More Parodies

Yeah, more of them here.

This one, a pretty funny parody of Marvel's superheroes. Focussing on Captain America and Daredevil, along with the Surfer, Galactus, and a few more. Too bad there's no spidey here, but then again, we alread got that.

HEROES

And riding on the wave of the current Indian Spiderman craze, here we have -

The Singhsons

It's only the opening credits that have been spoofed, not an entire episode, but it's a great preview of what we could have had...

Bad Spidey...

While checking out Warren Ellis's diepunyhuman.com, i came across this -

Twisted Spiderman Comic Strips

A bunch of old spiderman newspaper strips that have been redone to come up with some seriously twisted, funny variations.
Just hit refresh to get the different strips.

Mutants Are Real!

Whoa, newsflash!! Mutants really exist!!

Mutant Here

Hot topic on sites like newsarama.com, yeah, the next step of human evolution and all. Pretty soon, we wont have to go to the theatres to watch X-Men 8. We'll just look out the window..

The Great Indain Poll-ution, or, "Vote's up, Doc?"

Aah election day. For weeks, we have had irritating campaings and realms of news space dedicated to this big farce. Well heck, let me be a patriotic Indian and be a part of it.
So i got up early and went to vote. Had to spend about 45 mins running here n there to find out our booth number and all that jazz. I finally have everything in place, and get the ink on my finger, and tell the officer i would like to protest vote (for those who came in late, they register you and put "refused to vote" against your name. That way your voteatleast is safe, no one can misuse it). The officer looked as if i'd asked whether he'd like to be sodomised. So no protest voting. They'd never heard of it. Great. So i wasted my vote, randomly chose of of the lame ass independants who would never win.
What a gyp.

"Is Your Dad Home?"

I wonder what kind of training telemarketers get. Definetely not enough to remove all those age-old prejudices and conventional ideas.

//Translated from Hindi
TM - "Hi can i speak to the person in who's name this phone is registered?"
ME - "Not at home"
TM - "What time will he get back from work?"
ME - (What the fuck?) "Ahh, late evening"
TM - "And you mom?"
ME - "At work too"
TM - "She's also working? ('doing service')"
ME - "Yeah"
TM - "Any holidays?"
ME - "Sundays"
TM - "Ok, i'll call up then"
ME - "Sure, fine"
<*click*>

It's kinda infuriating how they assume your "father" is simply the one who's earning and everyone else is just wasted at home. I mean, that lady just assumed that the phone would be registered in my dad's name, and didnt even bothering confirming whether it actually is so or not.

The last time i got a call like this, i was pretty morbid.
There was some telemarketing chick asking if she could speak to my dad.
Well no, i said, he's not around.
Could she call later?
No, i said, i dont think you could speak to him.
She was perplexed. Why, she asked.
Because he's dead, i said.

I could literally feel her shock over the phone. I guess it was kinda cruel of me to put her in a spot like this, but i didnt care. She was flusterred and after muttering some lame half-assed apologies, she hung up.

See, i wonder if i should really talk to them like this or not. I mean, this is still India. We may have a modernised exterior, but under the facade, the heart that beats is still black and stuck in prehistoric mode. She was just doing her job, just regurgitating the shit her superiors trained her to do. Not her fault.
But still, i guess since i cant ever reach their superiors, i just say whatever's on my mind.

Next time, i'm gonna ask them whether this is what they have been trained to ask or is it just their assumption.
Next time, i'll be civilized before i get medieval on their asses.

Reunion

We had a school reunion yesterday. It was neat meeting all the guys after such a long time. I've been in touch with most of my brother's friends, as they would keep coming over, but the others, must have been more than year.
When thing got down to official business, yours truly was, as usual, dumped with all the work. Heh, only time, i get the power, the control. I get to be the moderator for our school alumni group. When i get around to creating it, that is.

The good Shepard hath save us

Got through with Half Life - Opposing Forces today, and wow, i freakin' tripped on it!! It was such a lot of fun, except for the half assed ending, but still, you gotta love the guys at Valve and Gearbox. Wondering if i should play the original Half Life again, but damn, it'll take a lot of time, and i already got Warcraft III on my hands. I thing i'll skip if for now.
Man i cannot wait for Half Life 2, and i hope i get an upgrade before that.

And the hyperbole starts again...

"The Greatest Match Ever".
Gimme a break!! The greatest?? Probably unlikely. Ever?? Definetely unlikely.
I can not believe the insane hoopahoola out there about our tour of Pakistan. People are reacting as if this is the last time we're ever gonna play the stupid game. It's mind-boggling. Our already dumbed-down newspapers have just taken a step backward again, and decided to toss all semblance of sensible journalism out the window, and are bending over backwards to bow down to the cricket "gods" and "fans".
Things are really bad. Infact, in today's Sunday Midday, Sunil Gavaskar himself seemed to be unhappy as to how the board supports only the National team, while the domestic circuit is left to slowly but surely rot into oblivion. Well not as strongly as i worded it here, but you get the gist of it. Heck he was still supporting the game, but atleast he had to balls to come out and say that India's participation the Olympics qualifiers have been totally ignored and most of the cricket coverage so far has been extremely trivial and sensationalism at it's best.
Lousy, i tell you. This is a stinkin' mess. The "short" version of the game is 8 hours long, and the "normal" version is 5 days long. An entire productive day was lost in a calender that is already choc-a-bloc with holidays and half-days. A crazy tour like this is the last thing we need.

Return Of The King

Ok, i'm pissed off. Some dude spends x years on some multi-billion earning movie, and he gets an oscar for his "labor of love"??? Am i missing the point here? Isnt the oscars supposed to be free from this kinda sentiment? Sentiment leading to bias?

Over a Cup of Coffee

Showed a strange affinity for coffee bars today. Though the coffee itself may suck, the ambience is killer. Excellent for catching up with friends, old or new. Barista, Barista, Cafe Coffee Day. That was my schedule for the day.

We collected the invites for our alumni meeting, my school mates and me. Yeah, i had class later, but damn, they never let me go. Wasted out at the coffee shoppe, Yari Road. I ended up paying :( but heh, i guess once in a blue moon i should chip in...

I was meeting Anupama after a long time. The last time she was in town, my bro was all set to fly off to Russia. So i couldnt met her, and didnt really talk either. Well, i should consider myself a little luckier this time. She called me. Sure, it was after one month of being in town, and sure it was because she was bored and she suddenly remembered she had my number, but what the hell, i'm not nitpicking...
Anywez, this was round two of my coffee day. Progessing and getting better.
Man, i spent most of my time discussing political ideology and a lot of what would be construed by other people as "nothing". But damn, it was a fun session of "nothing". Man, i was enthralled by tales of NLS. Law suddenly seemed a lot more fun. Doesnt mean i'm gonna cut back on lawyer jokes though...
This was where's we'd met the last time. That was probably about a year back, if i remember correctly (and more often than not, i dont, atleast not dates). Heck, we sat at the same place we did last time. Deja vu, like some voodoo. So i gave her King's.. ummm.. %@%$... cant recall. Anywez, she got me some stuff to read too. I can tell you what, but then i'll have to kill you. I dont think you'd like that.
We left sometime later, wandered around, and ended up at Cafe Coffee Day. Heh, still seems so damn funny when i think about it. From one hub to the next. I dont even know if there's any difference in their coffees, but who cares! I never have any out there, not when mom makes some of the best coffee this side of the moon.
And then, talking to her is such a lot of fun. i can say some of the most inane and confounding things, and i can rest assured that i wont meet a blank stare. That is something i'm not quite used to, so i'm often at a loss. Aah what the heck, learn and evolve.
Like while we were waiting outside for her friend to pick her up, we had a talk on whether it's worse to purposely ignore someone or to simply not be bothered at all to the extent of not even acknowledging them. Before you say a word, it's not the same. Think about it...

Group?

I reflect back to the fracas that happened during Byte-IT 2003, our college fest, the first edition. When i was primarily the one raising a racket. Due to a few, handful of people taking all the decisions that would affect all the others. I didnt like it.
Now, i see a similar thing hapenning. All the work has been designated and assigned by a few people. Half of the group do all the work, and the other half do not care. Once again, i feel like an outsider.
I reflect back to the beginning of the project, when i was aprehensive working with such a big group. I did manage to quell those thoughts, but maybe, i should never have been a part of the group. I do not fit into big groups, especially when it comes to work.
i guess i'm a loner by nature, no two ways about it.

Fans And Passion

I've been wanting to get this out for quite some time. We have a lot of rock music lovers around, a lot more than are actually represented on online forums. Most of them just listen to international bands and stay away from the local scene. I guess the music on the local scene really isnt good enough to draw new fans in. Bands may cry about the lack of support, but they need to clean up their act before they can draw any new blood in.
What i'm trying to say is, things dont become good with people patronising them, but rather, people patronise things that are good.
And it's high time our local "rock-gods" understood that.

Killing Spree!!!

Xan Kreiger ate dust today. Yes, i ran though him without giving him even a chance to fight back. Ofcourse, i used god mode for the last four challenge rounds, but that was because i'd gotten pretty bored by then. No really, it wasnt because i was getting my ass kicked, no sir, it wasnt so.

Yet another fruitful competetion

Yowza!! We won again!! And this time we won proper!!
The Jawaharlal Intercollegiate Shield, i believe, was the proper name. A big, huge, freakin' shield. It was great carrying it around, all over the place, and into college. Too bad there weren't a lot of people around, but what the heck!! Sajitha's getting it to college tomorrow, and i'll be taking it home for a day. Heh, will proudly parade it around to all, and hopefull, like Jerry Pinto said, it will attract a lot of feminine attention. Then again, in our college, you never know it that's a good thing or not..

The competetion itself wasn't really much of a real competetion. There were just three teams. I'm thinking the reason for low participation these days, may probably be an overkill of events and fests, but then again for every student who participates, there must be atleast ten who are waiting for their chance. I guess there isnt much inter-departmental communication happening in colleges these days.

Btw, the topic was "Capital Punishment Is The Best Deterrent For Heinous Crimes". I spoke for it, and my partner spoke against it.

Gutterment

I'm really disillusioned today. There was a time when reading a newspaper would have been entertaining. Not anymore. All it serves in doing now is raising one's blood pressure to heights previously unheard of.
The first page of the TOI itself showed the incompetence and sheer apathy of our government. The savages who vandalised the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute last week, were only held on bail. No doubt, they will be out within a week. No one in the government has bothered to condemn the attack. Instead, those fuckwits have gone ahead and banned the book by James Laine. Such a kneejerk and ignorant reaction i have not seen till date. Apparently this is an open invitation to legions of chaos. If you do not like something, burn it down. The government will side with you.
Then i turned the page and read about the rickshaw union calling for a strike on the 20th, for an increase in fares. This is as hypocritical as the government's stand on freedom of speech. It saddens me to say this, but the actions of a few taint the whole. With rampant unchecked rigging of meters, plus an increae in fares, looks like bus no 11 will be used a lot shortly.
All directly related to the budget. While electronics and travel and similar shit is now cheaper, as usual all the price of essentials has been hiked. Long live our gutterment.

This pretty much spoiled the morning for me. Ended up observing only bad shit. Some executioners hacking a tree to death. A sadistic BEST driver-conductor combination not willing to wait one second for a guy who ran 5 minutes to catch the bus. Fukk, i decided to doze off, or i'd have been a wreck by the time i got to college.

Sauce And Biscuit - Highlights Of The Brabourne Trophy

I won the consolation prize today, at the 62nd Brabourne InterCollegiate Elocution Competetion, held at the Ismail Yusuf college.
Consolation, n. A solace; alleviation of misery; what helps to cheer; what gives comfort.
What?? I should be offended! But i'm not, as i also got 250 bucks as a, heh, consolation. Heck, makes me wonder how much the winners must have got.

The highlights of the day were ofcourse, not what happened on-stage, but rather, what was happening off-stage. I got some samosas in a plate, and promptly spilled the sauce/chutney syrup all over my pants. it was brought to my notice by a slight wetness in the seat of my pant, and looking down, a saw a thin line of sauce. Thinking that's all it was, i wiped it off. When i got up ever so slightly, to look at the chair, i was horrified! I was sitting in a sea of sauce!! It soon penetrated right upto the interiors, if you get what i mean. And just then, we were asked to get up and sit in the front row. Talk about bad timing. I was so greatful i had worn black jeans. I could just imagine having to scoot about on my rear all day long if i had worn those cream trousers, like i had originally planned. I spent the rest of the time thinking if this was how females felt if they had their periods...

And biscuits. I nearly choked on the one i was eating when they announced my name for the, uh, concolation prize. Heheh. I was totally caught off guard, very clumsily kept aside my bag and plate, and went onstage to collect the price, hoping my hands were clean enough. Hope the audience didnt notice anything out of the ordinary.

The competetion itself was over quickly, with 12 participants. I suppose most colleges were busy with the NAAC thing, which explained the low turnout. We were given 7 topics, two hours before the event. I spoke on "Mall Mania", the only one to do so, while Sajitha, my team-mate, spoke on "Empowerment Of Women's Rights". The others were "Sachin And India", "Today's Food Habits", "Peer Pressure On Today's Youths", "Terrorism Destabilizes The World", and "Unlimited Growth On A Limited Planet". No one spoke on the last one.
The dude who came first, spoke on food habits, and the dude who came in third spoke on Sachin and India. They were both from St.Andrews, and they won the overall token trophy, third time in a row for the college, and second time for the dude who was numero uno. Infact, our chief guest for the evening, Jerry Pinto, had won the individual prizes three times here, and the team trophy twice.

New Year's Meal..

I cooked my first meal of the new year today. Wait, i made that masala rice yesterday. Hmm, but that as with my mom lording over me, so it doesn't count. So yes, today i cooked my first meal of the new year - mixed sabji for the afternoon. Actually, it was meant for the night too, but with the people dropping in today, it didnt last.

Without much ado, here's the recipe -

potatoes - 5
onions - 3
carrots - 3
beans - about 30
a few garlic pods.
And spices as per your liking.

Peel all the vegetables, chop them up into cubes/pieces/however-you-like-it. Put them all into a big cooking vessel. Pour about six spoons of oil. Heat. Stir. Add spices. Add salt. Keep stirring. Add a few more spoons of oil. Stir some more. Cover it and let it cook. Smell it. Serve. Eat. Enjoy.

Into The New...

Wow, what a start to the new year! Days should be like this, carefree and stoned. Nights too. Yup, especially when you're lying outside the bathroom half the night.
We also had a pre-new year's party celeberation. "Once Upon A Time In Mexico". A full two months after my birthday, and a month and a half after Danny's, we treat the gang to a movie. On the 31st morning. Hey, like they always say, better late than never, huh?
And i must be one of the minute minority who liked Eva Mendez more than Salma Hayek.