I feel ashamed of not updating more, especially after reading the nice things SG had to say about me on her super blog. However I’ll think of something more entertaining to post about in a day or two.

I love it when I find the song that most suits what’s in my head but it’s also a little weird. Especially the thought that what you find so special is felt by over 80 per cent of the people you know. Both depressing and oddly comforting.

I think you subconsciously always know the people who are on your side. There might be no contact for months, you may not have seen them in years, but that doesn’t matter. There’s no pseudo-affection, no flurry of omg-i-miss-you-so-muches, just the comfortable slipping into a routine that you fell into so long ago. The ability to pick up right where you left off, and the security that even the stupidest things you might say won’t be mocked or paraphrased to a third party.

It’s the happy little offline messages when you don’t expect them, the greeting that you look forward to when you sign into Google Talk to commence another inane day at work, the email exchanges that may not have more than ten words each but which make you laugh, the phone calls when you want them the most, the Facebook updates that reflect exactly what you think.

It’s good to be connected. Where would we be without technology?

And this song is for you in particular. From start to finish.

Title Source: Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette

P.S. I’ve just realised how much work has taken its toll on me. I finished this post and then I scrolled upwards to insert the drop caps and the head deck. I think I need a holiday.

Twenty years from now, I will look back at my days in Hyderabad and I’m pretty sure that the sharpest memories I’ll have will be of me sitting in my room with my laptop, headphones stuffed in my ears and watching TV shows till about 2 a.m. To the point where I’ve been unable to stop even though my eyes are watering and I know getting up in the morning will be murderous.

Shows I’m currently watching:

• Scrubs: I would never have thought that I’d grow to love Scrubs as much as I do. I’d catch bits of it on Star World in the past but I’d usually wind up shifting channels because it just wouldn’t appeal to me. Now I spend hours hurtling through seasons and the Scrubs theme song is my ringtone.
• House: Yes, I jumped on the House bandwagon about three years after everyone else did. Mostly because by the time I started getting interesting in watching this legendary show, as described by friends and acquaintances, most people were already on Season 3 or 4, and no one was able to give me Season 1 in full. And I was forbidden from watching it if I didn’t follow chronology. Finally got Seasons 1 and 2, which I finished in less than a week and I must not stop.
• Frasier: So I’ve seen every episode of it twice but I refuse to delete it.
• Gossip Girl: Chick indulgence, and no one can blame me. Hooray for Season 3!
• Weeds: Okay, so I’m only starting Season 2 but it’s a gripping show. Try it if you don’t believe me.

Shows I used to watch:

• How I Met Your Mother: Oh, how I loved this show. I diligently downloaded every episode that came out. Then Season 4 happened and about eight episodes down, it started falling flat on its face. I still made sure I watched it right till the season finale with a mixture of acute disappointment and disgust as plots became sillier. Yes, we know Robin and Lily are pregnant in real life. Stop hiding their tummies with basketballs, pitchers of beers and large obnoxious bags. It just makes everything look very odd. The writers should be shot. I don’t think I have the energy for Season 5. Too drawn-out.
• Big Bang Theory: It’s a super show! Surprisingly hilarious without getting old even though they pretty much stick to one format. I stopped at the beginning of Season 3. Not inclined to download, but would watch if I laid my hands on it.
• Entourage: My first real tryst with a TV show that I adored (exaggeration, I went through the same thing with Detective School Q). However, I will wait till about ten episodes are aired of the current season  before I watch them all; more fun that way.
• 30 Rock: I LOVE 30 Rock. It’s hilarious and both Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are fantastic. Sadly got only half of Season 3 so was forced to stop with many tears and regrets.

All this apart from the occasional addictions like South Park and co. Must also start following shows like Rome, Dexter and Greek.

Lyrics: Teenage Wasteland/Baba O’Riley by The Who

In memory of an amazing person who didn’t deserve what destiny chose for him.
http://rememberingnikhil.blogspot.com

Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the sun
And stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the day is done,
Nor bid the stars farewell.

– Tolkien

We try to realise the essential unity of the world
with the conscious soul of man;

we learn to perceive the unity held together
by the one Eternal Spirit,whose power creates the earth,
the sky, and the stars,

and at the same time irradiates our minds with
the light of a consciousness

that moves and exits in unbroken continuity with the outer world

– Tagore

Photo courtesy Ravikiran Vissa.

Title Source: Crystal Ship by The Doors

This is a day too late but still.

Happy birthday, The Thick Plottens! It’s been five long years and I’m quite disappointed that I haven’t blogged more, given the time period, but I never really thought it would go so far. I can see the writing change as I did. WordPress has been good for me, and I’m glad I made the switch.

And I’m sorry if you disagree, but the musical titles is a super idea.

Title Source: A Kind of Magic by Queen

Ganesh Chaturthi is finally over, with an outburst of drumbeats, middle-aged dancing and a flurry of orange flags. A parade of trucks meandered their way through the city, old and new, to confluence at one point and proceed to Hussain Sagar, where they are tipped-slipped-slid into the stormy grey water with the help of cranes.

Now as boats chug across the water towards the beatific figure of the Buddha, there’s something poetic in thinking about the hundreds of rotund Ganapati statues lying at the bottom of the lake.

Title Source: Untitled by Interpol

Sitting in the office on a Thursday afternoon. Thursday is always a slow day — Friday Review is done and MPTB work will start soon — and usually left open for field work but today, the combination of Ganesh Chaturthi immersion and the now larger issue of YSR’s death keeps most of us indoors.

It’s eerily quiet, which is very unusual in the office even though the city bureau people come in only in the evening. The power keeps tripping so we sit in the flickering black and white of the room.

To break the stillness and sate our curiosity, we go for a walk down the road towards YSR’s house, barely twenty steps away.  The road is too quiet, even with people lining it, the occasional Bolero roaring towards the tall black gates, TV correspondents shouting back updates to their bureaus, police vans lumbering past us loaded with personnel. The flyover is being hurriedly swept clean for Sonia Gandhi’s arrival and the members of a church choir arrive to pray.

It feels very anticlimatic.

3.23 p.m. One more hour to go.

Title Source: Echoes by Pink Floyd