So, are we eternal? Maybe.

The only way that seems plausible, is that we are exterminated. By a more intelligent and advanced species. There in lies the dilemma. The mere fact that they are more intelligent would make it seem improbable that they just want to exterminate us. For the resources of a measly planet like Earth? Or just for fun? They will probably not interfere unless we provoke them. They will also probably have nothing to gain from us or from Earth. In other words, maybe we aren’t worth the effort.

Even now, they might be aware of our presence. They are just not interfering.

The director none other than the erstwhile Prime Minister Shri. H.D Deve Gowda. The man who pulled one of the greatest coups in our political times to reach there. Its just like poker. Play your cards to make as much money as you can. You might have to shout, swear, cry, plead, beg, promise, cheat, deceive, betray etc in the process but hey, it’s the name of the game. There are no rules since an act of breaking any rule is highly subjective and you cannot be punished unless you screw up real bad (very few precedents in India if you base your decisions on historical data). And the added incentive is that even the losers make money for having played the game and will keep making much more if they continue. Dirty game, but the incentives would seem to outweigh the stink. But according to economics, there should be no imbalance. Otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it or all of us would be queuing up for it. The incentives are unbeatable. So, why aren’t we queuing up for it? Because the stink in unbearable, I guess. But the show must go on. Somebody has to do that job, even if it stinks so badly. We outsiders are ineligible to comment about their performance since we do not understand what that role would demand and what the suitable compensation is. Maybe they are doing a decent job and are experiencing their deserving share of stink and incentives. One would never know until they do the job, play the game. So, out of the ones who have tried their hand, the ones remaining should be playing it the best possible way. Otherwise they wouldn’t have survived. The country politics is a game which demands such play and if you have to survive, you may have to act like that. No matter what you were when you started out. And to keep competition out, they have to sometimes show how much it stinks.

That’s exactly what they are doing out in Karnataka. As a BJP legislator put it, “They batted their 20 overs while we sweated it out in the sun and took all the bashing like in t20 cricket. Now they have called off the game without letting us bat.” In other words, JD(S) ditched Congress, slept with the BJP, ditched them and blamed them for the break-up saying they were too much in a hurry. They had always wanted to hand over power to them.

What a drama!  Deve Gowda must be acknowledged as one of the shrewdest players ever. The higher benefits he has reaped have been equally outweighed by the extra stink that he himself is in and all of us have had to bear. Well played!

We were all those unfortunate enough to be compelled to travel during that time. The bus like was a makeshift bar where all of us had gathered to watch cricket at its most entertaining. There was no alcohol but we had our share of cool drinks and chips. Though we had to rely only on the commentary (relayed through the mobile phone which was glued next to some TV 500 kms away), we couldn’t have asked for anything better at that moment of time. We cheered, moaned, screamed, even sang together. We were greeted by cheering crowds celebrating in the streets. In one town (Challakere if I remember correctly) the bus had to be stopped for 10 minutes because of the 10000 lars on the main road. People of all communities danced and rejoiced and we joined in as well. Such happiness is rarely seen on the streets. I guess that this victory will be etched in my memory forever just because of the circumstances I was stuck in.

Young India was united! In celebration on the streets and by purpose on the field. That is what is required in this street version of cricket (gully cricket to be more precise). What better teams could you ask for in the finals of street cricket than the 2 countries where it is played almost in every street? We grew up playing this kind of cricket, where time was short and you had to be at your aggressive best. And you had to be extremely well united as a team. We also targeted short boundaries, quick singles and yorkers. And as evident in t20, keeping nerves is of utmost importance. Most games are closely fought and nerves make the difference in the end. Pakistan has been excellent against all other teams except us. Probably, they just cannot handle the pressure of a high stakes India-Pakistan encounter. They are yet to beat us in any World Cup match. They were a united team no doubt, thanks to the absence of the wrecker-in-chief Akhtar, but they couldn’t hold on to their nerves. Misbah must be dreading his flight back home. Afridi and Younis Khan must be shitting bricks. Shoaib Malik was already asking for forgiveness from Muslims all over the world. From what I have seen on the streets in India, at least the Muslims here have already forgiven you Shoaib. Let peace be upon us all.

The Greeks gave the planets names: the farthest (they could only see till Saturn) was called Phainon, the shiner, while below it was Phaethon, the bright one. The red planet was known as Pyroeis, “fiery”, while the brightest was known as Phosphoros, the light bringer, and the fleeting final planet was called Stilbon, the gleamer. However, the Greeks also made each planet sacred to one of their pantheon of gods, the Olympians: Phainon was sacred to Kronos, the Titan who fathered the Olympians, while Phaethon was sacred to Zeus, his son who deposed him as king. Ares, son of Zeus and god of war, was given dominion over Pyroeis, while Aphrodite, goddess of love, ruled over bright Phosphoros, and Hermes ruled over Stilbon.

It can mean that I am flattering my egoistic self by calling myself “the Shiner” or it might just be a rough translation of my name in Greek. You never know!

Makes hell of a sense actually. Just because good friends are not in touch does not mean that their friendship is waning. It is how they meet which makes up for the many times they didn’t meet. Something to ponder over ……

New Delhi, July 2005
Mom: “beta, no alcohol, no girls, no drugs …..theek hai?”
Arindam: “ok mamma”

Insti party, September 2005
Basu learns about the concept of Bottoms-up! .. that’s a quick learner for you !!
Perfect execution of the “kangaroo dance” after 2 rounds. To a Section D girl “Oye! Say bhe*c*** on camera” after 3 rounds
After having taken his illustrious neighbor, DJ M’s case royally, he wakes up with a terrible hangover
“mamma…. kal maine bahut daaru peelee…..sir mein bahut dard ho raha hai… mummy!”
“beta, dawaayi lelena aur aage se daaru mat peena”
“ok mamma”
To his H9 gang: “Maine daaru chod diya hai. ab se nahin peeyoonga”

Repeat occurrence at numerous insti parties after that …..

bottoms-up! bottoms-up! Energetic dance — freestyle/bhangra/salsa/, more bottoms-up, more dance, Hic! Hic! ok, one last bottoms-up…. dancing to mallu songs is one area this freak specializes in.

Next morning, waking up with the customary hangover “abey karan, how did I come back to my room? daaru gandi cheez hai…..ab se nahin peeyoonga”

Well, you know how the story goes…..

Also (in)famously known as “The Sloth”, this breed can be found aimlessly wandering around campus with a pepsi and a chips pack or amidst a messy heap of empty pepsi bottles, chips and manfest posters in H9 or fighting with karan in the corridors of H9

One of the true all-rounders of Hell – Manfest, CG, 3.4, competitions. He even found time to run after girls! Arranging Term 1 – 3 exam papers, notes, campus walks, help with committee selection … Basu has seen it all, done it all. He would sit through dinners, like he was on a candle light dinner date.….completely oblivious to the environment…forgetting that he came to eat. Basu, yeh to ‘sharam’ ki baat hai…. don’t you remember what Mamma told you?
There goes number 2 on Mamma’s list

Well, that’s not all. He has his own clan of female following, lovingly called the “Charlies Angels” .. some relation to some team during Manfest 2007

He might come across as a totally disorganized, lost soul. But there is a lot of order in the chaos. This sloth is destined for success, there’s no stopping him….but we just hope DJ M is there as the HR manager in his organization, just to take care of him. Let the romance which started in H9 continue forever …….

There you go Basu. Keep up the good work!

Note: Refer to comments for more light on the modified title.

My philosophy is simple. Travel, explore, see the world. You will only discover your true passion in life once you have seen what the world has to offer. Otherwise you always feel you have missed out on something.  What better way to discover the purpose of life than trying to observe lives, understand them. Animal, plant and human life. Even the life of the universe.

Ideally you should experience as many different lives as possible in a single lifetime. The life of a student, executive, traveler, slum-dweller, sanyasi, farmer, maybe even a criminal. This is fairly difficult given the way our society works. The next best thing would be to understand these lives as though you have lived them yourself. The more you can understand from the lives of others, their point of view; the more you understand about life itself.

The advertising industry has improved by leaps and bounds in recent times. There are still those Pepsi ones, those ‘Thank You….Uncles’ types but the overall quality is good. My picks …

- The Reliance Mobile ad. ‘Apun ka Sapna’. ‘Chhote match, Bade Sapne’ The kids are awesome.

- Bingo! Chips. Especially the one where they test under ‘Extreme Conditions’. The dance at the end is hilarious!

- The Hutch ‘Thoda sa Aur’ Campaign. I bet barbers are giving most customers a free massage now!

- The Havell’s shock proof switches. ‘Shock laga!’

- Maruti Suzuki SX4, ‘Men……are back’ campaign.

And my favorite.’ Nat Geo Adventure: Just get Lost!’ Just sums up what life according to me should be. An adventure. And the best adventures are when you truly get lost. If you have someone to hold on to through that adventure, then you are truly lucky. Even if you don’t, the world is still the same. Take a few chances. Explore!

<Edit>  Well, well, well. Google does it again! You should check out the new Google Search on Airtel Live Ad. It simply rocks! You wonder if it is a trailer of a blockbuster movie soon to be released and you are surprised that you haven’t heard of anything about it </Edit>

I went there with the new biker friends that I have made. Last weekend I went with them on an amazing road trip to Srisailam. 30 bikes, 45 people. Loads of fun! I for one always believed that bike trips were good only if there were between 2 and 5 bikes. Anything less would be outright scary, especially at night. Anything more would be too inconvenient. Co-ordination would consume a lot of time. But I have been pleasantly surprised. I got along just perfectly well with a totally new gang. Hell, I didn’t even know the names of most guys there. But the unity was evident. We were a sight on the road. 30 bikes belting down with their lights on. Wonder how intimidating we looked for oncoming traffic. Mostly we recognized each other by the bikes we rode and the way we drove them. Red avenger, yellow karizma, thunderbird and of course my military green 500 which never seemed to be happy to follow the leader. It’s always good to have a leader. Someone who knows the route and rides a decently fast bike (a Bullet preferably, ideally a 500cc bullet; more on why the Bullet is the best touring bike in India later). We had Dawg aka Srinivas doing that on a new bullet extremely well. But once everybody seemed to get a fair idea of the route, the really fast bikes could not be kept on a leash. The 500cc bullet is tailor-made for the hills. Great pickup, high torque and amazing balance. It can handle steep curves at 90 km/h easily. And you are still easy on the accelerator. Has to be one of the fastest vehicles on steep mountains.

Very rarely would you get the chance to be on full throttle on a 500 for a long distance. Even if you do, you start to feel for the bike. You want to take care of the beast which has served you at its highest capability without groaning. So there were 2 phases in the ride. One where I was extracting 90% out of the bike (which was easily faster than anything else on the hills, except the 3 modified sports cars which we encountered). And the other where I was taking care of the bike while slowing down for the others to catch up. Though I must say that the karizmas, fieros and the pulsars are really fast. I enjoyed a couple of really fast stretches of about 20 kms or so with a karizma and a pulsar 150. I have had a few high speed rides with the pulsar 180 of Soumak, but the pulsar 150 does keep up. You can go full throttle on it for long times. It doesn’t need too much ‘taking care of’. But none can keep up with the 500 on mud roads. Ask Abhinav, I showed him how easily it could move at 90 on the mud road to the waterfall.

The riders in the group learnt really fast. It was their first ride in the hills for some of them. You could see that in the way that they slowed down considerably once we were on the slopes. But on the return leg, everyone was riding much better, much faster. It was the same for a couple of us on the Bhutan trip. More on the Bhutan trip later. I also met a lot of interesting people on the ride. A married couple who run their own firm were on their nth trip and they seemed to really enjoy it. I hope I can maintain similar energy levels years from now to do at least 1 long bike trip every year.

Riding alone can be extremely fun and intense at the same time. It’s like meditating. Detached. I have done a lot of rides through the night. In all sorts of terrain. It is scary but at least you are not alone. I left Palolem Beach, Goa at about 6:30 pm and made my way through to Bangalore on the extremely lonely Western Ghats route through Gerusoppa forests (of Jog Falls fame). The Royal Enfield Bullet 500 performs at its best at night when it is cool and there is very little traffic. I am sure most bullet riders would endorse that. The feeling is incredible. The border between man and machine is barely visible. You are moving as ‘one’. It is one of my best rides. Extremely scary but exhilarating. Reached Bangalore still in ‘one’ piece at 7 am. Had a flight to catch at 10 am J Definitely worth it!

My opinion and I am sure a lot of fellow riders will agree with is that it is better to ride alone. No pillions. I have taken pillions on rides, but believe me on long rides it can be quite painful and boring for them. Especially if they are not taking turns to ride. If you really want to take a pillion, like your girlfriend whom you are still convincing to buy a bike and start riding, be ready to take a lot of breaks.

I must sound 2 lines of caution to all riders out there.

‘Do not overtake from the left on highways, never on the hills’. It can be disastrous.

‘Always have at least one more bike with you. Even if you have a pillion.’ I know I have harped on about how good it feels to ride alone and sometimes you are tempted to go on a romantic ride with your girl-friend, but I have lost a close friend to a bike ride and I know how dangerous it can turn out to be. May your soul rest in peace, brother. 2 riders are better than 1.

Whatever may be the case, keep riding dawgs (and the few rider chicks out there). Maybe we should call ourselves the Highway Demons!