Rewind to a few years ago. Circa 2007. I was a lowly graduate student in New York City. Barely making ends meet. Living paycheck to paycheck. Had [...]]]> So remember how I’m like the king of awkward moments? Yep. The following is another similar embarrassing incident that will forever be etched in my wretched mind.

Rewind to a few years ago. Circa 2007. I was a lowly graduate student in New York City. Barely making ends meet. Living paycheck to paycheck. Had no more than $35 in my checking account. And the cardinal rule of graduate school is that you do not do laundry until absolutely necessary. And by absolute necessary I mean that until you completely run out of clean underwear. It was one such night. I had a job interview the next morning. And no clean clothes. At 11 in the night, I decide that it would be a good time to do laundry. So I grab my hamper and head down to the basement, drop it in the washer, come back in 30 minutes to put them in the dryer. As I’m dumping my soggy clothes into the dryer, through the corner of my eye I notice my neighbor starting her washer cycle. About half an hour later, I’m back in the basement to pick up my clothes. Neighbor lady is waiting for me to empty the lone dryer (it was a pre-war, rent-controlled building and cheapass landlord so 40 apartments had to share 2 washers and 1 dryer) so she can start her dryer cycle. And as luck would have it, my clothes aren’t completely dry. I mutter the classiest of swear words as I prepare to kick off another dryer cycle. Neighbor lady goes all sigh-ey and complains about how she had an early morning meeting and it was getting late. And the good samaritan that I am, I offer her to share the dryer with me. Lady jumps at the opportunity to save an hour of her time, drops her clothes with mine and leaves.

About half an hour later, we meet again in the basement. We separate our clothes and go our own ways. Later, when I’m folding my own clothes, I see that she left a bra behind in my pile. Now I could either trash it and let it be at that. But then I do know that bras don’t come cheap. But I really don’t want to be the one handing it over to her. Because, well, that would just be awkward. So what do I do? I decide to leave it on her door knob, ring the bell and vanish the fuck out of there before she opens the door. Pleased at my genius plan, I tiptoe over to her apartment (very conveniently, she happened to live right next door), and am about to leave the bra on the doorknob. And before I could get to doing that, her door opens, and neighbor girl stares at me with a judgey look in her eyes and her bra in my hand. Awkward with a capital A. Avoiding all eye contact, I hand over the goods and turn around and close the door to my apartment.

I avoided her like the plague for the remaining 6 months I lived in that building.

In the remote chance that you do happen to come across my message on twitter, and happened to visit this site, I formally welcome you to Amortya’s blog. You picked me and 2 other buddies of mine from the corner of 34th and 1st Ave on Saturday night. And [...]]]> Dear Mr. NYC Cab Driver,

In the remote chance that you do happen to come across my message on twitter, and happened to visit this site, I formally welcome you to Amortya’s blog. You picked me and 2 other buddies of mine from the corner of 34th and 1st Ave on Saturday night. And dropped us off at Herald Square on 34th Street exactly at 10:02 pm where I paid using my credit card and generously tipped you. I believe that I left my sunglasses in the backseat of your vehicle. I understand that you don’t know me, and probably don’t give a flying fuck about me or my sunglasses, but I would really appreciate it if you’d return my sunglasses to me. The summer Gods have finally decided to shine their awesome glory on the greatest city in the world, and it would be absolutely criminal to be spotted without my extremely well-fitting eye wear.

So have some pity on me and contact me. I promise that I will reimburse you for any expenses that you might have incurred in the process of keeping of my beloved glasses safe.

Best,

~me

Like countless others across the web, here’s my tribute to the man who made grabbing one’s crotch socially acceptable and in a weird way kinda cool.

There’s no denying that Michael Jackson was a talented. He was just a bundle of energy. No one can argue that he was [...]]]>

Like countless others across the web, here’s my tribute to the man who made grabbing one’s crotch socially acceptable and in a weird way kinda cool.

There’s no denying that Michael Jackson was a talented. He was just a bundle of energy. No one can argue that he was a true showman, arguably the best performer the music industry has ever seen. His signature curly hair, red jacket, black hat will never be forgotten. Ever.

My first memories of Michael Jackson stem from way back in the mid nineties, before the time MTV had every teenager hooked. My cablewala would repeatedly play the same videos over and over again. The Remember the Time video stuck in my head simply because it was played over and over. The video had a bunch of celebrities like Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson, of which I could only recognize MJ! It was only much later that I was introduced to his other songs. Bad, Thriller, Blood on the dance floor, They don’t really care about us, Heal the world all have been an integral part of my growing up years.

Apna AR Rahman has been inspired by Michael Jackson as well. His buttoned down white shirt act in the Vande Mataram video is clearly inspired by the King of Pop. And who can forget the song Golimaar that went viral on the web as the Indian Thriller (I looked up the name of the movie- Donga). Prabhudeva who’s super flexible frame gave him the moniker Indian Michael Jackson. MJ has been a inspiration to a generation of artists all over the world. Musicians such as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Britney amongst others have all grown up watching MJ perform. His elaborate stage performances are legendary in the performing arts world.

Michael Jackson grew up abused by Papa Joe, rose to super stardom, and had a quick fall from grace due to certain things he might or might not have done. Regardless, he will always remain a shining star in the entertainment industry. For the people who grew up listening to his music. For me when I spent my lazy summer afternoons trying to perfect my moonwalk.