Strange Ramblings

Presently enjoying the much needed hiatus from work, the past 2 weeks have been nothing short of awesome. And adding to that I finally am staying at home, for more than just a vacation, after a good long 5 years. Feels surreal, and reminds me of the good ol' days when things like  What is on TV tonight?  or  What is there for dinner?  were my biggest worries. Its almost like I, myself am living in a Kingdom of Dreams (KOD).  So what actually is KOD. As their very own marketing campaign says, "It is Dilli Haat on steroids". Aptly put. Its a modern cultural hub. A blend of India's art, culture, heritage, craft, cuisine et. al, with all the technological wizardry of today. And if I daresay, it does give a feel of an elaborate film studio set, after all it is designed by one. Also, as a matter of fact, construction cost is estimated at a whopping Rs. 200 crores, and it feels like it. It has 3 main divisions as of now:  Culture Gully: an elaborate culture, arts, craft...

One of the feeble reasons why I came to Qatar is that I didn't want my Passport to expire again without getting some kind of stamp on it. I could have just flown off for a vacation to Bermuda instead, but then I’d have to have paid for it ;) With 2 more days to go in the desert, it feels about time I capped my stay here with one last writ (albeit more of a photo journal) from these lovely foreign shores.     26th July 2009   The day I embarked upon my professional journey. The day I set foot upon unchartered territory. Feelings and emotions overwhelming my psyche. Feelings like anxiety, excitement, fear, awe and the feeling that everything around you is getting bigger.    

 It was every bit brilliant as it seems. Though I am pretty sure I would have to leave trying it out for another life. The poses themselves were brilliant. The Thinker, Mr. Clean, The Coppertone Baby (my fav, Dhall really did a brilliant job on this one), Superman, et al. The biggest miss was the Burt Reynolds pose, "the one with lying around naked" pose The Time is Dec 2008, the very next day of landing in Goa, when we still waiting for a few others to arrive, at Miramar Beach running along the beautiful Panjim, if my memory serves me right. The day had some really innovative captures. P.S. What would I be? Posted via email from The JiNXd !!

I t was NOT just a show. Beware of the blasphemy on your part if you think otherwise. It took Jack Bauer (a.k.a Keifer Sutherland in real world) just one day to capture the imagination of the world. And he shared 7 more days from his life with us mortals. And the journey has been nothing but spectacular. In this world, where species have a dormant dream to be badass, 24 and Jack Bauer have been nothing short of a revitalising drug. You don't often get to see your wildest dream take an almost tangible form on the small screen and, I can smell it, add spice to our mundane lives.  Real time storytelling,  ..the end justifies the means ideology,  ..the head-on raw approach towards terrorism,  ..Jack's colour-blindness (If there are lives to be saved, everything else goes out of the window),  ..torture redefining (yes, the taboo word has been portrayed countless times, often taking it to the next level), ..recognizing the necessity to kill (Only Jack has made through from th...

OFFICE PARTIES ARE SO OVER-RATED. Oh wait, they are not. The one which I went to yesterday, couldn't have been lamer. Everything that I have seen about them in movies or read in books is true. A rocking party is like a 4 wheeler, you get stuck even if one of the wheels is missing. Hot Babes should be invited. Booze. Good Food. Great Music. Shockingly, organizers managed to goof up on all the 4 fronts. You don't find too many chicks on a construction site, so they should have fuckin' invited people from the head office. Or atleast provided us with booze so as to make us not fret too much about how thy party sucked. "You don't eat meat? How the hell do you get the proteins into your system?"  WTF(*^#@)(*$^$)@_!@%! Come On you asshole, lot of people are vegans and they fuckin' will go on to live longer that you. And btw, even the salads were confusing. And please someone shoot that guy who selected the music. Seems like Arabic Music has only one scale on ...

Some things are inseparable. Like EXTRAVAGANT SPENDING and the ARAB WORLD . So I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when I walked into the mock-up flats done for my current project. Quite evidently, the good part of 21 years that I have lived in India has left a lasting impression, and rightly so. Lavish, Flamboyant and Flashy interiors with vibrant colors just caught me off guard. The only thing wrong about the whole affair was the intention of the client to lure prospective buyers with such lavish spendings, where a spoon cost 2k INR and a carpet cost 20-25k, when the very well know, no normal residence will be decorated even remotely close to what was on display. All said, you have to show off the POTENTIAL of the space, So...:) Catch the pics here Until next time. Ciao. P.S. Oh almost forgot. MIDMAC is throwing in a dinner party tonight at Inter Continental Hotel, Doha for all the hard work. Expecting big things. Posted via email from Strange Ramblings !!

... you pay more for drinking water than what you pay for fuel. ... you sweat buckets within 5 mins of standing under the sky in aug - sept. ... you get high quality Sheesha. ... you fail to see a single cloud for like 10 months a year. ... you see or not see the burqa-clad women wherever you turn your head. ... you find most of the retail, banking and other public services snoozing off midday around the year. ... you wake up at 3:30 am to get to the office for a few months. ... you cough up 130 Rs. for like 5 pcs of GolGappe. . .. you get a whiff off a butchery shop in the most poshest of malls let alone street shops. ... you pay over 800 Rs. to watch Avatar in IMAX 3D, the theatre o'course still being not upto Indian standards. ... you have the biggest football game in Qatar history in 2-3 weeks and still the authorities are clueless about everything starting from tickets. ... you are stopped from entering malls and restaurants on a friday stating re...

Warning: Content might be offensive to some. As if we needed any more telling on this. Still, from time to time, we stumble upon stuff that tend to reestablish the fact that "World is Crazy". One such masterpiece is  this . Yup, it is very much what the name suggests. A social (sexual) networking website. I mean who was the genius who thought of this. The 'usual' mapping of where people are having sex in the world is there, ie o'course if people are crazy enough to share it, with some nice add-ons. The age old question of "Where" is addressed beautifully: Indoor, Outdoor, Car, Boat, Hotel with a few more pointers about safe sex, first time etc. If this was not enough, they further go on to categorize mapping with hetrosexual, gay and lesbian markers and the "BIG BUNNY" steps in wherever there is to much bang*** going on. And how I have forgotten about the positions. O'course they have those too. The site would have been incomplete otherwi...

Yes, I was bold enough to get bald . Just hope that you recognize me when our paths cross on some random street. So this is how I spent last Friday.  Worrying at first. Should I or Should I not. Getting to the barber's and going for the same ol' boring cut. "Oh what the heck, dekhi jaayegi"  kinda attitude to stop the barber in between and go with the trimmer. Indecision was a big part of the whole affair. Just wondering if all the first timers had such difficulty in going through with it. All said, I am glad that I did it and it has turned out pretty darn well. You might feel compelled to ask Why? For me it was more of curiosity about how i'd look and how it'd feel and the little thing called now or never .  'Delighted' is the word that describes my current state of mind. The small joy's that it brings like finally being able to ditch the everyday combing, the feeling of a well-mowed grass on your head, the water droplets reaching your skull...

There is a tradition in our college (as all colleges have), to beat the shit out of people on their B'days. So much so that they'll start regretting the day they were born. It is supposed to be a "4 pronged attack", which I am still not clear on, but i think they went something like this: *utha ke laat maarna*, *door se bhaag ke aake laat maarna*, RAPIDFIRE and my personal favorite FLAMES. Thank goodness we were, sort of, a peaceful lot and hated violence. I am glad that i wasn't put through such ordeal for my entire term at BITS, though I did participate in some of such brutal acts rather nonchalantly. Besides the violence, we also had the usual stories, confessions and other blah blah. Sometimes we ended up making people do "stuff" that is well X-rated and certainly not suitable for blogging. One such incidence was Mimsy's b'day Nov 1, 2008, the guy can really entertain sometimes :) Of all the b'days that we ended up sharing over 4 years, ...

                                 Dilli Meri Aan Baan aur Shaan !! The picture says it all. I can't believe I have not blogged about Delhi until now. For those of you who know me the slightest bit, it should have come as a surprise :) I have no clue where this is (please let me know if you have an idea, i'd like to visit this place),  just came across it on the internet and it reminded me of my beloved place. I have always loved everything about Saddi Dilli. The people, the food, the weather, everything that you could possibly think of. People have tried time and again to waver my adulation for the city, albeit unsuccessfully. I will admit to the naked truth that I sometimes stand by anything associated with Delhi rather stubbornly, but if u may cut me some slack, there are only so many things that one 'worships' in his or her life.