Quote of the Day
“Viagra, Levitra, Cialis- the Holy Trinity.”
-Vinod, after seeing an ad. (No, not my cousin Vinod.)

Allllright. So last night I went to this get-together thing at Opus, where I karaoke. It was a bunch of people who Aparna went to med school with and stuff, and at first I was bored out of my mind. They had a lot of catching up to do, and I… well I had the stars for company. (Thankfully it was a clear night.) I signed up to sing, and after waiting more than an hour, got up.

Wait- before that. Right before I went up was this guy… apparently he had been chosen for the contest also, but he was waaaaay too arrogant about it. I mean, this fool was up on stage going, “Well when I win this competition…”, “Oh THAT song? I’ll sing it for you a little later, baby…”,”Get ready for something great,” and whatever nonsense. He may as well just have said, “By the way, have I mentioned that I have a small penis? Because I do. And this is the only place where I’ll ever have any recognition.”

But anyway…

I went up, rather quietly, and just said, “I’ve never sung this before guys…so please forgive me if it’s bad.” And then I sang Jailhouse Rock. It brought the house down. People were dancing, jumping, and the best part- singing along. I didn’t care that I was singing- I was just happy that people were enjoying it. The thing is, it has NOTHING to do with your voice, I surmise- it’s how much energy you put into the performance and how much you enjoy it. I was enjoyin myself really really well. And it showed. If you wanna hear a sample, you can click here for a small audio recording I did (badly) tonight at home. (less than 1MB)

Anyway, went back to the table, and by this time people were up standing around and talking, which was much better than the stuck nature of a table. I ended up meeting this guy- Srinivas- who’s a pretty funny fella. He was definitely a bit on the tipsy side, but he had some pretty frikkin hilarious stories so I listened.

Later he turns to me and says, “So what do you do?” I answer with, “I’m an actor,” expecting the usual, “Oh…” and the confused stare. (Vy is he not doctorr?) Instead he says, “Hey I should introduce you to a friend of mine- Ramya. She’s in Kannada films.”

Now I don’t know Ramya very well, but I think I’d read a couple of things somewhere in Bangalore Times about some movies she was doing. I find out later from them that she’s like, the number one Kannada actress in films today. Oh. Whoops. Later last night he says, “Why don’t I introduce you to her tomorrow?”

Whoa. Umm… okee?

So today I went to the Taj West End to meet her. I had no idea what to expect, honestly. A lot of people around here are completely full of themselves. I don’t do well with those people. Expect me to kiss your ass? Not gonna happen. I treat people with the same respect that they give me. That’s the way I roll. I hoped earnestly she wasn’t like that. I showed up and- gasp–

She was down to earth!

Whoa. We had a very normal conversation- she talked to me about what I’m doing and Srinivas was also there to facilitate the meeting. She asked if I had any headshots. D’oh. Good job Vinoj. Really smart. How’s she supposed to talk to other people if you don’t have a headshot? Moron!“Uh… not on me, no..”

“No problem.”
And then she just took up her digital camera that was sitting on the table and started taking snaps. “Smile…now be angry..now show me your profile..” and so on. Then she said, “Try to woo me.” She was going to record video- great idea. So it was like a mini-audition. I did, and then I said, “Let’s try the anger one again.” So I did a ’scene’ of me threatening to kill some dude if he got near my sister. You know, realism. :p

Afterwards, she said, “That was good-impressive!” And that meant something. I’ve been so long without acting, you know? Since last November I haven’t had a chance to act, and it’s slowly killing me. And then to have someone validate the acting that I DO is… is very nice. It felt very nice to have a fellow actor telling me she liked my work.

ANYWAY, she said that we can meet up next week sometime and talk about the acting process. (Which I asked for.) Very nice of her to offer.

All in all, a good day I’d say. Pretty pleased with all of it.

Out.

IM of the Day
“i spif tha truf, son”
-Arshy, explaining the political t-shirt that she made to me

Boy howdy has it been a bit since I’ve posted. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s gonna get any better for a little while. Not because I’ve become unreasonably busy, but because there’s NOTHING going on worth telling. Weekend…slept.

Alright one thing- I’m addicted to Lost. Completely. I never really watched it when I was back home, but since I downloaded Season 1 when I was there, I’ve been watching it like mad over here. I watched 5 of those that I downloaded back at home, and then in the past week, Apsi and I have watched 15 or so of them. Insane. 15, people. Do you realize how much time we wasted? But considering the caliber of acting and writing on the show, I guess you could hardly call it wasted time.

Anyway, now for the last episode of the first season. Gonna watch that, and then prolly hit the sack. G’night.

This weekend was quite possibly the most fun weekend I’ve ever had in India. It’s a long as hell story to cover the two days, so I think I’ll be breaking the weekend into two posts. So let’s start with Saturday.

Sandwich and Biryani Day

Saturday was Sandwich Day, which I had decided on earlier in the week. I decided it’s time to get some cold cuts and make some REAL sandwiches instead of the weak sandwiches you get around town. Of course you can get some pretty decent/good sandwiches at the 5 star hotels, but that’s like paying $50 for a patty melt. Do ya really wanna do that? No thanks.

I wanted to tell Jojin (my other cousin/roommate) that I’m gonna be having a bunch of people here for it, but boy was nowhere around. Finally around 12 he shows up with a bunch of bags and about 4-5 friends of his. GULP. Uh-oh. He was going to have people over as well, I thought. “What’s up, dude?” He explained that he bought groceries. “Oh,” I sighed, relieved. As I was getting ready to leave he says, “Where are you going?” “Oh we’re buying groceries too– because we’re making sandwiches.” “I’m making biryani!” “SWEEET!!!” So Sandwich Day effectively became Sandwich and Biryani Day.

At about 5 or so everyone shows up, and there’s altogether like, 15 of us. There are groups just hanging out playing Playstation, talking, listening to music, cooking, and just chillin. Just a totally relaxed environment and we were all having fun. We obviously ate, and then put on music and danced like crazy people at home. We were doing Irish Riverdancing to Hindi music and rap. Insane, and we decided to go out for dancing afterwards. Suha, one of Apsi’s cousins, sorta knew this chick who knew this other chick who was having a wedding reception. That’s right… we were gonna go crash a wedding.

Wedding Crashers

We arrived at the place and everything had already been going on for a while, it seemed. The music was just ripe, and people had already eaten. NINE of us jumped onto the dance floor and started dancing like crazies. (I say that with utmost respect to the crazies out there.) The music was typical Hindi– stuff from movies and also some Punjabi music. That’s the stuff that goes, “Bolay Bolay!!! PPRRRRRRRRAA!” Anyway, I pulled out every move that I’d ever seen in any horrid dance scene in an Indian movie and it was a blast. I danced until my abs cramped up, got better, and got up again. Apsi and her cousins were dancing NON STOP for an hour and a half. We danced until the music died.

MTV Celebrity?
So afterwards we’re all tired as hell and sitting around. The others got food, but I was still full from the subs in the evening. I noticed this girl in front of me had looked back to check me out. A second later, she AND her mom turn around to look at me. Ooookeee…and then her DAD, her mom, and she turn around and look at me. I just smile politely thinking, Hey there… I know you’re staring…can I help you? This other guy who apparently knows that family comes up and asks if we’re with the DJ. Apparently we were dancing our asses off so well that they thought we were professionals! (Prolly not me, but the others.) The girl then says, “You are on MTV, right?”

Duhhh…whaaa??????

“No..maybe someone who looks like me but me…no..”
“No it’s you- you’re on MTV.”
“Not that I know of..?”

Finally I convinced them that I wasn’t on MTV and it was a mixup of some sort. But I must say, I had a huge head for the rest of the night.

RAVE!

We all stumbled out, completely high on adrenaline, and ready for another party. Someone mentioned that there was a rave in some remote location. Basically the night life shuts down at 11:30 pm here now, so you have to go to places that the police cant find you to party all night and into the morning.

Now I’ve never been to a rave, either in America or here. And wow this was an eye-opening experience. The trance the DJ played was absolutely mind-blowing and there were a crapload of people just in the dark in the middle of a forest just dancing the night away. People (including me) who finally got to see the stars– a sight that’s not possible in Bangalore because of the city lights. Amazing trance music, dancing, and the company of the heavens.

It was glorious.

So that’s SATURDAY. Sunday coming up…

So I totally got pissed off at the mall today. You see, it all has to do with a simple concept that people in India don’t really get– standing in line. You see, let’s say we head to a KFC over here. In most civilized countries, you stand in a line and wait for the cashier to say, ‘Next’ or something.

In India, it’s different. EVERYONE just rushes to the register. There’s no sense of order. It’s whoever can yell loudest or throw their money at the poor cashier trying to make sense of it all.

Today at the mall, I’m waiting behind this one lady who is waiting for her Coke or whatever she ordered. Another guy shows up to my right, obviously not waiting behind me (what good would that do?), and decides to grow the line laterally. “Uh uh uh,” I explain, “…after me. I came here before you did.” He looked at me as if he wasn’t even THINKING of doing that (they always do this- it pisses me off…most of these guys are complete pussies) He started trying to say, “Hey relax man, it’s okay…don’t get mad, I didn’t know, blah blah blah.” I just ignored him. Somehow, the punk managed to get in front of me. I kept my cool.

Until the next poor sap tried it.

“Yah I vant Coke.”
!!!!!!!!
“Whoa, hold the f*** on. When did you f***in get here, huh? AFTER me. So who goes first? ME. Two Diet Cokes please. Now f***in WAIT.”

The poor guy never knew what hit him. I swear to anyone reading this for the first time- I’m a pretty patient guy, and nice. But the thing that pisses me off the most is lack of respect. I took this to be an example of that. Others include being late, not following up on your word, and yes, cutting lines.

But now onto some better things! After my sushi brunch this weekend, I think I’ll be putting up a little beginner’s guide to sushi. Just let people know one of the things I love and some of the terms associated with it. I got the idea when I was talking to my cousin and he said he’d never tried it. So yeah, that’s that. Peace!