Care to socialize??

It was the second week of my first year in college.. I got mail with a hard to pronounce subject on it (or rather it just seemed alien to my tongue to say it out loud)..O - R - K - U - T.. or-kut ..ork-ut.. Ok.. so it was a new concept.. an online socializing site (not like there wasn't 'google groups' and 'geocities'.. and what not).. but this was new.. It had a "scrapbook".. a "photo album".. "friends" section.. intriguing.. So it began.. What initially seemed like a mindless exercise of adding to your friends list.. the names of those that you met day in and day out.. and then came the school friends.. whom you didn't meet that often nowadays.. (cos you're in college remember).. and then came those childhood buddies.. Wow.. It was amazing what a website could do.. ...SCREEEECH.. hold on.. not so fast.. I said "what a website could do"..

What with the dozens of socializing websites popping up.. It's kinda irritating to see a NEW hard-to-pronounce subject in your inbox EVERYDAY..

NETLOG
Zorpia
FaceBox
Facebook (Now that's a different story)
Hi5
Batchmates
Mutiply
Gazzag
Yaari
Jhoos
iLike
Tagged
WAYN
CallingLife
OnlineSlamBook

Let's face it.. the list is practically endless..

So I took a decision - to create a new filter for every new name I saw in my INBOX, skip the inbox and put it in a place where i can't see it.. so If there's something that any of my friends invited me to and I ignored.. I'm Sorry.. It was the only thing to do..

And If things weren't complicated enough, we got just the thing.. Communities of hatred ( hate clubs ).. defacing popular public figures, and spreading messages of hatred.. that wasn't what orkut was built for!! What, now, thanks to all this i might never ever meet that little short-haired girl back in third standard.. I might never say that long awaited 'Hi' that could change a whole lot of things in a relationship..

C'mon people.. grow up.. Don't be silly and cause a row.. and for the other sode of the argument.. GROW UP!! So what if there's a defaming online page.. If you think you're really that important, show them that you're 'higher' than that level of insult.. Beat It.. don't make a fuss.. We ARE a democracy after all..

But coming to think of the whole thing.. Maybe I should have signed up for those dozen odd invites that I got in the first place.. If Orkut's gone.. then there's something else..

A couple of other videos i made..

This one plays to the beats of the song 666, by Amokk (yeah yeah.. it's some cheap-ass club-dj-plays-it-if-he's-got-nothing-else kinda band)



..and this is my latest..

It's completely BMX stunting.. It's for the song "Shimmy" by System Of A Down.. (Yeah I know.. They rock)

Hey all.. This is a little fan video i made from the San Andreas PC game to the song Nickelback from Rockstar.. Enjoy..

The Carousel Comes Around

The bamboo flute filled the air with a tune
that felt so divine it'd make you swoon.

Crys of joy from children in the line
waiting for their turn to see the skyline.

The flume from the ocean would kiss their feet,
would tease them gently, and then would retreat.

The operator man- He's a fun guy.
He'd put them in their seats and send them sky high.

The twins in the line, they very well knew
that they had to wait for their turn too.

So came their turn to ride the magic wheel.
It was gloriously colourful and made of steel.

He put them in their seats and strapped them in,
and they waited impatiently for the fun to begin.

They looked at each other and screamed in joy
as the carousel went around like a magnificent toy.

It was time, their ride was almost over.
The carousel started moving much slower.

The Sun kissed the sea and started to sink.
It went lower and lower with every blink.

The kids went away and ended their play.
The Sun went away and so He called it a day.

Not everyone got their turn that night,
as only some get to ride the carousel's height.

But the world goes around as it always does
and so does the carousel to enchant us.

The carousel, it leaves an experience profound
and the carousel tomorrow will go around.
The carousel always.. It always comes around.

-Arwin Arni

Tales from a place called Diamond

Another semester is over and here I am at my computer wondering how much more boring life can get..
It was an insanely fast sem this..
Diamond (the hostel I stay in) saw a lot happen in the last five months or so.. A lot of PEACE.. A lot of fun.. All the mindless 'Kiran Torture' sessions it seems so far away now.. I for one still remember the first day at diamond.. All of us meeting after quite sometime.. Uncomfortably dusty rooms.. Moving in.. The top floor took on this very 'family' atmosphere in the weeks that followed.. And of course there were additions to this family.. Kiran for one.. And there were losses.. Kuttu.. Then came the visitors.. Boy.. Believe me when I say there were A LOT of these visitors.. Practically the whole hostel.. Or rather.. Those who found the time to come to the terrace to enjoy the view and the oh-so-sweet breeze that would captivate your mind.. It was only the few of us who got the 'privilege' to stay on the top floor.. I put privilege within quotes because this was (and is) a debatable issue..
Firstly the top floor doesn't have toilets..
Secondly, all those expectations of privacy (by virtue of the fact that there are only 5 rooms on the top floor) are lost as everyone.. And i mean it when i say EVERYONE visits the top floor in the most unearthly of hours..(not that we're exactly the earliest when it comes to hitting the sack..)
Then i must but mention the thing that almost everyone (except a birthday boy) would wait for.. BUMS!

Yes.. Birthday bums.. I'll rightly say.. This has evolved from being a session of friendly pats on the back to what it is today (a brutal event where one comes as close to his death as to his birthday.. Where one is mercilessly kicked, punched and has a filthy concoction of god-forbid-to-mention-what thrown upon)... And yet.. When it's someone's birthday, the once-victims entirely forget the as-close-to-hell-as-you-can-get treatment that they got.. And merrily join in the proceeds of somebody else's near death experience..

That said.. I can't help but not mention the ragging.. When we were in the first year, the Tamil Nadu quota (or the thambi quota as it was benignly called) never got ragged.. Or rather, we didn't have to, because the entire of our seniors' batch had boycotted.. This wasn't the case, however, with our NRI friends.. They experienced (and we witnessed), what I'd (again) rightly call, the most brutal form of ragging, and now it was their turn.. But sad as it is.. The junior batch turned out to be a bunch of disappointments.. Nobody would face ragging as consistently as my batch mates.. Nobody would carry on the gift of ragging.. Sometimes i wish that i was ragged.. But that wouldn't be necessary, as my nri friends were only kind enough as to share their take with us.. I learned a significant bit from those tales of woe.. And that's when i felt left out having not experienced it first hand..

Then i must appropriately mention all those hours spent at the computer playing nfs most wanted.. It reached clan proportions..(ok.. I'm exaggerating) but it did consume a significant part of our time at diamond.. As our grades would reflect.. Speaking about which.. Our results aren't out at the time of writing this blog.. But really.. The bulk of us aren't too bothered about them.. They'll come out when they have to.. And if some of the results are disappointing, i'm sure we can all go back to diamond.. And the family will take care of it's problems...
(and closing with a very cliched orkut profile name..)
Diamond beckons!!