Hypocrisy by Rediff.com

Rediff.com had an article/poll for the worst TV commercial of 2009, running on their portal today.

When I try and think of the worst ads of 2009, this sleazy ad from Rediff.com comes to my mind first. It makes me wonder, if they "rewarded" their "Employee of the Year" with such a goldduck golden chance of working in a TV commercial ;-)

Heights of hypocrisy by NOT including their own ad for the poll!

IPL Opening Match - Pictures and Memories

I just returned from the Opening Ceremony of the IPL (Indian Premier League) in Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. I had never felt so confused while watching any sport event, be it live or on television. No, the organization of the IPL was never a problem. The confusion was IN my head. The confusion of WHICH team to support and hoot for.

Earlier, be it Cricket, Soccer, Tennis or Formula 1, I have always had a clear taste of which team I would like/hope/wish to win. But in case of IPL haven't made up my mind yet. I am myself a Punjabi, born and brought up in Orissa/Chhatisgarh and have been living in Karnataka (Bangalore) for the last 7 years almost. So I gave up and told myself that, as of now, I'd just enjoy good cricket and forget about who wins or who doesn't. It flopped. I never ended up enjoying the cricket. The things that attracted (and kept me busy) were things besides cricket. For example, the Redskin Cheerleaders and their wonderful moves, my camera and its 12X zoom, who all are accompanying Shahrukh, etc. In the end, the match proved to be a hugely one-sided affair. In international cricketing terms it was almost like India v/s Namibia (Let your imagination decide which country played which IPL Team's role!)

I shall leave you here with some pics from the match. I have a flight to catch tomorrow. I am off to Sikkim for a 14-day trek. Yipppeeeeee !!!!! :-)

The good old days of Super Mario Bros. and Contra

Memories are like gases, they try to occupy all the empty spaces they find, esp. in your head. Until yesterday, my head was filled with lots of stuff; work, house-hunting, committments, deadlines, etc. So much occupied that you can compare it to Eden Garden on the eve of India-Pakistan World Cup Final (pun intended) !!

But yesterday, I got some time to relax. (Some time to release the gas you'd say!) Stayed at home on a Saturday and planned my long-overdue trip to home. My hometown is in Rourkela (Orissa) although I spent eight golden childhood years of mine in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh). One of my nappy-buddies (actually we were a little older than that) Pratyush, is back from US for a month and I hope to meet him when I go back home. Whenever I think of that golden time it reminds me of all the fun we (me, Pratyush, Chinu and a whole bunch of friends) used to have when we were kids.

Summer vacation meant non-stop masti which included comics, cycling, cricket and most-importantly Video Games. It was the early 90s and Quake or Need For Speed inventors were probably still graduating. It was the time of sweet old Cartridge Games played on Samurai Consoles (even Nintendos were luxury at those days). I can bet I have played almost all the games of that era. Just to name a special few, Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Jungle Book, Islander, Spartan, Double Dragon and a xillion others.

But I lost my virginity (of playing video-games) to the ultimate game called Super Mario Bros. The player takes the role of Mario, or in the case of a second player, Mario's brother Luigi. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, evade or eliminate Bowser's forces, and save Princess Peach. The Mario Brothers' primary attack is simply jumping on top of ("Stomping") their enemies, which kills the mushroom traitors and sends the turtle soldiers into their shells. Mario and Luigi can then kick these shells into other enemies, which will conveniently dispatch them; but conversely, kicked shells can bounce back off walls or other vertical obstructions and hit them. Some enemies can be killed only by shell impact; stomping them will hurt the Mario Bros. Jumping on enough enemies in succession or kicking a shell into enough enemies in succession (combos) results in double points earned with each enemy killed, eventually (after eight successive times) earning Mario or Luigi a 1-up - an extra life - another chance to pass the level. Mario and Luigi can also obtain 1-ups through finding 1-up mushrooms or even by collecting 100 coins.

If you know this sequence "Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A", you know what game I'm talking about. Yeah, its Contra!! The most deadly and enchanting games of all times. The trick (Konami Code) I mentioned above helps you get 30 lives for you and your partner (there's a different trick for Super Contra though). The Contra series essentially defined the run and gun computer and video game genre. The games, which are a combination of platform and shoot 'em up, consist of a player-controlled human protagonist who employs rapid-fire rifles to destroy enemies. While there is more emphasis put on shooting than jumping, the player must be able to use jump to gain the right angle to destroy certain enemies and avoid getting shot. Avoidance is essential, as it only takes one hit to kill the player.

The majority of the games in the series are presented strictly in a side-view perspective, with some of the levels scrolling vertically; however, different titles have experimented with different replication of the same basic gameplay. Super Contra, however, had overhead levels, similar to titles like Commando; the player could not jump in this perspective but could strafe instead. The Contra series has a reputation for being exceptionally fast-paced and difficult. It is thought to take an extremely skilled player to progress through the game using only the three lives and continues provided.

The other games I thoroughly enjoyed playing were The Jungle Book (extremely adventurous), Spartan (Kung-fu action), Double Dragon (adventure and action), Super Mario Bros. 3 (love it) and many others.
Sometimes I just wish that I could fly back to those old times where I used to have so much of fun! But as they say 'Time Spent on Video Games is not wasted' (I hope my mom is not listening !!). So until next time... :-)

Its all about food...

The one thing that I have tried exceptionally wild here in Seattle, is food. It's not just because of my adventurous attitude or cos I am a food junkie. Its just that it makes more sense to me to try Tacos or Chowder for five bucks than wasting it on one silly Aloo Parantha or Biryani which I anyways will be having in a few days time. Its not about home-food too. Had it been the case I'd have stuffed Ready-to-Eat food packets from India for me while coming. Its the fact that, I won't get all these once I am back home. So why not try them out while I'm here?

I have tried a lot of varieties of food here already. Greek(Pitas) , Mexican(Tacos), Thai(All the funny sounding names), Chinese(Funny again), Russian(Try the drinks, not the salads, specifically no to the Russian White Salad), American(McD, KFC, Fish and Chips, Salmon, blah blah) and Vietnamese(Chicken Bowl was yum)! All have their own style and taste, clearly depicting the culture of their respective lands. But after 3 weeks of experimentation, my taste buds revolted against me and I had to succumb to their pressure.

Moreover, today I went with my team to an "authentic" Chinese Restaurant called Tamarind Tree. Since it was lunch , we had our tables reserved and orders pre-placed, before we left from office. I made my taste-buds go through the ultimate torture test; which in cricketing terms can be compared to facing Brett Lee on a green WACA (Perth) pitch in a cold murky Australian morning. I ordered a Bún tôm nướng (it took me five minutes to Google this dish I ate) and they tasted horrible and I blame it to my choice rather than the chef. They served me rice noodles with grilled prawns and herbs. They also served me a bowl of boiling water and a plate of rice-paper (I swear had somebody not told me that they were edible, I'd have used them as table mats). They were thin transparent rice flakes with beautiful pattern made on it. I was supposed to dip them in the boiling water and put the rice noodles and the prawns along with herbs in it, roll it over, dip in the soya sauce and put straight into my hapless mouth. Believe me, once they are wrapped ,they looked more like garbage stuffed in miniature polythene bags. Tasted like that too!! Eeeks!!

Here's me with my team. Don't misjudge my smile; its more of a relief-smile than the one of satisfaction.

After this trauma, I decided to break-free. I told myself, no matter what happens, I am gonna eat something mouth-sloppering delicious for dinner! So I headed towards the First Avenue where Google Maps pointed me an Indian Restaurant, called 'The Taste of India'. There were mainly Phirangs who were eating there and I feared whether I have come to a wrong place again! However, the guy on the counter was a Punjabi and that gave me a real sense of hope. I ordered a Lamb Biryani and asked him to wrap it up for me, as it was still early for dinner. I had my dinner in the room and believe me, that guy was really generous when he packed that Biryani for me. I can bet a whole American family can eat that amount of stuff (Of course, after eating that spicy Mutton Biryani, they'd be a thing of the past). I truly enjoyed it a lot. In fact I still am, whenever I get to burp now :-P !!

More later...

Longest day of my life (BLR-LHR-SEA)

0824 PDT, 28th May 2007. Seattle, WA.

You must have heard the phrase "being ahead of time". I just experienced it, when I flew from Bangalore to Seattle via London. I left Bangalore at about 0245 IST in my cab as I had my flight at about 0630 IST. It was pretty cool in the night and I was feeling damn excited about the trip.


The British Airways flight left on time. As always, I was unlucky enough to have an old fellow besides me. There was an empty seat between the two of us and I kept hoping someone 'interesting' would show up. But alas, it never happened. Anyways, I was more interested in sleeping at that time (Just to clarify, when I said 'sleeping' I meant 'dozing' and had no other malicious intentions).


The flight seemed pretty long, probably because I could hardly sleep. However I could see some really beautiful views from top. We flew over Dubai (check the snap above) and Mainland Europe before landing at Heathrow, London (LHR). The flight was delayed for about half an hour or so. That forced me to hurry to catch the connecting flight. I managed to finish the formalities just in time! I wanted to call up a few friends in UK but unfortunately I just couldn't.


After spending a few minutes in the Terminal 4 of LHR, I boarded the BA flight to Seattle. This time as well I didnt get to sleep much. Not because of any disturbance of any sort but because the view from the top was simply breath-taking.

We flew over Iceland, Greenland (see the snap above), Canada and finally landed in Seattle. Yippeeee!!! I have reached the country of dreams!!!

Gotta go now. Its Memorial Day here (an off day) so gotcha see some cool places around. Till then you can enjoy the pics I clicked on the Longest Day of my Life...

Sleepless for Seattle

0200 IST, 27th May 2007. The day has finally arrived. I leave for Seattle in a few hours and I am extremely excited about it!! I have an early morning flight from Bangalore to Seattle via London. Its gonna be the longest day of my life as I'd be traveling ahead of time and not against it.

As I sit in my room now, I have high hopes of seeing some great places there, learn a thousand new things and meet some old and new friends. In my stoppage at London, I am hoping to speak to my dear friend L£O. I wish I had a longer stay there and I could see London as well on Transit Visa; but alas, thats not gonna be the case this time.

So heres my adieu to all my friends and relatives, especially to those whom I couldn't speak over phone. I shall be back in a months time but as you will see, I will just be mouse tap away from you. Keep looking at this space for more....

Silence before the Storm

Its been really long since I had posted anything here. I heard a lot of complaints, especially from my readers (read - one guy from office and another one from college, who was rather more relieved than concerned) of me not publishing the blogs so frequently! Well, I was neither busy nor was I out of town. It was just that I thought I'd reserve my enthu(siasm) for the days ahead of me.

For those who don't know, my days of being an Indian all throughout these twenty-four years, has been finally compensated. I am traveling to the country of dreams, the US of A, this weekend (27th May 2007) for a business trip. At least my company and the team assumes that its a business trip. I have not allowed this lousy feeling to sink in me yet. I am already in a holiday frame of mind and would love to be there in that mood - throughout!

For all those people who are already wondering where am I going, then let me break the suspense (Frankly, I wonder whether there remains anyone, even in the third-degree node of my friend-tree, whom I have not bugged bragging about this trip). Well, just FYI, I am going to be in Seattle, WA for about 3-4 weeks. I have heard loads about this city; first time, when I saw the movie Sleepless In Seattle and then later from my Amriki ex-roommates.


There's a million places to visit in and around this lovely city and I am hoping to see atleast half of them! But inspite of this hectic schedule, I will be regularly blogging about my experiences with Uncle Sam. So keep looking at this space for more.

This is just the Silence before the Storm...

One Day at IIT Madras

On 24th of April '07, I went to the hottest and the most sizzling city (read literally) on Earth - Chennai (formerly Madras). It was an official visit and was planned for just one day.

There are a few friends of mine from college who stay in Chennai. Most of them work there, while a few are doing their post-graduation. Since it was a weekday, I thought it'd be wise to meet Gautam since he is studying M Tech at IIT there. I called him up the previous night and confirmed his availability.

I landed at about 8AM and reached the campus somehow by 9. The driver of my cab couldn't converse in English nor Hindi. I was surprised when he refused to acknowledge a college like IIT but knew Anna University instead. However, with the help of my travel coordinator I managed to reach the campus.

The IIT Madras campus is lush green, unlike any other part of Chennai. It is built on the forest land and you can see a lot of animals roaming around, esp deers. Students inside the campus use their cycles to commute. It reminded me of my college days, although, IIT can never be compared to a college like MVIT. There was only one thing in common - Chicks (if you can dare call them that). I didn't see one good looking chick there, except for a foreigner who was probably there on an exchange program.

I chatted with Gautam in his dorm most of the time. We had breakfast and lunch together in the mess. After that I went off to finish the work what I had come for. In the evening, Gautam had promised me to show some "real" chicks of his college. So we chatted over some coffee in the Cafe Coffee Day there. Later in the evening I hanged out in the hostel terrace and met another friend of mine - Prashant.

To wrap up, it was a pleasant break from the routine work in office. Reminded me of my college days. I hope I get a chance to be in such a place as a student once again sometime.

Pictures speak more than words. Here is a slide-show of my Day at IIT Madras. Make sure you select 'Show Captions' while watching it.

Friday the 13th

April 13th, 2005
Yes. Friday the 13th. The day of the devil.

Let me take you for a ride down the memory lane. I am talking about my college days, specifically, the days as Freshers. The days when being ragged by the seniors had become a daily routine. And then suddenly, one fine day, the Big Bang happened!

April 13th, 2002
I clearly remember the mixed feeling, everyone in my batch, had that morning. Considering what had happened the previous day (A bunch of us dared to fold our shirt-sleeves at college; which was a sin according to many of our seniors) many of us were skeptical what will happen at the morning breakfast. Everyone was waiting for each other to gang up together, so that, we are not caught aloof and made a bakra by the seniors. Yeah, the way we walked up to the hostel mess can easily be compared to a herd of sheep or goats. All were glued together, heads down, to form a highly concentrated irregular shape. Everyone trying their best to be at the center. Not because we felt guilty of what we did the previous day in college but because we didn't want to exaggerate the matter any further, hoping our seniors would call for truce and will throw the Fresher's Party soon.

We occupied the tables at the extreme corner, trying to avoid eye-contacts of any sort with the seniors. Some were brave and even dared to go close to the coffee containers next to the senior's table. There it started! One of the 3rd-year guy along with a bunch of 2nd-years asked him to sit with them. Nothing very flashy happened, but the grim face of my friend as well as the seniors indicated of the sour time that was coming. After one and half semester, we had an understandably close relation with the senior guys. After looking at their faces it felt we have gone back to day one.

The seniors had sent a message along with that friend of mine, asking all of us to assemble in the cricket field at 9AM sharp. We have had numerous such call-outs in the past (especially in the first semester) which ended up being ragging-sessions. I hoped that this one would be for truce as everyone of us was asked to be there. I also secretly hoped that they'd understand this act of ours and would apologize to us for not releasing the grip until now.

But the cricket-field was set for a completely different ball-game. There were at least forty seniors and super-seniors [Wiki: Seniors who have struggled to graduate even after umpteen number of attempts] as against seventy of us! Yeah, there have been times when even two guys alone have ragged thirteen of us in their flats. They always targeted the weak links to show their 'prowess'.

Immediately after the small introductory speech was interrupted by a question by my brave friend, and later, by a thundering slap to him, we knew, the assault is on! The seniors follow the divide-and-rule policy. They divided our group into Biharis, Bangalis, Delhiites, Rajasthanis and other Northies. Soon after that our 'dear' seniors turned into 'devils'. People were slapped, abused, thrashed for no logical reason whatsoever.

We gulped the humiliation we went through for about two hours and returned back to our hostels. Everyone was fuming with anger and hatred. (In todays context, you can imagine our situation similar to Rang De Basanti). Some of my batch-mates who were in the senior's hit-list were asked to stay-back in the ground. We all got really worried about them, constantly looking out of our windows at the path way that led us to our hostels.

As far as I know, no one went for lunch that day. Its not that there was fear inside us, but because, there were bigger concerns at that point of time. Soon fellow batch-mates started showing up. The later they came, the more swollen their faces were. As they narrated their horrifying stories, the anger started fuming even more vibrantly inside each of us.

And then it happened. The Big Bang!! One my close friend (who was made a scape-goat) was left at the hostel doorsteps, half-dead, by some seniors at the middle of the night. His face was completely swollen, with multiple cuts and injuries. His eyes were hardly to be seen. I am not exaggerating, but his head size was nearly twice of normal, because of all the injury. Everyone in the hostel felt this angst to rip off the senior's head who has done all this. We took him to his room and called the warden. After that administration took over its course.

Just to conclude, I'd say, that we took all the steps we could to fight back our rights. Some of the seniors went to jail, many were detained. Most importantly, my fellow 'scape-goat' friend recovered well. Soon, there was a truce and people began to live life normally thereafter.

The End. :-)

The Opening Lines..

Yeah. Right. I have started blogging. The same way this whole blogger community does, and not just the way I used to.

Its a conscious decision to interact with the world in this way. Here you'll find whats going through in my mind, my heart, my life. You will come to know whether I am sad or happy or in a really notorious mood. I will also share the things I learn, the things I observe and feel. Basically all kinda bull-shit!

So do leave your comments. Keep them pouring. That way even I will know that I have some readers atleast. :-)