Dec '07
16

Israel… Here I come

Finally! The tickets are booked, the visa is secured, bags are packed (ok now thats not true) and I’m all geared up to go.

3 days in Jerusalem - living in an hostel in the Muslim quarter, celebrating Sabbath with guys from Jewish school, praying at the Church of Nativity (where the dude was born) in an area currently controlled by Palestinians, watching the sun set over the Dome of the rock (where Hindus are not allowed for some reason). phew! so much pressure :)

(Too boring to link to wikipedia articles)

2 days in Tiberius region - browsing nearby areas where the Egyptians, Romans, Jews, Byzantines, Arabs (list truncated) fought with each other and built and destroyed structures. Cycling for a day around the sea of Galilee if the weather is good.

2 days in Haifa region - Bahai gardens, Knights Templar, Arab markets and other places with funny names.

Then 8 days at Tel Aviv University preaching divine MBA knowledge that I am still acquiring (thats the primary reason they are sending me to Israel for).

2 days to float on the Dead Sea, Massada and some more religious tourism (too bored to fix pronoun references).

2 final days in the Negev desert dancing and drinking with the Bedouin tribes :)

All this is ‘planned’. Lets see how much an individual like me can do.

Like Celine, I feel more like a traveler than a tourist. It’s been almost 16 months since any major trip, and I’m so looking forward to this trip :)

See y’all wonderful people next year!

PS: Its snowing like crazy in Toronto after like 60 years. Everyone is indoors. A couple of us got together and made business plans for Maternity homes. Looking for angel investors.

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Dec '07
7

We will rock you

Thats what they said 30 years ago and indeed they still rock. I’m talking about the rock band Queen, whose songs were repackaged in 2002 into a musicalWe will rock you.
We will rock you

We Will Rock You is a jukebox musical, based on the songs of Queen and named after their hit single of the same name. The musical was written by English comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The story takes place in a tongue-in-cheek dystopian future where originality and individualism are shunned, and a lone “Dreamer” appears who can fulfill a prophecy that will enable the return of rock ‘n roll. - Wikipedia

The original London production premiered on May 14, 2002 at the Dominion Theatre. The show is currently still playing there, where it recently celebrated its 5th year anniversary. This speaks volumes about how awesome the play is.

Plot: The story is set in the future (Earth is called as ‘Planet Mall’) around 2300 AD, a time when the world is governed by a totalitarian mega corp called Globalsoft. ‘Killer Queen’ heads the corporation that enforces all citizens of Plant Mall to listen to computer generated music and lead a conformist life devoid of individual freedoms. Predictably, there is a tribe of rebel ‘Bohemians’, who aim to bring freedom symbolised by rock n’ roll music back to planet Mall. However, all music instruments have been banned, anyone suspected of having a rebellious thought is quickly captured into submission. Finally, there will emerge a messiah ‘Galileo’ who will crush the killer Queen.

Watch this video please. Repeat. Watch this video;):

About 26 songs (all by Queen of course) weave this 3-hour musical together. The number might sound intimidating, but the songs were quite apt and wonderfully performed (as you might see in the preview). At the end they left the audience craving for more. As a wannabe artist myself, I couldn’t but express my awe at the amount of hours the guys put in to create this wonder.

We will rock you - NewZeland

This was the first time I saw a western musical and I had goosebumps till the next day. If you happen to be in a city where they are playing, DO NOT miss it :)

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Dec '07
4

Kids

Siblings

These kids from Bhivpuri village near Matheran, a hill station close to Mumbai, were eager to get photographed. The toddler in the girl’s arms started laughing after the flash of my camera went off :) It was such a wonderful moment!

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Dec '07
3

Lonely Tonight?

Lonely Tonight

And thou shant be lonely ever again….

There are some things in life which are priceless. This piece of paper with that message scribbled on it by my best buds V & R is one of those things.

So this one day (29-June) we were returning from some place after doing some shit. And for some reason, despite not having taken any caffeine (in the liquid form), the testosterone levels in the group were running high. I don’t remember how, but as natural as it would sound for three 24/25 year old guys to talk about the ‘feeling of closeness‘ (you know what I mean ;)), we drifted to this topic.

After talking nonsense for a while and almost to the point of getting bored, suddenly at the next signal this car drew up next to ours and there was a pretty lady in it. When I mean pretty, I mean an ideal candidate for giving the feeling of closeness mentioned above. Needless to say, a car chase began. However, the fourth buddy, who was driving the car was too diligent a driver and conveniently ignored our provocations to chase that blonde bombshell (cliché).

Damn! we lost her.

So again, as natural as it would sound for three 24/25 year old guys, we started planning our next move. Also, as natural as it would sound for three MBA students neck deep into school load, we started talking about identifying the target, optimizing the process, increasing the efficiency, communicating concise message, blah blah blah

Then something happened, I don’t quite recollect (or I’m simply lying because I’m too embarrassed to post it here). My friends fished out a piece of paper (which was actually an assignment graded a day before) and scribbled those words on the back of it. For those who are fussy about bandwidth and surf the internet with images switched off, here is the complete text:
Hot girl in car

Lonely Tonight?
Contact Puku At:
[my telephone number]
And its free !!!

Before I knew, another potential candidate to give that feeling of closeness appeared and this newly created banner, aka personal ad was waived at her.

Predictably, we lost that car too, and we were nearing the student residences. Shit!

I was being a bitch that day, and V & R were determined to victimize me. Again something happened and I don’t quite remember it, but my buddies threatened that they’d post this ‘ad’ on the bulletin board of our apartment. Since I’m extra smart, I challenged them to do it anyway.

They did it. They actually did it.

This advertisement was posted on the bulletin board of my apartment, without me knowing about it.

So, dear V & R, after say five years when we will be in different places doing different things, this will be one of the memories we’ll always cherish. (A melodramatic dialog pops out)

Vaarun adds:
Its just fun to grind your bud’s so called societal status into the ground, isnt it? And a challenge is a challenge is a challenge…

Rahul and myself, we put this poster up on the main entrance to Puku’s massive apartment building. We then pinned him to the ground, cause he was trying to get the poster off. In a matter of moments, a girl came toward the building with her guy, looked at the poster and burst into peels of laughter! She din’t know that the “Puku” from the notice board was the same guy that was pinned down, and looking completely red in the face! The fellow got rid of the poster that night, but I wish some folks we knew from school had seen it. :)

Rahul would have loved to add but currently he is busy with Porter’s 5 force model, which is instructing him to ignore trivial stuff like this.

Notes:
1. Puku is my popular name, but you wouldn’t know that unless you’ve read this post
2. I appeal to female chauvinists or self-declared moralists to hold their breath. This wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

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