London Sightseeing again..

Me off to an xmas party at 'The Trocadero' in London and will be roaming around London again. I never seem to get the enough of this exquisite and fantabulous city. There will be a travelogue soon. Read the travelogue when I visited London for the very first time, here.

Cheers.

Blog Sins

A usual question thrown at me if I ever ask for a topic to blog to non-blogger friends: “Why blog when there is nothing to blog on?”
Ah, BlogGod, forgive these ignorant non-bloggers, they know not what they not doing!

Blogger’s block oft rears its ugly head in bloggers’ brains.But the thought of sinning may remove blogger-block in no time. Ergo, here goes.
The preacher Dinesh iterates the sins of the blogging world. The number of sins committed decides on whether your blog rots in blog-hell or enjoys sunny weather in blog-heaven’s beach resort.

1. Numero uno, there is no reason to own a blog and not blog. It’s a cardinal sin to have a blog which isn’t constantly updated. Sin #1 is not updating your blog at regular intervals.
2. Secondly, copying blogs from other blogs is one of the biggest sins you can commit. This can be equated to murder. Nobody forces you to blog. So, if you’ve got itchy hands to copy, better wash your hands with soap, rather than bootlegging someone’s blog and calling it yours.
3. Agreed that your blog is what you want it to be, but there is no reason that you just crap in your blog with posts having neither head nor tail.
4. There are always topics for you to blog on. Complaints of not finding topics to blog on, is not reason good enough in BlogChitragupta’s / St.BlogPeter’s blogs to reduce your sin count.
5. Another felony you should refrain from is using it to demean others or other’s blogs. Yes, you can post your views but in a decent manner, downright dirty is not the way. A corner seat in Bloghell will be reserved instantly if this is committed.
6. Comment spamming other blogs will lead to nice spanking by the blog-demon in blog-hell.
7. Last but not the least, cauldron full of hot oil awaits you if you disrespect ‘desi-bloggers’.

There might be many more to list and missing out on blog sins is again a small sin. Thus, I need bloggers’ help to make a comprehensive guide of blog-sins. An acclaimed blog-jury will decide on what to add and as a special prize, a place in blog heaven can be reserved :).

Cheers

Touch Down India...Home..yay

'Home sweet home' and 'Home is where the heart is'. Absolutely true; to the letter.

When I heard I can go home for 15 days whenever I want, my joy, as they say, knew no bounds. In this case, knew no international boundaries. A sudden barge of phone calls from my phone went out and I am sure I kept the phone lines busy for quite some time to myself. My flight tickets were booked....Ncl-London-Mumbai-Indore. Perfect. And flying in Virgin Atlantic would a new experience. But the thought of spending one night doing nothing in Heathrow airport on the way back, I decided to switch to combo of BA and Desi Jet Airways. Jet international was awesome, terriffic and brillinat. Very much comparable and better than few international flights of non-indian origin. Only song playing in my mind en route - 'Yeh jo des hai tera, swades hai tera...tujhe hai pukaaraa......' :)

A function(sathabhishekam) at home, marking grandpa's 80th birthday was to be celebrated and I was right on time. A surprise for parents. A scene cut out from K3G, SRK jumps down from private copter and rushes home just in time for aarti(final pooja ritual for the day). Just replace, SRK with me, private chopper with public plane and huge palatial bungalow to a humble abode. So, right in time for everything. So, I don't think I will be blogging for another week or two. Busy vacationing at home...you see.

Cheers.

1983 - The year when history was made

I could not resist the temptation but to blog these pics I was able to lay my hands on. I was two years old when history was written in Indian cricketing world. A new religion was made in the land where already religions are aplenty. The match was won by then-underdogs overthrowing the then-mighty Windies was like attaining Niravana for the nation brimming with cricket lovers. Without further ado, let me put these pics, a magnificent memorabilia of the 1983 world cup finals.

Though, a picture speaks a thousand words, here goes a small description of the pics above -

(Top to bottom, L to R)

#Mohinder Amarnath's patient innings of 26 helps India move steadily towards a total of 183.

#Final Moments! Kapil Dev snares West Indies tail-ender Andy Roberts lbw to leave India on the brink of victory.

#A huge crowd charge into the ground to celebrate the victory and the Indian team race out. History was made!

#Delighted supporters throng on to the Lord's pitch to join in with the Indian celebrations.

# Kapil Dev Praaji shows off the cup to delighted supporters

#Man of the match Amarnath and India's captain Kapil Dev share a joke during the presentation ceremony.

#India's team and management revel in their unexpected triumph over the West Indies.

# THE GLORIOUS TEAM:
1.Kapil Dev 2.Sunil Gavaskar 3.Mohinder Amarnath 4.Sandeep Patil 5.Yashpal Sharma 6.Roger Binny 7.Madan Lal 8.Syed Kirmani 9.Balwinder Sandhu 10.K Srikkanth 11.Kirti Azad12.Ravi Shastri 13.Dilip Vengsarkar 14.Sunil Valson Team manager: P R Man Singh

Hope the history repeats itself in 2007. Looking at the cuurent form, as BBC says "Ruthless Indians are trouncing Srilankans", and if the form continues, we sure will have another World Cup on BBCI medal shelves and love for cricket will touch new heights. Hoping for 2007 World Cup....

Cheers.

Bhooooot

My flatmate is out and will be out this week. I am all alone in the apartment. And to top it all, it is Halloween Week. Never really mattered before, but there’s something different this time. Maybe I’ve been in India all Halloweens where we barely knew when this ghost-fest of the west came and went. This time I can see Halloween masks and costumes and blah-blahs being sold everywhere here in the UK. I also managed to bump into a grumpy kid at Tesco on Friday who looked like he just finished his debut movie with the Ramsay bros. Don’t ask me the reason for his grumpiness, but I guess the Ramsays’ might have got his character killed before he got to suck enough ketchup (a.k.a blood in the movies).

Not that I am afraid of ghosts or believe in these what I presume are ‘awkward manifestations of human’s over-imaginative mind’, but the incident to be described sure ran a chill down my spine. On the uneventful Friday night (luckily, date wasn’t 13th), I sat munching crisps, watching TV like the usual couch potato fatsos (yeah ok ok.. I am one too!). The incessant channel navigation didn’t help much because all they could show on the 18 freeview channels were Rosemary’s child, Dracula, The Loch Ness monster, The 100 scariest scenes of all times and similar freaky stuff… nothing mild nothing comic, no good movie. In short, nothing worth whiling away time. The sleep monster in my yawn and droopy eyes took control and led my legs to the bed where I slept instantly, I guess.

When the arrival of next afternoon broke my sleep, I could hear noises from the living room. I swear, there was no one in the house. I went to check out and behold, the TV was on and so was the light. I like to think of myself as energy conserver and I was sure, I had switched off the TV and lights before I went to bed. I looked everywhere in the house including the vacuum cleaner and geyser closet, but nobody was there. For half an hour, I was shocked on how this had happened. Like everybody, I attributed it to my sleepy state, and went about the task of whiling away that day. Went to a friend’s at night and got back home after a movie. Doubly double checked that TV and lights were switched off before I went to bed.

Next morning at 11, I still heard noises from the hall. Whoa…there really was a ghost in my house. Clutching the little Hanuman statuette, I went to the living room and found the telly ON. Brr….chatterrrr (those were my teeth)…and my vocabulary fails to explain the electricity sort of thing that ran down my spine.

I bet there is a ghost in my apartment which loves to watch TV and does not pay for the electricity. I have informed the Ghostbusters Inc to take out that bugger before he starts eating my food and wearing my clothes too. Till then, I am staying clear of my apartment.

[P.S.: People in UK, please set your clock timing back by one hour for daylight savings. Do set it on your TVs as well but make sure you don’t mistakenly set the ON TIMER, atleast not for early morning. ]