28 October 2012

Metal: More addictive than dope or lust!

Its been about 25 years of "Turn down that volume" in the house. Earliest being Satan Infernous' Poppa. And the recent one being from Satana Infernous today early morning. Not to forget that she added "There are families living around us". Man, I haven't changed a byte?

Well, the real beginings of Metal in our family could be traced back to late 1980s when my elder brother (psst... he's and a drummer) started listening to it. In late 1980s learning music outlawed. However Momma financed it secretly. Does the word 'Contraband' apply here?
My favourite numbers:
http://www.freewebs.com/mnpsatan13/songs.htm

Anna's Dravids:
After a few years, learning music was in-lawed. Is there was such a term? By then Anna (elder brother) had emancipated into a blast-beat-machine. They formed a band "Dravids" comprising of bro -Srinivas  the Drummer, Sanjay with Leads, Vocals by Victor and Vijay on Bass. Our garage was the practice-room. I attended one of their shows at IISc. That was my first one.
Link to Sanjay's website:
http://www.stringdom.in/bandography.html
My tyrst with the A-B-C-D-G-A-E:I decided to learn the Piano. Why? As weird it may seem: Since, I was very good at typing = 70 wpm without errors, Hence I reasoned that I would be a hit as a pianist  in a Black metal band //screech and growl
My teacher, Ravi Kashyap is a genius. His FB profile:

https://www.facebook.com/ravi.kashyap.1293575
I even bought a Yamaha PSR2100 which I had to sell due to financial of my wedding. Another 3 months, I would been fully ready for Grade 1 exams. Now I'm 1,000km away from the Metal capital of India: Bangalore


Unholy river of hell:
Yeah, I'm talking of Styx where we buddies used to hang-out (the 11PM deadline came much-much later). The last few numbers invariably had to include "Hallowed be thy name COF version", "The Trooper", and "Mama I'm coming home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvNXF7aGP2s

Metal Buddies and shows:
Then, one day I met my ex-buddy "Slain Pain Mustaine". Its amazing how our nick-names are: I'm "Satan Infernous". There's "Slash n Burn" (coined by me & my BE classmate from SriLanka). Me and Slain-Pain-Mustaine were even called as "Ace & Gil" as we used to turn up at almost every rock show (freedom jam, Strawberry fields etc.) in the early 2000s. It could be termed as a metal-lover's hey-day, or in ECish terms as peak-power in the gaussian graph. At one instance I literally counted that there were about 40 metal heads
To name / nick-name a few from the bands Cremated Souls (oxymoron?), Craninum Shatter, Black Orchid, Arcane Ritual and Gorrified:
Charlie Gore Grinder - its grind gore and not grind core
Arjun_thi - who rarely uses social networking
Shaggy - Abhishek Chaterjee, vocalist
Prashant - overprotective about his guitar
Shreyas - who owns a bullet
Gani, Pawmana, Rahul and Adi
I still remember a show at Ravindra Kalakshetra's backyard, where a toddler was head-banging & giving his parents a very hard time.
Deep Purple, Satyricon, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Scorpions were a few shows that I had attended.


M for MSRIT:
The biggest KLPD was me hoping that there would metal-chicks to find out there were none in my class. But then I got acquanited with Arvind, Abhi, Vinay for Metal. The unforgettable fact being that I used to attend the rock-shows in the middle of my semester exams and I'm an FCD in BE.


Metal and Work:
I introduced my Buddy Sreedharan a.k.a Slash n Burn into metal. He loves ACDC. For about an year I was happy to have a metal-boss: Alfred. Having metal as a similar interest would be the best that could happen in a Boss-reportee relationship. During my TMT days in Bosch, I befriended Girish Kumar a.k.a Kaalesh, a fan of Rammstein and free-entry-rock-shows! Not to forget our MMU Mrudul who plays the bagpipe. The youtube video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysj1vcXWjLI

Now:
Metallica was one of the best things to happen to me, metal-heads, Bangalore and India! The memory is still fresh in my heart where I held my fist close to my chest for "Sanitarium". One of the best setlist ever. "For whom the bell tolls", "Enter Sandman". Satanie Infernous, my daughter becomes jumpy when I play a metal song. I'm thrilled. My MBC (Metal Blood Cells) are in her. She will definitely grow up to become a beeg metal-head
Also, do check out this movie "School Of Rock"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332379/

M for Momma:
Momma liked rock (thats enough for a lady who was born before our Independence). She used to love "Sweet child of mine", "Hotel 
California" (Pop?). And there's one more song "Wash in the sea" which I am unable to recall / find out the artist & the album! And then one day all of a sudden Mother-love was no more. The very back-bone of my life was gone! I was a void. I cried & cried & cried & cried like a little baby for many days. I refused food for a while. I just didn't want to live. But then Momma never wanted me to suffer, so I had to bounce back. Metal helps us bounce back: It gives us character, It gives us hope, helps us manage angst, It takes away the frustration, it helps us face reality. It gives me a feeling that I'm the man. Well there's a song "You're the man". I am unable to recall / find out the artist & the album (again). Momma never objected to long hair cause maybe she knew that it was just a passing fad?

To wind up:
1997 to 2009 could have been horrendous (typing in details here would be hard to digest) if not metal. Cause Metal is what keeps me going!
Finally, M (abbreviated for my surname) also now symbolises METAL!

Keep metalling!

PS:
I wanted to name the blog "More addictive than cocaine or pussy!"

09 October 2012

Why BE?

DISCLAIMER: Every rule has an expection!

Are you a BE (Bachelors of Engineering)?

If so, do a simple in-the-mind survey:
Out of you & your 9 fellow pass-outs,
1. Has anyone studied Mech and coding .NET?
2. Has anyone studied EC and working in Purchase?
3. Has anyone studied IT and doing recruitment?

So why do recruiters prefer BE?
Why do employers prefer BE?
Why is BE-requirement subsuming lots of job verticals/functions across different domains?

4 marks answer:

Selective-Entry:
The entrance examinations, peer-pressure and unsolicited advice from Uncles and Aunties ensures that smarter individuals get into BE. There, you have the first level of artificial-filtration.

Pressure to perform:
With classmates doing well, with minimum 60% aggregate required for placement andor scholarship and/or foreign admissions, there is an unyielding committment (read as "by hook or crook"?) to score well so that the future isn't dark.

Enhanced Learning area of the brain:
Every 6 months (is it really 6 months, or should I say 4 months) or so, an individual has to erase 6 old subjects and; burn 6 new subjects. Thereby improving the individual ability to consume new stuff faster (but does the individual understand any of what's in it?)

Multi-tasking:
For kick-arse men, it would be like juggling Girl-friends, Rock-shows, Exam scores and Personal finances all together. So, during the BE years, priortizing & de-prioritizing sub-routines are created. These may be modified slightly and invoked for execution later in life!

Satan's version of Murphy's law:
During BE if you didn't have a GF (for men) / BF (for women) then, there is and was something wrong about you!

Now,
Why do fathers-of-brides prefer BE?
Affluence, Prosperity, Job status!

Keep rocking
Bye

PS: Ofcourse, there are some 'boys' who after being dumped go in a negative downward spiral or whatever.