Skyward Fire

The Christmas of 2009 ended up being the most awesome Christmas I’ve ever had. First, I’d like to wish my good old friend Disha Dubey a very happy birthday. Christmas day is some day to celebrate your birthday. To be born on the day Jesus Christ was born is a whole another legendary story to tell to your kids, once you have some. May God bless you, and I hope you have a great year ahead of yourself.

My girlfriend showing up in Dubai was a welcome change. We went for Avatar in Imax 3D at Ibn Batuta Mall, and she got me a cake for my birthday, which was on the 18th of last month. I hadn’t cut a cake back then, so she had promised me by the end of the year, she’ll get me a cake and that’s what she did. You got to like a woman with some determination. The whole thing was nothing less than a Christmas miracle for me. Considering the harsh time I’ve been having purely as the outcome of a few of my own terrible decisions, this was a very welcome change. There’s nothing like spending Christmas eve with your loved ones. Thank you Shruti!

Avatar in Imax 3D is the best movie-viewing experience I’ve had till date. The story should have had a few more twists though. It could definitely do with some improvements there. I didn’t expect anything ground breaking in terms of the story when I went there. I just wanted to be awed by visual effects. I thought it was excellent for what it was. The movie has magnificent visual presentation. We could certainly use more films like this. Weta, ILM, Framestore, Stan Wiston, Uncharted etc and everybody who worked on this did a phenomenal job! When I came back from the movie, eyes could not believe what I had seen. Just utterly gorgeous images. But to some, the movie might come off as all visual flare, and unfortunately very little substance. Easy to get carried away and lose track of time with you staring at next-gen CGI, though. And James Horner has worked his wand really well with the soundtrack. The music is very-well suiting to the way the movie proceeds. Kudos to the whole team of Avatar and James Cameron for such an awesome work.

Cycle tests in college came to a very shitty end. With my mind elsewhere all the time for the past 4 months, the GPAs right now are a total bloodbath, and if I don’t pick up what I’ve left off, I’ll be terribly screwed as far as the end semesters are concerned. It’s time to get over everything worthless and focus on what needs to be focused upon.

Two days ago, I celebrated another birthday. And I had one hell of a party thanks to my friends and family who are the best people I have ever known. I should have done this that day itself, but considering the lazy ass I really am, here it goes. There’s a list below of people who wished me for my birthday.

Those who wished on Facebook – Jazzie, Natasha, Shilpa, Audra, Disha, Avi, Manya, Ajita, Haza, Amjad, Sonia, Ritwik Bhai, Ninzy, Shobit, Vishwajit, Christine, Deepak, Aaron, Shirin, Ahana, Priyanka, Satwik, Joesph, Trisha and the friendly neighbourhood folk from Xbox Live.

Those who wished on Orkut – Vaibhav, Wasif, Kislay, Nicole, Shashwat, Soumalya, Preeti, Ritwik (Brutality) and Vivek.

Those who wished through email – G Krishnakumar and the very helpful folks from Sony Japan

Those who wished on Twitter – Deep, Reetesh, Shadez, Sathya, b50 and Harshad

Those who wished on Phone – Komal, Saba, Sana, Shruti (the very dear friend), Sohil, Chris, Ahana, Ninzy, Nathan, Ritwik, Sonia, Ahana, Ninzy, Priyanka, Vishal, Doc, Shawn, Shweta, Abhinav, Adrian, Eric and Priyanka

Those who wished on IM – Jenson and Nitesh

Those who showed up – Dad, Trisha, Sonika, Tara, Sree and more family folk.

And now, time for a few special mentions. First up, my mother, and obviously my dad, without whom I would never have been here in the first place. Thank you for the five odd cakes I cut last week. Then, there’s the lovely Komal, who had her birthday a day before mine. I was excited about her birthday more than I was about mine. How can I forget the very gorgeous twins – Sana, and Saba. Komal, Saba and Sana sang me the birthday song over the phone. You guys rule. It was amazing to talk to you.

Then there’s this one person who I expected to call me up but she didn’t – Disha, but you know I still love you very much. Then, Sonia gave me a Lorenzini shirt. The biggest surprise this year was the fact that my cousin Trisha flew in all the way from Dubai just for the heck of celebrating my birthday with me, and so did her sister Tara, from Mumbai, and they together gave me Fallout 3 for the PS3, a 12 month XBL Gold Subscription, and Call of Duty 5 for the X360. I also have to thank the lovely cousins for the beautiful dinner that evening, and the getting drunk part that followed. I got a Brioni gift card from Priyanka, and another Amazon gift card from Ahana. Natasha says her gift will come in a little delayed. Doc gave me the AC/DC’s special edition Black Ice DVD. Thanks to Abhinav, I now on Dead Space, Left 4 Dead and Red Alert 3. It’s not his fault though, if I pre-owned the last two. I can’t say I mind keeping two copies of the same game. And with all credits to la familia, I am richer by thousands.

Last, and certainly never ever the least, I must mention my fiancé Shruti. In spite of the disctance factor and the deal with her being all the way in London and me over here in India, you were so close to me all day long. Thank you for that. Thank you for pulling off karaeokes with me all day long. Thank you for the Star Wars boxset and those vintage issues of GDM I had been on a lookout for ages. Thank you, each one of you, for making the day so extraordinary in every other possible way.