Guest Blog

This is a new and completely original idea I came up with, Guest Blogs. But as with all my original ideas, the moment I shared this idea with a friend, he told me it has been tried before. But that's fine, I will still go ahead with it.

The basic idea is YOUR posts shall exist in MY blog, under YOUR name. If you blog elsewhere and would love to share one of your best posts, you are more than welcome to use my space. But if you don't blog at all, then you are the one I'm precisely looking out for. Many, I realised, are not interested in maintaining a blog just for that reason, you need to maintain it, and not because they are not interested in writing.

So next time if you feel like writing something do write and you can post it here. You can write about anything or anyone, even (especially?) if its about me. As my blog title goes, its A Beautiful Mind and not My Beautiful Mind. So, as long as you are expressing your Beautiful Mind (without getting too vulgar), everything is allowed. And needless to say, your post shall be copy-pasted as-it-is without even removing an extra comma. No censoring at all, trust me.

Btw, this offer is open only to my friends, I'm not here to do samaj-seva. :)

Insights you get after visiting your native place

If you want to know how much you have, look at the guy who doesn't... And I would say, inversely, if you want to know how much you don't have, look at the guy who does...

After a trip to my native place, I was confused who I was looking at... I'm talking about the "developed" cities and the "undeveloped, cheap" everywhere-else...

Developed - YES, our cities are... We have developed so much, so fast, that we have out-performed every statistical prediction about our own growth... that's why our roads are so congested coz nobody believed we would be selling so many cars, our malls are so crowded coz nobody believed we would spend so much time out of home, and damn, we are so costly, coz no one believed we would have so much money to spend (and even if we did, we wouldn't)... the idea of spending even what you didn't have (better known as Credit) only "developed" us further...

On the contrary, YES, the towns and villages are "cheap"... a plate of 4 idlies for Rs. 7, a glass of milk for Rs. 3 (and not unhygienic either - I'm still alive and doing well after eating out 3 days continuously) , a balcony ticket in the costliest A/C theatre for Rs. 25 (yes, they do have A/C theatres in the villages and towns these days, in case you didn't know.) It was such a relief to know there were still places in this country where money had some value left...

But the real reason why this trip was special for me was, I got to meet all my cousins again, at one place after some countless years (definitely more than 7)... This trip reminded about those years when every summer vacation would be spent travelling across the State meeting relatives with a grand finale at my grandmother's place where everyone would come and spend atleast a week together... Compared to the life of any city's citizen today, those definitely were better days... In my family's case, my grandmother would be the unifying force, pulling everyone together and tying the bonds strongly, which however had slowly begun to wear away over the last few years... Funny, how we all finally met again this year, but the reason being the absence of THAT VERY FORCE...

Diwali Dhamaka

Just as I promised that this would be a photo blog... but, me being me, how can I not speak? But I will definitely try and let pictures do most of the talking... For me, this years Diwali was very different from the mundane bursting-crackers-kinda fun that would come to your mind the instant you think of Diwali... 

Diwali is celebrated grandly across both Indian offices of Deloitte US (only -- for some weird reason -- we celebrated it a week earlier). I will now describe the week day-by-day beginning the Tuesday before Diwali.

Tues/Wed: We were divided into groups and each group decorated their set of cubicles on Tues evening... We also wore traditional dresses to office the next day :) Needless to say, neither did I win the Best Dressed Male nor did my team win the Best Decorated Cubicles :) Nevertheless, we had some really good time and I actually made Rangoli on the boards... Really... you can come and check, they are still there. I don't have the pictures of the Rangoli but I do have other pictures of the 2 days of fun... And for your information, our group got a special mention when declaring the results.. (We were the only group that tried to bribe the judges :D with Chocolates - Cadbury Eclairs.. damn those girls, "chotte log (height-wise), chotti soch"... else we would have won :P

The first pic is that of the project team I'm supposed to be joining soon. The next one is the rangoli made by our artist, Golu. The first pic seen below is Subbu (in white) standing with Mahadevan (the Best Dressed Male) and in the pic after that is Pavan trying out a dhoti, rather lungi. He wore a formal trouser too underneath that dhoti - safety first. ;) 

The pic below shows the girls of my gang (thats how I prefer calling my friends circle). The lady in green sari was adjudged the Best Dressed Female and she became a celebrity for a day. :) The pic below that was clicked in the cafteria (our second office).

Thats all the pictures can speak for now... So I continue...

Thurs: An old friend of mine, N, called just when I was leaving, and we decided to meet. We went to Club 8 and I (in chronological order) had chicken kababs (it had bones and I hate bones), smoked (2 in a row was the highest ever for me. Till that day, I couldn't complete even one completely), had beer (I HATE beer - be it the taste, smell or even colour), and then I drove back home (I'm completely against drink and drive, but I had no other choice)... I finally reached home at midnight and had dinner (I would rather tell my mom I drink, than skip dinner - you can reason out why)... overall I broke a lot of rules I had set for myself but I actually felt really good at the end of it all :)

Sat: I was out shopping on the outskirts of Hyderbad (heard of some real good Diwali offers there ;) ) when another old friend of mine, S, called and me, N and S decided to spend that night at N's place... Before you come to any conclusions, let me tell you that all three of us were guys and we were all straight... so just as any other boy's night out, our meeting involved booze, a discussion about girls and how the US recession represented a huge business opportunity for us (would you believe that?)... I can't seem to remember if we also decided to start a business that night :D

Sun: Yet another old friend of mine, Ad, was in hyderabad and a group of 4 school friends met at Eat Street... This meet did not involve booze, but is worth mentioning for a different reason... Ad gifted me "The Ultimate History of Ferrari" and obviously I fell in love with it at first sight for 2 main reasons... Firstly, its a book related to cars; Secondly, its about Ferrari; and a bonus reason being, there were lots of pictures of scarlet red cars...

Mon: Regular office work followed by the mundane burst-crackers-to-celebrate-diwali activity... I stayed back at a colleague's flat, and to celebrate with my colleagues - 4 guys n 4 girls... we burst crackers on the rooftop and had dinner at his place... this was special for me coz this is the closest my life has ever come to HAPPY DAYS, if you know what I mean... but the end of even this special day was identical to every other day - the girls left and I had booze with my friend... Vodka this time, and this marks the end of a week of boozing spree.

Tues: Diwali finally!! The best part?? I celebrated Diwali at my sister's place with my NEPHEW... Definitely, the best day of the entire "eventful" week and I can't describe it in words. Even pictures can't either, so I leave it for your imagination.

I never will understand these Americans

Guess what the latest rumour is, Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant again.. Click the title to read the original article.. Generally, this is not something I would like to comment on but what made me do it, was this response - 

"We both agree that we want Maddie (their 4-month old daughter) to be a little bit older so that she can be a part of it" by Jamie Lynn when asked about when she and Casey Aldridge (the sperm supplier) would be getting married. Now, how dumb is that... and worse yet, what does she do in the meantime?? what better than getting pregnant again... Maybe, Jamie is planning to have one mega-wedding after 15 years, when Jamie, Maddie and Maddie's 10 younger sisters can all get married in the same church while her infant grand-daughters witness the grand and happy wedding...

And anyway, who the hell cares when they get married... or whether they get married at all in the first place... but wait, NY Daily News surely does.. So what do they do? They run a poll "Bringing Up Baby - Should Jamie Lynn and Casey get married?"... Right, as though they would get married if I voted yes...

I think the world should rather be worrying about how to make sure Maddie Spears doesn't end up being a Spears... Elder Spears has already proven she could be the worst mother of all times, and younger Spears has proven she still needs to "grow up"... Casey on the other hand seems happy running the new baby outlet he has opened up in Jamie's bedroom...

I really wish someone would ban Spears' family from making more of their kind... 

Ode to the Nice Guys

I found this on the net today and felt that everybody should get to read it. So, I'm sharing it on my blog as well :)
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.