The Overheat Tank

A recent UN survey revealed that at the present rate, the world as we know now wouldn't sustain human life due to acute shortage of water. They say all this would happen within the next 50-60 years. I have been facing my share of this water shortage in recent days.The water table in India has been reducing at an alarming rate in recent years due to numerous illegal activities, boring being one of them. The borewell (don't know whether the digging was legal) at my house standing at around 150ft deep has been struggling to give me good quality water for some time now. Its been around 6 months since the color of the water turned from slight yellow to the present acid stinking brownish-yellow. All water related appliances from the overhead tank to the water purifier has been bearing the brunt of this cobra-sting like water. All of my plastic buckets, no matter what their color was, had developed a brownish dark yellow lining.The candles in the aquaguard too has got a very dark muddish creamy layer on its surface which calls for a weekly cleaning.

Yes, the tank too had its walls lined yellow and had a pile of a mixture of sand, mud, among other things ranging from small stones to screws&nuts on its base. Now touching anything kept in the sun all day long on a hot summer day of late May is nothing short of daredevilry. Its the same about the overhead tank. So me and my sister had planned to clean it early in the morning when the temperatures would be the lowest. We had plans to go to bed as early as possible so as to get up at around 4 am, a schedule we are not accustomed to. Right then came the bad news, water in the tank has gotten over, so the do-it-now order came from mama and we as obedient as we are pulled our lazy arses up to the terrace to do the most demanding job in over past 2 months of my life. Climbing up to the platform we slowly lifted the lid on tank, and just when I was going to poke my head into the tank's mouth, to take a initial surveying look of the tank, out came a cloud of vapor so hot that I could feel it from the sight of it. Terrifying was the idea of actually getting into the over heated tank clean it. Being the elder one, I had the 'privilege' to order my sister to take the frightening jump-in, having papa's instruction that people with small structure should only get in the tank helping my cause. Rest is her's story to tell form the boiling left-over water  to her bucket-filling sweat.

All I learned was that next time I visit home, I would make sure its in winters. Cold is so me!

Movies Galore

Its a unearthly feeling to be 'stuck' at home. Not that I'm an outdoor-guy just that I can be as indolent in this baking hot summer as in cozy winters. Now one thing that needs the least of movements is movie watching and that is exactly what I have been doing over the past one whole month. After some prolonged sit-in-your-easychair-watch-movie sessions, I have slowly started appreciating the aesthetic value of movies. From the minute details in the screenplay to greater nuances of story telling.

In this period I saw a lot of crap and some great pieces of art.

Hugo: Just for its art value

12 Angry Men: Henry Fonda's antics

One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest: Jack Nicholson's smile and for the character Billy

Usual Suspect: Keyser Soze turnaround

Kahaani: Bob Biswas

Paan Singh Tomar: Run Tomar Run

SuMmEr TiMeS

#getting up to see 6am mornings, when the fan isn't working and the air conditioner is blown.
#when you open the fridge and smell those ripe, yellow mangoes!

#bollywood comes up with songs like 'pareshan'

#driving around the town in a 1960 model Rajdoot with your dad's shades from the 80's

#singing at the top of your voice sitting on the top tier of the kitchen cabinets

#watermelons and oiled rotis with milk
#those spanish sports commentary, from the 2 min long gooooaaaaaaaaaal scream in soccer to the 'oy oy oy' remark after every winner Federer scored in Madrid (btw its so easy to spot the tennis ball in the blue clay than the red clay in rome or roland garros)
#sweat behind the knees after 10 minutes of pranayama in Lotus position

                             summers are beautiful.. at least in its own ways!!

Seventy Five

75, that's the number of days I have as vacations but unfortunately 75 isn't the number of yards from which Suarez scored.
Yes, it has been a football crazy month or so with so much happening that it just wonders me why just enough happens to fill the third sports page of the Times of India.(courtesy Seinfeld).
There are a lot of things I started noticing about soccer like the person called Arjen Robben. There is no one in the whole football fraternity who wears his jersey tighter than Robben and add to that those yellow boots.#sogay
And again 75 would be the micro-millimeters from the goal did Petr Cech pull out a wonder save. Damn him, Liverpool end up with just a Mickey Mouse cup this season. 

Resolutions

Around the first week of any new year, there is this big fuss about ' new year resolutions' with anyone you meet springing up that vital question. And now here we are into the second month of the D-year, the year when the Mayans decided they were too lazy to go any further. I tried analyzing the probable situations I would end up in had I taken some.
 If my new year resolution was not to sleep during lectures, I would have kept it for the first week coz I didn't enter the classes. Had I entered I would have comfortably slept in the front bench. Even worse, I continue sleeping during sermons in the church :-(
  If my new year resolution was to brush my teeth twice daily, it would have been an utter failure. Leave alone twice, brushing even once on the second day of the year was not-happening with me soundly asleep on the upper berth. And it hasn't happened for atleast 10 days in the latest update. Orbit and other mints are spoiling my attempts to brush daily.
  Had my new year resolution been to wash my clothes at least once a week, should say it took a heavy beating. Here I am into the second month with the same pair of denims.
  If my new year resolution was to study daily it would have been the only thing I would have done daily except sleeping and eating. The only other thing I have done daily during the first month is download atleast 2 songs on average.

On a positive note, I have been successful in getting up from sleep early (7am). I have been doing this for the second consective week. Some say, doing the same this for 16 days regularly will become a habit. But a lazy saturday is all I need.

Winters

Entering into the northern plains of India in the last week of December is in all sorts a nightmare. Here was I seated in Garib Rath doing exactly what a nightmare can be, coming to Allahabad in a sweat shirt to find your brother waiting with your jacket and other winter accessories in some platform far away from where you are!

But once you are home, its the winters to love, especially if you are laziness personified.
  The best thing about winters is that you can stay under the blanket all day long and mom would never be angry, unless you forget to put the washing machine drain pipe to the drain-hole and she finds your bathroom a foamy mess.
  Again, its only during winters that Anna Hazare had to break his fast without the government agreeing to his crazy ideas.(Although I think the reject your MP idea is good)
  You know its winter when it takes more than a second to fix your wedgie with so many layers of clothing to be pinched out from. It actually is embarrassing in the public thus encouraging longer stays under the blanket.

  AND, no of layers of clothing worn would be equal to the number of days you haven't bathed. 

                                                                    Winter at its best

Cricket

Isn't it just amazing that with all the talks about how test cricket is dying, we have been treated with at least 4 thrilling Test Matches over the last 2 months or so?  Since mid-October we've had an unprecedented amount of cricket almost equal to three times the number of exams I've faced during the same period.
The first is the most unexpected on from the Gymkhana Stadia in Harare. A Brendon Taylor blitzkrieg threatened a fifth day Zimbabwean win before things settled down and NewZealand won by the slightest of margins,
Then was the Ashwin classic. First test series of his life and this guy was in play whenever it mattered for India, just that he was a touch slow for the last vital run.
Thursday,Nov 9 was the doomsday for batsmen at Capetown. I saw South Africa's first innings before current went at my place. When current came back SA was batting again!
Then the Trans-Tasmanian war at Hobart. The pitch on first day was almost as green as the rest of the ground. And by the end of 3rd day we had New Zealand celebrating a famous win!

      //This entry was supposed to be made much earlier.