Back….

The intrepid explorer is back after a hiatus and after a week long of wandering and soul searching in his motherland, Maharashtra. As usual the explorer is full of interesting incidents and stories, which will form the central topic of the next few blogs, I guess. The most bizarre incident that happened yesterday involves people of indeterminate sex who ask for money in trains and me hiding from them. Enough said!!

Coming on to the new year…Hmmm!! Time sure flies fast. I remember the last New Year’s Eve in Chilli’s place and it feels like it just happened recently. As a post mortem of the last year, here’s the best and worst of 2005.

The best..

Meeting up the gang after a 15 month gap on Jan 1st
The great Munnar road trip
The Mudumalai trip
Sky diving
Dream School Foundation
Taking up the guitar
FNU (Friday Night Unwinding for the uneducated reader)
Magnolia/Aangan

The worst..

Traffic..
Traffic.
Seeing Bangalore change beyond imagination (just goes to show that change is not necessarily good)
Villains, n lots of them around…

Well, looking forward to wiping the slate clean and starting on a new note. Gott Nytt Är as the Swedes would say!!

A series of disconnected events

Have you tried to ever get rid of the smell of petrol? Try it, its nearly impossible. Was filling up some petrol into my bike (its not a Ducati or a Bullet as the reader would like to think, its more on the lines of a scooter) and somehow I started smelling of petrol after that. I had also put on the deodorant called Brut, which I think is the strongest one. But even Brut couldn’t fight the petrol and I walked into the office like a mobile fuel station. Only multiple showers later did I get rid of the smell.

Apparently, there is a new way of travelling on buses between Bangalore and Hosur. You just get on to the ladder at the back of the bus and hang on to your dear life. I am still wondering as to why the person in question didn’t just climb the ladder and sit comfortably on the top of the bus which is a more popular way of travelling without a ticket. Why perform death defying stunts at the back of the bus is what puzzles me.

Coffee vending machines suck. Water tastes better. Thanks to these machines for reducing my coffee intake in office to nil which means I also get to sleep more.

Have been told by many people to avoid menthol based chewing gums for certain reasons. I shall keep this in mind. In fact all guys ought to.

Finally, song of the moment is “Rhinoceros” by Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan at his best.

Late Night Coffee

Meeting the gang in the night over cups of tea or coffee has become pretty much a ritual now. Sitting on the terrace sipping hot coffee amidst PJ’s, discussions, gossip and outpourings is one hell of an experience.

This week’s Friday Night Unwinding aka FNU produced the quote of week from a certain member of the gang during a discussion about long memories. The quote went thus “There are elephants and then there are women”. -:)

Animal Farm is an awesome book. Felt it was much better than 1984. The analogies to Stalin, Trotsky, The Russian Church, KGB were supposed to be obvious. Not to me though. They became obvious to me only when Akilles pointed this out. Looks like Pink Floyd’s album “Animals” was also influenced by this book. The lyrics of this album make more sense now. I think Animals is also their second best album after Dark Side of the Moon.

I am also beginning to doubt with more intensity the belief that the day and the time a person is born will dictate certain events of his life.