Sorry for my bad French but that meant this could well be the last post in April. I'll try Spanish next time, but I am a zero in these lingos.
Anyway I would prefer to wrap up with little waste of time. This Hitler month (Birth 20 April, Death 30 April - of a different year ofcourse!) is a crucial one for me, of which more than half is already wasted. I am done with internal exams which were the worst set of my Engineering life. I actually dropped Structures twice, Space Technology twice, and Flight Mechanics once. I also made a record with less than 50% marks almost 10 times out of 12 (online exams). Don't mind my weird calculations, but they are all true. If I don't slog it out, I will be buried in the JNTU grave and nobody would be able to pull me out. The more time we spend there, the closer we are to Hell. It's exams time and it's summer time, both end up heating your brain to an extent that Antarctica would turn into water ... praying the exams don't melt me before that ... signing off with some hopeless hope ...
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Game of Life!
I've been stuck in this game ever since I was born. The game of Life. It's always been a tough game all through, and it just seems like getting tougher. Maybe till last semester I was fighting hard and had enough success, though I had a few losses as well. Sometimes I give up so easily and sometimes I fight so well. The game of Life seems to be more interactive and complicated than I thought.
Today's Structures exam was destined to be doomed and I gave up even before the exam started. I had great thoughts in me about how I would prepare well and pull back from that 2/20 I got the previous attempt. But with no material to help, I went for the exam literally blindfolded and lost almost instantaneously. I just hung on for as long as I could and wrote a few lines that I could recollect from the innermost bowels of my brain (320 GB disk according to Natarajan). I saw the usual copying going on around me. All my friends busy in their "good" work. I filled about a single sheet of paper, and the guys there were fighting for additional papers. I knew I was nowhere in this league and I knew I am giving up sooner or later. I somehow extended a single sheet answer into 2 (name-sake filling so that I can atleast utilize the thread that's given to tie up) and told Yaseen, "I am leaving, Bye." He never bothered to look up as well. I was anyway not expecting any answer so when the lecturer was hanging around, I rose and gave the answer sheet with shivering hands (which ofcourse I tried to hide). I heard something like, "Johny Walker!!!" behind me, but didn't bother to look. I actually considered sprinting out of the class but put that away coz it would have looked too dramatic. There's no need to be so sensitive as well. I wanted to know how it feels like to give away your paper without writing anything. That was it. I knew I blew the exam for a second time in this semester which means my average is already very close to zero. The only hope was the online exam which would at the most give me a pass mark.
Now comes the online exam part which was to be held at 2pm. It was 1:30 and I was still laughing away with friends about the usual drumkits and equipment problems. And I suddenly remembered the last hope I had on the online exam. If I blew this, it was all over. I sat a bit seriously, read a few bits that I could remember well, and took the exam. Some were easy, some were cloudy, some were guessable, some were impossible, and there were a few that even Ravi couldn't answer! Somehow I checked them however they were, and was looking around into other guys' papers. Suddenly i saw the score. 16! Yes! I wished I got more but that was enough to boost my morale. But later calculations showed that it's not a great score after all. Even 20 would have just pushed me beyond the line, which meant 16 might not save me anyway. I couldn't remember the previous online score but I am sure that was more than 2! God save me!
Today's Structures exam was destined to be doomed and I gave up even before the exam started. I had great thoughts in me about how I would prepare well and pull back from that 2/20 I got the previous attempt. But with no material to help, I went for the exam literally blindfolded and lost almost instantaneously. I just hung on for as long as I could and wrote a few lines that I could recollect from the innermost bowels of my brain (320 GB disk according to Natarajan). I saw the usual copying going on around me. All my friends busy in their "good" work. I filled about a single sheet of paper, and the guys there were fighting for additional papers. I knew I was nowhere in this league and I knew I am giving up sooner or later. I somehow extended a single sheet answer into 2 (name-sake filling so that I can atleast utilize the thread that's given to tie up) and told Yaseen, "I am leaving, Bye." He never bothered to look up as well. I was anyway not expecting any answer so when the lecturer was hanging around, I rose and gave the answer sheet with shivering hands (which ofcourse I tried to hide). I heard something like, "Johny Walker!!!" behind me, but didn't bother to look. I actually considered sprinting out of the class but put that away coz it would have looked too dramatic. There's no need to be so sensitive as well. I wanted to know how it feels like to give away your paper without writing anything. That was it. I knew I blew the exam for a second time in this semester which means my average is already very close to zero. The only hope was the online exam which would at the most give me a pass mark.
Now comes the online exam part which was to be held at 2pm. It was 1:30 and I was still laughing away with friends about the usual drumkits and equipment problems. And I suddenly remembered the last hope I had on the online exam. If I blew this, it was all over. I sat a bit seriously, read a few bits that I could remember well, and took the exam. Some were easy, some were cloudy, some were guessable, some were impossible, and there were a few that even Ravi couldn't answer! Somehow I checked them however they were, and was looking around into other guys' papers. Suddenly i saw the score. 16! Yes! I wished I got more but that was enough to boost my morale. But later calculations showed that it's not a great score after all. Even 20 would have just pushed me beyond the line, which meant 16 might not save me anyway. I couldn't remember the previous online score but I am sure that was more than 2! God save me!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Broken promise
The last 2 days have gone like 2 hours. I never knew when the day started (11am) and when the day ended (11pm). And what's been going on these hours? Even I can't say. I was supposed to be reading and learning all the difficult stuff from my books. But hey, I have no books to learn from this time. All I have with me is about 10% of the notes, and a few e-text-books. Most of these e-books do not cover my syllabus, nor are they atleast easy to understand. Because of that, I am always ending up doing what I do best, drop it and do something else like sitting on the system, playing with PS brushes, or connecting the guitar (that would mean wasting about 3 hours in a bang). My house people have stopped bothering whether I am studying or even awake for that matter. Every time I check the watch, there is a rush of guilt, that I wasted one more precious hour. But that is no remedy to my problem. I still continue to waste the time like how I am blogging now, out of frustration. Anyway, maybe by today night I might atleast think a few times about opening a book, but I don't know whether it will continue on to actually learning something from it...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Back to nowhere
Yeah. I had lots of fun this semester. Addicted to music, reading novels, watching flop movies, travelling like mad (Goa, Chennai, Kirandul, Vacs, McDonald's, Srikar's, Kalyan's, Heaven, Hell, etc...), heavy junk food, and blogging. I had the perfect fun semester. But what about the academic semester? Hah! Good question...
Ok. Bad question. As of now, maybe 15 days away from exams, I didn't even complete my internal exams (college fault), didn't complete lab exams (college fault), and didn't even finish the entire syllabus (college fault), and didn't start preparation (my fault).
That's the answer to that good/bad question. Which means every minute from now on will count. Maybe that paragraph I read out of luck might save me from failing in my Structures exam. Then I'd better read that para atleast...
So, I formally announce that I will get back to my studies now. Something that I was promising right from year 2005 (Intermediate) but never succeeded.
Ok. Bad question. As of now, maybe 15 days away from exams, I didn't even complete my internal exams (college fault), didn't complete lab exams (college fault), and didn't even finish the entire syllabus (college fault), and didn't start preparation (my fault).
That's the answer to that good/bad question. Which means every minute from now on will count. Maybe that paragraph I read out of luck might save me from failing in my Structures exam. Then I'd better read that para atleast...
So, I formally announce that I will get back to my studies now. Something that I was promising right from year 2005 (Intermediate) but never succeeded.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
What-Sa ??
Oh suddenly, I wanna repeat what the "ex-"princi had to say in one of his many 'lectures', "Don't make Friends. They will bring you down". Well, it so happened that yesterday was the final day that one could be free from the shackles of exams. After reaching college, I suddenly realised this fact, and cursed myself for coming to college. There was literally no one in class except a few 'normal' students. I really wanted to be normal and attend the classes, and listen to whatever crap they teach. Some of the guys who felt they could do nothing better than cutting grass in college, decided to go to a movie, and dragged me into it.
With hardly any cash to survive on, and a bad mood, I gave it tremendous thought. I had a hundred thoughts when Yaseen spoke to Natarajan (who was waiting outside), and said, "Let's both step out once and talk to Natarajan about today's plan". I said ok to that. Little did I realise that after stepping out (with difficulty coz of the MRCET guards), I would be hopping onto a bike and cruising away to a movie. What happened to those hundreds of thoughts? Gone in a wisp of smoke!
Reached Cine Planet, the hang-out place of Kompally, this-palli, that-palli, etc-palli. It's the place I hate most because everytime I go there, I retain a sick memory of the place. The scores of MRGI students, the newspaper pieces glimmering in the theatre light, the stupid whistles, etc. This time was no different. It's just not a cool place to hang-out! I hate that place now!
They decided on the movie Jalsa. I secretly wanted to see Race because my sister liked the plot and recommended it to me, and also, I prefer Hindi to Telugu. I knew an English movie was outta the question judging by the crowd I was moving with. They were all against Race, though a few guys wanted to see it. So Jalsa it was, and by god! I never wanna see another movie like that. Every other telugu movie I was forced to watch has almost the same storyline. Why make so many movies on the same line? The hero is a hero, the villain is a Don (feared by all, except the hero). The hero does something unintentionally and it goes on to harm the villain's reputation. That angers the villain, and he comes after this guy only to end up getting killed. So where's the heroine in all this? Nowhere. There's no need of one anyway. She comes only to set the screen on fire, with some heavy "over-acting", and crazy dance moves, and she's as usual taken away by the villain organization and the hero wins her back to end the "movie". Is this all that we want to see?
Let's face it. The script writers are creative people who want the best out of nothing. They know what the people want and they do this for the people. It's not the film-maker's fault for doing a movie like this, like every other director must have done in most other movies. The violence, the typical telugu-style fighting, the killing, the punch dialogues to which we expect people to get mad over, the over-witty comedy, the same old stuff. Nothing new. The lead actor plays the same role in every movie, the same actor acts as Villain, the same comedian tries to entertain (he has no part in the story), the hot-headed father is played by the same person, and the heroine has the same role in every movie. So what's technically different here? Nothing? Oh yeah, I forgot, every movie shows various methods of killing people. Maybe we college students are inspired by this kinda fighting. Every movie shows the actor in a particular dressing style. Next day, we all dress like that. He dances differently, and we all dance like him. So what did I get out of the movie, it teaches you nothing. All it does is, shows how a person who has nothing, can gain everything by falling in love once and later falling for the same girl's sister (yuck!), by killing a thousand men and finally the most vicious Don alive, and doing a 100 wrong things in a comic way such that it's accepted. He drinks heavily, beats up people, organizes huge fights in college, does petty stealing and pranks (that's supposed to be the funny part of the movie), and so much more crap. They want to make a movie like this!
Suddenly I don't understand who inspires whom? Are the scriptwriters really being inspired by such mafiaism, naxalism, factionism, real-life violence, and stuff? Or are the people setting rules about the stuff to be shown on entertainment screens? Everytime a movie like this is out, people flock. And film-makers dock in all the money. So they know, the next time they want to make money, make a film on the same lines, with maybe a few different actors, a little more comedy, a little more violence, few small twists, heavy image compositing, and bam! A new movie is out, they spent 100 crores on it! No, they spent 101 crores on it, you fool! ("My god! You don't know anything about movies!") The actor did real stunts! The 'graphics' (the new term we all learnt) are 'awesome' (another term we learnt)!
How many more of this stuff do I want to see and listen to? Aren't the people getting tired of such crap? Now comes my real review of the movie. I am not a movie-buff, and I don't understand the "entertainment" part of certain movies. So, I hope no one takes it hard on themselves. My blog has been controversial a few times before and it will be now. Reader Discretion Advised: It was crap. The whole time I spent there including the money (as if we need pop-korn movie watching), went down the drain. The dialogues were as if these people don't live on Earth. They belong to some high-attitude, over-intelligent planet. The acting was over-acting. The negative roles turn out much better than the real ones to look out for. The music is still hammering on my head, and the comedy made me come close to puking. The storyline nearly succeeded in putting me to sleep, but the heart-ripping, ear-thrashing sound never allowed me to do that. So on the whole, I didn't enjoy one bit! Compositing was fine actually. We got some talented 3D geeks out there in the industry, but they can still do a better job. I noticed a scene where the video turns to a photograph and the villain is shuffling the photos. Suddenly his hand gets over lapped by the photo. That's a small thing that could mean that there was no photograph ever present. But still, a good job on video editing, and nice lighting as well. I don't wanna point out any actor in particular (especially the Hero), coz I know tomorrow I might get killed villain-style.
But I still took my revenge. I wanted to abuse everyone who led me to that film, and this blog helps me throw it all out without hurting anyone in particular. By the way, I heard it's a flop film. Is it true ?? (I can't make out the difference anymore - people flock and say it's a flop)...
With hardly any cash to survive on, and a bad mood, I gave it tremendous thought. I had a hundred thoughts when Yaseen spoke to Natarajan (who was waiting outside), and said, "Let's both step out once and talk to Natarajan about today's plan". I said ok to that. Little did I realise that after stepping out (with difficulty coz of the MRCET guards), I would be hopping onto a bike and cruising away to a movie. What happened to those hundreds of thoughts? Gone in a wisp of smoke!
Reached Cine Planet, the hang-out place of Kompally, this-palli, that-palli, etc-palli. It's the place I hate most because everytime I go there, I retain a sick memory of the place. The scores of MRGI students, the newspaper pieces glimmering in the theatre light, the stupid whistles, etc. This time was no different. It's just not a cool place to hang-out! I hate that place now!
They decided on the movie Jalsa. I secretly wanted to see Race because my sister liked the plot and recommended it to me, and also, I prefer Hindi to Telugu. I knew an English movie was outta the question judging by the crowd I was moving with. They were all against Race, though a few guys wanted to see it. So Jalsa it was, and by god! I never wanna see another movie like that. Every other telugu movie I was forced to watch has almost the same storyline. Why make so many movies on the same line? The hero is a hero, the villain is a Don (feared by all, except the hero). The hero does something unintentionally and it goes on to harm the villain's reputation. That angers the villain, and he comes after this guy only to end up getting killed. So where's the heroine in all this? Nowhere. There's no need of one anyway. She comes only to set the screen on fire, with some heavy "over-acting", and crazy dance moves, and she's as usual taken away by the villain organization and the hero wins her back to end the "movie". Is this all that we want to see?
Let's face it. The script writers are creative people who want the best out of nothing. They know what the people want and they do this for the people. It's not the film-maker's fault for doing a movie like this, like every other director must have done in most other movies. The violence, the typical telugu-style fighting, the killing, the punch dialogues to which we expect people to get mad over, the over-witty comedy, the same old stuff. Nothing new. The lead actor plays the same role in every movie, the same actor acts as Villain, the same comedian tries to entertain (he has no part in the story), the hot-headed father is played by the same person, and the heroine has the same role in every movie. So what's technically different here? Nothing? Oh yeah, I forgot, every movie shows various methods of killing people. Maybe we college students are inspired by this kinda fighting. Every movie shows the actor in a particular dressing style. Next day, we all dress like that. He dances differently, and we all dance like him. So what did I get out of the movie, it teaches you nothing. All it does is, shows how a person who has nothing, can gain everything by falling in love once and later falling for the same girl's sister (yuck!), by killing a thousand men and finally the most vicious Don alive, and doing a 100 wrong things in a comic way such that it's accepted. He drinks heavily, beats up people, organizes huge fights in college, does petty stealing and pranks (that's supposed to be the funny part of the movie), and so much more crap. They want to make a movie like this!
Suddenly I don't understand who inspires whom? Are the scriptwriters really being inspired by such mafiaism, naxalism, factionism, real-life violence, and stuff? Or are the people setting rules about the stuff to be shown on entertainment screens? Everytime a movie like this is out, people flock. And film-makers dock in all the money. So they know, the next time they want to make money, make a film on the same lines, with maybe a few different actors, a little more comedy, a little more violence, few small twists, heavy image compositing, and bam! A new movie is out, they spent 100 crores on it! No, they spent 101 crores on it, you fool! ("My god! You don't know anything about movies!") The actor did real stunts! The 'graphics' (the new term we all learnt) are 'awesome' (another term we learnt)!
How many more of this stuff do I want to see and listen to? Aren't the people getting tired of such crap? Now comes my real review of the movie. I am not a movie-buff, and I don't understand the "entertainment" part of certain movies. So, I hope no one takes it hard on themselves. My blog has been controversial a few times before and it will be now. Reader Discretion Advised: It was crap. The whole time I spent there including the money (as if we need pop-korn movie watching), went down the drain. The dialogues were as if these people don't live on Earth. They belong to some high-attitude, over-intelligent planet. The acting was over-acting. The negative roles turn out much better than the real ones to look out for. The music is still hammering on my head, and the comedy made me come close to puking. The storyline nearly succeeded in putting me to sleep, but the heart-ripping, ear-thrashing sound never allowed me to do that. So on the whole, I didn't enjoy one bit! Compositing was fine actually. We got some talented 3D geeks out there in the industry, but they can still do a better job. I noticed a scene where the video turns to a photograph and the villain is shuffling the photos. Suddenly his hand gets over lapped by the photo. That's a small thing that could mean that there was no photograph ever present. But still, a good job on video editing, and nice lighting as well. I don't wanna point out any actor in particular (especially the Hero), coz I know tomorrow I might get killed villain-style.
But I still took my revenge. I wanted to abuse everyone who led me to that film, and this blog helps me throw it all out without hurting anyone in particular. By the way, I heard it's a flop film. Is it true ?? (I can't make out the difference anymore - people flock and say it's a flop)...
Saturday, April 05, 2008
The A. Ordeal Completed
Finally the Annual Day Ordeal is over. It was over before we even knew we did something.
Directly jumping to the details, we had 3 songs to play, plus our Intro, which was to be covered in the sound checks. Problems came as usual, with the instruments being removed after sound checks, and being brought back later. That move was clearly damaging. Once we were back on stage the sound checks couldn't take much time, and we just played away however the sounds were. On the Intro, I couldn't hear rhythm at all. And the rest of the songs (Toh Phir Aao, BoBD, Somewhere I belong), the rhythm and vocals were screaming and the rest were diminished. But still, I think we pulled it off very well. We could have sounded much better had our sound checks taken another 5 minutes. Maybe we didn't want to waste any time. It's our first proper gig with all the instruments and people in. Taking feedback from friends, it rocked. But taking feedback from family, it kinda sounded diminished. Everyone at home said BoBD was great and next came Somewhere I belong. The vocals in Toh Phir Aao was screwed up, and out of tune, was what I heard from them. I think it was true.
As a personal thing, I wished the lead guitar and bass guitar had more volumes. Had that been the case, we could have surely sounded much better. There were a few mistakes from our side. The beginning of TPA was bad with the bass and lead not going in sync. Then the vocals in the same song were out of tune. Again in the same song, I messed up with the vocal lead at the end of the song. I don't know if anyone even heard it. Then, BoBD was nearly perfect. SIB had mistakes again from the vocals, with Shashank and Nabeel playing around with the lyrics, exchanging roles, etc. No idea how many from the audience noticed that one. The lead guitar in the song was very diminished and I felt bad about that. Could have sounded better. But overall, it was a lively and energetic performance, and I think we were liked atleast by a few and for 1-2 songs out of the 3.
Special mention to DJ Shweth for getting our instruments sound much better than last time. His equipment really saved us. Having Drum Mic Kits, and DI boxes for guitars, and all such stuff gave the instruments an enhanced sound compared to last time. Though the volume levels were not very well handled in the hurry, no one is to be blamed anyway ...
Coming to the rest of the Annual Day Show, my house people didn't really like any of the other performers, or even the speeches given by the 'digs'. The really embarrassing thing however was, the documentary film that was to be projected onto a screen held by humans. The projector never worked and the screen wasn't even held properly, and it was a complete flop show. Anyway, we didn't stay back to see more of what happened. The thing that scared us out of our wits was the sudden disappearance of our amps. But we found them after some thorough thinking.
I really want to thank all my Aero Friends for showing some good unity by wearing the T-shirts designed by Natarajan. They looked great in them, and the spirits were high.
Judging by how we were this time, I can seriously consider more gigs, and maybe even a next Annual Day performance (my last ever). I think this is a boost for my mates...
Some pics from the show:
Directly jumping to the details, we had 3 songs to play, plus our Intro, which was to be covered in the sound checks. Problems came as usual, with the instruments being removed after sound checks, and being brought back later. That move was clearly damaging. Once we were back on stage the sound checks couldn't take much time, and we just played away however the sounds were. On the Intro, I couldn't hear rhythm at all. And the rest of the songs (Toh Phir Aao, BoBD, Somewhere I belong), the rhythm and vocals were screaming and the rest were diminished. But still, I think we pulled it off very well. We could have sounded much better had our sound checks taken another 5 minutes. Maybe we didn't want to waste any time. It's our first proper gig with all the instruments and people in. Taking feedback from friends, it rocked. But taking feedback from family, it kinda sounded diminished. Everyone at home said BoBD was great and next came Somewhere I belong. The vocals in Toh Phir Aao was screwed up, and out of tune, was what I heard from them. I think it was true.
As a personal thing, I wished the lead guitar and bass guitar had more volumes. Had that been the case, we could have surely sounded much better. There were a few mistakes from our side. The beginning of TPA was bad with the bass and lead not going in sync. Then the vocals in the same song were out of tune. Again in the same song, I messed up with the vocal lead at the end of the song. I don't know if anyone even heard it. Then, BoBD was nearly perfect. SIB had mistakes again from the vocals, with Shashank and Nabeel playing around with the lyrics, exchanging roles, etc. No idea how many from the audience noticed that one. The lead guitar in the song was very diminished and I felt bad about that. Could have sounded better. But overall, it was a lively and energetic performance, and I think we were liked atleast by a few and for 1-2 songs out of the 3.
Special mention to DJ Shweth for getting our instruments sound much better than last time. His equipment really saved us. Having Drum Mic Kits, and DI boxes for guitars, and all such stuff gave the instruments an enhanced sound compared to last time. Though the volume levels were not very well handled in the hurry, no one is to be blamed anyway ...
Coming to the rest of the Annual Day Show, my house people didn't really like any of the other performers, or even the speeches given by the 'digs'. The really embarrassing thing however was, the documentary film that was to be projected onto a screen held by humans. The projector never worked and the screen wasn't even held properly, and it was a complete flop show. Anyway, we didn't stay back to see more of what happened. The thing that scared us out of our wits was the sudden disappearance of our amps. But we found them after some thorough thinking.
I really want to thank all my Aero Friends for showing some good unity by wearing the T-shirts designed by Natarajan. They looked great in them, and the spirits were high.
Judging by how we were this time, I can seriously consider more gigs, and maybe even a next Annual Day performance (my last ever). I think this is a boost for my mates...
Some pics from the show:
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Shame-Shabad
Shamshabad Airport. Oh I forgot it's called Rajiv Gandhi International Airport! Er... isn't there a Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium close to my house? Why is everything being named after this man. He was just another young guy who was forced into politics because of sudden deaths. He went on to become respectable. But naming everything after politicians? Is that the way to carry on with things? Why do we have all kinds of weird names for our buildings/parks/places/stadiums/etc...
Anyway, back to Shamshabad. It was supposed to kick off on 17th March. The Inagural Function turns out to be a fiasco. All the leaders present admited that the road facility will take more time and things are yet to be done. The promise of the Lufthansa landing for the first time at Shamshabad was broken. I expected that. It wasn't any surprise to hear that the opening would be delayed. It finally kicked off after a few days. Maybe they forgot to build a roof for the terminal and maybe they did it in 2 days. Right from Day 1, I went through all the reviews about the Airport. It's swanky, stylish, this and that. But the road transport is bad. The roads are not finished. The Autorickshaws demand Rs 500 for the trip to Shamshabad. The travel from city-center to the airport takes about 2 hours. And maybe your flight would take lesser time to reach the destination. If you want to catch a flight today evening, start after noon and hopefully you will not miss your flight. Just in case you want a visit to the rest room, don't ask the support staff coz they themselves don't know. Maybe there are all kinds off exclusive stuff there, Hard Rock Cafes, etc, but what's the use if you don't know how to find them? How bad would you feel if the pilot doesn't know "What's Shamshabad" and flies all the way to Mumbai just to land? How bad would it look if the staff were at the new airport and the cargo is left at the old airport? How bad would it look if the people are told that their plane takes off at HYD airport and they run to Begumpet only to realise that all traffic has been shifted to Shamshabad? Or how bad would it look if some foreigner guy lands at Shamshabad, expecting to see Begumpet like his previous visits, and starts wondering if the plane was hijacked and made to land at some deserted area? How would he know if he is in Hyd, or where he is in Hyd?
It's a long queue anyway coz out of the numerous counters, only 2-3 work and there's no staff to handle them. As a whole, it's like this. Wow! You just felt like you entered another world, another universe but you are lost. There's nobody to help you, and it's difficult to help yourself, judging by the size of the terminal. It was too much of a hurry. When I heard of the launch date, somewhere in 2007, I thought March 08 is a bit too early. Can our guys really pull it off? I knew they wouldn't, but I had a hope. They say they pulled it off, but with less than 50% of the work complete, I don't how they could say that. I don't know how they were bold enough to actually open the Airport before it was finished. It is supposed to meet international standards, and had to be ready to accommodate a greater number of people and planes. They clearly hurried with the opening. I wouldn't mind if they delayed it by a few months or maybe an year, by when they could have developed the area around it with proper connectivity and most importantly the so-called Express Way that would take you to the Terminal in 20 minutes.
I had thoughts when people were talking about the new Airport coming up. It's gonna be exquisite, International, quick and easy, has a huge runway, can swallow an Airbus 380, can handle lots of traffic, among the large ones in India, etc. But at the moment, most of them are wishing they were using the old, reliable Begumpet airport. And what's with the removal of the old airport? Don't we have so many alternate train stations? Can't we have an alternate airport just like that? I heard talks about private airports, just like private airlines. Maybe at that time, we can start seeing 3-4-5-6 airports within a town. Till then, we have to wait and watch how the government uses money. Will they use it to finish the terminal so that it looks well, like a Terminal? Or will they spend crores to organise bloody functions inviting VIP guests for them to have a look at an unfinished structure. I heard they spent about 20 crores to build a temporary air-conditioned hall for the guests on the Inagural Day. If that's really true, then they are really crazy.
At the moment, it's still Shame-shabad Airport. But it won't be long before it becomes Shamshabad Airport, with great cab service, Express Way connectivity, great stuff inside and outside and stunning looking. It won't be long ... I am just waiting for that day.
Anyway, back to Shamshabad. It was supposed to kick off on 17th March. The Inagural Function turns out to be a fiasco. All the leaders present admited that the road facility will take more time and things are yet to be done. The promise of the Lufthansa landing for the first time at Shamshabad was broken. I expected that. It wasn't any surprise to hear that the opening would be delayed. It finally kicked off after a few days. Maybe they forgot to build a roof for the terminal and maybe they did it in 2 days. Right from Day 1, I went through all the reviews about the Airport. It's swanky, stylish, this and that. But the road transport is bad. The roads are not finished. The Autorickshaws demand Rs 500 for the trip to Shamshabad. The travel from city-center to the airport takes about 2 hours. And maybe your flight would take lesser time to reach the destination. If you want to catch a flight today evening, start after noon and hopefully you will not miss your flight. Just in case you want a visit to the rest room, don't ask the support staff coz they themselves don't know. Maybe there are all kinds off exclusive stuff there, Hard Rock Cafes, etc, but what's the use if you don't know how to find them? How bad would you feel if the pilot doesn't know "What's Shamshabad" and flies all the way to Mumbai just to land? How bad would it look if the staff were at the new airport and the cargo is left at the old airport? How bad would it look if the people are told that their plane takes off at HYD airport and they run to Begumpet only to realise that all traffic has been shifted to Shamshabad? Or how bad would it look if some foreigner guy lands at Shamshabad, expecting to see Begumpet like his previous visits, and starts wondering if the plane was hijacked and made to land at some deserted area? How would he know if he is in Hyd, or where he is in Hyd?
It's a long queue anyway coz out of the numerous counters, only 2-3 work and there's no staff to handle them. As a whole, it's like this. Wow! You just felt like you entered another world, another universe but you are lost. There's nobody to help you, and it's difficult to help yourself, judging by the size of the terminal. It was too much of a hurry. When I heard of the launch date, somewhere in 2007, I thought March 08 is a bit too early. Can our guys really pull it off? I knew they wouldn't, but I had a hope. They say they pulled it off, but with less than 50% of the work complete, I don't how they could say that. I don't know how they were bold enough to actually open the Airport before it was finished. It is supposed to meet international standards, and had to be ready to accommodate a greater number of people and planes. They clearly hurried with the opening. I wouldn't mind if they delayed it by a few months or maybe an year, by when they could have developed the area around it with proper connectivity and most importantly the so-called Express Way that would take you to the Terminal in 20 minutes.
I had thoughts when people were talking about the new Airport coming up. It's gonna be exquisite, International, quick and easy, has a huge runway, can swallow an Airbus 380, can handle lots of traffic, among the large ones in India, etc. But at the moment, most of them are wishing they were using the old, reliable Begumpet airport. And what's with the removal of the old airport? Don't we have so many alternate train stations? Can't we have an alternate airport just like that? I heard talks about private airports, just like private airlines. Maybe at that time, we can start seeing 3-4-5-6 airports within a town. Till then, we have to wait and watch how the government uses money. Will they use it to finish the terminal so that it looks well, like a Terminal? Or will they spend crores to organise bloody functions inviting VIP guests for them to have a look at an unfinished structure. I heard they spent about 20 crores to build a temporary air-conditioned hall for the guests on the Inagural Day. If that's really true, then they are really crazy.
At the moment, it's still Shame-shabad Airport. But it won't be long before it becomes Shamshabad Airport, with great cab service, Express Way connectivity, great stuff inside and outside and stunning looking. It won't be long ... I am just waiting for that day.
2nd April, 2008
Couldn't think of what to put on the title. Date is the best.
Today's Headlines (The ones that bother me atleast):
Manchester United defeat AS Roma 2-0. Ronaldo, Rooney scored. 2nd leg to be played at Old Trafford. Manchester United has advantage of home crowd and also 2 away goals. Favourites - ManU, because they are the best!
Jam Session was good with the keyboards almost getting finalised. We didn't sound very great, but our co-ordination was mostly right. But we are still playing as if A Day is a month away.
All travels turned out to be pretty safe today. But I might have a horrible night, with my head getting dreams that sound strangely like "traditional .... ". Oh No!!!
Today's Headlines (The ones that bother me atleast):
Manchester United defeat AS Roma 2-0. Ronaldo, Rooney scored. 2nd leg to be played at Old Trafford. Manchester United has advantage of home crowd and also 2 away goals. Favourites - ManU, because they are the best!
Jam Session was good with the keyboards almost getting finalised. We didn't sound very great, but our co-ordination was mostly right. But we are still playing as if A Day is a month away.
All travels turned out to be pretty safe today. But I might have a horrible night, with my head getting dreams that sound strangely like "traditional .... ". Oh No!!!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
What A. Day
First things first, it's no news that the Annual Day has been reconsidered and recalled. Everyone knew it would be happening, sooner or later. Sad part is, it happened late and now suddenly we guys gotta rush.
Imagine how it would be if we told the audience, "Sorry guys, we were told this too late so bear with us if only the drums play and the rest of us watch. You can play your own songs in your head that match the drum timing. It's rather unfortunate that we all can't play the songs... "
I shudder to think of that, and if we don't act fast the audience might really get to hear only the Drum Solo. (just an example, it might even be a Bass Guitar Solo) ...
Weird thing today was we ran out of college the moment we heard the news, straight for a major jam session at Kalyan's. But turns out that my cables and stuff were left at home. We planned out a crazy 30 KM trip all the way home just to get the cables/accessories and the journey turned out to be quite a lesson for us (Srikar and Me).
The moment we hit the highway, we had a violent shock that showed us hell. We thought were on Earth, far from hell's clutches but with Jack around, hell is always waiting. We were above 90KMPH and suddenly, an innocent looking Bolero (does it ever look innocent??), turned left and perfectly blocked our path. We, being on the extreme left found it impossible to move right and judging by our speed, I knew 2 things the moment Srikar slammed the brakes. 1. We are too late, we are hitting the car. 2. If we avoid the car, we are going off road and skidding. I knew the end of the world is coming... and it was coming fast. The bike was slowing down too slowly and the car was still turning. We were hitting ... we are hitting. We are almost about to hit......... phew! We just missed. But we got off the road. There is sand under the wheels and there's a huge ditch in on the left. We are still travelling very fast and Phew! again. We came back onto the road as if nothing ever happened. Congratulate Srikar for his driving or his Unicorn's brakes for bringing us to a controllable speed or the tyres for maintaining grip even on sand or maybe all the above. Whatever it was, we were lucky as hell (well, not Hell - just an expression). I'll avoid dreaming for the next few nights ....
That wasn't the end of the things that could have gone wrong. We reached home safely (but shaken) and took our stuff and left immediately. We were passing by my school when we saw something more weird. There was a school van about to take off and a parked bike in front of it. The school van took off with the bike still in front. The bike was hit, and the van didn't stop. The bike got under the wheels and the van didn't stop. I heard somebody shout out to the van driver. I don't know what happened next because we didn't stop.
We were still on our way, and we saw enough number of freshly damaged vehicles to imagine how wrong things are going today. Then we came across a group of people who were unloading a car from a truck (weird thing in itself). They were manually getting it down, with their hands. And BAM!! The car slips off the hands and lands loudly onto the floor. The plank that was supposed to hold the car gave away with the weight and the car gets no more support other than a few weak hands trying to hold it. What would happen next is obvious ...
It's April Fool's day. Was someone playing dirty tricks on us? Trying to scare us? Maybe by the time I get to sleep (if I manage it), Hell Devil will bang at my door and say, "Happy Fool's Day".
Still, we reached safely, jammed safely, and came back home safely. Now I don't know if Srikar reached home safely yet. I'd better call and find out...
Imagine how it would be if we told the audience, "Sorry guys, we were told this too late so bear with us if only the drums play and the rest of us watch. You can play your own songs in your head that match the drum timing. It's rather unfortunate that we all can't play the songs... "
I shudder to think of that, and if we don't act fast the audience might really get to hear only the Drum Solo. (just an example, it might even be a Bass Guitar Solo) ...
Weird thing today was we ran out of college the moment we heard the news, straight for a major jam session at Kalyan's. But turns out that my cables and stuff were left at home. We planned out a crazy 30 KM trip all the way home just to get the cables/accessories and the journey turned out to be quite a lesson for us (Srikar and Me).
The moment we hit the highway, we had a violent shock that showed us hell. We thought were on Earth, far from hell's clutches but with Jack around, hell is always waiting. We were above 90KMPH and suddenly, an innocent looking Bolero (does it ever look innocent??), turned left and perfectly blocked our path. We, being on the extreme left found it impossible to move right and judging by our speed, I knew 2 things the moment Srikar slammed the brakes. 1. We are too late, we are hitting the car. 2. If we avoid the car, we are going off road and skidding. I knew the end of the world is coming... and it was coming fast. The bike was slowing down too slowly and the car was still turning. We were hitting ... we are hitting. We are almost about to hit......... phew! We just missed. But we got off the road. There is sand under the wheels and there's a huge ditch in on the left. We are still travelling very fast and Phew! again. We came back onto the road as if nothing ever happened. Congratulate Srikar for his driving or his Unicorn's brakes for bringing us to a controllable speed or the tyres for maintaining grip even on sand or maybe all the above. Whatever it was, we were lucky as hell (well, not Hell - just an expression). I'll avoid dreaming for the next few nights ....
That wasn't the end of the things that could have gone wrong. We reached home safely (but shaken) and took our stuff and left immediately. We were passing by my school when we saw something more weird. There was a school van about to take off and a parked bike in front of it. The school van took off with the bike still in front. The bike was hit, and the van didn't stop. The bike got under the wheels and the van didn't stop. I heard somebody shout out to the van driver. I don't know what happened next because we didn't stop.
We were still on our way, and we saw enough number of freshly damaged vehicles to imagine how wrong things are going today. Then we came across a group of people who were unloading a car from a truck (weird thing in itself). They were manually getting it down, with their hands. And BAM!! The car slips off the hands and lands loudly onto the floor. The plank that was supposed to hold the car gave away with the weight and the car gets no more support other than a few weak hands trying to hold it. What would happen next is obvious ...
It's April Fool's day. Was someone playing dirty tricks on us? Trying to scare us? Maybe by the time I get to sleep (if I manage it), Hell Devil will bang at my door and say, "Happy Fool's Day".
Still, we reached safely, jammed safely, and came back home safely. Now I don't know if Srikar reached home safely yet. I'd better call and find out...
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