Grin & Bare It

Is it just me or has anyone else ever woken up the morning after a night of binge drinking and thought cautiously, 'hey this is awesome... no hangover!' only to realize that the sole reason for that is because you're still drunk. Party's still on! You celebrate. Only until the hangover does set in a little later, of course. Now a hangover in my opinion is in the same league as the common cold. Everyone gets it at some point in their lives, and science has yet to discover a cure. The last bit I find particularly disconcerting considering the supposedly immense progress made by medical science in recent times. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that some prudish person in a position of authority decided one day that all hangover cures are to be kept secret. "Let the people regret their sins", he must have said, followed by an evil laugh and a bout of coughing. Now in a twisted kind of way, it's good we have hangovers. No matter how blurry the previ...

It's the 10th time in 3 days. I kid you not. I have grave worries that watching any part of 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' one more time will cause irreparable damage to my brain. I don't care any more about Simon Pegg's impeccable comic timing, or how incredibly hot Megan Fox is, acting skills notwithstanding. Well, maybe just for Megan Fox. However I must say, this current 'How to..' spree is a far cry better than the apparent Zoolander marathon they had going not so long ago. That could have been fatal had it gone on any longer. In the 5 weeks i've been here, primetime has been primarily inundated with episodes of 'The Family Guy' and 'The Office'. Honestly, I'm quite fond of both shows but the sheer frequency of it can really get to you after a while. I sometimes wonder what age or IQ bracket the commercials are targeted at. They're all pretty much the same, with some guy with shiny teeth preaching about how great t...

Is it just me or does the functioning of the Indian government seem totally ridiculous? I've never understood the concept of a company where it's practically impossible for anyone to get fired, regardless of how good or bad they are at work. Nor can i understand the mentality of a person who applies for a government job for the sole purpose of this so-called "job security" where he, once into the job, has absolutely no accountability and almost zero probability of getting fired or laid off. Not only that, if he sticks around long enough, they're going to continue paying him for as long as he lives, even after he's stopped working. I think this is exactly what breeds the frustratingly sloppy attitude of employees at any government or municipal run office. One visit to the local RTO and you'll know exactly what i mean. I don't really blame the employees that much. It's simply human nature, at least for the larger section of society, to be content wit...

I wandered back to my bedroom that evening, still recovering from Harbhajan Singh's blitzkrieg innings against the hapless Deccan Chargers, and reached for my guitar. It leaned against the wall in a familiar corner of the room, and behind it stood two cricket bats. I paused, and looked at the bats like i'd never seen them there before. Admittedly, I hadn't given them their fair share of attention in quite a while. I reached past the guitar and carefully picked out one of the bats, that had a big sticker on it saying "MRF". It was now dusty from years of neglect, but otherwise good as new. I gripped the handle, and instinctively swung it, executing a cover drive that would have made the Little Master proud. Well, Harbhajan Singh at least. And in that moment, it all came back to me in a flood of fond memories. I suddenly remembered all those years when my life completely revolved around cricket, when not a day went by that we didnt play in the evening. Whether in th...

Why are we trying so desperately to make peace with Pakistan? I mean really, do they respect us for that? Not one bit. Do they reciprocate? Yes they do. By launching a friendly barrage of rockets at our soldiers. Nothing like some fireworks to light up the whole 'Aman ki Asha' project and bring to light how futile and superficial it all is. I wonder if the media really believe that their utopian ideas of exchanging a few movies and lighting a couple of candles will change anything at all. Things haven't changed in 60 years, so why should now be any different. Cricket, one of the strongest potential bonds between the people of the two nations has failed miserably in bringing us together, so why should Bollywood be any different. I wonder what the brave jawan at the border outpost must be thinking when he reads the morning's paper that features large advertisements promoting Indo-Pak peace, as he braces himself for the mext missile strike that may just claim his life that...