Please Observe.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Do you really know whats happening?

Do you really know whats happening?
Rocky Balboa is a success,
More people have died in Harry Potter,
No more new internet windows,
Thats one more year gone,
Battery is going faster than ever,
We're communicating on .28 fils,
Sequels in the Indian film industry,
1 Gb mail space,
No more buying CDs,
Glass and Steel,
Still more C G Am F,
35% Polyester Lab coats,
Audio Books,
Tallest buildings in the same country,
More and more folders,
A single Tb,
and still 3 more till double digits!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Plastic Surgery, Stories so far and Baby Doll

Recently I have been thinking about some stuff, all random. I honestly can't seem to focus on anything specific.
I don't know if they've been doing this from some time or not, but I think that whenever an actor/actress in a Hindi soap gets tired of his role and wants to quit, he is faced with some options. The produces can kill him/her off, but I think their personal favourite is to make him/her have a near fatal accident. Obviously in this accident they make sure a larger portion of the persons face is pummelled in (or out), and thus the only option is for them to have plastic surgery.
Sigh.
When I last visited the Sahara Centre bookstore (on level 1/2) I ran into the non-fiction section. It's so strange how everyone wants to release "their story so far". Everyone is releasing their autobiographies on their lives "so far". Everyone is impatient. They can't wait till their old enough to hire an assistant whom they can dictate to.
I don't know.
It makes the process far simpler. But then you wonder if they'll start right from the beginning or from where they left off. Also how they title their own books: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY. I mean, rather than "my autobiography" they have "THE" inserted and a picture of him/her silhouetted against some brilliant beautiful landscape.
Oh well.
They've started advertising on Cartoon Network now. I can't believe they are doing this. And the best part is that it’s for a doll. I want to talk about this doll. It is not an ordinary doll by any means. This "baby-doll" (excuse the unintentional references to the new wave of Hindi pop; another bit I'd like to talk about someday) can shut its eyes and go to sleep and has a jacuzzi/tub type thing in which you can bathe it. You can pump bubbles into the tub it as well.
But I think the highlight of this toy is that....wait for it...it can pee. Yes that’s right. Baby-doll now pees. How do I know this? Because they actually had a close-up of baby-doll...functioning.
Oh well. That’s technology for you!
But don't get me wrong. I’m not knocking everything; there is still some good left in this world.
I don't know how many of you watch 'Sheep in the big city', but I can tell you one thing, it's a salvation.
Sorry for criticising everything else. I can't focus!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Overview of the last few days

I'm really worn out. Today I slept, and then slept again.
Its been a hectic but fun week though.
Here are the bad points:
1. Abuse-filled, stressing tech-rehearsals for "Any Dream Will Do".
2. Rain at the wrong time.
3. Bad headphones.
4. PSP messed up.
5. Running around to find Judges. Last minute stuff.
6. Making Judging Sheets (With a lil' help from my friend...well actually I helped him!)
7. I missed half of children's day.
8. Because of last minute editing.
9. Stupid parents cancel "Any Dream Will Do".
10. They spelt my name "Tegas Menon" in the brochure.
11. Did not eat dinner for 4 days in a row.
12. Screwing up Chords for a song you think you practiced.
13. Losing the competition.
14. UnOfficial Last day of school.

But everyone knows that there is a brightside to everything. Here are the good things.

1. I made new friends at Millenium School.
2. Met a Magician.
3. Recorded the Magician.
4. Had three amazing shows.
5. Saw a Brilliant Award Winning Play "Good Morning Shakespeare".
6. One of my best friend's got the overall best actor and a standing ovation.
7. Redial Entertainment had some well-deserved critical acclaim.
8. We pulled of Crescendo 2006! I can't believe we got it to happen!
9. Saw an amazing show from the teachers for the students. Respect!
10. Axel and Sharon...(Sir and Ma'am respectively) I love you guys!
11. Made some new friends at Modern!
12. Saw some great talent.
13. More walking for me!
14. Monday was fun.:P

Lots more stuff happened, I can't remember. I'm sleepy.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Rain and Breaking Records



In the past few days I achieved two big things:

1. You all know how I like to walk. I left the house right after getting back from school at 5 on the day of the physics exam, and tried to find my way to Zulekha Hospital. My cousin's wife just gave birth to a baby boy, and I really wanted to see how she and the baby were. I told my mom "I'm going for a walk" and left.
After walking past Sahara Centre, I looked around for the hospital, but couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. After a few more minutes of aimlessly walking around, I looked at the time...I think it was 5:20. Then a crazy idea came into my head. I saw Al Mulla Plaza in the distance. Whenever I get these gut feelings I just decide to go with them. So I started to walk to Ali's House.
For all who do not know, Ali lives on Maktoum Street in Deira. I live in Sharjah.
I kept walking for a long time, past Al Mulla,
Past The Dubai Police Headquarters,
Past The Peugeot Cars Showrooms,
Past Ramada in Abu Hail,
Down Salah-u-din Road,
Past The Muraqqabat Police Headquarters,
Until I saw the clock tower far ahead. At that point I called Ali and told him where I was, he thought I was bullshiting! I told him to wait for me.
One of the best things is that when you know you’re so close to your destination, you are filled with another sort of energy, not that I was especially tired, but I was so close to breaking all my records of 'distance-walking' that I started walking faster.
When I reached the rear-end of Taj Palace I went insane. I was so overjoyed that I broke into a frenzied run.
Then I rang his doorbell and Ali opened the door to his apartment. He couldn’t believe it; I honestly don’t think I could believe it. We both started laughing.

2. I have been praying for sometime that I would get the opportunity to walk in the rain.
You know.
For a new experience.
The only really huge problem is that I picked the day when it rained like god had overturned his tub.
It was full of water of course.
I had to go to the Millennium School for some Redial Entertainment work, and seeing as it within walking distance, and also since I realllly wanted to walk I took my jacket and headed downstairs.
Then I came back up and took my umbrella.
The bad part is that, to get behind Sahara centre, you have to go through this sandy area, which obviously had turned to mushy icky gook. But I endured it anyway, I even got my shoes clean; the water had collected on the road in a traditional pool-type fashion, and the cars passing by didn't think much of sparing me. My jeans were now clean too.
It stopped raining during the latter part of the journey; I could put my umbrella away. The squishing from my wet socks was going too, but the damn entrance to the school was blocked. When I say blocked I mean that there was water at least 2 feet deep in front, and there was a reprise from the icky sand as well.
Thank God I got a lift back.
Well, that’s two more things I’ve wanted to do, completed. Next I’m going to try walking to school.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Inappropriate Elevator Conduct

The strangest thing happened today. It was also quite embarrasing. They should'nt charge people for IEC (Yes I am known for making up terms! Ashiq knows that)! My mom asked me to get some bread from the grocery. You see, the people there are quite lazy (if I may say so myself). They don't believe in delivering upstairs if its less than Dhs 10/- and/or less than 3 items.

When I entered the lift, there was a man inside already. Then,
I can't really place it, maybe I was in the mood, I started laughing. I hid myself in a corner.He did'nt seem to notice, which was bad for me, cause if he said or even did anything I may have stopped.
But he did'nt.

So I continued until we stopped on the 18th floor. This is the worst part about living on the highest floors. Especially on the 'wake-up-late-your-screwed' days. When you are in a hurry to get out, it's Murphy's Law all over again.
A considerably wider than average lady stepped in with her 3 children. I really don't know what was up with me, cause I started laughing even more. I have this tremendous bad habit of not being able to control good laughter. When I say 'good', I mean to say that whenever something is really amusing to me, I will not stop laughing for longgg time. Anywhere, I just have to recall it, and I'm off.

I think it was the image of my friends laughing at something really stupid. I don't know what they were laughing about ( It could have been the laughter 'from Romit' :P ), but it was just that image.

I started laughing even more. I think it was at this point that the man looked at me. But he didn't have time to say anything, he had to make room for another female who just entered the lift.

Another thing about elevators are that (in mine, at least) they have mirrors on all sides, so everywhere I turned the man was giving me dirty looks. I also tried to find a way of justifying my laughter, I tried thinking of a reason for which would explain my peculiar behaviour. I had no objects on me that would remind me of a fond time or a friend that perhaps I was sharing a joke with. I think in the end I managed to give him an apologetic grin, which he did not return.

You always wish the people in your building are cool.


I had to endure 21 + P3 + P2 + P1 floors of this continuously growing laughter. The Lady kept pushing her children as far from me as was possible, the other female was repeatedly pressing the "< >" button and the guy just looked pissed. You'd think people would have a sense of humour! I stopped laughing by the time we reached "G".
I let them exit first.
:P

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Love & Other Things



Don't be fooled its only audio.
This is an instrumental song I recorded today...
Just doodling.
I recommend hearing with headphones/earphones.

Redial Entertainment

Monday, November 20, 2006

The Cryptic Stumped!

Who is "In search of light"??

Who is the Owner of this blog??

Who is Notthedern or Notthetun?

Who is this unknown mysterious blogger who has Anish Malpani's Links...WORD TO WORD??

Don't Believe me?
I recently added a tool called Technorati; quite commonly known to all "pro-bloggers", basically its a kind of profile on a site which is a blog search engine. In my profile theres an option to see "All sites that link here" i.e. as in to my blog. I checked and found none-other than "In search of Light..." as a link. I do not know who this person is but here are my questions:
1. Does anyone know?!
2. Any Info?
3. Why does he have ditto links like Anish?
I MUST KNOW!
There are two contributors to the site, most probably both are the same person, but whats even more interesting is that his profile says "Don't Exist".
If your reading this "notthedern" I just want to say that I'm curious about this new syndrome that I proudly call:
The Stalker Blogger Syndrome!
You know what notthedern?
I'm going to link you!
:P

Sunday, November 19, 2006

The Cryptic's thoughts on littering.

For the longest time, I held the Pepsi can in my hand.
I was caught in another EVS disaster yesterday, when I realised I didn’t bother to bring back the endless photocopies of the textbook from school, before my desk was cleared out a day before the exams began. Even better was that I knew this on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, but didn’t bother to do anything about it till Saturday. So I began another journey at 7:15 in the morning. I planned to walk to Rubin’s house, Borrow his book, photocopy it fast, give it back and then walk back home. I couldn't believe I was doing so much for EVS.
I reached by 8, only to find out that Rubin was studying and thus could not give the book to me. I began to panic, so he told me to take Aaron’s book. Now I didn’t feel like doing this for 2 reasons,

1) I hadn’t called him to wish him the previous day (I messaged though!)
2) And thus borrowing his book at such an unearthly hour would be quite heartless.

So I called him. When he didn't pick up I spoke to his mom, who asked me to return it soon.
After a lot more mess-ups and misunderstandings with apparently "closed" photocopy shops, I gave the book back and started walking home. Now here’s the deal:
While I was walking I was thinking about the pointlessness of a subject like EVS( I don’t really find it thaaat pointless but this is so all you people can "dig" me) and I was doing what I do normally while walking: Observing the smaller details in my path.
I bought a can of Pepsi.
I wanted to find a place to throw my can and I couldn’t, because there weren’t any bins.
So I held the can in my hand.
Man, there is so much junk in Sharjah.
I was walking through Al Wahda, (the Champs-Ely sees of Sharjah :P) and counted 28 cans on the ground and after that I stopped. See now I'm not being all holier-than-thou or any crap, its just that there’s so much shit on the floor man! Junk, junk, junk everywhere I looked. It's just really bad.
What made me write this is that its so bloody weird man! You find the strangest junk at the most awkward places. I was walking through a deserted sandpit, found a teabag! Someone was making tea there! I found cigarette packets inverted on top of those red and white cones. And another thing, you'll find junk thrown around a dust bin.
Well at least they’re original.
They make us go for all this clean-up-the-world-crap-so-you-can-get-a-fancy-certificate-for-college crap, but really, if your own city looks like rubbish, what’s the point? Now most peoples stance on littering is that I'll see you throw something on the floor, I'll tell you don't do it, then I'll do the exact same thing and then you'll tell me, whatever. Just, from now onwards, please don't litter, cause frankly it just looks bad. If a blog post from a friend can't convince you, no text book ever will.
I got home and threw the can in the bin.

P.S. Aaron… Happy Belated Birthday!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Discrete - The Final Revelation!


(Alternate Colours)

(Potential CD cover)
This was on the comments page of the last post.
Ashiq, I couldn't have said it better myself.

" The time has come to reveal all.

Ashiq Rahiman is the Vocalist and Beatboxer and brings with him a wide array of influences, which arguably makes him the most musically diverse member.

Yuvraj Dewan is one of 3 Guitarists. His love for classic rock and his raw, home-honed six-stringed skills constitutes much of the substance of their music.

Jeetu Mohanachandran is a Guitarist and has an uncanny hold over the Keyboard, too. His melodic vocal harmonies will be perhaps the only element common to all their music.

Akshay Mehta completes the vicious 3-pronged attack with his Guitar that has borne the brunt of his frequent routines of tympanum-tearing Metallica. He is a new addition to the ensemble and has shown much prowess already.

Discrete will not play music that conforms to your mood or your opinion. Discrete will not play music you will jive to. Discrete will not play music that will help you feel better or worse. Discrete doesn't know you or anyone else. Discrete doesn't care how you feel. Once the band members are together, they see nothing beyond. Once they play, you will hear nothing beyond.

It wasn't part of the agenda to go toe-to-toe with anyone else. However, Tejas is our manager. Anything he says, goes. We will not compete unless we have the go-ahead from Tejas. And now that we do ...

Fight music with music.


4:07 PM, November 15, 2006 "

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Discrete Vs The Studzies

After hearing much about the new band "The Studzies", I as band manager of "Discrete", would just like to brew up a storm and make some headlines.
This is not a challenge, but just the general competitive spirit of mine and hey, friendly competition is always fun. After Discrete does release its debut album, they will release their first single (name disclosed) and I just want to see whose will be #1 on the charts, so this is the official way of saying,
Game on.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Another Episode / Biking in the "hood" with Harry & Shakini

Every single day since the Ramadan ended, my bus has reached school at 8:15. For all those who don't know, assembly is at 7:40. Let me tell all of you now itself that I hate missing assembly. Most of the ones in the hall I get to sing, but nowadays if there is a slight reduction in traffic, a light bag and if I run as fast as I can, I'm lucky to catch the "Prefects and teachers, please take over."

It’s been 3 weeks since Eid. I decided I had enough. There was to be a special screening of the documentary in the hall this morning, after which we would be called on stage to receive our very own copy of From the Inside and a "letter of gratitude". I really didn't want to miss it, so I asked my mom if I could stay in someone’s house who lived in Dubai. It was arranged and I packed my bag to stay at Renoo Aunty's house for the night.

Renoo Aunty lives in Jumeirah so obviously I had to take the bus back to her place and to my pleasant surprise Harendra was in my bus too. I was telling him earlier that day.
"So where does Renoo aunty live?" he asked me.
"Jumeirah."
"Okay where in Jumeirah?"
"Uhh I dunno I think somewhere behind Beach Centre..."
"Okay...I live behind that too..."
"Yea in some villa back there."
"Okay...so do I...


...so what’s Renoo Aunty's real name?"
: P

After Crashing at her house and showering I closed the door to the room in which I would be sleeping. I tried to study for a while, I actually did some poetry in the end, but it was too exhausting; I had a bad cold and a headache too. But something was better over there. There’s nothing like privacy you know. Shutting your door and keeping your thoughts too yourself while they are still tender. Then letting them grow into something fantastic. I was drawing for a while.
I called Harry later to find out what time the bus usually came to pick him up. After he told me I was about to say 'thanks bye!' but he was like 'Hey, what are you doing now?"
So it was after a Sharad Pawar/Democratic/Advertising in India-filled conversation at dinner, that Harry, Shakini and I went for a walk around Jumeirah. I got to ride on Harry's grey bike.

Jumeirah is quiet. I like that. Apart from the occasional car passing by there isn't much 'action'. Harry told me that the population was mostly made up of dogs and babies. I loved the silence and the feel of being out late at night in the company of friends. Instead of writing line by line, here's what all I saw/enjoyed:
1. A not so clean Moon.
2. Shakini going all serious and saying "Tejas get off the road" whenever there was a car crawling in the distance at perhaps 2.5 miles an hour.
3. Slowing down on the bike and circling so I could be in line with Harry.
4. A Garbage Truck.
5. A mini grocery store.
6. A Black dog.
7. A white dog.
8. A man restraining a Black and a White Dog.
9. Fancy Cars.
10. Dog Poop.
11. The Silence.

I decided to blog on this episode anyway while we were riding, and Shakini suggested a title for it: "Biking in the hood"; which I have included...sort of.
I liked it. Thank you, Shakini and Harry.

The Next Morning after Changing and packing my bag, I said goodbye to Renoo Aunty and Satish Uncle. It meant a lot to me that they let me stay, considering the fact that it was on very short notice. I really enjoyed myself there. They gave me my privacy and even allowed me to go out with my friends at night. I respect that. There are anyways otherwise like family to me. They have been really good friends with my mom for a really long time and helped us a lot too. Thank you Renoo Aunty and Satish Uncle.

I reached school at 7:30!
Assembly cancelled...buses were late. Stuck in traffic it seems.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Thats how strong I feel about it

Over the last few months I have been walking a lot. Now this is not only due to the fact that cabs are expensive :P, but just purely out of the fact that when you walk, you have freedom. You can go anywhere; all you need is the will, and time. Now imagine you have a holiday, you have all the time in the world. You step out of your house and realise that you can go anywhere. You have the will, you want to walk. For me, walking is exciting! I can see so much of Dubai (and Sharjah) that I haven't seen before. A few weeks back I took a walk. I walked from my home to Rubin's house. It was great; the feeling is awesome. Now the flip side to walking is that, first of all it’s tiring as hell, and it depends upon the person walking. Now if the person is lucky, the weather conditions will be good for him, his walk will be a piece of cake. That's when its cool, there’s a light breeze; he’s probably got shades and good music to listen to on the way, a bag with food and water and some nice shoes to walk in. It also depends on where he’s walking. I'd say from Zabeel park to Bur Juman. Basically life's good for him.
On the other hand, some (I'd say unfortunate) people, have none of that happening. It’s probably noon and the suns on his head, he’s forgotten his shades (if he’s got any), no batteries, no cell charge, and he’s walking on literally crap terrain. On the way he'll slip and get cut badly, his shoe would get stuck in some weird foul smelling mud patch and he would have forgotten his handkerchief.
My journey altogether lasted around an hour and a half. Yeah, walking does take time, but at the end it’s worth it.

Have you ever been through a period in your life which you felt was a complete waste? I can't honestly think of a time that ever happened to me. I used to think so; it was not that great a feeling. I took the most appropriate example from my own life, this year. 2006. Every year at New Years Eve I look back and tell my friends. Actually we discuss it, we discuss how eventful the year has been, and we doubt that anything more exciting or experience-filled will ever come around again. But then we come to the next year and once again they beat the previous records against all odds. Sorta like the board results each year...or maybe that's just our batch :P.
It just has been filled with so many new things and experiences for me, and to credit myself, I guess I have passed them without any real serious problem.
Have you ever got the feeling that even though everything is screwed up, you still got something to salvage, something to look forward to? I have a book in which I write down all my pending assignments and work. It’s usually filled when I wake up to go to school and I go 'oh crap!' I dread what’s going to happen to me at school, but as soon as I remember the good things I have to look forward to, this sustaining factor removes the sense of foreboding for me.
To me, that is the best feeling in the world. To know that something good is still out there when everything is going weird.
The past year has been a great test for me; I just scraped through, as always :P, it was harsh, difficult and nothing has been going all that right for me. Every time I thought that something was going good, in another world of mine, the opposite was taking place. Sometimes both worlds were going down in flames. Everything I believed in was taken away from me. I tried to create things, I did, but they all died premature deaths. It’s not about the factors or in my case people that destroyed my thoughts. I don't even care about that anymore. If you asked me sometime back what I felt about the year that had passed, you wouldn't hear the end of it. I would have gone on and on. But it’s not even about that.
Its really about, that after walking for so long, blinded from the sun in my eyes ,still bleeding and trudging through an entire mess, I can still pick myself up and realise that I'm still walking and I'm walking for just one thing: To know that I’ve reached. That I’ve reached the place that I wanted to go. It’s my saving factor. It’s that what will always keep me going to school, even though my book is still full of unchecked boxes. If you ask me now about the past year, I'd tell you that it’s been fine, and then I’d look at my friends and smile. Even though the year has been tough I can always look back and tell you that the best things in my life happened in this year.
The best.
This year, one really important thing that pushes all the other things to the side, the thing that has keeps me walking has saved me. I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel about it. That’s how strong I feel about it.

This time the journey has lasted around a year. Yeah walking does take time, but at the end it’s worth it.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

My True Partner for life

A few days ago i thought id write about a journey that i had undertaken recently, in which i learnt i saw and learnt much. But instead, seeing as it had been an 'illegal' journey i shall instead write about a partner of mine. My true partner for life. My bag.
Its just to honour it thats all. I first stumbled upon this marvelous invention when anish gifted me with one just about 2 1/2 years ago. Since then my bag has been an integral part of my life. Seriously, everything. Redial, Redial entertainment, Regular Entertainment, Here-we-go Productions, Sleepover clothes, music, hard drives, food, water, and the most important my drawing/writing book, have all been in my bag at one point. My important life, exists in the bag.
I have had three bags so far. Out of them two have had tragic fates. The first one,that Anish gave me for my birthday, a red Nike, got stolen while we were playing football at Maktoum. It was filled to the maximum that day and some guy just took it. It was devastating for me. There were more than 20 cds in there. An entire part of my life had just been grabbed and taken away from me. That was a sad day for me and i really felt like crying. I told my parents about it and they were like' its just a bag'! It's not just a bag! That bag spanned a whole phase in my life! After i lost it, it was really like 'It's time to move on Tejas'...
The second bag was a grey Nike given to me by Ankita in december of last year for my birtday in July(also of last year:P) and is currently very much in my possesion, but the sad part is that I apparently overworked it, and now there is a big gaping hole at the bottom of the bag. My mom's been dying to throw it out since but due to sentimental reasons i'm very attached to the bag. That bag has been with me everywhere, from Desert Rock to Pune and I'm not about to let go of it that easily. It has retired somewhat, though i still use it as my school bag, its not my 'out-out' bag anymore.
Those duties instead have passed on to my current bag. The Black Adidas bag that i once again got on my birthday from Proma and Ishika(thank you very much). My current bag is very user friendly and It and I share a similar relationship much like my Nikes. But theres something about this new bag that i have not felt with any other bag. All I can say is that if anything happens to this one...I will seriously not be able to handle the trauma.
I love my Bag. I can't leave the house without it. You should get one too.
:P

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Tribute to the very disciplined Photo-takers...

I don't know how many of you have seen this fairly recent video of the chinese lady who took a photo of her self for 3 years straight, apparently in the same place of her house. Well if you haven't please see the below embed video.



Now if that didn't freak you out...
Anyway "ahreelee", the female who made that video actually submitted it for a film festival, whether or not those were her original intentions are unknown...maybe she just thought that she was kool. Now not more than even a month later, another guy, called Noah Kalina made a similar video it seems, after realising that he had taken his photo everyday for 6 YEARS. So he added his own.
Thats 2356 photos! Please don't sit through the whole thing...



Whats up with these people? I can understand the whole cool timelapse photography and stuff but still...6 years. That video is 5 minutes and 45 seconds long.This guy even has a website on which he has posted up all his photos!

Noah's Face about 2350 times...


Why? I don't know. Its really freaky how he keeps looking at you. Like the mona lisa :P. Did you notice how his eyes got bigger? XD

The Youtube community apparently was so moved by the last two videos that, they sent in video responses, such as the next guy. Known as 'the Dispatcher', he comments on Noah's video.



Well believe or not, there were replies to that video as well, such as this unusual fellow:



Thats like social suicide. Respect dude.
Anyway the point of this post is to show you the next video which after seeing i went ballistic and had to show all of you. Trust me it was worth watching Noah's video, just to see this!



Need to hear your comments on this one!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

A New Musical Beginning...



Big News From Modern High!
A new band, "Discrete" is making music! Watch out for their first single Sunday the 29th!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Confessions of a bored mind( because everyones confessing these days)

This is a random post at midnight.Good morning.
I'm typing frankly, cause I feel I have lost all meaning in the "work" I'm supposed to be doing now.I'm supposed to be making a video, but I can't. I'm feeling useless at the moment.
These are all random thoughts, by the way.
I have school tomorrow. I have an EVS test tomorrow. By tomorrow I mean today. Cause its past midnight, you know. Good morning. I'm not prepared. I have 1 hour to study for it. Thats before class starts. My bus comes early into school. Im listening to some music, mostly slow dancing, and real player is on loop. Santana type ish like solo.
Theres 22 other people online. One person is talking. Randomly. Thank you.
There, its started again. I need a blank CD. I don't have one. I got batteries for my CD player. Inside is Mixed feelings: songs for the confused soul vol 1. I made that.
A guide to Australian Education. A piece of Velcro. Water bottle. glass thing.
Goodnight.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Movie to Watch, very closely : The Everchanging Life at MHS


This is one heck of a long movie. I mean it. Its really long.
MHS is such a wonderful place(no sarcasm),honestly. It makes me think so much...But then obviously right? What more important thing happens to a child while growing up other than school?
I just keep observing and wondering whether life here really does take a standstill,or even just a little break for a minute.My summer right up till creative festival was so hectic with the whole "documentary" and Music and Teachers Day that i thought at least now...we'd be having a break. And a break not in the sense that like not studying or anything but just that there was no "news". Take a break. The funny thing is that it doesnt. The even funnier thing is that you think it does for while when everything is tying itself down, knotting up its loose ends and then suddenly, you realise it was never even thinking of stopping, like a duracell bunny, trying to cover as much ground before its battery dies out...which doesn't by the way.
Its so full of turns and twists that you didn't even know that they happened. Sometimes it's crap. Sometimes there are people who are just bored. Sometimes there are people who are focused. Some confused. Some focused but confused. Sometimes there are people who talk a lot. For all 13-14 year olds, i like my friends more than you'll know. This is where I laugh creepily. We have a leader, a password secret signals and oh btw, Romit Sen is one of us too. That makes it five.Some people don't like to believe us, but it's true.
I keep living by my philosophy of observation. It's brilliant.My Point for this post, and all i'm saying is to watch closely.Anything. Everything. Observe and wonder. Be amazed. Its Enjoyable.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Movie way off in the future: 300



Action / Drama / Adventure

300. Nice name for a movie. If i ust said the name, you wouldn't (well most of you non mythological geeks) guess what this movie would be about. After 2 people told me about this movies trailer i had to watch it.
It is about ancient earth, around 480 BC when Persia was dominating and annexing all parts of the world to its vast kingdom. The next on its hitlist was Greece, so the bravest of the Greek, the Spartans(from Sparta no less)are chosen to fight.The King of Sparta leads them.

This movie is about the war that takes place at Thermopylae, a steep and narrow canyon where war is difficult and strength of army cannot determine the outcome. The story goes that Greece sent out this army of men as a decoy to buy time while they in actualality prepared for Persia's greater invasion. Its suicide, But the 300 brave soldiers of Sparta aren't going out without a fight.It is said that their act moved the world into its first ever democracy.
The Trailer is awesome, really can't wait for this one, but the bad news is that it releases in 2007!Based on Frank Miller's(writer of the graphic series Batman:Year One) graphic novel,so far the visual effects are brilliant.The Spartan King is just too cool.Hopefully won't be another 'troy'-gic mistake.
Watch the trailer here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/trailer1/
Rating: 18+
March,2007

The Call...Online Premiere

The much-awaited day is finally here, the day of the online premiere of Romit's and my latest video, The Call!
A Here-We-Go Production,
Starring: Romit Sen
Tejas Menon
Special Thanks to Ali Yar Khan
This Video is dedicated to Harendra Kapur because of his birthday thing...and All rights reserved.Comment plz!

Monday, October 09, 2006

Movie to Watch: The Prestige



Drama / Fantasy / Thriller

Now i'm sure many people have seen the restart of the franchise of Batman, namely 'Batman Begins', turn out into the summer success story of 2005. Dark, haunting and action-packed, it was made into gold because of one brilliant director, Christopher Nolan. This man is a genius with the camera it seems, because this year he releases his latest film that looks to be as good as the rest: The Prestige.

"Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before."

I think that sums up the title. The movie is about magic tricks. Does it seem dark enough?
Rupert( Hugh Jackman) and Alfred( Christian Bale) are both magicians bent on outdoing each other in the stage of magic. This all seems fine and dandy, in the name of friendly competition until Alfred comes up with the most ingenious trick, that Alfred must find out how it is accomplished. The story moves on with the people questioning the ability of magicians, and whether there really is magic involved or if some things are just supernatural. The question is : Can some people do what magicians pretend to do? and are there no tricks?
Michael Caine is back with his sweet ol' british accent with back up from Scarlett Johannson. Raise your expectations.

Rating: PG 15

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Movie to Rent : Creep


I don't know why i'm writing about this, this has to be one of the funniest scary movies i have seen. Not a Gory-film watcher myself, i saw this after the trailer itself convinced me that it was a scary film indeed.
Creep started out promising with hope for good horror. The intial cut scene really was scary. But Alas. The entire movie makes no sense at all!NO SENSE! Its about a young woman who gets stuck in the london underground in the late hours of night only tried to be raped by a man, who gets killed by another man and basically the way i'm going you think that its not a very fun movie! In the dark tunnels of the underground lies a 'creep' who abducts people, this either resulting in them being killed on the spot, or getting locked in sewage-watery cages that if you swim under can lead to another cage with an open door!
But apart from that, the creep has its moments, but oh how few. If you are going to watch this i recommend watching it with four more people, late at night under cushions and blankets. Laughs assured.

Rating: 18+

WARNING: SLEEPOVERS ONLY!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Scaling To New Heights...

Scaling To New Heights? I live on the 25th floor now.But Dubai definately is.
After living for a little less than a month in my new home, I have discovered a net café that I incidentally pass every morning as I walk towards the bus stop. That’s right people, I have shifted. Some of you know and some of you don’t and for the latter, I have shifted to Sharjah. “OH MY GOD! Didn’t you like shift from Sharjah to Dubai like around like a year ago?”
The answer: Yes I did. I’m back in Sharjah, and guess what…It’s the same area too. Neither here nor there.
‘ On the outskirts shall thouest live,
Even though thou hast liveth thereth beforeth,
And thouest shall burneth in helleth there anyways’
- God (Act II Scene II: Not Much To-do About Everything)

Why? Simply because my rent has increased. That’s it. Along with everything else I might add. But then why shift all the way back to Sharjah? Just better to be safe than sorry, but what’s up with the whole hike anyway? Oh my God! Could it be? Has it come to that? INFLATION?!
Not really. But there has been a genuine rise in prices in certain areas. The Prime example is real estate. The more real estate that is released into the market from Nakheel, Emaar etc., the more people want to buy. Palms, Greens, Gardens, Hills, Ranches, Meadows, Stables, Farms, Outback, you name it, and the Sheikh signs for it.
Another Price rise everyone is dreading: The School Fees. Yes, they are going up and there’s nothing we can do about it except try our level best to earn and curse more. We don’t really know for sure by how much, but we can expect a 20-30 % increase. And also the transport fees recently increased. Rumour has it that our school is going to be relocated as well; 10th grade and below enjoy! But in truth this is really sad for us. We wont have the memories or in fact the same school to go back and visit. We are aware that ‘ Oh the memories of school shall be in the heart’…Duh! But how will we remember were we had our first fight (or in some peoples cases first kiss, second kiss and/or more), or where we hid our stuff from losers, or were we actually sat and ate lunch? Gone, all gone.
Sharjah guys will have to wake up by like 4 in the morning!
Airport tax, toll tax and VATs are in the process of being introduced (even though this process may take a while) and basically the standard of living is going up drastically.

But we can still hope for a better future, who knows…maybe there is a little bit of oil left.

Monday, March 27, 2006

The Da Vinci Code

This is the most amazing trailer ever man! Check it out!

My Most Amazing Experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry-(Epilogue)



I don’t remember waking up, now that I think of it. I just remember coming to his hall and sitting down in front him. Harry woke up earlier than I did; I don’t know how my friends are doing this, really! Both of us went to sleep by 5:30. He got up at 11:30 and was sitting on the couch eating some breakfast; I think it was cornflakes. I looked at the clock; it was 12:35. I yawned and he said hi, then I went back in to brush my teeth. I had to first recover my toothpaste from my bag. I had forgotten to bring a toilet bag and I always had this strange feeling throughout my trip that the ‘crest’ toothpaste (50ml) tube I was currently using, would unscrew its cap on its own accord, and have the pleasure of turning the front pockets of my bag into a mess. I checked my bag. No mess.

After brushing, I came to the hall again to find Harry still eating. He was browsing through the channels on his TV and would occasionally find something interesting to watch. We ended up having our attention caught by the movie ‘face/off’, which I had seen before only too many times. We watched it till the end, I remember, and then I met Harry’s dad who was just leaving for work. Harry and I then just chilled for some more time. I flipped through the entertainment plus magazine and had a quick read of the newspaper. Then Harry decided that last night, or should I say this morning’s game of football would not suffice as enough and that we needed to play more. Well actually he didn’t say that, but he was doodling and juggling the ball so I decided to join him. The funny thing was that after 2 minutes of playing, I felt so tired that I thought that I needed another 7 more hours of sleep before I could ready myself for my next match. Harry, I could tell was feeling the same and so we quit, and listened to music instead.
I saw the movie family guy too, that day. My god, it was the most hilarious stuff I had ever seen yet. Family guy to me is a highly exaggerated version of ‘The Simpsons’. Even ‘The Simpsons’ at times can get a little serious, but this was absolute comedy every single minute of the movie. A must-see, by the way.

We relaxed a bit more till about 5:00 pm, by which time my mom had called and had started to wonder where I was. She told me that I had not been home properly since Wednesday and wanted to see me home as soon as possible. I agreed, I had been out long, and it was about time I left for home.
I had 5 bucks left, since my last escapades outside. Harry told me that if I wanted to save myself from cab-fair (which I did), I should use the bus. The bus stand was at the Dnata building a couple of hundred meters away from Harry’s house. We talked a bit on the way, but then I just started watching the road; the Sheikh Zayed road that was heading towards the city. I don’t know what it was about that place, but it made me think a bit. Or a lot. I don’t know myself but what I did realize is that I hadn’t been to this place ever before. I thought about how people take their cameras and take photos of foreign countries when they go with their families on holidays. I was quite disappointed because, I wanted to take a picture of this road; for some reason it made me think that, people don’t take photos of their daily lives so often. Its just when they go out to different or new places. Now that’s understandable, but what about our daily lives? Nobody is taking photos of that right? There are far more little-little details that were missing out because we don’t pay attention that much to our surroundings. That’s what I was thinking about. Our surroundings, this normal, day-to-day world that we don’t pay attention to. I, at that point of time suddenly started to appreciate everything that came in front of me, I started noticing little things, like a persons shirt, the way Harry walks, just basically everything that we ignore generally. I think we’re not paying attention. We’re so busy doing other stuff that we forget to appreciate the beauty of simple things. I’m not preaching here or anything. It’s just that at that point how suddenly, I felt so strongly about this. In half an hour I thought about this a lot, just half an hour. It was the wind blowing in my ears. The setting sun on my face. The silence between Harry and me. This impact was so great on me that in the next 5-10 minutes I just sat and thought about these last 3 days. If you have noticed I have tried to put in as many details as I could remember in ‘My Most amazing experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry’, just as a test for myself. And I have still left things out. If in the last 3 days I can’t remember things, how will I ever remember those important details that took place in my life so long ago? I know it is impossible to remember everything, but we have to try, or you know what, it should come naturally. Why should we do it? Because it gives a sense of well being. You feel good, I don’t know how to explain it that well, I’m not a very articulate person, I’m just trying to tell you as much as I can, and how much I feel about this. I try to write as well as I can to bring out this feeling to all of you reading, I wouldn’t have done this otherwise. I didn’t tell anyone right after I felt this way because this way I can share it with all of you.Just try it. Try to pay attention. I had to tell you.

Harry and I walked on further and finally reached the Dnata building.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

My Most Amazing Experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry-(Part III)

When Harry and I reached the venue, we really wanted to have fun…know what I mean? It’s those times when you go to try something new, you feel like you want to have a good time. We felt like enjoying ourselves, so even if the gig was crap we would still find something good about it. This wasn’t applicable though; we did enjoy the larger part of the show, with most of the credit going to Strings. But before strings there was something…something else. Something different. Something not necessarily good, but different anyway. It was by no means special. Hell, it was unbearable. It was…DJ Sash.

Obviously you haven’t heard of him. With so many DJ’s around these day who’s going to remember names, right? Wrong. DJ sash was an instrument of destruction sent by the devil himself to make us touch, pass and go lengths past the line of insanity. His music was so loud, that it made testament and Megadeth look like children discovering the volume dial. He was 10^5 billion. I’m pretty sure that DJ Sash had just come to irritate us. Harry and I were sitting in our seat with our hair in a new style. It literally blew us away. It was so loud that the crew of the Emraan Hashmi concert (which was incidentally also happening that night at DCC) called him to CUT THE VOLUME DOWN. At least we know how the earthquakes happened.And screw Live, we wanted to see him dead. People like DJ Sash in my opinion should be shot. Or burned. Either way he must die.

But the funniest thing about this was that even though his music was unbearable to the human ear, I enjoyed that time. It was the ultimate Paradox; the most ironical situation; the biggest oxymoron. Harry and I enjoyed ourselves. We made so many jokes that the DJ Sash situation turned into a laugh riot. Most of them can’t be written down, but it was still funny like hell. It was the funniest concert to date. Thanks Harry, I had too much fun that night. After more than 2 hours of crap, Sash finally stopped. We thought we had gone deaf, but it was true: Sash had played his last.
But by no means was he finished.
“Hey guy out there! Welcome to Umeed in aid for earthquake victim! Let me give you little bit brief introduction…”
Just frikkin’ hilarious.
Bombay Vikings finally arrived as the opening guys. They were good, the dude sang well and I knew most of the songs except for 1 or 2. Very ‘pop’ish, but fun sing-a-long types. What really impressed us is that he came into the crowd and we saw him up close. Very Sporting. After Bombay Vikings, came the band that we came to watch: Strings. There are the most kick-ass, Indian (okay Pakistani) rock band…not that they are many though. But still, they performed great, the singer was awesome, all guitars synced well with each other. The lead guitarist was really good with solos that would impress Ali. Great Performance in my opinion, I knew most of their songs, including their latest hit ‘Zinda Hoon’: OST from the movie Zinda. They closed with that song. Great drumming and great distortion in that last one. We didn’t get any plectrums from them though, but as Anish put it, we needed Ali for that.
Next was Shehzad Roy. That’s when we left. He started with a slow boring number and the crowd was quite let down after the fast paced Strings.
Harry and I exited the arena after saying bye to Udai and Rohan who were also there. We were deep inside Media City, so we decided to walk a bit. We eventually ended up walking from the heart of media city past the outskirts, past the sheikh Zayed road, across an unopened, newly constructed bridge, further down that road, past a few more buildings, till Eppco. Which was about 2km away. We had spent 10 bucks at the concert for shwarmas. I had cash, but not enough, so I decided to stay over at Harry’s house. Harry paid for the cab and we went up to his place. I met his mom who gave me a change of clothes for the night and a pair of rubber slippers.
I thought Rubin’s house was filled with food, but Harry’s would give the former stiff competition. Food wasn’t everywhere, but centralized to the kitchen. Cookie boxes under more cookie boxes. Chips, cornflakes, milk, coke and other snacks filled his cabinet. I wonder how he’s thin.

We reached his place earlier than I expected, merely by 11:30. We played football first, Harry thrashed me…but only because he had more scoring space, more place to move around! His goal (a cardboard box) was tucked away in a small corner of the room where one person had difficulty in reaching; how do you expect 2 people to attack, defend, shoot, block, dodge or move for that matter in a width of no more than half a meter? Anyway after that we amused ourselves with a short game of tactical ops in which I realized that Harry (no offense) sucked badly at. After that some more music and a few more games of football, including a volleying game, of which I must say the result was pretty one-sided after I whooped him. We kept talking, playing basketball with that little net in his room, and talked some more. Finally we reached a point of retardation, where we couldn’t take it anymore. We were half dead; we didn’t know what we were saying, random insults and philosophical sayings coming out of our mouths at different points of time. Then we got up and had water. After that we just fell asleep. Harry tried to sleep on the chair, by stretching his legs out onto another chair, but was fairly unsuccessful after being forced into quite an awkward position, which involved him sitting up and which made him look like one of those beach chairs on which people sunbathe. After seeing that he was uncomfortable, he promptly got up and went to the other room to sleep. I didn’t bother to say goodnight, I was too tired for that. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

(to be continued...)

Friday, March 24, 2006

My Most Amazing Experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry-(Part II)

I woke up later than Anish. Rubin came into the room all ready for his tuitions. I brushed my teeth and got ready for brunch. After Brunch Anish and I got to work. Anish sat at the laptop and had to make a certificate for the people who participated in the mime workshop. He made it look pretty grand in the end, with a blue and gold theme. I on the other hand sat at the computer looking for source files for the Elvis video. I was quite unsuccessful; I couldn’t even find the song on the file-sharing program. Finally Anish had to help me. We tried to find ways to cover up our lack of sources by repeating the same visualizations in different ways. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. But we didn’t do that till later. We kept searching for source files. By that time Rubin was back from his tuitions. We had time till 4’o’clock. Rubin had to go to Zabeel Park, Anish home, and I had to go for a Strings concert, but I’ll talk about that later. We began our work in full swing by about 1:30 in the afternoon. We really had started completing stuff, in the one video I mean. It was going nicely until Rubin’s computer froze, and halted us. Luckily we saved the files and we continued, but not before Rubin “lost” his hard-drive. How can you lose a hard drive? That’s Rubin. Aah stupid I.T. Presentation, Naa!

We had still not got the track and ended up calling Mr. Rodericks who was in school and asked him to send it to us. More precious time was going. Then we hit another block. With lack of source files we still could not complete the video. Rubin and Anish fought for creative control and I was thrown into it as well. In the middle of it all I realized I had gained 1 Kg! I was now 46! It must have been all the food in Rubin’s house. He seems to have food in every nook and cranny in his house. Anish also said that he felt that he was putting on some weight. Plus we had McDonalds yesterday. Super-Sized. We had Toblerone, Amicelli, Orange chocolate, Ali’s favourite chips, lemonade, and water. After that Rubin’s computer froze again. It was quite frustrating but then we managed to finish quite a bit before 4‘0’clock. It was time to leave. I had to go home to collect my tickets for Umeed.

Anish left us at Clock tower to go home and study for his upcoming S.A.T. examination in May. Rubin and I got off at Bur Juman, where we met Bharath. They were going to Zabeel Park together. I said goodbye and thanks to Rubin for everything and reached home.
At home I changed had a shower and picked up my tickets. I waited in front in for bur Juman for Harry who was coming with me. I had 30 Bucks with me after yesterday, but restocked at home to balance it at 50 again.

I met Harry, and it was from that point that my journey became suddenly so different from my usual mundane ones.

We took a bus to Sheikh Zayed road and got off opposite Trade Centre. After that for no apparent reason we kept walking straight, past Nandos and past Pizza Hut. We walked and walked. Walked through the construction detours and past the cars parked. It was 6:30; the show started at 9:00, so I figured it would be okay. After walking a bit more, we caught a cab. In the cab I spoke a bit with Harry and a bit with Ankita. We reached the Venue: Media City. It was going to be held at the same place that the Jazz Festival was held. We stopped the cab at the outskirts of media city. The bill came to 35. Then we walked some more. Then the shock came. We heard Drums. We heard distortion. Harry and I looked at each other for a split second, and then broke into a run. The sound was getting louder. We reached the gates and sighed. There was no one inside. The security let us enter.

Before I continue let me inform you about the concert we were going for. Umeed was a concert in aid of the earthquake victims of last year. The People performing were Bombay Vikings, Strings and 2 other guys, Shehzad Roy and Atif Aslam, who I personally am not interested in seeing “live”. But anyway, I got free V.I.P. seated tickets to this concert, courtesy of Avneeth Fernandes, a friend who lives opposite my house and is in my bus. Dude if you are reading this thanks a lot; I’ve never had more laughs at a rock show than this one.

Back to the Concert. We came into the venue and saw that strings were having their soundcheck! We saw strings upfront before the show started and they were trying out different songs until they left at about 7:00. They were really awesome, with heavy distortion effects and great bass. But then after that we went and sat, and as soon as we did, all hell broke loose. Strings finished and then came the arrival of DJ Sash.
(to be continued...)

My Most Amazing Experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry-(Part I)

On Wednesday the 22nd of March, I made a plan with Anish to go to Rubin house to stay over. We had lots of work to do and stuff for the upcoming April fundraiser and had to make the videos for each song that was to be sung. That day was incidentally also the 1-year anniversary of our not-eating-anything-from-McDonalds-,-Hardees-,-or-KFC oath. We were excited as hell and were literally dying to sink our teeth into that high cholesterol, high BP level giving food. We had chosen McDonalds as the oath breaker and we were going to have dinner at City Centre Sharjah. Anish took the guys for football that evening, and promised to leave after he was done. I dint play that day and instead waited for his call. He arrived at my building with Fabron. Fabron reminds me too much of coop from the show Megas XLR. Sorry I had to say that. Apparently the newly titled “Ex- Twelves” had joined them for football since their board exams were over. Now everyone knows that I’m a cheap guy and have empty pockets half the time. Today I had exactly 50 bucks and still decided to take the bus to sharjah. The 3 of us walked from my building to LULU centre and didn’t feel like sitting in the bus so took a private cab for 35 bucks. The Cabbie looked a bit seedy, but we weren’t worried: we had Fabron. We looked to have a long journey ahead of us so I had to think of ways to entertain us. My PSP was in my bag and I had the movie Hitch on it so we decided to watch. Now, I had sworn that I charged the darned thing just last night, but from the signs it was showing, it looked like we were going to have a short movie. “10 minutes,” I said. In ten minutes we managed to watch a few funny parts but then the thing just turned off and refused to turn on again: not like I tried, though.
After 35 minutes or so we reached Sharjah city centre. Anish was scared because he was wearing shorts, and I recalled that Rubin had once mentioned to me that you could not wear them in sharjah. We were greeted by Mr. James and Rubin and we immediately set out on a hunt for the food court. Aaron was also supposed to join us. I really don’t know what Aaron does when he is not with his friends, no really, it’s quite strange, apparently he NEVER comes out the house to meet anyone for dinner or anything. Its quite strange (but true), but he maybe just pre-occupied with someone else…
Anyway enough about Aaron. We reached McDonalds, and had to endure another round of agony as we saw the long line of people standing in front to get their food. I felt like shouting at them “We have not had this “food” in a year god dammit!!! get outta the F!@#$%^ way!!!!”. But instead I said, “Aww shoot”.
Rubin treated us, we thanked him for that. I had a Chicken McSpicy and Anish a Chicken Big Mac. Well so much for bird flu. We held the burgers in our hands and hit both of them together and said, “cheers”. And then we ate.
In retrospect I felt that the first bite was worth that whole year of waiting. I could taste everything the melted cheese, the mayonnaise, the lettuce, the buns, the sesame seeds on the bun and obviously the not-so-spicy chicken. It was brilliant; Anish and I looked at each other and smiled. It was like a drug, it was like a McDrug. Like that gave us Mchappiness. The French-fries, the coke, everything tasted good on that first bite.
After that, well it was,well…nice.
The five of us walked back to Rubin’s house and went straight for the computer room. Fabron got the big chair (hmmm…) and the rest of got the others and spares. I changed into my night clothes as did Anish and then we began to go through Rubin's drafts for presentations. After that we just went through source files and other junk till about 2:30 in the morning, by which time Mr. James and Fabron left. It was just the three of us then. We watched the terminal, till about an hour later. We were all dead tired and wanted to sleep bad. Our eyes were closing by the time Tom Hanks was stuck in that wretched terminal. We talked a bit more, and then couldn’t bear it any longer and the fell into a deep sleep.

I think subconsciously we 3 knew that we hadn’t done an ounce of work and that we had to leave the next day. Rubin had tuitions in the morning. We pledged to finish the work the next day or else we would have wasted an entire night having done nothing.
(to be continued...)

My Most Amazing Experience with Anish, Rubin & Harry-(Prologue)

Harry and I first just looked around and stared at the road in front of us. He told me which bus would take me home after being out for 3 days. I left home on Wednesday. Today was Friday. I thought all the things that had happened to me. It’s funny because in the last half an hour of my journey, my contemplating began and finished by the time I reached home. We talked about various things that had happened last night, including the “wacky, waving inflatable arm flailing tube man”, and the football scores. 4 buses came and went. They were full. We sat down and kept talking. Its funny how such a simple experience has made me think so much. Finally a minibus came. This meant I would have to take another bus to get home. Harry gave me a buck-fifty; I gave him a hug and got in. The bus driver asked me where I wanted to go. I repeated Harry’s words, “trade centre roundabout” and paid him for my ticket. The bus rattled past the Dnata building and we were off. The bus was empty apart from my other co-travelers; a man and his wife. After making just one stop we reached the roundabout and I got off. I waited for bus no 21, it would go straight to my home, but I was impatient and got into 26, which would take me a bit further from it, I’d have to walk a bit. I got into the bus and ironically saw bus no. 21 stopping right behind the one I was in. I even saw the relieved faces of the people getting onto it. I reached karama centre, got off and walked back home slowly.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Friday, February 24, 2006

Oscar Fever!



Okay...i'll admit it...i've been dying to talk about this for sometime now. Well not dying but very very very interested. I have not seen one of the movies that have been nominated for the various academy awards. For example i've been dying to see 'Munich'(nominated for Best Picture) because it stars Eric Bana who I think is a pretty good actor. But unfortunately due to the very pissing off 'releasing-of-movies' in Dubai we have to wait until after the Oscars are over to watch these critically acclaimed movies. Some are lucky though. They are released early in the year so we have seen some. But for movies like "Goodnight and Goodluck"(Best Picture) and "Capote", we just have to rely on the fact that they will release in Dubai, but way later. I personally find this quite pissing off, I mean like the whole world saw Harry Potter first and only in the gulf did we wait for its release.
But anyway back to the movies. For those who do not the nominations I think I'll do you guys a favour. And The Nominees for 78th Academy Awards are...


Best motion picture of the year

"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Diana Ossana and James Schamus, Producers
A River Road Entertainment Production

"Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics) Caroline Baron, William Vince and Michael Ohoven,
An A-Line Pictures/Cooper's Town/ Producers
Infinity Media Production

"Crash" (Lions Gate) Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman, Producers
A Bob Yari/DEJ/Blackfriar's Bridge/
Harris Company/ApolloProscreen
GmbH & Co./Bull's Eye Entertainment
Production

"Good Night, and Good Luck." Grant Heslov, Producer
(Warner Independent Pictures)
A Good Night Good Luck LLC Production

"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg and A Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Barry Mendel, Producers
Pictures Production

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)

Terrence Howard in "Hustle & Flow" (Paramount Classics, MTV Films and New Deal Entertainment)

Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)

Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)

David Strathairn in "Good Night, and Good Luck." (Warner Independent Pictures)


Performance by an actor in a supporting role

George Clooney in "Syriana" (Warner Bros.)

Matt Dillon in "Crash" (Lions Gate)

Paul Giamatti in "Cinderella Man" (Universal and Miramax)

Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)

William Hurt in "A History of Violence" (New Line)


Performance by an actress in a leading role

Judi Dench in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (The Weinstein Company)

Felicity Huffman in "Transamerica" (The Weinstein Company and IFC Films)

Keira Knightley in "Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features)

Charlize Theron in "North Country" (Warner Bros.)

Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)


Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "Junebug" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Catherine Keener in "Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)

Frances McDormand in "North Country" (Warner Bros.)

Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features)

Michelle Williams in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)



Best animated feature film of the year


"Howl's Moving Castle" (Buena Vista)
Hayao Miyazaki

"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" (Warner Bros.)
Tim Burton and Mike Johnson

"Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (DreamWorks Animation SKG)
Nick Park and Steve Box


Achievement in art direction

"Good Night, and Good Luck." (Warner Independent Pictures)
Art Direction: Jim Bissell
Set Decoration: Jan Pascale

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Stuart Craig
Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

"King Kong" (Universal)
Art Direction: Grant Major
Set Decoration: Dan Hennah and Simon Bright

"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing)

Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau

"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer


Achievement in cinematography

"Batman Begins" (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister

"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Rodrigo Prieto

"Good Night, and Good Luck." Robert Elswit
(Warner Independent Pictures)

"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Dion Beebe

"The New World" (New Line) Emmanuel Lubezki


Achievement in costume design

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (Warner Bros.) Gabriella Pescucci

"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Colleen Atwood

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" (The Weinstein Company) Sandy Powell

"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran

"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox) Arianne Phillips


Achievement in directing

"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Ang Lee

"Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics) Bennett Miller

"Crash" (Lions Gate) Paul Haggis

"Good Night, and Good Luck." George Clooney
(Warner Independent Pictures)

"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) Steven Spielberg


And also a very badly taken video of the nominees selection night:



And This is the trailer for Brokeback Mountain (controversial best picture):



Who do you think is going to win (thats if you've seen any of the movies)?

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Musical Inputs #1

As usual the exams are back...once again. And funnily enough, its only at this point of time that my mind begins to wander. Anyway continuing on the same lines as my last post, I'm just curious as to find out what music people are currently listening. Not that I'm running out of any(as if...) but just curious. Harry the other day kindly sent me a single from a band called flipside...which was not half bad, so i was wondering whether you people would like comment upon what music is gathering your interest and do us all a favour and pass it on. Like that song at school.
Any Genre please, not just rock or pop. Whatever catches your attention. I will listen to all songs suggested and give my personal priceless comments on each.
I'm aware that most of you people are not like me, and you guys are busy studying, but like when you guys are taking a break, alright?
And by the way (for those wondering) T.H.E.W. is a spoofish type rap song that romit ali and myself composed and recorded for other peoples listening pleasure. Please contact the above people or harry or anish or basically anyone you think who might have the song. Get your copy today!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

"T.H.E.W. 2" Releasing Soon!

The highly anticipated return of the royal rap brothers Lil' Romeo & LL TJ, finally came when today a spokesperson of LL TJ, Tejas Menon announced over MSN that the sequel to the multi-platinum, award winning CD Single "T.H.E.W." , would be released sometime this week. "T.H.E.W. 2 definately shows the more meaningful side of us", said LL TJ in a recent press conference," and it will surely be a favourite for sometime".
On Being asked whether this would infact be their last single together the rapper replied," We really enjoy making music together, even though it can be a pain sometimes, but lets see what life has in store for us."
Another surprise for the Public is that the Legendary Mr.GMFM has not been featured in this song. Fans are sure to be thoroughly dissapointed at his absence.
The songs theme is based on cricket and is a medium through which Rappers Lil Romeo and LL TJ hope to give out a message to aspiring cricketers. The Release date for their new EP has not officially been given out, but we are sure that it is currently in its post-production stages.

Environmental Science

Today was my first EVS exam. Listen to me, im like a third grade kid. But funnily enough if you look at me you might actually believe that last statement to be true. My verdict- Its long boring and it sucks. I swear if i have to write the word "biodiversity" one more time im gonna kill myself. 3 hrs of writing relatively the same stuff over and over again. And for no apparent reason the song "somewhere over the rainbow" kept springing up into my mind.Like an earworm. Then after finishing my paper...i made a noose out of the rope that was given to me to tie my paper and aritra made a paper dude. I took paper dude and hung him. Too bad paper dude. Sorry. Anyway the rest of the day was spent in talking and I also tried to make a guillotine to kill paper dude.

Before this Was Mr. Guzders farewell by the way my first singing after...well... you know. Quite a success and i was quite happy about the twins anish and the others first singing debut. I feel like a veteran...i was so proud of all them... I am..Guys if you didnt know.
Anyway thats all for now except for my next post so ill say goodbye then.

Standard Chartered- Redial's Last stage Gig.

I dont want to talk about this in public (guys see me later, or just the video for that matter...).

Farewell

Next was the goodbye to the twelthies. i know for a fact that i am not in the mood to retell the story once again, and im not going to do justice to it. But anyway...
The hall looked great that night,(cheers to anyone involved) and for once was i was impressed by the food by the Abela dudes. The Video Presentation was a great hit(ask anish for the download) and i was moderately successful after we (ali shayaan aarthi and i) performed. Everyone seemed to like the elvis medley, welcome to wherever you are on the other hand...well lets just say it wasnt as much of a disaster as my next performance would be...

Radio Roadshow - Egoistical or Egotistical? I'm not sure...Shrivats?

Last Wednesday 'Redial' went on air...finally after days of speculation. I guess we did alright, ali got to talk to his hearts content about how "basically, we are all rockers!"...Here's a question that Ashiq and I have been pondering about recently...why is everything basic? Basically this and Basically that. Why isn't anything complex? Not just you ali, but infact its a craze especially in our school.
Anyway back to whats important. Radio Roadshow. Its really an experience to watch these guys literally talk straight without screwing up or otherwise, they just speak and the words come out...and no not "basically...were live!".No shit. I got to say my one line. I was wondering , the first time (and not the last mind you) i was on air and the two words,(if i had to say any two words) i spoke were "Elvis Presley".Pretty cool. The female there obviously had the hots for me seeing as soon as my performance was over, she came over to me and shook me warmly by the hand and said "Oh my God you have an incredible singing voice!" and i had to remind her to let go of my hand. I'm serious...throughout the entire song she as smiling at me...well who knows. This was not going to be the last time some chick would smile at me during a performance.
Aarthi hit a few bad notes and forgot the lines...i came to her rescue of course but she had a bad throat that day...
My Parents went crazy over the singing bit and couldnt believe it was me...infact they thought for some reason that it was anish. Well good for you anish! Anyway right after we finished we left for home...next up was the farewell...

No i have not been lazy. just buzy, hey that rhymes. Not blogstipated as anish puts it. just buzy.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Anonymous...

I don't really know whether its his intention to piss me off, or otherwise because "mr. anonymous" is not doing a good job. The purpose of leaving comments is to spark healthy debates and to leave strong "worth-reading" opinions, unlike anonymous.If you read Anish's blog you can see the healthy debates that currently are based on the debatable topic of whether India is original enough in its ideas and thinking. Now theres something I read and enjoy, but for Mr.A...(who has by the way extended his intellect several times into anish's topics)
Now listen dude, no offence but if your too chicken to admit who you really are its kool man...I know, well, we all know your scared and insecure, and its totally understandable because some people have childhood trauma(i'm not saying it is, but it could be one of your many problems) which develop into inferiority complexes and social incompatibility.Or its possible that you are scared that you may get into the bad books of Tejas Menon and Anish Malpani, which may lead to you committing...okay not really, but then again I wouldn't put it past you. But whatever it is its alright man, we're here for you, we are your shoulder to cry on...okay,pumpkin?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

This is for the FrontRoad Mans...


SOME MORE POPULARITY...
Tarun had a conversation with me...here is an excerpt...

blog...www.seriouslythinking.blogspot.com says:
and remeber to pass it on to ure mates
<¦[:†λѓטή:]¦>...6 to go...and all pretty easy too!!! says:
sure sure..
>>>ReÐiåL<<<- Guys and Girls, I have a blog...www.seriouslythinking.blogspot.com says: thanks <¦[:†λѓטή:]¦>...6 to go...and all pretty easy too!!! says:
hahaa infact...people who dont know who you guys are....sent me the links..
<¦[:†λѓטή:]¦>...6 to go...and all pretty easy too!!! says:
hahahaha
>>>ReÐiåL<<<- Guys and Girls, I have a blog...www.seriouslythinking.blogspot.com says: kool <¦[:†λѓטή:]¦>...6 to go...and all pretty easy too!!! says:
So i saw it and i saw you guys and i was like...NO WAY!!!
<¦[:†λѓטή:]¦>...6 to go...and all pretty easy too!!! says:
hahahahaha

Does a little fame hurt? Naahh...

Four letter words


I really don't know myself. Today it came to my attention that we maybe swearing a bit too much these days. I'm not sure but I just happened to swear in front of my mom today(usually she's cool with it), completely out of frustration and she pleasantly reminded me that I was the one who claimed that I stop kids from swearing.Now don't get me wrong, I always(and im not lying)try to stop kids in my bus from swearing...but the wierd thing is that if we used to care so much, then why not now? I'm not a bloody saint but there was a time in which my friends used to stop me and say "Dude Tejas, look we need to talk. You are cursing too much these days and it has shocked us".
I'm not quoting you guys but I don't know, perhaps we have changed, I mean we HAVE changed. So if I stop kids from what I do, is there an age thing for swearing now?
"Now listen Prasidhi no swearing until you become 16 ,okay?"
Nobody cares. Well...I don't know. Should we just F***-et about it?

Standard Chartered - Redial's First Stage Gig.


Hey guys and girls(I said something about this before) this is to remind all of you busy people to please attend the Standard Chartered Marathon Thingy on Friday the 17th Of Febuary. Its supposed to be a big stage and all that stuff just like a real concert. We require the support of the school and seeing as you guys happen to make it up...
Its at the Dubai World Trade Centre at 11:00 AM and for more details contact me or Ali Yar Khan. Also on Monday 13th Feb, Redial will be performing Live on 103.8 Dubai i FM and our interview will also be on air. Heres to seeing you guys at the event!

I'm a little scared

I really dont know how long ill be able to keep this up so guys and girls(who we also call guys) please leave comments if you think its worth it. I need encouragement.Occasionally.

Thanks Anish...you have convinced me to start seriously thinking...