Small things... damn those small things.

Why is it that sometimes, for no clearly apparent reason, something small and trivial, and altogether insignificant, will push my buttons and get me all annoyed or angry or upset?

Why do I let these stupid un-important things get under my skin? Why do I let it affect me so? Why do I let myself say stupid things that can do irrepairable harm when that happens ?


Damn. I hate when that happens.

I love my Club !

One United.. Forever.

Everyone's always heading somewhere...

Well .. its true if you think about it. Even literally. The other day Nadia, Vishal, Charuhas, Melanie and Me took off for a night on the town. For no reason except that, chance roams like that are becomming harder and harder. Nadia's heading to the States in less than 2 weeks, Charuhas has to retrun to Belguam by the 5th, Vishal to mangalore, Mel to her books and me.. well who knows what I'm going to be doing.

So we headed out.. grabbed some yummy take-away, drove alot, sang alot, listened to music alot... chatted even more. It was that relaxed evening with friends that you just love and that comes less and less often as time goes by. Well at least, less and less with your old friends..

Still.. making memories is always fun.. this was another night of fun memories. I did not have my camera, but I do have a couple of snaps courtesy Charu's and Vishal's cell phones.

Taken at Baskin Robbins that night, just before we headed out to Cab Raj Niwas to sit on the stone benches, infront of an open car, listening to the sounds of Goo Goo Dolls 'Iris', watching the lights twinkle, and sky slowly cloud over.

Time flies.. and with it my friends. I hope Nadia has an amazing time in the States. Find it so hard to believe she's going. Even though she's been in Mumbai most of the last 4 years, she always seemed closer. Its just a sense of finality I'm feeling ..I guess..

Biking around Taleigao with a camera and good company.

Some days back, on one especially lazy afternoon, I had the pleasure of biking around Taleigao. With time to kill, a fueled Kinetic and my ever handy Pentax, I took off to explore Goan countryside. I was looking for that famed scenic beauty. To my incredible luck, an impending thunderstorm, and the vast expanse of marsh land on Panjim's outskirts came together to forge some really great scenes.

Below are some of the images from my over zealous photogtraphy session. I racked over 32 exposures in the matter of an hour. I picked a few at random and uploaded them. Its so easy forget that just a minute from Panjim, you can get a view like this.







It was a refreashing experience to see the world looking so green and pleasant on the eye. Made for a memorable roam..

Stephen Hawking and a lighthouse ?

I finally finished my copy of Stephen Hawking's 'A brief history of time'. I enjoyed the book so much I have been reading for the last 2 years. I would read a chapter at a time .. and digest it over..and over again.. usually there'd be a big break before I could pick up the book again, as i tackled college workloads and project work.

I enjoyed biting into his ideas..So much so that I ended up reading the chapters I really found intriguing more than once even before I had finished the book. But anyway, come the other day, I found there was only one last chapter I had not read.. and so I took a little time out, found a nice spot at Kala Academy, and there surrounding by one of Panjims best designed buildings, I finally got around to polishing off the book.

Its amazing how little we know about anything. I dont mean 'us' as in the 'Human Race', I mean 'us' as a term for the general everyday man/woman around me (or you). There is so much of information out there. I wonder if we'll ever be able to explore even a tithe of it.. even with todays modern Internet..

But anyways.. after I finished the book, and realised how insignificant my contribution to advancing the Human Knowledge bank.. (becasue they amount to a grand 0.0 %).. I decided to whip out my camera and take a few photographs of my surrounding. Its a lovely place.. perfect for reading.

This is a photograph of the view from where I was reading..The lampost in the middle is an amazing bit of outdoor decor.



This is a snap of the old unused lighhouse that lies on the edge of Kala Academy's riverfront. There are several of these dotting both banks of the Mandovi, in close vincinity to Panjim city.. leftover I believe, from the days when Panjim harbour was actually used for trade.


And this snap is a most interesting one. I had to struggle to get the right angle for it. There were a lot thingas I wanted to capture, the effects of time, a sense of propotion, the weather.. I was also trying to capture the line of the horizon with respect to the lighthouse. Well.. not exactly the horizon, but the river level. See if you can spot I'm talking about..

Quintessentially Picturesque...

Quintessential.. Mmmm..Quintessential.. Doesn’t it have such a nice ring to it. I like this word. I find it delightful to say it in normal conversation. Its like that other word I like so much… Picturesque. Now there’s a delightful word if ever there was any.

..Oh and the image alongside is of a friend of mine, who's expression here is quite something. I can't explain it.. but I find myself following her gaze.. almost trying to find what she's looking at.. what she's turning over in her mind.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about the image.. leave you to put your own story to the image.

Crazy MSDN handler !!

Ok folks.. this is a post for the techies.. and well, the not so techies can see the humour behind this as well.

The sheer proof of the perils that go with trying to be too user friendly, can be observed by trying out the folowing.

Go to Microsofts International Web site for Developers: the MSDN or Microsoft Developer Network website
---> http://msdn2.microsoft.com

And in the search bar located near the top of the page, please type the following WM_SETPOSITION

..And that is by the way a perfectly legitimate search query.. What an interesting approach by Microsoft dont you think.

A ScreenShot of what I was talking about, in case they fix this, is provided alongside. Click it to se the full image. But I really reccomend you try this out for yourself

Italy Won !!!

Whooohooo ... Italy Won .. Italy Won !! The Azurri Rule !!


We were at the Ozone to watch the finals on the big screen. It was an absolutely crazy atmosphere. Once again, I think we were the loudest group there.. well.. I yelled a whole lot at least.

Still feeling the high of that night.. but also feeling a little sad the World Cup is over. I really enjoyed it as a whole!!

Amazing times at Martin's Corner for Lunch

The other day, I took another group of really close friends out to the famous Martin's Corner Resturant in Betalbatim for lunch. Rahim, Ashay, Levlin, Analiz, Liz Anne, Rima, Tassia, and Roma made up our lunch party. We followed the awesome grub, with what has become an almost traditional trip to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.

It was so so much of fun. It so unbelievable that we are all going to be split up in a few weeks time. Already there were people missing. Naashoma and Remya could not make it. Sigh. But it was a great outing.

At the amazing resturant 'Zen' for great chinese food

I took some of my friends ( Dhruv, Nadia, Jane and Mel ) out to this local chinese place called Zen for dinner.. and god the food was tasty. Isnt it strange how every city in the world had a local chinese food place you would swear by ? I dont even like chinese food all that much...

Over cocktails and yummy chicken, we had a really pleasant evening, followed by a drive through the streets of Panjim and Dona Paula.. we finally capped off the nite with delicious icecream at Baskin Robbins...

Family comes over for dinner on my Birthday...

Its tradition.. and its family.. and its got a wholesome niceness to it.

Spending the morning of my 21st Birthday with friends..

So the day I turned 21, Tassia, Liz Anne, Ashay and Roma came over to wish me. We spent the day together. It was awesome fun. I'm not going to waste words trying to explain how I felt. There aren't words for such things. Perhaps its because such feelings aren't meant to be described.. only experienced ?

At first it was just Roma, Tassia and Me..at CCD, while we waited for Ashay and Liz to join us..


We started off from home and later drove around aimlessly. Somehow we found our way down a road running alongside the river Mandovi on that overcast afternoon. Eventually we reached Fort Aguagda,

...went for a stroll around to see Jimmy's house...


...posed for posterity...




..and finally headed back home because all good things must come to an end.

A trip to Calangute with Dhruv, Mel, Nadia, Fiona and Robson

Sometimes a picture cant say it all, but a bunch of 'em sure can :-D

Aaaargh !! England Lost....

Absolutely gutted that England are out of the World Cup ! Absolutely ! :-C

But here's the story of an evening that was a lot of fun before my team fell to their perpetual nemesis..'Penalties' !

Goa, being the former Portuguesse colony it is, is the stronghold of Portugal supporters in India. It was a strange twist perhaps that my friends and I ended up at that local institution, the "Clube de Vasco Da Gama" to watch the game between England and Portugal.

There was a great deal of noise, and drink, ...and sausages, ...and fanatic supporters. Typically Goan.. typical of any club who's patrons are football crazy, I guess. We were by far the loudest group there. Equally divided though with 3 England fans (DK, Nadia and Me), 3 Portugal Fans (Ashay, Joel and Pranav) .. and oh.. 1 Brazillian Fan (Robson). I think Melanie was playing neutral for this one.

The game was heart breaking at the end, but the beer flowed, and good times all ran through. The shot below would be me, somewhere after 50 mins of playing time, quite happy after 4 pints in quick succession.

This would be the two women in our boisterous gang, Nadia and Fiona.

And here we have an unbeliever who is temp. converted to the good side !! Pranav admits England is superior as can be clearly infered from the picture.. either that, or he admits to too much beer on an empty stomach.

Its a pity England lost.. but it was good time.. and a great atmosphere. You had to be there..

At the Pub for the World Cup Quaterfinals..

Germany plays Argentina for the world cup quaters. Dhruv calls up half an hour before the game and says, "lets meet and watch the game". Ten mins later the five of us, Dhruv, Ahsay, Pranav, Joel and Me are at the Ozone watching the game on the big screen.

Pranav, Dk and Me supported Germany on that night.. the other two.. supported those cheating scumbags Argentina. (hey i'm an England Fan ;-) )


And good results all round ... pity there's no snap of the victory dance I did around Ashay when Germany won...