Keep in touch !

Over the past few months, I have been hooked onto Orkut. It started off with a friend sending me an invite about 2 years back. I wasn't really keen on being a member then and thought that it was one of those sites, where if I join, my inbox would be bombarded with spam on a daily basis. Anyways, I created a profile, uploaded my picture, and then my profile lay dormant for several months. But during the last 6 months, a frightful frenzy of activity from my friends, caused me to keep up. Have you ever felt, how during certain phases in life, like when at school or college, we make good friends with whom we hang out and spend a lot of time. However as time passes and we move away from them, and all contact is gone, it soon becomes a case of "Out of Sight, Out of Mind". But when you somehow meet them again, you tend to wonder, "How did I even forgot this person? I knew him/her so well. " I must mention that I do a good job of keeping in touch with friends, as long as its possible. Nevertheless a few have managed to slip through and then all knowledge of that person is gone. Orkut has allowed me to sync up with exactly those kinds of people. Just in case you are wondering, I am not campaigning for Orkut. It is just that I have beem amazed at how it all works. For example, I had a friend who left school when she was in 7th standard, with whom I used to hang out with quite a lot. Over the past 15 years I have remembered her, maybe, a few times and wondered where she is, but that was the end of it. A few weeks back, I get a friend request from her and she emails me asking if I remember her. It was such a pleasant surprise ! Childhood, for several of us, has been extremely wonderful and joyous. Hence getting back in touch with someone who was part of life back then, floods the mind with so much nostalgia and that is such a pleasant feeling.

Weekend Update

Its only Monday and here I am, ready for the weekend already ! The past weekend had been pretty busy. Friday was spent playing Poker, as usual at Praveen's place. For the first time, Sunil won a game !! He was pretty excited about it. He usually is in the top 3 but this is a first for him. Saturday morning had to wake up early to get some chores completed. It was mostly a rainy, cloudy dull day. Weather for some reason has an effect on my morale. A nice sunny day and I am chirpy, chatty and enthusiastic. On the other hand dull weather makes me sleepy and lazy. I suppose it is the case with a lot of people. I spent most of Saturday afternoon watching TV. In the evening had to go to some friends' place for dinner. We were 5 of us who had been invited and the evening was spent chatting, eating good food followed by more chatting. Please visit Sunil's blog for a lucid description of the evening ! Lol !! After dinner I came back by 10 PM, and started watching InsideMan. The main reason I rented it is because people mentioned 'Chhaiya Chhaiya' being the title song. I was surprised to find almost the entire unedited version being played. Wonder what prompted them to choose that song !!! Nevertheless the song is one of my favorites. The movie however was quite blah ! Although the director has built up a good tempo for most of the movie, the ending is a big letdown. Its basically disappointing fare except for the few shots of Clive Owen's visage (would have liked him better without the stubble). After watching the movie, I went over to a friend's for her birthday. Desis, especially students, have this habit of creating a ruckus on someone's birthday !! It always happened while I was a student and am sure it will be carried on like it is some sort of revered tradition !! Why ever !! However there seems to be some enhancements to the tradition. Candles on the cake are old-fashioned ! Apparently the trend nowadays is to smear cake onto the head of the person celebrating the birthday, and then top it off with some more cake and a lighted candle. All this will be accomplished by the freeloaders attending the birthday party a.k.a friends, while the birthday girl/guy co-operates, hoping and praying that the lighted candle does not burn any hair on the head. In total, it was fun and I managed to eat some cake before I got home.Sunday was spent visiting my uncle, aunt and cousins. I always have a good time when I visit them. The good time includes yummy food, loads of gossip and a lot of fun !! The rest of the day as usual was spent in front of the TV. Overall, it was a nice weekend and here's hoping that the next one is gonna be even better !!

Four of a Kind !

Due to a sudden impulse generated at around 2 AM tonight, brought about by extreme luck at a Poker game, I decided to start blogging. I know this first line sounds odd; so allow me to fill you in. Of late, I have been thinking about blogging, inspired by several friends who are active bloggers. However, I always held myself back, citing reasons such as lack of content or creativity or just plain laziness. Hoping that this surge of enthusiasm will last me through to the final word, I will elaborate on my comment about the Poker game. It being a Saturday night, I got together with my friends to play our usual game of Poker. Every Poker game is a 'full-house' of 11 people, but due to the absence of a chip donor and 3 others, we had to play with a reduced number of chips per person and just 7 people in all. The first game went on as usual and I managed to pull through to the end (the top 3) with a few decent wins, and a sizeable amount. The second round of games started off slow, and one of the aggressive betters started off by winning a big hand. Thinking that I was doomed, especially since I've lost to him several times in the past, I was quite apprehensive about the future of my plays until the unexpected happened !!! A new round started, and I looked at my cards to discover a pair of Kings. Thrilled, but unfortunately unable to express myself, I bet as I thought wise. The flop revealed spades and the chance of a flush was looming. But I decided to take my chance and continued to play with the presence of a King in the flop. Hoping that no one has better than 3 Kings, I began betting aggressively. One of the players was already all-in due to lack of funds to bet further. The other player was also betting huge amounts with a pair of 9's. The turn card revealed another 9 and she was in with 3-of-a-kind too. I still had a better chance of winning the pot, until the river card happened.Lo ! it was another King. Amazed at my luck and deciding to capitalize on it, I decided to slowly lure the other player into the game. She was high on the occurrence of a full-house, but little did she realise, the wonder that I possessed. I bet and she bet and finally she was all-in. When it was time to claim the pot, I did so without further ado, revealing the Four-of-a-kind that I had with me. No one expected it and this was a first time in our Poker games. I am still quite surprised with those cards, and if you play Poker you will understand my excitement. I must add that I ended the second game by winning it all.However in the end the magic belonged to those 4 Kings !