Bachaaaaooo

I think my employers have found out my deepest secrets which only three people knew earlier. I don’t know who has let the cat out of the bag but somehow this fact is haunting me now. So I will tell you the entire story and it’s your responsibility now to help me find the culprit.

It had started some 22 years back. My parents’ day long discussions had gone in vain. They had wasted hours guessing (or rather fighting) whether I will say “Ma/mamma/mummy” or “papa/daddy” as my first words. But to everyone’s surprise, the first words which I had uttered at the tender age of 1 were “CREDIT” and “DEBIT”.
From that moment started my ordeal. Every other second my mom would force words like “beta say mamma” to my ears and without wasting a second I would say “Credit”. Pitying on my condition, my father would try his luck every now and then and plead me to say “papa or even daddy would do” but I said “Debit”!! My parents committed a blunder there by not recognizing the prodigy. After being subjected to prolonged mental torture and strong influences day and night, I finally uttered “ma”. But then this had left a very damaging effect on my brain. I almost forgot those two words and developed an aversion strong enough not to utter these two words till last Monday.

And now after 22 years the situation is something like this. My bosses are telling me to say “Credit” and “Debit” and each time the only words coming to my mind are “ma bachao” and “papa bachao”!!!

Sare jahan se acha Hindustan humara

Day: 16th Dec (coincides with one of the movies!!)
Venue: marina beach
Time: 1530 (IST)

For the first time in my life I was getting a VIP pass for some event. So I was very excited to be a part of this event. I had already received the VIP pass a couple of times in my dreams last night. The excitement of getting a VIP pass was a motivation good enough to wake me up by 9 (that too a sun morning!!). I just wanted to be seated in that special row as soon as possible. After a couple of calls it was decided that I will get my pass at around 1530 and the show was to start from 1630. Being an Indian from the core of my heart, I reached that place by 1550 (was actually glad that I was not much late). The sight of blue board with “NAVAL DISPLAY” brought a smile on our faces and finally I was handed my passes. We made ourselves comfortable in the “special front rows”.

Marina beach had a completely new look and we were awed to see this “clean, stink free, organized” beach with a hep crowd. And now we eagerly waited for the chief guest for the evening which would mark the start of the great evening. Surprisingly the chief guest “His Excellency, the governor of Tamil Nadu” (these words were repeated by the commentator umpteen times during that 30 mins) graced us by his presence sharp at 1630. We all stood up for the National Anthem and then suddenly I was filled with shame. I realized I was listening to it after 5-6 years and that I had forgotten a few words in between.

The display started by the formation of the great naval ships (there were some 8 of them). This show is a must for our Indian cricket commentators to know and learn what commentary is. The running commentary (both in English and Tamil) doubled the pleasure of this display. One by one the different INS (sorry, due to my pea sized brain I don’t remember the exact names) sailed with pride in front of us. And then the various sea warfare techniques like blowing up an oil rig, securing the beach head, were showed.

Marine commandos come in a Gemini and secure the beach of the enemies aided by covered attacks. The continuous firing by the commandos brought a chill in our spine but hardly did anyone of us know that this was nothing in comparison to what was to come.

We heard the words “look backwards” and we were taken aback to see four aircrafts come towards us. It was the Sagar Pawan Aerobatics team (only a few countries have such an aerobatics team). And during the next 20 mins everyone was on their toes turning left and right following the commentator’s “and left now” , “something on right”etc.At this moment I regreted my bunks from the march past practise which we used to have at school. Because everytime the commentator said "and here's something waiting for you in the left", I turned right ( & turned left when asked to turn right) and missed a few seconds of the fly. Thankfully people were awed by the aerobatics and no one had the time to notice me making a fool of myself!!The aircrafts performed breath taking aerobatics which included events like coming for head on collisions from opposite directions and turning just in the last minute, forming a heart (with a cupid’s arrow too!!) with its multicolored trailing fumes, sharp turns and a very low flying over us. They left the entire crowd mesmerized.

The fly past included the Indian Navy choppers like Chetak, Kamov, Dornier and IL76( the biggest of them). The STIE ( Short Team Insertion & Extraction) operation which is carried out to drop commandos to destroy the enemies and then rescue them, was equally fascinating.



All this while I longed to hear my bhaiya’s name from the commentator; wish he was also here.Finally towards the end of the Display, the Navy Band marched in front of the dais in unison and played some marching tunes. The Navy flag was then slowly pulled down and the the band marched back playing the popular martial tune "Saare Jahan Se Achcha". This was followed by the illumination (lighting up of all ships) and the fireworks which is used to attract the crowd’s attention while the chief guest and other VIPs leave.

Thus ended my most happening evening in Chennai. Special thanks to my bhaiya Lt Cdr Praveen Kr Sinha. It was a great change from my dull and boring evenings here and I enjoyed every second of it. And above all it gave me something to write upon too!!

P.S: I tried my level best to present this special event but due to my short term memory and incapability to remember names and minute details, I could not do justice to this great and memorable evening.

Warning: Read it at your own risk !!

I know I have become dull and boring and serious. I am no longer a fun person to talk to, no longer does any one want to chat with me, and no longer does any one want to read my blogs. But it’s not my fault entirely. What do I do when there are absolutely no great evenings/days to talk about, no humorous incidents to write about, no fun in life to share with you, no recent achievements (professional as well as personal) which I am proud of and can boast about it? What do I say to you when you crib about being alone in a city where you know so many people ,when I myself am in a city where I know just 2 other guys? What do I say to you when you crib about being over burdened by work, when I have been given absolutely no work and no reason to justify my salary since last three months? What do I say to you when you have an exotic lunch & crib about overspending, when I don’t even have an option of eating decent food? What do I do when I want to make you smile by my posts but end up with a post like this??

It's all a matter of time

Hey people, please don’t call the police. I know I have committed a heinous crime but then the circumstances forced me to do so. My parents had never ever imagined in their weirdest of dreams that their daughter will become a murder some day. But it’s true. I have KILLED time. I have been killing time since two months @ 10 hours a day. And now I know what IT professionals are paid for.

In spite of the “stringent IT policies” almost all IT professionals (esp. consultants) do the same set of things at office. They check all their mail accounts every two minutes hoping that some of their counterparts would have forwarded a mail. Thanks to numerous proxies, chatting is still considered to be one of the favorite time pass. They buzz every person online and in very desperate situations send offline messages also. Some intellectuals among us also rack their brains in solving online puzzles. People of this league have klueless mornings, klueless afternoons and klueless evenings!!

Some furzi consultants like me read novels as PDF so that the client thinks you are racking your brain with some user guide or implementation manual. Some other intellectual consultants keep themselves updated with the latest happenings round the globe. Other esteemed ways of killing time are downloading songs, checking daily horoscope, searching for status messages etc.

A couple of precious office hours are also reserved for managing the hard earned money. Share market, online investments, online bill payments, internet banking form an integral part of work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So after all these tiring hours of surfing, consultants add some spice to their office life by conducting meetings. And thus another couple of hours fly by. And if still some time is left, people like me update their blogs.

P.S : A couple of words are borrowed from Tushar's repository of jokes.

Kabhi Kabhi

My favourite lines.....


Kabhi kabhi mere dil main khayal aata hain
Ki zindagi teri zulfon ki narm chhaon main guzarne pati
to shadab ho bhi sakti thi.

Yeh ranj-o-gham ki siyahi jo dil pe chhayi hain
Teri nazar ki shuaon main kho bhi sakti thi.

Magar yeh ho na saka aur ab ye aalam hain
Ki tu nahin, tera gham teri justjoo bhi nahin.

Guzar rahi hain kuchh iss tarah zindagi jaise,
isse kisi ke sahare ki aarzoo bhi nahin.

Na koi raah, na manzil, na roshni ka suraag
Bhatak rahin hai andheron main zindagi meri.

Inhi andheron main reh jaoonga kabhi kho kar
Main janta hoon meri hum-nafas, magar yoonhi
Kabhi kabhi mere dil main khayal aata hai.



by Sahir Ludhianavi


For lesser mortals like me

Shadab=fresh,delightful
Ranj=distress,grief
Justjoo=desire
Hum-nafas=companion,friend

Practice what you preach

“There are always two ways of doing a thing. One is the easy way and the other is the correct way & you should always choose the correct way.” I had been told this umpteen times right from my childhood. Being receptive to 20 years of continuous preaching on the same lines has affected me so deeply that I always tend to choose whatever I think is the correct way, irrespective of whether it is the easy way or not, irrespective of the fact whether others will approve of my deeds or not. The conventional way may not always be the correct way. But today the people who taught me this are not following it themselves.

On deeper analysis and a bit of retrospection, I realized that there is not a single person who practices what he preaches. Teachers preach education as development of a complete personality but appreciate it only on the scale of marks scores. Politicians preach equality and value for talent but are hell bent for reservations in premier educational institutes on the basis of caste. Women will fight for their rights of equality with their male counterparts, will participate in rallies shouting ‘women are at par with men’ but at the same time will expect that seats would be reserved for them in buses and trains, there should be separate queues for women etc. Even I am no exception to this. I always tell my friends “you should blog because you like writing & your posts may inspire someone or may bring a smile on someone’s face and not for comments”. But the fact is that some where deep within I also crave for comments. My role model always taught me to choose the correct way but there are times when he himself chooses the conventional (or easier) way.

It’s always easier said that done. So one should realize the difference between idealistic principles and realistic principles and preach only what he/she can practice. Because the day we realize the difference between the preaching and practices of our role models, all our ideals suddenly seem null and void. And you never know...you could also be a role model for someone.

Uncertainty

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. But still uncertainty and insecurity are the greatest cause of anxiety for most of us and I am no exception. I know life is dull and boring without some element of uncertainty but life becomes unbearable with too much of uncertainty in every aspect of one’s life.

I am no saint and cannot be happy without worldly pleasures. I used to derive happiness and satisfaction from petty worldly things like eating good food, watching a good movie, spending my half month’s salary in shopping uselessly…,…,… But now there is uncertainty even in these petty worldly things. I am never sure as to when will I get my next GOOD meal (in spite of being paid decently)…I am never sure as to when will I get to watch a GOOD movie (with all bollywood directors’ paying attention to sets and star cast instead of story and performance). All these uncertainties became a part and parcel of my life the day I was deputed to Chennai. To make the matters worse, there is uncertainty in the period of this deputation also…may be 2 months...6 months...1 year...or till the time I am tied to this company. You are mistaken if you think my quota of uncertainty ends here. My role in this project is also ‘uncertain’.

I would have still been happy if uncertainty had limited itself to just this much. Every other day my friends/relatives ask me “what if this doesn’t work out for you and your family”… “What if you have to leave your dreams midway”… “What if he is not happy and satisfied”… “What if………”

But in spite of all these uncertainties I am sure of one thing. I know what would be the epitaph on my grave
“Her body lies somewhere here!!”

My core competancy

Now its time to show some creativity as a software engineer. Four years of college and four months of job I have been practicing the only quality of a software engineer. However first I will continue with my post and at the end of it I am sure you will appreciate my creativity.
Some quotes which would have made me famous had I been born some 2000 years back…

“If at first you don't succeed; call it version 1.0.”

“It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.”

“Teamwork is essential - it allows you to blame someone else.”

“Wasting time is an important part of living.”

“When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”

“Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry”

“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”

“I envy people who drink -- at least they know what to blame everything on”

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

“When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.”

“It's not as great a day for the bride as she thinks. She's not marrying the best man.”

“A man’s looks are measured by the depth of his pockets.”

“Just remember... if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.”

“A bugless program is an abstract theoretical concept”

“There should be a better way to start a day than waking up every morning.”

“It takes a minute to have a crush; an hour to like someone and a day to love someone but it takes a lifetime to forget someone...”


So now you must have known about my core competency (creativity) “COPY PASTE”!!!

No tears for me please...

Dont shed a tear for me when I go away,
Whereever I go, I will be happy to see someone happy.

Dont shed a tear for me when I m in pain,
for your smile is the only cure I know.

Dont shed a tear for me when I m not alive,
just think of me
for I can die a thousand deaths if I m alive in your thoughts

A lot can happen for a cup of coffee!!

These days I don’t have much work at office. But yesterday was an exception. I had NO work at office but still had to sit there for 10 long hours. I checked all my mails every 2 mins with a hope that there will be some lucky moment when I would receive a mail which would help me kill at least 5 mins. I tried buzzing everyone online in my list but it seemed only I was unlucky enough to have time to chat. So even that was not of much help. Before this day I had not thought that there might come a time when I would be wishing this. But I seriously wished I had some exam the next day so that I could at least have something to study. While I was still struggling as to how to kill time, I heard one of my colleagues say “we have a meeting starting in another 5 mins”.

Another colleague: “what’s the agenda of this meeting? We had no prior information!!”

Previous colleague: “this meeting is being held without notice to discuss some very urgent issues.”

The agenda of that meeting was “how should we kill the remaining 5 hrs!!”

The meeting lasted for 4 hrs (which included two coffee breaks of 30 mins each) and as it goes with all meetings we came to a conclusion when we were tired of racking our brains. We decided that we would ‘somehow manage killing time’ (like all meetings the original problem was still unsolved!!) and then treat ourselves for this great achievement by a cup of coffee at the nearest barista.

We decided that instead of getting down at our stop, we would get down 2 stops ahead, take an auto from there to the Besant Nagar Barista. After successfully killing 10 hrs we left the office premises only to find that it was drizzling (being optimistic!!). The rain was a matter of concern for some moments but then we thought we should not let these petty things stop us from having our share of fun and excitement. Little did we know at that time that we were going to have much more excitement than we had planned for.

We happily crossed our stop but as we were nearing the place we had panned to get down, it started raining heavily. And by the time the bus stopped, it was pouring down so heavily that it was impossible to even get down from the bus. Dejected by all means we decided we would get down at our stop when the bus would return after the last stop. Like school kids who miss to get down at their stop we inquired the driver whether he would return back to office via same route. It was not difficult convincing him to take the same route back n drop us at our stop.

We were already feeling like losers. On our way back, by the time we neared our ‘initial planned stop’ the rain had stopped. So finally we got down and treated ourselves with the hard earned coffee!!

Random Thoughts

Toady’s breaking news on all news channels was “happy birthday shahrukh” and all music channels were flooded with SRK songs. While browsing the channels I happened to hear these lines “dhoop hai kabhi, kabhi hai chaon zindagi…” How true these words are. Yesterday I saw it all.

Yesterday was a very eventful day as it marked my completion of glorious 50 days in Chennai. I might not have encountered so many ups and downs in these 50 days as I had on the 50th day. My day at office started with my fight to know my password. Yeah it’s actually a sort of war to get one’s new password if one happens to be a forgetful person like me. I somehow forgot my company’s internal database password. When I sent a request to reset my database password, the admin guys reset all my passwords and sent the new ones on my company mail account. In other words they had locked the house and safely placed the keys inside that house itself and were asking me to get the keys from there and open the house. My lady luck was mocking at me when I stood there petrified, gazing a screen which said “incorrect password or login” and the admin guys adamant on the fact that my passwords have been sent to my mail and that they can do no more.

Just when all this had irritated me to the extent of leaving this company where people can be so dumb, I saw my bank account credited with my salary. My happiness knew no bounds and I was on the top of the world. “After all the company is not this intolerable even if it sent me to this land of unknowns and even if they play with my passwords” was all I was thinking. This golden moment is enough to drive me to work for another 10 days and then I would again start cribbing and waiting eagerly for 1st.

I thought my share of “dhoop n chaon” for the day was over and so dialed the number (the most dialed no of my cell) and then it was all dark for me. I had never felt so low and dejected and lost in my life. And now I only wish that the ‘dhoop-chaon’ cycle continues and I can see some way out of this darkness.

Words!!!

Recently I have developed this passion for reading and writing. With so much of free time in my kitty and nothing worth to do, I started reading stuffs which earlier I thought only two types of people read...people who are just too knowledgeable and people who have to survive in the company of knowledgeable (and most of the times they don’t even understand a word of it). Yeah you people have guessed correctly that I am now a prestigious member of the second group.

As a result of this extensive reading and no one to talk to, I have started playing with words. My friends dread chatting with me now. Yesterday while chatting to one of my best friends, I realized that it was only I who was writing and my monologue was interrupted by just 1-2 word replies from the other end. This type of chat continues for some 15 mins & then I am put on a ‘1 min’ hold (which is never released!!). But even this failed to impede my passion for writing and in this situation what could be better than blogging. And now I am used to the usual reply from all my friends when I announce the completion of another blog post “phir se blog update kiya… tujhe aur koi kaam nahi hai kya???” which earlier used to be something like “ohh cool..why don’t you write more often? It’s a pleasure reading your blog...blah blah…”

“It’s only words and words are all I have to while my time away”. And with this perseverance to never give up writing I complete another post.


PS: Ranting is also a part of my training as a consultant so I can easily justify my blogging from office.

Seven Wonders of Chennai

I have compiled the seven wonders of Chennai after 40 days of extensive exploration (not listed in the order of preference).

City Center: Yes people, even Chennai has a good mall which is of some relief to trespassers like me. I just hope I don’t get bored by the only mall of Chennai even if I go there every weekend for the next 6 months.




Best Combo: Good looks are rarest to find in Chennai. Here is a rare combination of two good looking things!!





Clean, wide, green roads: Chennai has some ( at least this word covers up the fact that there are just 3 of them) clean, wide roads where you can walk without covering your sense organs!!





Church: An architectural wonder where you can find two rarities of Chennai – peace and beautiful faces!!!





Beach: I somehow feel connected to the waves hitting the Chennai beach. Both of us desperately try leaving this place but are forced again and again to live here.




Deception point: You at least feel Chennai is a metro, even if that feeling is momentary and dies as soon as you cross it.




Method of weighing: The most unique method of weighing which I can bet you will not find anywhere in the world.




This picture also serves as a qualification test for people who can settle happily in Chennai. If you can be ignorant to this extent and accept this method of weighing, you don’t need the above six wonders to live here without cribbing.


P.S: You are most welcome to vote for the best wonder. So feel free to drop in your votes as comments.

Disclaimer: The contents of this post are not meant to hurt the sentiments of any person, group or organization.

No Reasons Still.....

We plan for the walk to the moon together, to leave our footprints forever. Doesn’t matter if they are not symmetrical what matters is together they make a pair.
It’s an amazing feeling. Sometimes I borrow a phrase to convey it, sometimes the words say it but it’s truly said when silence says it all. All day I look for the small things that I can share with him so that our talks could never finish yet you find this chatter box is left with nothing to say. Its only when I am silent again, I say it best what I have to say.
Is someone asking where the “humor in nonsense” part of it is? Well at least I found it quite humorous when it happened to others. I laughed at them, mocked them. They looked silly, helpless at times, for once sympathized with them too but that was never real to me. For me life had to be lived with reasons and there was no reason for love to happen. No logic justifies waiting for one silly sms after another just because I have sent one silly sms after another, nor can you justify waiting all day for a phone call when you don’t really have anything to talk and end up adding two hours to the clock. And how do you justify all my justifications for being inattentive to work, distracted, absent minded.
No justifications offered, no explanations offered. It is explained best when it happens to you.

Beyond all reasons

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same. They come into our lives to teach us about love...the love that rests within ourselves.

If you press me to say why I love him, I can say no more than because he is he, and I am I.

Heaven turns HEAVEN

After Supreme Power’s verdict I was feeling all lost and hopeless...par kehte hain na jo hota hai ache ke liye hota hai..sahi kehte hain..And now after living in this Heaven for a month, I am really thankful to God that he sent me here.

If not Chennai I would have been in Bangalore, one of the fastest growing cities of India, a city where after 12 hrs of work I would have to wait for another 2 hrs for an auto and then walk back 5 kms to my house. I may not have the best food (thank God else I would have put on more than 10 kgs. Here the food is decent enough for me to put on 3 kgs ) , best weather or best friends here but I have TIME….yes time for myself.

I can sleep for 15 hrs a day in the weekend (where as my counterparts in Bangalore either waste their weekends in office or complete their pending works). I can call all my near n dear ones almost every 2-3 days n talk my heart out (where as bangalorians hardly find time even to call their parents once a day). I still have time to admire and appreciate nature (though there is nothing much to appreciate except beaches and I can only say that beach is a BEACH..!!!). I had always heard that college is the last time when you can make really good friends but even here I am blessed with TIME to make some very good friends.


But then there are times when you miss someone so much that you want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real. I really miss all my friends and often remember of the times when we would spend the entire day without even getting off our beds, our long bitching and gossiping sessions, our frequent lavish lunches,…………………..the list is actually endless

And the best part of my stay here is that I have realized the importance of friends, good food , money and above all GOD. Now I pray and thank GOD quite often for whatever He has given me( which used to be an yearly event earlier..either DP time or Diwali time..!!!!).

My First Trial

Since childhood I had been told umpteen times that we have to pay for all our deeds here in this life only but I never paid any heed to all those warnings. But now I firmly believe there is some super power who is watching me (even He also watches beautiful people only..!!!) .
And here I am repenting for all my ‘not so good deeds’.
I have been sentenced to this “worse than KALA PANI” dungeon for 6 months or more (the duration actually depends on my good conduct during this period of imprisonment) for some petty crimes which were done unintentionally by a sweet little girl. Now since only a few privileged people were a part of my trial at His court I will summarize my trail for you lesser mortals (and I could show this as a part of my good conduct as well!!!)

Lawyer (L) : “This girl has been a chatterbox since last 20 yrs and has tortured innumerable people by her nonstop, useless chit-chats.”
Supreme Power (SP) : “Send her to a place where no one understands her language and vice versa.”

L : “ She has murdered some hundreds of little, innocent chickens.”
SP : “Send her to the land of pure vegetarians.”

L : “She just cannot stay at home when free. Always a part of the city crowd who have nothing else to do but to wander around and add to the traffic.”
SP: “Send her to a place where the weather will force her to be inside her room all day.”

L : “She forces her friends to call her up and pay bills for a minimum of 2 hrs chat daily on phone. Even her cell is now nothing but a poor whimpering soul crying for some rest.”
SP : “ The only punishment for this could be to send her to a place where she will be charged heavily for even receiving the calls..”

By this time I was quite happy. I thought there could be no such place meeting all the restrictions of my sentence. But then God created this place called CHENNAI and here I am serving in this Heaven. And all of you who are laughing at my condition..beware..because I had also mocked and laughed my heart out at people who were posted in this Heaven !!!


Disclaimer : The contents of this post are not meant to hurt the sentiments of any person, group or organization.

Born Engineer

Since the day I left BIT & came home, there has not been a single day when these words have not been crammed into my ears “beta, ye to tumhara last vacation hai ghar pe..jitna aish karna hai kar lo” And all these days at home, I am seriously trying HARD to enjoy my vacation. And as a result of one of such attempts, I have started playing carom with my family.

Last evening we were engrossed in a game of carom when suddenly the tube light of my drawing room went out. “We will have to buy a new tube light” was the obvious reply of my brother. But on closer inspection we found out that there was no power in the drawing room and kitchen. My brother’s n my only concern was “TV”. Without wasting even a second, we checked out all the fuse wires but all the fuse wires were intact. My parents decided to call an electrician but it would be possible only by 2mrw. That means one night without TV—this is the only time my brother gets to watch HBO n Zee Studio and the only time I get to be online without any disturbance (my brother being hooked to TV)..So our eyes met each other and in a glance it was decided that time has come to prove that we are engineers.

My father, aware of our intentions, said, “The entire wiring needs to be checked. We have to go for dinner and I don’t want to be late for any avoidable reasons…and above all 12 hrs without TV would do you no harm.”

Me : “but papa you should give me at least one chance to prove that I m an engg now ( I know this is the most irrelevant reason but it was the only one my pea sized brain could think of..)”

Papa : “haan ab computer engg power problems handle karega!!!”

Within five minutes I arranged all the necessary tools—emergency light, screwdriver, tester, plier…down went the main switch of our house & I started checking from the fuse board. Taking full advantage of beginner’s luck, within 5 mins I found out that a wire coming out of one of the fuses was burnt & disconnected..n the only thing left was connecting it back to the fuse board. Victory could already be seen on my face but to my utter surprise I could not open the screw of that connection point however hard I tried. “The nut is free” was the only consolation I could give myself n passed the screwdriver to my brother (who was the first to mock at me..) and to my relief even he could not!!

Finally we concluded that it’s the job of an electrician and not an engg ( I always have consolations for me..hehe ) and what we did next shows what enggs are best at….if you cannot solve a problem, change the problem….so we shifted the TV to dinning hall, connected it via extension cord to another switch & finally the TV was working. Beaming with pride I switched on the TV only to find that its picture tube was damaged and my parents said a HUGE NO when I said “papa, soldering has dried out…just bring me a soldering rod and I will bring back color to this TV!!!”

MP3

Just by reading the title itself, you must have forced your eyes wide open & glanced thru the entire blog to know the name of “Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar”…its not my fault if the title misled you..it just shows the extent of influence movies have on us. A simple word used as a movie title erases all its previous meanings from our mind. Anyway I will not digress any further & tell you my ordeal to keep my only hobby (which I discovered during my placement interviews..hehe..) alive.

All these years in college, “beg, borrow or steal” had always worked & I had an awesome music collection. Within a week of release of some music, it was sure to rock our ‘M Lobby’ & my routine wud b..
1.Track the room in which the music is being played
2. Knock Knock
3. The door opens and the qs thrown at me is “gana chahiye???”
4.“Thank you” with a very sweet smile on my face n MP3 in my hand…:D
And since the time BIT had set up the much awaited LAN, it had been even more easy. Just at the click of mouse,I could listen to any music track I wanted.

And today, after one month of leaving college, my situation is this….I switch on the tv, go on surfing all the music channels only to see everything except good music. Some music channels are busy advertising their youth icons while the others are trying to raise their TRP hosting shows like GG4 which are related to music in exactly the same way as Indian politicians are related to our welfare.
Irritated by this sort of bakwas on music channels round the clock, I finally concluded that I can fall back only on my computer…so decided to download the latest hits…started my comp…thanks to 128 MB RAM…my comp took 10 mins for the start up during which the only consolation was the thought of the good time I would have once the songs are downloaded…finally started dialing..yeah I still have the dial up connection L….opening port…dialing…dialing…verifying username and password…registering your computer on network…authenticated…speed : 31.2 kbps….man,this dial up connection really sucks…at 31.2 kbps it would take an hour to download a song..huh…but still continued my struggle to download…it took 15 mins just for that site to open n all this while I forced my mind to believe that all impossible things say I M POSSIBLE …but what a misunderstanding on my part…downloading a song using dial up connection is not an impossible task but an idiotic task… in spite of getting “server not found” pages I kept on refreshing n refreshing the page for an hour and finally cursed myself for being an idiot…huh…

Pissed off by these futile efforts, I resorted to the option I had always mocked at….buying MP3….So at last I went to a CD shop & asked for MP3 of latest songs...he started showing me audio CDs priced at Rs75..."are bhaiya,ye nahi chahiye..Rs30 wala pirated MP3 chahiye"..n the reply slapped on my face was "are Madam,ab yahan pirated MP3 nahi milega...aapko original hi lena padega"
:(((

A Trip to Heaven

Yes ppl, I have been to heaven. I will tell u how one feels like in heaven but only if u promise me of not spreading the word around…bcoz I don’t want news channel ppl flooding my house & covering me 24*7 , tagging this memorable trip as “ BREAKING NEWS – A Girl Back from HEAVEN.”

Some 2-3 months ago, I casually mentioned my desire to travel through the beautiful valleys of Kashmir & snow covered ranges of Himalayas to one of my cousins. And most unexpectedly I got the reply “ Mast idea hai…you ppl just come to Ambala & together all of us can go to Leh-Ladakh.” The entire planning, the route we would follow, the bookings for the night stay & every other minute detail was taken care of by my cousin(cho chweeet f him).

And thus 7 of us – my parents, my brother, my cousin, his parents & myself started our “trip to heaven”. After a drive of 6 hrs we reached Pathankot , halted there for the night and set out for Srinagar early in the morning (the only ‘not so good’ part of the trip—my cousin literally pulled me out of my bed at 5 am daily…huh..). However, leaving early paid off & we were at Srinagar Army Base by 5 in the evening( ohh btw did I tell u my cousin is in Indian Airforce…so we were welcome in all the army n airforce stations—another imp thing which Kashmir is known for now-a-days).

I was awed by the sight of still & serene water of Dal lake…lined by tall pine trees & surrounded by mountains…colorful shikaras add to the beauty of Dal lake… we hired 2 such shikaras & floated around for 2 hrs and gazed down in wonder at the floating gardens, floating markets & floating tea stalls selling ‘KAWA – the kashmiri tea’ (the best beverage I have ever had!!). Intrinsically carved wooden houseboats (each one costs around 1 crore so u can well imagine its beauty) covered almost 1/4^th of the lake. Even the Mughal emperors appreciated the beauty of this valley of flowers, visited this place often & built many gardens…Shalimar bagh, Nishat bagh to name a few…and the sight of colorful flowers and fountains are sure to touch the hearts of old and young alike.

Next morning we started for Kargil and this was the day when we had our first encounter with the deadly n beautiful (yeah…I know its contradictory but its true..) mountains, winding roads(even the most optimistic person wud describe it as rocks flattened enough just for a car to pass.. ) and deep valleys. We had to cross the Zojila Pass which was at a ht of approx 12000 ft (I m really bad at memorizing exact figures but my approximation is decent enough..hehe..). The road was just wide enough and our Innova fitted in there, in a way similar to trains on railway tracks - deviation of even a cm from the tracks would have resulted in an accident. My parents were petrified at the sight of the deep valley from the Zojila pass. I felt as if I was on the top of the world not knowing that this was just the trailer. We crossed some of the world’s highest motorable passes later during the trip..

Winding thru the mystic peaks, we reached Kargil by evening. I had always associated Kargil with terror & war but believe me, it was the most peaceful & beautiful place of the entire region. Surrounded by bare, high mountains (both Indian & Pakistani) , this place becomes really windy in the evening .

Next morning we left Kargil and entered Ladakh (the land of high passes) , a cold desert , with little or no signs of life…snow covered peaks were our only companion. And believe me this place is no less than Switzerland!!! All of us were dazzled by the sight of shining, snow covered ranges all around.


We saw glimpses of Tibetan culture in Leh, the only town of Ladakh. China border is nearby and situated there is the Pangong Tso lake (a dream destination). 2/3^rd of this serene lake lies in China and 1/3^rd is in India. Far from the maddening crowd of this competitive world, Leh has innumerable Gumphas & monks form the major chunk of Leh’s population.

For me heaven is a place blessed with natural beauty where your mind, heart & soul find ultimate peace. The Gumphas built at the foothills of Himalayas, is the best possible combination of beauty & peace. My mind, heart & soul experienced a divine peace (which I had always craved for) in the company of monks. However hard I try, I can never put into words, the peace I experienced there. It was then I understood the real meaning of heaven --- a place that is much more than beautiful…