Of Mojitos and Stellas

Last Monday the whole of Aditi UK team was to meet up for dinner - not an ordinary affair because we were to have dinner with the CEO, Paddy. And 'whole of Aditi UK' boils down to 7-8 people. This was my second dinner with the CEO, the first one during my fresher days with the ex-CEO Mr. Pradeep Singh. The first dinner was in the pompous, overtly formal Bangalore club. This time round the venue was less imposing, it was the Zenzer retaurant in a golf course. Was I excited? You bet, it's not everyday that one sits down for a dinner with the CEO. But then in a company like Aditi it is not very uncommon either.

I had done my homework before I left for the venue, did not want to look like a fool when the menu was handed out and as soon as the menu was handed over, I said '1 Mojito, please'. Now, this is not a drink that I am familiar with(except for all the good things I heard about it from my friends) - but with the confidence of a seasoned cocktail drinker(is it even a word) I ordered. The rest of my homework went waste because the starters was pre-decided and there was no main-course to be had. Anyways, the drink arrived and all I could taste was mint and lime - where was the rum I wondered. But by the time I finished the drink I could feel the rum though i could not taste it :)

Well there is not much to write about the talks we had, except for how accounts were growing and company was doing well and how the mouse ran up the clock and so on.. It was not really as bad as that, it was quite interesting, but not the kind of nonsensical stuff that warrants an entry in my blog. After Mojito it was Stella who was my second mate for the night - a tall fizzy Stella. A litle more chit-chat, a few sips and my drink was over. And it was also time to leave, the CEO, VP and AM called it a night while the rest of us mere mortals stayed back for another glass of Stella. The Stellas were soon had and it was time to pay heed to the now throbbing-in-pain bladders.

1 Mojito and 2 Stellas were not enough for my mates and upon their insistence I decided to go to a pub for another drink. Braving the London cold and rain we walked on till we reached a pub in Harrow-on-the-hill. One Heineken and 30 mins of nonsense later we called it a day. The very eventful night ended with me throwing up and then sleeping like a baby, i say baby because I woke up as many times as a baby would do to refuel my dehydrated body. Puffy-eyed I went to work the next day and settled down to the monotony of work. Hic Hic..

Court room drama and a view from the top

It was raining the whole day, not the torrential downpour that we see in India, just a constant drizzle. Though the intensity was lesser, the annoyance was equal or probably more. Everytime I went to central London the dark, ominous clouds loomed large. And as always this meant that my pics would again be dark and that I would again doubt my choice of camera.

This weekend was a planned weekend with tickets booked for the London Eye, London Dungeon, Madam Tussaud's and the Aquarium. The constant drizzle had already downed my spirits a little and the visit to the aquarium was enough to suck out all the enthu. The bloody aquarium, supposedly the biggest in Europe, was a major let-down. There were lots of fishes but I was expecting a Singapore-like aquarium where I could see all the fishes floating above me, but all I saw was blown-up version of the aquariums we have at home. A vegetarian that I am, I could not even fantasize eating the different kinds of fishes. So rather than feeling bad I started exploring the underwater mode in my camera and tried to replicate the settings in the manual mode. While the underwater mode produced some nice pics, the manual mode pics were total wash-outs. A couple of good pics though.

After the aqua visit me and Siva had some homemade peanut candy(not chikki, it was a different kind) and set off towards the London Dungeon to get spooked. The scare began quite before we entered the dungeon - the queue to enter the dungeon was so huge!!! We waited for almost an hour outside and the rain kept us company. If only the it was a lil darker I would have imagined Raveena and her tip-tip barsa paani dance. After the long wait we finally entered the dark dark dungeon and the scares began. Live actors jumping outta nowhere, gory stautes lined all along, red fluids dripping from the statues, the mirror mazes(never thought it would be so confusing inside a mirror maze).. As we went along, the darkest stories of London history were enacted by the actors, all wearing victorian clothes (all girls wore the corset) and their faces painted to make them look scary. At every turn it was a different story. The only thing predictable was a crazy girl in the group you shrieked every now and then. T'was like the silly girl was programmed to shriek at periodic intervals.

In one of the rooms there was court room scene which was very very funny. Three people from the group were picked and had trial.

Scene 1 (a little girl was on trial):

Actor: Whats your name?

Girl: Page

Actor: Thats a silly name for a girl. Anyways, your honour, this girl was caught in the park pinching.

Judge: Pinching?

Actor: Pinching, you know.. Like stealing wallets.

Judge: So you..

Actor: And also pinching the bums of honorable young men. Page, show us how you pinched.

Judge: So Page, do you enjoy pinching young mens bottoms?

Page: No..

Judge: How old are you?

Page: 11

Judge: Wait another 10 more years and then you will enjoy. Plead guilty and you shall be shot by a canon. Plead very guilty and you shall be shot from a canon and plead innocent and you shall be..

Page: Innocent.

Judge: Hang her.

Scene 2 (Daniel, a german):

Actor: This man was found having a relationship with animals.

Judge: Animals? Relationship? Of what nature?

Actor: You know...

Judge: Daniel, which animal was it with? A horse?

Daniel: NO.

Judge: So it was not even a stable relationship. Hang him. (I was laughing so hard by now, the poor germans could not read between the lines and found nothing funny)

Scene 3 (Stephen):

Judge: Stephen, where are you from.

Stephen: Taiwan.

Judge: Hang him.

It was such a witty trial. After a few more stories from London's dark history we were all hanged to death, with a noose on a screen in front of us there was a free fall and then we were declared dead.

After the thoughly entertaining dungeon we went past the Tower Bridge and went to the London eye. The best part of the day was about to begin. The sun was setting, the city was waking up. As we soared higher and higher, the view got more and more breathtaking. By the time we reached the top the sun had set and all the night lights were out in full splendour. So beautiful was the experience that I will always stay with me. Before I return back to India, I am sure I will go the London eye flight again. The constant drizzle meant that I could not click any great pics, definitely not outdoors, what with the rain tring to get into my lens. Still managed a few good pics from my London Eye flight.

Ended the day with a quick visit to the Leicester Square and Piccadilly circus(there is no circus really, circus means circle in Roman and hence technically the Piccadilly Circus is like our corporation circle). After 12 hours in the rain I got back home to my cosy bed and slept like a log… zzzzzz…

Quote of the day

Life was much simpler when apples and blackberrys were just fruits

Potter bug

And now I have this inexplicable urge to read the Potter series. I don't know why I typed J.K.Rowling in wiki and why I spent my entire afternoon wikiing. But now after all the wasted afternoon hours, I feel like reading the Potter series again. I realize I remember absolutely nothing about the story, except for of course the characters.

Time to see if this urge will at least push me towards the library..If this urge will rekindle the fire..

The now dead love affair..

I think my love affair with books is all but gone now. After I started working, the number of books I have read are countable and after I moved to Hebbal I have never even touched/completed any book. I blamed it all on the work and the fun and never ending flow of english sitcoms. Never once did I think that it could be because I am no longer a bookworm.

So when my move to London happened, considering I am practically friendless here, I thought I would first go out and find a library and get back to my old ways. And as luck be it, the Rayners Lane Library was right in front of my office and just 2 mins walk from my current residence. I imagined myself sitting in the library till 8:30 in the night(that's till when the library is open) till the good ol librarian comes to me and tells 'Enough for today, can't wait to see you again tomorrow'. And I knew I would never feel lonely in London.

But what really happened was totally unprecedented. I have a library-front view from my workplace, I can see 30% of the name - 'Rayners....' and today, after having been in London for nearly 4 weeks, as I look out of the window I realize that library access was never so easy in my entire life and not once did I even visit the place. I pass by the library everyday and strangely enough I do not feel the magical pull. This was not the case a few years ago, I used to go down from Moodbidri to Karkala to rent books from the library. The 2 books I carried from India are by my bedside waiting for me to acknowledge their existance.

Wonder how quickly habits die off, I have not changed as a person. I still am not very social, I prefer my own solitude(even if I am bored to death), I am still not very outgoing and I am still as jobless as ever (or even more). How I wish I could feel the sweet tug of the musty ol books.. Jaane kahan gaye woh din...

Saturday Walkathon

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful ” This is the quote I saw outside a pub last Saturday. It was written in chalk and reminded me of the ‘thought for the day’ that we used to write in our school. The parallels are obvious, both are places of learning. I wondered which drunk would be sensible enough to put such a beautiful thought and upon googling I realized that the drunk is actually a very famous drunk and goes by the name William Morris.

The quote was not the only interesting thing I saw/heard that Saturday.

· I heard 2 joggers talk in Kannada on the Tower Bridge. That was indeed a pleasant surprise and I suddenly had this craving for hot-hot idly-sambar.

· Saw the awe-inspiring London attractions like Tower bridge, St. Paul’s cathedral, Trafalgar square(pity there are no more pigeons), National Gallery, Big ben, Queens Walk and London Eye.

· On the way back I heard a bloody braggart, who went non-stop , claim at one point in the conversation that he was a very modest man.

· Saw a Pablo Picasso painting and the famous Van Gogh sunflowers in the National Gallery.

· Got completely and totally lost trying to find my way to Trafalgar square. Walked for a couple of hours before I could find it.

After 11 hours of being outside and close to 5 hours of walking, I finally reached home dog-tired. Thankfully had chapattis and potato subzi left-over from the previous day. Here are a few pics from my walkathon.

The love affair

Things I currently love in London.. Don’t know how long this love affair with London is gonna last:

• You can hear the birds chirping. In the hotel, in the office, in the restaurant, in the house, everywhere around.
• People are at their courteous best. To the extent that it sometimes bugs you. From hulloing each other on the streets to holding the door open(their favorite).
• Apparently you don’t need a beer to say cheers!! Every conversation/mail ends with a cheers.
• The London tube map. You have it in your hand and that’s all you need to get to any damn place in London.
• The winter effect on the trees, every tree is so bald/barren. Not a single leaf in sight.
• The traffic. In 3 weeks of stay here I have only once heard a driver honk.
• The London buses and their amazing turning radius(am not sure if that’s the right term). The turnings that the bus can cut are amazing.
• The girls and the short skirts. No matter how cold the day, the fair sex is out showing their long legs.
• The hairstyles. Men are so particular about their hair, everybody has a distinctive style. Not many like me who jus brush their hair to one side and walk. Spikes and Mohawks and army and straight and so many more unnameable styles..
• The cold!!! As unbearable as it is at times, it comes as a welcome change from the Indian sun.
• The joy in the faces when there is an occasional sunny day. You can actually see people facing the sun and soaking in all the warmth. Lots of sun, lots of fun(line from a cosmetics ad in India, which of course is totally wrong in the Indian context).
• The sri-lankan restaurant Papaya and the extremely spicy Kothu Stringhoppers.. So spicy that I could bring tears in your eyes. And to wash the spice down with Lion beer(sri-lankan) is such a joy.
• The amazing queens walk by the Thames. So crowded with families and yet so tranquil.
• The expense. The city is so expensive that I forces you to calculate and think before spending even a pi(or should I say pence?).
• The smell of incense and kumkum when you walk into some Indian stores.
• The hand dryers in the rest rooms. So powerful and they blow real hot air. But the absolute absence of tissues is disappointing, London is going green(or so they say).

And lastly, the anonymity.

2010..So far, so excellent..

And finally we have a car in the family. A dark green Ritz. This was only the last of the good things that happened in the family in 2010. It has been a very luck 2010, touch wood, for everbody at home.

I guess Pappu started off the luck badwagon at home. He first got himself a new job at Infy and now he can rest assured that he would recieve his pay-cheque on the first of every month. And then it was my turn. I too got myself a job at Infy and that too Mangalore, got my referal bonus and my referal gift of plane tickets worth 15k from Aditi. Lady luck was still smiling, I got an even better oppurtunity - travel to London from Aditi. I lapped it up and here I am in London. Then it was my sister-in-law's turn whose 2 years of hard-work paid off and she got a seat in MMC for her MS in Ophthalmology. Finally, it was the eldests turn to buy a car. A shining green beauty. Can't wait to get my ass on it and go for a long drive, but that will have to wait till I get back to India. And I almost missed to mention my score of 98.32 in XAT this year, pity that I did not clear the sectional cut-off for XLRI and pity that I did not apply for any other colleges from which I could easily have got a call.

Hoping that the good luck continues, may the lady keep smiling...

Initial impressions on the TZ6

After a lot of research(a misleading term for the googling I did) on compact cameras, I decided to buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ6(Panasonic TZ6). I was very clear on what I wanted: A compact digicam with the highest zoom in the range. And the right price(read low price) of course.

So my search began and the truly speaking there were not many options. There was a Canon 110IS(which I definitely did not want because my bro already had the same model, an excellent camera but why have the same model again in the family?), a couple of FujiFilms - Finepix F-72(super good glossy finish), Fuji S-2000 HD(some very nice shooting modes which every amateur photographer actually needs with an excellent grip and HD recording) and a yet to launch Finepix F-80 which I believe is the best looking super zoom compact, a Casio, a Sony and an Olympus. But any site I visited, the TZ6 seemed to be the favorite. DPReview thinks it is a must have, CNET rates it a very high 9.4 or so and a few other sites I visited all suggested the Lumix TZ6.

The price in India was a little above my budget and so I decided to buy it in the UK. It was actually quite a huge difference of about 8000Rs. With the camera delivered last Friday, I set out on the streets of London to click. I first went to the Wembley Stadium. I clicked, I reviewed the pic. Something was definitely wrong, after all the reviews I had really high expectations. Blaming it on my poor photography skills, I put the camera in iA mode, panasonic's intelligent auto mode and the results were even worse. I don't know if its the London sky heavy with dark clouds or if its the camera. I tried the 'clouds' mode in the camera and clicked again and then played around with a couple of more modes. Not that the photos were bad, its the high expectations I had. I thought just setting the auto-mode would produce excellent pics.

Some sample pics on a very cloudy day:

Yesterday I went to the British Museum and tried some indoor photography. Every object of interest was differently lit - day light, indoor halogen lights, florescent lights, incandescent lights etc. Objects within the glass cases were just impossible to click with the reflection. And again, the iA mode disappointed. Fiddling with the other options in camera proved to be more fruitful producing some nice pics.

Either the camera is a let-down(which may not be the case considering the amazing reviews its got) or I still have not figured out the right modes. So there is some more midnight oil to burn reading up the manual.