Top of the Mind

So this is like a rapid-fire quiz round. Shoot the question and pop comes the answer. Me Vs. My Alter. No second thoughts. So there goes question number...

01. What do you want to do now? Play Football.
02. What time is it now? 3.55 am.
03. What should you be doing now? Playing Football.. duh!
04. Grrr!? Err...Sleep?
05. Are you hungry? Yes.
06. What do you want to eat? Maggi !!!
07. Last Facebook status? JJ "is inspired by insomnia."
08. Last phone call to? Beep.
09. Last phone call from? Beep.
10. Favourite fruit? Lichi.
11. Favourite vegetable? Lady's Finger.
12. Favourite animal on plate? Rabbit (Bet! They're damn tasty).
13. Favourite fish? Tuna.
14. Favourite aunt? Elsa & Thankamma (can't choose between the two).
15. Lives to? Travel, Write, Build Boats/Ships.
16. And not play football? Stupid Question.
17. Would like to be? A Human Been.
18. Instruments you play? In ascending order of awkwardness - Keyboard, Violin, Drums, Guitar.
19. Song you last listened to? Candle in the wind.
20. Favourite Song? Stairway to Heaven.
21. Home Port? Cochin.
22. Home State? Kerala.. Duh!
23. First trip abroad? To Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
24. Last trip abroad? To Republic of Korea (not the rogue one!)
25. Wish to go to? Norway.
26. First Crush?  Beep.
28. Last Crush? Beep.
29. Best feature of the female anatomy? Eyes.
30. Favourite Language? German.
31. Number of Languages you speak? 3.
32. Star? Messi.
33. Football? Everyday.
34. Favourite band? Led Zeplin.
35. Part of a band? 3.4
36. Favourite Instrument? Violin.
37. Musician? Beethoven.
38. Classic? Canon in D.
39. Movie? Iron Man.
40. Romance Vs Comedy Vs Horror? Romantic Comedy.
41. Sister? One! Little!
42. Major? Mechanical.
43. Best Friend? Raman.
44. How many close friends? 5.
45. Gift girlfriend on her birthday? Lots of flowers.
46. Motor Cycle? Harley Davidson.
47. NY Vs. CA? CA.
48. Holidaying Location? Himalayas.
49. Lucknow? Kababs.
50. Expensive paraphernalia on wishlist? A Magnum Sniper.
51. Car? Lamborghini.
52. Never been kissed? Have been.
53. Watch? Swatch.
54. Cellphone? Blackberry.
55. Soccer Club? Arsenal.
56. Heartache? Sometimes.
57. Drink? Wine. Chardonnay.
58. Beer? Budweiser.
59. Food? Mugalai.
60. Occupation? Engineer.
61. Practice? Naval Architecture.
62. Currently? PhD Student
63. Specialization? Operations.
64. Weather? Humid.
65. Rains? Scent of the earth.
66. Loves getting wet? Yes!
67. Swim Strokes? Freestyle, Back & Breast-strokes. Not butterfly.
68. Swim for? Relaxing, overall body fitness.
69. Strongest Muscle? Calf.
70. Weakest Muscle? Shoulder.
71. Picnic? Beach.
72. Beach? Sun, Sea, Sand.
73. Read Book Vs. Waterscooter ride? Waterscooter ride.
74. Skin? Tan.
75. Eye? Black.
76. Hair? Long.
77. Physique? Slim.
78. Juice? Strawberry.
79. Season? Winter.
80. Cloud? White.
81. Wind? Storm.
82. Sky? Blue.
83. Hands? Prophecy.
84. Book? Good Omens.
85. Favourite Key? G.
86. Age? 25 (and counting).
87. Teacher? George Philip.
88. Nostalgia? CET.
89. Trees? Acacia.
90. Happiest Moment? Best buggy car @ iitb - techfest.
91. Saddest Moment? Grandma dies.
92. Favourite Colour? Blue.
93. Today? July 31st.
94. Day ahead? Chilled out
95. Day behind? Worked up.
96. First thing to do? Eat.
97. Must do today? Swim.
98. And now its? Dawn.
99. Ready? To rise & shine! :)

Isolated Inkblots

Already been 30 days in campus after the summer hiatus. Time, it seems has a penchant for pacing up when you really don't want it to. So many moments, each having a different story to tell, and yet clustered together, indifferentiable as an inkblot connected to other inkblots tracing a path. Curvy at times, it transgresses your imagination, takes you to places you never thought you would go, connects you with people of the weirdest kind - until - weird becomes familiar, more so when you look at the mirror.

To try to find meaning in this trail of dots, to see if it connects - a futile exercise in itself as I see it - except - of course,  when it comes to graduation commencement speeches - to inspire, to hold in awe, to entertain the bright systemic robots treading the tested track- hindsight is always right! Ain't it? Just in case, you begin to develop some hard feelings, I really love the Macbook!!!

And on the road that stretched till black asphalt blended into orange and red, we rode - 3 guzzlers and a lass - humoring our appetite to natures bounty disowned by mortal men. Basking under the rays of the twilight sun amidst the fields rendered in green, yellow and brown. The weeds inspired us. 4 kids playing on the Merry-Go-'round - laughter, fun and innocence. One of them looked like the kid in my mother's album. The scallywags with me thought just the same about the other kids.

There are some dots that are better left unconnected.

Back at Hell

After a much needed break, me back at hel(L). So very relieved today after finishing the 100 page report (Yes! hundred it is). Was haunting me for days, shoulders heavy, each page, hanging like a rubble. Now, no strings attached. At ease. Carlsberg. Music. Even better. 3.4 Jamming. Long Walk. Lovely it is. Today is nice. 

A New Beginning

808 days ago, I had made my my last blog entry. It was a crossword sprinkled with keywords dedicated to my undergrad days. It has been a long time and I have moved on since then. Now at a different place, with new friends, different tasks and new perspectives. Nevertheless, when I scan through my old blogs, reminiscences of those beautiful-yet-not-so-innocent days flash across my mind.

Time was not a luxury then. We had truck-loads of it - be it for the movie-every-night, football-every-evening, catnap-every-afternoon or breakfast-every-morning. And that was not it. There was even more time for cycling around the beaches shoring Trivandrum, playing pranks on crushe(s), gorging mouthwatering uzhunnu vadas in heavily subsidized canteens of space organizations, rambling away on nonsensical themes with sensible philosopher friends, playing AOE for 3 hours pre-midnight and CS for 3 hours post-midnight - rest assured all the time that waking up well into the first hour of hydraulics lecture at 9 AM wouldn't do much harm as long as you paid your dues in Lemon Sodas & Parippu Vadas to the proficient-proxy-professionals.

And like all good things, those days too faded away. Armed with an engineering degree and disarmed of leisure, love and luck, I walked into a firm located a thousand miles away from home barely a month after graduation. Unlucky I was of not being posted at the firm's Bangalore office initially - I missed my family, my fulsome-fish-food and friends - half of them who were posted in the 'party city'. Leisure was unknown, especially in my first year into the job, working hard to cover up for missed-but-must-know concepts of engineering professed but not pondered upon. That was the slog period. Eventually, things brightened up, I loved my work. Naval Architecture fascinated me. To design ships of steel that sailed seamlessly across the seas were as much an art as science. Fairing the lines of her hull to sail with the least resistance & adequate stability, sizing her girders & stiffeners for strength, engineering her machinery & propulsion systems was all what I loved to do. It was so intense, involving and beautiful. And in between I got my stint in Bangalore too :) Everything was going nice. But I terribly missed my blog. My pals used to pen their thoughts once in a while, to some of which I commented. But that was it. My penchant to write was never addressed, thoughts were suppressed, feelings bottled up. And then, I took a break - for good.

Quit my job and joined a b-school in the 'City of Nawabs'. It is nice to be back to school. The lush green campus, evening football games, the insti-parties flooded with drinks, the rock band, the midnight noodles and the beautiful girls - not a bad trade-off :)

And here is where I resume my lost thread. I thought I would start it as a new blog. Hope you, my friends, will enjoy it. So long...