Hmmm, apart from the dog (who just chewed up either Anjali’s or Shubha’s slippers) and the cat (who has been sleeping all night and day – I need to check if she is alive at all), I am all alone at home.

Spent the morning answering mail and doing some office work (from home, of course), now getting ready to decend into the basement and jam.

Before I do – several people wrote in saying they cant find the article I mentioned last night. That is because I have not yet put it up! I did say that I need to get clearance first!

I will add more here later today. There is a StarTrek movie (Generations) on HBO in a while, but I have seen it, so I guess I should just jam.

BTW – remember my mentioning that I was trying to get someone to join Exocore a while back? Well, I am happy to announce that it worked out. Now try and figure out who it was

Later…

Well, I didn’t get to go down to the basement and jam – made the fatal mistake of switching on the TV just as the StarTrek movie started rolling. While this movie is not really exceptional in any way (and what the heck – they destroyed the Enterprise!), I was honourbound to sit it out – if for no other reason than to prove to myself something I have known all along – Troi has nothing on Crusher. The Doc is the real thing to drool over.

Traded insults with Vinod in Delhi over SMS. Naturally I won the battle.

The highlight of the day was something that has become a sort of annual ritual: once a year, my friends Harsha and Samyeer join me in what we call our “sit down” – the three of us sit down and analyse our lives, talk technology, and eventually head out for food.

This year was sort of special for me – on the 20th of Feb, I turn 40. If I am to die at 80, I will be officially middle aged. Of course if I am to die at 60 or 50, I am almost there. In books and movies, they use a phrase for this – “reminds us of our own mortality”.

Ah well, let me not dwell on that – plenty of time for that over the next 11 days.

IAC – the three of us hopped into the car and went hunting for food. We drove across town, but eventually landed back in really the only place we should have considered to begin with – Windsor Pub on Vasanthnagar main road.

Surprisingly, neither Harsha nor Samyeer had been there before, so it was great fun to watch them totally freak out over the fabulous food. Windsor Pub is “different” – compared to the other pubs in Bangalore, you don’t go there to beat your brains to a pulp with loud (and bad) music or to get hoplessly sloshed – this place has great atmosphere, great music (lots of Clapton, CCR, etc.) and FABULOUS food! And very attentive and quick service. Next time you want to go and eat out, check out the Windsor Pub – I cannot recommend it highly enough, both for young people in the need to feel hep, as well as families.

That brings me back here. Family is still out of town, there is nothing good on TV, so I guess I’ll just curl up with a good book. I have a series of Perry Mason novels loaded on my Palm Vx, and the Lord of the Rings books. One of them will do, I guess.

So here I end for the day – my penultimate Saturday as a non-middleaged individual.

For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry
All you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

–”Breathe”, Pink Floyd