Monday, September 29, 2008

Singapore F1-shef1 Bah!

So everyone I know AND their aunt were at the Singapore F1 on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not an F1 fan but come on! Everyone has their own vantage point photos on facebook and orkut. Cheezy Indian faces plastered with maniacal grins pasted on a backdrop of lit up streets, whizzing F1 cars, Singaporean girls and even crashed cars.

To top it all a classmate from Mount St. Mary's, the school I was at before I joined DPS was actually a race official volunteer there. So his facebook is full of pre-race post-race pictures as well.

And another person I know flew to Singapore just to attend this race.COME ON!


Am I the only one who can't afford to be at the hottest action points in the world? My glory day was when I went to the opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League in Bangalore. Somehow that just doesn't have the pizzazz and glamour of the Singapore F1


I want to go to such events too...

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ramblings of a Crabby Mind...

I'm in a very crabby mood this morning. For the second weekend running tennis has not happened (I did go last Sunday, but the game was really bad with H having forgotten everything he'd learnt because of a hiatus when I was in Delhi).

So this post is going to be very very rambling. I'm also chatting with my former boss while writing this so paragraphs may not necessarily link up together with the smooth fluidity that discerning readers of this blog are used to. So in case you have problems with this, move your eyeballs elsewhere. So there! hmmpff

So eventhough I slept at 2:30 am after a DCE friend's birthday party and then going to his house to chat up after dinner.(Good fun, by the way). But what I want to bring to light here, mi lord, is that inspite of this I woke up at 5:30, then 6:00 am hoping for one of the people who had promised to come this morning to call up. But no one called. Must've been recovering from some innane party the night before. No commitment to the cause of tennis, I tell you.

So I have decided that I need newer people to infect with my tennis in the morning virus. And the demographic profile of the people I'm looking for are absolute social outcasts. People who spend their Friday and Saturday nights curled up infront of the TV with a big bag of chips. Those who're not invited to any party - especially not any party with any kind of alcohol or the option of staying over. And those to whose meticulously planned parties, no one shows up.

People with big cars and an interest in driving early in the morning would have a distinct advantage in getting considered.


Ok, crabbiness finished, I really wanted to write about these home parties i've been going to a lot. I never thought that going to colleagues' home parties would ever be fun but it was a mistake. It is AWESOME fun. Everyone has facets which you never really see at all in office. For instance AS, a colleague, is an absolute gaming freak. And he's set up his den in such an awesome fashion. He has a computer dedicated entirely to enhancing the gaming experience.

Consider this - a very powerful processor with the latest (at any point in time) video card. 17 inch tft flatscreen monitor (This is the best size for gaming. Apparently any bigger than this and you'd have to move your head around too much while playing!). A surround sound system in which you can hear the bullets whistling behind you or to the side. So essentially a spatial surround sound. And the most comfortable gaming chair. Its a regular office chair, but its so ergonomically designed that you can sit on it for hours and hours. In fact this Friday I was there at his place for a party. Unfortunately I did not follow the Indian Standard Time and ended up very early for it. After pottering around and being in the way of the hosts I was firmly put in that chair with Far Cry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_cry ) and Chronicles of Riddick ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Riddick:_Escape_from_Butcher_Bay ) playing. And the experience was awesome. I was glued to the game for two hours and refused to join the party till I had killed Rust (A character in the Riddick game)

That reminds me, I have to go to his house and pick up the two games today. And then, ladies and gentlemen, my crabbiness would be completley gone as I let the violent streak within me attack and vapourize the villains in both the games.

huhuhahAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!


Update 1: I got my favourite ring tone of all time, the Top Gun anthem ( http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTJmXrgsFg ) on my new super cool phone.
Crabbiness factor : -5

Update 2: The ringtone is so low that I wasn't able to hear a call coming in. More work is required on the ringtone.

Crabbiness factor : +10

Net Crabbiness : +5 :(

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Zodiac Buying Behaviour...

Apparently a person's sunsign determines how he or she buys stuff. Like most people I did not give any credence to this sun sign stuff. But the proof is irrefutable!

Consider this, I am a Virgo. Apparently Virgos "know what they want and are not satisfied with anything less or different than that." Now in normal circumstances I scoff at this. I have absolutely no clue about what I want from life. What is that one driving force that would motivate me relentlessly.

But the evidence? Atleast in terms of buying stuff is amazing as was pointed out to me by a friend who doesn't really know me for too long.

Most of the purchases I make, the process for deciding on the product takes way way longer than the buying actual buying process. In fact once I've made up my mind to buy some specific thing I have this huge urge, and absolutely childlike craving to get the thing...NOW!

But I am also willing to wait and wait till I can get the exact same thing. Or till i'm able to afford that particular thing. In the meantime I do not even look at other things or even if I do, they don't really register in my psyche as potential alternatives to the initial decision.


Consider some cases in point.

My watch

I did my summer internship with the erstwhile KSA Technopak (www.technopak.com). It was a project about a feasibility study for a couple of malls which the consultancy's clients wanted to set up in Mumbai. So for the 'extremely important and critical primary research' work (read grunt work that no actual employee of the organization wanted to do) D and I were packed off for two weeks to Mumbai.

(As an aside, this was going to be my first trip paid for by someone other than my parents. I was quite excited about it even though we only got train tickets and not air tickets. Unfortunately a day before the trip I crashed my car in a highly stupid way into a divider. Fortunately I wasn't going too fast and I managed to get away without too much damage. Also, I wasn't wearing a seat belt at that time. So all those people reading this blog - WEAR SEATBELTS AND HELMETS. Its just such a stupid way to get injured. Anyway inspite of this I did go to Mumbai the next day)

The work we were doing included visiting a large number of malls and speaking to shop owners, mall managers, customers etc etc. Obviously it was a very plum assignment as compared to most of my batchmates who were researching parts of rural India or even if they were in cities, were doing unglamourous stuff. (Ours wasn't really glamorous but it could be made to sound extemely glamorous - which is what I did while talking to batchmates upon returning :). Oh, and this was improved even further as a batchmate saw D and I having ice cream while strolling along marine lines while he was travelling in a bus. This obviously meant that the image about my project was - he gets to go to Mumbai, cavort around in malls and other air conditioned places while we struggled in hot, semi-rural places. AND he gets to go there with a pretty girl as well! God is not fair. Needless to say I got a lot of dagger eyed stares when I returned to campus (snigger).)

Right, so coming back to the story, I came across this watch in one of my er..work related mall visits.

I just fell in love with the watch. It was awesome to look at, very sporty and had an angled display. Ohh it was just what I wanted. I went back to see it 3-4 times more. It was 3500 rupees. Way way more than I could afford at that time.

I was so sad to leave the watch behind that I actually took down the number of the model of the watch. I carried it in my wallet for a few months before Titan came up with an exchange offer of giving your old watch and getting a 25% discount on their fast track watches. The day I saw the offer, the very next day I went and bought this watch. Completely emptying out whatever I had saved out of the stipend I got during summers.

I still use the watch and am still as in love with it as I was the day I saw it first (er...this doesn't sound too psychotic, does it?). Since then I can afford watches which are much more expensive and are amazing to look at but I just don't feel the urge to buy it the way I felt with this!

Virgo buying behaviour.

The Car

My love for the Palio I have is well documented ( http://swappinglives.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-own-set-of-wheelswheee.html ). I saw the Palio for the first time in 2001 and decided than and there that I had to have it. When I finally put together enough money to buy a Palio, Fiat went and changed the car. They changed the headlights and reduced the power. AND I HATED them for doing it. I just had to have the old model only. I took a used car, but I took the one I wanted forfeiting a better model, or a new car, or even some other car more suited to psychotic driving of Bangalore.

Again the Virgo buying behaviour!

And the latest to join this league is my new phone!

Yes, yes, I bought a new phone over the weekend. Eventhough I didn't take too long to decide on the model, I got that urge to own very very strongly. I slept fitfully one day after dragging my poor flatmate PS half way across the city looking for the phone. The next day I got up bright and early and went through 5-6 shops.(I've become quite lazy about taking out my car and driving across Bangalore on weekends but for this I went for it crazily. So from decision to buying a fairly expensive thing took me about 17 hours!!

Oh, the phone is a Sony Ericsson G700 ( http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_g700-review-220.php ), very cool phone. I'm broke now, but happy - true Virgo fashion !

Sunday, September 7, 2008

That Silly Little Feeling...

Sometimes when you think you're being extremely smart you end up doing something that is guaranteed to give you a red face for a long time to come whenever you think about it.

Now generally I don't reveal embarrasing things to people who I know would take my case for a very VERY long time. But I guess you're all my friends and wouldn't make fun of me, right? RIGHT? (Damn it, atleast say that you wouldn't)

Now I usually don't buy stuff from vendors on red lights, except maybe its one of those packs of really cheap ear buds (pause. Did the world at large really need to know about my personal hygiene related stuff? I guess not, but now i've typed it so I'm not going to bother deleting it), but today some circumstances occured that I made a transaction there.

I was returning after meeting TDV near Forum mall and as I took the turn and got stuck at a red light I happened to glance at my phone beeping merrily away indicating that the battery was all but over. Now as you know my phone is anyway on its last legs and I couldn't afford to risk the battery hitting zero. Who knows it may just not come back to life at all. Desperately I was cursing myself,

a. For not charging the phone properly
b. For being a cheapskate and not having the in-car charging device

Now apart from the very real threat of the phone conking, I was also expecting a very important message (It didn't come, sigh. No details available for you nosey people). Caught between these two problems I was looking desperately around, and there infront of me, like an angel from heaven, materialized a vendor with the answer to all my peoblems. A revival of hopes was had. And secretly superstitious thoughts of the destiny-is-on-my-side-I-should-take-the-shot came storming into my head (again related to the-expected-but-never-came-message. No details for you nosey people, again). This guy was selling a in-car cellphone charging device with 5 different heads to fit into a multitude of cell phones.

Perfect, oh ye holy angel, I read your message clearly. It is but a clear green signal.

But then my smartness kicked in.

Now i'm a terrible bargainer. I mean not an indifferent bargainer. A TERRIBLE bargainer. Shopkeepers have been known to mark up the price as soon as they see my face. Me strolling into a market is occasion to let loose firworks and light the shops akin to diwali in many marketplaces.

But here I thought I could try my hand. After all I was getting heavenly sign after sign that today was going to be a lucky day.

So I called the guy and sitting there at the red light I negotiated to beat all negotiators in the world. I mean, all those hostage negotiators talking to terrorists and kidnappers the world over would have nothing on me after this day. In fact I should probably be giving them Negotiation 101 seminars after work. I actually got the guy to sell the device to me at my first quoted price. Oh, I was so proud!!


Except one small thing.


None of the 5 heads on the device fits into my cell phone.