Author: Anup

Yoo hoo!! Surprise surprise!

Hello!

I am sorry to intrude into your space, Nu. But it was painstaking for me to see this space being ignored and left to slowly stutter, choke and die. So I, Shruti Menon – a finding of this blog here, decided to drop by and invade in and clean up all the cob-webs and dust you’ve accumulated here. I am sorry, Nu, for this not-so-pleasant surprise. I know how much you value your space and privacy but I had to do this to shake you up as violently as I could and make you realize how much this blog misses you and I bet you miss it just as much. God was generous enough to gift you with an excellent skill to write and dare you waste that talent for some Drake running around to find some god forsaken treasure. Hmphh!

For those who used to read this blog and maybe still do in hope to find him here one day should know that, yes, he is very much alive and kicking.

What keeps him busy these days?

Uncharted 2 – For those who are as crazy as him and runs behind games should know what Uncharted 2 is. As for those who don’t.. just consider yourself lucky!

Shifting jobs and cities/countries – Yes. A lot has changed since his last post. We bid Hyderabad adieu last month and now juggling between Pune and Kerala like nomads. Nupsie is still in search for his ideal place to settle down until then.. I guess we both will pretty much be travelling around the world with our caravan. 🙂

Fighting with poor me – Arguing with each other is one of our favorite hobbies. Or let’s just say one of MY favorite hobbies. *wink* It is amazing how we always tend to have so many differences of opinion about things. Our arguments normally last for good 10-15 minutes which later fizzles out with either one of us (mostly Anup) sheepishly grinning. LOL. That can be really annoying sometimes.

Movies/sitcoms – If there were ever a competition for a couple who watches the maximum number of movies then we sure would, hands down, beat anybody at it!! I was never really a movie buff until I met Anup. He even got me to watch the entire Harry Potter and Aliens and Predators series! :O That is something even my brother could never get me to do in the past 10 years!

I don’t know whether it was cause of Anup or the movie buff inside me who suddenly decide to awaken! Anyhoo, so the point is we love watching movies and run the movie marathons almost every day. Our hunger for movies never ends with one a day! If not a movie then a re-run of HIMYM or The Big Bang theory is a must.

Day Dreams – Anup loves to day dream! He dreams about everything he knows he should be acting on but just wont outta his sheer obsession towards Nathan Drake.

One such dream is about a story he has in his head which he plans to write and publish.. until.. Drake decides to burst his bubble and grab his attention! Hmphh!! I wish I was Nathan Drake sometimes!! hehe

On a more serious note: All in all our life is never not entertaining… so much so we find 24 hours too less a time to do things together! 🙂

I am lucky to have found, you, Anu! I doubt it would be easy for anybody else to live under the same roof with a crazy person like me. Which is why I have a lot to thank this blog for. I really wish you write more often and not ignore this space like you do now. I still am an ardent fan of your writing and really look forward for a big comeback than see this space die a sad death.

Love,

Your Wife.

2012 – Welcome to a year of penance…

…or so they say. I’m crowded by thoughts of the dreadful things that are to happen in this year but all of it seemed to disappear as I lived through year 2011 and moved on to year 2012 along with Shruti (most certainly my better half), Rohit and Shobhita (Shruti’s brother and his wife). There seemed to be nothing but pure unadulterated joy and an almost childish anxiousness to welcome year 2012!

The year 2012 is going to be a historic year as envisioned by many right from the Mayans right down to our modern day scientists and world leaders. A year which is to see human agony like none other. Its not like I’m much of a believer but its always there on the back of my mind that we humans will pay dearly for all the dreadful sins we have committed, are committing and are yet to commit in the year to go by. End of year is what they have foretold and I’m already excited to see 2013 just to prove the masses wrong. As a species we are tolerant and we adapt to changes very quickly therefore, just like the cockroaches I think we will live past what these fortune tellers have predicted and I’m sure we’ll live through it in style.

The year that has gone by has been a rather quiet one for me; considering all the words that haven’t left my fingers and all the times where I wished I could write. Words continue to elude me but I think all of that is about to change mostly because I’ve begun reading again. I’ve started off with easy to read books because I prefer those and I’d like to stick to diction that I could make sense of quickly rather than having to pull out the dictionary and strain myself. It has been a galore of Indian fiction and puppy romances from the IIT’ians. I am surprised with the sheer number of IITians turned writers post the Chetan Bhagat era. Every Engineer who walks out of IIT writes a romantic easy to read novel these days and I think I have liked almost all of them. I have picked up the occasional drabs but those were make-a-do too. Not at all bore or drab, you know? I wonder how these guys find the time to come up with excellent stuff. Kudos to you’ll. Ahhh, I have strayed away.

So the year 2011 can be summarized in the following few sentences:

  1. Moved back to India (Hyderabad) from Dubai. [This deserves a write up in itself!]
  2. Joined TCS – as is hired from du to continue working on the same project from Hyderabad.
  3. Transition from Uncharted 2 to Uncharted 3
  4. Work – PS3 – eat – PS3 – Annoy Shruti – Sleep – Repeat.
  5. My brand new pot belly.

Along with this comes the losses and gains section. I’ll keep this short and easy to understand.

What I have lost:

  1. The truck load of worries I had when I was in Dubai.
  2. Words and the will to write.
  3. Wasted time on a box full of fun.
  4. Friends – quite a few this year actually. I’m not surprised though.
  5. Uncharted 2 – not supported anymore!

What I have gained:

  1. A friend for life. Do I need more?

All that being said; I’m super thrilled right now because I’m the proud owner of a Fossil CH2695 and it nothing less than a work of art. Thats my new years gift from Shruti and I cant stop staring at it every now and then. I always wanted something this cool in a brown and black combo, you know? Darn sweet! Thanks a ton wifey… muah’s!

So, yes, here’s me, the both of us and all of us together welcoming 2012 with open arms. Lets hope the river flows in the best direction possible. Cheers!~

-Anup

 

Alive and kicking.

I’ve been idling at my blog for the past three to four hours roughly thinking about where I need to start from. If you’ll noticed; I recently changed the blog’s theme and it was hated upon vociferously by Shruti. I still kept it for a while to see if I’d grow into it but nope, it just did not do it for me the way ADSimple does. The current theme that is. Its simple, nice and most importantly – red. I like the way it looks and feels and how it is easy to everyone’s eye. I’m not sure about what the masses feel about it but I felt much better the moment I changed it back to what it was.

As to why I’ve been invisible.. uhm, from what I have understood of myself it seems as though I need to feed upon pain and sorrow to come up with text that make a mark. Else, all that gargles out of me is nothing but bullshit! And I mean it – I just can’t seem to come up with the “happy stuff” you know? In fact, the moment I start sounding happy; by content or even if I type with a smile, the text just seems to bore themselves away and I end up staring at a blank notepad or sometimes my own self in the mirror. Wawwww!! I’m not kidding. Sometimes, I’m just a bore snore. I don’t quite want to say this in an open forum, but whatever is fine. Guess I need to get it out in order to attain some clarity about myself, you know?

What do I mean by a Happy blog? Check this out – http://sayesha.blogspot.com. Now here is a person who can really write happy stuff. Things that make her happy and words that make everyone who read it happy. Every post on her blog brings a smile to my face (Meh, me grumpy me) and I can’t stop wondering about how someone gets to be the way she is! I have been a silent follower of her blog for a couple of years now I think and there hasn’t been a single entry which put me down or made me feel sad or thoughtful. Every post is so light, happy and easy to relate to. Her story telling capabilities are without doubt exceptional and I hope she writes a fun book or something or maybe get her blog converted into a book. I’ve known of someone who has done that and it was pretty good. Not a chart buster but good nevertheless. Smikh introduced me to Sayesha’s and I just had to throw in a shout out to tell her that she’s one of the most inspiring people I know on the web. Cheers.

That being said – I hope for this entry to help get back to where I actually belong – words, texts, sentences and everything to do with narration and story telling. Hehe, yes, I always think of my life to be full of stories.

-Anup

…at home; at peace.

I haven’t felt like this in a while; I haven’t been feeling the need to write, sometimes I’d try and fail and some other times words would just pause. On most ocassions, however, I’d just be busy playing Uncharted 2 or fighting with Shruti about me wanting to play more! Its not like she wanted to watch the TV but then she’d just throw a tantrum to get me out of the transfixed state that I was in whilst playing that game. I haven’t ever spoken about my most recent addiction and thats how stuck I was with it.

Uncharted 2 multiplayer was a world in its own and Anup Menon alias RyukDG was a skin running around with an AK-47, a 9.2 FS pistol and an MK-NDI grenade. It threw me (once again) into a virtual world where I was surrounded by gun nuts and random screamy kids addicted to the power boost that an online game provides. I hope this justifies my absence from the blogospere. Sadly, as far as I have noticed a lot of regular bloggers have given up and moved on with life and more. I just hope that they all come back and I make time for following up on my blogroll.

I am not going to talk much about my addiction to the Playstation 3 because its a pointless discussion which may or may not interest the masses and for those who really want to discuss games and the console; feel free to email in – I’d love to talk about it *winks* I’m sure Shruti would be reading this sometime and the PS3 is the last thing that she’d want to read about. So, I’ll move on to greener pastures and may eventually discuss the happenings in my life over the past couple of years.

As I read up on my posts between 2009 and 2010; I realized that most of the posts were just not me. I wrote, sometimes out of sheer boredom and sometimes since I had people breathing down my neck to write a few lines. Forcing myself to write has never worked in my favour and never will. I am more of a heart guy and all that I notate needs to flow. Thinking while I write never helps and those posts (between the dates I mentioned) are astoundingly pathetic. This was the phase in my life where I had just landed in Dubai and had just met the girl I’d marry. I was busy with too many things and writing never seemed to come to me. Thus, a lot of pushy posts. I am hoping to start fresh; probably try to re-design the whole blog and archive all the posts before this date. I still haven’t planned on how to do it because its been a few months since I tweaked wordpress and I really don’t like messing up this place. It does have a lot of fond memories and I hate losing data – be it good or bad.

So why now? Well, I have ended my 2 year stint at Dubai and have come back to my motherland. I was a patriot from the time I remember but never have I missed my country so much. The fragrances, the stench, the pollution, the numerous languages, the fighting adults and the crying kids, all the chirping birds and the barking dogs; all of it is still sinking in to me it feels like I am floating. There is around 2 years worth information that has gone by and I will re-post with a rundown on the dreamy little year that I have shared with my patient better half, thus far. “Which year?” she’ll probably ask. Time has flown by and the both of us find it hard to believe that we have already been together for a year. I will follow up with more on that;  but for now, a big Hi! to all those who grace by this place and I hope that you’ll are doing well. I’m sorry for not being around and I am hoping that I’d be seen more in the years to come.

I’ll end with this – In an utopian world I am the happiest man alive!

-Anup

The lull

“Don’t let the lull fool you!” Its deceptive and its like the calm before a tsunami. This has been proven to be true in my case time and again. There are days like today where work flows like a rivulet and you think about engaging in activities like reading off of a few blogs, reading the newspaper online (yes, I do that sometimes), reading reviews on the new games that have been released and everything else that you can find online APART from work! Define rivulet: a small stream. But like I said, you have been deceived by the lull. Its just breathing space and nothing more. Its just like a tiny oasis amongst long stretches of barren lifeless deserts (like it is here, in Dubai!) It gets over before you know it and you’re out there again; fighting against problems, tackling roadblocks, being roadblocks, arguing with people who are much below your level of likeliness, yelling, going completely against your demeanor, scratching your head, googling, staring into nothingness while you carelessly dig your nose thinking about “stuff” amongst all the other things you’d probably be doing at work. Define raging river: a crazy violent river. Its all in a days work and no, digging your nose is perfectly alright. Just don’t eat it! There are people and there is youtube.

Rants apart, I caught myself in that moment of lull and I thought I’d write a few lines. Its not always when I feel like doing this. Not anymore at least. I assure all my avid readers and fans that its not that I don’t want to write. Its just that I’ve been busy off late and by the time I get home, all I want to do is fall on the XXL sized bean bag and think about nothing. Its another thing that I don’t get a lot of opportunity to do that *winks* Work never seems to end for me and Hamid always comes up with new things that I might want to do or could possibly include into my already hectic and never-ending schedule. Now, its another thing that there is a part of me who enjoys every bit of the work he does but there is also a part of me who’d want to return to his days in HP where he had very little to do, had to hardly go to work (work from home with a good pay was an option then) and is hardly responsible for anything that happens. Ahhh! Those were the days where I earned without so much as twitching my nose. Things are different now. I am responsible for tasks and activities which can be done by no one but me. I work with someone who is worth all the respect. The learning curve that I have here seems like a very long one. The hyperbola does not seem to end and its annoying me now! I’d like some peace, you know? I really want to sit down and have enough time on me to note down things on my mind and I need to do it at least once a week. But then, its been a roller coaster ride for me thus far and time has moved very quickly from the time I’ve reached Dubai. I sometimes can’t believe that I’ve completed 13 months here. For me, everything seems like it happened yesterday. XYZ company called, interview was done, they offered me a job, I turned into a fool and came here! See the pun there? No? Uhm, well, I’m a bit grungy and I promise to get better.

This post is dedicated to some marvelous art work by my partner-in-life, Shruti. she and I claim no rights to the below image because this is not a figment of her imagination. She managed to get all the emotions on his face right and she got the smudges to be just perfect. I hardly ever knew about this side of her. But like they say, marriage is a slow learning process and the slower it is, the better it is for you! I’m putting up a few of her sketches and I think they are all stake-sauce!

Shruti’s Gallery part 1:

I’ve added a ‘part 1’ to this because I’m sure that there’d be more to come from the pencil she’s wielding these days. Yes, wielding… you’re a show off, you know? Anyway, people who might appreciate work like this please drop a comment. I’ll be posting more later. Topics of discussion – my new PS3, my new PS3 and ahhh yes of course, my new PS3. Not to forget… my reviews on games like God of war 3 and Uncharted 2. Ohh man! You have to play Uncharted 2. If you’re somebody who likes gaming then this is THAT game for which you MUST buy a PS3. Its that awesome. Not only is its in-game storyline that is fantabulous but the online multiplayer version will knock your balls off! But then, like I said, more about that later. Finally, signing off with one of my picks of the week (music):

Hosanna – Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya; simply Rahman!

Peace out folks.

-Anup