The Comeback

The moment of truth came knocking today. India won the World Cup and deservedly so. Team India has never been so consistent ever before. The fielding was brilliant in some of the games and much better than previous World Cups in all the matches. The batting had been established the best in the world without dispute. And, therefore, I thought today would be the best day to make a come back. It truely is a crazily fabulous moment. So here I am. I am back baby. Congratulations all.

09. Big Boy Bud!

And bud's a year older... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Loads of love :)

08. Yay!

So here's some good news! Bud's XBox has finally been replaced. He tried to convince me that it hadn't yet, but the name is Bond, James Bond :-P

I am stuck on a mission in GTA IV for the past couple of days and it's getting to me (GRRR). Think it's the last story-related mission, so all the more bugging. (GRRR again!) But yea, I am happy that bud is back into the world of gaming. :-)

Hmmm, I think I'll give it a last shot (today's) now.

-Prash

07. Here I Come To Save The Day!!!

See, the thing with superheroes is that they are SUPER. They can do what no other human can. They can fly, scale walls, shape-shift, become invisible, create holes in walls with a punch, run at the speed of light, elongate their body parts (stop thinking too much, u perv!), stay underwater and breathe like a fish, become huge in size, or at times as small as an atom. The list is endless. Not only of their special abilities, but of themselves too!

 

The past few days have been very super-humane for me! The thing is that I have always been fascinated with superheroes. Not that 25 zillion other people around the world have not been. With me, I feel, it’s a little different. It's quite prolonged! Ever since I was a kid, till now, when I am on the wrong side of the twenties (wish I had the power to stay a certain age! Aah!), superheroes have been an integral part of my not-so-super life.

 

Like many kids, I used to dress up as my favorite superheroes, tight-fitting clothes with the undies over them, cape n all! (They were mighty uncomfortable, I tell ya! These superheroes really have balls of steel!) I even cut out Superhero Logos and attached them to the clothes I would wear! (the ones on the cape never survived for more than 10 minutes! Bah, so much for being a Superhero Logo out of ordinary paper!)

 

So, to cut a long super-story short, I wanted to be a superhero. Uhhh… actually I just wanted to have superpowers! I didn’t really care much about being the protector of the universe, the Earth, my country, state, city, neighbourhood… (you get the message!) I just wanted to have those amazing super-powers! What all could I do with them! I guess I had more mischievous plans rather than heroic ones! (*MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!*)

 

Few of the powers I have always wanted!

 

 

01.  Super Strength:- No explanations required there I guess! Who would not wanna be really powerful, so that you could bash up the neighbourhood bully. Or any bully. Sometimes your teachers also. Anyone who tried to bully you, in any way. And you could get away with it too, because you were a Superhero!!!

02.  Flight:- aah! I was under the impression that I was the only kid who secretly wished he had THAT power. But, unfortunately and sadly, I got to know that almost every kid has had this power on his/her super-wish-list at least once in their lifetime. Again, being able to fly is something that man has been trying to do for ages. As far as I can remember, even Daedalus and Icarus wanted to fly. Now that’s some Greek Mytho there. So, for times immemorial, "Flight" would be man's favourite super-power!

03.  Invisibility:- Now, THAT’S one power I'd luuurrrrrrrrve to have! The power to be able to get all kinda information, without getting caught! The power to sneak up on your 'enemies' without being seen! The power to enter school, even if you were late! To leave house without permission! To see the neightbourhood girl while she took a…. ok ok, that’s enough.

04.  Scaling Walls:- Peter Parker was a guy I could relate to! He was somewhat a loser, a geek, young, and not-so-rich! And he was so cool! I wanted to don a Spidey suit n scale walls! And yea, to add to that, I wanted the ability to spin webs too! (I had a red and blue colored pajama set too, and with the help of a black marker pen and some spidey paper-cutouts and a Spiderman mask, I had the best Spidey suit in my circle of friends! Not to forget the best spanking from mom for doing that. And the dream of being a local Spiderboy just scaled up the wall and FLEW away… AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Such is life, I say!)

05.  Elasticity:- That one was on the list for sometime, especially during the years when I used to feel quite vertically challenged, and friends would tease me about being a "bonsai". But when the biological system decided that I shouldn’t remain a bonsai, the power also disappeared from the wish list, at the speed of light! WHOOOOOOOOOSH! (wasn’t much useful anyway! :-D )

06.  Speed Of Light:- The name says it all! I could win all races! ALL of them! I could pinch the local bullies in the places that hurt 'em most, and would just… RUN!! Now THAT would be some fun!! (I could even impress my classmates of the opposite gender! They liked fast people!)

07.  Shape-Shifting:- Yes, I wanted to do that too! There were times when I wanted to be a car, a rocket, a dog, a kangaroo, a dolphin, a bear, a bat, a turtle… How much fun that would be!!! I even wanted to be a mutant for a brief period of time, thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the X-Men. … Then I reached middle school and realized that wasn’t biologically possible.

 

Well, the list might go on, but I guess these were the seven most important super-powers I wanted to have. Later on, during the course of my life, I realized that acquiring these powers would be a little difficult, if not entirely impossible. So I decided I could still be a superhero, without any REAL super-powers! I would go the Bruce Wayne/Batman or Tony Stark/Iron Man routes, create some scientifically designed armour suits and vehicles, and still be able to do all the things I dreamt of!

 

Another realization hit. All of this required money and technical expertise. That was great! The only sad part was, I had none. So, I decided to become a scientist. And I studied hard. No no, not my course-books… Comic books! And I kept dreaming, in true Piscean fashion.

 

Later on, I grew older and somewhere down the line the dream of becoming a scientist was kinda lost, and I decided to become a software engineer (thanks to the IT Boom of the late 90's). Uh-oh, hang on. I also wanted to become a doctor!

 

So, I took the decision of opting for a weird combination of subjects for my +2 schooling. The combination that even the best of the best students, the brightest ones, dreaded. They could have a stroke or a cardiac arrest thinking about it! Some were strong willed. They only had nightmares, leading to them wetting their beds at night.

 

I was different. I was a Superhero in the making, after all. So I opted for that dreaded combination. PCBME (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, English.)

 

As you would have guessed by now, I ended up being none. For my "higher studies", I opted Business Management. (It's a different story that my friends and I gave "higher" studies a totally new dimension!)

 

Later on, I became a Radio Jockey. And now, I am a TV Anchor.

 

 

Who am I? I am Confuso-Man!

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Later on, I was exposed to the world of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. There was this deep burning desire to become a rockstar too. But the story of that in some other post. Right now, I gotta go and do some "world-saving" for now! (That means watching Superhero movies and reading my freshly-downloaded-collection of Superhero Comic Books.)

 

 

 

Hmmm… quite theatrical, isn’t it?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

* "Hmmm"ing during the writing of this post:- 

 

Bud: you are weird

me: yes

  i know!

  n i am soon gonna give u solid proof of that!

Bud: ooook

  Umm I look forward to it

 me: hmmm

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Love, Peace n Harmony,

Prateek/Sam. a.k.a Confuso-Man

 

 

© The Humming Buds Dec 2008

06. Huh?!

I am extremely sleepy and I have no idea why I am trying to update the blog in this 'condition'. (yaaaaawwn)

How many times do you do stay up late, even though you are sleepy, for no particular reason? Does it make going to sleep easier, making you doze off as soon as your head hits the pillow? Are you scared what you might dream about? Does it stop you from thinking? Does there have to be a reason?

I am going to sleep now...
Good night,
Prash


(Yea, I know you can't see the pic here. Please don't point out the 'mistake', try clicking instead!)


© The Humming Buds Dec 2008

05. What Would We Do Without You?

See the thing with us buds is that there are some things we are both addicted to. Besides sleeping (yaaawwn) and eating (Yay! Pizza!), this presently includes gaming.

I am not what you can call a hardcore gamer, having recently acquired an Xbox 360, but I do enjoy playing.


(Yes, a girl can enjoy playing GTA IV, Gears of War 2, Half Life 2, COD 4.)


In fact, in the less-than-two-months of owning the console, I have already finished one game--a wonderful surprise birthday present from my bud. :-) (I thought he was buying it for himself... Well, he did buy it for himself too!)

Now my dear bud might think I am doing a little jale pe namak chhidakna by writing all this, but I really am not. (His console died recently, and he is waiting for the company to replace it.) I am actually writing this to... well you'll see why in a bit...

There was a time when I was alien to gaming, except some online games, which you can't really categorise as gaming. And at this time, bud was (well, he always has been) very much into it. Now trust me, and I am sure those of you who have been in the situation would agree, it was extremely difficult for me to really get excited about it, or relate to it in any manner. There were also the "Accha will call you in 15 minutes, am playing abhi" to deal with. Overall not a very pleasant experience for me I must say, especially when those 15 minutes never got over.

(What if I was in a life-threatening situation and wanted to talk to my bud?
Okay, I am a drama queen, shoot me :-P)

Well, now that I have my own gaming console, and some really cool games to go with it, all I can say is, "Sam, I know what you are going through right now." Just the electricity goes while I am playing and I am as sad as a ghost who has just discovered he/she's dead.



I think the Xbox has changed our friendship forever... Oh yea, definitely for the better. Even I get to do the "Will call you in 15 minutes" deal now (sadistic smile).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------







The last 'hmmm'ing before this post:


Me: How much do you miss gaming on your xbox?

Bud: :-|
is that a question to be asked?

Me: hmmm


(Okay, maybe that was a little jale pe namak chhidakna.)


© The Humming Buds Dec 2008

04 (b). How The Buds Started 'Hmmm'ing - Bud 2

It all happened in the summer of 2007. (*leans back on the chair, reminiscing, calm and serene look on his face*)

 

But before we get to that part of the story, it'd be appropriate to do a little bit of "bhoomika-building"! (aah, I love doing that, all my friends would endorse that!!!) * devilish look and a :-D *

 

*Flashback*

 

To cut a long story short, there was this young guy, talented radio professional who was doing pretty good for himself, working with a really hot radio station, in the City of The Laidback Mankind, Indore. And then, as it happens with a lot of people, he fell for a woman! (circa 2005-2006 A.D) And as it happens with a lot of people as well, he too decided to get a better job in a better city that would pay better money and afford him-n-her a better future and a better lifestyle, he moved to New Delhi, and got a job with another much talked-about radio station. Things went well, for quite sometime. But then, as it happens with quite a lot of people yet again, the relationship went sour and ended. With a slight twist, of course. What does NOT happen with a lot of people happened here, as the boy realized that the "relationship" was primarily a means to attain certain personal goals, and for a major professional gain as well! 

Anyway, so armed with a broken heart in one hand, and the perils of living in a metro city in another, the young man battles it out everyday to earn his daily bread. (Actually, his daily pizza would be more appropriate! *snort snort*)

 

*Cut to July 2007*

 

Amidst all this confusion, one day, while at work, a colleague comes up to him to ask him if he would like to give an interview to a magazine targeted at 9^th & 10^th standard students. After giving it a little bit of thought, the guy agrees, and is promptly told by the colleague that a certain lady would either call or email him to fix up an appointment.

This happened, and since at that point of time it wasn’t a very important thing to him, he didn’t really remember about it much. (c'mon now, he was going through a heartbreak!!!)

Anyway, in the next day or two, he got an email, asking for an appointment, an interview and his phone number. His personal phone number!!

Now, as was the situation, he was already kind of "scared" of womenfolk at that moment in time, keeping in mind his state of affairs. So, instead of meeting in person, he decided that the interview will happen in the cyberspace, through email. And so, it was conducted in the same manner.

Later on, while surfing a Google employee's gift to humanity, Orkut, the guy "accidentally" bumped into the profile of the woman who took his interview, and for no obvious reasons, he sent her a message. (ok, ok SCRAP, if you're so particular about that! Bah!). The content of the scrap was also the same!

"Hi there! Good to bump into u here as well!"

And thus, a volley of scraps commenced. Leading to exchange of IM ids, and a series of formal, and sometimes not-so-formal chats. At times they were funny too.

And then, one fine day, it happened.

 

"Bud 1: alrite here goes

coffee sometime?

_{Bud 2: hmmm"}

 _{--------------------------------------------}

_{*Cut to present day*}

_{The "Hmmm"ing continues.}

 

_{Love, Peace n Harmony.}

_Prateek/Sam.

© The Humming Buds Dec 2008

04 (a). How The Buds Started 'Hmmm'ing – Bud 1

Do you like stories? I, like hell, do. Be it fairy tales, or Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or Percy Jackson, or Anne Frank, or Ayn Rand, or The Kite Runner, or, well you get the idea (I hope!). Anyway, this is the story of the buds.






How the buds started ‘hmmm’ing




Once upon a time in July 2007, there was a girl who, besides other things, liked to work. And this work sometimes required her to get in touch with professionals, to well, write about their profession for a certain magazine. For that particular issue, a particular profession was chosen.


So, there was a deadline looming large, as always, and contacts were needed. The girl’s boss got her a contact and one of the girl’s college mates messaged her the numbers of two more.


Of the three contacts, only one would talk (no pun intended here). So what this girl did was, she called her best friend who knew someone through Orkut, who might be able to get some contacts.



(Yes, it was a long drawn, agonising, process).



SB (the girl’s best friend) scrapped the guy she knew, and that fellow told SB that the girl could get in touch with him directly. So the girl did just that.


Now this guy mailed the girl email IDs of two contacts almost immediately. And because of the aforementioned deadline, the girl too mailed these two people almost immediately.


Unfortunately, one of the mails bounced back. The girl mailed the guy back and asked if it was possible to get another email ID. This time too, the guy replied back almost immediately.



(You may wonder why all they did was exchange mails, and not other work. Well, you may go on wondering, it’s your wonderment after all…)



Now to the girl’s amazement, she got a reply from the alternate email ID, yes, you guessed right, almost immediately. The other person, whose mail hadn’t bounced back, didn’t reply at all (Grrr).


After some more mails were exchanged, in one of which a number to call on was asked for and the request declined, the girl sent forward a list of questions, which by no means could be called small, and the reply came in, nope you are wrong, this time it wasn’t almost immediately, but wasn’t after a long gap of time either.


Now, equipped with these answers and the replies the girl had already got from the contact who had talked, and of course after thanking them both, she set forth to write the article. After a considerable amount of time (not almost immediately), she opened the mail again and Voila! she read a line she had missed before (maybe she was in a hurry to write the article, maybe she didn’t scroll down before, we’ll never know).



And the line she had missed was, “Just bumped into your profile on orkut. Nice!” Now of course, the girl knew it hadn’t been “just a bump” so, she decided to “just bump” into this person’s Orkut profile as well.



(I could end this story right now and say, “The rest as they say is history”, but the fact of the matter is that it isn’t!)



A scrap was left, a reply came, yes this time it was almost immediately! Another scrap was sent and so on, and so forth. Until Orkut decided that it didn’t want them to continue scrapping without having to wait for some eight minutes or something between scraps.



(You could say that that was the turning point, or you could say that later. I’ll leave that choice to you…)



Now this girl, being the impatient kind, decided that no one was going to ask her to wait, especially NOT Orkut. So off she went and added the person to her friend’s list. Not surprisingly, the person accepted the request, almost immediately.


What followed was another volley of scraps, without the eight-minute interruption.



(You may again wonder why all they did was exchange scraps, and not other work. Well, you may…)



(Without boring you further about how the Internet was otherwise instrumental in the beginning of the ‘hmmm’ing of the buds, I shall jump a little further in time.)



Several days (okay maybe it was just a day :-P), chats, and Orkut scraps later, the girl decided to ask this person a question. This is how the chat went:





Girl: alrite here goes
coffee sometime?










Person: hmmm






And the rest, dear reader, as they say, is history.




(IN CASE you haven’t figured out yourself, girl is me, person is bud. Always good to make things clear, you know, some people, like the ones mentioned in the post below, need things to be absolutely clear for them to understand what it is. Capiche?)


© The Humming Buds Dec 2008

03. The Idiot Box... And The Two Idiots In It.

Hmmm…

 

So, I was watching TV today, most of the evening. (See, the thing with watching TV is that it gives you this unreal sense of achievement, even without ACTUALLY doing anything constructive at all!!!)

 

I was watching TV because I didn’t have anything else to do, like most of the people on this planet. While surfing through the "very interesting channels", I stopped on one. Actually, it’s a music channel, but somehow the "M" in the channel got hijacked by the "R" (for Reality). Hence, now the channel is a confused one, that’s what it looks like to me!

 

So, on RTV (the new name according to me), there is this new show, hosted by two women, who seem gorgeous to the world, but somehow to me they seem like they bumped their heads on something very hard and their brains just flew out!

 

Alright, alright! You might say that I am just being a bit too critical here, 'coz after all, "how many people actually make it there, eh?"

 

Actually, making it there wasn’t really the issue. Even though I think that the channel has just hired them because of their so-called popularity, fan-following and 'hip' attitude, my heart goes out to the rest of the participants of the same reality show through which these two "ladies" got their prize! (*sob sob*) "We got conned!!!!", I can almost hear them scream! (*snort snort*)

 

Not that it makes any difference to my life! Anyway they didn’t really have much in them, apart from those "oh-so-gorgeous-drop-dead-good-looks", and a little bit of attitude. Errr… a lot of attitude I would say. BAD ATTITUDE! Bah!

 

It's quite inspiring to see how certain channels promote certain "attributes" through these poor participants. (I wrote something about this here, and here too.)

 

For me to comment on that would be a little too idealistic, and since this blog isn’t about all that, I'll let this golden opportunity to comment, pass.

 

Well, the name of the show happens to be the same as my favourite instant messenger's (no points for guessing it now, d-uh!). Although I am yet to understand the "Heavenly" reason for the show's existence (not that I care much about it!), I could not understand the talk the two women were so deeply engrossed in!

 

Yea, it did make me feel outraged at one point during their highly intellectual discussion, in their newly won-n-decorated Barbie-doll-house-looking apartment (bah!). One of them made a really preposterous comment on… on… Radio Jockeys!! (*raises one eyebrow, and two fists*)

 

Well, on second thoughts, I don’t blame her. As some holy man might say, "I forgive you, child, for you know not what you have done."

 

Errr.. have done, are doing, will do, say, act, eat, breathe, walk, talk, take a crap… whatever!!! (Dumbass!!)

 

I have reached this conclusion, yet again in life. Your looks do not indicate towards or govern your cerebral capabilities.

 

That’s all the philosophizing I can do for today. Back to the pizza and the movie now.

 

 

(Hmmm… I have been eating quite a lot of pizza, yet again. Not good, not good! Hmmm!)

 

Love, Peace n' Harmony

Prateek/Sam.

 

© The Humming Buds Dec 2008