92. 25*

Today, some of the witty one-liners that I've been subject to are as follows

Have fun on your silver-jubilee
You have moved to  new exchequer
You are a certified uncle now
So you're 25...huh, get married at least this year
How does it feel after completing a quarter of a century
Go for morning walks and talk to neighbors about their kids

A friend of mine had his 25th a couple of weeks back. He said "Its been 25 yrs of existence without any achievements or accomplishments." This holds true even in my case. And I just happened to read a graduation speech by some uber-genius who says that after 25, its only downhill. Pro'ly the worst time to stumble upon such an inspiring speech.I pulled my hair in anger, only to find  couple of white strands in my hand after the act of pulling :)

Apart from the occasional gain in weight and the loss of hair, the last year has been a really rollicking one.

Got a job on campus pretty quick (day 0 as they call it)

Hardly attended any lectures (was there on campus for like 20 days during the whole of the last term)

Played a whole lot of CS in the lab at nights, amazing fun. Clan matches, public server and tournaments....made a couple of good friends too, CS friends :)

Visited some gr8 places with friends and family - Rishikesh, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer etc etc

Won an event worth 40k and all I did to win it was remember a few numbers right

Was the center of our insti's own MMS scandal (MMS is a movie making event, fyi) :)

Got my degree from Mr.Kamal Nath amidst great fanfare 

Bonded with old chums after a long long time

Loads of parties and movies during the idle time before joining work

Parted with two very good friends

Visited tons of i-would-never-have-gone-to-otherwise places - Anand, Rajkot, Junagadh, Surat, Vizag etc etc

Bought a two wheeler and also started learning to ride it (yes, i am 25 and i don't know how to ride a 2 wheeler yet)

Got screwed doing sales

Quit work, which was quite an experience in itself. The HRs made me feel like I was breaking up with 

them

Have a couple of jobs to consider before joining, am walking on a tight rope...dunno where I'll land

Its been good, pretty good, in a different way though.

All in all, a very happening year, must say.

91. The northie - southie squabble

For all the enlightened nitwits out there, lets get one thing straight. Tamil Nadu is not the only state in south-India. In case u missed your class on Geography in primary school, South India has got 4 states with people speaking different languages and having having distinctly different cultures. 

I've witnessed some apalling misconceptions that normally-intelligent-looking ppl have about we ppl from down South. Thought I'd clear some over here, in an attempt to promote unity in diversity (which again is a sham. India is regional.Period. No matter how much you go denying it)

No, 'south-indian' is not a language! Neither is south-india a state, with Chennai as its capital.

No, south-indians are not decendents of Raavan. Get real ppl!!! 

No, Rajnikanth is not the only actor down south.

No, all south-indian movies do not, i repeat, DO NOT have Rajnikanth-ish stunts. Its like saying that all Hindi movies have Mithun-ish stunts or hero-heroines running around trees in song sequences.

No, south-indians needn't necessarily have relatives in Sri Lanka or the US or the Gulf.

No, Telangana agitation is not a demand for a seperate country, atleast yet.

No, dont stare at a south-indian when he/she orders a Naan or a Roti at a restaurant. You needn't give him/her  the "oh-my-gosh-i-thought-you-guys-are-supposed-to-only-order-and-eat-rice-everywhere" gaze.

And no, this doesn't end here. A lot more unpleasantly funny and ridiculously inedible perceptions have been formed against Indians who hail form the 4 states down south.

Need your comments on this one, if you have a thing or two to say (which you surely will, coz this is a hot-topic)    ;)

90. Ambition

Here's a popular quote from the movie Jackie Brown, directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Picture this. Ordell is a gun peddler while Melanie is his blonde girlfriend who does nothing all day except smoke pot.

Ordell Robbie: Goddamn girl, you gettin' high already? It's just 2 o'clock!
Melanie: [chuckling] It's that late?
Ordell Robbie: You know you smoke too much of that shit, that shit gonna rob you of your own ambition.
Melanie: Not if your ambition is to get high and watch TV...

And that was the Kodak moment for me. I studied, tried my hand at sports and extra-currics, wrote shitloads of exams, stayed at places away from home, worked away from home... I've been doing all of this alright, but why ? I don't have an ambition. Hell even Melanie has one, one of smoking pot and watching tv. I don't think I'd like that. I've been sapped out of whatever little interest I had in the few things that I was interested in. Its been a gradual transformation, one whose beginning I am unable to trace.

 I never thought that I'd be saying this so soon, but i guess its time for me to fall back on religion :) You know, the pilgrimages, the long prayer sessions and the likes. Will help me keep my mind off the other horrible thoughts and things around.

89. Call troubles

Have not been able to learn/understand the art of talking on a phone, even after 24 yrs of existence. I'm not kidding. I just don't know how to talk on the phone, be it the land-line or the cellphone.

To a regular person, this may seem trivial. What's the big deal in picking up a phone and talking away. But to people who think a whole lot more than necessary and thus bungle up even the simplest of things, I think i will make sense.

How to pick up calls from ppl you don't like and not leave those calls for later(which'll never come)

How to initiate a conversation - not just the hello, but the stuff that comes between the hello and the main reason behind the call

How to handle the long pauses in between - small time slices of complete silence are unpalatable, just too complicated to deal with

How to think of pleasantries that would be appropriate

How to convincingly convey those pleasantries and not sound like a recitation exercise

How to mask your voice when you've just got out of bed but aren't supposed to sound like that

How to cut short the call and say goodbye

And so the struggle continues...may be 3G may come to my rescue with stuff like video calling