You know you have too many guy friends when...

1. You've spend many Saturday afternoons playing basketball in the sun instead of getting a pedicure or a manicure.

2. You never understand why girls maintain long nails.

3. Going to a spa or a beauty parlor seems to be a waste of time.

4.Never understood why there are so many types of dresses when jeans and tee are the best thing ever happened.

5.You have spend some rainy morning playing soccer in the muddy field with your buddies.

6.You think SAW VI is the coolest movie of the year.

7.You openly admit that you have seen porn when the girls you know, pretend they haven't and consider it to be a sin. And you NEVER question why guys like girl-on-girl action.

8.You enjoy fart jokes and laugh out loud at sex jokes, when girls think its inappropriate.

9.You know more swear words than your brother and can win any trivia on swearing!

10.You call everyone "Dude!", "Man","Maccha" etc. and mostly call your dad "Boss".

11.You hate flowers especially rose.

12. Love songs are a complete no-no. You'd rather listen to Led Zepp, Maiden, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne,Slayer.

13. You prefer headbanging in a rock concert to waltzing.

14.You spend your childhood collecting Trump cards rather than collecting Barbies.

15. You looked like a boy in your teenage years.

16.You love your music loud.

17. You preferred Hardy boys to Nancy Drew.

18. You believe the movies Godfather and Fightclub have the answers to all your life problems.

19.Your mother questions your sexuality when she finds 3/4th of your phone list are guys and you are dating none.

20.You prefer martial arts class to piano lessons.

21.You hate romantic chick-flicks and probably slept off in the first 10 mins of Casablanca.

22.Nothing disgusting disgusts you anymore, 'coz you have seen, heard and discussed them all with your buddies.

23.You love Manga so much that you almost created few.

24.You spent your childhood climbing trees, walls or fences and scraping your knees eventually.

25.Everything is a game for you.

26.You believe riding a bike, bungee jumping, skydiving, rock climbing are the important stuff in life.

27.You despise soap operas and rather watch a comedy or a thriller.

28.You never understood the "Aww.." moments.

29.You hate soft toys and find it weird that some girls likes to sleep with them.

30.Pink is a disgusting color, black is cool.

31. You are allergic to the flowery over sweetened perfumes girls wear.

32.You wish you were on Fast and Furious or 300.

33. You talk loud and have a boisterous laugh.

34.You hate Chihuahuas and prefer a Labrador/Bulldog as a pet.

35.You practised WWE moves on your younger brother.

36.Your mother begged you not to buy anymore sneakers and try something more feminine for a change.

37.You don't understand why some girls watch the calories they eat.

38.You find it weird that girls complain not understanding guys-they are the simplest creatures of all, "What-you-see-is-what-you-get " is their motto.

39. You are someone with the extremes-either you "love" or "hate" something, there are no in-betweens.

40.You are selfish,rude,impractical and the most commitment-phobic girl ever known.

41.You can never date a guy without doubting his motives, 'coz your over-protective buddies have warned you way too much.

P.S. I feel lucky to have met all my guy friends and I have shared some of the great moments of my life with them. And I still believe being friends with guys is less complicated than with a girl!

Essential plot twists for bloggers

The moment I start blogging a short fiction, the first thing that strikes me is The Plot..a solid one. I guess the same goes for my fellow homies who write some of the best short-yet-exciting stories. Here are some good tips for that great story you type out next time(But do I hear a, "These are the stories I would like 2 read."instead)
~So long, keep writing...love T-F-L

I did it my way

Revolution Renaissance did justify my blog with their song, not to mention the awesome video of Kungfu-Panda I found, showcasing my favorite animated character of all time, Tigress. Its one character I can relate to very well.

Look at me
Do you see all the things
I want you, you to see?
You're telling me
Sure I know you so well?
But you just act when you are
Back against the wall

What is true, what is fake?
Everything that you make
Or you take, it's plain to see
Image wise, you're okay
But is there anything
Inside of you?

Hear me say:

I don't wanna do the things you say
I don't wanna play the game you play
I just wanna be myself
And walk the road without pretending
I just wanna live my life, be true
So many things there are that I will do
When I'm looking back the road
At least I can say: I did it my way

There you are once again telling
Me how the things all should be
And that I care far too much about
My art, 'cause you know they
Will never understand

I am me, I cannot be
What I'm not, I am real and I feel
But you can never stop, you forgot
'Cause no one's gonna tell
Me what to do

Why do single guys don't mingle?

This seems to be a very serious issue with many of my guy friends and also, my baby brother(well he is 17, but still a kid for me!) Now this post is not about the so called oversexed-players or the 'chadmachine's or the wanna-be 'Joey Tribbaini's, who says no-no to commitment. They are the idiot savants in matters of romance.

Here I am talking about the cute, shy single guys. I have met alot of them. You must have tagged them as the typical geeks or nerds in your class/workplace. But dear girlies, you may just not realize that these shy soft spoken creatures may have deep deep crush on you, whilst you were busy chasing the "bull". But then who is to be blamed? They hardly speak, and you don't realize they actually exist!

In my attempt to train my brother to talk to girls in general, and his CRUSH in particular, I have just told him one thing. Go and talk. The first line, no doubt, is the hardest but still go ahead and talk. I understand that guys have this incurable fear of rejection. What will she think of me? What if her friends make fun of me? What if I say something wrong? What if she knows how I feel about her? So on and so forth. But guys, the truth is, we don't judge you the whole time. Some of us find it difficult to start a conversation. Unlike some chatty girl like me, who can talk any crap, anytime, with anyone, majority of the girls have this kindda inhibition. So dear men take a deep breath, be brave and just talk. Who knows she may even like your goofy jokes. After all, we are also humans with limitations.(We may not show it, but we know it ;) ) And we are definitely not some praying mantis ready to bite your head off!

Now your opening lines may not be outta Mr. Cassanova's handbook(Trust me, weirdest lines make the longest impression ;) ) But don't say something totally weird and disgusting either, to get tagged as the weirdo or the crackhead. There is always the very trusty "hi" or "hello", followed by "how was your day" etc. And of course, her likes and dislikes are always there to talk about.(I am sure you must have done a total background check by now. Thats really a creepy thought though.) Now hold on to your horses, I am not trying to make you sound gay. But then,if you are not much into flirting, make sure you don't try to sound too cheesy. It simply sucks.

Also, you really don't have to be that uber-cool dude your crush is actually crushing on. Just be yourself. It works 98 percent of the time.Quoting my favorite Audioslave song:

"Someone finds salvation in everyone, another only pain
Someone tries to hide himself, down inside himself he prays
Someone swears his true love until the end of time
Another runs away, separate or united, healthy or insane

And to be yourself is all that you can do,yeah."

Last but not the least, if your feelings don't get reciprocated please don't get disheartened. I know its easier said than done. But who said love comes easy. And thats definitely the end of the world.You can go two ways now. Either stick to your guns and pursue your lady love, or go find another hobby! After all, aaj Pooja toh kal dooja. Life is too short and too important to cry over one person,baby! But then that doesn't mean you don't ever take that first step to know her. 'coz sometimes, to find diamonds you need to crawl through the entire desert. All the best!

P.S. Please feel free to add on something extra. Its always a pleasure to learn more, after all I am no certified Love-Guru.

A week that was!!

So I survived my first week in US of A. Not that it was difficult. I mean I am from INDIA, we live there by chance(thousands of diseases, occasional peek-a-bo0 from neighbouring terrorists bhais all set to blow us up, natural calamities, yada yada). Hence we can survive anywhere! =)

My first week in Philly is "mixed-emotions". Its frustrating to get lost on my way to Drexel on a sunny morning, but its equally fun to discover a new place around the wrong corner. Whats more, people are really friendly. I know its hard to believe that they are the same Americans who can detain SRK 'coz of the KHAN in his name. I am sorry but he is my favorite and so I am still a bit shocked!

Anyways back to discovering Philly. There is so much happening here. Nothing big but small joys in life. My people at work are really great. Alex been really patient as I make mistakes while doing the Compression tests. And Aaron showed how a half a million dollar SEM works! Its brilliant. Lunchtime is really fun. Trying out from the various lunch trucks is quite handful. But my first experience with Cheese Steak wasn't that great. I just felt a bit weird 'coz I found beef taste weird! Speaking of food, American lunch proportions are quite huge. So agrees my Spanish and French friends. None of us could finish the whole lunch.

Also the food is kindda bland and always mayo laden. So then I had to try my hand in cooking, its more like my very own spicy retreat! My cooking skills were always quite questionable, but now I actually enjoy making my dinner. Nothing lavish, but I love this ritual. I knew I would inherit those genes from Papa :P And I am proud that I haven't burnt the place down with my newly discovered culinary skills!

Oh, and I am really excited to meet Prof. Barsoum tomorrow. Finally I get to meet the person who made this research possible for me. And I hope I get my Dragon card and a desk tomorrow. I better sign off now, coz I see my bowl of icecream is slowly turning into chocolate milkshake. See ya homies..soon!

Traveling riverside(rather, airway) blues!

My 22 hours of flight from Mumbai to Philadelphia couldn't have been more eventful. Lets start with who sits next to me. Well if last time it was old and farty men, this time it upgraded to babies.CRYING BABIES. Before I start off, lemme tell you I am not a baby hater. But this time, things have changed, atleast for now. Not only they( read, babies) cry throughout the whole flight, they even manage 2 puke on the person sitting beside. No matter how much I love those "cute little things", I just can't be happy about getting myself puked on! Lemme be more precise about my "journey". I know you may doze off in the middle of this post, but I NEED TO LET IT OUT. (Btw, you will notice many CAPS in this post. Go figure why!)

PART 1:Mumbai-Paris ~ Osama on board

Okay, my French sucks. All I can manage are the formal courtesies. So when this cute air host says I got a good French accent in replying to his customary "Bonjour!", I, for some reason(read, stupid reason) thought its gonna be a good journey. But the I was wrong. Comes a mother with her baby and two other kids. And right behind my seat, another family with noisy kids. And of the kid was called Osama. I did 180 turn just to see the kid with that name. I am not kidding, but that Osama did have fiery eyes and his expression was nothing, but anger. This is pure coincidence but it did creep me out. Anyways, the baby beside me started off wailing at the take off. And there I was thinking, well its just for now, maybe he will sleep off after some time. Wrong! It simply went on from loud to louder and finally to loudest. And the worst part, the mother was clueless. Everytime I was about to sleep or watch a movie, the wailing just gets louder. Even a bottle of red wine didn't help me to sleep(I wish I had my bottle of Grillinctus cough syrup with me!). But Led Zepp and Jimi Hendrix did help later on to shut out the noise.( Kudos to Air France's music collection). So by the time I landed Paris, I was a drunk and sleep-deprived zombie. If I had a camera, I would have posted my pic here.

PART 2:Paris 2 Philly~ The French stain

If last time it was one crying baby, this time it got doubled up. Some great sadist UP ABOVE was laughing His at his work. This cute little girl baby right beside me was all smiling during the take-off. I too was smiling, thinking that flight will be my personal "Stairway to Heaven". And I dozed off only to wake few minutes later to the sound of wailing. The baby beside the smilin baby starts crying. Smiling baby starts crying too and leans enough to puke something white n gooey on me! What happened next was a blurry of incidents: me fuming, the two babies having crying competition throughout the flight, the French guy on my other side tearing his hair apart with that noise.

So when the Customs officer asked me how I was doing...all I could answer " Tired". But then I was "Dazed and Confused" too. I still haven't slept and its been more than 30 hours. And my sweater smells of puke. I would continue further, but my head is doing a cha-cha-cha now. GTG!