The mind is a pleasure seeking organism

Just when I was ranting about the above mentioned topic I hit upon this article ‘The Acceleration of Addictiveness’

And for here’s an another link if you want to start a personal 'life story blog : http://ohlife.com/

I love Telugu cinema comedy

Major part of my growing up was among non Telugu speaking folk. In USA Shashank, Harish, Sumanth and Rajendra + YouTube played a major role in orienting my constricted vision towards the brilliant comedic talents of our actors,an addiction was born; I was hooked for life.

I am of the opinion that no other film industry in the world has as many actors involved solely in comedy.

A collage as a dedication to these comedic stalwarts.

p.s. There are for sure actors I may have missed. please let me know in the comments.

The Bedim Conspiracy

location : The secret war room of The Supreme One.

All the generals were huddled together in fright as the notice for the meeting had been short and sudden and no one really had time to prepare their briefs.Trying to break the tension in the air they smoked their cigars and indulged in small talk over caviar and cognac. The big screen flickered to life; the room fell silent abruptly. The screen was filled with the interiors of the conference room on spaceship 1. The Supreme One was super angry; his wide forehead had deep furrows as his eyes moved furiously from one deadpan face to another.

No one dared to speak or for that matter even breathe. He bellowed  “ Does anyone who why I had to call this sudden meeting when I would rather be off playing interstellar world of warcraft? ” No answer forthcoming he shouted again, “Gentlemen, we have been caught with our pants down on The Bedim Conspiracy.” silence. The faces of a few senior generals began to turn  pale in fear of anticipation of his next words. He turned to his senior attaché “ Ryan you are the supreme commander in charge of the Bedim project how did you not see the happenings of the past few months and their far reaching consequences ?”  Ryan tried to utter a few words but was unable to. The Supreme pressed a button on his iscreen and that was the last of Ryan.

“ The Bedim Conspiracy was my master plan to rule the world. Waging countless wars would never get me supremacy and what’s left to rule if there is no one to rule on. So I drew up this sketch to capture minds; for once the mind has been subdued and sedated people are just sheep with no ambition. And as a part of this scheme I unleashed a media  storm; for people of the world just want to be entertained,every day, all the time. The sought movies, drugs and sleaze; I gave them all that and much more. But recently it has come to my notice that a new breed of free thinkers has unshackled themselves from all that is ‘cool’ in the world and has set out seeking answers from the oldest and the greatest teacher of all : Nature. They possess totems that keep them weaned of my tinsel attractions. And slowly as their numbers grow they will overthrow my rule. I will not let this be. Get my ace director Christopher Nolan and tell him to make a movie that will penetrate their minds (the sheep) and do an inception of confusing cut scenes and special effects interspersed with an befuddling tale that will keep them preoccupied debating, repeat watching and fine reading between the lines for the near foreseeable future. The last time I faced such an army of free thinkers in 1968, I got Stanley Kubrick to unleash 2001 : A Space Odyssey. I had the sheep debating non stop on on the significance of the monolith.”

Silence in the war room continues as the trailer of Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio starts playing on the screen. 

what a facade sirjee

So some friend sought my advice on whether to join an educational institution or not. For the tech savvy type I am I got down to some googling and backtracking. So I arrive at the site. It has the usual every Indian Management Institute that aspires to be an IIM type of look and feel to it. What’s with the bloody layout btw couldn’t they hire a nice user interface guy? pisses me off to no end these sliders, rss feeds, social media, the same taxonomy of headings and side headings in Arial font and CAPITALS and BOLD. And I realize the same design rip-off symptoms present in many websites. No fucking innovation or freshness. And what is with the pre-disposition with plastering pictures of fair skinned, neatly trimmed, suited, booted types of students. Trying to impress the parents is it ? It’s like no dark skinned, disheveled hair, uncouth beards, jeans/t-shirt totting slunk students attend this college. Really ? Really ?? Incredulous. It’s all make believe show and tell.

I never understood business' obsession with suits. All a suit tells me is someone likes to waste a lot of money on being uncomfortable. It tells me nothing about their skill set, ability to do the job.

~ RT kingdom2000

On a different note Steve Jobs says : "We’re Apple. We Don’t Wear Suits. We Don’t Even Own Suits.”    Look how uncomfortable Steve Jobs looks in a suit.

The Big Picture

Today, again was one of those days you know, when, ‘ I was walking through life unnoticed.’ A simple long distance call back home put everything back in perspective mode. I now realize why it is even more important for me to succeed in what ever I decide to make out of my life. The whole fml funda is out of the window.  ctrl + shift + del.

It dawns upon me, as to how crucial I am to the thinly veiled family fabric. The sibling who could have very well been the next wunderkind but chose not to be, making the ultimate sacrifice for the not so deserving one. The parents and their unmentioned tales of kindness. I look up and see a whole cloud of expectations precariously balanced on my shoulders. Failure is not an option. Methinks from now on every time I visualize this cloud, I falter from doing the wrong thing. Pressure is good. No, it is awesome. And for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder types like me it is the ultimate motivator.  So I henceforth decide to quit being a whiny bitch and work my ass off towards whatever my cloud says is right.haha.            

p.s. the title is a shameless rip off of the pictures page in the Boston.com  :P

and all that cloud reference is a result of me trying to follow strides in cloud computing :D 

Ridin' down the highway
Goin' to a show
Stop in all the by-ways
Playin' rock 'n' roll
Gettin' robbed
Gettin' stoned
Gettin' beat up
Broken boned
Gettin' had
Gettin' took
I tell you folks
It's harder than it looks
It's a long way to the top
If you wanna rock 'n' roll

In life’s crosshairs

How lucky you were can only be understood by rewinding and reviewing those times you felt were fml-ish.

So an another Indian student working as a grocery store attendant was shot to death while being robbed at gun point. He was shot though he offered no resistance. 

Circa July 2009. Ryan and I were co-clerks at a gas station cum convenience store in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Baton Rouge, LA. We had all kinds of customers the good ones, the bad ones, the mad ones, the crazy ones,the drug peddlers, the ex con’s, the pimps, the whores, the penny pinchers, the shop lifters, the goons, the senile ones so on and so forth.

Many a times we flirted with live danger; like shouting at a bad customer, threatening to call the cops on the shop lifter etc. All we had to save our asses was our common sense and the weakly bullet proofed teller cabin. Ryan likes to play bad ass. While I manned the counter he would go outside the store, lean on the glass exterior and smoke. And we wore these dark store clerk uniforms which made us stand out from every person that walked in through those doors. Any one could put a gun on Ryan’s temples and make me unlock the bullet proof door of the cabin. All the pleas to Ryan to quit smoking or go smoke in the loo, fell on deaf ears.

Many times when a customer used to piss us off we used to flip our middle finger and the dude would go all crazy like a gorilla and bang on the bullet proof windows; we half feared it would break some day. At times some dude would get pissed of for no apparent reason (like the fact that we were Indian and all) and threaten to beat us to pulp in the driveway when we left at the end of our shift. And many such encounters can keep you regaled to the end of eternity.

(I must write a full fledged blog post on the  gas station stint some time soon)

Today when I look back at those times I am amazed at how incredibly foolish I was to flirt with danger and still manage to type this entry, an year latter. Thank You Sai Baba.          

Who do you write like ?

So we had the Matrix Name Generator, The Lord of The Rings Name generator and now comes

I Write Like...

Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers.

work flow and chain of command

When you are in school and getting an education you hear all these awesome things about ‘the work life’  : littered with hefty paychecks and extraordinary bonuses + perks. The one word that should have been the heading instead of an insignificant footnote ‘ lie’.

Boss1 wants to reinstate Project1 which was helmed by Ex-Manager1. Ex-Manager1 is now Owner1 of his Business1. Owner1 tells Boss1 how to get started on retrieving from where he left off. Boss1 forwards it to Current Manager1. Current manager1 is too busy cooking up fancy spreadsheets and is not a technical guy so forwards it to Chief Technological Officer1. CTO1 has his head up his ass so fumes on and on about how Project1 was doomed from the start. Boss1 , CTO1 and CM1 are in a threesome, bouncing off angry emails to one another on nicoompery and breach of contract jazz. Three of them realize Intern1 is whaling away time typing out their squabbles on his blog. Boss1,CTO1,Exmanager1,currentmanger1 get together and  dump the shit load of work on the unsuspecting, calm,well mannered  Telugu boy, who just throws up his hands in the air and mourns about how his weekend is going to get super wasted again.

p.s. Intern1 has no effing clue as to what to do with Project1.

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died

                       - Nickelback : If Everyone Cared