What a Week!!!

Well the week that went by was one of the most ironic ones. I was totally up in arms during the week over tremendous workload. A colleague actually said to me 'Sanchit you are not smiling.....thats not a good sign.' Well having done my bit to earn much less than i deserve (thats another blog altogether...:), I embarked on one of the best weekends ever. I went White water Rafting to Nantahala River, NC (yeah i am also getting in the mode of calling states by their nicknames...North Carolina for the novice that one).... Natahala means sun at noon...or whatever in Red Indian jargon. The reason is it is surrounded by mountains/trees on both sides. And the water is released by a hydro electricity center. So it remains at a certain temperature (certain bole to 50 degrees Farenheit. If you are a person who thinks in Celsius hahahaha...thats sadistic pleasure for me coz I have been thru that phase. Get ur calculators) Anyways, so getting back to the real story...I was advised by a sanguine soul that I shouldnt wear Shoes but Floaters...Well my perception of the sanguinity was challenged I must say...How? read on.
Well before we got into the boats, we got into a Bus which took us to the top of the river from where we were supposed to take our boat into the river. A lil background on the rowing teams...well there were 11 of us, so we had to split into 2 teams. As fate would have it, we inconspicuously got divided into a team of young 6 and an older lot of 5....We had 2 instructors Mark and Gary...(u are smart if u got that I made up the names...hehehehe...kya karen naam bhool gaya) who hopped onto each of the boats. Mark was the older guy who obviously hopped onto the older guys boat...lets call it team B....(well why not team
A ...coz thats us silly)....Gary was one of our clan...a trainee in terms of being an instructor at white water rafting....The amazing thing about him being that he is a skiing instructor in the winter and a rafting instructor in summer.
Now as we got into the boat we took our positions. I was in the 2nd position on the left and for some unknown reasons the left side (unlike in politics) is the one who does all the work. We were supposed to lock one of our feet in the internal crevices of the boat. And this is where I cursed the guy who told me to wear the floaters...coz I cudnt feel my left foot after 30 seconds..It was totally frozen....
The battle lines were drawn between Team A and B as we went on the a ride like no other I have been on. Well we were constantly tossed and turned in the currents of the Nantahala river. We had some amazing getaways from the trees and rocks at the banks of the river as we came nearer to Team B. (did I tell you we gave them a lead???) Well we were constantly alternating the lead positions but team A was playin it rough...as soon as we came in striking distance they blasted a rampage of water bursts at the right sid of the boat. Well I cudnt fight back as I was on the left remember???...anyways so we went down the river enjoying every bit of the way and then Mark the shmuck that he is let our boats collide and we were stuck on a rock....and our instructor had to jump into the freezing water and get us out.
Finally at the fag end of our ride, we came across the best part of the river a level 3 turn where we got some cool pics (shud i say cold pics...hehehe) Anyways so all in all we had the most amazing time...Hey and about the floaters, they dried pretty soon and the shoes which others wore were wet the whole weekend....thats all for now.....agla blog sometime later.

A Tribute to Agassi

Well ever since I have liked Tennis, I have been a fan of Andre Agassi. I mean more than anything else the one thing that stands out in Agassi is that he cries when he wins and smiles when he loses. I mean thats one leaf even Steffi needs to take from his book. The kind of fightbacks that the guy has made over a career spanning nearly 16-17 yrs is amazing. He hs risen like the phoenix in so many seasons. And you always enjoy when he is playing coz he is not the boom boom serve kinda player. Most players are helpless without their booming serves but I have not found a single one who has the natural ability to return serves the way Agassi does
Why am I suddenly going ga ga over a player who has retired a year ago....well to tell u the truth, I have just started playing tennis regularly and if I can succeed to bring in just a part of Agassi into myself (well then it would have to be the part who made steffi fall for him......hehehe got u there) then I would be really thankful to God. So heres a tribute to Agassi, who makes me believe that one can succeed without a big serve...Now dont fool urself into believing I dont have one (got u there again)

Kya Dialogue Hai

Being a Film Buff, this is one Column I shud have written long back. Numerous dialogues have left a hangover on my mind. Here are few of them

• Life is like a Box of Chocalates, you never know what u can get - Forrest Gump
  
• When the game is over, the King and the Pawn go back into the same box - Being Cyrus
• When you realise, that you want to spend the rest of ur life with someone, you want the rest of ur life to start as soon as possible - When Harry Met Sally
• ...Today we celebrate our independence day - ID4 the whole speech actually
• The last comments made in 'Gangs of New York'
• The difference is I make this look good - MIB
• Its not the Size. Its how u use it - Austin Powers...after the Yah Baby one that is.

Well I have got the writers block so thats it for now....yah i know I ll be more creative next time...

A Trip to Chattanooga

After a long time since I have been living on my own, I got an opportunity to organize a road trip...(Not the kind shown in the movie by the same name...I ll surely try and do that someday)...Well anyways lets re-christen this trip by the traditional name PICNIC...(gosh thats what we have called a one day jaunt since school days).... So getting back to the main motive of this blog, we rounded up all the single males in the vicinity...(not exactly lets add single straight males to obviate the thoughts of the quircky mind...hehhe) and stuffed them into 2 cars and drove to a place nearby called Chattanooga in Tenessee (hey is it a double N..anyways)
We had planned to visit Ruby Falls and Rock City during the day. The day started real early at arnd 6:30 am. And I proved my theory of giving ppl a time to start which is an hour earlier to the real time...coz face it we go by IST...hehehe. I was really thrilled coz this was my first long drive for a long time. I had the more level headed guys (not equivalent to boring thankfully) in my car. The other car belonged to an almost alcoholic friend of mine. Thankfully he wasnt driving and thankfully I was not in his car coz the other driver was worse than if the orignal one was drunk (phew that was a long sentence....all english literature majors pardon me...gosh Am I gonna be in trouble if the 2 of them read this blog)
So we got to Ruby falls with a modicum of trouble due to a detour. We had been warned of the fact that Ruby Falls was a letdown....But we were in for a surprise coz letdown is a scaled down word for that money eating place... I mean I got to give the promoters credit coz the kinda marketing propaganda they have goin...they cud convince the death of a dinosaur on an ant's grave....hehehe. I mean at the end of it all we are darn sure it had a municipality pipe in place of the falls. We had our fun anyways with the constant 'taang khichayi' and masti in the caves. We were finally rid of our misery in terms of the tour and could see sunshine.
After the Ruby falls visit we went and looked for a place to eat and converged on the nearest Pizza Hut. After a lot of friendly banter and some good pizza, we were on our way to Rock City. Now this is a good bang for the buck kinda place...It has a lot of places to click amazing photos at...And speaking of photos, am I glad that I havent bought a camera yet. Coz da fact of da matter is, if you are carrying the camera, you are the least clicked person....hehehe and I had 4 cameramen at my beck and call to click me in some inane poses. Rock city was an amazzing place to walk around and I loved the place where we could have a view of 7 states at the same time..(well thats what they say...who cares anyways...coz it was a rocking view) After spending around 3-4 hours admiring the scenic views and some PYTs...hehehe, we retreated back to our cars. Only after a customary visit to the gift shop where I added to my collection of tequilla glasses.
Twas already 5 in the eve, so we were debating whether we shud go to Chattanooga downtown. And we made the most sagacious decisions to go there. I mean I literally fell in love with this place. We went on this bridge called Walnut Street bridge which is a wooden footover bridge with a quay built right below it (Kinda reminded me of Goa actually). It is one of the most romantic places I have been to and I ll surely go back with my better half some day. The walk on the bridge is right out of a mills and boons situation...hehehe Enough of the mushy stuff....
We had a cruise ride back home with a joint singing session in the car. As the day ended, I did was down and out as soon as I hit my head on the pillow. And thats the kinda exhaustion I dont mind at all. So till the next trip, heres me Signing of on this weeks episode of Traveller guide...gosh I always wanted to host one of those shows...any producers in the making?

License to Drive

Back in the 80s there was this movie by the name 'License to Drive'. Well I found it funny back then. But I underwent a similar longing for the freedom to move about as an independent entity. Hmm not since the freedom struggle of our forefathers has someone been so desperate. (Figure of speech hyperbole...I am really great at using one...hehehe) Maybe back then the phrase coined would be 'Tum mujhe fuel do main tumhe gaadi doonga' (forgive me for that pakao joke...hey thats the figure of speech anticlimax rt...never mind....ok I can hear u swearing at me now...so I ll get to the point)
Ok for ppl who havent got the basis of this blog of mine, let me decode it. 'I got a car and I got a permanent license to drive...yipppeeee' Its similar to a 'Bat Mobile'...(I told u I was good at hyperbole) and there are buttons for which I dont know the function. The great part is I cleared my test in one go and it was actually worth the wait coz I waited for this baby for almost a month. ...and I was tired of answering to 'Tera Gaadi kab aa raha hai' and 'Tera driving test kab hai'
Well its done finally and I can now enjoy my weekends...hey if I remember correctly, License to drive had a very young 'Heather Graham' playin Mercedes (the quietessential babe in a teen flick) Well....Lets hope the rest of the story for me is similar...hehehe...bye for now.

6 Degrees of Separation

Recently I was invited by a friend to join a site called orkut.com. My first impression of the name 'Or what'...OrKut what does that mean. Well that changed as soon as I created my own space there. I got hooked on instantly. In addition to some PYTs, (look that up if u dont know that already) ..I connected with a few of my long lost friends as well. I searched for every crush of mine since I was 5 to a degree of success too.
Now those of u who are confused as to why the title is apt for this blog of mine. Well...heres the gyaan. Six degrees of separation is a theory which says that if u try to connect 2 ppl in any part of the world, the average number of ppl that u need to go thru is 6.....OK OK enough of the professor in me. So I tried to click thru a network of friends, their friends and their friends (mostly PYTs...hehhehe shhh), but the thing is I was not able to expand the list beyond 6. Lemme know if you succeed on that front....Lemme know if u want an invite....I ll be happy to send u one

Hey wheres that Orkut marketing guy that will be 201o0 dollars 201 $ per word written. If I dont get my money soon.........

Grrrrrrrrr phissss (thats the noise of someone snoring)

Well this blog of mine is dedicated to a cause which I have fought against for ages. The snoring sound of someone sleeping in the vicinity. More often than not u go to the person and say 'Boss u snore real loud'. The patent reply is 'Cmon u are kidding me. I sure dont think I make even an iota of sound in my sleep'...'Of course u do'...'Whats the proof?'....'Well look at my bloodshot eyes. I couldnt sleep a wink last nite due to that soundless sleep of urs.'....The most creative souls counter back saying 'You know what u snore too'....
It takes ages for a person to admit it. But even if he/she (its not a male thing gals. And the sound is not pleasing from females either) does, whats the use? coz there is nothing the person can do abt it. Well after years of research there are a few things to counter this malady.
(1) Keep another pillow with u and cover it over ur other ear
(2) Pinch the person and wake him/her up and pretend u are sleeping. This will hopefully give u leeway of arnd 3-4 mins to fall asleep.
(3) If the person has a mobile near by call up and hang up before he or she picks it up.
(4) The last thing to do is go and sleep in another room or house or town where u are not able to hear the sound...
Keep me posted if u have any more ways. I ll acknowledge u in my thesis on the same. Till then I ll snore er sleep over it......(No I dont snore.....)

India in Slow Motion - A Must Read

Well continuing the patriotic fervour...lets re-phrase it... the enlightening of Rang De Basanti, I just completed 'India in Slow Motion' by Mark Tully. For those of u who havent heard the name before, he is an expat BBC journalist who comes out to be more Indian than most others...maybe even myself. He has lived in India for countless years now and observed its obfuscated and self - deprecating state. In this book he has come out with short stories...well not exactly stories but instances of the various facets of the great country. He delves into the problems or phenomena of various parts of the country and dishes out the facts that undermine progress as the developed world knows it. He exposes...well that sounds dramatic..but at least focuses on the neta-babu nexus and how the bureaucracy is hampering the country's development.
In the process of reading this book, I was introduced to a whole new or may I say a better perspective of looking at problems like Child Labor, Communalism and E-governance (not a problem but a solution that one) It gave me an insight into how and why the Kashmiri people have become alienated by India or Indians. I was also able to understand a lot of post independence India which thanks to our great educational system, I was unaware. This was earlier done by books like 'All the Janata Men' and 'All Indiras Men' (well not the exact title) by authors whose name I dont recall. (Thanks Dad for preserving those)
All in all this is one book you should not miss out on. Next on my reading list is 'Seven Habits of highly effective people' Will Keep u guys posted on that......ciao

Jimmy Carter Zindabad

Sometimes when one is on the road, it can get real confusing. But the next time I am lost I ll ask for directions to get to Jimmy Carter Boulevard. This guy is my fav President man. Coz I knw exactly how to get back home when I am onto that Road.
Well the day began early for me as me and 2 others were gonna go for our Drivers license (just the learners so I am still not thru with that one yet) And for some freakish reasons we were sent back frm that DMV office. But for Vishwanath's (Vish in short) insistence we wud have gone back home. But he was admant that we shud go to another DMV and try our luck there. (that was the only good thing he did in the day) So off we went looking for it. We were not supported by Mapquest this time arnd, but were fortunate to get some timely help by a gas station shop clerk (wow i didnt know there was such a post... ok i made that up but u knw who I am talkin abt) We were able to get our licenses after arnd 2-3 hours. (I came to a single conclusion, Govt works with the same mindset everywhere..more on that in some other blog) Anyways so we finished our work there and embarked on a journey beyond any journey I have embarked on. (Sorry 4got the word that wud fit this phrase) We circled arnd Atlanta looking for a way to get back home. Our driver, the able Tushar (by default coz none of the others had a pakka license) has a penchant for panicking at the wrong time. And he has no directional sense at all. So we were outsourced the navigational part. Strict instructions being, 'Tell me when to turn befor 1-2 mins. But more often than not we were as slow or as fast as he was in readin g signs. And we used to shout 'Yahaan Right Le' and the next moment there were profanities thrown at us ' Teri Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep....Pehle bolneka na. Last minute kaise turn karoon. By the time the day ended He was an expert at making a U-turn. But that was not all he made a mistake in not turning on his own after that. And we wre agin at the mercy of a Gas station.
Ok now u are thinking how Jimmy Carter is my messiah. Well that was one road we encountered at least 4-5 times and barring the last time we were always travelling the wrong way or took the wrong turn on that one. So on our last attempt, I finally put my foot down and said we are going the wrong direction on this one (Well Its my blog so I get to be the Hero, all others can write their own versions....after buying the copyrights frm me of course) After many trails and tribulations we reached home safely. And the best part is as we got near our house, Tushar was enlightened and said, 'Yeh road kuch jaana pehchaana lag raha hai. Ab mujhe pata hai. Yahaan se right lena hai' (Subtitles This road looks familiar. I know how to get home from here. We take a right) Ya ya ya u guessed right we had to take a left there and we got our opportunity to throw profanities at our able driver (Teri beep beep beep) Jimmy Carter Zindabad.

Color Me Saffron

'Color Me Saffron' seems outta place right. But so does Rang De Basanti. I tried to give it a modern connotation by converting it into English. But I dont feel that Rang De Basanti is so outta place, specifically after watching the movie by the same name. The analogy drawn between todays India and that of the pre-Independance is amazing. The film succeeds in not enthralling the audience by patriotic fervor, but by pushing us into a space where we as a generation dont like to delve into. A space where we are forced to think about how we feel about our nation and our role in its present and future. Well let me take back the word force and replace it with coax because forcing would be the jingoistics of a 'Border' or a 'Kargil'. No Sir, this movie does not even preach about how one needs to give a thought to our great nation like the slow yet very well made 'Swades' does. RDB just leads u into the world of todays youth and shakes the foundation of our cynicism and lets us re-visit our value system.
Be it the dashing yet vulnerable DJ (inconspicuously played by Aamir) or the anachronistic believer played by a typecasted yet brilliant Atul Kulkarni, every one of the characters are people who u meet everyday. They are characters to which we relate to. And they say things which we must have said at some point of time in our life in India. The film depicts a slow yet sudden change in the mindset of the characters and on some level of that of the audience without ever slackening the pace of the movie. Well I would like to go on and on about the movie's unique concept and brilliance, but I would not like to spoil it for the reader. Its a movie to be experienced and promises to be a timeless piece.
But then, I would like to share with u the feelings this movie has aroused in my mind. This has certainly made me re-think (forgive me for the repetitiveness) about the place I call home and analyse why we as Indians expect others to take up the cudgels against something which we all know is wrong. We always expect someone else to clean the house for us dont we? And the cynicism in the belief 'Is Des ka kuch nahi ho sakta' is really killing India as we know it. Maybe we need to change the India as we know it. I have experienced a change in myself after watching this movie. I dont know whether this will last beyond this weekend or maybe even tonite. Nor do I know whether I will be able to stand up for what I believe is right. All I know is that if watching this movie really changes some of us to fight the 'system' then it has found its mark.
So till the next blog.....Range De Basanti.........