"Since god is one and could not be with all, he made parents to represent him, and since he could not share his angels, he gave friends...!"
What do you think?
As far as I remember, this was one of the oldest tricks that baffled me when I was in my second grade. A friend of mine would randomly ask me to think of some number, follow some of his steps and then bingo! he would get to know the result of the computations without he even knowing what number I had initially thought.
Step 1: Think of any number
Step 2: Double it
Step 3: Add 28 to the result
Step 4: Halve the result
Step 5: Subtract the initially thought number from the result
Come on... Its no magic... nor did I use some kind of a chart to find out that :P So its funny, today randomly I asked this to a colleague of mine and she was like I'm sure this is some kind of a numeric chart use for computations. Trick works ;)
"Wheat bread, with some light mayo please, no bacon and sprinkle very little cheese on it. No oil, just some salt and pepper"... that's my typical order for a sandwich, be it TOGO's, Quiznos or Subway, I've been enjoying sandwiches for lunch for a while. The other day, I was out to Cisco's Cafe to grab some Mongolian Sitr-fry. Unfortunately, the queue was too long a wait with my ever increasing hunger. I walked by the sandwich bar where I had the liberty to make my own sandwich.
Obviously, I looked at their meats section and then decided on to go for it. Curiously looking at the options, I picked up a bread roll, patted some mustard, hummus and light mayo generously over it.Then i relished it with some curried chicken chunks, turkey slices, fried eggplant and cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. By now it was a heavy slab of self chosen ingredients, which I neatly wrapped, and slant cut it into 2.
As I started to bite onto the first half, I realized I was biting onto just the bread and some of the toppings. Hastily, I finished the first half throwing off some bread away. As I bit into the other half, it tasted just as it should have. I could taste all the ingredients together and it was just what I wanted. Happily I finished off the sandwich and walked away.
What's funny is that this is not the first time it happened to me. Be it any sandwich, or for that matter any salad wrap, the first half has always not been the best. And I keep wondering, is it just me? Or my hunger? Or the sandwiches themselves?
Snowboarding.... yippie yeah! I'm gonna do this, its gonna be so cool telling people I did it, something to boast about and a sport you would only see people enjoy on televisions. I was all pepped up for this activity, when we reached South Lake Tahoe and saw the steep slope of Heavenly Resort. This was just a weekend before my trip to India in Dec '07.
The morning was a little rainy, skies looked gloomy and the news of light snowshowers at the Heavenly's put me off a bit. Now what? We found out that we could Snowboard at another resort close by... don't remember the name of the place, since I was really put off :( We reached the base of the slope where we had to do the payment for the equipment rentals, lessons and the lift charges (err some 120 odd bucks damages)
After spending some 10 minutes to get my feet into the boots, I did a moonwalk to the counter to deposit my wallet and the other loose stuff, keeping my confidence with me. As I walked out of the rental, I was surrounded by a crowd of people with skills from "hell no! do I get my money back" to "I can snowboard on your home roof" types. And the "I will do it easily, since I did skating last evening easily" me somehow walked on the new orientation of my feet (yeah! it felt like my feet were moulded with steel) towards my friends, who were waiting for me.
Within minutes, we were asked by our group instructor to follow the path to the lower lifts, from where we would be taken to the top. The excitement grew! We reached the top. Let the fun begin....
Our lesson started off (atleast for me) with the walk to the practice area. Yes, walking in those boots and keeping up the pace, and my dynamic center of gravity and the slopy path and the slippery snow and the cold wind and the shaky confidence and the.... damm, this is not easy :(( Somehow I managed to walk to the group and reunite there! By then he had already started off with the first lesson and cracking a joke on me in my absence.
Lesson 1 was easy, fit one of the boots on the board and wait there.
Lesson 2, move in a straight line with the board on! What?!? I never can do that with my walking, you kidding me? Well I tried it and did it quite well.
Lesson 3, walk up a gentle slope with the goddamm board on! HOW!? Ok its simple, your one leg is stuck to the board and the other is free. Climb up with the free one, and fix the board into the snow to get the grip. Huh??! Ok I reached 70% of the slope (= some 2 metres) and stuck there.
Lesson 4, slide down the slope. Nooooooooooooo!! this means I have to trudge up the 2 metres again? Ok let me wait here and let the others do it and I sat down.
Lesson 5... and I was sitting down
Lesson 6... and I am still sitting.
Lesson 7... I need to move, its getting cold in here and might become red.
I had to move away from the group, since I was blocking their slope path. Using my two arms and my one free foot, I walked... no wait, I dragged... no wait, ok I moved to my friend already sitting there, who had given up at lesson 2. Yeah! it was fun, we ate some snow, it was cold... hmm soon was joined by another friend of mine (he took a while to cover his insurance costs) and the 3 of us enjoyed snowboarding, not on the television, but watching it live!!
Mohit, I told you, having Steak at the steakhouse was a better option! Anyways, in the next trip to Tahoe :) The burger was not a bad option though while the lessons 14+ were on :)
Joke of the Day, sorry Year! Mohit took an additional $2 insurance for the equipment :))
A walk on Pune's
The stubborn kid I was, I remember crying right there, making a scene out of it, till mom would leave me there and start walking away :) Well a couple of times I would be convinced that it wouldn't work at home, but the sight of it sailing to the rhythm was not something I would walk by so easily.
Couple of years later, when my bro would do the same, it was time for me to walk up and say "I will make it work" and alas we bought the first putt-putt boat. Celebrations time, I ran into the bathroom, filled the tub, grabbed the matchbox, lit the wax filled spoon and there it went... "clitter... clitter... clitter..." as it sped off right into the tub.... yippiee... felt like Vasco-da-gama. And then followed the melting of candles, burnt tiles with wax spots, piles of carbonized match sticks and burnt fingers. Time would fly during the weekends lying besides the tub and see the tiny hull make rounds, reloading the fuel into it and then rejoicing over the next voyage!
You know how crazy one gets when Apple launches some device into the market, or when XBOX releases some game which was the talk of town, even before it was declared within Microsoft. Well, I try to stay away from all this, coz waiting a week or so after the launch to get a glimpse of the new hotcake in the market wont make much of a difference to me, when I can easily walk into the store and check it out with ease.
But yes, it happened so that I was actually waiting for the PSP to release. Not that it was something new in the markets, but yes, PSP's slimmer version was to hit the markets in Sep 2007. Ever since I played the older version, I wanted to buy it. But the news of the slim version releasing would make it all the more difficult for me to buy the older model. This was sometime in July, so 2 months seemed a loooooooooooong time for me.
On 10th September, with my eyes barely open, I got ready with my slippers on and got a drop to the nearest Fry's store. Like a kid in Legoland, I ran around to see where the launch was taking place. To my glee, they were lying right in the middle of the store and several pieces were kept there. Like a typical desi, I picked the one hid right inside the pile, checked the pack here and there to see I picked the perfect one and with a big smile on my face walked to the counter, paid some 220 odd bucks for it (which seemed like buying a gallon of milk from a 7/11 store) and rushed back home.
Opening it, and playing with it rightaway felt like receiving a toy I would crave for months and finally get it on my birthday! I love it so much :)
PS: Gone are those looooooooooong boring times in the restroom :D
The kid in me never grows and I don't want it to, coz every time I think of the pranks I do, its calms me... one more to the series, read on!
One of the college days, I drove down to a friend's place and was standing down at the elevator, waiting for him, so that we could continue to college together. I waited for about 10 minutes and then saw the elevator come down from the 4th floor. He was the only occupant on that floor so I thought of scaring him. I hid beside the door of the elevator and was waiting for him to open the door. The door opened, and I pounced out "Boooooo!!!"
Damm!! I was shit scared (and mebbe embarrassed), it was some chick who came down the elevator... "What nonsense?" said she with a frown on her face and she walked off...
| since March '08 |
