Rock On, Rockstar!!!

Yup, I did it again!

Every year on the night of October 1^st, I set a reminder message on my phone for the next day morning at 7 AM. And sure enough, I wake up every October 2^nd morning by reading this message,

The message says, “Rock On, Rockstar!!!”

And yup, October 2^nd is my b’day.

J

Corny? Yup, I know..very!!

But nothing beats waking up to this message in the morning on my bday.

Ya baby ya!! It’s my bday and the real party is me. Along with friends, family and facebook, here’s me wishing myself the best returns for the day and the superb year ahead!!!

Maybe it’s that time of the year but bdays put me into retrospective-introspective mode. I seriously can’t remember my first few bdays but I do remember seeing the pics. Dad had sideburns that he doesn’t let me grow; bell bottoms and big sunglasses were the order of the day then and mom had a mop hair cut that was so sooo disco! And in the faded photos, behind that big creamy bday cake, under the colorful balloons and next to the girls in pretty pink frocks was a much younger, a much cherubic and a much tamer version of what people say is me. It obviously can’t be!! I looked so damn innocent!! Then I remember those bdays of mine a lil later in life when I used to proudly show off my new dress gear in school and went about giving chocolates happily to everyone in class. And yes, I did give a few extra ones to that girl I still regret not telling her how cute she looked. J

After that, there were the bdays where I was at home and the day’s specialty was mom’s specially made payasam and dad’s specially reserved wishes. This went on for a few years and then came the years where bdays were booze parties with stone broke buddies whose definition of a bday party involved nudity, electricity and chocolate sauce (go ahead, use ur imagination! ;)). Then there were the years when certain special people would take all the trouble to get a cake and some of my closest buddies together for a ‘surprise’ party at midnite. The last few bdays saw me wake up to the above message once in the heady waltz of Vegas, another time in a shack in Goa and then thrice in the beach houses by Bangkok. And as for this year? Well I already did a Dubai just a few weeks back and that should do for the travel for this year(ya, I'm broke!), but this year, more than the surroundings around me, it’s what is inside me that’s making it special…

This year, I feel a glowing optimism within me and a hopeful feeling that I finally have an idea of what to do with my life. Sure, I’ll keep it to myself for the time being and see for a while if it really is the real deal, and if it is, then I wanna put all of myself into this new chosen path and that is really what’s keepin up the buzz within me of late. J

And yes, the common denominator all these years has been the staunch stupidity that I bring along with me and am so proud of; while many people think they get wiser ever bday, I think it’s the foolishness of the yesteryears that really make life memorable and celebratory. And for me, it’s my second nature to be stupid (maybe even first! J). And two big learnings I’ve picked up over the years are one, it really is all about your friends and family (thank you Karan Johar! J) and two, that there really are things more important than money but you kinda get to them only after taking care of the money aspect. And things I need to work on – well, I do have these rare instances of short temperedness, which I seriously need to work on. But then again, like the big dude sez, “Waise bhi perfection ko improve karna mushkil hai” J

So here’s relishing, rejoicing and reveling another big day in the life and times of Ranjith Raj…. Rock On, Rockstar!!!

Happy B’day, Me !!

And do wait up for the fireworks guys…

I have begun.

What me worry? :)

You know times are bad when non-essential goods cost as much as essential goods.

Yup, petrol costs as much as beer nowadays.

When I first bought my car, I remember the sales guy tell me it can cross 15 km after putting in a ‘fine’ liter of petrol. It’s only later I realized that he actually meant ‘five’ and not ‘fine’. Some other bloke said I’d get very high mileage under “showroom” conditions. I so really want to find where that stupid conditioned “showroom” is cos the only time my car crossed 15 km on a liter of petrol was after pushing it myself for 10. Some other idiot later told me that my car gives me more smiles per liter; well, the only guy smiling has always been the pump owner whom I generously donate a big part of my meager salary every month just to satiate my car’s incurable addiction to petrol.

Sure I down a few glasses of spirit every week. You think I’m alcoholic? Well, you should meet my car – it downs so much spirit every week that if Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Sharaabi’ was remade today, my car could play the leading role with so much conviction that even the film’s then heroine, Jaya Prada, would not be able to tell the difference.

And damn that thing called inflation cos now even petrol prices are going up now (as if price increases of beer was not enough already! L)

So, I’ve been wondering what’s the best way to beat the rising fuel prices.

My first brilliant idea of marrying the local petrol pump owner’s daughter did not prove to be too enterprising mainly cos I ended up snooping around and spying on the wrong house (yes, like my car, my sense of direction also sucks!). Later I realized that it was not the local pump guy’s house but the local police constable’s house that I was snooping on. Also, a pump owner can’t slap people that hard (ouch, it still hurts!) Well, my unreliable set of good friends later gave me a reliable set of bad news that all the owners of all the local petrol pumps, within a 5KM radius of my area, only have sons (damn u, sex ratio skew!)

And the price of petrol keeps rising….

My next idea was to completely say ‘No’ to petrol and use a cycle to go to work- so I bought a high end trekker mountain bicycle to juggle Bangalore’s stagnant city traffic. Moreover, I was proud of me going green. But I guess I achieved a third of the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ phrase a little too effectively. Office folks started gifting me deodorants and perfumes for no reason at all. People started spraying air fresheners wherever I sat. A nose by any other name smelt my cabin just as bad and I became known more for the nose rather than for my nose for details. People used to call me to their haunted houses to drive away the ancient ghosts that incidentally had very weak senses of smell. And for my appraisals, my boss ‘rewarded’ me with a years’ supply of Pears soap and Axe deo, in addition to a lecture on personal hygiene, body odor and other Raj-made natural calamities. Also, I realized that you can’t pick up women with a BSA SLR and that biker babes actually prefer bigger&better bikes. I thus realized that, in the interest of public welfare and hygiene, I seriously needed the petrol car and personal cleanliness back in my life and thus gave up on my bicycle.

And the price of petrol keeps rising….

My next bright idea was something I’m still proud of and I still think has potential. I thought of going up the ‘value chain’. So, instead of tackling issues at a local level, I thought of going to the root of it all– I’ll go to where it all begins – to the petrol-rich Arab sheikhs where the petrol story begins. I’m told that the Sheikhs marry so many women and have so many children that they themselves are confused which is whose(and vice versa). And I also heard from a lot of people that in the Arab states, petrol is cheaper than water. Since I hail from God’s Own Country and water is always in abundance during the monsoons, I could trade petrol for water(sheer brilliance, don’t you think?) And since everyone from Kerala, except my dad and mom, seem to be in ‘the Gelff’, I figured it’d be easy doing business there. But that dream was short lived when the immigration officer looked at my passport photo and asked me, “What are you?” and drove me back home.

And the price of petrol keeps rising….

I then realized that one definitely need a car in today’s times. Sure, hybrid cars are an option but they are still years away from being commercially sold in India. And the only available Indian electric car is hardly a car. And using the bus, car pool, auto etc require a certain level of planning and entails a certain loss of flexibility. You really need a personal means of transportation. It’s only then that my friend said that one really cool way of beating the fuel prices is to change from petrol to diesel. Diesel costs much cheaper than petrol and diesel cars give better economy, have better acceleration and have better resale values. Also, with the improvements in technology, diesel engine cars have become quieter, ensures a more comfortable drive for both the driver and passengers, with lower vibration levels, better fuel consumption and improved responsiveness. They’re less polluting too and it makes a lot of sense for me cos I drive a lot. Stats say that if you drive at least 13,000KM a year, then you should blindly opt for a diesel car.

And Fiat (yup, the same house that brings us the cute Padmini, the sexy Linea and the fiery Ferrari) has come up with an innovative Fiat Upgrade Offer where you can buy any Fiat Linea or Punto car today and you could get lucky with a free upgrade to Fiat Multijet diesel technology – all for the price of a petrol car.

So I figured the best way to beat the rising petrol prices is to forget the pump owners’ daughters, the body odor and the petro-sheikhs and just turn to Fiat diesel.

And the price of petrol keeps rising….

So?... What me worry?

J

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If not, likewise.J

The brightest star in my Galaxy.

Love, it is a pretty darn funny thing.

Just when I thought that everything was going on well with my life, stupid cupid hits me with a dart that changed everything. And then my life suddenly became filled with more color, sweets tasted sweeter, songs that I loved before now found newer meaning in them and my senses only wish that I could breathe the fragrance of her hair once again. Just once again.

And she and I liked watching those old fashioned movies- we decided that if we ever see a huge tree, we’d run all around it. And if we ever saw a lush green field, then we’d try running after each other, in slow motion(J) and yes, with old Bollywood hits playing in full blast to help with the overall ambiance.

But none of these happen. Cos she’s way off in Karachi and me, well, I’m here in Bangalore.

Yup, I’m in a long distance relationship. I know cos my phone bills are close to what I pay as my house rent. I tell her that whenever I close my eyes, all I see is her. And it’s true – cos I keep thinking about her almost all the time. Every day of mine starts and ends with her voice. When I’m low, I call her up; when I’m high, I call her up. And vice versa. She is in my life without actually being here. She is not around me but is still with me. All the time. All the while. And we have seen dreams of growing older with each other, together. We have seen dreams of holding each others’ wrinkled hands in each other’s and walking into the sunset together.

And then one day, we fought. I can’t remember why but I remember it was for some silly reason. Oh ya, it was cos I told her that if I didn’t see her then, I’ll never talk to her ever again (hey, I was just kidding!) But she took it seriously. Very seriously. One thing led to another and we ended up talking to each other in loud voices. After I put down the phone that night, I knew I could persuade her to get back to normal the morning after. I always liked apologizing to her cos apologies have a special charm when one is in love.

But that did not happen.

The next day, she did not take my calls. She did not reply to my messages. She did not answer my texts. I felt weird that day. I could not think properly the whole day. My mind was full of pain because of our argument the previous day. After all, I had started it. And she had not responded to my calls yet. It happened the following day also. And the day after that too. I was growing restless and the pain inside me was becoming more and more unbearable with each passing day. Then one day, after frantically trying to reach her for so many, many days, she took the phone and her trembling voice said, “Please don’t call me ever again.” And then my life suddenly becomes colorless, sweets tasted sweetless, songs that I loved before now became meaningless and my senses only wished that I could breathe the fragrance of her hair once again. Just once again.

But it was over.

But then, we live in a brand new world. In a while, we realized that we could not do without each other. We realized that we were too much in each others’ lives to be taken out just like that. We were inseparable in spite of being separated by time, space and land. And we had already become too much a part of each other’s lives to be taken apart from each other. And more over, we realized that once where there used to be love letters, there were more options today.

Now, we see each other everyday. We touch each other everyday. We share things with each other everyday. I carry her in my heart and with my tab, which is both thinner and lighter, I carry her everywhere. I see the laugh lines on her face everyday when she smiles at my jokes(PJs they are yaar, but still she laughs at them!J) and I enjoy admiring in detail the kindness lines behind her eyes when they sparkle when she talks with me because of the life-like display of my Galaxy tab. We share videos of each other’s lives and enjoy watching them in Flash Player. She’s always there when I need her and connecting to her is a cinch whether it’s through wifi or else. We always have the feeling that we’re always around whenever we need either of us. We send pictures, watch videos, movies and argue about which character had the best lines in the movie (which sounds and looks great on my tab btw). And sometimes, when I’m a tad too busy, I multitask on my tab with her in the background. We chat, we flirt, we laugh, we share. Just like before. Or rather, even better than before.

Today the sun shines a little brighter on me and I feel like she is the brightest star in my galaxy.

And the brightest feature on my Galaxy is definitely her.

Love, it sure is a pretty darn funny thing.

J

Vote for my star, for me and my Galaxy here.

This post is for the IndiBlogger Samsung Galaxy ''Its Time to Tab" Contest. Click below for the webcast of the launch of the Galaxy Tab 750 in India.

Resto-review: 100Feet Boutique, Bangalore

Every place has got a soul.

And at its soul, Indiranagar is known to be rich, classy and sophisticated. Indiranagar is one of the oldest and poshest places in Bangalore. And between three roads - 100 feet road, 80 feet road and CMH road - live a million souls, collectively making up the place that is Indiranagar.

Little wonder that when a restaurant is named after one of these three life veins of Indiranagar, you expect a slice of Indiranagar in it.

The First Impression: The 100 feet Boutique is located on the famous road of Indiranagar of the same name, opposite to the New Horizon College. The place offers valet parking and in the evenings, the blue neon lights outline the word '100ft', which makes for a very classy entrance. However the construction work nearby takes away a little bit of this elegance. This is one place where you might need to dress up for; not exactly the joint where you can walk in with a night bermuda and tees (which is my preferred attire outside office :)). The crowd is almost always the up society types, peppered liberally with foreigners. As you walk in, you do feel nice to get soaked into the dim lit elegance.

The Parking: Parking can be a little bit of an issue for four wheelers, especially on the busy weekends but since there is valet parking, more often than not, the gentleman will ensure your car gets parked in the near vicinity. Two wheelers should not have that much of a problem.

The Ambiance: My friend and I always play this little game of finding the best seat in any restaurant we go to and we figured that the best seat on the ground floor at 100ft is one beneath the sun shade, with a small tank of water (you can kill time just looking at the fish). However since we had made our reservations late, we had to make do with the corner most seat to the left, which gave us a good view of the place (the LCD right above us did make it a tad uncomfortable.) But in a while, you just start absorbing the ambiance and get a good feeling about the place. The place resembles one of those old majestic residential houses, which Indiranagar is famous for, that has now been converted into a restaurant. The place also has a Boutique, where they house a lot of knick knacks, paintings and artifacts. All in all, it adds up to create a quaint, classy and charming ambiance - very candle light friendly- perfect for those romantic candle lit dinners.

The Service: The service is very good, with the waiters just around the corner but not in your face either.

The Food: And now for the main act - the food. In one word, the food is amazing. One thing I really like about 100ft is that they present your food in a very clean, classy and chic way. We started with a fruit punch and the glass had a slice of orange and a piece of strawberry perched on top of it -somebody really put in some effort to make sure that the two pieces of fruit do not fall off the glass as you drink it. The attention to detail is quite remarkable. And as for the punch, it tasted very fresh and was just right with no fruit flavor overwhelming your taste buds. There's just a hint of a fruit favor but you get refreshed with the drink . My friend and I ordered pasta - me opting for an Arrabbiata (the Italian word for 'angry' - me didn't know :)) - penne pasta in red sauce and my vegetarian friend ordered Genovese - penne pasta in white cream sauce. I also requested to have chicken sausage in mine. The food arrived in about the time that it takes for you to look around and soak in the ambience and also check out the boutique. The pasta was just as we had expected it to be - tasty, creamy and yummy. We didn't have the time for dessert as we were fairly full in a light sort of way.

The Verdict: In conclusion, a great place for a classy night out. Excellent ambiance, excellent food and good service. Expensive on the wallet.

I would really recommend this place for impressing someone. Just remember to make reservations in advance, esp if it's a Friday or Saturday. Yup, it is expensive - our bill for two pastas and a fruit punch came to Rs 844/-.

But for a slice of Indiranagar, in Indiranagar.

Its 100ft Boutique, Indiranagar.

J

Ode to a friend.....

My friend Ruba left.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been about over a decade since I’ve known him. It’s funny remembering how we first met. We were both arrogant gulf bred brats who met in Class 7^th in a sleepy town called Kottayam in God’s Own Country. And like all Gulf bred brats, we hated one another because either of us knew that the other’s tall tales were all a bunch of bull.

“Yes, the Sheikh and my family are very close friends”, I would boast to the group of girls I tried to impress.

And he would reply to the same group, ‘Oh, that’s nothing. The Sheikh sends his car to my dad everyday’.

“Oh really, I thought the drivers went to the Sheikh’s car rather than the other way around.”, I would respond and then we would fight like crazy, fistfights et all.

It was funny that we never got along earlier – we hated the same teachers, the same teachers hated us and we both spent a lot of time in the principal’s office, mostly together and mostly because of trying to break the other’s face. But it was in Class 8^th that we got together – our English teacher, Reena miss, decided to put all the trouble makers of the class sit together and Ruba and me sat on the same bench with Kiron between us. Now the story was that both Ruba and I hated Kiron- so since the enemy of an enemy is a friend, we joined forces to fight the foe no single superhero could withstand and on that day, the Avengers was....oops, sorry.. wrong story J… but the point is that Ruba and I got together then to buddy up against Kiron. But later, Ruba n I realized that we had a lotta things in common and eventually we turned into the best of friends.

School life was never complete without Ruba. One of my most distinct memories was once when the Chemistry teacher caught us talking in class. She picked up on Ruba and yelled at him to repeat what she had just said. Since he obviously could not answer the question, she furiously asked Ruba loudly, “Reuben!!! Tell me why do we immerse the Copper rods in Copper Sulphate solution?”

Ruba thought about it for a long while and answered conclusively with this die-hard confidence, “To kill the germs, ma’am.”

After school, we ended up in the same engineering college. While he was interested in tran’sistors’ and re’sistors’, it was my classmates’ 'sisters' I was interested in J . While he learned C, C++ and other languages, I tried learning Tamil from the Hindi people staying there. Since I was always had a feeling that the college management would one day ask for my thumb as ‘guru dhakshina’, I used to proactively give them the finger anyways. If Standard&Poor had known me then, they’d have downgraded me from ‘AAA’ to ‘???’ (or even ‘WTF’!). But Ruba was always around to my rescue. And in spite of our varied interests, we still were the best of friends and used to meet every Friday night along with half the college at our local assembly point outside college, to pay our weekly homage to Shakeela aunty.

We even liked the same women in college. While I bitched big time about him and screwed his image with the girl he was hitting on for pitching my own ulterior interests , he later took revenge by charming the girl I had a huge crush on. We also had the same set of friends – the resident heartthrob Dannyboy, Estella, ‘Frenchie’ Chandy, ‘Kambi’ Jinny, ‘Commissioner’ Maathu, the mighty meek Ashwin, Moulana mon Moulana, Jetty ‘Dash’, ‘’kaaka’ Kiron, ‘Out’ Varkey, Leejoe Shukhla and a whole lot of other characters who still color our lives in their own special ways.

After four years of college, as it was fashionable then to exchange addresses, I was quite shocked when he actually started making use of it by writing letters to me. Today, I still have some hundreds of letters he’s sent to me. Later he revealed that I was the only person in the world who ever read any of his writing.

A few years later, he moved over to Germany and even though we never kept in touch, we could always pick up from where we left in the rare calls that we made to each other.

He recently got married and he told us of his secret to gaining respect from his wife- he grew a thick moustache. And sure enough, after marriage, he was the one who wore the pants in his house, behind his apron.

My dear friend Ruba left. And it’s weird having all these thoughts running through my…..

(Door Bell rings…)

Aah, that must be Ruba back from the wine shop with the booze…

Hope he hasn’t forgotten the salted chips…

Saala hamesha bhooltha hai.

J

Google Plus - a minus from the Googlezz..

I believe I have a gift.

I believe that I can predict the future.

And my super senses tell me that Google Plus will fail.

Even without a facebook account, a great Chinese philosopher once said, about 300 years back, “The way of the world is to meet new people through other people ”

And if you look at it, this is the fundamental premise on which all social networking works on -> you find new friends through your own and on your own. And once upon a time, you could find all your childhood bum chums and chuddy buddies on orkut but later when you started getting multiple fraand-shib scraps from the neighborhood hot, sweet and sexy guy(yuck!), you moved over to facebook (moreover, everybody you know was already there). And you could connect even better with your friends through gaming, poking, sending flowers, throwing sheep and various other cool ways on facebook. And things worked out pretty well so far.

Lekin picture abhi baaki hain mere dost…

Enter Google Plus, the new social networking site from the Other Guy who has got all the answers to all your questions.

You now see yourself agreeing to God, er, sorry… Google, that :

• you do not want to have your office folk know that even though your name on office rolls is something as cool as ‘Raj Aryan Malhotra’, you are actually known as Chuppandi Ram by all your school friends; so ‘Circles’ does seem like a good idea.
• You also nod in unison that yup, it is cool that you can now chat simultaneously with 10 people on HD video chat on G+, even though you have never done that before or ever thought that you would even have a need to do so, unless it’s a meeting with your onsite clients (but who wants to have their clients to be in their friend’s list anyways?)
• You also agree that since your default browser is Chrome, your email of choice is from the G and googling is the most productive thing you do in office (besides coffee), so hence G+, from the house of Google, has got to be superb.
• You also think that since you might most probably buy a android smart phone next, so G+ will definitely have a better interface with your future phone with all the above applications (so in a way, that’s like ‘the site you don’t use on the phone that you don’t have’ J)

And finally, it’s from Google, one of the coolest company you’ve heard about. So all in all, G+ looks like a pretty darn good idea.

But my point is, you still won’t let go of your facebook account. J

My super predictive senses tell me that G+ does not have anything addictive in it to hold the attention of the user. Most of its features (superb features btw) are just me-too variations of fb or things that are slight improvements over fb. And that’s just it. Unless G comes out with something really sticky on G+, my senses tell me that Google Plus will be a minus from Google. Sure it’s still the beta version, but if the alpha version is on similar grounds, me don’t think G+ will hit the sweet spot. I predict that going forward, everyone will have both an fb and G+ accounts and that’s about it. And later due to inactivity, G+ will die a natural death; unless it comes up with something so addictive that G+ becomes the networking site of choice. Of course, my inadequate research also overlooks the opinion voiced by a few sources that G+ is not exactly competing with fb in the same space(whatever that means J) and that the market is big enough for the both players. Adding on, almost everybody I know has got a G+ account but nobody uses it for even a fraction of the number of times they use facebook. Sure stats will show that G+ notched up 20 million users in about a month but how many of them are actually as active as they are on fb?

Let me ask you three questions:

• Do you have a G+ account?

• Have you used it more than 5 times in the last week?

• Don’t you have anything better to do than read this post?

If you’ve answered ‘No’ to the third question, then screw the first two questions and follow my blog.

And about my super predictive senses, well….

I must be honest to you. I don’t have any gift of crystal gazing. I can’t even tell if my house will have gold hidden underneath it, considering that its now becoming a norm in Trivandrum for people who believe in God, Gold and Google.

Of course, I live on a hill so geologically you can’t dig there or can ever find gold...

Of course, I don’t have a house in Trivandrum…

Of course, I’m not from Trivandrum…

But I still think Google Plus will flop.

J

Whaddaya wanna be?

Life, it seems, is the world’s most popular STD.

I read somewhere that life is the whim of a few billion cells to get together to be you for a while. Pretty serious stuff if you wonder what if all those cells are like Indian politicians and if they belong to a coalition party ;).

So my big bro keeps telling me that I need a goal in life (making sure I diligently reach home on time to catch the 9 PM movie does not count). He says that we all need to make long term goals, and relentlessly strive to achieve them – that, in his opinion, is the “beauty of life” (nope, he does not know about double burst cheese pizza). Bro also says that my life is like an elevator in which I still don’t know which button to push (I know… pretty deep stuff here. And Vegas is not a button, it’s just geography J)

Since total world domination was already taken by the Austin Powers movies (and world peace by the beauty pageant industry), I needed another objective in life.

And as I looked around, I see everyone following the same path – study well, get a high paying job, get married, have kids, buy a house, go on annual vacations, work for the kids’ education and then retirement.

I wanted to go the less trodden path; I wanted to do something which nobody else did; I wanted to make my mark in an area which affects everyone, I wanted to dwell deep into my soul and find out what I really, REALLY wanted to do – in short, I wanna be a pornstar!

Ok wait, I take back that – I just realized that porn can totally suck after a while. OK, so porn’s out of the window.

I could opt for politics, since I am getting the hang of asking random fine people to vote for less than worthy causes ( vote for this post here) – but I realize that the other guy with a name that sounds similar to mine is currently lodged in Tihar, which is not exactly my choice for a holiday destination (also the poor guy has not gone beyond 2G while my devices r 4G compatible). Again, I fail to see the fashion statement in white clothes and white ambassadors – it simply crams up my style. Oh well, so much for politics.

I could be a swami (no, not that swami, u filthy mind! J) and hold the government to ransom by threatening to fast. But since my art of living is the holy glory of junk food, booze and a sedentary life (my definition of ‘work out’ is flexing my fingers to change the channel on the tv remote – so yes, I do ‘work out’ regularly ;)), I figured swamihood may not give me the job satisfaction I’m craving for. Maybe I could threaten the government by ‘accept my demand or I’ll overeat till I die’ – that could work!

Or I could be the other swami (yes, yes that very swami, u bhola sa mind! J) and I could conduct holy acts with holier-than-thou actresses in the name of holiness to help them in their holy pursuit of eternal happiness (or “nithya ananda “;)).

I could become a banker since I always had an eye for figures and (vital) statistics. But I really can’t seem to be able to keep money – there always is so much month left at the end of the money. I found out that there is a powerful urge in me to blow up money. Its only later that I realized they even had a rule about that - they call it “a fool and his money are often parted”.

I’m starting to understand that there’s more to IT than just buying shares of companies like Satyam (great idea that turned out to be). Sure the lifestyle is tempting – 18-19 hours of a desk sitting job, a computer stares at you in the face almost all day (and vice versa), you eat only fatty and oily food and that too, at irregular intervals, and your idea of social life is online chatting, youtube videos and facebooking. You work hard and party harder – even though party is defined as getting sloshed at some seedy bar with the same people you just spent office hours with. Maybe I can consider….. Oh wait, I am in IT.

Or I could be a movie star – I’d get to wear goggles bigger than my face, tell my name with a weirder accent and carry a bottle of evian mineral water all around (cos even though evian costs ten times normal drinking water and contains the same number of germs, its cooler to be seen with). But since people like Salman, Hritik n now Ajay (et tu, Devgun?) have upped the ante by being so bloody damn fit, I don’t think I could even stand a chance against them (six pack, for me, has always been a beer can denomination at the supermarket).

I might even consider being a chef like the ones on TV who emit long (mating?) drawls after sipping or nibbling anything and everything that is made with and without fire. Like Nigella Lawson, I could popularize food porn, all the while having people drool at my preposterous weight problem. Oh wait, I don’t know jack about cooking…..

Making the most of your life is really a tough call. And the irony is most people have no clue what they’re doing with life. They just flow with the flow rather than make the flow flow (in spite of so many Rajnikanth movies).

Oh well, screw the elevator.. I’m getting late for my 9 PM movie.

J

Resto-review: Healthy Affair, Bangalore

My friend Soju fasts five days a week in order to hog on junk food for the remaining two. And this bright idea has not changed his weight, his body shape or his ever expanding waist line. Soju keeps lamenting his Health-Taste theory: “Everything that is tasty is not healthy and everything that is healthy is not tasty”.

Enter Indiranagar’s new eating joint, Healthy Affair, which seeks to make healthy food tasty (or vice versa). And it just about succeeds in this endeavor.

Healthy Affair attempts to make healthy our eating out affairs. They claim to choose their ingredients themselves rather than buy the tinned and canned versions from the markets so that they know exactly what goes into their dishes. For example, they use a lot of fresh herbs, skimmed milk powder and other healthier condiments to substitute for their commonly and widely used fatty alternatives. And they say they choose their wares with a lot of emphasis on the health factor. This idea is the central theme of the ‘Healthy Affair’ way of food.For me, my lasting impressions of Healthy Affair were the ambience, the service and their philosophy on food.

Healthy Affair occupies the first floor of the building that is right behind Kyra, 100 feet rd, Indiranagar, so you need to take the left immediately after Kyra (when coming from Old Madras road) and then the first left again to see their pale green board. Parking should not be much of a problem as there are a lot of arterial roads in the vicinity.

The ambience here is very cosy and homely and since we went for lunch, we found the place to be very well lit with natural light. In fact, there’s a lot of natural light which kinda brightens up the whole place and that gives a very positive feel about the place. Of course, I did make a lunch reservation for a table for two by the window, but at the venue, I forgot about the window side and my friend and I were ushered to another table at corner of the room, which was equally good and we never gave another thought to the window bit. The crowd consisted mainly of couples, a few families and there were quite a few number of foreigners too.

The service is good, but could have been great. The hostess, Ms Krupa Dass makes sure she comes to each table, asks if you been there before and explains their food philosophy, which I felt was a nice and warm gesture. Another thing which caught my mind was that she mentioned that the table clothes were made by the NGO she runs (http://www.sukrupa.org/). I told Krupa that my friend is a vegetarian while I’m a strict carnivore and asked Krupa for suggestions . Krupa recommended the garlic mushroom for starters and the spinach pasta in white sauce for my vegetarian friend, while I started with the Chicken Satay and main coursed with Chicken pasta with white sauce. I did feel that there were limited items on the one page menu when Krupa brought a larger and more comprehensive menu card.

The food is good – there was a herby hint in the Garlic mushroom (though we felt quantity was less :)) and the Chicken Satay was well absorbed with all the right juices and hence was very tasty. The Chicken Satay is accompanied with yummy Peanut Sauce. My friend liked her Spinach Pasta in white sauce. However she did wish that the pesto sauce would have been better and that they had chili flakes and oregano placed on the table. Also, she missed her usual Iced Tea as Healthy Affair did not have Iced Tea on the menu. Or any other cold mocktails. As for my Chicken Pasta, well this is my take: yes it was tasty and supposedly healthy (or rather, healthier). But I did so very wish that there were that taste of unhealthy cheese that I always associate with pastas. Sometimes, you just wish that there was a lot of cheese dripping in the pasta, health be damned. But having said that, let me say that it was nice - so it may not be the tastiest pasta you’ve had (but it’s almost there), its most likely the healthiest pasta you would.

Also in the desserts section, we had this same taste-health riddle – all the desserts were fruit based. We settled for the Fruit Exotica – banana and kiwi in plum puree. It had a strong banana flavor and I did miss the times when I used to end any meal with anything chocolate. You tend to miss that here. What need to be admired is that they stick to their promise – the food is light on the stomach however there are those days when I wish there was cheese dripping off my spoon. Overall, good place to go. Just remember to ask them for the bigger menu – they keep another more comprehensive menu card inside, which they are ‘in the process’ of printing, and they might hand you the one page menu, which does not do justice to their fare. Another thing we liked was that we sat there from 1:30 till about 4 in the evening there; we were the last ones to leave after lunch and we just sat there chatting and nobody came to us and reminded us that it’s closing time, like some other restaurants do.

Our bill for two with two starters, two main course and one dessert came to 920 bucks.

My veggie friend promised that she’d come back again. As for me, I might too; When I feel guilty about all the junk I eat with Soju, I’ll most likely drop by for a healthy affair with eating out. But if I want pasta with cheese dripping out in unhealthy but tasty dollops, maybe not.

But I’m sure Soju will be pleased.

J

From more of my restaurant reviews, check out here.

Happy eating.

J

Change - Yours is Here

Sneha Sharma was never considered an achiever.

She graduated with us in 2005 and she got into one of those obscure IT companies and later relocated to US. But nobody knew, nobody cared. After graduation, everybody kept in touch with each other via the Alumni groups. What initially started as active conversation later turned into random forwards, job mails and finally trickled down to just the odd birthday and anniversary wishes. Sneha also posted – but again, nobody knew, nobody cared. In the latter half of 2007, Sneha posted a Happy Birthday message to the Alumni groups. Just like she had countless times before. Just like everybody else.

But this particular time, everybody knew and everybody cared.

And suddenly, after that one post, Sneha Sharma turned into an overnight celebrity. Suddenly she was the toast of the batch. Suddenly there was an immediate buzz enquiring what, where and how about Sneha Sharma. Suddenly everybody wanted to know more about Sneha. Suddenly everybody agreed that Sneha Sharma had finally arrived.

One message had catapulted Sneha Sharma into cult status.

So what did she write on that fateful day? Well, actually nothing. Or rather, nothing significant. But her post to the alumni group had a small nondescript device-generated statement just below her message and it was this statement made her the darling of the batch.

That statement read, “sent from my iPhone”.

In 2007, the world was enamored by the phenomenon that was the iPhone. In 2007, the iPhone changed the way people used, touched and saw phones. And in 2007, Sneha Sharma was the first person from our batch to own an iPhone.

And the iPhone gave Sneha Sharma a personality that she hitherto lacked.

Technology does that. You are known by the company you keep, but you are also judged by the gadget you flaunt. In fact, a recent nielsen research report claims to be able to decipher one’s personality from one’s cell phone. Try deciphering your own personality the list below:

• If you own a simple bar phone: You are a person pursuing a simple lifestyle in our modern intricate life- generally represents a person afraid of trouble, with an open mind, is a balance seeker and is health conscious.

• If you have a Slide phone and slip phone: You try to pursue a sophisticated lifestyle and are more willing to enjoy life. You are always driven by success and is a harmony seeker.

• Rotatable phone: Not really big in India yet but research says these owners are usually under 24 years old, fashion conscious, fun seekers, and individualistic. They would like to attempt new things and lead the trendy. They are usually young women who seek enjoyment, are career focused, and success driven.

It also goes by brands:

• If you own a Nokia: You’re Family Minded, Balance seekers and Health conscious middle level managers (notice the link with bar phones J)

• If you own a Motorola: You’re under 24, fashion conscious, fun seeking and highly Individualistic.

• If you own a Sony Ericsson: You’re a young guy, ambitious, individualistic and success driven professional.

• If you own a Samsung: You’re a young career focused lady, success driven but also a fun seeker.

• If you own an LG: You’re a Stay at Home Parent, you are your mom’s favorite, you are success driven but also harmony seeker.

I use a Sony Ericsson slide phone and my personality type does seem to concur broadly to the above.(Actually I’m flattered that the research says I follow a sophisticated and success driven lifestyle – only I know the real truth ;) ). But my phone means a lot more to me – it’s the first phone which I bought with my own money. Since I was always into music and Bangalore FM was a constant in my life then, this phone gave me uninterrupted and really loud supply of nonstop music (God save the neighbors!). Also, the black color gave it a sleek and sexy look. It’s lasted me more than my girlfriends have (and survived them better than I did J). For me, my Sony has always been stylish, multi faceted and ‘with it’ - traits which I myself would like to be known by. J

But is it possible to change one’s personality with the help of gadgets? Sure it is. And I’m sure almost everyone is aware of it too. Just like the Indian sari makes every lady look good, a good gadget can up everybody’s personality quotient. I remember this time when we saw this shabby guy sitting at Coffee Day and we wondered how they let him in. But when he took out his Apple MacBook Air, suddenly the same shabbiness looked immediately cool. A simple gadget changed the hitherto shabby guy into a really cool dude!!

Similarly, you can change your personality type simultaneously with choice of gadget - my dad was recently gifted an iPhone and he also uses his trusted Nokia 1100. Whenever he goes to the market to buy vegetables, my tech agnostic mom reminds dad to take the Nokia 1100 because vegetable prices have a peculiar habit of shooting up in the vicinity of an iPhone J. Similarly, whenever dad and mom comes with me for the many arranged-marriage-girl-meetings, mom reminds dad to carry the iPhone and to display it amply at the venue with practiced nonchalance to diligently look at those pesky sms-es whish are otherwise always ignored J.

Today, the hippest trend in style is accessorizing – you can accessorize your personality with multiple watches, multiple glass frames, ties, shoes, pens and now with gadgets. They can be used to suit your wardrobe and your personality. This post is written for the Dell ‘Change is Easy’ contest for the Dell Inspiron laptop and it’s claimed that this laptop can change its personality with multiple interchangeable covers, something akin to changing one’s personality by changing one’s gadgets. So if you feel today is a corporate blue day, you can accessorize your Inspiron laptop with a shade of blue to give you the corporate look; if it’s a weekend and you want to let your hair down, your laptop can sport your ‘TGIF’ style with an appropriate cover.

They say that the only thing permanent in life is change. And change we must – it’s a given. But is it easy to change? Well like the Dell Inspiron, it may just be easy to change one’s personality by simply changing one’s gadgets.

And a gadget could give you that razor sharp personality that you always craved for.

Just like the rockstar of our batch, Sneha Sharma.

J

This one's for Dell. For showing that Change is Easy. Just like their Dell Inspiron laptop, which helps you get the look that you need and the performance you want, as can be seen here.

If you like this post, vote for me here.

If not, let's go get some beer J..

Colors of India

When an Indian bride puts red on her forehead, it means a lifetime of trust, hope and commitment.

Red is called sindoor.

When a believer smears yellow on his forehead, he gives in to the Almighty’s mighty Command.

Turmeric Yellow is our glorious tradition.

When a doting mother dots a black on her beautiful born’s smiling cheek, she prays it’ll ward away evil from her young little one.

Black is a mother’s guard.

For a country of many ways, many tongues and many Gods, we remain united within our divided pursuits.

Khakhi is the protector of our unique way of life.

Our brothers and sisters, separated from us due to a partition, but still united to us at some level.

Green is our long lost sibling next door, who sadly still seems to be lost.

While grey symbolizes old the world over, it also reminds us how young we are – over half of our great population is under 25.

Grey lets us know that we will remain as one of the youngest countries in the world for a long while to come.

Between three wickets, a ball, a bat and now a cup, the hopes of a billion souls rest with the Blue.

Blue is our national pride.

Holi, Diwali, Onam, Christmas, Id, Pongal, Durga Puja and a hundred other celebrations of colors, love and happiness.

All celebrating the spirit of humanity. All celebrating the spirit of being Indian. All celebrating with color.

A mini color palate within a larger color canvas where a million dreams are given color.

A crescendo of colors called Bollywood.

One chakra. Tricolored. 28 states. A billion shades. United.

Every dream On. Every color On. Everybody On.

On a rainbow known as India.

Never Black and White.

Ever.

Sometime back in our office, we got a photo catalog of a reputed photographer with the topic ‘India in Black and White’. They displayed some brilliant shots depicting everyday images of India- tree troves, mandis, children going to school, temples – but all in Black and White . Photographic brilliance aside, after a while almost everyone felt that there was something missing in those pictures. In hindsight, we realized that the pictures depicting India missed one very important trait of India - color. Color paints a very important shade in our collective consciousness that is India – it’s part of our tradition, our heritage, our festivals, our arts, our crafts, our movies, our folklore, our Gods, our Goddesses, our prayers, our hopes, our dreams, our lives, ourselves.

There are some things that can be only in color. India was never in black and white. India will never be in black and white.

A billion colors reside united in a dream that known as India.

HP is a world leader in bringing color to life. See how the colors of India can take flight with HP Laserjet printers here.

Now, like the Indian men in white say, "Vote for me here"

:)

Picture Abhi Baaki Hai Mere Dost!!!! :)

A great philosopher once said, “Dhinka Chika, Dhinka Chika, Dhinka Chika, Dhinka Chika, Dhinka Chika, Dhinka Chika, Ae, Ae Ae Ae..” J And a country of a billion dreams is doing “the pocket TT” a la Salman. Initial reviewers of the movie said that Salman followed his last year’s blockbuster with such a bad movie. Today, it’s India’s third highest grossing movie. So who’s laughing now?

Another colorful news: Shah Rukh Khan is mega pissed that his song for his much anticipated Diwali release, Ra-One, has been leaked online. The song called “Wanna be my Chammak Challo?” done by International singer Akon (yes, SRK paid him a bomb!) has already hit half a million views on You Tube at the time of writing this post. And btw, it’s an awesome song. J

Elsewhere, Bollywood Ka Baap is smarting as his home production is being released on the same day as the home production of Box Office ka Baap, the Perfectionist Khan. When the latter refused to accommodate the former’s request for a reschedule, the former’s official quote to the situation, “Buddha Hoga Tera Baap!!!” J

Again, Perfectionist Khan refuses to attend the award functions in India where he is always a winner and he takes the trouble to go to those award shows where he loses (remember ‘Lagaan’). But we still love you, Aamir. J

While the Hollywood’s highest paid actor looked like he made one long movie, cut them into three different ones based on scenery and named them “Departed“, “Shutter Island” and “Inception” (is it only me who thinks Leo looks the same in almost all his latest movies?), our highest paid actor Rajnikanth, well, is simply Rajnikanth. His last three movies, “Robot”, “Shivaji“ and “Chandramukhi” were as different as chalk, cheese and charcoal, same formula notwithstanding….no wait, he too looks like he made one long movie and cut it into three based on heroine…oh, well…. J

Catfights aside, man fights prevail too here – Vivek Oberoi called a press conference one fine day and then he realized that he doesn’t have any good movie worth talking about to the press; so he talks about his never ending love to his lady love and how much she suffered from the other man in their life, a certain Khan. Today, Vivek still apologizes whenever the press condescends to talk with him (Yup, he still doesn’t have any good movies to talk about inspite some real raw talent).

Rani Mukherjee is upset that she’s not getting as many roles as she once did cos well, she’s looking very “healthy“ nowadays. So she vows that she’ll work up a killer bod and hit the gym with a vengeance. Latest reports state she is not able to give her dates to the gym. J

Everytime a Hritik movie comes out, his liplock comes back to the news- remember the Dhoom2 one which cost him an invite to Ash-Abhi’s wedding (Abhishek, as expected, has no idea ;)), or the Barbara Mori one (where the audience just preferred to fly kites rather than watch the movie!). Well, the latest is that Hritik’s liplock with Katrina. Who cares what happens to the movie… at least he got to kiss Katrina… rascal!

After dating half the Indian Cricket team, ‘Shanthi’ has moved on to another sport – this time, it’s Formula One, or rather to the scion of the Indian formulaone team. Oh yes, his dad also owns a cricket team.

When a superstar was fatally hurt on set, a country of followers prayed for the Coolie’s well being. He came back to health and glory and thanked his countless fans for their prayers. This was some 3 decades back. Last month, history repeated again with the robot star.

The first Bollywood movie was in Black and White. Almost 25 years after that, the first color movie came out in India in 1937. Today, Bollywood had taken flight with color so much that Bollywood single handedly colors the lives of a billion souls.

Colorful personalities. Colorful people. Colorful films.

Where else can you find so much color?

But in Bollywood.

Big fan.

J

HP is a world leader in bringing color to life. See how the colors of Bollywood can take flight with HP Laserjet printers here.

Now, for my box office, "Vote for me here"

J