Life As I Know It

Nadal out of the French Open in the 4th round! Woo Hoo. I don't know why but i have never liked Nadal. I like people who are aggressive and competitive, but Nadal shows way too much emotion. I like people who can keep a poker face and yet be razor sharp in the game. Wow wow wow i have been wanting this to happen for so long. He finally crashed out. Yippee!!!

OK so I am one bored person on this planet right now. I slept away most of my boredom but that doesn’t really help so I am back at tapping the key board. I did post a blog this afternoon and then deleted it. Then I decided to export my other two blogs and import them to this blog. Now on I’ll have just one blog. After that I slept. Woke up. I have a terrible cold and my voice sounds super. No actually it sounds like the voice of a teenage boy who's experiencing the whole voice cracking bit. I decided to watch TV but there is nothing to watch on it. Why are there so many reality shows? Who watches them? Don’t people making these shows know that people have a life? Why would anyone want to waste their time watching random arbit people living their lives in front of a camera? ONCE upon a time MTV used to play music now there is just a little scattering of music and the rest is reality TV. The last time I sat for over 5 hours in front of the box was during the Nadal and Verdasco match...

The one law that has been enforced seriously in town is the “Helmet Rule” which is mandatory. If you are found without one get your wallet out and pay up. With each time your fine amount increases. Today happened to be one miserable day for non helmet wearing riders. There was surprise checking at all traffic heavy spots in town. A couple of men riding a bike were without helmet, and an old man told them to take a shortcut so as to escape being caught. This was just one single case. But everywhere people especially the elders were telling young chaps to take a U-turn as there was checking ahead. The law was made to protect the riders precious “Brain”, not following the rule either emphasizes that the rider lacks one or has one that’s worth living without. The first accident that I met with had me thanking my helmet because my head hit the road with a thud and the other guy flipped in the air and fell right next to me. I got up and belted expletives like a sailor’s parrot at the guy onc...

[Past] N: You have a Barbie ? A: Hmmm… my parents got it. (N inspecting the doll.) N: Why is one of her shoe missing? A: X lost her Barbie’s shoe so I gave her one from mine. N: What about the comb? A: Gave that to X. N: Where is her dress? A: Got burnt while ironing it. N: Haven’t you ever wondered? A: What? N: Why doesn’t she wear a bra? A: Not really… let’s ask ma. N&A: Why doesn’t Barbie wear a bra? Mother: Give me that doll. Go play outside. Shoo… A: It’s because she’s plastic. N: Then… A: No don’t ask. I don’t know. [Today] Over the phone. A: Hello? N: Hey how you? A: Didn’t we talk 12 hours back? Not much has happened since. N: You didn’t read the papers? A: The Lahore Attack? N: Nope. Archie proposes to Veronica in the last Archie’s issue. A: People still read that? N: Poor Betty. A: Marry a blonde, you blonde besotted fool. N: Nah, I’ll marry a brunette who’ll dye her hair blond. A: Some people never grow with their age. N: Like Barbie. A: (Rolling eyes. Pauses, Doesn’t ...

Notice how kids today between the age group of 4-10 behave? If being annoying had degrees there has to be a special dedication to the level these kids can reach. I have addressed students in high schools and have actually enjoyed the interaction. But this tiny group of high pitched noise making, nonsense speaking and teary rivulets conjuring, why-ing people are truly put on this planet to reach some sort of a balance. What is on the other side of the balance is still a mystery to me. Recently I had a conversation with a 9 year old, this is how it went: Kid: What are you reading? Me: Law of evidence. (He asked. I told.) Kid: I finished reading Lord of the rings. Me: Good. Kid: How old were you when you read it? Me: 15 or 16 Kid: I was 8 Me: (Showed thumbs up) Kid: Ask me anything from the book, I’ll tell. Me: Who is Frodo’s Best Friend? Kid: Ask me easy question. Me: OK so how does the book end? Kid: Mawmee girl is asking me tough questions. Mawmee girl is asking me nasty questions. M...

Just when I thought corporate was winning, litigation started to have more appeal. When litigation almost won the battle, corporate sprung up again and made a really valid point. I am not sitting on a see-saw. I am on the balance. I just keep hopping from one side to the other. Earlier this month I did something that “sane” people would label as – fickle. But I wasn’t being fickle, on the contrary I was doing what I know I will not be regretting ever. It’s hard to explain every action. I spoke to a friend today who is traveling to the remotest parts of the country and making a study of those regions. His job is to document everything he does. He has also been teaching the children in those areas and at the same time made himself a welcome guest at the houses of the villagers and tribals. He is doing this in association with an NGO and the group does it's best to ensure that basic amenities are made available to those people. [He wanted to be a teacher, a traveller, practice law and...

Music is an integral part of my life. My day begins and ends with music. I wake up and put on my music, listening to one track has me completely awake and then I go about the rest of the day. I listen to music when I ride my activa. I have music on when I am studying, working, blogging, reading - all most at all times. Though there are times when I do need some quiet around me [this phase can span from 2 minutes to more than 24 hours.] As a teenager I went through the “Boy Band” phase, I’d love to erase that bit about my history. But then again if people haven’t gone through that phase I’d consider them god or aliens. Of all the genres that are there, I hate hip-hop. For two reasons (a) I never understand the lyrics (b) Songs – the lyrics of which I do decipher make no sense! For example Sean Paul’s song Temperature I can’t understand his gibberish and here is an earnest attempt to understand the man. My latest discovery after Sigur Ros is Faudel. An Algerian artist who belongs to Raï...

Glass Menagerie is a novella my friend and I wrote when we were kids. The central theme of the book was that each one of us is gifted with certain characteristics which match with an animal. In our book people weren’t referred by their names instead they were referred by the animal they represented. My friend was the eagle and I the Lion Cub. In it we have charted out everything we did in school all the incidents with such detail, that school ceases to be just a memory. I haven’t laughed as much as I did today for a long time. [ The childish scrawl, the efforts to make sure each “i” was dotted and each “t” was rightly crossed, there are pages where the eraser has done more work than the pencil.] My friend and I had a very long discussion as to what we should name the book. 1. The Homo sapiens zoo. 2. Could Darwin be wrong? 3. The glass zoo. 4. The Glass Menagerie. In justification of the above titles, my parents had presented me a book called “Science can be fun” and it made ...

I have never let people influence my opinion on things and others because what I think or have to say about any one or anything has to be on the basis of my own personal experience not because someone said so. But if I had to advise anyone joining college I’d suggest they take a year off travel meet people or intern at places get to know people explore their skills and then finally decide what they want out of the course they opt for and on that basis continue. It not only helps one keep a level head but also makes people set their priorities straight and enhances inter personal skills too. Most of my learning process is all thanks to interning at NGO’s and firms. Understanding the way people work and I have had first hand experience at petty office politics, but that didn’t surprise me much because that exists even in college. Diplomacy is something I never thought I would be getting good at but apparently it’s a mandatory skill if one wants to maintain harmony in the environment they...

Tin Tin [Love the Captain ;)] Calvin and Hobbes come second. Smurfs are so smurfy i cannot for the love of smurfs understand why the smurfs are so often misunderstood! If people can find download links for the iznogoud comics in English/french please mail me. [Iznogoud comics have put me on a hunting spree, apparently they went out of print for a while but are back again. Yay!] My favorite duo and warfy dogmatix. I like the Bard the best.[Undoubtedly the most annoying yet lovable character.] I always wanted to be in a comic. Sometimes as a super-hero sometimes as one of the above characters. What fun to be a comic character :)

PhD comics So true except for the thesis bit, in my case its 7 Reports on the driest topics on earth minus my case study which fortunately was something I got to pick.

There are plenty of traditions in our college – The toppers have their names etched for ever on the roll of honor that decorate the walls at the entrance. Students who come for admissions look at it in awe and you know each one is wishing that they see their name there soon. Certain subjects have cash prizes for the highest scorer. The criminal procedural law lecturers host lunch for the toppers in criminal law and the best of all is the “Judges get together”. Our college hosts a dinner for the judges of the district and all lecturers are invited and the top scoring boys are invited. This is one of those events where a student can make conversation with people well settled in the judiciary and connect and get ample info and gyan . This is one of those things that makes me wish I were a boy. No girl has ever been invited for this dinner event. Socializing with advocates for girls is only limited to lunch. [Read day light, no alcohol, sober people, everybody knows how to behave.] I along...

Yesterday was the last village visit. Am I glad? Yeeeeah! We had the legal aid camp and while everybody was contributing their gyan in negotiating the cases that were before us [People actually wanted to bring two parties to a compromise in a case where A had intentionally stabbed B with a knife, for the record compromise in criminal cases are unheard of. If law could be screwed over it will be to the credit of students who studied law not the ones who understand the law] I decided to let the primitive me take over. My friends and I spotted a tree; climbing it the normal way was impossible because I kept slipping. I had to walk back a bit sprint to the tree and jump voila! It worked. I was happy where I was but then we spotted the haunted house [Old house sans doors and windows] Explored it saw a toxic well almost pushed one of my friends in it. Purchased marbles for my collection and played tag. By the time we were tired out the hearing of cases had come to an end. [And I am going t...

Today I was supposed to submit a report and our lecturer had clearly told us to be in college at 12:30. For a change I decided to be there 15 minutes early, I was happily walking down the corridor when I looked across and saw him already in the hall with students already present. I looked at my watch just to make sure it hadn’t stopped or that I had read the time wrong and it was actually 1:15. I looked and it still said 12:17 but who cares about the time I started running and all of a sudden felt an inch shorter in one leg. I broke a heel! I looked around saw no one thak! Broke the other heel shoved both into the bin and surprise surprise the lecturer was taking a class for the LL.M students. – I call this bad luck :( I went around feeling bad about the heels but then the legal aid camp was announced. In my batch I have PBFEBTKOLS as the accompanying advocate, and all my nice friends K,P n A. oh what joy if what happened earlier was bad luck, this is DISASTER!!!!! [Tsunami level disas...

Bangalore v. Punjab (Saturday) I bet that, Punjab would win -They were 46 for no loss when i saw the match and was feeling really cheerful that I'd be winning a bet. I had even put my money down and B'lore won! [Fact- I have never won a bet when money has been the consideration. The moment moolah comes into picture my luck runs out and there are some mysterious forces contriving my defeat.] Moral- I shouldn't gamble. Bangalore v. Mumbai (Sunday) I didn't say anything. Secretly cheered for Mumbai . Because i was initially confused as to which team to support during this IPL season. It narrowed down to two teams Mumbai and B'lore because I'm a Mangalorean born in Mumbai brought up in Mysore. So obviously 66% of me is with K'taka and 33% with Maharashtra the other 1% is well... i guess that percent will be in favour of the team that wins IPL . B'lore has moved up from 7 to 4. If they continue playing this way they'll hopefully remain in the...

I was just wondering as to which is my all time favorite movie scene and there are so many to pick and choose from – Like Lord of the rings – The two towers in which Legolas (Orlando Bloom) does the whole 360 degree flip over the horse, or the ending of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader’s Face is revealed, The ending of hide and seek when the camera zooms in on the drawing but some how all these pale into nothingness when compared to the scene from American History X – The part where Derek (E. Norton) steps out of the house and pumps bullets into the man standing on watch while his accomplice breaks Derek’s truck window, he walks forward and aims at the guy near the truck who collapses and continues to aim at the third guy in the car and starts walking after the car shooting bullets till he runs out of them returns near the second man pulls him to the road and makes him put his mouth to the curb and then stomps his head. Danny (E. Furlong) drops to his knees the police arrive and whe...

I voted yesterday. My first time voting experience at the Lok Sabha elections. After voting I had to get home and switch on the news channels to check how the third phase was faring in Mumbai. After all the uproar post 26.11.2008, I had expected Mumbai to have the largest turn out but ha! was I wrong! Only 50% turn out from the city that screeched and pelted expletives at all political parties. Mumbaikars were the ones screeching BLOOD! After the Taj fiasco, people came on the streets saying that the government is this the Government is that . The youth went out in the scorching heat to form human chains to display solidarity-“oneness”. [All of this happened in November -December] We are now in May. 1, 09. I’d say the anger has fizzled out, people couldn’t careless till another blast happens. The media started debating about why ? There was such a low turn out. The youth and people stated that it was just too hot to step outside their house to go and vote. Ah …ok I get it. It’s too hot...