A TV Finally!!!

Its been quite a while since Ameya (my room mate) and I have been thinking about getting a TV/Tuner Card and a cable connection at our place. Never happened. Blame it on procrastination and the cable guy who never turmed up while we were at home. But then that's history. Yesterday we actually managed to get ourselves to go buy a TV and get the cable guy to come to our place.

Finally something to look forward to after going home. Just in time as well I should say. Plenty of big games coming up next week at the UEFA Chamions League.

RDB

Went for the much-hyped Rand de Basanti with the gang last weekend. Not being a Hindi film fanatic I usually restrict myself to watching only the best ones. I have to depend on friends and newspaper reviews in this regard. Anyway, I decided to give it a try with RDB. I really did not have any high hopes. By the way, let me make it clear. I have absolutely no prejudices against Hindi movies. True, my grasp of the Hindi language is very minimal, but then I wouldn't shy to admit the truth when I see a good Hindi movie. At the same time I wouldn't hesitate in slamming a bad Hollywood flick. (Like this movie, 'Hostage' I'd seen the previous week).

Anyway, as I'd expected, the movie wasn't anything great. Of course, it wasn't your run of the mill Hindi movie with all the ishy-mushy sob stuff and a thousand gazzilion songs, but then it somehow couldn't break out of the stereotypical confines into which most Hindi fit in. The first half somehow was a little arbit in most places and second half had quite a few exaggarated scenes. But then, all said and done, it was way better than some of the other Hindi movies that I've seen.

After the movie we headed to Kutty's place for the night, where we had the usual Mafia session. This time we had two newcomers to the game, Alfi and Mando. Yet it wasn't as great as the previous session at the error's place, mainly because we didn't have enough people around.

I've been thinking about it for a while but then haven't really done anything on that front. It's been a long time since I went on a trip outside Bangalore (excpet when I went home of course) and I surely am game for an outing. Let's see...I guess I should first get myself out of this snug state of ennui that I've gotten myself into.

Big Games over the weekend

In all the amusement surrounding Mafia and all, I did miss out on a few important football games. The Serie A witnessed a top of the table clash between Juventus and Inter Milan, which the Zebras won 2-1. The away win sent Juve 12 points clear of the rest of the pack. Alex seemed to be in form as he scored again. Sould improve his chances for Germany. (of course super-pippo scoring a treble in Milan's 1-4 demolition of Reggina won't be doing him any favour). There was another top of the table clash, this time in the Liga, where Valencia surprised the indomitabe Barca to open up the title challenge. In the English League , Chelsea had their asses whipped by a relegation threatened Boro. However the Blues are still sitting pretty with a 12 point lead.

Weekend at the Error's : Mafia and All

This weekend was quite a rarity. After a refreshing weekend at Unmaad, I actually managed to follow it up with another interesting one. First of all I was informed about the arrival of one Mr Hari Shyamsunder, aka Hare, from Surat on a placement realted visit to IIMB. When I reach Brigade (hmmm. can't escape it) to meet up with the group (the Error and Cyborg included) I'm in for another pleasant surprise. It's Subhamsh (aka Bull) one of the Virtaul XI of our pre-final year batch. Learnt that he'd just left AD for SlingMedia. After a rather heavy lunch at 3 Quarter Chinese and an unsuccesful attempt at getting a ticket for RDB at Inox we proceed to the Error's abode.

Let me say one thing; When it comes to chosing a house the Error has this queer knack of choosing the most god-foresaken of places. I guess civilization scares him. Anyway after paying a hefty auto fee of 75 bucks we arrive at his place on HSR layout. We're soon joined by Rajiv and aKutty, Vaidya (aka Lodu) and Kutty and Dwipin, each of whom has to undergo the tortuous ritual of going up and down and round and round to reach the Error's abode. Once dinner at the local Sagar (don't ask me which one, Bangalore seems to be full of them) is done with we proceed back home to start on the game of Mafia. Well I'm not going to explain how the game works, but its pretty simple once you sit down. The best part is that it requires absolutely nothing to start with except probably a few chits of paper. Having been introduced to the game by Kutty at Unmaad the previous week we were ready for it. Since the number of contestants had increased from the last time (The Err's room mate Vittal also joining in) Kutty introduced a few more roles, most importantly the cop and the prostitute. There was also the role of a miller and the rather amusing role of a wheel-barrow, which we were quite happy to do without.

For the unitiated I have one thing to say. The game is rather addictive, for we continued with it till 3.30 am. There were the usual highlights of course, The Error once again offering to give up fags and more importantly the 20 thousand kicks on the nuts. Vaidya came up with his 'V' for villager funda (nothing to do with the new movie by the Wachowski Bros) which yours truly used profitably in the last round. I just hope we were not too loud or I'm sure that the Error's neighbours (a peaceful old-aged couple as he claims) would've been quite scandalized with cries of "Prostitute come out" ringing out in the dead of the night. After going through many rounds of 'sleep' we decide to call it quits at about 3.30.

The next day, we wake up late and a after a heavy breakfast at the same Sagar we go on for a few more rounds of Mafia, after which we bid farewell to the Error. The Cyborg, vaidya and I take an auto back home from there.

Heard that Osacar, the Wilde one, will be coming to Bangalore tomorrow for his IIMK interview. Weird date for an IIM interview, Feb 14th. Come to think of it, I still dont understand the significance of these days, Mothers' day and Fathers' day included. Does it meen that we forget our loved ones for the whole year, and all of a sudden, on Feb 14th remember them and send out Valentine's day card and the all the other paraphernalia? Although I don't approve of their modus operandi and our motives may be totally different, this is one point on which I concur with the Bal Thackeray and co.

PS: The uninitiated can check this out: Mafia

Standard Chaatted

It seems I'm jinxed as far as getting a credit card is concerned. Today I received a reject for the third time. This was from Citibank, the previous two being from Standard Chartered. The same old message, "We regret to inform you that We have considered your application for a credit card, but unfortunately you do not satisfy the criteria to be elligible for the card". Not the exact words but then that was the general gist of it.

My first attempt was quite some time back, I guess about three months ago. Got the regular call from Std Chartered explaining the details. Then there was the usual procedure; they sent their employee to the office to collect the requisite documents. Had to run around getting payslips and passport photocopies and filling up the forms. When the work was done, I could heave a sigh of relief. I remember they kicked up some fuss about the company logo not being on the payslip. So I had to cut and paste the logo on the slip and mail them a soft copy of the same. (They probably never bothered opening the document.) Well, after all this running around and waiting I get the first of those letters. It seemed pretty strange to me, considering that my friend who applied along with me had already got his card. At that moment I guess I even contemplated writing them an abusive mail or something of the sort. But then I let it pass by. About a week later I get another call from Standard Chartered. This time it was a new female on the line and she started rattling off the regular details. I had to first convince her that I had already applied for one and had got a reject. So she does the natural thing; asks me apply once again. Hold on, I wasn't going to be drawn into this game for a second time. After a futile attempt at finding out where my applcation had gone wrong, I finally decided to re-apply. Heck, what was I going to lose? Just take a few photocopies and filling in a few details and that's it. So I had to go through the whole process once again.This time the guy assured me that the company logo was not required despite my explanation about the previous attempt. All the better I thought. Then came the long wait. Actually I wasn't really bothered all that much. And then, one fine morning, voila! A letter from Std Chartered. I opened it expecting to see a gleaming card and what do I get? The same s**t. Well...so much for Std Chartered. There wasn't going to be any 'third time lucky' thing here. I prepared myself for a verbal outburst to make sure they wouldn't call me up again. That turned out to be pretty ironic.No more calls from Std Chartered.

It was quite some time later that I got my first call from Citibank. Same old stuff. After deliberating for a while I decided to go ahead with it. Maybe these guys would be more professionnal. So it was back to the same old photocopies and forms. They told me they'd have the card ready in two weeks. But it never came. After three weeks I was having serious doubts about it. I'd all but completely forgotten about the entire affair when I get the now familiar letter, this time from Citibank.

I guess I'm not destined to own a credit card, or perhaps, I'm being too prophetic here. Whatever; Probably I'll just have to wait till one drops from the sky.

unmaad

This weekend was a welcome reprieve from the dull weekends that I've got used to. Went over to IIMB for Unmaad. The highlight was of course the Jethro Tull concert on Friday. Ian Anderson and co really rocked the stage. Surprising how a 57 (or so I think) year-old could be so energetic on stage. The highlight in my opinion were the songs Thick as a brick and Budapest. 600 bucks well spentI'd say (especially since they gave a free collector's edition of Aqualung, supposedly worth Rs 500 absolutely free).

The next day, attended a few lit events. I was pretty sorry to learn that the dramatics competition had taken place the previous morning. Was pretty eager tp see how my juniors would fare there. Learnt that they had absolutely rocked the show with a powerful albeit abridged version of Arthur Miller's 'All My Son's'. Would have loved to see Alfi play George, the role that I had played when we enacted the same play at college. Another surprise in the waiting was seeing PGK. Hadn't expected him to turn up, considering that he's got his hands pretty full with ET et al. But then it was a great reunion for UPS (a name that I wasn't really fond of by the way, sorry Sanat) But then we failed to click, all of us pretty rusty where DumbC was concerned. The junior Balls guys however were having a ball of a time. After a great display at Saarang they were in pretty good form.

The quiz too went pretty bad for us. There were the usual quizzing gods who managed scores like 27/35 when we managed a meagre 15. The final wasn't all that great and for the first time in my life I actually walked out midway through a quiz. That evening they had the Jal and shivamani concert. I hadn't heard either of them before, but since Thakur very kindly procured a free pass for me I had nothing to lose and decided to give it a try. Good decision. Jal weren't all that great, but then then I got to listen to some Hindi rock for the first time. Shivamani on his part was absolutely brilliant on the drums, pads, pans, pots and whatever other equipment he had in his stock. A non-stop 45 minutes of 'percussionnal' prowess was followed by a jamming session with Jal which came out really good.

The next day we were up a little too late for PicC. But then we (Sanat,Bedu and me) qualified for the Tinto finals. The day was mostly spent loafing around, but the best part of this time was spent on the OAT lawn, where Kutty introduced us to the game of Mafia. The fun part was Thakur getting killed every round and Abesh promising to give up fags and allowing anyone the opportunity to kick him 20000 times on the balls (OUCH!)

However, the best part of the day was coming second in a Tinto, which unfortunately was a pretty drab event. The event was a clean sweep by NITT (considering that we took part as an NITT team). Nevertheless that was 1400 bucks in the kitty and a certificate to our names. Well...we were totally pooped out by then and decided to call it a day and return home.

On the whole a very refreshing weekend. It was more like a return to college for those two days.