Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!

Note the number of comments: http://www.myextralife.com/strips/05-08-2006.jpg

One of those things

You live, you love, you hurt and you move on
You go through each day hoping its the best one
But you know you don't want to live through your best day yet
Not while you're alone
not until someone you want to have met
has had the chance to change your life

Introspection is one of those things that seems very meaningful in a metaphysical sense, but probably isn't. You think about your life, the things you've done. You think you're sorting through your feelings and trying to understand why things in your life are the way they are. Then destiny/fate/god comes along and smashes your sand castle to smithereens and you wonder for an instant: was all the time you spent analysing your life worth it? Still, the next time you're alone and in a reflective mood, you can't help but go over the previous day, week or year thinking about your friends, family, that girl in the office, your last assignment or your job.

With so many of us having so much to think and reflect over, I sometimes wonder how we even manage to get on with our lives. But get on we do. Bumping into each other every day, sometimes acknowledging and at other times ignoring each other's presence. Evaluating and sizing each other up every instant based on our own peculiar criteria. And then going back home to do it some more. In the middle of all this critical social evaluation sometimes, just sometimes, a couple of people will get close enough to each other so that they will begin to share their introspection of life. They will begin to more than talk to each other. They will share thoughts, hopes and possibly, the rest of their lives. Eventually, it'll become what the rest of us know as love. It must be a great feeling, because it looks like a great feeling when you get to observe it up close. And when people like that who you know and love decide to stay with each other for the rest of their life, its a great feeling to know that somehow, somewhere, knowingly or unknowingly, you might have had a part to play in it.

Can't say I don't feel just a little tinge of envy. But thats also how I know it must be a good thing to have. I also feel happiness, incredible joy at being witness to something that doesn't happen very often. So this is my tribute to my friends, and to something that makes an atheist want to believe in miracles. You know who you are. Congratulations, and good luck on your new journey.

What Are The Odds?

Why I Say Oui to Wii

First a confession. I'm a huge fan of Nintendo. Despite the fact that they've never actually sold their games or consoles in India officially. Despite the fact that they couldn't care less about the market here. Despite the fact that they came out with the lame-ass light gun that idiots like me bought and still own. Despite all that I love Nintendo and what they do. The way I see it any company that can take a mushroom stumping Italian plummer and make him a cult icon all over the world deserve to be loved. That at a time when game consoles didn't have processors or hard drives or internet connections. Just two people going at it in a room (read that in context pun23!). And thats the important bit, two people.

As I've grown up video games have become less and less participative and more and more competitive. I miss games like Contra where two people could play together. Or Battle city, where you and a friend could hunt down enemy tanks and destroy them. Sometimes your friend would end up destroying the silver bird you were protecting. But thats alright, shit happens. I remember spending hours in the game arcade just standing around, watching others play and trying to learn their techniques. In a game like Street Fighter I (and many other people) weren't averse to elbowing the competition to avoid getting beaten up in the game. It was all fair play. The game was as much outside as it was inside.

Today however, the enduring image of a gamer in most people's minds is that of a lonely geek basked in the blue glow of his television mashing away at buttons like there was no tomorrow. The same games come out again and again. Exactly how many Need For Speed titles do we need anyway? Yes, Nintendo have used Mario in almost all their games but they've all been different games. Games aren't movies. They don't have to have a format and they don't have to have a genre.

When I first saw and heard about the Revolution controller I was surprised like everybody else. At the same time I realised how much potential something like this has. Like Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo too want to bring the gaming experience closer to reality. But they don't choose to go about it by giving you better graphics or sound. They go about it by letting you immerse yourself in the graphics and sound. And if they're a little bit less than perfect on a high definition TV that practically no one can afford, so what? The reason Wii is better than the PS3 or the XBox is the same reason a party is more fun than eating alone. People want other people. People want to talk and they want to interact with each other and in real life.


I wouldn't be surprised if Wii ends up in Gyms and sports clubs all over the world. I wouldn't even be surprised if Wii brings back old-style game arcades where people used to play standing up and you fed the machine coin after coin just to get a high score. Where there was no internet connectivity but plenty of people around if you wanted to team up. Places where gamers were people, not slaves to a machine.

So I don't know about you but I'm saving up for Wii even though I can't stand that name. If you want to come hang out with me over the weekends, I suggest you at least invest in a controller :)