Quit Playing Games With My Heart

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put your iTunes/Ipod on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG TITLE DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the meme as well as the person you got the meme from.


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IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest


WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Runaway Train


WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Pink Panther Theme


HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Kashmir


WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Pather Pachali Theme


WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Fable (Dream Version)


WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Celtic Fiddle


WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
I'm Like A Bird


WHAT IS 2+2?
Kambakht Ishq


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Terminator 2 - Main Title


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
I Just Called To Say I love You


WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Over the Rainbow


WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Deewana Hua Badal


WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Lambada Techno Mix


WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Big Cat


WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
TV Themes - The Fresh Prince of Bel Air


WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Coca Cola Weed Song


WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Old McDonald Had A Farm


WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Largo al Factorum - The Barber of Seville


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
A Face in the Photograph


WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Nahin Saamne Tu


HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Rebel Rouser


WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Animal Song


WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Les Deux Pianos


WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Silver Bells


WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
La Valse D'Amelie (Piano Version)


WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Pyar Hua Chupke Se


DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Josie


IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Mission Impossible Techno Mix


WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Vilayat Khan - Raga Yaman Kalyan Live 1


WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Quit Playing Games With My Heart


Thanks for the tag Yash. I know it's really unfortunate I still have Backstreet Boys on my computer.

A New Level

Wow it's been over 6 months since I last posted.. Talk about laziness and procrastination! I think this is a new level for me since I feel lethargic to the point of cancelling the football meet today.

I'll post more frequently as some of my friends have asked me to, with some of my home-made nauseating PJs.

JoIncidence with a C

Chandler Bing is my GOD.. well, one of them anyway. The others are Garfield, Douglas Adams... hmmm I could write a completely different post on this ( and I probably will ) so I won't go into further details. The Poker episode of Friends is definitely one of the funnier ones and one exchange between Phoebe and Chandler springs to mind...

Phoebe : "Hey, have you guys noticed, Poker is Joker with a P .. coincidence??"

Chandler : "Hey that's Joincidence with a C !!"

I don't think any 'emoticon' is fitting to describe my reaction to that so I'll just leave it at that.. Speaking of coincidences, one of the freakiest ones that has ever happened to me happened a couple of months back when I went to my first class at this coaching center for a competitive exam I'm gonna give in November this year. It is in New Alipore, just behind the Taratala Petrol Pump, which is about a 10 minute bus ride from where I stay in Parnasree. Parnasree is a nice place, it's not really small like a single locality but more like a collection of many. It has its own bus stand and three or four Auto-Rickshaw routes.

It was a Sunday and we were supposed to have an "Evaluation Test" or something, before beginning any classes. It was supposed to start at 10am but I was there by 9.35. Don't get me wrong, it was because that was my first class. I am NOT a punctual person. My studying in JU and being a native of Kolkata should be enough to back up this statement. No one really cares about punctuality except a few weird Professors here and there who are never late. Anyway I am diverting from the main story. There I was, 25 minutes early, the only guy who had showed up till then. I waited inside for 10 minutes, looking here and there, and here again.. there really wasn't much to look at except a few of those confidence boosting sort of posters your Moral Science / Value Education teacher probably showed you in school.

A guy shows up at 9.45. I had never seen him before (this is important ). Thankfully he is sort of smart and after a few seconds he extends his hand and says "Hi, I'm D" ( I have no idea whether it's ethical to take a person's name without his / her permission so let's just call him 'D'). I introduced myself and this is basically what I remember of our conversation..

D : "Hi, I am D".
G : "I'm Gairik"
D : "Your first class?"
G : "Yes, yours?"
D : "No I had joined in October but I missed some classes so they suggested I join the new batch".
G : "Ok."
D : "Where do you study?"
....
I am summarizing the next part. I basically learned that he's a third year student ( same as me ) of Haldia Inst of Technology, studying Electronics and Instrumentation. I tell him what I do and we talk about our colleges and syllabus and stuff like that for a couple of minutes. We see a girl enter ( I'm gonna refer to her as M ). I have never seen her before (this is important). This is where it gets interesting. After a few awkward glances shared between the three of us she starts a conversation which went like this...

M : "Excuse me, is this your first class?"
G : "Yes, yours?"
M : "Yes, mine too"
G : "Ok."
( I'm not much of a talker as you may have guessed)
In a desperate bid to reduce the awkwardness I ask her..
G : "I'm Gairik."
M : "Sorry?"
G : "My name, Gairik."
M : "Ohh ok, I'm M."
G : "Sorry?"
M : ( repeats her name slowly )
G : "Oh ok, so where are you from?"
M : "College or where am I from?"
G : ( In the form of a barely audible mumble accompanied by a shrug ) "College"
( Obviously you don't ask a stranger where he/she lives in a situation like this but she didn't quite understand what I had said which was evident from her reply )
M : "I live in Behala, Parnasree.. have you heard of it?"
!!
G : "Uhh yeah, I live there too.. Which part of Parnasree do you live in?"
D ( interrupting ) : "Hey I live there too."
!!!!
( Well, I ask myself, is it possible to know every person in such a big place? Of course not. Ok so that wasn't weird at all. )
M : "Near Bhuban Centre bus stop, you?"
G : "Me too."
!!!!!!
D : "Hey me too."
!!!!!!!!
( Ok now it was getting embarrassingly weird )
G : "Where??"
M : "Arey in that gali, ours is the first house."
D : "I live in A Apartments".
G : "I live in the house next to the one next to A Apartments"

The guy can probably see my house from his window and I can see his. I can see the girl's house from my balcony too. So it turned out both of them are sort of my neighbours who I haven't seen in my life. They haven't seen me or each other too. The guy moved here a couple of years back and lives in his college hostel so I may have a teeny tiny excuse not to know him, but M said she's been here for over 8 years!

"Man is a social animal". If I had a buck for every time I wrote that in an essay I would.. well I would have enough money to buy a Chicken Special roll from Bedwin perhaps but my point is clear. We just found ourselves the most unsocial man in the history of mankind - yours truly! It was weird. Anyway we had a few laughs over it and ultimately I made myself a couple of friends!

I've been meaning to write this incident for a long while now, but lyad overcame me and it's only because I am sick and stuck at home with nothing to do that I finally got around to writing it.

Feel free to comment.

More weirdness later.

PS. : I managed to do quite well in that test, thanks for asking!

Another dream

I try to make this blog anything but a dream diary but I really couldn't help writing this one because again I am amazed at load of diverse unrelated rubbish my brain weaves together into what is fast becoming a night-time freak show, so here goes...

[ Background information needed : I have tuition today from 10am to 2pm after which I'll go to the Argus Open Quiz which starts at 4pm ]

So I leave the institute and as I am about to head home, the receptionist there also exits and tells me there's a good seminar thingy on some topic and asks me whether I would like to attend. I agree. So we start walking to the bus which will take us to the place. It's evening all of a sudden and we end up in this warehouse area and walk up to a biggish enclosure surrounded by a wall which had to be at least 20 feet high and an equally humongous gate. To my surprise, as if she was SpiderWoman, she effortlessly scaled the wall and headed for the bus which was inside the enclosure. I my jaw drops open and I try and find a way in, not wanting to miss the bus. Anyway I search the area looking for a possible way in and after about 5 minutes I do find a way in after climbing the smaller wall of the building / factory next to it and finding a low spot in the huge wall. I get in, board the bus which starts.. the huge gates open and the bus stops outside and picks up some students who were waiting for it outside ( It was at this point of time when it occurred to me that I could have just waited for the bus like the other people did ). So we're off to the seminar thing which we are told will happen some place ( I forgot the name but I do remember it was some place outside Kolkata ). It was some time into the bus ride when I remembered I was supposed to be at DI for the Argus Quiz.. I freak out, my watch says 6.30pm and I get off the bus immediately. I call my team-mate who I figured would be fuming because I didn't show up. To my surprise he tells me "chaap nish na, amra emniteo qualify kortam na, shob buro-buri ra stage-ey uthechhe". I am sort of relieved and start to look around. I had no idea where I was, all I knew was that I needed to head back home. Suddenly I notice 3-4 other people have gotten off the bus with me and one of them, a girl who I have never seen in my life, comes up to me and holds my hand and we start walking, as if she was my girlfriend :| :| .. I have no clue what is going on but think "Ok, this is nice, I have a girlfriend apparently" but disregard the fact that I have no idea whatsoever who she is. Interesting side-fact, her mother was walking right behind us. So we walk and meanwhile I ask for directions to get back to Kolkata and some people point me towards a bus stand. I am in this locality, sort of like a neighbourhood marketplace with a few teastalls, a grocery shop or two.. anyway I spot the bus stand and walk towards it when my 'girlfriend' bursts into song, '90s Bollywood style, with backgorund music and all. Her mother looks at her approvingly and I am like "what the hell is going on?!?!?!" .. Sadly, I don't remember anything after this and hence conclude.

No detail is made up. Feel free to comment.

I'm off to sleep.. more weirdness later.

Littering, Part Deux

As the lyad increases and the exams inch ever closer the posts dry up.. Anyway a significant 'breakthrough' if I might put it like that in my 'fight' against littering if I might put it like that..

The commute back from college recently has been tiring with the two hours of football it follows and the 15-20 minute wait for the bus at the 8B bus stand. Well on Friday I didn't have to wait, found a nice empty bus waiting for me at the stand so I got my preferred window seat near the door. This is not important. The guy who ended up sitting next to me apparently felt an urge to eat some chips and bought a packet from the guy who sells Roy Co. chips everyday at the Bus stand. This is sort of important. As soon as he opened the packet, thoughts began to race in my head and I started thinking about the politest way to tell the guy ( who seemed good-natured enough ) NOT to throw the packet on the road when he was done with it. So 15 minutes and 4 stoppages later I see him finish the packet and as he is about to throw it ..

Me : Sir, ekta request kortey pari ? Packet ta please rastaye felben na, amake diye din, ami pore fele debo.

Guy : * a blank stare on his face with his left hand still near the window *

Me : Ei packet e diye din, emniteo nongra achhe ( I had my football in that packet )

Guy : "ekhane diye debo?"

Me : Hain.

Guy : * drops it without another word *

Me : Thanks.

Felt good... Hopefully he was freaked out enough to repeat the incident to his folks at home. My folks reckon I was lucky not to get beat up.

End of story, more weirdness later..

Weirder Dream

This is a dream I had on 15th September, round about at 8am in the morning. Considering that I remember almost every single detail, this has to be one of the weirdest I have ever seen or even heard someone else recollect in my life.

So I am in this huge auditorium with a big stage which was empty for the time being. It was about half-filled with people my age and also lots of kids in school ( my old school, DBPC ) uniforms. Some of them are facing the stage, some are facing the opposite way ( that is the way the benches were arranged mind you ). Anyway I spot this kid near the back who was sitting alone and I go up to talk to him. Turns out, funnily enough, that kid was me, as a six year old. I somehow had managed to meet a 14 years younger version of myself. Anyway I remember talking to him ( me ) for a while.. we talked about school, about how our shoes were similar, stuff like that. Next, I'm getting the feeling ( finally ) that something ain't right, so I see a friend of mine ( college classmate who recently got a new cellphone with a 3mp camera ) in front and ask him to take a picture of me and me together ( to prove that I had met myself later ). So we go out of the auditorium and land up in the central wing of our school's top floor. It was raining pretty hard outside but anyway both of us stood, my hand on my (younger) shoulder and my friend took the picture. I actually did not expect the picture to come out well ( firstly, the younger me was fidgeting a lot and secondly, there was something going on in my mind, sort of like when you take a picture of anything remotely paranormal, it comes out blurred, like one of the Final Destination movies ). So my friend takes the photo and surprisingly manages to get a print-out of it from his phone ( !!??! ). It turns out to be a bus ticket for the Rs. 4.070 BUT it is, as I expected, sort of blurred in the middle. After all this I go in the auditorium again along with myself. I don't remember talking to him ( me ) after that. I did run into some classmates of mine ( school classmates in class 1A, they were 6-year olds too ) sitting with their back to the stage, about 5-6 of them together.

Next thing I remember, one of our Principals comes on stage, everyone stands up and the morning prayer begins when I realize my shirt was gone. I am standing and praying, without any shirt, feeling a bit embarrassed about it when I spot another schoolmate ( grown up though ) in the same situation. A bit calmer, I started searching for a shirt and fortunately came across an extra one in my school bag. Phew!! Next we line up to go to classes and end up doing so and going to the old 1st floor classrooms in the junior school side. One unnecessary detail I remember is that there were a couple of rolled up "The Telegraph" newspapers lying in the corridor. Anyway we enter class when I realize I didn't have a tie. Only place to search, I open our class cupboard and instead of books and hopefully a spare tie lying around I find it filled with my dad's shirts.. I search frantically and when I finally do come across a few ties in a corner, I feel incredibly drowsy, fall asleep and then wake up ( in real life ). End of dream.

Although some people, like my brother, thought that I had made most of the stuff up later, I didn't..

More weirdness later..

Memories.. and a small Tribute..

I listen to the genius, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee on his birthday ( he would have turned 77 if he would have been with us today ) as I write this.



As mentioned before, Yaman Kalyan is too awesome to pen down in words. The sense of peace I get listening to this alaap by him is tough to recreate. I am yet to hear anyone who can create the 'mood' which is required while listening to any classical piece as good as Pt Nikhil Banerjee did. Here ends this simple tribute..

Two days back, my father reminded me of a 'funny' gag he and my family used to play on me when I was very little. Whenever I was out, my father would say "Ebar tor biye debo, meye khuji" ( "time to get you married, let's search for the girl" for those less conversant in Bengali ) and I would absolutely freak out and start screaming in terror !! I think I was about 3-4 years old then. The funny thing ( to them at that time, NOT to me ) was that they got me worked up and terrified every time they said that, I wasn't able to call their bluff, not even a single time. As of today I am officially old enough to get married and it's strange how this incident, one I had completely forgotten, came back into my memory two days before today!

Speaking of terrifying little kids, another memory came rushing back. Back when my grandparents ( Dida and Dadna ) were alive, we used to live in the ground floor of my house. There was this show on TV "The Invisible Man" which I was scared to death of, so when my brother watched it I used to run upstairs and "take shelter" in the company of my grandma. What my dear older brother decided to do one day was turn both TVs .. upstairs and downstairs to "The Invisible Man". What resulted was me running upstairs and downstairs continuously for half an hour, screaming and crying. Everyone found it unbelievably funny but I sure didn't back then. I am willing to forgive my brother in spite of the traumatic experience if I get a full written apology though :P.

Like most others, I often wish I could relive my childhood again. We were truly innocent back then, I wonder how much has changed for kids nowadays..