Tag Archives: Chandigarh

Music

My favourite Live Albums

Leave a comment

This post is a follow up to my last one. I was introduced to Live Albums when I moved to Nagpur. People in our college used to share 3-in-1 live concert DVDs with each other. I have already written about my favourite concerts, so this post is only about live albums. Below is the list of my favourite live albums of all time.

Hell Freezes Over (1994) – Eagles

Hell Freezes Over : Eagles

My favourite live album of all time and my introduction to Eagles, as a band. In fact I didn’t even hear the original version of Hotel California till years later and was then surprised to find out it was so different. Overall, this album is just magical. Everyone performed perfectly. I remember the first time I heard it, at a friend’s house, his father had found the DVD. It was also Eagles’ reunion concert and as Don Henley says, “we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation”.

This concert was part of the MTV unplugged series.

My only gripe with the album is that they replaced many songs’ live versions with studio versions which are inherently inferior. One example of this is “Learn to be still”.

Pulse (1995) – Pink Floyd

Pulse : Pink Floyd

One of my favourite live albums of all time, Pulse is Pink Floyd at its epic live psychedelic best. I have listened to this album countless times and can never get tired of it. The album starts with the epic “Shine on you crazy diamond” and ends with an epic rendition of “Comfortably Numb” with extended solos.

Honourable mention to Delicate Sound of Thunder, which is almost as good as Pulse, but not quite.

This concert also reminds me of a disaster that occurred back in 2006.

MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) – Nirvana

MTV Unplugged in New York : Nirvana

This live album reminds me of Whoreko, I don’t know why. I am not a huge fan of Nirvana‘s heavier work, but this concert showed their “acoustic side” and boy, was it awesome. This concert also introduced the Meat Puppets & Pat Smear to the world.

Another concert from MTV unplugged series.

Live at Pompeii (1972) – Pink Floyd

Live at Pompeii : Pink Floyd

Ok, Ok, so technically this is not a live album, but it is shot as such, simulating a concert in Pompeii (without audience). The tracks are all psychedelic and the version of echoes in this album is a masterpiece, especially the bass.

One Night Only (1998) – Bee Gees

One Night Only : Bee Gees

Not a huge fan of Bee Gees, but this live album is just awesome. Such beautiful, soulful music. Reminds me of my days in Chandigarh.

Supernatural Live (2003) – Santana

Supernatural Live : Santana

I got this as part of a 3-concert pirated DVD. The music is awesome and features guest appearances by Dave Matthews, Erik Schrody, Rob Thomas, among others. Entertaining much.

The Corrs Unplugged (1999) – The Corrs

The Corrs Unplugged : The Corrs

Another part of the 3-concert pirated DVD. I am not a Corrs fan. In fact I have never heard of them outside this concert. But the music in this album is soothing and beautiful.

This is also the album where I heard Dreams for the first time, much before the original version.

Another concert from MTV unplugged series.

A special mention to Roger Waters’ The Wall – Live in Berlin for being one of the shittiest live albums I have ever had the misfortune of listening to and making me dislike him forever after.

Rant

6 times I was an early adopter and paid the price

Leave a comment

When I was young, I was somewhat of an early adopter. Especially for new technologies and products. However, being an early adopter comes with some glaring disadvantages. In this post, I will write about how I got burnt many times throughout my life.

Early Adopters
Early Adopters

1. Nickel Cadmium rechargeable batteries

When I was growing up, I had many toys. Lots of them. Most of these toys were electronic and it was a pain asking parents to buy me batteries when they ran out. So when rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries were introduced, I was all over them. I convinced my parents to buy me some batteries and a charger. However, there were some major disadvantages.

  1. The batteries got extremely hot while charging – I had a few melt down over the years
  2. They produced only 1.2V instead of the 1.5V of regular batteries and some gadgets didn’t like that.

Eventually, they never caught on and I had to go back to regular batteries.

2. Hero Ranger Bicycle with shock absorbers

When we moved to Chandigarh, I was confronted with kids showing off everywhere. The cool kids rode fancy bicycles and the legendary kids already rode scooters and motorcycles at age 14. I started feeling real inadequate about my regular bicycle and asked my parents for a newer one. They asked me to chose between a bicycle with shock absorbers and a bicycle with gear shift (Hero Swing, which had both was out of the question). I (foolishly) chose the bicycle with shock absorbers.

For one, the bicycle had shock absorbers only in the front. Each speed bump still felt like a hammer to the tail bone. Secondly, the bicycle was heavy as fuck. It too much more effort to ride it compared to my last one. Also, within a few months, the shock absorbers started squeaking and sagging. There were no mechanics near my place who could fix it. Eventually, within a couple of years, the shock absorbers bottomed out completely. What a waste!

3. Royal Enfield Thunderbird (First edition)

First Edition Thunderbird, not mine

This was my first bike and the only bike I loved. I bought it when it was just released. One highlight was that it came with an all new aluminium AVL engine. It was supposed to be lighter and more efficient (it was both). However, the engine was terribly unrefined compared to the traditional Royal Enfield engines. The main problem was that its tappets made a lot of noise and the pushrods needed constant adjustment. This continued to bother me till the time the bike got stolen. The bike also leaked engine oil like a sieve.

Subsequent versions came with self-adjusting pushrods and much better oil seals.

4. Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia Lumia 900, not mine
Nokia Lumia 900, not mine

I remember when I first saw the keynote for Windows Phone 7. I was blown away by how beautiful the OS looked and how smooth everything worked. As soon as I could, I bought a Lumia 900. However, the OS was still in its infancy and although polished, lacked a good app ecosystem. Even worse, the Lumia 900 got no major OS upgrades and the phone was obsolete within a year.

5. Reliance Infocomm CDMA phone

Reliance LG RD2030
Reliance LG RD2030, not mine

I was a super early adopter of Reliance’s CDMA phones. Like I got one within a few weeks of their network launching. My first CDMA phone was also my first phone ever, the LG RD2030. Only 1 other person I knew had a CDMA phone. We felt like pioneers. However, the experience was shitty.

  1. The phone became very hot when making calls or accessing the internet.
  2. The battery life was abysmal.
  3. The charger was a dock-type and it was impossible to use the phone while charging.
  4. The display was grayscale with a blue backlight.
  5. Your number changed every time you roamed into a new state.

When the CDMA network launched, it was marketed as a “Wireless Land Line” and all CDMA phones had a landline-like number with an STD code. In a couple of years, the government made that illegal and everyone had to deal with a number change without warning.

Reliance solved most of these issues after a few years, but CDMA never caught on and died a painful death.

6. Surface Pro 3

Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Microsoft Surface Pro 3, not mine

It is a testament to Microsoft’s shitty product quality that even a 3rd generation product provided an early adopter experience. The Surface Pro 3 was a gift from a fiend. It was a top of the line model but was the epitome of unrefinement

  1. The chassis got very hot and led to CPU throttling. The CPU couldn’t burst for more than a few seconds at a time.
  2. The fan whirred all the time and was very loud.
  3. The fan still didn’t provide sufficient cooling and I had to carry around an external fan to cool it.
  4. It didn’t go to sleep every time the lid was closed and led to it discharging in the bag.
  5. The pen randomly stopped working without warning.

I am sure if I were still in India, I would have been tempted to get an EV and consequently suffered again.

Rant

Chandigarh Boys

1 Comment

I loved living in Chandigarh and still miss it terribly. There’s something about the well planned, laid back nature of the city that attracts me to it. But it was after I left that place that I began to notice that the boys of Chandigarh were somehow different from the boys in the rest of India. Especially the ones who have stayed there their entire lives and never moved out.

Chandigarh Boys, PC: Youtube
Chandigarh Boys, PC: Youtube

Chandigarh Boys

  1. Consider themselves superior to the rest of Indians.
  2. Don’t have much exposure to the world outside their tri-city area. For them everything beyond Delhi is “South India”.
  3. Brag about their “kothis” and discuss their sizes in “marla” and “kanals“.
  4. Plan whose farmhouse they will take girls to, on the weekend.
  5. When going to Sector 17, park their cars in the parking lots at the outer peripheries of the market, where parking is ₹5 cheaper.
  6. Drive scooters/motorcycles/cars starting at the age of 12.
  7. Take the above vehicles on the Gedi Route in the evenings & weekends.
  8. Call Discos and clubs as “disc”.
  9. Those who cannot afford clubbing, drink with friends in the car (Also applicable to West Delhi boys).
  10. Brag about which discos in South Delhi they have visited.
  11. Even if you are from Mohali/Panchkula/Zirakpur, tell people you are from Chandigarh. I myself have been guilty of this.
  12. If you stay in Chandigarh, look down on the people from Mohali/Panchkula/Zirakpur.
  13. If you go to one of the Catholic Boys Schools (St. Johns, St. Anne’s), look down at kids from the other schools.
  14. Casually throw around the name of Le Corbusier to visitors.
  15. Make out with girls in your car, parked in the narrow unpaved road behind the lake.
  16. Always know influential people via someone’s father or uncle. For events, ask these people for free passes, because Chandigarh Boys don’t pay for shit. Also pull favours when caught by police for traffic/underage drinking violations.
  17. On Sundays go to pray at Nada Sahib or Mansa Devi to absolve yourselves of the sins of the week; organize “bhandaras” if sins are especially serious.
  18. When asked where they are from, answer with “The City Beautiful” as if the entire country/world is familiar with this phrase.
Rant

The North Indian phobia of “Outside Food”

4 Comments

Having stayed in North India for most of my life, I have noticed a peculiar phobia of North Indians. It is towards “outside food” or as they call it “Bahar ka khana”. I have also stayed in West, Central and East India & noticed this only in North India. Basically, most North Indians are extremely averse to eating restaurant food. Going out to eat or ordering food from outside is seen as a failure of the wife or mother in the family.

A Restaurant, PC:cap3000.com

The first time I remember noticing this was when we had just moved to Chandigarh. We were invited to the home of one of my father’s colleagues for tea. When it was time to go, we excused ourselves by saying we have to go out for dinner to some restaurant. A look of disappointment dawned on their faces, immediately followed by a look of pity. They all looked at my mother and asked her why we “have to” eat out. We just told them that we always ate out on Sundays. They never respected my mother again, a useless wife/mother who won’t even cook for her family on weekends.

Over the years, I started noticing this phobia towards “outside food” more and more. When I would go out to eat with my friends, their parents would look down on me as if I am corrupting them. They would even ask me if “I didn’t get any food at home”. I also noticed that most of my friends never went out to eat with their families, even on special occasions.

I would notice this peculiarity even more when I went to Kolkata during my summer holidays. Everyone ate out all the time. Even my poorest relatives living in small towns went out to eat regularly. During major festivals, people there eat out all day and night. In North India, it just means that the wife/mother has to work extra hard to cook special food at home during festivals.

After my graduation, when I was working in Kolkata, me and my colleagues would order lunch everyday. No one brought food from home. When I moved back to Gurgaon, I noticed that almost everyone bought food from home. Mothers/wives are expected to wake up early every morning to cook lunch tiffins for their kids/husbands before they left for school/work, come rain or shine. When I ordered food, colleagues would be tempted to eat it, but would also be afraid to take their food back home uneaten. Sometimes they ate the “outside food” with me and then also had to finish their lunch.

During the lockdown, ordering food from outside though not illegal, was frowned upon. People always stared at me with disgust while I carried food from the society gate. Can his wife not cook?

In Bangkok, everyone goes out to eat during lunch, except some Indians (mostly North Indians). They all cook their own food in the morning and bring to work with them. During lunch, they go sit in the parking lot and eat that food as our office doesn’t have a designated place to have lunch.

I am not quite sure where all this stems from. Most people I have asked think restaurant food is unhygienic (sure, if you eat roadside food). Most just consider eating at home the normal thing to do and eating out an anomaly. Maybe some of it comes from the looming patriarchy in North Indian culture where a woman’s primary role is to cook and clean. Also, why spend money eating out?

On a positive note, in spite (or because of) all this, North Indians are some of the warmest people I have met who always invite you to sit with them and have a (home cooked, of course) meal. I do appreciate home cooked meals, but I also want a fancy meal at restaurants every now and then.

Adventure, Motorcycle

Road Trip

10 Comments

This weekend, I did what I wanted to do since many years. I wen to Chandigarh by bike, alone. Had slept very late friday night (in fact Saturday morning), still woke up at 8 to beat the early morning traffic. Wasn’t feeling very well(was suffering from cold and allergy) so went to the neighbourhood doctor who jabbed a syringe full of some medicine in me and I was up and running in half an hour. Left at around 9 in the morning and was out of Delhi in under an hour. Let the throttle open and did a constant 80-90 kmph till Karnal for 2 hours where I stopped for some coffee and Kathi Roll and to stretch my legs and wash my face. Reached Chandigarh around 2 in the afternoon and hung out with friends and boozed after many years. Slept like a log till next morning and after roaming around a bit more, left around 4 in the afternoon and once again, stopping only once at karnal for 15 minutes. The bike performed admirably even when I didn’t rest it for hours and didn’t drop my speed below 80. Reached gurgaon at around 9 at night. Waking up in the morning today, it all seems a dream but my aching back and neck are proof all that happened.

Rant

My punishment..

16 Comments

This evening was pretty depressing. And I blame it all on google earth. Was just browsing over the planet when I came upon Chandigarh. Zoomed in pretty close and seeing the old roads and familiar structures brought back fond memories of those good ol’ days. I still remember how Bhavesh and I cursed the city before I left for engineering and he left for law studies. We were on his bike going from his home to mine at night and cursing and shouting through the streets. Now I am having to pay the price of my foolhardiness. Soon my parents shifted over to Calcutta. I can frankly say that if Chandigarh was 10, Calcutta is pretty close to 0. I had the best days of my life in that city. I can never forget that first year in college(Class XI) when I used to bunk with Vishal. Then came Iota, Aaron and Atul. Atul has been my friend in my dire times and is one of the best and most genuine guys I know. Had some pretty memorable moments with him. Remember the time you joined our S.U.P.W. class of Industrial Chemistry even though your subject was something else? We got fined by the police for not wearing a helmet while coming back from visiting your cousin. Also miss those days when me, Divyadeep, Siddharth used to bunk tuition classes to go to Barista in Ebony every single evening and used to hit on the chewing gum chick. It hurts to think that those days are never coming back. And lastly, the most memorable times are the one I spent with you, Bhavesh. It was Atul who first introduced us. Remember when we first came to your place for Whistler? You also had Windows XP Plus! installed and used to play bowling on your optical mouse. You also had the Acer cd writer in which you wrote me an Audio CD. I still have that mind you. The countless times you came and rescued me from my place and we roamed about town together spending money like water. I remember I once went with you to some coaching classes where you went to enquire about Redhat classes. You were already an MCSE and CCNA then and that particular day when the institute guys looked up to you with respect when I decided to do something about my computer skills other than playing games and downloading gigs of data.Also, the time we met in VIBGYOR and the time you made a prank call at my home saying that you are from cyber crime division of Police. I can go on listing more such special momets but that will overload the server. I don’t mind that you broke the us.mpeg cd. You can go on breaking as many cds you want and I will mail you more. You are still my friendly wash after all. I also miss your parents and MYLO. Your mom made great AMLA juice(I don’t say it tasted great but it still was GREAT). Also I wish I had got to know your dad better as he is the coolest. It’s a pity that we don’t buy the same mobile phones like before anymore. Maybe we can after(if) I get a job. I would readily give up my Enfield for that trustworthy boxer we rode together for so many kilometres. We kept it up to date with regular(read: daily) oil changes. Also that time was funny when that drunk guy backed into the bike outside HM-vatika.
I have made countless plans of visiting Chandigarh in the past few years but each time something comes up and I have to cancel the plan. It’s a way of punishing me for abusing the greatest city I have ever lived in. Life is shit and barely worth living in this shithole.. Please forgive me so that I can spend more time there…
 

Powered by Qumana