My Old School Prayer

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up by narrow walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way in the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.


Rabindranath Tagore.
(For some reason this has been making rounds on the internet with the wrong words...)

The World’s Worst Job

Playing an unnamed goon in a John Woo Hong Kong action flick has to be the worst job in the world. You have to wear a suit to work, the pay is terrible, no health benefits, and no pension plan - otherwise, I Bankers would be running to John Woo for a job, those blood suckers will do anything for a quick buck (and a chance to wear a suit). And things are not made any easier when Chow Yun-Fat never has to reload his gun and can use a 12 guage shotgun with surgical precision. I guess the only upside is that laundry costs are not too high since goons die off one shot to any part of the body.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Rajnikanth, Chuck Norris, and Chow Yun-Fat faced off – end of the world? Do goons have nightmares about these people? Do they check for Van Damme under the bed when they go to bed at night? Questions such as these have kept me up since I watched The Killer, Hard Boiled, God of Gamblers, and the A Better Tomorrow trilogies.

Moreover, how does one become a goon? Do you just walk into a Triad office and hand in your resume? Do you need job experience or a degree from MSG [1]? After all for most of these goons, it looks like this is the first time they have held a gun/driven a motorbike/car/helicopter/tricycle/auto etc. Seriously, I cannot think of anything worse than being a goon in a John Woo movie, except for maybe lawyers (no offence Nisha).

[1] MSG: Ming School of Goons, Hong Kong – the main bad guys usually graduates of this place.

Sweet?

It is funny how people in London are used to spending two thirds of their day in super-congested compartments that they called ‘The Tube’. Cases of people falling ill during their ride on the train are not rare in existence. Some common explanations are the lack of ventilation and/or the person being sick before entering the train. Data and almost every single passenger would choose the former. After a long day of learning about countries from all around the globe at the World Travel Market organized in ExCel London (eastern end of London), I was heading back taking the usual, the Tube. Tiredness was what I could see in other passengers’ faces. All of them looked dead. The only means of entertainment were the sight of people making futile attempts to stay awake and the banging of the heads on the side glass by the seats. My journey was supposed to last for approximately 2 hours. Peak hour exacerbated this journey of mine by allowing a dozen 6.5 feet tall guys in the already full compartment in which I was struggling for some fresh oxygen. I was pushed to the side and could barely move. Few more people got on at the next station, among which there were two girls (17/18 yrs, normal looking, probably college girls). One of them was pushed to the pole I was hanging on to. After about a couple of minutes, I realized that her body was pressing against my hand. I felt awkward but couldn’t do much due to congestion. She was also holding on to the same pole. Soon after that, I felt someone trying to play with my fingers. It was her. I felt very uneasy and quickly withdrew my hand into my pocket. I was confused about how I should react. She then looked at me, smiled and then ended it with a polite ‘sorry’. No reaction from me again. The only thing that came into my mind was ‘Wow! That was unexpected’. Then things went back to the way it was supposed to be in a train chamber. I got lost thinking about nothing, looking outside the window. Slowly, the share of oxygen per passenger in each chamber started going up, after halts at several stations. More and more people started getting off the train. I was still standing by the door. Then it reached the station before the one I was supposed to get off at. The doors opened. Suddenly, I felt something warm on my chest. I quickly came back to senses to realize that it was somebody’s hand. It was the same girl. She looked at me, gave the same smile, said, ‘You are too sweet!’ and walked out. No reaction from me this time as well. To make the matter a little bit more interesting, I had my cousin sister sitting not very far away from me on the train witness the whole scene and later interrogate me about my intentions and thoughts. Again, no reaction from me.

I guess interesting things can happen in some of the most boring places as well.

If you were me, tell me how you would have reacted.

My Motto

White Socks

I hate it when trains are late. It is universal. All over the world, trains are always late. I do not like trains, but I like train stations. There is something surreal about train stations – a microcosm of modern society if you will. I enjoy sitting on a platform bench observing the world go past, entranced by the multitude of cacophonous sounds that echo around the high ceilings. Yes, I like train stations; trains are a different matter altogether.

The train I was on was scheduled to leave Napoli half an hour ago but it was still gleefully idling at the station like a fat boy in a Mark Twain novel. I was not pleased. I was stuck in a small compartment with Hann for company and the air conditioner was not running. I tried to make small talk with Hann but he seemed engrossed in the colorful complimentary magazines in the seat pocket. I don’t know what he was reading – it was in Italian, and neither of us spoke the language. I looked outside the graffiti stained window to wile my time and a glum silence filled the compartment…

Leaning my head against the wall, I was about to fall asleep when the sliding compartment door was violently pushed apart and a dirty little man with a large mustache and a navy blue knapsack walked in. He looked at us with leery eyes and snorted, and with a magical sleight of hand produced two packets and tossed one to each one of us. I caught the packet on my lap. It was a set of white socks. Bewildered, I looked up and caught Hann’s equally confused eyes looking at me. People usually don’t hand out sets of white socks.

“Socks.” The man said as if he had answered the question to life, universe, and everything else. We looked up at him.

He scratched his rough chin and sighed. “Ummm… twenty Euros.”

I look at Hann and he's busy inspecting the goods. I look down at my packet, not sure what to do, so I look at the stubby Italian expecting some sort of an explanation...

"For you only twenty Euros..."

I look at Hann. His ears were turning red. Suddenly Hann throws the packet of socks at the Italian and with a Fonz expression says, "Aieaaa, these are made in China man, my family probably made them, and you're trying to sell it to me?..."

The stubby Italian snatched the packet out of my hand and walked out with a solemn face. Once again the compartment lapsed into silence. I resumed my vigil on the platform, waiting to get to Rome.

Half Step Down

I just finished watching The Departed and I'm very disappointed. Leonardo DiCaprio was actually pretty good here but otherwise, the movie was lacking without even comparing it to Infernal Affairs, the original Hong Kong movie which is the basis for The Departed. There were plot holes left and right and Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon's characters were too one-dimensional. Not to mention some of the unncessary gore and sex. Do all American movies have to include such crap all the damn time? It didn't add anything to the freakin plot.

And don't even get me started on the ending. Ridiculous. I will not ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it and want to. Instead, I will rant more (with spoilers) in my own blog at some point. I haven't written there in forever.

Overall, I'm just sad that a lot of people will have no idea that The Departed is a remake. And even if they do, they will write off Infernal Affairs because it doesn't have a "happy" ending like The Departed and almost every other American movie even though it is such a better movie.

Procrastinate... just do it!

procrastinate...just do it!!!

Pictures of Scaffolding

I feel a faithless lover returning to my faithless love. It has been a long time since I've written anything on this blog. This sphere is slowly turning into a shallow grave. It appears that the spunk driving the intense blogging in its early stages have now given way to sporadic notes like these. Honestly though, can you really blame me?

Initially I was quite gung-ho about recording my Odyssey through Europe in these pages, but now I'm not so sure. But I'll start anyway and see how far it goes...

My journey seemed to be star-crossed from the beginning, what with Pragyan breaking his leg a few weeks before our plans finalised and my failure to obtain a British visa early enough to drop my bags off in London. Plus there was the theft of my wallet in NYC (I have a feeling the pickpocket responsible was a graduate of LSP...). Not to mention that I was now going to be travelling on my own... I was a little apprehensive.

However, one morning I called Hann, a recent Hamilton grad and asked, "Hey, I'm going to Europe, want to tag along?" Fortunately, and rather surprisingly Hann said, "yeah, sure why not." The rest they say is history, but I shall spell it out for you anyway...

This series is going to be broken into 21 parts, one for each city, I think.

Welcome to the Jungle!

So, it’s been 10 days in London and I can already see what my next 10 months are going to be like. As soon as I entered London (this is my first time, not counting the 24 hours I spent during the Red Alert season), the first impression I had of the place was ‘Man, this place is a killer…it is just too expensive’. Looking at the price tags, Maity and I cherish those days when we said ‘Man, New York is a killer…it is just too expensive’. Of course, we come from a place where we can have one of the best and filling meals for less than a dollar. The world runs on money. Maity and I have so much time now that we get into grave discussions wherever we sit. Our last lunch at an LSE restaurant had money as the big topic. The conclusion was obvious – money is great. Sometimes, I think about and laugh at how I used to react when I had to use the subway in NYC. ‘2 dollars???’ Hah, we now pay 3 full pounds for a ride.

The dorm we live in and Dunham at Hamilton must have had the same architect…coz they resemble each other perfectly – those long hallways with identical doors on both sides that make you go cuckoo every time you come in. Even the residents seem to behave in the same way. I hardly see anybody on the hallway whenever I go out of my room. The only difference between the two buildings is that this one is much bigger. It can accommodate up to 650 students.

This dorm is situated in the heart of the financial district of London. The very first time I walked out of the building I realized that it is not a good news for us at all. Every little thing is twice as expensive as what it costs in other parts of London. On top of that, there isn’t a single proper restaurant or even a convenience store nearby. Our last trip to a grocery store took 40 min of walking. Worse for me because I have been in bed for three full months and my foot is still not ready. I am not even in a state to walk for 15 straight minutes. The 25 min walk to LSE everyday is already a torture for me.

Nevertheless, London is a beautiful city and very diverse (less Latinos and more Indians and East Asians). Met Jin and Cindy yesterday and they seem to enjoy the calm sub-urban life of London with occasional visits to Central London. Neither Maity nor I know where the hell Priya is. We have seen her twice until now, and that’s it. Whenever I message her when she comes online, she says ‘be right back in 10 or 15’ and she disappears totally after that. All of them seem to be in a chilled-out mood in their own ways. I guess, so are we. I hope it will be the same until we leave this place.

Is It Any Wonder

So it seems we are facing a dip in posts for now. Maity is too busy enjoying his trip in Europe while Pragyan is too busy procrastinating or playing video games. I shouldn't talk, though, because I've been busy working/procrastinating as well. More importantly, I have no idea what to write. I'm in a funk, a dry spell and I can't get out of it. I cannot seem to write well for my classes either, which is never good. I'm like a superhero without any powers. My powers of writing and bullshitting are gone...whatever shall I do?

Any suggestions of what I should/could write about will be appreciated.

For now, I'll just leave you with a few random thoughts:

1. Snakes on a Plane didn't exactly match up to the hype. Figures. Too much expectation only results in disappointment.

2. The freshmen here are worse every year. Get off your damn high horses. You're freshmen, the bottom of the damn food chain. Deal with it. And if you hate it here, ok, that's fine, join the club. I was there. Hell, a shitload of us were. It may or may not get better but in the meantime, suck it up and shut the fuck up.

3. Facebook is going down the drain right now. If it really does open to all, I will consider closing my account. Seriously.

4. Grey's Anatomy premiere this coming Thursday. Who's excited?? I sure am. (I'm a loser, I know.)

Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*cker.

Amazing. Just watch.

Hamilton Summer: The Ballad of Pragyan Pradhan

This is to welcome Pragyan Pradhan (formerly known as The God of Small Things) of Jae and Silent Pradhan fame to enter the world of blogging; adding yet another eclectic voice to "Listening to the Weather". Pragyan is presently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics at Hamilton College. When not studying, wasting time, or fighting for civil rights issues in Nepal, Pragyan enjoys fighting crime under the guise of Proverbman. We look forward to a glimpse of his never ending river of wisdom...

On another note, I am dead tired. Thinking is taxing. I should stop.

I did not do any work the whole summer. Maybe read a couple of books: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", Kawabata's "Master of Go" and Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Everything" among others. Watched a lot of movies, some useless, some brilliant, like Kubrick's "The Shining" on HD... finally eh? Played a lot of games, learnt how to mix a mojito and the fact that Miami cops can afford Ferraris... one could say that all summer was one lazy sunday.

This weekend I did more work than the whole summer. Pragyan and I have our research presentation due at 6 pm this evening. We started working on our research paper 2pm on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say the next 48 hours were spent bent over three laptops, thousands of loose sheets of research papers and raw data and a bottle of Johnny Walker Gold Label.

I'm still trying to recover from the onslaught. Twenty eight pages of, quite frankly, bullshit. Albeit it's not spectacular, I'm proud of it. I just hope my boss feels the same way.

(Edit: The dinner-presentation went off great! I think...)

"I'll procrastinate tomorrow..." ~ Pragyan Pradhan

Wonderful Electric

Goldfrapp. Without a doubt, my favorite band. Period. If you don't know who they are, I'm not surprised. I only have one friend who knows about them but that's only because I told her. I cannot tell you how many times I've been met with a stare or a puzzled face after answering "Goldfrapp" when asked, "What's your favorite band?" But this year, at least three commercials from major companies have employed Goldfrapp songs (Coke, Pantene, and Verizon) and they have played on both Letterman and Leno. All I can say is...It's about damn time!! Don't you just love it when commercials play great songs you already know? (And great songs you don't too.) Well, I do. In fact, the only reason I am writing this is because I heard "Strict Machine" in that Verizon commercial for their new Chocolate phone.

Goldfrapp has 3 albums. The first, "Felt Mountain," is very much electronic and what they call "trip-hop." The second, "Black Cherry," retains the electronic sound of its predecessor but has a bit of a pop sound accompanied by dance beats. Their latest album, "Supernature," is a conglomeration of pop, dance, and disco with a touch of electronic sound. It's pretty interesting to hear the progression of their sound over the three albums and unfortunately, I cannot upload songs to let you hear this for yourself.

But, here's a Goldfrapp song to whet your appetite. From the more mainstream album, Supernature, "No.1".

"Only God Knows Everything, And He Works For Mossad"

Continuing with my absolute lack of motivation to do some serious work, I've been watching a lot of movies lately.

I really didn't want to post anything, I just found the title funny, and after watching "Raid on Entebbe" quite true. (Albeit, the Entebbe rescue operation was conducted by Aman and the Sayeret Matkal, you know what I mean.)

In preparation for the release of Clerks II, I sat and watched the entire Kevin Smith collection in chronological order: "Clerks", "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". All of these are nerd movies. Not the "Revenge of the Nerds" kind of nerd movie, but more like "Real Genius" type. The movies are littered with "Star Wars", "Jaws", John Hughes' movies and comic book references, not to mention references to the other movies in the Smith collection.

I can't stand these yuppy joints. Some bozo went through the bathroom correcting all the grammar in the graffiti with a red pen.

The title of this post is a passing quote from the movie "The Constant Gardener". Nothing more to say at the moment.

How do you like them apples?

I don't know about you but I hate those new Mac vs. PC commercials. I've never been a fan of Macs although they are more aesthetically pleasing. From my experiences, I can easily say that they do NOT run faster. Often, they run hella slower. And contrary to frequent spouted "fact," Macs DO freeze. Ever encounter the spinning color wheel of death?!?! Exactly. Force quit doesn't always cut it. And sure, Windows gets a crapload of viruses but hey, if Macs blow up to the point where the majority of computer users have them, I'm sure there will be ample viruses to go around.

I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!!

Would you characterize Superman as the strongest superhero ever? I mean, if there was no Kryptonite, how could anyone beat him? (Let's not even start on the irony that is the fact that Superman comes from Krypton but is deathly allergic to Kryptonite).

I remember when I was younger, the age old question was, who was stronger, Batman or Superman? And as much as I love Batman, there is no doubt in my mind that Superman would win hands down (if Batman didn't have Kryptonite, that is). Batman is basically a very fit rich guy who can afford kick ass gadgets. Superman is supernatural strength. Though Bruce Wayne is so much cooler than Clark Kent...maybe it's the tortured, tough-guy with a good heart persona that gets me.

A good fight may be Superman vs. Wolverine. Without Kryptonite, of course. We all know that with Kryptonite, the man of steel is toast.


Anyone watch Superman Returns? If so, how was it? Will be watching it soon but am curious.

Oh and is there a superhero who isn't tortured? Every hero that I know/can think of does or has some flaw. Hmmm...

"If You Don't Give My Football Back..."

In a mixed setting of World Cup fever and boredom at work, here's the complete Adidas Jose+10 video. One of the best ads out there, as good as, if not better than Eric Cantona's Joga Bonita Nike commercials. The music for part 1 is "D'allouette" by RJD2 and for part 2 is "Eanie Meany" by Jim Noir.




I may have missed a couple (or made a mistake) but here's a list of players, country and club (as of 2006, of course) on the ad:

Jose's Team:
Michael Ballack, Germany, FC Bayern Munich
Franz Beckenbauer, Germany
David Beckham, England, Real Madrid CF
Du-Ri Cha, Korea Republic, Eintracht Frankfurt
Damian Duff, Ireland, Chelsea FC
Steven Gerrard, England, Liverpool FC
Kaká, Brazil, AC Milan
Oliver Kahn, Germany, FC Bayern Munich
Juan Román Riquelme, Argentina, Villarreal CF
Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany, FC Bayern Munich
Patrick Vieira France, Juventus Turin

Pedro's Team:
Djibril Cissé, France, Liverpool FC
Jermain Defoe, England, Tottenham Hotspur
Kevin Kuranyi, Germany, FC Schalke
Frank Lampard, England, Chelsea FC
Michel Platini, France
Shunsuke Nakamura ,Japan, Celtic Glasgow
Alessandro Nesta, Italy, AC Milan
Lukas Podolski, Germany, FC Köln
Raúl, Spain, Real Madrid CF
Arjen Robben, The Netherlands, Chelsea FC
David Trézéguet, France, Juventus
Zinédine Zidane, France, Real Madrid CF

Not my dream team (1 Brazilian?), but I wouldn't complain...

At The Stars

So there's this new show on NBC called Windfall, which is about 20 friends who win the lottery and each receive about 20 million each (if I remember correctly). It's a drama and it centers around how the money changes their lives, for better or worse. Although it's not the best show I've seen (hardly), it's a fairly interesting and original concept. It's never been the premise of a show, that I've heard of or seen at least. Anyways, this just reminds me of the notion, urban legend, or what have you, that winning the lottery is bad luck because of the consequences. There is an overabundance of stories where lottery winners end up in some bout of misfortune, either it be injury, death, or something in between. Hurley on LOST, anyone? (Come on, someone else here has to be a LOST fan besides me, right?? Right??)

So the question I'm sure you've all been expecting since the beginning of this post: What would you do with 20 million dollars?

Me? Well first, I would buy my parents a bigass house anywhere they wanted. After I bought myself one too, I would pay off my college debt, buy myself a nice car (Ferrari F430 Spider, Mercedes 2007 SL55 AMG, Mercedes 2007 SL550 Roadster, or Porche Carrera GT), do some traveling, maybe buy myself an island (haha...maybe), give a bit to charity, and then invest the rest of it. Life would be grand. Yes indeed.

Have An Adequate Day

This semester I was hit with the Marx Brothers fever, but this is not about that. This weekend amidst World Cup fever, Ntokozo's birthday and a good-bye party for Claire, I went to New York City to bid adieu to Shraddha.

I had a chance to visit the 24/7 underground Apple store on 58th Street. Fondly known as "The Cube", this is a Mac-paradise, a real fun place.

On the walk back to Shraddha's appartment, we saw 2 Ferrari F430s, a Mercedes SL500, a Bentley Continental, an Aston Martin Vanquish, and a Porsche 911GT in that order in a span of five minutes. A Lambourghini would have wrapped up the day nicely.

I've been trying to catch up on my reading for the past couple of weeks. So far I've re-read The Chronicles of Narnia, a lot of Feynman, Brave New World and am presently cruising along an annotated version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I also have American Bartending on the side (thanks Shraddha!).

As for the World Cup, so far there hasn't been anything of note, except for the last three Australian goals against Japan in the last eight minutes...

Please Don't Talk

So I'm in Boston for my internship. Have been here only four days but I can easily say it beats the hell out of NYC. I never really got why people loved NYC. It's dirty, crowded, and a lot of people I've encountered there are RUDE. I mean, it has a lot of hustle and bustle but you can find that in pretty much any other city. Who knows.

My internship is pretty cool in that I don't do bitch work nor am I just relegated to getting some higher-up his/her coffee. I actually DO work. When I tell some of my friends about it, they just laugh because it's a bit unbelievable that I ACTUALLY have a job. Not that I never wanted one before and felt like mooching off the parents, but I've never had a REAL job in my life. During high school, I never really had the need to work and my parents didn't want a job to interfere with schoolwork. Meanwhile, a lot of my friends had jobs pretty much all year round. In college, I finally got a job last year but it wasn't REALLY a job. I pretty much got paid to do my homework or nothing at all (gotta love workstudy) so it doesn't really count. At my internship, all I do is write and edit, which is not bad at all. I'm thinking this is the kinda stuff I want to do for the rest of my life. Most likely anyways.

In my spare time here, I've been cooking for myself (another shocker because I hate cooking - I've never really excelled at it), watching TV, watching movies, and doing some work I bring home from the internship. I was thinking of getting a part-time job but we'll see. Will have to explore a bit first.

Here are the movies I've seen (just thought I'd share):
1) Sleepless in Seattle - have seen it a million times and it never gets old. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.
2) Tristan & Isolde - it was actually pretty good. Had some action and romance; interesting twist to the Romeo and Juliet-type story. Not too mushy or cheesy, like I was afraid it would've been. Though it doesn't hurt that I love James Franco..haha (ever since the TV show Freaks and Geeks...classic)
3) Just My Luck - stupidass Lindsay Lohan movie. Should've known. Why did I watch it? I have no idea.
4) Transamerica - Either Felicity Huffman was robbed of the Oscar or Reese Witherspoon was freakin unbelievably, outrageously better (haven't seen Walk the Line yet so I can't judge). It was a very touching movie but the subject matter might be a bit too...out-of-the-ordinary...for some, but if you are comfortable with it, it's definitely a worthy watch.

Hopefully, I can get to Glory Road and Imagine Me and You tonight. If you haven't already guessed, I'm a huge movie lover.

What else? Oh, so I've been hearing about this whole Ann Coulter controversy. What a bitch. Personal feelings aside, she's an ignorant, propagandizing, heartless idiot. Is it not logical to demand an explanation from the government for such a tragedy? I mean, the scale of it aside, any sort of oversight by the government should be taken seriously. No matter what party you're affiliated with, (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and WHATEVER other party), you should always keep a check on the government. She's talking about the wives exploiting their husbands' deaths but she's the one who's exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 and these families for the sake of her damn book. How much do you wanna bet that if she didn't make these outrageous claims, her book wouldn't be #1 on amazon.com or wherever else?? And that's another thing. It just makes me sad and pissed off that people buy into this crap. Goddamnit.

You know what else is sad? That the constitutional ban on gay marriage just barely missed being passed. Sure, it didn't pass because it fell short of the 2/3 majority needed, but the votes were 49-48. That is just unnervingly close. Even though it didn't pass, I feel like the country has taken a million steps back in terms of civil rights. First, the limitation on who you can or cannot marry. What's next? Overturning Roe v. Wade? (Sadly, it's getting there.) No, better yet, let's just make things easier and overturn the 14th amendment so we can discriminate against anyone and everyone. Screw due process and equal protection.