Embarassing Secrets -Tag

Have been apartment hunting for the past two weeks and finally moved (not completly) so will be catch up with everyones blogs soon as soon as I get all wired.

Meanwhile was tagged by Ankur and Radhika for 10 secrets and then again today for 5 embarrassing moments. Am going to combine the two together.

1) I had big problems to a point where I wanted to quit school in Kindergarten itself. Being left handed we were taught how to write "c" and "d" being a curve inside out and "b" being a curve outside in. Well at school "bad" remained "bad" but at home it became "dab" as my grandmother forced me to use the right hand. So following the instructions (I was obedient then) got rapped at school for all the homework being wrong and at home for using the left hand......so I wanted to quit school (grown ups are really crazy - I had made up my mind very early!). This was solved eventually but its another story.

2) Used to be a sick a lot as a kid.

3) In 8th or 9th standard there was a Nescafe advert playing in India - and had the ending lines "Shake Shake Shake" - I resembled that kid a lot and so I became famous in my school as the "Shake Shake Shake" guy....

Well this one turned out to be an embarrasing moment once - as we were about to go to the "Sex Education" class under a visiting lecturer and somebody shouted in front of her "Shake Shake Shake". It had to be explained in detail what it all meant.

4) Have been part of the student council in some form or the other throughout school and college as a monitor, captain, president etc etc. So I was supposed to "monitor" other students and not get reprimanded. Well I did get once and it was embarrasing - but the calender (school diary) never reached home - I threw it off the bus and lodged a complaint in school office that it is lost. Phew was saved!

5) Was an avid cricketer - playing for the school for 6 years. Practiced everyday morning from 6 - 9 and never attended the first three lectures in the school. (We were allowed to)

6) Post tenth board exams 10 of us went to a 5 day trip to Mahabaleshwar - planned, executed and booked solely by two of us. (My dads friend owned the hotel we stayed at - a secret I told all my friends only after reaching there - till then enjoying the wah wah for all the plans.

Now post this trip there was a very embarassing moment. Just out of school and off to college - we had gone and rented some "movies". Guess what one of my dear friends had to tell this to his mom and after the trip she is like "Since you planned this whole trip - you must have planned this too! - dunno what I said then but somehow got out of this situation.

7) The little finger in my right hand is dislocated - two injuries back to back injuries playing cricket. Cannot join the right little man with the rest of the fingers.

8) My craziness and funny demeanour - I attribute it completly to many of my Parsi friends and the Parsi neighbourhood I grew up in. They are a bunch of crazy people - I simply love them.

Here is something that being in such company made me do -
We had to do a "Working Model" project on something that we learned in 7th (am not sure) standard. Most students choose science or geography projects - showing volcanoes, solar system, robots etc etc.
Now me and this Parsi friend - we decided to have some fun instead of doing a serious project.
So we decided to do a project in English - it was a category never done before and we were the only submitted project.
There was a story in Balbharti "Man Eater of Chabunkwa" - we designed our project based on that story. We grew real grass for a month (arguing that we studied germination if needed). Got his grandmom to sticth an African Hunters dress for the He-Man, put a tiger in the grass (enacting the scene), researched on the author and put some of his work and finally since we really did not know if this will fly we made a thermocol cutout of the earth and put plastic animals on each continent (including science and geography - just in case).
Well again this turned out to be a bit embarrasing - since there was no "working part" in our project we did not see it necessary to attend the exhibition of all the projects - went dressed in casually - only to realize that we had won the "Best Project Award" - "Most Innovative Idea and Presentation" and ours was the first project on display. And since we were not in our "school uniform" we were not allowed to partake in the award ceremony and we became the jokers! Ah well it was fun still.

9) Had a near death experience once - fell off my bicycle in between two cabs. Luckily the signal turned red. It was close.

Most of these are experiences from the school years which were till now the best years.
Can only think of so many for now.

High and Higher

Summer is here and just busy enjoying it after the dull winter. Two weeks back finally went again to Six Flags Great Adventure here in New Jersey with my cousins who were visiting me. Got a chance to ride this two year old ride Kingda Ka finally. It is currently the worlds fastest and tallest roller coaster ride.


This is a description of the ride from Wikipedia :
"Once the train is in position, the hydraulic launch mechanism rockets the train from 0 to 128 miles per hour (206 km/h) in 3.5 seconds. At the end of the launch track, the train climbs the main tower, or top hat, twisting 90 degrees to the right before reaching a height of 456 feet (139.5 m). The train then descends 418 feet (127 m) straight down through a 270-degree spiral. Finally, the train climbs the second, 129 foot hill, producing a moment of weightlessness before being smoothly brought to a stop by the magnetic brakes. The ride lasts 28 seconds from the start of the launch to the end of the brake run."

Really dont know how to describe the experience in words...it was simply awesome. Shaken, hurled, pushed, thrown and exhilerated, it took sometime to get our bearings straight. There was a long wait, so had to sit on the second row. Will go back to ride it sitting in the first seat. That is the best way to experience any roller coaster with nothing in front of you.

That was a physical high and then yesterday evening was a kind of spiritual high.

Attended a live concert of Ustad Ghulam Ali and Munni Begum (both famous Pakistani ghazal singer) in New York. Again words fail to describe the moment in presence of such a legend.

Image courtesy - Wikipedia
Had never heard Munni Begum before. She started the show and had a very different voice from that of Indian singers that we are used to hearing. She ended her part of the concert with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom Sharabi - a Qawalli which I had only heard in the voice of Aziz Nazan before. (Here is the e-snips link of the Qawalli in his voice)

Then Ghulam Ali entralled the crown with his rendition of ghazals that included some of his most famous numbers namely - Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa, Chupke Chupke Raat Din and many others.

The crowning glory of the evening was the online booking goof up. Due multiple booking of the same seats from two websites, I had one of them and so got upgraded to 5th row from front right in front of the center stage.

I will retain this experience in my memory for ever.

Captain I-tag

Tagged by Cinderella. This is all bout the "I" that meets my eye - in short looking at myself and well finding out which nuts and bolts need tightening, which spare parts needs oiling and which are just fine the way they are. So here goes....

I am : Lost In Translation
I think : More than required
I know : We are all perishable so make the most of this given moment
I want : to be someone who people look upon in a good way
I have : I "think" (see again) to be the one I "want"
I wish : Life could be a little simpler to comprehend
I hate : My lazziness
I miss : My family and Bombay
I fear : Claustrophobic spaces
I feel : Life has more to offer than what we perceive
I hear : All kinds of sounds
I smell : Good food
I crave : Food from a certain place in Bombay
I search : Things to do constantly
I wonder : Rarely - make people wonder usually
I regret : One small thing
I love : Travelling and exploring places
I ache : When I move my lazy muscles
I am not : always sure of what I am about to do but do it anyways
I believe : Someday all new borns will be embedded with a chip that will interact with satellites for everything that we do today and have seperate gadjets for
I dance : Whenever I hear foot tapping music
I sing : Only in the shower
I cry : Sometimes
I don’t always : Confront
I fight : My craving for sweet stuff
I write : When in the mood
I win : dows not mac
I lose : All the time with kids
I never : Can approach someone upfront
I always : Love to be jovial
I confuse : Everyone who meets me for the first time
I listen : Nowadays to certain people
I can usually be found : Doing something or the other
I am scared : To loose the power to discern
I need : A new car
I am happy about : Able to do many things I want to
I imagine : The Built Environment (thats my job!)

I tag two people who I would like to know more about : Hiren and KP

1-2- Three Tagged

I was tagged by three bloggies on the same day with this tag:
Neeku Satish Jaggu
Honestly I am not reading a lot these days except some magazines. So Neeku - I dont have any architectural books that I read on a regular basis....
Few week back g-man eluded to a book 'kafka on the shore' by haruki murakami - this reminded me to read the original Franz Kafka - the author.
If interested here is an online version in PDF of one of his few completed works A Short Novel: The Metamorphosis
So just in time for the tag I received the book yesterday that I had ordered :
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Franz Kafka

Now the Tag Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (since it just arrived - it was the nearest one)
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

So here's what it says...
I stood all ready to go. but the horse was missing - no horse.
My own horse had died the night before from exertions of this icy winter.
My maid was now running around the village trying to scrounge up the horse, but it was utterly hopeless.
I knew it.
Now the 5 people I would need to tag -
Any 5 people who read and are interested can take this up from the blogroll....

Winds of Change

Obama is the first African American to have won the Democratic Primaries. Hope he goes to win all the way.



There is a song - Yes, We Can! - Si, Se Puede! featuring a star cast, by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas and inspired by Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech that was hosted on YouTube and has been watched 7.6 million times already.



These are changing times when yougsters are making a big difference in the outcome of an electoral process participating online and making their voices heard. This process also saw many great debates held by C.N.N. (link) where people hosted their questions on Youtube and candidates answered them on Live TV.

Though am not an American still, I support the nomination of this young charismatic leader - Barack Obama.

Also for a completly different reason - I like Bill Clinton - The Clinton Foundation - and the work he is doing all around the world.

I was lucky enough to be able to meet him for few minutes and shake his hands in September of last year. Here is the link to that post Surreal Bill from my archives.

So now hoping that Hillary Clinton does accept the post for running vice - president - a dual ticket - will really embellish this moment in history of United States.