The Season Of Joy

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Let your heart be light,
From now on our troubles
Will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on our troubles
Will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore,
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together
If the Fates allow,
Hang a shining star
On the highest bough,
And have yourself
A merry little Christmas now.

SX8

That's what my baby, Honda City 1.5 Exi non-Vtec, back in India is called. I was lucky enough to have been given this beautiful piece of machinery once my dad was done with it. You have to understand that traditionally the cars we drive in india are not based on power! But economy...Anyway, there she was standing in front of me! My first car...I still remember the first time i took it out! My dad was sleeping and me and my boys went for a drive to town...and I just let it drive me! It was beautiful...the powerful (indian standards) 100 Hp 1.5 liter engine...brakes smooth like butter...and the sound....man i was in love! That car made me wanna know about cars! And now i do...just because of the SX8...So a couple summers ago...my dad gave me the permission to mess around with the car, buy a turbo kit, change the rims, a new paint job, the works...and i did....it was great sitting in that garage...and just watching them work on MY CAR....and the first time we took it out...two mechanics, Sid and myself...with the turbo installed...that was a day to remember...no seats...but we packed in there...and here I am now...looking to start over...

Everybody needs a project...something close to their heart...this is mine...and will always be...
New Mods in 2005:

Overboost Stage III turbo kit
Brembo Big brake kit
Apex'i Rear drum to disc conversion kit

WISH ME LUCK

Contents

You thought I was gonna write something deep and meaningful...just like i always do...but no...this one is different...yeh kahani zara hatke hain...sorry bad joke...the contents i'm gonna tell you about are of my garbage can!
Now you must be thinking...damn! he's lost it...i may have...but what the hell...I'm soon to become a POLYMER ENGINEER...i think everybody who gets here loses something or the other...so here goes...

Gatorade Fierce Grape( i like grape its tangy )

Two bags of EAT FRESH...YOUUUUUU Guessed IT (SUBWAY-that idiot gave me a six inch instead of a foot long...come on... i know i look thin and all but a six inch sub for a man?)

A coupla cans of pepsi (bought at tops FOUR CASES FOR 10 Dollars)

Ruffles LAYS (It wasnt me...I would never abuse my body like that)

DAMN! I forgot i just consumed an entire third world coutry's supply of TACO BELL

SO YEAH I DO ABUSE IT SOMETIMES...

Ferrero Rocher...classic, favorite, overdone...whatever you might call it...it's GOOD

Thats about it! All this over the weekend...working at school...writing my thesis...by the way...I'm on page 123...pbb about 35 more to go

IM GREAT AT BULLSHITTING...WATCH ME DO IT LIVE IN JANUARY (defence of my thesis)

Life

Don't underestimate the ability of physical exhaustion to make you feel relaxed
Don't underestimate the ability of music to uplift your spirit
Don't underestimate the ability of boredom to slowly bring you down
Or, in a second, for life to pick you right back up

Good Times!

Damn! I love this place...I was in Minneapolis for thanksgiving...and didn't have a car...so hung out at home...my uncle and aunt were never home...so i stayed home...four out of the six days...spent a total of 3 hours working out...two days with my best friend...doing nothing....just hanging out...and decided to come back a couple days early! Even though priya said that we were supposed to go shopping, go out and go snowboarding over the weekend...i just had to come home...i spent two days with her...but all we did was argue and fight and fight...didn't get along with her...loved it! It was just like it always was! When I went to school there...we were always fighting...over stupid things...both of us being stubborn didn't help the situation...both of us hate saying sorry...or never believe that we did anything wrong...so yeah...it was just like old times...so i decided to come home! Couldn't take anymore of her bickering...hahaha.....she would kill me if she ever read this...but i feel closer to her now...isn't that wierd...anyways...we had this wierdness the last few times we met...i guess it was just some kind of attraction...coz...shes been my best bud for a while...and i have been the same for her...and i guess...i did start to think of her as the ONE! But now I don't...i know where i stand with her...who she is for me...and it was great talking to her last night...and just spilling everything out to her...all my daily crushes...hookups everything...something i hadn't done for a while...fearing...WE might take a step back...but i love this here...she is great...she is perfect...she's just not the one for me! I love having a clean slate...FINALLY! I love starting from scratch! I love not knowing...or wanting someone! It's liberating!

And yeah...I LOVE THIS CITY...it might be the ghetto'est of towns in america...but damn! I love the people I've met here

Inspiration

So i'm sitting here...on my desk...typing on my computer...not knowing what i'm about to write about...except for the fact the inspiration is the thing i want to write about...it just sounds right...i want to know what inspires you! what motivates you...to do what you do...i need some myself now...i finished chapter 3 in my thesis two days ago...and i'm stuck...two full days and one paragraph added...it sucks to have to try and write...it would be nice to finish it though...so talking about inspiration...i saw a very inspiring one this weekend...Veer Zaara...inspiring in many ways...inspired me to get back home quick...there was this one song...about how great things are back home...and really...we never really think about it but things are great back home...sure you don't drive the best car around...you don't live in a mansion...but there is this one thing that you can't put your finger on...but you can sense it around you...it's an uplifting feeling...we forget that when we come here...we forget what it feels like and get intoxicated by what this country has to offer...i am...i am inspired to get that back...to feel that again...but first i need to finish this damn thesis

Jim and Kate

How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resigned.

Watched this great movie last night...Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind...there have been few and far between that have appealed to me in more than one way...i wouldn't want to spoil the movie for anyone who read's this but...i wish you had seen it and i could say whatever i wanted to...anyway...the question arises...how would you react to life if you hadn't been hurt...or if you had been, you didn't remember...you know...had a clean slate...didn't have past experiences to have learnt from...just a pure, clean, fresh mind...nothing scared you...nothing to remind you of something else...didn't have anything corrupt your current experience...just the moment you were living....just 'now' to worry about...i think this a great movie because it makes you wonder...most of us have been 'burnt' in relationships...or non-relationships...just think if you didn't remember...would you approach...a new person...a new situation with as much caution as you do now? all relationships, when they end, suffer from a lack of trust...after the promise of a perfect future has evaporated...all the small things are magnified...until it becomes intolerable...what if you knew all the shortcomings...everything you would have to face...before the start...of that new relationship...and you could weigh it, compare it, with what the person standing in front of you had to offer...a new life...a new beginning...and the promise of love!

Weekend at home

Friday night...now saturday night...just dont feel like going out...just wanted to stay at home and look at the wall...don't feel like people right now...thats why i haven't spoken to you if you called...don't feel like saying anything...so sorry...it's not personal...but one good has come out of it...i started to like baseball...been watching a lot of it...so yeah....just to salute the greatest achievement in team sports history...and my new favorite team...not in the state of minnesota...and after the jordan led chicago bulls...is this 2004 boston redsox team...go sox...beat the curse!

All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage...act away!--My mom
She believes in that phrase with all her heart...and i must say that everytime i'm down...she, her words usually pick me right up...i spoke to her the other day...and told her things that i was happy about...and she just new what was gonna happen next...so she told me not to get too happy about things and consequently not too sad if they don't work out...she said, "don't forget that you are just playing a part in god's creation, it's only a play"...but when was the last time we listened to our mothers...so why start now right? So here's to William Shakespere, who exposed my mother to that phrase! And, here's to my ma, who always says exactly the right thing....every time!

Devil's Advocate Take Two

(Pachino)Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyways? God? Is that it...God? Well I tell ya, let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch...He's a prankster. Think about it. He give man...INSTINCTS!!He give you this incredible gift and then what does he do, I swear for his own amusement, his own private, cosmic, GAGREEL! He sets the rules in our position. It's the goof of all time. LOOK, but don't touch...TOUCH, but don't taste...TASTE, don't swallow. HAHA! And while you're jumping from one foot to the next, what is he doing??? He's laughing his sick FUCKING ASS OFF! HE'S A TIGHT ASS, HE'S A SADIST!!!HE'S AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD! WORSHIP THAT...NEVER.
(Reeves)Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven, is that it?
(Pachino)Why not? I'm here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began! I've nurtured every sensation man has been inspired to have. I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him. WHY? Because I never rejected him, inspite of all his imperfections...I'M A FAMINEN! I'm a humanist...I rest my case.

It's that time of the year again

To say that there are a few things we all live for, is quite common....but to actually live for something...it's not easily done...so when i smell fresh cut grass...and i see leaves gravitating to the earth...i hear the early morning buzz that can only be associated with a new semester in my most favorite of seasons....i know one darn thing....It's time for FOOTBALL...for one more of randy moss's reality defying catches....for some more smash mouth low scoring football in the afc...and some iron curtain defenses...my favorite poem ends with some of the best lines ever written...
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With Sixty seconds' worth of distance run-
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more- you'll be man my son!

Well...the next five months....they are My sixty seconds' worth of distance run...but i'll always be a boy

Two

"How many?" I shouted from across the street, he was walking away but he lifted his left hand and showed me the peace sign, didn't turn back to do it, didn't need to....he knew that i knew....ma friend had just lived a dream....That's the best i can do to describe my roommate, atanas gagov, cool as f...k, awesome to hang out with...has mood swings that are like a pendulum only not that predictable, but when its all said and done...that man is crazy. He has taught me a lot in these past few months...that's when i decided to go out and have fun again...and you know i never ever tried to pick someone up at a bar....just not my thing...but he...he's fearless...he's mindless...and he goes out to have fun...so no...i could never have asked for a better roomie...its almost like joey and chandler...wait...actually now that i think about it...SHIT....it is exactly like that...we have the foosball table and everything...pichka, putka, pichka ti mai china, ti e de mike da pederas, this is what i do, n....r you look thirty, i have good news for you, i just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance, etc, etc....these are his lines...and everytime he says any of them...he cracks up as if its the first time he's said it...

To Write or Not to Write

So i have been inventing ways to chill...usually it involves a lot of movie watching...playing the brand new Madded NFL 2005 on my xbox....or my personal favorite, sleeping. The last week has been too slow...i'm working on two experiments that dont require much of my time...and i can't move onto other ones because the machines aren't up. That has put me in a quandry...should i begin writing my thesis? You know a smart person would easily answer that question...but come on...i never bragged about being smart....only about being good at what i do...so yeah i think i'm gonna chill for now atleast

Letters from Tucson

Do you think you can know when someone is thinking of you? I think i can...i don't want to tell you how or when i knew or how i know it's correct...but i know...call it bullshit call it whatever...but i do...and it's cool...i like knowing...anyways...so i've been here since thursday night...which was cool...coz me and my cousin went to go watch a movie...and everything went downhill after that...i've two full days in the hotel room...and the best part of my day was when WE WERE CHANGING HOTELS....damn...but you know what keeps me happy that both these days...my brother was out making friends...its 8 here and hes been with his friends all day....which, i couldn't be happier about...the only productive thing that i have done is helped him decide on a house...and it's a great apartment in a great place right on campus...he's gonna be sharing a room with someone, barraha, from mexico....but it's what should be done...so yeah...i'm patiently waiting for my flight that leaves...in about 35 hours...thinking about what's gonna be on tv next...or who is gonna think of me next...i told you that i could tell...and you know how? Well, you are here aren't you?

The Wonder Years

I think it was sometime before the short recess...there was this girl...Gopika Malkan...She was tall, i think taller than i was at the time, beautiful, fun loving...all the things that can make a boy about 12 years of age fall in LOVE with a girl...so i did...most of you who know me, know that my crushes change in a matter of days...and like the great shakespere once wrote and my tenth grade class teacher acknowledged...I wore my heart on my sleeve...so crushes came and went...never ever really did anything about them...maybe once, but that is another story...for another time...but i knew that one girl in my class, of fifty some people...would always be on my top list of crushes...and the things that i did for that girl...i dated another girl in tenth grade so i could be closer to gopika...i used to want to change houses...now this concept of houses in a school messed me up the first time i heard it...my sports teacher came upto me and asked me whats the color of your house ?

CHOICES: A-BLUE
                    B-GREEN
                    C-RED
                    D- Yellow

And my dumb answer was BROWN...you should have seen the look on that shantaram's face...priceless.....it made sense at the time though....but i wondered why my sports teacher would want to know that kind of personal information...the color of my house/apartment building was none of his business...i was probably 8 at the time... so you can understand the confusion...but anyways...she was in blue house and i was in yellow...and i couldn't stand the camaraderie that the people in the blue house shared during sports events, debates or any such activity...so i bought a t-shirt one time that was for blue house students...and wore it to school, hoping gopika would share just one day of that camaraderie with me...when questioned about the change in color...i had said that my older cousin was in blue house and i accidentaly took hers...i thought that was a smart answer because the t-shirts for guys and girls were the same...but stupid ol me forgot that she was in the yellow house too...so my attempts to come close to MY GIRL continued...while my other crushes continued...i remember once i stood outside a bus...after school for ten minutes staring at this girl...coz i thought that she was so amazing...she was two years older and a friend of my sister...so i stood there staring at her lifting that heavy bag and putting it into the storage shelf...how beautiful she looked...there was a time when i went to mauritius on a school trip in ninth grade...with 14 girls and two guys who were in 5th grade...or standard...whatever you may call it...on this trip there were five girls that had been top contenders on my crush list over time including the great, beautiful, untouchable, unreachable, GOPIKA...so you can understand how totally AWESOME that trip was....and to add to it...there was another one that was added to the list after the first day flying....so yeah...to describe the true feelings that i had for my unicorn is a feat that i would die trying to convey...or maybe i'll just die of embarrasment because of what i'm about to write down

I love your hands
I love your eyes
I love your love
Beyond the skies

This is the poem i wrote for her when i realised i was in love with her...at the age of 12...sitting in class...three rows behind the goddess...wondering what it might be to sit next to her

Sunday beautiful Sunday

Damn!!!  How many times does that happen?  From smalltown Akron to Cleveland...on 8 North...where you will find three stop lights on a frigging highway...we (myself, sunny, puneet and hari) didn't catch one red light...and when we got off at the cricket ground exit...we caught a green again...I have never ever caught all greens on that 8 north....so we were joking around that it was gonna be the driver's day....the driver being my humble self....
So we got to the ground and it was an overcast morning...I didn't think that we would be able to finish the game...but the game began....and our strike bowlers, namely hari and manpreet, got one striking wicket for us...the second wicket partnership was a good one...and it nearly took us out of the game...all our bowlers toiled hard...but be it because of dropped catches or misfields...we couldn't get that partnership broken...finally, our captain, hari, realized that it was time to use his frontline, supreme bowler...so sachin of Akron cricket club (myself again)...came into bowl...at first i was a little nervous...but soon i settled down...i was suprised how difficult it was to control the ball in those conditions...i mean...i know i am a slow medium pacer...but....i guess i swing it too much...just kidding guys...anyways...two overs of mine down and one good over by our chappar captain...and they felt the need to go for some runs...and then it happened...how was thatttttttttttttttttttttt......sohail...their best batsman...was caught plumb in front by our team's best bowler...brijesh sujan...then came another one...and another and another...so the budding all rounder did it again for ACC....starting at 118 in like 24 overs with one wicket down...they were all out for 181 in 34 overs....manpreet CHIPPED in with four wickets too...but they were all lower order batsmen...so now it was time to BAT...
Kiran and myself...opened the innings...and trust me there aren't many better 2 hours in life than going all out against decent bowling and dominating....that's a rush i felt yesterday...i shouldn't get addicted to it though...i know its not my game...kiran is the aggressive one and i stay...thats my role....so i stayed till the twenty something over and got out...but i must say that...kiran had 9 runs...when i had 42.....booooooooo yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh......thats probably the first and last time i'll do that...so i'll rub that into my buddy too....but he played a good innings...that was fun...so yeah back to boasting....i scored a 69 and hari, puneet, kiran bhaskar, and batula all chipped in with a few runs here and there...myself and hari have been fighting for the tag of sachin on the team for two seasons now...but come on now...i think it's a well established fact...i can bowl anything....from offspin to medium pace...JUST LIKE SACHIN...lately i've been batting decently...JUST LIKE SACHIN...and i open the innings...JUST LIKE SACHIN....
ALL I HAVE TO ASK MY CAPTAIN, HARI, TO FINISH THE ARGUMENT "HOW MANY RUNS HAVE YOU SCORED IN THE MIDWEST TOURNAMENT BUDDY?"
 
NO HARD FEELINGS GUYS...ONLY INTENTED TO BRING SMILES TO YOUR FACES...OR INVITE THE MIDDLE FINGER  

Sunday bloody Sunday

To think i could have had a PERFECT WEEKEND....there aren't many of those...there was this one time when the wolves, vikings, twins and the wild all won important games over one weekend...that was pretty perfect...but this last one....it came pretty f... close...it started friday afternoon....basketball and tennis for four hours....thats what we used to do in the much heralded days of 15-18 years of age....but yeah....i realized how old i was when i got home after that...in that...my body creaked, like those doors in the cheesy scary movies...and when i finally decided to stop being sympathetic to my needs...i got up and ran a quick errand...and then went out for the italian festival over in cuyahoga falls...the festival was greattttttt...or so i heard...coz as soon as i got there...it was time for the shops to close....so yeah...after that we went to the battle of the bands at gillians and got pretty wasted there....after which....i came home passed out....and woke up to the most brilliant saturday morning idea...indian food for $6...all you can eat...pani puri....chole...the works...now you might be thinking....can this guy not think about anything else...its always about food, sports, women, cars....there is this one thing i want to write about...sooooooooo badly....its like acceleration you have never felt before...and to feel it everyday...is almost mind numbing....i wish i had a 1300 cc Hayabusa....which im working on...someday...someday...that's what losers like me say....
anyway back to my weekend...watched one of the best superhero movies....spidey 2....brilliantly done...as much as the first part was a let down...this second one....rockedddddddd....the elevator scene was hilarious....anyways....got back from the movie...was late and exhausted for cricket practice....so just watched th guys play...then went for poker night...which i won.....forty dollars in the bag....it was sweet...i wish i can find about seven guys in india to play poker with...that would be cool...i wish i find this beautiful, both inside and out woman someday....i wish i had a porsche carrerra gt....i wish i die base jumping and not in some bed somewhere...i wish i could have one bite of tandoori chicken sometime....i wish...i wish...i wish the vikes win the superbowl ring...this year...and im here to watch them do it....i wish the twolves win it all this year and im here to watch it....and i wish that life stays this awesome...all the time

You Better Go Get Her Humphrey

Was watching this sweet ass movie about half an hour ago....I've seen it about three times now...seems to be an HBO favorite and consequently has become one of mine...as embarassed as I am to admit it...it's more of a chick flick...it would make a great bollywood flick too...Brown Sugar...
It's so real....that's the appealing part....and it confuses me...challanges me...and basically messes me up everytime...it gets me to think....and most of you know i'm not the thinking kinds...my phone just rang...and the reason this movie messes me up is the one who just called...my life is an open book...and sometimes...you know when you kinda come back to the reality...after a super long high...you start to wonder...when...and how?
Shit i'm just gonna say it now...no matter how many people I meet...it dosen't seem anymore than a distraction...it's like the main event has passed me by...it's like something inside saying exactly what the title suggests...

"You better go get her Humphrey or you will be walking away into the fog with some dude!"

Number Thirty Two

Just wanted to bow my head to the lowfat coffee drink that we have all come to accept and love, Starbucks' Frappuccino. Every morning i just need it...specially on mornings like this one...my roommate, atanas, always says that he needs a weekend to recover from the past weekend...i can't feel closer to that right now.
If you didn't know, it was my birthday on monday...and if you haven't wished me yet...now would be the time....j/k....anyways....two weeks ago hemant told me that he was gonna give me a gift that i would always remember....and i took his word for it...fully expecting the greatest gift ever....just didn't know it could be this great...sappy/sapna, avi and jai made a suprise visit to our small town in the middle of no where....and spent the weekend with us.....

Friday Night, 9:30 pm....my heart was racing because i didn't know who was gonna be there at the party and i just needed to get the initial doubts out of the way....so pritam, naso, and I went to hemya's house on torrey street to get the party going..i was in for a tough couple hours because no one showed up...so out of frustration...agony...and to lighten the mood we started to count the number of people who were there....there were the three of us with nishant at first....and then j, dong sek, and raj showed up...i was really happy....that some one showed up....so we got up to 6....but nishant had to leave so we dropped down to 5 again...and the night just looked like one long escapade....with enough alcohol to knock out a small battalion....we waited...and laughed at my great party!

Hemya had gone out for dinner, and a few other friends had shown up by 11:00 and now my doubts were confirmed...this party was gonna suck...i had to go pick up a couple other friends....and when i came back it was like ummm.....it seemed like the population explosion in india over the 90's....and i ran in happy as hell....thats when hemya told me that he was pissed off that i had cursed at him so much while he went for his dinner...and that i should look over his shoulder....and i was like...this better be good...and SHE WAS....before leaving i had asked pankaj to keep track of the number of people who came in....so i asked him....iska number kya tha....he said it was 32

We stopped counting after that...

Honorary numbers 40 and 41 went to Mr. Avi and Mr Jai....who drove down from Virgina...for the weekend...and guys it was awesome...thank you very much...and yeah avi i did mean every single word that i left on your voicemail from the bottom of my heart!

Friday nights party rocked till 6 am....next day we went to a beach on Lake Eerie...and that was a lot of fun....and then sunday night we partied in BW3...newly renovated...thats when the alcohol forced avi and jai to miss work next day and stay back for my birthday....so we partied AGAIN till 3 am...that's when i passed out...Talli/Nitul...left Akron for ever to go back to aamchi Mumbai....and life continued at a normal pace on my birthday....last night we went to Pad Thai...and had a sumptuous meal....and you could see the after effects of the weekend on everyone...sleep was what everyone needed....they say....what you do on the day of your birthday is what you will do the rest of the year....let's just say that....i'm lucky enough to have done it the past year...and even luckier to have one last one coming up....hanging out with friends like these....THANKS GUYS!

Was it a tough decision

Just picked up a package from Aldrich Co., 1,1,1-trichloroethane...they say its ozone depleting and poisonous...damn....why didn't they tell me earlier...i've been literally bathing in it for days now! j/k
Anyways...was in the elevator with Dr Jana and his student Asim...when Jana asked me...Brijesh i hear you made a very tough decision...what changed your mind? It wasn't one actually...it kinda just fell on my lap...sometimes, scratch that, most times decisions are tough when you want to do something and you know by giving up on the other thing (which consequently seems like, the right thing to do) you would be letting your conscience, and people around you down...so you go with the thing that you really want! be it out of ambition, greed, or to make a point...to yourself or the world
I'm drifitng here...but yeah...i'd be crazy to want to stay away from my family...anymore!...i'd be crazy to choose a Ph.d...over four kids that i'd love to watch grow up...although the sound of that just rings a bell...i won't lie to you...but i'm here for another year...rejuvinated and refreshed and ready to learn...i'll take that over a doctorate...i will also take my mom's happiness and my dad's relief over it...any frigging day!

Mind Reader

No matter how badly i played, i must say that win on saturday was GREAT...I have to do my laundry...i have no clean socks...no frigging boxers left....and my room, bathroom, car are a mess. This weekend...i will clean it this coming weekend...this rationalization has been going on in my head for oh about two weeks now...can you believe that i have to pay $1.25 per load be it the washer or the dryer! That's insane...I should go work on the dsc rather than write about this stuff...i could go do my laundry in priya's house...or the phi tau house...but the dryer dosen't work there...i wonder whats going on in the pps meetings...my results from the gel fraction and crosslink density experiments suck...i'll have to do it all over again...MAN! Pankaj's bike rocks....its a 600 cc Suzuki Katana...and i just rode it to my house and back....it is so light and so fast....and loud....its like you are sitting on a rocket...i guess that's why they call it a pocket rocket...priya wants me to go with her to get a new cd player installed in her car, and rizzo called asking if i wanted to go to the driving range...hmmm....but i should be doing the dsc experiment...hmmm....but golf is by far the most addictive sport ever! No matter if you do good or bad...you need more of it....win's like that establish the character of the team, it's like a cliche, it's the coming of age story! it's everything, but the best part is it's still early in the tournament and we gut one out! That's my kinda win! I hope the birthday party turns out decent, i hope its half as fun as the last one....that's the problem with having a great party...you probably won't out do it! I need a bike in mumbai....forget that.....i need a skyline gtr in mumbai....i want to be rich enough to have those cars and bikes and not worry about extortion calls, or duties, or the fact that i would be paying twice the amount that the car is worth...to money! The root of all evils! TIME FOR DSC

The clock starts at 5

I don't know how it happened...or when it took over my entire body....but it's there....i can feel it...it's in my stomach...everytime, EVERYTIME! That's just how it is, if it's sunny outside, which, it is now, and the clock is anywhere close to 5 pm...my internal cricket clock, actually not only cricket...tennis, bball, all these alarms go off. It's like i just need to run out from home....work....car....and get on that field be it a makeshift cricket field, basketball court...or the gym....i need something.
I used to get off school by 3:15 pm and used to be driven home...which took about thirty minutes...so after that i had about another half hour...to forty minutes before it was time to play...tennis/cricket/bball/skateboard. As soon as the clock hit 5, everyone was down for anything and everything, bang-bang, golf with plastic clubs, swimming etc. But where this want grew into a need was tennis practice from eighth to tenth grade, and cricket from tenth grade till the time i came here...that has to have been the greatest time for all us guys because we used to have about twenty people every night playing cricket under lights, inside a tennis court. We used to start with over arm and move to some extremely competitive under arm action. This is coincidentally where i got my extreme need to WIN...it used to be so much fun...This was green acres to me, all you non-mumbaiites, and non-lokhandwalaites, should be told that green acres is an apartment complex which has everything you would need...when it came to activities...name the sport and it could be played and has been played on the hallowed surfaces of the complex...many a good, great, shallow, timeless, timepass friend has been made on and because of that great complex.
Sorry, i lost focus there for a minute...back to my point...its four forty...and i had to take a piss to calm down a little...i have to focus on my breathing to be able to sit on this chair...breathe in....breathe out....and all this because of sunny, aafu, ashu, shilpin, ketan, chintu, vicky narwani, ankesh, mayank, jolly, vikram, rahul sogani, vishal-the organiser, and suraj....thanks guys....for gifting this daily time bomb to me...wouldn't be able to live without it!

The Perfect Day

I know...I know i was late getting up in the morning....but come on guys...its impossible to wake up in five hours...i AM a grad student...that is one trait that fits me perfectly...but yeah...all eleven guys from our cricket team were waiting for me while i got there grinning...7:15 am.

7:45...these guys wanted to eat already...we had a three hour journey in front of us and our beloved team NEEDED a break from driving TOO long...so we ate breakfast at mcdonalds...and while doing that made sunny cry about losing his wallet...MP took his customary trip to the crapper and we drove off towards Charleston West Virginia and the middle of nowhere to play cricket...if this isn't love for the game i don't know what is.

That's when it struck me that this was a great day already...i was with my buddies...and an ass...e named hemant...and i couldn't have asked for anything else, but one thing...Meine Jisse Abhi Abhi Dekha Hain....so we sang...and sang some more...Tanhayee...Tanhayee....Meelon hain phely hui tanhayee...and almost on cue...the sun came out...it was a road trip now! As much as i hate to admit it...hemant's my boy now...he can be a jackass at times...and thats only when hes having a good day....haha...anyways...to add to the already awesome morning...and once hemya was done peeing at the rest stop...i drove...rolled the windows down...and relived the freedom like the guys from the greatest hindi flick of our time, DCH, while humming to Kabhi Na Beete Chamkile Din...Hooooo...Ho...

11:00 am and we reached Charleston and saw the little ground we were supposed to play cricket on...Mr. Hari, captain ACC, won the toss for once and chose to bowl...thats when our bowlers went to work...i must say that we have one of the strongest bowling lineups in the midwest league...each bowler is capable of dominating any game at any time...and i think everyone is just now buying into and trusting our cappy's philosophy about sharing responsibility...it is a team game...and we haven't always played like one...but this bowling performance...although off the mark at times(namely: MP's 13 run over before the second drinks break...with a wonderful over the shoulder no ball :) )...was...Brilliant....good job guys...they didn't allow those guys to cut the ball...and that was the key...so yeah once again the bowlers did their job...kiran..our new keeper...he's gonna be good...i just know it....with some guys you just see it...you know...he is gonna be special...only if he figures out and adjusts to some fundamental flaws...im excited about that...so yeah GREAT JOB GUYS...keep the teams down...and hopefully we'll finish the games out for us...


Kiran Nataraj...came back and opened for us....scored some massive blows for us....that took the pressure right out from batting...so our own personal sanath...made it easy for the team...thats what im talking about...TEAM...GUYS....HOOOO HAAH...Thimmanna did a great job playing his game...and thats all we needed...all I had to do was hang around till the end...it was a pleasure...with the short off side boundaries...ummm

So the game ended...we came...we ate and we conquered...the drive back was awesome...just because it was after a victory...we reached torrey street...and enjoyed the victory some more...the guys drank some beer...and the customary teasing began...and obviously we had our fair share of goats...but then the day got even better...THE LAKE SHOW WENT DOWN TO MOTOWNS TEAM....AND HEMYA...AND NASO....ALL OF THEM ATE IT!!!!

Charleston 141/10 in 31 overs
Akron 142/3 in 18 overs

WIN No. 1 guys....HOOOOO HAAAAAH

Updates! Updates!

Just got off the phone with my ma! She is such a cutie...she was updating me on all the things that are going on in mumbai and family elsewhere...my cousin just agreed to get married to my sister, nisha's friend...haha...he fell for it...and i'm in the clear for the next few years!! Anyways, watched hum tum on friday night...that movie rocked...and the funny part was that saif totally reminded me of me! I was just talking with priya and rashi about that...the guy dosen't remember anyones birthday...thats been my trait since i was born...the only birthdays i know are mine and my sister's...and ofcourse my first girlfriend who literally would have slit my throat if i forgot her birthday or for that matter our anniversary, which by the way i don't remember now! See my point...i'm really bad with remembering birthdays, anniversary's, all of that stuff...i'm not saying that i get all the women he gets in the movie...or maybe i do??? just kidding...but yeah...i liked rani's role in the movie....she is so sexy!!! her voice...ummmmmmm...she did get a little fatter though, that i didn't like...yeah i like curvier women...but it has to be curves in the right places...i know you guys agree with me!!! And yeah.....summer f...ing rocks!

And i hope we win the next game! Go UAKRON
Oh! And may the LAKERS rot in hell!!!!!

India Trip - Part 2

Nisha's wedding

I think the best part about the wedding was the preparation for the mehendi...my sister nisha was born to dance...and i won't be suprised to see her rocking family occasions even when she is 80...so upto a month before i was supposed to go down to india...i got calls from her "vicky! better be ready to dance," i was going down about three days before the first function was planned. So i knew the first week was going to be a grind....but a grind that i would pleasantly look back upon was a suprise i'll take to the grave with me.
My mom's side of the family is the wild side...these guys have lived in spain for years, and doing so has only made them act wilder when they come back to india. So there we were, about twenty five of the wildest family members packed into my chachi's house...my favorites being my little cousins...sharan and rishi...and ofcourse simran...so we practiced, all of us kids...nisha was the choreographer...and she had five of her girl friends dancing with us...and that was another reason that it was fun because i was upto my usual flirty ways...
After our dance practice myself, sharan, rishi and simran used to get down to some serious ps2 action on a huge projector screen...with bose surround sound...btw...cricket 2004 kicks ass...anyways...i hope my boys stay as cool as they are now...for the rest of their lives...the good part about the wedding was i really got to know my other cousins...and for the first time in my life i felt like a big brother...
You see my cousin brother nicky...and myself, and his friend were playing a need for speed underground....and we were taking chances to complete the missions...he got frustrated and he threw a tantrum...this is a twenty year old kid...so i whooped on him...told him if he didn't show me some respect i'd teach him how to...and i did....it felt great...wrestled him to the ground forced him to apologize and basically bullied over him...but you know what...that's what big brothers do...and he's my boy...but he's still got so much to learn...love you bro!

Where Do I Belong?

First things first...Hi all from Delhi land....I'm sitting here in the Air India Lounge at 4:16 in the morning waiting for my delayed flight....the stories I have to tell!

Anyways, I was hesitant to go back to mumbai, because it had been a while and i was well settled in akron town...cricket season was coming soon....my latest love had just been in an accident...which is now doing fine even though i sit in india, thanks to pankaj....and work was coming along. So why would i want to leave town....and get out of the groove?

I landed in mumbai and found my mom, ma buddy ashu and his sister waiting for me....right then....i thought damn....somethings not right....my sister, you see my sister has always been around me like a protective blanket, especially since i left for the states...she would always pick me up, drop me off, tell me to pick this up, shop here, party there...but she was gone, living in dubai with her hubby....she wasnt home...waiting for me to come back...thats when my doubts grew stronger. And with each passing minute at 'home,' which is now totally remodelled, i felt not at home. Every one was busy with my cousins wedding and so we practised dances late into the night....and everytime i had time to myself i wondered...who the f... am i? is this my home? these are my people right?

Two days later i got my answer....my niece, my baby, darling little girl called simran...i named her by the way...and i was 15 years old when my cousin brother agreed to name her simran...so i almost feel like shes mine in every which way...and she is in love with me...she calls me her boyfriend....this little girl....9 years old....welcomed me to her 'new house' and gave me this little blue envelope...i opened it up and there was this white paper inside...she wrote

"Dear Chachu, Was Missing You...Said you would come back in december...Love Simran"

I was five months late but, I knew I was home!

The Things That Make You Go OHHH!
Racing at midnight on a wide open highway, even better in between two trucks about a car's length in between them. Yesterday was Raghav, aka Haddi's birthday, and we all went out to Thirsty Dog out in Fairlawn to get some grub. After kicking everyone's ass in the trivia game, and consequently getting one of the highest score ever at that location, i proceeded to let the others win and feel good about themselves :)

Anyways, after the dinner, i was merging onto the highway, when this car started tailing me...and i was like F...... A... no one trail's me like that, but when i realized it was hemant, ol' buddy, ol' pal....IT WAS ON! I sped and touched about say 90 when he tried to get onto the left lane, i cut him off, he tried the right then, i was on it....then came 'the move' as i was on the left lane and there was this saturn i think in front of him on the right lane, doing about 60, so i made sure he was stuck behind it, i slowed down and was side by side with the saturn with hemya stuck, there was an onramp, which is like a half a lane that starts to help people merge in, the harami, went onto the onramp and overtook the saturn from the right....i was like WHAT!!! IT was really on now....100, 110, my car would'nt go any faster, its an inline four probably 1.8 liters, giving about 140 tops, and i was going against a Vr6, probaby 3.0 liters with 300 horses....but it was on like a mo....fu......

then came the one thing that could help me, traffic, see being from mumbai, you learn to look at traffic like objects on a driving course, the objective being to get atmost an inch from the objects while trying to get the the front of the traffic and onto the open road....now it's time for me to boast a little bit.....i was trailing hemant....on the left lane, and we were behind some car, stuck because the right lane was fully clogged, so i tailed his ass, or as some of you F1 fan's know i entered his slipstream, the good thing about slipstreaming the guy in front of you is that, a) he dosen't know when you are going to take a violent turn to over take him, and b) it's his responsibility to make sure he dosen't kill you because by the time he reacts to your turn you are about three fourths of his car length to the right....you see?
so yeah that was my big move, and then he came back with his big engine to overtake me....and finally the trucks appeared from the right onramp, i had decided what i was going to do....i pulled to the left behind hemant who was stuck again behind a car, and on the right came the trucks, i took a quick right in between the two trucks went to the rightmost lane and got ahead, and made a mistake, moved to the leftmost lane, i thought hemant was still on the left lane, but the harami had followed me and stayed on the rightmost lane, and on a wide open lane.....so that was the end of that....but hey! we didn't get a ticket...we didn't kill anyone! and we did the one thing that reminds me most of HOME! AND WE ENJOYED THE OFT FORGOTTEN FREEDOM OF FLYING ON THE STREETS!

Number Three
He is the nicest guy there is....so much so that sometimes he dosen't even realize that he is being made fun of....thats when my need to protect pritam began....we were at brubaker's, myself, atanas, number three (pritam) and lubo, their last roomie...and he kept being mean to pritam and i was like man...what's going on here!
I didn't have much to write about until I read this mail from him....he just reached India and was emailing me to let me know that he got there, this is what he wrote:

Hi Brajesh

I had a safe ontime journey with any problems. But although I kept on asking god to get some nice hot indian chick all throughtout my journey......................I never did get one. Some times u feel god is not there................

Jokingly,
Pritam

He is the shit man! He knows me now for a year and a half, and he still calls me brajesh! even pronounces it that way...now pritam is like a kid who still thinks like one....but as you can see from his mail, that under my tutelage he is learning to appreciate "grown up" things!

Confessions of a Mumbai'ite'
What a beautiful day it was yesterday...first of all let me give you a quick recap of the day before....i was working out as usual doing the one exercise i dislike the most when it's 'shoulder day', the side raises....second set and i sprained my neck really bad....i couldn't look anywhere but down...so i decided to quit and go home....my rommie/number two/atanas...was with me and decided to stay on and walk on back home when he was done...so i drove home, like a horse with those things that stop it from looking sideways, hugging the steering wheel, nose touching the windscreen, feeling like a grandma, laughing at myself....i got home....after which, I got some royal treatment...pritam had made dinner, so when atanas got home....he came up stairs with dinner for both of us and we played our daily quota of madden nfl 2004....there wasn't enough dinner that night and priya called....and came over with some more food...and her annoying anecdotes about life in general....kidding baba....anyway...we played some poker....i ate dinner....number four came home...stole some of the dinner that priya brought along....and his usual bickering about not having bought a car continued in the background.....you must be thinking now...get to the point ass____
The next day (yesterday) happened and i was happy because i had just been offered an amount of money for the old car that i was praying for....and the deal was to go down at 2:30 pm....so he called and confirmed....i had my suspiscions....i knew he was going to back out....but i was wrong...he came, he saw, and he bought....i had to say goodbye to my old bug....troublesome as it was....it held a special place in my heart and bank account....it made sure that there was a steady output of cash from my checking account....i bet fifth third is just now figuring out the reason for reduced banking activity in akron....anyways, yeah sold my old baby, and then got a lot of work done...and then the best part of the day happened....i was late for a meeting with some officials of the student government, about our cricket club, and had to park and run from the Poly Eng building to Carrol hall, now with a strained neck, semiformal shoes, and a heavy coat, I finally figured out that life is a race, and we are all horses......naaaaaaa......im just kidding.....what i really appreciated was the importance of my neck while crossing the street....

Call Me Number One
So we are moving out from our old house on Rentschler Street...and probably moving into a 3 bedroom apartment in Fir Hill Towers. So three bedrooms, four people, you do the math. Now let me explain the situation...there is one super nice huge bedroom with an attached bathroom...and two smaller rooms in the apartment. The living room opens into the kitchen and the hallway....so we decided to make four notes and fold them up, the notes read 1, 2, 3, 4...allowing the guy with the note saying one, the first pick. So we gathered around the table, while pritam told us how he finally figured out how nerve wrecking reality shows must be, trust me, we were forced to accept what he was saying because he said it a thousand times :)

So we had the notes thrown on the table while everyone was supposed to grab one as soon as the notes hit the table...shant kept saying that it is thursday and it has to be good for him...there is no way he would get number four....hahaha...so yeah....we threw the notes on the table and pritam grabbed the first one, atanas the second....and i grabbed the third one...shant took the last one...and was saying that there is no way that he will get number four....pritam screamed "I got three", Atanas said, "Shit! I got two", as you can probably tell he really wanted the big bedroom....next I opened mine and it was number one!.....There is no way shant could have gotten four was there? I can't stop smiling...Call me number one!

Sabbatical
Sometimes you just need some space...not saying that you couldn't do without it...it just feels better, more comfortable...where you don't have to think, talk, guess, project and hope then fear...and then restart the thinking process...its good to get back to basics...to things you like to do...to things that make you feel good...it's a very self oriented process...so obviously others around are affected...as much as you wish for others not to be affected adversly...they are! that's why i'm doing this again...i'm writing again...to apologize...for my sabbatical...and to say thanks...for understanding

WORDS OF WISDOM

I know it seems hard sometimes but,
Remember one thing...
Through every dark night,
There's a bright day after...
So no matter how hard it gets,
Stick your chest out...
Keep your head up...
And Handle it!

Tupac Shakur

It's time for us as the people to make a change...lets change the way we eat...sorry...i can't get enough of Tupac...Anyone wanting to get a feel for pure hostility...unchecked hatred...check out hit em' up by the man...anyway...was thinking about this...what is the difference between a best friend and a girl/boy friend...if its a long distance thing?

Took some time to actually get myself out of the situation to think clearly...and this is what i came up with...expectations...see the only thing that is different when you date someone as compared to being someones best friend...is the fact that there is an intimacy...and trust that goes with being in a situation like that and that...leads to expectations...the physical intimacy leads to emotional dependance...so yeah...the only way to do this...is to lose them...lose your expectations...and...hakuna matata

Everyone Needs a System

So you have a bad day...a bad coupla days...a bad week...it all depends on you...it's not that the whole world is trying to mess with you...it is that YOU are letting it mess with you...my advice is that as inviting as something might seem...it ain't worth it...so shut down...patch up and move on! The sooner you get it...the better it is for you....and hey AINT NOBODY WORTH LOSING SLEEP OVER

The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World He Didn't Exist


Date: Someday-I think March-1996
Time: Sometime in the morning

My history teacher comes into the room (CLASSROOM STD 10A), "Shaibala can I talk to Brijesh?" Shaibala said "Sure!" Kalyani said "Brijesh I can't seem to locate your final project did you turn it in to me?" Pulse raced, I knew I had nothing to lose, so why not right? NO! I've been trained not to lie, not to decieve, damn! what am i thinking, i have to answer Ms kalyani ! And so it began!

"Yeah Ma'am I did, you were standing by your office door and i handed it to you this morning."

Kalyani: "Ok let me go check again"

So yeah, that was it, i knew i had started a big mess!
You see all along I knew i had that damn history project, which was worth 20 points out of a total of 100 for my 10th board exams. The project sat in my bag while she looked, frantically, in her office, and probably everywhere she could look...
The thing was that I had done a disasterous job of trying to make a history project. I had tried, and failed, to burn the sides of the every page in that project book to make it look like it was an old manuscript. It wasn't...it was the ugliest thing you could imagine...
Why are we supposed to do those stupid things anyway? I know I'm not creative, so why try to make me creative, and end up making me look like a fool?
So yeah, I had turned in the project a couple days ago and she had turned it back over to us, after having taken a first look, so that we could make minor changes before it was given to the external grader.
She came back in an hour...
"Brijesh, I need you to look in your bag and check if it is still in there...I never misplace anything."
"No, Ma'am, it's not in my bag, [DAMN IF SHE COMES AND LOOKS HERSELF, IM DEAD], I'm sure i gave it to you..."
"Ok come out here!"
So i went out and waited, in the corridoor, sitting on a chair, outside the pricipal's office, while the external examiner, Ms Kalyani, and my principal had a discussion. Let me say this, it helps to have been a model student. So I waited, and taral came out and sat down with me, it was just the beginning of the lunch break, he waited with me, knowing exactly what was going on, and doing a great job of making everything look real. I don't remember if i had told him, or he just figured it out...but he knew...like only he could have. He looked at me, and he knew what i was doing!
And he just sat beside me, while people gathered around us, and asked me if everything was ok...and I had no words...with my head down, probably thinking that they had caught on and that everything was done, I had messed everything up, just for a stupid project...while just he sat there...

I had started to feel very scared...this was unheard of, the meeting went on for a long time...and it happened...the touch of GENIOUS...the one thing that could change the final outcome...I CRIED...It had to have been one of the greatest performances of any amateur actor's life...to sit there...and take in all the sympathy from everyone on that floor...and cry. WHILE HE JUST SAT THERE...

Finally, when they ended the neverending meeting...she looked at me...."Brijesh, you have three days, redo your project."

You will never believe it...it was the defining moment of this story...everything happened exactly according to the "no-plan" that i had going...so taral and myself..we got up and went to the restroom...we walked and looked at eachother...he was probably thinking that I had to have balls of steel to pull this....but i didn't...it was sheer luck....so we walked into the restroom...it was just me and him in there...
"HARAMI...", he said.
And we laughed...and laughed...because we knew the magnitude of the lie that we had just pulled...we had used up every bit of the goodwill that both he and myself had earned over the years with our teachers...and it had worked PERFECTLY!


Couldn't have done it without you man! Love ya

Ma

I was trying to think of a title for this post...i couldn't come up with the one word that describes this woman entirely...except for 'ma'

I know there are countless poems, endless number of songs, and story after story that exemplifies the fact that mothers are the only selfless people in the world. Their devotion to their children is unmatched and the depth of their love unknown.

I lived in minnesota with my mamu and mami, and every time i was late for school mami used to run her hands over my head to wake me up...it was such a great way to wake up in the morning...quite unlike the way my ma wakes me up...at home (INDIA) my bed is basically about 10 inches from the floor...my ma wanted to have one room which was totally indian...with the indian paintings and artifacts and beds that were on the floor...so yeah...for college she used to have to wake me up...because she was my alarm clock...i couldn't wake up if she didn't make sure that i had made the trip to that bathroom...one day she got tired of waking me up because she had to sit down every time and shake me until i responded...so it struck her that she didn't need to...she could easily do the same just by using her feet!!! My lazy ma....

I can say that I have loved my mom since i was a kid...and respected her because that's what we were taught to do as kids...but now when i look at my ma, i see her as a person....do you get what i'm saying? i mean...when i think about all the things that she has done...and gone through for myself and my sister...and my family for that matter...it just takes my respect for her to another level...i just talked to her over the phone...that's when i realized how much i miss her....she told me that she was just talking to her friend about me...her friend was saying that I was gonna get married and settle down in the states...because i had been here too long...she was teasing my ma....so my ma said now you answer her...and i did....I'm going back HOME in April!

I had the wierdest dream today just before I woke up...I was in pune and i was walking down a crowded street with i think my son. And we entered a small family store, and i can't remember what it was, i think it was maybe a fabric store. And i knew the guy there, I said hi and he was like wow i haven't seen you in a while...i was like what...i don't think i know you...and then i remembered that he had helped my dad in purchasing my first tennis racket. So i sat down and talked with him...i reminded him of all the things that he had helped my dad buy for me before they were readily available. I woke up...but i remembered him saying "You guys moved on...but i have stayed where i was"


Sorry i have no clue what to get out of this one either!

Behold I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves...

So I was watching by far one of my favorite movies, The Devil's Advocate. Now the reason it is my favorite is exactly why i am forced to write. It makes me think:

"Vanity...definately my favorite sin." Now what i am gonna say might be offensive to some so my apologies in advance. But vanity is everywhere! Human's are all about self love, instant gratification: the quick hit...me, Me, ME! The true test of love should be one's life lost for another...and that is hardly the case...in this world of self service, starbucks coffee, lean cuisine luncheons, instant car washes, and deadlines, we are drowned in ourselves, our own needs, our own requirements, and we forget that there is life beyond us...and all around us....some say that its the drive that makes you singleminded about your daily routine...but who is the drive for? what goal, what objective does this drive fulfill?

MORAL DILEMMA

So is lying cut and dry? I mean should you never lie? Is lying wrong period? Or is it that lying is relative, in that you could lie only when the situation demands it?

As is the case with a lot of us, our parents are the people who most influence the way we think and analyze situations. This is one of the subjects that i think i totally agree with my dad. We were sitting at a chinese restaurant in mumbai...when the topic of lying came up...and i asked my dad what he thought about it...i mean, i know that his moral belief's are very rigid so i figured that he would choose the high road and end the discussion by saying that lying is always wrong! But he suprised me, for the one time in my life i didn't know what my dad was going to say...he said, beta, you lie when you have to! I was like WHAT? DAD that's not you!

A little side note on my dad is that, he knows what he knows, he believes everything he believes very strongly...and that's that. You can try to put your point through but if dad has a certain way of thinking, you are not going to influence his way of thinking...morality, truth, and high standards of everything that is not material is what he lives for. But lately you can see the tranformation in the man...from a man who used to control everything...to a man who shows how much he cares about everything.

So back to my story, he said that the one thing that was more important than the absolute truth was people's feelings...so yeah...he said when you don't want to hurt someone you lie. The only problem with that is that it takes into account that the judgment of the person who is supposed to lie is assumed to be immaculate. And therein lies the dilemma...do you trust everybody else to know exactly the right circumstance in which they should lie? doesn't that vary from person to person? so there can't be a standard! so now there is no right or wrong either is there? it could be the right circumstance according to one and a totally wrong circumstance according to another! The question being HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME?

Here is a situation: you are getting ready to go out, and one of the girls you are going out with, be it your girlfriend, friend, mom, or sister asks you, "How do I look?" And the clothes she has on do not look that great. Whats your answer?

What do women want?

Just when you think you know...just when you are confident enough to make a bold statement to yourself...just when you think that the ice on that lake is not gonna be thin, because you have walked a while, and there is no way that it could betray you just before you reach a solid foundation...why? why don't you girls know what you think, feel, want? It's like yeah i know...no wait...back up, i'm not that sure....ok maybe i don't want this...whoh...wait what are you doing...i want it...i want it...damn, women....know what you want...in life, and yeah when you people drive, you need to know where you are going...you can't be indecisive...you can't be like...oh, we needed to take that exit...girl!!! the next exit is 5 miles away!!!! and yeah when you take us shopping, let us sit down on that bench in the mall, so we can do our thing...and yeah we don't want to give you a thorough description of the pants that you have on...NO!...all we say is yeah it's good or yeah it's good, so there...and don't ever, EVER stand in front of the TV....that's the worst thing you can do....when we drink beer...all we want is to CHILL..definately don't feel like dancing...WE DON'T WANT TO TALK....we want to shut up!!! the tv does all the talking that needs to be done...and I want my pants to hang from my butt...and there is a reason i wear them pants...COZ I LIKE LOOKING DIRTY...I DONT SHAVE, COZ I DONT WANT TO...HA....THERE I SAID IT ALL...and no I wasn't checking that chick out!

What a Day!

So i slept in...felt fresh in days...i was gonna get my car back today...i had told the guy that im thinking about selling this so fix the head lights, the door handle and the recurring sound from the front right wheel...so he called me yesterday and said that the sound was from the back wheel...yeah...i said fix it...and he did...it was gonna be much cheaper than i expected...so i go there ...and get my car...the sound is still f'ing very much there...so i have to go back again tomorrow...i was supposed to get some work done with a piece of equipment...but the guy who is supposed to sign me up for it tells me at 1:30 in the afternoon that he signed me up from 9 am to 4 pm...obviously, i couldnt go work so there...wasted day...i got a ticket for parking my car at the lot when i had a permit...some other stuff too, which i can't say much about...but the point being...what a shitty day.

Time to go and change it to a good one!

DOST

MY BOY IS A CA...The Rave/Ravi/GUJJU now a CA? Man time flies by! AWESOME NEWS RAVE...He's one of my best friends in aamchi mumbai. See, we are a closed knit unit of 6. I knew what we had as friends when i called one of them at 3 am on a sunday night and told them that my dad had not come home and that they had to come over so we could go look for him...my dad was actually stuck in traffic on his way from vasai, and there was no reception where he was. So twenty minutes passed and we kept calling my dad..my mom was really worried...and then they showed up...and right behind them my dad. Five of them walking in with my dad...it was just a coincidence that they met in the elevator...but you should have seen the smiles on their faces...when the walked in...like prize fighters, having just won the biggest one. Cocky son's of b....., whatever little of life that i saw in mumbai (as i moved here when i was 18) they were right behind me, covering my back. Be it the biggest lie of my life (more on that later), fist fights, love stories, girlfriends that they didn't get along with or coming here to the states...they always had my back. Now that's something you don't find everyday.
It all started with Taral...

Taral-I think we really hit it off on my first school trip to Rajasthan, back then my weekly crush was a girl called Ojas. And his was Shalini, Ojas's best friend at the time...So there we were....traveling on the train to rajasthan, where all the girls were in one little compartment...and all us boys were annoying them in one way or another...then it happened...

BOM BOM...BOM BOM...Do mastane chale zindagi banane

IT was a very famous song from an awesome movie...some of us still consider it to be the greatest comedy...Andaz Apna Apna. So yeah we sang, and sang, and sang into the wee hours of the night..until everybody in the train had walked by telling us how much they hated us at that moment in time...well, the two of us didn't care...we were having too much fun flirting with our crushes, and singing this funny ass song. INSTANTLY, we were like brothers; you know, you can just feel a special connection you have with someone, he's not big on communication...so we didn't communicate as much, but everytime i saw him at the airport, it was like i know YOU MAN...Inside, and OUT!!


Siddhi-Now here's a man for all you ladies...a commited man. This boy has been with his girlfriend for seven years now!!! SEVEN. He's the quiet one...the one who thinks more than he ever should...analyzes every situation, and really really feels. He's exactly liks sid (Dil Chahta Hain)...i'm suprised siddhi is in engineering...everything about him screams ARTIST. He's tough to get to know at first...but has a heart of gold. He's doing his MBA now...tell's me that he has changed...opened up a lot more than before...i can't wait to go back home to see what he has cooking...

Hemen/The HAM- The ham because he is the perfect gujju. He tries to be someone he isn't, be it his fake little accent...his new found dressing sense...or his new attitude: "I don't wanna CARE." But he cares the most...he is the one thing that keeps us together...if you guys think that i am a FILMY person...you should see him...We, actually his self proclaimed name is the GLUE of the group. We have been really close at times and moved a little farther away at times...but this time i think we have found a perfect spot...he moved to california from mumbai...and i went down there to go see him...and it was like when we first became really good friends...because I told him everything that i was thinking...even if i thought that he was lying to me about something...so i guess it is my fault that we did drift away ever so little...
Sitting in our Math Tutor's classroom...my gujju friend...said: Damn! have you heard about that new brand...TOMMY HIGHFLYER....we were almost thrown out of class because of his comment, actually because of the hysterical laughter that followed...


ASHUTOSH/PUNEA- Tall dark and handsome...they say....i think he's downright ugly...just kidding bhai...yeah, he's the older one...but not the wise one...the true player...be it his pimping maruti esteem...or his dancing skills...i think the one thing i really share with him is our love for cricket. You see he's the fast bowler...the true, true fast bowler...talks more than he can back up...(kidding)....but thats where it started with the two of us...in the tennis courts at the hood (GREEN ACRES)...we played every night...during the summers...and he talked all through it...only when i had something to say first though...but once i did...then he didn't stop. He'd be like: what do you do jack? what do you do?, every time he had the occasional pleasure of getting me out...one tappi that too...Big time movie buff...corny piece of shit...love ya man!

Finally the Rave: THE F'ing CA. He struggled through it more than i expected him too...but he made it and thats what counts...now he's is the practical one...a true problem solver...you see everytime any of us had a problem...we would meet up at rave's place and discuss it...he just had the right answer everytime...a "rapist wit," as was described in one of my favorite movie's. A girls best friend...be it any girl...haha. But yeah we used to study during the nights, actually we used to tell our parents that we studied through the night during our 12th board exams...but we were out every chance we got...or every time a stomach croaked...to go get some bhurji or pav bhaji...or for that matter have a run in with the cops...and hang out at the police thana...CONGRATULATIONS BROTHER

HARAMI'S I got all your backs! FOREVER!

Bachpan ki Yaadein Part 1

It is 5 am, and I can't sleep...so I guess i'm just gonna ramble on about my day...let's see...I just found out that I lost my freaking debit card...hold on...I used it at bestbuy today...did she give it back to me? I don't think she did...so i guess I haven't technically lost it...thats weird..just when I gave up and thought that I would just call fiifth third I remembered that I spent 5 dollars for my new handsfree kit (Read: Headset):-)...you know weird is a word that has been used a lot the last coupla months in my life...I guess you can say that I re-met a girl and things seem to be going ok...who knows right...yeah that brings me to something that I wanted to write about for a long time. WHO KNOWS WHATS GONNA HAPPEN NEXT? Actually I'm not inspired enough to write about that subject yet...So lets see...I can talk about my middle school unattainable girl... but thats a long story...hmmm...if i was in india right now, my ma would wake up and walk to my sisters room, because thats where i would be sitting wnd writing this stuff...and be like vicky, kya kar raha hain itni raat ko...and i'd be like ma, i can't sleep and she would be like...soja soja, that reminds me of the times when i was in school and my sister and myself would sleep in the same room...we had to go to bed at about 10 pm and obviously thats when the fun started...the thing about my sister was back then was that she never ever knew that she loved me...so she behaved like that...and i was always the one to be like...rachu, neend aa rahi hain kya, shed be like, soja mom sunegi to bohot maregi...now that would be followed by ten minutes of total silence, and then the forbidden, vicky, mujhe neend nahi aa rahi, lets play something....you know rach you grew up pretty f'ing quickly...now all you do is tell me what to do...man, it was only about five years ago when that was in my job description....tsish, i can tell you a lot more about my sister and myself...she was the one who always did the things you were not supposed to do...she didn't study, i dont think i would ever forget the take ups that my ma used to have for my sister, for all you firangs, a take up is when you read, or mug up, or learn the ORDER OF THE TEXT in one given chapter, and then are orally tested on that chapter...now that was a sight to watch...you knew my sister didn't read anything within thirty seconds of the oral exam by my ma...and the humor in that situation was that everybody in that room, myself my ma and my sister knew that she hadn't learnt anything, but we PRETENDED for o about three minutes that she had...I must say i had my share of laughs...specifically that point and scream laugh...which was followed by the "VICKY GET OUT" which was then followed by the scene where my sister did a most magnificent job of showing my ma how much she had tried by crying....you know thats a skill she had mastered over time...that was her ace of spades...something she knew she could pull every time that she was cornered by my ma...but, just when she got comfortable with that routine....my ma caught on....

So who is the greatest of them all? What is greatness...isn't it the special something you EXPECT from someone...everytime the opportunity arises for that person...we had a discussion about the greatness of Sachin Tendulkar...now this man has done everything you could ever expect from him...some say that yeah he has done good things....but how can we forget the circumstances that this man alone has been through...from Indian teams where there was no concept of a team...to being thrust into the spotlight as the golden boy...to having the expectations of an entire nation resting on his small shoulders...for what about five, six years there was no semblance of match winners on our beloved indian cricket team...yeah there was the occasional fifty or even a century by batsman...but as I remember it the game was on till my boy sachin was still in the middle as soon as he got out...most of OUR collective expectations dropped....most times to expecting a loss...isn't that greatness...we say that brian lara and sachin are comparable...YEAH their cricketing records might be similar...but brian lara does not live in a country where cricket is the life blood...he plays for the west indies and the pressure that is associated with indian cricket is not even comparable to westindies cricket...where every innings is scrutinized by each and every person in the country and every indian is a born coach who knows what the right shot was to the ball that sachin got out too...this man has proved over and over again that he can be depended upon...I just want to say that we wont have the pleasure to enjoy this wonder boy's cricketing genius for too much longer...I say we thank god for the fact that this genius was born in our country...and thank him one more time for the fact that WE are lucky enough to be born during SACHINS ERA!!!...I say we sit back, relax, and watch this genious carve out his magic one more time!

CRICKET SEASON

A fit body will have a fit mind and unless you have trained hard it is always going to be difficult to think positively and to give proper expression to your skills.

Last season was fun, some awesome wins, some last minute losses, and plenty of humerous moments. Let's respect that, and move on, we have great things to look forward to, we have a new leader, Hari, I am sure he will do a great job. And we have Suneel coming back as our anchor. So let's do this, lets go out and win...no wait...let's go out and win now! I firmly believe that if you want to get better at anything, you have to work hard for it. I know what I'm proposing could be taken in many ways, as a joke, as something that dosen't make any sense...or something that you just shrug and let go. Well, that's the point...i think winning is an attitude...i want us to run, harder and faster than we did before, i want to make sure that when it is time to play that game we all love, that we are at our collective best...we will convert ones into two, two into three's we will hold on to every ball that ever goes up and we will be the most desciplined team there is on the field, and the closest knit off of it. So lets work on it now...let's do all the little things we can to get better...lets make sure that we all can look back to this upcoming summer and say "Now that was a TEAM."

Here's the question...Do you have to miss someone to actually know you love them? I've lived here about five years...and although this country has taught me many good things it has also slowly taken away the one thing we correlate with being Indian...dependancy...i just looked up the spelling of the word at dictionary.com and it came out to be: something dependant or subordinate...now ignoring the second part of that line...i think the meaning of that line sum's up everything i want to say...you can't really, truly rely on someone being there...so yeah i am independant...and yeah i dont miss people..i think i have learnt to move on quickly...almost expecting a bump in the road, another person taken away from your life...not because of any unforseen circumstance...but because...we are here...things change on a semester to semester basis...so how are we supposed to have that one best friend who will always be there with you and share with you every second of the minute, hour, and day. Am I cold? selfish? or simply practical? or maybe nothing at all...maybe im an Indian who has been in non-Indian conditions way to bleeping long!


Hey you know i'm playing right...I still love you all...

To paraphrase a line from the film Remember the Titans, which John Wright took his team to see before the 2001 series, Australia will always remember the summer Ganguly’s Indians invaded their island.

So, I'm sitting here thinking...well besides conjuring up ways to blow up this department...what are we doing, I mean, what are we striving for? YEAH, I KNOW: Money....hmm maybe, but that seems too low a thing to do, chase money...i dont know about that...WELL HOW ABOUT KNOWLEDGE: Yeah maybe, but knowledge is not for the sake of knowledge...most of us just want to learn more because it will probably put us in a good position later on in life...nice job, beautiful spouses, and fast cars...so what is it that we seek...what is it that we need...we want...ACCEPTANCE?...no, FRIENDSHIP?...no...I think i'm gonna say its COMPANIONSHIP...some thing, that will be there with you for a long time...maybe its a someone, then why is it that we even consider letting that someone, who might be "THE ONE" go? WHY NOT EMBRACE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE WITH THAT PERSON...AND STAND UP AND FIGHT...AND SAY THIS IS WHO I LOVE...THIS IS WHO I WANT...THIS IS WHO I NEED....THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN SEEKING!

Now...i just got done typing...its probably the most i have typed in a while...id say since polymer engineering laboratory last year...the funny thing is 2003 is gone...i've been here almost a year and a half...and its just now that i feel like i belong...like people care for me...and to think i didn't know most of these people six months ago...i think it all changed sometime in july...when i felt like damn! i've been here in akron for about a year and i dont really have many friends...thats when it stuck...i had found the one thing, the one line that you look for to inspire your being...people! not me! you...that was it...i stopped thinking about my life about my problems...and started to make as many friends as possible...i've always been one to not make friends easily...make people come up to me and say hi...but i said....'bleep' it...i'll go up and do it differently...cricket came along...and i met a few really cool people...it was exciting to play with pads and in a league...i still remember the first match we played...it was in the beautiful hashlington ground and i went two down...the thing was, when i played for minnesota cricket club...and even in india...i always opened...never really thought about anything else...just wanted to be the steady one...and here they had two good openers...so i accepted my part...although i wanted to prove myself...yeah right...first ball duck... i dont know what i was trying to do...just went halfway onto the front foot and played uppishly....what was i thinking...to think i had to walk back towards a team i hardly knew...to people that didnt know me...with my head down...

I guess this is not for me...I might come back and try tomorrow...