part of a competitor's anatomy could touch the ground nor can a leap of more than four feet take place, thrown in was a time constraint of 15 minutes. This sort of task could simulate a real life scenario where in the navy crew could be stranded at sea and would have to get from point A to B, without taking a dive in the water - lets say due to it being shark infested. Well, if that was the case and I was stranded with these - lets see, how do I put it euphemistically - self absorbed gluttonous 'team mates' of mine, I'd rather take my chances with the sharks than relying on them to get their perceptions straight of a how a team works. The officer kick started the task and from the first moment on, the scene was one of complete disarray, suggestions flying all over the place, gazillion wavelengths of sound overlapping each other resulting in hysterical pandemonium. Teary eyed and completely dismayed, the officer had to intervene (addressing the guys as 'gentlemen', as ironic as irony can get!!) and calm most of the (well I'm itching to say it) douche bags out there and after giving like a million clues, they got it right and without actually allowing them to get across, due to the lack of time and more so apathy towards watching them make a fool of themselves, the officer gave up and deemed the task "complete". If you notice, I referred to the group as 'they' and not us in spite of me being a part of the congenial team, this is not due to an instance of being in vain but the fact is, manipulative ways and butting in to get noticed are not exactly my forte, entailing in me being a complete outsider who could pretty much run around naked and shout out loud but not get noticed. Well, apart from a manipulative few who were in the middle trying to protrude "leadership skills" by steering the sinking ship to safety, so to speak, most guys were left out, trying desperately to add to the frenzy. To be fair and considerate towards the competitors; the organizers of the event are equally at fault for the simple reason that, a group task does not work in the same manner as a group discussion. My take on it is that a group task is mainly focused on how well the guys in the team gel and work together towards achieving a common goal. In our case, the only common goal was, each guy wanting to outdo the other and worse, being a part of the same team in doing so. Most times than not, the result would be akin to ours - chaotic failure. In order to bring the best out of a group, there must be a face off against two teams and then the best in each individual is accentuated, focusing on well defined roles, aptness in carrying out tasks assigned to each individual, strategic maneuvers, leadership skills and predominantly emphasizing on the fuel of the team - camaraderie. As painful as it sounds, this is as far as I can get in getting my perspective across.

    14:00 hours: After a long wait due to lunch, the results were announced, and as expected I had to bow out of the competition on the account of my dismal showing at stage 3. Well, the fact that I could really not have done much to change my fate as far as staying in the hunt, sucked big time. The superficial consolation though was, vanity due to being physically fit to trash more than 300 guys hands down (will mention it again, a lot of them looked physically awesome in shape) and featuring on TV. Bummed and sulking, I had to take the long walk back to the comforts of home instead of living through the harsh ways of the armed forces.. Sigh...
    tags: mission-navy
    posted 2008-10-23 in blog 103 views add comment

  • Mush-y Business

    Saturday, Oct 04 '08

    A day that marked the beginning of an annual munks day - A day where in, the munks share something in common, which expects them to take a walk on the wild side, with weird gestures, lame doings and a heck of a lot of munkitutde being of the highest priority, also keeping in mind that all common sense takes a back seat.

    The first of these was the MUSH DAY with the intent quite clearly being to grow facial hair on our upper lip, going back in time - figuratively ofcoure- to the swell adolescent years.

    The sine qua non to participate in the day's activities being:

    1. A moustache was the first mus(h)t have to be a part of the outing.

    2. All other facial hair was a mus(h)t not have. (Well, without pointing any fingers, some people begged to differ!!)

    3. Loads of time and moolah to squander.

    The first of the activities lined up for the day was a good ol' authentic South Indian breakfast at Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR). An insight into the eating place - The restaurant boasts of an esteemed guest list that has been serving patrons for about 75 years with consistent quality standards. the coolest piece of trivia being, it holds a record of being the first and probably the only fast food restaurant in the world to serve a mind boggling 21,000 customers in a mere 7 hours. With all of these facts to back it up, MTR was the hands-down winner for our choice of restaurant to kick start the day.

    After a wait of about 20 minutes to get to our table, things started off with a few savoury cakes (more commonly known as idlies) melting down our mouth and the remains of it sticking on to our mushes. Next in, were the masala dosas with loads of ghee followed by the trademark MTR semolina idlies aka rava idlies served with their delightful palia and not to mention, ghee being the sidekick again. Amidst all this, the topics discussed were the same old redundant ones we usually do, with a slight difference being chalking out a tentative plan of action for the day. The desserts at MTR were just as good, if not better, than the main course. An absurdly shaped Gulab Jamun being a bit of a let down, however the fruit salad with their custom made ice cream more than making up for it as well as leaving some of us with a dainty flavour to remember the restaurant by.

    As per the agenda, the next time-killing activity to be carried out was to catch a movie called KIDNAP. Urvashi being the closest theatre - a 30 second walk from MTR - was the obvious choice. We wasted about 45 minutes outside the theatre being stared at by every passer-by not only because of the mushes but also due to the fact that we were having a dandy time clicking away pictures of our lame selves. Wasim bhai joined us 5 minutes into the movie at a very significant juncture - the obnoxious song which featured Minisha Lamba in skimpily clad outfits - me being the closest to the entrance/exit being the scapegoat to receive him. As far as the movie goes, the less worn the better, oops!! I mean, the less said the better. But what made up for the movie-let down, was the fact that we sat in balcony seats which gave us the feel of an orthodox auditorium which is hard to come by in today's multiplexes and a full 2 minutes snippet of Himesh Reshamiya's upcoming movie KARZZ, which was by far the most enthralling time we had in the hall.

    Kamat's Bugle Rock was the next pit stop for our bottomless pits with Wasim and Sanju excusing themselves from lunch, Wasim promising to get back after lunch and Sanju "promising" the same. As per my rationales, having a veg meal at a restaurant is akin to committing heist since you rob yourself of the fun of delving into some quality meaty food when its out there screaming to be devoured, and when you have two consecutive meals outside home without coming across a sole piece of meat, it is as close as you can get to committing a crime i.e. if your as feeble - in terms of offence - as us, this very offence was committed by us since the restaurant was known for its genuine Vegetarian North Karnataka cuisine. To be fair to it though, we completely enjoyed all the myriad items they had to offer in their special meals, starting from obbatoo to the paan and banana at the end. As was the order of the day, we were again stared at for obvious reasons although we were quite the persona grata this time round thanks to the South Indian setting of the place.

    With full stomachs and a thirst to accomplish a virile lark, we decided to do something every 24 year old daredevil must do - Venturing into the wilderness...In our case... 5 douche bags walking into a harmless little park!! Our stay there - as heart-wrenching as it sounds - was short lived since Sandeep and me had weak little stomachs and had to give in to the calls of nature. Due to this unforeseen episode our plans were altered subtly with us going to an isolated coffee day express. The prices of the drinks there were as cheap as they can get and the fact that we had an entire section all to ourselves with Rang de Basanti to watch made the stay fruitful in terms of knocking off the time we had before dinner. With 90 minutes to waste and Santosh, Praveen, Sandeep and me downloading all that we had into the lavatory we decided it was time for another park.

    Park hopping brought us to a fancier one this time, incorporated with cool huts, fountains with fancy lights and lawns we could rest on, and that we did. We secured a place for ourselves where, we sang songs to the highest of our pitches in the process acquiring a few more stares and some more isolation, even from a fellow munk - a 2 faced faggot (I don't think this is the right spelling, but it still serves the purpose, If the munks know what I mean) namely Prony.

    Dinner time and we set off to the place where Santosh had reserved seats for us - Gufa. En route from the lobby, while in the lift, the host who led us to the setting couldn't stop giggling at the silly things we said with our ever-so-prominent mushes. Well, the ambience at Gufa was a novelty with dim lightings in a cave-like enclosure (Duh..), bogus scorpions, nests and bats, shikari shambu look alikes, all of it making the experience of dining there a surreal one. The food there did not cease to impress, with the self proclaimed 'must-have' dal makhani being NICE and the biryani with the rest of the meat being a welcome change to the day's unjust prejudice towards the herbs.

    Concluding with the sugar coated awlas as the after mint, the infamous group hug accompanied by the lame hoots that took place we called it a day, eagerly awaiting the next event lined up for the munks...
    tags: skimpy-veg-mushes
    posted 2008-10-06 in blog 119 views add comment

  • Tour de Nandi

    “I just want to see how long I can keep this thing going. The easiest thing is dying. Living is a pain in the butt.”

    This quote by the "Godfather of fitness" a.k.a Jack Lalanne pretty much sums up our pilot Biking escapade.

    Saturday, June 28 '08
    5:30 AM (IST): Disaster strikes - The call I'd been dreading all night finally takes place. Dhiru wakes me up from my deep slumber and says "Get ready and come over to my place in half an hour". I reluctantly respond saying - "zzzzz, yawn, gibberishhhh ". Decrypted version - OK. Since Dhiru was keen for a Tour de Nandi - If I may -, I fight off all the valiant resistance put up by my body and get set to take off for his place - which was to be our take off point for the long gruesome 120 Kilometer ride.

    6:20 AM: I arrive at Dhiru's and 'am greeted by his mum with some steaming vegetarian noodles - just the nourishment I needed for the lark, not that the OREO cookies and Amul lassi I had at home didn’t give me my share of nutrition. After the sumptuous breakfast, we got going at about 6:50 AM. The start was a brisk one with both of us charged up for the long day ahead of us, cruising through most part of the city without any strain on our calf muscles, although, our jaw muscles had an intense work out courtesy the amount of crap we're always capable of coming up with. The ride couldn’t have got any better with the weather commendably playing the part of a perfect ally and the roads playing no tricks, which was shocking for Bengaluru road standards (From what I hear, Its partly thanks to Mr. Yedi), not to mention the picturesque view which added to the ride being all the more pleasant. Two hours of cycling, immense posterior anguish and a whole lot of motley topics later, we passed the BIAL (Bangaluru International Airport Limited). Self impressed with our progress - we spot fellow bicyclists also heading towards Nandi hills - we picked up the pace and smoked past them without breaking a sweat, leaving them miles behind, heading towards Devanhalli, in turn taking the deviation which led us into the hills. After getting onto the terrain which would lead us to the foot hill, we finally felt the effects of persistent biking on our calves and thighs, however the pain was inconsequential, hence we carried on through the vertically alternating path eventually arriving at the foot hill. The climb towards the hill top was the first real test for our mountain bikes as well as our bike maneuvering expertise in our small yet flamboyant biking career. The climb in all was a "mere" 8 kms, so we braced our selves, switched into high gear and were up for the task ahead. The climb started off with a minimum amount of physical challenge but 2 kms into the climb, I started showing signs of fatigue - flaunting most of the profanity available in my lexicon - resulting in our first pit stop of the day. After re gathering our breath, we got back on track and 1 km into the ride, I again started with my whiny ways and got off the bike, continuing the climb by just walking, Dhiru on the other hand was mighty impressive, showing no signs of being a wuss like me, carrying on towards glory, with me intermittently biking. After I'd had enough, Dhiru had no choice but to succumb to my pressure and take the second pit stop with about 3 Kms to the top. We got back on our not-so-merry ways after a couple of minutes and I again started the intermittent biking and profanity but could get through most part of the climb thanks to an unforeseen source - MUSIC. If it wasn’t for Coldplay, I in all probability would have given up the climb, and this by no stretch of imagination is an exaggeration, music really was a soothing influence on my mind that helped me get through the mentally challenging climb. Another unforeseen source was an uncle in a scooter, who gave me a helping hand (primarily due to me asking him to) by pulling me along with his vehicle for about half a kilometer. All the external help, whining, pit stops and a wee bit of mental strength (by me. A lot of mental strength by Dhiru though) entailed that we successfully completed the mentally-frustrating, physically-arduous and spiritually-overwhelming climb.

    11:20 AM: Atop the hill, we rested our bikes and more importantly rested ourselves for a while in order to rehabilitate our physical strength to walk towards the nearest restaurant we could find. We tentatively parked the bikes and walked for another tiring kilometer to get to the restaurant. Extremely hungry and chillingly cold we ordered the first thing edible on the menu, that being Masala dosas. The feeling of food down our throats was Sweet; we could not have been more grateful to the good fortune of having access to food. It was an overwhelming feeling to just relax and feel the dosas go right down our throats all the way into our hollow stomachs. On another day I would have griped about having to eat vegetarian food and the fact that the "masala" dosas had boiled beans and carrots as their filling in comparison to the regular dosas which have a handful of aloo. But today was different, I was grateful enough to have something to eat. Albeit the weather was freezing cold, we had a couple of ice creams to top off the most gratifying meal ever. After lunch we spent sometime relaxing on the hill being witness to a South Indian movie's shoot. I wouldn’t want to go into the intricacies of the shoot since it was a rather lame display of a climax scene and me describing it would probably offend a lot of kannada movie buffs - although I have a hunch, I already have.

    1:20 PM: After soaking in all that Nandi hills had to offer we decided to start the ride back towards home, the incentive being a steaming hot shower (just to make sure we're on the same page - the showers would be taken in separate locations). As expected, the downhill ride was the sweetest part of the entire ride, on our decent we caught up with the guys (soaked in perspiration) we had passed way back at BIAL. By the way, they were still on their way up hill. The fact that we had reached the peak 2 hours prior to them fortified our faith in the best brand in the biking business - TREK. For all those who asked me what was extraordinary about a 14000 CYCLE, here is your answer: TREK --> Lesser effort + Lesser time = Greater Virility + Rights to mock the other bikers at will (All in good humor people). As we were breezing past all the bends, we spotted a trail and thought of trying out that path downwards, the attempt was short-lived though, since it was way too narrow and steep for us to steer down even with our TREKs. We made up quick time and got past the hill carrying our momentum to the road towards the highway. The ride felt short much to our surprise as we thought we had a lot of ground to cover to reach the highway, I guess the dosas re-energized us after all. The highway ride was no mean feat thanks to our posteriors being in excruciating pain due to the beating they had taken from the narrow seats of the bike, the only drawback about the bikes. What added to the tough highway ride was the relentless winds that were slowing us down considerably. However, having completed the climb to the hill top in tougher conditions, the winds didn’t stop us from reaching that elusive hot bath. What stopped us though was...Dhiru's mobile charger!! We had to take a deviation resulting in an extra 5 kilometers just to get his charger - that he had conveniently forgotten the previous day - from his uncle's place - UTOPIA aka Olde Bangalore.

    3:50 PM: We reached Utopia, retrieved his charger, recuperated for 5 minutes - which felt absolutely awesome - and got back on our journey. We hit the highway again with the wind having got stronger and slowing us down further. So we pressed hard through most part of the highway and just when we thought we were within an hour's time of getting over with all of the torment, conditions got worse - There was a sudden down pour decreasing our visibility and keeping our pace in check. Fortunately, the rains stopped abruptly within five minutes in turn reducing the winds as well, So the rains turned out to be a blessing in disguise of sorts. Post the natural showers; we had no real troubles coping with the roads as they weren’t much of a challenge, now that we'd seen it all. The rest of the ride went by with no real incidents with us cranking up the pace going into city.

    5:50 PM: After a really long day, we reached the place where we had to go our separate ways to take different routes which would eventually lead us to our very elusive hot showers. Impressed with our virility, with a pat on each other's back and words of appreciation on successfully completing the expedition we rode back to the coziness our respective homes had to offer.

    I'd end the journey blog by handing it to the professional competitive cyclists all over since this ride gave us a small insight into their lives which is dedicated towards doing what we guys just did – on a much larger scale – and having the mental and physical strength to keep it going for as long as it takes for them to get to 'their mountain peak'. With this experience under my belt I realize that fitness ain't for me, in effect vowing to be a wuss all my life and never to return to riding anywhere more than 20 kms in one day. Long live Laziness....
    tags: biking-expedition
    posted 2008-07-02 in blog 118 views add comment

  • Title's yet to be thought of

           Well, It's been a long time since I jotted down some stuff. So, I just got lost in thought, and let me tell you, it was unfamiliar territory. After a whole lot of deliberation, I thought it'd be fun to amuse myself - for some naïve reason - by capturing my thoughts on a piece of paper (For those of you wisecracks - when I was initially writing this, it was on a piece of paper. Now it's been transformed on to the electronic medium). At first I was skeptical about writing something about my thoughts, the reason being, I've always had this notion (read thought) that my fragile brain is incapable of a plethora of thought. This really is an oxymoron because now that I think of it, I'm convinced that I do think quite a bit, 'cuz if I didn’t think, how would I actually think that I didn’t think!! The only difference - evidently - is that most of my (being nice to my self) thoughts are primarily frivolous. The other thing about my self- proclaimed "brain" is that, it is inept of retaining a lot of thoughts due to having an under-privilege of something called… I forgot what its called, I just had it a second ago…Eureka!! I got it - I don’t have the privilege of something called a memory. One such example of having a weak memory is - A few moments ago, I had some brilliant thoughts (no kidding) but didn’t have a pen to scribble them down, Now that I do have a pen, the thoughts are gone!! Well, the consolation here is that it, at the very least, testifies - Murphy's laws are for real.

          The fascinating thing about my thoughts is that they never cease to amuse me. Have you ever experienced that? I mean, you're always involved when you get thinking, and most times you don’t even realize that you're thinking, but subconsciously you actually are thinking and in turn always occupied. The other thing that fascinates me about thoughts is that when you actually try to think of something, the thoughts never are the greatest and most times you get nowhere. But when you actually just let the thoughts flow by not thinking that you have to think of something novel or creative, the thoughts are at their lethal best. There are exceptions though, and if any of you are wondering as to what the exceptions are then...all I've got to say is DUH!! Also, if any of you are wondering as to why I am expressing all of this, To be honest - I have no idea!! But in my defence, I warned you that my thoughts were frivolous to start off with, and since I'm writing about what I'm thinking, I have the license to write crap.

          Lately, I've noticed that my mind however modest it is, has been cluttered with a whole lot of thoughts and these have predominantly been about how I could make my life a touch more meaningful; not that it is of any meaning as of now, just that it would be nice to start off by making it a little meaningful and then take it from there. Expectedly though, after giving this a lot of thought I still haven't come up with anything. That however, will not stop my juggernaut of thoughts towards finding a purpose in life. Another thing that has come to my notice is, the primary reason for my thoughts leading me nowhere is because the thoughts are the ones that are meaningless, not my life. (Well, life also, but the root cause are the ambiguous thoughts that I keep having) So, a few thoughts later, I think, I need to change the way I think in order to get somewhere. Then again, If you look at this closely or in a low-latent-inhibiton frame of mind, my entire thought process is a paradox, because - If I actually have thought about changing my thoughts, then I will have to change this thought as well which will imply that I don't have to change my thought process!! So, basically I'm back to square one and I'm sticking to the way I think. God help me!!

          By now anyone reading this must think that I'm pretty lame because for starters, I've written a whole lot of insignificant crap and if that wasn't foolish enough, I've been criticizing my thoughts throughout. So, If you are, then I've got you stooped down to thinking on my lines and that ain't saying much. So, the joke's pretty much on you and all I've got to say to that is - ha ha!!

          Anyways, I'm exhausted about having to think of all the lame stuff to write. So, I'd just leave by writing the most worthwhile sentence I thought of - "Think, 'cuz a thought keeps your mind out of a draught!!" Whoa!!! finally I thought of something worthy - however trivial it maybe. Actually I wanted to make something rhyme in the entire article so I came up with this, None the less, I have come to a conclusion that I should put an end to this. So, that, I will...



    A word of caution - This article is put up exclusively to amuse me by laughing at my stupidity 10 years down the line. (wishfully thinking of being a tad bit smarter then) Anyone else reading this is at their own peril of risking all the sense they have







    tags: unworthy-thoughts
    posted 2008-05-08 in blog 120 views add comment

  • Pudducherry!!

    26 Jan '08 

            Another routine breaking vacation which we look forward to. Ah!! This is the reason most of us go through a whole lot of crap at work, just to enjoy all the treats our hard earned (yeah right) money can offer us. This time around though there's a very legitimate reason for going out of town, unlike the previous GOA trip . The young (not anymore) and rapidly upcoming band 5 AM will be performing their 3rd Freedom Jam of the season and with a new song added to their arsenal, they sure will be one of the bands to look out for, although there is another reason for them being the band to look out for… there are just 3 other bands playing at the jam!!

           This trip is going to be all the more special because of Santosh Tatpati - needs no introduction - joining us for a trip for the first time…..NOT. As always, there is the eleventh hour back out. Apparently he incurred "Some kind of Rash" and will miss out on the "fun-filled" trip. Too Bad!! So, the 3 of us (Melli, Bonedeep and Naveen i.e. me) start off our journey on an ominous note, Good ol' Bonedeep and Melli create a confusion by not coming to the main road they usually take to pick me up. Now I gotta walk all the way up to the other main road to join them to the bus stand. Great!!! Its ok, my luck…what to do!! Anyways, We Reach the bus stand with no real incidents in the cab. But once we get there, we are completely clueless about where to go to board the bus. Takes us a few minutes but we eventually get to the spot where the bus would arrive.

           Well things seem pretty meek while we're waiting for the bus apart from getting a few pictures of us taken with the guitars and cricket bat we had carried along, and us witnessing a guy who was very reminiscent of the character 'Sméagol' from Lord Of The Rings. After much ado the bus - An Airavat Volvo - finally arrives. Melli and me seem pretty pleased about Bonedeep's choice of bus because of its very comfortable interiors and the generous hospitality shown by the host of the bus, overall a good bus to travel in. What makes it even better - for Bony that is - is there are two girls who occupy the seats ahead of us and we are treated to some cleavage (butt) and "pretty" stares by one of them throughout the journey.

           During the bus journey, Melli and me have a gala time talking about a whole lot of crap you can possibly imagine, while bony is trying to catch some sleep as he slept for a brief 2-3 hours the previous night. Our first stop is a modest hotel where we have a couple of bowls of VEG biryani, which was rather disssgusting!!! We also pick up a few bites to munch on during the journey. While getting back on the bus after our so-called breakfast, we get a few stares and jibes from the bus crew as we're the last to get on. Pretty much the same goes on in the bus after breakfast - a few topics talked about and some sleep gained by bony. The next stop was for lunch and we decide to play a little bit of cricket during that time, while doing that we gain a fan in the form of a middle aged man who got friendly with us (as we're very affable you see) and talks about us promoting the sport and that sort of crap. We have some edible Kerala parottas for lunch and are again given the stares when we board the bus. 

           We finally reach our destination PUDDUCHERRY and wait for - what feels like an eternity - for Sandeep and Mithun to come get us from the bus stop. They take us to the Auroville beach where our cottage is, the place is pretty serene, which is probably the best part of it because the beach is filled with shit loads of shit and there is this awful odour of raw fish that is constantly in our rooms. The rest of the guys are all dressed and ready to go for the jam, while Melli, Bony and me refresh our selves and gear up for the jam. 

           All set for the show, three of the guys leave in an auto rickshaw to "The Port" and the rest of us get in Sandeep's automobile and head towards the same. While I'm in the car listening to trash like Ramstein and some other gore metal, (which, by the way, I completely fancy) Zaki out of the blue gets all emotional about being lonely in Hyderabad and how he would loooooove to have some company in this solitude phase of his life or better, to get back to Bangalore, and I'm just not the best person when it comes to emotional talk, so I just go on nodding and the best I do is, put my arm around his shoulder - pretty lousy I know (sorry man, but that’s the best I could do). We arrive pretty fast at the port since there's hardly any traffic unlike the hustle of Bangalore. 

           All of us regroup at the port and head towards the stage where the bands would jam. The port, turns out to be a rather gloomy set up for a show to take place, there is hardly any audience and it is situated right next to the fishing colony, so all in all a pretty lousy place for a performance to be displayed by one of India's top notch bands (just to clarify, the band is indeed 5 AM). However, the professionals that they are, 5 AM put on a great show and attract a lot of people with their genre of music. They started off smoothly with a gentle loosener "Mistake" which got the crowd interested and then shifted into top gear by playing their smash hit "Cutest thing" being a huge crowd puller, this really got things started, in terms of crowds starting to swoop in huge numbers. Once they had the crowd hooked on, they turned on the heat by playing "Within me" with Subbu being pleasingly inventive on the drums in spite of being skeptical about performing the song. They never went off the boil by playing "Some kind of rush" (my personal favourite and from the looks of it, even a few other's), finally premiering their latest addition "Deja vu", which was an icing on the cake, a song on which anyone could very well go high on.. A brilliant new composition which had the refreshment and variety they were looking for to add on to their list of compositions. Pleased with 5 AM's performance, all of us look forward to dinner but you'd never believe the place we had dinner at, Pizza Hut!! Of all the places to choose from in Pondicherry, we go and have dinner at one of the most generic eat outs in Bangalore. We turn a blind eye to all the fancy restaurants and get into PIZAA HUT… What can I say, that’s just us!!

           On the contrary though, the food at Pizza hut turned out to be delightful, there was some sort of an additional essence to the pizzas which made them very desirable. The crust was softer and the cheese was a tad bit more than the ones Bangalore's pizzas have, I guess those were the two essential points which made the pizzas all the more enjoyable. After dinner, all of us decided to spend some time on the rocky beach. The time we had there was a lot of fun, with just the few of us having pleasant talk into the late hours of the night, under the moonlight with the sea spread wide out in front of us. Nature at its best!! It was late at night so we agreed on getting back to the cottages by going in the car one group at a time. So, Sandeep had to take us back and forth two times. All of us got back by around 1:00 AM and spent some more time at the beach near the cottages. Finally, we called it a day when everyone had enough of the nature-overwhelming-crap.

           The night at the cottages was a fun experience with us looking out for bugs as the place we slept in was pretty creepy. As the morning draws closer, Zaki wakes up and pesters all of us to get up and watch the sun rise and none of us were game for it. But he is adamant about watching the sun and just does not let us sleep so we kind of wake up and look out for the sun to rise and guess what, there ain't no sun coming out. Turns out the sun rises at 7 and by then we had abnegated and gone back to sleep but Zaki goes over to the beach to just watch a faint orange line in the sky, which he calls the sun rise!! Fortunately for Amrit, Subbu and Sandeep, they were in another room so they escaped all of this torture of "rising early with the sun".

    27 Jan '08 (Day starts off after the 7 o'clock sunrise)

           We all are up pretty early thanks to Zaki and partly Melli (cuz of his finger-snappin' shit). Apart from Amrit, Mithun and Subbu, the rest of us go for breakfast at Saravanan Bahavan, allegedly one of Tamil Nadu's most authentic vegetarian restaurants. There we eat to the extent of virtually finishing the restaurant's entire food supply and even though we do that, most of us are not even 'half-full'. In spite of all of this, the bill was a trivial Rs 200 odd, which turned out to be the best part of the meal and the fact that we conned Sandeep into paying our bill made the meal all the more satisfactory!! We get back to the cottages to find the 3 of the guys still asleep, so the rest of us decide to go to the beach as the sun is relentlessly belting down on us.

           We change into our swimming gear - a very pleasant sight I must add - and head for the beach to find a whole lot of guys in the water, so we choose to swim in an isolated section. The time in the water reminded some of us of the beaches of Goa and how they were way cleaner than the one here. But that didn't stop us from having a great time, we played quite a few games in, and out of the water, with most of them being highly creative novel ones, considering the huge amount of intellect available. There were a few interesting incidents while in the water, with Amrit showing off his BUTT CRACK to both the Sandeeps. Amrit, again, falling into the water with all of his clothes on, Sandeep loosing his glasses in an attempt to pull off a stunning catch and most of us scraping ourselves against the ground while being swept off by the waves.

           After the beach session, we play a bit of cricket at the cottages (this is where the bat comes in handy) and get all dressed up to go out for lunch. Again some of us come by a rickshaw and some go by the car. We go for lunch to Rendezvous and there we learn of Amrit and his good natured character. Aditi (Amrit's friend) has to get back home as soon as possible - for reasons held confidential - and calls on Amrit to take her back. So she joins us for lunch and the rest of us are clueless about how to behave in her presence, since we turn almost barbaric when we see good meat on the table. Turns out all of us are well behaved and have one of our quietest lunches till date. In spite of that lunch was really good, with the Lasagnas being top notch. We also take a few pictures of us smoking the cigar and of all people the religious bloke, Zaki too getting into the act, by actually taking a puff of smoke inside his untainted system and then letting it out. 

           We leave behind Amrit and Sandeep with Aditi and go to the rocky beach for the second time. There we have a few ice creams, eat a little bit of junk and just spend quality time talking and taking pictures of us as well as the inhabitants of the sea. In the evening we are joined by Amrit and co. at la café situated along side the beach. We again have a few things to eat there. While we're at the café, there is an unexpected turn of events with Bony falling in LOVE…. Can you believe it, the guy who talks/dreams about boning for more than half of the ay actually falls in love with a girl he gawks at over there. There are these two French misses who come over to the café and Bonedeep falls for one of them, and if you thought the other girl was lucky to escape the stares of the munks, you were wrong - Our very own Mithun falls for the other one (although not as passionately as Bony). So, most of the time spent at the café was a few of the guys drooling over the two girls while the rest of us just getting bored since we had very little to eat and not much to talk about. After the girls leave, Mithun and Bony loose interest in spending time at the café so we get out of there and get back to the rocky beach (ah!! What fun….. NOT).

           Fortunately, we don’t spend too much time on the beach again, the second day of the freedom jam takes place next to the café - so we end up being pretty much on the beach itself!! We're really kicked about the jam since there was some unusual group who were going to perform with only, utensils!! Well if that sounded interesting, it was no where close to it. It was a complete disaster and the entire performance was a racket which chased away most of the crowd - including us. The show was a very brief time pass but in a way was actually good for us since we killed about half an hour or so cracking stupid jokes about it. 

           Hotel Ajanta was our next pit stop for dinner. We get a place on the roof top of the hotel, the view from there is breath taking as the entire sea was visible to us. We decide to go Indian this time by having biryanis although Zaki and Bonedeep split a lasagna as well. The food is not that interesting but Zaki makes up for that by going bonkers when he spots a giant bug dining right next to him. Melli calms his nerves by coming to his rescue and scaring away the pesky little pest. There were no more histrionics from any of us at dinner, so it was a rather pleasant meal with the view thing and all. 

           Zaki, Melli, Bony and me leave the restaurant to head back for the cottages as the rest would come a little later in the car. So we get off of the restaurant and guess who Bony sees…..the same French girl he fell in love with earlier at the café. He goes all hysterical about this co incidence but is soon heart broken as we have to leave for our rooms and he didn’t have a good look at her. We pick up a few ice creams and get going. All of us are quite tired with the days events so we hit the beds once we get back and call it a day.

    28 Jan '08 

           Amrit and Sandeep are not with us on this day as they left for Bangalore with Aditi the previous night and some of us (without naming anyone) not bothering to give him a send off the previous night. So the rest of us wake up at our own convenient times and go for breakfast to a place close by called Beach café. This is an authentic west oriented restaurant, so all of us are in the mood for some English breakfast comprising of eggs and toast. We get back to the cottages after breakfast via the beach. 

           Soon after we get to our cottages we decide to go to the beach…again!!! (how predictable and Obvious.) This time though its not the full strength as just Mithun, Bony and me hit the waters with Melli getting into one of those inspired moods and he decides to make the most of it by writing a new song for the band. Subbu joins him on the shore by just taking a few pictures - of old citizens' bare bottoms and crap like that. Zaki has got to go back to Chennai so he leaves after packing his stuff and no one really gives a rat's ass about it by just giving him a simple bye and we guys in the water being oblivious to him. Even though we're a small number in the water, we have quite a lot of fun by coming up with innovative (half naked) poses for Subbu's camera.

           We get all dressed up after spending time at the beach and get ready to vacate the rooms at around 4  in the afternoon. We head towards Melli's uncle's restaurant Peep in, primarily because we have no where else to go and moreover because we get free accommodation for our luggage as well as free food (hoping)  since we are running short of money. At around 5 we reach our destination and order a few pizzas and   French fries to munch on for our evening snack-cum-lunch. We successfully kill a couple of hours at the restaurant as the pizzas take time to get ready and Melli's cousin joining him for a loooong chat - which we overheard and that turned out to be our only source of entertainment since it was hilarious to see Melli forcibly having to converse with the 10 year old. Melli has enough with the pleasantries so he makes up an excuse of meeting up with a friend who apparently is also in Pondicherry at that point of time. What a snob!! So the rest of us have no choice but to go and meet this "friend" of ours. We go for a stroll since there is nothing to do and end up in a park which is pretty close to the beach as well as Uncle's restaurant. We again murder time there for about an hour and then at around 8 or so we get back to the restaurant, have a few lasagnas (I know, again!!) and a couple of irresistible pastries. Now the best part of our meal!! Where we don't have to pay anything for both of our meals. But being the nice guys that we are, we offer to pay and the bigger hearted uncle refuses to accept. So we show our gratitude by saying our thank you's to him and leave for the bus stop to catch our bus to Bangalore. 

           The bus arrives on time and we prepare to leave Pondi with a heavy heart, with most of us not wanting to get caught up in the monotonous routine of life again. But then, life ain't no fairy tale so we got to get back to the worldly ways and go through all of the crap until the next break. With no other alternative, we board the bus and go to sleep so that we can dream, for there is only so much - rather so little - one can do...
    tags: 5-am-rendition-cum-vacation
    posted 2008-02-25 in blog 369 views 3 comments add comment