Life archive at Rhythmic Dissonance

Archive for the 'Life' Category

Oct

My Life as a Movie

Raj 9 Comments

Categories: Tag, Movies and Life

As far back as I can remember, I always imagined my life to be a movie once in a while. And this was much before “The Truman Show”. So in my movie, I am obviously the protagonist and the people I know have key roles of varying importance. Some people have main roles, some recurring, others have guest appearances and then there are lots of extras. Though it can get boring at times, it’s mostly interesting with unexpected twists and turns. Is it common for people to think of their lives as a movie? I’d like to know!

I recently saw this movie, “Stranger than Fiction”, in which a guy starts hearing his life being narrated as he leads it. Now that would be annoying! I would never want that to happen to me. But I wouldn’t mind having some background music in my life. Cheerful music when I am happy, suspenseful music when I am anxious, sad or soothing music when I am down and no music at the time of important and serious events. Just like in the movies. That would be fun, right? Even few original theme songs wouldn’t hurt!

While on the subject of movies, I finally got around watching “Before Sunrise” last Saturday. I remember watching first few minutes of the movie years ago on TV and I didn’t like it much back then. I later learnt how it was considered a modern romantic classic of sorts and I got the DVD from a friend months ago so I finally relented and decided to give it a try even though I generally avoid sappy romantic movies. I ended up liking it mostly for its realism. In fact, I liked it so much that I watched the sequel “Before Sunset” the same day. And I liked it better than the first, which happens very rarely. Also, Julie Delpy is brilliant in both the movies, more so in the second one.

I got tagged by Amodini yesterday and since I was already writing this post, I though I would include the tag right here.

The rules of the tag are:

You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

But I’m gonna twist and turn the rules cos its fun that way!

So I may or may not have a middle name but I’m gonna go ahead with “Raj”.

R – I’ve registered myself on so many websites in the past seven and a half years that every time I come across a seemingly new site, I first key in the default username and password I normally use and more often than not, I’m already registered.

A – A lot of people think I’m arrogant. I am not sure if I am. Who cares!

J – I’m bad at telling dirty jokes. And that’s why I never do it! Now that’s one weakness I can live with.

Those were three perfectly useless facts about me. Let me know if you’d be interested in knowing more such facts about me!

Anybody who is in dire need of subject for a new post should feel free to pick this tag up.

Sep

Swirl

Raj 7 Comments

Categories: Life

Remember the quarter-life crisis I mentioned few months back? Well, it hasn’t gone away yet! It comes back unannounced time and again to haunt me. And it’s not alone anymore. It is accompanied with massive bouts of loneliness. The reasons are many and yet none that I can pin down in particular. Everything just comes together to ensure that I am uneasy, confused and in turmoil most of the time. So much so that I spent an entire weekend wondering if I can somehow fix the situation. But at the end of that horribly long weekend, it dawned on me that there probably is no quick fix for what I am going through.

So I etched a vague plan on how I can make things better but that would take its own time. For the time being, I have just decided to stay happy somehow. And since I work well with missions, I went ahead and turned it int one - “Mission Happiness”. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Stay happy! But surprisingly, its proving to be far more difficult than my last mission. Each day is a struggle. To pretend at work that everything is alright, to sound happy on the phone with Mom n Dad, to do everything I once liked doing, to be happy, to just be!

But being the hopeless optimist that I am, I know that things will work out eventually. I just hope this phase ends sooner than later!

Aug

Of Accomplished Missions, iPhone Killer and Hateful Buses

Raj 12 Comments

Categories: Happy, Ranting, Funny and Life

On my last visit back home, I was told that I had gained some weight which was surprising because I had already joined the gym and I thought it was working for me. After hearing lots of similar comments, I decided to take matters into hand, went through lots of websites related to health & diet and came up with my own plan of eating healthy and staying fit. And thus began “Mission Hotness”! It was essentially a 2 month plan (which ends August 31) that required me to live under a new fitness regime - eating 6 balanced meals in a day, staying away from fatty food and of course, working out, exercising and walking. I followed the plan religiously and even though the mission is yet to end, I already have biceps and triceps just about visible to the naked eye, I can see the emergence of a v shaped torso, my waist has already gone down a size and I have lost around 1kg. I am ecstatic and want everyone to know that such plans do work!! This achievement did cause its own problems though. All my regular fitted jeans became loose and the loose ones became useless. I had to buy two new pairs of jeans in a hurry!! But thats all part of the game. I’m going to continue following the plan for now and hopefully, I’ll be in perfect shape soon!

I bought my second cellphone more than two years ago. I had just started regular blogging back then and I wrote this post about it. I had promised myself that I will use the new phone for 2 years and then buy a new phone. I kept my promise and two weeks ago, I bought a shiny new HTC Touch. Its been called an iPhone killer by few sections of the media but that doesn’t really matter to me. What I like is that its tiny (its codename was elf!), sleek, sexy and most of all a windows mobile phone which lets you do everything with just a finger. Honestly, I don’t have to use the stylus at all!

The morning bus to work hates me. I have to fight with the window for 2-5 mins to get it to open. And because it always loses to me, it decided to get back at me couple of days ago by spewing its venom on me. Sure, it was intelligent enough to disguise it as muddy, rain water but I know what it really was. If I had an open wound, I could have poisoned! But it isn’t the only evil bus I have to deal with. The new evening bus is the most sadistic bus ever. Its so uncomfortable that one can never sleep even for a second in it. And I have to spend close to 2 hours in it. It has made my life miserable. Its hard to resist the temptation of setting it on fire. And if you are wondering why I am writing about buses all of a sudden, I spend 3 hours in these buses everyday! What else do you expect?

Apr

The Comeback

Raj 11 Comments

Categories: Internet, Ranting and Life

The best way to return to blogging after almost three months would be to recap for all of you the major events that happened during this period that I was away. So here it is in my favorite unordered list format:

I was feeling low for few weeks in Jan-Feb and I reached the conclusion that I was going through a quarter-life crisis. I don’t exactly know what caused it but without wasting too much time, I decided to do what I generally suggest people to do in such situations. Yeah, I decided to get over it and the best way was to do something that would make me feel good about myself and keep me busy.
This brings me to the second significant event - I joined the gym! Yes, after contemplating doing it for years, I finally did it! And I like working out. I don’t understand why I didn’t do it earlier. Its been over a month since I started working out and I’ve already moved to a bigger, better gym. And I do feel better now than I used to around two months back.
One of the major developments is also something I consider to be a significant achievement of mine. After months of fighting a losing battle with Tata Indicom broadband, I finally won the war. They replaced their copper wiring with optical fiber cable in my area just for my connection. Now isn’t that something! Of course, I showed my gratitude by upgrading my plan.
After using Wikipedia extensively for a long time, I finally decided to give something back to it and have since become an active contributor. I generally stick to what I’m good at - Television and Movies - and looking at the low standard of most India related articles of these fields, there’s a serious need of more contributors like me (If I may say so!). And being somebody who is a good follower of rules, I am good at finding, tagging and sometimes fixing violations of policies.
Once my broadband connection started working properly, I realized the power of torrents. I started downloading lots of movies that I wanted to watch and soon I was addicted. I now download at least 4-5 movies a week and since its really hot during the daytime nowadays, my weekends are spent watching these movies rather than going out. I’ve seen dozens of movies in the last few months and I will start writing a new kind of posts in which I would review three movies with some similarity. I think such posts would keep the blog alive in case I do not wish to write anything personal for some reason so that the blog doesn’t run the risk of being abandoned again.
Last but not the least, I completed one year at my new (don’t think I can call it that anymore!) job. The going’s been good so far. Hoping it would be even better in the second year.

And I’m sure I must have already left a comment or two on the blogs I used to read. If not, expect one very soon.

Jan

Twenty Two

Raj 16 Comments

Categories: Life

22 days of the new year passed without no new posts but this time I would like to put the blame on the worst Broadband service provider ever - Tata Indicom. Seriously!!

The week before last was a really bad week in terms of customer service for me. Other than Tata Indicom (of course!), I had some really bad experiences with INOX and Pizza Hut. In case of INOX, it was not just bad but also very weird and inadvertently funny. It took them 10 minutes to note down my address on phone and I was asked questions like “Is there a society in your area?” and “Do you stay behind Krishna’s house?” making me ask “What does that mean?” and “Who is Krishna?” in return. I didn’t get any answers.

Last week, the Celebrity Big Brother controversy was all over the place. And for me, the best part about it was that I was following the show from Day 1 and so I saw the controversy being born in the discussion forums right in front of me. It feels good to be part of something from the beginning. No matter what it is! As far as the racism debate goes, being someone who has never faced it, I think its very subjective and very difficult to prove most of the times. I do find it funny though that the three (non-)celebs in question - Jade, Jo and Danielle, or the “Witches of Eastwick” as they are referred to in the forums, must have never imagined in their dreams that participating in a reality show would ruin their careers. Danielle, who I think said the nastiest things, doesn’t even know that she has already lost one contract and might lose 2 more and has been dumped by her footballer boyfriend (for now, at least!). Now that’s reality TV!

In other news, work on the new blog template is almost over but I have not decided on the domain name I want yet. I would have asked for help but after last time’s suggestions to the tune of “Raj’s laptop” for my laptop, I think there’s no use. But you could still help if you want. If I can’t find a better name, I would have to settle for www.rajshome.com.

I attended one of my friends’ wedding yesterday. It is the first I’ve attended in 2 and a half years and the first in Bangalore. It was fun! Its the season of weddings. 8 people I know are getting married in 1 months’ time.

Update: Two people asked about my bad experience with Pizza Hut so here’s what happened. I called them up and placed an order for home delivery. I was promised that my order would reach me in 30-40 mins like always. But instead I got a call after 40 mins from the delivery guy asking for directions. I gave him all the directions and also mentioned the landmark (which he claimed to know) that was written on the slip as part of my address. He called me again after 10 mins saying that he still could not find the place. I told him everything very clearly. 7 more mins passed and I was very angry now. I went out and stood near the gate. I saw this guy asking people on the road for the house number and waved my hand and told him that this was the house. He finally came in, gave me everything and then I noticed that the bottle of Pepsi was missing. He then promised to come back in two minutes but actually came back after 7-8 minutes with the Pepsi that he must have bought from somewhere. It was not even chilled. I asked him what the problem was and he had the audacity to tell me that my house was “off the grid” and that they are not supposed to deliver there. I was furious now. I told him that he wasn’t the first guy to deliver to my place and then sarcastically asked him if that’s why he forgot to bring Pepsi too. I immediately called up Pizza Hut again and told them everything that happened. The woman on the line heard me out patiently, pretended to care and thanked me for letting her know about it.

Also, it looks like blogger found out that I’m going to leave it soon. Its been giving me a hard time for the past two days.