You Think You Know Me

Taking a break

2008-08-06T14:33:00.005+05:30

I haven’t written anything lately. 2 posts which I had started last month never got finished because of a big lazy bum. BTW that’s me. And then I lost the patience to finish them.

This Friday I am going home, after a long period of 7 months. A whole week full of Masti, Mazaa, Khana (No Peena) and future planning awaits me. Hopefully by end of next week I shall have some news from my side for my friends. Or may be, as the trend has been with me lately, nothing will work out and I shall have to continue this miserable piece of shit (BTW itna bura bhi nahin hai :)) , which people call LIFE.

Weise jo bhi ho, Life goes on. Friends are there and my family too. Loneliness will never bother me anymore (Because of the 26 years of experience I have with me). Now that I remember that I am 26, I must tell all that I am actually 25 and will turn 26 next Sunday (17th August). Since I will not have any access to net till then, may be this will be my last post in my silver jubilee year.

I am taking a pen and a pad with me on my journey back home. Will try to write something juicy, useful or may be just interesting during my leisure time. If I become successful in doing that, then of course my blog will have some new posts.

CYA ‘World’ till then.

Nice young Love story

2008-07-12T00:08:00.000+05:30

Imran - ‘Ek baar fir se Bolo’.

Paresh - ‘Kya Bola?’

Imran - ‘Maine kaha Ek baar fir se bolo yeh baat’.

Till this part of the movie ‘Jaane Tu…’, Imran khan had come across as the guy next door. The same guy, who had played Aamir’s childhood role in Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander. The cute little disappointed face with a single cup in his hand (while his father Kulbhusan showers all his love on his elder son, Mamik, who had won loads of trophies) suggested this child definitely has some future. In the first half of the movie, he portrays the ole of a very humble & normal guy, who is scared of confrontations & uses some smart excuses to avoid them. Little does he know that he is the Ranjhor ka Rathor, a synonym of bravery and strength? But one insult inflicted on his mother by a police inspector, changes the color of his eyes. You can actually see the transformation of his face from being cute to angry, much like the way with Aamir. If one looks closely, he will find some similarity between Imran and Aamir too, I think it’s because Imran has modeled himself after Aamir. Well if you really want to follow somebody, Aamir is definitely not a bad choice and Imran should be congratulated for doing it successfully.

Coming to Genelia, well, she is a natural and that’s her strong point. She never seems to overdo it. During the ‘Kabhi kabhi Aditi’ song, she looks genuinely sad and still gives a feeling of how comic the situation is. I can imagine how a Kareena in that situation would have ruined the whole scene and that is where the genuineness of Genelia wins her some well earned praise.

There are several other characters in the movie, who are so close to reality, which makes the narration believable (though some scenes are just clichéd filmy, like the airport scene). There are innumerable phattus and gujratis around us, that they seem part of our lives. I loved the scene where phattu kisses his girlfriend with such a loser’s line. Prateek babbar has done a tremendous job as Genelia’s brother. Even though he is a star son, he doesn’t quite have the looks for a hero. He might just be the next parallel cinema sensation. At least this much can be expected of Smita Patil’s son. Paresh rawal in a non comic role after so many days was refreshing too. Khan bros had interesting characters and I guess overacted a bit.

The best part was the conversation between Ratna pathak and Naseeruddin. Just fabulous comic scenes and the dance from Naseer in the end had me in splits.

Overall I think it’s a young generation light hearted movie and should be treated that. Terming it as a cult or path breaking movie as DDLJ or Dil Chahta hai would be highly unfair.

My Rating – 3.25/5 (.25 cut due to some clichéd scenes)

Nice Change

2008-06-27T23:37:00.002+05:30

Last week I shifted to the Bangalore campus of my company(supposedly short term). I had kind of got bored with the pink walls of my Hyderabad office. There is a limit to which you can like pink. Pink on a girl looks very sexy. On a wall, it’s a disaster. And let me tell you, it was not only the wall. Pink was everywhere, on the partitions, on the carpet, on pillars, just everywhere. Here it’s blue, much to my liking.

This Bangalore campus is huge. It is the biggest in India. There are more than 40 buildings inside this campus, plus a nice hotel. I will be staying here for the next 3 months at the least and will have ample opportunity to explore this campus. The first thing that hits you in this campus is its greenery and weird buildings. Don’t know what fascination has this company with weird building structure. Let me give you some example. There is a 5 storied building which looks like a front loading washing machine. Just at the middle of the structure they have a huge round glass piece on both front and back side of the building. It really looks like a front loading washing machine and even people call it that.

Then there is another building which is in the shape of a lotus. And it is a food court. Now food courts are supposed to be big, so that they can accommodate maximum people. But this one, due to its unique structure, hardly accommodates 50% of the maximum capacity that it should. Clients are sure going to be impressed with such building structure, but employees' convenience, huh…well who cares for employees these days. One more building is completely made of glass in a pyramid structure. Few poor guys sitting inside that building have to face the sun ray coming through the glass whole day. That’s why most of them look darker than they really are (I am not one of them. I guess I am just slightly dark by birth).

The thing I liked most about this place is the gym. I am a person who never goes to the gym regularly. I can motivate myself to go the gym for consecutive 5 days, max. After that I have to pull myself towards it and that is difficult. But if you have a gym which runs from 5 PM in the evening to 8 Am in the morning, one need not bother actually. I can go after office hours, after dinner or in the morning. Now who would not like so much flexibility in life? Plus these are really hi-tech gyms (even the star hotels don’t have such gyms), which is an added advantage.

Another facility, because of which I am impressed with this campus, is its food. 6 food courts with 12 vendors, each serving different kind of food. Just awesome. Plus most of them are open through out the night (add two 24 hour CCDs too). Today I found out that I can have Chinese, Italian or Mexican food anytime I want, even at 3 AM. And the taste is not bad at all. Though I will have to control myself, otherwise the whole point of going to the gym goes down the drain. Well, let’s see how that goes.

There are several more small observations I have made about this campus. Shall pen them down, when I have enough.

PS1 – Next one about a normal guy’s life.
PS2 – Sunday Football and spiritual session at Jijaji’s place (aka P ka S)

Change Point

2008-06-21T00:52:00.002+05:30

I have not been writing anything since a month. A lot has been going on professional and personal front. But next week onwards the scene will change for better, i hope.

The IT capital of the world will be my home for the next 3 months (at least). Hope to catch up with long time friends, family and also find time to write many more interesting posts.

Lets hope for a better future.

SLAP

2008-05-15T13:15:00.009+05:30

Time 3 PM, Room No 113, South Hostel, UCE Burla, 5th Jan 2001

‘What do you say? Let’s go, man. I am pissed of with this Maths paper. Who was the idiot who set it? Hardly 50% of the question was from the syllabus. I know I am going to fail.’ said AB in his irritated voice.

‘No yaar. No one is going to fail. They will surely give some grace marks for the questions out of our syllabus. Anyways we have the Electrical Engineering basic exam (EEBE) in 3 days. I haven’t touched the books. Need to study man.’ said D.

‘See, don’t worry about EEBE. We shall start tomorrow morning first thing. 2 days will be enough and who knows, there could be 100% question out of syllabus this time’. AB said like a true engineer.

D moved his head down and thought. ‘Hmmmmm’

‘Abe what are you thinking man? Let’s go. Just imagine, we shall watch a Shah Rukh movie in the theater after 6 months. And that too a Yash Chopra movie. It will refresh our mind. SD and AM will join too. Chal’

D had to agree. He was also disappointed with the paper and was frustrated. These were days before he touched cigarette and liquor. So movies and music was the only way he could divert his mind. Plus a Shahrukh movie can never be avoided.

Time 4 PM, South Hostel front, 5th Jan 2001

‘Do we have to wear these formal full shirts, pants and shoes to a movie? I am just a tie away from attending an interview.’ said D.

‘See, it’s either this or no movie. Anyways it has been 6 months since we have been forced to wear this by our seniors, anytime we go out of hostel. Last week I was out of toilet soap and had to wear all these formal stuff without washing my hand and go out of the hostel to get it. So why are you complaining now?’ was AB’s reply.

‘Man, you shouldn’t have said that. Now don’t dare to seat near me during the journey or the movie’. SD said.

‘Ok stop this and let’s go. Why isn’t the bus coming? I am bored.’ said AM.

‘Asshole. We haven’t even started and you are bored. Itni jaldi bore hoga to shaadi ke baad kya karega’. Came the reply and all of them started laughing.

Time 5:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001

‘Ok. Tickets are booked. Lets get in. I have heard there is a very nice song at the beginning’. Said D. As usual he was the most knowledgeable among the group, when it was about movies.

‘What the hell yaar. This place smells of pan (Indian mouth freshener). People in India will never learn etiquettes. Mark my word, this country is going down.’ SD was in his India bashing mood again.

‘Haan haan. Ab bas kar. Let me watch Aishwarya and Shah Rukh making love. I mean romancing.’ said AB.

‘Oye. Don’t say anything bad about Aishwarya. I will kill you. She is your Bhabhi.’. D, the Ash lover said.

‘Yeah. Salman Khan is my brother.’ AB was not someone to back down.

‘Stop this crap. Let’s watch the movie.’

Time 8:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001

The song ‘Pairon mein Bandhan hai’ is being played on the screen.

‘Abe how long is this movie? It has been 3 hours and still no sign of a climax.’ AB was getting irritated. But in the same breath, he added ‘Abe Shah Rukh. Why are you singing alone, when all these Bachchas are dating their girlfriends? Catch hold of some girl and Puppy Le Le.’ As they say, engineering students will never change.

‘Shhhhh. Do you know we have 17 seniors occupying the whole row behind us?’ said AM.

‘WHAT? How do you know?’ SD was scared.

‘Why are you shivering? Even if there are seniors there, how does that affect us? For them, we are local people only. They don’t know us personally’. AB said with an air of confidence.

‘Ok. Keep quiet and lets get out of here, as soon as the movie ends’.

Time 9:30 PM, Sambalpur Bus stand, 5th Jan 2001

‘Movie was good. Dinner was perfect. Dekhna, next exam will go fine’. AB after a heavy meal generally talks nice things.

‘Damn.’

‘What?’

‘The same seniors are in this bus. What will we do?’

‘Look boys. Its 9:30 already and it is the last bus. We have to board this bus or we shall have to stay here all night.’ D said.

‘Let’s sit in the front. They have occupied all the back seats. They might recognize us from our dress. So let’s sit as far from them as possible.’ AB’s strategy had some sense.

All 4 of them went to the front. But there were just 3 seats available. The conductor signaled SD to move to the back. There was 1 seat empty and it was between 2 seniors.

From where D was seating, the seniors looked like the monsters from hell. He was praying to God that the monsters would let them go home (hostel) in safe & sound condition today. He had heard many stories of how seniors used to beat up juniors, when they were found alone. Just a month back, B had returned to the hostel from an evening walk with reddened face. All he could say afterwards was that he had been slapped 42 times. Here there were 17 versus just 4. His fear was not unfounded.

Time 10:30 PM, Power Channel Road, Burla, 5th Jan 2001

‘Let’s get down’. SD came and said.

‘Are you crazy? The hostel is still 2 KMs away. Who would walk that long?’ AB as usual.

‘I am not suggesting. I am informing. The seniors know who we are. They told me to inform you to get down from the bus here’. SD was sweating.

‘How did they know? And why should we get down? What do they want to do?’ too many questions were popping in their mind.

‘They recognized me from the Electrical Engineering Seminar and due to my dress. Probably more due to my dress. I had to tell them the truth’. SD was on the verge of crying.

‘Ok. Let’s get down. We can’t avoid this.’

All got down from the bus.

On one side of the road were the huge landscapes of MCL with big buildings. On the other side, the huge power channel coming from Hirakud Dam was flowing. The reflection of Moon on the water, the slow sound of flowing water and the cool shade of the trees on the bank of the river made the place quite romantic.

But romance was the last thing that was on D’s mind. The monsters in the moon light looked scarier.

Senior1/Monster1(S1) said ‘where are you looking at?’ looking at D. ‘Look Down. At the 3rd button of your shirt. If I catch you looking up again, will not spare you’.

S2 caught hold of AB’s collar & asked ‘Where are you coming back from?’

‘From the movie’

‘Didn’t you have an exam today? What were you doing at the cinema?’

‘We went after our exam. The paper was bizarre. So just wanted to divert our mind’

SLAP.

That one sound was the last thing D wanted to hear at that moment. It meant that the monsters were in the mood. D could not look up, but could feel AB’s pain.

SLAP. Another one on AB from S1.

S1 said ‘So does this divert your mind?’

D could not hold himself back. ‘But we were only watching movies.’

SLAP. Another one on D this time. ‘Did I ask you? Do I need a reason to beat you up? I can be beat you anytime I want? Bada aya movie dekhne wala.’

S2 suggested ‘Let’s split up. Let’s teach these bloody junis a lesson’.

This guy looked like a born leader. The strategy was at once approved and executed. Each of the Junis was distributed among the groups of monsters. Poor D was dreading this. S1, S2 along with another huge lad literally dragged him to one side of the road. After the distribution got completed, each of the groups started walking towards the hostel.

S1 asked to D ‘Keep looking down. If you raise your head by even 1 inch, I will show you my real power. So how did you find the movie?’

D said ‘It was Ok’

SLAP. ‘OK. You know what, Shah rukh is my favourite. How dare you call his film OK? So how was the movie?’

This time the reply from D was almost inaudible. ‘It was a great movie’.

‘What? We can’t hear you.’ said S2 and SLAP.

‘It was a great movie’. It was audible.

SLAP. Again from S2 ‘Great movie? Huh. It was so fucking boring that I want my money back from Chopras. So how was it?’

Silence followed. D knew whatever he might say; he is not going to be spared. They did not want the movie’s review. They just wanted an excuse to beat him. What he could not understand is WHY. What had he done? He didn’t even know them. .

But what he did not realize that Silence is not something these monsters were familiar with. The result was quite expected. Another SLAP.

‘Chup kyun ho gaya? Something in your mouth? Achha tell me, who is your Favorite heroine?’

The reply took some time and even though D was looking downwards, he could see a hand fast moving towards his face.

“Aishwarya’.

The hand which had stopped for a fraction of seconds on hearing his answer continued with its trajectory and the SLAP was completed.

‘I hate her. How dare you take her name in front of me?’

SLAP. SLAP. SLAP…..

This continued for the next 15 minutes. At last they reached the South hostel gate. D had lost count of the number of SLAPs he had received and that too without any reason. His parents had never beaten him and here he was getting beaten by strangers. Tears had started flowing way back and even that did not stop the monsters.

Just ahead of him, he could see AB, SD and AM in similar situation.

When they reached the gate, S1 said ‘Ok now go and let your batch mates know what we can do. Show them your face, they will understand. Go, you Bastard’.

With this, all 17 of them started laughing. D could never forget that laughter for all his life. He had not even seen the faces of the monsters, who had beaten him and his friends. All 4 of them were standing there helpless. At the very last moment D raised his head and glanced towards S1. S1’s face was filled with pride. He was proud of the fact that he is a person, who can beat up people.

At that point of time, D realized one thing ‘How cruel a person can be if given a power to control things and if not provided with a suitable mind to control that power. Power can turn him into a monster. The pride that S1 is feeling is actually so hollow.’ He promised himself that he will never turn into such monsters, when the power is handed over to him. He will be helpful and kind towards his juniors.

He fulfilled what he had promised to himself. He spent the next 3 years in the college as a senior, a senior who loved his juniors, rescued them when they were in danger and tried to guide them towards the right path.

PS – This is a truestory. As you could have guessed, D stands for Dave, i.e. me. :) This was one of the tale from my ragging period in college. People in our college say, if a senior rags you, in later life he becomes a friend. I have never felt that. In the next 2 3 years, I came to know the persons who had beaten us during that night. They even tried to be my friend later. But my heart could never forgive them.

My Longest Moment

2008-04-22T15:31:00.001+05:30

I take the baton from P3. Her longest moment has inspired me to write about my own. The term ‘Longest moment’ here means road accidents. I have been riding bicycle since I was 9. I learnt to ride a scooter, when I was 13. When I turned 15, Papa got me a Hero Shakti (3 gear moped). By the time I turned 20, I bought a TVS Victor. So I had been riding 2 wheelers for 14 years, before I started working.

These 14 years on bikes were the most uneventful years for me on road. Never did I face a single accident. I was proud of that fact and considered myself as a very skillful rider. Even I used to ridicule DM, who had faced a major road accident because a dog came in his way. He used to tell me, ‘beta rukja. Har kutte ka din aata hai. Tere kismet mein bhi koi kutta likha hoga’. Little did I know that actually har kutte ka din aata hi hai. I used to drive my bike like John in Dhoom (my friends can testify that). Till 24th April, 2006 this was the norm. On that day I faced my first accident in my village, where I had gone to attend a marriage. It was a freakish accident on a village road, in very bad condition, which I chose to ignore. I still used to think that I am invincible.

Then I came to Hyderabad. For those who have not seen Hyderabad, I must say that the IT region and Hilly region (Banjara, Jubilee) have great roads. Anybody will fancy driving a bike on these roads. After a single look at the road and the overcrowded public transport system, I decided to buy my own bike. Within 10 days, I bought my bike, a 180 CC Bajaj Avenger. It had a very unique feature, not available in any of my previous bikes. It had a front disk brake and normal rear brake. While the disk brake ensured much better braking, the danger of skidding was always there, because of the mismatch of braking system in both the wheels. This proved to be my doom.

July 29th 2006 was a Saturday. I had some urgent work in the office and hence had to go. It was drizzling slightly in the morning. I vrrroomed my Avenger and started from home. On my way to the office, there comes a part where a huge 12 storied building stands today. During those days, it was getting constructed. So there was a mixture of sand, cement and small chips on the road. The rain had converted that into mud. As per my habit, I was going at some 50 60 KMPH on that rain soaked road. By the time I reached the construction area, I had avoided many path holes & natural mud holes. With each maneuver, my confidence was increasing manifolds. And then the incident happened. 2 black dogs were quarreling over a biscuit under the road side stall. As soon as they saw me, they decided my time has come. They left the biscuit and ran on to the road. I was at 55 KMPH to be precise and by my manual calculation; I think I got around 2.1 seconds to react to this.

And I reacted. My brain asked my leg muscles to press the rear brake pedal, which they did effectively. At the same time, the poor brain (which should not be allowed to do parallel processing again) instructed my right hand to press the front brake and it obeyed too. The combination of mud, front disk brake and rear normal brake was something which the bike was not designed to handle. So obeying its own flow chart, with all the three condition satisfied, it completed the resultant task. i.e. it slipped (taking me along with it). One moment I was driving my Avenger, feeling like GOD. The next moment I was being dragged on the muddy road by a 1 ton bike. The pebbles didn’t like the design of my shirt and pant. So they were torn at several points, by the time the bike came to a halt. While I was being dragged, I noticed that the road divider is just 2 feet away from my head. It was my good fortune that the bike dragged me in a parallel line to the divider, so my head never had the opportunity to touch it. I got scratches all over my body, which eventually took 2 weeks to heal. The biggest problem was the huge scratch on my left palm (which had to remain bandaged for 10 days), because of which I had to use paper after No 2 for several days (not so easy for us, Indians).

Some nice fellas came running to my help and dragged me from under the bike engine, which was still running. I then had to drag the bike to a shelter. When checked the bike, I found that the bike had no severe accident signs, with just a scratch on the leg guard. So it had chosen to save itself and get the driver killed instead. Future Avenger buyers, please think twice before buying one. I can never forget the moment when I was being dragged on the road by the bike, with a concrete divider just 2 feet away from my head, waiting to kill me. Due to severity of damages and mortal danger, this qualifies as my longest moment.

Over to the next person in line.

PS – There was another accident on the same bike, just few months after this accident. This time M sr. was with me. I will share that experience sometime in future.

IPL suru ho raha hai

2008-04-17T22:16:00.002+05:30

At 6:30 PM tomorrow (18th April, 2008) we shall see a giant taking birth. A giant which in near future is going to revolutionize the world of cricket. by the time it achieves adulthood, it could well be the emporer of the cricket world. Soon we may see the cricket fans cheering for a city team from India, rather than cheering for the nation. Yes, the giant is named IPL, i.e. Indian Premier League.

IPL is in the same format as the English Premier league, with its share of home and away game. one difference is the knockout games. but that's how cricket is played. Fans will cheer for Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, royal challengers, etc.

I have been a fan of the English Premier League for a decade now. I follow Manchester Unted with the same passion as i show for the Indian cricket team. When Ronaldo or Rooney score a goal, i feel very very happy, just like when Yuvraj scores a six. There are numerous fans like me and it shows that club or city based fan club is quite achievable in India. That is the main source of hope for IPL. As the competition grows and the format matures, the fan base will only increase. May be soon enough we shall see cricketers playing cricket for their city more often than for their country.

Anyways, its a new phenomenon in cricket ( i choose to ignore ICL, which has not met with any success). This will change the way cricket ios played and will bring in a much bigger fan base. With increasing popularity, cricket might soon spread all over the world and be a part of Olympics too. at least then, we can hope to get a gold medal in Olympics. Lets hope for the best.

three cheers for IPL.

Kya Pyar Hai. Kya hai nahin?

2008-04-11T13:06:00.006+05:30

He clicked on the red submit button. After 2 weeks of brain storming (his own brain being the only contributor), he came to the conclusion that he can’t make it to Priya’s birthday this year.

He would have to take 3 days leave to do that. He was saving that for the upcoming Andaman tour that he and the gang had been planning since last March. Andaman was a dream vacation, which he never wanted to miss. Once the fresh leaves get credited, he can visit Priya in next quarter. May be he can ask Priya to come to Hyderabad. Priya would understand. To make up for it, he has sent 2 extra bouquets to her.

‘This online transaction thing really rocks’, he said to himself. ‘No need to be in Delhi to celebrate her birthday. I can send cakes, bouquets and card to her, sitting here in my room in Hyderabad. She likes balloons a lot. I shall send some balloons too.’

1st Feb 2009

‘Hi Babes, Happy Birthday. Many many many many happy returns of the day.’

‘Thanks, Purab.’

‘Sorry I could not call last night. I came very late from office. I had no strength left in me. So hit the bed straight away. I slept at 11 PM itself you see’.

‘Its OK, Purab.’

‘Kya hua? You seem upset. Achha tell me, you got the cake, bouquet & stuff’.

‘Haan, I got them all. Thanks again’.

‘No I can guess the disappointment in your tone. What’s the matter? Tell me do you want anything else. I knew I had to give you something real. Don’t worry. I shall buy you something expensive, when we meet. You know how much I love you’

‘And when will that be?’

‘Offo. I don’t know baba. You see, this new manager depends on me a lot. He would not give me a leave. Why don’t you come to Hyderabad?’

‘You know I have a job too. Since last April, I have taken 8 days leave to meet you. How many leaves have you taken to come to Delhi? Do you realize that I also have a family & some friends? I need leaves to meet them. Have you ever realized that?’

‘Shhhhhhh. Quiet babes. I understand. I try all the times. But yaar yeh manager. Ab mein kya karun?’

‘Manager maar dalega kya? Agle saal humari shaadi hai. Tab bhi yehi bologe? Purab do you love me or not?’

‘I love you babes. Do you even have to ask that? And please don’t cry.’

‘hmmmm. Achha mere ghar se call aa raha hai. Talk to you later. Bye.’

Purab was taken aback by this. He had seen priya crying on small things, but she never cut a call just like that. ‘She must be really mad. I might lose her if I go on like this. I love her so much. I will have to do something. But kya karun? She needs me to come to her. I will go to Delhi. But then What about Andaman? well to hell with Andaman. I can visit it any time. But right now, all i should do is to meet her. I can do anything to make her happy.’

4th Feb 2009

‘Hi Sandeep. Good Morning. ‘

‘Hi Purab. Good Morning. Come in’.

‘Boss, I need leave from office from 13th Feb to 16th Feb. I have to visit my uncle, who is not feeling well.’

‘Ohh. See Purab. You know, how much work is pending on you. You were on leave last Thursday too.’

“Boss, I have already done my work and updated you yesterday. Remember?’

‘No no. More work is round the corner. Client is sitting on my head. You don’t know how much I have to listen from the client’.

‘Boss, this is important. I shall complete everything before I go. That a promise’.

‘Ok. I will approve your leave. But keep in mind that you have to finish every piece of work before you leave. Otherwise chutti canceled.’

‘Thanks Boss. Sure. I shall finish everything. I will get back to my seat and start working right away then. Thanks a lot’

‘Purab. Just a sec. Tell your uncle, ‘Happy Valentines day’.

‘You are a genius, boss’.

12th Feb 2009

‘Abe kya raat bhar kaam karega. Go home buddy. This bloody company does not pay any overtime either’.

‘Who is working for the company? I am working to save my ass. Yaar chutti hai 14th se. kal tak yeh kaam khatam karna hai. Man, I have been slugging day and night since the last 10 days. Still I am nowhere near the completion. Too much work. Upar se manager har kaam mere pe laad deta hai.’

‘Can I help?’

‘No buddy. Go home. Enjoy your evening. I will complete it’.

‘Chalo. Cya then’.

13th Feb 2009 (5.30 PM)

‘Bhaiya. Sarojini eye hospital pata hai kahan hai mehndipatnam mein’.

‘Haan. 150 lagega.’

’150? Meter se to 50 rupye se jyada nahin hoga?’

‘Meter kharab hai. Jana hai to bolo. Airport jaa rahe ho naa? 5000 ki flight ticket le sakte ho, humein 150 rupye nahin de sakte’.

‘arre baba to pura ticket ka paisa hi le loge kya.’

‘Jana hai to bolo’.

‘Achha chalo’.

13th Feb 2009 (6.00 PM)

‘Bhaiya. Yeh airport keliye express bus kab jayega.’

‘ek abhi nikla. Ek fir adhe ghante baad 6:30 ko’.

‘adha ghanta? Mera flight hai 7:30 ka’.

‘to pehle aana tha na’.

‘Please kuch help karo. Mein time pe kaise pahunchunga’.

‘abhi kuch nahin ho sakta. Aap bologe to mein auto buladunga. Taxi keliye rukoge to aur der ho jayegi.’

‘thik hai. Bulado.’

‘abey abdul. Saab airport jayenge. Le jaa.’

‘chaliye saab’.

‘ruko. Kitna paisa loge airport tak ka. Meter se chaloge naa’.

‘saab time se phuncha dunga. Jo samajh mein aaye de dena.’

‘nahin thik se bolo kitna loge’.

‘saab, har koi 400 deta hai. Aap bhi utna hi de dena. Ek rupya jyada nahin maang raha hun’.

‘Sigh. Thik hai. Chalo’.

13th Feb 2009 (6:30 PM)

‘Chalo auto se utro. Bags kholke dikhao’.

‘Hawaldar saab. Kis chiz ki checking chal rahi hai. Dekhiye meri flight hai 7 baje ki, miss ho jayegi, please jaane dijiye’.

‘nahin nahin. Kuch bahana nahin. Kholke dikhao bags.’

‘chaliye, le lijiye talashi. Meri flight miss hui to aap pe case kar dunga’.

‘haan haan. Kar lena case’.

13th Feb 2009 (7.05 PM)

‘Excuse me. Boarding pass please.’

‘Ohh. Haan. Here it is.’

‘Is there any liquid in the bag?’

‘No. my perfume may be.’

‘Sorry sir. Not allowed. Please take it out. You can not take it as part of baggage.’

‘ohh my God. Do I look like some terrorist? It’s just a perfume’.

‘Sorry sir’. You will have to take it out’. ‘OK. Hmmmph.’

13th Feb 2009 (11 PM)

‘Bhaiya ji. GK jana hai. Jhik jhik aur mat karna. Mera dimaag kharab ho chuka hai. Jitna lena hai lelo. Bas 12 baje se pehle pahuncha dena.’

13th Feb 2009 (11 :58 PM)

Tring. Tring. Trrrring. Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring.

‘Who is that?’

No response.

‘Who is that? If you are here to deliver some cake, then go back. I don’t want any cake, bouquet. I want nothing. Just go back’.

‘Priya’.

‘Yeah its Priya and I don’t want anything’.

‘Priya it’s me.’

‘Purab. Is that you?’ opens the door. ‘what….what…how?’

‘Wait a sec. yeah. 12 baj gaye. Happy Valentines Day babes’.

‘But how?’

‘Kyun chutti sirf tumhe milti hai mujhe nahin’.

‘Maarungi. Tumne rula diya mujhe. You didn’t want to come here. Isn’t it? Your boss needs you all the time’.

‘Yeah may be I wouldn’t have come. May be I never bothered to come to Delhi. Because I thought that you love me and you would come anyways. I would meet you then. Till then I would be happy with my office, my work and my friends. But that day your words touched me. I had never realized how much you mean to me. I had always thought you as an important part of my life. But may be at some point, I had started taking you for granted. I had started expecting everything from you, without thinking about giving anything in return.

This trip has helped in me in understanding how much you have to go through each time to reach me. I had never appreciated that. Aaj who saari baton keliye maafi mangta hun.

That day, after talking to you, something else happened. For the first time in my life, I felt that I might lose you. Then I realized that I can’t think about a life without you. 2 weeks back I was very happy with myself that I have fulfilled my duties as a boyfriend by sending you some cakes, bouquets. But I never understood that the gift of being with you is the greatest gift I could ever give you. I assure you, I shall be always there for you, jab tak meri saans mein saans hai.’

‘ek minute ruko, main abhi aati hun’.

‘kahan jaa rahi ho? Meri baat sunke emotional ho gayi kya?’

‘ek minute’.

After few seconds, Priya is back with a box in hand:-

‘Yeh kya hai’.

‘These are all the cards and gifts which you have sent to me from Hyderabad. Milke dekhen?’

55 Word Stories

2008-04-02T16:35:00.003+05:30

All of us know that when you name a bulletin board as CREATIVE, crazy things are bound to happen. 3 days back in our HYD Creative folder, one guy proposed to write stories in 55 words. No more and no less. Then the poor BB saw a flood of mails from users sending 55 word stories, which the poor server was unable to handle.

Anyways given below are some of my favorite 55 word stories out of them.

The Wait

Totally bored, he glanced at his watch. He had been waiting for the train for nearly half an hour. He had decided he would not try the bus or any other transportation medium. Only the train should take him to his destination.

Then he heard the horn.

He prayed silently and sat on the tracks.

The Blow

The Man entered the ground with his usual elegance, he was quick on his feet for he realised he had a job to finish.

Within seconds he was the cynosure of 50,000 spectators at the Wolloongabba (Gabba in Brisbane) and they were all cheering his courage.

Then came the blow from Andrew Symonds which floored him - the streaker.

Speed Thrills!!

Jack was speeding beyond the speed limits .He was being followed by the police cars with their siren blazing, If caught ,He had to pay a huge amount as fine and some years at the prison.
He still hit the throttle and was about to finish first in the race ,when the power was gone.

Kaise Kahu!!

For some men it is so simple while some never have enough courage to say it. But I have suffered a lot. Earlier I didn't know how to tell her. Not anymore. She must know this. It's so important for both of us. Here she comes and off I go, " Mamma, you make horrible pancakes."

The Glimpse

I pushed my way through the crowd, to have a glimpse at the man. I was waiting for this chance for several years. Finally he arrived and apologized for being late by few minutes. I wanted to see him more clearly. Suddenly there was sound of shots and the man dropped down – uttering “Hey Ram”.

One Fine Day

2008-04-01T15:24:00.001+05:30

I think it was early evening, may be around 7 PM. The sky was turning dark red, as I came out of my house. I started walking down the lane, which leads to the main road. It’s a narrow lane and irresponsible HUDA people forgot to put up a streetlight in the lane. Plus there is a nice little jungle (very small actually) on the other side of the lane, that only increases the darkness.

Anyways, as I was saying, I was walking down this lane. I don’t know about others, but generally when I am passing through a dark lane, I feel like somebody is following me. I never dread about ghosts & all, but the idea of being followed really freaks me out. So when in such a situation, I run. Quite naturally, I started running towards the end of the lane. As I was approaching the end, a beam of white light (much like your tubelight) flashed somewhere to my left. All my 6th, 7th senses started working overtime. I was sweating. Soon I reached the road at the end of the lane. This is one of the busiest roads in town. But on that fateful day it was empty too. There were 1 or 2 street lights on the main road, which eased my situation a bit. I started walking down the road (I think my destination was the petrol pump, I don’t know why).

As I was crossing the Hyderabad house restaurant, it happened. She zoomed past me at 100 KMPH. Hundreds of ads come on TV how the fragrance of a perfume or deo mesmerizes the crowd and leave them spellbound. I never believed such ads. But I should have learnt; this is no ordinary day. I can still smell her fragrance; I can still see her when I close my eyes. Her beauty added the xing factor to the moment. I hope I could have seen her face, but alas that was never meant to happen. Still I felt at that moment, that I was in love.

Then reality hit me. She took a U-turn just in front of the petrol pump, her face still hidden. And I found, she was not alone. She was with a guy, which my subconscious mind was trying to ignore till now. They stopped in front of the fruit shop on the opposite side of the road. Like every admirer, I hated the idea of seeing my beloved with some third person. The animal in me was waking up. I found a log lying by. I picked it up and went towards them. The intention was to hit the guy from behind and take her away from him. But I had to be careful that I don’t hit her by mistake. Soon I was behind them. I sized up the opponent. I felt one hit would be enough.

With all the strength in me, I hit him from back. The connection was perfect. The poor lad had no chance. Blood started pouring out of his head. I dragged him out of her lap and threw him down the drain. She was horrified. I jumped onto her lap feeling all too happy for myself. I had never felt this much excited ever. With a smiling face, I turned on the key and the smoothest sound of a running engine followed. Man!, the Lamborghini rocks.

BTW let me tell you its 1st of April and all this happened in a dream, the dream that I watched while sleeping during my office hours. Oh Boy! Vella panti rocks too.

When will this stop???

2008-03-27T15:41:00.002+05:30

Which channels do you generally surf on Indian Television? If you ask this to a Kid, you will get answers like Pogo, Disney, etc. If you ask the same to a teenager or working bachelors, they would say ESPN, STAR ONE, etc. A housewife will answer Star, Sony, Zee or NDTV Imagine. Retired people prefer watching Astha. But if you ask the same question to a married corporate person, he would answer NDTV profit in the morning. Then the natural question follows. What about the evening? Even though most will not say this, but the actual answer is – ‘Arre bhai, biwi TV dekhne kahan deti hai? Jab dekho Tulsi ki kahani leke baith jati hai’.

This is the kahani of all most all families in our country. Saas bahu dramas which have been running since the last 8 years are no where near their closure. Can you imagine daily soap running for 8 years? That accounts to 1600+ episodes, at 200+ per year. 1600+ episodes, i.e. story of 800+ hours. A sane person can never imagine how a story can be told for so long. I think there must be 50 such saas bahu serials being telecasted on various channels. All these serials have almost the same story. Even if the background is different, ultimately they show the same things. E.g. serials like Dil mil gaye, Jersey No 10, etc which are based on Doctors and cricket players respectively have turned into dumb love and hate stories after few episodes.

But the problem with these serials is they are not story based. They are TRP based. Even though the serial makers have nothing new to show, they would add some ridiculous twist to the story (hero dying, heroine marrying somebody else, hero returns and badla) to drag it for few more months. These kinds of twists have been happening in all the serials. Still the stupid viewers in India never stop watching them. This increases the TRP and such sick serials go on forever. Somebody should show Ekta kapoor (the lady who changed the face of Indian television, from good to bad) the serials being made in the west (LOST, Smallville, Prison Break, 24, etc) to make her realize what TV serials are actually capable of and what she is delivering.

15 years back, we were making serials like Stone boy, Indradhanush, Malgudi Days, Mahabharat, Jungle Book, Neenv, Mitti ke rang. Just have a look at the serials running now – Babool ka angan chute naa, Betayaan apni yaan paraya dhan, etc etc (all CRAP)

The only show which is watchable on Indian TV is Roadies, but that too runs just for few months. Sometimes I feel I should lift my TV and go and break it on Ekta Kapoor’s head. And I am sure many will help me in doing that.

The Black Saturday

2008-03-27T14:07:00.000+05:30

The Saturday started like any other day. I woke up at 9 AM. Nobody else was up yet. There was no live telecast on TV, nor were there any fav TV series (read Roadies….everything else is just bullshit, but more about that in future posts). Still it was an important day, I mean even Gabbar was querying about it the other day. It was Holiday, i.e. Holi Day. So I started waking the others up from their slumber. With some people this task is pretty easy. But with some other like Poo, P and M Jr, it is like getting Sachin Tendulkar out. Anyways after some hard work, put in by D and M Sr, all of them got up.

Then M Sr and D went to get the Rang. Requirement was very specific. No colour, only Gulal. We delivered as per the specification. But like every client, Poo changed the requirements at the last moment and raised a change request (she wanted some pichkari and balloons too). After much deliberation and brain storming, we decided against the change request and asked everybody to manage with the current config. So we played Holi with Gulal (later on Poo brought some colour too, which she had brought from Kolkata). Till this part of the day everything was going fine. We were enjoying the holi. Keeping with the tradition, we even went to a bakery and had samosa, cold drinks and desserts.

But once everybody washed the colour down the drain and were ready to enjoy the rest of the day, the god of bad luck decided he has no other work and will spend the rest of the day with us. We went to Runway 9 (for new comers in Hyderabad, this is the carting place). But by the time we reached there, it was already raining and the carting track got closed down for the day. Still we hoped may be the laser gun game will open up and hence to do some TP till then, we played snooker. But the rain didn’t stop and hence no laser game happened. We left the place with a heavy heart (as our evening plans were ruined) and went to Mocha.

Mocha as everybody knows is a great hangout place and we generally enjoy our time there. It has a closed roof and hence we were sure, nothing could have gone wrong there. But as they say, Murphy’s Law never disappoints you. Between our chitchats, M told me that he can smell something burning. I thought kisika dil jal raha hoga (remember dil jalta hai to jalne de). But just 2 mins later, a stampede started in the coffee shop. Apparently there was a short circuit and the safety equipments were already burning. So we had to leave Mocha without having anything. I was thankful to God that nothing disastrous happened. However after I saw people leaving in a hurry, I thought, oh shit, only if we could have had something and then this incident would have occurred, at least kuch to fayda hota (khane ka khana and no payment). You see the Monisha (Sarabhai fame) in all of us never dies.

After 2 utter failures, we were left with hungry stomachs and loads of time to kill. So the next target was barista crème. When we reached Barista, M in his car was just in front of my car. Just as M entered into Barista, the sky turned red, a dreadful lightening struck somewhere near and the power for the whole area went down. Although nothing else happened, but due to the power failure, poor souls in Barista had to manage without AC the whole time. By this time we were suspecting that all these can’t be coincidence and there is something wrong.

To verify this, we went to Ohris for mid night desserts. We enjoyed our time there and rejected our theory that there is anything wrong with our luck. However, Mr. Bad luck was sitting right next to us and laughing. While returning from Ohris, a portion of the hussain sagar (read the pothole on the street) got splashed onto 2 bikers by Poo (accidentally). Unfortunately, the riders were John Abraham and Uday chopra (Dhoom fame) in disguise. They chased Poo’s car till her place (in between they fell down after crashing on another pothole). Once they stopped Poo’s car, they started sharing their knowledge of Telugu very politely and created a scene. By the time we reached there in my car, the atmosphere was red hot. After half an hour of climax fighting, a settlement was reached and we all came back to M & P’s place. No one was ready to sleep yet. A long discussion about the incident, about Sriram (a character we met during the climax fighting, more about him later) and game of LIFE were waiting for us.

Killer - The Holi Assassin

2008-03-24T12:20:00.000+05:30

Last 3 days have been so hectic that I had to take leave from office today to refresh my mind and prepare myself for the office tomorrow. NO, I haven’t been working day n night, which demands this break. I have been holidaying with friends. 3 full days of pure fun n masti for us and bad luck for some other people (details to follow later, for the time being just one small part of it).

There were 7 of us in Hyderabad for this Holi and we enjoyed our days outside, whereas night time was for board games, card games, dumb charade and killer. We all assembled at M n P’s place and the ground rule was that no one will sleep until all of us feel sleepy. I learnt about this killer game in the process. Believe it or not, I had never heard of this game before (even though it seems it’s a very famous game). And it turned out to be pretty interesting. First the rules for the new comers. Pretty simple, paper chits are made with 1 K (killer), 1 D (detective) and rest just NIKE tick marks. One who is the killer had to kill tick marked people by winking at them (without the detective knowing about it). When a tick marked person dies, he/she has to say ‘I am dead’. After 3 people die, the detective has to guess the killer’s identity.

This game was sandwiched between dumb charade and LIFE. We played it for some 45 minutes, as it was getting increasingly monotonous. People were getting bored, when M suggested some changes to the game and all 7 of us started devising new rules for the game. After 15 minutes of brain storming and vetoing various rules, we decided on one basic change. We added a new person into the game, called suicide bomber. He is an agent of the killer and has the license to kill one person before exploding himself. So his job description is to kill 1 person by winking at him and the say ‘I m dead’ himself. This made the game much more difficult for the detective and excitement level suddenly rose. We enjoyed an extra hour playing killer because of this rule. LIFE followed killer and god knows what after that. It has been very very hectic 3 days and nights for us and we always wished if only these holidays could go on forever.

Anyways, I have learnt a new game and our group has devised some new rules for it. May be one day we will patent this rule and make it as famous as football. May be one day this will be a part of the Olympics and I shall be officiating in the final. Ok, now I guess I am day dreaming. Its 1 PM in the afternoon and instead of working in the office, I am writing this blog. Jai VELLA baba ki jai.

Next post – The black Saturday.

Nice Troy (oops...Try)

2008-02-19T15:24:00.000+05:30

It is a very very VERY long movie. Making a 3 Hr + long movie is definitely a crime in current time. What makes it a much bigger crime is that it is based on the love story (to most extent, fictional) of one of the greatest Historical character, India has ever seen. Akbar is somebody who is respected irrespective of loyalties and religion. Hence it is very hard to imagine a young Akbar wooing his wife with his sword skills and bare body. All through my life, I have imagined Akbar as a skilled emperor with a great vision. To watch the same Akbar making silly mistakes on the advice of a mysterious character (his badi ammi, fictional character) was quite awkward.

We have very few Historical or medieval movies made in India after the 50s era. Possible reasons behind that are – They do not click at the box office (remember Mangal Pandey, Asoka, etc), the cost incurred in Producing them and lack of juicy and heroic stories. The main reason why I did not like Asoka was the lack of knowledge in history clearly showing in the movie. It showed Karubaki as the lover of Asoka, which is not at all true. I am a fan of anything related to History and I think I know the history of Orissa pretty well. The way History was murdered in Asoka; I just could not accept it. In case of Jodha Akbar too, the director is trying to create an eternal love story out of nothing (I mean you can find such love stories in every goddamned romantic novel). This is a mistake and if you actually do not have much historical facts to boost up the story, then at least the movie should be as good as Mughal-e-Azam in terms of quality. I don’t feel Jodhaa Akbar’s name will be taken in the same breath as Mughal –e-Azam and quite rightly so.

Still I like this movie. Why and what about it? Well then read on. First let me confess one thing. Any movie with Hrithik and Aishwarya will be a treat for me, as they are my most favourite stars. But then I had my share of doubts. How will Hrithik look like in the character of Akbar and can he bring the aura to the floor, which is so much required for such roles? If there is anybody in India who can be a Princess on screen, it has to be Aishwarya. But that is only based upon her looks. What about the acting skills? Similarly, how will 16th Century India look on the big screen? Can the director re-create the magic that he did with ‘Lagaan’? And I liked the movie, because I got most of my answers.

Hrithik with his Greek god looks was the best choice for Akbar and what really impressed me is the way in which looked to be a part of the huge canvas. He looked so assertive and so much persuasive in the role that I can say without any doubt that, even Akbar would have wanted Hrithik to play his character on the celluloid. The only blemish came towards the end, where he was supposed to recreate the magic of a Brad Pitt Vs. Eric Bana duel from Troy and he failed. But that had more to do with the story, or the lack of it at that point, than him.

Aishwarya is the prefect match for Hrithik on screen and she proved it again. She looked beautiful as a Princess and delivered a very satisfactory performance. In the character of Jodhaa, she matched the charisma of Akbar and sometimes overpowered him.

As a director, I feel Ashutosh failed at certain points in the movie. He dragged the movie at times unnecessarily and failed in the War scenes particularly. Also several characters were introduced into the story without thinking about the story or length of the movie, which made the plot complicated at certain points. His idea of creating a historic love story also did not work properly, as ultimately the audience did not have the patience to experience it themselves. Still this a good try and must be applauded. This movie might bring a change in attitude towards historical movies in India and encourage worthy people to try their luck in this genre.

I feel soon my review will be as big as the movie itself and I should stop here. Overall I felt i did not waste my 300 bucks.

She doesn't know me, but “I still know who she is."

2008-02-13T16:30:00.000+05:30

On the Valentines Day eve, A very Happy Valentines Day to all Couples and Happy Independence Day to the Singles. This is a forward i received on the occasion of Valentines Day and liked it.

Scene starts :-

It was a busy morning, about 8:30 am, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him.

I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but “I still know who she is."

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life." True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

Happy Valentines Day

Debi's Day out

2008-01-22T16:03:00.000+05:30

The day started at 5.45 PM the day before. I was dragged from my 1 room palace with a tennis racket (which proved useless, bcos pcube forgot that we need 2 rackets to play tennis) in my hand. I was thrown into the back seat of a Santro with Pcube besides me. I was scared, as would all people be, if they know the power of Pcube. On the front seat I could see a person (MA) at the wheel. He was behaving like a monkey (much the way Symonds behaves on field) during certain parts of the journey. I could visualize myself crashing to death as had happened to Aamir in ISHQ, when another monkey was driving the Car. On the other front seat, a lady (PBA) was trying to calm the animal man, but was not succeeding at all. Anyways, we reached our destination without much injury to my health or mind. Once we reached, I was greeted with a welcome drink, i.e. khatta pani with Panipuri as side dishJ. I think there was also some plan to prepare some sweet dish, which due to lethargic nature of all did not materialize at all.

No human being can stand this much of torture, but there was still more to come. The dumbest movie of Nagesh Kukkunoor was waiting for us in Prasads. Statutory warning to all people – Don’t watch Bombay to Bangkok, if you are not BIVAS. After this, the weekly torture (only to the eyes though) point, Ohris was the next destination. My luck was so good that day that I was fortunate enough to get some free zalebis due to the kindness of our very own Oriya waiter bhai. Whenever I get something free, be it Zalebi or Johnnie Walker, I feel sleepy. So I went to sleep right at 4 AM. Some great person had once said ‘early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. With hardly any wealth or health on my side, I had to sleep early.

The plan for Sunday was that we will utilize the services of my company like the Pool, BB court, etc, for which I pay loads of dollars each month. But what we ultimately learnt was that ‘you should read each and every policy of your company’. While using the pool with friends, the guard came and very politely asked us to leave the pool as it is supposed to be used only by the employees (he said in a manner which suggested that his father had built the pool and he is the rightful owner of it). Anyways, we had to abandon the idea of utilizing any more services provided by the esteemed company after this.

The next stop was Prasads again, but not to watch a movie, rather to sell the tickets of the Golden compass, so as to save ourselves from another torture. As experienced by myself, I have now become an expert at identifying prospective movie ticket buyers. May be I will soon start the ticket black dhanda as a side business, since the salary that I get, somehow dissolves into thin air by the time 20th of a month arrives. After this successful mission, PBA insisted that we should try our hand at cart racing, specially keeping in mind the 2010 Delhi F1 race. We had to agree to her idea and landed at runway 9. This runway is not straight as most runways are, rather it’s a 14 Bend full-fledged racing track with other dangerous sports arena besides it. One of these games is Skating. Again a statutory warning from my side – Don’t ride a skate, if you are above 15 years old, no matter what your weight is. Pcube who is weighing at 110 pounds, fell down thrice during skating, PBA once and your’s truly twice (that too backwards, could not sleep properly that night L and no need to mention about my weight). Only MA did not have any damage, may be because of his monkey like acrobatics. During carting, I had my first major accident on a Cart where I ran into the barriers and 6 tires decided that its time they ride me, rather than the other way round. I came out of it with miner bruises and I am confident that if given a chance in the 2010 Delhi f1 race, I can challenge Alonso and Raikonen. With a quiet dinner at BB, the day ended.

It was indeed an eventful day (and a half) and what was sone pe suhaga or icing on the cake was that this happened after a long time. Friends are back in Hyderabad after a long time and happy days are back again.

Not My Story :)

2008-01-21T14:10:00.000+05:30

It was late in the evening when I entered Howrah Station .It was teeming with office workers returning home after a typically tiring day at work. I didn't look forward to the prospect of returning home to my husband. The love between us had died years ago. Our marriage had been transformed into a dead corpse buried deep beneath a pile of painful memories. The bits and pieces of pleasure I derived from my daily existence were my only source of sustenance. My husband had accused me of being mentally deranged. But only I know better. He should have thought of a better reason than that to get rid of me.

I hauled my self into a train standing nearby. Finding a seat lying vacant I gleefully slid into it. After having exhausted myself at work securing a place to ease my legs was a welcome relief. The scene inside the train was disquieting. The train being the last one on that particular route, it wasn't long before the compartment was bursting to the full with people. They jostled and fought with each other in a desperate attempt to keep from falling off.

June is the hottest month in Kolkata; it's when the summers are at the peak of their torment. The sweltering heat conspired with the intolerable humidity to beat the lives out of the commuters. The stench from the garbage rotting on the rail tracks combined with the nauseating smell of human sweat to pervade the whole atmosphere. I felt like vomiting. I subconsciously swallowed the spittle that formed in my throat. In despair, I stared up at the ceiling for comfort. A solitary fan hung up there in a state of eternal rest, hideously shrouded in spider webs. I closed my eyes in a bid to rest my mind. Slowly I allowed myself to fall into a labored slumber.

When I awoke the train had traveled far into the countryside. The seat next to mine was occupied by a pretty nymphet. She had a concerned look on her face. The object of her anxiety was seated right opposite to us. He was the most loathsome, horrid specimen of mankind I had ever seen. He evidently appeared to be a village goon of some reputation. His bloodshot eyes were planted firmly on the girl. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat under his leering looks. The redness of his eyes was indicative of the fact that he had soaked himself in liquor far exceeding socially acceptable limits.

The girl's nervousness was infectious. I looked around the compartment. It was completely vacant except for the three of us. I began to grow uneasy. The girl pressed my hand and held up a piece of newspaper for my inspection. She pointed towards a front-page news report. It was on a sensational serial killer who had been haunting Kolkatans for the past couple of weeks. Six young girls had been murdered in different parts of the city. They were discovered with their throats brutally slit open. The killings had been executed with such meticulous efficiency that the murder scenes were totally devoid of any clues. The police were baffled. The report went on to draw parallels with the legendary 'Stoneman' who had terrorized Calcutta in the early 90's and whose identity was yet to be ascertained. The report was undeniably scary and chilling to the bone.

The girl had visibly paled. She motioned with her eyes indicating to me that she considered the man sitting opposite to be a prime suspect. The girl was badly scared and I must admit I was pretty worried myself. Suddenly the train slowed as it approached an oncoming station. I was contemplating the feasibility of getting off the train, well before my intended destination, when the man himself stood up. To my utter surprise and immense joy he hopped off the train as it came to a screeching halt. The girl looked at me and both of us let out a huge sigh of relief. The tension having been released, she began to giggle. I caught up with her silly laughter and soon both of us were laughing away in abandon.

With a rude jerk the train started moving. Soon it was speeding across vast open countryside at a furious pace. Her jangled nerves having been calmed, the girl had begun to doze in her seat. As I looked at her I wondered just how naïve and unsuspecting young girls can be. I slipped my hand inside my handbag and firmly gripped the kitchen knife I always carried. I felt a strange numbness in my fingers but it had to be done. Besides she had an exceedingly beautiful neck. Such a pity!

Giving Credit when due

2007-12-23T18:21:00.000+05:30

BTW one should take notice, when the casting credits of Taare Zameen Par are on. Just check if you find something unusual. If you look carefully, you will find that Aamir's name comes after Darsheel's name.

Why this is unique is because this is not Indian mindset. We are a race which tries to belittle other's achievements to showcase ourselves. In the movie itself Aamir has shown this as wrong and is happy with Ishan's achievements. However it is nice to see that Aamir is following that outside the movie too. Darsheel is indeed the hero of the movie and he deserves very bit of accolade, even higher credentials in the casting part too.

Aamir is evolvong into a very matured filmmaker and a better humanbeing. Hope to see many more great movies coming out of his production house and his mind.

Taare Zameen Par : Best movie of the Year

2007-12-23T11:28:00.000+05:30

भीड़ में यूं न छोडो मुझे, घर लौट के भी आ ना पाऊँ मा
भेज न इतना दूर मुज्क्को तू, याद भी तुझको आ ना पाऊँ मा
क्या इतना बुरा हूँ में मा
क्या इतना बुरा मेरी मा

This para of the song Maa holds the thought process going on inside the innocent mind of Ishan, when he is sent to the boarding school. Life is never easy. Even a child like Ishan has his share of problems. Sometimes he tries to fight against it, sometimes he just ignores it, but all the time, he has in the back of his mind that there is someone who can sort out his every problem. He trusts his Maa, like every child does. But when his Maa does not understand him, he breaks down from inside. This song shows his desperate plea to his mother to come back and embrace him. But there is nobody to hear him. If someone can hold back tear when the song is on, he/she has to have a heart of stone.

The movie Taare Zameen Par is indeed a nice Christmas gift to everybody from Aamir Khan. He is known as a person who uses his mind, while choosing his work, quite unlike others in Bollywood. If he is there in a movie, you can be rest assured that it has to be a stunner. But once in a while, he stars in some dumb movies too. Remember Mangal Pandey or Mela. This movie had no known stars except Aamir and there was a grave danger that this could be termed as a part of parallel cinema. But the final product turned out to be the best entertainer of the year. Its not in the same league as Hey Baby or OSO. But only because they are way below it. Even Chak De can not match TZP. Sweet sound of money, awards and accolades are sure to come Aamir's way again.

But sometimes you can feel some movies are way above the petty affair of money or awards. If these things were on the mind of Aamir while making this movie, then he could never have made such a touching movie. Each scene is so full of emotions and Aamir's golden touch, that viewer is bound to be mesmerized by it.

The movie also tries to explain that not everybody is same. Every person's knowledge can not be judged by comparing him/her against some standard scale, like exam results. Every person has the right to be the way he/she likes and given the opportunity, he can achieve something out of extraordinary. The movie also shows you can bring a lot of difference to somebody's life, if you can actually care (KHAYAL) about him/her. Just a second spent with somebody might mean a lot more to him/her, than anything else. We just need to take a step forward towards them and all barriers will break.

So the question is can we take that step forward? Do we have it in us?

Mini movies : Big experience

2007-12-15T23:50:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow, I am going to watch a movie called 'Dus Kahaniyan'. Its an un-bollywood like movie with 10 different short films being shown one after another. Short films!!! Its quite an interesting phenomenon. It can be about anything and not necessarily need to have a full length storyline or moral learning behind it (like the 3 hr movies). But they have to be brief and strong in every scene. You just cant afford a weak second there, unlike the big movies.

Few days ago, the passionforcinema site hosted a short film competition. My previous flatmate Anand was very eager to participate in it. He somehow convinced me to be a part of his mini movie. I had no idea what I had to do and was nervous. This was very new for me. But then he told me that he had developed the concept from a real life scenario and I was already part of that scenario. Hence he believed, I could play the part very well.

Lets focus on the incident first. It happened a few days back, when all of a sudden our main door refused to shut down, without the lock from inside being used. The problem was that both of us had different office timings. Mine was from 9 AM to 6 PM and Anand's was from 2 PM to 11PM. So when it was time for me to leave for office, he used to be asleep. Without disturbing his sleep, there was no way we could close the door from inside. And the idea of the door opening up due to wind or human force, when he is sleeping, was scary. We could have lost valuable stuff from out house or there was danger to Anand. We had to find a solution and I found one, which was very effective. I tied a shoe lace to the chitkani (lock to close the door from inside) from inside and took the two ends of the lace to the outer part of the door. Now when I pulled the shoe lace from outside, the chitkani got closed from inside. Thus I could close the door from outside without Anand's help and Anand could later open it from inside.

our home was safe now, because of a very simple idea. Didn't get the idea??? Then watch the short film that we made on this. Click on the below URL and watch the movie 'THE DOOR'.

http://passionforcinema.com/pfcone-2007-day-three/

Then when I was shifting to a new place, Anand asked me to star in another movie, in bargain for the advance that he had to pay me :). I agreed due to the fun I had during filming the first one. This movie was based on a fiction, with the only truth behind the story being the death of our fishes, Sania n Sarapova. May their souls rest in peace.

In order to watch this movie, go to the below URL and watch the movie 'FISHES'.

http://passionforcinema.com/pfcone-2007-day-four/

When these movies were hosted on the site, we got some good responses and some bad. I guess the effort was really there and we did a good job, considering that this was our first attempt at it. After watching some other videos, I realized how a good short movie can be made. Especially the short movies, 'Itch', 'A Day In The Life Of India', etc. Do watch these movies once you are there.

The Real Come Back

2007-12-13T00:10:00.000+05:30

The Prince of Calcutta, DADA, The god of off-side, The captain courageous...he has been given many names. Now the press has given him a new name, The comeback man. Everybody is eager to shower praises on him. Why?? Because he is the man of the moment. Because He is a success story.

But then what really brought this change. You can find quite a few reasons here. I don't agree with all of them. Especially the part where Ganguly says that the way he was ousted was not right and this motivated him to perform better. If that was the case, why was not he performing well in the first class matches, when he was kept out of the national team? His Ranji average was pathetic and his average in English county cricket was in single figures. Once when Laxman was kept out of the team in 1990s, he went back and scored 9 conscutive first class centuries. He was immediately brought back. Recently when Dravid was thrown out of the team, he scored a double century and a century in 2 matches. How can anyone keep these players out of a team after such performances?

When Ganguly was brought into the team in 1996, it was due to regional politics. Again when he was brought back in 2006 South Africa tour, it was because of his experience and not because of his performance (much like the way sehwag has been selected for the current Australian tour). When did his performance pave the way for his entry into the team? So to say that he is motivated to do well, because he was not treated well, is all rubbish.

Again his achievement in the Pakistan series has been great, but in the context of the series, it has not been significant. His performance in the test which India won in Delhi was nothing great. Scoring 2 centuries when the pitch least suits the bowlers and when the opponent team has actually just 2 good bowlers, can’t be taken as a sign of greatness. So I shall wait for his performance in Australia. I pray to god that he plays well. If he does, then it will be great for the team and for the cricket loving public. But more than anything else, if he succeeds in getting the man of the series in Australia (by helping India win the series there), he will become the true come back champion of all time. Till then let’s just wait and watch.

Manjilen aur bhi hain

2007-12-02T17:11:00.000+05:30

Ruke hue har saans ko chalna sikhaya tha is dil ne
Har ek saans mein tera naam firoya tha is dil ne
Apni ummedon ko thokar maratha maine tere pyar mein
Kyun ke mujh pagle ko deewana banaya tha is dil ne!!!

Bheegi hui raat mein, halki si barsaat mein
Haathon mein tere tha haath mera
Chal rahe the hum sapnon ke sehar mein
Maan ki umango ka na tha koi thikana mera!!!

Woh bhi ek raat thi, yeh bhi ek raat hai
Tab zindagi mehki hui thi, aaj tanhayi ka hi saath hai
Khule darichon se sard hawa ake ruh ko pighla rahi hain
Beimaan mausam mein tumhari bewafayi hi to bas mere paas hai!!!

Par jeene ki kashish aaj bhi jinda hai mere maan mein
Aasmaan chune ke khwab aaj bhi buland hai
Is safar mein tera saath na raha to kya
Manjilen tay karne ko mere pair aaj bhi taiyar hain!!!

Woh Dagar

2007-11-27T19:26:00.000+05:30

My first poem (don't know if it is good enough to be called a poem :))

Jindagi ke har mod pe ruk ke kahin
Jab aankhen meri dhundti hain teri halki si parchayi,
To uzli si ek raah nazar aati hai
Kahin woh mere jahan mein basa tere khayalon ka khali dagar to nahin!!!

Woh dagar jisse hum kabhi chod aaye the
Is jamane mein apni pehchan dhundna tha maqsad apna,
Us dagar ki gilli ret pe padchinhh aaj bhi hain
Par zindagi ki qitab ke panno pe humari saqsiyat ka ek akhar bhi nahin!!!

Kabhi ruswa hoke tum se kaha tha humnein
Ki tere choukhat pe fir naa rakhenge qadam,
Par Aj zamane se hare hue ek musafir ka
Us choukhat ke siwa koi sahara, koi kinara, koi aur manzil bhi nahin !!!

One more milestone

2007-11-26T05:33:00.000+05:30

The greatest batsman of our time crossed another milestone today. He became the all time second highest run getter in test cricket. He now has 11,183 runs and is only 770 runs behind another great Lara. Add to that his 37 test centuries, 45 half centuries and you are looking at one of best players of all time. Every match he plays now-a-days, he creates at least 1 new record. Who is he??? if you don't know, then chullu bhar paani mein dub maro.

To me Sachin is much more than just a great cricket player. My first memory of a cricket match is that of a 16 year old Sachin scoring 4 sixes in a well known but overconfident Abdul Qadir's over. Then and there, I fell in love with the game called cricket. My friends will testify that the Love is not only still there, but it is also stronger than ever. He has completed 18 years in Cricket, but still has the enthusiasm of a youngster. Even though the body does not have the same reflexes, but the face has the same innocence of a 16 year old.

I hope he plays for many more years for India and retires on his own term, rather than allowing any joker (read selector) to drop him from the team.

CHAK DE SACHIN:)

Mahabharata or just a katha of a great manipulator

2007-11-25T12:22:00.000+05:30

I was watching a movie on the epic 'Mahabharata' a few minutes back. Watching the movie being centrally based on the character of Krishna, my atheist mind started running. I loved the serial on the epic (B R Chopra wala) a lot during my childhood days, but since then many questions have raised in my mind regarding the happenings in the story.

Being an epic, the writer Vedvyas has given equal footage and screen space to both Gods and Men, even to such an extent that the main character is an incarnation of Vishnu and some others are son of Gods (much like the epic Iliad). Many people claim that Mahabharata is not a story after all and happened actually during some 5K BC or something. Then how come the people in Mahabharata were so advanced during that time. The kind of material used in Mahabharata suggests that the people were way ahead of their time and that does not seem to be correct, considering the time period. If the setup was say 1K BC, then why is it considered an epic and why no concrete historical evidence exists. Also if this would have been the case, then we could have seen the God angle in other stories of the same time like that of Asoka.

This makes me question the authenticity of the epic. What if Krishna was actually not some incarnation and was actually a ruthless king and a great manipulator. Its a known fact that history has been manipulated a lot by powerful kings, so that it suits them. What if Krishna was such a character, who hired a guy named Vedvyas to write a grand story about him being some incarnation of God. What if the kurukhestra battle was much lesser in proportion and was actually fought between 2 brother clans over a piece of land, without the Dharm and Satya angle in it. What if Duryondhan was actually a nice guy and Pandavs turned him into a monster after they won the Kurukhestra war.

These are just questions, which no one can answer in this world for sure.

Jab I met the Cadburys bytes

2007-11-25T05:41:00.000+05:30

Kareena missed her train twice in 'Jab we met'. I almost missed my train twice on 22nd Nov. kareena missed her train for Shahid. I almost missed my train for Cadburys Bytes.

The idea to restart my blog was suggested by PPP, when this incident happened. So here is the story from the horse's mouth and believe me, it’s a very long story. So bring out the popcorn and Pepsi and enjoy the tale of crazy train journey.

As Mickey says, ' Shuru se Shuru karte hain', so lets begin from the beginning. It all started when I could not have a proper lunch on 21st Nov. Then I missed the dinner too, as I was getting late for the train to Vizag. I was traveling with PPP and by the time we boarded the train, I found that we had forgotten to get the water bottles too. Hence stuck in the train without any food or water, the only option was to wait for the next station. Meanwhile we chatted about each other's crazy train journey experiences and little did I know that I was going to prove my tryst of bad luck with Indian Railways again that night.

So at last when the train stopped at the next station (Katapeddi, if I am not mistaken and I have no idea where it is on the world map) at around 1.30 AM on 22nd Nov, I got down from the train. Our compartment was on one end of the platform and the food stall was on the other end. I am fond of morning walk, but taking a walk at 2 AM with empty stomach is not the right fitness regime. Anyways after buying water, I found that the only food available was 2 packets of Cadburys bytes. I bought them, but lost quite a bit of time, which turned out to be critical in the end. In the mean time, the train had started moving and I had to make a dash.

I had to cover a distance of some 10 compartments (no idea in terms of meters), before I could reach mine. Running in the opposite direction of the train, the laws of physics were coming into my mind. By the time I reached the 6th compartment, it seemed the train had picked up a lot of speed due to the concept of relative velocity. So I decided I had to jump at that time. With 2 bottles & 2 packets in hand, it was impossible to jump. So I threw the bottles into the compartment and jumped. I went till the last sleeper compartment to find that there is a shutter between the AC coach and sleeper coach. I called up PPP and got to know that the next station will come in 10 mins. But it never came. After 15 mins of darkness in S8, a TT came and told me that next station will come in another 2 hrs. Just at that the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and I thought of trying my luck right then.

But still there were 2 obstructions. One was the unevenness of the track which was 5 feet below the train level and full of big stones. & the other was the door on B1. I had kept that open when I came out of the compartment, but some great man had closed it again. So after a torturous walk of 15 meters, finding the door closed was the last thing I wanted to see. At the same time the train again started moving. I again had to run and board it. This time it was even more difficult, as running on a floor full of stones the size of a cricket ball is difficult. Also the stakes were high, as if I had missed the train there, there was no way I could have got any help. Somehow I was successful in covering the distance and getting on the train again.

The TT said that the shutter was closed from the B1 side and it can be opened from that side. I called up PPP and asked her to open it up. The door was some 200 pounds and PPP barely reaching 100. So again we had to wait for some time before she could find someone. Neither the TT on B1 nor the attendant was ready to help and a good fellow came to our help. That guy was holding a pack of Chips and a bottle of water. He handed it over to PPP and opened the shutter. So when I entered into the compartment, I first saw PPP standing there with a water bottle and a pack of chips. Looking at that, my face must have resembled the look Dhoni had, when Sarat Pawar took all the credit for the 20-20 WC win. I mean this is the stuff for which I almost missed the train and here she was enjoying all that. But later it dawned on me that may be it was not hers. PPP had a looked at my face and understood what I was thinking and laughed. We then had a good laugh about the whole incident.

Like most stories this had a happy ending and I thank god for that. It all happened because of the Cadburys bytes packets and we had a great time eating them. I think I shall write about a similar story, which happened during my college days, in future if I find time.

Public apology

2007-11-25T04:51:00.000+05:30

As per instruction received from my inspiration (and also under the spoiler threat), this public apology is being given precedence over my next post .

I wholeheartedly regret describing the brief interesting chat I had with her on train regarding her blogging experience as 'dragged on'. From now onwards, this mistake will never be repeated.

Aye Hi Maam.

Comeback Part III !!!

2007-11-25T04:19:00.000+05:30

Making a comeback is never easy. Except if it is smoking :-) Ask Uday Chopra, who has been shamelessly launched 6 times by his father in Bollywood, each time unsuccessfully. Poor lad never got the hang of it. I hope my blogging career fares better than that. After all, its my 3rd comeback.

But as a great man once said, to make a comeback, you need a lot of inspiration and determination (i vaguely remember saying this once). Well in my case, the inspiration came from a dear friend, who started narrating her recent blogging experience to me on a recent journey a few days ago. She also picked up blogging few days back after an year of lull, but is now enjoying it so much that she cant not stop talking about it. Since it was along journey, the narration literally dragged on, but kind of awakened a sleeping giant inside me. With so many things happening around me now-a-days, i felt the urge to pick up the writing pad again.

Since the last few months, I have been wasting my time on the Internet (said in the right spirit). Except downloading some of my most favourite and recent movies, the 256 KBPS unlimited download Internet has not been put to good use. Now i feel the time ripe to do that. And BAAM, there i have the determination.

So all set and ready to start with a true story of 'Jab i met Cadburys Bytes' in a few hours. May God bless this venture. AMEN

VIVAH(the journey from torture to entertainment)

2006-11-19T05:54:00.000+05:30

VIVAH, the journey from engagement to marriage. At first anyone would think that this movie like all before it, is a typical Suraj Barjatya movie with unlimited song & dance sequences and melo-drama. Well they are not wrong. Before I went to see the movie, one of my colleagues told me that the first half is good, but the 2nd half is too slow with too many emotional scenes. I believed her then. But after the first 30 minutes of the movie, I was fed up with the overflowing emotional scenes. I asked her, if this is good, then what can be more boring. I was contemplating with the idea of leaving the theater after the first half, so as not to subject myself to any more torture.

I would have done that only. But then I wouldn't have been sitting here writing about the movie. After the first 30 minutes I found some interesting sequences in the movie that kept me glued to my seat. The first 30 minutes of the movie is a combination of situation from Maine pyar kiya, Hum aapke hain kaun & Hum saath saath hain. It looked like a bad remake of those movies. But later on as the movie progresses, you will find some situations in the movie, which will touch your heart somewhere & make you, laugh too. Like - when they are playing tug-of-war, where amrita tries to hold saheed. Saheed in turn lets go the rope due to this shock and all the others fall down. That was hilarious & the favorite scenes of the movie according to me.

I agree that this movie belongs to the bygone era. I think if this movie had been released in 1990, it would have been a super duper hit movie, may be even bigger than HAHK. Definitely Suraj Barjatya has not changed with time & still believes that movies which portray family values & tradition will still click on the box office. But he will have to realize that since 2000, when the maa of all daily soaps (Kyun ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi) got started, people are no longer interested in these sorts of movies. In this context, one name which should be mentioned is that of Yash Chopra. He has changed with time & has always tried to make great money-earners.

There are flaws in direction & art direction too. I think a canvas was used as a background (like a flowing river & mountain as a view from the balcony) in Hum Saath saath hain last. The same has been used in VIVAH & they look outdated. Those days are gone. Suraj should learn to live in the present era.

Still with all these flaws, there is something in the Barjatya movie making style, which I find in no other director. His attention to details of the script & special way of showing love blossoming between two young hearts on screen is amazing. I can’t say that I liked every scene of the movie (like that of a DDLJ or HAHK), but still the movie had enough treasure in itself to satisfy me. Overall I can say that I liked the movie.

The southern H assault

2006-11-07T20:06:00.001+05:30

Got it as a forward n liked it....Please take it on a lighter note:)

This article is not written to offend anyone. It’s just what I have as my personal view about how things work differently in different regions. Hope everyone takes this article on a lighter note.

The southern H assault

Disclaimer: All characters in this article are fictitious. Please do not try to identify yourself with any of them. By no means they’re you.

H. Don't you think H looks like PETRONAS....the two towers separated by a bridge. PETRONAS has a huge reputation, and it symbolizes the era it exits in. So has H. After all there would be no eart-H and H-umanity without H. But since last few years, I've had a huge sympathy for H. Since joining this co., I had been in south for all the time. It’s been 16 months of south flavor in my life. Mysore, then Bangalore and now in Hyderabad. Regions changed, so did the dialects. But one thing did not change. Slaughtering 'H'.

You loose your identity if you are dependant on other. Also, you loose your dignity if people call you with different names...or say they don't know your name at all. Feels worst, I know . Even if you remind them like thousand times, they're gonna call you what they have named you. In such a situation, I'd rather kill that guy or frustrated, will change my name. But poor H can't do so either.

Do you read boards, name-plates and billboards in soutH? I guess everyone does that. Now either painters painting them are too careless or it’s the ad designers who take things for granted. But it's H who has to suffer every time. I'll tell you how.

1. FirstH and tHe foremostH tHing (I guess, itHs already stHartHed), H has been made T's slave. Everywhere, H has comes free along with T. Don’t believe me? Ask all the SatHis, AmitHs and SwatHis. I see it as H sitting on floor next to T’s throne. I don’t understand what sense does it make to make an alphabet, follow the other every time. A big solution to this would be to combine T n’ H and derive a new alphabet that will by default serve the purpose of TH. But that will screw up the general English as it would be really difficult for others to understand this alien language.

Once $ere was $is $ug in $ailand who could $ug you and rob you of ever$ing you had in no time.

[Ok...was just testing you. My bad, won’t do it again.]

2. This is not all. Then comes the next insult to H. This time...they rob H of its dignity, as if H has no identity of its own.

SatHis (on a call): Take down my name. Its “Es-Ay-Ti”.
AmritHa: Ok, “Es-Ay-Ti”.
SatHis: “Hetch[]-Ayi-Es”
AmritHa: “Hutch[couldn’t find reaction]-Ayi-Yes”.

H, buddy, sympathy for you is ever growing.

(wait....I guess I just decoded the encrypted message in HUTCH add of dog following the boy...Still was wondering why they named their co. HUTCH)

3. And then comes in the biggest of ‘em all. We all know its worst to be asked to relocate anytime and every time you try to settle somewhere. But humans still can complain. H seems to be the worst affected of this syndrome. Again don’t believe me? I had a bunch of friends in college who joined different co.s in south (different cities off course). They were Swetha (formerly Shweta), Sathis (formerly Satish) and Santhi (formerly Shanti) [No, you don’t know any of them for sure]. I am damn sure there is some kind of magnetism here that makes H jump from its place and relocate.

But after all, this is what we call life. Strange things do happen to people at strange times and places and now even alphabets are no exceptions. H is getting it’s share of bitter taste of life. But hope it will soon see its sweet days when H will be everywhere. [Thish whill haphphen...jusht whait n’ whathch].

Apna Sapna Money Money

2006-10-28T14:38:00.000+05:30

‘SriGanesh’ or ‘Bismillah’, whichever is the medium, the function of these words remains the same & i.e. to start any work by taking lord’s name. In India, Cricket is a religion & Cricketers are the gods. So what better way to start the blog than to discuss about cricket?

Tomorrow these so called gods have a do or die match & that too against Australia. But does it really matter to them? Last month in a similar do or die situation, they lost to Australia & I don’t think they are going to fair any better this time. Indian cricket board has hired a psychologist from time to time for the team. The psychologist worked wonders in the 2003 world cup & came up with the famous ‘huddle’ concept. It helped the team a lot then. They have another psychologist now with the team. But can he really help? I don’t think so.

The difference between 2003 & now in my view is that the then promising youngsters have matured in a negative way. The transformation is like that of a normal police officer (not the filmy heroes, they do not exist). When a guy joins the police force, he is apprehensive of what he is doing & eager to show others that he is capable enough. But as time passes by, he learns the tricks of the trade, forgets everything about the ethics he had vowed to follow & learn how he can bend the rules. Similarly the youngsters in the team seem to have forgotten everything about the fighting spirit they used to show previously. While practicing they resemble a bunch of kids who are playing gully cricket. They still enjoy the game as they used to do previously (because it has given them money, position, everything), but the dedication seems to be missing. The sight of Greg Chappell giving a piece of his mind to the cricketers few days back(talking about their level of dedication) clearly shows that the team is not in a right mood to play.

I hope that they lose tomorrow’s match, so that it might work as a wake up call & the teams prepares itself to battle it out in the world cup in a manner it did last time.

3rd Time Lucky...

2006-10-28T10:18:00.000+05:30

3^rd time lucky, may be or may not be? This has been the question that I have been asking myself since the last few months. I have attempted this twice before. The results have been so dismal that except me the whole world is oblivious to the fact that I have tried my hands at blogging before. I used to think ‘should I give this a try just once more or should I accept the fact that I am no good at this’.

But that was until today morning, when I was going through a friend’s blog & it was so fabulous that I thought lets try this once more. I can do this. All I need is loads of patience& I always had that.

So here it starts. I think before I start, I should mention something about me first. I don’t know about others, but for me the life has always been a roller-coaster ride. At some phases in my life, I used to think why the hell I am alive & the next moment life has given me reasons that I had never thought of. Those reasons give me the strengths to believe that everything will be alright in the end like it happens in traditional Hindi movies (unlike new DON).

One more facet of my character is that when I start something, I am always in doubt. The doubts are about whether I can continue that thing on a long term basis or not. But if I like something(u can read someone), then I end up doing so. I just hope that this time, that thing will be ‘blogging’.