The Las Vegas drama!

We went to Las Vegas for this weekend. It was a great experience, no, i would say an exciting experience this time. The whole episode had lots of action, humour, gripping moments, emotional sentiments and loads and loads of fun!

The drive on the Interstate - 15 was exciting, as always. The mist clad mountains over the Cedar city, the gorgeous mountains in the Arizona border and Mesquite , the mini-vegas on the way were all exciting and thoroughly enjoyable.

There were four zealous drivers in the group, all raring to drive the Ford Taurus. I drove up the first leg of 106 Mi. All the other 6 eyes were carefully prying the odometer to make sure I dint cross my quota of 100 Mi (Salt lake to LV is 400 Mi and everyone agreed on driving 100 Mi each) :). I was lucky to drive an extra 6 Mi, because I couldnt find a rest area to pull-over for a driver change :)

Then it was my friend's (we call him "Master", for a reason) turn to take up the wheel. He was excited as everybody else was, but a bit more. So as soon as he sat on the driver's seat, he vroomed the car to more than 85 MPH (75 MPH was the posted speed limit). Everything was fine till that thing happened.

"That" thing is not an uncommon one for those who drive above the speed limits, dont stop in the STOP signs etc. Yes, you are right. Our speed was logged by the speed gun of a dutiful officer who was enjoying his saturday along the I-15. As usual, he had switched on his lights and started to follow us. I was on the phone chatting with my friend and the others who were at the rear seat were having good time chatting and babbling. There was no way that we could have noticed the cop except "Master". But as usual, "Master" was wearing his black Ray-Ban that prevented him from seeing what was happening around :) So he dint pull over and kept on going.

The cop got pissed off and he gave us a chase that you would have seen only in the movie "Speed". He overtook us with great pain (Master was driving at 95 MPH at that time) and pulled us over to the shoulder. More than speeding, the cop was furious with us for not stopping. Well, then, "Master" was hand-cuffed and was made to stand behind the car as a culprit. It was truly a very touchy situation. But, well, "somethings gotta happen" to make events memorable.

The funniest thing was, the cop not only issued a speeding ticket to Master but also gave 3 more tickets to the guys at the back for not wearing seat belts..Oops, that was the least expected thing to happen. All our ebullient faces became sober after this incident.

We became normal only after we reached Vegas. We made a whirlwind tour to almost all the famous casinos, the Bellagio, Paris, NY NY, MGM, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. We had a sumptous dinner at Jelato, the Bellagio buffet. Then, we enjoyed the dance of the fountains of Bellagio and started our journey back home..

On the way, none of us crossed the speed limits (not even by a Mile), never ever took off the rear seat belts, even after reaching home :)

These are kind of "Must to Have" experiences !! Right?

Rumble to Gamble!

Haiyyya...the weekend has finally arrived after a long hiatus (5 days) :). You know what? We are driving to Las Vegas tomorrow. This would be my second visit to the "Sin City"! Hoping to have a blast there!!

Facts about the Big B

Amitabh's home
Mr Bachchan loves comfort and style. He doesn't compromise on the same. The flooring at his home is Italian marble, the bath fittings are from France and Germany. It is said his bungalows -- Pratiksha and Jalsa -- put together, would be worth a whooping Rs 160 crore. Interestingly, Jalsa was gifted to the actor.

Amitabh's clothes
Amitabh is very fond of suits. His favourite is Gabbana. They have been designing his suits for the past 30 years. The fabric is especially imported from Italy, the thread from France and buttons from England. His other favourite brand is Fratelli Rosetti, with prices starting from Rs 35,000.

Amitabh's cars
The Big B owns 11 cars, including one Lexus, two BMWs and three Mercedes. His favourite is the Lexus. The car is bulletproof, and has radial tyres that are normally used for Formula 1 races. The cost of each tyre is Rs 2.5 lakh. The car also has a global positioning system -- which enables him to know, at the snap of his fingers, the closest food outlet or shopping mall he would like to visit.

Amitabh's eating habits

Though AB loves eating, he is diet conscious. He is a vegetarian, and loves authentic Italian food at Mezzo Mezzo, at Mumbai's JW Marriot.

Amitabh's passion
The Big B has a passion for collecting watches. It is said he never repeats his watches. His favourite brand is Longines, which costs about Rs 2 lakh. His other interest is collecting pens, which he might have inherited from his father, the late Shri Harivansh Rai Bachchan. The actor has a collection of over thousand pens. Mont Blanc gifts AB a special pen every year on his birthday.

Amitabh's favourite destinations
Bachchan loves to visit London and Switzerland. In London, he prefers to stay at St James Court, five minutes from Buckingham Palace. As they say, the queen and king are never too far away! He stays at the Presidential Suite. The hotel has especially designed a gym in his suite, and a lift that takes him to underground parking directly from his suite.

On Brand AB
According to ad pundits, the Big B charges anything between Rs 5 and 12 crores. According to one report, a company paid him Rs 10 crores for 10 days. That works out to Rs 7,000 per minute! Bruce Willis once commented, at the opening of Planet Hollywood, that Amitabh Bachchan was 'bigger than any Hollywood star.'

Feels Like

When you check weather.com, you must have noticed that there would be 2 temperatures indicated for the place you had selected. One of which is the actual outside temperature and the other is what it feels like taking in to consideration the humidity factor, dew factor etc. I call it the "Feels Like" weather.

Similarly, though today is officially "Thursday", I feel like it is "Friday" :). May be it is due to the "Feels Like" weather outside. It is cloudy, windy and cold, a perfect day for reading a book lying down in a couch or watching a spicy hot action flick.

So, I'm gonna head back home now..la la la...

Hallelujah! Its Raining Out !

It's raining heaven and earth in Chennai and Bangalore. I'm sad and happy at the same time for not being in either of these places at this point of time. I love getting wet in the rain. But it must not be a time in the morning when I go out for work or for my classes. I have experienced such incessant rains in 2002 when I was just out of college and had joined work.

During that period, one evening when I was returning from work (I think the time was around 8:00 PM), rain was lashing heavily. I disembarked from an MTC bus and to my horror, I found that the level of water in some places in that area was shoulder high (I'm not short, I'm 5'09" :) ). I was wearing a nice formal shirt..new to work, na? :). I dint want that to get spoiled by the rain water mixed with the Chennai mud. It seemed as if there was no way to prevent that from happening.

Suddenly, I got this idea. I decided to go back to the stone age (I dint have a time machine!) , just an exaggeration :)..I removed my shirt and carefully placed that inside my office bag and started wading through the flood waters in my vests :). Holding a bag over the head and manuvering the raging flood waters in undergarments would have made people hardly believe me, had I said, I was a topper from the famous Anna University and was working for a great MNC :)

But, that was Ok..my intention was to save a brand new "Allen Solly" shirt from getting spoiled by the whims of the NE monsoon that visits Chennai once in a lifetime. This incident would strike my mind, whenever I hear of floods and rains in Chennai...

mmm, "ChennaiYil aTHu oRu maZHaiKalaam" :), I seriously have started feeling home sick...I miss the Besant Nagar beach, the Spencer's plaza, Sathyam cinemas, the fruit shop on greames road, the rash autowallahs, the noisy electric trains, the "polite" conductors of the MTCs and what not !

It's Me, standing near the Grand Canyon!

Things I wish to do/have in life!

1. Fly a supersonic fighter jet at Mach 3.
2. Drive a Ford GT at 200 MPH at the AutoBahn, Germany. (Without the fear of getting a ticket:)
3. Being least bothered of what others say about me!
4. Marry a pretty smart girl and enjoy life with her!
5. Climb the career ladder faster than anybody would have dreamt of!
6. Own a Porsche Cayanne 4 x 4.
7. Tour the entire continents of Europe and Australia (N America is pretty much done :))
8. Never get bored of things and encounter the situation of killing time, Should feel like 24 Hrs is not enough to make up a complete day!
9. Be smiling and happy always.
10. Tendency to help others unconditionally.

Why Blogging?

I blog for fun. This is a scratch pad that substitutes my diary. So, I also blog for records. What else could be the reasons for blogging?

Just a Post

It has been a sluggish day since morning. I have a slight head ache, perhaps due to lack of proper sleep last night. I was watching U-571 till late in the night. It should have been the 10th or 11th time I'm watching this movie. But I wouldnt mind watching it again. It is one of my all time favourites. Though people call it to be historically incorrect, I'm not bothered. I like the movie for its action and the spectacular way it has been shot.

The film makers have actually created the submarines (the S-33 and U-571) for shooting this movie. They have taken extreme care to make sure that the activities and commands that happen inside these submarines look authentic and natural. The fear of death in the face of the sailors when they hear the torpedos and depth charges explode somewhere close to them, is so natural that you feel you are actually witnessing a happening of the world war II for real.

After enjoying this movie, I was following the scores of the ODI cricket between India and Srilanka played in Nagpur. India had a fine start, thanks to some frolicking display of shots by the Indian top order batsmen. Sachin is regaining his fine touch after a long lay off from the game. I could see a perfect all-rounder in Pathan by the way he played his shots. Dravid, as always is there in the middle, ebullient to score runs.

Dhoni carries a blitzkrieg towards the end to make sure that the run rate is always above what is expected at the start. Even the best bowlers in the Srilankan side, Vaas and Muralitharan failed to make an impact on the rolling Indian batting Juggernaut.

By the time, I did all these, it was close to mid night. It was time for me to "call it a day". Another precious day of my life passed without anything note worthy :( And I seriously ponder if today is going to go the same way. mmm...lets see!

The Master Chef!

The United States is bringing out my hidden talents :)..For a guy like me who has never been inside a kitchen cooking, the US has been the launch pad into the Kitchen ! Well, like most of the Indians, I wouldn't say, "To Hell with the American food! " because I like them. I like all american food that has chicken, fish and meat. But then, you know, there are temptations in the name of chicken biryani, Idlies and Dosas. Damn, I cannot resist them.

The only way (I agree, there are Indian restaurants all over the US..but then..) to satiate this temptation is to cook my own food ! I started off making curd rice..you know it is an ambrosia which takes a great gourmet to jugde its taste :)..Just kidding ! But then, for every great thing there should be a humble beginning ! Right ? So, curd rice was my humble beginning.

Being a non-vegitarian glutton, I started to cook Chicken gravy and Salmon curries. I'm a plagiarist who steals my mom's recipes :) Well, do we call it plagiarism when you take something from geniuses?..nope, I dont think so :) I did my final year project stealing Bernouli's and Einstein's ideas. None of my profs called me a plagiarist, If Bernouli and Einstein are geniuses in Physics, my mom is a genius in Indian Law and culinary skills. So stealing her recipe is not plagiarism :)..well, I had to digress to defend my integrity :)

Lask weekend, I cooked a mushroom dish (my first and foremost veggie dish) which came out very well. Then, towards the end of the cooking episode, I thought why would I go against my non-vegetarian ego, so I added 2 eggs to that mushroom dish and made it in to a mouth - watering NV dish...now, hows that? I can try my own permutations and combinations now, am I not a " Master Chef" ?? :) You say!

Chidambarathil oRu Appasamy - Review

Yesterday I happened to watch this movie. It was a neat movie with no violence, sex and all kinds of other masalas. The best thing about this movie is the simplicity and the practicality of all the characters. The movie doesnt have a star value on its cast. This is a huge plus as well as a minus for the movie.

All the cast naturally fit in to the characters. It feels as if we are seeing something happening next door. The story is very simple and straight forward. It revolves around a person who is influenced by his friends circle. Though he is a very loving husband, caring father and a dotting son, he is lead in an unscruplous way by his mates.

He is once arrested for causing public nuisance in a bar and is about to be remanded. But the police officer being his relative, lets him off after getting a written statement stating that he would fast for 48 days and visit the Sabarimala temple(What a Godly police man :)) . This is the twist in the story.

He half-heaterdly goes to the temple and there he feels as if he has found peace in his life and decides to become a sage. His wife becomes heart broken because he leaves her and gets out in the path of sanyasm. She has 2 kids to raise. But without loosing hope and her esteem, she struggles hard to bring up her kids.

In the meantime, he understands that taking care of his family is a virtue in itself and that would bring him peace and happiness. He returns back to his family with a vow that he would work hard and make them feel happy.

All the actors have done a splendid job. Especially, Navya Nair who plays the wife role has given a tremendous performance. I should certainly mention about Illayaraaja's back ground music here. The music fits in smoothly with the situations and gives the extra boost to the story and the performance of the actors.

In all, this is one of the very good movies I have watched recently !

Oops..I did it

I was reading my friend's blog today. I was following a link on his blog which took me to a page that gave me a pang of joy. It was a blog site of one of my early day crushes. She used to work with me in chennai. I wouldnt call her as the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But she was smart and she used to dress well (jeans, sleeveless tops - which i used to thing was my Miss. Right's attire when I was at college). So, obviously her looks attracted me towards her. I have heard people saying that she was rude and egoistic. But that dint shun me from ogling at her.

She was an year junior to me. She worked for a short stint of time with me and then quit her job to join her dad in his business. I was feeling as if I was missing her for a few days(may be hours :)) but I started to forget her soon enough (her friend was the reason for this :) ). After coming to the US, there was not even a trace of her remebrance in my heart. Then, it all proved to be wrong today.

I got her email address from her blog site. I could feel the rush of adrenalin from my stomach to my head. I was in a dilemma whether to contact her or not. I was very sure that she would have forgotten me sooner than I did. But "Instincts" never let you live peacefully. I thought of checking whether she was online in Yahoo!. So I sent her an IM from my "cover" email address. Hail my luck! She had been online. But my yahoo! id was so scary that as soon as she saw my message, she replied "who the hell is this ?" :)

I dint want to say my name because if she said she dint remember me, I would be embarrassed. I was teasing her for a while with my anonymous identity. She thought, I was a stranger and kept on barking at me. Saying that she dint want to continue talking with a stranger, she disconnected. But the feeling and excitement that I got in that few minutes are worth remembering for a lifetime :)

After doing this, I thought, "Oops, why did i do that?" :)

You can do it! - Can I?

"Build what you can, with what you have, from where you are" - Isn't this true? I have this in a placard stuck in my work place. Whenever I read it, I feel, "Yes, I can do it!". I posted an article under the name "My Dream". I dint have this wonderful placard with me at that time. I happened to get that on the same day I posted that article :)

One has to first indentify what he has and where he is, before starting to think what he can do. "What he has" doesnt mean the wealth or money that a person possesses. Rather, it is the quality(s) that he has. Say for instance, hard working, sincere and dedication are some of such qualities.

"Where he is" doesnt exactly mean which place on earth the person lives. Rather, it is the situation or the environment that he lives. It could also mean his position in the society or the organization where he works.

After having explained the premises, we can now try to explain the conclusion that is drawn from them. "Build what you can" might literally look like building some structure. But it actually means "achieving something". One cannot dream simply to become a doctor without actually knowing "what he has" and "where he is". The person should have qualities like hard working and dedication (what he has) to achieve it. More importantly his parents, friends or teachers (where he is) should help him out to reach out his dream.

So for a person to suceed in his life "what he has" and "where he is" should be condusive. I know, I started with a positive note but rather ended with a negative conclusion. But that is life for you :)

The Temple Square

For all who work hard (??) for 5/6 days of a week, Sunday is a special day. But unfornately, I loose most of my Sundays just thinking that It is special and doing nothing special at all. I'm sure, I'm just not the only one who falls in to this bucket :)

Yesterday, I happened to visit the famous Temple Square in Salt Lake Downtown. I had been there a couple of times before. But yesterday was something different. We decided to take a guided tour within the Church. Two Mormon sisters took us around and explained the historic events associated with the Mormons (Commonly called as the Latter Day Saints). I have never heard about Mormonism in India. When asked about this to one of the sisters, I was astonished to note that she was a french.

I came to know that there were close to 120 churches across the globe. The sisters were not sure whether they had their denomination in India, they had to check their internet site to know about that.

In India, we call all the christian places of worship as churches but the Mormans have a church and as well as a temple, both of which are different. The church is a place for sunday worship and the temple is a very sacred place, where not everyone is allowed to enter. The temple is more meant for individual worship and meditation. One has to get a letter of recommendation from the leader of the church to enter the temple. For that the person should be chaste and should be following the Ten Commandments religiously. Rather than calling it a letter of recommendation, i would call it a certificate of conduct.

Before the temple is dedicated to the Lord, the Mormons celebrate an Open House in the temple when the general public is allowed to enter the temple. We had a chance to go in to the church where a concert was just getting over. I was taken by awe when I saw the Altar. I couldnt believe that it was built in the 1800s. The pioneers (the first people who came from the east to settle in utah) came to the "Promised Land" (Salt Lake) on the July 24th, 1892. This day is still celebrated in Utah as the "Pioneer's Day". The Altar and the inside architecture of the church was so colorful and flawless, that no one would have believed it be built 100 years ago!

Apart from enjoying the architecture and history of the church, I felt a kind of peace that I wouldnt have got, had I been to some other place!

War against Boredom

It's saturday noon here. I'm sitting with my friends breaking my head thinking of how to make this weekend interesting. We have a plan of going to the Salt Lake downtown in the evening and catch up with a movie. I'm not an indoor person, I love to go places and explore new things. But, huh, I'm so tired to think of any such thing today :)

There is an option of playing tennis in the afternoon. The weather is pleasant and warm. Its rare to see such a sunny day in fall. So we should make the most out of it, rather than sitting inside a climate controller theatre. But, again, this is my point. We are five friends here and I have to get their buy-in before deciding on anything :(

I'm expecting something interesting to happen today ! I cant just bear the thought of lying in the couch and watching Sun TV. Yesterday, we saw the movie, "Behind Enemy Lines". I was fascinated to see the F-18s travelling at Mach 3 (thrice the speed of sound !) and the vrooming "Heat Seeking" Surface to Air Missile (SAM). I'm expecting "Top Gun" and "The Eagle Has Landed" to be shipped to me this week. So, my evenings are going to be "wars" against my boredom :)

My Dream

I dream! Didnt somebody say, "You can achieve only if you dream" ? But I'm still unsure of how to bring my dreams to life. I have a passion for achieving certain things in life. For instance, getting in to a reputed B School and later on take up a challenging role in an IT services company to put what I learnt in to practice. Whenever I think of this, I get elated and my whole body shivers as if I got hundreds of spasms. But the thought that I just dream shoos off this sensation in a jiffy. I'm trying hard to concentrate on what should be done to bring my dreams to reality. But small pleasures like sleeping, going around and watching movies shun me away from doing so.

When my friends ask me, "Hey, when are you planning to do your MBA?", my heart shudders as if it was hit by a mammoth asteroid. At that moment, I get an urge and I start browsing sites of reputed B schools to know about their admission procedures and policies. But this urge doesnt last long. I'll be back to square one - dreaming, in a couple of hours. I have started to hate myself for being so. The more I hear about my friends and knowns joining B schools, the more I feel bad about my lack of efficacy. But Im too much egoistic that I never want someone to point out my faults. To avoid being asked questions about my future, I take the initiative to tell them a sugar-coated story about what I was tending to do in future.

I know, I should not be bothered about what others think and instead work on a plan to achieve whatever "I Dream". ! God, gimme strength and self-motivation to overcome my weaknesses!! After all, only God can give what a human needs in his life.

My Instinct

Whats happening around us? Katrina and Rita flood the US, Muddy River sweeps across Mexico, Earthquake rattles Pakistan, Tsunami washes out a majority of East Asia..whats all these? God's Fury ? Man's seeds of playing with nature reeping now? I dont know. I sure think we need a David to interpret all these signs. Let me put on David's socks!

Did you notice something religiously different between the places I had mentioned at the start of this posting? US and Mexico have a predominant number of Christians, Pakistan has one of the biggest Muslim populations in the world and East Asia has a wide range of religions like Hinduism and Buddhism(and of course Communalism). Does this mean all Gods are against mankind all of a sudden? I dont think so.

Did you also notice the spread of these locations in the world map? They are scattered from the west to the east. The west is economically developed and most of the countries in the East Asia are still developing. The industrial revolution must have polluted and distrupted the nature over the western rim of the globe. So if something of this sort has to happen, it should be only in the west and not so damaging in the east. So the argument that man spoiled the nature and these are all the after effects of that is ruled out. .

So whats all these about ? Anybody has any clue ?