Addicted

I am still floating around in a very slight haze, tell-tale signs of the great party I had yesterday evening, ostensibly on the occasion of some of my office colleagues getting themselves confirmed in the organization. Every reaction is taking that single second time lag before the body responds to the mind. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the party, in fact it was harder to say who was happier at their confirmation, if the glee with which my friends and I participated in the celebration was anything to go by. But after a grinding extra long day of work at the office (Very atypical of Fridays), I find myself again at the cramped cyber cafe typing away. Saturday will see the exuberant exercising of long lost cricketing skills in the pleasant winter sun. Had a pleasant feeling about this year and its turning to be quite awesome already. Winning an all India essay contest is like the perfect sop for all the money and time invested in this corner of the Internet, and things never looked cheerier. But the fact remains that even without the unexpected bonus of winning the prize, I would have been here anyway! Weekends come and go, without any repetition save for one. The unforgiving need to write or to curse myself for not making the effort to do so. God, I am addicted but here's addiction that looks all set to really pay off!

Porsche Unleashed

Ever since I played the Need for Speed PC game titled as above, I have been absolutely smitten by the legend that is Porsche. An incorrigible enthusiast for any machine that moves I already am and if you add to that the hype and worship filled words I have read about this car make in particular and you have landed yourself a certified fanatic. Consider this: Its the only sports car company in the world which is able to sustain an independent existence when all other heavyweights including Ferrari are bankrolled by big car conglomerates. While that might not mean much to a person with minimal interest in cars, it is the equivalent of Da Vinci painting only Mona Lisas and doing it regularly and efficiently enough to form a study case for successful business strategy.
Porsches with their distinctive slouching shape, impeccable quality and wild yet challenging nature (thats what the motor jounos always say) inhabit the highest regions of my universe of desires. And to get to whip a Porsche through the steely smooth Autobahn and then test its fabled handling in the twists and turns of the roads through the beautiful Black Forest region would be an experience worth selling my soul for. Stuttgart, Germany is the birthplace of the Porsche legend and stepping afoot that promised land is high on my list of priorities!

Go Gunners!!

Its a great start to the year in many ways but one of the primary reasons for me has to be the fact that Arsenal finished top of the EPL league table at the end of the past year. For the uninitiated, Arsenal is the name of a major English football club. Looking back for reasons why I should be supporting a club with which I couldn't POSSIBLY have any connection, I find a couple of substantial ones.
Number one has to be in a long time ago when I was seeking a path out of the intense torture of being an Indian cricket fan; seeking someone or something which I could relate to and for a change someone who actually won a match or two. Salvation came in the form of the "Invincibles", the awesome Arsenal team with Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg etc etc at their flowing best. In many ways, they were like the Indian cricket team spilling over with talent and yet playing abysmally on occasions. But they were on the right half in terms of win to loss percentages. Since then the age of Thierry Henry has come and gone, and now it seems that its time for Fabregas to don the mantle.

Reason number two for supporting them is that there is a zip and elan in their gameplay, unlike their arch rivals Man U who seem like a bunch of thugs out on a street fight. They are getting scrappy of late but I pray that it'll be only a passing phase at least under the eagle eye of coach Wenger. This team is my kind of hero. They fight fair and look good while doing it. Even loss is a gallant story to tell when they do not stoop to the theatrics that Cristiano Ronaldo and his ilk resort to with such disgusting regularity.

It's a New Year.... Again!!

Its the 1st of January again, a great day for me so far and I am tired of pessimistic people reminding me that its just another day. Well, the overpowering cynical part of me does insist that whatever they say is not far off from the truth but for the dreamer side of me it offers a welcome refuge. So 1st January is in all respects similar to 31st December except that I can slumber till late maximising the lack of the need to go to office. Actually speaking I always feel a little sorry for the year gone by 'coz in retrospect it never seems that bad!

The past year was generally kind to me; major achievements being - surviving on the job without any major foul-ups, and then of course working my butt off for this blog of mine that no one seems to care enough to leave a comment on. But its a winter afternoon with warm sunshine and I'd have to be suicidal to feel depressed in this kind of weather. My New Year resolution if it isn't obvious from this post is to be more positive and pleasant even about the s**t in my life. Being sharp, acidic and sadistic has its perverse pleasures, but I'll try and stick to being the good, hopelessly optimistic guy that I am, at least 10% of the time!

Exercise and me??

I won't blame anyone who knows me even slightly for laughing out loud on hearing my name and the words 'physical exercise' together. But surprisingly these lazy bones of mine are rather fond of a little stretching out as and when I find enough time after getting more than enough sleep done. Never mind the fact that I feel like sleeping for another two hours, after my exercise routine is done. In fact, I managed to push myself to gym for an entire month, while I was undergoing training at TCS Bhubaneshwar. The really heavy exercises were of course much beyond my physical capabilities but the regular thunk of metal coming together on the gym equipment was a rather comforting noise. It was actually some kind of meditation where the mind goes clear and all my energy subconsciously diverts to whichever unfortunate part of my body I chose to focus on.

And speaking of exercise, I feel there's no exercise like running. The early morning run from our quarters to the gym had to be one of the most exhilirating experiences of my life, as exhilirating as a daily pain can get at least. The first two days were of course rather painful but later when the rhythm kicks in, its a real pleasure. Feet beating their regular beat on the road with the cool, unpolluted morning breeze, the heart pumping out for dear life and at times it felt I could run on for ever, which of course would have been a fatal fallacy. Still however incongruous it may seem spouting of my mouth, exercise is quite fun while it lasts. Plus its a extreme game of will-power at certain points when I know that my body has given up but my mind is kicking it through the final few push-ups. Yawn! All this preaching about exercise is making me tired. Got to go, feeling real sleepy!

'Tis the season to be jolly

The older I get the more immature I seem to grow! Now I want festivals all season around, just a few months after I declared in my Diwali 2007 post that we have too many festivals here in India. Christmas is almost here and so is New Year, but I am bluesy again. The festivities will be over in a flash and it'll be back to the bread-n-butter routine! I just don't have enough long weekends and long trips and long sleep.

I am convinced that life was meant for better utilization. Why should my job have to be something to work on so that I can enjoy the other parts of my life! If I don't tire myself out on my regular job I really can't enjoy my free time and if I really work to my heart's content I find myself too tired to enjoy my free time. What a life!

A post without a picture

Everytime I post something on my blog, I end up Googling for an appropriate picture to put beside it. I guess it's some baggage I dragged out of my childhood after reading millions of those illustrated abridged classics with a picture on every second page. Words are never enough to cover the scope of my post and I feel this deep desire to complement it with a photo which unfortunately always turns out to be the real eye catcher. Adds a comic book effect to my blog, but I love certain comics/cartoons so much that I actually don't mind! Just for the heck of it, here's one post where I do away with the compulsory illustration!