We are planning to shift from the place we stay in now. The second time I am going to be shifting in Hyderabad. When I had joined my company, myself and two other guys who had been recruited at the same time ( and we were in the same batch too), we settled for a flat together, and that was quite a distance away from our office. But that was OK, the flat was in a beautiful colony, there was an Internet centre nearby that let me carry my HD there at night – so I managed to download stuff to my heart’s content. And the apartment itself was huge, a 3-bedroom house with a biiiiiiiig living room (it had a neat echo, that room, when people weren’t around, I would go and scream “Dil Se Re” real loud ). I had my own room, of course, and a balcony with a pleasant view, and I remember quite a number of happy nights in that room. There were a lot of pigeons/doves in that area, and at night, especially rainy nights, they would come and huddle on the balcony. Sometimes I would buy some dal grains, and leave it scattered on the balcony for them.

Then the problems started. The owner of the flat wanted to shift back into his apartment, and we were told to go to another one, a 2-bedroom one this time, in the same colony.

Oh maa! I got a room to myself again, but this one was dark. I mean, there was only one window, and it overlooked the corridor, which was dark anyways. For the first couple of days, it was ok, I pretended I was a vampire hiding out in a crypt, but slowly, things started getting painful. I mean, I really started hating coming back to that dark place at night. The same tubelights, the isolatedness of the room was scary at times.

Rishi came over to Hyderabad then, and joined the company in which I worked. The very day he joined, my senior colleague asked me whether I knew of anybody who would want to share his apartment, because his roomie was moving out to Delhi. Surprise!!! He took me over, showed me his apartment, which was a 10-minutes walk from my office, and has a strategic location – you cross the railway line that’s opposite the place, you come to Necklace Road, overlooking Hussain Saagar lake. The view from the terrace was breath-taking – you could see the lake and the Buddha statue and at night, the Queen’s Necklace (that refers to the stretch of lights along the Lake that resembles a necklace )

Me and Rishi moved in two days later.

The biggest pain was carrying all the books, magazines and assorted stuff I had, and I am scared about them this time around, too.

The room I have been living in upto now has received varied reviews from different people. My parents univocally hated it when they came here (they always do! ) – “It has too many mosquitoes lurking around”(I breed them! ), “Too much clutter!” ( yeah, what’s new?), “too many books and cds” (ho ho ho), “too much dust”(who has the time?), and “oh MY GOD! what are your socks doing in the Fridge??” (Uhhhh…ooops!) My juniors liked it though. 33-Man felt the books were looking better ( maybe because instead of being locked away inside a cupboard, they were on display in racks ), others said it was much cleaner, more habitable than my previous places. The habitable part of it I could understand, this was the first room in a long time that actually had a bed, with a proper mattress and bedspreads, and a table and a chair. ( Ah! The perils of bachelorhood! )

But yes, all in all, I was pretty happy with this house. Not just the location, it was the very feel of the house, very inviting and very homely….I loved to go back every night from the office, plod into my room, switch on the computer(which for a change, is put up on a proper table), and let ARR, or The Beatles, or Trilok Gurtu, or The Temptations sweep me away. I used to wake on time, because the sunlight would come in through the window first thing in the morning. No attitude from the watchman or the House-owner if there are late-nights. There is no problems with food, the catering service Abhishek orders from takes care of that. And the wonderful roomies I have, aaaaaaah, they add to the perfect ambience.

But yes, it’s summer now, and we are facing a lot of water-related problems. The taps on the washbasins go bad too often, and last month, another switchboard caved in. (yeah, not kidding, just caved in! The switch to the bathroom is lost somewhere amidst a web of wires and circuitry, and we now use the bathroom at night with a torch or a candle on) Plus, Rishi wants a room to himself. That’s only fair, his stuff is stored in my room, and he sleeps in the living room and sometimes (those moods) I do lock myself up in the room, and maybe he finds it awkward to knock everytime he needs something. (What “maybe”, beatzo?) And the House-owner is a bit too uncaring for our taste.

Whatever! It’s official, we are shifting in a month or so. Preferably some place in the same area. And a 3-bedroom flat, of course. I hope we find one that satisfies all our requirements, and yes, I hope I get the pick of the room. :-P

Things I did between Wednesday and Thursday:

*Completed The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor.
*Fought, made up, fought again, made up again.
*Successfully oversaw a Server Build that had broken because of the LB configuration.
*Successfully managed to evade work throughout the rest of the day.
*Watched The Hero: Love Story of a Spy.
*Post-movie Unreal session.
*Post Unreal pseudo-debate here.

I just realised it’s already Friday, and I am not sleepy at all.

There’s a music shop near Sangeet theatre that’s selling off most of its cds at reduced prices. BAsically I stumbled upon it one day – just when I had moved to Hyderabad, and was browsing through the collection there and suddenly found a cd of Sepultura’s CHAOS AD. And the original cd, at that. It was slightly battered, the cover was open and the a little faded, but the cd inside looked fine. Asked the guy how much he would sell it for. 300 rupees, he said. Cd prices at that point of time were coming down drastically, and I told him so – and pointed out that 300 rupees is a ridiculous price for something that has obviously been used.

My powers of persuasion worked! He gave it to me for 225 bucks.

Slowly, I started buying the stuff there. Everytime I was there, i would see some stuff I hadn’t noticed before. Started telling my friends/colleagues about the place, and one of them found Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon for 200 Rs. Rishi bought his first Judas Priest album from there, too.

Among the good stuff I got in the beginning were Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole, Prodigy’s Fat of the Land and Music For the Jilted Generation. Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill, three Blur Albums, Oasis – Be Here Now
Kula Shaker – Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts, the Kabhi na Kabhi OST……

But unfortunately, I missed out on something real good – a two cd-set of The Best of The Doors that was going for 400 bucks ( i know I could have got the price down to 350 bucks, but I didn’t even try, coz I had all the mp3s.) And now, one fine day, I go there and see that the cd has been sold. Pah!

Panic mode ON!

Last Saturday, I went there and told Naveen (that’s the guy’s name, we are on a first name basis now ) that I am buying 14 cds, and he said, ok, flat rate, 2200 bucks. YO! So these were the cds I got –

Neil Diamond – Tennessee Moon – Neil Diamond has one of the most amazing voices I know, and with Chandru’s help, I have almost all his albums. (copied, of course) Am planning to buy “The Essential Neil Diamond” just to HAVE it. “Tennessee Moon” isn’t his finest album, but it sure has some great tunes. Featues Waylon Jennings and Chet Atkins as guest stars among others. Gave it a listen.

Connie Francis – The Best of I heard Connie Francis singing “Stupid Cupid” on the Mementoes album, and …need I say anything more? Chandru tells me this is a pretty rare album. Most of the songs on it are in Mono.

Enigma – E3
Enigma – The Screen Behind the Mirror – The only Enigma album I had heard so far was MCMX ( the first album) and random tracks. I heard TSBTM once so far, and it uses snatches of Carmina Burana. BEautiful music to listen to in a darkened room at night.

Dean Martin – The Best of I bought this primarily for the fact that this has “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, one of my favourite songs. And also I have but one Heart, which featured on the Godfather soundtrack. Other songs here include a version of Volare, and La Bamba. I found out that the versions of Baby It’s Cold Outside and I have but one heart were radically different frm the original versions, they were more voice-centric.

Bruce Springsteen – 18 Greatest Hits. The Boss is one artiste I haven’t listened to properly, except for the ever-present Born In The USA, and Streets of Philadelphia, and The Ghost of Tom Joad. Haven’t started on it yet.

Luciano Pavorotti and Friends – Live for Guatemala and Kosovo – Beautiful live album. I love Pavorotti’s voice, complements that of artistes like Mariah Carey, and BOyzone who sing along on this album. It also features legends like BB King and Zucchero. One of my favourite tracks on this album is a Spanish number by Gloria Estefan. Pure Latino!

Elvis Presley – debut album. – Since I bought the video of the Making of this album, it’s only fair that I should buy the original. Elvis is GOD!

AR Rahman – Bombay OST – At last count, this is the 9th time I have possessed this album in any form. The cassette in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, then a Tamil cassette my father bought for me just because he saw a different cover saying “AR Rahman” and didn’t realise it was Bombay. (My parents used to indulge and encourage my ARR fixation a lot when I was a dorky kid) Then a version of the Tamil album with additional songs. The mp3s. Then a Bombay/Kaadhalan combo cd, that I got as a gift. Then another Bombay/Iruvar combo that I got as a gift (and later gave away). And now this. The original Hindi cd.

Hey Raam OST – Under-rated album by many. Over-rated by some. I love Shruti Haasan’s vocals on the title track. In love with Rani Mukherjee’s recitation of the Bangla poem. Love the piano on “Nee Partha Paarven”.

Pro-Pain – Contents Under Pressure. Highly recommended by the biggest Metal-freak I know. The other Metal-freak I know, the guy from Bangladesh, hasn’t even heard of it.

Offspring – Americana. – Give it to me, bay-bee. (Aha Aha)
Give it to me, bay-bee. (Aha Aha)

Simon and Garfunkel – Best of All the best songs in one cd. Sometimes it’s nice to have a cd just for the heck of possessing it. :-)

Spice Girls – Spice. Aaaaaaaaah! Nostalgia time. Many nights have I spent with the Spicy five’s ditties, and well, it’s back to basics again. You can’t imagine the trouble I had to go through in the pre-Internet era to get just one nude Geri Halliwell pic….

And that is the psychology behind an excessive cd-buying spree.

Aaah! Metallica after a long time….

A friend of mine gave me a divX rip of “Night of The Living Dead” – not the original George Romero version, but a 90’s remake by Romero’s assistant, Tom Savini. Also a very disturbing video of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”.

It’s getting hotter in Hyderabad day by day. I find it hard to believe that a year ago, in fact, for the past four years, I had been staying in a hostel room bereft of Air Conditioners and all. And not just stayed – attended Labs, Exams , Mids, in the horrid midday heat! And now I find it tough to go out in the evening, even after the sun has set.

I just realised that one thing I liked about Daredevil was the music. Really good semi-orchestral stuff by Graeme Ravell – the same guy who scored for the Crow, and also some Killer heavy metal tracks. Elektra’s Theme, the soft female vocals that play as Elektra’s father’s funeral gets over – and then the guitar takes over as she prepares herself with the sais – is really good. I am tempted to go out and buy the cd, but no, a couple of days and the thing will sound worn out, so I will control myself.

AR Rahman’s Parasuram has come out; I hope it’s good.

Have a ton of mails to respond to….