A New Dawn

5 feet barbarous giants or humans?

2011-10-19T20:17:00.001+05:30

When I opened my eyes, it was still dark. My 2 little kids were peacefully sleeping. I looked at them for a minute, smiled and kissed them. “It’s time for morning prayers kids. Get up and don’t be late.” They opened their eyes at once, very obedient I must say. Soon all of us were singing our morning prayers when the first rays of sun beamed. The rays charged us up with its freshness and energy. We were ready to leave our house and spend the day wandering in different lands as usual. The kids already had plans of going to some other place which they had accidentally discovered once. I was going to the same place I had been going since last week.

After 10 hours, I returned home as I had done over the past so many years. But today something was different. I couldn’t find my house. Anxiously I looked around. Things had changed. These barbarous animals had again exploited us and destroyed our homes. I could see the big branches lying dead on the ground. In the lap of one of the branches was my home, lying there in pieces beyond recognition. My friends and neighbours had started returning and soon there was a commotion when they realized the harsh reality. Shocked in utter disbelief, not knowing what to do, where to go, I was just hovering over my tree when I saw my kids flying in.

“What happened to this branch? Where is our home? Where will we sleep tonight?” asked my sweet kid innocently. “Who did this? How could so many branches die at once? Were we late for our morning prayers today and God punished us?” asked the other. “No, my dear. It’s not your fault or our fault. It’s the work of 5 feet barbarous giants who live near us. Time and again, they just destroy our world for no reason. They don’t know how it feels to lose one’s home in a day. God made us small & them giants. They are just using this to their advantage. Someday a bigger giant than them would come and destroy all their houses. ” I said.

“Hmmm. I loved my cosy bed. Where would we sleep tonight?” asked one of the kids. “Don’t worry kids. We would find a new house soon. There is almost no place left on the few branches that these giants have spared. I guess we can sleep somewhere on one of the fallen branches. Don’t worry, I would be awake all night and see that you are safe.”

Ramblings of my mind

2011-09-17T03:21:00.000+05:30

Knowing a thing and not practising it is equivalent to not knowing. Very true indeed! I had always read that what people regret the most are often things which they didn’t do/say. Yet, all these days, I just didn’t practise this. And now, whenever I look back, I feel sad about things not said/done. There have been many times when I wanted to say something but could never overcome my mental inhibitions. But from now on, I would try to speak my mind.

So, what’s in my mind right now? At this juncture of life, when I have almost all elements of a successful life (touchwood), my mind is struggling to seek answers to some everyday dilemmas faced by me.

In life, just like management, nothing is absolutely black or white. Everything is a shade of grey and it depends on us as to what colour we give to it. Speaking one’s mind may sometimes hurt other people while by not speaking it, one may hurt oneself. We may choose either but not always should we choose the same one. Consistency in situations like this could be detrimental. But then how do we decide which one to choose under what circumstance?

This is one of the many questions which bother me. If everyone cares for his/her own happiness, wouldn’t everyone automatically be satisfied and happy? What if everyone cares for some other people but still no one cares for some people? What ultimately should be our goal – to be happy or to make others happy? I know the ideal answer is to be happy by being a reason for others’ happiness but not everyone can achieve this. How do I convince myself to be happy just by seeing others happy? What should then be the code of conduct for lesser mortals like me?

Or maybe, I should just stop thinking. Maybe, the happiest people in the world are the people who don’t think!

PS – This post could be incongruent and irrelevant as I just wrote what I was thinking.

Summer of 2011 : Last Part

2011-06-25T03:19:00.005+05:30

Please read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 before reading this.

Intelligently or co-incidentally Adel had started running opposite to that boy. After running for a while, the noise of other people fainted and finally stopped. He did not know where he was. The only thing he knew was that he was tired and hungry. He wanted to eat the delicious dinner cooked by his mother and sleep on his soft bed. “I wish I could just go home every night, have dinner, sleep and leave home in the morning,” thought Adel. But at this moment he couldn’t even go home. He was lost and there was no one on the streets to help him get back home. However much he wanted to be independent, he knew he had to take help of someone and get back home.

He walked and walked and continued walking. Finally he came to a place where there were a few houses. He went up to a house and knocked the door. There was no response. He knocked again, this time with all the force he had. He could now hear some movement inside the house but still no one opened the door. He knocked again but in vain.

He decided to continue with his walking, taking random turns. He could barely lift his feet now. He was scared by the dark, lonely streets and walking alone seemed no more fascinating to him. He did not want to play anymore. He wished his mother called him from somewhere and took him from there. He would have to live in a small, dirty, smelly hut like that woman and would have to steal food like that boy if he lives alone. He certainly did not want that but he had no more energy to walk any further.

He felt like a cool breeze hitting his face. He smiled and opened his eyes. His parents were sitting beside him while he lay down on his bed. Seeing him smile his mother exclaimed, “Oh Adel! Where had you gone? We searched for you the entire night. Thank God the police found you lying on a street and you are safe and healthy. Why did you do such a thing? Do you know how we felt when you were gone? We love you so much dear. We stop you from playing so that you don’t get sick. We love you sweetheart and care for you. Promise me you won’t ever do this again.” She almost broke to tears as she said this.

Adel was happy to be home and see his parents. But he could not stop thinking about the women and the boy he met last night. He wished he could meet them again and give them something from his house.

PS: Finally my first 'long' short story is complete. All comments/suggestions are most welcome :)

Summer of 2011 : Part 3

2011-06-25T02:13:00.007+05:30

Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this.

Lost in his thoughts, he was still walking very fast when suddenly he hit someone and fell down. A boy some years elder to him had also fallen down in front of him. Adel very politely apologised and stood up. The other boy did not say anything and looked behind. Adel asked him “Are you hurt? Are you waiting for someone? Why were you looking behind?”

The boy hurriedly replied, “It’s not your concern. Just go away.”
Adel’s curiosity forced him to continue, “Please tell me why you are looking so worried. This is such a pleasant night. This is just the perfect way to enjoy summer vacations.”

The boy was touched by his sweetness. After a long time someone had spoken to him in kind words. All he used to hear were the shouts and curses of people. After a moment of silence he said “Actually I was running away from some people. They are chasing me because I have stolen this bread from a shop,” and took out a piece of bread from under his shirt.

“Why did you steal? Don’t you know it is a bad habit? I will tell your mother and she would scold you,” said Adel.

“I don’t have my mother with me. I live alone and I had not eaten anything since yesterday. I was very hungry and had no money. So I just stole this once piece of bread. What else could I have done? No one gives me any work because I am not old enough. And even if they give me some small work, they don’t pay me and throw me out after a few days.”

Adel replied, “How can you not have your mother? Have you also left your home like me? Why do elders don’t understand children? They throw away so much of food. They can give that food to you. You would then not have to steal.” As he said this, he realized that he had not eaten anything since morning. He thought of the tasty dinner his mother used to make for him. He drooled at the mere thought of it.

The boy smiled at Adel’s idealistic suggestion and said, “I wish that were the case. Then many boys like me won’t have to sleep hungry. Wait a minute... Did I hear you correctly? Have you run away from your home? Why have you done such a thing? I have no parents and no house so I am living this way. You are lucky to have a home and nice parents. You should go back to them.”

Suddenly a noise started which soon became a shout. A few people were running towards them shouting and cursing the boy. The boy just said “Run” to Adel and started running in the opposite direction.

..... continued in last part

Summer of 2011 : Part 2

2011-06-25T00:54:00.007+05:30

Please read Part 1 of this before reading this post.

Through the dark streets of Amenia, Adel wandered around kicking off the pebbles on the sides of the streets. After aimlessly walking on the unknown streets for hours, Adel knew he was lost and for a change was happy being lost. He was happy to be away from the restricting world of adults. While he was still smiling, lost in his own world, a sound came. A stone which he had kicked off had hit some metal object. A small child was sitting on the pavement playing with a metal utensil and the stone had hit his utensil.

Adel walked up to the child and asked what he was doing there? The child laughed seeing Adel and said a few unrecognizable syllables. Suddenly a young lady came and lifted the small child in her arms. Adel then saw a very small hut on the other side of the pavement where a few other people were staying. The lady started walking towards the hut when Adel called the lady in a reflex. The lady turned and asked what he wanted. Adel had never seen people living in huts built on street-sides. Innocently he asked why she is going towards the small dirty hut with her child. “That place is so dirty. Don’t go there,” said Adel.

The lady amused by Adel’s innocence and care replied, “Kid, we live there. That is our house. We don’t have enough money to live in a proper house.”

Adel, “Why don’t you have enough money? My dad has a lot of money. You can take some money from him and build a good house. I live in a big house at 8th floor and it’s very clean and beautiful.”

Lady, “You are still a small boy my dear. This world is not as good as you think it is. May you be untouched with the harsh cruelties of this world! But why are you wandering alone at this hour? Are you not scared? Do you know your way back home? Where are your parents?”

“You are such a good mother. You allowed your son to play even during the night. You love your child. But my mother scolds me a lot and never allows me to play. She does not love me so I have left my house,” Adel started walking as he said these words.

Adel increased his pace of walking fearing that the lady might get hold of him and return him to his parents. His mind was running at the same pace or even faster than his feet. The small and shabby shack was still in front of his eyes. How can anyone live in such a place? That place smelt so bad. Poor people have to suffer so much still they are happy. I want to be poor. At least then my mother would let me play the whole day and not shout at me even once!

Meanwhile, Adel’s parents were questioning all his friends & neighbors, frantically searching the nearby roads but Adel was nowhere to be found.

....continued in Part 3

Summer of 2011 : Part 1

2011-06-25T00:03:00.003+05:30

It was a hot sunny summer afternoon. Adel was playing hide and seek with his friends since morning. In the deserted roads of the summer afternoon, their count of 1 to 50 was clearly audible from the 8th floor balcony. Every time the count started, Adel’s mother shouted for him and asked him to come home. He wouldn’t even bother and would run away to hide as if he was going to hide at a place his mom could never find. She cursed the other ladies as to why they were letting their children play in this heat and then again shouted at Adel.

After an hour of intermittent useless shouting, Adel’s mother stepped out of her house in anger. She would not let her son be a victim of the scorching sun. As she reached the play area, she frantically started searching for Adel. Smart as Adel was, he quickly hid in his secret place to escape the prying eyes of his mother. But to the utter surprise of Adel, one of his friends went to his mom and pointed his secret hide out to her. With an intense look of revenge, Adel left the ground while his mom was still shouting and scolding him. “You useless boy! Don’t you have any shame left? I have been shouting at you since last 2 hours and you didn’t even respond once. Do you know what time of the day it is? Is it the time to play? You have driven my crazy.....” his mom went on and on......

Sitting in his bed, Adel was sobbing. His mother’s harsh words were still clearly ringing in his ears. He is a big boy now. It’s his summer vacations and he had done his homework too. Then why can’t he play? What problem does his mother have when he was not even disturbing her? Why can’t adults be sensible like him and not disturb him when he is not disturbing them? “I won’t live in this house any more. I am a big boy and can live alone. Then I can play whole day and would not have to listen to my mom’s blabbering”, he thought and left the house. He did not bother to tell his mom where he was going. His mom thought he was upset and that would return home in sometime after sitting on the stairs. He had done this before when he had been upset. But this time he didn’t return. An hour went by, another hour, and another, the clock struck 6 but still Adel did not come home.

.....continued in part 2

2011-06-23T15:53:00.005+05:30

Some people go because they want to go,
Some others go because you let them go.

You are busy mourning over the gone.
They comfort you, make you smile,
And walk with you all the mile.

Silently they make their presence felt,
Waiting for your grief to melt.
Never do they reveal what they feel,
Waiting for you to heal.

They understand you all the while,
But when they say, you ignore it over a smile.
Your smile is what matters the most,
And thus leave those who matters the most.

They are gone not because they wanted to go
But because you let them go!

Drivers drive me crazy!

2011-06-12T21:55:00.004+05:30

I have always enjoyed travelling and whenever I was forced to think of a hobby of mine, this was the first thing which came to my mind. Unlike other travelogues, I would not detail out the places which I travelled to during my 2 month internship. This is about my interesting and not so interesting encounters in my journey.

In these 2 months, I have travelled by air, sea, rail and road. My project required me to travel to Pune from Mumbai every Monday morning & back to Mumbai every Friday evening. This was not as easy as it sounds. A cab used to pick me up from my cousin’s place at around 630 in the morning. The painful part was guiding the driver to my cousin’s place. No driver had even faintly heard of that place and it took around 1 hour to reach that place from central Mumbai. For his convenience, I had to get up 1 hour before normally I would have got up and explain him the directions in details. And still no one turned up in time. From 630 onwards my aunt, my bhabhi and I would be popping out of the balcony to see if the cab is coming. One of my bhabhi’s neighbours had even asked if it was some kind of a ritual for the three of us to stare the roads from our balcony every Monday morning! After getting into the cab, I used to feel that my work for the day is over and now it’s time to rest and the next three hours of the drive were well spent in day dreaming :)

One thing which I found common among all the drivers who used to pick/drop me was their irresistible desire to keep blabbering all the way. Some would talk about the route to my cousin’s place, some about their previous/next pickup, some would describe Mumbai from their experiences, some would want to know which place I belong to and get into details like where my family members are & their work. However much I hated it, I would still respond by saying just a yes/no or nodding my head for all their conversations. However there was one driver who kept bugging me and wasn’t quiet even for a minute in the entire drive. He seemed to have served many bookings from my company. He told me the names & addresses of all employees from my companies whom he had picked/dropped. And he did not limit the conversation just to this; he even started telling me about his conversations with those people! I was just too frustrated by all this and started talking over phone to avoid any further conversations with him. And suddenly he started asking me the directions knowing very well that I would surely respond to this even if I am busy on phone. I told him to go straight for another 10 kms but even if there was a small road going out of the main road, he would ask me whether to take that turn. I was staying at a naval base which was almost like an island into the sea and there was just one straight road connecting it. I was totally pissed off by the time I reached home. After getting out, I genuinely told him to take the same route to go back to which he replied “haan madam, sea se to nahi hi jayenge! mujhe raasta pata hai...aapko kis floor pe jana hai???”

Train ka 'Suffer'

2011-06-12T21:49:00.003+05:30

Any stay in Mumbai is incomplete without travelling in local trains. Just to explore, I with my cousins & friends decided to travel in local from CST to Lower Parel. Very confidently we bought the tickets and started inquiring about the platform from where we can board the train to our destination. It was then that we came to know that locals from CST didn’t go to Lower Parel (this station is covered by western line and not the one from CST). We frantically asked people what to do next. Then someone suggested that we take the train and get down at Curry Road & that Lower Parel station is at a walking distance from there. After confirming this with some other passengers, we finally boarded the train. However we had absolutely no clue when the train would reach Curry Road. After a couple of stations had passed, we just asked our fellow passengers when our station would come. They asked some other passengers and this chain followed. In the next 5 mins, almost 70% of the people in our bogie were shouting to each other “Curry Road kab aata hai?” It turned out the next station itself was Curry Road and thus ended my first real experience with the lifeline of Mumbai.

I was quite amused by the speed and simplicity of locals and used locals to commute in Mumbai after that. One Sunday evening, I was travelling from Bandra to Churchgate. The ladies compartment didn’t have many people and I comfortably sat near a window. Having nothing to do or think about, I just started checking out a few combs which a woman was selling. And within a few seconds, that woman just left the entire box of combs on my hands, mumbled something in Marathi and walked away. Before I could realize what was happening, all the combs fell from the over-stuffed box. Taking a clue from my lost expressions, the girl next to me told me that the woman had given me the box of combs to see and choose one for myself. In the mean time, these sellers just stand near the door and enjoy the breeze. Painfully, I spent the next 10 minutes in picking up all the combs from the floor. By the time I finished picking up combs, it was time for me to get down. What a way to kill time!

I generally don’t like talking to unknown co-passengers while travelling. So during my short 3 hour train journeys from Kolkata to my home town, I watch movies in my laptop. This time also I boarded the train and started to watch Ragini MMS after settling down on my seat. An elderly uncle was sitting next to me and his wife had already gone to sleep in the other berth. Just as I started watching the moving, I felt something unusual. I turned to see what that uncle was doing and found him peeping into my screen so closely that I had almost hit him while turning. I squeezed more towards the window (not much space was left) and turned my laptop so that he couldn’t see clearly. Had it been some other movie, I still wouldn’t have minded anyone peeping into my screen. But I could not watch that kind of a movie with a person of his age. Much to my dismay, he shifted towards me and was now peeping into the screen much more. I tried this once more by almost turning the laptop by 45 degree. He was just too determined to watch the movie and so finally I placed the laptop in a way both of us could see without having to intrude in other’s space. I was using my earphone and he was watching it as a silent movie. Still at the end of the movie, he said that it was a nice movie. God knows how one can find a horror movie good without any sound. Even ‘other scenes’ of the movie were worthless. And not only this, throughout the journey, he was behaving as if he was my relative. When the attendant gave us our packets of bed-sheets, I just kept it on the top berth as I hardly used it during my 3 hour journey. That ‘new found relative’ took out the towel from my packet and gave it to me saying, “Beta, ye kaam aayega. Isko pass me rakho.” I didn’t want to say anything and just took it. His concern for me didn’t stop there. When the food was served, he made space for my plate first and asked me to keep it there. Throughout the next 2 hours he kept offering unsolicited help. Then came the turn to tip the train staff who was serving our food. Generally everyone gives Rs 10 each and as I reached out to my wallet, that uncle gave the 10 rupee note and said that I was also a part of his family! Before I could give my 10 rupee note, the staff had left. I was too annoyed and just waited anxiously for this journey to end.

Vivadon wale Baba

2011-06-09T11:29:00.002+05:30

"Dont try to be a Baba Ramdev," said one of our esteemed profs while asking us to take up small doable projects. Surely, Baba Ramdev has taken up a task without knowing how and what is he going to achieve from his protests. It is very easy for him to tell the government to bring back the black money but does he know to the smallest detail how this can be done. How should the bill/ordinance be framed to achieve this, who would be responsible to ensure its adherence, there are so many questions which need to be thought of and answered before starting such a protest. He doesn't even know what exactly he wants from the government (read PM) as an assurance of acceptance of his demands.

To add to all this, he has now come up with the idea of creating a Nationalist Force. He is planning to train thousands of volunteers in arms. Even when the arms are used for self-defence, it is considered to be violence. How could he even think of calling his protests as non-violent and himself as an ardent follower and supporter of Gandhi's principles? The naxalites and terrorists also claim that they use arms only to protect themselves and their interests. This move of his would also misguide many and propagate the use of arms. If not stopped now, this would be just another force to bleed India.

The cause might be good but the means adopted has nullified it. We need to take the cause forward but not the means. I believe this cannot be achieved by just framing laws but by revolutionizing our judiciary system. The 2G scam case would also be like the Satyam case which would be in news for some months and then no one (accused, judiciary involved, politicians, public) would give a damn to it. Only when our judicial system is much more effective and efficient, can we go ahead and have laws to stop corruption and bring back our hard earned money.

Happy Earth Day !

2011-03-23T01:33:00.001+05:30

It s been a long time since I updated my blog, or rather even visited my blog. Last couple of months I was just too occupied with my curriculum, dating my books day & night in hope of a decent CG thereafter. It seems dating is not my cup of tea...not even with my books. Marks ditched me and left me & my CG in a condition beyond repair. Anyway, I had a month’s break after my break-up with my marks & I thought I would return to my ever-loyal friend with no complaints & no demands...my blog! My vacations started and I thought of many blog posts but the only place where I spent my time writing turned out to be facebook. Numerous status updates, comments, photo & video sharing kept me busy and I never really took time out of this site to update my blog.

Today, as usual I spent hours on status updates of my friends. Some had silly jokes while some had poems...some heart-broken folks had ‘dard bhari shayari’ where as others had wishes for weird ‘day celebrations’. This is one of the new trends I have noticed on facebook recently. People would just crazily find some weird thing particular to that day and update ‘Happy XXXXX Day’. To add to it, some 20 people would like it and another 10 would share/copy it as their status message without even thinking twice if it actually had any relevance. Well I can list down top 50 crazy things on facebook but I would save that for my next post.

Today I saw some 10 people sharing about following Earth Hour. Earth Hour in India is on March 26th, 8:30-9:30 PM. I was about to share the same but then I paused and thought for a moment. Will I be actually following this? What is the purpose of following this Earth Hour? Is it to save electricity or is it to generate awareness among people and make them conscious about saving electricity. I think this would serve neither of the purposes. Even when everyone strictly follows this, the electricity saved in this one hour would not even be 1% of the electricity we waste daily. ACs in huge offices are on when hardly 10 people are working, lights & fans of each room are running ceaselessly when just one room is being used. Then why do we have to constrain ourselves for that one hour and live without light when we can save much more electricity by being a little cautious one full day and not waste electricity.

If generating awareness is the intention, then this Earth Hour fails even more miserably because many people don’t even think once about the electricity they waste. They just feel happy about the fact that they are also a part of the group that ‘celebrated the Earth Hour’.

There is a difference in the way I use electricity when current is there in my house and when the current is not there & inverter is being used. Not that I compromise any of the comforts when using inverter, it’s just that I don’t waste electricity because I know that once the inverter dies, life would be hell without electricity. It is necessary to believe that electricity would not last forever while using it. Only then will our natural tendency be to minimize its wastage and I think this feeling is missing in most of us. ‘Earth Hour’ doesn’t address this basic need & hence I feel it is not serving its purpose. Any campaign which induces this feeling of resource scarcity can only drive us save electricity in true sense.

I would try and treat every day as Earth Day and save electricity. Will you?

PS: This does not mean my facebook status would have ‘Happy Earth Day’ everyday ;)

A murder or a death sentence?

2011-01-05T01:22:00.003+05:30

After being sexually harassed for three years, Rupam Pathak thought her miseries would come to an end and the guilty would be punished when she filed an FIR against the MLA of a district in Bihar. But her wait for justice seemed never ending and in a quest to punish the guilty, she stabbed the MLA to death this morning.

Prima facie it appears as an act of brutal murder. A school teacher is supposed to teach by example and killing a person would be the last example any society would want to set for its children and youth. But then, is it actually an example of murder or an example of punishing the guilty and hence preventing people from committing this heinous crime?

A similar case had been filed by another woman against this MLA a few years back. But thanks to our corrupt socio-political system, he was given a clean chit in that case. Had he been punished suitably in the first instance itself, Rupam would have been saved of her misery. This is not only true for this case but also for many cases being filed in India. We all know the famous Aarushi Murder Case. It is a shame that court has not been able to find the guilty till now. Or rather the guilty is powerful enough to tamper with the judicial system successfully every-time (s)he wishes to. In this scenario, I think Rupam was left with no other choice than to break the law and give justice to herself.

What is even more disheartening is the way politicians and media commented on this incident. Almost all articles have framed the incident as murder and have reported only one side of the story. No one has even hinted that this act could imply that patience level of the public is now peaking and soon such fate might be meted out to other such politicians. They should thus restrict their criminal activities and corruption and concentrate on doing what they are elected for. No one pointed the fact that if justice would continuously be delayed (and hence denied), people would be forced to break laws and punish the guilty in their own ways.

In my view, Rupam has given an apt reply to these sucking politicians and the sick judicial system.

First Date !

2010-11-24T19:44:00.007+05:30

They waited eagerly for the class to get over,
looked at their watches more than the teacher.
Imagining his first date for the hundredth time,
he looked at her and then the time.

As the bell rang, they slipped from the room in a flash,
while others were still packing, discussing about the class.
They just smiled and walked side by side.
Suddenly she stopped, & in a moment even he was petrified.

They stood close as the tiny drops of water touched their cheeks.
He could smell her sweet rose perfume,
and she could count his loud nervous beats.

He stared at the sky,
fearing she may refuse to go out
and wished the rain to stop.
Closing her eyes, she prayed silently,
'let this rain continue' and
imagined them holding hands & walking in the rain.

As the drops became bigger and faster,
'Let's go!' he said and held her hands to go back.
Still her eyes closed, she started running out,
With hands held tight and smiles running wide.
Enjoying the fresh water droplets hitting their face,
they ran for their wonderful first date!

Dreams are all I have!

2010-11-22T18:01:00.002+05:30

It has been a long time since I scribbled something here. A lot happened in the last few months. There were many days when I thought I would update my blog but somehow all my time and energy was spent only in writing about myself in hundreds of forms. I wrote so many essays during this placement season that I swore I wouldn't write anything for 1 week after placements, the only exceptions being chatting and giving attendance :P

There were so many things about which I wanted to write in the last few months. On some topics I even structured and wrote the entire post in my dreams! This reminds me of another interesting topic I wanted to write about. I have observed that after coming to this place, I have started recollecting my dreams and the frequency has increased to a disturbing level. This could be either because I hardly do any physical work & thus no sound sleep or because I do so much of mental work that my brain refuses to rest even when I sleep. Almost everyday I wake up with a strange dream memory. Some days it is an entire 2 hour interview with someone, some days I watch movies in my dreams, I relax on beaches and just stare at the waves on some days.

Today I woke up with the most interesting dream...a dream in which I was made the placement committee head at Hogwarts! As the place-comm head, I laid down rules for the spells which could be listed in their CVs, conducted training sessions on what magic to show when asked 'Tell me something about urself', the mock interviews with interviewees casting disastrous spells etc. It was a 'dream' dream!!

And as the famous saying goes 'Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them', I am hoping that a few of my good dreams do come true.

Friends Forever !

2010-08-29T02:50:00.004+05:30

Will our paths ever cross again?
The mere thought of this is a pain

Even while treading on paths that never meet,
you would find me there in times of need.

It takes just one sight to fall in love
but it takes years to find a friend like you.

You may have a hundred friends like me,
But I had just you & I will have just you!!

exam TIME !

2010-08-26T01:20:00.006+05:30

I am not sure of the relation between speed of light and time. The only relation between them which I can recall is the explanation of time travel. In simple terms, if we can travel faster than speed of light then we can travel ahead of / back in time. Does that mean speed of light has a direct relation with speed of time? Weird doubts.... I dont even know if there is a term 'speed of time' but I just meant the speed with which the time passes. You must be wondering why the hell did I start writing about speed of light and time relationship. Well, to cut the long story short... I was just trying out if I could 'globe' on any given topic..!!

Here, time passes faster than I could have imagined. As soon as I somehow complete one thing, I can hear the knell of another deadline. And swinging back and forth between accomplished and unaccomplished deadlines, five weeks are over! It truly teaches the most important lesson of management - time management and keeps us on our toes.

It's exam time again and as usual, I have been promoted from a day dreamer to a visionary (sounds better,is more motivating and is applicable for night also!). My mind is flooded with new ideas in various domains as soon as I open any book. The only problem is that they are not in the remotest way linked to anything mentioned in the book and is only taking me away from marks. And what better example than this post, the idea of which I got as soon as I opened the book for marketing!

PS( for all physicists out there): I have not googled the basic meaning of time travel and the post is solely based on what I vaguely remember. It is not intended to contend with the meanings/importance of these terms.

2010-08-26T00:47:00.006+05:30

Roses remind me of the sweet fragrance life always has in spite of being surrounded by thorns. It's bright color overshadows the colorless thorns. It's soft touch heals broken hearts. It shows that someone still cares for me.

Thanks for the roses !

PS: Cake and the chocolates too have an equally significant contribution in making my life sweet... Thanks :)

Re-born as a jokar

2010-08-01T11:59:00.003+05:30

After coming to this jokaland, I have hardly got time to sit back and think about what's going on. I guess Einstien would have formulated his theory of relativity on a visit to B-School. The only time when I was relatively free for thinking ( or day dreaming as many people call it..!!) was the exam time. All weird thoughts ranging from 'If 5 marks are deducted for not writing name on answer sheet then 5 marks should be awarded for writing the name.....why do all people suddenly start remembering me during exams and number of incoming calls increase exponentially....why do all good movies release before exams and none release just after exams...why binary marking when people have always given more importance to means than the end...' to what would be my next blog about flooded my mind.

But now that I have taken out some time to blog, I cannot think of anything to write. Guess my mind now cannot work under relaxed conditions..!! When I changed the theme of my blog, I did not realize that it would be so apt. It's a total new life unfolding here... new ways of studying... new ways of entertainment/celebration... new definition of day (try to sleep as much as possible) and night (try to work as much as possible)... and many more things.

And before I run out of time, wish you all a very happy friendship's day! Whatever you do in life, however busy you get, you should have at least one friend calls you by weirdly pronouncing your name, who teases you by a girl/boy you hate, who will do anything to get a party from you, who calls your nokia/sony ph a china handset in public loudly, who wont let you walk home alone, who would give you embarrassing greeting cards on ur b'day, who would call you to chit chat before ur exams, who smiles and make you smile though he has every right to breakdown...who you know will be there for you anytime and everytime.

Cheers to all my friends :)

Happy Bde!!

2010-06-11T23:19:00.004+05:30

Today my blog turns 3! Yeah...aaj mere blog ka happy wala birthday hai. It's now 70 posts old. So I thought I would gift it a new look. In these three years, I always had the company of my blog. It helped me sail through all my ups and downs. I tried to be as regular as possible on my blog but the next two years are going to be damn hectic. I hope I can always manage some time for my blog and keep it alive.

Wish you a long life...my dear blog!!!

PS : Any suggestion relating to the background/color combinations is most welcome.

810

2010-06-08T22:24:00.009+05:30

810...sounds like calling some prisioner..but that's how a few people have identified me in the last one month. I had never ever imagined that shifting from one city to another could be such a hassle. Living in Coimbatore, I had to shift my luggage from Bangalore to Bokaro. In these 3 yrs of stay in B'lore, my luggage had increased from 2 baggages to 12 (excluding TV, Refrigerator and other furnishings which I had bought for the house). Knowing my incapabilities of travelling by train with so much of luggage and the exorbitant charges of extra luggage in flight, I decided to send most of my luggage by a movers and packers agency. Little did I know that this decision of mine would cost me 10k and my peace of mind for the next 45 days.

With the help of google, I contacted a few of them. One didnt even know the place Bokaro!! Finally I zeroed in for the agency which sounded helpful and confident of delivering my luggage in good condition to Bokaro within 10 days. On a bright Sunday morning, they came to my place, packed my luggage and vehicle and set off from my house. They demanded full payment before taking my luggage and said they wont deliver until full payment is done. So I shelled out 10k with the hope of seeing my luggage at my hometown without any hassles.

So far so good. I chilled out for 9 days before the actual ordeal started. On the expected date of delivery of my luggage, I called them to check for the time when they wud give my luggage.

'Kuch kam roshan hai roshni
Kuchh kam geeli hai baarishein'.... starts his caller tune ( for rest of the post, I would refer this guy as 'roshan hai roshni'). Finally he answers the call but cannot recall me. I then quoted my consignment no 810 and this is how he refered and remembered me for all the future calls. After reminding him of his promise of delivering my lugagge within 10 days, he gave me the contact no of a person in Kolkata and asked me to contact him and check with him.

I called this second person (with no caller tune and who seldom received my call) and asked about 810. He told me that its already reached and would be delivered at my house the next morning. Reassured with his answer, I congratulated myself for shifting luggage so peacefully. It was after a couple of days when I realized that this no caller tune guy had just one answer... the one which he had told me the 1st time. From 11th day onwards, calling 'roshan hai roshni' and 'no caller tune' guys became a part of my routine.

After calling for 2 days, there was a new twist. 'No caller tune' guy stopped answering my calls. Pissed off with him, I called up 'roshan hai roshni' and blasted him. He then gave me the contact number of the manager of Kolkata office. I called him up and was taken aback by the caller tune.

'Bhala kisi ka kar na sako to bura kisi ka mat karna
Pushp nahi ban sakte to kante ban kar mat khilna'... Misled by the caller tune, I thought that this guy would be helpful. If not good, he won't do bad to me atleast. After calling him some 10 times a day, my luggage was delivered on the 15th day of dispatch!! But to my surprise (rather shock), one of my suitcases was misplaced and some one else's suitcase was delivered.

After calling up 'bhala - bura' guy for 2-3 times, I was told that probably, the suitcase got exchanged while loading in Kolkata godown. Along with my consignment, another consignment for Guwahati had also been dispatched from B'lore. In kolkata, both the consignments were separated and the suitcases was misplaced. They assured me that they had identified my suitcase and that it would reach my house within 7-8 days.

Knowing how much they adhered to timelines, I started calling up the 'no caller tune' and the 'bhala-bura' guy from the 6th day itself. For 2-3 times, they said it would reach in 1-2 days max, but after that they stopped receiving my calls. I called up the 'roshan hai roshni' guy and expected him to bring some roshni to the whereabouts of my suitcase. He said he would follow up with 'no caller tune' guy and get it delivered within 3-4 days. Everyday I used to call him and like my calls, even his replies became a routine. And by each passing day, my anger and frustration increased and the hope of getting my luggage back decreased.

Mann me hai vishwas...pura hai vishwas...hum honge kamyab ek din!! Finally after 45 days of dispatch, at 5 in the morning, I got a call from a person saying that he is standing outside my house with my suitcase! In spite of having come back late last night from an exhausting trip to Ranchi, I was more than happy to get up at 5 in the morning for my 810/7.

After completing the verification and signing formalities, I eagerly tried closing the door, but that person refused to step out. My dad, just up from his sleep, gave him a rude look. That person replied in a soft voice 'Sir, kuch chai-pani ke liye....'. 'Ek to mahine bhar se hume apne saaman ke liye pareshan kiya... upar se paise maang rahe ho...bhago yahan se' was my dad's reply in a strict voice. I closed the door with a smile on my face. That poor guy got blasted right in the morning, not only because of delivering my suitcase after 1 month, but also because of disturbing my dad from his sleep!!

Finally I don't have to listen to these horrible ring tones and identify myself as 810!!

PS - A piece of free advice.. never ever contact Times Packers and Movers for any shifting [http://www.timespackers.com]

Divide & Rule !

2010-05-28T08:04:00.004+05:30

I clearly remember the first time when I had a discussion related to castes with my friends. It was the time when reservation for OBC was introduced. Prior to that we did not even bother about castes. Before that I had not even bothered to ask my parents which caste I belonged to and whether it falls under OBC or not? But I am sure after this rule for reservation, even small children would first confirm if they belong to OBC to avail the reservation.

It seems this was not enough a divide for our esteemed politicians. Britishers divided and ruled India on the basis of religion where as politicians are dividing and ruling India on the basis of castes. To ensure that Mayawati always remains in power, she might not mention the work she would do for the people but would definitely mention her caste in all her speeches. Including caste in census would help these powerful caste politicians use the census data as fodder for votes and government funding. It will empower politicians to create division in our lives to the last detail.

There are two debatable points related to including caste in census. One is the purpose this data would solve and the other is the way it would be executed to get accurate data.

The need for accurate data relating to castes came into picture when the Supreme Courts and Apex Courts demanded for data on the basis of which demands for OBC quota were raised. Last caste census was done by Britishers in 1931. Based on extrapolation of that data, the percentage of OBC was determined as 52% and correspondingly 27% reservation was done. Many caste politicians are of the view that these numbers are no where near the actual data and that caste census is needed to determine the exact population of OBC so that appropriate reservation can be given to them. In Modern India, where people dream of a casteless social order and efforts are made to weaken the caste structure, this caste census would only create fissures.

For a moment lets assume that the government has all the data related to castes. It is found that the percentage of SC, ST, or OBC has reduced and some other caste has increased. Will the government have the character to reduce their quota and increase the quota of the new caste? Will it not lead to more social stress and disorder? Will it not lead to situations similar to Gujjar protests in Rajasthan a couple of years back? At a time when terrorism and naxalism are posing a threat to security, are we equipped to handle additional threats?

Operational difficulties of a caste census cannot be ignored. Census 2011 will cover 1.2 billion people, with 2.5 million people being deployed to track them. However, a new dimension would be added to this census. Caste is not an "objective" measurable category like occupation, age, sex, education etc. It is to some extent a "subjective" category related with identity and perceptions which change from time to time. Though the literature on caste system is large, so far there is no precise definition of caste which can help a quantitative study. A definition encompassing different marks and boundaries of the numerous castes among Hindus and non-Hindus in different parts of the country is essential for census enumeration. Even if such a list enumerating the various castes is prepared and agreed upon, it is almost next to impossible to categorize the various sub castes and sub sub castes and convert it into meaningful data.

In 1931, when the last caste census was done, many people had claimed to be from higher castes to get a decent position in the society. Today, many people would claim to be from lower castes to get the benefit of the quota system. How are the census officials going to verify the caste information given by the individuals?

A few months back even the Home Ministry had declared to the Cabinet: “Population census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste. The operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that the basic integrity of the census data may be compromised and the fundamental population count itself could get distorted.” But once the Opposition—everyone from the JD (U), SP, RJD, Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, AIADMK and DMK to BJP, CPM and CPI (M)—got together, the Congress cravenly caved in.

In today's India, it seems the vision of caste-less society is there only in history books. We teach our children the various ill-effects of the rigid caste system and the strict social hierarchy based on their family's traditional livelihood and ethnicity only for some stupid exams. They learn the real lesson on caste system from our politicians and their shrewd policies based on castes!!!

Naxals : Part of problem or solution ???

2010-05-20T14:15:00.011+05:30

Living in Jharkhand for more than 20 yrs, I was unaware of one of the biggest threats India is facing - naxalism. Not that I had not heard of this, but I didn't know the causes and effects of the same. Only thing which I remember is my dad following any news related to naxal attack in Jehanabad (my grandparents' place - also one of the areas severely affected by naxalism). Whenever I used to goto Jehanabad, I used to be awake all night. Somehow I believed if I am awake, then people wont attack our house..!!

In the last couple of months, I read more about naxalism. In most of the articles, the violence was condemned. There are hardly any articles to bring out the problems faced by them and the reasons which led them to take up arms. I do agree that the means adopted by them is wrong and can never be justified. But at least we should not turn a blind eye to their problems.

The Indian Forest Act came into action and overnight thousands of tribals living in forests were rendered homeless. The ownership of the land on which they were living for hundreds of years was given to the government without proper relocation or incentives to these tribals. They were given the right to vote in exchange for their right to live. When the rest of India was treading the road of developement and modernization, these people were denied even the basic amenities. With no proper houses, sanitation, education and earning, these tribals were left to struggle in the dense forests all by themselves. Even today there are no proper roads in their villages. The schools are the most abandoned buildings. Why should teachers come here, to the jungle, when they get their salaries sitting at home?

Naxal groups claim that their primary objective is to take up the issues of equity, class and injustice within tribal society. It started its operations in West Bengal and soon spread to less developed rural areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh etc. Today around 200 districts are a part of the Red Corridor (areas affected by naxalism). They have the support of the tribal and rural population of central India. They prefer sending their children to training camps organized by naxals to sending them to schools. At least it gives them hope that some day they would get their land back. If someone captures our house overnight, we would also try to get it back by any means, If talks don't help, then wont we take the help of some local gundas to threaten them and get back our house by any means. They are also doing the same. Even Bhagat Singh and Subhash chandra Bose used violence to make their voice heard. Then why do we appreciate Bhagat Singh and Subhash chandra Bose but condemn naxals? Instead of understanding their problems and empathizing with them, we are thinking of the possibilities of air strike?

But in the bargain the whole population in the red corridor is living in constant state of fear. Every other day is a bandh which throws life out of gear. And who suffers, the common people. The target of their ire is common masses, the target of government atrocity and inefficiency is also common masses.

There is no one right side or wrong side in this menace and there's no direct or easy solution to this problem. Instead of deploying more and more armed forces in these areas, if our government and build more roads, TV and teachers to these areas, the situation can be under control. They need listening ears more than bombs and explosives.

Vo teen saal..!!!

2010-05-18T22:27:00.004+05:30

Now that I have lots of free time before going for management studies, I was just thinking about the past 3 yrs of my life which I spent in an unknown city far from home all by my self. In addition to the 3 yrs of work ex which I would have to mention some 300 times in various resumes and interviews in the next 2 yrs, I learned a lot about life. Some were through experience (as the famous saying goes... failures are often termed as learning by experience) while others were cherish-able moments.

I learned to laugh at the end of the day with friends in spite of having the worst days at work....I learned to accept people the way they are...to forgive people easily...to help the needy...to spend money for sweet nothings...the list is actually endless.

In these 3 yrs I learned to live my life to the fullest in spite of all the daily mundane issues and hectic work schedule. But there are a few things for which even 3 yrs were less. I still cannot manage my time properly and end up doing all my important things in the eleventh hour. May be my mind is just too convinced that if I do something in the last minute, it would always take only a minute to do it..!!! Then comes my carelessness. I couldn't do away with my carelessness and still land myself in troubles every now and then because of it. There has been no improvement in my way of following protocols. I hope the next 2 yrs of management studies helps me get over all these and a few more.

And if someone asks me my gains and losses of these 3 yrs, I can very easily sum it up in one sentence. I gained many good friends and a few additional pounds of fat....and lost all my monetary earnings...!!!

Dil ko nahi pata hai..!!!

2010-05-18T17:20:00.004+05:30

Whatever I have wanted at any point of my life, I have always got it. Some things I get immediately while others I get after a short wait. But still the happiness and satisfaction of that achievement is very short-lived. Today, I have everything I had wanted... admission in one of the premier institutes, a promising career ahead, good friends, 1 month of vacations at home.... but still I am not happy. Not that I want anything more... but still I feel there is a void... a void which can never be filled... a void which I cannot fill however hard I try...

After 2 years, I would again be employed by some reputed employer and would again have the same office-se-ghar-ghar-se-office routine.But what next? 'Dil ki yehi khata hai... dil ko nahi pata hai... ye dil chahta hai kya..?!?' May be this is what people call quarter life crisis.

RTE is a way forward to a more educated India

2010-04-04T01:05:00.001+05:30

On 1st April, Right to Education was included in the fundamental rights and it was no fool’s day joke. Almost everyone agrees the importance of education in our lives. The low literacy rate in India has always been a reason to worry. Legalization of the right to education is a tool which can help each child get primary education if it is executed properly.

Giving due importance to this act, our prime minister addressed the nation and emphasized on the importance of education. Each of us can closely relate to his statement that education is the reason he is at that position in his life. Education helps us lead a better and more meaningful life and all should be given this opportunity. With 25% reservation for under privileged students in private schools, more children from weaker society would get quality education which would ensure a better life for them. If this is executed well and children are actually encouraged to go to schools, it would definitely lead to progress.

Formulating a law and allocating funds for this to various states is the first step towards progress. However, much depends on the execution. Funds have earlier been allocated for farmers and other people in need but not even half of the amount has actually reached them. More awareness needs to be created at the grass root level. Children are often treated as source of income by the weaker society. They avoid sending their children to school in fear of losing their source of income.
Alternatives need to be thought for such parents so that they shed their inhibitions and send their children to school. Only then full potential of RTE can be realized.

In India, many things can be achieved only through a law. In absence of such a law, people used to argue saying which law says they should send their children to school. Now it would be a legal binding of the parents and the school to ensure that they do their part in educating all children.

RTE has laid the roads to a more educated India. We just need to walk on that road and ensure that all children around us are benefited by this.

Self-Indulgence

2010-02-26T16:20:00.004+05:30

Last couple of weeks, I have lived a life practically deprived of everything I am (or rather was..) addicted to. Good food, internet, TV (showing hindi and eng channels), free incoming calls...the list is endless. Last weekend I went to Bangalore and felt like I had been released from some jail. I chatted wid frnds to an extent that my friends had to assure me that this was neither my last day nor theirs. Though there is nothing much to watch on TV these days, I saw it for such a long time at a stretch that when my roomie asked me what I was watching, my reply was 'adds..!!!'.

And finally it was time for me to explore the outer world. I called one of my cousins and we decided to meet at Forum. Since he is younger to me, I was sure that he would bear with me without complaining. At the end of the day he said "I am surprised by your stamina and capacity to eat and shop. Now I know why men avoid going shopping with gals..!!" What a polite way of saying that I ate and shopped like crazy where as all I did was to satiate my hunger of last so many days!!!

And in these two days I pampered my self so much that today while discussing self - indulgence, the example given to me was the way I was ordering lunch...!!! Then on retrospection, I realized that I was so engrossed in myself that I became oblivious of even others' existence...be it my friends (with whom I was chatting)...or my roomie (whom I forced to watch adds) ... or my cousin...or my colleagues at lunch time...!!

So no more of self-indulgence (excess in action and immoderate indulgence of bodily appetites). Even my today's horroscope says so..!!!

P.S: Ignore all grammatical errors as I have been forced to read documents where english is dissected and murdered over and over again...!!! A few sample lines from those documents ---

"Taxation will be differs Item wise / State Act Wise / Return filing one branch in a state"

"In future Excise Billing may be happenned"

2010-01-31T22:57:00.002+05:30

If you have it, you don't need to have anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter much what else you have.

A lot can happen over a cup of coffee...!!!

2010-01-28T17:57:00.004+05:30

These days I am having a lot of coffee and each time I have a cup of coffee, innumerable memories flood my mind.

It reminds me of the days when every day after our classes (sometimes even before our classes) we used to head for the IC for a cup of coffee. That used to be the sole "energy drink" which helped us sail through the lectures. The special coffee served in our mess during exam nights used to serve as the harsh reminder that it's high time we need to stop gossiping (still don't understand why we were flooded with gossip topics only during exams) and start studying.

The well known CCD tagline 'a lot can happen over a cup of coffee' reminds me of the day (holiday actually) when we were just gossiping in our hostel room and someone mentioned this line. And almost simultaneously all of us said 'Let's go to CCD..!!'. It was around 1030 in the morning, we were just lazing around and were not even out of our beds at that time. And at 1100, we were on the bus which took us to the nearest CCD (that was around 20kms) from our college. That was the day and today is a day when in spite of wanting a cup of coffee we would not despise our laziness to walk up to a CCD just 200 mts away.

I have been to barista only a couple of times but the one which invariably is on my mind is the day when my cousin, my bro n I had gone to a Barista in Mumbai. We had ordered the best of coffees (with every topping possible as my cousin was treating us). During those days, I used to be crazy for the cream they used to serve. So after finishing up mine quickly, I took some cream from my bro's cup to which he resisted (quite a normal reaction). But I was just too hell bent on having it and amidst the small tu tu main main, accidently my bro spilled his coffee partially on me and partially on himself. Without realizing that it was a public place and I was equally at fault, I shouted at the top of my voice at my bro for spoiling my dress. I still remember he cleaned up my dress with a tissue first ( in spite of the fact that even his dress was spoiled),then apolozied for the entire thing and sweetly offered the remaining coffee with cream to me. All this while I was still shouting at him and everyone else was looking at my bro as if he had done some gross thing to me. I still remember his sorry look and his sweet nature at that time even when I was at fault and I was being irrational. I never said sorry to him for that act but whenever I have coffee with cream, I always think of that day and feel sorry.

And jab baat coffee ki ho rahi hai to how can I forget this one. While going uphill to Vaishnodevi, I spotted a CCD. I was with my cousin and asked him to stop there for a cup of coffee. He refused my request bluntly and dragged me uphill. I insisted a lot but nothing was of any use. He was adamant on continuing without wasting time. But then while coming down, he himself offered me a treat in CCD and asked me to order anything from the menu. That was too big and unexpected a treat at that time (when I was totally exhausted).

Worth mentioning is also the innumerable coffee treats both at college and at office :) I still remember our unusual trips to the coffee vending machines to eat the coffee beans and even now my aim usually is to reach office before the morning coffee is served there..!!!

Fettered...

2010-01-27T20:30:00.006+05:30

Fettered by this...
I can not say what is at my heart,
when I can not even chase a hart.

Time is ticking by,
second by second.
Will I get a chance second
before I bid goodbye?

Fettered by this...
I can not be happy like a child,
when I can not even run into the wild!!!

Dream vs Reality

2010-01-19T01:24:00.005+05:30

I turned left, then right, then left again.
Something was not letting me sleep,
somewhere, some part was in pain.

But what was that? I should not think about it now.
All I wanted was a few hours of sleep somehow.
Again turned right, this time with an urge,
An urge to dial your number.

Phonebook...search...A..B..K...
with trembling hands I reach till Z.
Pain with a tinge of sorrow and a pinch of fear
made me forget your number.

And as I checked the number dialed last,
memories flashed from the past.
Everytime I couldnt sleep or was up from some dream,
I would dial your number fast.

Sleep...Sleep...I forced my brain,
Turn left, turn right...but don't think of this again.
And lo! suddenly my eyes open
to realize that it was all a dream.

Yes, it had to be a dream - a second later I thought
because in reality there's no 'you' and no 'your number'..!!

Pleasure is now my pleasure !!!

2010-01-15T22:21:00.003+05:30

It's been around 6 months since I bought Hero Honda Pleasure....it has covered 2500 kms and has gone for two free servicing but still while chatting i get replies like 'when did u buy a vehicle..and which one??'...'oye...u drive to ofc??..kab se..kaise..' .. ' u bought a 2-wheeler and didnt tell me....u hv forgotton me...'etc from my friends. To avoid all such allegations in future, here is my declaration 'I bought a honda pleasure (dual tone black) on Jul 30th 2009...learnt driving in the next 15 days and now I drive decently to my office..to muv theatres and to malls..'

In these 6 months, I have noticed a few things which I always thought I would include it in some of my blogs some day. What better post to include them than this one which officially (though i dont mind including them in my posts without any context also) is about by new purchase and my driving.

Everyone says 'Turn left/right from the next red light'......shouldn't it be from the next green light???

Auto-walas derive sadistic pleasure in blocking the get-away for 2-wheelers by inserting their front wheel. They always think they are as sleek as bikes and would get between the cars and would make sure that if they cannot go ahead neither does any 2-wheeler!!

It's very dangerous to drive close to a bus...not because they drive erratically but because people sitting in the bus have the strange habit of spitting out from the window without even checking outside!!

Why do people waiting towards the trailing end start honking as soon as the signal turns green? Even the people at the front want to cross the signal asap!!

Why does it never rain (in spite of thick dark clouds) if you want your vehicle to be washed by the rains?

And yes...I do acknowledge the fact that traffic police men are lenient towards female drivers. They have not issued challans to me in situations where my other friends have been issued challans if they drive..!!

PS : This list is not exhaustive and would be updated as and when something strikes me. Any additions are most welcome :)

Welcome 2010 !!!

2010-01-05T16:00:00.006+05:30

I have often heard that the entire year depends on the way you spend the first day of the year..Last year,I had spent the first day just whiling away in my room itself in Chennai...so I guess 2009 was kind of boring and uneventful. But this 1st Jan was rocking.

We reached gurgaon after completing our rajasthan trip on 1st and straight went to the accomodation our dear host had arranged for us. All along the trip, we had heard stories about the way our host had kept his room...unusually tidy and unorganized to an extent that even the guys said they want another acco n were not ready to share his room. So after persuading the security gaurds of his hostel for quite some time, he allowed us (gals were strictly not allowed inside the hostel...but ye India hai...bit of deviatons always work) to have a look at his room. And the moment we entered his room, I felt like throwing up....it was stinking and was a horrible sight. Still the host was proudly showing his room and posing for pics.

After a bit of rest and quick lunch at MacD, the rocking new year evening started. We played at the gaming zone like crazy people....the host was too liberal in purchasing the gaming coupon and we were too enthusiastic to swipe the card at each game counter. Right from bike racing to ice hockey to sniper shooting to basketball to jackpots...we played everything. Some of them didn't start at all but still who cares till we are having fun.

After around an hour of crazy games, we went to the bowling alley. This one is the best I have been to till date (though the most expensive also). My bowling is horrible and out of 20 chances, I can barely manage 3-4 throws where at least it hits the target. All others just go sideways (may be I need some health tonic like humdard ka cinkara..!!). Saw some very gud shots by my friends and enjoyed the music which was being played and it was already dinner time by then.

After dinner started our long drive to India Gate. The host had a car but didn't know the route. But as usual, he boasted that he knew the route and that he would take us all to India Gate and bak to G'gaon safely (considering that delhi is not very safe at night). It was already 10 in the night and it was biting cold outside. The thin layers of fog could be seen on the wide deserted roads. Till some distance, the road sign boards were showing India Gate and we were following that...but we came to a point where there were no further sign boards and no one on roads to ask the directions....Luckily one of my friends had the nokia naavigator phone with GPS facility and he started that.

But how could our host take the help of a machine when he considers himself superior to everything else. He started giving fundas like 'humans ne machine banaya hai...machines ne humans nahi' etc etc..n all this time he didnt follow the route shown by GPS and followed his intuition. Then after lots of shouts and rebukes from us, he agreed to follow the GPS and finally we reached India Gate. But what a scene..!! We were barely able to see India Gate due to the thick fog and no lights (cost cutting yahan bhi..). I had always wanted to drive to India Gate at midnight...and it was a dream come true for me... :)

After 2-3 pics...we knew it was a waste since even the best of cams couldnt capture fog at night without lights..!! It was time for us to find our ways back to g'gaon. Again the host declared his supermacy and that he knew the route better than GPS and started the car. But in his heart even he was scared...he knew the truth and so did we...that we have to find for the way back....After giving umpteen fundas and wasting litres of petrol, he finally requested to swtich on GPS..!! :P But then even machines have a unique way of taking revenge. The phone's battery went down and we were left to rely only on humans.... That was a time when our host forgot all his fundas and was worried about getting back. Some how we managed to get close to some defence area where 2 army people were on the roads even at that late hour and we reached g'gaon finally with their help.

This atleast convinced our host that we can rely on machines also!! Next day he agreed to use the GPS throughout the drive (to any place). This was the day when I had to come back...but the fog and cold was at its best in Delhi and my flight got delayed by 3 hours. So we enjoyed tea and maggi at a small shop outside his hostel and then back to airport.

Later I heard that it was one of the coldest days in Delhi and the chilling winds had forced one of my friends to dance at platform no 9 of Delhi railway station that night to keep his body warm (he was already under 3 layers of body warmers :D).

All in all, a complete funfilled and eventful day. Hope the year also follows the footsteps of the 1st day :)

Happy New Year to all :)

PS : 3 cheers to our host for such a wonderful stay in g'gaon..!! :)

What an end and what a start of an year..!!

2010-01-05T11:58:00.006+05:30

Every year towards the end, I start counting days and hours for the new year to arrive but last year (technically :P) it was not the same. After 26th Dec I just knew it was 2nd Jan. Time flew by like a second and all thanks to the awesome rajasthan trip....wonderful friends...and a great host. I have been to many outings and trips with friends (my orkut and picasa albums would vouch for that) but this one was unique in its own sense. This trip was more like a movie than a tour. Yes a typical bollywood movie which starts with the arrival of each charachter one by one and the host receiving each of us followed by a lunch and shopping(courtsey our host). While some of us were busy shopping, others were busy in the 'roothna-manana scene' :P :D

And thereafter started a once-in-a-lifetime journey, a journey which had moments which one would want to live again and again......the first sight of sand dunes, camel ride or rather camel race, sunset from dunes, bakkar on sand dunes under a clear moomlit sky, some awesome pics and the laughs that followed, search and experiments for decent food in rajasthan, DDLJ poses in sarson da khet.....and many more.

Jodhpur didn't have many things to see..just a couple of forts and palaces which all could be seen from the mehrangrah fort top (so we saved a lot of time).

And then started our ordeal to find a decent place to eat. Our hotel owner had recommended us a place called 'fun and food' so without exploring much we decided to go to that place. But finding that place turned out to be an ordeal and to add to it the fact that people there somehow are not clear about road directions. They say left and show the right hand and vice versa. So we had a tough time locating that place. However we were determined to find that place and after around 45 minutes of struggle we finally tasted success. However the food served there was not worth the efforts. It was already evening by this time and we decided to go back to our rooms and play cards. Since I didnt know the game, we had a few rounds of trial games after which started the 'rang-a-rang' game..!!! With beginner's luck on my side it wasn't difficult to win that day but after that day, I lost badly on all other days :(. Then again started the search for 'On the Rocks' (another place suggested by the owner for dinner). This time even our driver was irritated by people's direction sense and after making 2 rounds on the same road and still searching, he said ' On the rocks hai ya xerox hai!!!'. But this time, the place was worth the pains.

And how can I forget to mention this. Jodhpur turned out to be the most eventful place as far as my trip was concerned. I had a bet with one of my friends (who claims that Don kabhi Wrong nahi hota) and the stakes were too high. The topic of bet was as simple as the time taken to drive from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and the stakes were my fav sunglasses (if i lose) and my trip expenses to be borne by my friend (if he loses). The distance between the 2 places is 285 km and it might sound a simple time and distance calculation. My estimate was 3 - 3.5 hrs and his estimate was 5 - 5.5 hrs. Thanks to the awesome roads of rajasthan and the low population density(though the highway boasts of some 'ghani aabadi aage' boards), the drive was successfully covered in 3 hrs and 1 minute. Though throughout the drive, he prayed for some delays like railway track gates closed or vehicle breakdown and tried to add all sorts of terms and conditions to the bet (which included conditions like finding the 'Jaisalmer 0 milestone' etc). Par sach ki jeet hui and I won the bet. :D

Jaisalmer is the best place to go if u wanna goto rajasthan to see the desert. Without wasting time, we went to Sam (40 kms from jaisalmer) which has sand dunes to the extent you can see and the sight is just awesome.

Camel ride or rather camel race added to the fun and then started the much awaited event of the trip 'the sparta..!!!'. But amidst all this fun in the sands, one cam started showing lens error due to sand. The sun setting in the sand was also a scene too good to miss and while we were still enjoying the sunset, started the emergency exit :P

Our next halt was at Ajmer where our day started the earliest of all. It was also the last day of the year and the last day of our trip and we had to cover as much as possible on that day. So we went to the famous dargah at 6 in the morning, then to the Pushkar temple and then rached jaipur by afternoon. The Amer fort there is truly huge and well maintained and one of the best in rajasthan. And helping us seeing this huge fort, we had raju guide at our service....who knew nothing except posing and overhearing other guides..!!!

We spent the new yr eve at Choki Dhani which included reliving some childhood moments like the swing and playing hide and seek. We all laughed and giggled like children once again...with no other thoughts in our mind and no other feelings in our hearts. That was just awesome. Then came the dinner part. Though the food there tasted good, it was rich with ghee. We could take out spoon-fulls of ghee from any prepration there. By the time we finished our dinner, it became very cold and we returned back to our rooms, wished for a great new year ahead and went off to bed.

The next day we started early as one of us had his train in the evening from Delhi. But en route there were so many sarson da khet which reminded us of the DDLJ days and in spite of the tight scheduled, we spared 5 mins and jumped into the fields for posing. Seeing the golden flowers of sarson, Wordsworth lines about daffodils came to my mind and the feeling was quite the same.

"Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

.....

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils (read sarson :P)."

Thinking about this trip, innumerable memories come to my mind and it's impossible to put them all in words.

Cheers !!!

Cheers! Men too have their day

2009-11-19T11:49:00.002+05:30

As usual I overslept again today morning and was getting late for office. I just had enough time to either grab a sandwich or read the headlines of the newspaper kept right at the door. While I was still in two minds, these lines caught my attention "Cheers! Men have their day too" and after reading this line, the choice became obvious.

And this was the most weird article I have read since last so many days. Not because it says about celebrating Men's Day but because of the reasons it gives. The first reason it stated reminded me of Shylock's famous speech

"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? "

In the above speech replace 'Jew' with 'Man' and 'Christian' with 'Women or Mother or a million other things'. Is there no better reason to celebrate Men's Day than this silly comparison. It seems a few men felt pity on being men and they said "Enough..!! Now we will also have a day dedictaed to us..".

I am not against celebrating Men's Day but atleast not for such reasons. The article further says "men are treated as ATMs and ‘sperm donors’ and are thus exploited." If men and women are given equal opportunities to learn and earn, if only it does not hurt the male ego when women are the bread earners of their family, they would no longer be treated as ATMs.

Men's day should be seen as a day to celebrate the integrity and importance of men in the society and not just by comparing other days' celebration or by finding some exploitation reasons.

I celebrate Men's Day because men give a meaning to the world and life and the world would not be the same without them. Happy Men's Day..!!!

Welcome..!!

2009-11-03T14:28:00.004+05:30

Almost every second chat starts with WASSUP....n almost all the time, I have the same reply...'nothing much...same usual boring life...ghar se ofc..ofc se ghar...' And this had to be repeated so often that finally I had to do something to change the course of all chats.

Thus after spending entire saturday on my bed with the laptop and gtalk, I got up that evening with a resolution to do something new...something exciting..and ended up with having two new friends.

Buying these cute lil fishes, I felt the joy of a new friendship...the warmth of a new relation...

Now I dont wake up only to see the walls of my house and come back in the evening to the lonely house. I have a reason to get up a bit early from my routine...someone's waiting for me to change the water...someone's waiting for me to give them food....I have a reason to come back home asap in the evening...someone's waiting for me for dinner...

And obviously...now I have something to chat about when people say WASSUP....

I Want to fly so high..!!

2009-08-24T15:08:00.007+05:30

From the glass I see,
the green tree tops dancing in the wind,
rejoicing the presence of dark grey clouds.

From the glass I see
Fighter aircarfts flying at a very low altitude,
coming from nowhere and going into the dark coulds.

From the glass I see
birds roaring up in the sky,
meeting the clouds and gliding back in peace.

And as I stare,
the clouds come closer to me,
giving me a chance to touch
and feel the freshness of its water drops.

Breaking this glass
I want to touch the sky
I want to fly so high..!!

WTF

2009-08-21T15:58:00.004+05:30

Status msgs these days act more as conversation starters than being an indicative of the status of that person. My chat list is full of status msgs in French, Italian, Greek and sometimes even symbol language...or some lyrics of song...or some 1-2 words which are weird enough for ppl to ask about it.

Another important use of status msgs is that they help us kill time. Check all status msgs in your chat list and 5 mins are gone. Comment people on their status msgs and another 15 mins are gone (this might sometimes lead to conversations lasting for over an hour too..!!). And then search for a suitable status msg for oneself starts, the time spent in this case is directly proportional to how resourceful you are..!!

So after the usual 10-15 mins chat about status msgs today, I got one for myself which read as

'After Monday (M) And Tuesday (T) even the week says WTF......'

At a place where facebook and orkut are blocked, chatting is the sole source of recreation and this status msg helped me sail through the day. While chatting, I noticed a point (which I had noticed earlier too but never really bothered to put it here). Why do people use * in certain words and what difference does that asterisk make?

The word with or without asterisk would have the same meaning and if the other person has to understand that word, he would get it with or without *.If one feels that the word is indecent, then why use it in the first place. How does the * add decency to it or how does it sound less offensive? People might not know certain words n may even ignore it, but if the same words are written with *, people become inquisitive and somehow try to know that word. Does this not defeat the purpose? I believe this hipocracy solves no purpose. Either stop using words which you feel are indecent or have the courage to use it upfront.

Anyway, this status msg also served a third purpose...giving me a topic to write..!! :D

A Reminder

2009-08-21T15:30:00.002+05:30

With each passing day, we get busier & busier. And in our busy lives, we tend to forget the very basic rules which would make our life much easier and happier. Now that I have a bit of time, I just thought I would collate few of such basic rules.

Life is precious but equally fragile. Every second is a gift to us.

Follow your heart. The mind can waver but the heart seldom does. Respect your conscience. It's like a post-it note from God.

Seek a job you love. As you enter the world of careers and cocktails, you'll get sucked into a vortex called rat race. Don't be overwhelmed. We're all human. But have the courage to step out of it. Nothing will be lost. Some illusions will shatter. Good riddance.

Money. It's important. But it has its place. Don't make the mistake of putting it right on top.

Speak up when you have to. Don't have regrets. They defeat the very purpose of life.

These were some of them I could think of. I guess I am not following more than one of these...that's why my status msg says "After Monday (M) And Tuesday (T) even the week says WTF......"

2009-06-25T17:33:00.005+05:30

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Enjoy !!

2009-06-03T17:30:00.003+05:30

I have always been excited of going for holidays or shifting to new places for starting new things. I had started packing to leave for college one month before the classes were to begin....everything was packed 5 days before the Leh Trip...had started packing 15 days before I had to join in Kolkata...packed almost a month before I had to leave Chennai and shift to Bangalore. I had always enjoyed packing and leaving for vaccations/shifts. But for the first time, packing is not sounding as good to me as it used to be.

I understand their excitement and am a part of it too but then sometimes I dont want them to pack and leave but cannot stop them either..!! The only thing I can say is 'Enjoy...and take care...and remember me sometimes..!!'

Smile an ever lasting smile !!

2009-06-01T18:14:00.003+05:30

'It's simple to smile but it's difficult to be happy' was my status msg today on gtalk. While my friends pinged me and started discussing on this line, I just wondered whether we smile because we are happy or we are happy because we smile?

Does the forced smile which we sport on our face for others' sake even when our soul is crying serve it's purpose? If those 'others' really care for us, would they not want us to cry when we are sad and smile when we are happy? Would they not be more happy when we smile from our heart and would they not be sad when we smile just for the heck of it? Only people who don't care about us would be indifferent to our smiling heart and smiling face. Is it worth forcing a smile for such people?

Many argue that if u force a smile for quite a while, you would be happy. But then will it not lead to pent up emotions and drive that person into a shell?

Even I am not very sure which is true but for the time being I am smiling :)

Doordarshan !!

2009-05-26T16:50:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, sharp at 10 pm, all of us glued in front of the TV. It was not a movie, not a match but a serial. Yes, even I was surprised to the extent of my jaws falling apart. And all the credit goes to anu’s mausi ji. She saw that serial just for 1 day with us, told us the story in details and we were hooked to the series to know what happened next!!!

With changing times, even our very own idiot box has changed a lot. Earlier there used to be just one channel and we used to remember even the advertisements’ by-heart. Now there are so many channels that all our time is spent in channel surfing and we don’t even remember what we watched in the last half-and-hour.

Even today when we discuss about TV serials, we remember and cherish the good old DD serials only. We wonder how B.R.Chopra’s Mahabharata and Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana had increased the sale of TVs exponentially. Roads and shops used to be empty on Sunday as soon as the clock struck 9. People of all age groups used to watch these epics with the same emotions and sincerity. Whatever I know of these epics, is mainly because of these serials. I wonder how much the next generation would know of these epics in absence of such serials. It’s not that these epics have not been telecasted after that, but even the comparison of B.R.Chopra’s Mahabharata and Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana with today’s serials are an insult to the veteran directors.

And how can we forget our in-house James Bond, Vyomkesh Bakshi. All of us used to solve the cases with the same inquisitiveness as Vyomkesh and were awed by his intelligence and logical thinking. The best part of those times were that it did not matter where the tv remote was because there was no need for changing channels for the entire stretch. Now we fight over changing channels more than watching the programs.

I remember how I used to rush from my school to see the soap ‘Yug’. We didn’t even miss the title track which I still remember with tune ‘Yug badla badla Hindustan…..’. Now if ever we watch some program, we just see the scenes in which some important part of the story is telecasted, forget about title tracks and it wont even matter if while changing channels we miss 15 mins of a 30 min soap.

Then there were Fauji (which gave us our King Khan), Shanti, Jungle Book, Malgudi Days and many others. The thought of these serials still bring a smile on our faces unlike those of today.

And all this I wrote just on the thought that I would have to live without tv for the next few months. Even if those good old serials are not there, it helps you kill time without worrying about work, relations and daily chores.

Ye ladka thoda filmy hai...!!!

2009-05-26T15:32:00.005+05:30

Since childhood I had despised even the thought of use of some words (most of them are considered slangs) but then there are a few charming people who would say the worst of words in a way which would make you smile. ‘Gadha’ is one such word and DD is one such person. Before meeting him, I had never ever imagined that I would be using this word with a smile and would be listening to it day and night with a smile.

Writing about DD is not at all difficult as he has a heart of gold without any pretentions. He would never hide anything from anyone if it is belongs to the 95% of his life but he would not tell anything to anyone if that thing belongs to 5% of his life. This world is full of people who would claim that they tell everything to you but actually they would just be telling 5% of it. His strange truthfulness and honesty is rare to find in this world of hypocrisy.

Very few people know what their passions are but he’s one such person whose friends also know what his passions are…!! Cricket, Movies and Work (though not in same order)… Name a song and he would tell you the movie, actor, actress, situation and what not. And the same with cricket…any match…any cricketer…he’s a live encyclopedia. And as far as work is related, he would never miss office when we plan to go out!!!

He has innumerable talents but the most noticeable talent he uniquely (only one more person has this rare talent) possesses is the SRK voice. He mimics SRK amazingly well. Even hard core SRK fans (hope you people can guess whom am i referring to) have vouched for the similarity of dialogue delivery.

Such people come into your life and lit it up so bright that you shine with inner happiness. DD is one such person in my life and this post is the least I can do for him. Thanks a lot for being such a wonderful friend…!!!

Ever thought about this?

2009-05-25T18:20:00.003+05:30

This day started like any other day with gmail and timesofindia.com... The only difference was the thought with which it started. The first line which I read today was "Punjab burning after Vienna killing". I could not relate Punjab and Vienna in any way so inquisitively clicked on the link for details. Some religious Sikh guru was killed in Vienna and riots broke out in Punjab. People in huge numbers were out on roads burning cars, buses , trains and what not.

The killing of the Sikh Guru was tragic beyond doubt but is it justified to kill thousand other innocent people to show your grief and anger? Will that guru's soul not lament seeing the deeds of his disciples in his absence? Is this a proper way to bid adieu to a guru who has showed us the path to peace and prosperity? If by killing thousand innocent people, that great person could again come into existence, it could still be justified by a few. But this is nothing but killing the preachings of the guru immediately after his demise and is even more sad.

Is this not the starting point of terrorism? Even the terrorists kill innocent people giving the same logic. At some point of time, even their near and dear ones were killed and they were out to take revenge. Hopefully this riot will end in a couple of days and Punjab will be as peaceful as ever. But the seeds of extremism would be sown in some young mind which might harm another hundreds of innocents in years to come.

Censor Hai..!!!

2009-05-21T18:25:00.003+05:30

99 out of 100 people hum some song or the other at least once a day. That song may not be the one they like the most or might not be the most pleasant sounding one but it is generally the one which we hear recently. No wonder that after a bus journey I hum ‘Pardesi jana nahi…’ for 3-4 days !!

Today morning, while having my breakfast, I started humming ‘Jan Gan Man Rann hai…is rann me….’ (I had seen the trailer of this movie last night itself) and the following series of thoughts flashed into my mind.

‘I should stand up while singing Jan Gan Man….but wait… this is not Jan Gan Man…it’s Jan Gan Man Rann hai…so I need not stand…’

And since that time I have been continuously humming this song from movie RANN directed by our very own RGV. This song forced me to think whether it’s rightfully banned or it should be left on the audiences to use their discretion.

There’s no doubt that this song is very ear candy and with proper marketing it has the potential to make it to every house hold. I don’t know anything about the storyline as of now but it’s not difficult to guess that it would be portraying some rampant corruption or any other evil that has besieged the nation. I am pretty hopeful that, like any other bollywood movie, the good will eventually overcome the evil and it will all be goody goody at the end of the movie. But what if the music gets dear to the mass inside and outside the country? I am sure there will be more percentage of population who would have heard this song rather than those who would watch the movie and eventually see the good destroy the evil. Imagine how much of negative publicity and disgrace it would bring to the nation.

When Slumdog Millionare won the Oscars, we Indians were the first to say that the West likes seeing India as a downtrodden country. If we blamed Boyle for showing India a poor country then how can we Indians tell the world that

“Vindh himachal yamuna ganga … Me tezaab ubal raha hai
Mar gaya sab ka zameer … Jaane kab zinda ho aagey “

In a country where the public sentiment is hurt even by the use of words like ‘barber (in Billu)’, ‘mochi’, ‘chamar’ (in Aaja Nach le) then how can we tolerate someone saying these lines about our nation to the whole world

“Desh ka aisa haal hai lekin …Aapas me ladd rahe neta
Jana gann mangal daayak jaya hai …Bhaarat ko bacha le vidhaata!!! "

Every country has problems and I am not saying that we should not focus on our problems but there is a way to do everything. And above all some things are not meant to be played with. National Anthem is one such thing. Is there such a lack of creativity that people cannot express their feelings without adding indignity to our national anthem?

I am sure that at a time when we have been blessed with some what stable mandate in polls… the economy having faced the brunt of global downturn has survived, rather done well… there is widespread feeling of " jai ho " post Oscar and post polls… we do not want some one to come with slogans of " bhay ho " and spread fear and uncertainty which is so contagious.

To err is human and therefore the possibility that someone starts singing ‘Jan Gan Man Rann hai..’ instead of ‘Jan Gan Man’ cannot be ruled out. So what’s the need of this song when it threatens to lessen its dignity?

The profession which pays you the most in return of doing nothing..!!

2009-04-07T18:04:00.003+05:30

The most read articles these days are related to asset declaration of politicians. Even when our leaders have crores and crores of money in their name, India is still called a developing nation. They still think about money first and the country later. And if this trend continues, India would be called a developing nation for 100 more years. People are treating politics just as a money vending machine without even bothering to realize what the actual work of politicians are.

A few days back I had an awesome trip to Coorg. On our way back, we went to Srirangapatna (the capital of Tipu Sultan). Within the range of 10 km (or even less), there were some 10 spots where crowds of people could be seen. One was the place from where the English army had entered the fort, the other was the place where the English soliders were imprisoned, another place was the spot where Tipu sultan had died while fighting, so on and so forth. The first thought which flashed my mind was "Which places will our future generations visit? The place where Varun gave a hate speech? The place where a particular caste was abused by some leader? The place where some leaders committed crimes infront of the entire junta and still were left unaccused? Will our future generations ever know the actual fighters and saviours of India during this period? Our future generations would only know which political leader made what comments during the Kargil War or some other situation of crisis but would not have the slightest of idea about the brave soliders actually securing our motherland."

We would not have any problems with our political leaders having such huge bank balances if they stop dividing the country on the basis of religious groups,castes and origin & lead the country to the position it actually deserves. We are even ready to believe that Sonia owns no car and no house and has just 1.38 cr if she does some good for the country..!!

PS : Even I wouldn't waste my money on a car and a house if I have a bunglaw to live in and can travel in AC cars without paying anything..!!

Content matters more than this title so start reading!!

2009-03-21T20:39:00.003+05:30

A consultant is often told 'Dont worry, this is just one of your implementations but this is the only implementation for the clients. So the clients should be more worried and cautious than the consultants'.

How true and relevant this statement is in all spheres of life. Today while surfing the channels on TV, I stopped at one of the news channels which was showing politicians literally fighting for wooing the voters. The above statement flashed in my mind and I realized that for the politicians this is like any other election. They might win, they might lose. All they want is money and popularity. But for us this is the only occasion when we can get something good and really beneficial for us. This is the only time when we can determine how our next five years would be. So we should be more cautious, well informed and judicious in our decision.

In last 10 days, I lived a few days each in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata (the 3 big cities of India) but what a contrast was Kolkata from the other two cities. It's still the Kolkata that existed in 1947. Nothing except the name has changed there. The same old trams still running on the same tracks (I wonder if the trams/tracks have ever been repaired since 1947...forget about getting changed)... at every junction, still 4 traffic policemen using their vocal cords to control the traffic...men pulling rickshaws by hands...all along the roads there are buildings which haven't been repaired since Independence...the electricity cables still connected through the same old poles, just the number of connections increases making the pole having as many connections as the politicians (you would never know which one is connected to which one and in what way!!). The condition of the city speaks of the care and intention of the rulers there. At a time when to the whole world industrialization seems very natural, the politicians there are favouring deindustrialization and forcing industries to shut down.

It's high time now. If we don't think and act now, in no time India would stagnate. The politicians would anyway have their money but we would be ruined. Let's make the most of this chance. After all it's our money and our nation.

Jai Hind!!

Thank You !!

2009-03-19T18:44:00.007+05:30

The happiest moments of our lives are not the ones when our long cherised dreams come true but are the ones which we never planned or expected. Looking back, I realize that some very simple acts of others made me feel so special and loved. When I last went to meet my brother and he handed me a bouquet of roses and orchids, I felt like I had just been crowned Miss World and was being given that special bouquet. On my last birthday, when I was alone in Chennai and my friends sent me a cake and roses, I felt on the top of the world. Then I had one of my best b'days with 50 roses around me..courtsey my collegues!! And very recently I got a letter written on a paper which had my photo as its background. I felt so very special and loved that I could not control my tears.

Sometimes talking for months may be of no worth and sometimes a few words by someone,at a time you need them, would be worth a lifetime.I realized this when I was in Chennai and a couple of my collegues tried cheering me up (and succeeded too !). But at the same time I realized I have not done anything special for anyone since last so many days or may be months.

For all these beautiful moments and many others which I have not mentioned here I would like to THANK these special people in my life from the bottom of my heart.

We miss to appreciate so many gestures of others which bring smiles not only to our faces but to our hearts. The least we can do is take an extra step and make someone feel special.

Sometimes I may not give you a call when I am smiling thinking of you,
Sometimes I may not give you a call to say I care for you,
Sometimes I may not give you a call to say I miss you,
But you are always special to me.

P.S :- This post is for all my friends and not only specific to the incidents I mentioned.

Boon or Bane -- Depends on us

2009-02-16T16:43:00.006+05:30

Just a couple of days back, army chief had said that army is not a lucrative profession for Indian youth anymore as it pays less than their counterparts in other professions and cited this as one of the major reasons for the shortage of officers in army. Today I came across this link http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4131444.cms?TOI_mostcommented according to which any immigrant will get a green card in US if he serves 6 months in US army. It’s not difficult to guess that this step has been welcomed by a lot of people who see it as an easier and surer way to getting green cards at a time when people with H1B visa are losing jobs every second day. Is getting a green card such a great thing that for it one would even serve for other countries’ army at a time when our own country’s army is facing a severe shortage and our own country is facing severe security threats?

I do agree that life is much easier and happier in US than in India but then if we consider countries equivalent to families, then would we leave our families and work for and help other families if our own families are a bit different than what we want? If we find some one else’s parents better than ours then do we start living with them and treating them as our parents? And the worst part is that at the end of all this, people still claim to be Indian from the core of their hearts.

It’s even more painful to read below comments on that article :

“I dont understand why the people sitting in India are complaining. You dont have to do it, its a volunteer program, if someone wants to do it, let them. Why do you care?”

We care because we are Indians and want our country to be ahead of others!!

“Become a cook in the US army. Let them eat masala dosa and chole Bhature for lunch and dinner. No harm in trying it out. A good method for migrating. A cousin tried it out during the Vietnam war. He has done well. He is still an Indian by heart after 40 years in the US.”

He’s an Indian by heart only because he did not have a heart transplant from some US person’s heart. By no other reason, his Indian-ness can be justified.

It’s high time for people to realize that our country would have replaced US with the talent and resources we have. If only all people who migrated to US since 1947 had stayed here and worked for this country with the same passion, we would have become a super power.

This law could be a boon for us if people decide to come back and serve in Indian Army instead of serving in US Army.

Here I am sitting in my office @ night

2009-02-11T16:46:00.002+05:30

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick college life to strict professional life…...

How tiny pocket money changed to huge monthly paychecks
but then why it gives lesss happiness….

How a few local denim jeans changed to new branded wardrobe
but then why there are less people to use them

How a single plate of samosa changed to a full Pizza or burger
But then why there is less hunger…..

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…..

How a small coffee shop changed to cafe coffee day
but then why its feels like shop is far away…..

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package
but then why there are less calls & even lesser messages……

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…...

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey
But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment….

How an old assembled desktop changed to new branded laptop
but then why there is less time to put it on……….

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mate
But then why we always feel lonely n miss those college frnz.….

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed….. How it changed……..

I was at a loss of comments after this...see if you can add a few...

2009-02-10T12:41:00.005+05:30

Every day when I leave my guest house at 730 in the morning, a small poor boy wearing the minimum clothes and that too in the worst conditions would be sitting at the gate selling flowers. Though I never bought flowers from him, we used to exchange glances and smiles. In this 1 year, we had never spoken to each other but still never missed to smile. One day, he took a few flowers in his hand and said something in tamil. With 1 years' experience of conversing with auto walas and shopkeepers I could make out that he was asking me to buy some of those. I told him that I did not need one and hurried towards my bus stop. He continued mentioning something about school and sister and followed me. Because of him, all my days here had started with a smile, so I thought I could do this much for him. I took 2 flowers and reached out for my wallet. Then I realized that I did not have change and had only 100 rupee note. I was still in two minds when that boy took the 100 rupee note and ran for change. I was already late for my bus and did not want to miss my bus and be late for office. I boarded the bus thinking that I paid 100 rupees for the smiles I started my days with all these days.

Next two days I did not see that boy at my gate. Wondered if he ran away with my money or was he sitting here all these days for an opportunity like this. Another day passed and on the next evening a girl came at my door. She was of the same age as that boy and was no better dressed than him. She first said something in tamil which I could not understand and then handed over 80 rupees. I tried asking her the reason but she could not understand me. We struggled for 5 mins but neither of us could understand anything. Then I called the care taker of my guest house and asked him to translate what the girl was saying. I had nothing to say after I understood what the girl was saying.

The boy who used to sell flowers at the doorstep was her brother and he had asked her to give me that money. He had met with an accident that day and was seriously injured. However before taking his last breath he had given his sister 95 rupees and had asked her to return it to me. The girl apologized further and said that 15 rupees was spent in her brothers' treatment and that she would return it after some days.

I was too touched to say anything and by the time I realized what I should do, she had left the place handing me the 80 rupees.

Life By Chance

2009-02-10T08:39:00.004+05:30

The concluding dialogue of Luck By Chance was "Everyone choses success or failure, happiness or sadness". This made me think for hours. Did I chose my present state of mind? May be yes.

My life 2 yrs ago and my life now...what a hell lot of a difference!! And the reason for this difference is a few wrong decisions, a few wrong choices and an unclear state of mind.And all this is still continuing.

2 yrs ago, whenever I asked my heart and mind what I wanted in life, I always got an answer. Now when I ask my heart and mind, there never comes a clear answer. And immediately after taking a decision, there's a lull, my heart beat increases and my mind is flooded with questions like will it be right...what if this does not materialize...what if the other option was a better one...what if i m a loser at the end...instead of choosing from options I get trapped in them and lose my peace of mind...and thus day by day my life is becoming a mess.

With each passing day, I am forced to make more decisions and with each decision comes more of doubts and more of uncertainty and more of unhappiness. Earlier I used to believe that even if I have not chosen the best, I can make my choice to be the best for me. Now this seems to me a distant dream. And all these decisions have accumulated so much of sadness in me that the burden is killing me day by day. I want to throw out all sadness from within but am unable to find a way out.

But to avoid the same mistakes in future I should know my mistakes. The biggest mistakes of my life are :

Trying to make all my close ones happy - None of our actions can make all happy so it's worthless trying to make all happy. In the end of it, it's you who are most unhappy and dissatisfied.

Not being firm on what I want - Since childhood I had never been one of those kids who will do all possible tantrums to get a thing. I used to try for it once or twice and then be at peace with whatever I have. But now I realize, we have to be adamant if we really want something. Else the world will try to crush your dreams.

Being too accommodative about everything - I used to be satisfied with whatever I have if it makes someone else happy. But over a period of time, it just accumulates into sadness and hopelessness. Now I would fight with full enthusiasm to get what I want and would not be contended by anything less than that.

Believing that there's always a middle way - If you want something, then you have to decide on it and tread on that path come what may. If you try to find some middle way which would not involve too many radical reactions, then you are only fooling yourself. This is what I was trying to do all these times in my personal as well as professional life. Now I would not look for middle ways, it's either this way or that way.

It seems couple of my mistakes have already slipped out of my mind. Will continue to update this list as and when things happen and would try to make maximum out of it.

Happy New Year !!

2008-12-31T17:39:00.002+05:30

Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. A better resolution would be to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.

With this resolution in mind, I start this year and wish you all a very safe, happy and peaceful new year!!

RNBDJ

2008-12-15T12:45:00.003+05:30

Finally we got the tickets for the much hyped movie. SRK and Aditya Chopra combination after 8 years...SRK's movie after one year...etc had become the cliche' topics of discussion for the month.

'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' was supposed to break the "Raj" mania which had gripped the industry after DDLJ. If we consider this as the sole aim of the movie, then I would say the movie was par excellence. It did not just break the "Raj" mania but it made people loathe Raj and like Suri.Though the second half was a bit repetitive and lacked originality (as most of the sequences and dialogues were from old YRF) , Suri was good enough to keep you glued to the screen for 2 hrs and 45 mins.

Another thing which this movie boasts of is its relevance in real life. The movie was supposed to show what happens with most of us. How many of us would agree that we wont recognize our spouse if he/she changes hair style and dresses..? Not many I guess. But still the movie is said to be very close to real life. It is true that outer appearance does not matter but is it acceptable that even communication does not matter much? Each one of us loves some person very dearly and all of us want to be loved. I am sure almost all of you will agree that expression of this love also matters equally. But Suri believes the other way round. As per him, his wife should understand his love even without him saying anything. That is only possible if there's a very good understanding between them and this is only possible if he communicates this to her.

And even in real life, all of us do want some excitement and colors in life. We cannot live with a strict routine life, dressing exactly the same way everyday, speaking to others only for some work and that too timidly, talking in a few words which do not even qualify as a full sentence, not taking our eyes off the plates even once while having dinner (that too when your spouse is having dinner with you)!!! All such Suris in real life have to change at some point of the time or other and if they don't then, their only companions at the end are their monotonous daily tasks.

The end of the movie shows Suri changing to a more colorful person, a more outgoing person and a more expressive person. The last 5 mins (star cast part) is undoubtedly the best and most enjoyable part of the movie!!!

2008-12-03T14:53:00.000+05:30

Jag Suna Suna Thera Thera Sa..
Mera Sapna Apna Ghera Ghera Sa..
Sare Sehar Ki Jagmag Ke Bitar Hai Andhera
Har Muskan Ke Peeche Chupa Hua Gum Ka Chehra
Yehi Hai Sach To Harpal Ko Jee Lu Mein Jee Bhar Ke
Aur Has Has Ke Yeh Keh Dun Dukho Ke Pathar Se…..
Alvida…… Alvida……
Koi Waqt Ke Aage Hara Hara Sa..
Koi Pyaar Mein Firta Mara Mara Sa..
Dil Ke Riston Mein Kyon Dard Hamesha Milta Hai
Aur Kyon Kaanton Per Hi Phool Sukho Ka Khilta Hai
Yehi Hai Sach To Mein Iss Sach Ko Hi Apnaunga
Mar Bhi Jaunga To Mein Pyaar Amar Kar Jaunga……

What a way to start your day

2008-11-25T10:39:00.003+05:30

Not everyone's day starts with bed-tea and newspaper, but I am sure almost everyone's working hours start with http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com or http://www.rediff.com/ and a cup of coffee. The way your day starts is known to have a great influence on your thoughts day long and are also reflected in your actions. But alas! The media seems to be ignorant of this fact.

The moment you pick up any newspaper (or even news channels), your eyebrows are raised and three dark lines appear from no where on your forehead.Be it the headlines, the latest news or the most read section,all you get to read is some accident happening somewhere, some girl being raped somewhere, some robbery, some murder,some suicide, some scams or divorce cases and relationship woes. And these thoughts remain in our minds (conscious or sub conscious) and add to the irritations and frustrations in our already stressed lives.

It is not that only these things are happening around us. Good and motivating things also happens with the same frequency. Every other second some person helps someone, someone achieves something(may be small or big), someone fights his/her problems courageously and becomes a source of inspiration for others.But these stories hardly find any place in the news and even if they are successful, it's some where in 20-22 page of the newspaper.

I am not saying that we should totally be unaware of what is going around us. My only point is we could start with something positive. This would not only increase our efficiency but also better our mood.

The day our newspapers have only positive and motivational articles in the first page, our productivity and satisfaction is bound to increase. Japan is already reaping the fruits of this concept. It's our turn now!!

Movie Mania !!

2008-11-24T09:57:00.006+05:30

Blogging after quite a long time. May be because something unusual happened after a long time. And all of this because of our great Bollywood..!! Three of my last six meals were popcorn and coke!! I saw four movies in the last two days.

After postponing it for long, I finally got a chance to see the much hyped movie 'Fashion', which reiterates what many of us forget while pursuing our dreams. The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it. All of us at some point or the other miss to enjoy the success we had dreamt of for years and lose our personality which helped us taste success.After achieving what the protagonist had always dreamt of, she feels somewhere there's a void. With full confidence, she had started her journey to success, made very good friends en route, tasted the success which she was chasing but somehow got trapped in it. She was unable to find her true self, her character was lost in the crowd of people. She realizes that one cannot be happy in spite of all the money and material comforts till one is at peace with one self.

Dasvidaniya was a very simple, sensitive movie which does not boast of good star cast, exotic locales etc but it definitely has awesome performances, soothing music and very apt lyrics. It makes you think how simple a person can be and how all of us are too busy with our daily chores to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of life. There's a scene where Vinay stands in his balcony and says

" I had bought this house because the view from here is very scenic and soothing. But since the first day, I have only come in this balcony to dry my towel and the only thing I could see from here were the stains of my towel."

In this race of time and money, all of us miss the small pleasures of life for which we had started working.

A R Rehman remains the 'Yuvvraaj' of music world. His music is just awesome in that movie. Though the movie did not have anything worth watching except locales, it was a treat for the ears!! And the only thing which one says after the movie ends is "Rehman, Tu hi to humara dost hai..!!"

And the worst of the lot was Dostana. For the directors and producers we just have these words "Inka ka Ladla Bigad Gaya!!"

Happy Independence Day

2008-08-15T16:46:00.004+05:30

Since last month, each day I had been waiting for 15th Aug and I am sure almost all of you would have been doing the same. The reason for such a wait is quite obvious and no points for guessing it. ‘Independence Day’ is one of the most awaited days every year as it breaks the no-holiday season of may-jun-jul. And nothing can be better than 15th Aug falling on a Friday. So this day gets its share of recognition but for reasons which are different from what our forefathers had in their mind while declaring it has a national holiday. Anyway, like a ‘true’ Indian, my plans for this day included getting up late, brunch, calling friends and family and wishing them a very happy independence day or rather a happy holiday..!!! Then a not so short siesta, followed by some chatting, playing some deshbhakti geet in the background, dinner and back to the land of dreams. Wow what a day..!!!

But as my luck would have it, when I got up today, it was just 6 AM. Wished myself a happy holiday (though the start was not so happy) and then called up my friends to wish them a happy holiday (why should only I get up early). And the first thing I get to hear on our Independence Day is “Hey…tell me the lyrics of our national anthem. I have to go for a flag hoisting ceremony!!” I couldn’t believe that I was actually hearing these words. My obvious reply was “How is this possible? How can anyone forget the national anthem? It should be in the blood of all Indians. You must be kidding.” That friend of mine actually didn’t know the national anthem and was getting late so without further arguments I recited the national anthem.

Feeling proud of myself, I thought “At the stroke of this hour, when all Indians are sleeping, I have awakened to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely, when I step out of my bed at 6 on a holiday, and when the soul of the nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment I recite the national anthem and take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”

With this pride, I switched on my laptop, logged in gtalk, changed my status message to ‘Vande Mataram’, played some deshbhakti geet in background and at the end of the day did nothing other than criticizing government, its policies, growing terrorism, people’s indifference towards the country and its independence and updating my blog.AAKHIR DIL HAI HINDUSTANI!!!

This ocassion was too good to be missed out for a post

2008-05-30T17:32:00.002+05:30

Finally the 120 hour long wait is going to end. It’s just 1 more hour and then the weekend would start. Today was a day with moderate work but still I was bored to the extent that my jaws were aching by afternoon due to innumerable yawns. My dull and idle mind went into a retrospective mood.

What good has happened to me this month? A few good dinners…a few heart warming calls…some deadlines getting postponed at work (for which I was not the reason...!)…and yes my convocation trip.

All of us had waited for this day since last 5 years for sure and people like me had waited for this day since the time I had seen others dressed in black robes receiving degree on television. The importance of convocation increased exponentially during the last days of college. This would also be our first reunion. Two great occasions on a single day!!

While the train was speeding towards Ranchi, the only words which were coming to my mind were “Ghar aa ja pardesi tera desh bulaye le”. It was like returning to homeland after spending so much time in Chennai. Finally reached there and then started the ‘re-living of college days’.

Eating out in ranchi, bargaining with the rickshaw-walas for church complex and auto-walas for BIT…walk along the OC road...samosa at Sharma…running from one corner of institute to other for various forms…long queues for registration…embarrassing bashes from profs for no reasons during the 5 hour registration process…cursing the institute for charging so much for the convo…walking through the woods at night for dinner (this was something which we were doing for the first time…!!! and it was amazing…)…morning walk…and so many more things…

And then it was time when we were dressed up in over-sized black robes with green piped “lapels”!! It was truly the moment of my life time dressed in highly esteemed black robes, walking with my proud parents to the OAT (where the convocation was held). Due to time constraints we were just allowed to stand at the podium with the degree for not more than 2-3 secs but I was predetermined to pose for a good photo while receiving the degree. I still haven’t seen that photo but friends say that my determination has not gone in vain and that the life time moment has been captured beautifully..!!

And finally time had come for rejoicing with the hard earned degrees in our hands.

But our faces were not lit up that brightly. We had in our minds that this also means the end of the best days of life. I had not felt this sad even on the last day of my college as I had the hope of coming back and meeting everyone in convocation. Now there was no such hope. But then all good things also come to an end and this was no exception.

However, the memories will remain fresh deep in our hearts till our last days. These memories are bright enough to light up even our gloomiest days. And the only thing which made 4 years of college and this convocation the best days of my life are my friends. All of you have a very special place in my life and my heart and hope I will be close enough not to miss any of you ever.

My last post

2008-04-01T12:41:00.000+05:30

I have decided not to blog any more due to some reason. But then there are incidents which are too difficult to resist and one such incident is the reason behind this post.

My cell is ringing every now and then today and the last words of every call are “take care…esp today..!!! :P” And the result of so many warnings was this :

One of my friends : hey mujhe call karo na
Me : arey caller tune to same hi hai..!! (She generally asks me to call when she changes her caller tune)
Friend : Ph ki??
Me : haan..chk ur cell
Friend : arey I lost my ph.!!!
Me : ha ha ha… good try…kuch acha idea nahi mila tumko… (people’s warnings had made me immune to such tricks..!!)
Friend : Nahi yaar ..! sach me kho gaya… nahi mil raha.. ring karo na pls
Me : ring to kar rahe…no one is picking up…I know you r a very good story teller…par mujh par kyu try kar rai ho…had u lost ur cell it wud hv been swtchd off by now…
Friend : Can you call airtel and ask them to block my no ?
Me : Mujhe to abhi bhi lag raha you r making up stories
Friend : And call at my home and inform them about this
Me : par mujhe to abhi bhi vishwas nahi ho raha..sach me kho gaya kya..?? :P
Friend : now call my no
Me : it says not in range
Friend : abhi vishwas hua ya nahi…ab mere ghar pe call karo…
Me : Arey tumhare story making n story telling ki history mujhe yaad hai..and on top of it u r telling all this today
Friend : tumlog samajh nahi rahe ho…sach me i hv lost it...!!

And by now her status msg was “Lost my ph...pls send in your nos..”

It’s so difficult to believe things today however genuine they might sound. But the title of this post still holds true. However such incidents as this can/will always be tagged as exceptions!!

Real world Vs Virtual world

2008-03-15T21:19:00.004+05:30

Finally my office hours are again normal. Just 10 hours a day, 8 to 6 and the mere thought that I don’t have to slog extra hours in office for the entire next week gives me an immense pleasure. After almost a month, I went out today. And shopped for 8 hours (some things are still left which had to be shifted to tomorrow’s schedule) and that too alone..!! This is my real world...living all alone…slogging for 13 hours daily and wasting the weekends either working or lying like an inanimate object whom no one even bothers to look at.

But then there is some thing which still keeps me going...my virtual world. Half of my salary and three-fourths of my life here is dedicated to this virtual world. My cell has become my best friend here. I spend hours on phone trying to kill my time and find some reason to smile in spite of the fact that all my friends are PJ experts and they make me go crazy!! My source of strength and inspiration also comes from my cell i.e. the ML sessions given on phone by a few CHOSEN ONES!! But there are times when I have to hear “the no you are trying to reach is busy” or “hey I am busy now...will give you a call in 5 mins”. Thanks to chatting and blogging that I can still some how spend whatever free time I have. And in the remaining time, I chase sleep and my dreams chase me.

I want my virtual and real worlds to swap places. There are times when I wish I could feel and enjoy the actual presence of my friends. I wish some one could actually give me water and medicine instead of telling it over phone. I wish some one could stroke my hair with affection and tell me that he/she is there with me always. I wish I could laugh with some one, I could care for some one, and I could help some one in stead of saying it all just over phone or chat. I miss all my friends in my real life even though they are always with me in my virtual life.

“Yaaron dosti badi hi ajeeb hai,yeh na ho to kya phir bolo yeh zindagi hai”

PS : Some of my friends are not there in the pic because I didn't have their pic.. :(

Things which still keep me going

2008-03-08T19:55:00.011+05:30

Without this working 14 hours daily would have been impossible...

My favorite dessert...

My lucky charm...

My only friend who accompanies me in the darkest of nights...

The fragrance of my life...

The sweetness & freshness of a rose remains forever...even when it is broken into pieces...

My soul mates...

A Walk by Moonlight

2008-02-22T19:43:00.000+05:30

To take a break from our monotonous “guest house to office and office to guest house” routine, we decided to go out for dinner yesterday. Thus started the search for a suitable place for the evening and what better place than a beach. We found out an Italian Beach restaurant within a few seconds (thanks to google). After the initial ordeal with autowala we finally reached the beach. And what a co-incidence!! It was a full moon night and the shimmering calm water of sea was all we could see.

While we were walking on the soft sand towards the restaurant, I suddenly remembered the poem “A walk by moonlight”. And then I understood the power of moonlight. It actually alleviates us of all our worries and soothes us in a divine manner. That was the moment when I actually experienced the “bliss of solitude”

Yes; there are in the backward past
Soft hours to which we turn --
Hours which, at distance, mildly shine,
Shine on, but never burn.

The cherished memories of college, golden time spent with friends and then best 8 months of my life, all flashed upon my inward eye. I relived my college years and the golden 8 months all over again during that walk. I bunked lectures, spent entire days chatting in canteen, late night gossips in hostel, enjoyed long leg pulling sessions with friends, remembered hours spent on phone during exams, all the fun filled weekends of my Kolkata stay, special visits by special people in Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore and the innumerable treats I forced out of my friends in Bangalore.

At the end of that walk I found my heart, mind and soul immersed in moonlight, shining with happiness. This walk by moonlight gave my mind the peace it was craving for since last so many days.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T14:15:00.000+05:30

"But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;
Tread softly, for you tread on my dreams..."

Discovering myself

2008-02-12T09:53:00.000+05:30

Every day when I have to get up at 630 for office I think everything in the world is better than getting up so early. Then when I enter my office at 8, I feel nothing could be worse than this. The same is true for living here all alone, working 10 hrs daily and so many other innumerable small incidents. Each new difficulty and I feel that this affects me the most. But then God has its own ways of teaching us. He puts us into worse and worse situations till we finally say “I can endure anything and everything now”. He makes us more and more tolerant and strong and stops just at the point where we find out for ourselves what actually troubles us the most. Thus He helps us discover ourselves and we then know what fears lie deepest inside our heart.

After a long period of struggle, I finally realized what affects me the most. It’s not getting up early or slogging for hours or living alone which makes me cry. It’s the tears and worries of loved ones which make me feel helpless and lost. I can bear everything but sadness and tears of the people I love. I can do anything for their one smile, anything.

Nothing is forever; even the darkest and longest night is followed by dawn. So all you should do is fight with the darkness foreseeing the dawn, fully assured of the fact that you always have your loved ones with you come whatever may.

Life is a roller coaster

2008-02-02T19:50:00.001+05:30

I had always heard “Life is a roller coaster ride” but understood its complete analogy only today. Most of us are thrilled by the mere thought of experiencing a roller coaster ride. We are all eager to enjoy the speed and excitement of the ups and downs of that ride. We get on the ride reassuring ourselves that we are prepared for the excitement. The ride starts, all faces are lit up with broad smiles. But as soon as the ride speeds up with unexpected ups and downs in all directions, we start screaming with fear and uncertainty and yell continuously for the ride to stop. Most of us are terrified and throughout the ride we wish nothing but the ride to stop. And the moment we step out of the ride, we again want to be on the ride for that adventure and keep longing for that.

The same applies to life. We want our lives to be full of excitement and adventure. We start our journey of life, fully prepared (according to our standards) for the thrills and happiness. But as difficulties and uncertainties start jolting us, we wish our adventure to end. We crib and pray for returning back to the point where we started. And amidst all this fear and panic, we miss out all our excitement and fun for which we had set out. We somehow try to find our way out of it. Just as everyone somehow completes the roller coaster ride, we all come out of thrills and uncertainties of life. But the moment we are out of that phase, we realize its worth and want to be a part of it again.

Some of us are lucky enough to come across many roller coaster rides but few don’t get a second chance. That ride becomes their last ride, the ride in which they had chosen to scream with fright and sorrow instead of enjoying whatever comes their way.

Thought of the Day

2008-01-30T15:51:00.000+05:30

During a meeting at my office today, suddenly there was an announcement. Like a natural reflex action, everyone in the room stood up after listening to it. By now each one of you must have guessed what the announcement could be. It was “As all of you know, today is Martyr’s Day. Exactly 60 years ago Father of our Nation laid his life for the freedom and development of this country.You are requested to stand up in silence for 2 minutes in memory of those thousands of martyrs who laid their lives in the freedom struggle.” And after 2 minutes we resumed the meeting. But the question is even in those 2 minutes did anyone even think of the freedom struggle and the martyrs? Does this forced silence for 2 minutes serve its purpose? Is standing up in silence for 2 minutes a year enough for remembering their struggle for freedom?

Same is our attitude towards Independence Day and Republic Day. It’s just another holiday for us. As a mark of Republic or Independence Day, the maximum most of us do is listening to a couple of patriotic songs. The so called leaders of our country will be in great demand this day for hoisting our national flag. Leaders like Nehru and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel held positions in government and were respected so much because they were always at the forefront when it came to defending our country from foreign powers. But today people who actually fight for our country are the least known. A common Indian like me (yeah…even though I am writing this post, I am no exception) would know more politicians than soldiers or defense officers.

I know very well that no single person (or even a group of people) can change our thinking overnight but the least we can do is remember and respect the freedom fighters and our soldiers whenever we feel for them. It should not be a forced one and limited to certain predefined time or day.

P.S: The irony of this post is that it was thought upon in those 2 minutes of silence. Only while composing the post, I realized the graveness of this issue. I am not sure if this article will be of any good to any of you but it certainly made me think.

Papa Khete Hain Bada Naam Karegi

2008-01-11T21:59:00.000+05:30

New Year came and went by just like yet another day. This is true for majority of us and this used to be true for me too but only till last year. This New Year was a bit different for me, actually too good for me. For the first time in my life I won a lucky draw, took two resolutions and have successfully followed one of them for 10 days. But then as it goes with all good things, my good luck also didn’t last for long. I am having horrible time at work. During these 10 days, not even a single thing I tried out in office worked for me. Things have gone wrong to the extent that I have started having nightmares of my getting fired from this job and not getting one for next 6 months. And today after I did “my first and last blunder as a fresher” (according to my senior), I spent next 2 hours thinking of what I could do so as to have a peaceful life. And after racking my pea sized brain for a couple of hours I could think of only these options:

• Quit the job of a consultant, become an author and write novels. May be I become the next J.K.Rowling!!
• Become the host of some traveling show of Discovery, National Geographic or Travel & Living and “Go Places”!! After all, everyone says I am gonna “Go Places” and time has come to prove them correct.
• If some one is ready to pay a connoisseur (of food and wine), then your search has ended. I would love to appreciate good food & wine!!
• Become a receptionist. At least every one in the office will ‘notice’ me and I would be paid for what I am good at… talking on phone and smiling!!
• Get married to some rich guy (remember Shahid of Jab We Met!!)

P.S: Any sugestion is most welcome.

KIT KAT break banta hai !!!

2008-01-03T17:13:00.000+05:30

I have been racking my brain since last week but still cannot understand why during one transaction a particular account is credited and during another similar transaction the same account is debited. I am still puzzled as to why balance sheet of a simple transaction like bank giving you 100 bucks contains 5 entries of debit n credit. So before its too late I thought I should take a break from clients and taxes and balance sheets. The last time I had put in so much of effort was one n a half years back (for placements). Even at that time I was successful at fooling the interviewers. So I am pretty sure that my efforts will pay and some day I will be able to confuse the clients and help them maintain their balance sheets.

The best way I know of taking a break while working is chatting and reading forwarded mails (Kit Kat was a good option had it been free!!). Consciously or unconsciously I have refrained from chatting these days, the reason being the same usual start with all my friends.

Me : Hiiii
Wassup
Friend : Hii
Tum batao credit debit kahan tak pahucha !! :P
Me : Kya yaar..humare politicians ko to kuch kaam nahi rehta hai..bekar ke complex tax laws formulate karte rehte hain aur yahan humari jaan nikalti hain implement karne me :(
Friend : ha ha :D
Acha hai..aish karo

(aish???!!!???!!!)

And thus starts my mockery. So I thought better to read forwarded mails and be happy in this short break than start chatting and realize my pathetic situation. But you know how good I am, just cannot stop thinking about my friends. So I extended my smile by forwarding one of the mails to my friends. But destiny had something else in store for me. My 5 min break (which was supposed to be relaxing) turned out to be a 50 min break (which was full of struggle). Just within 5 mins FOUR of my friends pinged me and told me that the pictures of that mail were not opening. Ohh !!! I never knew people actually bothered so much for a forward. I tried sending it again but still the pictures were not opening. “Leave it. I will send it some other time. I am a bit busy now” was my obvious reply but to my utter surprise my friends replied “Bhejo na. Even I am busy so I am asking you to send it. I want a break yaar!!”

After half and hour of my continous trial n error I figured out that pictures were not being sent from mozilla and it worked perfectly well with IE (I still don’t know why). And finally I helped my friends take a break but I needed another break. Thus I end up blogging.

Bachaaaaooo

2007-12-20T12:01:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-16T23:39:00.000+05:30

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 !!

2007-12-14T15:35:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-10T14:48:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-05T15:16:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-03T15:43:00.000+05:30

“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

2007-11-29T13:02:00.001+05:30

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

2007-11-28T14:32:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-11-21T15:52:00.000+05:30

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!!

2007-11-20T13:29:00.001+05:30

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

2007-11-02T08:57:00.000+05:30

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!!!

2007-10-26T09:46:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-22T10:47:00.000+05:30

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.....

2007-10-17T21:41:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-10T21:04:00.000+05:30

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

2007-10-06T21:16:00.001+05:30

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

2007-09-24T14:52:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-30T01:21:00.001+05:30

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

2007-06-17T00:08:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-12T17:00:00.000+05:30

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…