Cheers to 2011

I have always felt that the celebration on New Year's eve is so meaningless as what is 1st January 2011? It is just the day after 31st December 2010, just like 2nd January is a day after 1st January. But now I see the reason behind celebrating the new year. A new year gives a person hope.... hope that this time it can be different. If you didn't succeed the last time, this time you can. If there was something that you wanted to do but could not for some reason, now you can start again. And even if a person changes everything about himself, picks up new habits, let's go of some old ones or tries to be a different person altogether, no one frowns or questions if that day happens to be the 1st of January.
2010 was a year that I will always remember in my life. A complete fun-filled roller coaster ride it was. Now let's think how we can ensure 2011 to be infinitely better. In what ways am I going to change myself? Hmmm.. not many but I definitely want to remind myself of one thing - to make every moment count. One really can't be sure of anything in life. Maybe that is what makes it so amazing and that is why I think it is very important to enjoy every second...and this is how I plan to make the most of 2011...

More 'family' in life - Because they matter the most and specially the one tiny addition coming in a few months (he/she is going to be the cutest there has ever been)

More music in life - from the songs of Aandhi to remixes like Bin tere Sanam, from Jhoka hawa ka to Sheila ki Jawani, from Oasis to Linkin Park...(add the Roger Waters concert to that please!)

More physical activity in life - regular gym, tennis, swimming and anything that I can find a partner for (no dancing, sorry)

More fun in life- no more being lazy on weekends; if possible, rope in the weekdays as well (without compromising on sleep obviously)

More food in life - try out the good stuff like Nobu, Amaya, Arbutus etc without ignoring the likes of Chipotle, Ping Pong and other regular favourites (yummm)

More travel in life - from Cancun to Turkey, Morocco to Iceland, I must travel (I must I must)

And finally, more words in life - staying in touch with old friends and maybe a bit more frequent blogging :)

I think with all of the above, 2011 should be a smashing year! Hakuna Matata - no worries and have a blast. That is my mantra for 2011 and that is how it is going to be!

A Solution to the "Flipped Socks" Embargo

It was the mind of a genius who had come up with the idea to flip socks inside out and wear them again the next day. Simple idea in hindsight, but one that reduced man's efforts by half thus increasing efficiency "two-fold", literally! Sadly, this well kept secret was revealed to the whole world by Mr. Prasoon Joshi, lyricist of Hum Tum. Since then, I think girls have always kept an eye out for guys who are wearing socks inside out and instead of appreciating their efforts to conserve manpower, which is a form of energy and even President Obama would agree that we should save energy, they have always looked at them with derision. Now, I have come up with a solution to the same problem. Why not wear one sock inside out the first time and the other one straight? Next time you can flip them both. This way, when caught, you can always say that you put on one of them the wrong way by mistake - a very believable argument, and can continue enjoying the fruits of man's genius while contributing to the environment by conserving energy! :)

P.S. I know I can never use this strategy since my girlfriend now knows but this is my sacrifice so that all you guys, who can claim that they have never read this blog, can be the lazy bums we are meant to be.

Today I realized 3 things...
1. the name of my blog is very very long...
2. when drunk, it is extremely difficult to type correctly...
and 3. it's been quite long since I wrote something, must make amends!

Also, my new routine for Saturday nights is to party until the wee hours of Sunday (and then spend Sunday sleeping and ironing clothes with a hangover). From my recent outings, have picked up a couple of 'club' nos. that you might enjoy!

Here they are...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RIQ3PoLRgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzy2dgEUOhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k1iyptxgfo

Have fun! :)

A Match Made in Heaven

***Disclaimer: The characters in the post below might resemble someone but it is not based on me or anyone I know personally. Also, I am not making fun of the tradition of arranged marriage or the science of astrology. I am just writing something which might make the reader laugh***


I still remember the first day my parents saw her... she was wearing a yellow salwaar kameez and had the prettiest face they had ever seen and the photographer must have been a professional too, as that 6"x4" matte finish picture left an indelible mark on my parents' hearts after just one glance. Of course there had been many prettier envelopes before this but this one seemed to come from a family expert in the art of arranged marriage. It had all the tiny things that would surely seal the deal...the Om on the front, the sindoor on the back, a CV running into 4 pages and last but not the least, the janampatri. Having half made their minds that this was the perfect girl for me after seeing her photograph (both close-up and full length), they decided to research a little bit more. After all, it was the matter of their only son's life. They passed on her CV to me and asked me to see if I liked what was in there. I could not believe it! Did I really have a say in all this? Who says society is still not modern enough in India? But by the time I had read through her education and was about to check her hobbies (which I knew would be "cooking, reading, writing..." from the numerous CVs before this), my parents asked me to skip to the important things! Ummm... isn't the girl's hobbies and her likes/dislikes important? Apparently not as important as her family lineage. So we flipped to the next page and then on was a complete list of who's who in her family.. immediate family, joint family, extended family, exaggerated family... mama is CEO in this big MNC (impressive), chacha is a teacher, mausa's tauji is an IAS (ecstasy) and all women in the family are house-wives (strong traditional culture). Perfect, family is definitely worth marrying their son off into. Sorry? The girl wants to work in an MNC? Ohh, she surely doesn't know the joy in being a house wife and raising children and making home. It'll be alright, the family was the best we had seen. But the approval from the highest authority still remained... the stars. Our family pundit ji had come over, feasted on a rice-fish lunch (fish is cold, hence considered vegetarian... our pundit ji did not take ginger/onions in his food either). The stars had blessed us, the sun was in the perfect position when I was born according to the girl's moon position, so together we would be as complete as a whole day. That was good, I did not like incomplete days as well. So all was set, my future wife had been approved from the photograph, family accepted and blessed by the stars. So I was dying to meet my wife-to-be. But then I was told that that was not the protocol. My parents first met their parents (thankfully this time it was just her parents and not her extended family or that would have taken a decade in itself!). My dad asked her dad where he worked, when was he retiring, how had the 6th pay commission affected him, while my mom and her mom discussed Ranbir-Katrina affair, chicken recipes and grocery prices. That meeting was also declared a success. Only after that was I taken along by my parents to see the girl in person. We were also allowed to talk in private (another sign of the 'broad-minded'-ness of us Indians now). I asked her what she knew about me and she said ..."Nothing!"..."Ji mummy-papa ne aapke baare mein sab pata kar liya hai. Unhone thik hi socha hoga." Her capacity to love and trust bowled me over. I fell in love with her immediately and wanted to marry her that same day. This had nothing to do with the fact that I had grown up in a small village and had never talked to another girl before, let alone ever touch one. I thought that maybe, in all those papers and photographs, somewhere, somehow, smart people can find the perfect match for anyone. And the best part of an arranged marriage system - even if one is a total duffer and unable to find anyone who could fall in love with him, he still gets a wife.

...and Then What?

I have loved science ever since I was a little boy (except biology, of course, cos I was a boy!). How it explains so many things that would have driven anyone crazy if he sat down to think about it and did not know the answer. Like why does the apple fall to the ground? The phenomenon of day and night and the whole process of evolution (although some people still proudly exhibit traits of their ancestors...). Science is also about the inventions that we now take for granted, from the first fire to the modern day nuclear reactors, from the wheel to the space shuttles and from penicillin to the Human Genome Project. But lately this love has been dwindling.
I know science is on this agenda to explain every bit of human life, from the nano particles to the solar system, from the past to the future but personally I feel that some things should be left a mystery. Does it help to know that the emotions we feel, be it love or affection or anger are mere electrical impulses sent from the brain to some other part of the brain? Does it help to know that human beings came into existence by a string of accidents and the coincidental match of the perfect atmosphere on this planet? Or does it help to know that when people die, they just die and there is nothing after that, nothing beyond but just memories?
I like to believe that emotions arise from the heart and that the only purpose of heart is not to pump blood but also to give life a meaning (although i know that the only purpose of the heart actually is to pump blood), and I like to believe that after people die, they don't just vanish but move onto something better, or start the whole process again. Life is so beautiful that I don't like the idea that this is the only opportunity I have got to gaze at the northern lights or marvel at the glowing waters of bio bays. I like to believe that after all this, there will be a time when I won't have to earn money or book flights to go from one place to another but I can just close my eyes and be there.
On the positive side, at least science has given me the warning that this might be the only chance and that I should not waste precious moments doing nothing (which I do a lot!). Sometimes I wonder, what will the poets write about if everything in this world becomes run-of-the-mill phenomenon and nothing can be left to imagination? I wonder when does knowledge become too much knowledge? I guess it's every person's right to draw his or her own line. Just like my mother drew a line at television with regards to technology, I am drawing my line here regarding life and its meaning.

Tokyo

Ok, so now that I know Japanese, everything from 'hello' to 'bye' (some exceptions being the words in between), the city does not look so alien anymore! Surprisingly, it has a way of charming you with its strangeness. This would not work with the 'ultra-mod-hep-city' facade for someone who has been to London or NYC but there is more to Tokyo than that and to find that, you have to find your way through the forest!



This is the entrance to the Meiji forest, which is home to Tokyo's largest shrine. Now when I heard shrine, I thought it would be a statue of Buddha or something but actually most of the Japanese follow some other religion. So the things I saw were quite new, and weird (in keeping with Japan's tradition of being weird) but pretty in its own way.

I think you can see the path that leads to the shrine, here are the details - imagine a wide, very wide path made of gravel... there are no modern roads here. Leaves strewn around like the ones in Central Park in autumn (I haven't seen that myself but hear from reliable sources that they look pretty amazing, hence the comparison) and huge, huge trees all around you which go up to 20-30 m in height and then get tangled amongst each other to block out the view of the sky. Rays of light still make their way to the ground through the windows of error in the chaotic mesh above.



When it gets dark, these pretty lamps light up and help you on your way to the center of the forest. Once can't see the bulbs in these lamps and so it is pretty easy to imagine a candle burning inside, which makes you feel that you are far away from technology, close to nature and going back in time.



The entrance to the actual shrine is huge, completely made of wood. This must have been built in time when there was no concrete, yet the symmetry so right, the finishing so smooth and the architecture so amazing and different - you always end up praising ancient knowledge and wisdom. I remember seeing such structures in Kung-Fu movies, like the Chambers of Shaolin, when I was a kid. From the movies it seemed that every kid's life revolved around Kung-Fu, his master and his temple. Maybe this was the Japanese equivalent of the Gurukul system.



The shrine itself was just a building in which people clapped their hands twice, then bowed before something which looked to me like a stack of wood. There was a big courtyard in the middle with birds flying around. Again, all made of wood and very pretty.



There is a tree with a wall around it, on which you can hang small tablets of wood with your prayers written on it. Yes, the small brown things you see are pieces of wood, 5" by 3" with someone asking for happiness, someone for success, someone for world peace and numerous other Japanese prayers that I could not read. I put one up there as well :). Hope it comes true!

With that done, there's nothing more left for you to do, so I started on my way out. After walking for 20 min, I came out at the Shibuya station, which is supposed to be the busiest crossing in the world (I think it really is)...



...and helicopters and bullet trains around you. Welcome back to Tokyo!

Cities of the World

After a very very long time, I have found some time to sit and write about some of the thoughts that had crept into my mind during the last couple of months, but I never got the chance to put them on paper (or screen). That is because the past few months have been so hectic, with trips home, exams knocking on the door (yesss, muggoo, fighter, crazy..whatever ;)), that I really haven't had the time to relax and collect my thoughts. So it finally happened in a foreign land, where I should be roaming around and exploring the city but frankly, today I am just too tired. So, let me try to clear the backlog I have... FIFO (blame cfa for that)...


London vs. New York

Supposedly these are the two best cities in the world. Yet somehow, I always get a very different feeling when I am there. This is what I feel about the top 2 contenders for the "greatest city of the world" title:

NYC is more steel, London is plastic. In NYC, the subway trains are made of steel, the stair cases going up and down are old fashioned regular steel stairs, getting rusted on more edges than one. London, on the other hand, is more conscious of how it looks. Whatever can be plastic, (and pretty), is plastic (and pretty). London has escalators everywhere. Everything that could be mechanized, is. Even the police keeps its eyes on the streets via video cameras. No wonder the British government needs to tax its citizens 40% of their income! In NYC, on the other hand, police cars are more ubiquitous than taxis (ok, that was an exaggeration, but they are a close second!). In London, revolving doors to your office keep moving at a slow pace, on their own, while in NYC, you have to push the revolving door so hard that you tend to wonder how you are gaining weight even after all of this exercise. I guess what I am trying to say is that London gives you a very relaxed, calm and soothing feeling. It's pretty, quiet and mellow. It's like a puppy. You lie down and then it will slowly cuddle around you. NYC on the other hand is full of action. It's 'life in the fast lane'. If you don't keep up, you will be left behind. You have to fight, you have to be tough. It gives the adrenaline kick to those who value success the most. It's the city where legends are made. It's like an untamed stallion, which will fight you but if you win, you will be content in the end. NYC is the factory of the world. London is the corporate head office. Iron moves in the underbelly of NYC while London sits in an air-conditioned office completing its paperwork. Steam billows out from NYC while London tastes wine. So I guess it boils down to what kind of a person you are? Are you one who values a good work-life balance, seeks beauty and wants to have time to pursue your hobbies or are you a person who values success the most, who doesn't mind working as long as it brings you money and fame, and who measures the quality of life by prestige and honor?

P.S. Currently I am in Tokyo, which seems like a crazy city to me (Nunni, I can't understand how you liked this city!!). Everything is colored red yellow or pink, everything is cartoon and streets have no names (yup, they don't... there is a Japanese way to hone in on a destination by numbers which even the locals don't understand completely!!)