I travelled home… and that too when I went to the U.S. – funny eh?... It was a totally amazing time. From brush with celebrities on the streets who didn’t allow pictures, to some talented friends (potential stars) and millionaires with cash flow problems who I crashed with.
Starting it all off with gorgeous sunny days in rainy Seattle, flying over the city twice - once with my Bro and then with his flying instructor, which was 20 minutes of mind blowing aerobatics… I was warned not to throw up and funnily enough when we went into the 1st maneuver, I felt the most comfortable I have in a while - time to get the good ol’ brain checked maybe.
Saw Senor Santana at a Nike Store (yes he does wear Nikes) and the store staff asked me not to take a picture of him, he too declined, but signed autographs for us, before he got molested by some Latina on the street.
Great meals and super chill out times in Seattle, followed by the grandness, the noise and the compelling vibe of New York!! Have to confess, it was something different. From the Brownstones of Brooklyn to the madness of Manhattan. The place is something else.
10 things that I will remember from the trip:
1. Beggar holding sign “Parents killed by Ninjas, need money to learn Karate”
2. Shaking hands with Senor Carlos Santana
3. Seeing Heather Graham in NYC (I am pretty sure it was her) – if you’re a guy and don’t know who she is – get a life.
4. Bro doing some scary maneuvers in the air and 2 perfect landings + letting me control the aircraft for 30 minutes!!
5. Great meals in Seattle
6. BOBs and the industrial proportions of alcohol consumed on Fri night
7. Beer – err I mean water.. uhmm no it was actually beer. Finally I saw Stella again.. phewwww..
8. Chee Malabar’s discussions on the social set up in the U.S.
9. Being asked - “Logistics?? Is that something like Statistics??” – When I said I work in the logistics business.
10. Actually felt that I went home, even though I traveled further westward!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
La-la
0345 a.m. after a regular night out in town on a Friday, 3 of us grabbed by hunger pangs were stumbling along in our beer buzz, but after what seemed like 5kms of painful walking we saw light at the end of the tunnel when we saw “La-La” written on top of a half open “Showarma” store, some of you may know it as Doners, Kebabs, Pitas etc. etc.. for us though, that night, it was just pure and simple satisfying food… it was quite alarming that in Amsterdam, where you can find something to eat, drink, ehhmm "smoke" and "sleep with" - at any given time of the day, this hunt for food had really left us exhausted.
We quickly walked in, to be alarmed by the owner that he was shut – but if we wanted he could cook up something plain and simple like a showarma. We, the hungry dogs that we were, agreed!! Not that we wanted to eat anything else...
So the cooking started and we tried to make ourselves as comfortable on the horribly uncomfortably stacked up chairs around his little cooking counter/serving area – while a little kitten kept running around our legs.. all this while the man cooking started engaging us in some animated conversation – once he found out that we were from the motherland!!! He started off by singing Bollywood movie songs from the 60s and tried to recall names of movies from an era when our parents were yet not married.
One of us took the opportunity to also elaborate the meaning of the name of his “snack bar” – ‘La- La’ in Indian. Of course at hearing the word “Snack Bar”, the owner went livid – he said, “How dare you call this place a Snack Bar?? It is – ‘Grill Room La-La’ and duly pointed out the name in the local yellow pages.
A bit terrified by his outburst, but bolstered by the alcohol in our system, we all explained to him the meaning of the term “La-La” – “Usually a man with a big belly, who lends out money and cheats people”. He apparently did not take any offence to it at all and smiled back and said do you know why I call my “Grill Room” La-La?? We shrugged our shoulders and he turned out and sang “La la la la la la la la – Can’t get you out of my head” – as beaten up by our alcohol intake as we were, we still didn’t get the humour in that one, so he retorted ‘Oh La – La – La'.. and we were still going WTF???
The kitten by this time had run up on all our shoulders and of one our friends who claimed he is allergic to cats had the kitten clawing up his expensive shirt and he grimaced and said “Dude, take her off me” – I obliged by catching her collar and flinging her to the ground – OK disclaimer, I am all for animals and their ethical treatment, but cats shouldn’t be in “Grill Rooms” and they should not be climbing up customers shirts and anyway cats always fall on their feet, so no harm done.
But this ticked the owner off again and he tried to control his anger and explained to us that we need to show love to the cat and she would understand, saying this, he caught her with both hands and kissed her and also flung her to the ground - Only one thought going on in our head~ "Is he going to wash his hands or carry on cooking?" - the thought continues while the meat gets grilled, the fries get fried … after a minute or so he turns around and claps his hand 3 times in a way to suggest that his hands have been cleaned, our bewilderment with what we are witnessing keeps growing.
He pulls the grilling pan out and urges us to taste the meat, singing praises of his cooking, letting us know that he has been in business for 23 years and he wouldn’t have lasted if it wasn’t for the quality, he also slips in a footnote – “I am more expensive than your regular grill room, showarma guys” - and this too after he had warned us right up front that it would be a simple meal, this was anything but simple, it was the most elaborate, "pussy petting", song singing, showarma making experience that I had ever seen - It almost reminded me of a cheap Bollywood flick
The meat is nicely stacked up alongside the fries and our salivating mouths are not helping us… so we timidly ask the guy “How much?” and he goes, “30 Euros” – 30 Euros, lets put things into perspective, a similar meal in a normal showarma place would have cost 8 Euros – 30 euros is a pair of jeans in Zara, 30 Euros is 4 pizzas in a decent Italian pizzeria, 30 Euros is a return ticket from Brussels to Amsterdam, 30 euros is almost what I paid that night for all the alcohol to get me so hammered that I went to La-La Grill Room..30 Euros, if you haven’t got it as yet is a hell of a lot of money especially when you don’t even get the Pita bread with it, we asked him for the bread and he said 1 euro per bread and we said, “Thank you very much, but NO thanks” and trundle along with our food in our hand, shocked out of our wits at how easily we were conned out of our money… 30 Euros, we were murmuring and then we thought back to the happenings at the “Grill Room La – La” and our explanation of the term La- La and we realized why he has aptly called his place “La-La”
We quickly walked in, to be alarmed by the owner that he was shut – but if we wanted he could cook up something plain and simple like a showarma. We, the hungry dogs that we were, agreed!! Not that we wanted to eat anything else...
So the cooking started and we tried to make ourselves as comfortable on the horribly uncomfortably stacked up chairs around his little cooking counter/serving area – while a little kitten kept running around our legs.. all this while the man cooking started engaging us in some animated conversation – once he found out that we were from the motherland!!! He started off by singing Bollywood movie songs from the 60s and tried to recall names of movies from an era when our parents were yet not married.
One of us took the opportunity to also elaborate the meaning of the name of his “snack bar” – ‘La- La’ in Indian. Of course at hearing the word “Snack Bar”, the owner went livid – he said, “How dare you call this place a Snack Bar?? It is – ‘Grill Room La-La’ and duly pointed out the name in the local yellow pages.
A bit terrified by his outburst, but bolstered by the alcohol in our system, we all explained to him the meaning of the term “La-La” – “Usually a man with a big belly, who lends out money and cheats people”. He apparently did not take any offence to it at all and smiled back and said do you know why I call my “Grill Room” La-La?? We shrugged our shoulders and he turned out and sang “La la la la la la la la – Can’t get you out of my head” – as beaten up by our alcohol intake as we were, we still didn’t get the humour in that one, so he retorted ‘Oh La – La – La'.. and we were still going WTF???
The kitten by this time had run up on all our shoulders and of one our friends who claimed he is allergic to cats had the kitten clawing up his expensive shirt and he grimaced and said “Dude, take her off me” – I obliged by catching her collar and flinging her to the ground – OK disclaimer, I am all for animals and their ethical treatment, but cats shouldn’t be in “Grill Rooms” and they should not be climbing up customers shirts and anyway cats always fall on their feet, so no harm done.
But this ticked the owner off again and he tried to control his anger and explained to us that we need to show love to the cat and she would understand, saying this, he caught her with both hands and kissed her and also flung her to the ground - Only one thought going on in our head~ "Is he going to wash his hands or carry on cooking?" - the thought continues while the meat gets grilled, the fries get fried … after a minute or so he turns around and claps his hand 3 times in a way to suggest that his hands have been cleaned, our bewilderment with what we are witnessing keeps growing.
He pulls the grilling pan out and urges us to taste the meat, singing praises of his cooking, letting us know that he has been in business for 23 years and he wouldn’t have lasted if it wasn’t for the quality, he also slips in a footnote – “I am more expensive than your regular grill room, showarma guys” - and this too after he had warned us right up front that it would be a simple meal, this was anything but simple, it was the most elaborate, "pussy petting", song singing, showarma making experience that I had ever seen - It almost reminded me of a cheap Bollywood flick
The meat is nicely stacked up alongside the fries and our salivating mouths are not helping us… so we timidly ask the guy “How much?” and he goes, “30 Euros” – 30 Euros, lets put things into perspective, a similar meal in a normal showarma place would have cost 8 Euros – 30 euros is a pair of jeans in Zara, 30 Euros is 4 pizzas in a decent Italian pizzeria, 30 Euros is a return ticket from Brussels to Amsterdam, 30 euros is almost what I paid that night for all the alcohol to get me so hammered that I went to La-La Grill Room..30 Euros, if you haven’t got it as yet is a hell of a lot of money especially when you don’t even get the Pita bread with it, we asked him for the bread and he said 1 euro per bread and we said, “Thank you very much, but NO thanks” and trundle along with our food in our hand, shocked out of our wits at how easily we were conned out of our money… 30 Euros, we were murmuring and then we thought back to the happenings at the “Grill Room La – La” and our explanation of the term La- La and we realized why he has aptly called his place “La-La”
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Musical journey this summer
Bands/Acts I saw this summer
Lemon Jelly
Alanis Morissette
Oasis
Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen
U2 - London and Amsterdam
Thievery Corporation
Kraftwerk
Chemical Brothers
Snoop Dogg
Athlete - London and Werchter
Garbage
Green Day - These boys blew my mind ... whoa!!
Elvis Costello
Feeder - Those who haven't heard them - start with their single "Feeling a Moment"
Keane
Foo Fighters
R.E.M
Sarah Bettens - of K's choice.. what a girl and a half.. sigh.. if only she wasn't gay.. hahah
Roisin Murphy - That's another lady you have to check out.. Kate Moss meets Tori Amos - but much better.. she was a revelation
Katie Tunstall - Another one to check out.
B.B. King
Of course I missed out on Live 8 - but seeing Pink Floyd perform live together was so heartwarming that it still gives me the goosebumps..
That's it check out time, till the fall touring starts again.. I do have to curb this concert spending of mine though...
Lemon Jelly
Alanis Morissette
Oasis
Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen
U2 - London and Amsterdam
Thievery Corporation
Kraftwerk
Chemical Brothers
Snoop Dogg
Athlete - London and Werchter
Garbage
Green Day - These boys blew my mind ... whoa!!
Elvis Costello
Feeder - Those who haven't heard them - start with their single "Feeling a Moment"
Keane
Foo Fighters
R.E.M
Sarah Bettens - of K's choice.. what a girl and a half.. sigh.. if only she wasn't gay.. hahah
Roisin Murphy - That's another lady you have to check out.. Kate Moss meets Tori Amos - but much better.. she was a revelation
Katie Tunstall - Another one to check out.
B.B. King
Of course I missed out on Live 8 - but seeing Pink Floyd perform live together was so heartwarming that it still gives me the goosebumps..
That's it check out time, till the fall touring starts again.. I do have to curb this concert spending of mine though...
Friday, June 24, 2005
How long...
... to sing this song
I’ll be honest, I was only 10 yrs old and I didn’t know shit about international music, my only view to the western world of music was the Grammy awards night. When I first heard of U2 it was when they swept the Grammy awards with JT and I was like, “Damn man!! No one I know won a grammy this year”, I will have to get my hands on this new album to know this band if they are gonna win everything. I’ll be lying if I said I was in love with U2’s music from the word go. No!! It was a gradual growth in appreciation of their lyrics and The Edge’s guitaring. The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum were heard over and over again on audio cassettes, rewound, and all songs learnt by heart including the singing of the guitar solos till the cassette tape started getting jammed in the player. This is when I actually fell in love with U2 – Achtung Baby had just been released in India. Did the band actually plan to warn me? “Achtung, Achtung son, you’re just gonna become a U2 bitch for life” - There was no looking back for me after that.
18 years since I first heard of U2, I had the opportunity to see them live, in the flesh, in person, up close and personal. The opportunity of a lifetime, if I may say so. I really cannot explain how big a dream this has been, no seriously, this is unbelievable. I had a friend at the concert who too asked me, this is really happening right, U2 – live in front of us. U2 – live beside us? True, true it all happened. 
Many hours since early January this year have been spent to scout for tickets, many, many hours. Some people are given tickets to a U2 concert and some people work their way to get them, - only the real hardcore fans realize the sweet success of getting tickets to sold out shows for the world’s biggest and best band, there is this sweet joy, that only can be felt when you get confirmed tickets in your hand, the smugness that only you can enjoy. Ya, I am getting all boastful, but that’s what real U2 fans are supposed to be like – with a huge huge chip on their shoulder!!
Disclaimer time again - This is going to be a long post, it’s been 18 years in the waiting hold and which is why the blog is titled so..
18th June, 32 degrees at 11 AM – London City, Twickenham Stadium, the house of English Rugby. I am standing there waiting for my tickets to realize a dream. 32 degrees, it’s pounding down, no tickets yet, they say they’re getting printed come back in an hour, I come back later, no tickets yet, I am pushing the panic button, bloody hell, where are my tickets, they’re asking me to relax, they’re gonna be here anytime, I can’t relax mate, I have been waiting for this day for way too long, I’m walking up and down in front of the box office, I am trying to threaten the guy on the other side, “What if I don’t get in on time and can’t get right up, what are you gonna do?” – he just says sorry and I feel more frustrated. I am listening to the various sound checks, “Love and Peace or Else”, “Who’s gonna ride your wild horses” – It’s gonna be a great show, if only I can get those tickets in my hands!! Finally 3.20 PM, they call out “Mr. Bhatt, your tickets, we apologize for the delay, may we ask you to walk all the way to the right and line up at gate F” – I was like gate F – I am on the way to get fucked with a capital “F”
I walk up to Gate F and rats, there is like a swarm of people ahead of me in a long serpentine line that had 25 folds in it. I am still thinking “F****D”!!!, We’re slowly being edged into an enclosure, a security guard walks up to us, has a look at our tickets and straps something onto our hands, it says “Inner circle – Concert 1” – Fucking hell, I know what that means, I am in the “Bomb Shelter”!!! the heat, the dust, the waiting, the frustrations of the day, the anger, the anxiety went poof in the air. I knew I was in, in where I expect to be, after 18 years of waiting.
Beers consumed, sausages devoured, we trundle into 2 levels of security checks right into the “bomb shelter”. Pushing and nudging a bit to get right smack in the center of the opening in the stage where the two ramps come down. Twin screens stand atop two enormous speaker towers and between them aluminium sleepers create a video wall that's at least 50 feet high. Athlete opened the show with Doves, I saw Athlete and think they were brilliant, good music, good lyrics and overall good performance, must be quite a kick for them to play to 700000 people.
9 hours had passed since I first reached the venue and the famous beats of the song that U2 marches into, go up loud in the air. That’s it the sons of rock and roll, walk up on stage, all wearing black. Quiet entrance, no smoke, no flash lights, and just 4 average heighted men in black clothes. They break into “Vertigo” and the crowd is reeling, or atleast I am reeling, my mind is spinning as if I really was at a place called vertigo…
They go through some real classics, ‘Electric Co.’, ‘I Will Follow’. Then Bono begins his showmanship, “Sexy London” he says while slowly getting the audience warmed up to ‘Elevation’. 70,000 people echoing oooh hoo hoo , ooh hoo hoo. Bono mouths out, “High, higher than the sun”, goes through the few lines, no other music, just the crowd singing along. The crowd expectantly and loudly goes “ELEVATION” towards the end of the first stanza, and Bono smiles, no music yet, he goes “Flirting, a little bit of flirting is alright in London Town right? Married man, flirting in London town”. The crowd goes wild, one more time still without the music, and finally, all hell breaks loose again! The crowd in a frenzy. E-LE-VA-TION!!!
Adam Clayton is standing 3 mts away from me, smiling down at the crowd, now he is smiling at someone at his eye level, damn that’s “The Edge” 
on the other side, 6 mts away from me, tearing away at his guitar and smiling back at Clayton. This is not happening.... could this be for real, I can’t zoom out enough on my camera to get a full body shot of these two guys, too close man too close… Bono is breaking into “New years day”, following it up with “Beautiful day” – damn you can say that again, that was one beautiful day and he closes with “Here comes the sun”. Next up, “I still haven’t found what I am looking for” – Bono runs down the ramp. The edge’s immaculate guitaring and the sun still shining bright. The crowd singing the song as Bono points his microphone out to the crowd. The song slowly segue’s into a sharp and very familiar guitar riff, “All I want is you” – Bono announces “We’re being broadcast live on BBC” – the audience is singing, bono is leading a choir of 70,000 crazy fans. I had to shut my mouth and listen and enjoy that feeling of the crowd singing along. I realize it’s been 9 songs and they’ve only sung 1 song from HTDAAB.
The lights start shining on what so far looked like a shining piece of aluminium screen, the band starts off City of Blinding Lights, moving into Miracle Drug – Bono reaches out to a silver balloon from the audience, stretches out far and picks it up, dedicates the song to the “doctors and the nurses of the world – especially the nurses”, the crowd is loving his sense of humor. He let’s go of the balloon. Next up is “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own”, he dedicates it, “This one’s for my dad, Bob, I miss him a lot”. Beautiful animation on the screen of a man walking and the other side of the screen projecting Bono walking across the stage. Brilliant stuff. Yes Bono has eyeballs and you can see them when he takes his patented sunglasses off for this special number.
There is a drumset set up 2 mts away from me. When it’s pointed out, I actually gave out a hoot and pumped my fist in the air (maybe like a U2 bitch sort of shreik) I knew what was gonna happen. “Love and Peace or Else” right there next to me with Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. and then Bono doing a drum solo. We had chosen the right side of the ramp to stay closer to. One of my favorite songs from the new album and the boys were really bringing it down. This was up close and personal. Bono got his “C(Islamic Crescent )oeX(Star of David)isT(The Cross)” white band and wore it and started banging those drums towards the end of the song and finally threw the drumsticks, I didn’t want to fight to catch it, but I did try. The song moved so beautifully into “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – Bono got into his sermonic mode, talking about religions to coexist, pulling the headband down over his eyes reaching out to the mic like a blind man, pretending to have been chained, he continued the rendition of SBS, the sun’s gone down you can see the brilliant light effects depicting a war, bombs dropping, jets flying off – ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ with snippets of ‘Hands that built America’, ‘Johnny comes marching home’ and ‘Please’. 85 mins into the concert and the band starts “Running to a Standstill” dedicated to men and women of Britain who have been fighting in difficult places in the world – brilliantly done and then a very abrupt start to “Pride (In the name of love), dedication to Martin Luther King, you can see the crowd going wild and if that was not enough, they break into “Where the streets have no name” with the African flags going down on the screen behind them. The real fireworks are coming on. The song that apparantely has kept U2 together, the song that has got them where they are, the song the band swears by – the song they say that’s made U2 what they are today . “One” with 35,0000 cellphones lighting up the whole stadium and Bono’s plea to join the “One” campaign. What a show these guys are putting up..
The band walks away from the stage at the end of the song, the crowd is going crazy… a short break and they are back and they are bigger than ever, the Popmart meets, ZooTV, meets Elevation extravaganza is on!! The slot machine on the big screen with leaders faces dropping off till you get a jackpot with the animation of the Zooropa album cover. Bono’s shadow figure cavorting on the big screens, and then suddenly he is on stage staring into a small camera and running through one of my favorite songs of all time “Zoostation” – this is what U2 is all about, the glamour, and the class, and the raw energy and this is what the man Bono is all about as well, the real showman, the guy who likes to show he’s a rock and roll renegade, he does not need to conform, he needs to rebel – the swagger in his walk, the sneer to the crowd, I am falling short of words, but this was it!!! this is what I wanted to see… Bono in his element. Brilliant effects with huge Z and the band members on the screen, no way to describe what they did with “Zoostation” and “The Fly”, they were really tearing it down here, ‘The Fly’ started with words and sentences flashing on the screen, if you’ve seen any Zoostation concert or Popmart, you’ll know what I am talking about, words become, sentences, become lies, fill in the blank spaces – disb lief, s ll your shirt, s ld your soul…. words and sentences throwing themselves on the screen. This was true U2, this was the bigger than life, spectacle one would expect of a band of U2’s size. The lights, the band, the atmosphere, the people, everything was seriously electric… Brilliantest shit I’ve ever seen… and that’s when they break into “Mysterious ways” – holy f**king shit… Bono is doing the belly dancer moves, he leans forward into the crowd, gestures to a girl, I am sure there were over a 100 hands going up and he says no , not you, that one, no no not you too, that one, you, ya you.. you’re the one, gestures security ‘bring her up’ – girl is on stage, Bono says, “take some pictures for us?” gives her one of those funky small video cameras, the girl is holding the camera and pointing it at the crowd, pointing it at bono, pointing it at the edge, the camera is upside down, Bono and the girl don’t know about the camera, TheEdge is gesturing at them to look up at the screen, to see what they’re doing, they don’t get the hint, once he has his hands free at the end of the song he helps the girl hold it right. The Edge is grinning and laughing away. The show is coming to an end, A slow acoustic rendition of “Yahweh” and they do a second edition of Vertigo and close the show with it, with a quick wave good bye and “The End” emblazoned on the screen, the show had come to an end. I have to say the end was disappointing – If you have 50 odd other songs to pick from, why play the same song twice in the same show, but I am not one to complain, the experience in itself was too overpowering and difficult to take in, in the 140 mins that U2 were on stage.
I am a happy fan, I am a good fan, I demand the best from U2 always and I don’t think this was the best they could do, I have heard and seen better concerts by them, but this was my first U2 – Live experience and I have to confess I was/I am a bit overwhelmed, I still sit and look at the pics and the videos I managed to capture. I am sure if they would have closed with ‘40’ or played ‘UTEOTW’ or ‘Bad’ – this concert would have been out of this world, but ya you can’t expect to get everything in one show, so I am waiting, waiting for the 13th of July, my second date with the boys who play rock and roll…. Amsterdam see you soon!!
I’ll be honest, I was only 10 yrs old and I didn’t know shit about international music, my only view to the western world of music was the Grammy awards night. When I first heard of U2 it was when they swept the Grammy awards with JT and I was like, “Damn man!! No one I know won a grammy this year”, I will have to get my hands on this new album to know this band if they are gonna win everything. I’ll be lying if I said I was in love with U2’s music from the word go. No!! It was a gradual growth in appreciation of their lyrics and The Edge’s guitaring. The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum were heard over and over again on audio cassettes, rewound, and all songs learnt by heart including the singing of the guitar solos till the cassette tape started getting jammed in the player. This is when I actually fell in love with U2 – Achtung Baby had just been released in India. Did the band actually plan to warn me? “Achtung, Achtung son, you’re just gonna become a U2 bitch for life” - There was no looking back for me after that.
18 years since I first heard of U2, I had the opportunity to see them live, in the flesh, in person, up close and personal. The opportunity of a lifetime, if I may say so. I really cannot explain how big a dream this has been, no seriously, this is unbelievable. I had a friend at the concert who too asked me, this is really happening right, U2 – live in front of us. U2 – live beside us? True, true it all happened. 
Many hours since early January this year have been spent to scout for tickets, many, many hours. Some people are given tickets to a U2 concert and some people work their way to get them, - only the real hardcore fans realize the sweet success of getting tickets to sold out shows for the world’s biggest and best band, there is this sweet joy, that only can be felt when you get confirmed tickets in your hand, the smugness that only you can enjoy. Ya, I am getting all boastful, but that’s what real U2 fans are supposed to be like – with a huge huge chip on their shoulder!!
Disclaimer time again - This is going to be a long post, it’s been 18 years in the waiting hold and which is why the blog is titled so..
18th June, 32 degrees at 11 AM – London City, Twickenham Stadium, the house of English Rugby. I am standing there waiting for my tickets to realize a dream. 32 degrees, it’s pounding down, no tickets yet, they say they’re getting printed come back in an hour, I come back later, no tickets yet, I am pushing the panic button, bloody hell, where are my tickets, they’re asking me to relax, they’re gonna be here anytime, I can’t relax mate, I have been waiting for this day for way too long, I’m walking up and down in front of the box office, I am trying to threaten the guy on the other side, “What if I don’t get in on time and can’t get right up, what are you gonna do?” – he just says sorry and I feel more frustrated. I am listening to the various sound checks, “Love and Peace or Else”, “Who’s gonna ride your wild horses” – It’s gonna be a great show, if only I can get those tickets in my hands!! Finally 3.20 PM, they call out “Mr. Bhatt, your tickets, we apologize for the delay, may we ask you to walk all the way to the right and line up at gate F” – I was like gate F – I am on the way to get fucked with a capital “F”
I walk up to Gate F and rats, there is like a swarm of people ahead of me in a long serpentine line that had 25 folds in it. I am still thinking “F****D”!!!, We’re slowly being edged into an enclosure, a security guard walks up to us, has a look at our tickets and straps something onto our hands, it says “Inner circle – Concert 1” – Fucking hell, I know what that means, I am in the “Bomb Shelter”!!! the heat, the dust, the waiting, the frustrations of the day, the anger, the anxiety went poof in the air. I knew I was in, in where I expect to be, after 18 years of waiting.
Beers consumed, sausages devoured, we trundle into 2 levels of security checks right into the “bomb shelter”. Pushing and nudging a bit to get right smack in the center of the opening in the stage where the two ramps come down. Twin screens stand atop two enormous speaker towers and between them aluminium sleepers create a video wall that's at least 50 feet high. Athlete opened the show with Doves, I saw Athlete and think they were brilliant, good music, good lyrics and overall good performance, must be quite a kick for them to play to 700000 people.
9 hours had passed since I first reached the venue and the famous beats of the song that U2 marches into, go up loud in the air. That’s it the sons of rock and roll, walk up on stage, all wearing black. Quiet entrance, no smoke, no flash lights, and just 4 average heighted men in black clothes. They break into “Vertigo” and the crowd is reeling, or atleast I am reeling, my mind is spinning as if I really was at a place called vertigo…
They go through some real classics, ‘Electric Co.’, ‘I Will Follow’. Then Bono begins his showmanship, “Sexy London” he says while slowly getting the audience warmed up to ‘Elevation’. 70,000 people echoing oooh hoo hoo , ooh hoo hoo. Bono mouths out, “High, higher than the sun”, goes through the few lines, no other music, just the crowd singing along. The crowd expectantly and loudly goes “ELEVATION” towards the end of the first stanza, and Bono smiles, no music yet, he goes “Flirting, a little bit of flirting is alright in London Town right? Married man, flirting in London town”. The crowd goes wild, one more time still without the music, and finally, all hell breaks loose again! The crowd in a frenzy. E-LE-VA-TION!!!
Adam Clayton is standing 3 mts away from me, smiling down at the crowd, now he is smiling at someone at his eye level, damn that’s “The Edge” on the other side, 6 mts away from me, tearing away at his guitar and smiling back at Clayton. This is not happening.... could this be for real, I can’t zoom out enough on my camera to get a full body shot of these two guys, too close man too close… Bono is breaking into “New years day”, following it up with “Beautiful day” – damn you can say that again, that was one beautiful day and he closes with “Here comes the sun”. Next up, “I still haven’t found what I am looking for” – Bono runs down the ramp. The edge’s immaculate guitaring and the sun still shining bright. The crowd singing the song as Bono points his microphone out to the crowd. The song slowly segue’s into a sharp and very familiar guitar riff, “All I want is you” – Bono announces “We’re being broadcast live on BBC” – the audience is singing, bono is leading a choir of 70,000 crazy fans. I had to shut my mouth and listen and enjoy that feeling of the crowd singing along. I realize it’s been 9 songs and they’ve only sung 1 song from HTDAAB.The lights start shining on what so far looked like a shining piece of aluminium screen, the band starts off City of Blinding Lights, moving into Miracle Drug – Bono reaches out to a silver balloon from the audience, stretches out far and picks it up, dedicates the song to the “doctors and the nurses of the world – especially the nurses”, the crowd is loving his sense of humor. He let’s go of the balloon. Next up is “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own”, he dedicates it, “This one’s for my dad, Bob, I miss him a lot”. Beautiful animation on the screen of a man walking and the other side of the screen projecting Bono walking across the stage. Brilliant stuff. Yes Bono has eyeballs and you can see them when he takes his patented sunglasses off for this special number.
There is a drumset set up 2 mts away from me. When it’s pointed out, I actually gave out a hoot and pumped my fist in the air (maybe like a U2 bitch sort of shreik) I knew what was gonna happen. “Love and Peace or Else” right there next to me with Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. and then Bono doing a drum solo. We had chosen the right side of the ramp to stay closer to. One of my favorite songs from the new album and the boys were really bringing it down. This was up close and personal. Bono got his “C(Islamic Crescent )oeX(Star of David)isT(The Cross)” white band and wore it and started banging those drums towards the end of the song and finally threw the drumsticks, I didn’t want to fight to catch it, but I did try. The song moved so beautifully into “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – Bono got into his sermonic mode, talking about religions to coexist, pulling the headband down over his eyes reaching out to the mic like a blind man, pretending to have been chained, he continued the rendition of SBS, the sun’s gone down you can see the brilliant light effects depicting a war, bombs dropping, jets flying off – ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ with snippets of ‘Hands that built America’, ‘Johnny comes marching home’ and ‘Please’. 85 mins into the concert and the band starts “Running to a Standstill” dedicated to men and women of Britain who have been fighting in difficult places in the world – brilliantly done and then a very abrupt start to “Pride (In the name of love), dedication to Martin Luther King, you can see the crowd going wild and if that was not enough, they break into “Where the streets have no name” with the African flags going down on the screen behind them. The real fireworks are coming on. The song that apparantely has kept U2 together, the song that has got them where they are, the song the band swears by – the song they say that’s made U2 what they are today . “One” with 35,0000 cellphones lighting up the whole stadium and Bono’s plea to join the “One” campaign. What a show these guys are putting up..
The band walks away from the stage at the end of the song, the crowd is going crazy… a short break and they are back and they are bigger than ever, the Popmart meets, ZooTV, meets Elevation extravaganza is on!! The slot machine on the big screen with leaders faces dropping off till you get a jackpot with the animation of the Zooropa album cover. Bono’s shadow figure cavorting on the big screens, and then suddenly he is on stage staring into a small camera and running through one of my favorite songs of all time “Zoostation” – this is what U2 is all about, the glamour, and the class, and the raw energy and this is what the man Bono is all about as well, the real showman, the guy who likes to show he’s a rock and roll renegade, he does not need to conform, he needs to rebel – the swagger in his walk, the sneer to the crowd, I am falling short of words, but this was it!!! this is what I wanted to see… Bono in his element. Brilliant effects with huge Z and the band members on the screen, no way to describe what they did with “Zoostation” and “The Fly”, they were really tearing it down here, ‘The Fly’ started with words and sentences flashing on the screen, if you’ve seen any Zoostation concert or Popmart, you’ll know what I am talking about, words become, sentences, become lies, fill in the blank spaces – disb lief, s ll your shirt, s ld your soul…. words and sentences throwing themselves on the screen. This was true U2, this was the bigger than life, spectacle one would expect of a band of U2’s size. The lights, the band, the atmosphere, the people, everything was seriously electric… Brilliantest shit I’ve ever seen… and that’s when they break into “Mysterious ways” – holy f**king shit… Bono is doing the belly dancer moves, he leans forward into the crowd, gestures to a girl, I am sure there were over a 100 hands going up and he says no , not you, that one, no no not you too, that one, you, ya you.. you’re the one, gestures security ‘bring her up’ – girl is on stage, Bono says, “take some pictures for us?” gives her one of those funky small video cameras, the girl is holding the camera and pointing it at the crowd, pointing it at bono, pointing it at the edge, the camera is upside down, Bono and the girl don’t know about the camera, TheEdge is gesturing at them to look up at the screen, to see what they’re doing, they don’t get the hint, once he has his hands free at the end of the song he helps the girl hold it right. The Edge is grinning and laughing away. The show is coming to an end, A slow acoustic rendition of “Yahweh” and they do a second edition of Vertigo and close the show with it, with a quick wave good bye and “The End” emblazoned on the screen, the show had come to an end. I have to say the end was disappointing – If you have 50 odd other songs to pick from, why play the same song twice in the same show, but I am not one to complain, the experience in itself was too overpowering and difficult to take in, in the 140 mins that U2 were on stage.
I am a happy fan, I am a good fan, I demand the best from U2 always and I don’t think this was the best they could do, I have heard and seen better concerts by them, but this was my first U2 – Live experience and I have to confess I was/I am a bit overwhelmed, I still sit and look at the pics and the videos I managed to capture. I am sure if they would have closed with ‘40’ or played ‘UTEOTW’ or ‘Bad’ – this concert would have been out of this world, but ya you can’t expect to get everything in one show, so I am waiting, waiting for the 13th of July, my second date with the boys who play rock and roll…. Amsterdam see you soon!!
Saturday, June 11, 2005
I wore a suit....
..... because I was going to see “The Boss” in concert – Live, Solo and Acoustic. The atmosphere was awkward, just how it is outside a board room, people pouring over some literature being handed out. Ushers leading people into the right seats.
Awkward silence, annoying chatter around the hall, expectant people waiting for proceedings to kick off. “The Boss” walks in, takes his place, holds the mic and gives out strict instructions in fluent French and Flemish, “This is an acoustic concert with a variety of songs from my repertoire, I would like to point out that the show can be enjoyed best in a silent surrounding and I would urge you to turn your mobile phones off and do not use any cameras”. The crowd of 15000 expectant fans break into an appreciative applause.
The man looked old when he walked on to stage, but the minute he strapped on the six string, it was magic unleashed, the man changed form and he looked like a man possessed and you could see the passion run through every raging vein of his from his forehead to his forearm.
The music was truly moving to say the least, actually the reason why I haven’t been able to post a blog on this concert is because I still haven’t completely been able to fathom all that I felt and experienced over those 2 hours on 30th May. The way he sang and played the piano and the guitar and the harmonica, the way he spoke between his songs, the way he eased the tension from one deep song to the other by just uttering a few words, which you could easily sense were not practiced and repeated just for concerts, even if they were, they were said with an air of non chalance that made you feel comfortable with it.
I knew probably 9-10 songs out of the 24 he played, but it was the ones that I didn’t know too well, that really struck a chord somewhere, the way he spoke of his music, his family, his life, I am sure it moved a lot of people and not just me. Goosebumps must have been felt by all in the audience at some point of time or the other.
The average age of the concert goer at this one must have been over 35, which would have made me one of the younger fans of “The Boss”, but I was suprized at the energy and enthusiasm of some of the die hard fans, who sang along and even gave out loud shrieks of approval even when he played songs, that were not often heard. A sure sign, the arena was full of only die hard fans.
“The Boss”, being the boss, had to have things his way or no way… he played the songs that he had picked and towards the end they allowed the people with seats right in the front to stand up and approach the stage, The boss, walked up and sang and high fived with the audience, in true Springsteen fashion, gave out one last warning to putting the stamp that says “I am the Boss”, he said, “If you don’t stop using those flash cameras of yours, I swear I am going to kill you”, which immediately commanded the respect a man of his stature deserves.
I am still coming to grips with what I had experienced that evening. A great concert, a great moving experience, a great man, with great skills, a great man with great amounts of passion.
Every cent spent on getting the tickets and all the emails sent out to this really sweet ticket agent to manage tickets for a sold out show was worth it.
This is going to be something I can only cherish and not share as easily I would have liked to, because I am no boss, who can say what he feels, express what he thinks and do it with an amazing amount of musical and lyrical power that would leave anyone floored. I am just an ordinary guy, waiting for more enlightenment from the “The Boss”.
By the way, I did actually wear a suit to the concert and that was only cos I had to go straight from work to the concert :-)
On a different note, can someone please tell me how I can upload pics or small movie files on to the blog so that people who may be interested to see my last two concert experiences can see them.
Tomorrow afternoon this time I will be queuing up to enter Twickenham stadium and meet the only real sons of Rock & Roll - Paul, Dave, Larry and Adam – Also known as U2. Watch this space!!!!!!!!
Awkward silence, annoying chatter around the hall, expectant people waiting for proceedings to kick off. “The Boss” walks in, takes his place, holds the mic and gives out strict instructions in fluent French and Flemish, “This is an acoustic concert with a variety of songs from my repertoire, I would like to point out that the show can be enjoyed best in a silent surrounding and I would urge you to turn your mobile phones off and do not use any cameras”. The crowd of 15000 expectant fans break into an appreciative applause.
The man looked old when he walked on to stage, but the minute he strapped on the six string, it was magic unleashed, the man changed form and he looked like a man possessed and you could see the passion run through every raging vein of his from his forehead to his forearm.
The music was truly moving to say the least, actually the reason why I haven’t been able to post a blog on this concert is because I still haven’t completely been able to fathom all that I felt and experienced over those 2 hours on 30th May. The way he sang and played the piano and the guitar and the harmonica, the way he spoke between his songs, the way he eased the tension from one deep song to the other by just uttering a few words, which you could easily sense were not practiced and repeated just for concerts, even if they were, they were said with an air of non chalance that made you feel comfortable with it.
I knew probably 9-10 songs out of the 24 he played, but it was the ones that I didn’t know too well, that really struck a chord somewhere, the way he spoke of his music, his family, his life, I am sure it moved a lot of people and not just me. Goosebumps must have been felt by all in the audience at some point of time or the other.
The average age of the concert goer at this one must have been over 35, which would have made me one of the younger fans of “The Boss”, but I was suprized at the energy and enthusiasm of some of the die hard fans, who sang along and even gave out loud shrieks of approval even when he played songs, that were not often heard. A sure sign, the arena was full of only die hard fans.
“The Boss”, being the boss, had to have things his way or no way… he played the songs that he had picked and towards the end they allowed the people with seats right in the front to stand up and approach the stage, The boss, walked up and sang and high fived with the audience, in true Springsteen fashion, gave out one last warning to putting the stamp that says “I am the Boss”, he said, “If you don’t stop using those flash cameras of yours, I swear I am going to kill you”, which immediately commanded the respect a man of his stature deserves.
I am still coming to grips with what I had experienced that evening. A great concert, a great moving experience, a great man, with great skills, a great man with great amounts of passion.
Every cent spent on getting the tickets and all the emails sent out to this really sweet ticket agent to manage tickets for a sold out show was worth it.
This is going to be something I can only cherish and not share as easily I would have liked to, because I am no boss, who can say what he feels, express what he thinks and do it with an amazing amount of musical and lyrical power that would leave anyone floored. I am just an ordinary guy, waiting for more enlightenment from the “The Boss”.
By the way, I did actually wear a suit to the concert and that was only cos I had to go straight from work to the concert :-)
On a different note, can someone please tell me how I can upload pics or small movie files on to the blog so that people who may be interested to see my last two concert experiences can see them.
Tomorrow afternoon this time I will be queuing up to enter Twickenham stadium and meet the only real sons of Rock & Roll - Paul, Dave, Larry and Adam – Also known as U2. Watch this space!!!!!!!!
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Don't believe the truth
It was a couple of months ago when, while getting ready to go to work,on a tip off from a friend I logged onto a concert tickets website and booked 3 tickets for an Oasis concert. Honestly, I have never followed this band, I do know most of their famous hits, but have never bought an album.
Closer to the concert date, I had acquired Oasis' latest offering - "Don't believe the truth", surprized as I was to see that Liam and Noel are still together!! I think hardcore Oasis fans may not like the album, but I think it's brilliant, it's quite a back to basics album with brilliant guitaring and personally I would rate it as a good Rock album - from the bad boys of Britpop.
Day of the concert, I heard their latest album a couple of times, hooked onto the Oasis radio on their website and basically got myself ready for my first ever Oasis concert.
3 beers consumed, I walk into the small amphitheatre called "Ancienne Belgique" and see the Union Jack flying all over and a lot of beer breath around me. The loudspeaker is playing "Helter Skelter" from the beatles and the crowd is getting into the tense anticipation state. Suddenly the lights go down and the loudspeaker shouts out the opening chords of "F*cking in the bushes" and Liam takes center stage.
To put things into perspective - The concert arena might have held 10000 people max. It is small, but it was packed to the gills and I am sure in true brit style all the concert goers had consumed a few pints of lager before coming in. The minute the lights on stage came on and Liam uttered his first few words, the so far quiet and expectant crowd, went crazy.. beer glasses flying around - not empty, I mean full beer glasses!! the girl next to me was on all 4 fours and trying to find something on the floor, I asked her if I could help, she said she had lost her lense from her left eye - I didn't bother to respond. Liam had gone into verse 2 of "Turn up the Sun" and I was in my first mosh pit in 14 years of concert going!
I was being jostled and pushed and somehow I didn't mind, I was actually enjoying it, it fitted in with the music and the atmosphere.
Liam is an arrogant performer. No thank yous from him to the crownd and when Noel sang, he quietly walked off the stage (was it a sign that he wants to give his brother a bigger spot under light or is it that he is so disinterested in the project that he comes on only when required??)
They ran through all their greatest hits, "Champagne Supernova". "Wonderwall", "Morning Glory", "Don't look back in anger", "Stop, crying your heart out" - It was a brilliant concert in terms of energy and the sounds. The band does not consist of performers unfortunately, they come there, do their job and leave, of course towards the end Liam walked right up to the tip of the stage and gestured to the crowd to come up to the front - and everyong including me obeyed - it was crazy, the number of people pushing to get to the front and then the man stood their for 5 mins in one serious Madame Tussauds position while the crowd went crazy.
Liam is a great guy to shoot with a digicam without a flash when he's performing because he stands there in that half curved position, head tilted slightly to the left, mouth stuck to the mic and arms folded tight behind his back.
Net - Net, it was a brilliant concert experience for me, moshing, crowd surfing included. I am an oasis rookie, but this concert changed my perspective on them. They might still not compare to the biggest bands and will never ever get their status of the early and mid nineties as the best thing since to come out of the UK since the beatles. But what they did on stage last night, kept me charged and up and jumping and smiling for hours after. Thanks Jan, for asking me to buy these tickets!!
More updates on the Boss concert coming up soon.
Closer to the concert date, I had acquired Oasis' latest offering - "Don't believe the truth", surprized as I was to see that Liam and Noel are still together!! I think hardcore Oasis fans may not like the album, but I think it's brilliant, it's quite a back to basics album with brilliant guitaring and personally I would rate it as a good Rock album - from the bad boys of Britpop.
Day of the concert, I heard their latest album a couple of times, hooked onto the Oasis radio on their website and basically got myself ready for my first ever Oasis concert.
3 beers consumed, I walk into the small amphitheatre called "Ancienne Belgique" and see the Union Jack flying all over and a lot of beer breath around me. The loudspeaker is playing "Helter Skelter" from the beatles and the crowd is getting into the tense anticipation state. Suddenly the lights go down and the loudspeaker shouts out the opening chords of "F*cking in the bushes" and Liam takes center stage.
To put things into perspective - The concert arena might have held 10000 people max. It is small, but it was packed to the gills and I am sure in true brit style all the concert goers had consumed a few pints of lager before coming in. The minute the lights on stage came on and Liam uttered his first few words, the so far quiet and expectant crowd, went crazy.. beer glasses flying around - not empty, I mean full beer glasses!! the girl next to me was on all 4 fours and trying to find something on the floor, I asked her if I could help, she said she had lost her lense from her left eye - I didn't bother to respond. Liam had gone into verse 2 of "Turn up the Sun" and I was in my first mosh pit in 14 years of concert going!
I was being jostled and pushed and somehow I didn't mind, I was actually enjoying it, it fitted in with the music and the atmosphere.
Liam is an arrogant performer. No thank yous from him to the crownd and when Noel sang, he quietly walked off the stage (was it a sign that he wants to give his brother a bigger spot under light or is it that he is so disinterested in the project that he comes on only when required??)
They ran through all their greatest hits, "Champagne Supernova". "Wonderwall", "Morning Glory", "Don't look back in anger", "Stop, crying your heart out" - It was a brilliant concert in terms of energy and the sounds. The band does not consist of performers unfortunately, they come there, do their job and leave, of course towards the end Liam walked right up to the tip of the stage and gestured to the crowd to come up to the front - and everyong including me obeyed - it was crazy, the number of people pushing to get to the front and then the man stood their for 5 mins in one serious Madame Tussauds position while the crowd went crazy.
Liam is a great guy to shoot with a digicam without a flash when he's performing because he stands there in that half curved position, head tilted slightly to the left, mouth stuck to the mic and arms folded tight behind his back.
Net - Net, it was a brilliant concert experience for me, moshing, crowd surfing included. I am an oasis rookie, but this concert changed my perspective on them. They might still not compare to the biggest bands and will never ever get their status of the early and mid nineties as the best thing since to come out of the UK since the beatles. But what they did on stage last night, kept me charged and up and jumping and smiling for hours after. Thanks Jan, for asking me to buy these tickets!!
More updates on the Boss concert coming up soon.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The Lawn Mower!!
A person who goes by the initials of VB recently posted a comment on my blog, it read "start practising the ducky walk since on the court tomorrow your ass is grass (and I'm the lawn mower)"
"The Ducky walk" is a ritual performed by the loser in the games of squash played every alternate tuesday. My friend, the anonymous comment poster VB, has had that pleasure off late - of doing the ducky walk that is, while I have had the pleasure of watching him do it, after having the pleasure of beating him in the game, he taught me to play. I will refrain from giving out scorelines out of respect for my coach and now regular squash partner.
Today though we changed our bets for the game, if I lost I was to post it on my blog and disgrace myself, but if I won??? As usual "comment poster VB" had gone into oblivion of what if there could be another result? Well I have decided to stick to the deal and post something on my blog about today's goings on on the squash court, but I shall let Mr. Comment Poster give out the results of the day, those of you who know him from the initials, can email him. His email id is firstname.secondname@gmail.com
Please ask "Who was the lawn mower and whose ass was grass". Also please ask how was the Lawn Mower in games 4-5 and unfinished game 6 and why is the grass not being able to grow even if there is ample rain and ample sunshine in Belgium.
This important midweek blog update was brought to you courtesy of AB Lawn Mowers and associates. Good night and god bless.
"The Ducky walk" is a ritual performed by the loser in the games of squash played every alternate tuesday. My friend, the anonymous comment poster VB, has had that pleasure off late - of doing the ducky walk that is, while I have had the pleasure of watching him do it, after having the pleasure of beating him in the game, he taught me to play. I will refrain from giving out scorelines out of respect for my coach and now regular squash partner.
Today though we changed our bets for the game, if I lost I was to post it on my blog and disgrace myself, but if I won??? As usual "comment poster VB" had gone into oblivion of what if there could be another result? Well I have decided to stick to the deal and post something on my blog about today's goings on on the squash court, but I shall let Mr. Comment Poster give out the results of the day, those of you who know him from the initials, can email him. His email id is firstname.secondname@gmail.com
Please ask "Who was the lawn mower and whose ass was grass". Also please ask how was the Lawn Mower in games 4-5 and unfinished game 6 and why is the grass not being able to grow even if there is ample rain and ample sunshine in Belgium.
This important midweek blog update was brought to you courtesy of AB Lawn Mowers and associates. Good night and god bless.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Wright words
The outgoing coach of Indian cricket, John Wright said today in an interview
"Life has never been dull in this position. It is something I'll consider: where to go from here. I think sometimes a period of reflection is good. There will be other challenges for me, I'm sure of that. I said this before. I've always felt that the passion of the Indian fans is very special and those are the people for who cricket plays a big part. I've always felt they deserve a good team. They understand that winning and losing can be part of the game but they deserve a good team to make them proud. During the tough times, that sort of kept me going.
On asked whether he will watch India in the coming years
Wright said "Like a hawk. "
On asked about his connection with India
Wright said, "My son and daughter support India. Of course I will follow India. They say that India touches you and that is correct in my case as well."
I could have wept if I would have heard this live. The boys owed him one last big one!! #$%#$%$%#^#%#@%^@&**^%$$#, Anyway, tomorrow will be another day, and after all I really wish, really really wish, cricket was only a sport for me, or for that matter for the whole sub continent, but unfortunately it is not and it will never be.
John Wright, I thank you for all that you tried and all that you did for the Indian cricket team! May the best be with you.
"Life has never been dull in this position. It is something I'll consider: where to go from here. I think sometimes a period of reflection is good. There will be other challenges for me, I'm sure of that. I said this before. I've always felt that the passion of the Indian fans is very special and those are the people for who cricket plays a big part. I've always felt they deserve a good team. They understand that winning and losing can be part of the game but they deserve a good team to make them proud. During the tough times, that sort of kept me going.
On asked whether he will watch India in the coming years
Wright said "Like a hawk. "
On asked about his connection with India
Wright said, "My son and daughter support India. Of course I will follow India. They say that India touches you and that is correct in my case as well."
I could have wept if I would have heard this live. The boys owed him one last big one!! #$%#$%$%#^#%#@%^@&**^%$$#, Anyway, tomorrow will be another day, and after all I really wish, really really wish, cricket was only a sport for me, or for that matter for the whole sub continent, but unfortunately it is not and it will never be.
John Wright, I thank you for all that you tried and all that you did for the Indian cricket team! May the best be with you.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Music...Movies.. Cricket
Saw Lemon Jelly perform live, never thought 2 DJs and a guitar could do this to me. Coupled with fantastic animation projections.. Great concert.. Beautiful, just beautiful, like a million dollars. check out --> www.lemonjelly.ky
Oasis sold out in Brussels in 21 minutes. Someone managed to wangle tickets at 0730 in between the shaving and the tooth brushing, the shirt ironing and the hair gelling.
Looking forward to tick off on Alanis, Bruce Springsteen, Oasis, Keane, Green Day, REM, Athlete, Foo Fighters, Chemical Brothers, Thievery Corporation before this Belgian summer is over. --> www.rockwerchter.be
Saw Maria Full of Grace, don't know what I walked away with from the movie, it left me quite depressed for a while, besides the fact that I was really impressed that I understood every dialogue by reading the french subtitles.
Finally saw "Lost in Translation", I am amazed at how well the lack of dialogue has been handled in the movie, the awkward attraction between the characters and the final goodbye is brilliant, totally brilliant, love you Ms. Coppola, and of course now I am a big Scarlet Johannson fan. Another movie of her's to watch is "Ghost World" 5 Thumbs up on that. Saw Alfie, great soundtrack, great camera work, editing.. a lot of stuff I actually enjoyed about the movie, including Jude Law and his "player" ways, but at the end it didn't completely satisfy me, god knows what was missing...
The boys in blue did it again, well I guess earlier in the week it was 1 guy in a green uniform who did it to them, but today it was them and only them who were responsible for their fall from grace, or was that actually a fall from grace? They've been so happy in their mediocrity for ages as a fellow cricket fan very rightly pointed out, that there has to be some sort of big jostle up in the Indian cricketing fraternity starting from the policy and decision makers to the selectors to the players. A rethink of priorities and ideas on how team India, which on paper is probably the 2nd best side in the world, will somehow make it to the quarter finals of the world cup in 2007.
Atleast, today if we had a Vinod Kambli in the team he would have cried watching the goings on - on and off the field, and struck a chord with the millions of cricket lovers in India, or actually not, the Indian cricket fan has been turned into the truest of cynics all thanks to 11 guys who make millions to destroy the hopes and passion of the millions of people who support them. Well anyway the frustration that I feel following this game on a website can only be subsided by a good round of squash and pounding my Nepali friend to pulp. If the Pakistanis pound the Indians, then this Indian can surely pound a Nepali, after all, all is fair in love and war... and frustration...
Gosh I did get emotional and went off the handle there...
Till later.. Adios Amigos
Oasis sold out in Brussels in 21 minutes. Someone managed to wangle tickets at 0730 in between the shaving and the tooth brushing, the shirt ironing and the hair gelling.
Looking forward to tick off on Alanis, Bruce Springsteen, Oasis, Keane, Green Day, REM, Athlete, Foo Fighters, Chemical Brothers, Thievery Corporation before this Belgian summer is over. --> www.rockwerchter.be
Saw Maria Full of Grace, don't know what I walked away with from the movie, it left me quite depressed for a while, besides the fact that I was really impressed that I understood every dialogue by reading the french subtitles.
Finally saw "Lost in Translation", I am amazed at how well the lack of dialogue has been handled in the movie, the awkward attraction between the characters and the final goodbye is brilliant, totally brilliant, love you Ms. Coppola, and of course now I am a big Scarlet Johannson fan. Another movie of her's to watch is "Ghost World" 5 Thumbs up on that. Saw Alfie, great soundtrack, great camera work, editing.. a lot of stuff I actually enjoyed about the movie, including Jude Law and his "player" ways, but at the end it didn't completely satisfy me, god knows what was missing...
The boys in blue did it again, well I guess earlier in the week it was 1 guy in a green uniform who did it to them, but today it was them and only them who were responsible for their fall from grace, or was that actually a fall from grace? They've been so happy in their mediocrity for ages as a fellow cricket fan very rightly pointed out, that there has to be some sort of big jostle up in the Indian cricketing fraternity starting from the policy and decision makers to the selectors to the players. A rethink of priorities and ideas on how team India, which on paper is probably the 2nd best side in the world, will somehow make it to the quarter finals of the world cup in 2007.
Atleast, today if we had a Vinod Kambli in the team he would have cried watching the goings on - on and off the field, and struck a chord with the millions of cricket lovers in India, or actually not, the Indian cricket fan has been turned into the truest of cynics all thanks to 11 guys who make millions to destroy the hopes and passion of the millions of people who support them. Well anyway the frustration that I feel following this game on a website can only be subsided by a good round of squash and pounding my Nepali friend to pulp. If the Pakistanis pound the Indians, then this Indian can surely pound a Nepali, after all, all is fair in love and war... and frustration...
Gosh I did get emotional and went off the handle there...
Till later.. Adios Amigos
Monday, March 28, 2005
Washing away the blues
My laundry lot had an interesting new addition today. During my spring clean over the weekend, I found the famous "Blue" T-shirt with the tricolor brushed on the front and INDIA emblazoned on top of it. I gave it a sad look, before chucking it in the machine with my other colored clothes, just in case it let go of it's colors(is that a pun?well if it is, it is intended). I was talking to another cricket fanatic friend of mine who said "Indians have shown their true colors again", I sort of sneered, I still felt sad. It's so easy for the Indian cricket team to choke and sputter and that is always typified with them showing their "true colors". I nodded and hesitantly said, "Ya, that's true, they indeed have shown their true colors again".
So I ask myself, what are the true colors of the Indian cricket team? Choking ever so often to inexperienced, sub standard teams that visit the country? Or for once standing up and saying, we are definitely the 2nd best cricketing nation in the world and we are here to kick some big time arse!
My alarm for the laundry cycle has just gone off. So, while I still use the laundromat to wash away the "blues" and wish that my Indian Blue cricket t-shirt has not let go off it's colors, I truly wish the Indian team would really let go off their "typical" true colors and help me wash away the blues I feel ever so often when I see them play.
So I ask myself, what are the true colors of the Indian cricket team? Choking ever so often to inexperienced, sub standard teams that visit the country? Or for once standing up and saying, we are definitely the 2nd best cricketing nation in the world and we are here to kick some big time arse!
My alarm for the laundry cycle has just gone off. So, while I still use the laundromat to wash away the "blues" and wish that my Indian Blue cricket t-shirt has not let go off it's colors, I truly wish the Indian team would really let go off their "typical" true colors and help me wash away the blues I feel ever so often when I see them play.
Friday, March 25, 2005
The Russian Acquaintance
There is a Russian guy I know for the last 9 months. We see each other daily as we commute together.
We met one rainy wet day, if you're in Brussels, you would end up using that phrase "We met one rainy wet day" very often. I had crouched over to look at these slugs crawling across the pavement and he towered over me and said, "What are those", I replied "I think they are called slugs", he went,"Slaags, is that what you call them?" then turned away and kept repeating, "slaags, slaags, slaags.....".
As I already mentioned, I do see him daily, so in his efforts to move from acquaintance to friend, he tried to pick up the conversation thread again, he came real close and shouted "Where are the SLAAGS MAN", it was one of those rare bright and shiny days and I looked at him after a tiring day and said, "hopefully, the slugs atleast know where they are today" and trudged along, I could hear him go, while he nodded his head "Slaags, slaags slaags...".
This continued for a few months, he would ask me, the whereabouts and howabouts of the "Slaags", he asked if I ate "slaags", or if i liked "slaags" and I would give him some answer to quench his thirst for "Slaag" knowledge.
This went on till one day our mode of transport decide to show up late, I fumbled for things in my bag to read, rather to look occupied, to my utter dismay, there was nothing, so I tried to take out my cellphone and pretend I was thumbing a text message to someone. I could feel him creep up close to me. Suddenly, "Dudee!!do you speak french?", I look up say, "un peu"("a bit" in french) just to ward him off, that I am not good to help you with any translation, but good enough to understand any abuses you may want to hurl at me because I don't know the god damn where abouts of the "slaags". He smiled and said, "Good" and then went on to explain how he started to learn french after 2 years of living in Brussels as some passport authority told him it was a shame he had made no efforts to learn the language of a country he lived in. Suddenly, I realized that this Russian had a bit of depth to him, and isn't only interested in the lives of slugs.
I started saying Hi to him more often, and he would respond with a "Dude!!" or a "Hey DudO!!", man I was glad, we had been able to put the slugs behind us.
It would be perfect if I stopped here, but the fact of the matter is that we still commute together and potentially I could be working on the same office floor as his in a week!! Now that calls for some more words on this man!!
After our initial "slugfest" was over, I had decided to open up a bit to his loud enquiries into my past and future. I really don't mind answering questions about myself, while I hate asking people inquisitive questions about their lives - like "why are you not working in your own country?", "do you really like this crappy city?","So you like the west more than the east?"(questions posed to me by you know who!!??!!). Anyway, I found his line of questioning and especially his response to my answers quite ridiculous (maybe it's just my lack of cultural understanding) but I relegated the russian to the acquaintance status, right when he thought he was moving into friend status.
I would say he is a bit of a conversational and social retard, not in the terms that he talks less or doesn't interact much. On the contrary, he overdoes it. I was at an expat bar for an after work drinks thingy, I saw the Russian there and managed to stay at the other end of the bar and engaged myself in animated conversations with people around me. The Russian was with a few other men and was downing vodka in true, for lack of a better term "Russian style". A couple of hours had passed and I hear this very familiar voice, albeit a bit slurry this time, "Heeey, you are sooo beeauoootiful, you are the most beeeauoootiful sing I have seen this naait"(sorry I am trying to communicate the slur and the accent to create the right impact), I really jumped out of my pants there..It was the Russian, but phew.. thankfully, he was saying it to some lady who was standing right behind me. She was making a valiant effort to not spray that sip of her drink she had just taken in, all over my Russian acquaintance. I decided to slip away, before I was in anyway summoned to help him solve this latest situation in his life. I have to confess, I have at times made such statements, but have done so, probably, to women who I have known for a while and who are comfortable to hear it from me and probably under lesser influence of alcohol. But ya my Russian acquaintance had said it to a total stranger, that's real bravado and a glaring example of his social and conversational skills
I respect my "Russian Acquiantance's continued efforts to know more people and become part of the "western decadence" as he likes to call it. Hope there are enough slugs around Brussels for him to make more friends.
Here's till Tuesday morning, when I see him again.
We met one rainy wet day, if you're in Brussels, you would end up using that phrase "We met one rainy wet day" very often. I had crouched over to look at these slugs crawling across the pavement and he towered over me and said, "What are those", I replied "I think they are called slugs", he went,"Slaags, is that what you call them?" then turned away and kept repeating, "slaags, slaags, slaags.....".
As I already mentioned, I do see him daily, so in his efforts to move from acquaintance to friend, he tried to pick up the conversation thread again, he came real close and shouted "Where are the SLAAGS MAN", it was one of those rare bright and shiny days and I looked at him after a tiring day and said, "hopefully, the slugs atleast know where they are today" and trudged along, I could hear him go, while he nodded his head "Slaags, slaags slaags...".
This continued for a few months, he would ask me, the whereabouts and howabouts of the "Slaags", he asked if I ate "slaags", or if i liked "slaags" and I would give him some answer to quench his thirst for "Slaag" knowledge.
This went on till one day our mode of transport decide to show up late, I fumbled for things in my bag to read, rather to look occupied, to my utter dismay, there was nothing, so I tried to take out my cellphone and pretend I was thumbing a text message to someone. I could feel him creep up close to me. Suddenly, "Dudee!!do you speak french?", I look up say, "un peu"("a bit" in french) just to ward him off, that I am not good to help you with any translation, but good enough to understand any abuses you may want to hurl at me because I don't know the god damn where abouts of the "slaags". He smiled and said, "Good" and then went on to explain how he started to learn french after 2 years of living in Brussels as some passport authority told him it was a shame he had made no efforts to learn the language of a country he lived in. Suddenly, I realized that this Russian had a bit of depth to him, and isn't only interested in the lives of slugs.
I started saying Hi to him more often, and he would respond with a "Dude!!" or a "Hey DudO!!", man I was glad, we had been able to put the slugs behind us.
It would be perfect if I stopped here, but the fact of the matter is that we still commute together and potentially I could be working on the same office floor as his in a week!! Now that calls for some more words on this man!!
After our initial "slugfest" was over, I had decided to open up a bit to his loud enquiries into my past and future. I really don't mind answering questions about myself, while I hate asking people inquisitive questions about their lives - like "why are you not working in your own country?", "do you really like this crappy city?","So you like the west more than the east?"(questions posed to me by you know who!!??!!). Anyway, I found his line of questioning and especially his response to my answers quite ridiculous (maybe it's just my lack of cultural understanding) but I relegated the russian to the acquaintance status, right when he thought he was moving into friend status.
I would say he is a bit of a conversational and social retard, not in the terms that he talks less or doesn't interact much. On the contrary, he overdoes it. I was at an expat bar for an after work drinks thingy, I saw the Russian there and managed to stay at the other end of the bar and engaged myself in animated conversations with people around me. The Russian was with a few other men and was downing vodka in true, for lack of a better term "Russian style". A couple of hours had passed and I hear this very familiar voice, albeit a bit slurry this time, "Heeey, you are sooo beeauoootiful, you are the most beeeauoootiful sing I have seen this naait"(sorry I am trying to communicate the slur and the accent to create the right impact), I really jumped out of my pants there..It was the Russian, but phew.. thankfully, he was saying it to some lady who was standing right behind me. She was making a valiant effort to not spray that sip of her drink she had just taken in, all over my Russian acquaintance. I decided to slip away, before I was in anyway summoned to help him solve this latest situation in his life. I have to confess, I have at times made such statements, but have done so, probably, to women who I have known for a while and who are comfortable to hear it from me and probably under lesser influence of alcohol. But ya my Russian acquaintance had said it to a total stranger, that's real bravado and a glaring example of his social and conversational skills
I respect my "Russian Acquiantance's continued efforts to know more people and become part of the "western decadence" as he likes to call it. Hope there are enough slugs around Brussels for him to make more friends.
Here's till Tuesday morning, when I see him again.
Dimaag ki..
Dimaag ki.. loosely translated means "The brain's", but those two words are usually followed up with a variety of vernacular colloquial words to signify people's state of mind - from being stupefied, to being amused, to being annoyed etc. etc.. I am using it as a heading for my blog only because I want to put down a lot of things on this blog which made my mind feel happy/elated/angry/annoyed/flummoxed/smug and the list goes on.
So it's spring time here in Brussels, it was 9 degrees, raining and grey - I don't mind the weather, but so much for spring :-s (I keep telling people, I as an Indian inherently will always love the rain because that's the only weather worth anything in India and it will really take me a long time to get out of that indian frame of mind, oh the number of love songs written with rain as a backdrop) - The nonchalant state of my brain :)
Saw I "heart Huckabees, not sure what I walked away with from that movie. It had it's moments but it didn't take me in like my previous vehemently recommended "Garden State". Yet I am gonna watch it a couple of times to get a hang of it - The flummoxed state of my brain.
My previous post on this blog spoke of blogging being a possibility of truly "free" expression through the written word. Read this, how the leading newspaper in India has forced a blogger to shut down his blog, the blog that was shut down http://mediaah.blogspot.com/ and the blog that still carries the content from the previous blog (run by another blogger)http://mediaha.blogspot.com/? I got this from Amit Varma's blog http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/(good reading) - The angry state of my brain.
U2 got inducted into the R&RHOF - Amazing speeches and amazing performance to one of my all time favorite songs if performed live - Until the end of the world. Bono serenades Catherine Zeta in the Audience, pops a bottle champagne from someone's table. Great stuff. Read speeches here http://u2log.com/archive/2005/03/rebels_without_a_pause.php - The "There is hope in the world" state of my mind.
I had written to a friend last week, 4th day of second test match between India and Pakistan - "Key lies with Kumble", the man took 7 wickets to make India win the test - The smug state of my mind.
Carrying on with that topic. In my limited knowledge of cricket, I feel this is by far the least experienced and one of the weakest Pakistani sides to have toured India, on the other hand, this is by far the best composed Indian team in years. Unfortunately, the Indian media has blamed the pitches way too long. I feel sad that India is not 2-0 in this series and has not been able to wipe out the Pakistan team in less than 4 days. Something is wrong somewhere. The Indian cricket team has miles to go before they can claim to be number 2 in the world. - The WTF state of my mind.
Came back from my 5 days of skiing, the 3rd ski season I have seen in this life time, the sun was pounding down and we had some fresh powder towards the end of the 5 days. So it was perfect ski conditions. I came back sun burnt as hell but the feeling of going down those slopes at speeds of 70 - 80 Km/h (ya i clocked 83Km/h on the speedometer),forgetting things like fear of broken bones and doctor's fees(Viva swiss insurance schemes)! Skiing is my closest contact to any sort of extreme activity. It's a great sport, hope I can pursue it for years - The ecstatic state of my mind.
I am trying to put up pictures on this god damn blog. Now I don't want to sign up with some 50 thousand different photo sharing websites like picassa and hello and flickr. Can anyone who is a little less technologically retarded than me, point me to the right direction? - The frustrated state of my mind.
The guys at nomadlife have asked me to sign up with them. They can't offer me a url with more than 14 characters and I want to stick to this suspendedamitation brand, can someone convince me why I should join nomadlife, and I wonder what they are gonna do one day with the network they are building? - The pensive state of my mind.
Don't mean to be making "Dimaag ki kadhi" (Curry out of your brains), so am gonna say over n out for a bit..Happy easter and enjoy your long weekends.
So it's spring time here in Brussels, it was 9 degrees, raining and grey - I don't mind the weather, but so much for spring :-s (I keep telling people, I as an Indian inherently will always love the rain because that's the only weather worth anything in India and it will really take me a long time to get out of that indian frame of mind, oh the number of love songs written with rain as a backdrop) - The nonchalant state of my brain :)
Saw I "heart Huckabees, not sure what I walked away with from that movie. It had it's moments but it didn't take me in like my previous vehemently recommended "Garden State". Yet I am gonna watch it a couple of times to get a hang of it - The flummoxed state of my brain.
My previous post on this blog spoke of blogging being a possibility of truly "free" expression through the written word. Read this, how the leading newspaper in India has forced a blogger to shut down his blog, the blog that was shut down http://mediaah.blogspot.com/ and the blog that still carries the content from the previous blog (run by another blogger)http://mediaha.blogspot.com/? I got this from Amit Varma's blog http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/(good reading) - The angry state of my brain.
U2 got inducted into the R&RHOF - Amazing speeches and amazing performance to one of my all time favorite songs if performed live - Until the end of the world. Bono serenades Catherine Zeta in the Audience, pops a bottle champagne from someone's table. Great stuff. Read speeches here http://u2log.com/archive/2005/03/rebels_without_a_pause.php - The "There is hope in the world" state of my mind.
I had written to a friend last week, 4th day of second test match between India and Pakistan - "Key lies with Kumble", the man took 7 wickets to make India win the test - The smug state of my mind.
Carrying on with that topic. In my limited knowledge of cricket, I feel this is by far the least experienced and one of the weakest Pakistani sides to have toured India, on the other hand, this is by far the best composed Indian team in years. Unfortunately, the Indian media has blamed the pitches way too long. I feel sad that India is not 2-0 in this series and has not been able to wipe out the Pakistan team in less than 4 days. Something is wrong somewhere. The Indian cricket team has miles to go before they can claim to be number 2 in the world. - The WTF state of my mind.
Came back from my 5 days of skiing, the 3rd ski season I have seen in this life time, the sun was pounding down and we had some fresh powder towards the end of the 5 days. So it was perfect ski conditions. I came back sun burnt as hell but the feeling of going down those slopes at speeds of 70 - 80 Km/h (ya i clocked 83Km/h on the speedometer),forgetting things like fear of broken bones and doctor's fees(Viva swiss insurance schemes)! Skiing is my closest contact to any sort of extreme activity. It's a great sport, hope I can pursue it for years - The ecstatic state of my mind.
I am trying to put up pictures on this god damn blog. Now I don't want to sign up with some 50 thousand different photo sharing websites like picassa and hello and flickr. Can anyone who is a little less technologically retarded than me, point me to the right direction? - The frustrated state of my mind.
The guys at nomadlife have asked me to sign up with them. They can't offer me a url with more than 14 characters and I want to stick to this suspendedamitation brand, can someone convince me why I should join nomadlife, and I wonder what they are gonna do one day with the network they are building? - The pensive state of my mind.
Don't mean to be making "Dimaag ki kadhi" (Curry out of your brains), so am gonna say over n out for a bit..Happy easter and enjoy your long weekends.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Freedom of expression
This is by far one of the most easy, unedited and unmonitored form of expressing through the written word. A lot of people do use the medium very effectively to communicate exactly what they feel and think. A lot of people even use it to chronicle their lives, however boring that maybe.
I have wanted to write a lot of things that I usually think of, but i have to confess, I do hold myself back, even more than I would while talking to people. The spoken word, is said, and it goes away, people can remember it if they wish to, but there is no proof of it. On the other hand, this blog could stay on the www forever, even if I die, people could find it.
For a guy who is at the stage, where I am in life, the totally unbridled freedom of expression and thought may not go down too well. I mean come on, I am just starting my life, trying to find my feet in the real world, a job, a new set of friends in a different country, probably a Masters sometime in the future.
Imagine if people were to do a reference check about me on the internet and find some really earth shattering information (maybe one of those alcohol induced sessions of genius writing that I may belch out) - see now that is already bordering on a negative comment about me, it could be misconstrued that I drink copious amounts of alcohol or depend on alcohol to feel a moment of genius to write something noteworthy.. Oh well!!
Seriously, I don't know where this blog is heading, but I need to head out of here because I am really tempted to let out one of those really rip roaring belches which signify total defiance of anyone else's presence and express myself really really openly.. but on hindsight, it might not be a great idea.
Enjoy yr saturday nights everyone, wherever you are.
Actuallly a leaving note for all Indian's reading this,i'm hoping for miracles for Narain Karthikeyan!Something makes me want to back him. And seriously don't Indian politicians have more important things to attend to, than pass legislations if Indian sports people can wear the Indian tricolors as part of their sport uniform! If I was the sportsperson I would wear the tricolor and defy authority, what are they going to do? Take away my citizenship? Imagine, India without it's cricket team as indian citizens.. hahahahahah
I have wanted to write a lot of things that I usually think of, but i have to confess, I do hold myself back, even more than I would while talking to people. The spoken word, is said, and it goes away, people can remember it if they wish to, but there is no proof of it. On the other hand, this blog could stay on the www forever, even if I die, people could find it.
For a guy who is at the stage, where I am in life, the totally unbridled freedom of expression and thought may not go down too well. I mean come on, I am just starting my life, trying to find my feet in the real world, a job, a new set of friends in a different country, probably a Masters sometime in the future.
Imagine if people were to do a reference check about me on the internet and find some really earth shattering information (maybe one of those alcohol induced sessions of genius writing that I may belch out) - see now that is already bordering on a negative comment about me, it could be misconstrued that I drink copious amounts of alcohol or depend on alcohol to feel a moment of genius to write something noteworthy.. Oh well!!
Seriously, I don't know where this blog is heading, but I need to head out of here because I am really tempted to let out one of those really rip roaring belches which signify total defiance of anyone else's presence and express myself really really openly.. but on hindsight, it might not be a great idea.
Enjoy yr saturday nights everyone, wherever you are.
Actuallly a leaving note for all Indian's reading this,i'm hoping for miracles for Narain Karthikeyan!Something makes me want to back him. And seriously don't Indian politicians have more important things to attend to, than pass legislations if Indian sports people can wear the Indian tricolors as part of their sport uniform! If I was the sportsperson I would wear the tricolor and defy authority, what are they going to do? Take away my citizenship? Imagine, India without it's cricket team as indian citizens.. hahahahahah
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
A.M.B.G.
A.M.B.G.
I remember my examination papers in high school ended with the four letters A.M.D.G. We, students had made up a longer version of the acronym - “All may do good”, we thought the teachers wanted to give us a blessing through 4 randomly placed alphabets. We went on with this for a while, some of us even made other not so intelligent vernacular versions of the same like “Aa maaro dahyo gadhedo” (this is my well behaved donkey!!!??!!)
Our myths about those 4 alphabets were dispelled later on by our latin speaking school principal who informed us that A.M.D.G., stood for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which meant - To the greater glory of god. Trust a priest to provide us with enlightenment!!
Now you might wonder why have I gone and written about A.M.D.G. and named my blog A.M.B.G. Don’t worry no typos or loss of memory..
This blog is “To the greater glory of Brussels”, (Ad Majorem Brussels Gloriam - Yo!Diego thanks for pointing this out!!) my school principal might cringe if he heard or read this, but then, these are the few pleasures that being out of school can afford you, like uhhm… freedom of thought and speech?
The last weekend was dedicated to rediscover Brussels for the 2nd or 3rd time, this time though I had a perfect ally, my equally inquisitive and big time food lover, sis – in – law, which made the gallivanting that much more interesting. I definitely don’t think I have completely discovered the city, but these one off walks off the beaten path often land you in a new part of the city and you come back happy with the knowledge that “I saw something new about the city that I have come to call home”. Oh by the way for people who didn’t know, Brussels is home for me now, at least for the time being :-)
Actually it’s not only the fact that I discover a new part of Brussels but also a new character - something different and deeper in degrees!!
I am not trying to say Brussels is different or Brussels is great or Brussels is the best, no no no, not at all, Brussels is ordinary, very very ordinary. It has restaurants, it has bars, it has architecture, it has a central square, it has Sunday markets, it has the rich and it has the bums. It has a very ordinary transport system, it has an ugly central station and it is generally not an awe inspiring or breathtaking city
In today’s well developed, organized world, when you come to a capital city and see a block lined with 2 fries stores, a mom and pop convenience store, a funeral home, a flower store, a medical store, a hair dresser, a patisserie, an internet parlor, a night shop and a laundromat squeezed along beautiful (your conventional concept of beautiful may not apply here!) unsymmetrical houses with different heights angles and designs. You sit up and say “What??” and you make a little funny face where your lip and cheek twitch to a side and your eyes are half closed in disbelief. That’s Brussels for you!! In it’s unpredictability lies it’s beauty, something a normal traveler may get upset by, something a normal tourist may consider an eyesore is in a way an identity that you can only learn to accept and appreciate with the passage of time.
Ok, I guess the people who had a touristy inclination towards Brussels would have shut their browsers right about now.
So moving on to the people who want to read on to be nice to me or are really jobless or actually want to read what I am writing.
How many places in the world would you find chocolates, beers, fries and waffles as standard fare available at every nook and corner! I mean it, really every nook and corner!! Where in the world can you stand on the street and eat freshly cooked escargots (Snails), where else in the world will you have difficulty finding a McDonald’s? Ya Brussels probably has 2 of them. Where else can you find more than 20 establishments selling beer at 10 am in one square on a weekend but no “coffee to go”!! How many classic, almost touristy bars have a pet cat, which often goes and sits on tables and purrs along supportively to your beer sipping, while the waitress picks a fight with you? How many capital cities in the world have a forest surrounding 3/4ths of the city? And how many of those would have a restaurant right in the middle of that forest?
I remember reading somewhere that Belgium has more Michelin Stars per capita than France - the land of “cuisine”. This points out that the Belgians like their food and Brussels is a classic example with more than 2000 different eating establishments for a population of about a million. I can go on and on about what you can eat and drink in Brussels and where, but that would definitely merit another blog altogether, have a look at my sis-in-law’s blog from her weekend trip. http://seattlefoodies.blogspot.com/2005/02/brussels-for-foodies.html
I guess, I have gone on enough about Brussels now, time to sign out. Those of you who know me, pay me a visit and rest assured of the best beer sampling tour ever. Those who don't know me go visit Brussels anyway.
Following off from my last blog www.blurredrandomness.blogspot.com, the soundtrack of Garden State won the Grammy for the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture!! Yay, there was merit in that recommendation!! Ok that was me blowing my ugly trumpet, that ain't gonna win any awards. Moving forward I think I am going to park my blogs on www.suspendedamitation.blogspot.com from now on. See you here once in a while.
I remember my examination papers in high school ended with the four letters A.M.D.G. We, students had made up a longer version of the acronym - “All may do good”, we thought the teachers wanted to give us a blessing through 4 randomly placed alphabets. We went on with this for a while, some of us even made other not so intelligent vernacular versions of the same like “Aa maaro dahyo gadhedo” (this is my well behaved donkey!!!??!!)
Our myths about those 4 alphabets were dispelled later on by our latin speaking school principal who informed us that A.M.D.G., stood for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which meant - To the greater glory of god. Trust a priest to provide us with enlightenment!!
Now you might wonder why have I gone and written about A.M.D.G. and named my blog A.M.B.G. Don’t worry no typos or loss of memory..
This blog is “To the greater glory of Brussels”, (Ad Majorem Brussels Gloriam - Yo!Diego thanks for pointing this out!!) my school principal might cringe if he heard or read this, but then, these are the few pleasures that being out of school can afford you, like uhhm… freedom of thought and speech?
The last weekend was dedicated to rediscover Brussels for the 2nd or 3rd time, this time though I had a perfect ally, my equally inquisitive and big time food lover, sis – in – law, which made the gallivanting that much more interesting. I definitely don’t think I have completely discovered the city, but these one off walks off the beaten path often land you in a new part of the city and you come back happy with the knowledge that “I saw something new about the city that I have come to call home”. Oh by the way for people who didn’t know, Brussels is home for me now, at least for the time being :-)
Actually it’s not only the fact that I discover a new part of Brussels but also a new character - something different and deeper in degrees!!
I am not trying to say Brussels is different or Brussels is great or Brussels is the best, no no no, not at all, Brussels is ordinary, very very ordinary. It has restaurants, it has bars, it has architecture, it has a central square, it has Sunday markets, it has the rich and it has the bums. It has a very ordinary transport system, it has an ugly central station and it is generally not an awe inspiring or breathtaking city
In today’s well developed, organized world, when you come to a capital city and see a block lined with 2 fries stores, a mom and pop convenience store, a funeral home, a flower store, a medical store, a hair dresser, a patisserie, an internet parlor, a night shop and a laundromat squeezed along beautiful (your conventional concept of beautiful may not apply here!) unsymmetrical houses with different heights angles and designs. You sit up and say “What??” and you make a little funny face where your lip and cheek twitch to a side and your eyes are half closed in disbelief. That’s Brussels for you!! In it’s unpredictability lies it’s beauty, something a normal traveler may get upset by, something a normal tourist may consider an eyesore is in a way an identity that you can only learn to accept and appreciate with the passage of time.
Ok, I guess the people who had a touristy inclination towards Brussels would have shut their browsers right about now.
So moving on to the people who want to read on to be nice to me or are really jobless or actually want to read what I am writing.
How many places in the world would you find chocolates, beers, fries and waffles as standard fare available at every nook and corner! I mean it, really every nook and corner!! Where in the world can you stand on the street and eat freshly cooked escargots (Snails), where else in the world will you have difficulty finding a McDonald’s? Ya Brussels probably has 2 of them. Where else can you find more than 20 establishments selling beer at 10 am in one square on a weekend but no “coffee to go”!! How many classic, almost touristy bars have a pet cat, which often goes and sits on tables and purrs along supportively to your beer sipping, while the waitress picks a fight with you? How many capital cities in the world have a forest surrounding 3/4ths of the city? And how many of those would have a restaurant right in the middle of that forest?
I remember reading somewhere that Belgium has more Michelin Stars per capita than France - the land of “cuisine”. This points out that the Belgians like their food and Brussels is a classic example with more than 2000 different eating establishments for a population of about a million. I can go on and on about what you can eat and drink in Brussels and where, but that would definitely merit another blog altogether, have a look at my sis-in-law’s blog from her weekend trip. http://seattlefoodies.blogspot.com/2005/02/brussels-for-foodies.html
I guess, I have gone on enough about Brussels now, time to sign out. Those of you who know me, pay me a visit and rest assured of the best beer sampling tour ever. Those who don't know me go visit Brussels anyway.
Following off from my last blog www.blurredrandomness.blogspot.com, the soundtrack of Garden State won the Grammy for the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture!! Yay, there was merit in that recommendation!! Ok that was me blowing my ugly trumpet, that ain't gonna win any awards. Moving forward I think I am going to park my blogs on www.suspendedamitation.blogspot.com from now on. See you here once in a while.
Blurred Randomness
Blurred Randomness
Events of the week - Sania Mirza lost to Serena, though she did make it to round 2 of the AO.. Damn and the media in India has made her the blue eyed girl of the country.. Jeez!! I have no great or small achievements to boast about, but if I was in the business of attracting media attention I would never be happy with comments like "Loses the match but wins hearts!!" - I know our ex Prime minister did say "Cup hi nahin, dil bhi jitiye". WTF mate!! Why don't the Hewitt's or the Ponting's of the world care about winning hearts? Hewitt gets dumped by his Belgian tennis playing girl, what does he do? He wins some more tournaments, makes some more money and starts dating a real hottie. Ponting and his band of merry men, go to any new country - sledge the living daylights out of the opposition, bludgeon them and keep smiling. The world still loves them man!! If you're rich and/or powerful the world will love you anyway. So go all out, win all you can, the hearts will follow....
Natalie Portman has recently won my heart. Extremely good performances in 2 very good movies of 2004 - Garden State and Closer. That girl is gonna win an award soon, or maybe she won't cos she already won my heart :-)
U2 comes out with their tour dates finally next week. Keep your eyes peeled out people!!
That's as much of "blurred randomness" I can dish out for the night. Hope it's warm wherever the hell you're reading this.
Wish me luck in whatever I am attempting and some bigger entity somewhere will give you one of those cool smiles!!
I think I will stick with my ritual of signing off with a recommendation. Relating to Garden State once again. Awesome, awesome soundtrack - my favorite track "One of these things" by Nick Drake. A find from the Album - Zero 7, some good tracks from them. All you ppl with T1 and ADSL connections try and listen to them.
That's it from fritesland!!
Events of the week - Sania Mirza lost to Serena, though she did make it to round 2 of the AO.. Damn and the media in India has made her the blue eyed girl of the country.. Jeez!! I have no great or small achievements to boast about, but if I was in the business of attracting media attention I would never be happy with comments like "Loses the match but wins hearts!!" - I know our ex Prime minister did say "Cup hi nahin, dil bhi jitiye". WTF mate!! Why don't the Hewitt's or the Ponting's of the world care about winning hearts? Hewitt gets dumped by his Belgian tennis playing girl, what does he do? He wins some more tournaments, makes some more money and starts dating a real hottie. Ponting and his band of merry men, go to any new country - sledge the living daylights out of the opposition, bludgeon them and keep smiling. The world still loves them man!! If you're rich and/or powerful the world will love you anyway. So go all out, win all you can, the hearts will follow....
Natalie Portman has recently won my heart. Extremely good performances in 2 very good movies of 2004 - Garden State and Closer. That girl is gonna win an award soon, or maybe she won't cos she already won my heart :-)
U2 comes out with their tour dates finally next week. Keep your eyes peeled out people!!
That's as much of "blurred randomness" I can dish out for the night. Hope it's warm wherever the hell you're reading this.
Wish me luck in whatever I am attempting and some bigger entity somewhere will give you one of those cool smiles!!
I think I will stick with my ritual of signing off with a recommendation. Relating to Garden State once again. Awesome, awesome soundtrack - my favorite track "One of these things" by Nick Drake. A find from the Album - Zero 7, some good tracks from them. All you ppl with T1 and ADSL connections try and listen to them.
That's it from fritesland!!
Succumbed
Succumbed!
I have to confess, the recent barrage of "read my blog", "I started my own blog", "did you read his blog","blogging is so cool" finally got to me. I have buckled and succumbed to the blogging wave - ya and you thought only the tidal wave in south east asia had victims?(I think that's a rude thing to say!)
So as a new comer to this world of blogging this is just a start and it may not be a great blog 'cause I don't know why I am writing this, just like how one ends up taking the first few drags from a cigarette at a tender age only to end up coughing their lungs out, I guess this time round I will end up spilling my guts out. Peer pressure has gotten to me once again!!
Alright, so the heating in my house has suddenly gone off, as has my landlord for his weekend break! (don't worry i am used to this schedule,it gives me a reason to use the my totally unused oven to keep me warm!!). As my fingers have now almost gone numb, i'll end with a quick note or rather a recommendation of something I really enjoyed. Watch this move "Garden State" by Zach Braff http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/ . By far one of the better movies I have seen in a long time, and i have to confess, the straw that broke the camel's back was Zach Braff's blog!!
May good music lift everyone's soul.
I hope I never read this blog as I am sure I will be embarrased.
I have to confess, the recent barrage of "read my blog", "I started my own blog", "did you read his blog","blogging is so cool" finally got to me. I have buckled and succumbed to the blogging wave - ya and you thought only the tidal wave in south east asia had victims?(I think that's a rude thing to say!)
So as a new comer to this world of blogging this is just a start and it may not be a great blog 'cause I don't know why I am writing this, just like how one ends up taking the first few drags from a cigarette at a tender age only to end up coughing their lungs out, I guess this time round I will end up spilling my guts out. Peer pressure has gotten to me once again!!
Alright, so the heating in my house has suddenly gone off, as has my landlord for his weekend break! (don't worry i am used to this schedule,it gives me a reason to use the my totally unused oven to keep me warm!!). As my fingers have now almost gone numb, i'll end with a quick note or rather a recommendation of something I really enjoyed. Watch this move "Garden State" by Zach Braff http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/ . By far one of the better movies I have seen in a long time, and i have to confess, the straw that broke the camel's back was Zach Braff's blog!!
May good music lift everyone's soul.
I hope I never read this blog as I am sure I will be embarrased.
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