Random Walk of Life

Ok folks, I have started experimenting with WordPress now. The transition, if at all is gonna happen, will take some time. I wish to make it a smooth one and slowly migrate over.

Here’s the link to my latest post http://rand0mwalkoflife.wordpress.com/ (Note the ‘0′ in rand0m)

Cya there, but keep watching this space for more.

Thanks and Regards
Randomwalker.

Opening Mood: Tired and Frustrated.
Opening Song: Oh! Why ain’t I listening to any music today ?

I used to think, being a bachelor is good. It gives you all the freedom to do whatever you want, to come home at anytime you want, to go out with anyone you want and so on! I never thought all this freedom would backfire. Why/How?

Being a bachelor (however eligible) doesn’t guarantee you one of the most basic needs - Housing. At-least this is true in case of Bangalore and I had to find it out the real hard way.

I won’t go on about the pain I had to go through to find a decent accommodation ( by decent I mean a place which is more than just a crash-dump after a hard day’s nice work) in Bangalore. All I was looking for was a spacious, well lit house/apartment in a nice residential area (Indiranagar) which was close to my office. Basically a decent house in a decent neighborhood. And I would be sharing it with three other friends of mine. So affordability (is that a word?) was not a problem at all.

The problem was that the landlords seem to think, “good” houses aren’t for bachelors. Bachelors cannot afford to maintain it clean and neat. Bachelors basically get all their friends, party all night, play some loud death metal music. They will roam around in their bikes (vroom vrrrrom will cause a lot of nuisance for the neighbors) and come home at odd hours. Basically they are a bunch of unreliable, unsafe, irresponsible idiots. Period.

OK. So bachelors are not good tenants no matter how well qualified/behaved/cultured they are. Fine. Families are better tenants. Great.

Let me give these stupid short-sighted landlords, an example which won’t be hard to find in today’s not-so-happily-married age.

What if a family that comes as a tenant has the following “configuration”: A Man, his wife, his mother, and two kids. Their past track record (which is not told at the time of renting out the house ) goes something like this:

* The Man is a party animal who loves “entertaining” his friends at home.

* The wife doesn’t like her mother-in-law and vice-versa; Hence they fight like b**ches all the time.

* The elder kid is a John Nash/ Da Vinci/ Picasso in the making. It thinks that the walls are for its personal/educational/recreational purposes.

* The younger kid is a nuisance crying all the as if it was born to advertise it’s supersonic capabilities.

* The man’s mother gossips all day long with the neighbors. She likes the social attention. (You wouldn’t be surprised with that, now would you? )

* The husband and wife probably fight every night ( Why? Don’t ask me! What do I know? At-least, that’s what happens in all of Ekta Kapoor’s dirty soaps, the last time I checked ).

Would these things be known about the family when they move in as tenants? So on what basis are bachelors (that too the ones whom you have spoken to and cross examined umpteen times asking zillion personal questions) bad tenants?

Sigh! I guess the next time, I should probably check up with a relationships broker before checking up with a real-estate broker :-P. Let me know if you know any good ones!!

After all a good house is a basic necessity! House ke liye saala kuch bhi karega!

Closing Song: I forgot to press the play button.
Closing Mood: Looking at the kernel code. Regaining my sanity.

Nice heading. I like it. K&R began with this one line which greeted the world like never before.

Oh, btw, I am tryin out wordpress. Just following the crowd now, just for a change.

The image on the header is a result of 15 minutes of google image search + 5 minutes of Gimp. Suits well.

If all goes well, randomwalker might permanently shift to this new abode.

Time will tell… So wait

Opening Mood: Merry Christmas
Opening Song: She will be loved - Maroon 5

Santoor! What an instrument. Listen to it and you begin to imagine the ripples in the clear pond. Slowly growing in size but at the same time, fading away. Slowly. Steadily. Wonderful Experience.

I first heard this wonderful instrument when Pt. Shivkumar Sharma came over to NITK in my second year of Engineering to perform for Viraasat. I loved that performance. So many strings vibrating in tandem, but vibrating in perfect harmony.

Earlier this week, I went beserk shopping some instrumental music. Bought off Desert Rain by Indian Ocean (truely earthy music), Krishna by Pravin Godkhindi and Maya by Rahul Sharma.

Maya is extremely soothing. It’s a compilation of ten tracks, based on the theme of Maya, the godess of illusion in the Indian Mythology. The title track features Sunidhi Chauhan her volcals suitably complementing the santoor. Each track is a fusion of Santoor and some techno beats. All the tracks are good. My personal favorite is the one titled “Permeability”. It sounds happy and light as compared to others which are sound slightly more complicated.

Wonder how would it be to play the tabla for these compositions. Should try it out sometime.

Closing Song: Kandisa - Indian Ocean.
Closing Mood: Extremely hungry imagining all the christmas cookies and brownies.

Opening Mood: Relaxed
Opening Song: Soona man ka aangan - Parineetha ( What a song! )

A week back, I went on a trip to Nagarhole with my colleagues. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at JungleInn resorts which is very close to the Nagarhole forests.

That night, the resort folks had organized a tribal dance around the bonfire. A bunch of people from the Kuruba tribe sang tribal songs and danced around the fire. They used wooden sticks as props for their dance which was a tribal variation of the popular dandiya.

However, we didn’t quite enjoy it. Standing there like fools and watching the tribals sing and dance was definitely not our idea of fun.At least not mine. So we started clapping and shouting, in order to have our share of fun ( It’s only been a while since I’ve been out of college, so it wasn’t unusual for me ). On seeing us behave like one of them, the tribals invited us to join them. Bharata and myself, we joined the tribals for the dance, and boy! I must tell you, we enjoyed it a lot. It wasn’t very difficult or very artistic or something. Just a simple rhythm and simple steps to go with that rhythm.

This must have been the favorite pass-time of these tribal folks since ages. After a hard day’s work, just get together and have fun singing and dancing. Their idea of socialization. What’s important here is that, you won’t really have a lot of fun unless you participate. Just sitting on a chair, sipping beer and trying to *find* beauty in the song/dance might not yield as much fun as participating in that dance might.

That’s exactly the case with culture too. Unless you participate, it is very difficult to understand a particular culture, let alone appreciate it. True, these things are not invented by any one particular person. It has contributions from almost everyone. But what makes it work is the fact that no one bothers “who” contributed “what”. The bigger picture is what matters. And this is the bigger picture which prompts people to take part and contribute.

So what about the ego?! Well, I guess it gets dissolved in the social spirit of participation. After all, ego is of any use only when left alone. It’s utterly useless and predominantly pathetic in a social gathering

Closing Song: Lakshya - Title track.
Closing Mood: Hmmm.. Vacation. Smells sweet despite the bad cold.