During a visit to my hometown last week, I was just looking around and noticed how everything in and around my home, the places nearby and almost everything has a story. Its somehow connected to my life there which I will always remember. In fact, the place has changed a lot. Even my house isn’t the same. It has changed over the years. But I remember everything exactly the way it was when I was a kid. And that’s how it will forever remain etched in my memory.

I just added a new sidebar widget that shows my latest tweet posted on twitter. Its on sidebar 2 which means it will only be displayed on the home page (just below the latest sidenote). This was something I wanted to do last year when I moved to wordpress but for some reason unknown even to me, I just didn’t do it! But its on now so you can read my rants real time (and even follow me if you like the way I do it).

Remember the flying plastic bag scene from “American Beauty”? (No? Well, watch it here.) Some people loved it, some hated it. But the background music used in the scene is just mesmerizing and there’s no doubt about that. The music piece is “Any Other Name” by Thomas Newman and you can listen to the whole piece here.

Edit: I posted the pic of my dirty shoes I talked about in the last post on the request of two people but then decided to just give a link to that pic on flickr. Go watch it there and if you find it gross, don’t complain.

Anyhow, here are some of the pictures I have taken with my new digicam.

Some small different colored flowers in the office campus.

Some plants in the office campus.

A giant cloud as seen from the office terrace.

Hope you like them. You can see these and few other new pics on my flickr page as always.

Note: I do not plan to turn this blog into a photoblog so I won’t be posting pictures here unless there’s some special reason. You can always find all my pics on flickr.

Here are a few pictures I took this weekend.

The Bell

No, I didn’t buy this bell! It came with my room. It was hanging from the drapery rod. On Christmas, I cleaned it, took this picture and put it back up. This is also the first time most of my blog readers can see me. Sure, its just a hand but still.

The Thing hanging from the ceiling

This is the weirdest thing that came with the room. I think one is supposed to place a bulb inside it. I never did. In fact, I’ve never cleaned it. You can see the cobwebs if you look closely.

City Map

I bought a new map of Bangalore on christmas eve. I am a mapfreak. I already have 4 different maps of the city but this is the most detailed and i guess the last.

In other news, a hawker on MG Road asked me if I wanted to exchange money. I was surprised. I stuck around for a while to see if he asks others but he only asked a caucasian couple. It made me wonder if he thought I was a BOF (i.e. opposite of FOB. BOF is an intelligent term coined by me for all the indians who have just returned from a foreign country after a long stay.) I don’t look like a BOF, do I? Not that there’s anything wrong with being a BOF but I don’t want to counted as somebody I’m not.

Homer: […] Kids, there’s three ways to do things. The right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power way!
Bart: Isn’t that the wrong way?
Homer: Yeah, but faster!
[Turns and walks face-first into a giant cactus]

In George’s boss’ office.

Boss: I’m going to get right to the point. It has come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?

George: Who said that?

Boss: She did.

George: Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignnorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.

Boss: You’re fired.

…

isn’t it?
It makes more sense when you come out of a team meeting that had been called for no specific reason and resulted in nothing constructive.

I used to suck all the spiders I found in my room into the vacuum when I was in Lucknow. Oh, how happy it made me feel. But since I don’t have a vacuum in my room here, the first time I saw a spider, I didn’t know what to do but then I decided to use a newspaper to squash it and what I was about to find out was that it is far more satisfying to kill a spider this way, what with all the spider guts spilt out everywhere. So whenever you see a spider, squash it whatever you can find. Seriously, do it!

Minneapolis Skyline

Winter Light

La Défense,Paris