seems like i can't get enough of my cat...i need to stop posting pictures of my cat up on my blog. i promise to try folks!! :D

this is what we guys do at the University of Mauritius!!

damn these exams...

hey folks, just wanted to let you all know that right now i'm busy with the University of Mauritius exams and hence the long abstinence from blogging. but i'll be back as soon as i am done with these pain in the ass exams. till then have fun and i wish you all a very happy and funfilled holiday season...

all right then, back to studying....

:'(

Sir Richard Parker...alias RP...pretty awesome for a cat.

my kitty...

...and i can't believe how silly i look...i blame you mom and dad! :D

noella: a close up...hey mom, your daughter sure is pretty!!

sunday morning blues...

its Sunday morning and my life seems to be stuck in a dimensional wrap. it’s suspended in space with sudden moments or surges of activity and then it goes back to a morbid state. couldn't get my ass out of bed before 10:45 despite being awake since 7:00 and once i was up, i couldn't stand the mess that the house was in. seems as if i can't stand most things about my life at this moment. i still have to work on the Econometrics assignment that i have to submit tomorrow and after that i still have the Mauritian Economy and Accounting assignments to do before Wednesday. and my exams are looming just around the corner.

my dissertation supervisor is Prof. Nath, one of the senior most staff member of our faculty and also an Indian with a very heavy accent (is it just me, or do i see something in common). and to my greatest advantage (note the sarcasm and grief) he knows my dad personally and he believes in self-motivation and is away most of the time on seminars and conferences. so it seems like i shall have to work on my dissertation all by myself in the next semester and can't even take the risk of goofing up, cause my dad's sure to get a call reporting him of my misdeeds if i do so. couldn't ask for anything more, could i? but it could have been worse; i could have had some incompetent Mauritian tutor as my supervisor (all right, i have to admit that not all Mauritian lecturers are bad. Dr Sobhee and Dr Anchraz are a much welcome break, but then there are some terrible teachers also. and no one can deny that). :D

so today i cleaned the entire house. cleaning includes dusting, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the rooms, folding the laundry, picking up the cat litter and making my father and sister work. phew, now that was tiring. but you have to know that I JUST CAN'T STAND A DIRTY HOUSE... it drives me nuts. guess that i get this from my mother's share of my genes. the X chromosome in me is a cleanliness freak. thank god that it surfaces only once in a week. the rest of the days i am simply too tired to complain. anyways, the house is clean and i am satisfied.

i can't but help noticing that living with my father and sister is like having 3 kids in the house (the third one being myself). we are all moody and like having things our way. we all argue a lot and we all throw tantrums. last night dad got mad at Noella for not heating up the chapattis before dinner (i have to mention that i did point out a few other things that Noella had not done during the day to help him get super mad at her). now the funny thing was that no one wanted to eat chapattis last night!! then today i was the yeller in the house telling everyone to stay away from me while i cleaned and even ended up grounding dad in his room for walking around the house while i mopped. Noella's wild and unpredictable in her own manner and no one can beat her at being a slouch. Jesus, we area a crazy lot. no wonder you packed that bag and left mom. the only decent fellow in the house is the cat and that too only while he's asleep. otherwise he is the devil's master plan for chaos and destruction.

so its been raining since morning and the sun just came out (its like 3:30 pm right now) though i guess that even this is going to last for only a few minutes. but i kindda like this weather as it is a welcome break from the heat wave that has lasted for the last couple of days. hurricane season is here and they are expecting one around the end of this month. at least that's what i heard, but then we all know how much to trust the weather man. (where are you Eike??)

as for the last couple of weeks...they haven't been really special. the usual University and studies have taken up much of the day. but i did manage to watch 7 seasons of Friends on DVD and 1 season of Joey. still have 2 more DVD's of Friends, but am trying to resist watching them before my exams.
i really don't have much to say at the moment and so i am going to stop here. i have been missing you folks real bad ....wonder what's up with my dearest kitten, Heather?? where are you and what are you doing? and Nafiz dada, get well soon.

take care you all...

shrimp bait and Uma's night out... :D

it’s always a good time when you are with friends and yesterday only proved this statement 100 % authentic. for starters, i know that i still owe you folks the post on the hiking trip. it's been 2 weeks overdue but let us push it back further, shall we?

so Gordon landed his ass on the island this weekend. its nice to have him back. don't want to say it, but i did miss the 'donkey on the rocks' and 'beer chugging' bru of mine. and yes, Degremont needs a plumber to fix the mess that Gordon calls his plant. so they flew him out of deep dark Africa to sunny tropical Africa.

amu (a.k.a. gundi) is flying back tomorrow :( ...guess that she had enough of trying to compete against me for the Mauritian underworld...and so i reclaim my turf. :D
all right, the truth is that she has been sick ever since she got here and by now she's had enough of being dressed up in 3 layers of clothing and a woolen hat while everyone else hung out at the beach. well, so Uma's decided that its time to say "I'm back" to Florida!! gonna miss you amu...

so last night we had the usual let's-all-go-to-Domaine Anna plan. Plan B (i.e. Buddha Beach was scheduled for later). so anyways, this time around it was a curious mix of people. Uma, Gordon and myself (the old timers), Joel (surprise come back), the Germans (Lars, Jorn, Wolfy, Kev & Kestrin) and Jake (the new Fulbrighter in town. he lives in QB - the guava avenue, 'avenue de giuveres'). a great evening with great people and the usual banter. good food. weird conversation. silly games and crazy acts (damn, it makes me nostalgic)...just like the god ol' days.

the evening saw us all witness Gordon's "i am a bisexual" statement. oh yeah, he is gotten a lot weirder since he's been in Tanzania. and of course we all had to play 'spin-the-bottle' or 'truth-or-dare' on the revolving table (lazy-Suzanne) with a half burnt toothpick. that was fun. Lars ended up doing a semi-strip on the bridge over the pond and Kevin asked the waiter out on a date (only to be turned down) while Lars tried to woo him at the same time (try 'give it to me baby' for a pickup the next time you want to ask your waiter out like Lars did. sure to fail). i had to bark and howl at the moon out on the bridge again while Jorn did a sexy look-I’m-rubbing ice cubes all over my body dance. poor Kevin had a rough night with his dares and he had to go back out in public and do a pole dance on the lamp that lit the garden & also ask Kestrin to marry him, only to be turned down a second time around. Joel narrated the 'harigen arsh' story and man it was disgusting. oh yeah, Gordon did a sega dance and chicken hop around the table and Jake asked me to marry him (wonder why i said no to the "the last four months were great & i want to spend the next few months with you. so will you marry me" proposal??)

i tell ya, these guys have no idea of how to ask THE QUESTION!!

well finally we decided that it was time to head out (actually they shut down the place and almost everyone including the waiters had left). so on the way out, on the bridge, Kev and Kestrin both asked me to marry them. well, poor Kev had to face rejection for the third time in the evening. after all who would say no to a hot German chick...definitely not me (is it just me, or did 3 different people ask to marry me in 3 hours...2 of them guys and one hot lady??) :D

so after the eventful evening of trying to figure out why Smurfet is the only female Smurf we all were set to hit Buddha (by the way, the conclusion that we all came to is that Smurfet is a slut and that explains Gordon's title for last evenings post). well WE DON'T KNOW WHY but Buddha was closed for the night. so we all headed back to the German's place. Uma went back to grab her precious sleep and Wolf got upset over the fact that MBC was not showing the Man Utd v/s Chelsea game and he sulked off to bed as well. the rest of us just hung around and talked with beer and rum to keep us company. my new fiancée, Kestrin, finally decided that she was also tired and needed to sleep. so that left us 7 guys out of the porch. don't know how but the conversation soon turned to globalization, racism, cultural segmentation, capitalism, communism, democracy, apartheid, national interests, population, money, free trade and all that is wrong with the world today. we had our very own UN debate on everything. kindda turned heated at times but it was fun. just a 7 guys, from 4 different countries and 4 different fields that included history, philosophy, economics, banking & engineering, discussing on their perspective of the world today over a few drinks at like 4 am, Monday morning. it really makes one appreciate a lot of things once you see things from other's perspective. we all had our differences and our own ideas on what is the best way to deal with them. but the bottom line that i see is that there were 7 guys that night that fought over the same thing. we each wanted the world to be a better place, but we each had our own idea of how to make it so. if only we could all think alike, maybe we would have come to an answer to all the problems. but that's the irony of life. no two people think alike and everyone thinks that his/her belief is the correct one. so as long as human beings continue to think differently the world shall have all these problems, and the day we stop thinking different progress will come to a halt. ironic? i say life...

so we all finally realized that we had been up all night and that we were tired like hell at like 5:30 am. Joel and Jake crashed in the German's spare bedroom, while Gordon, Kev, Jorn and myself we stayed up and watched the Bourne Supremacy cause Gordon had to go to work at 7:00 and i had to get my butt to the Uni to work on my assignment. well, after last night there was no way that i was gonna make it to the Uni and get any work done. so i took the bus home instead. there's nothing like your bed after a long night and 2 hours on the Mauritian buses. i turned off my cell phone and crashed. the next thing i remember it was 4:00 pm.

well guys, i gotta get working on my assignment now. since i didn't make it to the group work, i will have to make up for it by finishing the entire presentation tonight. have a test on Wednesday and then the Presentation is on Friday. have to work on the written part of the assignment as well, but that is in league with the other guys in my group...so that shall be tackled later.

have a great time folks. being able to spend some good times with Gordon, Joel, Uma & the others just reminds me of all the great times we had. wish that you all were here. but thinking of it, i figure out that thanks to globalization and all its discontents the one good thing that has happened is that the world is a much smaller place. so i'll definitely see you all sooner or later.

;D

and (ouch) i was a gentleman (ouch)...

well guys, we went out hiking this Saturday. yep, the entire class of Eco & Finanace and Economics, year 3... who would have expected my class mates to be so cool...but now the official verdict is out.

these guys sure know how to have a good time, only that they don't do it all the time.

will tell ya a more about it later...right now i gotta go to crash...have to be at the Uni tomorrow and have to get up at 6:00 am to feed the cat (the spoilt bastard). just know that we went to down the Maccahbee trail and that i ended up carrying over 5o kgs in my backpack during the entire 3 n 1/2 hour trek...why?? a long story saved for later...let's just say i did what a true gentleman would, and now my entire body hurts (especially my legs).

so screw being nice to others. but i can't help it. ;)

more for later.

ps: tomorrow's the Diwali Show at the University and we guys are having a small Sambuka & Green Island party...so you all know what i am really looking forward to...cheers

&

thanks to the makers of ibuporfen (alkem laboratories ltd)... :D

a normal day unlike any other (part 2)...

My bad luck has continued late into the night. i guess, the setting sun didn't take away all the miseries that have been plaguing me since morning. the blogging Gods seem to be the latest to join the vendetta against me. an entire hour of working on yesterday's post all disappeared in a minute as i tried to publish it last night. fuck. anyways, here i am at it again and hope that this time around a new day brings with it new luck and that the Gods are kind to me.

yesterday was one of those days when nothing seems to go your way and when everything is out of control and heading in the wrong direction…pretty ‘unmemorable’ and ‘wish-that-this-never-happens-again’ sort of a day. so don’t get your hope set to high on this post.

i managed to set a new record yesterday. i don’t know when last had i managed to get ready so quick. but yesterday certainly saw me scrambling and racing through the usually hour long routine. so this is how my day began…

normally i set an alarm for an hour before the time that I am supposed to get up (some people who have had first hand experience of being disturbed early in the morning due to this have confirmed the fact that this drives them nuts) so that i don’t miss out on any of my precious ‘only 5 minutes more’ of sleep and can snooze the alarm and snore extra. so for the 9:00 am Public Finance class, i have to leave the house by 7:20 (to catch the express on my 1 hour & 45 minute long journey to the Uni) and hence get up at 6:30 and therefore set an alarm for 5:30...but (this i am assuming) i accidentally hit the shut button instead of snooze yesterday, and this is when all the troubles started. it resulted in a weird conversation with dad early in the morning. this is how it went (English translation to the Bengali dialogues are in brackets)...have fun Nafiz dada and not a word from you.

dad: "aajge school jawar aache ke na? (do you have to go to school today or not?)"

i: "hmmm...ki? (hmmm...what?)" *pulling the sheets over my head and turning over to face the other side*

dad: "deeri hoy gele aamake bolbi na. (don't tell me if you get late)"

i: "oof baba, kota bajlo? (oof dad, what time is it?)" *stealing a quick glance at my alarm*

i: "whaaat?? 7:04?? iski to..." *cursing and jumping out of bed*

dad: "so aajge class miss hobe ki? aajge kota class cheelo school e? (so you are going to miss your class...how many classes do you have at school today?"

i: "nah, aaekhono time aache...aar aami University te podi, school e noi. (nah, i still have time...and i study at the Uni and not in a school)"

dad: "oitaiee. (it's the same)"

and in the next 10 minutes i some how managed to get ready and set a record in the process. actually it was a desperate attempt at rushing in and out of the shower and the WC and throwing a random T-shirt on top of my jeans and brushing my teeth simultaneously while packing my bag and wearing my shoes. i even managed to leave the toothpaste in my room in the hurry (this resulted in a very surly Noella since she had a hard time finding the toothpaste once she woke up). well i rushed out of the house and ran all the way to the bus stop. phew, at least this time i made it in perfect time for the express to PL.

if at that point in time i had thought that everything was going smooth, i couldn't have been more oblivious of what was in store for me. so i manage to get to Port Louis as per schedule and then after a brisk walk from the North Bus terminal to the South-Victoria terminal i see it, 141- Bord Cascade via Reduit, my ride to the University and economic salvation. well, the bus was almost full and all ready to leave and hence i had to rush in and try and find a seat. so i find an empty seat right at the end of the bus and curse my luck, it was directly in the glare of the blazing Mauritian sun (no wonder it was empty!) and Jesus, yesterday was hot. but better hot than standing. so i grudgingly took my place.

so by now i am sweating and also trying to prepare for the class ahead while trying to block out the sun from killing me with the help on a notebook held up against the window. and then the bus started to make funny noises. it seemed that the bus driver was having trouble taking the bus up the incline from Pailles to Moka. he would stop and then start again and ground his foot on the accelerator and race ahead and then stop again (can't even blame it on the weight of the students in the bus considering the fact that Mauritian hardly weigh any at all). so finally the conductor had enough and he made the driver stop his desperate attempts and got everyone off with the intention of flagging down another NTC bus that was sure to pass by. so down we all got. 10 minutes of standing along the motorway with no other bus in sight, the driver (who had been tinkering with the engine all this time) was able to convince the conductor that the bus would be fine. and so back we all marched into the bus (this time i stole someone else's seat that was no where near the sunny side). so the driver starts the bus. it sounded fine and we were moving forward, but then so very predictably there was this loud thudding sound and the bus finally broke down for good. man, you should have seen the look on the face of the conductor. malicious, that's all i'll say. by now i was laughing so hard thinking about how i'd have to recollect the entire incident in class when Dr. Sobhee would demand an explanation for my being late. it wasn't even funny. still i was laughing. so we all get off the bus once again. this time though there was another bus right behind and we didn't have to wait along the motorway. so we all boarded the other bus and finally made it safely to the University (albeit 10-15 minutes late for my class).
i rushed to my class only to find that the lecturer had not yet arrived. so very University of Mauritius!!

well anyways, it was Siven's birthday and he had brought a bag full of chocolates. so i sat in class having a breakfast that consisted of chocolates...mmm, mint and strawberry toffees...anyways, i finally handed in my membership form for the Economic Society to Rajeev (and yes, i am the president of that very society) and was going through the Constitution for the same. the Constitution had to be handed over to the Student Union and the task of making the necessary changes had been delegated to Jossy (the Vice President and a 2nd year student). but it seems that the bloody fuck face decided that he was the boss and put down articles and clauses as per his whims and fancies. the entire thing was a piece of shit. 2 auditors...imagine having 2 full time auditors. as if we were embezzling millions. anyways, so i have to redo the entire constitution by tomorrow. and now that dude is in my shit list and i really want to give him a good piece of my mind and tell him what i really think of him in the next executive committee meeting. internal organizational politics within the University of Mauritius!! sweet.

so finally the lecturer makes it to the class and the reason that he gave for being late was that he was setting our test paper scheduled in 2 weeks time. guess, i would have believed him if he said that he was making out with Pam Anderson in his office, or at least that would have been creative and a laugh (we all think that he was smoking weed)...whatever, don't ask. and yes, he made us sing Happy Birthday for Siven in class. afterwards he proceeded to lecture us on Public Financed projects and their appraisal techniques and the difficulties in doing so (in short we revisited Leontief, Hurwicz, Bayersian, MiniMax and MaxiMin) and we had a short but interesting discussion on taxation and its macroeconomic and microeconomic effects on different markets and individuals (for the economics uninitiated, a lot of messy diagrams and equations).
so i guess that i would rather pay an income tax instead of a sales tax or VAT, or at least that's what theory tells us. let me know what you guys prefer (i.e. if you ever intend to pay any tax).

the day seemed to be getting better by now. i ran into Kevin (the German) right outside my class and then we both managed to catch hold of Alex (the Italian bitch) and the new Belgian Rasta guy. the Belgian dude is here doing research on lettuce growth in Mauritius for his paper back home (what's wrong with the world?? lettuce growth??). anyways, guess what? it seems that the Alex and the Belgian are big fans of the dholl puri like you all (yes, i know you don't like it Gordon. i am not counting you). and so we headed off towards James's and grabbed a couple of dholl puris each from our fav dholl puri guy. Kevin who has incredibly managed to remain unaware of the addictive potential of dholl puris 3 months into his stay in Mauritius finally had a dig at one. so there we were, 4 guys from 4 different countries, sitting on the grass eating dholl puris and discussing about the Kamasutra and the influence of eroticism on ancient Indian Sculpture and Temple Architecture. in other words, i told them about the temples and stone carvings of Khajurao and the Belgian (sorry i can't remember his name) told us of his experiences in Nepal. nice. Kevin wants the German church's to adopt similar architecture and sculptures, say's it would make attending Sunday mass more fun. but i don't think that our dear old Pope would agree, however benevolent and benedict he might be!! maybe you should move to India, Kev...

so after our healthy & filling lunch we boys all went our separate ways, Kev to the gym, Alex towards Flic n Flac, the Belgian to meet his lecturer and myself, i headed home. Dad's going to India today for 10 days (actually he just left 20 minutes ago. his flight’s at 5:00 pm today evening and he should be in Kolkata by 9:00 am tomorrow morning). this sudden trip's thanks to some family business (this is a regular feature of large Indian families with lots of relatives and lots of property. someone or the other is always creating problems for all and dad being the eldest has everything falling upon his shoulders. it gives me the jitters when i realize that i am going to inherit all that and more in due time). 

Dad's leaving and that means that Noella and i are going to be alone at home for the next few days. now then, don't get your minds racing folks (especially you, mom), that does not mean that it's going to be a 10 day long party. i have quite enough on my hands with 4 class tests and 3 assignments due in the coming 2 weeks. so i guess that i am going to have to study this time around. can't say the same for Noella, she just finished her exams today and her school doesn't re-open till the 17th of January. shit, that's a long break. but Gordon's coming on the 4th and Uma's leaving on the 8th. so there are bound to be some good times.

so cheers to that!!

anyways, guess that it is a real pain having to re-write the entire post again. i must really like you guys. and why not? you guys are all awesome. so keep up the good work in life and keep blogging and commenting.

miss you all...

~ the last guy left on the sunny isle of Mauritius, the land of Phoenix beer and Green Island rum. ;D

ps: hey mom, was nice to know that you had a good time in NY and got to see everyone in the family. guess that now thanks to you i shall have more regular readers (Sunil mama, Bihua mami, Pratima masi and the rest, welcome to my blog)...my regards to all, especially to Ba (my maternal grandmother).
and to Sahil (my cousin whom i have never met), a very Happy 5th Birthday (7th October). also birthday shout out’s to my dearest Shashrik (8th October) and Sachika (11th November)...

:D

Happy Birthday HEATHER!!

keep up the good work...miss ya... ;D

hey heather, remember the good ol' days?? Happy Birthday dear...cheers ;D

i am not anti-american & other daily stuff...

so with Katrina & Rita making it a 'one-two' blow on the American Coast and its refineries, what does it mean for the Oil Prices and the world economy?? first it was Katrina that wrecked the states of Mississippi and Louisiana and shot the world oil prices to over $70 per barrel, and now Rita seems to be heading towards the Oil refining capital of the US (i.e. Texas) next with an even more dreadful force. ouch!! somehow i have the feeling that we shall be seeing oil touching new heights in terms of cost. $70 per barrel is only the beginning. get ready to cough up more for your car folks or maybe horses would be a cheaper option. guess that the OPEC has done its homework in terms of diverting attention from the immense profits that they are earning. it is very convenient for OPEC to raise their crude supply to the maximum of 2 million barrels extra per day. since there won't be any refineries left to process the crude into petrol and other by-products, i don't see how the world oil prices are going to subside or even stay put at where they are. this only gives the Oil Sheikhs 2 million X $70 plus per day profits (i.e. $14,00,00,000 per day). hurray for the so called efficient market system.

one thing that eludes me is that why in the name of God do the other countries have to cough up extra for what can be termed as American losses?? right, so America looses all its refineries due to the hurricanes and so they can't process their oil, but then why should this cost other countries? if America wants they can pay $70 + per barrel, but other countries don't have to pay that much. if it comes down to simply refining crude, i guess that India and China have enough refineries to not only manage their own demand but also export it to America if need be. also let us not forget the refineries in Europe. i'm sorry if i am sounding anti-American in this regard, but i simply don't believe in having to bear the cost for something that is not directly liked to us. Bush didn't want to sign the Kyoto, so now let him pay for the rising oil. i say let the efficient markets prevail in the true sense and let crude be accessible to the capacities of Asia. no one wants to pay in extra dollars for what can be paid for in local terms. maybe its simply time we realized that the time for American dominance in the world economy has begun to fade. no doubt that after the two World Wars (especially the 2nd) America had the resources and ability to control and manipulate the world. but things have changed a lot since then. this is simply what we call evolution in economics. dominance and leadership changes over time. from the Spanish galleons of the 15th and 16th centuries to the British Pound dominance of the 17th and 18th centuries to the great Americanization of the world of the 19th and 20th centuries. it is now time for someone else to take over the mantel of the world economy. we got rid of the gold standard and now i suppose it is time to do something about the dollar standard. this is the story of economics and it has many characters. one dies, the other takes over. as simple as that.

coming to other things now. i don't know if Germany is ever going to be able to decide who is going to be the next Chancellor. the two party leaders seem to be locked in an ever lasting battle. people are talking of various coalitions for the ‘Christian Democrats and the Greens’ to the ‘Christian Democrats + the Greens + Mr. Schroeder’. guess the Jamaica-Coalition may sound pretty colorful but it sure is not what is needed at this hour. learn from the Indian mistake. never allow two opposing parties to from a coalition if neither of them have a clear majority. they only manage to make things worse with their infighting and ideological differences. guess if things don't work out soon there are going to be fresh elections.

elections and decisive results remind me, this time around the boys (i.e. the Mauritian gang) stood for the Student Union elections in the University and guess what?? we won all the seats. yes, all 10 of them starting from the Union Office bearers to the Faculty Reps in each faculty. for heaven's sake, even Siven won!! so i guess that this year is finally going to be different from the rest. ;D

anyways, i guess that i better quit here at this point. i think that i have angered a certain Miss America enough. i don't want a reward on my head and Bush bombing Mauritius by tomorrow morning. it was nice to hear your voice today Gordon, though the connection sucked. have fun in SA. i still maintain that only the Indians are good cricketers (all right maybe even the British after the recent Ashes). :D

so much for now.

ps: got your mail Mitty...nice pics. you sure are having fun. also, a big HI to Andy!!

this FU*#@!%*&*$## shit of a blog...help!! anybody...

this blog just keeps on getting messed up...now something's terribly wrong with the format...i have no clue of how to fix it. so help me my computer geek pals (and yes, don't ask me to change my template, cause i won't do that)...

just tell me how to get my fucking blog straight again...

tch tch...this thing's impossible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

~love you and miss you...have fun in Atlanta.

well folks, i was going through some old stuff today and i came across this picture. it was taken like 4 years ago on the beach in Orissa.

wednesday saga...

yesterday was a real funny day of sorts. it all started with my 9:00 am class being postponed to 10:30 am. so far good for me cause that meant that i could enjoy the precious early morning sleep for a bit longer. but things started to go haywire from then on...i managed to over sleep and hence barely made it to the bus stop in time for the 9 o' clock express. from there it was the usual walk through Port Louis as i made my way to the Victoria Bus Terminal. after missing one bus by just a few seconds, i had no other alternative but to take the 141- Bord Cascade via Reduit bus. hmm, no problem, not yet.

well anyways, so the bus starts and moves out of the terminal. we take the motorway and from the waterfront roundabout we take the left towards Bell Village.

korak sa!

but then God knows what possessed the bus driver from this point on cause he simply refused to turn right towards Bell Village and instead took the left back towards the bus terminal. so everybody thinks that maybe there is some kind of problem with the bus and that's why he is going back to Victoria. but to everyone's surprise the guy simply drives through Victoria terminal and takes the same route back to the motorway and towards Bell Village. so everyone's like, hmm???...but then ONCE AGAIN he turns left towards Victoria and heads back to the bus stop!! this time everyone was like 'what the fuck'. he simply races through Port Louis traffic and makes it back to the bus stop. now, everyone was like "stop the bus and let us off...what are you guys up to?" so the bus driver stops at Victoria and we all jump off the bus (yeah, literally jump off) and there's this one guy going 'Pilon' and 'Gogot' and getting all mad at the bus conductor and driver. this was too much for me and i could not control myself any more and burst out laughing. i wasn't the only one, there were these two other guys as well who couldn't stop laughing. well finally the entire matter got sorted out, don't as what had happened, cause the entire episode occurred in creol and i could understand only the 'pilon' and 'gogot' part. anyways, the NTC guys got this other bus out and drove straight to Reduit. so that was good.

well so i finally make it to the uni like 4 minutes before the class thanks to the express transport. and guess what? well, the class got cancelled in typical University of Mauritius style and that meant that since morning i had done nothing but waste my time and effort in whatever i had done so far. to add to my misery the only internet functional computer lab in the uni had classes and the cafe was jam packed with people because of the elections. hence there was nothing that i could do. couldn't even go home since i had another class at 12:00 and since i was supposed to meet Wolfgang at 2:00 and catch up on some Table Tennis. so i finally convince Rishi to some with me and we grabbed some dholl puris and mine frit and a bottle of phoenix and spent a good 1 hour in the usual party spot. after that it was back to attending lectures and then TT at 2:00.

Wolfy managed to beat me by just one set this time and hence i owe him a beer at Buddha Beach this weekend. this is going to be Gordon's last weekend and we are having the going away BBQ tomorrow. so i gotta get my butt down to Flic n Flac. this time i am the braai God.

well folks, guess that pretty much sums up my day. oh yeah, also the cat managed to get out of the house again yesterday night and that caused all sorts of mayhem in the Das household. finally we found him down in the parking and so i had to go down and yell at him and make him run back up the stairs into the house and under the bed. silly cat. but we all love him.

keep blogging and keep in touch.

:D

sunday night damnation...

this time around it was a different BBQ. not in the sense that we actually did anything out of the ordinary, i.e. is if you count chugging from a 1 liter beer mug a normal thing to do. but more of it later.so this weekend Gordon decided to have a BBQ at his place. was supposed to be the last BBQ with Gordon as our braai master. its time for him to go and he still hasn't packed his bags... :D
anyways, let me give you folks a quick flashback on the plans for this past weekend. friday and saturday was supposed to be Buddha Beach time and then sunday was the BBQ. can't tell you all much about friday and saturday since i wasn't there having been stuck at home doing this last minute assignment (the lecturer bombed us with this on friday and we had to submit it on tuesday, i.e. today). had to attend lecturers all friday and then work till 4:00 am on saturday to complete my assignment. so i decided to catch up with the party troop on sunday.
the sunday morning call to NodroG enlightened me on the wild saturday night that i had missed. seems like after Anne got back from SA (now SA has replaced Mauritius as Anne's favorite spot on earth), she and Gordon hit Buddha Beach with the new Germans in town. guess that they had a lot of alcohol (sambuka's and beer to be more specific) and a crazy blond tourist doing the semi-strip on the table in the new Buddha Beach nightclub (*note*all interested parties: Gordon has the pics). in short i found them all to be a bit sick the next day when i arrived and swearing on God never to drink Sambuka again.
later that noon we (i.e. Gordon and I) went down to the beach and caught up with Wolfgang and Lars (two of the German boys). Anne was busy moving her stuff from Gordon's house to Uma's and so she kept on popping by every now and then, but mostly it was just us 4 dudes chilling out on the beach. the German boys had this new volleyball and so we decided to battle it out in 'Top Gun' style beach volleyball (Wolfgang & Lars with their shorts and ray bans playing the duo of maverick and ghost and Gordon & I in our asskicking gear simply being us). turned out that the Germans lived up to our expectations of being the Wankers United duo as we kicked the shit out of them in two sets...finally around 5:30 we turned our winning asses towards home, and lo! Anne managed to catch us on the way and somehow figured out a way of making us walk back all the way to the beach to watch the sunset. anyways, it was worth it. so what if i had to hobble all my way walking on the broken corals barefoot.
so as it happened, Phillip got himself a new long board and a kite as a present from some friend. so of course he had to come and show it to Gordon. Gordon in his true professional kite boarder style gave the new gear the thumbs up and Phillip is now ready to conquer the waves and the wind.
soon we got the BBQ started and as it turned out we ended up with a shit load of meat and beer. but amazingly all the beer simply disappeared by the end of the night. it was pretty cool, the BBQ, with Anne and her snorts, Lars with his giant beer mug, Dinesh and Shameema, Phillip and Analize, Uma (whom i saw for the first time since she returned from India and who was sick in typical Amu style), Kevin, Kestern (or Casey as i know her), Richard (the new Brit at MGI) and the usual Gordon and I. so what if Gordon managed to burn most of the meat and quite a bit of the bread, it still rocked.

Thanks bru...you are the best no doubt...

well the next day was monday and so the usual working day for Gordon and Uni time for me. so there's nothing interesting that i can think of.
seems like i shall have to stop here for now. time to go and try and grab some shut eye. have an early morning class tomorrow.
till next time then. take care and remember the good times on the island. miss you all...

ps:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAFIZ...

hope you are having fun in England. too bad you ain't here and that we can't party like last time for your birthday. ;D

also...weird title huh? well i had to save this post in between so that i could catch the tuesday night English movie on MBC (you guys know). this time they showed 'Angela's Ashes'...hope that they do better next week. anyways, so i had to save this post and this is the first thing that popped into my mind as i clicked on 'save as'...and so it remains...Sunday Night Damnation.

good ol' times with my bru... (check out his leg...that's what happens when you try and act smart with a kite on sand)

everybody bow to the new Prezident...

well so i guess that its official...at least in a sense...i am going to be the new President of the Economic Society in the University of Mauritius. hah, everybody take a bow.i know, i know, you all think that it is the end of the world and that the people out here must be crazy to want me as their new President. but alas, i am the only one capable enough to handle this task... :D
any ways don't have any misconceptions regarding the Economic Society. understood that till now it has been a very low key and inefficient organization. but things are going to change. i want to maximize my last opportunity at leaving my mark at the Uni. let's just say that i have 'plans' and i am going to make these lazy folks to slog to my ideas (dear University friends, do not take offence to this comment, this 'lazy' title applies only to some folks who don't want to do any thing and only complain about the Society). so guys if you have any ideas that you think will be a good plan of action for the To-Be-Mauritian Economists, then let me know. as for a little insight into what i plan to do, i can only say that i want to get these folks to speak in English...speak to the public in English. this university desperately needs good public speaking and debating opportunities (for heaven's sake we had better exposure to all this at the high school level in India). and i guess it's time we made being aware of the latest developments in the world a necessity for all students. so beware all members of the Economic Society, i am going to put you all on a podium and unleash your verbal skills. and yeah, of course we shall be chilling out a bit and partying. but i am leaving a lot to the popular demand of the members. after all we believe in a free market with equal and fair representation where all transactions occur on the basis of demand and supply with minimum government interference to maintain stability and keep the negative market externalities in check. ;D
so Fiz dada is in London now. good for him..bad for London. all i want to say to you Fizzy is that i really miss the times we had on this island and good luck for the coming 3 years (i still don't know how on earth did they give you a 3 year Visa)...it's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be fun. so go get some Brit Chicks...allez Fizzy...boonga boonga time in london. maybe you can catch up with Timo and then,

"Timo will give you a boonga boonga". :D

the latest one to get off this island is Gordon. in an already long list, this is surely a name that will be missed sorely. Bru, thanks for all the good times (and the bad)...Buddha Beach, Kenzi and Keg & Marlin will miss you a lot...but i guess that every time i drink the water at home i will remember you and thank my lucky stars that you did not mess up the water up North. by the way, you did a good job. but i don't trust the one's who are going to run it from now onwards. so see you later this weekend and of course on Wednesday.

have no doubts, i am going to miss you bru.

Tanzania's waiting...allez Springboks!!!

well folks i have nothing much to say. the past few days haven't been too special and worth mentioning. though i must say that it was cool to chat with you Timo the other day. thanks for passing me Fiz's UK number. have fun in Italy.
oh yeah, i almost forgot. i have also entered my name for the Table Tennis tournament at the Uni. time to kick some ass!! wish me luck...i guess that i have a pretty fair chance. after all, i ain't that bad.
all right then...take care folks and keep commenting.
ciao

ps: what's up with you Heathcoat? no news from you since such a long time...agreed i haven't mailed you, but then also what are these blogs for? so get up and smell the coffee. time to blog my kitten.

the University gang...

allez Springboks...

"give it to me baby...aah ha aah ha..."

all weekend long i have been crooning these lyrics. and guess what?? i wasn't the only one. Gordon also sang the very same lines and Anne too was humming the tune when she landed. yeah, coincidences...what are the chances of 3 different people singing the same song, especially when one lives in Trou aux Biches, the other in Flic n Flac and the last one was on a plane from Germany? sweet, huh??

well sweet is pretty much the word that sums up this weekend. it all started with Gordon having to drop Bruce and pick up Anne at the airport on Saturday (Bruce at 7 in the morning and Anne at 10 at night which finally switched to 10 am the next day). so i decided to go along with Gordon to go pick up our favorite German gal. so the idea here was for me to meet him at Port Louis at noon and grab lunch at Big Mac. so i got up and did some house work (to be more precise, the dishes and laundry) before i left (cause I am bezin, ;) , a good boy who helps with the house chores). well, i had to wait at the fucking bus stop for like 45 minutes before i finally managed to catch a bus. so i got to Port Louis around 12:30 (only half n hour late). by this time the rendezvous point had changed to Keg & Marlin since the ‘Springboks’ were kicking some ‘All Blacks’ ass and we simply had to be there to witness the spectacle. what happened instead is history and is available in the old sports archives of all news broadcasters, so i won’t mention it. all i will say is that

in a turning point in history, for a change the South Africans are going to be cheering for the Australians this weekend.

after the game we headed towards Flic n Flac. it turned out that Phillip and Analise were on the beach, so we headed in their direction once we got to Flic n Flac (this was after Gordon told the guy from whom he was getting his new truck to shove the truck up his ass since the 99’ model turned out to be a 95’ instead). so Phillip’s shark story and a few beers later we got back to Gordon’s place and grabbed some shut-eye. dinner turned out to be a bit of a problem. every damn place that we got to turned out to be jam packed with people in waiting (this reminded me of Ahmedabad on weekends). after a quick bite at the first place that could feed us we headed towards Buddha. yep, i had already called the new German guys i met at the uni and also the Italian and his pals. so then it was happy hour for all of us till like 12 or 1…

note: this Indian can hold his beer and there’s a big South African to prove this.

well let me fast forward through next day morning and the ride to the airport and the subsequent 1 hour wait (yes Anne’s flight finally landed at 10:55) and the ride back, and through the afternoon on the beach with the Germans and Anne and Gordon and the eventful evening and the not so eventful Buddha beach get-together with more beer and flaming sambuka’s and Uma’s return to the island. Monday morning saw Gordon leaving for work at 6 and then i had to leave to get back to Trou aux Biches at 8…

‘sigh’... :(

…it’s back to university and early morning classes and more assignments. Anne’s leaving for Cape Town this Saturday for a week so that’s more bad news (her parents gave her money to go to any place other than Mauritius). then Gordon leaves in two weeks to go to Tanzania and bush meat and Ebola and Marburg.

so then i shall stop here for the moment. i still got a shit load of assignment work to do if i have any chance of partying this weekend. catch ya all later. keep commenting.

huh?

University of Madness...

university started today and man it was wierd to be back. quite frankly the only thing that really got to me was the million new faces around on the first day and that kind of swept away the known faces. still i managed to run into quite a few of our pals (i.e. the boyz). the back-to-school news is that this semester i won't be doing my normal modules with my friends (to be more specific with my B.S.c Eco classmates). siven, fano, hansen, rocko and others are all following seperate classes. so it's me, rishi and ben sticking it out together through the trauma of having to attend University of Mauritius classes. we do have ONE common module though. so the entire focus of the week falls to tuesday. this year we have most of our lectures scheduled in the new engineering tower that is at the outskirts of the univeristy campus. that means that we get new and bigger classroom (now that our class has been reduced to like 15 students) with a fabulous view of Cort de Guard (did i spell it right? if not then just know that it is the flat mountain near QB) and the sugarcane fields. quite unwanted, since we all were pretty much happy with our lecture theaters in the old academic complex that had bigger windows with the cafe in sight.
also, the new government has finally prooven that they are going to fulfill all the pre-election promises. they have begun implementing on the free transport for students and senior citizens plan. so from the 1st of Sept all University of Mauritius students (and other students as well throughout mauritius) need not pay any money to get to the uni (or their school) and back home. hurray. though one thing does nag me. how on earth is the government going to generate and afford the Rs 600 Million per year cost of this "free transport" without any functional economic sector ? any ideas? i guess that these guys in mauritius are going to need all the ideas that we can give them.
so coming back to today, i guess that the only major highlight that is worth mentioning is that i got to eat the dholl puri's from the guy who comes out near James's shop. he is no doubt my favourite dholl puri guy in all of mauritius. and i guess that it does help that i am a regular customer. so of course i get preferential treatment (i.e. extra stuffing in my dholl puris...mmm).

:D

all right then, i have to get going. have a bit of reading that needs to be done for the classes tomorrow. gotta be ready. i am in the third year now.
i will try and update my blog regularly. just keep in touch folks. it is a real pleasure reading all your comments.
ciao.

ps: gordon are you dead? i tried calling you on saturday. just know that i have not dissappeared like some people tend to do. i am very much here. the last week i spent staying at home getting used to being home and reading. see ya around bru.

and yeah mitty, have fun in australia...give andy a big slap on the back from me. get wasted in the land down under and make sweet love to the kangaroos and koalas.
;D (don't forget the pictures).

king lazy is up and about...

hey there folks!!

long time no see...yeah i know that i've been a jerk and not blogged in a long time. actually i did put up some pictures, but that was me trying to show the world that i'm making an effort, where as in reality i was nothing but king lazy.

but like i always say, "better late than never".

there are quite a few incidents that i would like to put down in this post. but let me start by saying that things have changed quite a bit since heather left. for starters, siven, kenny and havish have started working on their respective internships/jobs. siven is working as an economic analyst. can you belive it!! kenny is stuck up in a lab looking at dead chickens for signs of slamonella and havish is busy trying to sell us international calling services of yello. steevie has also been invisible for almost a week. apart from that life is pretty usual.

everyone's favourite 'schlong' girl was back in mauritius for like 4 days last week. came in on sunday and flew out on thursday. pretty sweet, huh? well, uma was all up for a BBQ at her place and so on tuseday night we all landed up at uma's for anne's BBQ. man, that was one great night. as soon as i aws done helping brye-master gordon light up the brye, things were set for a fantastic evening. starting from excellent food it went on to playing bowling with beer cans and tennis balls, and from there it was star gazing time out in the lawn with anne (yep, i saw the scorpio). also i managed to hold my own against gordon and bruce in beer chugging and we all had to put up with gordon playing d.j as usual. i really cannot describe the great time we had that evening in words. let's just say that it was like being back in time to those good ol' days. yep anne, we all love you.

tejas, ronak, goldie and haesh (my friends from india) are gonna be here on the 15th morning. cool...have been looking forward to their visit quite eagerly. so now i'm just waiting for them to get their bitch-asses here.

hey timo, whats up with your blog man? cannot seem to be able to access it...haven't heard from you in a long time. hope everything's going on great back in germany.

well i gotta go...

see ya folks later...

exam time...(hansen and rocko)...

spray painted earth...aka chamarel

me and anne...miss you gal :(

boyz in blue

stevie shaking the cyclone

sir nachi and the trojan virus...

hah!! one thing is for sure, if bill gates had to pay even a dollar to each person for every time that windows managed to make life hell for the pc users, he would be broke by now. that's a fact and we all know it (though for an ignoramus like me gordon had to point it out). some times this whole thing about computers drives me nuts...but then i am quite certain that most of you already think that i am nuts. :D

after battling for about 4 hours the dreaded windows XP and an innocent virus called trojan-spy, that fucked up my internet connection for almost 4 days, i am all ready to crash into my bed. but, like the nice guy that i am, i thought that it would be kindda nice of me to just wish you all good night before i go...

see ya all later...

night. ;)

now family's always important...but check them out...my cousins'...5 hot babes and 1 handsom guy...luv you all and miss you guys.

allez mitty allez!!!

bangladeshi jihad!!! (a.k.a mauritian muslim)

just can't have enough of chelsea...

seems quite incredible, but then that's life, and hey, i'm certainly not complaining...life has it's up's and down's...chelsea's surging forward towards it's first Champions League title and my english is deteriorating and going the mauritian way...aughh!!

well, apart from all of this drama that occupies the center stage in my life there's a lot going on off-stage too...for starters let me not forget to mention that the exams are just around the corner, and true to the incredible University of Mauritius style, they have managed to give us a time-table that screams the word FUCK YOU right from the first to the last exam's dates...but hey, all i want to say is "let's get done with it...i want to move on to the third year"...

now that i finally have managed to catch up with most of the blogging exploits of my friends, i would highly recommend that you read gordon's blog and then go back to mine to a particular post that i put up say around 2 months back titled fading memories...read his comments for that little post and than go back and read his latest post...all i gotta say is ha ha ha ha!!! life sure has its share of irony...and sometimes it can be awfully funny...good work, my poetic bru (though the words are not your own i do assign property rights to you). but don't worry bru, your gonna be just fine and life is going to work out just fine, trust me. ;D

apart from that, listen up folks...the blogging madness has caught up with our 'schlong-girl' anne too...yesssss!!! anne has a blog...go check it out on www.froeschle.blogspot .com (we all love you anne) and as for you nafiz, quit complaining, and go get a blog...you bloody bangladeshi fallu mama...it's easy to sit back and read what everyone else has to write. jump onto the bandwagon.
now then, i must say that i have definitely been disappointed with my german buddies. though tiomo is the sole exception and i do manage to catch mitty online from time to time. no-longer-a-rasta and sir hubsi have become elusive characters and this pains me a lot...after all one does love to hear from one's dearest friends. i just hope that you guys are having fun this semester back home? though it's not going anywhere near to being comparable to the time in mauritius...tiomo, i'm sure that giving it some more time will do the trick. by the way, it's great to know that you are back to partying and having bbq's on the roof of your new apartment. also good luck with your neighbor. hope she's a sizzling german gal. go work your cute charm brother!! (hello to marcus and mandy)
all right then, that's all from me for tonight...catch ya all later...gotta go and watch the big game.

ray of light

sunset

hubsi, joel, heath and me

boat

nightlife

fading memories...

i’ve followed you and this is as far as i can go,
all this time wanting you near…oh!
but the times are changing & the world ain’t so round.
once we leave there’s no way out…no way out.

& so you are standing there, wanting more from me
looking as if you still love me,
but girl, i can only try…oh!

all my life i’ve wanted your love,
wanting it even more tonight.
but girl u never even say a word.
you know, speaking my heart aloud isn’t easy for me
& lost in your own beautiful world you never see,
through my eyes, every time our eyes meet,
i try to tell you…but you just won’t see.
oh!! but i try…

& tonight is but a fragment in time,
as we dance this one last dance.
led by the rhythms of silence,
it’s just me and you.
& your love is all i need to live again tonight
cause come morning our roads depart,
fate leading us apart…
as we both become fading memories.
beautiful…unforgotten…fading memories.

to india...from mauritius

arre...shu vaat karo cho?? tamne badhane laagtu hashe ke hu mauritius ma masti karya sivaye kai biju kam nathi karto...paan aavi koi vaat nathi...bhndvanu pan atlij sari riite chale che...aane vaat rahi angreji ma lakhvanu, to samasya fakt aetlij ke hu mara firangi dosto ne maate angreji ma lakhu chu...nahi to gujarati ke hindi ma lahkva ma pan mane koi vaandho nathi...to paachi agar tamne badhane koi vaandho na hoi to hu angreji maj lakhvanu rakhish...barabar ne?? ;D

well then, i shall switch back to english....after all it's all the more comfortable for myself in expressing my thoughts and views in english rather than in gujarati, hindi, bengali, marathi or in any other language...
lets get this one straight...this post has much to do with my family and friends back in india whom many of you have no idea of and hence if you tend to get lost or confused i take no responsibility what so ever...all my cousins, my friends in india, and ma...this post is for you all.(but everyone's welcome to read it)
i really don't know where to start...there's so much that needs to be said regarding these past 2 years that i have spent on this island...but the one thing that i can say for sure is that i have changed...well, no need to get worried...most of me is still the same...bhangra and punjabi music still gets me dancing and i still love to eat and cook...reading is also big with me, just the way it always was and i still love hanging out with my friends and listening to my enigma collection...appearance wise also there's not much change, though i have put on some weight due to lack of exercise...(mom could vouch for that since she was here for a week last month...i really do appreciate your taking some time off your busy schedule to come and visit us ma...really do...just wish that it was more often that i got to see you and spend time with you)... so then what is that makes me say that i have changed? why in the world would i, nachiketa das, after everything that you know me to be, want to change? for these questions, i have no straight or reasonable answers. but i promise that i shall be completely honest in explaining myself.

first and foremost, rujudidi, i am really sorry for not being there on the most important day in your life. i know that you all missed me...and i did too... i missed you all so so much. i guess that i'm jinxed, cause till date i have not been there at any of my cousins weddings, and this fact, after all the sweet memories of our childhood, is very painful to live with...though i manage quite amicably. but every time i think of you in your wedding sari, didi, i get tears in my eyes...hell, right now i am about to cry...you know that you were always so special to me...you have and always will be my saslu. i just miss you so much. just want to wish you good luck and a happy marriage...now thanks to you i have one more place marked out on my map that i want to visit, Bahrain.

well, the one thing that i am glad about is the time that i am getting with my dad. after all every kid wants to have his special moments with his father...through out my entire childhood i have wanted the same...always wanted to be able to go and play football with my dad or simply to spend time with him...but due to circumstances and dad's relentless occupation with his research and books, i have never had enough of that time (now you all know why Jamanagar is so special to me, that's where i have so many happy memories of dad and my sister)...this is one grudge that i shall always have against my father. but this time is a sort of compromise...cause after what dad has undergone in the past 3 years in terms of him and mom, he needs me as much as i needed him when i was a kid and do even now...but i'm quite willing to live with such a compromise. after all, i have learnt much about my dad in the past 2 years than i have ever known about him in the past 18 years, and all i have to say is that i am proud to be his son.

living with a family such as mine is never easy. though thanks to my parents and god, i have no regrets, i still maintain that being nachiketa das is not easy. i know that everyone thinks the same...everyone has problems in his/her life...then why should i mark out myself? well for one thing, i mark myself out not because of my problems...i do so because of the lack of them...surprised, well you shouldn't be. you have no idea how it feels when you know that in life for all that you do you are answerable not only to yourself but to the so many people behind your success as well. one starts to take things for granted when one has no problems, and that's when the problem arises, hence i constantly remind myself of my debts to everyone.

who would i be without my family? the name, nachiketa das, i owe to my grandfather...the respect and honor that get because of my name i owe to my forefathers and their blood that flows through my veins. my confidence and ability to make the best of everything i owe to my mother. my love for reading and my spiritual and philosophical bug i owe to my dad. my education i owe to them both. my sorrows and pains i owe to my sister.. ;D

whatever i was in school and high school i owe to my teachers and my friends...mohit you are my strength...ankit and dev, you guys are my sane and wise part...sallu you are my joy...tejas you are the fucking most foul mouthed guy to whom i owe my ability to swear...

i owe so much more to all my family and my friends...all my wonderful memories...but for everything, all my happiness and sorrows, my qualities and capabilities, i am deeply indebted to my god, Damodar, and to him i shall forever be grateful.

now you see why it is not so easy being me...before making every decision i have to weigh all these people and the effect of my decision on them on the same scale as the decision itself. now that's hard.

some would say that i am stupid and that i must be selfish...make my own decisions for myself...but then, i am selfish. after taking from all these people all that i have taken and continue to take, how can i not be selfish?

i do have a conscience...and that's why i give to people as well...give unconditionally. if you say that life is give and take...you take something from someone and you give something back...as simple as that. that's not true. you can never have such a simple 50-50 relationship. can i ever give back the same amount of love that my mother and father give me? can i ever return exactly the same amount of knowledge or any suitable compensation for what i receive from my teachers and friends? if i could do so then it would have been so easy to replace people...but it is not. and that's why we miss our family and friends when they are not there...cause they are irreplaceable.

the only way out that i see for my conscience is that i try and balance the overall equation...from some i take more than i can give back to them, hence to others i simply give without expecting or actually wanting anything back...that is giving unconditionally. that is how friendship and happiness spreads...at least that's how it is for me.

apart from all this...to get to the point...what is that makes me say that i have changed?? well, as far as i can see, my views on the way i want to live my life right now are the ones that have changed. i no longer strive to be in charge or command of everything around me, i no longer wish to be the most popular guy around...i'm happy to take the back seat...now that's what has changed...ever remember me being like this?? why, some of you must be thinking that i have lost my mind...but what can i say...sometimes it's good to let life take over you instead of you taking over life.

it's like you are in a boat in the ocean. you have all the provisions but no map and no motor. just an oar. what do you do? try and row towards land! i guess not. you lay back and let the waves carry you, after all the waves crash onto the shore somewhere, don't they? you just relax and gaze up to the stars and make friends with the dolphins that swim alongside...you have a faint idea of which direction you are heading towards...but nothing more than that. you still have faith in god and ask him not to send any storms...cause your boat will not be able to withstand a storm...

that's how things are for me right now. i just pray to god that there be no storms on my life and, even if there are, that my faith, my boat, remain sturdy and carry me towards my shore. in the meanwhile i gaze up to the stars and make friends with the dolphins.

getting back to regaining control over my life shall have to wait till i reach the shore. but i shall be keeping a log of everything even on this trip...so don't forget to keep checking my blog. maybe you shall find something worth remembering in this journey of mine.

shall get back to you all later...

story time...

Once upon a time in the land of mauritius there lived a bunch of friends. during the weekdays they all studied in the university and behaved like any other normal student, but come weekends they all assembled to a secret place called flic n flac where they partied all night long. sometimes they even carried on with this ritual into the day. this bunch of merry friends included few 'crazy germans', few 'sane germans', two americans, a canadian, a bangladeshi, an indian, a rodriguan, few south africans and their local mauritian companions.the crazy germans were called hubsi, timo, rastaman, harry and little anne. the sane germans included silvia, mitty, big anne, inna, michael, norman and bettina (there were a few more but they preferred to hang out by themselves…and so we call them 'the other germans'). heather was the only canadian. nafiz and nachi (i.e. myself) hailed from south-east asia and joel was the rodriguan bitch. gordon and his mates were the big south africans and stephanie was amongst our very own mauritians. all put together they were one big party making gang who never tired from their crazy antics. some of these antics were to become legends in their own times. this tale is in honor of those great people and their friendship. but before you proceed, keeping in with the tradition you must fill your glass and drink to these legendry folks. if you fail to do so, woe befallen, you shall be cursed to a life of immeasurable insanity and sexual deprivation.

the legend of the rampage in the shopping cart.

one day sir hubsi and sir nachi were given the task of going to the shopping center to fetch some groceries. you see, sir timo was simply feeling too lazy to do anything. therefore the dangerous mission of going to the shopping center fell upon the shoulders of sir hubsi and sir nachi. now as soon as the knights received their task they set out towards the shopping center in their noble steed, the car. there is no describing the dangers that they faced and the difficulties that they overcame in the twisting and turning path towards their goal, Jumbo!!
now, once our brave knights reached their destination they decided to leave their steed in the parking...(of course given the choice i suppose sir hubsi would have taken his car straight into the shopping center. nothing better than a hit and run for our sir hubsi!!)...well the car couldn’t go in, hence once the noble steed was parked outside, sir hubsi and sir nachi had to search for different means to carry their groceries. and what else would suffice but a shopping cart? so our two brave knights picked up a shopping cart from the cart stand.

...well, i could give you more of this stories and legends bullshit or simply give you the hard facts on what happened. i have no more patience to sit back and write in such a shitty manner. no matter what way i put it in the humor still remains intact. so please spare my poor self this pain and just read on...
so hubsi and i pick up a shopping cart. now, only god knows why, i tell hubsi that i could give him a ride in the cart if he wanted one (me and my big mouth!!). guess what? hubsi leapt at the chance and jumped right into the cart. well now that the damage was already done, and the fact that i was quite unaware of it at that moment, we entered the mall. a big white guy in a shopping cart being pushed around by a small indian guy going from aisle to aisle picking up their groceries. yep, just try and visualize the sight in your mind. also try and visualize the reactions of the other hundred shoppers who just happen to be having quite a normal day until we walk by, or more correctly, ride by. it was more like:
what in the name of christ is this world coming to?.. bloody lunatics.. crazy.. look mom, now why can't i have a ride in the cart?.. what the hell just passed by?.. whatever!!.. and a dozen other looks on people's faces. most just grinned and there was this lady who just couldn't stop laughing. but the icing on the cake was this little bald kid, must be around 3 or 4 years old, who was in a cart right in front of us in the canned food section. the poor kid just couldn't believe his eyes and he just stared at hubsi in the cart with his mouth open and jaw dropping, his eyes almost popping out of his sockets, the biscuit he was nibbling on frozen in mid air as he tried to figure out what was happening. that was a 'picture of the year' moment. (too bad we didn't have the camera with us).
anyways, soon enough hubsi had to get out of the cart. you see the cart was getting quite full and we really did not have enough space for all the groceries and hubsi in the cart. also the fact that pushing around all that weight is not easy and i certainly was having a hard time doing so. hence, hubsi out...groceries in.
well the remainder of the trip is not worth mentioning (i.e. unless you find a description of standing in the queue to pay for you groceries and carrying them back to the car interesting).
on the way back hubsi almost managed to have us both killed. fucking brakes, they never work when you really need them. good thing that the guy in front of us decided to accelerate ahead before we slammed into him from the rear. i guess that's what you get for acting crazy in a shopping mall!! that's god's revenge for making his greatest creation look like the dumbest thing on the entire planet.
well i guess the tale ends here...we got all the stuff on the list...the mission over, sir hubsi and sir nachi, our two great heroes returned home in full splendor with the groceries.

~ fin~

so this is how the story ends. now it is up to you folks to decide whether this is worthy of becoming a legend or am i just an awful story teller. whatever you decide let me know soon. there are many more such crazy antics to hear about if you are interested.

new day, old emotions...

sometimes there's so much that needs to be said...but then, words are sometimes not appropriate...some things are just meant to be felt and experienced, and no matter how hard we try we can never explain such things to others. such times belong only to us. today was one such day.

i cannot explain why or how...but seeing hubsi and timo leave was not that hard...but as the day progressed it just kept on getting worse...worse not because of what happened today morning, but worse because of what happened almost 2 years back on a similar day and what has been happening on such a frequent basis in my life.

good memories are a man's utopia...but then sometimes they can be quite painful...and it's not because of the people involved or the incident itself...it's because of time.

time in its flight changes so many things, and those changes make some things harder to live with.

we are all so susceptible to such changes, and no matter how much we may deny they do affect us. anyways, like i said, i cannot explain how or what i felt today. all i can say is that it was quite an experience in terms of dealing with one's past and one's future and all the emotions that arise from them.

...there comes a point where you fall to your knees and beg for
it to stop. you just cannot take it anymore. you would rather die than go through such things anymore. but then it passes, and you are just so glad for everything, you cannot thank god enough...

you just have to take it on as the other side of life and live with it. as simple as that.

well now that my moment of weakness has passed i am all ready to get back to my life...there are things to be done...studies and friends await and gordon's ass needs to be kicked. (last time round the big bully almost broke my back and ribs...but i swear that i'll get back. after all he's only approximately 6 feet tall and 105 kilos). also, just met these new folks last saturday...3 south african girls...jakie, daffny and mawa. also heather's new roommate claudia (she's german) came along...too bad that kenzi was closed for the night, but we did have a great time at buddha bar. man we were all so drunk (hubsi, heather and myself), we just took off to the beach and sat there remembering all the great times we have had there. ..and i took on hubsi and gordon in a wrestling match on the beach...that's how drunk we all were. after that night i'm sure that the new girls think that we are all crazy. gordon's idea of having a BBQ on sunday evening was also a nice touch to the boys' last day in the island and we all sure appreciated him going out his way and doing so much for all of us. "jesus christ bru", he might be a bully, but a nice chap i must admit.

well apart form such an eventful weekend at QB, tomorrow is beach day at flic n flac (thanks to another mauritian public holiday, the second in two weeks)...how i wish that i could be there. but then i better stay at home and catch up on my studies that i have missed and also spend some time with dad...but i promise that i shall be back to partying on the weekends, and then i shall have so much more to tell you all...all the crazy things that happen or just the simple but nice times that we friends love to spend with each other.

until next time everyone out there, take care and have fun...

ps: don't forget to leave comments on the blog. i hate people who read my blog and then don't comment... ;)

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heather...my favourite Canadian 

saying goodbye...

27th january 2005...

nafiz's last day on this island...after almost 2 years of complaining nafiz finally left mauritius. a good thing, for him at least, cause whenever one feels stuck up in life, one has to move on. life is too important to be wasted like we all somehow splendidly manage to do on this island. i am sure nafiz that you would agree with this. but apart from this 'being practical' and 'moving on in life' bullshit, nafiz, you have managed to leave behind a terrible sense of loss along with all your stuff (the stuff including the condoms that you have left behind, which were in fact the ones that dan left behind)..the stuff part is sure to be gotten rid off a.s.a.p by heather...but getting used to not having fiz around is gonna be the hard part.

whoever said that saying goodbye was easy was damn right...except that it would
help if only we could not be so human and miss the people we say goodbye to.

anyways, the last few hours that we all spent back at 'da crib' and at the airport shall be certainly be one of the more somber moments that we all have shared, though we did manage to blend in some crazy stupid things like always...the crazy part being when hubert pushed the luggage cart with fiz's bags and myself all around the airport while i held on for dear life and tried to warn people out of our way and save themselves (this was a return ride for the one i gave hubsi in the shopping cart in Jumbo)...and the part where we played the grief stricken family members waving to fiz every time he turned back and looked at us as he prepared to check in...was kindda stupid, the things we did, but then we are always like that!!

like i said, nafiz has left behind a space that is going to be impossible to fill. now we have no one to say "fuck her" every time we watch a movie, no one to call the hubsi n timo "sick german freaks", and definitely no one to join in chorus with joel on a discussion on "boobs". a tough spot to fill...all this...and there are no entries qualified enough.

i suppose that it is going to be even the more do difficult for joel and myself...after all joel lost his boonga-boonga buddy, and i have had to say goodbye to my first pal in mauritius and my brother...

and when i say, "in life shit happens", i really mean it...if fizz's leaving wasn't bad enough, hubsi and timo are leaving come monday. i have no idea how i am going to deal with that...more so much since i am always going to regret not having spent enough time with them like i do with rasty and mitty...blame classes that must be attended and family responsibility that must be shouldered...but still i am thankful for all the great times i have had with everyone...the last six months on this island have entirely justified my decision to come to mauritius for my graduation instead of doing law in pune or economics in chandigadh...though at this point i have no idea as to how i'm gonna survive one more year after everyone leaves...heather's gone in may....and joel finishes his course at the university this semester. the very thought of this near future fills me with dread, but then i suppose it shall pass and new friendships will be formed....still....my life has been changed.

friends for me create a vacuum when they leave...a space that cannot be
filled...but a space that is not exactly a space in proper terms...a vacuum.

apart from this i still am very much optimistic in the terms that i really believe that i shall be seeing most of these wonderful people some time sooner or later...especially nafiz...after all how far is bangladesh from india? not much, i'd say...so fiz, inshallah...see you soon. as for the others, this world is a very confusing but small place...we are bound to run into each other again...or maybe i shall just have to take some time out of my life to make sure that i do run into you folks and then act quite surprised on seeing you again...

the times we have had on this island shall never come back...let's face
this fact...but they shall forever be etched into our memories like words
into stone...

in the words of the buddha..."the roads of life are meant for journeys, and not destinations"...

and with everyone on board it has been one such wonderful journey this time around.

summertime blues...part 1

ahh!! the nostalgia of summer break sure leaves one with mixed emotions...the simple and lazy life with a dash of boredom..i sure wished for my share of those good ol' days...but then i managed to have quite a hectic time as i discovered to my joy and dismay both. joy because i got to spend a hell lot of time with my friends, and dismay because most of those friends have by now gone back to their respective countries and some are leaving even as i speak of them...

"how i wish that none of us had to ever leave and that the great times that
we've been having had continued"

(wishful thinking..i know..but then we are all entitled to some)
hanging out at Flic n Flac will never be the same again without the crazy germans. rasty's songs and mitty's serious fun, anne's hot ass and ena's ramblings, silvia's clubbin spirit and harry's...(hmm, harry's idea of fun, lets stick to that, shall we)..and my weed-smoking bro dan, you all are most sorely missed. apart from all the goodbyes that we friends have had to say, we still managed to have some really decent times together...especially those cool roof parties and BBQ's...then someone came up with the idea to invade the nightclubs on this island and so it began, the great german invasion along with their indian, bangladeshi and american allies...i guess we managed to hit all the nightclubs on this island.
and now, woe befallen, the only one's left are harry, bettina, hubsi, timo, heather, fiz, joel, stephanie and myself on the island...(though latest statistics would indicate that harry and bettina are on the missing list as well)...hubsi and timo are leaving as soon as the end of this month and fiz has already bought his ticket to bangladesh for the 25th of this month...fuck!! life is sure gonna change a lot...

well christmas this year, like all the other years, was a family affair since it's noella's birthday, and for that one day i am at her service 24 hrs...dad had planned to have a little party for noella's friends and a few indian doctors where he palyed the supreme cook and god of all(no better opportunity exists to invite people over for dinner and enhance one's social circle than a birthday party)...and guess what?? i actually realised that i was the unknown one at my own party...surprised? yes, that was the general reaction of most of the people who showed up...they all were of the opinion that my dad had only one child, my sister. this error was attributed to the fact that i have been quite noticably absent from the local indian social circle due to the long hours that i manage to spend away from home beacause of the university and my incessent partying campaigns with my international friends. (though i still maintain that most of them said this simply to piss me off and laugh at my explainations as i tried to explain that i too was part of the das family...noella, for one, had a great time at my apparent dismay). anyway, i still manage to have a good time untill dad decides that it is time for me to taste the fruit custard that he had made...and to this noble cause he shoves a serving spoon full of custard into my mouth. now usually i have no qualms about my dessert, but (wannabe cooks take note) when pineapples are added to custard 4 hours prior to serving, they tend to make the whole dish a bitter experience, and that's exactly what happened. and that was the end of the story. no custard. no desert. but still a very good party and good food. overall, 9 out of 10. now only last thing remained..the cleaning up...that being voted untill the next day, it was time for bed.
the rest of the summer was equally eventful, but for that you shall have to wait untill my next post... today's tale ends here...the folks are asleep. so don't make any noise as you log out.
goodnite.
;)

back to school!! the feeling's never the same...

the first day back in the univesity after the december break....and man it was so special !!

let's just say that after a month of getting bored at home, it was time to get up early in the morning, shower and get ready and catch two buses on the 2 hour journey to the university...all just to attend a half n hour lecture on nothing (i would have never understood even if it was something since creole is still latin to me)...the only high point of my day was meeting most of my Mauritian pals, who would only talk about last weeks football match between Chelsea and Man Utd...so captivating...that's the kind of talk we economic geniuses indulge in !! (don't miss the scarcasm)..

well i tried meeting a few lecturers, but all i could get out of them was the usual "see me during the office hours for the relevant details." and when asked about the office hours...the same old reply, "it will be posted on the door, soon." ...UoM red-tapism...and who was the person who complained about the indian bureaucacy??

but every dark cloud has a silver lining...and the silver lining to my cloud was the cool airconditioning in the computer labs which provided much needed escape from the summer heat...by the way did i ever mention that i could not go home before 4'o clock cause i have managed to loose my house keys (it happened almost 17 days back and is a different story altogether) and i still don't have a replacement, and now i must wait untill dad or noella gets home and opens the door or untill dad decides that i am responsible enough to get a second pair of keys... :)

well, there's this great south indian movie on TV and i don't wanna miss it...so i better get going...the remainder of my day wasn't too great either and i still don't feel as if my semesters have begun and that i really want to make the effort of hauling my arse out of bed everyday morning and make the journey to the university...well, i guess the feeling will sink in within a few days...till then i guess it's happy hour for me....

cheers... ;)