Books and dancing

I've been on a sci-fi streak lately. I have read two great science fiction books and may pick up another one, since it seems to be the one genre which hasn't disappointed me lately. The last regular fiction work that I liked was the City of Thieves. After that both The Martian and Ready Player One turned out to be great books which I had never even heard about.

It's the fifth year of me dancing now and it is getting harder to keep track of why I am doing what I am doing and what to do next. Miami Salsa Congress just got canceled and now I need to see what to do next.

30

Turned thirty a month ago. Maybe it is time to make some changes. But before thinking about what to do next, I may have to sit back and think about how different I am from when I was twenty. Sometimes it is hard to think back 10 years and even though I might remember all the events that transpired, I am not very sure I still remember the person I was.

One thing that was definitely different was that I was blogging. Blogging a lot more. The days in college gave me enough amusing things to blog about or at least start. I used to find topics to write about easier at the least. There were phases in my college life too, but with that would hold true for most of my batch mates as well, and probably has to do with changing times and the age in which many find themselves.

I do not remember what was going through my head in the intervening couple of years where I went from Bangalore to Hyderabad. There were several interesting characters in my life who I fear I will forget to give the importance they deserve later in my life. I believe the main changes happened during the phase where I was hanging out with my new Hyderabad buddy a lot. I would consider that the second phase of my 20s. That phase lasted through meeting Carol and of course getting married. The person I am now would not have agreed to getting married, nor would have committed to relationship this fast.

Coming to the US did not do much to change me much in the first two years. The marriage thing blew over quick enough, and I was free. Maybe when I have time I will fill in the gaps in the years.

The past month was a whirlwind with preparations for congresses, supposed trips to Dubai, the birthday celebrations for the 30th and the two year anniversary with Kristen. I wish I had a day or two to sit somewhere and ponder over this past decade, but I highly doubt whether that would happen. I cannot remember the last time I had a weekend of doing nothing.

Another Thanksgiving

It's almost the end of my fourth year in the US, and this time I decided not to go to any of the Thanksgiving parties that I was graciously invited to by my friends. Growing up in a culture where this mostly American holiday has no cultural significance meant that I harbor no particular sentiments towards missing the turkey feast. My girlfriend tells me quite often that this is her favorite holiday and was pretty excited to go back home to her family and get back to her mom's cooking, even if it were only for a day or two. A couple of my good friends did invite me over to their family Thanksgiving dinners, but I was not sure how I felt about crashing an intimate family dinner, and that too a Latin family one at that. However, I have crashed a Thanksgiving dinner before, when my roommate at that time invited me over to her's, and I did have an amazing time. And last year, we did our dinner, with our very own dance studio surrogate family, which was indeed very cozy and heartwarming. So I felt I have had my share of good experiences, and could do with some time off from my never ending events and partying life.

It is not very frequently that I get so much free time these days. In fact, most of my days, weeks and months seem to flow into the next seamlessly via a tight schedule of work, gym, kickboxing, teaching, practicing and performing. This has been going on for over three years now, and when I look back at it, even though with a lot of happy times and very little regret, it does feel hard to distinguish between any particular periods. Don't get me wrong. Plenty of things have changed in my life during those periods, and my life from where it was four years ago, when I got to the US, is vastly different from where it is now. I was talking to a friend of mine who has moved away from the city, about how much life can change and how much one could experience in just a few years. She is turning twenty three now and was worrying about not having enough time until she turned thirty, which seems to a lot of people like the end of time or end of our lives as we know it. I am an year away from it and was forced to think back at where all I have been from 23 to 29. I have certainly gone through at least three different life transformations in that period, and this post is definitely not the avenue for exploring those phases, periods and life events. Maybe in another post before I get too old to remember it all.

Talking to another very dear friend from home reminded me of certain other phases in my life, and her persuasion has resulted in this blog. I was telling her that my life is usually so public on social media that I barely need a blog to express anything anyway. But, it is hardly true. Even though I do in fact like and enjoy to a certain degree, the level of image crafting possible on Facebook, I miss the extent of ideas and the clarity with which they can be expressed, possible through writing. Reading a few of the books that I have been reading lately has also taken me back to those simpler days where I was very interested in improving my writing and took immense pleasure in writing about the most mundane of things in the most mundane of posts. These days I get pleasure from perfecting body movement and slick patterns. Oh, how things have changed!  

Some random shots

The past weekend was truly hectic. It was a whirlwind of partying at Havana club, getting my car fixed, the 9th anniversary social at the studio, pool party at the Hilton, Fast and Furious 6, barbecue at Victors and a lot of pictures in between. These are a few shots from the weekend -

This is Kayden. He said he knew he was cute, and got a lot of things because he was cute. He was very happy to pose for me.

 This is Malena. She danced salsa while in her mom's womb, and came into the world a pre-made salsera. Everytime I shoot her, she makes sure that she gets into her perfect dancer pose, even when lying down. She will be a heart breaker in a few years.

Daniel had set up his lights at the studio for the social, and I got a few pictures too with the black back drop. This reminds me that I still need to start using my back drops and lights. I got Erica to pose for me here.

Images and the stories they tell

I met Katja (TJ) dancing at The Sanctuary. Misty, Mike and I were standing outside after dancing on a Friday at 2am. TJ was walking by saying a good night. Something made her turn back and come to us. The four of us stood there talking till 4am in the morning. TJ was a German engineer, dancer, traveller, photographer. She wanted to take a few dancing pictures of hers. So we went out one cold late November afternoon in the cold where TJ went on to put a very good performance of modelling in the cold in skimpy clothes in a water fountain. Just after this shot was taken, TJ took 6 months off of work and spent two months in Africa and 4 months in South America. With a single backpack.

Inna is the quintessential Russian woman in her 30s. She is beautiful, talented and one hell of a person. She manages to run 5 branches of her chiropractic business while taking care of her kids, travelling back and forth between Florida and Atlanta. She knows what she wants and how to get it, and smile while doing it all. this was during a Tuesday social. This is one of my favorite shots, just for her eyes (which are green btw) and her smile.

Lucy is a my salsa coach and a pro-salsa dancer. Somehow this is how I remember Lucy all the time now. Talk about the power of images. And talking of power, never even try to take a kick from Lucy! Olympic athletes would be envious of her quads.

Stephanie flies everywhere, but she is not an angel. We met at tango, and went to Baltimore for the tango festival. She is a strong woman who takes care of her two grown up kids. She is ready for anything and always has class.

Arun Vishnu is a genius. Under utilized, yet happy. He could be designing rocket components for Indian Space mission, yet he chooses to do audio systems for cars. He is the ultimate steady character, and is never too worried. He has saved and supported me on several occasions. He can fix anything you break. This was shot in Kerala on one of my visits back home. He humored me by going over this shot a few times and not looking too puzzled. I like the calm expression on his face.

Alissa's smile combined with her big, beautiful eyes would make any man's heart skip a beat. She is young and very smart. Even if she hasn't decided up on what to do with her International business and politics degree, I have a feeling that he is going to fit right in Washington. I can easily she her as working in United Nations.

Denisa is beautiful and knows it. She could wriggle her finger at the club and three guys would come to her just in case. And don't get me wrong, she's smart. I am sure her Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, which is one of the hardest schools to get into, will take her places. This was shot at Pensacola Beach, FL. Denisa had no problems modeling for me in the cold sea that day, when none of the others did not even want to touch the cold waters. She is my mambo dance partner.

 Damaris was a puzzling character. She somehow always managed to effuse a certain sense of a strong intelligence hidden behind her relaxed, easy going facade. It took some effort to get her to pose for these pictures, but once she did I got some very pretty shots. I had been telling her that I needed pictures of her tattoos and I got them just before she left the team.

Rosa is one of my oldest friends in Atlanta, as she was the one of the first friends I made through dance. I had just got my new flash when we were hanging out, and she humored me and posed for a few shots! 

Potter maniac

I had never been a big Harry Potter fan, and I remember coming across Pottermania for the first time and mistaking the whole series as a classic which I had never heard of. This was probably just after the second book or so. Then the whole phenomenon started becoming quite big and I ended up starting with the first book when I was in my first or second year of college. I was completely impressed with how a book could be so interesting to so many people of so many ages, and such varied reading interests and experiences. I went on to read the next couple of books and hit my plateau with the Azkaban one. This was in one way a good thing as it turns out, that book was and still is my favorite. I remember watching the movies and coming off not too impressed initially.

I did not try to follow-up with the later books for several years, and the general opinion that the Goblet and Phoenix were in fact quite lengthy and boring did not help either. I was watching most of the movie versions coming out though (missed Goblet when it came out). Now that I think back on it, it was all for the good. When I did watch those movies when it came out, I never did appreciate them, nor would have even if I had read the books.

I watched the Half-blood prince and remember vaguely liking it. However, I could not pick up the thread a year later when I watched the 'Deathly Hallows Part I'. Since the 'Deathly Hallows' was so confusing, I went back to watching the movies (on my iPod on a long flight to India). Again watching the movies somehow did not satisfy my appetite and my appetite was indeed growing quite fast. Now that its been quite a while that I have gotten back into reading, especially since I need to justify the expensive Kindle, I have once again gotten stuck with the thought of where to go with my reading. I ended up picking up from where I left it earlier with the Goblet, and at the same time picking up from the first movie.

Re-reading the books and re-watching the movies have really made me a Potter-maniac. Of both the books and the movies my favorite would be The Prisoner of Azkaban. The movie was especially good in my opinion, with the most visually appealing and smooth story telling. The worst in my opinion would be The goblet, with the movie neither visually appealing, nor telling the story well. The Half Blood Prince came close, with both the movie and book being appealing. The best characters in the movies in my opinion are Snape and Loona Lovegood. Emma Watson is amazing in most films in the series. The last three movies were deep, slow and smooth, not rushing ahead with the story and giving time for us to understand the characters. I cannot wait for the last part to come out. I am now a potter maniac.

Harry Potter might not be the coolest of movies to be a big fan of, but thats practically the only one we've got.

Its been a while since I bought my new camera, but this is the first worthwhile picture I have taken. I had a great time using my S3IS, but I guess I felt it was time to try something a little more challenging. I would have liked to get something with good video recording, but I guess this is good enough for now. I might have to get some good lenses for indoor photography, but thats all in the future, for another day, another post. Keep shooting(,) people (no pun intended!).

Kerala Me

Idleness makes people do very different things, and gets people thinking (although rather more infrequently) of very different things. Growing up, I was never a politically aware person, thanks to my stubborn abstinence from newspapers and news shows during my school and college days. Nevertheless, there used to be those occasional moments of regret, during which I used to feel that I should indeed take a few minutes off of my busy days of goofing around doing nothing with friends, and read a few lines of the day's Hindu editorials, or check up a bit on the latest change of allegiance of Karunakaran's party members, or take a look at the finance budget presented the previous day. It wasn’t that my household lacked the air of political awareness, newspapers, or a television playing some India/Kerala vision News, twenty four hours a day. My dad was a hard core news junkie, watching the news on 4 to 5 different channels starting at 6:30 in the evening stretching well into the night. However, this glorious period of my dad's news-watching peak thankfully coincided with my eleventh and twelfth standard in school, meaning I did not have much time anyway, after all the tuitions possible cramped into a week (actually my situation was rather ‘light’ when compared to the next generation). Not that I would have watched it with him anyway.

Now that my years have rooted itself firmly into the later part of it's twenties, I have started to feel the void of not having all those wonderful opinions about the world, its makings, and its makers, which several of my rather interesting peers seem to possess and make a point to share across to the world at every opportunity. Added to all this, comes the hours I need to be in office, pretending to be productive in front of the computer, even though it is common knowledge in my office that we have not had any real work for months. So, I end up spending hours of my ‘productive’ time browsing through articles on subjects as varied as the iOS, to Methamphetamine, to ‘The Economic liberalisation in India’, which all has started making me ramble on about several of these topics in conversations that I have been having.

Lately I have been trying to particularly follow the development of our very own beloved capital city of Thiruvananthapuram. Not that there is a lot going on to ‘follow’. Even though I have been away from my home town for over four years now, I have been in the city enough to see that very little has improved in these past few years. In fact, the condition of the city seems to have gone backwards significantly in the last few years. When I did live in the city there were plans of road expansions and ring roads, and in fact the beautiful stretch of the Kowdiar road was widened and opened. The plans for the ring road made very little sense to me at the time of their announcement and partial implementation. But after a few years in the midst of the real 'India Shining' experience in Bangalore and Hyderabad, I've come to realize how far ahead to the future you need to set your sights to and plan, if you want to keep pace with some of the other states in India. I've not been to Gujarat, but I keep reading about how Narendra Modi has revitalized a dying state and has transformed a state into an investment heaven (It seems 'It is stupid if you are not in Gujarat'). I think I remember reading in ’98 that Gujarat was dead broke, or maybe I am just imagining things.

While none of the people I've talked with are experts on the subject, it looks like Kerala is going nowhere in terms of development. I tried to read up on the development initiatives of Kerala, and could not find much on the topic. The most useful, by far has been blogs by a senior from CET, Ajay Prasad, which gave very specific and on the ground commentary about the projects going on in the state, albeit with a slight inclination towards the left.

I wish someone would at least write a column, or a blog, to try and analyze the (bad) state of things in the city and in the state. Since it would be hypocritical of me to urge other people to show at least a passing interest in the plans for the city, I thought I would give my two cents worth about it. Since my experience in this field of social commentary is severely limited, I expect other folks (from the prestigious colleges, the IT companies, the expatriates, et al) to give it another serious shot.

So I have decided to use my rather abundant free time to write something and have my next post on this subject, just to make sure that I keep blogging and my poor blog here does not die. Maybe it will prompt some of my other friends to fish out their blogging pens and write something on this topic too (or in the very least write something).

P.S: Thanks to my friend Pitt from college for reminding me I haven’t blogged in a long time.

A Civic sense..

I had started on this across the seven sea relocation, drooling over the thona kaykal this whole thing was supposed to offer me. Now after a month of doing almost next to nothing, I have found myself in a spot that is very familiar to me - the edge of being broke. I had had enough of being broke in Trivandrum, to shift to Bangalore to continue being broke and onto a continuation in Hyderabad of the same. I had expected a monastic existence in the US was what the doctor would prescribe and had gone ahead with the very difficult choice of moving here without C.

Now suddenly nothing makes much sense. I am stuck at home with no TV, no movies, no one to talk to and no car to go anywhere. To top it all off my bank balance is steadily dwindling. And if that weren't bad enough, I went to an ATM to get cash to buy lunch, the ATM refused to provide me any money and to add to the injury, refused to give me back my ATM. Then I realized that the check card was a temporary one and it was high time it would have expired. So now I have three dollars in my wallet. Not that I would need a lot many notes in my wallet to sit at home and watch infomercials on the basic channels which come free with Comcast.

In the morning, while my laundry was being done, I took out my ten dollar, goodwill secondhand roller blades and headed out to the tennis court (hah!) to try roller blading for a while. Well in case anyone is wondering why the tennis court - I do not yet know how to stop very well and you can imagine what would happen if I try something on the very sloping roads in front of my house. But the cold got to me, it got to my bones and I had to hang up my blading shoes and think of other things to do while my clothes were being done. So that sent me jogging to the gym and a few sets of heavy shoulder presses and lat pulls followed.

Now I am sitting here and thinking of how to get enough money to buy a car once my social security number comes. Again, it needs to be seen if the social security card actually gets here to my mailbox, considering that my name is not there anywhere on the lease (which might explain why I did not get my debit card which was sent weeks back). Keeping my fingers crossed that both the debit card and social security number comes soon, and hoping that someone sells me a Honda Civic for less than three thousand bucks...

Does anyone know anyone in Atlanta selling a car?

A jab in the face

Its been a month that I've been in Atlanta and when I look back I am not so sure what I did this last month. My new year was wasted in the New Delhi International Airport with a Canadian settled Indian lady and her obese son sharing the dinner table with me at the New Delhi International terminal. I did not even notice the minute hand cross the 12 mark, and it was already 15 minutes past 12. What a way to welcome the new year into my life. Taking how my new year went, something tells me that life ain't going to be a lot of fun this coming year. I've had to leave my better half in Hyderabad and move to Atlanta on a long term assignment. Its going to be hard on both of us, with just two months together after getting married. We had not even gotten used to replying to people with 'Yes, I am married', or introducing the other as 'Husband/Wife' to friends.

Settling here in the US was a cakewalk compared to last time. There was no roaming around in downtown in the middle of the night with two suitcases and no idea where to go or not even the search for accommodation in places where drug dealers were quite conspicuously standing outside. This time around, I already had an apartment waiting for me thanks to my colleague who got here two weeks ahead of me. And how hard is it to settle into an empty life?

Finally after 4 weeks of inactivity I finally decided to go and do something. I had always wanted to take boxing classes. So after a fair bit of googling, I narrowed it down to a place which is walkable from a Marta (Atlanta's metro rail) station. I took a free sample class from the place and decided to go ahead with the place. They killed me the second day and I could not even lift my arms after an hour. The speed bag is as tricky as it looks. Same goes for the double end bag. I can't even jump rope properly! But the fun part was my first real spar. There is nothing like getting your face smashed up by a Chinese dude.. :-)

Everyone should try this!

So when do I learn Tango...?

My photography

International commerce for dummies

"How many countries have you been to, outside India?"
"One", I said.

"How about you man?"
"26"

How do you travel around the world without spending a lot of money?

I am sure a lot of adventurers around the world would have thought about this and come up with their own ingenious ideas. Shoestring budget travel and the lot. The one I like the most is the one which was explained to me by my new friend J.

J is from Switzerland and had shown early symptoms of being different from others. He put in what ever money he had and bought a second hand '96 volkswagen for an equivalent of 20k in Indian monies. He took this no frills workhorse all around Europe, driving through different countries and sleeping in the back with the seats taken out for the night. This was after his other costlier volkswagen was almost broken into in Romania at night. So when they'd be bored they'd hit the road and go to the beaches in France. Makes me wonder where I would go if I were bored. Vizag?

Then came the more difficult part. He developed a predeliction towards India. Now, you could drive all the way to India in a couple of weeks. IF. If it weren't for those looters in Baluchistan, says J. Two of his friends who attempted the same were left in the middle of the desert in their undies, just like in the movies.

So what do you do? Summer jobs pay well enough for the tickets. I can make upto the equivalent of a lakh INR by doing summer jobs says J. Good enough to come to India and splurge. And how do you make the trip more worthwhile with some intelligent commerce? Now what is Switzerland famous for? Banks ofcourse, but you can't pay for your Indian adventure with a Swiss bank. So you do the next best thing. You pay for it with a Swiss watch.

You buy a Swiss watch in Switzerland for say, INR 500. You come over to India with the money you made working summers and sell the watch for say INR 5000. Pays for a 3 day trip to Pondy it does. So what do you take from India that would help you get back a little more of your investment? We Indians would have certainly underestimated the value of a few of our very precious products.

J was kind enough to break it down for me. The Swiss were bad at bargaining and would prefer to throw out stuff which they don't need anymore rather than try to sell it second hand and make additional money like Indians. So they would throw out old bikes/mattress/all sort of junk (to them). This junk will be picked up by the junk truck and be taken off to be disposed. But, not if you are the ingenuious traveller trying to make most of what each culture has to offer. You get there first, making a round of all the neighbourhoods and checking out their driveways for junk. Say you see a few bikes (as in cycles) which were thrown off because they were old, or had minor problem like a bent wheel. You pick them all up and take them home.

So what do you get from India which would help you in Swiss commercial endeavors? You get the rubber mud guards with those bright tamil company logos (Murugan Cycles). Or you get the cover for your frame, which you see on all the local bicycles. Green, blue, red and what not. Who can forget those bells and peepees (don't know what else to call them!). Now you put in a little work and fix all of this onto the cycles you picked up and voila.. you have an Indian bike, which you can sell for say.. INR 8000. Your investment - a drive around the neighbourhood + 1 Re. for the mud guard + 10 Rs. for the cover + little effort in putting all this together. The swiss being very fond of cycling will buy it all up for the fashion statement he can make with his Indian bike while out for his morning cycling round. Now explain that to the puzzled customs officer in India with the raised eyebrow.

What else does India offer for the swiss. Who could forget ayurveda? You buy a bag full of Chandrika soap for Rs. 8 each and sell them for astronomical amounts. What? Its ayurveda. It can cure everything. If you have a problem in your stomach it will seep in through your skin and cure it. Never underestimate Chandrika ever again. I never would again.

Note: J has made about 8 trips to India selling stuff out of India to make up for a major share of his travel expenses. Then he went a step further. He took a job in India teaching French. I just wish J had a picture of himself selling Indian paraphernalia off the back for his VW golf which I could have put here.

Shapping..

"Hello"
"Helleeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwwwwweeee"

"Where are you..? Libra bar"
"No .. we are sh'a'pping..."
"Oh so you are drunk now aye?"

"No we are sitting on the road, waiting for them to come. Then we will start."

It always amazes me, how all my buddies back home get drunk in anticipation of getting drunk.

Home sweet home.

It has been about 9 months since I've set foot in Kerala and it would have been more if it had not been for Daisy Kutty*. Before going to bring Daisy Kutty, I had been there after recuperating from my Chicken pox bout in the hot April of '08. I still remember the sweat drenched nights and the buzz of those bloody mosquioes never letting me sleep while the power had gone off in the middle of the night. I had wowed never to return to Trivandrum in summer. Or never to return unless I had enough money to get my room back home airconditioned.

Daisy kutty has dashed all those hopes of going home after that June. She has caused me to stay back in Hyderabad longer, even after return from phoren land. Even though she is one hell of a sly lady when it comes to draining my pocket, I have to admit life is really much better since she has been around. Though lately she has been giving me continuous back pain.

Anyway, not digressing any longer, back to the point at hand. I had finally requested for leave, surprising my manager, who had made up his mind that I had run away from home after committing fraud of some kind and could never go back home. I had never asked for leave since he had taken office, while P had asked atleast 3-4 times in the same period. There is nothing happening in office anyway, with the team being overstaffed and no maintenance issues. Client is reasonably happy and our TM never wants anything more.

What I am going to really miss is the show which is coming up at Steps. We had been practicing quite fervently over that last few weeks on both the beginner and advanced salsa routines. There were too many hip-hop routines for me to follow, so I never gave much thought to that, and with so many people in hip-hop attention would anyway be on others. V and A would remember all the routines from the last century and I could always learn it from them later on. But suddenly the show was postponed and it clashed with my trip back home. I did not want to piss of P, but finally went and told him that I would not be there for the show. He took it surprisingly well, and went on business as usual. Later I came to understand why. I would again be digressing if I were to follow that story here.

People are surprised that I am leaving on a monday instead of Friday. But I cannot miss two weekends here. Last few weekends have been memorable, with Super Pondy trip and the drive to Basar. Holi was two days ago and it turned out to be one helluva Holi to start off my Holi playing days with. We 3 newbies ended up having a lot of fun with the other three experienced players. We then topped the day off with the worst movie ever - 13B.


Some pics to cover the whole story...

Silent Beach - Pondicherry

Me and Anuhya practising our pose!

As Sidharth was saying - This reminds us that our country needs a long way to go and money needs to trickle down to the lower levels. (From Basar trip)

Shows that even though I dont have a D60 (I have an S3IS), I can still take some kick ass photos if I am lucky enough. (From Basar trip)

Holi '09

*Daisy Kutty- My Esteem Di. High maintenance. So miss sunflower decided she is a girl and named her Daisy. Undakkanni came in one day and added a dash of malayalee'ness by attaching the kutty at the end.

Late night trysts..

Being back from the US I would have expected to have some moolah atleast to keep my nerves steady, even if it were not enough to go out partying every weekend or so. But not too surprisingly what ever money I saved from the US has gone down the drain on my car which is giving me a string of unending problems, or again on the welcome back partying and new year partying. But have got to admit it though; the new year party was a party to remember. It was certainly the wildest party I have been too. Shiva was a newbie party boy and he sure was not at all disappointed with this tryst with the clubbing crowd. Unlimited drinks (considering that couples and stags had to shell out 6k, it was not a bargain) and an eager crowd along with seasoned party goers. Even I am getting quite good at enjoying myself at parties, getting drunk and holding a few drinks down. And ofcourse I love the lasers.

I have never been a big drinker, and have started seriously drinking only recently in the last few months of partying. Here too I tend to stick to vodka based drinks or a long Island Ice Tea, trusting it to kick in fast and leave me fast enough to drive back afterwards. Vodka with redbull is perfect for me since it gets me drunk enough, without making me sleepy and giving a hell lot of energy to freak out for two hours straight and more if it weren't for the Hyderabad 12 midnight curfew. And I have found perfect partners for drinking and dancing too. I just wish A would be a little more free to come out dancing that would make two awesome dance partners.... lets see
Sutra in Atlanta.. fun place... different crowds different days. This particular day was for ABCDs. Explains why I had to get drunk alone (1 beer, 2 l-Iced teas, 2-vodka red bulls, 1 vodka brandy) and had to be practically carried out by the bouncers.

Salsa Havana, where I saw some pro Salsa dancing.

Take Hold Ballroom Academy.. some of the best Salsa I have seen yet. A guy there turned so fast that I heard the swishing sound. And I met a very cute girl too.. Danced with her a lot. :D

Tongue and Groove.. Wednesday Salsa night.. With Lourdes and Dee.



Now thats another wild party. 10 d the place to be!!!.. and look who joined in at the end!!!!

Firangi pani.. Now thats where I saw Hip Hop in India

The rest places were nothing great.. and we did not get great group pictures... shame..! I had really loved the chicks in the new year party!!!

Fly High

Its been two years in the making and finally the day is here. I am quite tensed up. The flight to Atlanta is at 0400 tomorrow. I have to check in a couple of hour earlier meaning I have to leave home tonight.

Hopefully the travel will give ample oppurtunity for blogging.

1000 Turn adventure

The thousand pillar temple turned out to be thousand u-turn temple, with us around in circles trying to find the way to the supposed kakatiya marvel. Finally after going back and forth on the same road a few times, we managed to get the right directions and turned into the lane leading to this architectural wonder. Wonder it might have been, if we actually saw a thousand pillars. Actually a few pillars would have been impressive, but we could identify only a couple from among all the scaffolding erected to restore the place. The whole structure was probably 20m X 20m, which was a massive let down after temples like Suchindra and Madurai Meenakshi. We ended up taking pictures of a few stray puppies and pondering over their lineage, imagining up german ancestors for them.

The 1000 pillar temple

The German Lineage

We decided to hit Ramappa temple next. This time around I had gotten a better hang of the place and all the poring over the google maps came to our aid. We found the Mulug highway with resonable east, which led to the Ramappa temple and started out on the well maintained road with all the gaiety we could muster. Munching on a packet of chips we drove about 50 kms through moderately interesting terrain, passing a few toddy workers, lots of fields and lots of cattle on the roads. By this time, a bullock cart minus the bullocks was spotted by my travel partner and she promptly expressed her interest in filling in for the absent animal. I obliged and we took a few pictures of the 'feeling in the bullocks shoes' (or heels or whatever) scene, and even joined in towards the end to get a taste of all the shoe feeling that was going around. Rumbling and murmuring from the nearby bushes from the not so amused owner of the cart send us back to the car and we again got back on the road.

A little while later we encountered a few bulls (docile ones if anyone's wondering) feeding lavishly on the side of the road. Again my ever enthusiastic travel partner wanted to be a part of the country 'naatinpuram' landscape and we ended up taking a few pics with them eyeing each other suspiciously. The bull thankfully did not act upon its suspicions and the story ended happily with us getting back to munching on our chips and the bull back to its hay and all the by standers laughing their asses off looking at the little white devil with the scared face posing with the bull as if for a facebook best friends display picture. Next stop was at a similar spot, when we felt the need to get in touch with nature on seeing the picteresque paddy fields glowing in the sun. So again a photosession ensued and we drew quizzical glances from passerbys which we neutralized by clicking away at them. That seemed to appease them all. Everybody wants to be a model.


The joyride was sadly cut short when I stupidly drove into a diversion and ended up scraping the bottom of my car. This led us back to Warangal, with a moaning car, leaking some unknown fluid, for rest of the uneventful ride back to Warangal, partly because I was worried about the car, and partly because of some random remarks from miss smarty pants. All the worrying turned out to be for nothing as the car was fixed for a hundred bucks at a maruti service center which was luckily open and we ended up hitting another temple and driving back home to Hyderabad in really high spirits..

The next trip ought to be much more fun since RTR is coming back soon and Naved has already booked tickets for the 19th..

Hiatus

A year back if somebody had told me that I would prefer taking out the car instead of my bike, I never have agreed to it. Yet two months into having a car here (after bringing my car over from Kerala), here I am driving around everyday, to office, to classes, meeting friends in my Esteem (Di).

Its one of the worst engines to have been brought out in the last few years, I am sure (Heard its a Fiat engine producing 56 bhp). But leaving the engine out of it, the car is perfect for me. Especially since I did not pay for it! Its comfy, and it gives awsome mileage and come to think of its not much more to pay for the comfort than my bike. Might come to 10-20 bucks more a day, which my roomie Jayan swears is lesser than what he pays going by share autos here in hyderabad.

Once it starts moving above 20 kmph there nothing to complain about. It touches 140-150 if given enough time, and is resonably light with its power steering and shock absorbers. Not that I am an expert on cars and I have barely driven a few models of cars. I certainly know it is horrid to drive bumper to bumper. Quite impossible with the AC on, and in Hyderabad, the heat forces me to confront the impossible quite often, especially when out on the road with teammates at noon, off to lunch or a team member's wedding.

But now late nights in the office have become convienient and much more safer. The other day, giving in to nostalgia I came to office on my bike and that very day made me stay in office till 11 30 at night (that too after a whole day in training, then an hour of aerobics and then an hour in the gym), and I do not know how I made it back home at night through the dust, the glaring headlights, and worst the idiot pedestrians of Hyderabad. The bike is certainly looking at an early retirement.with maybe a few honorable rides just to get groceries.

Well I hope this blog will be an icebreaker after the long hiatus. I have been trying to get back to blogging, but with little success. I have not been doing much worth blogging about. Watched a few movies. Downloaded a few movies at home. Reread a few books. Thats about it..!!! (Dark Knight.. need to rewatch it.. Kung Fu panda.. cute.. Casablanca. worth the watch..Guards Guards.. pure Terry Pratchett.. Solitude.. reread nth time).

The dance classes have been going well, and I have started teaching the absolute beginners Salsa basics. The group has become stronger and shows promise of being a great gang to hang out with and go for some trip soon. Madurai is under discussion.

Now that I am planning to go home for onam, I am looking forward to taking a few snaps, and a little work with Photoshop. Kichu has inspired me. I mean, I think he even surprised himself with his knack with the camera and photoshop..! Same for Sujay. I would never have guessed that he had such an artistic streak hidden in him while we were growing up together in Trivandrum.


Hoping the trip back home will provide something interesting to blog about.

Stop, re-evaluate, continue...

When I was scrambling about to write the previous blog a couple of days back, I was facing a severe lack of subjects to blog about. Maybe the problem was that I was so used to having those umpteen number of colorful friends resulting in a fairly high number of humorous incidents. But the last blog brought out a comment from 'yama dootan' which has resulted in a bulb going off on top of my head.

"TINGGGG!!!" (or something of the that sort. You get the picture).

The gist of what he asked was whether I was happy after all this. Something to the line of me being unhappy after all this and maybe he being happier after having a ton of cash in the bank.

Now I am not sure whether the question was a serious one, or a understandably misguided opinion after reading what I did write. It is in fact understandable if someone would have assumed that I am not quite happy with what I have right now. I usually tend to tone down the matter and try to twist it to sound maybe a little more humorous than it actually is.

Now, what I wanted to point out was, never did I actually mean that I do not lead a happy life right now. In fact people who know me or knew me from back in Trivandrum would agree strongly that I am one of the strongest candidate for living one's dreams after coming out of their college lives (in a purely social context, because I am still getting paid peanuts). While most of the people I know are bored with work and do not have much of weekend life outside their extensively enjoyable day of washing clothes, cooking and watching TV, I can indeed lay claim to a little over dramatic line of 'Oh, such a hectic weekend. Wish I had more time to do everything I had to do'. On a lighter note, I have indeed felt the need to find a companion to spend my Saturday mornings with, but I would say that the following continuous marathon weekend involved would justify the 3-4 hours of cleaning/washing/the aforementioned extensively enjoyable work I too engage in (though I try to put it off all the time and wish I never had to do).

Pause. Re-evaluation of the current stand.

Savings: 0

Well, I do know a hell lot of people who have indeed become technical lakhpathis in their own right in the last two years. I am deviating from my normal unconfrontational approach to my blog (I do not think of writing about girls and related admiration of their species as politically incorrect, especially at the ripe age of 23, which according to me too young to become too mature. You can bloody afford to be a little bloody light when you are young. The fact that I am continuing this blog after a meeting involving a heated argument with on site has absolutely nothing to do with the abrupt change in intensity/quality of words being used). Personally I do not agree with the philosophy of living like saints and saving up money in your bank accounts at this age. Well if you were a young Warren Buffet it would be different, which is anyway irrelevant since he probably made his million before this, and he definitely did not make his millions sitting in front of a computer screen and wasting away weekends only cooking and cleaning.

The only point I see for making money in my opinion are:

• actual raw requirement of raw cash to buy the materialistic stuff that you need
• the raw pleasure of knowing that you are good at making money (maybe a little Warren Buffet'ish)
• some sort of predicament you find yourself in, infected by yourself (as in spending in the range of 20k a week in pubs on credit, which actually is a spin off of the first clause) or filmy style family need of pengalude kalyanam, or very understandable supporting retired parents.
  

Other than this, I feel the life that many of my friends/colleagues lead; working their asses of for something completely intangible and spiritually un-fullfilling, coming back home to a messy house being shared with similar minded individuals doing the same thing, lounging around at home in their lungis and still dreaming of a Dil Chahta Hai lifestyle; is completely pointless. True that a few of the are amassing wealth at an unnerving rate. But sometimes I feel many are forgetting the big picture. We might still be burdened with the same sense of urgency to settle down and dredge through life and save money which lingers from the gulf going, stone carrying malayali from the 1970s. In the last generation, almost all the chettans were having the time of their lives, going to the kayal varambu at night, stealing cocunuts (climbing involved), and drinking at such picteresque localities on a weekly to daily basis, or even stealing batteries from random cars/bikes and selling them to buy juice. All of them turned out fine in life by 30. Contrastingly 23 year old young men now are mellowed down enough to be sitting at the same point, only moving their fingers an inch to the left, right or down, and worrying about their managers shouting at them for not doing something which will (might, when come to think of it) accomplish something you certainly cannot see. I mean, I can understand if your manager shouted at you for forgetting to put in the fourth column before starting on building the roof. But what is it to me if I forget to put in a stored procedure into the production database (existence of which I now seriously doubt. I mean, I haven't seen it till now. Is it just an excuse to make up write all this bullshit) which is causing random error to popup at some Call center people sitting in Riverdale.

So when they spend their lives without point, dropping out of IT to go back to studies, or back to their core fields, or even a flashback to the 80s kind secure Govt jobs, I certainly feel I have something special. Does it really matter that I am not making my millions at 23/24, and am instead having quite contended life, spending all the money on myself (especially vainly spending money on looking good and feeling good without a morsel of remorse). Come to think of it my philosophy throughout life was always taking as little effort as possible and achieving as much as possible, having as much fun as possible en route to all that bullshit.

Another problem with making all this money, living on Kanji and payar, is that you never learn to spend money well, enough to have fun, but safe enough not to leave you out on the streets. Yet another problem; many of them do not know why they are making the money that they are in fact making. Is it to build hospitals? At least that would have given a sense of purpose to an otherwise pointless life. All this leads to another stage that I would detest to have to be in. Waiting to get married, just because you are bored, just waiting to be 25 so that society will at least accept that you are getting married. You are settled, you have a ton of money in the bank, and now you can just write away your life and freedom to get married just so that you do not have to spend your saturdays alone at home. Was'nt there a ton of promise ahead of you?

It does seem a far cry in my life. I personally have too many things left to do. When am I buying a bullet and going for ride to Tripura (I might have to take up a map to actually find where in northeast India it is. I hope its the eastern most point. See, I am trying to make a point here and I would prefer it to be as strong as possible)? When am I going to live in Finland for a year and a half? When am I going back-packing with a mamoth lens SLR canon through the dusty streets of old Madagascar?

Well some people would indeed find all these quite reasonable questions, relevance of which is quite high, maybe not specifically in those places and camera models, but they would get the picture. But many other people would not. Even if they think that they want to do many of these things, I feel they never will. And there will always be few other who never dream of these things or anything for that matter. And doing all these things take time and money (Of which I have very little, but that you'll already know if you reach this part of the blog, remember the saving 0 part). So my claim that I am not going to get hitched before 30 might not actually be as far fetched as it might seem at first look. Take a look at the IT guys who are getting married at 26. Did they ever learn horse riding ? Did they ever fire a high powered long bored magnum? Probably not.

I keep forgetting what the point to all this random babbling was. I just hated being politically correct all the time. I got off my ass and did something and I do not regret it. I see many people who will benefit from doing the same, but will not get around to doing it. All I want to say to those people is, get off your bloody asses and get going on the road to finding your dreams.

Out. P.E.A.C.E. (damn.. there I go being politically correct again. Go fuck yourselves!)

Last wind of change..

As the years pass by (technically 2 years qualifies me to start using years as a reference of time to measure my life), we see various changes in us. Many of my last few blogs have somehow or the other dealt with these very changes. Anyway, since I have not been blogging for quite a while, I'll convert a mail into a blog. Well does it matter if its a lame one as long as the blog actually keeps going forward ?

There was a time when we used to skip a trip to the beach just because each one could not put in 5 bucks, and we could never in a million years comprehend how a single guy could possibly spend 20k a month. Right now I am at a point in my life where I could imagine how I could easily spend a lot more. Hell.. I had even made plans of investing and made detailed plans on what my imaginary portfolio was going to look like. Right now, forget savings, I am scrambling to keep my head afloat after my regular expenses. The only thing that seems to be a solution to my current situation is the next hike coming up, by which time I'll be wondering how in hell I made through this one year with so little money each month.

My circle of friends, may it be my biker friends, or my college friends, were never extravagant. Though there were exceptions to this rule in the form of Joji and Dasappan, the general rule was to eat from home as much as possible, walk as much as possible, take the bus as much as possible and put in as little money as possible for petrol when going for long rides and hope somebody else will pick up the tab for cigarettes, liquor and miscellaneous expenses and try to put up a face trying to show that you have put in your fare share of the ride. Gifts for friends were kept at the bare minimum, with people putting in an average of 25-30 bucks apiece, contributing to a grand total of 200-300 bucks. That bunny looks good.. but too costly.. lets get this shitty ass wind chime.

Then came the move to Bangalore where I started out living with 8 other roomies in a 2 BHK, happily paying 1.5k rent every month, even vetoing a bill to shift to a better place paying 500 bucks more. We all started frequenting Marathahalli and Brand factories skipping up a level from 100 buck Tees to the 250 buck ones and half price Branded Jeans to the envy of mates back home.

Now after 2 years, I find an irrestible urge to pick up any 38 sized shirts, whatever the prize( and what ever the bloody color). It never does matter, whether I have any money or not. The motto is, I can always make it up next month. My wardrobe, though not a designer haven yet, still sports all the popular international brands.

The 25-30 bucks gifts went upto 2-3 k gifts, as soon as Shinu's and Naomi's influence started creeping in. And it is not a bad thing at all. Who said being materialistic is bad. What the hell do we make all the money for ? Debasish, Anitha and Spoo did their part too. Birthday gifts ballooned up from 200-300 buck affairs to 4k affairs. Wedding gifts have stopped being cheap 6 piece dinner sets and have elevated themselves into the proper TV ad levels, with nakshatra.. Ash rai dancing around in all the flames ....and resulting in a diamond pendant/ring/...whatever.

Even though I never actually started drinking per se, I've begun to feel its a waste of time going to a pub and wasting all this money without having one of my Long Island Ice Teas just to blur the laser beams a little when I try to scare away all the people with the mix of Salsa and Hiphop I get to practice for the odd 8 hrs or so of dancing at the studio these days.

Music. Even that has changed. Rock to hip hop and now onto house, which I can't get enough of these days, especially while working... People must think I am mad looking intenty into the computer screen, typing my ass off and bobbing my head to a trance beat.

....... Enough of this.....

Well, I hope I can break off from all this 'change' blogs and actually start blogging about my real life.. Maybe I'll stay a loser a little more time aye!!