keep your hands where i can see them

An airport lounge: You’re waiting for your boarding call. In the meantime, you find a seat and read your copy of The Financial Times…ok ok…comics section HT. And you sense more than see it. They’re looking over your shoulder, reading what you are. You turn the page thinking they’ll get the hint. After all they are available on the rack just ten feet away…and free too. But they keep looking…keep reading…

A phone-booth: You’re in it, the door doesn’t close completely, but that’s ok.You’re not discussing state secrets, just going about your business. This other person, looks like they intend to use the next booth, having nothing to do with you. But then, they pause outside the booth, pretending to be looking intently into that shop-window across the street, while their ears strain to catch your conversation. You find that every time you step into a phone booth, they are there. The shop windows across the street can’t all be that interesting.

A hotel room: No, not a porn scene. Just your temporary station in some random city. You leave every day to go about your business, thankful for the small mercies called room service. Every evening you return, and you notice that you’re stuff’s not quite the same way it was when you left. You check, nothing’s missing. Next day, same thing, everything’s been disturbed, rifled through. So, its not your pseudo-expensive gadget collection they’re after. Then what is it?!

yes…some people are just that annoying…

Let it rip…Let it Thunder!

Term 3 and one of the courses was about “…the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses. It is often a difficult undertaking, as a majority of new businesses fail.”. While the course entailed studies on how enterprising individuals brought enterprising business ideas to fruition with a lot guts, dedication and the odd sliver of luck, was a yawn-fest for me. The amount of work that seemed to be require to setup a business, that might or might not at some distant point in the future reap you loads of moolah on which to retire on and to buy your island in the carribean seemed, well too much. But then, I find the effort required to lean over and procure the remote control to change the documentary on grass-growing in the prairies on nat geo rather too much effort. Ideas of bootstrapping and starting small, to spend the VC’s money like you were drawing blood were all fine, but the concept of reducing something as abstract as entrepreneurship to a few checklists and methodologies seemed kinda ridiculous. Add to the fact that every venture seemed to be nothing more than a means to germinate an ingenious idea, nurture it through the early years and just when it promises a lot of potential, cash out to someone who actually likes to run business. Seemed too much about making that quick buck to me. Coz, lets face it, more than generating a bunch of ideas and convincing some fat cats to part with dollops of money, its the actual successful running of an organization that takes managerial brio.

Wild-eyed ravings aside, got an insight into the genesis of our firm today, about how things started up and how they graduated from one stage to the next. The discussion about what it took to start and run a professional service firm and how the decisions sometimes was choosing between whether to buy your third laptop or make that trip to Venice to pitch to a prospective client. The amount of thought that went into deciding on what was core to the firm, what kind of work wouldn’t you do or how would you ensure that the fresh-faced B-school grads imbibed what the firm was about and accordingly portray it to the clients they worked with was mind-boggling. The decision to scale up from five to twenty and thence(thats a word right?) to fifty, taken after a lots of deliberation while the conglomerates of the world hire that many roughly every fifteen minutes. Its a revelation to know that there are individuals who, day-in day-out, apply their faculties these tasks. So, whats with the disconnect between the first and second paragraphs? I was paying attention this time, for one thing. And yeah…hearing the history of such a firm unfurl…makes you want to be part of the start of something…big. So…let it rip…let it thunder!

The Showdown

Most people who throw threats or insults my way find it to be a frustrating experience because they never stimulate responses. Mainly because I’m too lazy to…However, when people start questioning…nay..mocking fundamental tenets of life on this planet..then someone’s gotta take a stand! So, in continuation with my previous post…and not in continuation with the rantings and ravings of the zealous fanatics (who sometimes do not stop to question what it is that they believe in so fervently)…a rather objective (mostly) comparison of certain key aspects of being a superhero.

Category	Spider-Man						Superman
Genesis	Regular bloke…irradiated spider…changes that didn’t seem like powers at first…Spider-Man!						Different species…what powers?! On Krypton he’d be…just another guy!
Costume	Form-fitting…black web pattern on red and blue…masked face…covered eyes…an actual costume						Red underwear over tights…yes tights..nothing for the face…hmmm…quite a disguise
Love Interest	Mary Jane Watson-Parker: Known Peter for years…likes the super alter-ego…has always loved the man himself.						Lois Lane: Has worked with Kent for years, treats him with disdain…orgasms for him in tights…the word ‘shallow’ comes to mind? fooled by the different hairdo…bright too apparently
Weakness	Loses powers when self-belief wanes…depends on himself to get it back						Green rocks from home, can do jack in their presence
Bottomline	Powers don’t make you super, character does Sharp objects and bullets…hurt Rural America better find another hero (tall buildings a must for web-slinging)						You’re not from around here…automatically makes you special Flight, X-ray vision, Immense power…must be a stretch beating up on others Wear underwear outside to prevent accidental wedgies

For the initiated…here’s a list of some actual superheroes…With Great Power

Bring it on…

Part them and feel my finger tips…

So it was Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 on Star Movies and HBO respectively and however cute the former might’ve been, with me, the latter wins…hands down. Inspite of the logical argument that one might make that I have watched the second movie atleast half a dozen times and also own the dvd of the same, it still turns out that I watch it…again..commercial breaks and everything! And unless ‘one’ wants to get hit around some, they will not be making more logical arguments. Like I’ve said more than once…”Do not get logical with me….!!” It falls into that category that I don’t seem to mind doing, time and again (ok, so there are certain obvious things we all like to do…over and over and over…you get the picture). The Godfather, Kane and Abel, The Fourth Protocol, Dil Chahta Hai, U2, I never seem to grow out of. Ok, so, it probably doesn’t help that I don’t seem to grow up, at all, but then I somehow don’t seem to have the urge to line-up my matchbox cars and have a demolition derby or experiment lighting a match to the open nozzle of room freshner…

Juvenile delinquencies aside, this movie is awesome for several reasons…not least of those…Mary-Jane Watson, damn she’s cute! I mean, how cool is it that there’s this girl who you like…who likes you…and yes, once you’ve brushed the awkwardness aside, you get to say…”oh by the way…check this out” as you ‘accidentally’ bump into a lamp post to leave it askew. Granted that a senile scientist with an ample waistline on metallic stilts isn’t exactly a sight to send shivers up your spine, but then the sequence on the train is a worthy action-scene. The piece de resistance of course is when its all done and Octavius has realized that he’s just not cool enough to deserve a place in the rougues hall of fame and leaps into the river and spidey, mask off, turns around, to that look of realization on Ms Watson’s face. That, and the final scene where she says “Isn’t it about time someone saved your life” and they kiss for the first time (technically second), sirens go off in the background. Spidey looks toward them, hesitates, look back at her and she says with a smile “Go get’em tiger…”

And if none of that does anything for you…you can’t possibly walk away from one of most amazing movie soundtracks in a long time…two of the best…

“Vindicated” – Dashboard Confessional

“Hero” – Nickelback

p.s: was subjected to ‘Superman Returns’ last weekend…the superhero with the baby face and the ridiculous wisp of curled locks on his forehead…seriously…Spidey would kick his butt easy…but having seen this Superman, think he’d only like that…you know what i mean…and if you’re thinking the title of the post is lewd, read the lyrics above…and stop being a perv! 😉

numb nuts

Going by the theory of relativity, its like shifting from counting the ripples from a pebble chucked into a still crystal-clear pool to trying to count the number of people in that train on the adjacent track. Only, its moving in the opposite direction to yours…Yup, moved back to Bbay and started on a line of work I had absolutely no intention to get into during placement season..Remains to be seen who whups whose azz in this one..i honestly dunno yet…no soothsaying about how it’ll go…only one way to find out…

By the way…heavy rains…flooded streets…partly drenched…water cold…hence the title…

So, this tag business…

I am thinking about that piece of chicken, or is it sun-dried tomato seed? stuck in my molar…darn it!

I said “Good Morning” when he said “Go ahead, make my day”…and I did!

I want to play league cricket in the land of Oz, well, i’d even settle for good ol’ whatchamacallit’shire in the colonists backyard and not worry about a goddamn thing ever

I wish there was a way to hold on to those fantastic memories without ever living in the past

I miss not having the words ‘hepatitis, jaundice, typhoid’ cross my mind when looking at a road-side ‘thela’ selling kaala khatta gola. Well I also miss the bowl first thing in the morning if I’m not looking…

I hear not a whole lot else, when am actually listening…really

I wonder how many of us don’t say or do what we really want, simply coz we don’t want to appear cliched

I regret not having ordered the sizzling brownie last night

I am He-Man..the most powerful man in the universe! (you know y’all wanted to say that too…the masters of the universe was one cool show!)

I dance like noone’s watching…oh wait..its more like everyone wishes they weren’t

I sing worse than i dance

I cry when my toe meets something unexpectedly hard…and there will be this one other time when…

I am not impressed by/susceptible to emotional blackmail and all other assorted mind-games…

I write to highlight the inane consequence of freedom of speech

I confuse avalanche with alavanche…one of those is a word…i just know it…

I need a frikkin’ toothpick…that bit just won’t go away!

I should at some point take some things seriously…or so I’ve been told…

I finish every fight I don’t start…not really…but I’m watching this action flick on HBO…

I tag
Dawn
way2top
ramsabode