Boston Legal

Boston Legal is the latest addition to my all-time-favorites list. It takes a lot of consistency to get onto that sort of a list in anyone's case, and this show is right on top of the list. If you need proof of it's awesomeness, read this: In its five-year run, it was nominated for 25 Emmy Awards, winning seven times.


For those of you who need an introduction to this show, here you are:

It's about the lives of legal attorneys at a leading law firm called Crane Poole and Schmidt in Boston. The main characters are Alan Shore, played by the brilliant James Spader and Denny Crane, played awesomely by the scene stealer William Shatner, who long long ago used to play Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek series which I used to religiously watch in some years ago, when TV was really worth watching.



The other characters of the show are also quite interesting, but Denny and Alan totally rule the show. Each episode has one or two major trials going on and they're all interesting and fun. Denny Crane is supreme and delivers his punchlines every time brilliantly, you never tire of hearing him say "Denny Crane".

By the end of each episode the trials come to a close and you get to see whether Alan and Denny win or lose. The last scene in almost each episode shows Denny and Alan chilling on their office balcony and discussing stuff, it's quite a different style of ending an episode. The women in the firm are mostly hot, then men are funny, the lines are hilarious and above all those two magic words - Denny Crane!

Just watch this show, I am quite positive you'll like it. I for one love it. It's right up there for me with Seinfeld and House.

How I Spent July

July 2009, a month where a lot of stuff happened. First full month at work. A lot happens in a month, you - make new friends, strengthen old friendships, watch new movies, get addicted to Boston Legal, learn to say Denny Crane to those who watch and love the show like you do, fall sick, recover, get back to work, have insane fun on weekends, slog like a dog on weekdays, play TT in office and occasionally win, spend a lot of your own money in a matter of hours and get surprised about the fact that you don't really care, feel proud that your life isn't tied to money, then realize that you aren't a lunatic in terms of spending cash when you discover the word 'savings', start detecting fraudulent finance agents and ignoring them, watch Megan Fox and renew your pledge of going to the US and other developed countries especially France [Laetitia Casta reigns supreme], switch from fun mode to work mode and vice versa, hear MJ songs and watch his videos and acknowledge once again his musical genius and supremacy in live performances, toy around with ideas of Bose headphones and new cellphones and then reject the ideas for the time being, spend hours on the Laptop even at home just because it's new and you can access the net from the balcony and chat/talk with people at the wee hours of the morning and watch the pre-dawn sky, utilize every bit of the awesome Airtel broadband connection, read the newspaper while having breakfast before going to office like a professional, come to grips with cab music, catch up with age old friends, sleep off Sundays and then realize that you don't suffer from the I-hate-Mondays syndrome, have pizzas for free at office, pay for pizzas at home, watch England kick Aussie ass for a change and enjoy every bit of it, realize that your next David Flabbergaster post is one day away, have a tough time describing how the days are flying by when at one time they used to crawl at a snail's pace, go to sleep after writing a rare simple blog post with no humor it.

David Flabbergaster: Realizations of most professionals

The following quotes are a compilation of experiences of many people who have shared them with the greatest engineer ever - David Flabbergaster.

1. The probability of a good song being played in a cab is lower than that of a 100 year old man lifting a bulldozer using only his fake teeth.

2. The biggest question in a professional's life is - will today's lunch be worth the walk to the canteen?

3. There are areas in every office which are as cold as Siachen

4. Whenever you're actually doing work, very few people notice it, the moment you've just about opened any fun thing, everyone passing buy will notice

5. Hearing music while working is no longer a privilege, it's a way of life

6. Whenever you're in a hurry, the elevators will always be on the furthest floor from the one you're on

There are many more such experiences which David Flabbergaster will share in the future, but right now he has a meeting, in which he has to give a presentation on "Whether office buildings should have escalators in place of lifts - The benefit being that even if a power outage occurs, employees will have no excuse to come late since they can always climb the stairs!"

Kaminey - Music Review

One of the best albums of 2009, right on top with Dev D and Delhi 6. It's so good to hear some good music again, the kind which isn't made to simply be used as an item song or a 'phooljhadi hit' like the title track of a movie which was trying so hard to do a repeat of Hare Ram that they used a Hindu shloka as part of the song!

Kaminey has some great songs by Vishal Bharadwaj.

The best tracks of the album are:

1. Dhan Te Nan - I especially like the remix version, which accentuates the beats. It's an absolute dance scorcher, which I am sure will be played in all discos and parties.

2. Fatak - Grows on you after repeated listening and then you just love it.

3. Go Charlie Go - Brilliant haunting theme sound!

4. Raat Ke Dhai Baje - The entire song is just ok, until the third minute, when it takes a different direction and sounds really good.

5. Pehli Baar Mohabbat - Insanely awesome melody, sung by Mohit Chouhan who does it only like he can.

6. Kaminey - The song is simply amazing!

So in my view, the best songs of this movie are Go Charlie Go, Kaminey, Pehli Baar Mohabbat and Dhan Te Nan. Go listen to this album. I hope the movie is just as good as the music. Kudos to you Vishal Baradwaj!

P.S. - Listening to these songs in my brand new headphones just raises the bar a notch higher :)

Some of the best stuff on this blog

Those Three Words

At a Wedding

India's Progress

Short Story - 1

Can an Engineer go to heaven... ever?

Incidents 2

Original Quotes

The New Text Document.txt Incident

The Pen Is..

This one had to be on the blog

Oh Great Throat Virus/Bacteria/Germ I Bow To Thee

Public Declaration

The Secret Theorem

How to fake it

Incidents

Weirdest Village Name

Harsh Pande's Theorem of Periodic rise in Marks a.k.a. The 5 minute Theorem

The extent of copying I deem hazardous

The Aphrodisiacs of today

Reco Letter


Who is David Flabbergaster?

Dont bathe with your mobile

The all knowing virgins

Passing the parcel incident

Magazine Chronicles - Episode 1 - How I Met Natalie


Magazine Chronicles - Episode 2 - The Interview

Magazine Chronicles - Episode 3 - Plans

David Flabbergaster: Realizations of Most Professionals

Pehli Pehli Pagaar Hai, Pehli Pehli Baar Hai

Pehli Pehli Pagaar Hai, Pehli Pehli Baar Hai

Sorry for the lame title for the post, but there's something about salary and job terms in Hindi which is just missing in the English translation. For e.g. Salary and Employee just don't have the down and dirty feel to it as words like 'pagaar' and 'karmchaari' have :P

So as an honest and diligent karmchaari, that I hope I am, it gives me great pleasure to tell you that I along with a host of fellow karmchaaris of various companies got their pagaar today, which was evident from so many of them putting it up on their gtalk status msg's almost saying, "Yeah people, that's right, go ahead and ask me for a treat!"

Now let me tell you, in an honest and completely non-sarcastic way that yes, it is a great feeling to earn your first ever pay. It feels awesome and has a different sense of fullfillment to it. Now I really didn't feel any anticipation or any such thing and just calmly read the message which told me how I had now got some cash with me which gave me a chance to finally stop applying for the Indira Gandhi National Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme! But I didn't take it too seriously, all of a sudden there were all these people with their status messages having changed. It went to such an extent that if one didn't have a status saying "Got my first sal" or "First sal feels awesome" or something like that, it almost meant that you didn't get yours. Well, so before someone asked me "Dude, u didnt get ur salary or wat?" I decided to put up my own declaration of financial independence on gtalk!

Anyways then started the whole "kitna mila" routine followed by the usual "confidential hai" reply. But the real meaning of the term first salary was felt when I returned home and saw the joy on my family members' faces, that's when I realized what it means, being an earning member of the house, well it's like what Spiderman's Uncle told him "With great power comes great responsibility"! It's great to have the power to buy what you want, go where you want; but it's also a responsibility to buy the right things and to go to the right places.

So I went to the best place and bought the best thing possible, I went to Chang's [my fave joint in Viman Nagar] and bought the best dishes they had on offer ;)

So people, that's the story of my first sal, i.e. the story so far!

Updates

Well, it's been an immensely productive week for me, having done things in a varied spectrum like work, singing, chilling, dancing, eating to the point of exploding, very little sleeping and movie watching.

As usual, no professional details out here, so sorry folks!

I saw Terminator Salvation today morning, the theatre had quite a lot of rush which surprised me since I thought only my friends and I are cheapos who would wake up for the 9 am movie after having slept at close to 3 am, moreover it was a Saturday. One reason I guess is the long multiplex strike which starved the movie going junta of our country to check out as many movie asap, since the strike is over now. I really think a lot of the upcoming and just released movies have a great chance to do really great business - Kambakht Ishq already seems like a blockbuster waiting to release [the no. of times I hear the title track while traveling around town is impossible to imagine].
Then Love Aaj Kal also seems destined to rule the box office, as much as I despise Saif Ali Khan it's really hard to imagine how a movie by Imtiaz Ali starring Deepika Padukone could flop.

Then we have Kaminey, from the promos its evident that it is yet another quality product from Vishal Bharadwaj; I hope it gets box office success in a big way.

Anyways, so much for movies; let's get back to some updates.

The most awesome even of the week by far was the Gala Dinner that my company hostel for us at The O Hotel. The crowd was awesome, the music was great. I danced like mad for an hour and had the most fun possible. Loads of other awesome stuff happened that night, which I wont tell on a blog [dont worry, it isnt what you're probably thinking], but it was a lot of fun.

Apart from that I'm busy meeting friends on weekends and working my ass off on weekdays, not as bad as it sounds :)

Music in the Cab

If any of you guys travel by cab, i.e. a company cab I'm sure you will be able to identify with this post. The following are some masterpieces I've heard over the last 5 days:

1. O Hawa, O Hawa Khusboo Lutade [a song i hrd for the 1st time in this milennium :D ]
2. Hai Rama Yeh Kya Hua kyu aise hamein sataney lage
3. The return of Himesh [right from ooooo oooo ooooo Aashiq banaya to Jhooth Nahin Bolna]

It keeps getting better and better :D
Gets you all stirred up for work!

Meeting Anupam Kher and Shweta Tiwari

I was at The O Hotel on all five weekdays for a reason which only those who should know, do know. [I love the suspense created in the minds of those who don't know ;) ]

And on two occasions I had a chance encounter with the above named celebrities, the first happened on Monday morning at breakfast at The O, when suddenly a certain gentleman sitting next to me said to another colleague of mine that he can see Shweta Tiwari. Now I don't watch the K serials on TV and hence had no clue of what the big deal was, anyways I glanced around and yep, it was her.

But the real fun incident happened two days later, my friend and I were done with the days work and were headed for the lift. We had to wait for the lift and finally when it opens, guess who's standing in it? Anupam Kher!

Respecting celebrity privacy, I wont tell you what transpired between the three of us in the lift in our very brief meeting, but it was a huge surprise for me and my friend. Anupam Kher seemed like a perfect gentleman and looked really fair and taller than I had imagined.

Lesson learned, next time you go to The O Hotel, do carry an autograph book, you just might meet someone at breakfast or in the lift!

P.S. For the next three days, my friend and I were chanting Laetitia Casta after calling the lift :D

Policy Decision

Ok, after giving this some thought over the past few days I have come to a decision that I will not, and absolutely not, post anything about my professional life, which begun last week.
It's best to keep this blog away from any professionalism, it's a blog meant for fun and that is what it will remain, just with the constraint that no experiences from my professional life shall be written here or anywhere for that matter.

However the past and present is up for grabs. So there we go!

Random Rickshaw Incident

This happened today, Julka and I were going to leave from Sweet Chariot Cafe and were looking for a rickshaw. We finally spotted an empty one across the road and shouted and said "Viman Nagar". The rickshaw driver says "Ok". So we get in and he turns in the wrong direction and carries on. Julka asks him "kahaan jaa rahe ho bhaiyya" so he says "Deep Bangla Chowk se lunga". Neither of us gave much importance to it and he carried on. Julka then got off midway and left. I carried on.

Throughout the way I'm having this WTF feeling as i have no recollection of the road we're travelling on. So i tell the driver, "Bhaiyya yeh raasta barabar hai kya? Kabhi is rastey aaya nahi". So he says, "Raasta barabar hai, in fact yeh shortcut hai". So I'm like "ok!". Then on the turn ahead he says, "Idhar se left leneka ki right?". I get mind fucked, and say "Aapko nahi pata kya ki idhar se kaise jaatey hain". He says "kya saab, aapka ghar kidhar hai yeh aapko malum hona chahiye, hum correct area mein pahuch gaye hain, Hanuman Nagar!"

I'm like WTF WTF WTF!!! Hanuman Nagar?

I say "Hanuman Nagar kisne bola, mere ko Viman Nagar jaane ka hai!"
He says, "Kya? Viman Nagar"
I'm angry plus kind of feeling like laughing at the stupidity of the whole thing. So the rickshaw driver turns around 180 degrees like only a rickshaw can and starts off. So i thought he'll start bickering about the money and extra distance, instead he goes back to Sweet Chariot and restarts the meter from there!

Anyways basically I got a free darshan of Hanuman Nagar, which until today I didn't even know existed and returned back to Viman Nagar without any financial damage :D

Updates

I saw Angels and Demons last week, I liked it; in fact I thought it was better directed than The Da Vinci Code.

I visited the college thrice for doing the Leaving Certificate formalities and by God, it takes forever to get those stamps and signatures from people who randomly decide to go on holidays and return just as randomly! But then it's one of the final things to be done in COEP. So chalega!

I then started watching the T20 World Cup and was aghast to see Sanjay Manjrekar as a commentator for ESPN Star, who were the only sports network who had a very high standard of commentators. But then they made up for it by hiring Anil Kumble. But still Sanju Manju sucks.

I then saw Watchmen in theatre and my first reaction was that it wasn't that good. But as i thought about the movie, i started liking it more and more. Now i think it was awesome. My opinion changed because I read the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore. It is freaking awesome!

Even when I saw the flick without having read the book, I was extremely into the characters of Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach. Silk Spectre II looked good and acted well enough with and without her costume ;) I didn't like Nite Owl II in the movie but after reading the novel I realized that the character was played to the tee. So 8/10 to Watchmen. It may not be your cup of tea unless your into serious and dark story telling!

I also happened to have an amazingly random and weird enounter one night after a treat which was so out of the world that I still cant believe it happened. If we happen to meet do remind me to tell you about the Fight That Never Was involving The Drunk Red Army Uncle. I cant blog about it and you'll know why once you hear it! But it was hilarious!

And now for the latest dumb update : A couple I know was chatting with a heart shaped sign i.e. "<3" as their status msg! It's the baap of Public Display of Affection!

I haven't had the time to blog that much and I don't forsee myself having too much blogging time in the near future so read some of my older stuff if you're really bored in life!

Until we meet again!

4 things I wanted to do but couldn't and why

1. Vote. Couldn't do that coz my name wasn't in the voter's list!

2. Wanted to shoot Mandira and co. for the crappy IPL coverage. Couldn't because the bullets were too costly to be wasted on trash.

3. Start a Sitcom on engineering. Couldn't because I realized that engg tales are more suitable for epic tragedies than comedies.

4. Threesome with Laetitia Casta and Monica Bellucci. Couldn't because I didn't have time in my busy schedule.

Hemant Kumar's Best

This is a post I've wanted to write since quite sometime, finally found the time to do it. There are few singers of the old days who are still relevant today. Those who still are, like Kishore Kumar, Rafi, Mukesh, Manna De were immensely popular in their times. However, the depth in voice which Hemant Kumar possessed could not be matched by anyone back then or now. Hemant Kumar is probably not as famous as any of the above listed names today, because he didn't do as much work in the Hindi Music Industry as the rest of them. But the two songs which I love of his far surpass those which any of the other legends have sung. The one thing which all the legends had in their songs was more focus on vocals than instruments, that's changed today [there's nothing wrong with it], but it's just that if you go to a live concert of any of the current day singers, you can be surprised by the dip in quality over the studio versions of their songs.

If you haven't heard these 2 songs, please give them a listen immediately:


Tum Pukar Lo from the movie Khamoshi -

Hm hm hm hm
Hm hm hm, hm hm hm

Tum pukar lo, tumhara intezaar hai, tum pukar lo
Khwaab chun rahi hai raat beqarar hai
Tumhara intezaar hai, tum pukar lo

(Honth pe liye hue dil ki baat ham
Jaagte rahenge aur kitni raat ham) -2
Muqtasar si baat hai tum se pyaar hai
Tumhara intezaar hai, tum pukar lo

(Dil bahal to jaayega is khayal se
Haal mil gaya tumhara apne haal se) -2
Raat ye qaraar ki beqarar hai
Tumhara intezaar hai

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The above song I had heard when I was just about 6 years old, that was a time when DD was still a relevant channel on TV. They were showing this brilliant movie called Khamoshi which was a trendsetter in terms of a storyline involving a mental patient and a lady doctor who get romantically involved. If the brilliance of the movie itself wasn't enough, there was this amazing song which just blew me away in terms of lyrics and music which touches your heart. And even at that age I knew I'd continue to love this song for years to come.

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Jaane Woh Kaise Log The Jinke Pyar Ko Pyar Mila from the movie Pyaasa

Jaane Woh Kaise Log The Jinke Pyar Ko Pyar Mila

Humne To Jab Kaliyaan Maangi Kaaton Ka Haar Mila

Bichhad Gayaa Har Saathi Dekar Pal Do Pal Ka Saath
Kisko Phursat Hai Jo Thaame Deewane Ka Haath
Humko Apna Saaya Tak Aqsar Bezaar Mila
Humne To Jab...

Isko Hi Jeena Kehte Hain To Yunhi Ji Lenge
Uf Na Karenge Lab See Lenge Aansoo Pee Lenge
Gham Se Ab Ghabraana Kaisa Gham Sau Baar Mila
Humne To Jab...

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This song from Guru Dutt's masterpiece Pyaasa is a classic. I love it far more than the other classic in this movie "Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye To Kya Hai".

I salute this brilliant singer and music composer.

The Perfect Ten

Ok, I have never till date written a blog post about any semester result. But then something happened on the 23rd of May 2009, which doesn't happen that often. I understood what one means by the term "The Perfect Ten". As always I wont divulge any personal details on the blog, but those who should know, will understand what this post is about.

I owe a huge debt to some of the best seniors in the world, who I have always bugged with mostly unnecessary doubts and queries, but who have always patiently answered all of them. So thank you guys.

A very big thank you to Akash and Mrunal, my B Tech project partners. And above all a huge thank you to the Almighty, the Lord of all GPAs ;)

And now that I am officially an Engineer, I am free to post about any past experience, so do expect some insane stories from my engineering days :)