Wacoming
Posted on May 31st, 2009 by Amrit
Phew! Drew 24 caricatures over the weekend! I think I am finally picking up speed on Wacom. What a lovely tablet it is!
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Shitoon 115: Aushitralia
Posted on May 30th, 2009 by Amrit
Shitoon 114: Economy
Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Amrit
Missed train, insti and Chennai
Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Amrit
Let me start from where I left in the last post. Caesar left and I missed my train. I will tell you how.
It was 11 in the night. All this while, I had been thinking that the departure-time was 11:30Â – the real time was 10:45 PM! So wow – I had missed the train by 15 minutes. It took me another five minutes to get out of the shock. When I got out of the shock, I called up Caesar, running out of the station at the same time.
‘Dude, interesting news’.
‘What da’?
‘I think I have missed the train. The train has left. I had read the time wrongly’.
‘Oh’.
‘Will I get a bus now – its almost 11:15′?
‘Yeah da, you get them till 11:30′
‘Ok, I shall find one then. Good night’.
‘Good night’.
I couldn’t really find any bus near the station. Then an autovala came to my rescue, took me to a place more than 10 kilometers away and finally he got me into a bus which was just about to leave. It had just enough vacant seats to accommodate me – and to my good luck that happened to be a window seat in the front. 
***
A little conversation with the security at the main-gate reminded me that I was an outsider now – a well established outsider.
‘Where’?
‘CCD.’
‘Studentaa’?
‘No’.
‘Sorry sir, outsiders not allowed for going to CCD’.
‘Oh. In that case – 343 Brahms’.
‘But you said you want to go to CCD’.
‘That’s where the guy from 343 Brahms is – why should I go to his room if I have to meet him’?
The security-man gave up, noted down the room and hostel number and soon I was sipping coffee at the good old CCD.
***
Chennai was hot but the heat wasn’t furious enough (except yesterday). I had a lovely and ‘quality’ time with Prachi and Tiwari. If I saw a 3d animation movie with the girl, I also roamed inside Odyessey with the boy (and picked up this gen-pseud book on Graphic Design). The brain-storming with Amrut went fine – I hope I added some value to his business-plan and strategy. Insti appeared less depressing this time. Thanks to Sumant – Prachi’s photographer friend – I got a new charger for my cam (had lost the original in Ladakh). Thankfully, I didn’t miss train this time – so I sit right now in the Bang airport waiting from my flight to Bhubaneswar. I shall soon be back to a lonely island where all I can do is read and run and draw Shitoons. But then, this is life.
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May 2009 Bangalore Trip
Posted on May 25th, 2009 by Amrit
Suddenly fundoo clouds have popped up all over Bhubaneswar – those fluffy white ones – the cumulonimbus cumulus. I love looking at them. I loved looking at them especially when I flew over them, while traveling to Bangalore this Friday. These floating sweethearts remind me of Aladdin. I was a small school kid in Patna when all the students went to see this Disney animation in a theatre. The trip had been arranged by the school. Back then, I had never been on a flight. So I didn’t know that clouds actually looked this stunning. Finally when I flew for the first time from Patna to Mumbai a few years later, I saw these clouds in real. They were exactly like the ones I had seen in Aladdin. It took some time to believe that they were real. Ever since, whenever I fly over these gems glistening on sunny days, I think of the Aladdin clouds. Sometimes I even see Aladdin on his carpet with Abu outside the flight-window. Sometimes I love every second of my life.
The last time I had landed at the new Bangalore airport, I was senti and crying and all that. This time I was so happy. The last time, I didn’t have to step outside the airport. It was July 2008. I had arrived from Chennai, waiting for my connecting flight to Bhubaneswar – it was to be my first visit to the capital of Orissa. This time, I had to step out. It was a very intentional decision to avoid a connecting flight to Chennai (which of course also meant saving some cash for Amrut who was paying for my travel). I wanted to spend some time in Bangalore to meet up folks who I hadn’t caught up with, since such a long time.
I had company bang from the moment the airport-city shuttle dropped me off at M. G. Road. The account was opened by The Bro (TB henceforth – and if you are not sure who I am talking about, you need to follow-up on the last post – nothing is very specifically mentioned in that post but unless you are too dumb, you can make out who I am talking about anyway). He happened to be as friendly as he had sounded on the phone though he looked so much younger than what I had imagined him to be. I had imagined him to be a wheatish coloured guy with a receding hairline who sported a mustache, wore specs and never smiled. He happened to be a fair-looking ‘dude’ with a clean shaven face – almost like Rahul Gandhi minus the receding hairline. We were soon talking and all that inside a coffee-shop on the Brigade Road when we were joined by Taploo, my cousin.
Taploo had no clue about TB. Before I brought him inside the shop, I went outside to receive him and started whispering in his ears:
Me: ‘Bhaai, someone has come to see me – for those reasons. He is TB – from Patna only.’
Taploo: ‘LOL! Sahi. Too good. Let’s have some fun. By the way, you are not really going to get married this soon, will you?’.
Me: ‘Of course I won’t. Marriage! I feel like a little kid – how can I marry? I am not crazy. Parents are. To get me married seems to have become the epicenter of their existence. Anyway, let’s join him.’
So the three Biharis had coffee and those amrikan junk-food in Bangalore. Soon, Caesar and Leela arrived few blocks away in Mojo’s. Mojo’s is a pretty famous beer-pub in Bang. More than that, two years ago when I was interning in this city – I started having pitchers in this very pub. So the place held nostalgic values for Caesar and me. I had last met Caesar on my birthday. It was his birthday too – last year in July. He is the only guy I know with whom I share my birthday.
‘Are you like totally a tea-totaler’? I asked TB to which he responded in affirmative.
‘Let’s move to Mojo’s. It’s nearby and they serve good beer’ – I continued. It was kind of mean of me to drag a tea-totaler who I was meeting for the first time to a pub. I think I simply went by the rule of the majority – everyone else that I was to meet drank (beer at least). Thus, we moved out.
It was so nice to see Leela and Caesar after so many months. These two were aware about the purpose of TB’s visit. Actually I had informed only Leela while She – in turn – had done the job of passing on the dope to Caesar. You could see that naughty look in their eyes when I arrived at Mojo’s. I carried a smug myself. This was the first time I was into this kind of soup – you might not call this situation a soup, but it was salty and thick nevertheless.
It was a happy Friday evening. I was once again – loving every second of my life. I am so happy I have friends who find time to catch up. I was feeling so much happy, sitting inside Mojo’s with Caesar, Leela and Taploo, sipping beer after beer, that I kept declaring my state of happiness every three seconds. Every time TB would go out to attend some call, the topic of conversation would shift to the ‘alliance’. We laughed, we joked and we lived in the moment.Then we went our ways.
Later Caesar dropped me off to station. He left and I missed my train.
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Mostly on Manish Pandey
Posted on May 22nd, 2009 by Amrit
The Goldia-Aandhi look-alike in the new Virgin Mobile ad is kick-ass – nice catch! She looks so much like Mrs. Aandhi. Virgin Mobile ads are usually kickass. This happens to be the best Virgin Mobile Ad so far in my opinion – simply hilarious. Oh suddenly I remember, the real Mrs. Aandhi must be busy distributing portfolios in the new sarkaar.
Manish Pandey is suddenly a super-star. I don’t watch these IPL matches all the time – I mean they play four hundred games every week. In fact I watch them only for those few minutes that I spend eating in the guest-house hall. As I filled my plate at dinner yesterday, Pandey was at 80 something. I said wow! I asked G how many junta had scored a century in this IPL. G (colleague) follows all IPL matches and keeps a track – like most men, he likes cricket. He told me – only one. I said WOW! And then soon Pandey cracked the century – the second dude to do so in this IPL and the first Indian. I am sure Lays must have jumped with joy and would have taken more than 600 seconds to touch back earth. But in spite of all this good show by the Bewdas – I still think that Chennai will finally beat down everyone. Won’t you Dhoni? This anchor in CNN was telling Cyrus that he wouldn’t even have known who Manish Pandey was till yesterday but he replied that actually he did. He explained – he had dated a girl called Manisha Pandey at the age of 20 – so such a similar sounding name had made Pandey stand out to Cyrus even before he stood out to the rest of the world, courtesy his century yesterday. Cyrus is so fat and funny. Is his movie already out in theaters?
Guess what – I outperformed myself today in my 10K run. Not that I am a great performer and all that (I am talking about running you perverts 
), but it felt so much nice to finally crack 10k in less than an hour – in 56 minutes and 50 seconds. I am so proud of myself. LOL – that was so narcissistic! Of course I still suck at running but I am so glad I am picking up speed. More than that I am delighted that I met the target set for today’s run. It was a simple strategy today – to keep covering at least 2.5k in every 15 minutes – and it worked like charm. Of course, I got heated up and all that at the end of it but after the run was done, I felt like a hero – no less than Pandey himself. I think I will run in insti (IITM) on Sunday morning and woudl especially love it, if it rains by any bleak chance.
In few hours I shall leave for Bangalore where the evening and night shall be spent with long-lost friends who are not sure whether to love or hate the rains happening in the Kannadiga capital. Leela has instructed me to carry a rain-coat and Caesar has promised me to drop to the station later in the night from where I should catch my train to Chennai. It’s party time in Banglaore. By the way, today would be my ’second’ official leave in my company – the first one I took last year when I had to attend convo. Ha, ha – what fun! Chalo, all you lovely readers – you all have fun too.
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