I am touched!

Well, Photography is one of my passions and i do take a lot of photographs. For the first time ever i entered my photographs in a photo competition which was an internal Infosys one and i happened to win the third prize. For me,the main motive for entering the competition was to see how people would react to my snaps. I was really touched when Ankit came over to me and said he wanted to buy one of my snaps. He asked me 'How much?' . I had no clue how much. I said ' I have invested 3$ for printing each snap,so anything above that is fine with me' :) So he offered me 10$ and i gladly accepted and sold my first photograph! Its actually a great feeling that somebody wants to buy my snap. I felt really touched. Today Santosh came over to me and said he also wanted to buy and frame one of my snaps in his house. Well..what can i say. Thank you!! These tiny gestures does mean a lot to me.

Nothng else matters ...

Well, I have another dream come true and like someone in the crowd described ,it was an absolute 'Kickass' show. What made it all the more special was we were just 5 feet from the stage,right up in the front, I never ever imagined that i would be in a 'metallica' show and right up in the front. They ripped most of their famous songs for nearly 2.5 hours, I went totally berserk when they played 'For whom the bell tolls' - that is one of my most favourite songs and have heard it like hundreds of times since my college days,to think i would see them perform it live in front of me just 5 feet away from me was a mind blowing feeling. I was screaming like crazy 'Take a look to the sky before you die..its the last time you will ...' ..
Oh man!! I used to enact this song so much in my bedroom at high volume and stringing a dummy guitar and imagining a huge crowd in front of me and used to think how must james hetfield be feeling when he sings this song and now i KNOW!!!!

It was very much like i had imagined it in all my years! It was too much of an adrenaline rush to me and i felt exhausted completely at the end of the show,screaming and jumping and headbanging. All the pyrotechniques,the lazer lights,the stage lighting was mindblowing. You could feel their sweat up close. For some reason i am a big fan of james hetfield(lead singer),and he has amazing energy to keep it going for 2.5 hours straight,i even got to pat him on his back(lol!! talk about fan adulation..i get to touch him and it feels great,ha ha ha).

Anyways,it was an absolute dream come true for me and never expected it to be so good. I am just lucky to be living out this teen fantasy of mine up so close i guess.

I drove all the way to neighbouring state Des moines ,Iowa for this and came back to minneapolis driving back overnight after the show! Lol!

"I am interested above all in the character who is capable of sacrificing himself and his way of life... It is often absurd and impractical. And yet-or indeed for that very reason-the man who acts in this way brings about fundamental changes in people's lives and in the course of history"

- Andrei tarkovsky, russian film director.

New hairdo!

I have a new hair style -what kind? The no-hair kind. :) Yup, I just went to the barber and asked to shave off my head. I had about 6 inches of hair on my head and he almost fainted when i made the request. Funnily he himself was a bald guy! He pointed to his head and said ' You will become like me' . ' Once hair is cut, its gone!' - I retorted 'No big deal! It will grow back in 3 months,go ahead! '. It took him all of 3 mins to do his job,he went over my head like a lawnmover cutting grass on an overgrown lawn.After it was done- I said 'Perfect'. For that i paid 14$+3$ tip.Lol!! He was incredulously looking at the 3$ tip. I said 'Have a nice day' and left the shop. He just couldn't stop staring at me or my head!! Must have been thinking 'Crackpot!' Lol.

People flipped when they saw me! Many of them passed by me without even recognising me! Many stared at me as if i was a stranger when i said 'Hi' to them.

One of my more India-knowledgeable clients had a serious look on his face when he saw my bald head and asked seriously 'Somebody died?'. Lol!! I flipped when he asked me that!!

I became the talk of the town for a couple of days. People ran over to my desk to have a look at my shaven head. So after the 'Shock and Awe' effect subsided i have followers now. Today,one of the guys from TCS who sits across my aisle got a similar haircut,when i ran into him and looked at his head in surprise he grinned and said 'Inspired by you! ' Lol!!

So, it was good fun the first couple of days,now both people and myself alike have got used to it! :)

Here is how i look now, I unfortunately did not take a snap immediately after the cut, I have considerable hair growth now.