Loquacious me!

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

-- "High Hopes" by Pink Floyd

The day I turn 22 and I miss home. My first ever B'day away from home and here I am, having had bumps for the very first time in my life :) (and I don't get what the fuss is all about, it doesn't hurt so much... :P). Like I always say, (yeah, you must be keeping track of all the things I have ever said by now :P), Birthdays for me are over-rated. Nevertheless, it feels great to be in company of people I can really call my friends and well-wishers. Thanks to my roomies (a lot really) for making my first B'day away from home and India as memorable as it can get. (Pity we did not take pictures, though, or did we?). Anyway, let me make it clear right away, if you are trying to look for the way this post is going, don't, this is just one of those time-pass posts where I just ramble off anything on my mind. :)


Anyway, I would like to thank all the people who wished me on my B'day and thank the rest too (*grudgingly*). Also, I just had an awesome experience last week. Sometimes you never realize how much you touch someone's life. I have this friend of mine (as usual, no names, but I'll leave a link to her blog) who used to write (just like I used to) and after I restarted (or may be revived?) my blog last week, she finally got through her Writer's Block. Way to go S.N.!! Wish you never have to have a Block again, but you know how vulnerable we are to Calvin's dark designs :P. Anyway, for those of who care, here's the link to her blog: Click Here. And for the future, S.N., you don't need to be so profusely thankful to me, I'm sure you'd have started writing again anyway :). Rock on! (and yes, the title is an allude to your blog :) \m/)


Well, feeling good after a long session of Pink Floyd and Linkin Park, I wish myself a very happy Birthday (I'm shameless like that :P).


Ciao!!


P.S.: Anyone has any tips for studying during exams? Leave a comment or mail me good ones :).

Western Waves

Feedback. This is what I have been studying for a couple of days now and seriously, I have Sedra/Smith to thank for all I know about it and my Professor too, of course. Anyway, let me dig into the topic of the post. We have all been there. Do you remember the first ever English song you listened to? (not heard, mind you! :P) There is always this "cool" older cousin/neighbor who you notice listening to some hard-rock (or may be Jackson) and you think, Wish I could do that too. But, I dunno where to find any :( (Remember, this was back when there was no internet, none accessible anyway, back in the mid 90's). Then you grow up and start concentrating on your studies and more important things (read whatever you were into, back then :P).

Then finally, you enter your College days (may be Intermediate) and your home gets its first computer. Then a friend comes over (who has had a computer for some more time then) (and I was this friend for many of my friends :P as I had a Computer at home since I was 9 (yeah, bow to me, low-lifes !!:P)). Lots of generalization here, I'll just let this go and tell you my story of my tryst with Western Discography.

The first song. You always start with something simple. It probably was "My heart will go on" (Titanic fame, if you can't place it.). Back then, I did not even see why Titanic was such a big deal :). Anyway, then I moved to Hyderabad, and of course, I was the studious type as many of my friends will be more than happy to testify :P. After a year there, we upgraded our computer and the guy who set it up (I was not allowed to do that back then, but then, I'd probably would have screwed it up big time) gave me CD full of Western music :). I used to listen to them all the time and to be honest, I couldn't understand even a quarter of the lyrics. I even remember phonetically Karaoke-ing the songs :P :P (stop laughing, I know you've been there too :P). Enrique was the first artist I ever started liking by any measure, and then came Backstreet Boys. After being conditioned to the dhin-chak desi music, it takes time to appreciate a whole different genre, you see :). For all practical intents and purposes, my first song would be Rhythm Divine. That was indeed all I needed.

Then you enter your Bachelors' and then your friends introduce you to all sorts of genres. Right from Marilyn Manson (Ugh!) to sometimes even Niel Diamond (Ugh! more). Then you actually start listening to western music and appreciating it. The revelation came to me as Linkin Park (yes, Numb) and then comes Pink Floyd (read as WOW!) continues to this day with Beethoven, Yanni, Satriani, Mozart and Vivaldi. I don't like to brag (you know me! :P :P), but my collection of music is considered one of the best :).

Tell me about your journey through the Western music flow!

Ciao!

P.S.: For those waiting for the Part - II of the last post, you might've to wait until my finals. :)

All the best, anyway :) :).

The day that was - Part I

Munaf is back! Well, after about an year of being MIA, I think I finally figured out a way to restart. Let me start off with what kept me from writing for so long:

(c) Bill Waterson

Well, you probably wouldn't be surprised but I was beta-testing for dear ol' Calvin. And to be honest, I works like a charm. :)


Amidst all this effort to advance technology, what brought me back to writing is one of the harsh realities that usually affect you lesser mortals (and rarely, me) - nostalgia. I was just looking over my Facebook and found some real great memories back when I was studying in Hyderabad. (For those who don't watch News, I am currently operating from Tempe, AZ, USA while studying for an MS in Electrical Engg. from the Arizona State University.) That was, I believe, as Ranjit from HIMYM would say, "Too many informations." :P :P


I just wanna take this slow for the first post after a year, and so start off relating a day - sometime in February 2009. I'm looking up the date as I type - yeah, it was the 26th. Let me dive right into it;


I was just done with my GRE (24th Feb, 2009) and was Cloud 7 (I did not score so much as to be on Cloud 9) and so were my friends, who for the sake of the blog are called A, B, C, D, Me (yeah, me!) and one F. So, how did the day come about? We were in the third year of college, what do you expect? Everyone around was having these crazy-ass road-trips to Mount Opera (no, not a mountain, it is a resort/water-park/hang-out place). And of course we were not gonna pay the heavy entry-fee (well, we Hyderabadis are cheap like that! :P). We found out about an offer. Some departmental store was offering a free ticket on purchase of two large sodas (these are gonna be important later...). Well, so we were all set, with tickets and trying to convince F to come. F lived in Banjara Hills (now in Kingsville, TX) and we make fun of him even today "Kyun F bhai, Mount Opera ku Banjara Hills ku shift karaarain, chalo ab tho jainge...". From now on, we'll try and move Mount Opera to Kingsville, TX. (Kyun F bhai, ab tho bi chalrain?? :P :P)


Of course, you might've realized that we were bunking college to have this all-day trip (not that, it was a big deal...not anymore at least...). We were supposed to start from my place at around 9:30 in the morning. Of course, these things never happen on time, do they? And of course B (and sometimes, even A) has never been to a class on time, how can ou expect them to be on time for fun, and on a separate note, I heard an interesting story about B (who works for a company now) being late for work and being told off by his supervisor. If anyone knows how that went, leave the description in the comments section :). OK, so, C was supposed come to my place and I was to pick him up or something. B was getting his own bike, so were me and A. Yeah, did I mention that road-trip here means on bikes for like 50 km or something like that.


You must be wondering how this is sooo not an interesting story, that is because I haven't started yet. The real fun begins now. I woke up at about 8 (well, pretty early as compared to today's standards) and had a look at my bike (an awesome 2007 Honda Shine, if you are wondering) and it had, wait for it, a flat tire. Well, I figured, it's fine, I'll get it fixed before we even start. So, I got all ready, calling up everyone and finalizing with F if he still wanted the resort to be shifted to Banjara hills. Well, at around 10 we were supposed to meet at a common point on the way to the resort. Me and C on one bike, B and D on one bike and A on one (because of his bike). A came to the point with C and so did B and D. A as usual came late and he had a broken leg guard (I'm not sure that's what it is called, it is the thing that stops the bike falling on your leg when it topples to the side). We had to go back to my place to put it at home and leave. I don't remember properly now, but I believe B's bike was also screwed up in some way. So, finally, it was about 11 by the time we started.


So, we did start, finally. Now comes one of the best parts. Location: L.B. Nagar X Road. A, the quintessential rash rider went totally overboard. There was a stop sign (a red signal, for you desis :P) and in trying to beat the stop sign, A went and beat another bike rider. As luck would have it, a cop saw all this and came running (almost literally) to the spot and took the key from A's bike (that is the style of Hyderabadi cops) and directed A to the center of the traffic island. Here is a funnier part: B was so amused by A's accident (?) that, he was laughing out and squinting in A's direction (in Hyderabadi: Jhaank jhaank ke dekhke hasra tha). For good measure, the former cop's sidekick came over and took B to the island too. Me and C were left alone (and sometimes I wish this ordeal ended here with all of us getting a loss in money). Well, after about 15-20 minutes of convincing the cops and having to pay like 500 bucks (post the amount in the comments guys :P).


This is definitely gonna be in parts, so I'll end here with a few pictures of the ride...and the trip so far:

This is A.

Me and C.

The cam was on B and D's bike, so no pics of those two so far...

I'll be back soon with the second installment of this day...