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

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

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

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!

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 "

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.

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.

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.