Hallelujah?

December 31, 2008 at 12:40 am (But I Didn't Shoot The Deputy!)
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Now, we’re real close to the year 2009. Seems so strange. A year. A year, wiser or more foolish? Just the right balance, methinks. Right now, I can only think of my legal possibilty of drinking, driving, and loads of other things. Oh, damn them, can only drink at 21. 3 years then, 3 years. My blog might even cease to exist then. Laziness, you say? Nah, boredom would be more likely. Not that I’m bored writing, but I hardly have any creative friends who write consistently enough for me to be motivated. The few who tried sunk wi’out a trace. May they Rest In Peace. Or is it their souls? Ah well, I tend to muddle these sort of things up.

Quite an eventful year, this. 2008. Leap year. Nice. We even had an exam on 29th February. Good way to remember the year? Definitely not. With an emphatic, albeit, not uppercase, ‘N’. IIT-JEE, AIEEE, CET, 12th Boards, everything. Ah, the cursed year.

Bright point :- Got admission to a good college.

Low points:- Chelsea lost in the final. Wanted better AIEEE marks.

Damned in early-2008 as an underachiever, another word for “lazy”. Early mid-2008, parents look for alternate seats to bearable colleges. Son can’t believe. Loses all semblance of self-confidence. World stuttering below his feet. Late mid-2008. Results out. Fails to pass muster in JEE and AIEEE. Pulls a rabbit out of the hat. Manages passable marks in CET. All world is back again with the underachieving so-called prodigy. Late-2008. Horrible go the sem. exams. Old feelings return.

No way back now. Enjoying football. Enjoying everything. Just one longing. One thing (or person?) I want most in this world. And it/he(oops!)/she dislikes me. Sigh. The irony of life. You get what you don’t want. Count me lucky? Count again. Hopeless romantic. Seems tough, sarcastic, even cold. Foolishly emotional inside. Pining for something lost pre-2008.

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High Landrons!

December 26, 2008 at 12:44 am (I Shot The Sheriff!)
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Now, I’ve been playing FIFA 2007 for a long time. Though it released in 2006, I have coveted the game only since-late 2007. Any Goddam FIFA can be enjoyed completely only by playing Manager Mode, where you get to manage teams from around the world. Of course, you can’t just manage a top club as a rookie manager. You have to progress through the smaller clubs onto the bigger clubs.

It’s a real good experience for any big football fan, and by that I do not refer to size. I refer to the passion. Every fan, in the bottom corner of his heart, nurtures a FOOLISH dream of managing his favourite team, but you can actually do so in this game. You can progress through the ranks and manage your team after a few seasons, provided you’re successful.

Now being a pretty decent player, I decided that I would begin with the weakest available team, and hence accepted an offer to manage Bristol Rovers, who were languishing in the bottom half of League 2, which is the 4th Division in English football. Well, the rest of the story was right out of a fairytale. And now, after a lot of changes to the team, the new-look squad is fighting it out with the likes of Chelsea, et al. for the Premier League title. Well, not yet, but Our Time will come.

Till then, go manage your own team. Not that I’m banishing you from my blog, but I got bored halfway through writing this post, hence the abruptness.

Started on 17th December. Putting an end to it on the 26th. Complete sloth.

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Money For Nothing…

December 26, 2008 at 12:23 am (But I Didn't Shoot The Deputy!)
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The Dire Straits weren’t too wrong when they sang “Money For Nothing”. Not that they were actually in dire straits. But I’ll get to the point straighter than before here.

I won’t deny that money is what every person strives for. Success and money. It’s the single most important thing we need besides love in this world. Without money, you get nothing in this world. Not a plugged nickel. Well, when I was young, I’d argue with my Dad that we’d get air for free. Well, you need food to live on that air, don’t you? :P

And money is exactly what causes most problems in this world. Now, I don’t need to list all the vices caused by excess, lack or just plain thought of/about money. What I want to highlight here is the fact that money is the basis for all friendships going sour.

Friends better than money? YES.

Friends better than money? YES.

Well, at the risk of sounding miserly or something worse, I avoid borrowing or lending big amounts of money to my friends. Some time back, I was reading one of those self-help columns in our tabloids. A man had asked The Enlightened One of the aforementioned newspaper how to ask his friend to return the money he had lent him, and he was ignoring subtle references. TEO said that it was a choice between friendship and the money, because it sounds pretty rude to keep demanding money.

Well, up to a point, he is correct. A friend who borrows money and fails to return it isn’t very high in your favour. Be it small sums or big sums, I try to return most of the money I borrow. I CAN forget sometimes, and it really is shameful when people have to remind you. It is a matter of conscience. Some people have absolutely no conscience, and always brush these things off as a part of friendship.

Well, it might be correct if you were earning it yourself, but you aren’t. And it doesn’t feel or seem or look good anyway. Money and friendship are two things which should be kept apart. Personally, I hate to ask people to return any money they borrowed, but sometimes, it is imperative to do so. Especially if you’re broke and the sum absconding is sizeable. There has been an instance of a family friend loaning some money to a very close friend. And surprise surprise, the “friend” still hasn’t returned the money.

See, and understand sharing.

See, and understand sharing.

Well, power and money corrupt, so should family be any different? The cliched “Blood is thicker than water” quote doesn’t hold much “water” or “blood” here. Powerful families have been torn asunder by financial issues, as well as inheritance ones. Agatha Christie’s storylines invariably have some kind of inheritance murderers lurking around.

Never has been any different, has it? Victorian Era, Stone Age or just the 21st Century, it’s all the same. Don’t think it’ll change. Money is, after all, money. People kill for it.

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Blue Is The Blood!

December 8, 2008 at 11:39 pm (Uncategorized)
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Going to start a new blog on my favourite football club, Chelsea FC. People interested in contributing please leave comments in this post. That way, I’ll increase the number of comments, plus get valuable contributions from you guys. :D Hopefully, I’ll crunch some keys faithfully.

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Girls In Their Summer Clothes

December 8, 2008 at 1:16 pm (I Shot The Sheriff!)
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India has always been popular for its hippie-culture throughout the 80’s and for the highly popular cinema that it spawned. For many years, India has been the “hair”-apparent for the crown of “Countries Which Worry Most About Their Hair”. Now, I’m not talking about the money spent on cosmetics, but the time.  From the uber-cool look of bald during the Independence struggle, to the stringed and braided hair of the hippie era, to the Tere Naam hairstyle of modern times, our country has been experimenting with the black blanket on its head, pointedly called “hair” and never before has there been an equivalent rise in ass-pain due to the combs in the back-pocket. Moving on to moustaches…

Mustachios of India

Mustachios of India

Have you ever realized how moustache-minded India is? You can almost sing, “Here a moustache, there a moustache, everywhere a moustache,” and so on till you complete the rhyme. India’s reached the 21st Century, yet it still lives in the middle ages with respect to the fuzz on their faces. India has inspired the West to get a sporty mustache, as our Italiano neighbours call it, or atleast something to cover their upper lips. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a critical post, but on the contrary. Never could have guessed it, right? ;)

There have been massive changes in Indian culture in the past few decades. People have become more like foreign-waale log. Wearing modern clothes, going to chic parties, piercing previously-undiscovered parts of your body, etc, it’s the in-thing mayhn. Dig it, yo. Risque has never been so fashionable before, nor so cliched.

Well, of all people, I wouldn’t include myself in the vigilante fashion policia, and no-one else in their right clanker would. But there is a difference between fashion and industrial mass-production. Fashion would be, erm, something new or unique. A look that you have created for yourself or for someone. The current fad in Mumbai is baggy “tees”, even baggier  low-waist jeans, which are smaller in size than an eight-year-old’s pajamas, the Converse shoes, spiked hair and an arrogant look to match. Let me warn you, having experienced this a lot, never ever stand behind such people when they are about to bend. And please cover the eyes of any children exposed to this hazard. And fat girls, do avoid the ill-fitting jeans, won’t you? Oh my God, is that a Washboard forced underneath your clothes to stop that bulge in the middle?

Enter any men’s washroom in your local mall. I reassure you that my motives are not very doubtful. Look around you and please do not peek into cubicles. What are you most likely to see, besides the cubicles, that is? Simple. Men combing their hair. Even the partial baldies like to spread their minimal hair from left to right (or right to left, whichever hand you’ve washed and are using on the comb). The less fussy of them just glance at the mirror, adjusting a stray lock here and there. Most of them, i.e, the ones aspiring to emulate movie-stars, will comb their hair back and forth until the next aspiring movie-star jostles him, or his hair starts coming out in clumps. As I told you before, the ass-pocket combs aren’t really healthy for sciatica and the like.

Note the latest and most popular hairstyle.

Note the latest and most popular hairstyle.

Inspiration for today:- Old-school thoughts from my parents about trying out beard styles.

Rebellion for today:- Slightly modifying my beard, though not noticeably.

You know, no-one’s tried beard styles much. People almost always shave it off, or let it grow until bin Laden approves of it. Those who do try it always pick the wrong one. Oh, and just so you’ve finished reading the article, I’ve probably cycled effectively between topics, so that the fat girls don’t feel too offended, nor the Converse lovers, and definitely not the Sallu-bhai-lovers. Chetan Bhagat, horrible books, horrible choice of hero. There you go, topic for your next book about three friends who have different hairstyles and fashion sensibilities. You have to have 3 guys, don’t you? Oh, and if I’ve seemed abrupt in this, spare me. I write without research as I’m usually bored.

Hindustan’s in fashion mayhem, and let’s face it, we’re doing nothing to help it. with our Converse-obsession and underwear-addiction.

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For The Love Of God!

December 4, 2008 at 4:16 pm (But I Didn't Shoot The Deputy!)
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Since times immemorial, there always has been a debate about a higher power in the lifetime of humanity. Due to man’s relatively limited power in comparison to His, or so it is believed, we have been unable to find any concrete or conclusive evidence as to His presence or absence. Pagans vs Believers has been a big conflict, whether in South America, Egypt or India. Well, I’m not here to give you a sermon, or to prove if God exists or not, but to see how people are sensitive about the subject. As usual, this post will deal with some incidents in my life, as well as some of my observations.

Call it God

Okay, now then, India has always been a very religious country. It has a very rich culture and has influenced many Westerners to adopt the numerous beliefs which co-exist on the Indian sub-continent. Well, even though some of India’s most famous exports to the West have been its religions, the youth of today has completely imbibed Western culture, leading to a lot of chagrin for some of the conservative parents.

It’s not just me that I’m talking about here, but most of my friends too. While people in today’s world are undergoing “spiritual” upheavals, the teenagers are enjoying life to the fullest, at the risk of being branded heretics. The technology of today and the modern education imbibed in today’s children has led to the questioning of a lot of beliefs parents try to teach their kids. Especially about God.

For some children, belief in God comes naturally, out of fear of something or just plain devotion. In danger of being an outcast in the Indian society, I should probably whisper about my faith in God, being an atheist as I am. Well, I hope my Grandma doesn’t read this, or she’d have a blue fit and go up in smoke. :P

The Word Of God

Gran:- Let us go to the temple.

Vineet:- Haah, Shridhar Anna and temple? You must be joking! (Gran hasn’t realized the gravity of the situation, but my face slowly turns a bright red.)

Me:- Shut up, Vineet.

Gran:- (Turning accusing eyes towards me) You don’t go to temples?

Me:- (Trying to rescue the situation) No, Granny, I do go to temples.

Gran:- For one moment, I was seriously worried.

As you could see from the above dialogue, grandparents do not take kindly to such notions as atheism, so you have to play along and keep the poor dears happy. Well, I don’t blame them, seeing as to how the rest of India also has blind faith in God. They do all sorts of crazy things in honour of their deities and go to any length to protect the integrity of the idols that they worship. Faith in God has what has kept this country alive, thorugh countless catastrophes, wars, and the like. There is and overwhelming sense of helplessness when you go to a place of worship, wherein these faithful people lay bare their soul before God.

My dad, no less, is a tribute to India’s faith in God. Being a non-believer in his younger days, instances and mishaps have made him have undying belief in God’s policies. A very religious person, he has given up smoking, drinking and eating meat, which he enjoyed in his early life. Fortunately for me, my Dad does not try to influence the way I think, though sometimes he is saddened by my attitude towards all things religious.

Sign from God

A Sign From God

I have absolutely no problem towards any religion, but I do feel terrible about they way some crooks exploit our faith in the Higher Powers. Some of India’s so-called religious places are inhabited by the biggest vandals, thieves and rogues you will ever see.

As some wise person said, “They worship God throughout the day, and Satan during the night.”

Worshipping Satan would be exaggeration, but they are the most unscrupulous characters. Just today, a very doubtful-looking woman came to our doorstep demanding money because it was Amvaas(new-moon day), and refused to go unless we parted with our money. Is this what God wants? Regardless, this is how he has made the world, and this is how he wishes it to be, probably.

Disclaimer/Request:- I request the readers of this post to refrain from mentioning my ideas in the outside world. These are unverified claims which might not be taken too kindly anywhere else. It might also show the writer of this post in a bad light.

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