I do not hate, I hate love stories. And why.

Scene at the movie hall:

The hot-dog tasted like a three week old chutney with a lot of lemon and sweat. And it was not hot. Cannot think of a good joke with dog.

The caramel popcorn had no caramel. The only thing that 'pop'ped out was my tooth.

The hot coffee froze my tongue. It's still sneezing. The tongue that is.

First they refused to sell the 'I hate luv stories' tickets. Reason? They needed at least 6 to make up the audience. We were only 3. Later 3 more souls turned up. Poor them. Poor us.

And then, the show that was to start at 945 did not do so till 1015 because of a supposed technical glitch.

I walked out of the hall with my money refunded after 15 minutes of haggling. Finger pointing. You-do-not-know-who-my-dad-is. (A Maths teacher, by the way). And showing them my wife's naval dependent card. Navel nai. Naval.

After spending one hour and having only the food bills to show for it.

Yet, I feel happy enough.

Probably, that is because I had undergone the entire experience of viewing Kites and Raavan as my last two movies. Because unlike IHLS, I was made to sit through those two ordeals. Here, I could escape cheap.

And 'What's your Raashee?' as well.

You can read the review of that movie here.

IPL done, long awaited post...

This is a long-pending post that I had to write, but the chain of events in the last four to five months did not permit me to. Nothing to write home about, those events, but the writing is about a home!

Naah, just to put it simply, learnt a couple of lessons in the last few months that, I hope, would remain with me for the rest of my life. And with the IPL bidding our TVs a goodbye, it is time for me to get it off my shoulder.

1. Never say never. At least to begin with. Thing baby think!

A big cliche, probably used around at the drop of the hat, but I think, I have made this error twice since June last year, and I have a reasonable idea that I will be paying a price for it, and for at least some more time to come. I could have easily taken it upon myself to think through the decision that I made, and the repercussions about it, but, I think I misjudged the situation.

Fortunately, I know there is no-one else to blame in that particular situation but me. I put my hands up, accept that I could have done better and hope that I do not have to pay a huge one for it!

The good news? Already, today, I had a very good and a tempting chance to repeat my previous mistake. But I applied the brakes and given myself a seven day period to mull over the whole thing. And I am pleased as a punch that the strong feeling to refuse something has passed and I will look to use the next seven days to take the decision either way.

2. It takes hours and weeks and months of efforts to build business relations. And while those built over such time sustain minor disturbances, it is best not to take them for granted. I did not, but again, in one of them, I could have done much better.

Now, I find myself in a position that I should not have found myself in. And it is a sense of 'Aaaargh, could have done better' for me.

I quit Accenture in June. It is nearing one year now for me in what I had decided lay my future. I had also allowed myself around 18 months of time to decide whether the future could continue with it, and in the nine months that have passed, apart from those usual what-ifs associated with such a decision, I see no reason, for now, to call it an awful decision.

At the half way-stage, I would say that I am so looking forward to the second half and would love for it to continue in the same vein.

An experience at the Brabourne!

Recently, I had gone to the Brabourne to watch the Mumbai Indians play the Royal Challengers Bangalore. These were the same two teams that were playing at the Wankhede two years ago when I had seen my first IPL game ever.

Rather surprisingly, even this time around, we were around ten of us, much like two years back. (Looking back, life seems to have changed quite a lot!)

Here is my experience from Brabourne. As to my experience at Wankhede two years back, my memory fails me of much of the smaller details to be putting it into words. But it sure was fun!

Here goes...Why I was happy that Tendulkar got out!