"Last comic standing..."

I don't know how many of you appreciate stand up comedy. I mean it's really tough to get up in front of people and hope that people like your act. Its not slapstick comedy so you really have to be witty, know your audience and most importantly know how to laugh at yourself.

There's this show called "Last comic standing" which airs on NBC (Star World here in India) which is kind of a reality show which gets together a bunch of stand up comics to perform for you. I have been watching it from season one and it's in it's fourth season now. Over the period of time it's gone through various iterations but it is a good show to watch.

Now I didn't write all this to promote some show on some channel. This season there is a guy on the show called Josh Blue. He suffers from cerebral palsy but man you should watch him perform. Now someone may point out that people laugh at his jokes because they are just patronizing him, they feel pity for him. Man you are so wrong.

Even though looking at his physical apperance you might tend to start feeling pity, once you have heard his act, you cannot but appreciate his positive attitude towards life and how he is able to overcome his disability and be so darn funny all the while laughing at himself and making us laugh with him.

You just can't get enough of his jokes. If you haven't watched him in action then I suggest you better switch on the TV and do. I am sure he will atleast make it to the final two.

"Marriage Preparation Course..."

What??? My point exactly... it seems that nowadays there is a course or a book that will help you prepare and overcome any hurdles of life (I am especially amused by the infomercials aired on TV which promise to bestow above you all the benefits of jogging without even getting your sorry arse out of the bed). But this was different (yeah isn't that normally reserved to be used by people from the film fraternity).

The marriage course I am talking about is a three day residential course mandated by the Roman Catholic Church. They have gone so far as to make it compulsary and issue a certificate without which you can't get married. Not that you can't absolutely get married but for people like me who prefer to get married in the church, its a necessity.

Now most of the people in my age group are under the impression that any thing arranged by the church will have to be boring by default (which is true in most cases) but experience had taught me that some of the classes taken by the priests are really enjoyable and these three days were a pleasant experience. You get to know a lot of stuff, both spiritual and practical, stuff that you normally wouldn't have given much thought to.

Marrying someone is very easy, any idiot can do that (I am getting married, need I say more?) but making the marriage work is the ultimate test and challenge. You have to work on it till your last breath (Not that I want to scare you guys but remember a teeny weeny line that goes something like "till death do us apart...")

What I really want to convey to all my friends (especially mallu RC christian) out there is that even if you go there to just get it over with, you will end up thanking yourself for it.

"Handsfree... Really?"

I just had to put this one out. Its been ages since my last post and I was on the hunt for a good topic when there she was, just standing there talking on the phone. Now you may ask, what's so special about a girl chattering away on the phone? We've all seen them numerous times, sometimes even wishing that the phone be permanently glued to their ear coz they never seem to hang up. But this girl was special you see, she was using the hands-free device.

Forgive my ignorance if I am led to believe that the hands-free device (by virtue of its name) is something that should enable you to... well keep your hands free while using the cell phone. But watching this lady changed my entire concept coz both her hands were so occupied that she couldn't use them even if it were to save her own life. She was holding her cell phone in palm of the right hand, using the right hand's index finger to press in the right earbud. The left hand's index finger was pressing in the left earbud and both the little fingers were balancing and holding the mic at her mouth. (I know a snap would have been really helpful over here).

Before you start writing me off as another egoistic male inflating an alleged handicap that women face when it comes to matters of technology, let me tell you that I have witnessed far more ridiculous looking poses of men using their cellphone's hands-free devices. I guess its a general misconception that the mic on such devices is incapable of picking up and transmitting your voice which feeds this urge to stuff it right into their mouth. Probably the device manufacturers should think about redesigning some of their products (I don't know... something like placing the mic closer to the earbuds) to root out this fear.

"Taare Zameen Par..."

There is so much said about this movie in reviews, media, blogs, etc that there is really no point in me adding anything to it. Its only recently that I got about to watching this movie and boy oh boy! Great work by Darsheel Safary, Aamir is brilliant as usual and hats off to Amol Gupte. The music is touching and inspiring. If you are one of my kinds and haven't got to watching the movie yet, I suggest you buy a DVD and add it to your collection. Definitely worth it.

I know its a really short post but since my workload is a tad relaxed now, you can expect many such short posts regularly.

"2 more days to go... just made it in time"

Just 2 more days before the completion of three whole months since my last post. I somehow had to squeeze this one in before that happened. So here it is first post of the year 2008 and what more appropriate topic than to discuss the proceedings of the day, January 1, 2008.

A much awaited vacation and trip back home was realized on December 21, 2008. I had booked the flight tickets (No I wasn't gonna repeat my mistake of travelling by train) way back in September and informed my PM about the same, but the leave was not approved till the end moment (even then it wasn't, it was auto approved by the system). Being back in Mumbai was a welcome relief from the hectic work schedule. This time around the car (my baby) didn't give my any trouble and I was able to meet a whole lot of friends I had missed out on last time.

My KCGF (kaam chalau girl friend), Alpa has gone to the Arts School in California to do her MS in the field of Animation. I always knew she was a cartoon but to think of her creating other cartoons... this is too much! And yeah before you blast me for my display of ignorance I am fully aware of the fact that animation is not just only about cartoons. I returned back to Trivandrum on December 30, 2008 (I didn't know that January 1 was an optional holiday for us).

But it worked out for the better since my parents flew down the very next day since we had an appointment in Cochin on January 1, 2009. We were going to meet my future in laws and my would be wife. Huh what? when? how? I know its kind of a surprise and believe me you I still can't believe it. Her name is Shillu and she is a colleague of mine. We've known each other for over an year now but the dramatic turn of events took place in the last couple of months.

Making the long story short (since I don't wanna bore you with the details), we came to know that we like each other in the last week of October, so by November we let our parents know about it, they talked and even decided the dates by January 5. While all this was happening none of our project team members had a clue of what was going on. So when we finally broke the news, they were shocked. Many initially refused to believe it and we really had to convince them that it was true.

The engagement will be on December 21, 2008 in Mumbai and the wedding will be on January 4, 2009 (one more year to go). So there it is, I have decided to take the plunge and may God have mercy on my soul...