Made a dash to the big bad city to fetch Bren from the shitport, which is what I call C.S. Intl. And guess who I saw - Kenny G! Even though the DNA thugs (and lots of pretties!) were trying to keep him as far away from us aam janta as possible, I did get pretty close. But here's the thing - I had no idea our man Kenny would be performing in Mumbai today. When I saw all the DNA blueshirts I kinda guessed some cleleb had come. And then a puny dude with all the hair who looked like Kenny G was whisked past us like he was Michael Jackson; but I still wasn't sure it was him. Until I went onto the DNA site today and saw the promo. Yep, it was him alright.

Guess who I also saw - Sushmita Sen. Man, how did she get so fat! I didn't know it was her either until I heard someone behind me say it. And she had on the ugliest pair of huge D&G sunglasses. Probably to hide herself from the riff-raff. As if anybody cares for Sush these days.

Mumbai airport is always such a hive of activity. So different from other airports I've been to recently, like Vienna and Zurich. Zurich especially. When I arrived at the Flughafen on a cold September morning there was not a damn soul outside; just a few cabbies and the hotel buses. Vienna too was pretty empty; just the odd security guard and airport employee. But Bombay is something else. In a way every person arriving in Bombay feels like a celeb. Because there are always so many people waiting outside ... even if they're not waiting for you. And that being the case many of our NRI's feel the need to put on a show. You see, they gotta show us where they're coming from. Like you'll see this nerdy looking college dude with the Texas A&M T-shirt, so you know he's from College Station. Funny is when you see some clown wearing a Phillies tee and baseball hat, firing away in his nakli accent. Bet he never saw a Phillies game in his life, but yeah, now you know he's from Philadelphia.

And the Gujju dames with the tight jeans. You gotta have them on a flight arriving from Newark. I've noticed there are usually two kinds of Gujju chicks you'll see - One the happily married rich as hell kinds with the spoilt brat and the henpecked husband in tow, the other the pencil-slim hot-bod with the dark circles under the eyes covered by too much make-up, who in all likelihood is on the lookout for a guy who's rich as hell!

But Bren hasn't changed one bit. Still the spunky girl she always was, with no hint of an accent of any kind. We even had chai at a roadside place where I would be very scared to put the cup to my lips if I was coming to India after 7 years. Yep, it's 7 not 6. And she tells me she's just dying to have chaat! LOL ... to think I haven't eaten chaat in bludy years.

This is kind of an anniversay post you know. 5 years to the day since the Blues first started. Been a lot of fun, it has, pouring my mind out here. Cheers to you all!

It's just gotta be CCR .... You didn't think I was gonna play Kenny G, did you :) Take it away John.

When I started I wrote about a struggle. It's funny how so much has changed and yet so much remains the same. I think the best thing about this whole adventure (yes I like to call it an adventure because that's what it's been, just like life itself) is all the brilliant, wonderful minds I have encountered along the way ... too many to mention, and so many of them I have lost touch with, but whom I can never forget.

The struggle will go on, that I know for sure. But if at the end of the day you can honestly say that it's all been worth it, and the number of people who love you are more than those that want to see you dead, then I guess there should be no reason to complain.

This song ... this songs for me.

New girl at work is drop dead gorgeous. Play your cards right and you'll go all the way to the top, honey! is what I wanted to say to her. No need to turn into an old slog-dog like me.

Cousin Bren arrives from New Joisey this weekend. How many years has it been since I saw her ... 6 maybe. She was one of those girls who always wanted to do something different - travel, see the world. But she ended up being run of the mill.

But somewhere in there the dream always stays alive I guess.

***

All across the highway on my way to work everyday I see these so-called 'dream home' hoardings and I wonder when I will ever own one of them. But more often I ask myself if I even want to own one of them. Imagine shelling out 30 and 35 lakhs, being ridden with debt the rest of your working life, and getting what at the end of it - bricks and mortar and a place to rue a life not lived.

It's kinda crazy not knowing what you're gonna be doing or where you'll be one year from now. But right now that's the only thing that keeps me going.

Give me a beer and a 29" plasma TV anyday! Now this changes the equation totally, if you know what I'm sayin'.

***

The Yanks think we're eating too much. Something that as per the natural scheme of things (as they know it) perhaps we're not supposed to be doing. Someone way back must have told them we Indians are happy with daal-roti. Which we were, if it wasn't for them outsourcing all their jobs to us, and turning thousands upon thousands of our brightest engineering minds into testers and coders earning big fat salaries (albeit a pittance compared to what they pay back home) which somewhat ironically (or not) we up spending on their damn products; and now they're blaming us for increasing world food prices. Talk about wanting it all!


***


M Night Shyamalan's back to spook us they're saying. Hopefully it won't be anything as demented as The Village, which was a load of bludy crap. The Sixth Sense I didn't see, and his Lady in the Water drowned before most of us could see her. But I think he should take a cue from Bollywood and come up with a 'romantic-comic-thriller'. One of the three should work.


He's been awarded the Padma Shri for cinema it seems. Hell, how about a Padma Shri for bloggers! All the time and effort we bludy put in. I'm not implying that I should get it, if that's what you're thinking.


CCR ... to me the greatest 'real' rock band of all time. Run through the Jungle. Shyamalan should have this one in the soundtrack to his next movie ... his characters do a lot of running.

So tell me - Why do people get all worked up over what is not their fight. Like it wouldn't bother me one bit if Bhajji had beaten Sreesanth to a pulp. Or if the Big B is dragged through the streets of Bombay tomorrow for not 'doing enough' for Maharashtra. It ain't your fight, brother. I think it's important to know what is and is not your fight.

***

Saw Sonia "the girl" Faleiro on the tele last night. Along with Shobhaa De and that crackpot Padamsee on a show called Glamour Bazaar on IBN where the topic being discussed was the New face of changing India (done to death, I know!). I was too sleepy to follow every bit but I did go huh? when Madam De went:

"I would say it is a different India but the kids of this generation have to work less than their parents did. We grew up in a different India and we pushed ourselves."

Is she serious - We work less than our parents did?? ... And if getting married to some rich fart and inheriting two of his children is what she means by pushing herself, I don't know what to say.

There was also this blogger chick Jhoomur who apparently likes to talk about sex and such. Her blog traffic must surely have gone up many times since last night. But I find women who talk about sex all the time quite boring, to be very honest .

***

First time I heard this man's music I was totally blown away. Purely because it was so different from anything I'd heard before. So sweet, so haunting, so exhilarating, all at the same time.

From his 1967 debut album Blowin' your mind (aptly titled cuz like I said that's just what it did to me), this is the classic TB Sheets.

If I had known they had scattered his ashes there I'd have said hello. It was around dusk on a chilly September evening when we took the boat across Lake Geneva. I stood out at the front staring into the vast expanse of blue ahead, the breeze tearing into my face. With only one thought on my mind - the nothingness of it all.

***

Thanks for all your comments on the previous post. 5 years really is a long time to be at it. But the Blues to me is more than just a blog, it's like a friend I can talk to any time.

And so to celebrate our association I'm gonna be playing here, time permitting, some of my favourite songs this week. Songs that to me are more than just songs ... anthems if you will.

This one by a man who from such ordinary beginnings rose to leave his mark on the world forever. His music (and his electrifying stage presence) always leaves me spellbound, marvelling at the sheer brilliance that was Freddie Mercury.

Like he once said: You either have the magic or you don't!

It really is quite hilarious. Sana boy came good yesterday ... 3 damn wickets and the MOM. But I didn't have him in my team. Drat! Lesson learnt - Keep the faith dude!

5th blogversary coming up in 10 days time. Is it really something to celebrate I wonder. But what the hell, we'll celebrate anyway!

Collective Soul. This is one of those numbers you gotta listen to on big massive speakers. Goes out to my long time blogging mate Manu whose Manuscrypts also turned 5 recently. Funny thing is I never knew all them posts had only 55 words! The lengths that people go to to get noticed! :)

so much went wrong
but so much is still right

is what I want to say to her. If she would only listen.

***

Jayasuriya disappointed again. I thought he'd come good yesterday, so I gave him another chance. But he didn't. And I lost all my damn points. In a game that's got the whole office doing nothing else. Even the girls. And theres money changing hands too. The management won't be amused to hear about a flourishing satta bazaar happening right under their noses. Thanks to my mate Symonds I made 240 bucks the previous game, after putting in just 10.

It feels good to get out more than you put in. If only life were like that.

Lovely lovely post by our girl Yashita on just that. We demand more and more out of life, but in the end she can only give you so much. And for that we are often ungrateful.

***

Only the best muzak here on the Blues ... Van 'the man' Morrison. This for you, A.



Peace, love, and jelly roll.

Switch on the tele last night and what do I see - Himesh Reshhammiyya in a movie shoot with Urmila - sans topi! Yep, he's now flaunting a whole new head of hair, which from the looks of it is even more resham and bouncy than Urmilas. They're saying it's either a wig or a hair transplant. Well, whatever the hell it is, he's a serious contender for the Best Nakli Baal award, something that till now belonged solely to Sallu 'dressed chicken' Khan.

Turns out Loafer Devgun's directorial debut U, Me aur Hum (they really are running out of titles, aren't they?) is a hack from some Hollywood film. No surprises there. What Kajol saw in him we'll never know. Saw them together judging some reality show the other day. These reality shows really have become too many, don't you think? There seems to be a 'grand finale' happening every other weekend. Chotta ustaad, bada ustaad, mota ustaad, patla ustaad .... I'm so sick of it I don't even feel like watching American Idol any more. And they're the buggers who started it all.

But so many people depend on these shows for their livelihood. Imagine what would happen to Rakhee Sawant if there were no reality shows. The poor girl would have to resort to shagging some C-grade producer every other week for an item number in his next film.

It's a dirty business Bollywood. That's why you wonder what a nice girl like Deepika is doing hangin around them sleazeballs. I wish she'd just taken up badminton instead. Now that's something Indian sport could really have used. It would also have taken the pressure off poor Sania. And if she'd won a medal, gosh she'd be bigger than all them Bollywood bimbos put together. But the lure of easy money is too hard to resist I guess.

Oh and Krazzy 4 is a supremely entertaining flick. You must watch it everybody. You'll be falling out of your seats!

Speaking of crazy, here's psycho chick Kate Nash.

If you think about it there is perhaps only one way to ensure you always do the right thing -- act like someone is watching. Call it an invisible supervisor, call it God, call it whatever you want. Someone who sees your every action, hears your every word, knows your every deed. You could never go wrong then. And best of all you'd always be true to yourself.

But that is something most of us would rather not think about.

***

2007 and 2006 before that were years of much change for me. Things got better, way better than they were before. And 2008 looks like it's going the same way. I like to believe I've learnt from my mistakes and have become a kinder, more understanding person. Let me just say I'm happy being the person I am today. There is nothing really that I want, and everything I need I can afford.

I see around me so many people struggling to make sense of their lives. The easiest way would be to go with what you've got. So much is lost for want of a little more.

See the little monkey sitting up in his monkey tree. One day

decided to climb down, run off to the city. Look at him now

lost and tired, living in the street. As good as

dead you see; do what a monkey does, stay up your tree.