Welcome 2010 !!!

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..!!

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

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..!!

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..!!

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

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

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......"