So comes a Tag my way...NO its not a Tag Heuer watch

There I was in San Diego, USA, counting my last days in the US, when suddenly I checked my mail and found this comment by a certain Jammin Dudleybouy...a-k-a Vikirum

I had been TAGGED!!! I'd like to christen this tag THE GREAT EIGHT .

Anyways...so here are my answers....

Eight Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over
Oh my god...there are so many....and they keep changing....but here's a list of my ALL time favourites...(in random order)

1. Shine on you crazy diamond - Pink Floyd

2. Creep - Stone Temple Pilots (the acoustic version)

3. Mocking Bird - Eminem

4. Kholo Kholo - Taare Zameen Par (Shankan-Ehsaan-Loy)

5. Almost all songs from Nirvana unplugged in New York. (Kurt Cobain ROCKS!!!)

6. One - Metallica

7. Time to say goodbye - Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman

8. Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin


Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Watch India play Australia in a test-match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

2. Go on the Kailash - Manasarovar Yatra.

3. Make a difference to somebody's life so that THAT SOMEONE remembers me all his/her life even after I am gone. Something worth dying for.

4. Visit the Rio Carnival.

5. Take mom-and-dad on an around the world tour.

6. Fly an airplane.

7. Have sex in an elevator. (hahahahahahaha)

8. Buy a Mercedes Benz.


Eight Things I Say Often

1. Fuck/Freak/WTF!!??!!

2. Oh My God

3. Chirkut

4. Bhendi/Bhenchod

5. Dude

6. Yeh Kya Chutiyagiri Hai!!??!!

7. Holy Mother Of God!

8. Paplu


Eight Books I Have Read Recently

Not much of an avid reader but, I've read these books over a span of about 4 or so years. :-))

1. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard.P.Feynmann

2. Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

3. Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden

4. Its Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

5. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

6. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown

7. Almighty - Irving Wallace

8. Michael Schumacher: The Edge Of Greatness - James Allen


Eight Things That Attract Me To My Friends

1. My Openness

2. Helpful Nature

3. My Quirks

4. Willingness to accept my mistake and learn

5. Dependability

6. Willingness to spend money

7. Always trying to keep everyone connected

8. My Car (hehehehe)


Eight Things I'm Passionate About

1. Friends

2. Car

3. Driving

4. Rock Music

5. Blogging

6. Cooking

7. Photography

8. Travelling



Eight People That Should Do This Tag

Honestly, since a lot of blogger mates are common between Vik and me, I dont have 8 people to whom I can pass on this tag. So, I'll just say....Anyone who's interested can pick up this tag.

Have fun doing it. :-))

Here I am....

Take a deep breath.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmph......(hold)....(hold)....(hold)....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah......the air feels strange. I can smell a slight tinge of pollution, a little bit of humidity. The sky seems hazy. I can see people everywhere. Walking on the road...tens of millions. Travelling in overcrowded buses...millions. Sitting inside a dingy little 3-wheeled motor like creatures (auto-rickshaws)...tens of thousands. Driving swanky and not so swanky cars...thousands. Welcome to my home country, India. My home town, Mumbai.

I have been here close to about 3 whole weeks and boy it hasn't changed one little bit. What am I saying?? Of course it has changed, there are new malls, new restaurants, new night clubs, new road construction, new residential complexes, new commercial properties, new multiplexes. But, the problems compounding the city are the same. Lots of traffic, very few parking spots, lack of road discipline, people driving expensive vehicles but still stopping to spit their pan-masala, corrupt politicians targetting innocent bread-earners under the pretext that they are not locals. At times, I do tend to think whether I did the right thing in deciding to come back from the US.

And then I see my mom, my dad, my dear (maternal) grandfather and grandmother, my sister, her husband, my dearest younger brother, my mom's home cooked wonderful food, the innumerable options for vegetarian food available the moment you step out of the house, cheap but excellent medical treatment available nearly at my beck-and-call, not having to rely solely on cars to get grocery, negotiating with the vegetable vendor to get the best available bargain. And most of all my new house which will be under my possession in the next month or so. And I think, it was worth it coming back from the US.

Yes, it has been completely, totally, absolutely, positively, one-hundred-percent worth it. I have lots of things to blog about, including the "ice-breaking" conversation I had with someone whom mom-and-dad would call "prospective marriage alliance", until then keep reading and keep smiling.

Blogging from SFO Airport

Wow...The power of internet. Here I am with the first leg of my journey back home is done. I've come to San Francisco from San Diego. The flight just one and a half hours. And thats what I'm doing. HEHEHEHEHE.




Nows the big one...San Francisco to Singapore via Hong Kong. A humongous 14 hour ordeal. I dont know how I will spend time, knowing that I sleep really bad in flights. And unfortunately my DELL XPS can at best work for 4.5 hours only.

Had huge trouble with my check-in bags. Apparently, it was 18 lbs over weight. Dunno how much that translates into in terms of kilograms, but the maximum allowed in a United flight is a lousy lowly 60 lbs. Compare that with a maximum of 75 lbs allowed in Singapore airlines, United sucks big time.

I simply cannot understand their process. Here I am flying out of the US, on a major carrier (read Singapore airlines) but connecting through United's flight from San Diego to San Francisco. This is written perfectly clearly in my ticket. There's no way in the world that I'll forego my journey and yet United will not allow me to check-in bags with the same weight as Singapore airlines. One thing which is all the more surprising is that they're both affiliated to the same group - Star Alliance.

So, here I am arguing at the counter about whats right and whats wrong and the way it should work but to no avail. The check-in counter lady did not budge. Tired of the argument, I relented and asked her how much would it cost me. She said since my bag's 78 lbs, it would cost huge. I was shell-shocked to hear the amount.

It would have cost me a phenomenal, earth-shattering, 3-hundred-frikkin-odd dollars for that weight. I told her that no ways I'm gonna pay that much. Then she gave me an alternative. She said if I were to remove 8 lbs then I would have to just pay USD 50. So there I had it. Pay 50 or chuck everything to bring down to 60. I removed out some of the unwanted stuff and some more stuff I moved to my hand luggage and finally I was down to 68 lbs.

I thought I went rather early to the airport, but with all the time I spent first arguing and then later re-arranging, I was left with just 30-odd minutes before my departure. Having taken all my stuff, I hurried to the security check. It was starting to sink in. I was heading HOME. YIPEEEEE.

Flying in an airlines in the US is a pain in the frikkin ass. The security check is so severe that you're bound to forget something or the other at the scanning machine. And thats the exact thing that happened to me. With all the adrenalin pumping because of the baggage ordeal coupled with the thought of heading homeward, made me forget my digital SLR camera at the scannin machine.

Luckily, when I was sitting down at a chair bang opposite to the scanning machine, I saw a security attendant open my camera bag remove all my stuff and pass it through the scanning machine AGAIN!! They were probably suspecting that it contained some sort of explosive. And then I shouted, its mine....its mine. Thus I was finally united with my camera.

PHEW!! All this and I've just finished the first leg of the journey. Wonder what else is in store for me. For all those who dont know, I'm gonna take a 3-day break in Singapore. Will be meeting my dear friend JK. I'll be meeting him after nearly 3 long years. I'm sooo looking forward to it.