India Jones and the holy grail (of noodles)

Pepere peeee. Pepepepepepe peeee. For the 50th post anniversary, 21st century Ox presents the first India Jones’ adventure.
0200 hours. Chennai, Tamilnadu.
The sudden sound of rock solo alarm put Jones out of his sleep. He was still not sure about his mission. He has never attempted like this before. He gave a long hard thought about it and decided it had to be done. For the sake of riazinity. He packed his back pack with a pair of dress for change, men’s essentials, a torch, towels and lot of money. With nothing to eat, he drank some water, and without making a noise, he moved down to start his bike. The engine roared, driving away the dogs and waking the platform warmers. He then picked up his fellow trekker and started for koyembedu for the rendezvous. He parked his bike in C.M.B.T and hopped in a car to head to Nagalapuaram, Andhra. It was a pleasant drive. In his job, he always knew that there is always a lull before the storm. This day is going to be no different.
0810 hours. Nagala, Andhra.
A voice inside in his head kept on saying, “travel light.” Oh wait, that was Peter, Captain CTC. So, Jones left majority of the stuff in backpack, save the torch, in the car itself. It mission such as these, it is imperative to stay under cover. He thought of fixing a mole onto his cheek. But not wanting to look like a dufus, he decided to go with a cap and a pair of sun glasses. Sleek move Jones, sleek.

After the group photo sessions, Jones started off to conquer the first hill. The trial was full of dense bushes and thorns. After 15 minute walk, the bush cleared and he was able to see the hill. It didn’t look ominous at first, but looks can be deceptive. After another 30 minute of walking and climbing, Jones arrived at the first rest point, a natural water bed. It was a beautiful sight with mountain water making a cute cascade out of the hill. Others freshened up themselves by dipping into water, swimming and diving. Initially Jones decided to stay dry, but with no anti-incense serum, he was running out of options. The water was treacherous. In five steps, he slipped 8 times. After a crane dip, he dragged himself out of the water. Mission accomplished. “Move ON.” That was Peter. Mission not-yet-accomplished.

0920 hours.
Jones followed the rest of Peter’s entourage in search of the next water bed. An obstacle on the way: a small vertical hill. Jones broke into a sweat. He hasn’t done that before, heck not even imagined it. He first climbed over a little rock formation, moved into the middle and then moved horizontally for about 6-8 yards and then the final descent over a 90 degree angle. He decided to pat his back for the achievement. Oh what the hell, he can’t move his hand over his shoulder. Occupational hazards.
After a looooooooong walk amidst rocks, thorns, bushes and heavy breathing, the group stopped for lunch. Maggi. Jones would have preferred a buffet lunch with unlimited appalams. But a skilled adventurer got to make use of the best of the available resources. After four servings, his appetite has somewhat subdued. Not wanting to perform nature call out in nature later, he half heartedly refused the fifth serving. After lunch, Peter gave us two ultimatums: go back, or climb the hill to see the water source and then go back. Jones decided to go democratic and asked the opinion of his body organs. The verdict was unanimous. “STAY you jackass.“

1420 hours.
Jones and a small group of people decided to go back to the base camp. His numb legs made many mistakes initially and he had to fall down three to four times. He may have, but his spirit didn’t. With new found determination (of going home! Mummy!!!!), he took calm and steady steps towards the second pool. We he thought he was moving faster than ever, Peter and rest of the group passed by after finishing their ascent. So much for moving fast!
1710 hours.
Jones was at the first pool. He looked down at people who were climbing down the hill. “Climb down??” he thought. “You got to be kidding me!” After failing to find inspiration to climb down, he decided to use his last resort, his secret weapon. “Just beat it…just beat it.” Singing it within his mind, he climbed till half way when he didn’t know how to move further. “Just beat…aah screw it…”, and he called up Dinesh who was down. “Can you help me?” Dinesh came up and give the places where to find notches to keep the feet. With his directions, Jones steadily moved again. For the last hurdle, he had to jump barefoot in knee deep water full of rocks. He did. That he wasn’t able to walk properly for 2 days after that is a whole different story.

2100 hours.
Jones was in the car, trying to sleep. But he was too tired to sleep. He just wanted to go home and take a bubble bath. Wait, he doesn’t have a tub in his home. Ah well, I think he just wants to dip his legs into hot water. But that was not to be for another 1 hour, as he and the rest of the gang had to wait for Peter who had gone on reconnaissance. No man left behind. The cars started after everyone had come back. On the way, they all stopped for a quick meal. It was not no quick in the end as people started to order omlette, half boil, full-boiled, cran, fish, chicken and kingfisher :D. Jones and his fellow trekker got out at C.M.B.T and then after dropping the trekker, he went to his sweet home.
0200 hours.
Jones tried to look back at his day. Oh wait, what was it? Ah, sleep. Thinking can wait. As usual.
---------------------------------THE END-----------------------------------------
Starring (in the order of appearance)
India Jones – Me
And others as others.

Lift Karade

Sometimes...well many times I wonder "WHATS UP WITH PEOPLE!!!!." Why you may ask, and let me tell you.
My desk is in the 8th floor of my office building, and being a lazy bum (and a sane person), I use lift to reach to my floor. There are 6 lifts on the ground floor, all neatly maintained and robust (thanks CBRE!).
There is a button at the front for you to press to make the lift come to your floor. A nice small square button with an arrow emboldened in an appropriate direction. Once you press that button, it lightens up until the lift reaches your floor. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out in more than couple of attempts, unless you are a Jonny Bravo, a Joey Tribiani or a Micheal Kelso.
I know people, who have been coming here for months, if not years, keep pressing the button again and again even though the lift button is on, and knowing this concept. And I wonder "WHATS UP WITH PEOPLE!!!!"
May be it is the sheer expectation of a miracle, that if they press the button hard enough for many times, the lift could skip the intermediate floors and come immediately when summoned. Or it could be the arrogance of those people, who want to have everything when they want at any cost. Or it could just be the sheer frustration in the morning where they have to go for a job which they really don't like and which really doesn't pay well. Or it could be some urgent pressing matter which could not wait even for a second (urinal comes to my mind, there is none on the ground floor). Or they could be just dumb.
I am no saint, for I have found myself a few times pressing the button again and again. When I do that, I consciously try to find why I did that. What made me to do that? And this insight has helped me to understand many of my problems swiftly, and of late I find myself not doing this nonsensical stuff.
May be you can find some soul-searching tool at your workplace too. Till then, slog it out!

DREAM CATCHING(UP)

I am not sure if I have had dreamed about anything for such a long time other than thinking about studying abroad. Five years, and it is still burning inside. Those who know me, and have followed my blog for the past few years would understand what I am saying. Well, you can’t say owning Manchester United Football Club to be a dream; it is more of a fantasy.

I gave GMAT on August 2008 to kick of pursuit of becoming an MBA graduate. With an average score of 680/6, I had to put all my effort on projecting my application through my essays. Fast forward to February 2009, I have an admission offer from one of the premier institutes in USA. There is only one catch though; I need $110,000! Almost everyone I know keep telling the same thing; “it is not worth it.” Perhaps, they don’t understand what this means to me. This is not just an MBA. This is my dream personified. This is the source of my belief, which proves to me again and again that I can capable of realizing my dream through hard work and dedication. I may not be born with a golden spoon, but I hell can make one of my own!

Never expected this day to come sooner; or perhaps has it come a bit late? I always had taken my finances for granted, living everyday on its merit, and with almost no savings. But even if I become a miser from today, there is no way I will be able to garner that much amount in a year. Heck! That is the amount I dream of having in my bank balance when I retire.

Now I am left to ponder my next steps in life. May sound cheesy folks, but I really feel a sense of accomplishment! If I can alter Pierre de Coubertine’s Olympic mantra for a poor student’s dream, “Studying does not matter; getting admission is a big deal in itself.” HELL YEAH!

Movie By Chance

It was a nice cozy Monday evening when men were men and the sky was blue (bluish grey actually! Damn you pollution). I thought enough was enough and decided to grab a movie which was long due. (I haven’t seen a movie in a week. Now that’s bad!). Since the news papers were “slumdog millionaring” about Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance” movie, I decided to check that out.
To start with, well, we missed the first half hour of the movie. Which means, we missed Aamir Khan’s cameo, and one of my favorite songs of the movie, “Yeh Zindaghi bhi…” Even then, it wasn’t hard to pick up the story line. The story revolves around two protagonists: Farhan and Konkana Sen, who try many things to gain a foot-hold in bollywood. And it is about how their paths collide and diverge. I must give credit to Zoya, it is very rare to find a meaty role for the heroine nowadays where bollywood is making mindless movies such as CC2C.
Hrithik Roshan is at his charming best, giving a memorable performance as the super star Zafar Khan. When you see him, you may even fail to recognize whether he is playing his character or himself. Never thought I would say this, but I guess Sanjay Kapoor could act too!! Of course, how could I fail to mention Isha, the ice cream girl, Sharwani. She looks gorgeous!!!
Of all the people who had made guest appearances in this movie (and trust me, there are loads, including Manish Malhotra and Karan Johar), Shah Rukh Khan remains in your mind forever. His dialogues with Farhan epitomizes what the whole movie is all about, “when you have everything, don’t forget those who were with you when you were nothing.” So true SRK, so damn true!!!
Even though the story is not hard to understand, it is how the story flows which keeps you engrossed. It is not hard to reflect the emotions and feelings which the characters go through; they are very realistic. Although, I feel that the movie is a tad lengthy, a movie connoisseur might tell that the extra scenes are required to provide a concrete screenplay and to establish the characters. I do not want to reveal all the details here; just go to the theatre and watch it. It is worth a try, and trust me, it you had seen CC2C, you might even recommend this move for an Oscar.
It would be wrong if don’t comment about the fantastic music of Shankar, Ehsan and Loy. Even though you may feel like having a “Rock On!!” aftertaste, the songs are excellent nevertheless. I simply can’t get “Pyaar ki Dastaan” out of my head!!


My opinion: Good movie, very much needed at this time of the hour. You can relax, and enjoy the movie without uttering “what the f$%k, how’s that possible!”

My moment of the movie: There would be a scene where Rishi Kapoor will go about asking all the leading actors such as Abhishek, Vivek Oberoi, Akshay Khanna etc to act in his movie. There was this girl behind me who was going, “wowwwwww Abhishekkkkkkkk wowwwwwww Viveekkkkkkkkkkkk wowwwwwww.” Man…chooooo kuteeeeee!!!!!!! She came with her parents, so that ended there :(