footnotes in the book of life

Have you ever observed how music serves as footnotes in your life? You're idling your time in front of the television, switching channels; you unexpectedly hear a long lost tune and it immediately throws you back in time ...to a place, different; ...to a time, nostalgic. As the music catches on and the lyrics seem to appear onto your lips from nowhere, your mind is flooded with events and thoughts that belong to a different time, that probably defined a different you then, and you think; ...you think about your life, begin to recollect how you were then and what you are now. Mostly you'll observe the good changes and that will make you happy and proud of yourself. But at times, you'll stumble upon the mistakes you made then, and you'll now resolve to take corrective measures.
It all happens in there. You chance upon a peppy number from the past and all the good times flood in; the song that epitomized the party atmosphere during college days, the one that was the mainstay during dance competitions when you forgot everything else and jumped around, even though you couldn't dance to save your life.
A soulful melody reminds you of your private moments; the times when,cuddled under the blanket in winter, with the same song serenading the silence of the night, you introspected and thought about your future, or about your family, friends.
Music livens up your past.It opens different chapters from your past, depending on the song or tune; some good some not so good, but nevertheless, very nostalgic.

Of fragile egos and flayed tempers

I recently had the opportunity to be the only dedicated witness to a 'middle-of-the-road' fight. That the driver of the vehicle i was in, was in the fight, didn't offer me much choice is hmm..come to think of it,a half-truth..more on that later.
So it happened one night that i hitched a ride on a cab. For the benefit of non-bangloreans, company cabs are another mode of transport here. They do official pick ups and drops for the concerned company, but take passengers for a fare on return trips. You pay them nominally (its investment free income for them) and they drop u wherever, as long as its on their route.
Hmm..so i was on a sumo at abt 10:30 in the night and travelling towards BTM layout. There was minimal traffic on the road and we were doing well, until we encountered a motorcyclist 'snaking' down the road. As we neared him, it appeared obvious, that he was drunk and not in much control of his bike. To avoid anything untoward, the sumo driver honks before going past him. Our man on the bike is not pleased and utters some pleasantries while we cross over. Not to be outdone, my guy returns the courtesy. Unfortunately, we reach a red light (silk board junction) and the biker promptly parks his vehicle across, in front of the sumo. A middle aged, shabby looking man, he looked perfect to get into a fight, he more than lived upto the expectation.
By now, the sumo driver is also out of the vehicle and the word duel has started,unfortunately for me though, in kannada. So I had to be content with the hysterical gestures and decibel level variations for entertainment. We missed the next green light, i feared for worse. So far the biker seemed to have the upper hand in the 'wordwar'. At the next red, luckily, a police car pulls up beside us. Peace seems to be restored as the biker reluctantly begins to move his bike. After all, he's totally at fault here, because the premise for the fight was, "how dare you honk from behind and disturb me!". Alas, our driver, feeling emboldened by the cop presence, starts releasing all his frustration. Idiot doesn't realize that the light is about to turn green. It promptly does, the police car leaves the scene and our sophisticated biker brings back his bike to position. Man! am i getting mad. Through all this, i have the option of leaving the vehicle and walking the remaining 1.5 kms home. Still, i stayed put.
Now both parties seem equally poised in the war. Things were escalating and I was expecting the first blow to land any moment now. But, surprisingly, it never did. It was all abt threats and phone call attempts. Our man, the biker, at one point starts to unzip to show his manhood, probably in a desperate attempt to reinforce his manliness. Fortunately, he stopped just short of displaying it. I wonder, what effect it would have had on the situation. Anyway, both of them then get busy, presumably trying to call their pally big shots. Nothing much happens on that front though. The fight goes on for a few more minutes after that and stops when both of them run out of expletives. The biker goes his way, the sumo its, but not before the biker brandishes a paper with the sumo's license no: and the sumo driver gives him an 'as if i care' look. Peace!

What do i say about people who do not carry a pen on their person while at work?

I thought it was a given until i realised to the contrary, and rather irritatingly at that, when i failed to get one from any of my colleagues nearby, when ran out of ink. I find it thought provoking, that people do not find having a pen very useful, because they sure do remember to carry their combs,cigarettes, gutkas and whatever things. Is it coz, its more convenient to borrow one when needed? Or is it coz it will be borrowed if u keep one? beats me!

Brand Equity FARCE 2006

Parnab Mukherji once replied, " Derek O' Brien? he's excellent for class 6 quizzing ". I was taken aback then, but, couldn't agree more after attending the b'lore leg of the Brand Equity Quiz -06. Absolutely trash questions interspersed with perverted jokes and obscene slides and downright PJs...thats BEQ-06 in a nutshell. When the top team to qualify in a prelim round scores 23 out of 30, u can gauge the level of questions. Morover, when u find that the National Champions of the Tata Crucible and a few other prominent teams did not even make it to the final round, it too says something about the standard of the quiz. Had i participated as a 12th grader in y'day's quiz, i would have easily managed to qualify. An example..the magazine ad of which company reads "find the dog". the first answer that popped into my mind was HMV. But quizzing at this level is all about working out. I kept HMV aside and thought. Hutch advertises with the ubiquitous pug. It would be logical for Airtel to have a go at them. Had i been a participant, i would have decided on Airtel over HMV. the answer was HMV. Another one. During the Californian gold rush, who was called the 'cowboy's tailor'? Mind you, there are teams here who can narrate the entire life story of Levi Strauss backwards and you give them such a question. Unless u're used to derek's brand of quizzing, u would be forced to think twice and thats what they must have probably done to get a wrong answer. Amidst all this nonsense, if it weren't enough, our man was dressed in army camouflages and displaying a mighty sorry sense of humour.General rumdi from ruski institute of ....disastrous interpretations.........God! get a life dude.Quizzing is not visual entertainment. Its cerebral entertainment.If u want to be a joker, join a circus. Leave quizzing to the sane