The longest day in my life!

Ever wondered if you could see sunlight for a continuous stretch of 20 hours!? It just happened to me, well it has happened to many other people as well. Its nothing new trust me! When you take a flight to US, it happens that way. :-)

I was on my 2nd international flight, the first one being the one to Singapore that hardly lasted 4 hours. This was loooooong! Had three legs, and in which one leg was further broken into two.

The complete itinerary was as follows

Kolkata --- AI 101 --- New Delhi ---- AI127--- Frankfurt ---AI127----- Chicago ----AA1489 --- Tucson


I saw daylight at Frankfurt; the flight reached at 6:30 am local time and since then it was day for the next 20 hours!! We had to wait in the transit room at Frankfurt for 3 hours before the flight was ready for the next broken leg over the Atlantic. I was getting thrilled already to have flown over Europe and landed, no matter for how much less time! The greenery of Frankfurt was charming.

It was nearing mid day at Frankfurt when we flew off to Chicago. It was supposed to be an eight hour flight, and I started inventing ways to avoid jet lag and stuff. Slept for sometime, watched one Hindi movie, one Bengali movie. And a couple of music videos. And then since I didn’t manage to get a window seat (well I got one but the seat was a dud! Somehow there was enough leg space there but no window!! Can you believe a window seat without a window? :O) I had to sit in one near to the window and that one was closed too because of the sun beaming directly on it. Couldn’t see much of Atlantic. I took a periodic stroll and drank loads of water. Someone back home suggested me to drink loads of fluid on board. Caught up with the Air hostesses ( they were aunties :P Air India recruits aunties only I guess, might be a part of their recruitment policy!! ;-)) But those aunties were really sweet. They gave me a cup of coke every time I asked for it without getting vexed… and they also called up the captain to enquire about the area we were cruising over. The captain reported “Greenland”. I thought “Wow!!”. There were patches of water and land mostly. Greenland is really green.


I walked past all the passengers so many times in tandem. I don’t know if my strolling was disturbing people, but it was not possible for me to sit idly like that continuously. It’s a different experience altogether. I have made many train journeys before, all more than 30 hours, but this journey was totally different. I never had brushed my teeth in an aircraft! And since the journey was so long and through day time mostly, I had to brush my teeth almost 3-4 times. I brushed every time I felt it was morning. Lol!


We had a roller coaster ride when we were getting down at Chicago. Before the landing I could see Lake Michigan and the Chicago Skyline, it was a strange feeling as I had seen that so many times in movies and on the TV. The fact that I was seeing that in front of me was a different feeling altogether. The pilot prepared for landing and hurled towards the runway and then suddenly when the plane was about to touch down something went wrong. It was a free fall, and we were scared. The plane again took off and swerved in the air as if the captain had mistaken the proper runway! There was an apologetic announcement saying the runway was not clear. I was very scared. Pankhuri was sitting besides me and she was scared too! I tried amusing her and myself in the process by discussing about a crash landing and more! That way we were relieved off the tension. The plane circled in the air one more time. It was a big circle that it made; it flew into Michigan Lake once again and we could see the skyline encore. Finally the pilot confirmed about landing and we touched down. “Welcome to USA” I said to myself!


The immigration and customs looked more of a mere formality than the over hyped posts on Edulix and soon we were out. I spent my first 10 $ in buying a calling card. And then it pinched when I couldn’t find water anywhere and had to buy it paying 2.3$; the calculator in my mind converted it to INR 120. Gosh!! A small bottle of water for 120!! The flight to Tucson was after 8 hours from that time and god only knows how we spent those excruciating eight hours waiting at the domestic terminal, half asleep, half hungry. The four hour flight to Tucson was a breezer as we slept completely in that and that refreshed up a bit. So you see - our morning was at Frankfurt - 8 hours to Chicago, 8 hours waiting at Chicago and 4 hours flight to Tucson, totaling up to 20 hours of daylight for us!! We just kept praying for the day to end!. Yaar yeh to khatam hi nahi hota!!.. (Dude, the day doesn't seem to end!) -- that's what we thought all the time!! But I would say one last thing -- Air India rocks!! the food and the hospitality, I liked everything. I don't know why people avoid Air India!!

I’m not been able to shut that calculator down, even for a moment although people around here tells me not to convert anything. Well I guess, I need to get used to spending quite a lot out here. And now that I have luckily managed a research assistantship ( Which pays almost double the Oracle salary back home), I guess it will start biting less once I get to see the money being credited in to my account!!

IPL context

This is primarily a response to Aravindan's post on his blog. Read On!

Seems like Aravindan has great analytical power and used that to the effect of addressing IPL!

Here are my thoughts :
1) Yes, I agree team should have local flavour. If I consider the KKR song it does with the bengali flavour - Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo re - though you'd agree that KKR is slowly moving away from Bengal. Firstly, the sacking of DADA, followed by dropping "Kolkata" from the brand, and now the speculation of moving the base from Kolkata to Ahmedabad. I'd not be surprised to see Dada not playing next season and the "Korbo Lorbo Jitbo" taken out from the theme song. The last time I saw an ad where Dhoni was emulating Rajanikanth - Pepsi ad I guess, well but that's not official and truly doesn't add Tamil flavour to the CSK team!

2) Mandira Bedi - aka "Sandy Baddy babe" according to the fake IPL player still doesnt know a lot about cricket, has done away with her hair and noodle straps this time and thinks that she's acting smart with the commentary part and talking with players but can't still do away with filler sounds like "aaa..." et al! I think Mandira was included cleverly as a strategy to popularize cricket among women, and that strategy might have worked quite well. What I would have liked to see was Mandira doing some work on her cricket knowledge and emotions! ( is till cant forget her sorry, about-to-cry face during the World Cup! Arunlal is the funniest Hindi commentator around! You don't know how much bullshit he used to speak when he commented in Hindi on the National network, more than bullshit his comments were so idiotic and stuff - think of this particular situation : "Laxman took a single and gave the strike to Tendulkar in some test match and Sachin hit a four the next ball : Arunlal's analysis : It was because of Laxman that Sachin could hit a Four! as if Sachin was dependent on Laxman!

3) In not allowing the Pakistani players from playing the IPL two things might have worked and those were not related to the professional standards or relations :
a) The Govt. doesn't like to have cricketing relations with Pakistan for the moment after the Mumbai attacks. IPL primarily being an Indian brainchild should also align with the thoughts of the Govt.
b) Similar to Indian govt thoughts, Pakistan Govt would not have liked the fact that their players get involved with an Indian context, especially after India refused to tour Pakistan ealier.

4) Can't agree more on the unnoticed fact of exchange of Zaheer Khan with Uthappa. In fact I was also wondering about the same - you just made it clear!

The Fake IPL Player!

Finally I came across something which I can call an addiction. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I'm not hooked to other sources of addiction . Although majorly addicted to net surfing, chatting and blogging, I'd rate my newest passion a never-before! I mean, I have never checked my mailbox so many times even when I'd have been expecting a very important mail, compared to the way I'm hooked to the blog of Fake IPL Player!

I've become his fan, and love his posts so far barring a few. This guy claims to be a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team! He's giving us inroads to the team meetings, and what's happening out there with Dada, SRK, Buchanan and McCullum. His predictions sometimes are pretty true! For example in the first match of KKR, vs Deccan charges he flushed out the team strategy that Skipper (McC) & Calypso King (his christening of Gayle) would open the innings and Lord Almighty (Ganguly) would come 1st down to mortify the middle order. And that,'s exactly what has happened! Lots of speculations going on about who this mysterious blogger is. Whoever he is, he has great writing capabilities. He mixes humor and satire to such a level, that will make you Laugh out Loud (LOL). I'd gone mad yesterday reading his posts. And as I said it is an addiction, I couldn't stop reading all the posts in chronological order and I was eagerly waiting for more!

Way to go buddy! You have the 'balls' to publish such things! I just hope you don't get caught. I don't want to lose something I'm hooked to! I don't wanna lose this addiction!
Love your style, your attitude and everything about you in your posts!! Keep them coming thick or thin whichever way you choose, but never stop them. We want you atleast till the end of the tournament. If you are caught, obviously we'd like to know actually who you are. For the moment I don't care whoever you are, I just need your posts for my daily dose of fun! Keep them flowing from your so called 'poisonous' pen!!

Korbo Lorbo Jitbo Re!

Yes, I've been waiting for this day since November 10th, 2008. That was the last day I watched cricket with zeal and passion. In the days following, I fought very hard to maintain the same level of passion, but just couldn't. It doesn't happen easily! When the icon you are passionate about leaves the arena, try your level best and still you can't! It was a cricketing "recession" of sorts for me!

I am eagerly waiting to watch DADA back in action today and the days to follow, can't wait for the action to start along. Though DADA is not the captain, I can still see him on the cricket field at least, and that is what I gain out of this. May be this is the last time we are watching him on the field!

Wish the Kolkata Knight Riders Team & Sourav All the best!
Irrespective of the result, IPL season really ushers a period of excitement in every Indian household. And it really doesn't matter much if its not happening in India. The action and the environment inside the stadium is no doubt incomparable with anything on earth. We can get at least an iota of it on the TV! I'll be looking forward to it!

Cheers!

Tagging? Don't know but still doing it!

Arnab tagged me on his blog and I am supposed to answer some questions here.

The rules of this game:-
RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by them.

RULE #2: Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

There's an option of changing the questions and I have changed some. The people whom I have tagged at the end need to answer the questions in their blog and may post a trackback URL as a comment here.

Here go my answers :-

1. If marriage is optional, would you rather stay single and why?(Original Question : If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?)

Yes, single and independent. I won't be answerable to anyone and I won't have any problem to think about pertaining to conjugal life. I like to be a free bird!

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?

To interview Sourav Ganguly and to date Vidya Balan.

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?

Umm... top secret, there's someone in my professional milieu whose butt I'd love to kick million times... ssshhhhh ;-)

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?

Secure myself with a decent house, car and all the necessities, start a technology company, and then philantrophy.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?

Trust me! Its been 26 long years, and no best friend till now! So, that'd never ever happen! And if it would, then I will say it directly!

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

Being loved!!

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?

I have stopped waiting! lolz kiddin' I can wait forever!

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

Do Nothing! What else? I don't have an option!

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?

Vidya Balan

10. What turns you on ?(Original Question :What takes you down the fastest?)

Witty comments, intelligence, naivety, innocence and pristine looks.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?

A hot handsome hunk having a beautiful better half alongside! ;-)

12. What’s your greatest fear?

The sky falling down :P lol kiddin' again ;-) Umm.. the fear of rejection is obviously one and the fear of failure is another. Tough competition among them for the 'greatest tag!

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

Good humoured, and good at heart. Lucky to have a friend like Arnab!

14. Do you hate people with alternate sexual orientation? (Original question : Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?)

Not at all! Afterall they are human beings, unless they are terrorists there's no reason I should hate them!

15. Are you living a life you always would have loved to live?(Original question : What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?)

No! Contentment is the virtue of an ass! I am not one ;-)

16. Would you give all in a relationship?

Everything that needs to be given in order to hold the strings together!

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

I can always forgive but I can never forget! My memory is indelible!

19. Question changed : What's your favourite colour and why?

Green - as it represents nature!

20. List people to tag:

• Munmun

Dada settles scores at Nagpur!

Remember the last time Aussies played at Nagpur?

Dada had to pull out of the match due to a health problem, and everybody accused him for running away from his responsibilities. The media, BCCI and people criticized him so much! It was also taken as the point of DADA's fall!!

Recently, Adam Gilchrist also criticized DADA for it, he was the stand in Captain in that match and he said that when he asked Dravid about Sourav, he didn't get a satisfactory reply! So much had happened at Nagpur!!

Don't you think this was the perfect way to settle all scores with Aussies, media, and BCCI as a whole? DADA's final befitting reply! That's how I take it! And more so when India won the match (The last time they lost it like tame lambs.. without DADA)

A perfect platform. What say guys?

Its almost a year I have stopped watching ODIs. I cant see the Indian team without DADA. I didn't watch a single match in 2005-2006 when DADA was not there.

I have done a couple of things this time.

- I visited the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Day 3, 4 and 5 of the 1st test match(Luckily, DADA was fielding just infront of me near the square leg boundary.). Every time DADA would look towards us, we would chant "DADA DADA" and he'd wave at us at times.

- I took a photograph everytime he came our way (check out my album pics on Orkut)

- I kept as souvenirs the 6/4 board that I had, and also the tickets. In fact it was the last time I'd visited a stadium for watching a test match. Yes, with that I have stopped watching test matches any further. SACHIN may be the GOD of Cricket, but DADA is my Universe, my entire cricketing interest started in 1996 with DADA, and I can't think of cricket without HIM. I always looked up to him as a source of inspiration. He did a lot in shaping my career as well!! I am grateful to him for that for being my role model!!

-I took printout of all articles about DADA, published recently, kept all the paper cuttings

I'm biased, entirely biased, and Cricket means Sourav Ganguly for me. I don't care if Sachin keeps scoring runs, for me, I have also retired from watching 'international cricket'!! Since 1996 I had maintained a diary where I had noted all commendable performances of DADA. I still have that diary with me, and those days will remain in my memory forever!

I still cant forget staying awake at night and watching the Sahara cup, the 4 MOM awards, and the MOS award. I hated Harsha Bhogle initially for criticizing DADA, but later, was elated to find out that he had started eating his own words. DADA always made his criticizers eat their words, he believed in performing with the bat and not saying things outside the ground.

At one time DADA was scoring good runs against Srilanka. He scored 109, 99 (At Nagpur!), 173 in a series (where he was also the MOS). At that time people started calling him "SOU RUN" Ganguly!! he got out at 99 in a match, the same day Greg Blewett of Australia also got out on 99. I still have that special moment written in my diary!! I have followed every innings of DADA since he came in 1996. I started liking cricket because of DADA, I never watched before that, although I might have watched a few WC 96' matches, but the interest really grew around DADA.

Just felt like sharing these with you guys. I am very sad. I am sad that I wont watch DADA any more in the international scene, I cant think of missing his sixes! Those dancing-down-the-track and hitting-over-the-bowler's-head ones.

I still cant forget his 183 at Taunton. I will never ever forget his 239 at Bangalore, and I am happy that I was a part of the crowd when he scored that.

Dada! You will never retire from my heart! Never ever.

The Homecoming

Click here to read Short Stories Online . I have contributed your favorite story -
The Homecoming to ShortStoryBook.net

The following drawing has been contributed by Steve Issac from Bangalore, India. One of my friends who likes reading my posts. He had tried drawing as per the description put up on the first paragraph of the story. Thanks so much Steve! You owe me a treat!!

A Time Slip

And up above the estuaries, was the silver-lined, grey colored plane of Mr. Stephen Aid, sailing through the clouds, as if with its half furtive effort, to avoid suspicion from the Radars.

Mr. Aid, a reknowned person in the US- air force of the late 1970’s, was always busy experimenting with his plane and learning the various skills of defending it from intruders. A workaholic by profession, little could he afford his leisure time to his flying machine. But still from his packed schedule he parceled out a significant amount of time for his dear old airplane.

One day, he took a day off. He set aside all his personal works and concentrated on his machine. Making it dance en plain air, suddenly he enacted a summersault. To his utter disbelief a peculiar and totally unexpected aircraft flew a little above him. With the wings veneered in intricate architecture, the craft could be seen for the following fifteen minutes. The wooden craft was certainly a visual wonder for Mr. Aid and left him bewildered. To see it from a more comfortable position, he tried to fly more near it, and it vanished into thin air quite unprecedented. Mr. Aid quickly landed on a nearby airport.

“Did you notice a typical wooden aircraft, flying above this place an hour ago?” asked Mr. Aid, to the Radar operating officials.

“No Sir! not at all,” they conceded, after looking into the details, being a little suspicious.

Mr. Aid tried to retrieve information about the incident from other airports nearby as well, all with a futile attempt against hopeless odds. They confirmed with a certainty that aircrafts of that kind could be seen only in early 19th century, they didn’t even smell an espionage cooking.

“Are you having more pegs than usual, Mr. Aid?” Asked his boss, facetiously, as he reported the incident to him.

The incident put him in utter dilemma, whether it was a hallucination or a momentary déjà vu; as a matter of fact the aircraft was visible for a considerable amount of time. A lunatic despondency crept into him, that made him handover his resignation.

Still reminiscent of the erratic rendezvous with the wooden aircraft, Mr. Aid, with his personal interest and tenacity started searching it in antique shops, junkyards, old museums. After a period of almost five years he definitely located it in a mortuary of vintage aircrafts.

“Would you please allow me to see it minutely?” He asked the caretaker.

“With pleasure Sir, but please be a little careful as it’s not in use for the past 80 years,” replied the concerned person, sustaining a broad smile on his countenance. A contemplating Mr. Aid found that the showpiece in front of him was an exact replica of what he had seen few years ago.

“When could have this craft flown for the last time?” He asked the attendant encore. After an enquiry with the authorities the person confirmed that it had its ultimate flight in somewhere around 1910.As he went inside the aircraft; there was one more surprise in store for him. Inside a drawer was a diary, which contained the extract:-

May 21, 1907.
What a strange experience, couldn’t really believe it. Today I saw a much modernized ash color aircraft with a silver lining. It flew below me for some time and vanished. It was not visible any longer as I landed.
Richard Harris.

Learning : A sempiternal process ?

One fine day, when I was providing a feedback to one of my friends on his story, a thought crossed my mind. I didn’t pay much attention to the implications of it, and just wrote it par se. The musing was:

“Life is, but, a sempiternal learning process! In its true sense, learning didn't start when you were born, it doesn't stop either, when you die, and it’s just that when you were born it continued from your parents and others in your milieu who'd have lessened the acclivity of their learning curve!”

I thought of finding a justification for it, of course I can attribute this post to the discussions I had, today morning, with Munmun & Satish.

Learning is a vital developmental process, through which an individual acquires knowledge, skills and a plethora of other abstract qualities. A human being can learn only when he can contain in his memory a particular happening or an idea and later apply it in context at the time of need. Knowledge, being a subset of the more generalised superset of the entire process of learning, can be thought of as being slowly acquired when a child starts reasoning and understanding things. Why do I consider learning as sempiternal? There are certain aspects which were not taught by one’s parents, for everything else, there were of course books and myriad instructions to follow. For example, response to stimuli was acquired naturally, not when somebody actually taught us to react in that way. You’ll throw away a very hot pan, or your eye pupil will automatically contract when exposed to bright sunlight. You’ve the ability to flex your muscles or wave your hand laterally. Did that come from your parents? Yes, in a way, as they are the source of your existence. From the genetic point of view, these abilities were embedded in your genes accrued to the process of evolution, and again, the source (of the genes) was the parents.

The ebullience bubbling from within when you see something beautiful, think of an exotic holiday away from the din and bustle of city life, or the thought of an approaching weekend, a festival, a birthday or a marriage, is something quite natural. Nobody taught you that you should react in that way, or did they? Your Mechanical Engineering lab attendant might have helped you at using a vise for the very first time, to clamp a work piece to allow work to be performed on it using other tools, such as saws, but he didn’t reiterate. That’s because you learned at a single instance what you were taught, and that got definitely added to your knowledge base, in your process of learning. When you hear of the bereavement of a very dear relative or a friend, you sit in stupor for a very long time, without responding, ruminating through the good-ol times you spent with the person, you feel nostalgic and truly lost somewhere, these are natural feelings emanating from you, again, you were not taught that at the receipt of such a bad news you are supposed to respond the way. Where do you think those feelings came from? Definitely, from your parents!


The apathy a person normally shows at beggars partly might be construed to the environment he’d grown up. When he’d never seen his parents donating a penny to them, he’d probably act in the same way. On the other hand, he might, as well, go against them, and turn out to be a great philanthropist. The pain and suffering of a person of limited means can only be felt; it is something to be seen and he could, as well, be helped at our own discretion, to somehow mitigate his sufferings, and make his two ends meet. If we leave his development at the suo motu cognizance of NGOs or the Government, we, perhaps, are waiving ourselves off the compunctions that make ourselves humane, the feelings that came to us naturally as a part of the learning process.

When you fall in love with a person, do you really understand how you drown yourself in the viscosity of emotions? Do you realise how much time you spend thinking about him or her, once again it’s natural, in the process of learning, rather, inherited from humankind!

And for the last clause of the issue, I’d like to bastion that on the judgement of a visionary. His vision would transcend quite a few years ahead, from the time of his existence, into that period which would come after he’d have knocked the doors of quietus. Where did that foresight come from? Obviously, from the knowledge acquired by him that far, and applying that to find out what’d happen in future. So, the process of learning in this case surpassed death, it went to somebody else from the person after his death, but especially when he’d already foreseen what’d happen in future, and he’d have possibly suggested ways of combating an impending mayhem that would have vitiated normal living conditions!

As our parents and relative grow old they gradually tend to lose their interest to learn, that’s the time when we become more zealous in that aspect. In a way, it instigates us more to learn, to acquire greater knowledge and apply it appropriately. Hence, the process of learning goes on and on eternally, transcending barriers, generations and time!

In Dreams

Sleep! I find that pseudo-activity the most creative of all, and I have an explanation for it which I hope you’d accede to. You have something called a subconscious mind. It thinks a lot, works continuously, and you don’t even get to know that! But, those thoughts come to you in your dreams. Have you ever tried remembering the myriad incidents (virtual though) we see almost every night? It’d be a stark lie if somebody claimed he never dreamt, because everybody does! And in the pursuit of making those things happen, that’d never happen to them, they’d just see them right ahead! I could have written a collection of short stories if I’d have been meticulous in jotting them down immediately after getting up. And I believe it’d have been a #1 bestseller, at least in India. Well, why? Not because I’m writing it (lol), but because they scored well on the eccentricity meter, colorfulness, regards to swerving among various unimaginable destinations and also in time i.e. between past, present and sometimes even future, the implausible characters in them ranging from Yeti, the abominable snowman to Mr. Bill Gates & a few pugilists of the order of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), and finally the feasibility of the incidents happening in tandem. In fact, they can hardly be classified into the genre of ‘nightmares’, as, for me, they have been pleasant most of the time. I had the uncanny knack of completing the dream even if I woke up all of a sudden! So, I’d stick to bed and try imagining a happily-lived-ever-after kind of conclusion adding a bit more of absurdity to the already absurd happening!

The other day I’d dreamt of interviewing Sourav Ganguly! No, that’s not a recreation of some Cricinfo commentator taking one or a de javu involving Harsha Bhogle blabbering from the commentary box with Dada responding live from the ground, but that interview was happening at a very weird location! Guess what? He was there in our college campus and that too at the Training & Placement Office. God knows why he was there! Consciously, I can never ever think of Ganguly as a recruiter, although it was his recommendation that brought Chappel in. There seemed to be a crowd hunting him down for his autographs and I waited patiently till everyone left, and then I was allowed inside. I started talking at ease and very frankly with him and described how I looked up to him for a source of inspiration for doing anything or taking any bold decision. Somehow I realized in the dream itself that this was what I’d wanted so far!

“Dada, I’ve been following you since 1996. I’d started watching cricket since then. You’ve been my idol all these years.” I was candid.


I recollected how embarrassed I used to get when my classmates discussed cricket and I couldn’t participate in it. That was the time I started seeing the World Cup that too the Quarter-Final clash between India and Pakistan at Bangalore (yes if you remember, super-6 didn’t exist in ’96 WC) being the first ever match I watched. The credit of making me watch or for that matter play cricket could be attributed to my mommy to some extent. Resurgence of dada immediately followed in the England tour, so I’d associate the developing interest in cricket because of him.

Then suddenly I urged “Dada, would you mind taking a snap?” He smiled and agreed, but I frowned “I don’t have a cam in my phone; neither do I have a digi-cam.”

“Never mind, I have one in my phone, will send you.” He assured.
I looked more pathetic than ever “Dada, my mobile can’t accept multimedia messages.”

“Then some other time.”

I lost track and I’d find myself in a completely different place all of a sudden! Within a fraction of seconds I was near Boy’s Hostel Number 2. I found a guy talking to me.

“I am waiting for Dada, seen him lately?” He nodded negatively and again I’d see Dada coming towards us!

I insinuated at the Canon Powershot S3IS in my hand. I was absolutely flabbergasted about how I managed that camera out of the blue! Dada posed with me and the other guy had just uttered “Say Cheese” when I’d hear the calling bell! The dream was up, I was thrown back to reality from cloud nine, and the maid was waiting at my doorstep with the newspaper having Dada on the front page for his 239, a feat that I had seen live the previous day at Chinnaswamy Stadium!

'Welcome' is unwelcome!

I saw 'Welcome' today! Poor me!! Rediff rated it with 3 stars! I want to hunt the reviewer down for this, really!! She called the movie 'frivolous'!

Frivolous eh? I couldn’t find a better word than 'pathetic' to describe it! And I can never buy that she had given it three stars when it wasn’t worthy a single!! Infact, even if I had very less hair left on my head after seeing Sawaariya, I’d double rate it in comparison to this big piece of shit! Bazmee, (Is he a wannabe hit director anyway? Especially after selecting the star cast for this movie…. lol) will go down to the dogs for sure after this. Welcome is an epitome of a pretty hackneyed storyline, hapless rather helpless 'music' (If I could call it music in the first place!!), miserable editing, plenty of overacting and ridiculous PJs which make you cry, Gosh!! I am falling short of adjectives!! It seemed Akshay was never able to open up, as he always did in Priyadarshan’s movies. A wholesome waste of money, mood and time!!