This means that I will leave home early because I know that the traffic sucks and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve also decided to avoid taking the shortcut that passes through a railway crossing which is closed for at least 15-20 minutes at a stretch and does not open until at least 2-3 trains have gone through. I’m better off taking the regular road. And no more will I ever go to a particular supermarket which is run by a family of morons and where a checkout can take anywhere between 15-30 minutes even if you buy just one item.

Avoiding the triggers has worked so far. I hope will work in the future too because I definitely don’t wanna get high blood pressure and lose my hair at such a young age.

So here it goes:

Last movie seen in a theater:
Hancock

What book are you reading?
Its common knowledge that I read “To Kill A Monckingbird” recently and will be reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray” next.

Favorite board game:
Scrabble

Favorite magazine:
Men’s Health (The only magazine I read!)

Favorite smells:
The smell of coffee in all the cafes, all of my favorite fragrances, the smell of Maggi etc.

Favorite sound:
The sound of great music, raindrops falling on the roof, crickets chirping at night etc.

Worst feeling in the world:
Let’s skip this question!

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
It’s morning again! Do I have to go to work today?

Favorite fast food place:
Subway

Future child’s name:
I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it!

Finish this statement, “If I had a lot of money I’d…”
spend some of it on myself and my family and invest the rest

Do you drive fast?
Only as fast as one can in Indian cities. Still, not as fast as some maniacs.

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
Fortunately, no!

Storms - Cool or Scary?
Cool if you’re home sipping a cup of hot tea/coffee, scary otherwise!

Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
I am not a big fan of it but yes, I do.

If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Dark Brown.

Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in:
Kanpur, Lucknow & Bangalore.

Favorite sports to watch:
Not a big sports buff but Cricket and F1.

One nice thing about the person who sent this to you:
A free spirit who’s full of life. (What a way to force someone to say good things about you!)

What’s under your bed?
Hopefully, nothing!

Would you like to be born as yourself again?
One life is enough, I think! I’d like to experience living a different life if I were to be reborn.

Morning person or night owl?
An anytime person but I prefer getting up early in the day.

Over easy or sunny side up?
What does that even mean?

Favorite place to relax:
Home!

Favorite pie:
No pies for me.

Favorite ice cream flavor:
Butterscotch and Fig & Honey.

You pass this tag to:
Anybody who wants it!

Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
The one who picks it up first?

I refuse to believe
That my life’s gonna be
Just some string of incompletes

But lets go back to the day I came to Bangalore. I was all prepared to say goodbye to my home as it was the first time I was going away for so long. Nobody knew how long but I had an intuition that it wouldn’t be a short trip. But there was something else in store for me. When I woke up that day, I felt that my face was a little too stiff and it hurt when I touched it but it was ignored because there were more important things to do.

I boarded my flight in the afternoon and when I saw myself later in the wash room mirror of the plane, I realized that most part of my nose and nearby parts of my right cheek had hardened and turned red. As my flight kept flying, landing and taking off (It was a Lucknow-Delhi-Hyderabad-Bangalore flight) and time kept on passing, it kept getting worse. Finally, after arriving in Bangalore in the evening, it had turned into a big blister.

My sister and bro-in-law were at the airport to receive me. They took me to see the doctor as soon as we got home. It tuned out to have been caused by a Blister beetle. It might have attacked me while I packed my stuff the night before. I didn’t go out of the house much in the next few days because I didn’t want all the people to see me for the first time with a huge pussy blister on my face. Ah! it was terrible but it does make for a great story!

Unfortunately, the rain gods weren’t too happy with my plans. And as has happened on countless other occasions, it started drizzling as soon as I got out of my apartment. By the time I reached MG Road, the rain got worse and in the 2 minutes that it took me to find a parking space and get to a safe place which could shade me from the rain, I was completely drenched. I spent the next 15 minutes inside an ATM waiting for the rain to let up but when it showed no sign of weakening, I decided to do something drastic. Now, I am generally really cranky in such situations but I felt like a really fun guy for the rest of the evening. Since I was already totally wet and dripping, I got out of the ATM and started walking towards the bookstore in the rain. I was walking swiftly but slowed down from time to time to look at the people who were standing at the entrance of shops to save themselves from the rain and give them the look - “Hey sissies! Look at me! I’m not afraid of the rain!”. Yeah, I can be a real jerk at times! Although, some people did look at me with a hint of admiration in their eyes. Or so I imagined.

Anyways, I soon spotted a Bombay Dyeing showroom and an idea popped into my mind. I went in, with a trail of water following me, and asked for a towel. Now whats interesting is that the shopkeeper and I spent the new few minutes figuring out which size and color was right for me even though there was a huge puddle of water that had dripped from my clothes around me. I decided upon a dark blue, medium sized towel and bought it. When he tried to put the towel in a bag, I asked him if I could use the towel instead. He smiled and said yes. And then I happily dried my head, face and arms (all the parts accessible without taking off my clothes) and then I put it in the bag and proceeded to the bookstore. I quickly got the book I wanted but spent the next 20 minutes or so to look for a book I could gift a friend. My clothes were still wet and stuck to me. When I came out of the store, it was still raining but it wasn’t as bad. The temperature had dropped by a couple of degrees though and wearing wet clothes didn’t help much. So I thought of going to the nearby Barista on Church Street. As I was walking towards it, a girl who was walking behind me on the sidewalk took to the road instead and suddenly started tip-toeing. In the middle of the road!!?? (I wonder if the new Shoppers’ Stop ad inspired her to do so) I couldn’t help but smile. Some other people were also looking at her but she didn’t seem to care. And then she stopped and started walking normally again.

I was still trying to make sense of what had just happened when there was a huge blast-like sound and bright lights emerged on my right. I turned back a little and it was the the electrical meter of a building that was giving out huge sparks. I tried to keep walking but others came running towards me and one guy kept his hand on my shoulder(??) for support, I guess. He was still looking at the meter and after a second or so, he went back where he came from cos the sparks had stopped. He never even cared to look at the guy he had been holding for support. I was laughing and then I saw that the tip-toe girl had also stopped because of the whole ruckus and she was also smiling.

I started walking again. It was still raining and I was still wet. Only now, I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode. The rest of the evening was uneventful. I spent a total of three and a half in my wet clothes before I finally reached home and got out of them. Phew!

The first picture is of a shop on Whitefield Road that I pass everyday on my way to work and back. It was first noticed by a friend who shared it with me and its been the reason for many laughs for the two of us since then. But I felt something like this should be shared with the whole world so here it is in all its glory:

Notice how there’s no space between U and S which makes me believe that the apostrophe was just an afterthought. Now you know where not to go for all your refractory needs!

The second picture was taken by me just before the sunset last Monday from the terrace of my new apartment. Everything was just perfect and I was lucky enough to capture the sunlight piercing through the clouds:

The picture made one of my friends a little envious cos he’d been trying to get such a shot for some time now. I think its beautiful! The sunset can be seen here.

What this move also means is that I don’t take the shuttle to work anymore. Though I won’t miss the venom-spewing buses, I will miss all my friends on the shuttle, some of who always listened to my long stories and rants about the smallest of things early in the morning! I will also miss some unusual and funny characters on the shuttle including ‘Loudy & The Kingfisher’, Jesus Man, Laptop Killer, The Twins and Toad (nicknames courtesy me and a friend).

I accepted this move as a challenge. I have never lived in a hostel or with roommates and I felt that this was the last opportunity for such an experience. So I’ve made the move and things have been good so far. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a mistake. Wish me luck!

Whats funny is that I wrote this celebratory 100th post way back in November 2006 which means that it took me 17 months to write the second hundred posts when it only took me only 4 months to complete the first 100. But that’s okay! The post frequency had gone since last year, I took two 3 and 4 month long breaks from blogging last year and even came close to abandoning the blog but decided not to do so because my blog had helped me get through some tough times.

I’m happy that my blog is back on track and I have been sticking to my aim of at least 2 posts per month. I hope that I’ll celebrate a millennium soon. Okay, not soon but still!

I guess this would also be a good time to talk about what’s in store for my blog. Hmm, I plan to be more regular with the updates, write about a lot more diverse things and very soon, I plan to redesign the blog. Should be fun! So if you don’t find this blog to be the most boring, self-involved blog ever (heh!), stick around!

Now go get that cake please!