Street Photos..

Awesome photos of street life in karachi,pakistan...so much like anything in india..you will be pardoned for thinking it's a street in bombay/old delhi...

Note: This (dekha hai aise bhi..) and the above are a heady combo...parental discretion advised...
:)

Saarang(IITM's cul-fest) happened yesterday..great time with bunch of friends and Shankar Ehsaan and Loy...
My ex-flatmate Ab came to chennai (from bombay!) today..trains full..flights full..no direct bus from bombay to chennai...so what does "Monsieur Shaky" do ? (title given by Mike...in recognition of Ab's dancing exploits..he's an ex-coord for iitm's saarang choreo team ! :) Comes from bombay to blore in a 24 hr bus-ride..5 hrs break....takes the over-night bus from blore to reach chennai at 4 AM ! Now thats what i call "ENTHU" !!
We chat up over some steaming ghee-idlis for breakfast in Sangeetha..somethings that i quote-unquote...

1. "Abe..Straight line mein paanch minute tak chal paaya !?? bambaiy mein hota ???"
=))
*Thats a joke we shared.."walk for 5 mins in a straight line in bombay...without being jostled..and i'll give you a million dollars"..I never lost that bet..:-)*

2. "Sun..you guys need to go to office rite ?? "
"Chill da..15 mins walk to office..or..5 mins bike ride..not bombay/blore yaar...life's so much simpler here...No "Pudhe jaa"..No dhakka and elbow-usage here as in the bombay locals.."
"Heaven man...5 mins office..10 mins iitm...life's beautiful...no walk-train-bus-walk again to reach office..."
"Haan..bombay local handle kar liya..baaki life mein kuch bhi handle kar sakte hain !"
=))

3. "Listen..before you say anything more...I dont want to know the girlfriend/love-life problems etc that you are going thru rite now...bahut sun liya...unneccessary...to me...dont get me wrong...but...I dont gain anything from it...neither do you...I cant resolve the situation...I dont make a significant difference..and i'm past the "I will listen to you and understand " stage...so..forget it..."

4. "What the f$%& do you mean, "You look cleaner" ! Saaley, "looking good" bola karte hain ! if you think i look better than i did in bombay !"
*looking cleaner !!! grrrr...even my mom has never said that !*

5. "There are so many more things to do than waste my time on these kinda things...I mite not be successful at all of it but...atleast i tried !"

6. "We are capable of so much more than what we are doing today...we need to just try to get rid of this mental block..."Free your mind, Neo"..Free your mind.."

7. "How's the 3rd corner of the "3-corners" game ?"
*3 corners is a game we invented..funda being 3 corners of our hall (the other was taken up by the tv..) and 3 perspectives to an issue-agree, disagree or "i-dont-care-anyway"...
On absolutely-boring-no-movie-tickets-available weekends in bombay,we sat each in one corner of the room..said "cheers,mayte"...and arbit topic pe discussion chaaloo..
"I think, kini is a bastard !" was a biiiggg favourite...
:)
Agree, disagree or neutral..5 mins on each stand and change role..the neutral moderates the discussion..helps look at an issue from different perspectives...*
The trick tho is to start with "Yes, Kini is a bastard !" and exhaust all possible perspectives before the role-interchange !
:)

8. "A vs. B doesnt matter da ! focus hai kya ? hai na...toh laga reh ! fateh tumhaari hogi !"
"It's as important to know abt the motive behind the actions...than just the consequences !"
(Mahabharatha funda plagiarised by me..as originally told by Gurcharan Das in a lecture at Saarang yesterday...)

Other Fundas included :
"The Mahabharata is a contemperory epic..which is why we can relate to it...good characters do bad stuff...bad characters have an ethics-code..while...compare this to the Ramayana...Everything's so boringly perfect..the perfect hero(Ram)..the perfect heroine(sita)..the perfect supporting actor (laxman)..even the villain is perfect (Raavan) !"
:)
Full form of GURU (as used in Management "Guru")- Good Understanding but Relatively Useless...
*super-e-star funda sir,maan gaye !!*

9. "Abe tere baare mein X pooch raha tha..usee waqt,Y aayi aur poochne lagi "hows kini ? where's he ??"...Mein bola "kini ? woh toh mar gaya"...Y boli.."Mereko msg bhi nahi kiya :( ".. aur X bola "haan uska phone kharaab ho gaya tha na..."
I wanted to smash my head against the pillar, yaar ! hadh !! hadh hai !!!

10."Awesome southie grub macha ! I YUM BYACK , MAN !!! The streets of chennai,beware !"
:)
*We hated being inside our seemingly claustrophobic house in bombay and roamed the streets...rain or shine..on train, bus, ghoda-gaadi even !! I picked up my restlessness and irritation of being inside the house...from him...DAMN ! Life was boring but oh-so-peaceful before !*
:)

Ian wright...

Yeah..the guy i hope to ape...in life...
Have been meaning to write a post on him sometime..but just lost track...a little...
WHO THE HELL IS IAN WRIGHT ?? yeah, patience is a virtue..and...the answer is below...
Discovery Channel...something i love watching...11:30 PM in bombay...
The streets are empty..the trains are full..chakala has a traffic jam...so,whats new ? and in flat 104B,Anand Apartments..weekdays..Walking into the house..
"Hey guys...whatsup maan ? project sucks,eh ? no cute girls even ? Life sucks,eh ? SSDD(same shit different day) again ??
OOOYYYYYYYYYYEEEE ! I dont care if your girlfriend is dead !! Or you suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder !
DO NOT touch the remote ! I REPEAT !! DO NOT touch the remote !! "
*COPS show style..*
When a normally ice-man kini says things like that...my roomies and anybody who's come to booze at our place...gets the picture..crystal clear !
Globe trekker...earlier known as the lonely planet..
*Yeah..the same one which publishes tour guides..AWESOME books with amazing info !*
title track rocks..who's it today ? IAN WRIGHT !!!
*Whoa !! Silent thankyou prayer to allah-the all merciful, jesus and the 1102334 hindu gods..*
Where's he going today ? Asia..please...asia please...asia's interesting..rest are all one-dimensional..
IRAN !!! WOWW !!!
*Whoa !! Silent thankyou prayer to shaitan-ka-baccha, satan and the 1102335 hindu demons too..*
*It's a rerun..i dont care...the remote's mine..the others have gone to the bedroom...to continue drinking..*
Pulse settles down..The life,man...work hard..fight for survival on the train back home..
walk home at 11 PM....drink in hand...watch lonely planet...Thats Life !
:)
Show starts...
Ian wright up to his usual antics again..rucksack in tow..fooling around with the locals..
eating street-food (kebabs,this time)...trying his hand at the language...all with a hint of comedy involved..
Giving advice on the currency,visa,hotel/acco situation to us ..
Talking briefly on the political situation in the country..
*The background score is so apt ! Everything is executed so perfectly ! *
Surveying the nite-life...walking in the labrynthian lanes of the bazaar...
Two particularly hilarious moments in this episode..

1. When he buys a leapord-skin undie with a snarling tiger-face(almost a shiv sena mascot look-alike) on the crotch area !
It even has a switch which lights up the tiger (and therefore the...err..general area...:) in a brilliant dazzle of disco-lights...
=))
IW : "Will interest the Missus,eh ?"
=))
*IW is an anglo-irishman and his career has included drama and theatre before lonely planet happened...DAMN he's good !*

2. Complete darkness...Suddenly "Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !"....the lights go on...
IW is in bed..and fumbling to get his hands on the mosque-shaped clock...
One more "Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !" and he depresses the alarm switch !!
*Finally...some silence*
IW : "Ever wondered what seemed like a good idea at the time mite not turn out to be a good one after all..."
=))

Compare this with the most well-known travel show that Indian TV has had to offer...so far...
*Never watched it completely..dont remember the name !*
Dipti bhatnagar in a 400-yard kanjeevaram...on the lawns of a 5 star hotel..in kerala...
"Ooooh..so beaaauttifuul...Ideal vacation trip,naa ?
Can i have a glass of the "pinakallada" mocktail please ?
See you after the break...while i sip a little of the drink..."

*UUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH..
Get out on the street, girl ! You are here on a tour !
not to enjoy the hospitality of the 5-Star hotel !! Which...has sponsored this show !*

The market for india-specific rough-it-out travel shows is immense !
Just count the number of people going out on a weeked-long trek to the hills and you know ! The number of full seats on low-cost airlines flying out of india to singapore, dubai, malaysia etc...

But there are no shows of this kind..
:(
The Alvas(Niret and Nikhil) came up with something good..but it died a quick death due to financing problems...

Anyways...show over...Ian wright is GOD..he's living his life the exact way he wants to..
:)

Btw, if any of you ever decide to do a rough-it-out show and start looking for actors, me first to audition,OK !!??
:)

Language Translation..

Found a cool util...helps translate languages...google answers again !
why ?At work,I have had to use an install guide...in portuguese !!!
Why ?? that was the only one available..
(The ibero-american division of the product company came up with it first, and the american region is coming out with one, later in the year..cant wait that long, need to get ther install and config done asap..so..:)

60 page doc..15 mins...translated..eassssssy...pretty accurate too !! the instructions actually make sense !!! now,that is...
:P

hail altavista..hail this !