Goodbye

I don’t think anyone really understands how relationships work. The ups and downs, the arguments and misunderstandings, and communication.

A year or so ago, I met a wonderful man from France online. We got to be great friends and met in real life. We even had periods of infatuation for each other.

Today, I closed the lid on our friendship after a series of exchanges that made me feel that he was taking my love/kindness for granted. I feel empowered to have taken the decision myself.

So, good luck, my friend. I hope this post will be a warning and a reminder for me and my friends to not take anyone for granted.

Deaddiction

I still remember the days when I (along with my friends from the hospital) had to take Vinokur to a deaddiction center (a hospital). The two weeks or so that I spent with Vinokur there were the toughest days of my life.

Tonight, one of my friends called me and said that he had just had a fight with his family and didn’t have a place to stay. He asked me if he could stay over for the night at my apartment. I didn’t know what to say to him.

I asked him to see if he can find someone else, failing which, he can come over. I told him this because I know how I can appear unfriendly to people who are staying over with whom I’m not that comfortable in the first place. I had to be honest with him.

Well, later I found that he was drunk and was out of his mind when he called me. In sobriety, he apologized for the way he behaved but he also asked me if I can suggest him a way to get him out of alcoholism.

I offered him the same option – the same hospital. Of course, he has to help himself first and be motivated to quit the addiction. However, I feel that it’s my responsibility to get him out of this.

The question is why do I feel responsible to help people get rid of their addictions? Jerry (back from my hometown) wanted to quit cigarettes, Xander wanted to get rid of his alcoholism, and Vinokur had to get deaddicted from his soporifics. And now this.

The only person that I was successful with was Vinokur. I hope my friend will become a second.

New computer, new songs

I sent my band mates at Bad Influence a few songs that I had written previously – the songs that are on the playlist on the right sidebar on the blog. They were happy with some of the songs and they wanted to take some songs and perform them as a band.

This inspired me. Or should I say “inspires” me? I had already taken up the assignment of writing one or two news songs for the band in two weeks time ending this Sunday. So, after work, I came home and I sat down with the guitar and I recorded two melodies/songs over chords on my computer.

Since buying my new computer, which has Windows 7, I have been unable to record how I used to previously – multi-track recording with Cubase SX. I only have Audacity to work with and I can’t record more than one track without latency issues.

I’m hoping to fix things up soon and record recordings whole songs on my computer. Here’s to the fruition of that plan!

Evening in with a dear

I lived up to my ad on FaceBook! I finally caught up with a dear friend and ex-colleague of mine (I think I used to refer to her as SN in here) over beer. She was my primary support during my breakup with Vinokur. We had such a splendid time over beer, Chicken lollipops, pistachios, and Pringles BBQ chips! Looking forward to more fun like this.

Those who are reading this and wanting to spend a nice evening at my apartment, remember the stipulations. There are none. :)

Catching up with Ray

I finally did it. After 8 months or so, I called Ray and caught up with him. It was fun just like the old times, but the fun was mostly from my end – because he has less time for interesting things with his residency and marriage.

The call got interrupted in between – he ran out of charge, but I feel so much better. Now it’s time for May and Chuck! Here’s to old friends!

Old crush, a new beginning?

I met someone this weekend, someone who I have “known” for eight years now, someone who has always been interested in me, someone who asked me again if I was interested.

Back in 2004, when we initially met online, I had no idea about relationships and love. Eight years from then, I felt I have grown so much and I know so much more about the intricacies of the heart.

It was such a pleasure to catch up. And the conversation seamlessly went into furthering our friendship. We are very attracted to each other and he’s planning to visit me early next year.

I don’t know what to say, but I’m very excited about it all. I want everyone to keep their appendages crossed. I think a year and almost-half without having anyone in your life is long enough to be “single.”

The most ironic thing is that he looks like Vinokur and has the same nick name! :-O At least that’s what my friends and family told me when I showed them his photo.

Indians are ‘donkeys’

!ncredible India. !ncredible media. !ncredible Indians. !ncredibly humorless. !ncredibly silly. !ncredibly shallow.

Nasser Hussain used the term ‘donkeys’ to refer to a few Indian cricketers – it’s a cricketing slang used in England to refer to cricketers who are tardy on the field.

The Indian media and some of the former greats of the game have gone overboard and have criticized Nasser Hussain for insulting Indians. Virat Kohli was offended too

This is just bullshit. Even if Nasser meant it in the way Indians mean when they call each other ‘donkeys’, you should take in the spirit and not whine.

Nasser, sure didn’t mean that. But the way some of us overreacted to this, I’m sure we ended up letting the term imply the meaning that we thought it meant.

Evening in

The other evening with my friend and colleague convinced me that it is time for me to break my shackles and try and reenter socializing actively. Usually, I would sit on such a thought. This time, I didn’t. I invited my friend and fellow blogger Craig, over for an evening in.

The last time we did it, Craigie had brought some CDs over and we had gotten drunk over some good music that he liked. That was two years back. I don’t know what we’ll do, but I was sort of more confident than I was last time. I had six pints of beer and I didn’t know if we would be eating.

I met Craigie near the supermarket near my apartment. We spent some time going over the beer section at the wine shop attached to the supermarket. We didn’t pick up anything from there. Instead, we went over to the food section, I picked up some roast chicken for dinner.

Later, at my apartment, we had a fantastic time with conversations, laughter, and stories over beer. We had to order three more large bottles of beer to last the night. Some six hours of conversation! Excellent.! I’m back on the social map again.

I have already put out an ad on FaceBook for auditioning friends for conversation over drinks. I have already received some replies. Maybe, I’ll find more friends. :)

Bad Influence

This is a project that has been lurking in the background for a few months (almost a year now). We are still in search of a permanent drummer. We thought we had found one, but he was too busy. The other that came along weren’t good enough or again were too busy.

Finally, we asked a dear friend of ours, Sheldon Dixon, the drummer from Overhung, to see if you would be interested in playing with us. He agreed. We are yet to jam with him, but this promises a lot of stability to the band.

Yesterday, we were supposed to jam with him, but our guitarist called of the jam at the last moment citing some emergency. Instead of jamming, we went and had dinner over drinks with Sheldon. Apart from sharing stories and lots of laughing, we discussed our future plan. And Sheldon was an integral part of it.

So, here’s to you, Sheldon Dixon. Hope Bad Influence lives its dream.

TWiT.tv

I’m very much into radio, especially News/Talk radio. So, a few days back, I was browsing the list of stations under News/Talk radio on iTunes and I stumbled on this gem – the audio feed from TWiT.tv. Totally geeky, but fantastic content for those into internet, technology, and gadgets.

I also checked their online TV stream out – the radio stream is just the audio version of the TV stream – it streams beautifully even with my 1 MBPS cable connection.

You guys have to check this out. TWiT.tv. It’s my internet revelation of the year!