All set!

That of course does not mean that I got my Malaysian visa. However, since my trip to KL now stands cancelled, that doesn't matter any more. So I'm finally leaving directly for Australia on Monday and since the heavens (read: consulates and ticketing offices) have been particularly kind, I have my Aussie visa as well as my tickets! Perth, here I come!!! :D On the way to get those tickets however, I managed to get stuck in the Metro compartment doors! Thankfully they don't shut too hard, otherwise it could have turned really nasty :|.

After my accidentally extended stay at home, I'm distinctly less than raring to get back to the ship actually. And that has nothing to do with having to leave home. The Trident is currently off the Barrow Islands (N W of Australia) and has recently had too many cyclones brush way too close for comfort. Doesn't make for a very comfortable berth, getting chucked around by the waves. And with 60% of all the in-sea gear lost (that means the cables 'n stuff just snapped and floated away in the storm), I really don't envy the chaps pulling shifts right now.

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There's a fair amount of indignant protest happening these days against the whole 49.5% reservation in IITs and IIMs. And I can't avoid feeling rather depressed by the fact that all this barely seems to be making a difference to those who matter in this case. These institutions are supposedly 'autonomous'. What sense does that make if you have some politicians decide who gets in and who doesn't, on the basis of a report now over a quarter of a century old!! And they call us the largest democracy on the planet :-<.

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Well, I'm off. Away from the bustling city for a quick trip to Shantiniketan. And this time I'm driving. Nothing like a nice 200 Km drive down superb 4-6 lane highways to lift sagging spirits :). And maybe I'll use my camera. Haven't uploaded a single pic on either of my blogs for over a month. Which is a shame really... summer thunderstorms in Kolkata are usually rather spectacular affairs.

Feeling: relieved
Listening to: Pearl Jam - Release

Through the looking glass.

We see our imperfections mirrorred in the ones we love. Fathers, sons, brothers, sisters, daughters, those closest of friends.... (mothers are always perfect). Wisdom is in righting the wrongs in ourselves. But greatness is in reaching out through the looking glass to heal the rest.

Current mood: Life, in a bubble.
Listening to: Switchfoot - Stars

Happy birthday!!

To my newborn cousin brother! As if having 2 cousins two full decades younger wasn't enough, I now have one twenty-two years younger :D!! To think that by the time this kid is old enough to go to high school, I'll already be middle-aged!!! Makes me feel like I'm already too old... :-<.

And already there are those irritating comparisons! I mean comeon!! The kid's barely six hours old, how can you tell if he'll look more like me or my older, more handsome looking cousin?!!! /:)

--
Met a friend a couple of days back under extremely unlikely circumstances. We'd been literally following each other around in Mumbai and Delhi, and had my Malaysian visa not been rejected, would have been the same story all over again in Kolkata! Fate?.. Naah, not feeling that lucky :D. But it was a rather intricate coincidence!

Found out that my best friend from high school is shifting to Mumbai in June. Coincidentally, the last of my batchmates in hostel are passing out in the same month. So although my erstwhile place of residence in the city is gone, another has very obligingly cropped up :D. Yes yes, all those people I went around telling 'I don't know if I'll ever come back here' can go, "We told you so!!" :P.

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Currently am totally taken with two bands that have been around for a long time, but in whom I had never invested much time or liking! INXS and AC DC. Back in Black rocks, btw!!

Feeling: excited!!
Listening to: INXS - Afterglow

Speed demon!

Didn't know it was still there, lurking at the back of my mind. But with repeated power cuts through the day, additional net and cable outages, the increasing heat and humidity all piling up, I figured I'd either kill myself or do something very stupid. The latter seemed a safer choice. So I took the car out for a spin on the emptiest road I could think of.

Blazing down the bypass with the window down at a hundred thirty-five, watching the fields, the ponds, the coconut palms all whizz by in a dizzying blur and the Sun setting over the sea of green as if in fast-forward. Aahhhh! I've missed that pure rush of blood to the head for too long!!

Feeling: wild >:)
Listening to: Lunatic Calm - Leave you far behind

Manty Rocks!!!!

So it had taken me two months to finish half of The Manticore's Secret. Mainly 'cos of my insane travel plan. But now that I'm effectively stuck at home, finished the rest in this afternoon and evening :). And yes, it was an awesome read! Funny, not too particularly gripping, but interesting nonetheless, and of course the bits of Basu's hilarious cockyness hidden in Bong phrases in English alphabet :D.

An example:
"I know everything.
You're all knowing?
That is another way of putting it, yes. Omniscient is yet another. Or Eitiktikitamohapechoonpaka, which in the forgotten language of [blah] meant Magnificent Saurian Whose Very Foundations Emit Wisdom."
Of course the fact that the omniscient being in question is a lizard, puts things in an entirely different light >:).

Feeling: sleepy, obviously!
Listening to: Rang de Basanti ost - Ik Onkaar

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I apologise for the oversight: for non-Bengalis, 'Ei tiktiki ta moha pechoon paka' translates roughly to 'This lizard is such a smartass'! :D