Fevicol hai na?

Ah the joys of watching Fevicol , feviqwik and M-Seal (how could you live without one of those!) ads bring back so many fond memories …
Thank you Pidilite for giving me the opportunity to live those times again - the awesome ads-

Sales vs. Marketing

I've always given a longwinded answer when someone popped the question - "What is the difference between Sales & Marketing".
Thank you Ron Wages from MEMSCAP - you summarized it so succinctly in class -
"Sales - sell what you can make.
Marketing - Make what you can sell."

The NCSU Saree Exhibition

NCSU Gallery of Art and Design is hosting a Saree Exhibition till May. Preethu helped Lynn and Zoe with actually wrapping the sarees on the mannequins. Awesome collection of sarees and other Desi stuff … nice museumish lighting … unfortunately taking pics without a tripod becomes extremely difficult!
Interesting to see other cultures’ take on sarees and their points of views … makes us realize how much we take things for granted … and also of how little we know!
Some pics from sometime ago ...

I look at this saree and say - hmm nice design while Lynn is at a loss of words trying to imagine how they must have manually woven the saree with the designs interspersed in-between!


Now I have seen the Kashmiri/Sindh embroidery a thousand times, but when Lynn mentioned that she still hadn't found out why all the stuff from this region had this symbol somewhere in the embroidery, I didn't know what to say!


One of my favourites -

NFS Most Wanted Black Edition

Have been sneaking cycles to play NFS Most-Wanted Black Edition
And what can I say about the game … SUPERB.
It overcomes the major problem with NFS UG2 and its previous installments and gives the player a clear understanding of his progress in the game … and the story-line is damn good. As usual the graphics in the game are M-I-N-D B-L-O-W-I-N-G … unfrakkinbelievable stuff … the reflection of world details off the car, the raindrops on your windshield, the cars themselves … I could go on and on!
Fortunately for the game I had to upgrade my video card and I settled (cough cough) for an ATI Radeon 9600XT with 256MB on-board – if you’re feeling jealous then you were supposed to – if not, then you're probably an investment banker - go get a life!

Enough showing off – back to the game – as usual you do spend a lot of time pimping your ride and the experience is sublime as ever! I’m currently riding a pimped up GTI which handles 160MPH with ease  Unfortunately I don’t see myself playing the game much for the next 45 days at least … boo-hoo!

Spring In our parking lot

Our parking lot always announces spring in style!
These pics are about three weeks old ... hey!

Midtown Comics

NYC – the greatest city on the planet – is also where I bumped into this innocuous little (not really) store in the vicinity of Times Square - Midtown Comics - A store devoted to comics and everything associated with it – busts, posters, collectibles, out-of-print-issues (really old ones), memorablia and much much more …
Next time I know where I am going to spend my afternoons in NYC :D

NYC - The Greatest City on the planet!

Its hard to place a finger on the energy in NYC - the city rocks ... literally! It takes a lot for me to say this but I think I shall go out on a limb and actually say it – “NYC is the greatest city on the planet! It truly is the big brother of Bombay!”
The subways, the music @subway stations, the energy, the people, midtown comics, the bull, the ferry, the statue, large billboards, building sized movie posters, the lights, the bright colors, the BMW bridges among other things truly make this city great. Sure, unlike Bombay you really can’t walk on the streets at any time of the year – it does get frikkin cold in winter – but the spirit is the same.
I always connect when I’m in the vicinity of NYC – I somehow feel safer and happier … I know that sounds screwed up but hey that’s the way it is!
This time around, D and I actually took the subway during rush hour to actually get a feel of it – honestly for someone who’s traveled in the local trains in Bombay, this is wayyyyyyyy to orderly … even easier than taking the local trains during off peak hours in Bombay.
And the live music and acts on every subway station makes it really interesting. Here’s some of the stuff we saw this time …
These twins playing some superb Spanish stuff … Gipsy Kingish (videos here & here)
This group of three dancers performing (video)
Grand Central (video) – OMG – this place is prettier than many of our airports! How I would love to sit here in the morning and watch the suns rays seep in through the vents.
Times Square and thereabouts
And more …

There’s still so much more to see and do … all in good time.
Some visuals from this time around ...










An quick draw by Rosh at the end of our pictionary session ... more on that later!

Why do we stand at the doorstep and talk?

I’ve always noticed this. Its never – get-up from the couch, say-your-goodbye’s,grab your coat and stuff, walk to the door, open it, walk out and hear the sound of the door closing behind you!
There’s always the assemble at the door – the huddle – where the last bits of most interesting conversation are had … nevermind that it’s the end of the day and you’re standing while its cold outside or that the stuff you’re holding is heavy or that you're standing in an awkward position holding the door! (or even that mom is asking you to step in and be comfortable!)
Can’t understand it – can’t stop it – don’t think I want to either!

More Food Please

At the risk of being called a foodie by a dear friend (who christened me so because of my craving for vada-pav!!), I shall nevertheless venture on this topic ;)

For a long time, each time someone would ask me about good restaurants in Raleigh, I would promptly reply – “The Irregardless café” – Sure enough this is a great place to dine and even dance on weekends. (altho dear one did not find time to visit it this time as well!)

But in the recent past we have discovered some excellent dining in the area …
A quick survey by Soumya and Preethu revealed this excellent restaurant in Raleigh - ShabaShabu. Do NOT miss this if you’re in the vicinity – Thai/Lounge/Sushi. Already been there twice and have recommended to juntax.

Thanks to De-Silva for introducing us to this awesome Greek place – Xios – great food, great ambience – loved it.

Thanks again to De-Silva for introducing us to Pao-Lim This awesome Chinese place which can be called Indo-Chinese – awesome food and psssst … they serve hidden “gobi Manchurian” – the dish is not on their menu but with a wink and the secret password you shall be treated :D

Shucks I’m hungry now!

Right under my nose! Kollektiv

For being such a big Karsh Kale fan and wanting "desperately" to watch the master play live - I've always been looking at the wrong place for gigs! All the while the answer has been riiiight under my nose - Kollektiv - the brainchild of Karsh (if you didn't figure out the heavy K flavor already ;) )and a meeting place for all these geeks (and psst they're about to release an album too)
And they have this page on myspace which has some cool musik AND more importantly - all their gig schedules! And both these pages have excellent streaming music which I suspect is going to be the meat of the forthcoming Kollektiv album!
If you think I'm kicking myself - you bet I am! Have been within hours of NYC and DC and have missed all the good stuff in the last couple years! aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh!
time to get back to Broken English!


Update
The Kollectiv home page has some seriously good streaming music!

Tilda

D and I were browsing thru the movie listing when we glanced upon the name “Tilda Swinton” (for Narnia) and we couldn’t help loffing at the name Tilda … needless to say, the next few minutes were spent imagining funny names right out of the keyboard!
The secret kid (the one that you don’t want others to know about) would be named “sysRq” … go figure!
My favorite - geeks would name their twins as “page up” and “page down”!

Brokeback Mountain

Somebody please help me understand what’s all the fuss about this movie – me thinks that brokemyback mountainofpain is a bloody waste of 2 hours and 14 minutes!
I desperately need a rerun of the Hulk to regain respect for Ang Lee!

Broken English Review

Today - May 19 – a Sunday – after 8 hours of back to back project meetings in school … :P – driving back home – tired and thinking of the tasks to complete and e-mails to send before going to bed – D suggests that we check our mailbox – oh yes! We forgot to check it yesterday and USPS does work on Saturdays! Sure enough there was this small package in the mailbox – Now I have heard of miracles and have also seen some – and am at a loss of words (which doesn't happen much) on how a CD that is slated to release on March 21st is sitting on my desk on May 19th – I know I per-ordered it and stuff … but this is unfrackinbelievable!
Be still my beating heart and also those green and burning hearts outside – as I write I am on my fifth run of Broken English! Need I say more?
As promised this album is extremely unlike GOD’s previous works (read previous two albums) – there’s vocals … on almost every track … and with complete lyrics too  - almost a Sawhney twist to album – but way better – awesome++ for lack of a better word!
As usual the first track is not one of my favorites … a good track with haunting vocals by Vaid (of course!). But the fun just begins from 'Manifest' and keeps building up before leaving you on a high with the aptly titled 'Rise Up'!… I won’t spoil it for those still wanting a virgin experience – but GOD has done a lot more (and more) in this album.
Unfortunately my plans of locking myself in the car and listening to the album got shot when some pricks broke into my car and stole my radio few days ago :( - I hope their engine seizes ... and their hood rots and falls off when its raining - among other things! ... sigh ... but then all that's in the past
So am with my trustworty headphones and computer ... Right now – I’m really loving Broken English … and every beat of it!

SXSW

I'm eating my heart out ... Austin - why do you have to be so far! The master a.k.a. Karsh Kale is performing this Friday (03/17) @Austin for SXSW - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhh!
lucky bastards those who will be able too see him play live ... and more.
But hey - thanks to SXSW, I'm actually able to hear the first track from Broken English - some trade-off ... but nice nevertheless!
Aayaand I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that they actually capture the event on video like they did in 2005 - that would be soohooperb!

As for my hiatus - well spring break rolled by and we spent 6 days with dear friends in the vicinity of the greatest city on the planet - NYC! Lots More on that later - right now am stuck in the deluge of work - bleh!

Update (03/19)
Since Cho2 protested so vehemently about me calling it "Austin City" as opposed to Austin (the talks about renaming Bombay to 'Bombay Bubblegum City' convinced me!) - I have updated the post accordingly. Cho2 does have the rights to claim Austin to be her city! :)

Google Doodles

Well ... I have been diligently saving all the Google Doodles in my "GooglePics" folder for the past ummmm ... 3 years or so. I've felt bad for the times that I've been too late to save one of them ... Just recently I was sad that I did not save one of the Winter-Olympics doodles when D showed me where all the doodles that have "Ever" been up are kept ... right under my mouse ... on the Google web-site! dang. dang. dang.

And its interesting to read about the dude who makes all these doodles for us :)

Me Want

Minority Report type touch screens!
Thank you Brij for pointing this one out ... can't wait for it to happen :) - the multi touch screen

And very very interesting comments on the post too.