The AV photo album

After countless hours of pleading, I finally managed to get some photographs of the post-affliction-recovered AV. AV visited his next door neighbor/friend for a little party and this friend caught AV in various moods on mellow (last) Sunday afternoon. I think I’ll post a few pictures for you.

AV’s mush and beard has never been thicker than what you can see. As always, I simply melt each and every time I see these pictures. Really, a gasp escapes my vocal appendages each and every time. A gasp of enamored love, a gasp of unprecedented fortune of having him as my lover!

I’m going to set up a poll asking to vote on the best picture of AV.

#1

 

#2

 

#3

 

#4

 

#5

 

#6

 

#7

 

#8

 

Of Horrorscopes

If I were a regular boring straight young adult from the southside of the Indian peninsula, my horoscope would have been published in various matrimonial magazines, websites and newspapers. Believe me, it would have been really platitudinal and it would have read something like this.

‘Dr. Kris, 28 year old orthopaedic surgeon (M. S. Orthopaedics (Mumbai), M. B. B. S. (Trivandrum)), 5’ 10”, slim, medium complexion seeks a bride 20 – 25 years of age, post graduate, preferably a doctor, 5’ 5” to 5’ 8”, slim, fair, beautiful who’s interested in music, reading, computers, etc. The bride shall be open to the option of staying abroad or in other cities in India. The bride shall also be from a wealthy family which will be willing to provide a luxury sedan and about 50 lakhs of rupees in cash.’

Now, the reason why I’m posting this is because during today’s conversation with my sister, she said that a couple of cousins of mine are getting their horoscopes published. This, down south, is considered a sign of maturing into this wonderful, responsible young adult who could lead a sparkling marital/parental life.

Awww, c’mon! These are the same people who haven’t gotten laid, haven’t been involved in a serious relationship and can’t practically take mature decisions. These are people who still drink without their parents knowing about it, who still live with their parents and who still make chauvinistic comments about women.

And naturally, such ‘horrorscopes’ lead to ‘not-so-special’ relationships!

I hope arranged marriages and marriages based on astrological features are abolished forever!

Shrink: Part 2

I called the shrink tonight. I was greeted by a very heavy tamil accent in her English which sort of reminded me of my not-so-wonderful times at Chennai. We started with the ‘getting to know Kris’ section where I sort of repeated the conversation with my sister. When the conversation suddenly veered into ‘maybe Kris isn’t gay, he might be confused’, I switched cars; from a docile Maruti 800 to an aggressive Scorpio.

I vehemently, almost violently, made it clear that I indeed am gay. And that I have every right to be proclaiming my gayness. She asked me why I should wear it on my sleeve. I retorted ‘Can’t you and your partner, assuming that you are straight that is, hold hands in a train? Why shouldn't I be able to do that?’

I sort of sensed a sudden ‘taken by surprise’ element in her voice. She said that I could assume that she was straight and proceeded with the conversation. I found myself asking her again if she were actually straight or not. I didn’t get a clear answer because of the faulty Vodafone network.

We finally agreed to cooperate to try and help my sister get comfortable with my sexuality. I asked her if she could help my parents get to that same state. She said that she hardly knew me and she can’t do anything without meeting me. Fair, I thought. Unfair actually, when you think that you would have to travel all the way to Chennai and stay there for a few days to do that.

Come on! I can’t go and stay for a few days in Chennai! Anything more than a few hours in Chennai, is not recommended*,**. So, I directed her to my blog.

Since then, we have been exchanging e-mail regarding my wisdom in selecting an elderly, ailing partner. Needless to say, my vehemence has since then trebled.

(* Based on my personal observation. ** I'm very, very biased.)

A new shrink in my little pond

It sounded totally weird when my sister informed me that she wanted me to talk to a shrink all the way across from Chennai. Was it a ploy to convert me into straightdom? Or was it a genuine effort from her side to get more comfortable with my sexuality and the choice of partner?

In the conversation that I had with her, it became clear to me that she was trying her best to get comfortable. For that reason, she had gone to this shrink expecting to be told that it was entirely normal for anyone to be gay and that she needed to be supportive of such a person, especially so because it was her brother. Apparently this shrink was a high profile woman who wrote and talked in media about homosexuality and its ‘normalcy’.

But when she revealed to this shrink that I’m actually in a relationship with a geront, she put the hypothesis of ‘unsure’ sexuality on the table. Apparently, people who have been sexually abused in their childhood and who have not had a close relationship with their father could seek love from elderly gents without being sexually or emotionally tied up. And if they get tangled up in sex and emotions with an elderly man, there are ways to get them out of there.

Ahem! They include devious ways such as talking them out of it, putting them in a steamy room with voluptuous naked women etc. Or so, it seemed!

From my POV, I wanted to help my sister. I also wanted to help the shrink help my sister. This could eventually ease out my coming out experience to my parents.

I said ‘yes’.

And further down in the conversation, I detailed how I and Vinokur had carefully thought about premature separation and weighed in the options before committing ourselves. In her queries as to whether the lack of ‘straight’ experiences were the reason why I was actually gay, I told her that Vinokur has had many a lay with many a lass in his teenage and still he turned out to be as gay as he is.

Whew, after all this, I’m warily looking forward to this e-appointment or phone appointment with the shrink.

The Dadly sigh

The communication between me and my parents have been on the upswing for some time now. The major reason is that I’ve been taking tips from my Mom a lot these days regarding cooking and managing the kitchen etc. The more I ask her, the happier she seems to realize that I’m actually managing my fucking self in this apartment. That’s the good part of the deal.

The bad part is that I’ve to listen to boring, repetitive conversations with my Dad almost always. I hate that. But today, it went to another level. He asked me almost incredulously ‘Are you going to leave the medical profession altogether?’. It suddenly dawned on me that they had not clearly understood what my plan was. I spent a few minutes explaining that I have got a wonderful break in the music industry and I would like to go ahead and try my luck and earn some money. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll get back to being a surgeon.

I heard a prolonged sigh. Of disappointment and fear, I presume. I’ll refer the readers to ‘Nanny Diaries’, the movie, for understanding this particular situation better.

Scathing remarks?

Today, when we were coming back from the radio show, I ended up traveling in the cab with S. For a variety of reasons, some of which have been ‘illustrated’ on this blog, I have begun to resent his company while being outside; hanging out/traveling etc. He sort of drags me down with delays in getting dressed, in buying paan/gutkha, in being lazy and forgetful etc.

Today, despite me feeling all upbeat and stuff, I was led to a discussion and later on an argument with him. It was about, ahem, this blog itself. Apparently, his girlfriend, the wonderful young lady that she is, has chosen to read this blog. And she must have gone through a couple of bitter posts about S. She reported it to S. And S., wasn’t happy. Well I guess no one will be happy reading about themselves being crticised by anyone, especially a friend.

The point of the argument was that S. thought that I shouldn’t be writing personally harming stuff about my friends (or anybody for that matter) on my blog. If I had to write any scathing stuff, it shouldn’t have been out there.

I was furious. First of all, I didn’t really want to hurt him or anything. It’s just that this blog was created by me to vent out my feelings in whatsoever fashion they might evolve. It was a private blog and only my really close friends and other strangers from around the world who like blogtrotting have been reading this.

Then, for the promotion of ‘Noise Market’, I had created a page on this blog to get the Noise Market blog up on Google. That’s the only fucking link between the Noise Market blog and my personal blog. Apparently, this blog still comes up when people google ‘Noise Market’. And that’s when people apparently stumble over my writings which might lead to reactions.

The argument went so combative, that I told S. that I might even reveal his name on the blog. And he threatened that he might hack my blog and delete it forever.

The fact is that we both are a little cunty within ourselves and are not going to carry out the threats that we sent to each other.

All this does is that it leaves me with this 18$ question. Should/Can I write harming things about my friends on this blog?

The Radio Show

This again is a big surprise. We, ‘Noise Market’, seem to have impressed the organizers of the event that we played a week or so back. And they, in turn, had recommended us for a unplugged radio show in one of the big FM channels of Mumbai! WoW!

We practiced hard for this acoustic set yesterday night. We didn’t know that it was a live show which was going to be recorded and aired later on in the day. We went to their studios in the afternoon, and in a session which extended about an hour or so, we played 4 songs and were interviewed by a sweet, bubbly RJ. The interview was a funny little thing where we, despite demonstrating our extreme naivety, sounded interesting (or so I felt!). The show was finally aired in the evening and I have recorded the entire show!

I had SMSed a lot of my friends, GB friends and colleagues. A few of them returned compliments after listening to us live. And to be honest, I was also very happy in the way we sounded on the radio!

I have mp3s of our show but I don’t know if I should put them on this blog as my cynical, clandestine blog is already a controversial topic amongst the band mates.

UPDATE: I have uploaded the songs from the acoustic show on radio on the MySpace page for 'Noise Market'. Because of aforementioned dual-identity crisis, I still can't reveal the actual name of the band here on this blog. But you can obviously find it out in the MySpace page. I would urge all readers of this blog to keep sticking to the rules by not mixing these two identities. Anyway, here's the link to the Noise Market MySpace page.

Conflicts within the band

Over the past few months, especially after S. got kicked out of the band and was embraced back, things haven’t been very smooth inside the band. There have been frayed nerves, heated arguments, rude disagreements and all that stuff.I must confess that, call it paranoia even, I am apparently harboring this fear of being informed: ‘Look Kris, your attitude doesn’t fit the band. Neither do you look like you are interested in the band. We think you should leave the band!’.

I don’t know why these thoughts are simmering inside my my head. It really doesn’t seem logical. But I’m sure about one fact, I have not been having the kind of fun that I used to have with the band. I don’t know exactly why.

Maybe it is a change within me as I have clearly indicated that I need my own private space. I don’t want my private life to get ruined because of the band. That’s especially true with regard to the apparent dearth of sense of keeping-time; especially, not wasting others’ precious time. Maybe it’s that we suddenly leapfrogged from an amateur fun band to a professional, workman like band.

Whatever it is, I don’t like it and I’d like to go back to the state when having fun was equally important.

Vinokur gets a shave

I’m relieved to say that my dearest Vinokur has been photographed in the fully glory of facial hairiness. Now, it was time to head to the Saloon. Both of us actually went to the Saloon on the same day. He got a #2 blade trimming on the entire scalp and beard. His Dominican barber left the moustache a little long.

The final effect? Vinokur seems to have lost about 5 years in an instant! The last time I saw him without a formidable beard was when he came back to his apartment from the hospital. Then he had looked frail and friable. Now that he has put on a lot of weight, the cut look actually looks good on him!

The movie pentathlon

Aah, a Sunday morning. I was up late enough to skip gym and early enough to go through the Sunday Times with a cup of coffee. As my eye lazily grazed over the movie pages, a stark realization struck me. There were 9 fucking Hollywood flicks worth watching running in the theatres in Mumbai. I felt ashamed of myself. I hadn’t watched a decent movie alone in about a month’s time.

And what did I do? I took a piece of paper and made a list of movies and the theatres in which they are being shown. And after that, I formed a brilliant arrow diagram which would enable to me to watch five movies on the stretch! That’s going to be one fucking record! I took a quick shower and walked out to a nearby multiplex to start out what was promising to be an incredible day!

The Incredible Hulk


This movie was the biggest of the blockbusters that I was watching today. It was a marvel flick and all. But as all super-duper animation flicks do to me, it was astonishingly disappointing. I don’t know what’s wrong with putting in some effort to create a natural, flowing feel to the bodies of these superhero characters. Every fucking movie in this genre including Spiderman etc disappoint me. The Jurassic park dinosaurs are much better. But when it comes to aping the human body movements, these animation experts are obscenely horrid. And to kill all the fun, the storyline and the characters in this movie weren’t all that good. Why can’t Marvel learn from X-men? I give it a mere 1.5 out of 5!

Get Smart

Anything with Steve Carrell comes out good these days. He’s funny, eccentric and weird. In this spy/chase comedy which has a lot of interesting stuff (read, male - male lip locks; two of them), the sheer sillyness of Steve Carrell propels the movie to a success story in my blog. The presence of pro wrestler Dwayne Johnson and The Great Khali sort of adds glamour to the proceedings. It is a letdown to those who admire works of Carrell such as Little Miss Sunshine. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Another reason as to why the movie was bad was because of the unexpected company of S. and Xander in the movie hall. Co-fucking-incidentally, they had taken the two next seats to mine and S. was sitting next to me. He has this irritating nature of a very bovine, low pitched, almost gasp like laughing fit whenever something remotely funny happens on the screen. Apart from that, he claps like a teenage cunt when something slightly funnier happens. Add to it the whole gutkha/pan rumination and spitting into whatever space that he can think of, let me assure you guys, movie watching is far from enjoyable.

Nanny Diaries

I took this movie upon primarily because being a nanny in NYC was one of the options that I could consider to move to the US. This actually was suggested by Vinokur’s sister, Cissy. I thought it was a cute suggestion. So, why not see what I might be walking into via this movie. The movie is funny and sardonically ironic. It has moments of my life imprinted in it; the protagonist decides to break away from a successful academic career to doing something (nannydom) for just taking a break! Her parent (s) don’t agree to this and therefore, she has to lie about what she’s doing. And she becomes a nanny! Remarkably similar to how my life’s shaping out to be. There are poignant moments in the movie when the daughter and the mother encounter each others feelings, aspirations and hopes. And it ends well with the mom understanding her daughter. Hope this happens to me as well! A good 3 out of 5!

In Bruges

This was the brilliant surprise that I had in store. It had been years since I watched a low profile dark comedy. This proved to be just that, but the best of the genre that I have watched. I’m going to put my neck across and say that it’s better than Pulp Fiction! Seriously hilarious! So much so that I would have committed suicide had S. been with me. Enthralling drama! And a speedy story line. You never get bored. Not even once. Corniness is suspiciously absent from the proceedings. The only part which could be thought about in revision is the crescendo/staccato which leads up to one murder attempt. But that’s just fucking 7 seconds of a one and half hour movie! This gets 5 out of 5! Bravo!

Sex and the City

After the last movie, I was so excited that I called Ray and Vinokur and told them about my experience. Both of them shared my excitement. Both asked me what I was watching next. Both told me that it was a promising movie and that I should enjoy it. Enjoy it, I did! This movie led to the depths of what make or break a relationship; love, sex, trust, jealousy, adultery, faith and truthfulness in a relationship. It really broke my views about marriage and the hype that associated with it. It especially is relevant in the phase of life, when I’m planning to get married to Vinokur, maybe just for the sake of getting married.
I give 3.5 out of 5.

At the end of it all, I was a little tired! But very very satisfied, having broken my own record by a cool 2 movies!

S. brings Xander home

Today evening, as I do all evenings these days, I was chatting on Skype with Vinokur. I heard someone knock on the door. I checked up the clock. 11.50 pm. It must be S., I thought. I guess he was hungry and wanted to eat something. I looked through the peeping hole and yes, it was S.

I opened the door and I saw S. And with him, Xander. Much plumpier, almost bad looking. I was surprised and didn’t know how to react. I must have said something like ‘Wow, Xander! Hi!’. I invited them both in. I had just finished making dinner for myself. I had made some rotis and a suspicious smelling beans dish that I had invented. I asked both of them if they wanted to have something to eat.

Both of them turned down the offer because they had already eaten. S. said he needed glasses. I knew it was for drinking. Suddenly the whole past went across me. I knew both of them would booze up at S.’ apartment and waste another evening of their lives. And, yeah they invited me to jam. I said I was not sure because it was late and I had a lot of chores to do and there was this fantastic match going on in the Euro 2008.

All throughout this 5 minute encounter, Xander didn’t utter a single word. That was weird. All I got was a smirk which suggested that he thought that my bearded look was silly.

Well, things haven’t changed much, have they?

Hitting back the gym

Since moving into the new apartment, my life definitely seems to be track. I feel happier, content and proud of leading my own life. The time spent with Vinokur on Skype romancing, pondering our future, cooking, joking around, releasing sexual energy etc. (I thought this phrase would sound classier than masturbation) almost makes me feel that we are living together.

The only big thing that was missing in my life was that I was not hitting the gym. It’d been more than 2 years now since I wanted to put one muscles and get into shape. I knew that my 3 month membership of the gym was coming to an end. And as life has taught me on various instances, restarting doing something is much harder than starting.

Today though, I just felt like putting the lid on lazyness and went to the gym. My favorite gym trainer was in when I went (by favorite, I mean the person who is fun and who gets me to complete the rotations; no way does it mean that he's hot). I did my entire rotations without much of a trouble. I was impressed with myself.

But the sad story came at the end. I talked to the owner of the gym if I could extend my 3 month plan into one year membership. That way I would save a lot of money. But that can’t be the case. Because I was shameful of not having attended gym regularly, I decide to sign up for the 1 year membership from scratch. That amounted upto paying a lot of money. I did that using the credit card; the same one that I had bought Vinokur the ring with.

Apart from that, I was foxed into buying one of the weight gaining nutritive supplements as well. I really don’t know why I did this. I guess I was a little wary of my diet and the fact that it was getting hard for a single busy guy to stick to a strict diet which consisted of stuff like

• 12 eggs a day, but only 2 egg yellows a day
  
• 4 meals with 2 rotis, a bowl of rice and a lot of chicken, fish and vegetable
  
• A fucking hell lot of daal and other pulses
  
• Milk in gallons
  
• Sleep for 10 hours
  
• 2 and half litres of water
  
• Avoiding white bread, only 2 slices of brown bread per meal
  
• Avoiding all sort of sweets and oils/butters etc.

Believe me, when you are living alone and cooking for yourself, especially when you are starting off with cooking seriously, it’s hard. Ergo, I bought this fantabulastic supplement. Very expensive, but promising. I’m hopeful that in about a couple of months time when my folks visit me, I would have put on weight and muscles to make them feel that I’m actually better off living by myself.

The ring adorns his finger

When I picked up the ring from Amazon, I realized how easy it is to actually shop for something there. But the realization of the sheer efficiency of its delivery system, due to which, Vinokur got his ring about 5 days earlier than schedule is much more profound.

It's supposed to be our wedding ring. At least our engagement ring. He got it one yesterday afternoon (his time) and I got to know about it today evening (my time). That too, when I called him from one of the railway stations in transit!

I was very happy. He seemed to be very happy as well. I was dying to see the ring on his finger. The Skype video picture was a little disappointing. The ring looked like it lacked the lustre that it deserved for the purpose.

Vinokur loved it. So did the distasteful Polish woman aide that he has. I'm waiting for more reviews from other people with dependable tastes.

Why don't more of you (and by that, I mean the rest of the 4 of you readers) vote in the poll about the ring?

Computer crash

I woke this morning to realize that the computer was not on. Usually, these days, I sleep with the computer running. I leave Azureus running (which downloads all the coolest TV shows including Conan 'O Brien and Jon Stewart) and sleep off to usually some sporting action going on the TV.

I tried booting it up. It wouldn't. I feared the worst. Another crash? Third big crash in as many months? Yes, it had crashed. This time, the whole of my C drive had gone corrupt. That meant about 6 GB of recently downloaded Older Gay porn and a lot of Conan O' Brien et al.

I didn't want to invite either S. or Jay for fixing. I'm trying to avoid them hanging out at the apartment as much as I can. So, I took the computer to a local computer shop and got it fixed. It costed me some money but it left be with a feeling of independence.

My only worry was to get the internet and TV up and running. You know how it feels when you can't talk to your spouse. Thanks to one of the international calling card that I had purchased recently, I was able to talk to Vinokur for about an hour or so in the night.

All this leaves me with is an intense desire to go the gay way and buy an iMac. But unlike other gays, I don't have the money.

Vote! Please!

Obama Vs. Clinton; Obama Vs. McCain - the world is going nuts with elections. I thought maybe I could incorporate some entertainment on my blog. I have added a couple of polls just to see if more that 7 readers are reading this blog. I urge you to vote so as to help me in my redemption of self-esteem!

The new beard

I've not been blogging because I've been really busy. On the music front, 'Noise Market' has signed the contract with the record label. A few days back, we played at a gig at an advertising firm's office very close to the MTV Office which was attacked by the Sikhs earlier today. The responses from the crowd and from our new firangi manager was good.

For the last three days or so, Ray and a college friend of ours visited me and stayed with me in the new apartment. The were here to give an exam for post-specialty medical courses. I was busy with them hanging out and stuff.

We watched 'The Happening' and the controversial 'Dasavatharam' during this period. 'The Happening' is fodder material for the spoof makers. Eerie, scientific and all that, but doesn't get more than 2.5 out of 5 in my book. The Kamal Hassan starrer started out disappointing but picked up with a hilarious script to come up with about 3 out of 5 stars for a Tamil movie. The graphics are so pathetic, I wished they didn't put in an effort to make such tsunami recreations. George W. Bush is the biggest butt of all jokes on this movie.

Last but not the least, my beard has made a fantastic come back. Check out this picture and tell me.

The ring

I was supposed to send Vinokur a ring when Sahaab went back to NYC to start his residency. I did a lot of ring hunting in Mumbai (Zaveri Bazaar and malls etc) in this vein. All I could find was expensive not-so-cool stuff.

Then I went to Amazon.com. I did some research and was able to select a few for Vinokur to see and judge for himself. Finally we decided on this ring. This is pretty much a wedding band. Well, I guess we are pretty much 'married' already. So why not have a wedding ring?



Now, what do you think about this?

Plumbing work

Finally, I have finished installing an overhead tank, a shower and other bathroom amenities. The apartment has become a lot more habitable now. All that is missing from my life is 'gymming' and practicing my bass. Ever since that master class of bass at the Palm expo, I have been feeling so shitty about my own skill levels that I want to improve. Bad!

Palm expo day 2

It's such a wonderful time in my life. I am having fun doing everything. Managing the household work, playing at gigs, learning music etc. I have been playing JD's electronic keyboard the last couple of weeks. I was so inspired when I played it and sang along that I have reignited my desire to learn to play the piano.

Today at the Palm expo, I played almost all of the pianos on display. S. took a few pictures of me playing them. I'll post one as a sampler.



After the 'plonking' sessions, we were treated to an unbelievable bass + drum tutorial by Sheldon D'Souza and Gino Banks! Mind-fucking-blowing! Those guys are alomst like Victor Wooter and Carter Beauford - VW and CB of India!

The strength of love

I have not been blogging too much about Vinokur lately. If you would ask me why, it is because we have apparently reached this splendid plateau in the relationship. It's almost as if we have been married for years. The traumatic phase sort of helped to mould us to this present state almost nonchalance.

Yesterday, a particular incident demonstrated this. We had a bitter argument about Vinokur starting to be dependent on another drug; an atypical antipsychotic drug which was meant to keep him eythymic. It's side effect was sedation and Vinokur was getting sleepy and tired in the day. I had asked him to take two tablets instead of three and that had resulted in a night of troubled sleep.

I suggested, rather bluntly, that he needed to stop taking the drug realizing that it was just another addiction in the making. I was worried about his health. In a tad selfish way, my health as well. Being what he is, he is incapable of even thinking of decreasing the dosage as the fear of insomnia would prevail.

At the end of it all, we seemed far away from getting towards the desired goal of keeping him safe. Both of us were pissed at each other and were angry at each other. We practically hung up on each other.

The whole night, I kept on worrying about what had happened. The more I worried, the more I started missing him.

Today, as it struck 8 AM in NYC, I was staring at the Skype activity window which would show if and when Vinokur would get up and about. The sight of his Skype icon changing it's status from 'idle' to 'online' brought in as much relief as emptying a bladder which hadn't been emptied in a about 12 hours.

I started the chat hesitantly.

'Good morning! Are you still mad at me?'

'No. Good afternoon to you.'

'How did you sleep last night?'

'Okay. I just took two as you had suggested.'

'Really? I hope you aren't kidding.'

'No, I'm not.'

'I want to call you and say 'I love you.'

... and I heard Skype ring.....

The Palm expo gig

The monsoons had started rather unexpectedly. From the dreary hot and humid environment, the sudden transition to a balmy, almost seductive view of the thunder and lighting on the brilliant window overlooking the Lokhandwala skyline seemed surreal.

In the afternoon, 'Shoonyas' had a gig at the Palm expo. It was a sloppy gig by my standards but the crowd response was encouraging. All the gig did was to confirm the status of 'Shoonyas' being the 'fun' band in my rather capricious musical career. The exhibition itself was fantabulastic. I was able to play the best of the best amongst bass guitars.

Ah Mumbai and the opportunities that it provides for people in all walks of life.

Here's a photo of me and my (blurred) band 'Shoonyas'.

More photos, cooking

At least, there are somethings which bring pleasure to my life.

• Photography - My exploits in the last few days. Vinokur has started influencing me big time in my style. For eg. the naughty words in the first one.
  
  
  
  


• Cooking - Today I made chappatis, another sabji and rice. Again, a good result. No photos yet.
  
• I bought new carpets to match the interiors (blue) and a lot of groceries. The refrigerator now looks healthily endowed.
  
• Getting back in touch (contact) with my parents and sister. I even talked to my sister about marrying Vinokur and adopting a kid.
  

Bad things

• Gmail account hacked - No news yet.
  
• Vinokur again getting into dependance to a drug - This time it's an atypical antipsychotic called 'Seroquel'. We had a bitter chat yesterday when I probably sounded accusive of him not being strong enough to get out of adddictions. He hated that. We hung up after the situation grew worse with both of them not moving from our stands.

The advances in cooking

Today evening, believe it or not, I managed to cook a fantastic tasting 'Dal Fry'. Recipe was picked directly off mother internet and I cooked that while watching an enthralling semifinal match at the Roland Garros between FedEx and the French hottie Monfil.

I made some white rice and rotis along with that. Roti's came nice a smooth. Towards the end of a 90 minute long cooking session, laziness overcame and I decided to heat up a pre-cooked Mutter Paneer dish.

Since I wanted to show my cooking skills off, I invited S. over. We had dinner in the living room whilst sitting on the mattress laid on the floor. S. said that he enjoyed the food and complimented me on my efforts!

It's unbelievable really! I never thought that I would have so much fun cooking stuff. I guess it's all part of growing up. The added luxury of privacy and isolation in my own apartment adds up to it.

Band activity

All of a sudden, things got heated up in my 'band - life'.

'Shoonyas' is going to performing at Palm Expo 2008 (at the Bombay Exhibition Centre) on the 6th of this month. And, in an unbelievable twist of events, S. was inducted as a drummer into 'Shoonyas' as well. That's a nice surprise for me. About 10 years back in Kerala, I and S. were jamming the songs that 'Shoonyas' regularly perform. This also means that Rob, S. and I are now in three bands together. That's also great considering that in all the three bands, we form the core of the 'rhythm' section. Also, there are rumors that we might have another gig on the 14th of this month at the launch of a brand of acoustic guitars.

'Noise Market' is going to sign the record later this week or next week. We are going to be playing our first official gig after signing up on the 11th of this month at an advertising event conducted by Leo Burnett. We also have fixed up our recording dates and studio availablility. As it looks now, we'll be recording from the 23rd of this month to the 2nd of next month. Wow, that's near! There is hope of another performance on the 13th of this month at the place where we are going to be rehearsing.

Gmail account hacked!

It's a sad day. My primary Gmail account has been hacked by someone. I can't access the account. I have a lot of important stuff on the e-mail and I would do anything to reclaim it.

I have already submitted the reclamation questionnaire and am hoping to get some response from the Gmail team soon.

Fuck, I shouldn't have replied that semi-authentic looking e-mail from 'Gmail accounts team' which asked me to confirm the e-mail address and password. That was very stupid of me!

Baptized kitchen

Although it is a wrong word to use, baptization is probably the closest thing that I could think of for this event that happened in my little kitchen. Those who have seen the photos (especially 'A well wisher from NYC') would understand how improbable that is. But it happened.

I cooked brown rice, a vegetable curry and dosas tonight. It was almost as if I was celebrating S.' moving over to his apartment which is about 20 seconds from my door. And as a contradiction of sorts, I invited him for dinner. He was happy to have some tasty food at last.

And by the way, I was pleasantly surprised as well. Not that I ever thought I lacked skill in the culinary fields. But still, I hadn't cooked anything significant for the last 3 years or so. Even before that, I hadn't done anything seriously serious. Just a hand here and there to help my Mom and sister. That too, almost always, reluctantly.

I promise that I'd take some photos of the dishes that I make and also some photos of the cleaned (but not sorted) kitchen.

The 1000th post: Turn the page

This is officially my 1000th blog post on this blog. To celebrate the occasion, I have decided to do something radical.

First of all, I'm going to change the template so as to make the blog look less depressing. If you are wondering why I had chosen the earlier (dark) template, it was because things were getting a little too depressing in my life back then. Now, things have changed. I hope for the better. New apartment. New life. New career. Everything has changed in my life. I hope this turn of the page is for the better!

The following content might upset the stability of all relationships in which one of the partners likes handsome young men. It is advised that people involved in such relationships should meticulously avoid exposing themselves and/or their spouses to the content.

Second of all, I'm going to 'come out' in the public with photographs which reveal my face. Don't shriek! (to gay/bi men of all age groups and straight/bi women of all age groups)

If you are wondering why I'm doing this, here's the answer. I think that a beard/moustache makes me look mature and full of substance. A clean shaven look give me the twink look. Here, I'm giving you an opportunity to decide what looks best on my face. The fact is, Vinokur likes me clean and scruff-less. I like the other look. Vinokur promises to love me more if I stay clean. Back me up in my fight to retain my facial hair!

 

 

 

 

Of Spittoons and more...

Back in the time of Xander, I used to indulge in jokes about S' spitting habits. "What would you buy for S' b'day?' 'A golden Spittoon!' S. had gotten addicted to a particular type of chewable tobacco some years back. It's called RMD from Manikchand. People affably refer to as Manikchand. Those who aren't addicted to it would hate it. It is, and not 'paan', the reason for the reddish stains on the walls of all major cities and towns of modern India. For those in Gringo land, this is a blog post that I found which tells you more about this particular form of addiction.

As all addicts, S. claims to not 'like' this habit. He says he wants to get rid of it, but can't. Such is the story of my life that most of my very close friends have one addiction or the other and I have not been able to do anything about it. My old friend Jeremy (I don't know if I referred to him on this blog using another name) twice got so close to getting out of smoking. He still smokes. Xander still drinks a full pint of Rum almost everyday along with 2 - 3 packs of cigarettes per day.

But the most disgusting amongst all addictions has to be chewing tobacco. S. does it always. He looks even more asinine when he has his buccal cavity full of the red colored juice. He spits it out to any place which he's not ashamed to spit into. And, he's totally 'shameless by the way. When he can't find a suitable space, he spits into bottles. He uses Tropicana Twister mini bottles and Gatorade bottles especially for this purpose. At any point of time, you would be able to find 3 - 6 bottles of red, disgusting spit in the place where he's living. And that, sadly, includes his friends apartments. Presently, he probably has about 20 - 30 sachets of this everyday. That works out to about 150 to 200 Rs. per day. No fucking wonder where all the money that he makes/borrows goes to.

To highlight the traumatic nature of spit in the household, I'm posting, with severe reluctance, a few snaps that I have taken.

 

 

 

For those confused, anything which has a hue of a dirty red in these pictures is caused by the spit!