Friday, November 18, 2005

Rock N Roll ain't noise pollution




Rock is not dead. I managed to attend the regional finals of Campus Rock Idols held at Durgam Cheruvu in Hyderabad. And boy, what a experience it was. Some really kickass college bands from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Vizag were lined up for the show and they played some really cool music.

I read in the newspaper( Times - Page 3 ) that the passes would be available at PlanetM outlets and the competition was supposed to start at 5PM. We made a mistake of finishing our lunch before going to PlanetM. After reaching PlanetM we were told with a smile that the passes are over and there is a possibility of we winning free passes if we visit indiatimes.com and sign up and fill some other forms by which the winners of the competition would be tripping. I was really looking forward to this. It had been ages since I had a stiff neck from head banging and I wanted a stiff neck badly. We decided to try our luck and hit the spot. To our surprise we were given passes by the nice DNA guy at the security. God bless him with 5 kids. ( Though we told him we owe you one :-)

The competition was organized at the picturesque Durgam Cheruvu Secret Lake. I don't know if they call it the secret lake because of the secrecy it provides to the couples in the rocks around the lake area or because of its geographical presence due to which you don't see it until you are there. But I digress. They had constructed a cool backdrop against the rocks. Hero Hondo and Hutch banners were visible almost everywhere. No complaints there, "Who sponsors rock shows in India, dude?" Go Here Honda and Hutch. I think I will shift from Airtel to Hutch and from Maruti 800 to Splendor ( I am kinda fed up with my 800 coz its erratic behaviour. I don't know but she starts behaving real crazy in winter. Maybe its the cold. I think I have a topic for my next post. I digress again. )

The show started with a band from Vizag performing "Hotel California" to everyones surprise. Things are changing guys. No one performs Eagles nowadays. Definitely not in campus rock competition. You perform song by either a band with name ending in TERA e.g. : Pantera, Sepultera or a band people would have never heard of like Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom etc. As expected things got real heavy after the first band's performance and my friend who is not much into rock, seriously felt that the singer from the second band had problems with his throat and should consult an ENT Specialist. But his doubts faded away as all the bands started showing signs of the same disorder.

Albeit the music everyone played cannot be exactly called mainstream rock ( which I am into ) it really showcased the raw talent we have in the younger generation. Worth mentioning were Native Toungue, Wreckage and History Makers( these are the names of rock bands incase you are wondering). Nowadays guys are more into death and other genres of metal. I don't listen to much of it. It scares me actually. I have attended rock shows by Parikrama, Euphoria (Yes, they play rock if you don't know) and other bands and most of them play classic rock. Times are changing, and now you hardly hear a band playing Van Halen, Floyd, Doors or a LedZep number. For that matter, I have never heard an Indian band playing any LedZep song. Man, they were real good. Maybe it has got something to do with the capabilities. Infact Metallica frontman once told in an interview, "If we can come up with a song that is half as good as any of Zepps, we would have visited Mecca, These guys are up there where everone else can only dream of to be". Digress.

After the performance by the college bands the main act was by Synapse and Sledge. They made some great noise. Worth mentioning is Synapse's front man. This guy has got terrific voice. Way to go. By the end of the show I was really tired from all the shouting and jumping around. Anyways, I felt really good after the show and the rocker in me was inspired to write this post. Keep the spirit of Rock n Roll alive guys.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Naram Masala

Herapheri had a perfect script and some superb acting by Paresh Rawal and Om puri. Humgama again had a hilarous script but wasn't as good as Herapheri. Hulchul left me wondering why the movie was made. And now after watching Garam Masala I seriously think Priyadarshan should pack his luggage and leave Mumbai. Can't believe the same director gave us a classic viz. Herapheri.

Whats wrong in the movie? Everything. I don't know what John Abraham was doing in the movie apart from biting finger nails through out the entire length. The three heroines look the same and are equally irritating. Music is just average and frankly Mr. Priyadarshan you should have avoided all the songs. But when we set on a path to make a pathetic movie, we never stop at silly mistakes, do we. Paresh Rawal gives some respite in couple of scenes, but overall extremely pathetic movie if you ask me. Stay away.

Picked up couple of books from crossword during my visit to Pune. "Five Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat being one of the books. Have devoured half of it. Good book, takes you back to those golden days in engineering. Would recommend. BTW, I am looking for Dune series by Frank Herbert. I have asked all the major book shops in Pune/Hyd/Bangalore. To no avail. Let me know if you guys are aware of a book store where I can get the series.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Short Story

I get up. Ahh, slight headache, must be the drinking binge the night before. Curse myself. Some things can't be explained. I move lazily and get to the wash. Try to grab the tooth brush. Can't get my hands on it. In Shock. I shout. Can't hear myself. The truth sinks in. I am dead.

Nithya tagged me and had to write this. I tag Snehal.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

First post from home

Yeah, all these days, I was blogging from my workplace, not that I am ashamed of. For official records, I used to do it after the office hours. Anyways, I recently got this lousy Reliance phone, so that my Airtel bills get back to three figures, but as expected I got screwed again. The scheme for which I took Reliace connection was withdrawn the day after my phone started working. Murphy is a sadist and seems to have taken a liking for me. Of what use is this phone. Wait, I can get connected from my house. Ofcourse, its not like the office hi speed thing, but decent enough to surf and read stuff in vela time.

I am off to Pune next week for a long duration. 5 days. Yes, thats long. And in all probability will be in Pune during Diwali also. Will get to unwind and relax and catch up on not so important but really needed stuff. I love this time of the year, lots of festivals and offs. Dussera, Diwali, Ramzan and then Christmas. Before we realize we'll be welcoming 2006.

Gosh, time flies by so quickly. Couple of days back I completed my one year stay in Hyd. To be honest, I have started liking this place and am seriously considering settling here. Nice infrastructure, nice food ( biryani and the spicy Andhra delicacies) and nice people. Me being a maharashtrian it might surprise you if I say I prefer Hyd to Pune. But, thats true.

And now if you excuse me, I need to cook some fried maggie for myself. I love Maggie so much.

Friday, September 16, 2005

When The Levee Breaks

Finally we went Beta with our product yesterday. It has been one helluva roller coaster ride with this project. My IT friends here would agree with my sentiments, whenever a product you are associated with goes beta or in the market, you feel proud about it, irrespective of the number of bugs your code would have introduced in the otherwise stable product :-)

What next? Well, work is already planned, infact I am already neck deep into it. Thats one thing about work which amuses me, it's always there. Smiling and waiting for you. The more you work, the more you are rewarded with work. Which implies, as you keep working, work assigned to you is going to increase exponentially, leaving you hardly any time to freak out and do insane ( or should we say sane ) things in life.

Coming to the festive season. We have been cautioned by the authorities to stay inside our houses tomorrow and avoid visiting the hotspots for Ganesh visarjan. Wonder why? Someone said, communal riots. Sad. They should have said,"Stay inside, we are not capable enough." Nevertheless, I was never adventurous by nature so would stay inside and watch some flick.

As many of you requested to divulge more details about P, here it comes....hang on, I am not going to reveal her name.But you might be interested to know that in all probability we'll get hooked by year end. She is an architect by profession and works in Pune. And it feels great to be in Love(again).

Ok, its friday night and I have an excellent reason to party hard tonight. Have a rocking weekend.

(Just in case you are wondering what has the title got to do with the post. Nothing. Just the song I was listening to when I wrote this.)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi





Ganesha Chaturthi reminds me of good ol Pune. And ofcourse the famous Dagaduseth Halwai Ganapati !!!

Don't think it will be celebrated on such a grand scale here in Hyd. Nevertheless, I hear that old city celebrations are good and worth a watch. Will visit some old city Ganesh mandals during the weekend and update you guys on that.

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi to all of you.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Trip....Not the HIGH kind :-)

After posting the previous entry I got pretty depressed and decided to do something over the long weekend. I didn't want Murphy to win over me. Buzzed couple of friends and within half an hour we had a plan ready for a trip to Sri Sailam.

We started on Saturday morning and came back by Sunday evening. All in all a great trip. Enjoy some pics from the same.

Sri Sailam here we come....





Reminded us of the scene from FOTR when Arwen challenges Ringwraiths at the river.





RAINBOW...Amazing isn't it?




The call of the valley...





The damsite...




Are we in AP?




The long road to home...