Typical Old Style Bollywood Movie Script

From Encyclopedia Dramatica

Selecting A Layout

I've been looking through Pyzam for some really good Black-and-White Blogger templates, when I stumbled across the perfect one...

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/rorschach-reality

That, to me, looks like perfection dipped in perfection, fried in the essence of perfection and served with a side order of Awesome.

Unfortunately, It didn't work.

Halfheartedly, I slapped on a new template, one with Blue buildings and such like, as a temporary experimental attempt to improve my blog.

It looks like this, as of my posting this.

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/this-beating-heart

Aaand the other nominees are-

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/black-and-white-new

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/inked

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/in-the-air

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates/preview/anybody

And I'm not sure which one to go with...

Scooters, Vacation, Fall

Out of a strange coincidence, the stuff I'm about to blog about is also the stuff thats mentioned as the examples for post labels, at the bottom of every 'New Post' window.

Those of you who blog probably know what I'm talking about.

I'm going to go in Reverse order here, starting with-

Fall-

In Mumbai, the Fall season is just that bit of time between The Monsoons and Winter, lasting anywhere from a week to a month, depending on our irregular weather patterns.

This year though, it was gloomy as hell. Dark clouds all the time, but no rain. Cloudy skies, humid air, and October heat coming a month early.Fall was pretty FAIL.

Good thing it's over, and I'm now in the winter of Assignments and Exams. All the things that make it good have been thrown to hell this year, what with exams 4 days before Christmas and 2 days after New Years.

What the Fuck, Mumbai University?

Anyway, switch Tags to Vacations-

I headed down to Pune recently.

Hung out for the Diwali weekend at my cousins house, which I haven't been to in 4 years.

Where I learnt to ride a motorbike.

(Okay, I didn't know how to ride one until recently. If you have something negative to say about that, Bite Me)

Since I was learning, (and I didn't have my licence right then) I rode at night.

Oh crap it's fun.

Especially in Pune, where the roads are in awesome shape. Like they've been through a complete Overhaul recently.

(Speaking of overhaul, I changed my Blogger template to an xml theme. Do post suggestions concerning the same)

Oh , and I'm kind of on vacation now, too.

No wait, this doesn't count, it's PL*. It's like Holidaying in Prypiat.

(*PL, for those lucky enough to lead lives so happy and fulfilling that they never had to hear this term, means 'Preparatory Leave'. As in, Holidays right before an exam.)

Strangely though, I feel an almost pathological need to post on my blog during high stress times such as this...

...And moving on to- Scooters

I'm buying one.

Well, not ME, my parents are.

And It's not really FOR ME either, it's just for general use.

It's an Access 125

One of these-

Happy though I am, I'm not too excited.

After all, I can just use it from time to time.

Plus, In the immortal words of my friend Divesh, it's not exactly awe inspiring.

As he says-

'Just try riding up to a pretty girl from class who's waiting at the bus stop and say "Hey there, need a ride?"

If you're sitting on say...a Yamaha R15, chances are higher that she'll jump right on.

But if you're on an Activa or something, it's just going to look pathetic'

I'm not inclined to agree with him, but he does make an excellent point.

I SOOO Understand what he feels.

Which kinda explains my strange behaviour in my last post.

Updates coming your way-A post about the Freshers Party is long overdue...

At a loss for words

As I got out of the station this morning, I noticed a pretty girl standing at the exit. It's not that I usually spend my commute engrossed in intense girl-spotting or anything, It's just that she had a certain 'noticeability'. I can't explain it. It's just a gift some people have. They tend to command attention even if they're just standing there looking like they're waiting for someone...

Anyway, as I walked out to take a share auto, I was letting my mind wander, as it so rarely gets to nowadays. And I started to wonder-Will society ever reach the point wherein It's not strange or creepy to strike up a conversation with a stranger? I mean, all people are strangers before you meet them, right? And (at least for me) meeting new people is wrought with uncomfortable silences, errs, ums, ahs and other shaky first steps towards getting acquainted. Something that I can do without. Thus, something that has made me somewhat asocial, of late.

And while I waited, finding no one else going the same way as me, the previously mentioned pretty girl walked up. Well, not quite walked up, as she kept around 5 metres distance away, looking at me uncertainly, as if she was looking for the right thing to say.

I looked back, realising what she probably wanted to say, that she was going to the college as well, and was looking for someone to take the share auto with.

But I didn't say anything.

I was totally flustered. Some people have that effect on me.

She didn't say anything either. That and the fact that she was gesturing at me from like a good distance away seemed to suggest either that she was shy, or that I'm pretty scary looking.

Pesimist that I am, I have a bad feeling it's the latter.

But time was passing and we weren't getting any younger. She was shy/scared. I was at a loss for words. We both were late for class.

So I manage to extract the words 'Don Bosco?' from my temporarily malfunctioning larnyx, and with the wordless shake of her head, indicating the affirmative, we're in the auto and off.

It's a five minute journey from the station to college.

For some reason, sitting there in silence was extremely hard for me to do. But then, there really wasn't anything to say. I ran through the options in my head.

-I could talk about the weather-

Oh what a sad cliche.

-I could ask her if she's in B.E or H.M/which stream/which year, that kinda thing-

Gosh, what am I, a damn stalker?

I tried to imagine what my reaction would be to an annoying pissant I met on, say, a bus, who asked me pointless questions unprovoked. It wouldn't have been encouraging.

-I could just say something like 'Hi'-

And come across as some sort of slow-minded moron. We've been in the same auto for like 2 minutes already, and NOW you say 'hi'.

Aw dammit, my brain tells me. Why should this be so hard?It's just conversation. it's just being polite. There's no trace of an ulterior motive here. Just meeting new people in college, thats all.

But it was.

Can't even blame it on the hormones. She wasn't that hot or anything.

And I realized that even if society was open to random conversations between total strangers, I'd never be able to bring myself to say anything. I'm too much of a recluse.

I didn't say a thing.

Neither did she. Though she did look at me and open her mouth as if to say something a few times, but then changed her mind. I guess the silence bothered her too.

The ride felt like an eternity.

And so started a really crappy day. I have unit tests next week, Sems in 3 months., and tuts all the time.

And no pretty girl to talk about it with...

That Vodafone Ad just calls out to be parodied...

If you haven't seen it yet, I can't blame you, because it's not that popular (I can't even find it on Youtube...) But it's a pretty cool ad for Vodafone Busy Tones or something that features people singing out what they're doing right then...(Eg: "I'm woooorking out, just woooorking out...")

Sort of like a twitter status update, except it's being spoken to whoever calls you when you're busy.

But that ad just SCREAMS out to be parodied, I mean, you can make all sorts of jokes with it. Here's an example just off the top of my head (Pardon the extraenous letters, they're needed to make it sound right...)

III'm Peeeping, in the Showwer...

I'm Dyying, hit by traaafic...

III'm busy, cause I'm stalking,..

I'm busy, I'm robbing banks here...

I'mm Jaaacking off, just Jaaacking off...

I'm Cheeating oooon my Giiiirrrlllfrriend....

Dunno why but I just had to post that. Feel free to make a video of this and put it on Youtube...:P

Swine Flu! Sacre Bleu!

My college gave us a weeks worth of holidays on account of the swine flu scare. Totally unwarranted, completely useless, and detrimental to our academic development for this semester...

OH SHIT YES, IT'S AWESOME!

My college is so strict, it might give the Spartans a run for their..well whatever currency the Spartans used...Attendance records stored online for your parents to check, Gates locked until 4, spiky fences that are a pain to climb over...Bunking is IMPOSSIBLE. Besides, If I bunk, the nearest place to hangout is a good distance away, at Bandra...not worth it.

So this holiday is a welcome change. Not that I'm lazing about, though. The second I mentioned the holidays to my old pal nincri666, he was full of ideas about how to spend this time. and soo-

nincri666 is doing an animation short, and suggests that I help out a little.

Rishi_B is shifting his band work into high gear and suggests that me and nincri666 help him out with a youtube music video.

I'm also gonna update my blog sometimes...

Besides that, Amalganation is doing kinda badly. Mostly due to lack of new members. So Heres another shout out- It's a great place with friendly people where you can discuss...well, basically anything. So give it a whirl, 'kay?

That all said, I gotta study now. F.Y is apparently the toughest year in Engineering...

P.S.- (Just google searched it, and the Spartans apparently used iron shafts 15 inches long, as currency. Just to make it tough for any one person to have too much. Commies...)

No longer The U.S.

Right. So I haven't updated in like...two months, cause I've been busy with engineering college admission procedures.

But that's done now! I've got into Don Bosco Institute Of Technology for B.E. IT, and I'm happy as a lark. (Even though my marks weren't good)

So, I guess this means I'm not the Unwilling Somaiyaite anymore, (except on a metaphorical level, if you assume the word 'Somaiyaite' to be a euphemism for an attitude of Disinterested Conformism of the worst kind), even though for the last few months I've barely posted anything Somaiya-related at all. I guess I'm tired of whining about college life. That means the blog title has to change...

I'd want to keep the 'Life and Times...' bit, but I'm not sure what the rest of it should be.

I'd switch URLs too, but then the people who have linked to me will have to change their blogrolls, and I want to spare both of them the inconvenience.

So now I open the comments to this post for discussion. What do I call my blog now, or should I make a new blog entirely? I welcome suggestions from my readers (all four of them)...

AD Guitar.

This is kinda old, but I'm putting it up anyway. It's a guitar design I did on my friend Dodo's guitar. It came out quite alright, considering it's the first time I did a decent sized design on wood. I just found the pictures I took on my hard drive, and felt like putting them up.



It's a play on his Initials and the phrase 'Anno Domini' (you know, like AD and BC after years.)

just thought I'd put it up...

Drive By

I started driving school two days ago, the only freedom I have made use of from those I got when I turned 18. It might seem funny to start quite so late (Lot of you must be laughing, Most people I know atarted driving at 16...) but hell, I'm driving, thats what matters.

Though it's not as fun as I'd expected. The car I'm learning in is pretty old and has no Power steering. Not that I expected it, but it's quite a pain to put the spin on the steering 2 or 3 times every time I do a 90 degree turn.

And my instructor is a strange old cove. He talks non-stop, probably to get me used to concentrating on the road as well as his crap at the same time. Effective, but annoying. He claims he's spent a lot of time in Kuwait and other (quote)'Gulfi country places'(unquote). When I told him my name, his first reaction was to ask me if I was a (translated)'Roman Catholic who worships the Italian God'. I'd like to imagine he means the Pope, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's referring to something else. Maybe the dude who put the incline on the leaning tower of Pisa.

Today he said something about feeling hungry, and proceeded to (as part of my training(, make me drive through some pretty narrow bylanes till he reached a tea shop and got out to have bhajia or something. Bothersome, definitely (he didn't even give me any!) but I can't say I'm not learning quite a bit from him.

AmalgaNation

Right, so sick of the Inactive Animax Forum, Shady, Ace and I decided to set up a new one, on Phpbb3, and this time not just for anime, but for media in general. You know, movies, music, games, and such like. Give it a visit sometime, eh?

http://amalganation.forumotion.com/

Politically Correct

Last week, I was chatting with Shady when the topic of The Elections came up. He asked me if I had exercised my new found right to vote, and I answered in the negative ( I haven't got my voters ID yet).

We then got into a discussion about politics in general and the depressingly low turnout in Mumbai South. Most people call it a lot of things, apathy, laziness, the aloofness of the upper class and whatnot. The truth is, it's more of an intelligent man's dilemma.

The number of people living in Bombay with a reasonable income and level of Education is extremely low, when compared to the number of people in the Lower Income or Illiterate bracket. Thus, as the masses are to be pacified, the educated minority feels no need to vote. Besides, even if he's old enough, considered fit to vote, educated and equipped with a Voters ID, who is he going to vote for anyway?

Lets be rational here, there are technically two sides to governance in India. The Right Wingers, with extreme views and a general attitude of Intolerance to most minority denominations. 12 Attacks on churches in 3 states in the last year itself, all of those states under BJP's governance.

Then There's the secular side (Congress). While it may be argued that they are intelligent and can probably do wonders for the country, too many cases have been reported where they have siphoned funds to their own accounts, scammed the crap out of the general populace, that sorta thing.

So that's a decision between a Cunning Scammer or a Dangerous Fanatic. Aren't we spoilt for choice.

Then the Third Front, a confused mess of a coalition with so many contrasting ideologies in one place, their mutually repulsive forces can only be overcome with the prospects of money and power. So much for beliefs.

Independent Candidates? Great locally maybe, but not worth a lot on a national scale.

Small parties like the PPI? maybe if they had a few thousand more candidates being fielded. Of course, as the size of the parties increase, the more people there are who may be susceptible to more base behaviour, no matter how pure the partys declared intentions may be...

49-0 is an even worse option. Unless a vast majority of the people choose the option, it's just as good as not voting at all.

Maybe five years later things might change. Then again, maybe we'll be riding flying pigs then...

P.S.- Just got news that Congress won. Well at least they won't run around setting people on fire...

Sweet, Sweet, Frightening Freedom...

CET is over. Done with. The last really important Engineering Entrance exam that I had to write. I'm free. Free like a bird. Shit, this is hard to accept. Like the shackles have fallen away, but I'm still not moving. Like I've done my Jail Time, and I don't know what to do now that I'm out of Prison.

Had a ridiculously fun time on the 12th. Headed out with my college friends. The guys I mentioned last time. Headed out to Ghatkopar, which, while not being much of a place to hit clubs or whatever, Is a place where the dudes love their food.

We spent close to four hours there, talking, laughing, stuffing our faces, and walking about town at 10:30 (the dead of night for Ghatkopar) laughing loud enough to wake the dead. Or at least some Gujju aunties. We were being ridiculously loud and obnoxious. In a loud and obnoxious way. Which is of course, loudly. And with great obnoxiousness. It was hella fun. Vents the bad vibes right out of your system. It also helps that I really don't know anybody who lives there, so I could be as L & O (don't tell me you need me to type that out once more) as I wanted.

And through that, no calls from my parents asking about when I was coming home. Because there wasn't much need for me to be at home. I'd just be passing time there too.

Right there, if you listened hard enough, you could hear the silence, which is also the sound of someone not nagging you.
Which is something I've been waiting four bloody years for.

But that silence ended up being very unsettling. Once you have the freedom to do as you please, you don't really feel like doing anything at all.

But screw that, Over the course of two long and painful years I have made a list of things to do, and I'll be damned if anything gets in my way now. Even my own disinterest.

I'm going to update like a fiend from now on. Telling you about the Hella fun I intend to have.

Shout Out...

Well,haven't made a post since a long time. Or at least I haven't made a coherent post which actually has something to do with college or life in general since last year.

Lots of stuff has gone down since then. 12th over, IIT-JEE over, lined up for AIEEE and hoping to score in CET.

But the key thing to note here is that with the exception of going back to pick up my CET hall ticket, I probably never have to set foot in Somaiya anymore.

I'm no longer an Unwilling Somaiyaite. Which is of course suh-weet. But at the same time somewhat bitter. Bittersweet, if you will.

Make no mistake, that's not because I've suddenly fallen in love with that ol' dump. On the contrary, after running about for 3 days to finally submit my CET form, I'm hatin' it more than ever.

What I do miss though, are some of the people. Stuck in the same situation as me. Making it easier to deal with through humor. At least, sometimes.

I've switched many schools in my day, making me an educational nomad of sorts,
But it never gets any easier, leaving behind all the peeps that stuck with you. They always end up left behind. It's something you need to accept. No matter how many social networking sites you're on, no matter how many times you call them in a day, it's going to fade out eventually. Leaving them as one friend out of the thousand that you have on Facebook.

Which brings me back to the topic of the post. It's a Shout Out to all my buddies out there, who put up with me for the last two years.

At College, in no particular order- O.K. (a.k.a Dev D), Creative Influence, Who didn't flinch no matter how many F-bombs I ended up dropping. Akshay, who discovered that the most bearable part of college was the Ice Tea. Gautam- Fellow Anime Fan, Abhay, Ninad, The twins- Anta-Banta, Akhil and everyone in K.N.V.B. Shyam, who will probably be a Virgin. Bastard. fo' life. Nikhil J, stoned out bathroom singer and Lab Partner.

Appreciate you guys, hope we keep in touch...

Just Watched The Watchmen

...Or at least half of a low quality TS scan of the movie. Damn, that book has some fabulous dialogue, and if you haven't read it, I suggest you go out and do so. Now. Don't dilly dally reading this dammit, get your ass to a Landmark or Oxford or whatever...


The man with all the best lines is of course, Rorschach.

This bit is an interview with his therapist where he explainswhat gave him such a ruthless attitude.

Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your questions, Doctor?

And this little excerpt from his journal-

Heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor...I am Pagliacci." Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.