‘Factorization of Algebraic Expressions’

Yesterday, I had a trip back to the memory lanes of the Mathematics of class nine. ‘Factorization of Algebraic Expressions’ I saw.

No, I have already taken all the possible entrance exams possible, so I was not the one who was doing the studying. It was my neighbor who had come over to my place. Dad’s his private tutor. Dad’s got a dozen of them, ranging from class 5th to 9th and he’s decided to offload some on to me. Yeah, I am going to ‘tutor’ some of these ‘young turks’ in my favourite subject, Mathematics!

Yesterday was my first day. I make it sound like I was the student, and it was my first day at school, but that was how nervous I was. I had not even read the stuff before he entered the room. I had not prepared the lines. So, the nervousness tingled for some more time. And then, we began. Began an hour long sojourn, with its twists and turns and doubts and formulae and shortcuts and….well, it was not as complicated as I make it out to be, but it was a different experience altogether. It was like going back to one’s school, only to be on the other side. I could actually relate to the questions that arose during the session. And then there were also times, when the boy left me exasperated with his inability to grasp stuff which I perceived as ‘basic’. When I had to tell him that ‘minus into minus is equal to plus’. But, in the end, I managed to adjust to his pace. His style of grasping.

Hopefully, the future sessions would reveal more of how much Math he has grasped!

A fun experience, and probably a foray into my post-retirement plans!

P.S. The funniest part of the whole affair was at the end, when I had to give him some homework. Homework I said? I still don’t believe this!

Change in Interests

Is it the performance of the Indian Cricket Team, a break from the “rigmarole” of B-School pressures or plain boredom that I have begun to view the telly more than before.

So, ‘Big Boss’ is quickly followed by a growing interest in ‘Indian Idol’, discussions have often veered towards the impending Bipasha and John break-up and the next guest on ‘Koffee with Karan’ has been lapped up with equal keenness.

The last straw to break my back could just be the K-serials, and given that I have already had one conversation on it, I see no reason why I should not start watching the soaps. That would be some day eh?

Thankfully, the last few days have also seen a spurt in the number of books read by me. Thanks to the M&M library. Most of the Grishams are out of the way.
Works of never heard before authors like David Baldacci have been read and re-read and replaced by newer authors. The latest book that I have laid my hands on is Michael Crichton’s ‘Timeline’, something that I always wanted to read. Because I had heard a loads of good stuff about it. So, that’s really keeping me occupied.

But the biggest change that’s been brought about in me – I have started blogging. It began only as a hobby of writing about cricket. It then spread to others. I never knew that writing could be so soothing. Almost therapeutic. A solution to at least some of the issues one faces in one’s own mind. It did take some form of adversity to make me realize it, but, it is a nice feeling. To be able to pen down one’s ecstasies and woes alike.

That's it for the day, I realise that with just 10 odd days left for the internship to end, I would also need to conjure up a document to show for the past fifty days of 'work'. Signing off for the day...

A"Long" Weekend!

My day yesterday was a long, long one.

Began with 'Shivaji' with NP, Deep and Abhishek. For more on that, click
http://suneerchowdhary.blogspot.com/2007/06/shivaji-film-review.html

Post that, came the more painful part. Shopping. More importantly, giving company to two gals who were on a shopping spree. Wasn't even allowed to talk with Abhishek. Damn. Deepshikha got lost, with her mobile phone kept with Abhishek. Remained untraceable for the next 15 minutes. One "butler-tanni" then informed us about the whereabouts of Her Highness. Located her.


Post Movie and Shopping

Lunch was at 'Sitting' Rasraj. After a long, long time. Like that place. And the food is great as well.

Then, of all the places on which we could stand and converse, we found the bank across NMIMS to do so. Stood there and conversed till the cows came home. Or more pertinently, till it started raining.

Re-entered college, saw a few juniors getting ragged, caught up with a couple of them, and again, spoke amongst ourselves about nothing at all. And then created a coup of sorts by managing to convincing Deep to get to Bandstand! A couple of unexpected smses from a friend had me surprised there, for sure.


The 'Sitting' Session in College

Talking of Bandstand, it is another place, which I have grown to like over the period of time. And it was not always the case with me. I, slowly and steadily, got converted. And lots of the credit must go to Peeya for this. She cajoled, coaxed and forced me into visiting it more often, till I saw what she saw.

The "bhutta" there, though was exorbitantly priced. 20 bucks. A 400% premium on the usual rates.

Dinner consisted of Biryani at Lucky's. And then home coming at 11.

A twelve hour day, and a fun one at that!

I could actually watch Shivaji again.

Shivaji - A film review.

Watched Sivaji. The Tamil movie.













Came back home.

P.S. - Understood almost nothing. Probably it was better that ways. Rajnikanth acted like a Shaktimaan, Superman, Spiderman, He-man, Batman, Jackie Chan, James Bond, Jack Sparrow, Vinod Kambli and so many other characters combined in one. You seriously got to watch it to believe this statement. We laughed 26 times in the movie and 24 times out of that, we laughed because others did so. Twice we laughed alone.

A Sri Lankan guy from HLL sat next to me and explained whatever he could. The actress was cute and hot at the same time. For her, dancing meant shaking her waist to the right, and then to the left, and continuing this till the song ended.

And lastly, the last background score is just AWESOME. Someone please send it to me

The Telephone call that changed my life

I slept at 3 last night. For some reason I was restless, and took me all of 1 Valium and a warm glass of Brandy to push me to bed.

Unfortunately, I realise the effects of Valium today. Someone looking at me would think I have just returned from China. So weary and small, my eyes look. Almost like a hangover from last night.

Anyways, I was on my way to office today. The clock had just ticked to 9 a.m.
I hear the familiar ring of my cell phone(yeah, the Airtel guys finally answered my pleas).

Deepshikha calling.

Surprising, this is normally her wake up time. Alrite, not quite, but way too early for her to be calling me up. I take her call.

We exchange pleasantries. Try so hard to think of a joke.

The Valium just does not allow me.

Then she drops the bombshell.

"Let's watch 'Shivaji - The Boss'", she says.

Suddenly, I am wide awake. Valium's lost it's charm. So has the brandy.
The objective that coffee could not achieve has been done by that one statement of Deepshikha. At least for now.

I rub my eyes. More so my ears.

I am silent for a full 30 seconds.

"You there? Did you hear me?"
"Yeah"
"So, try finding out about the tickets, and their availability."
"Huh?"
"Why are your conversational skills as extinct as a Dodo today?"

Finally, I groan.

I reply, "You want us to watch Shivaji???". Me, Nyasa, Abhishek and Almighty knows who all.

"Yeah, and I thought, you would jump at the offer."

Right now, I feel like jumping out of my vehicle.

"So, anyways, get to office, and find out about the same. We will go for tomorow's morning show. Try finding out about the movie dubbed in Telegu."

Telegu. Tamil. Kannada. Oriya. How does it matter to me?

She continues, "You know, Rajnikant got paid 50 crores for the movie."

I correct her, "It's 37."

Jeetu had told that to me over lunch yesterday. So had Vishwa. Feels so good to have friends like them, who talk about how much Rajni got paid for this movie. And about other movies.

"Yeah, whatever, just find out about the darned tickets."

Darned? So, now it is darned?

I say ok.

The phone goes dead. I stare at it for a full minute now.

Then I wonder. Life's come down to this.

I am going to watch 'Shivaji, The Boss'. In Tamil. Preferably in Telegu.

I call up my dad. Timings and all need to be known.

The conversation with Dad leaves him mildly amused as well.
That, would be an understatement for me.

I try to visualise myself watching the movie.

I wonder if the cinema hall guys could provide me a table lamp.

I like reading.

Especially in movie halls.

It's just a cell phone guys...

It’s been one day now. Exactly 24 hours since my cell phone rang. Or I got an sms.

Or I made a call.

They say it will take another twenty four before I will be able to achieve any of the above mentioned objectives. Surprisingly, I am not irritated. Always thought that I would.

I am at peace with myself. And with the fact that it will take some time before I get my connection back.

I can definitely wait for another day or two for it to start functioning again. Not dying for it to ring. After all, it is just a phone.

It is not a problem that I haven't spoken to some whom I always did, in the last 24 hours or so, I will live on. So would they. No problems at all.

Just a mobile phone.

P.S. If you are one of those Airtel guys reading this one, kindly note, that I have already called you up thrice today, and each time, you promised me that the connection would be up and running in the next one hour. But nothing of that sort has happened. I may consider severing it permanently and switching to Hutch. I need to make a couple of real urgent calls and it is not feasible for me to get to that telephone booth every time. This is simple and pure harassment. Do some thing…get my phone up, and QUICK...hrumppph!

'Funny' Joke of Day - 2

Santa goes to a Udipi hotel to have something to eat. He orders for Masala Dosa. The waiter promptly gets him the dish but is surprised to see that Santa eats only the masala leaving the dosa behind. Santa then orders for 1 plate Samosa. Again this time the waiter notices that Santa eats only the filling and not the shell.
Waiter is very curious. Santa next orders for Batata Vada. This time around also Santa eats only the filling and leaves the shell behind.

The waiter is losing his patience and walking upto Santa asks him, "Bhaaisaahab, aap dish ke under ka hi cheez kyon khaa rahe ho, kya baki cheez pasand nahi aayi..?"

At this, Santa says, "Arre bhaiyya, aisi baat nahi. Hamaari tabiyat kuch teekh nahi isliye doctor ne kaha ki baahar ka cheez mat khaya karo..."

*** I had a mind to convert this Joke into English, and did it as well. However, it turned out to be funnier than I could digest, hence the pure, original, unadulterated version!

Sent by: Leena

Ohh...for some breakfast

These days, I have begun to neglect my breakfast. Wake up later than I ought to, and procrastinate the same. Think, I will have the same in the office, and by the time I get to office, it is almost too late to have it.

Today was different. Reached office on time, and to top that, was hungrier than usual as well. Marched into the pantry. And lo and behold, what do I see on the menu?

Today's Breakfast:
Upma.

Damn. Why do they do this to me? Upma of all the things today?

This is another clear cut case of Murphy's Law coming true.
"When you shouldn't be having breakfast, you will never be able to have it."

Alrite, I just made that up, but what the hell?

Not unexpectedly, I had to make do with a Sandwich.

How much are you 'running' NP!? ;)

I begin with wishing one of my dear friends, NP, a very Happy Birthday. Now had she been 12, I would have definitely said so. But, given that it's her birthday, and she has already borne the brunt of many of our "age-old" jokes (or is it 'old-age'?!!), I will stop it that. So, here goes, Happy Budday NP!

So, we met yesterday, at this place at Oshiwara, called Chawla, the Dhaba. Name sounds something the movie, Daag, the Fire, isn't it? When I first heard of it, I thought it is a Punjabi name, Chawla da Dhaba, but the 'da' in the middle turns out to be 'the'. So, a Punjabi name suddenly turned out to be quite English.

And here, I must also make a mention of the fact, that for the first time in the history of finding and getting to a place, I not only did not find myself getting lost, but also was the first to reach. And for the next forty five minutes, the only one of two people. The other being Aditi.

The rest of the night was fun, and what else do you expect when the two CEO cobras, cast their spell, and wove their magic, on the rest of the gang, enticing, cajoling, imbibing and torturing the rest with their inimitable 'humor'. What better reward for the two of us, Deepshi and I, that Abhishek joined in the fun with some of his original, 'quick-witted' jokes.(Incidentally, there were three people by that name, Abishek, thankfully no confusions arose). Some of his jokes have already been enlisted in the Cobra Hall of Fame, and would soon be posted. (and if that was not enough, I get a nice lil 'forwarded sms joke' from Abhishek at 2 in the night, which constituted a cockroach, a make up kit and a lip paint. You can form the rest of the joke any which ways you please!)

Amidst all this, the budday girl...woman...(!!!), completed her ceremony, blew off the candles, cut the cake, got her face painted with a combination of white cream, red cherries, green vegetables and what not. Deepshi even hit upon this wonderful idea of using the other vegetables and fruits in the restaurant to make for a good photography session, but thankfully all that did not materialise (there is a hint of exagerration there). However, for some time, it did seem that Abhinav would end up getting his face smeared with the same stuff, but thankfully, even that moment passed.

There were other small, cute moments that occurred,

a. A couple of sips into her drink, Deepshi stopped joking.
Meaning: She was already high.

b. A couple of sips into his drink, Abhishek started cracking jokes.
Meaning: same as above.

c. Abhishek and Abhinav's drinks got exchanged.
Meaning: The waiter was also high.

d. I ordered for a 'never-heard-of-before' Mocktail, Angel's Kiss
Meaning: It was a kiss alrite, of Apple Peel, and Milk Cream. I guess, my much cherished dream of having milk when the rest of the Gang would be into Alcohol, got fulfilled. Ritika's assesment of the drink was the best, "it tastes like Rotten Strawberry Milk Shake." I surely cannot deny that.

e. Abhinav cracked some good jokes.
Meaning: He cannot join the Cobra Gang for now, there is a threshold you got to fall below, before getting into it.

f. Ritika and Aditi were on their phones.
Meaning: Someone called them up!

g. My digital camera did not work.
Meaning: Murphy's Law does hold true some time.

Overall, a fun filled evening, which also meant that I have hit a "Goal" from office today. Huh? Alrite, I meant, that I have called in sick today.

Thanks NP, and err....how much are you running now? :-)

"Funny" Joke of the Day - 1

Starting today, I am going to update this blog with a "Funny" Joke of the day heard.
It is imperative that you note the Quote-Unquote marked at the beginning and the end of the word FUNNY.

The "Funniest" Joke at the end of the month, will win a collection of really Funny Joke Book. He/She will have to pay for the same.

At the end of the year, we will have a grand 'Bus-kar' "Best Joke" Awards Night, where a winner will be felicitated with some award. Not thought of what.

Decision of the Judges will be final.

Here goes...

Q. Why did the gentleman bend down on seeing a train?
A. Because the train went "Jhhuk Jhhuk Jhhuk"!

Courtsey: Deepshikha Murthy

P.S. For the uninitiated, that is the sound a moving Train makes, in Hindi. Yeah, Indian Trains talk in Hindi only!