Mokshaji's pilgrimage down under

Epworth returns

2006-10-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Right.....

I think owe an update here to tell you guys what came of my match so here goes.....

It was , in a word, eventful.....Oh very eventful....

For the first, I've had someone actually give me the licence to run with the ball.....The coach's specific instructions to me were to get the ball from my teammates and run at their defence....which for 25 glorious minutes i did with imperious impunity revelling at the chance to play against guys just that vital fraction slower than I....chances weren't aplenty but I did win a penalty which was then duly missed and had a shot hit the bar...

But after 25 minutes they planted 2 men and me and effectively stopped my teammates getting the ball to em and as such i dropped in to the midfield in my cutomary defensive role and thats when the fun started....

First up, went in for an aerial challenge with one of my opponents...on a highball....won the challenge and was running off withe ball when the calls to stop play and iturned around to find the guy clutching his face....I thought twas all just an act but he got stretchered off and eventually taken to hospital and at halftime we got new that I had fractured his cheekbone....

Honestly I have no idea how I managed that....but I did....and it only meant I was a marked man for the rest of the match....

And it all came to a boil in the 2nd half.....

Went in for a sliding tackle...won the ball clean...well clean enough for the referee but took out my opponents legs from under him in the process...which...you know...happens....its all in the game...

But he was rather incensced and got to his feet and just took a swing at me in retaliation...I was still on the ground and he just swung his boot at my and connected flush with my hip .... I could feel my femur jarring in the socket.....twas such an act of petulant retaliation and I wasnt about to take it sitting down and I jumped to my feet and was in his face....

Man...2 cm from his nose and I could just feel the heat and the tension.....I wasnt about to throw the punch....but I was just breathing into his face waiting for him to snap......And the next thing I knew my whole eam was rushing in....as was his.....And wolla!!..... a huge shoving match....

Haha....so much for a charity game....and to top it all off the guy didnt even get sent off..... the ref (who was provided by The Police) just came him a yellow and firm talkign to.....

I was mad but well...such is life eh....

In any case....well...we lost...3-0....to a team of far superior fitness and who've been training together everyweek for years...so no big disgrace there.....

but what a match.....Broke a guys cheekbone and started a fight.....

My kinna day.....

Epworth

2006-09-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

For those of you don't know and even for those of you who do know .....

I train with and play for the Epworth Foundation Soccer Team here in Melbourne....

The Epworth Foundation is like an umbrealla organisation for about 4 different big hospitals plus a few nursing homes, surgical hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals and welfare organisations....Its like how SingHealth operates in Singapore (i think....) as an umbrella body....and i work for Epworth Eastern Hospital...one of the surgical hospitals that it encompasses

Well essentially they have a soccer team....which is pretty strong considering the size of the workforce they have at their disposal and that I have been fighting to get into.....

Well, this Sunday they play a charity match against the State Police of Victoria.......which is gonna be a huge occasion.....and I'm probably gonna be on the team.....barring any major muckups on my part.....

I've havent played in something of this manitude in quite a while....I don't think even outr National cricket games got this much publicity...

I'm rather surprised at just how high profile this thing actually is....what with a curatin raiser junior match, displays and a parade by the police force.....i think they even have the Commissioner of Police arriving in a helicopter or something...
And the trophies will be presented by the Deputy Premier...Holla Holla!

So its something exciting to look forward to...

I've attached the flyer for the event below...so blow it up and have a look.....

And wish me luck....gonna need it....The state Police team is pretty damn tough...

Tennis anyone?

2006-09-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Just another glimpse of our extra-curricular activities while on rural......making use of the excellent facilities at our accomodation.....

For those of you who are wondering about the little munchkin in the corner.......

Thats Trish....

and Yes......

She really is that small.....

But fiesty....oh indeedy....Fiesty!

Me no Ambo....

2006-09-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

A night spent with the Ambulance services.....and getting called out to a fight between a white family and a bunch of indigenous punks.....

Hmmm.....I dont think i'm cut out to be a paramedic....the uniform just dosen't flatter my figure.....

It must be the luminescent horizontal stripes...DAMN!

Yes twas actually a medical placement...

2006-09-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough....our 2 week country holiday wasnt just that...

We actually did stuff with a strangely medical inclination......

well barely.....

Practicing the art of implementing an effective nec brace without snapping our patient's spinal cord in the process....

Although, in the case of this particular patient that latter option seemed a very attractive proposition...
Its so comforting to see the future of the medical fraternity so hard at work at perfecting the skills to ensure the wellbeing of our future patients.....
Like....look at shasti....the picture of concentration....

Other skills learnt include the art of plastering up a broken arm....

Note to self:
The famous 'Strike!' shirt (as loved by Justin) + unforgivable use of army pants + distinctly attractive socks = Fashion Disaster

Excuse:
I'm in the country for christ's sake...Who cares?!?!...The Cows???

A new take on the standard obligatory Oreo photo with Eliza:

The Oreo 'Greek Statue" Remix

My usual fellow half of the cookie, Nesh has been replaced by Suran....but the Cream remains the same....Eliza at her plastered up best.....

Trish getting the whole concept of a plaster cast very wrong....

Sweetheart....Casts are meant to heal breaks......
Not cause them Goddamnit!!

Welcome to Bairnsdale....

2006-09-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

And so i'm back....

After 2 weeks spent in the technological wilderness of rural Victoria.....

More specifically in a sleepy coastal town called Bairnsdale.... 350 km out of Melbourne....and seemingly even further from anything to do....

Bairnsdale is essentially a town full of retiring pensioners with money to splurge on elegant holiday homes along the coast and along the canal network that works way inland and makes up the Gippsland Lake system along which our own accomodation was built....

Speaking of which, the accomodaion was incredible.....twas a lil holiday resort which was right on the water...with our own personal jetty( not like we had anything to moor on it but thats not the point...)

Tis the view from our living room at 6 in the morning....

The waterway you see leads out to the lakes which we traversed on 2 occasions.....

One.....in a dignified ( read: rather boring) ferry cruise....

Tis jereme, carol and shasti enjoying the vibrant, dynamic view of 2 hours of vast, open water...

No...i'm not a fan of too much scenery watching...especially when the its such that it knocks me off to sleep, i wake up and scenery has yet to change...

Right after this photo was taken I was chided by the tour manager for being plugged in to my music when there was all this nature to enjoy...

What the heck was he going on about!!...How enjoyable can the droning flatulence of a his little ferry possibly be....gdness....these rural folk have seriously gone too deep into their keeping nature natural nonsense.....

Our second rather more exciting trip down he lakes....was when the above mentioned 3 and yours truly rented out kayaks and took on the waterways on our own....

Unfortunately, the fact that we ended up IN instead of On the freezing cold lakes on a number of occasions justified our decision to cameraless....and as such there is no photographic record of our clumsy adventures

I try to steal??

2006-08-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Spam……something we tend to delete without a seconfd look because that’s what we’ve learnt to do…because after all, by vitue of its name, its all junk innit….

Wrong….

I happened to have the good fortune of opening one of my spam mails the other day ( don’t worry amma I haven’t infected my computer and myself with viruses)…and uncovered this gem……

It isn’t much really…but the bad grammar coupled with the naïve confidence of amateur trickery and its ability to invoke curiosity….and most of all the raw simplicity of it all…..just made me laugh…..

regardless, I managed to resist the temptation to open the file “ranking.zip”…..

Oh to be sweet 17....

2006-08-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

One of those signs displayed next to the cashier at my beloved Reject Shop……as much as I love the place, I couldn’t help taking this picture so I can mock em….

And now focus on this bit……

So.....

If i were 17, it'd be easier to be an armed criminal than a vandal???!!!

Oh….the inescapable logic of it all……

Blood and Gore....

2006-08-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

I guess I’ll be dealing a lot more with these things later on…but for now the novelty value of my job has yet to wear off…..Here’s the stuff I toss around every week….

for a closer look…

I love my job……

The Marfan Show....

2006-07-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have uncovered a thoroughly refreshing way of chronicling Nesh's party.....

For anyone's who not familiar with the concept of The Truman Show....well, here's the result of a camera being focussed on one person all night thus allowing you to observe the pregression of events throught the course of the night while the use of a singular test subject standardises all other variables....

This is reseach protocol of the highest calibre one with the subject, himself just off a stint as research underling would most certainly approve of...Nishy Boo himself

Ladies and Gentlemen.....

Welcome to The Marfan Show.....

To begin, here's a look at our test subject at the start of the night...

With first shot in hand.....

A shot or too later....

Notice the slight droop in facial muscle tone...resulting in the classical symptom of goldfish orifice-itis....

Our test subject takes some time off his ethanolic schedule to provide some invaluable instruction to a rookie on proper tequila technique...

And then proceeds to whine the next day that his sweat smells of tequila and is making him sick....we can't explain why nish....nope...no idea...

Desperate attempts to correct the droopiness produced largely unsatisfatory results...

Overcompensation.....

And in the other extreme...

Undercompensation....

But all was well, as long as subject remained seated and motionless...
But then....

Like a monster rising from the deep....he rose...and stalked off in search of prey....leaving his hugely enthiusastic minder scrambling in his wake....

Once the first victim was identified The Marfanator wasn't gonna let him out of sight...

The first attempt was foiled by a by a superbly timed flash of light...

But he wasn't to be discouraged that easily and at the next available distraction, The Marfanator pounced....

And his prey sinks to the floor, his face contorted in paroxysms of pain, The Marfanoator follows him mercilessly...down....

Lower....lower....lower.....AIIGHT!!

At this point the experiment was deemed to have slipped slighty out of control and was abandoned...
Loss of any persons whether living or now dead were deemed to be acceptable sacrfices in the pursuit of science and have been written off as tax exemptions.....

Nesh rocks the southern hemisphere.....

2006-07-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last friday saw the conclusion of one of the biggest parties to hit the southern hemisphere since Jeyalalitha's re-election.....

Twas Nesh's 22nd......and do not be fooled by the seemingly innoccous coonotations of a 22nd birthday party.....Tis Nesh we're talking about.....

The hip-shaking, bum-jiggling, tequila-crunching retromambo puff-daddy of clayton town.....

See wha' uh mean.....

And it was no ordinary party....Starting from DJ H-to the-A-to the-RAN....

All the way from the rural township of Adeleide to spin some of his Chillout Farm hits.....You've heard of DJ's whose forte is House music....well, DJ H-A-RAN plays Barn...

DJ H-A-RAN demonstrating how to work the latest from his range of DJ equipment.....

The Emperor's New Turntable......if you can't see it, hey...tis your fault aiight...

Earnest pupil Breakmaster vOn G follows in hope but can't quite grasp the bass-pedal-in-the-armpit technique that the master so expertly utilises....

Ba-da-da-chickichicki...da chicki-da chicki-chicki da-loopy loopy-grind grind-bada-chicky-dang dang!!..............(Haran if you don't remember that i'll skin you)

Some of the goings-on that night were a tad difficult to explain....

Like this game of advanced S-paper scissors/paper/stone....a skill that comes only with a blood alcohol conc. of near cirrhotic levels....

Oh yah.....There were a few sane people at the party as well....

Emil who decided, for a change, to stay on the other end of the open bottle....and did an expert job of tending the bar....
Am who arrived, posed, looked pretty and then just walked into a wall and vanished.....
Oh and yours truly still recovering from a nasty battle with a lawn mower which i very visibly lost....

And of course the usual suspects.....

The Incredible Hulk...demonstrating his absolute inability to take a conventional photo....

and of course, Sunit....The Bear, The Legend.....in all his primal glory...

Whose single handed consumption that night of half of Moscow's vodka stores were matched only by the guttural war cries of "Hazbullah" that preceeded each dose of that consumption....as is plainly visible....

And this would probably be an oppurtune moment to introduce the latest addition to the clan....the new PR at our house...whose Dad was starting to wonder why he was paying rent for her own place....

World....meet Gayathri...or Gaya as she is known....Nesh and Jereme's relief teaching colleague at TJ and my long lost friend reunited in Melbourne....

And yeah...get used to this face....

As always all good things in this country seem to come to a very messy, pukey end....and this was no exception.....For all the medics at the party it was work experience of the very best kind....

Aaah...the sweet smell of half digested dinner.....

Next to come....The Marfan Show- the same party as seen through someone else's night....

Watch this space.....

Tushy's collage

2006-07-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

My dear friend tush who have drove up from canberra to sydney while i was there to grace me with her auspicious company then proceeded to produce this quite delightful collage.....

Unfortunately the limits of my blog width means i am unable to take advantage of the actual width of the collage which would have treated you to the cunning captions in white....

but well....such is life eh.....

In paradise....

2006-07-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

To come to queensland and go to the Gold Coast would be a travesty akin having your cake and not eating it....

( Just to side track here.....that's an expression i never understood....What's the point in having your cake of you can't ruddy well eat it? eh!)

Anyway .....

Yes!....So we set out one morning with Kristy's mom driving us, picked up dear Priya who had just arrived in Brisbane for her month long internship and set off for the Gold Coast and to be more specific....Surfers Paradise....

Mile after mile of unbroken beach and untempered coastal wonder....Throw in the 24 degree weather, the sun and the bikini clad temptresses that punctuate the landscape like sequins on a belly dancers skirt...and its hard to imagine that life could get any better....

And then you see the sea....And the waves....Oh the waves....Schumacher himself hath known not such sheer power....

If Bondi was calm and beautiful....a serene symphony admist the cacophony of the teeming city....then this.....

This was Rock & Roll.....This was Elvis Priestley at his hip shaking, drug addled, intoxicated best....

The beach was Tom Jones.....and the waves were his Sex-Bomb.....

And faced with that....how dyu resist the temptation to dive right in......

Yep you don't.....

The four of us on the beach....
Once the dust, or rather the water, had settled and we were comfortably back on shore

Mokshaji's Indian Immersion Programme

2006-07-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Next stop Brisbane......and my quest for economically viable (read:FREE) accomodation solutions were quite comfortably put to rest by the unwavering generosity and warmth of my dear hosts....Kristy and her lovely Mom...

And i responded in impeccable irony....testing their tastebuds with the sharp, biting, knife-edge experience of that undeniably indian of culinary expressions that is a curry.....

Twas tough enough finding appropriate ingredients let alone putting the brakes on my usually irrepressible masochistic urges with the chilli powder bottle.....

But twas managed and what better way to enjoy indian food then with the delicate intricacies of eating with one's very own fingers....

And thus it came to be that Kristy and her Mom learnt to eat with their fingers and very nearly polished off the pot of curry....

The quadropod....

2006-07-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

Malika's ambitious attempt at looking her desired weight.....

Bondi...

2006-07-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Aaah...Bondi.....one of the most famous beaches in the world....and a must-see, i guess, even if its the middle of winter....

And hence i set forth towards Bondi and its numerous charms armed with my trusty guide:

Malika......my dear navigationally-challenged friend whose claimed frequent forays to the precint were exposed as little more than parentally-funded shopping trips, by her obvious lack of geographical appreciation of the area....

In any case...we found our way there...eventually....And honestly i've never felt so overdressed before....

Who the heck goes to the beach wearing 3 layers and shoes.....well....welcome to winter....Admittedly the beach was not the greatest of ideas considering the absence of warmer climes....

Nevertheless, with necessity being the mother of all invention.....we rolled up our trouser legs, dumped our shoes in a bag.....and marched imperiously to the surf....

Which as we found out, the hard way, was a lot higher and colder than we expected it to be....

But well...whatever said and done...I had seen Bondi.....and twas enough....

The cousins visit the bald chocolatier....

2006-07-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

Yes...scream at me now...but i have never been to Max Brenner's.....well....had never been......until my dear cousins discovered this glaring shortcoming in my gatronomic portfolio and took it upon themselves to correct it...

So off it was the chocolate bar....and oh my goodness what a place.....

Cosy, panelled in dark wood and with very purposefully designed poor ventilation the place positively reeked of sin.....

Sweet, sweet, diabetic sin.....

Sin to make your skin tingle, your nose twitch and your tastebuds squirm in girlish delight.....

Sin that descendeth upon us from the heavens in blasphemous ecstasy....

Tis chocolate....

The trip...

2006-07-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Fr those of you know it....i spent a week and half traversing the cities along the South-Eastern coast of Australia......namely Sydney, Brisbane.....and then a day down to the Gold Coast...

Budget flights, staying with cousins and friends.....Friends who drove down for Canberra to see me ( Love ya Tush).....Chocolate bars, gay clubs, beaches and ghost tours.....The freedom of travelling alone.....on a trip taken on impulse...

Twas a fantastic trip......a peek at which i hope to afford here...

My hols.....

2006-07-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, my blogging came to a sudden and abrupt halt about 2 weeks ago....and since then ive been recieving complaints that no one has any idea what i did with my hols....which, for the less informed, just ended....

So the next few posts(hopefully) will seek to address this apparent shortcoming....

Beginning with what probably occupied most of my time in the holidays and resulted in the following picture....One of my most frequent views of melbourne over the past month....

Yes....that's melbourne at its glorious best (foggy, murky and freezing....absolutely, butt-wrenchingly freezing) at 6 in the morning which is the time i reach work, having woken up at 4.30, on the days i do the early shift.....

The later shift means i start at 8.....and the afternoon shift mean i start at 12 and end at 8....

then there's the day where i do the 14 hour shift from 6 in the morning till 8 at night and get home too buggered to form coherent sentences...

Aaah the joys of work.....but hey...it pays well....and i love the job itself so....

Tis all gd....

More enjoyable holiday moments shall make an appearence shortly...once ive uploaded photos.....

My blog's gone mad....

2006-07-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yes...my blog's gone mad....links have totally disappeared....

and my tag board has vaporized.....

problems shall be addressed shortly....

In Memorium.....

2006-07-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

And thus she's gone....departed for the dot of South East Asia......Home as we call it......yet the irony pans out in a situation where home steals your friends from you....or perhaps i'm just rambling....

whatever it may be....truth is that I-lean has returned home...and thus...i dedicate this to a dear friend and ex-fellow singaporean in melbourne....

In Memorium: Eileen

Eileen….my regular companion-cum-host for most of the time I spent camping out in the city for the Commonwealth Games Festival…....Good times....

The wide open spaces where we gathered for most of the outdoor performances…..

Such as this one…..

Weird Ass LOTR-like tree creatures and their hippy friends…..

And one of my favourite pictures which dominates my desktop wallpaper at the moment…..

Myself and the lady with 3 shoulder joints…..

At Ikea's toilet fittings section....

2006-06-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

“Never underestimate the power of the stupidity of the human mind”
-George Bernard Shaw

peer closer...

Amen

Before the hunt....

2006-06-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

Ok this is an absolutely random flashback but…..tis one of my favourite pictures……its up on my wall in my room…..and I love it…

If I remember correctly, this is right before we went Lambo-hunting…..

Jesus, Do take note....

2006-06-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from one of my notes of Cardiovascular function.....

Please take note of the underlined.....

I mean honestly.....How much of a problem is crucifixion these days??!!

Honestly.....you'd think they'd have been able to come up with more relevant examples....Really makes you wonder about the quality of the educators around here eh?

Haha....

Photogenic?....Not....

2006-06-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

If you like the look in the last post Amma, you're really not gonna like this one......

This one was just........

..........curdled.

Serious gene mutation in the photogenecity gene locus.....

Ward 2North loses their uniforms....

2006-06-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

As i sit here.....surrounded by my multitude of medical texbooks drowning in the sheer multiplicity of foramens and ganglions.....and various assorted inanely intircate anatomical odds and ends.....

its nice to look back on the times when i used to have fun....

Like about 2 weeks ago.....when the staff of the ward at the hospital where i work.....deicded to have a Ward Night-Out....

For those who don't know, or still think i work at the markets flipping hotdogs on a grill...well ive left that job and ive been working at a private hospital for the past well....9 months or so....as a Ward Administrator....

and as sad as it may sound......a Ward Night-Out....is not a group of cardiac patients being wheeled down to the park....

This......

......Is a Ward Night-Out......

yes pretty damn different.....

Essentially that means....

12 female nurses.....(the rest hadnt arrived yet at this point...)

The 2 gay male nurses.....and myself.....

The above picture is with Angus, the Marilyn Manson look alike.....and Ken (who just broke up with his partner of 18 years.....)

as I am constantly reminded...i was the only one who was fair game for both sides.....

But twas just great fun being out, partying with older people....

Cos they have money to spend.....and more than anything...they've got no one to try and impress...and so are that much more content to be out there and have a swinging good time...

Twas a great night.......which ended off with this, on retrospect rather embarrassing,Boy-band like shot....

....and of course with Angus in the back, looking like the vampire Lestat.....

Nobby's retirement.....

2006-06-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Ok...that post is going down....

Poor Nobby has taken enough of a verbal battering.....

not to mention the gross extrapolation of explicit insinuations that were starting to take root.....

So for the sake of virtuous sensitivities.......

Nobby has been officially retired.....

V necks...

2006-05-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Talk about contrast.....haha....but hey as the King himself proclaimed..."It don't matter if you're black or white....."

aiight!!!

For once, my plunging neckline has some stiff competition.....

And I must grudgingly admit that it's been summarily out-trumped in the aesthetics department...I'm sure Haran would agree....

More random shots.....

2006-05-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

More random shots....

With Catrina, Jereme and half of the entire Australian cosmetic industry...

oh damnit...there I go again.....Look, I don't mean to be mean but honestly....!!??!!

And on a more sombre note....

The Men of the House......

The Fairytale Couple of the Year 2006

2006-05-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

Nominees for The Fairytale Couple of the Year 2006

The Beauty(?) and the Beast.....

VS

Jacqueline and the beanstalk

The Winner?

The Gingerbread Man.......and his alcohol.....

Career and Cocktails Night 2006

2006-05-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

In a flashback to one of my first few posts last year......I bring to you, cyberspace deja vu....

Tis Career and Cocktails Night 2006.....essentially, a cocktail party where we have speakers from different medical specialities talk to us about their chosen career paths and the different options available to us...

Sounds good on paper...and i guess the talks were actually pretty interesting but i have to concede i guess that the night was essentially an excuse for everytime to rip off the regular uni rags and actually dress up....

SO here we go....

The Meddies@Kanooka arrive......as you can see in the far corner...we're already turning heads....

or so we'd like to believe....

The rose has been replaced by a startled fruit loop.....

Can't quite convince myself that the replacement was much of an improvement....

Us again with the omnipresent Shasti and the barely-present Claire....

WHy Claire and Shasti have their attractions drawn to opposing magnetic poles is beyond me.....
However I must concede that at least Claire has succeeded in managing to look sweet while dear Shasti on the other hand......hmm....

Why dei...Why?

4 mates and a couch....

2006-05-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

In a spontaneously unplanned effort......the four housemates inadvertently turn up for andrea's birthday celebration .....perfectly colour co-ordinated...

.....with the couch!!!!

Us + extra

2006-05-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

Aaah...and the controversial poster makes yet another appearence....as a backdrop...

Tis the Meddies@Kanooka.......plus the constant trespasser on our premises...the omnipresent Azleena....

(Point to note: I love my T-shirt.....if anyone can decipher what it says)

Setting up the new home.....

2006-05-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

Carol and her 2 suspiciously-illegal banglas....

The foor of us putting up centrepiece of our living room...a giant V for Vendetta poster...obtained gallantly by our valiant chinaman, Jereme.....under hughly surreptitious circumstances......

Looking at the reach of our arms at full stretch, it may be interesting to note that I am standing on the floor while Jereme, who will be henceforth known as Jem, is actually standing on our dining table stool...

Hey Hey Hey....Gd things come in small packages aiight....

The house....

2006-05-15T06:49:00.001-07:00

Seeing as this is the first proper post since i have been back in melbourne I only see fit to honour it with pictures of the biggest change in my life since i got back to melbourne.....

Our House....

Unfortunately....the facade to our palatial home is rather anonymous and hidden by a tree and so will remain predominantly in the shadows as it belongs.....

And let us proceed straight into.....the first annex that one is greeted with upon entering our home.....

My Room.....

Welcome to the Moksha Zone....

Tis taken at a wierd ass angle....but i find it strangely appealing...

My little picture corner.....in which that classic shot of The Greatest takes pride of place.....

as it deservedly should....

And by night

Not my most flattering of shots...but probably the pose and location I am found in most.....

And finally....

The back wall....

I gather its probably a tad diffcult to piece this all together and get an idea of what it all looks like but well.....i'm guessing most of you wont be too bothered......

and KAP, you're just gonna have to try and visualise this....

Tis for starters...and the rest of the house shall indeed follow suit soon....

Believe me now...the momentum has been set in place...and this blog shall stay alive....

Watch this space....

Resurrection...

2006-05-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

I am going to gloss over the apologies and excessive remonstrations that are no doubt expected of me...considering my largely unexplained absence...

But shall instead state very simply...that well....

I was busy....

And regrettably that will have to suffice....for as skimpy as it may sound.....

that is the truth....i have been busy...too busy in fact......and driving myself into to the ground...trying to juggle uni, as many work schedules as possible and a social life that has of late taken on some surprising new facets....

SO...I'm sorry....but i've just been busy....

And finally.....

The long awaited resurrection begins.......

Now

Prash

A thousand apologies....

2005-12-17T00:20:00.000-08:00

A thousand apologies to all those have been hounding me for updates.....

I have, unfortunately been up to my neck with things to do these hols and really blogging is a luxury i havent been able to afford....

I promise that as soon as things settle down a little i'll get back to my past lyrical ways....

Promise.....

Or for added effect, in the words of my cousin brinthan.....

Promise Sathiyam

Before & After

2005-12-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

Myself in mid flight.....in all my glamorous out-stretched glory....

Me 2 seconds later....caught by a flailing bony elbow......

culprit on the right....

Randomness.....

2005-11-26T02:55:00.000-08:00

More random photos from the night...

Azleena, the quiet one *add splish-splashing galoshes of sarcasm here*.......

seriously, she'll give shafiq a run for his money....but then again ..thats shafiq and his mouth moves as fast as his legs...so fat chance there i guess.....

but between the two of them they could build a strong case for humans to require noise control regulations....like muscle cars....

Here we discover the enigma that is Sunit....while most people go to clubs to boogie their posteriors off, here we find Sunit eyes closed in deepest concentration....clapping away to the music....

DUDE!!...the only people who still do that are the hippies and the Hare Rama Hare Krishna.....

and seriously....as much as i have supported you and defended you against the growing mob of anti-follicular activists that constantly accost you.....now, with the advantage of restrospect and photgraphic aids.....

Lose the Amazon man...seriously,....you're setting mankind back about ten thousand years......and that aint cool.....i mean if you're trying to disprove Darwin, this really isnt the way to go about it....

dude....its only a matter of time before you're gonna get arrested....and well...i only hope i'm there to see it....

Auspicium Melioris Aevi....

2005-11-19T02:51:00.000-08:00

With the birthday boy, the banshee and the boyfriend....well, the cowering boyfriend......

For the record, I must mention here that the boyfriend has an identity of his own. That's Ming.....or Rui Ming to be more exact....and another splendid product of the Rafflesian education system.....haha....

Auspicium Melioris Aevi....

Peace......

2005-11-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

Kellyn + alcohol = a very, very high pitched banshee...

Note: Boyfriend wilting in the background....

Hmm......I'm starting to notice a trend here....

No prizes for guessing what Kellyn's favourite number is.......

No more, Kellyn!...No more peace signs!!

Aaah....what the hell!!

Med End-of-Year Party......

2005-11-13T02:28:00.000-08:00

Shasti's birthday celebrations were followed up by the med fac end-of-year party......which we then adjourned to.....

Shasti.....visibly.....was still on a high.....

Nesh....on the other hand....wasn't so....

but once the music got pumpin.....the shots started flowing....and our boy started seriously heating up the floor....."seriously"....

tis one of the rare moments we managed to catch him stationary...haha

And of course...no med party is ever complete with a customary Oreo shot....Nesh, Eliza and I.....the 3 vital ingredients for that perfect chocolate cookie....

except i think we got the order a bit muddled here...

more to come.....

Shasti turns 18........

2005-11-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

In one of my earlier posts I introduced you all to my dear friend Shasti....known also as the Infinite Hunkness....for obvious weight-related reasons.....

What i failed to mention was that the little baby was still 17 as of the said photo....but that all changed about a week ago....when the boy became....

well...a slightly older boy.....and turned 18.....

Unfortunately due to the slight inconveniance which were the End-of-Year exams.....we only got round to throwing him a bash this week....
but well...better late than never....

Science 101 returns.....

2005-11-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

Prash Science 101 returns with our topic for the day being "The effects of vodka on the Human Psyche". To facilitate comprehension of the subject, I shall dispense with long-winded verbiage and present to you instead a pictorial depiction of the lesson. I trust my point will be clear by the end.

1) Test subject before Vodka:

2)Test subject during Vodka:

And....3) Test subject AFTER Vodka:

Capische?

DONE!!

2005-11-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

Writtens are over......and its just the OSCE in a week and a countdown to home....

Bliss.....

I'm stuffed.....

2005-10-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

When i lost my knives, lunch became a bit of a problem.......

aaah....pre-exam-lunacy......hey at least its better than the last time....last exam was the spiderman post.....

Important information to prevent serious loss of limb ! ! !

2005-10-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Exams in a week.....looks like its that time of the year again where i try and derive some form of entertainment from my textbooks....and once again....I am not disappointed.....

See long ago i realised that doctors were masters of stating the obvious....

Such as exemplified by the note on every bottle of children's panadol(for kids 12 and below) that states : "Do not drive or operate machinery".....well thank god they told me that....i'd better get my 3 year old sis off the combine harvester right away....

goodness gracious....

And now they've done it again....

Allow me to quote from the world's best selling anatomy textbook...Moore's....

" The long thoracic nerve is exceptional in that it courses on the superficial aspect of the serratus anterior muscle which it supplies. Thus, when the limbs are elevated, the nerve is especially vulnerable. Weapons, including missiles....(MISSILES!!!)... directed towards the thorax are a common source of injury. "

And it took a Professor Ameritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology to tell us this......

Sigh...Doctors rule......

Of Mary Poppins and Baloo the Bear

2005-10-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Mary Poppins has taken over our minds......

Save for the conspicuous lack of an absurdly oversized umbrella, we're a-hopping, a-skipping and merrily-a-singin our way back from uni.....

led by the ever affable, gynaecomasticated, Baloo the Bear........

Everyone.....meet Sunit...... everybody's favourite Bengal Bear......

21....again....again....The Carnage....

2005-10-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

Yes...this is very, very old....but ive just been swamped ive had no time to put this up...

but i figured that if i didnt do it now....i'd probably never get round to it...so here goes.....

The Carnage at Roberts Hall

just after midnight...as my birthday was in the wee hours of its infancy i get a knock at my door to be met my 2 very charming ladies, carol and indhu....dressed in their elegant, exquisite worst...i should have known something disastrously messy was up...but did i take the hint.....nope....

they then proceeded to blindfold me and drag me down the stairs.....at this point if you were wondering why 2 little munchkins with the ombined body weight of a pean nut were able to co-ere me into wilfull submission...well...its essentially cos i knew i had it oming after all i'd done to all of them on their birthdays....and so....i knew better than to resist and have them call the whole army which i'm sure was just waiting nearby...

in any case...i was next bundled into a car...and driven around for about 5 minutes to disorientate me and then dropped off at a location where i was met by a huge rowd of people shrieking a birthday song in the disjointed out od tune way that big crowds of people do....the fact that their conductor was a tone deaf ex-BMTC platoon commander turned med student didnt help matters much....

but before i ould get through pondering over these thoughts...i felt an almighty shove in the middle of my back, i was airborne for a second.....

and the next thing i was spluttering and gargling through about 2 feet of freezing, rank and rancid pond water.....

see monash has this delightful little lake....whih is, quite frankly anything but...it is inhabited by the hardiest of ducks at the best of times and the vilest of bacteria at any other....and this was the lake i ended up in.....did i mention it was freezing....and that was still blind folded....for the record, i was scratching for about 3 hours after.....AND.....and....when i was cleaning up after.....i found a bug....in my boxers....YAY!

AFter i had cursed and swore my way out of there, back onto dryland and relative safety and led to the platform overlooking the lake where my cake awaited me......just as i thought i was safe again.....i get plastered with a seemingly never ending supply of flour, icing sugar and strawberry jam....

which meant that within about 30 seconds...i probably tasted like my own birthday ake...might as well have stuck a candle on me.....

thankfully things got marginally better after that...well no....twas great after that....and topped off by my very own fedora.....which ive ahed for for so long.....whih all you guys got for me.....thanks for that fellas....

and here some pictorial evidence of the alm that followed the storm....

The brawn behinds the operation....

Male chauvanism at its pristine best.....

Its all flour!!....Honest!!

The infinite hunkness himself....

Shasti...the man you want around when you're studying anatomy....if Shasti ever gets famous he better not have a walk in warddrobe or the press will have a field day....cos every time he gets changed, he'll have a skeleton in his closet!!.....

hahahaha....ok...sorry...bad joke....

aah well...i'm allowed my fun...after all i did get buggered....but then again...for all that i dished on all the other birthdays.....i sure had it coming....what do they say about karma?

But one thing's for sure, i aint forgetting this anytime soon......haha...hell no...

21......again......

2005-10-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

My 2nd little birthday celebration was courtesy of my dear Fairy Godmother and her family......

I should have known she'd do something....but i very honestly didnt have a clue...not even when she told me to bring some of my friends over......then again how was I to know.....i mean...she loves poiling people....well.....she loves spoiling me......and she does a pretty good job of doing that.....

And she sure did that day......You can get a glimpse of the feast she had prepared for us in the picture above.....lamb curry, fish curry, chicken, eggs,thai chicken dumplings, asparagus, corn,....wine.......oh my goodness.....

Needless to say....i wallopped like there was no tomorrow....as did my accomplices...

A very happy quartet.....

And of course dinner was followed up by my 2nd birthday cake....

a beautifully thick, rich, chocolate mud-cake......aaaah....Sin...
Nishy hasnt even tasted it and he's already smiling......

And of course to top it all off.......Aunty Rebecca's magical pavlova......

A crispy crust, a melt-in-your-mouth filling, thick cream, fresh fruits.....a swish of her magic wand......and wolla!!

oh my.....it takes me to heaven and leaves me floating there.....and it takes me the whole night to drift back down to earth.....

And thus ended the night.....in gatronomic bliss......

21

2005-10-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

So 21 it is then......

I have apprently arrived at that universally accepted mark of adulthood...... strangely I don't feel all that different.....

I still do all the stupid things i've been doing since I was 5.....and i probably still will.....but then again....some of us never truly and totally grow up do we?

And to all of you out there.....

Thank You.....

Thank you for all the wishes......the 4 different celebrations....the cards...the gifts.....the cakes i got to eat and the ones that i didnt......the food....and of course the carnage ( which I shall mention in greater detail later.....)

And now for some pictorial evidence that I didnt spend my bithday alone, rotting in a corner.....

Tis Birthday Celebration No. 1....

With tushara and company down from canberra.....

Twas about 1-ish in the morning, the day before tush left and they had come down to monash for I was cooking them dinner....after they survived, we had set off for a lounge close by for Indhu's birthday thingy...and this was after we got back.....

And twas beautiful....

We went out to the mound in the centre of Roberts Hall, spread out my bedsheet(yes amma...i DID change it after) and blew out my candles under the stars.....

Atmosphere wise its still one of the most beautiful birthday celebrations i've had....

Thanks tushy.....

The Randoms

2005-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

And in the final installment of Roberts Ball pics.....

Some of the more random people who make my life around Roberts more interesting....

Leon....the man himself.....

I love this guy....I mean cmon look at him.....How can that grin NOT brighten up your day......its Jim Carrey with an eyebrow piercing.....thats as cool as it gets man....
Leo...Biggie Up.....Respeeect Aiight!

Reggie.....born Rajeev Charithe Dandithage....but for the sake of rigid Australian vocal chords.....Reggie...or Reg.....

He lives across me in my stairway......which is why i would know as good as anyone else that he's a true chick magnet....
Hah! Who said a short, Kurry man can't draw em in huh.....

But hey as we discussed Rej......its not our fault we're good lookin eh...we're Lankan....
Its not an option.....its a birthright.....

Every so often you meet someone who you just cannot forget. Some because of their personality, some because of their looks and some because their just downright annoying......

And then sometimes.......its their name.....

My case in point: Val.....Valentina.....

Not valentino which sounds italian.....or valentine which just sounds plain cheesy.....but Valentina.....

Haha.....I like....

Flanked here by me and "The Other Dinesh"....or "The Roberts Dinesh" as he has come to be known......rather unfortunate nomenclature for an otherwise distinctly unique individual.....but well.....such is life...

And here in sharp contrast to the above who have all regularly brought a smile to my face.....

Is Steve......

As is blatantly obvious......Steve, for some strange inexplicable reason is always trying to pick a fight with me....

Regrettably our smouldering animosity has yet to get beyond the terrifying, ground shaking, hokkien battle cry stage....

Si Mei Lan!!!

It don't matter if you're black or white - MJ

2005-09-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

Memories of inter-hall 5-a-side soccer......

The Roberts Hall first team.......in slightly finer garb than the shorts and jerseys we normally find ourselves in.....

Not for the first time that night i was the black man in white among a group of white men in black......

p.s....well...in this case i wouldnt exactly say white but oh well.....

Meddies Unite....

2005-09-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

For long med students have been told how incestous they are as a faculty. We have been accused of mixing and mingling among our own kind and as an extension to that breeding within the faculty is a seemingly inevitable eventuality.

And this was no more apprent than by the choice of table at the Ball.

See our seats weren't fixed so it was sort of a get-there-and-grab kinna seating plan......and for some very strange reason....I ended up at a table with...surprise surprise....9 other meddies......
And they weren't even all first years....twas 2nd years too.....

Alex attempting to shove a swizzle stick into his breast pocket while Eliza appears to be out cold.....aaah...The Doctors of Tomorrow...

And of course....a must have at a table with a significant proportion of med students....copious amounts of alcohol....

you can see the tops of somethe bottles and pitchers that lay scattered on the table....

and right in the centre....that half-full pitcher of frothing black liquid....which I claimed as my own......and no one complained...

Surprised?

Heya....Viva le Coca Cola......

Miss Chris....

2005-09-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

This picture has been just waiting to be posted.......

Not least because this is the picture my mom has been waiting for....So there we go amma.....

Yours truly being straddled by...erm.....Chris......yes....as in Christopher.....

Chris is a very...interesting individual......non-conformist at the best of times.....and heart-stoppingly worrying when he's dressed in a chilli-red cheongsam....

In his defence....I have to say that this picture really dosent do him justice.....he did indeed look a lot more convincing on the day.....and at the limits of the laxity of the english language, I'd dare say it was almost...tasteful.....

Aaah...i found a better one....

Miss Chris.....

Jean grows out of her jeans....

2005-09-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

So many of you have heard about Jean.....my delighful little neighbour....

Th girl I took under my wing almost as soon as I first met her.....and adopted for a good many months until she found her feet.....

Or more accurately until she found Kelvin......her boyfriend.....who has since relieved me of the responsibility of ensuring this princess is still treated like one.....

And here you get to see em both.....Jean and the Smurf (as he is now known...... for obvious reasons )
Note: Its actually his hair dyed blue.....he's not sprouting algae of the top of his head

Seeing her, as you all are for the first time, in this picture can be decieving cos she usually looks nothing like the glamour queen she appears like in this picture....

Jean is the epitome of messy,jean-clad (excuse the pun), chin-chai-ness......and when i first saw her at the ball.....i was pretty much stunned.....
My cute, little neighbour had suddenly grown up.....

Here's to you girl......

Roberts Ball 2005 - Part 1

2005-09-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

It has begun......The whole end-of-year barrage of Balls and Annual Dinners...

And to start it all of was Roberts Ball 2005.....

Note: For the less informed, Roberts Hall is the hall at which I stay....some of you may know them better as hostels or colleges....here we call them Halls....

in any case....

Roberts Ball 2005

As usual, I refused to wear the standard suit and tie combo.....but in this case the problem was probably compounded by the fact that well.....I don't have a suit....

so I went indian....it wasn't the grandest of kurtas but....a simple white on black.....and a scarf works miracles...and wolla.....it did the trick....

And well to start things off....its seems like no ball/dinner/funtion seems complete without my customary picture with the talismanic tasmanian.....

Yep...there's Eliza......with darling Ruth.......

such a fascinating name...Ruth Cameron Jeffs...so........old.....

Aaah and she appears again....here I have the honour of my 2 favourite tasmanians....

Eliza and Bron....who were delighted to, for once, be able to see the top of my head while we posed for a photo....

Bron though couldnt get enough of it.....

hence her repeated attempts at altitudilar superiority.....

Bratwurst Baii.....

2005-09-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Aaah fond memories of where I used to work....

The Bratwurst Shop.....

as a "Bratwurst Baii", as Haran so fondly refers to me....

Every weekend was spent dispensing monster hotdogs which would barely fit in your mouth at full stretch but tasted just oh so scrumptious.....

Pay was good.....and needless to say i was fed well....was there anything more i desired in life?

But alas.....my work there is done.....and once more i am on the prowl for greener pastures.....

Updates soon if i find any.....

Fashionistas supreme....

2005-09-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

Aaah once again....still on the same night.....

2 of Dinesh's mates at Farrer hall......

These 2 were my pick for best dressed for the night....especially the dude on the right, who did actually win best dressd guy i think.....

How anyone could possibly appear in public in anything that short and skin tight is beyond the limits of my comprehension......

Don Juan returns.....

2005-09-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with that same night....

That night most of us looked absolutely ghastly and had about as much chance of getting a 2nd glance from the oppsite sex as Paris Hilton at a Gay convention.....

However someone......a certain someone apparently wasn't having too much of a problem with that......

Everyone......meet Dinesh "Don Juan" Mahendran.....

Man he was drawing em in the way i usually draw flies......aaah but well.....everybody loves nesh.....

oh but wait....there's another one....

aiight!!....had to get my share of the beast

Farrer Op-Shop Night.........

2005-09-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Medical students at Monash University DO NOT, except under the to be explained circumstances, normally dress themselves in this utterly deranged and absolutely disgraceful manner. Honestly.

Now to get on with the story....

Farrer Op-Shop Night.....

Op-Shops being 2nd hand shops are all the rage for theme parties such as these which are designed to bring out the worst in mix-and-match hotch potch "designed wear"......

As is plainly visible.... Dinesh, Jereme and I kept true to the spirit of the night in our respective fashion disasters.....

2 sailor boys and a........i dunno what the hell i was......do not a good combination make.....

Now here's the scary bit in all of this:

this was Dinesh and Jereme's hall party so while they had planned their outfits beforehand i only decided i was going about 10 mins before this picture was taken....

The scary bit was that apart from the hat, everything else you see on me was something i was already wearing in my room when nesh called me to come over....
Aside from tucking the pants into my socks(which i already had on) and pulling the hat on, i pretty much came just as i was.....

That is, a pretty disturbing thought......that i didnt actually have to dress up for a party themed on the worst possible fashion sense imaginable.....

Ouch.....

The lampost shineth bright......

2005-09-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

As always......

Me, the traditional lamp-post......particularly when it involves Nish for some strange, warped reason.....

so here i am again......intruding on some intriguingly private moment....

nish is obviously used to my lingering presence.....this transient bacteria he can't seem to disinfect himself of.....but tanya looks a bit...... well, to say the least....wary

haha......Oh i love this photo....

Look into my eyes....

2005-09-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Aaah nish....look into my eyes.....

hmmm....i'm beginning to see why tanya would be worried.....

E55

2005-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

And once again i recover from a prolonged cyber-slumber to post totally outdated pics which i have recently stumbled on again....

So here goes.....

Harking back to the days of justin's trip down......the fantastic night we spent at E55....a lounge....... together with nish's friends.....

oh and amma....this was when chwee lee was down.....so here's a shot of her with melissa.....who i don't think you remember what she looks like...do you?

mel's the one in the purple top....and i'm sure you recognise chwee lee......

Candle of Hope

2005-09-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

The flame that cast its earthen glow,

Upon this face of gloom...

The only flicker of heady warmth,

In this cold dark room....

Spreads its tender message of hope,

In slivers of golden light...

And keeps me smiling pained but true,

At the loneliest hour of the night.....

Mumm Mumms......

2005-08-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

At Sze Yen's pot-luck some time ago.....

Considering every dish there was a product of uni-student-culinary-workmanship, I dare say we produced quite a decent spread.....

As is plainly visible Dinesh's tuna cutlets served as the popular choice for appetizer of the evening and have mostly disappeared (look for the 3 remaining boluses on the left)

And Amma....tis post is mainly for your inspection...hence the hardly sensible title which i believe would strike a chord with you......yes amma some phrases live on forever......

My masterpiece......Egotistically conspicous on the right of the picture......my beloved potato casserole.....heart disease, high blood pressure, and cholesterol all rolled coveniently into a casserole dish and baked at 240 degrees into a delighfully palatable package......joyous eh.....

Senor Vinayaguera Hernandez

2005-08-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: The following is a photo unabashedly plagarized off the blog of a friend....copyrights of this photo belong to a certain nisha sriram who is credited with this oppurtunistic capture on her travels in france

now that thats done.....

as blatantly blasphemous as it may be and as much as i must be sinning for condoning this form of vulgar defamation of religious idolatry....i must say i find it highly amusing.....hysterical actually....

my friends.....meet Senor Vinayaguera Hernandez......

trust the bloody french to come up with something like this......undeniably distasteful.....and yet.....in the realm of the funny bone, an artistic masterpiece of cross cultural symmetry......

I love it!!!

Revelations.......

2005-08-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

It is time.....

Long i have waited.....long this terrible secret has lingered inside me.....and long i have ached to reveal myself to the world.....

And now....it is time....

A wise man once spoke to me of a myth of a half-spider-half-man, of wondrous powers, who produced webs out of his fingers, flew high above us but yet roamed among us in the day........they called him Spiderman.

Twas not long ago that i made the startling discovery.....that it was no longer a myth.....

Something was growing inside of me.....and it was bursting to get out....I just had to find a way.....

And just as i realised that my life was about to change forever, my thoughts proved eerily prophetic....for i began to change.....

The metamorphosis had a grip on me and i could not break free....

And before i new it, my body was barely able to contain me...as i grew and grew...and morphed before my very eyes....

Bestowed with size and strength of superhuman leanings, i struggled to come to terms with what my new powers meant for me...and what place i now held in the cosmic scheme of things.....for "with great power comes great responsibility"....

Whoever came up with that line failed to mention that with great power also comes....

a helluva lotta fun.......

UP, UP AND AWAY!!!

Me and my best friends....

2005-08-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

Me and my best friends......

......my groceries......

Tale of the Throne.....

2005-08-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

Aaah....my beloved green oasis in the midst of the urban desert.....

an enclosure of silent solitude where I take refuge from the screaming sounds, and painfully vivid sights of a 21st century metropolis.....

a paradoxical pulpit smack in the middle of a man-made hustle and bustle but where nature can take its true course...

in peace.....

a marvel of mordern technological advancement.....and a tribute to the great inventors of yesteryear.....

a monument to the satisfaction of the simplest of pleasures....

an enclave of privacy that transcends the pervading voyeuristic tendencies of a reality-TV moulded society...

temple to my throne....and soother to my soul....

Aaah my beloved....port-a-loo......

jus and nish.....

2005-08-13T00:46:00.000-07:00

Justin and nishant at the park......(hint: nish is wearing green)....

p.s....eh jus...just realised i dont have many pics from when you came down although i was down in the city with you so much of the time....

slammin still.......i wish.....

2005-08-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

I miss my monthly poetry slams.....and chris mooney singh who runs the slams just wrote to me saying the the slam misses me too.....but i'm sure he says that to everybody......

in any case...he also wrote to inform me (note: he wasnt asking for consent...the ads and flyers had already been printed....well done chris).....that the next month they were holding as part of the regular slam, the first ever tamil slam.....and that he was using my face from a picture he had snapped during one of the previous slams on the promotional media for it......

so here is a snip of it.....

p.s.....do note that the 2 mugs on the side....are most definitely not me....i'd like to think my firends and family would be able to distinguish me....but i'm not gonna leave things to chance.....

Happy Birthday Singapore.......

2005-08-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

On this wintry august day,

Be as we may be miles away,

The pride within us fresh and flared,

Your loyal servants, clad

In crimson red and purest white,

We look afar and set our sight,

On she we long to return to,

Our home, Our country....We salute you....

I throw down the gauntlet to ye all......

2005-07-28T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hear ye...Hear ye......

A challenge for ye all.....

For the life of me i cannot remember how the heck this picture came to be...and as such am stumped for a suitable caption.....

So i beseech you all.....get your mental machinery in motion and find a suitable caption for whatever in God's name is going on here.....

Science 101.....

2005-07-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone to Prash's Science 101. Today we will be exploring the more intricate complexities of evolution and to assist us let me present to you all a pictorial depiction of 3 of the early stages of life on our planet.

From left to right: The dinosaur, the early, early ape and the mordern homosapien

............

ok...my bad.....but i really couldnt resist....

Amelia: You have your poltergeist impersonation honed down to a fine art...good on you.....

Haran:...haha....sorry man......nothing to say.....haha....

Pam:I swear Pam has one of the most photogenic personas i've ever seen.....there's scarcely a photo in which you don't look like a smiling, lil flower.....le petit fleur...very nice....

The Jane's and their beanstalk

2005-07-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

We all know the famous fable of jack, the boy who sold a cow for a beanstalk....

well...allow me to introduce to you all the lesser known adventures of the jane's and their beanstalk....

THE Car....

2005-07-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

The car.......THE Car.......

damn....

nish....i wonder why you're smiling so broadly......

Monash + NUS contingent...

2005-07-19T01:52:00.000-07:00

On one of the beaches along the way....the combined Monash and NUS contingent enjoying the surf.....

for some reason the extremes seem to be exposed to a much brighter sun than the centre.......

Apostles 12 and Us 6.....

2005-07-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

While for Nish and I, the highlight of the whole trip was always going to be the drive up and sure enough it was......but for the more normal rest of our companions...this is what they were coming for....

The famed 12 apostles....

although we could only count about 8...and even though the week after we were there another one of the apostles collapsed making headline news in melbourne, and despite the fact that after a 3 hr drive, you could only stare at the damn things for 5 mins max before you got bored.....twas still quite a sight.....

The colours were all just so vivid.....van gogh would have been proud....

oh an do excuse my fondness for off-centre and angled pictures.....hopefully its just a fad....but for now....i like.....

We tried to fit some of us into the picture with the apostles....but unfortunately there seemed to be something blocking out most of the view....

something tall, skinny, scruffy and looking absolutely fed-up with life.....
why nishy, why??

Ze Great Ocean Road part 1

2005-07-19T01:23:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue but ive finally got round to it....

The pictures from our trip up to the Great Ocean Road...S11-ers you have probably seen some pictures on nesh's and haran's blogs...but here are some more....in the next few posts to come...

Tis just before we left....outside Am's place....the now famous BMW that nish piloted on the trip is visible in snatches in the background...

In traditional S11 style....the focus of so many of our outings, lives atc.....MEAL TIME!!....and for some reason it seems to be our favourite time for a photo oppurtunity...

This was at a little fish and chip joint in a small seaside town on our way up....

oh and haran....erm....nice try with the t-shirt but....yeah right!

p.s....amma...check out the fish and chip photo...i've still got that stupid flick of hair sticking out on the front of my hair....looks like its gonna haunt me all my life...haha

a tribute to a very special twillight.....

2005-07-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

Tis one of the most alarming sunsets I have ever witnessed....a Black sunset.....and it wasn't storm clouds.....twas just a black sunset.....

the same sunset as viewed over the waters off St Kilda beach......

Cool......

The 2nd ad....

2005-07-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

The 2nd ad makes its debut......Giordano's marketing division have really hit the jackpot this time.....

Viva le Giordano.....

2005-06-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

I present to you all....the new Giordano ad.....

time to buy Giordano stock.....sales are gonna skyrocket....

Memories of the memorial....

2005-06-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Upon Pam's insistence on the need to to do something touristy we stopped over at the war memorial for australian soldiers who died during world war 2....

And we were confronted with this monstrosity....a huge flame stuck in the ground...it looked rather incongrous...in the middle of a courtyard....and like it was, like most things australian, too big, too clumsy and an utter waste of resources....that initial thought was further confirmed when i read the inscription behind it which claimed proudly that this flame had been burning for 57 years.....

57 years!!!....on 2nd thought....forget greasy joe's.....you wanna save the world, nuke this gas guzzler instead........thats 57 years of fossil fuels for something that only noisy groups of japanese tourists in too large hats and hidden behind too large cameras take photos with......

oh....and us....

in any case....knowing S11....initial conversation was spontaneously on the topic of what it would be like to extinguish this "eternal flame".....I sat wondering whether i would have my visa cancelled....and then decided that getting deported didnt sound like the best of ideas...at least yet....

my good intentions were,however, short lived....for not 2 minutes later....a big, aussie, guard was booming at us ( well me actually)....from across the courtyard fpr defacing this exquisite monument of australian pride....

and i swear i meant no harm....all i wanted was a picture perched on a ledge along the steps up to the monument....unfortunately Mr. I'm-proud-of-the-heritage-of-my criminal-british-ancestors guard didnt see it in quite the same innocent light as i did....and the only shot i did get was of me scrambling off the ledge before i got shot down by the royal heritage snipers.....

with a lolly in me mouth.....not the most glamorous of photos eh.....

the ring...4?

2005-06-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

Be afraid..... be very afraid....

This rather strange shot was taken outside Crown...the famous casino and hotel along the river.....

Upon later viewing of the shot....we noticed a strange ring that had appeared on top of the pillar we took the photo in front of....

a ring that looked strikingly similar to that from the jap horror movie of the same name....and learning a lesson from the movie we proceeded to try and locate the terrifying, wild-haired girl that terrorized japan in the movie.....

and sure enough....to the left of the 4 of us calmly seated taking the picture.....there she was....with that undeniable evil snarl......oh heavens save us....

haha.....

oh amelia.....you know we love you.....

ze visit.....

2005-06-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

As mentioned earlier my entire last week was spent in the pleasurable (?) company of a giggling mess and a screeching banshee.....and i must say i had an absolutely terrific time.....

pam and amelia....my most unlikeliest of saviours from what looked like being a month of australian solitude.....for you brought with you.....a taste of home...of singapore.....and you reunited all us denucleated aussie folks.....and once more....S11 was one.....

joyous....it was a time that called for celebration...and what better way than with a hot chocolate fudge bun....twas rich enough for 3....

Gd Stuff!!!

and then nish was to introduce to this unique restraunt where we had our lunch....

people meet Greasy Joe's.....a focal point for cholesterol, high blood pressure, gout and diabetes....all under one warm roof ( warmed by a real wood fire spewing carcinogenic smoke to coat our lungs).....

this was a real, true meat and potatoes kinna place....think vhicken steaks the size of dinner plates....20 cm high burgers piled high with 1 inch thick patties....milkshakes served by the PINT!!!
and each dripping with fat, oil, salt or sugar(as the case may be)......and they wonder who's draining the world's oil resources....HAH!!.....let the power stations run man...just shut down greasy joe's and the world wil be fine....

but you know what......twas so damn good!!!!
i swear i ate so much that day....finishing off everyone else's food...(thanks nish).....and came out the end of it with my lifespan shortened by about a month....but hell....my arteries may be clogged...but i bet they're happy too...

Resurrection......

2005-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yes I am still alive....

and this blog shall be resurrected.....from its hibernating depths....

Now...

Hiatus: Extended

2005-06-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

Once again....i feel the need to extend my impassioned apologies to you all.....

Yes i know, i used my exam as an excuse and i did promise to return soon after but abi, you're right. I have been busier after my exams. See, i thought i'd have all the time in the world, to blog at my own pace but......

Unfortunately my leisurely state here has been impinged on rather drastically by the arrival of 2 delighful specimens of mankind.....pam and amelia....my bosom friends and the 2 sparkles in my existance.....

and now i must take leave of you all once again....as i must now clean up the sarcasm dripping off those words onto the floor....

I will return....shortly....

hiatus enforced...

2005-06-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

my aplogies pepople...but.....this blog is on a bit of a hiatus.....at least until my exams are over.....

this is a hiatus imposed by my dear mother....who has declared she does expects not to see any posts till my exams are over.....amma, your word is my command....

and seeing that i'm saving so much time by not updating my blog....i'm now off to play soccer.....

cheerios...

Riding Peter and a bit of toilet humour...

2005-06-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

That iconic moment from the movie Titanic lives on even today in the land-locked kampong that is Monash...the irony is killing but....behold an australian de caprio...and a slightly tanned, and post-diet kate winslet...

"Peter.....I'm flying ! ! ! "

on a slightly less corny note...

yes that is a urinal, yes those are girls(although i do have my suspicions sometimes...toss them a soccer ball and watch em go) and no,i have no idea how they got there...*whistles innocently*....

and that btw...is Zara's first appearance....looking all pissed off (at a urinal...HAHA!!!).... in her mass of newly done curls....
meet Zara: my little Paki friend...very easy to see why we love her....she drives us around, she plays soccer, she drives.....erm....she likes McFlurry's....she drives us to Macs for Mc Flurrys.....erm....you get my point aiight....

Oh and Amma....I don't know what hand signal Bubbles is attempting but for the record....she really isnt pointing at anything......really....

Miss Canada, AJ and 2/3 of the Holy Trinity....

2005-06-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

This post is way overdue.....so....here it is...

Thursday is traditionally Nott Night here at Monash....the Nott being the local pub....and thursdays being...........god knows...i havent a clue why...

and last thursday was the last Nott Night of the sem....since the semester has now ended....and as a result....it was a massive, chock-a-block congreagation of just about everyone who existed around these parts....with of course a few notable exceptions such as john howard who would have been ripped to shreds if he had showed up anyway which makes his absence a teeny it less significant in the overall scheme of things....

but on now to more important people.....

Dear Miss Canada at the top left....i AM starting to be inclined to believe that she never actually was Miss Canada and that her real name is actually lauren and that she is actually australian.....mostly because thats what everyone seems to claim....including her....but then...one can never be sure....

And AJ at the front....displaying classical symptoms of Ozzie-fication....not to be confused with the term for calcification in bone formation of the similar name (showing off my $34K worth of medical knowledge acquired off last night's cramming), but rather the seemingly infectious need to seem, smell, look and sound white...beginning with the name.....AJ my ass.....you're ajay aiight...but he's a nice bloke.....when he's sober...so....its all good...

oh and of course...bubbles...who you may have all met as Lisa in a previous post...one third of the holy trinity: Bubbles, Ana and Zara....they're gonna keep popping up so keep a lookout.....tis like "Where's Wally"....

as promised.....anothe third of the holy trinity makes her appearance....Ana....in a rather unflattering sleepy-eyed snap-shot...she's gonna have my head for this...

aaah...in the name of staying alive....this photo probably does a more justice....

this photo reminds me of that movie....the one with Chow Yun Fatt.....Ana and the King......thats right...the King....aiight!!!

haha.....in any case....people...meet Ana...Ananya...one of Tagore's
people....a proud bengolian.....

(and before you jump on me and tell me there's no such word, go ask the intellectually unchallenged Vinojini, all 16 years of her and all her knowledge which has been gleaned from watching hindi movies, will tell you that people who speak bengali are indeed bengolians...from the proud nation of bengolia....go figure...)

......more to come

my apologies

2005-06-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

my sincerest apologies for the lack of acticity on my part......

i'm sorry....

so as to show that i have lost known of my patriotism, in keeping with true singaporean spirit......committees will be formed, problems identified, competitions organised to locate the problem, then solutions sought and i promise you changes will be made......and in due time.....

"the blog" will return......

Back in the groove....

2005-05-11T02:23:00.000-07:00

This is long overdue but well...

Apparently the culture vulture in me couldnt stay dormant for long...and having lugged my tabla all the way....i was gonna put it to good use....

and with some help from an uncle i didnt know existed....to make some calls.....and send some pulses down the lankan info channels....and wolla....i'm back in the groove....

p.s....sorry about the picture quality....the camera was miles away...

Show and Tell....

2005-05-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

tis an old pic...from cocktail night......but my dear friend seemed overly disappointed that there weren't any pictures of him on my blog....and to appease his poor aching heart....

Everyone meet Raf, my dear egyptian relic.....Raf meet everyone....

i spy with my little eye....one mad man

2005-05-11T02:21:00.000-07:00

as requested by jan......

The Men in Black......

except only one is probably sane.....guess who?

Of bacteria and tumours....

2005-05-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend i had the misfortune of attending the Monash Uni Indian and Sri Lankan Clubs' joint cultural night.....twas held at Monash's Robert Blackwood Hall...and to be honest i came away from it....utterly disappointed.....

Reason being....the only culture i chanced on that whole night was the bacteria growing on the bottom of my seat....these guys wouldnt have known culture if they fell head first into a cauldron of youghurt...the few traditional items were beyond pathetic and the rest of the items just made a mockery of the fact that it was a "cultural night".....even as regular items they were sadly substandard besides isolated acts....even any jc production would have left it licking its wounds....let alone a NUS production....

however the biggest impact that the event had on me was when i first walked into the hall......because....it just hit me...like a ton of bricks....that.....

THERE WERE SO MANY OF US!!!!!.....SO MANY!!...

twas like a disease....a viral infection...no...twas a tumour...a huge malignant, kurry flavoured tumour that kept on growing and invading Robert Blackwood Hall.....i honestly felt suffocated...

its crazy....ive seen such large indian crowds before in singapore i guess but its never slapped in the face the way this one did....and it didnt help that it was full of the creame of the poseur crop....every insane hairstyle and colour was on display....a bunch of chocolate peacocks preening....

anyways enough whining....

here's us.....

a part of that tumour i suppose we were...sadly...

oh and do note that very conspicuous fellow on the side....a silver lining on a very dark cloud.....a dash of tumeric in the kurry....jereme...oh jereme....

hey justin....jereme here is a man after your own indian heart.....haha

and here's one of the reasons we went....some of our friends were performing....

here's part of the troupe...anu the Big Mama....and 2 of the dancers Divya and Balqis

The Mer-me

2005-05-02T02:58:00.000-07:00

I'm really not sure what i was attempting in this shot, the closest i can guess is that this is my audition photo shoot for the lead part in Andrew Lloyd Webber's newest visual extravanganza.......

Cleopatra......

twas taken on the rocky breakwaters of brighton beach.....shaite....it dosent come close to our east coast breakwater eh guys....the rocks arent all too different....but its the people that make that breakwater so special, and that's what's missing....

Infectious enthiusasm....

2005-05-02T02:55:00.000-07:00

A night out on the town with email...oops..i mean emil, am, nish and company....

Nish's enthiusasm is just infectious.......don't you think.....such a bundle of energy that boy....

Pick-up-sticks

2005-05-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Come on....i'm waiting........haha

...but i'm so skinny its almost like pick-up-sticks

and gosh...why do i look so strangely ghastly in that....

Rust.In.Peace

2005-04-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

When you've loved someone for so long...and so hard....i don't think its possible to ever totally forget....

my beloved SCG9949G.......

stained with the red that runs in my blood....and fuelled by my spirit I infused in her.....

my countenance resplendant in her every glow....

Baby beautiful.....

R.I.P