… from the episode “The Package“.

This means I’ll continue learning German (I recently completed German A1 level exam! Yay!), take up guitar lessons again, learn to swim, continue learning to cook and much more. Also, I had kinda loosened up on the fitness regime but no slacking from tomorrow. The fitness freak is back! The only new (and important) resolution for the new year is to spend as much money as necessary as opposed to spending as much as I can which is what I have been doing till now! 

Coming to the things I liked about the year, there were some movies that I really liked: Wall-E (of course!), Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Aamir and Dasvidaniya.

I didn’t find as much great music as I found last year but some of it was awesome. Few soundtracks (Wall-E, Juno) , some new (for me!) bands (Hellogoodbye, Goldspot) and some good Hindi movie songs (Aamir, Ada, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, all songs sung by Mohit Chauhan) worked for me.

Television took a backseat this year for me. I think my TV watching time was less than halved. Lost remained at the top of its game. Family Guy and 30 Rock continued to entertain. I discovered The IT Crowd and Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia and ensured that I watched each and every episode available.

Like I wrote in my birthday post, it was a mixed bag as far as my life is concerned, but the sum total of everything that happened is definitely positive. Also, I travelled much more this year than previous years and my first journey was on 1st January. Maybe its true what they say. What you do on the first day the year….

I look forward to 2009 and I hope it will bring the best of everything with it.

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

• The end of the year also means that shows with the best/worst/top/bottom and everything are on TV. And I like such shows. I especially like the ones done by VH1. They’re almost always funny and entertaining.
• I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I like the US version of The Office. Oddly enough, I like it more than the original UK version. Speaking of which, I am now hooked to podcasts. Two podcasts that I like the most are Never Not Funny by Jimmy Pardo and The Ricky Gervais Show which stars Ricky Gervais who played the lead in the UK version of The Office. But most laughs on his podcast don’t come from him but from a really out-of-the-world funny guy, Karl Pilkington. He has apparently become a cult figure because of this podcast and I am left to wonder where I was when all of this was happening. Anyways, you all should give these two podcasts a try. You’ll like it.
• Another show that I watch religiously these days is Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. Well, its a reality show and has people making fools of themselves all day long so of course, I like it. I used to hate Rakhi Sawant before the show but this show changed that and I consider that a big achievement for the show.
• Alright, enough about TV. Lets talk about something else. I don’t really make new year resolutions but I have decided to do few things differently in 2007. I have decided to eat healthier, start exercising regularly to stay fit and maybe even (finally!) join a gym. Lets see how much I actually do next year.
• 2007 would also bring lots of changes for the blog. If things go as planned, the blog would soon move to its new permanent home and its own domain. So wait for it.

Finally, I wish the blog and all my blog readers a very happy new year 2007. See you all next year.

On Wednesday night, when the illness started, I employed my mp3 player to help me sleep and it worked for sometime. I was starting to feel really sad about the whole situation cos I was sick and all alone but Frou Frou helped me get over it by singing “There’s beauty in the breakdown” in my ear. And so at 3:15 am, I called up my landlady and asked for medicines.

I am much better now. The motivation for getting better, of course, is that I’m going to Lucknow tomorrow for Diwali. And its been a year since I went home. I last went on last Diwali. The difference this time would be that my parents now have broadband at home so I will keep posting and keep reading other blogs. In fact, I may be able to post more than I do now.

And even though I don’t write too many posts these days, its good to know once in a while that my blog can keep people occupied for hour(s) and even make them come back as is evident in screenshot 1, screenshot 2 and screenshot 3. (The third visit was longer than the screenshot). I think that’s enough reason to feel good about. What do you think?

Update: In a major offence, I forgot to tell you all about my new pictures from my trip to Nagarahole in which I saw crocodiles, elephants, dears, birds, a fox and a will boar. The pictures can be found on flickr, as always.

Update 2 This is a small clip from one of the funniest episodes of Family Guy. Take a look. It’s just too funny!! Watch it, please!

• On my first day to work after coming back, my cell phone’s alarm stuck to following the German time zone (even though I had changed the time zone) and went off at 9:00 am which meant I had to go through a harrowing experience of getting from the centre of the city to Whitefield during the peak traffic hour.
• Last Sunday, Sonia Gandhi decided to visit Bangalore and since her rally took place near my home, the traffic situation was horrible. No, not everyday-Bangalore horrible, this was at a totally new level. I’ve never really liked her but now, I hate her. It now seems like Congress might be fined for all the posters they put up all over the city. But don’t we all know that its not really going to happen.
• It’s good to be back home and watch Indian television after a month. I missed it. Last Sunday. I turned on the TV and saw the headline “Salman ke ghar Ganesh” (Ganesh in Salman’s home) and it felt so familiar and good.

I’ve also realized that I forgot to celebrate the one-year anniversary of my home in April. I didn’t do much to spruce up the place in this one year cos I always thought that I might have to move soon but now that I know I’ll stay there for atleast one more year, I’m thinking of finally doing something about it.

I attended another Time Management session recently in which I was told that I should do things that I like doing (like blogging) in my off-peak hours (like immediately after lunch) so that’s what I am doing right now. And I promise to write atleast a post every week from now on.

Also, I want all of you to forget all the good things I said about ICICI Bank. I don’t like it much now. Why? Well, I applied for a Gold Credit Card some time back and after months of processing (during which I got 3 other gold cards), they sent me a mini card, a Mini Card!! If like me, you don’t know what that is, it is an embarrassingly tiny card which I would never use even if it were the only card I had. It even comes with a hole so that I could put it in a key ring. Like, how out of touch from reality could these people be? Who would want to show off that ugly card by putting it in one’s key ring. Which reminds me that I need to get it cancelled soon.

In reality TV news, the current season of “The Amazing Race” came to an end this week. Unfortunately, my favorite team of this season, Monica and Joseph (Mojo, as they call themselves), got eliminated last week so I had no one to root for in the finals. But I would have been happier if the fake hippies didn’t win it. Losers!

In the meanwhile, here are some new developments:

• The new blog toy, cocomment, is really cool. Its definitely one of the “in” things right now. It allows you to keep track of all the comments you make on others’ blogs and also allow you to share your comments on your blog with help of a blog box, which can be seen on the sidebar of my blog too. You can customize it so suit your template but I haven’t done that because of paucity of time. Its still in beta but then so is Flickr and even Gmail so it’s okay.
• I met Sher-e-Jalandhar last weekend and for some reason he thinks that I am very serious which I don’t think I am. I’m only a little serious but don’t mind being called “brooding types”. He seemed like a fun and easygoing guy. (Sorry SeJ, I don’t do compliments very well. I am far better at criticizing.)
• I also met an old friend from school after 14 years (the one I mentioned in this post). It was fun to meet her after such a long gap. Also, NamesDatabase has now linked to that post and I am getting a lot more hits than usual. But what makes me really happy is when someone they refer checks out some of my other posts too.
• Our company is taking us for an outing this weekend and since the location is top secret and we are all supposed to have loads of fun there, if I don’t blog for next few weeks, it would be safe to assume that I died bcos of all the fun.
• Update: I always wanted to apply for The Amazing Race. But now that they are actually allowing Asian people to apply for an Asian version, I realized I couldn’t apply. Firstly, I don’t have a teammate and secondly, I can’t take a leave of 30-40 days if I get selected. Actually, I don’t have a passport either but it is expected any day now. So looks like I’ll just have to be content with watching TAR.

• Things are getting pretty ugly on Indian Idol 2. Sonu Nigam is upset that the contestants are giving too much time to publicity events and makeovers rather than singing and he’s right to a large extent. But he has that unique quality that makes him look like a jerk no matter how right he might be. He makes even Anu Malik good.

• You may or may not have seen Indian Idol 2 so let me catch you up on the 9 remaining contestants.

1. Panna Gill: Everyone on the show thinks he looks good which is a lie. He can barely sing but survives bcos apparently teenage girls think he looks good too.
2. Monali Thakur: She looks good, has big eyes. Sings well too. She should have lasted till the final five but is sadly out now.
3. NC Karunya: Great singer. Looks like a case of Abhishek Bachchan-cloning gone awry. Would probably make it to the final three.
4. Ravi Tripathi: The biggest f**ktard ever on the show. Terrible singer. All contestants hate him, as do the judges. Makes a fool of himself every time he is saved (no thanks to the retarded people who vote for him).
5. Sandeep Acharya: Udit Narayan’s rajasthani cousin. Looks okay. Sings fine. But we don’t need another Udit Narayan, do we?
6. Amey Date: Most deserving but slightly dumb. People don’t seem to like him much so he may lose which would be sad.
7. Meenal Jain: Simple yet efficient. Judges love her, people don’t. Why? Because people suck. She is good but not too good. Final four probably if the Indian public somehow remembers that they vote for the best not the worst.
8. Anuj Sharma: He’s just got in when Jolly Das had to quit bcos of chicken pox. Heh. What luck. Looks lost. Don’t know much about him yet except that he has a girlfriend.
9. Antara Mitra: The village belle. She thanks people in Bengali every week and why does she think people should vote for her? Because she is from a small village and if she wins, it would send a message to all girls in small villages. And what exactly would that message be? That as long as you are from a remote village, we will make you win no matter how bad you sing.

• You might have heard about model and actress Kuljeet Randhawa’s suicide. Read about it here. Now, everybody may not have known her but being the big TV buff that I am, I did. In fact, I really liked her. The news of her suicide was all over the news channels yesterday. The spooky thing is that she was a friend of Nafisa Joseph, who committed suicide one and a half year ago. They even acted together in CATS, a bad Hindi version of Charlie’s Angels. Sad!