Jay Mody

Alright, its a straight case of plagiarism. But what the heck, the name just suits the kind of place this is.

Fifteen of us were recruited by ITC as interns for 6 months as a part of our MBA course and everyone was promised a certain location while they were being recruited. As fate would have it, all of us are left here to rot in this god forsaken city. Chennai. With all due respect to Prakash Kona, the title of his book aptly suits this rotten city.

This was the month when our expectations met reality. First, we were shown the ITC hospitality and we stayed in Chola Sheraton for about 2 and a half days and feasted on the amazing food there. Then came the great fall. 8 of us were sent to Thiruvottiyur (I’m sure I have spelt it wrong), which is in the middle of nowhere. Although people, for no apparent reason, like the fact that technically this place is a part of Chennai.

A city of pricks. The auto-rickshaw drivers rip you off big time if you do not have the faintest idea of where you are going. You should know how to bargain with a straight face and not show your dependency on them. Or else you will have to pay the bastard whatever he asks. Theres almost zero public transport available after 10.00 so all you can do is comply with the wishes of the auto-rickshaw drivers.

A city with no liquor. This really sucks. This entire state of Tamil Nadu sucks. Can you imagine that these mofos have barred Smirnoff and Bacardi from entering the liquor market. The only goddamned vodka you get here is some shitty local brand called MGM and if you are lucky, then White Mischief. You do not get Kingfisher Strong or any other strong beer around these parts. Ohh and if you see the shape of the beer bottles here, then you’ll feel like puking. They just know too well how to rip life off from something.

Nightlife? Heh he he he….. Stupid bastards keep couples entry for pubs. Ohh and best of all, they close down at 10:30 :D Thats the time when I used to leave home sometimes in Bombay. Man, do I miss Bombay. There are about 4-5 good pubs (or so they like to say) in this hell-hole.

Language. Absolutely sucks. If a person who is not from southern India, is subjected to half an hour of nonstop aandu gundu conversation then he is sure to have a major headache. Mark this as Newton’s fifth law, the fourth I’m sure you all know. For those who do not know, aandu gundu is a collection of all languages from south india. Rule #1: If you want to communicate to anyone here, carry alongwith you a person who knows Hindi or English and of course the ultimate language to convert into, that is, Tamil. I almost feel like I have come to the land of the deaf and the dumb.

I dont think this city deserves any more coverage.

Before I end I would like to ask one question. Why the hell is this city dubbed as a metropolis?

Another span nears an end
leaving a handful of memories,
I start to take another bend
to a different set of stories.

As I begin on my way nostalgia,
it creeps up again,
myriad emotions subsume me
Oh I want that feeling of pain.

“This is the stuff that rockstars are made of. I dont know how many of you saw the entire footage of how the album “”Back in Black“” was made. It was featured on VH1 Channel. I saw this and instantly my entire opinion of the band AC/DC changed. For those of you who do not know about the band, read on.

Starting off from scratch with the smalltime pub scene, AC/DC pounded their way to the top with the lead singer Bon Scott. The band consisted of the guitarist brothers Angus Young and Malcolm Young. Both gods in their own right just waiting for the world to sit up and take notice. This was slated to happen in the end of 1975 when they were joined by a new bassist Mark Evans. On the drums was Phil Rudd. These five released a ground-breaking album called TNT. This threw AC/DC into the big league. Bon Scott became a name to reckon with as the front man. And people started to worship him and his unique high-pitched vocals.

With this started tours of England and Europe but they were yet to break into the USA. They released a couple of more albums and then came the big one. But before that Mark Evans was to leave the band due to his differences with the band members and was replaced by Cliff Richards. “”Highway to Hell”” is still considered as one of the best AC/DC records ever. Although I wouldn’t agree to that. After the success of Highway to Hell AC/DC were up and running all over the world.

They were to be stalled by the tragic death of the frontman Bon Scott who after drinking a bit too much choked on his own vomit. Strange, but true. The band went into a bit of mourning with the rude shock that they had got. But just 6 weeks later and with the permission from Bon Scott’s family they went ahead in search of a new vocalist. The outcome was the current vocalist Brian Johnson who was from Cleveland.

Back in Black was released as a tribute to Bon Scott. But as even he wouldnt have wanted it to be a meek and emotional album they came up with an album with power. An album that told the rest of the world that, look, we are invincible and nothing can stop us. Packed with trademark Angus Young guitar riffs and pounding drums by Phil Rudd came their first album with Brian Johnson as the vocalist. It became one of the most powerful hard rock albums ever and the best AC/DC record according to me. With songs like Hell’s Bells and Back in Black unleashing the juggernaut of the new AC/DC. Fans lapped up this album with more than 10,000 copies being sold everyday. This was to be the defining album in the history of Hard Rock. It became a Platinum album and their tours were packed with screaming rockers the world over.

This is the music that came from the heart with no hypocritical mourning and emotional bullshit dished out to people to show false emotions of “”yeah we are sad about the death of our vocalist””. Bon Scott was a part of them and like their brother. They did mourn his death. But in a way that Bon Scott would have himself wanted to do. This is the power of AC/DC. At this point I would like to reiterate what I said before. This is the stuff that rockstars are made of. This is how music is made. Straight from the heart.

UPDATE: Just found out that Back in Black is the 6th best selling album of all time, with over 30 million copies sold.”

“

Man comes poor.
Man slogs ass off.
Man becomes rich.
Man has kid.
Kid is bad.
Man dies.
Kid becomes good.

So what?!!?

Gah! Never should have gone for it. This number of imbecile writers and directors in this industry is increasing ridiculously. Gone are the days when people used to say that, “”Hey thats an Amitabh movie. It should be good””. The Big B has lost his discretion among the big $$. Never again will I ever go for his movie thinking that it might be half decent. I went for “”Waqt”” yesterday. It was by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Lets skip to one of my fortes on which I can blabber about. Music.

The movie had some really amazing lyrics in the songs. What with lyrics like:

Do me a favor, lets play Holi!!

Ohh yes and all that in that amazingly high pitched half-male-half-female-half-martian voice of the famous – hold your breath – music director Anu Malik.

These are the songs on which our young so-called hep guys and gals will dance to when they go to the discotheques. And they’ll scream, “”Ohh what a remix!!!””

I can just puke at these songs.
Where are the days when music came from the heart?? Where are the days of Queen, Guns N Roses and Pink Floyd…??
Everytime I switch on that boob tube I feel like tearing it apart when I check out the music channels. Mindless remixes with lyrics so stupid that they can make a blonde look brilliant. These are the days when people dance to artists who fool them by lip synching on stage. I will hope better days will be back again. A wave meaningful music HAS to sweep this nation of fools. I dont mean just rock. I mean meaningful music.

There I go again…. I can fill pages and pages on the shitty music that is dished out to these stupid people who take all that shit. Forget it.

Period.

Moral of the story: If you hate someone, give them free tickets for the movie Waqt. If you want to show a little mercy, gift them earplugs also. Unless of course if they are one from the ‘remixed’ generation.

”

“I don’t know where I’m going
But, I sure know where I’ve been
Hanging on the promises
In songs of yesterday
An’ I’ve made up my mind,
I ain’t wasting no more time
But, here I go again
Here I go again

Tho’ I keep searching for an answer,
I never seem to find what I’m looking for
Oh lord, I pray
You give me strength to carry on,
‘cos I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams

Its been a real long silence. Actually at one point of time I was thinking of stopping this blog. But heck I wouldn’t give in so easily.

Life has had quite a few changes. I have become an itinerant. And I have learnt to live out of the bag, quite difficult initially I must say. But soon you get the hang of it. Its wonderful how your mind set changes as you get more and more detached from the notion of attachment. Sounds funny. Let me explain.

It was just a year back that I left home for pursuing my MBA at a place so far away that I couldn’t go back home more often. Apart from in those long breaks between semesters. Well, the very first time I went home, there was this strange sense of excitement and feeling of relief that I was back home. But the next time I came home, it had decreased considerably and this last time, even more so. I mean it was almost like going back to the formative years when you learn to live your own life. Only those years came a little too late for me. And now there’s no looking back. The next six months of industry training are gonna make me see more of India and become, probably, more used to this way of life.

These days there’s not much I can do at home, apart from watching an odd movie here and there and maybe meet a few friends on weekends. Have a longing to go back to IIT where I spent the past one year. Life seems to make much more sense back there. Its simpler and I can relate to things there much more now, than I can at home. Probably everyone goes through this phase of life or maybe its just me.

So I saw this movie called “”The Motorcycle Diaries””. Beautiful movie I must say. An absolute reccomendation. For more information check out the IMDB Database here. The movie is in Spanish. Check it out with English subtitles.

Been reading “”The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy””. A strong reccomendation from my girl, which I never paid attention to. And now that I have nothing else to do, I’ve started reading it and must say, its an awesome book. Has me in splits all the time. Check it out and the new movie based on the same book also. So long and thanks for all the fish
”

It was one of the best trips I have ever been to. Full of first timers. Had been to Gangtok from 23rd March to 28th March with my VGSoM friends.

March 23rd, 2005
We left the hostel in the afternoon after faking the dates on the station leaving forms. The journey to Gangtok comprised of 4 legs. On the first day we were to take the local from Kharagpur to Howrah. From Howrah we went to Sealdah which is a twin station to Howrah. Our train, Uttar Banga Express, was scheduled for 7:30 from Sealdah station. Luckily our tickets which were in RAC got confirmed. The train journey was as usual boring and sad, and my trusted discman once again kept me company. I slept through most of it.

March 24th, 2005
We reached a station called New Jalpaigudi which is just before Siliguri. From there the upward climb began and we took a car in which all 10 of us huddled together and began the last leg of the journey to reach Gangtok. As soon as we were out of the Siliguri town, the army area began and we saw a lot of Ammunition dumps and the army camps in and around the place. Then began the ascent and the surrounding view was simply superb. It took us 3 odd hours to reach Gangtok. After we settled in the hotel, we went out for lunch and everyone was quite tired to go anywhere. We went out in the market generally looking at some stuff. At night came our usual round of drinks in the which most of the people went to sleep due to the fatigue of the journey. I had a few drinks and went to sleep myself.

March 25th, 2005
Gangtok was simply superb the view from our hotel balcony was amazing. We could even see the Kanchenjunga peak. The climate was cold but simply fabulous considering we came from a place which was absolutely hot and humid at that time. We hired 3 Maruti Vans and left at about 10:30 to have a look at the famous Monasteries. First up was the Ranka Monastery. The location was quite good. Well, I dont know about the others, but I didnt find it as interesting as it was made out to be by others who had been there before. Same was the case with Rumtek Monastery which is supposed to be really old. It was built in the 19th century sometime, and then was in the ruins. It was rebuilt in 1960 by some reinacarnated monk (?). Only good thing I liked about the Monasteries was the peace and tranquility of the main prayer hall. You just feel like sitting there for hours on end. After leaving the Monasteries we went to the cable car which not only is a tourist attraction, but is also intended to be used for transport in order to avoid the strain on the local road transport. It was quite good. We could see the Sikkim Assembly also from the cable car.

March 26th, 2005
We started off early in the morning for Chhangu lake and Nathula Pass. The permits was Nathula pass had been freezed but since a friend’s dad was an ex-army man, we were able to obtain a pass for that (only later to know that it was of no use). We started off with a chinky driver whose name was Arjun-da and he was playing some good local music. We drove upto Chhangu Lake which was completely frozen and the surrounding, trust me, was really amazing. Sadly the road ahead was blocked due to landslides and dense snowfall. Surrounding Chhangu were snow covered peaks and a winding road cutting through the snow at an altitude of 12000 odd feet. We saw Yaks for the first time and had a lot of fun in the snow, sliding and making a snow man and stuff like that. Finished it off with a cup of piping hot coffee, which felt really good. On our way down we got quite a scare. It started snowing suddenly and the visibility ahead of the car was nearly zero. Everyone was quite tensed, but Arjunda drove superbly. Must be one of the best drivers, I have ever seen. He went to the extent of talking us through the entire dense fogged road and trying to calm us down.

March 27th, 2005
We were to take the train back to Kharagpur on this day and we started off at 8:00 in the morning. First stop was white water rafting. One more first timer for everyone in the trip. It was one of the best experiences ever. We rafted through the waters of Teesta. The water was awfully cold. Almost freezing. The best part being that the entire adventure was being videoshot by a man. We had to dole out 800 bucks for the entire footage, but I believe it will be worth it. One to always remember always. It was a 11 km long rafting distance after which we freshened up and started our journey back to New Jalpaigudi. On the way we stopped over at Hong Kong Market in Siliguri. Almost everyone bought fake zippo lighters there. Finally we took our train back to Kharagpur and had an extremely uncomfortable ride. Our tickets were in RAC and it was an overnight journey. Anyways, the high of the trip was enough to take care of the comfort levels.

I have uploaded a few photographs which will give you a fair idea of what I am talking about. You can have a look at them here: http://photos.yahoo.com/jay_mody. You can find them under the Gangtok folder.

“This has been one of my longest hiatus from the blogging world I believe. To say the least life has had quite a few turns of late and those who know me well, probably wont ask me why. Those things apart I finally managed to tame some time to get back and put up something.

Life takes you to places you never imagine. Come to think of it, there are still times when I wonder what am I doing here in Kharagpur of all places on earth. A place that I didn’t know existed, leave alone it being in God’s own country.

I still remember the first time I had come here to give my interview. It was exactly a year before. I left the station only to be greeted by age-old Amabassador cabs and cycle rickshaws. I took one of the cycle rickshaws (I thought the cabbies were charging exorbitant. Besides, I was alone with just one bag). I loaded the bag and my haversack onto the rickshaw and off we were at snail’s pace. It was a typical country-side lined up with small houses with shingled roofs. There were seperate houses of the daroga, collector, etc. Whilst sitting in the rickshaw I told myself, “”Never am I coming to this place again in my life””. As fate would have it, this was the only admission call I got and I decided to take it up. A major gamble I must say (I am yet to know if it paid off).

Being born and brought up in a city like Bombay, you never really get used to the place quite well. And till the time you do, its time to leave. Its almost like living in a different world. There’s some respite in the fact that IIT itself is quite urbanized as compared to the town (or village?) outside it. Theres a marked discontinuity.

There’s a major shift in lifestyle when you start living in such a place. I got used to much lesser (almost nil) pollution levels. So much so that when I went home in winter break, I found Bombay almost suffocating. You get used to more two wheelers than cars. The biggest difference being, I had to start using a cycle again. It was almost like childhood days revisited when we went out shopping for a new bicycle.

The saloon here is like the typical village types, only difference being it is in a proper brick and mortar housing instead of the traditional dhoop-chhav (under the tree). I always looked at people’s haircuts and had decided that I am gonna grow my hair and will get a cut when I go home after the semester. For once I believed in Murphy’s Laws when I was compelled to get a hair-cut because of the companies coming to select students for summer internships. Finally I mustered enough courage today and got a hair-cut. The guy who was cutting my hair must have got a major pain the place where sun don’t shine. I was meticulous about each and every small detail of how he should cut my hair. Needless to say, it turned out quite decent at the end. The coiffure still resembling what it was before unlike some of my friends. The best part being, it cost me only 10 bucks. And I asked him twice whether it was 10 only. Things are quite cheap when you compare it to your megalopolis home city.

But then maybe the experience was really needed to get me used to living sans the luxuries of urban life. The western habits get diminished a lot when you are staying in this kind of a place. There is still a little more than a year to go before I leave this place for the same old life. I don’t know whether I will ever miss it. I think I might. Only time will tell.”

The death knell has been sounded for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as Mozilla’s Firefox takes it head-on straight into the arena.

Confused??

Well, for those who are let me put it straight. Microsoft’s IE had more or less a monopoly when it came to browsers. Most people preferred IE for its ease of use and simplicity. But when the simplicity gets a bit too far, changes have to be made. Enter Mozilla’s Firefox browser. In recent news it has already crossed 12 million downloads and now has a 5% share in the browser preferences and growing bigtime!! Trust me, that is a lot.

Its been like 5-6 years since IE’s features have been updated. They have dished out the same old crap now and then with minor cosmetic improvements. And to top it all, Internet Explorer is extremely vulnerable to security breaches.

Firefox on the other hand is extremely fast when it comes to page loading times. Absolutely secure browsing due to the absence of the tight Microsoft-like integration. I for one would give an out and out suggestion to everyone. Switch to Firefox. Now!

There has been a lot of hue and cry over the DPS RKPuram MMS that had been circulated over the net. A lot of dust has been raised over the reputation of a premier institute, IIT Kharagpur. Well, I as a student of IIT Kgp, have been in the situation and know what exactly happened.

About one month back, this particular MMS clip was introduced on the institute LAN and everyone started downloading it. At the same time I happened to talk to a few friends from other institutes and even they said that they had already come across the clip. So pointing a finger at one particular institute is not fair.

Now the other side is that one particular guy from first year MTech was auctioning this clip on Bazee.com. That was probably an immoral thing to do. But the steps taken by the Indian authorities are really drastic and to say the least, stupid.

How in heavens name could they arrest a CEO of the company that seems to have millions of products on auction. Can the CEO sit and scan each item on auction? The administration needs to do a reality check on what they have been upto. There are no concrete IT Laws that the country can abide by. The state of the Indian administration, when it comes to dealing with such issues, is apalling. I was enraged when I read the newspapers about the arrest of the CEO of Bazee.com

People need to think about one thing. Theres infinite porn available on the internet and things like these happen on a daily basis in the rest of the world. Maybe a different approach is required to clamp these down. Colleges have started banning the use of cellphones and cellphones with cameras. What purpose will it serve? It will only encourage better and stealth technology.

I for one believe that a mountain is being made out of a mole hill here. It would be good if all speculations were laid to rest and things worked pragmatically rather than the imbecile way in which the authorities are working.

“The feeling of having finished the very first gruelling MBA exam was absolutely amazing. And we were all flying in seventh heaven. Home beckoned once again, but the itinerary said it wasnt before 7th. So off we went to Chandipur.

Chandipur is a beach about 180 kms from Kharagpur. Its basically a three-state journey. Kharagpur being in Bengal and Chandipur in Orissa, Jharkhand comes along the way. And we cursed Jharkhand and its government to the limit for the extremely crappy road. And still we call it a national highway (NH).

We had hired a Tata Sumo for the two days. Before starting the journey we decided to pick up a few pints of beer to be gulped along the way. And then it was beer all along. And NH has one plus point. Every few kms theres one liquor shop . We finished the shopping and hit the highway.

Its strange how people stick to the Indian Standard Time here because the evening falls much earlier than you would normally expect. At about 6:00 pm its usually pitch dark in these parts.

I listen to my words but
They fall far below
I let my music take me where
My heart wants to go

The cool winter wind was slapping against the face as I heard the soft strains of “”Wind of my Soul”” from the Almost Famous Soundtrack. The NH passes through a dense 5 km. forest and there’s a particular code before entering that particular stretch. The border police let the vehicles line up in lots of about 20-25. And then they are allowed to enter it. As we led the entire motorcade, the road ahead was dark and quiet. All you have is the pair of your headlights and its pitch dark otherwise. Lined up with grotesque old trees, it draws an eerie picture. Quite an amazing experience.

We reached at about 11:00 pm and the night was still young. We checked into our hotel, arranged for the night’s stock of beer and cigarettes and off we were to the beach. Y’know its really something sitting under the moonlight, drinking cold beer and talking about things you never had the time for.

We were up till 4:00 AM drinking beer and having a blast sitting in the chilly silver sand. We trotted back to the hotel, while one of us had almost passed out (no it wasn’t me ) And well, we went back only to finish off the rest of the beer that was left

At 6:00 AM, we went to see the beautiful sunrise. For the first time I was watching the sun rise from the sea. And the night before I argued that I had seen the sunrise from the Juhu Beach (which is in Bombay, he he )

All in all it was one hell of a trip and now I’m glad that I couldn’t get my tickets earlier than 6th ”