Tuesday, December 29, 2009

2.40 a.m. Ramblings

Rambled on last night: 

The essence of being Human is being able to conciously enjoy happiness.... if you can't then you probably aren't very human

Basically humans are the only creatures on this planet capable of 'creating' only for happiness (and not out of need/ practicality). if you don't do things that truly make you happy, then it's just not worth doing anything at all.

Now unfortunately I still need to figure out a balance between the practical and not so paractical stuff I want to get done.

Moving on:
The Shashi Tharoor Twitter thingy is in the news (link). Just heard a senior beurocrat and SM krishna who was a bloody governor say that if he does not agree with the govt he shoukd resign his cabinet post. WHAT THE FUCK!!

I dont agree with everything Tharoor says but if a man (whether he is part of the government or not) has an opinion he wants to voice then he has a right to - by law.

It is also public policy he is discussing  and not "matters of state security" and by defination public policy is policy affecting the bloody public who have a right to listen to an opinion concerning it

Moving On:
Went to check on V at the cop station. Had got into a bit of an accident.
The weird thing:
So you have choppers checking all drivers at naka bandi's for a DUI offence but when two cars have been in an accident they don't check if any of the drivers have had a drink? WHAT THE FUCK!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Academart.com - seriously check it out !




Got sent this link with some amazing Russian impressionists (http://academart.com). I have no idea why some of these guys aren't ridiculously famous. The one on top is a Pavlov and the one below (which is not actually impressionist but still awesome) is a Pjankov .


Thursday, November 26, 2009

For those sick of my regular shit:

The 7 Most Badass Last Stands in the History of Battle

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I find this leak insanely funny though:

I wonder if the Liberhan report would have been leaked if the Congress was not in power. For all you know it might have been the old judge himself - I mean if you spent 18 years of your life writing something I'm guessing you really don't want it to be stashed away, do you?

My thoughts on this at an earlier point are here

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A great little article on the words of our times:

Beyond Inappropriate

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Less than a minute

Curlies on the urinal,
Curlies on the pot,
Damn if the guy before me,
wasn't the ape man that time forgot.

Made that up while in the loo. It fairly flummoxes me how so many get there.

Fried Prattle

Well I haven't blogged in a while
- though I've been in the mood to prattle.
And though the rope's still lengthy,
We've been feeling a lot like cattle.

Calling Ms Parker, Calling Ms Parker,
would you please report to the round table?
through the haze of smoke and leftist folk
would you continue to fuck life's fable?


When fried turn to Ms Parker eh?

CODA - Dorothy Parker

There's little in taking or giving,
There's little in water or wine;
This living, this living, this living
Was never a project of mine.
Oh, hard is the struggle, and sparse is
The gain of the one at the top,
For art is a form of catharsis,
And love is a permanent flop,
And work is the province of cattle,
And rest's for a clam in a shell,
So I'm thinking of throwing the battle-
Would you kindly direct me to hell?

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Pravda survives! :) - just as bad as it supposedly was!

So since today marks 70 years since the start of WW2 - and since the Russian invasion of Poland has suddenly caught my fancy (mainly the Molotov dude), I decided to check what Pravda "the OFFICIAL voice of the USSR) does today.

So I Googled it and was pretty amazed to see the site I went to (Pravda.ru), still having a major cold war hangover. Articles on the latest Russian weapons, an article on an aircraft the US made to drop nukes on Russia - and also an article stating how Germany alone was not responsible for the start of WW2 and that England was heavily involved... awesome fun stuff.

After a little more searching I figured that Pravda pretty much got shut down when the USSR fell and that the site was started by ex Pravda employees. HA! - but the site is definitely a fun read.

P.S it is strange that the amount of factual information be so tiny (comparitively) on a guy who survived very comfortably through practically every purge in the USSR - except for Khrushchev's. For the few who do read the crap i write if you have any info/ good book on Vyacheslav Molotov lemme know.

Mon mon

With a long and ranting speech,
given by the host.
With a great dinner - 'cept the baby seethed
with liquor flowing with "GOD?" looking on,
All in All not bad for a bored mon

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Goya's Ghosts - was underrated and is totally worth a watch

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Rep Mulling

So after 17 years the Liberhan Commission finally submitted its report today. I'm not going to write about the report itself as to me the real issue here is why it always take so long for these sort of reports to be tabled. For instance it took a decade an a half for the Srikrishna Comission report to be opened.

It pretty much depends on which party is currently at the center. There is no way that the Liberhan report would have ever been allowed to be submitted much less tabled at parliament if a NDA coalition was in power. Just like the Justice Srikrishna report was rejected by the BJP/Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra in 1999.

Also, these reports are very rarely revealed, in complete, to the general public - and revealing only half the information in a report could be an extremely dangerous thing.

A question - Is it worth having a report as touchy as this (and especially something like the Justice Srikrishna report), tabled so late? Maybe all it will do is open old wounds.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Def mulling

Hahaha what a bunch of hypocritical farts. Also "Weaponised Keynesianism"!! The term hits the spot bang on! Sounds like an RATM song or something.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/23/frank-f22-monopoly/

Point to note - Concerning the system of governance in the US I didn't know that House Armed Services Committee can over overrule the objections of a Defense Secretary as well as the Presidents Administration (essentially the President himself). Does this not nullify the failsafe of having an elected representative itself? Especially when you have a president with a fairly strong hold over Congress.

Also, what's the process out here? All I hear about is the delays in funding defense projects and the fact that we are very slow when in this sort of situation (which may actually be a good thing?? dunno).

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Add to places to travel to

Illegal Arms market - Durra, Pakistan

Moron of a filmmaker but what a crazy market. Now that is a trip worth making.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Tiananmen Square Blues

It is a sign of the times we live in that so few people remember the Tiananmen square massacre whose' 20th anniversary would be today. Except fo the usual "we need to make this token protest - but we don't really mean it - and everyone is gonna forget about it by tomorrow anyway" stuff nothing much seems to be happening in the international communiy. The weird thing is why nobody has said a thing about why the media has been so silent on the subject.

I guess if things were different now it would sort of be ok to ignore the anniversary - but the truth is that nothing's changed since '89. China continues to have a miserable civil rights record, the Commie govt still does what it likes to the environment, what happens outside a Shanghai or a Beijing is still anyone's guess, even the actual figures and facts about what happened in Tiananmen square that day is murky. The Tibetan issue has been shot to hell and back. Hell! I recently met more than one person who did not know that Tibet had been an independent country just around 40 years back.

Actually let me correct the 'no change' bit - China's economy is booming. This has basically resulted in the governments of most countries stampeding over each other in order to kiss some Dragon ass. This has obviously resulted in most nations "suggesting" that mainstream media go easy on China. As far as Indian foreign policy on the issue is concerned it's simple - there pretty much isn't any. Ignore it ever happened and maybe China will suddenly feel for us and give up their claim over Arunachal Pradesh - HA!! What else do you expect from a bunch of old fogey babus who can barely take a stand to pee much less on an issue of concern.

Anyway, I am going to do what most well-meaning, direction-less folks do in this situation.... light up, curse, and probably hope that the times actually are a' changein'.


Kam dhanda nahi tha. And for the uninitiated, yes I am carrying a Bo.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Album Art

This is a pretty decent collection of album art considering the fact that there is a lot of really good work out there. Most of them are not that obscure though. Good to see the King Crimson and KMFDM albums on the list.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/13/100-obscure-and-remarkable-cd-covers/

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

No shelter if youre looking for shade
I lick shots at the brutal charade
As the polls close like a casket
On truth devoured
Silent play in the shadow of power
A spectacle monopolized
The cameras eyes on choice disguised
Was it cast for the mass who burn and toil?
Or for the vultures who thirst for blood and oil?
Yes a spectacle monopolized
They hold the reins, stole your eyes
All the fistagons the bullets and bombs
Who stuff the banks
Who staff the party ranks

From RATM's Guerrilla Radio.

I did not cast a vote for anyone this General Election (I registered though). I am glad. Even more so because it does not matter in this fucked up system of coalition politics. With everyone sleeping with everyone irrespective of any ideology or principle.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Rip off

The crew the crew,
they danced by the light of the moo'.
With bread in their stomachs,
and dripping sweet brew,
and mud caked nails and shaggy beards,
and spent steam rising off their glinted spears,
the moon, the moon,
they danced by the light of the moon.


* I think this is ripped off from some poem I learnt in school

Friday, April 3, 2009

And if that wasn't enough they put the second video up on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJMd3xsncnk

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Attempt 35146

The first Waffle of the Year

So then, came across Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene"again. I first read the book completely around 3 years back but had started it when I was still in school - due to a passing reference made by a teacher. The book is part of a base of sources around which I have built my thought processes. It fits in (or at least I like to think so) very nicely with Objectivism and and a couple of other streams of thinking which I (at least till now) believe true.
Found an interesting essay here

I think he seems a little confused (moves towards a little popular thought) when he writes “Have in mind that I defend cooperation and think selfish actions are generally foolish not only in my profession but as a lifestyle based on the selfish principle of maximizing rewards.” Now, what I think he should have done is put the following into the sentence - Rational self interest.
Thats it! following Rand's ethic of rational self interest will automatically mean that if you are in a situation where you cannot answer the question “Why should I” then the answer has no benefit to oneself then committing that action is pointless.
Thus you would cooperate because you believe that cooperation would do you good and not because you are have to - meaning you are selfish even when you believe you are altruistic.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Movie


I don't normally blog about movies I saw but this one was awesome. Was watching "Roadhouse" starring Patrick Swayze and it was bloody awesome. The Movie's tagline is "The dancing's over. Now it gets dirty" and I actually sat and wrote out a couple of lines that got said in the movie:

Main Guy - Its my way... or the highway. ( I didn't know this line actually ever got said)
Main Guy- Pain don't hurt ( On being asked why he does not want anasthesia while being stitched up)
Main Guys 'cool and tough' best friend - That gal's got entirely too much brains to have an ass like that.
Main Guy - I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice.

Also everytime the main guy would walk into the room someone would whisper in awe "Who is that guy?" or " I heard he killed a man down south"

To end this post I ponder, brood, ruminate, mull, contemplate, speculate, build my castles of sand, dwell, puzzle over, and reason over why I end up getting hooked to a flick like this in the middle of the night when I have perfectly better things to do.

- Adios

Friday, March 6, 2009

Me Loo

HaHa. So I get home and I'm showering and this is what I see in front of me.

I think me mum is generally sick of us leaving the loo messed up.

And my blogs now a year old and nobody continues to watch the watchers.

Monday, March 2, 2009

The trip to Leh

Alright then. These are the notes and bits of papers that are left from the Leh trip. I lose my stuff brilliantly quick so I figure to store it all (or whatevers left of it) on the blog. Also, I plan to scan/ photograph the sketches I made. Hopefully I will keep finding more stuff when I clean my cupboard. Also I will keep editing and adding to this post itself.
All comments with '**' have been added while typing it out.

PART I


Tuesday11.30 p.m. 11 hours till departure.

* (ching-ching ka chika ching-chin) - organs
- Dry boxers dry,
All rigged on a chair, under the air
Dry boxers dry
'coz I need to leave, as soon as I can
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Damn boxers need to dry so I can finish packing.
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22/07/2008 - On the train before entering Rajasthan

- Dissing Gandhi is pretty easy today. Its all "anti establish cool". Are there a whole bunch of things he screwed up? YES!! of course there are. What I do however know is that pretty much every country that has won its freedom through violence ( post 1920's) is now facing civil unrest.

- The whole non-violent thing is brilliant - however Gandhi's idea of non-violence is a little too hardcore. His vision of Indians fighting during WW@ was hordes of us walking into enemy fire till they ran out of ammo or were somehow shamed into giving up - HA!

- We gotta give the guy credit for what he did do - he did unite the country pretty much for the first time. Most revolutionary types ended up being too hardcore socialist ( not that Nehru wasn't) for my taste. I am pretty sure that if a Bhagat Singh or a Subhas Bose had succeeded we would have ended up either commie or a dictatorship.
------------------
* We need to keep a man a man not make him a God/ Saint.
- Respect a "lesser" Gandhi.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Chronicalize" needs to be a word.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most Indians let themselves be walked over more because of their pre-conditionioning than because they are timid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOG - The Train - 10.30p.m.

- The Lord gets his wish of a chick sitting in the next berth.
- Chick and friend very boring. Thankfully leave at Surat. Can scratch now.
- Lunch does not go down very well with Mr. Law. Drinks a lot of water. Takes a dump. Is fine.
- We get the kid a seat. Crazy annoying old people try to chuck him out. Some old people have the conception that being old obligates everyone else into giving them respect solely on the merit of their age.
- Get fined Rs 100 for smoking. RPF guard asked me if I was done smoking (apparantly sarcastically) I thought he was serious and said almost. TC was too bored to fine me. Nut guard was pissed of so 110 bucks down the drain.
- RPF guard is a SAI athlete.
- Old people farting away to glory.
- No water in the rivers
- A half bottle of bootlegged McDowells No.1 costs Rs 350 on the train in Gujrat.
- Am writing the whole end of the log in the dark (** at his point it was pretty difficult to read my handwriting. Apparently writing in the dark is not something I'm gonna get famous for.)


- Ambala Station

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LOG - NEW MANALI - Finally!

- Lost the Holiday Hat in Chandigarh. One of the saddest moments of my life when I realized that I had left it at the train station. The Holiday Hat stood by me for a good 6 years. It was with me during the "incident" in Goa. It was there when 2 of us pretended to be from France and not understand a word of English during a flight from Bbay to Mangalore.... good times. R.I.P Holiday Hat - may your finder be given the accumulated +vibes you contain.
- Got the cabbies to buy me some local - smooth but not very good. Smoked some with him at the dhaba. Weather is now Brilliant!
- "What a Weather" - much used phrase.
- Stayed the night in bloody New Manali coz "hot water was needed" - AAAAARRGHH!
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PANG - NH/21:

Right then, the whole next bunch of words concerning day 3 and 4 is being written in Pang - around 220 kms from Leh. We're in one of those Ladakhi round tents,

- Something that had fried me when the decision to stay in New Manali was made was that I still hadn't met Mary. Now that's plain stupid.
- Handwriting's messed coz its fucking cold. -6 in the tent with the wind taking it down to -14 outside.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MC

Am reading 'On the Road' by Kerouac on this trip. MC is the sort of person who could walk out of this book. The man is beautifully insane and speaks profoundly sane.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yup, so we met MC the next day.

the minute our bags are down,
MC's got Mary around,
& not that it isn't fun when she isn't around,
but it always nice to have her around.

Now as far as I know, none of the guys I'm with know her or her cousins too well.

- The Lord knows her but prefers the company of Jack.
- Sidney Iggy knows only certain facets of her.
- Mr Law does not know her but claims to be totally willing to get to know her (** this did not work out)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PANG - Sidney just played "Kashmir" in Kashmir - Kickass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, after the introduction the rest took off on a hike while I caught up with Mary on the roof. The weird part is the whole time this was happening all I can think of is Modigliani asking "well Pablo, can you make love to a cube?"
- Gary and Shell from Bbay turned up. They seemed to have taken some seriously good photographs - Must get them once back.
- Went bookstore hunting. - For some reason this trip seems to be taking on a very "India history" thingy. Can't understand it. Hmmm.

Night was at MC's cottage sitting in a circle on the balcony. Only Mr Law and I were present as the other two were pretty bushed. Quite an interesting circle. Met Hilda and Paul who had been around these parts for the last 2 months. Typical euro/ hippie types but not very smart. I find it pretty amazing the way so many folks jump at half assed half-true ideas and propagate it as the hard truth.
I consider myself fairly open to any different way of thought as long as there is substance backing it. If someone came to me and said "dude this is how it is." I'm gonna ask why. And if the answer to that 'why' is 'you're too closed to see the "truth" then so be it. Information is ONLY as good as its source. Period.

Yup, so the circle was interesting. I think Mr Law felt a little out of it but he observed fairly well. Did not smoke though.
- Nutella Pancakes Rock!
- Apple juice and Parathas Rock!
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Next Day - Lost count of time - it's over the hills.
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Tata Safari to Leh - Driver : Jimmy/ Ladakhi dude - good fun

Iggy saw a Yak (his first) near Rohtang and ran like 200 mtrs with the camera yelling YAK, YAK, YAK. Damn yaks obviously ran away.

THE HIMALAYAS

Got absolutely nothing to say. The pictures taken are but a fraction of what the mountains do to you.

Baralachlala

All the tents we stopped at for chai had at least one cute Ladakhi girl in there. Jimmy seems to know these girls pretty well and has a major 'hero' aura around them. The tent at Pang where we night-overed (another word) had a girl which made Mr Law want to settle in Ladakh and become Shepard or something ( the whole 'got hit by lightening' thing).

Anyway, the normal thing to do is to stop at Sarchu which is a reasonable 12000 feet (approx) high. However we reached Sarchu pretty quick and decided to push for Pang which is around 15000 feet (approx) high. The issue with this acute mountain sickness. Luckily for us no one fell sick - I didn't out of sheer luck and the others didn't because they practically OD'd on the bloody Diamox pills - I mean who the fuck pops 1 Diamox the previous night in Manali and another 2 the next day?!!

- The blankets in this tent don't seem to be working. Gonna try to sleep now. The silence seeps through your bones and reverberates in your brains.

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LEH TOWN - ASHOKA GUEST HOUSE

At the Ashoka guest house in Leh. Reached around an hour back. No idea what the time or date is. The air is brilliantly clear.
Continuing where I left of:
The bloody temp in Pang fell to sub-zero levels. The original plan had been to get some grub in the Ladakhi tent then go some distance and sleep in our own tent (we'd lugged it all the way from Bombay). This was definitely not happening now - no way we would come out with all our parts intact by sleeping in our tiny tent. CO-OH-OH-OHHLD

- Slept in Ladakhi tent - bad blankets - froze - when you sleep in Ladakh you make a bloody racket since you breathe real deep (less O2 i guess).

Next day,
the road to Leh
can't write about it
I'd be blooming Hemingway
If I could narrate,
the way to Leh. - HA!!


Taken on the road - Click if you have a screen with decent resolution
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LEH

Got to Leh town.
- First Impression: Nothing all that great. Regular hippie tourist sort of hill town, with cafe's on the terraces and stuff. The locals seem cool ( but like I said it is a tourist town and this is an FI) the Tibetans seem to have a chip on their shoulder (No comment).
- Checked in at Ashoka guest house. Seriously pretty landlady. The Lord obviously was all ga-ga.
- Iggy can't use the common loo and so has to use the one in the other room.
- The common loo is a sort of meeting place for all the guests living here.
- Don't plan to do much today. Soak the place up look around town and maybe get a drink.
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WRITING IN THE GUEST HOUSE - AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS.

I am not going back. I refuse to go back. The air is cleaner out here and I can definitely get an odd job here. The others seem to want to go back pretty quick now. Its not that they are homesick or anything - basically being in an evironment where they are not very comfortable is something that they would rather not do.
I think someone once said a pretty cool line about when travelling to never forget that a place is meant to make its own people comfortable and not the traveller.
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Alright then, contiuing where I left of:

The difference in a town like Leh and say a Manali or a Goan town is that more tourists out here are of the hardcore traveller variety. Meaning that most folks out here are pretty fit and have come to actually trek and bicycle and climb and all that, and thats pretty cool. I'm gonna have to come back here with Dominique.
Couple of cafe's around here are pretty cool. Can't stand the local momo's - blearrgh - although I did eat some meat that was being skewered on an open flame (good).
- Went to Pangong Tso ( before which they tried OD'ing on Diamox again). Frickin awesome journey, Frickin awesome lake, coulda just sat there for a full day. Unfortunately only got a coupla hours.
- Gotta give the lord credit. Considering the fact that he's been smoking and drinking hardcore for like 10 years the guy is in pretty good shape.
- tried to climb the hill behind the lake - bloody hard.
- Ate Dal and rice
- The monastry at Hemis is awesome. There was a book I'd read a while back which claimed that this monastry had documents proving the theory that Christ had come here - Once when he was a teenager and once after his crucification (The book basically suggested that he did not die on the cross). The monastrys are damn peaceful but the smell of Yak butter in the inner Sanctums always puts me off. How the monks travelled and built these structures in the middle of bloody nowhere is beyond me. The part that I find weird is this - not only are these places built on the tip of any hill/ mountain but none of them seem to have been built keeping basic precautions to protect the structures from the weather. For instance - most are not built with sloping roofs (which would make it less wind resistant, Also almost none seem (to my untrained eye) to have been built in the wind-shadow region of the mountain.
- I clearly have nothing to write about right now am wasting ink. This pen is nice. My name is Bopana.

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Writing in HUNDAR (day2??) - NUBRA VALLEY - In the morning with Lucy still whispering.

I have pretty much found my spot. Its got the snow capped mountains, the river, the green foliage, sand dunes and had a bunch of people maknig their peace in the middle of the desert.

LOG:
- Drove to Hundar from Leh. Killer drive through Khardung-la.
- Tried running around at 18000 feet. Managed a little. Felt quite proud till I saw the group of 30 bicyclists coming up behind us.
- Horrible but extremely funny meal.
- Godfather beer is the stuff that we have been drinking on this trip. Pretty potent shit - I end up making a shandy of it mostly.

A guy passed out on the stuff beside the road.

- The entrance to Nubra Valley is brilliant as usual and then you suddenly notica that the bottom of the Valley is covered in sand dunes
- Reached Hundar - decent place to stay
- Cannot enter the tiny canals that go through the village - waters drinkable and people do not filter it.
- Headed to the desert.

Why is it that a lot of folks who (think they) believe that they don't give a shit about money and the whole money corrupts stuff - spend so much of what isn't theirs?

THE DESERT


Before heading to the desert I met up with Lucy and took Mary along for company. On reaching the edge, the rest waited to see if they could get a ride on one of the Bactrian camels ( which by the way is a seriously cool animal - fuck! two humps man woo ho ho). So I bid adieu and walked into the sands.
- walked walked walked.
- sat and chilled. Lucy is now yelling herself hoarse in my ears. A decision has been made that never again will I meet her in Bombay.
- (now this is weird but totally true) met this guy who looked like a Chinese Marlboro man - cowboy hat, high boots and dressed in black leather and all. Marl Man ( will call him that) was going around with a sack in his hand picking up anything he found interesting ( not much since there was nothing but sand around). Marl Man was basically sick of Chinese communism, had run to the US, found it to be too capitalist and was now in Ladakh following the Buddhist trail. So I sat and chatted with him for a while until I saw the dog. The dog was around 200 metres away and looked pretty interesting and so I left Marl Man and walked. The dog was extremely cool but was covered in these insects which were basically taking shelter in its fur. Dunno if they were also feeding off the dog - didn't seem so.

Another dog I found with the same insects on it. Enlarge it.

- The sun began to set ( I think) and I started back via another route.
- Met a group of hippie types who were already sitting in a circle. - good fun.
- Got back to the town and the place we're staying. The others are pretty wound up for some reason.

Apparently pretty happy


- Still chilling now, everyones asleep and I am on the roof of the house we are in. The first time I have ever actually seen the Milky Way in all its glory.
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THE DOG STAR - DAL LAKE - SRINAGAR ( Day something)

Change in plans. I AM IN BLOODY SRINAGAR!! woo hoo!!
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So basically we were booking our train tickets bac from chandigarh when the lord and Law figured there was no way that they were gonna do the drive from Leh back to Manali. Also, Law wanted to fly back from Delhi/ Chandigarh. So while all this was happening (at the travel agents office), I think Iggy asked what the flight from Sinangar to Bbay costed and things just rolled on from there.
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- Met Fat John an American guy. Fat john is a schoolteacher (and I have always liked talking to teachers - dunno why) and travels once every 2 years. Fairly intelligent guy. Told me about the time he went to Cambodia. Apparantly a guy approached him and asked him if he wanted to fire off a few guns (he had a choice of a few makes) - for $20. The guy also told him that for another $200 he would be given a RPG launcher and allowed to blow up a cow.Hmm. I need to travel to these places man.
- Was walking in the back alleys in Leh and I found the red light district. IN LEH!!.
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- Good drive to Srinagar. Driver was a bit of a pain though.
- Passed through Kargil and Drass - very cool.
- Nathu-la is one awesome pass.
- Saw the bit of land all the Amarnath yatra commotion is about.
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- Am bored of my log, I'm writing for the sake of writing and there are certain facets of myself I would rather not put down on paper. I am definitely judgmental to a level I did not know. On the plus side (or negative I'm still not sure) the going-on's of other people do not seem to bother me too much. The kashmiris (not to be mistaken with Ladakhis) depress me. I like the quiet of the lake at night, alone on a shikara. The stomping of jackboots at night disturbs me. I need to come back to find the soul of this place.
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________________________________________________________________________________

That's it folks. I had to edit a lot out and since the blog is mine I don't have to give a reason for doing it. For a little more info on what i thought of Srinagar - an older post

Adios.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

In the moo- oorning, In the moo-oorning by the sea



Paani Puri ROCKS

Hmm.

So I had a fairly interesting morning yesterday and since I have not posted in a while and since I feel the urge to do so, this, is what I shall post about.

I am basically in the process of getting a passport (or passeport if you were French) and so wakey time happened at the unearthly hour of 9.00 a.m.

9.00 a.m. - Wake up time. I need to be at the passport office at exactly 11.00 a.m. Which means I need to rush.
9.30 a.m. - Actual wake up time. I need to be at the passport office at exactly 11.00 a.m. Which means I need to rush.
9.45 a.m. - I begin playing cake (The band, you cant play the food) on the amp in my room. Now this is important as it set the tone for the rest of the morning.
10.00 a.m. - Since I have to leave so early I get a chance to eat breakfast ( dosa, kheema+ sugar, butter+sugar and chutney+sugar)
10.30 a.m. - Departure time - Am late but I'm on a bike and since I am Batman getting to Worli is no big deal.
10.50 a.m. - Am still in Santacruz. Clearly being Batman does not get you out of rush hour traffic. Respect the dark demeanor dammit!!
11.15 a.m. - Arrival. Park on an unused part of the road.
11.30 a.m.- Meet the agent who is supposed to help me out. While signing the forms ( under a tree) a crow decides to do a doodoo on my head.
11.45 a.m. - Finish washing my hair under a tap which was in the store behind me - soaking wet head.
12.00 a.m. - Standing in line. Meet the other guy using the same agent as me - LIYAQUAT KHAN

Now Liyaquat's like one of those small time crooks you see on tv. Skinny guy with a lot of bluster with kohl under his eyes scrawny beard and all that jazz. So we begin talking (he began talking). It starts of with the usual anti-establishment talk. Thats when Liyaquat finds out that he has to register all Rs 500 notes he is using.

This leads to a massive discussion about the time when he was working with the 'company' . So apparently he was involved in a counterfeiting operation being run from Mahim. The notes were smuggled in from Nepal and apparently contained some awesome material which made it look very real. Now he obviously had to prove this point so it led to the story about when he was caught by the cops. Not just any cop but the late great Vijay Salaskar himself questioned him.

The conversation went like so- or so I was told ( now I can't do the Hindi thing so this is my translation):

Scene: Liquayat is standing in front of Salaskar with a bundle of real 500 rupee nots in the left pocket and a bundle of fake 500 Rupee notes in the right.

Salaskar: Arre Liquayat bhai, we know that you are not the head of this operation. Tell us who your boss is and we'll let you go. Otherwise tumko saala andar daalega.

Liquayat (acting all cool): Arre saab, I would rather be inside than tell the name of my boss. Saala agar mein uska naam bolega then vo mujhe off karega. Now you and I both know that I can pay my way out of this

Salaskar: That is true but you will have to pay at least 4 lakhs, now why dont you tell us about your boss.

Liquayat (still acting cool): No problem I would rather pay the 4 lakhs.

Salaskar: Why don't you show me the fake notes?

Liquayat (taking the bundle of fake notes from his pocket very coolly): There you go.

Salaskar ( examining the notes): but these are real. I am sure of it

Liquayat: kya saab you don't know the difference between a nakli note and a real one

Salaskar: arre this is real.

Liquayat: Why don't you call for the note testing machine.

** This happens and the machine starts beeping like mad indicating a forged note

Liquayat: I told you so

** Salaskar and the other constables just stand there in awe of LIQUAYAT KHAN

- End of Scene

After all this I got the slip for the passport( and my hair had dried) and went to get the bike. Now the bike had been towed for some dumbass reason I will not get into. The problem was I did not know where they had towed my bike to. Seeing a cop car I asked them. They said it was in Worli and since they were heading in the same direction , would I like a lift - I agreed. Heard about some fire that just took place somewhere near Parel over the radio - pretty cool.

Anyway I reached the station and after paying the fine realized that the scum-sucking sons of bacteria had broken my indicator light.

This led to a huge fight between me, all the cops in the station and the tow van guys - who kept trying to stick my light back on with bloody Fevi quick. After a lot of shouting, cursing and being threatened with assaulting an officer I left for home.

And I was listening to CAKE the whole time. quite a morn eh?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Hmm' ing

Greetings, children of men.

A word of advise from one whose doom it was to watch the directors cut of 'The return of the King' - do not begin the task during the wee hours of the morn, but wait and watch it at a more suitable time. The damn thing lasts 4 and a half hours and after that all you can do is pine for the cold steel of Anduril (the flame of the West) in your hand.

Also, the whole birthday thing happened and as someone wisely put it " You (meaning I) are now 23 years old".


JASTI:?
happiness, wealth, sorrow undone
the craving of Shanti
the conniving and wary

BE:?
the union of one
the resting Yogi
the uncoiling kundalini

Thursday, January 29, 2009

of Poe's'ms



' Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

The first stanza of Poe's "The Raven". Published exactly 164 years ago to this date. This one is pretty much one of the only poems I actually liked in school. I mean, most of the poetry you read in school is utter CRAP - what the fuck is Wordsworth's Daffodils ( by the way I found out only after school that the poems name isn't even 'the Daffodils' - so much for our textbooks) .

Back to the Raven, this is one fun (in a rhymy goth way) poem, I remember trying to figure out who Pallas ( the bust on which the Raven sits) was and I still haven't completely got it. So is Pallas from the poem Athena herself ( this is the easiest to accept since you assume the the orator is a student and Athena being the goddess of wisdom and all, he would sit under it and crib) or is Pallas on of half a dozen other Greco-Roman entities. I dunno for sure.

To end, reading this poem along with The Phobia (yes, I have capitalisized the phrase for impact) - Nevermore.

** - - Buying an ordinary pair of blue jeans is ridiculously hard. When I say I don't want my back pockets to be made of leather (with sparkles on it) instead of denim I mean it!

Adios.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The New Year Post

The only thing I have to say as the 'New Year Post" is this:

Its amazing how similar this year (including the whole financial scene) is to Floyds Atom Heart Mother.... in a whole bunch of ways.