R-Rated

Got absolutely drenched Thursday night due to the heavy downpour in Namma Bengaluru. The last time this happened was somewhere in the late 90s after college or so. To make matters worse that day, we got stuck in traffic for nearly 2 hours, for a 10km ride from El. City and the fact that we were starving to death because of a light snack in the evening. But alls well that ends well. Got a good night's sleep and was back to work before time the following day. Sam flew in from Delhi on Friday night and went around town last night (Forum and Koramangala area to be precise) and then to a friend's place later on. Earlier in the day, met a family friend after nearly 10 years and had a good time catching up on old times. Caught up with some ICC Champions Trophy match between India and Pakistan and called it a night past midnight. All in all a good Saturday after a long time. Planned to watch What's Your Rashee at the last minute, but, unfortunately (or fortunately) all the shows ...

Eid Mubarak to one and all. Long weekend in India. This one will be followed by one more (Dusshera) and one more (Gandhi Jayanthi). Literally, back-to-back-to-back. Good thing right. Naah! I will be in Bangalore till at least Diwali when I run off to Bombay again. One silver lining next week comes in the form of Samit who drops in from Delhi. Should be a good time then. So what did I do this weekend? Went off to see Wanted: Dead or Alive at the Forum on Saturday (all by myself). That's a first for me. Enjoyed a Salman Khan movie after a long time. The movie could easily have done without at least 3 songs. Thoroughly needless ones. With all the trouble Boney Kapoor went through financing the movie and the court troubles, not shooting those songs would have saved him some highly needed cash. Sunday went without much excitement as I was home watching movies on my roommate's laptop. Ended up watching Dil Bole Hadippa as well. Barring 15 minutes of watchable scenes, the movie is c...

While I have been blogging for nearly 2 years now and that visitors (like you) are fairly low in number, I would still like to know who you are. Although I know one of my UA friend is a regular here (and yes, it is you Hari), I don't know who are the other frequent fliers. If you choose to remain anonymous, that is also fine, but kindly leave a comment or two in the message box that is on the right side of the webpage. I am trying to get a feel for how often do you stop by. The reason I am asking you to do this is because I need your help. No, it has nothing to do with donations or anything monetary, but here I am in my third month in Bangalore and I am absolutely bored. I need some suggestions to utilize my time efficiently and effectively. Please refrain from suggesting using the gym or joining a book club. These 2 are not my cuppa tea. My mind is 100% blank about extra-curricular activities and I need some 'external' help. One of my closest friends had suggested joining...

Earlier this evening there was a near scary incident at work. A Korean/Taiwanese employee of the company was complaining about having a 'sore throat'. In the present circumstances, this could only mean one thing. Swine Flu symptoms. Well, not exactly. At least for now. The person was sent to a hospital for tests whose results would come 3 days later. An agonizing and uneasy feeling. The ironic or sad part is that multiple groups of engineers share the same wing in the same tower and yet only one group has been given the permission to work from home. And our group did not even come to know about this incident until about couple hours after the "sick" person was asked to leave. We are still supposed to report to work tomorrow since there has not been any official announcement. What to do!! I am just praying that the test results are negative and we can all 'breathe' a sigh of relief. Until then it is going to be an excruciatingly long and arduous couple of days...

Just wound up a relaxing and refreshing trip to Mumbai this past week. Met with family and friends and had a great time catching up with details of the last 6 months. The new house is very spacious and airy. This is the first time in 23 years we have lived above the ground floor, 4th to be precise. There isn't much scramble about swine flu in Mumbai although one of my closest friends is down with jaundice for completely unknown reasons. The main "issue" for some of my family members (in-laws included) was the length of the mustache that I had grown. I had been growing a "handle-bar" moush for the past 1 month and it had grown to a fairly reasonable "length", I suppose. My father (and to some extent, my wife) have opposed any look that goes beyond a short hair cut and a clean shaven face. This time there was staunch resistance from my mom-in-law as well. My mother-in-law recommended that I cut-off the 'handle-bar' portion of it, but I was not g...