Saturday, March 18, 2006


Urbana, Illinois. 2005. Click to enlarge (5.5 Mb)

For the few remaining junta in champaign: The moving black coat in the right corner is S, talking with her husband, A. She came back abusing that red truck driver, who she claims tried to kill her! :D

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The ball-room dance

Tap.Tap. Dhoom...Dhoom...Dhoom. Tap. Tap...

My steps quicken as I make the cold walk towards the auditorium, where the floor is teeming with musky smelling men and pretty, smiling girls.

The men move nimbly to the sound of trumphets, horns and bassoons, while the ladies watch each other in amused delight. As if partaking in this rainbow of activity, the floors squeal in delight when the men trample across their backs.

Exactly ten men dressed in pitch black and white, move hither and thither weaving graceful patterns and elaborate choreos. I watch without blinking at the intricate moves, the brilliant sequences, the joy of seeing the subtle understanding that develops between partners, the taunting motions, the bright smiles and the twinkle in their eyes, as they execute their plans to perfection. The rest sit on the sidelines eagely awaiting their turns, with utter impatience: afterall, seven minutes can seem like eternity when you are tormented by love. I figure their theism is questionable. But if you ask them, they cry in unison "In soccer, we trust". As some wise man said, divinity does indeed come in many a strange shade!

Unnecessary, digressional words of wisdom: When men make their first moves with the genteel members of the fairer sex, they are usually a bundle of nerves. Tormented by the fear of failure, the humbling wisdom that flowers out of copious rejections, and the madly enchanting smell of success (usually an Estee Lauder), they hesistate, soul-search and scramble to find all the bravery they never thought they had; to, as it usually happens, miss the boat in the end to a jackass, who figures his love out, searches for his sole, puts his foot in the mouth and even in this situation of perplexing discomfiture, drools out his passionate lust.

Focus and Revert: Back in the soccer field, we fearlessly make our first move. The mid-fielder is unmarked and receives the ball from the goalie. Seeing a pattern flash across his mind, as it has for a million times in the past, he pushes the ball through a minimal gap in the defence to the right-forward to connect the first dots in this game of goals and gloves. The right-forward gracefully receives it, dribbles around a thug and makes the cross across to the left-forward (who is now breazing towards the goal), with a timing that would put the Swiss to shame. The left-forward picks up the ball as it slowly rolls in front of his feet. Together, they fake a scram to the left, but move in perfect unison to the right as he gently lets the ball waddle through tiny gaps in a forest of hairy legs. The destination is finally reached by this deft and complete outmanouver of opponents. And to top it all, this burst was bloody quick! Half the men on the floor are speechless, two are jubiliant and the remaining three exchange glances with triumphant smiles: 5-a-side football can be beautiful at times is beautiful.

After a remarkable 2 hours of soccer, we walk out of the indoor court into the corridor. The story would have ended here, rather tamely, but for the pretty girls who walked out of their practice at the same time. Have I told you that they play the orchestra across from our entrance? Probably not, unless you still remember the sounds of the trumphets, horns and bassoons. And one of these days, I am going to walk home with a genteel member of the fairer sex: the stinking me in dirty shorts and the pristine her in a yellow dress. Alone, together.

And thus, I end the story of my life, ladies and gentlemen. And before you leave, please keep in mind that girls do play a pivotal role in the fantasies of my good clan.... But mostly....

                                                            ITS ALL ABOUT SOCCER!

Sunday, March 12, 2006


















Riverwalk: San Antonio, Texas

A definition of love

"...the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive fantasising concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance..."

from a US conference of Sociologists, 1977.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Arbit MBA

Arbit Choudhary is recognized as the worlds first B-school/MBA comic character by Wikipedia. Created by Hemantkumar Jain and Shubham Choudhury, this comic strip follows the venerable PhD comic, and is a humorous take on MBAs. Check it out at

http://www.arbitmba.com

It turns out that my buddy R worked in the same lab as George Cham during his stanford years. That is the closest I have been to a celebrity, next to the brush with the Oscar winner.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Crash (2005)

It will break your prejudices.
It will push you to think.
It will make you hurt. Very much.
But one day, it might just make you and me better humans.

Brilliantly Beautiful!

Saturday, March 04, 2006

                                           Vanishing Faith: Vinayagar, Charcoal on canvas
                                           Liquified in Adobe Photoshop
                                           2006

ps: For what its worth (it is, very much!), my sis has branded this work as amateurish (and added that it looked like the work of a little kid) and wondered if i stole it from my little cousins in phoenix...

Friday, March 03, 2006

Perfection

A compromising man,
Loved by all.
A compromising musician,
None at all!

Master plan for world domination

Interview with google.com and land a job within the company. Once you are inside, let your tail loose and begin monitoring their search records. Look for the things that people have searched in the last few months, generate a histogram and correlate it with the items they had most difficulty finding. Armed with this knowledge, begin manufacturing exactly those things that people need, in your backyard. The prime difficulty encountered in starting any business is the incapacity to know apriori if people would want to buy your product. But with the above strategy, the supply you generate will perfectly match the market demand that exists.

Until google maintains its stranglehold as the most popular search engine, you will continue to keep your fingers on the pulse of the people. Once you have enough money, you can buy google.com out... and any other search engine that competes with google. Thus, you will never loose your position as the richest man in the world, that is until people keep searching using browsers. Pasternak, in his recent book "Quest" (the book is not recommended btw - it reeks of megalomania), argues that the distinguishing trait of a human being is its tendency to "search". Put two and two together, and you figure that people will never stop searching until they remain humans, you own google.com and know what people are searching and you tune your products to match their needs. In Matrix parlance, you will become the Keyholder of planet earth! *evil smirk*

Rush Now! Franchising OPEN.

~ The cow with big ideas.