ROCKin’ weekend!!!

Friday night, I went to IIM for the concert by Indian Ocean .. they sucked- played really amateurish stuff… the guitarist, vocals, flute.. absly everything was novice. I left in disgust n’ didn’t even wait for Strings [I’ve heard ’em before n’ I don’t enjoy their music].

Y’day however, I went with Anoop n’ Aashish for the Parikrama-Moksha standoff concert. Now that wuz somethin!! Met Zaki, Kicha, Nelson n’ Vasanth there.. wuz cool. Moksha started off- they played the same stuff I heard at Saarang last week- Cherokee, Fear Of The Dark n’ Nothing Else Matters.. which were really good!

Parikrama followed up with the stuff they played last year at the JRO kickoff at Chennai- the guy started off with his characteristic AC/DC.. But It rained n’ Yellow followed. The vocalist is just so COOL n’ even looks sorta like Chris Martin! They did a Led Zep next.. His voice matches it so very well!! They rounded off with Smoke on the Water. The guys sure know how to keep the crowd entertained as well…

I’d rate ’em India’s best rock band, tho’ Brahma was impressive too.. My prob is- I’ve heard few bands- but multiple times. I’m just waiting to check out Pentagram, Motherjane n’ TAAQ, ‘cuz they’re the only ones left who could challenge the likes of Parikrama…

Screwed up Friday!!

Lazith wanted me to take him to Sagar Apollo Hosp. to be admitted, ‘cuz his fever hadn’t died down. We drove near his house (BSK 3rd stage), parked.. n’ waited for his pal (who would give him co. at hospital). 10 min. elapsed n’ he hadn’t turned up, so I thought I’d park off the road and get out. The road sloped down, so without starting the car, I released the handbrake to let the car roll slowly to the side of the road.. when we heard ‘dup! dup! AYYOOOOOooooo…..!!!!‘

I thought I’d killed somebody. Pulled the handbrake and leapt out of the car to find a beggar woman [who I think had been lying on the road behind the car] with her leg near the wheel. She wouldn’t make an effort to move.. people were gathering.. There was an auto stand nearby and the drivers there came n’ told me to take her to a hosp. She was moaning as if she wuz gonna die, so I pulled her up quickly, piled her (n’ a small girl who’d turned up and started crying) into the back seat, got in, revved the car and drove her to Indira Nursing Home. Funnily, her screams died down once the car was rolling. When we got there, the doc said that casualty was only at 6 (!!!) “What does casualty mean?“, I thought.

I implored him to come n’ check the condition n’ he complied. He looked at her leg n’ said there wasn’t any serious problem and she’d be OK with some first aid. The auto drivers/other guys around turned up too.. n’ on hearing this, began to scold the woman for acting.. They asked me to get some cash- I had 150 on me n’ Lazith had 200, so we pooled in and went away to get more from the ATM. I dropped in on the way at office to talk to Admin, to find out what should be done.. He told me to give cash n’ come off. So I withdrew cash and went to the place, but they’d sent her away already! The doc said he’d thought we’d run away, so I gave him my address/phone no..

Darn!! Its just been one week since I got the car n’ look at the damage done already!! The dent in the door thanx to the auto driver n’ now this! I had the bike for a year and a half and nothing had happened. Next weekend, I’m driving to Chennai and coming back by bus. Kishore got his Indica y’day.. I’ve set my sights on his Thunderbird..

Waah! :`-(

First accident ever.. on my way to work today morning, just a few 100 m away from office, an auto banged into the right side of the car at a junction. The guy was looking elsewhere.. Nothing major- just a dent in the side- not even paint gone. I stopped the car and chased the auto on foot and caught up, but then, he took off.. I didn’t note the auto’s no. down either. I took the car to Santro service straightaway, where they said they’d require to tinker with the metal to remove the dent, which would require painting afterward- which would cost me five grand. I’ve decided to take it back to Chechi.. I’m in a bad mood..

Update: I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but Federer just LOST!! :`-o

Car..

Check out the McLaren MP4-20 pictures.. The major issue with owning a car is parking.. Even in office, there’s no space. At home, definitely not.. The house opp. has some space in front, but the guy there asked me not to park it there.. I put it in front of the adjacent shop- n’ drew complaint soon after.. Now I park it 100m away, in a side road. Besides, it has even lesser legspace than an ordinary 800.. It looks like I’ll drive it back to Chennai very soon indeed.. Then I’ll probly borrow Kishore’s Thunderbird, now that hez getting his car..

The drive

Harith n’ I woke up at 9 or so on Sunday, freshened up, packed in the beanbag n’ Arj’s old Philips Powerhouse into the Santro and embarked on our drive back to B’lore. We got onto Arcot Rd, filled up at an HP outlet, checked the tyre pressure and started off with me at the wheel. I drove towards Porur and took a right turn. The drive till Sriperumbedur wasn’t good. We saw the Hyundai and Saint Gobain factories and crossed the Rajiv Gandhi memorial as well. The road got better afterward and soon we were on part of the Golden Quadrilateral. After Kanchipuram, the 2-lane road (with no oncoming traffic) extended as far as the eye could see. The Santro has very little leg-space in the front, which is really a turnoff. But I shifted the car into 5th gear, folded my arms behind my head, pushed the seat full back and cruised along for almost an hour at a steady 65 kph..

We stopped on the way to eat/drink a coupla tender coconuts each. Soon we passed Ranipet and got into Andhra territory at Chittoor. Here, we came across a terribly dusty patch of road, albeit with a good view and Harith took over from me. We passed Palmaner next and drove on past Kolar. K. R. Puram soon presented itself to us- we were at the outskirts of Bangalore.. Old Madras Rd-> Ring road-> and we were soon at BTM.. Unloaded the stuff and connected the system as soon as we got home. Plumped myself down in the beanbag- Ashish was still there, so we dined at the Andhra Mess and talked ourselves to sleep.. Anoop arrived today morning quite unexpectedly.. and I drove the car to office. 🙂

Totally..

happening weekend!! Left office at 6 n’ went home with Suddu- Ashish [old-skool pal] came over and we spent an hour talking.. I went with him n’ Subbu to Harith’s [one of my best pals from skool days] house- picked him up and went on to dine at a small reasonably-priced aiwa’s-like mallu place right on Brigade Rd. Spent some time there n’ they came to drop us off at the station. I was travelling with Rakesh n’ Rekha. Harith was in a diff. compartment.

We reached Chennai at 7.30 n’ found some IITM students on the platform with placards inviting Saarang visitors. The four of us pretended to be RECTians and got a free lift to IIT on the bus they’d sent.. We reached n’ loitered around a bit before catching an auto to Chechi’s place- brushed, bathed, ate, played with my nephew n’ checked out their new LX3600D and the beanbag they got free with it! Afterward, we drove over to IIT in the Santro n’ checked out the eastern music competition. Some teams were awesome n’ RECT made it to finals as well. Found the lits team at the Potpourri place- they did well too..

Kolli came over in the afternoon with Deb. Rakesh, Harith n’ I went with them for a heavy lunch at Dominoes after which we got back to campus to kill time till the 7 pm Rock Show. Orange Street was first- they started off with Prodigy’s Firestarter and did a decent job with some other songs.. Then we waited for over an hour, while the organisers tried to solve some technical glitches on stage which sprang up before Moksha was due to perform. The wait was well worth it when they finally got things going. Nothing Else Matters, Cherokee, Fear of the Dark and 2 Minutes to Midnight meant that I drove back home more than satisfied..

Biriyani

Anoop went home y’day- Shabin’s probly going today n’ I’m leavin’ for Chennai tomorrow with Harith for Saarang to spice up my life. When I began blogging, I came across ‘the most boring blog in the world’. I think mine’s soon gonna give it some serious competition. The most interesting thing I did today is.. I had a veg. biriyani for lunch. Oh n’ btw, Abins got promoted to ‘Engineer’ role. Great for him, quite expected n’ deserved tho’.

Firefox

I installed Firefox 1.0 in Windows also y’day.. made it the default browser instead of Opera, removed the Gmail (thru IE) link on my desktop, Gmail Notifier and RSSOwl programs. Got instead, the Sage, Gmail Notifier and All-in-one gestures extensions.

WorKeND

I’ve been really busy.. made a release y’day at 8.30, came to office a li’l late today, expecting a sorta cool day ahead.. Opened Outlook n’ was presented by three mails from the client with new reqs! :`-(

Friday was a holiday on account of Pongal- I came to office however, with Suddu- at 11.30- had some work pending. Gaurav n’ team were playing Serious Sam, so I gave ’em company till 5.30 n’ then decided to get some work done- left office after a coupla hrs- had dinner with Shabin. Repeated the same thing on Sat’day..

I came to office on Sunday too n’ finished work in an hour- Thats when I received a call from Padmadas [school junior] who had come to write the FMS test. Aditya wasn’t writing, so I picked him up from Christ College n’ took him to Forum. We lunched at Hungry Buddha- where I introduced him to my mainstay- veg. steamed rice. Afterward, we went to Ravishankar’s house [I know him ‘cuz he’s one of Rahul’s best pals] at Madivala, picked him up n’ passed more time at Forum.

Das turned up after his exam.. but went to his cousin’s place, so Ravi, Adi n’ I proceeded to Brigade Rd.. We gave Adi co. at Mota Arcade, where he spent a few hrs (:-p) shopping.. I thought only gals shopped this long!! Phew, was I pissed or what?!

I bought a pullover for 150 n’ a dupli Nokia-like black-ear-pinnable headset hacked for the X100.. for just 85!! Afterward, we spent a coupla hrs entertaining ourselves sipping a large, while we waited for Das to turn up. Once he did, we split up.. Ravi n’ I caught an auto back to Madivala-BTM.

All-in-all, the best Sunday in B’lore ever!

Great Day..

(..for freedom)

1. Deepu called to say his results are out. Cleared all papers! Yippee!!! :`-)
2. Basu mailed to say he’s coming back in Feb.. 🙂
3. Wrote my first TCL script and got it working 😮
4. Three holidays ahead.. 😀
5. Got mail from R. 😉

(Listening to Radiohead – Creep…)