Friday, December 07, 2007

Back

Been offline for a while and in the meanwhile headed out to Mauritius for a bit, completed the business analysis for a certain university and then finished off my third sem @ Cornell. So far so good.

Was reminiscing on the old days of bandra and realized that Eddy Grant used to be a very popular singer in every maka-pao's heart.. remmeber those saturday afternoons circa 1985-1989 where eddy would blast out on any available stereo?

Here goes:





Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tired

Im exhausted. Its been a busy week and its only wednesday. Flew out to Indy and back thru all day meetings monday. Got back home in time to watch the eagles suck like a hoover vaccuum in the fourth quarter and lose.

School work is starting to ramp up BIG TIME. We have a global project item due this week and i will be responsible for gluing all the hard work and research the team has pulled together - I hope not to let them down. Mauritius is looming on the horizon, and i am looking forward to both the team visit as well as having the families visit. I think we will stay at the Villa Latanier. Thanks to you Sly.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

80s music again

Listening to some music on youtube, decided to search for some old (well 80s) goodies.. here goes

Noel: Silent Morning


I did think Noel (or Noel Pagan : his real name) was one of the better freestylers of his time (circa 1987) and that led me to check where freestyle has gone....

well, heres Billy Wingrove with Football Freestyle

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The weekend

Had some friends over from Virginia. An englisman married to a peruvian / japanese girl. Craig and I have been mates for over 8 yrs now, we met at the job i currently work at (hes since moved on). Had a lovely time with my wife enjoying the company as well, did the whole philadelphia sightseeing, lots of english premier league football... of course bustin on how bad Blackpool was in the Champions league and that they would continue to be relegated...ah, that can piss an englishman off... pics below:


Saturday, August 11, 2007

Bharat Rakshak

Was reading up on the Indian army and came across this website I had long ago visited. Very up to date and some great stories of valor and patriotism through the wars of past.

What struck me about this was the one image (which I have copied here, but is owned by the webmaster). The direct link to that image can be found HERE

The slogan of this image applies to every soldier fighting for every free country in the world, including our very own US forces in Iraq.

Lest You Forget Me

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.

Monday, August 06, 2007

of Coming out and all that

an old friend whom i had caught up last week with, finally let the cat out of the bag that he's gay. i could feel him wait for a reaction from me, especially since i had zero gaydar on him and always ribbed him about being too picky in finding a nice girl (so much for my helping!!).

we chatted for a bit as he told me how hard it was initially especially being indian, and all the social taboo that comes with it...my only answer was, "man, all i can say is, you have to go with what warms your heart, there is no right and wrong, and society in general has been known to be wrong very many times".

My personal thoughts, congratulations on finding the one you love. do not worry about the people who pass judgement and tell you whats righteous or not. Lifes to short to get caught up with other peoples nonsense when you can find love and peace in your own home.

Friday, August 03, 2007

More crap

Tomorrow is cricket saturday and im hoping to get some sports into my regimen (or should i say lack of exercise). anyway, i found an old clip from the movie Eurotrip .. mi scusi, mi scusi

Nike Cricket Commercial

Suddenly remembered the Nike cricket commercial sung in Konkani when i was in india back in 2005. Found the clip on YouTube, I love this ad, it embodies how important cricket is to india

Monday, July 30, 2007

Random Picture

Whos that handsome man bowling... Nice picture Vikram, love the shutter speed adjustment.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Ithaca and All that

Drove back with Joe late last night from Ithaca. Its been a very hard week with the papers due, valuation exam and consequent 3 am work nights to complete related class work. Did manage to smoke a cigar with Juran one night and get to know the Valuation professor. Seems to be a really nice fella, intelligent as heck and super young for a guy of his calibre. Joe and I were pretty happy to get to know him, as he seems to be outgoing and has the potential to be buddy eventually when this MBA gets done :)

im home now and i can feel the exhaustion of the past week seeping in. it didnt have much of a chance to get noticed because we were running from one deadline to another..one more paper in markstrat to complete and we are done for this week.

here's looking forward to another long nights sleep and then getting back to work.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Funeral and Final goodbyes

Drove up to Nileshs this morning to go attend Brians funeral. It was a sad morning to find a friend going away forever, with no chance of running into each other again during this life.

Sat at mass being one of the three non-caucasian folks there, as Brian would have said "boy you are really out of place here :)", did our farewells, wiped a tear off my eye (after all us macho men dont cry). Spoke to Matt and Chad (his best friends and pall bearers) and of course were able to laugh about everything that defined Brian and his inappropriateness... but a man who could really be counted on to help people.

Here's an excerpt from Brians sense of humor:

Three weeks ago he was helping move us out of our old apartment and into a new one, during the move downstairs, some dude (who was also moving his apartment) came over and struck a conversation with Brian saying "Gosh I'm moving back to Ohio, i hate these moves"...

Brian in his infinite smart-assness goes "Yeah i understand, thats why you should do what i did .. (points to Amrut and Nilesh and goes..) i just hired these Indians to help me out"

The guy was so startled with the statement that he mumbled "No Comment" and sauntered off..

That was Brians humor, i laughed about it all of that day.. i was smiling in the back of my head as i placed my hand on his casket and said goodbye to a friend. he was part of my life for the past 5 years, but he will be remembered for a very long time...Rest in peace my friend, its your time to look down upon us and smile now

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Bizarre Turn of Events




Got back home this evening from a week on the road including; Philly, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Newark in a span of 3 days. JH was driving me back home and i was telling him about how much Brian had helped with driving the truck for the move, helping with the heavy stuff, adding to the humor and then i called nilesh.


The call i should never have made:
Nilesh: Man, I have some news for you
Me: What?
Nilesh: You are not going to believe this
Me: What? You got your green card? You finally proposed to the girl and are planning on marriage?
Nilesh: No, Brian died last night

<...Stunned Silence>
Me: What? Stop fucking around
Nilesh: Dude, his boss Jim and friend George called me to tell me this, I'm still in shock, and to think he has a 6 month old baby
Me: What? What happened? Does anyone know
Nilesh: No idea. But I will find out about the funeral plans


Right now, I'm sitting here in utter disbelief that the one person who lit up the humor in any room, at any party,.. the one person who could actually make you uncomfortable with his crazy comments.. is GONE!

Brian, was 33 years old. Rest in peace my friend. My feelings, thoughts and heart goes out to your family. I hope we can all stay in touch so that someday when lil Isabella grows up, I can tell her what a great guy her dad was.

....tomorrow is dads 3rd death anniversary, i will wake up and say a prayer to you dad. If you do run into Brian on the other side, I'm sure you two will enjoy a smoke together up in that great blue beyond.

Monday, July 02, 2007

The weekend move

Harrowing weekend. Thanks to Brian, Nilesh, and Amrut, this whole move went smoother than i ever imagined. I'm now wondering how it is that we ended up with so much junk in a 1 br apartment until now.

Came home to the apartment to find out that the owner had left some of his stuff. I have to admit that i was a little upset until he came over and told me how badly his move went. We helped him load up the remaining stuff into his car and he drove off sunday night.

its monday morning and i'm aching like a mofo right now. At work, trying to get thru this day and make the most of my sleep tonight.

for you fellas who helped me move, thank you for being there when I needed you the most. For my wife: thank you for the logistics and spreadsheets you put together...if not, we'd still be looking for our stuff.

... and to the truck rental company, a BIG F-you for giving me a 22 foot truck that I could barely handle.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Formula 1 - Weekend

So we went off to the F1 weekend in Indy. What a great trip, 10 hours in a smelly rental car, three guys sharing a hotel room followed by a day in the sun at 101 degrees... No, really, it was a fantastic trip getting to know Thomas ( a danish colleague and friend).

Pictures Attached here

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Still sorting out

sunday morning .. lazy day in the temporary apartment surrounded by boxes. i feel like we're part of the Picasso cubist movement here. Fortunately we will be moving to a new apartment at the end of the month, that said, one more move.

Work at the client site is hectic right now, lotsa flux with people quitting but staying on part time etc. Im concerned with some decisions being made but such is the nature of the job we do.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Fire in the apartment

Was kicking off a "Requirements" meeting with my clients this friday morning and my phone starts to ring.. its my wife calling. Put it on mute a couple of times but she kept calling and i think to myself "This can't be good because she never does this".

Next thing i hear from her is that the apartment two walls down is on fire pretty bad and the whole building has to be evacuated. Turns out that something went down in the kitchen (at least hearsay from folks standing around) that caused the fire.

We were allowed in for a brief bit to get our clothes etc but are basically relegated to an empty apartment in the complex. So, net net we're sorta homeless right now. Drove up to my buds place in NY and will be here till monday night to say in the least.

i will upload some apartment pics later, in the meanwhile, the news pictures are here on MSNBC News

and more pictures from the Eddington Fire Department

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Royce and the blog


so an old buddy royce said to me today "Royce D'souza: but i still won't so forget - i don't have a fucking mention in your online journal"..



Well here goes royce :) look forward to seeing u december in bombay

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Another MBA weekend goes by

Wow, im exhausted. Its been a week of work and then yet another quiz this weekend. I cannot believe that a year of the MBA is almost over (May 13th). Just gotta grind thru the next two weeks with the client "To-Be" sessions kicking off tomorrow and hitting the books for corporate finance's final exam and the one last presentation for business strategy at Cornell....

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The weekend, friends and more



What a super weekend its been. darren and i (and padma) spent some time together, then i returned to his ship and stayed over two nights.

Sunday lunch at the officers mess with some good mutton biryani and beers to boot. This followed by a drive up to North Wales PA for tennis and dinner at Amrut / Sonalis place. I still need to figure out why their baby is so scared of me.

Monday night started with darren doing some shopping for his soon to be born twins (you guessed it, huggies)...followed by cheesesteaks at pats.

tuesday, wholly different, headed down to Standard Tap in the northern liberties (on 2nd and Poplar) and got some yummy mussels and andouille sausage for dinner. Some Yards philadelphia pale ale to wash this down with as well.. :)




he's off today, but i must say it was lovely being able to catch up and talk about the old bandra days, catch up on who's doing what and where, who tried to commit suicide, who got divorced and basically how fucking crowded and expensive our old stomping grounds have become..

Bon Voyage my friend, enjoy Galveston and then Morocco....good luck with the babies this august, consider padma and me as well wishers....

Saturday, April 21, 2007

end of the fork

So i ended up speaking to the partner who also is a close friend of mine, JH, once again you have put things in perspective for me... i do appreciate it. That fork has ended.

Other than that, met Darren, a friend from bombay who is now a captain of a merchant vessel. he docked into port from west africa yesterday morning, so padma and i drove down to Pier 84 (Phila) to see him. Drinks, Dinner @ Chickies and Petes (the original one) and some real good conversation.

I'm impressed that someone my age is so successful and responsible, and commandeers a vessel like that...kudos to you my friend. its good to see the old bandra boys succeed...

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Many forks in the road

im considering an option of going off and doing something on my own in financial services... this close to the finish line at my current job but just a little bored and unchallenged..

next week should provide more inputs on my direction.

class goes on at cornell, a little worn out but keep forging ahead

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Ugh!!!

im going through a metamorphisis
one of frustration and dissent
im scared that i'll lose myself
and wonder where it all went

my heart is breaking, in slow motion
i see the world fall around me
i need to find that catalyst
that can set my soul free

i cry, a tear, i felt us so soft,
your tenderness, has turned hostile
i savor those moments of happiness,
yet detest when this we defile

Seu Jorge

Listening to Seu Jorges albums "Studio Sessions from The Life Aquatic" and "CRU"... friggin brilliant music. Never thought David Bowie's "Changes" would sound so enchanting in Portuguese...


Friday, January 26, 2007

New Home Builders Desperate to sell homes

Got this in an email... you tell me how desperate it sounds :)


Feb 2nd - The Birthday


Feb 2nd is around the corner and my dad would have been 69 years old this year. Well, happy birthday dad, will say a prayer for your soul this day. As always, you will never leave my thoughts and my heart.

<====Memories from 1991

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Google Earthing myself around

Managed to find my folks place in goa of all places in the world. This is brilliant ...



And our high school in Bombay...gets better

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Back in the US

got back early hours of saturday morning from JFK airport - amazes me how there is traffic at all crazy times of the day on the staten island expressway.

some pics that i took with my mom in bombay - notice the backdrop as the apartment is undergoing major renovations and the walls look like crap