my Saga

My Ice skating experience

2012-02-01T01:04:00.002+05:30

“How is it?” asked SS as I halted next to her holding the fence of the ice skating rink. “Can’t explain, you should try this...” I replied and continued skating. One down my bucket list, I whispered to myself.
It was the 30th of Jan. It was a pretty warm day for the New Yorkers. 31⁰ F was warm for this time of Jan. But to me, it was definitely not. I dreaded walking in the street even in broad day light. So -1⁰C was not a suitable temperature for any outdoor activities.
Earlier that day, Mike, my peer advisor, had told me about an ice skating rink that was located 200mts east from my office. The excitement of even the thought of fulfilling one of my long term dreams helped me making up my mind.
I was all set to leave office at 5.30. But as PK had a little work to attend to, we got held up. The ice skating rink was located 200 mts away from my office. I know!!! Even I was equally shocked to learn that there was an ice skating rink in the heart of Manhattan, that too at Times square. Well, to continue with my story, I reached the rink at around 7.30 P.M, took a size 8 skates and got on the rink.
Right when I placed my first foot on the rink, I realized that it is nothing like ground skating which I was used to back in India. But it took me less than few minutes to figure out how to skate with the blades on.
It took me 4 falls and 3 save to get comfortable with those skates. Once I did, it didn’t feel much different than my regular skates. There were Skate guards skating on the rink who helped me couple of times. Well those were few pretty good saves, I must admit. One of the Skate guards held me when I was inches away from the ground, turned me in a jiff and got me back on my feet. “Wow!! Thanks” I replied as he looked at me with the ‘are u alright’ look. “Don’t worry, it happens all the time” he murmured with a smile on his face. “I’m skating for the first time” I chattered. He smiled and replied, “You ‘r pretty good for a first timer. You should do this often”. “Guess I will” I replied as I skated away.
The guys who had accompanied me had to use the fencing of the skating ring. However, I could freely do it, guess my past skating experience helped me. Once I was done skating more than 20 rounds, I walked out of the arena realizing that I had successfully managed to get one more down my bucket list.

The Beginning ??

2012-01-28T03:04:00.000+05:30

“I am gonna update my FB status as ‘Longest day of my life Jan 23rd 2012= 34.5 hrs”!!! These words stormed out of my mouth as I was travelling to my destination NJ after a long and tiring journey from my home country. The travelling part felt like a never ending movie that I was unwillingly subjected to watch. I was well prepared to face the cold weather; feeling all cozy in my Jacket. However, the sheering pain in my nose definitely felt like I was gonna get a nose bleed.
I was rating NJ on a comparative scale with the B city. Things seemed a lot different, but nothing different than what I had already seen on the television before. The warm water in the tub helped me relieve all my stress. After a chaotic day, with all the tension of food, calling cards, room allocation and the core chilling cold, the bath tub felt like home.
Shopping cheered me and my friends PK, SS and Naf the next day. We took a bus to Jersey Garden, a mall in the nearby county. We had decided not to convert the $ amounts in INR, and guess that helped us enjoy every single minute of the shopping. By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but still smiling. My friend SS had a small encounter with a cop, who just wanted to have “a small talk” with her. Once he had her documents verified, we got on to the bus back to the hotel.
The next 2 days was not really eventful, we spent the entire day at the office. We were subjected to rigorous training which drained the left over energy out of us. Lack of proper food and sleep added to the misery. The first eve, we visited Walmart to check if the rumours about Walmart being the biggest retail outlet held true. The answer was, ‘it definitely did!!!!’ There was a time when I even got lost and then ended up looking around to find my friends.
It felt relieving to get out of NJ the next day and step into out apartments in NY. Phew!!! Guess this is just the beginning.

Sun Charts

2011-06-14T15:22:00.000+05:30

All my life I have seen my friends talking about compatibility and characters based upon their sun signs. However, I always found a loophole in the theory of Sun charts. I am not going to describe about every single sun sign. However, I would surely like to pour some light on the few people that I know who share the same sun sign but have different characters.

Taurus - April 21 - May 21

Person 1: A helpful friend, a person who could also be referred to as ‘pool of knowledge’. This person has immense knowledge on various subjects and can never ‘not be able to give an opinion on something’. This person is good at making tales and can sell anything to anyone. He loses his calm quite often, which makes him unpredictable.

Person 2: This friend of mine comes up as a really strong personality. He is extremely focused when it comes to things that really matters. Though he is more of a career oriented person, he would choose his family and friends over anything else. He talks only when required. Sometimes I feel he loses out on being a great team player only because he relies more on ‘I’ than ‘We’. But again, his sweetness and generosity overshadows that flaw.

Person 3: Unlike the other 2, this friend is a very mild and humble person. She is one of the most trustworthy friends I have ever had. She is highly family oriented and places her family over any thing else. I would be unable to find flaws in her even if I would follow her with a magnifying glass. However, her nature itself could be termed as a flaw as it makes her blind when it comes to trusting others. She easily buys tales and that I guess is her only flaw.

Gemini - May 22 - June 21

Person 1-I, myself am a Gemini, and as a Gemini, I think every word any book would describe would hold well on me. I am a two faced person; two faced because I end up coming up with a thought and contradicting it at the same time. Today, I might love classical music, but that doesn’t mean I would feel the same about it tomorrow. As I am a highly fickle minded person, my decisions never hold good. My indecisive nature surely makes me moody, but it also lights a spark of adventure in my life. Apart from that, I am also a bad listener; guess that’s something I need to work on.

Person 2- This person is a strong willed gentleman. Unlike me, this person takes his own decisions and never lets anyone find his weakness. He is extremely good with words and every word that comes out of his mouth reflects his diplomacy. He is a good judge of character and chooses his friends wisely. He is very understanding and loves the peaceful side the nature.

Leo - July 23 -August 22

Person 1: She is a lioness!!! Surely a leo, undoubtedly. She is assertive and loud mouthed. She can charm people off their feet with her grace. Guess that’s a part of ‘the Leo package’. She is helpful when she is asked for help. Though she is well known for her smartness, sometimes she makes you feel like her brain lies in her stomach. She might amaze you with her charismatic side and also alarm you with her dumb side at the same time. This person is quite manipulative with others, but when it comes to her friends, she is the most generous friend.

Person 2:
This person is listed as the most generous (dayalu and daan veer) not only in my list but surely on lot of people’s lists. She is a poise person. She blends perfectly with anyone; she plays a role of a sister, friend, role model, psychiatrist etc…. However, instead of presenting herself to everyone, she chooses to remain backstage. So when it comes down to the Leo Character, she surely has some, but since it lacks the visibility part, she still does not qualify to be a Leo. She’s better off just the way she is.

These are the very few discrepancies that I have noticed on the Sun chart system. If we look closely, no one shares the same character with another person. It would be just wrong to classify people with signs that would stamp them with a descriptive nature. I would still call myself a Confused Gemini, not because that’s my “sun sign” but because I find the name quite fancy.

Friday blues

2011-06-11T23:20:00.002+05:30

“Oh no!!! I just realized… its Friday!!! I cried out when I saw the time turning to 16.30 on my desktop. Knowing for a fact that we have the weekend off, the exclamation in my tone should have sounded strange; however I heard a sympathetic reply to that from BLN (I better not type in the never ending name) my colleague from our counter team. “I know!! I am yet to start for the week”.

Poo, who was listening to this conversation just smiled. Well, it shouldn’t matter much to her, after all that workaholic gal would be at work till 10 irrespective of whether it’s Friday!

“A-deity!! I didn’t start with my **&E!!! I hate Fridays!!!”. A-deity murmured something, which I couldn’t hear. However BLN replied to her with a usual ýa da!!’ Man!! Do these girls have some kind of code language or is it just my poor listening skills…. I said to myself.

Anyway, my dismay in the above context is because of a process that we “follow” at work. We are compliant to charge our work time to the clients that we work on. In other words, we need to give an account of every single minute that we spend at work. The process is supposedly helpful. And it would have been easy, if I would just do it on a regular basis. But as lazy as I have always been, I keep this pending till the last minute, which is by EOD Friday. So I end up spending more time accounting for my work than it takes.
As Fridays has always been the busiest day of the week, I seldom get time to do the **&E. There has been times when I hit the submit button at sharp 12A.M to avoid any non compliance, just to realize that I had 2 more hrs before the deadline.

Every time I hit the submit button, a rush of relief flushes through my body. After being in the firm for almost 2 years, I now realize that **&E contributes a lot to our stress rather than the work itself. Wish there was an alternative.

Note: the purpose of this blog is just to let my frustration out of **&E.

Story behind the Haze...

2010-12-21T11:49:00.002+05:30

Curiosity pumped into my veins when I saw that place for the first time. A pub named after Jimi Hendrix. Well the place surely looked inviting. However when we reached there, baggy dragged me to another pub right on top of JH. This other place was named after one of Jimi's favorite song, Purple Haze.
"Its upto you, which amongst these places do you, wanna check out? The one below plays only JH's songs where as the one I am taking you to, plays awesome rock songs" Screamed Baggy at the top of her voice. The music that was being played at Purple Haze was loud and I missed the rest of her words when the music drowned it. Knowing Baggy's taste in music, I didn't believe what she said, but the others around supported her and also the song Dream on that was being played on top contradicted my conviction.
PH would have looked dull and dim if it weren't for the the bright light from the flat screen. The place was well ignited for people who were looking forward to have a not-so-peaceful night. The music & the nectar acted like a transporter and took us to a different era. I swayed with the crowd as they played my favorite numbers. Survivor, PF, Scorpion, Aerosmith, G & R, Dream Theatre, Led Zep, The Eagles, Metallica etc., were few of the redundant bands whose songs were being played. I was lip syncing most of the songs. The staff provided us excellent service, something I would rate "exceeded- expectation" rating.
Soon the night came to an end and we continued our night driving around Bcity.
Purple haze, surely plays monotonous numbers, but one can never get bored of it. It reignited my passion for music. I would choose it over any other pub in the Bcity.

Life in a Metro

2010-12-21T11:48:00.000+05:30

My craving for a fast moving life brought me to this city, the Bcity. By the time I comprehended the impact of my culture shock, I had become â€˜one amongst themâ€™. I enjoyed partying every alternate night. Meeting new people turned out to be a daily affair. The city life looked glamourous through my tinted glasses. It was a common thing come across weird stuff, which I had only read about or watched on TV.
Stuff like,
one of my acquainted friends who was pregnant with her BFâ€™s child was not quite sure if her BF was the right choice for her
the girl next door was dating a guy who was 9 yrs older than her and was engaged
my friendâ€™s best friend was dating a girl who spent most of her time hugging and kissing another guy who happened to be a good friend of that guy
coming across a guy who would do anything to sleep with any female that he meets
making friends with dopers and smokers
These were some common things. The worst part was to witness my friend trying her best to live up to the Bcity expectation. To me, most of these things seemed stupid. Though I enjoyed hanging out with my so called new friends, I still missed the peaceful outing that I used to have with my usual gang. Soon I had to relocate to the other part of the city for some work related training.
I still thank my stars for blessing me with that prolonged period, as that was when I realized the extent to which the new lifestyle had transformed me. I got enough time to consider what my friend Phoenix had been trying to explain to me.
Once the training period was done, I moved back to my former location. But I was a different person. Though I continued to enjoy the usual parties, I knew when to stop. I joined salsa & jive classes to keep myself occupied. But I quit it soon when I saw complication down the way.
This brings me back to my current life style. I recently moved to a peaceful place towards the outskirt of the Bcity which sort of cuts short my night life by 90%. The place is serene and peaceful. I surely miss my ex-fast moving life, but also am glad that I don't live it anymore.

Simba

2010-12-15T16:03:00.001+05:30

“..nu…, wake up!! The vet is here. Simba is not keeping well”
I sprang awake when I heard these words. As I rushed out of my room, vivid images flashed before my eyes, one where Simba lying on the ground with his mouth wide open and others were following the same pattern.
Over the years I have had many dogs for a pet. Most of them were short lived. But Simba was the one who has been around for a while. In other words he grew up with us.
I still remember the day when my bro brought him home. I had returned home for my study vacation from my hostel. My bro was standing in front of our house holding 2 puppies, one in each hand.
I rushed towards him and took the darker of the 2 pups. That was him, Simba.
Simba, the lion king, was the perfect name, as per by brother’s opinion. The other bitch was named Sherly. Well there they were, Simba and Sherly the 2 perfect pups.
Sherly, apparently, was given off to my brother’s friend as we found it unmanageable to train her. She lived up to her breed, a typical Doberman, Ferocious and unpredictable. But Simba won over everyone’s heart with his charming nature and great personality. It was my job to keep him clean, which I did.
Soon Simba became a part of the family. Everyone loved him irrevocably. He always poured extra affection towards me. His howls made a sounded different “….nu….. nu…..” whenever I was around. Ambu always believed that his howls sounded like he was calling me.
We kept him tied the entire day and used to let him lose during nights. But whenever I was at home, I used to play with him in the evening. Fetching the ball has always been his favourite game. He just used to modify the game by not getting the ball back to me when I threw it off, but instead run around indicating me to follow and catch him. When I used to give up, he slowly walked towards me tempting me to catch him and then used to run off.
Simba always acted like the smart dog. Even when we brought home other dogs, Rocky, chintamani, Benzie and Julie, he never attacked them. Rather, he behaved more matured and showed them that he was the boss.
As of today, we have only Simba and Julie as our pet. Fate took the other dogs away. For the past 9 years, Simba has been more than just a pet to me. That morning when I saw Simba feeble and weak, I realized how important he was to me. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to let go.
4 days back I wrote this blog, but due to circumstances I was unable to post it. Guess it needed a good bye note. I called home to hear the news. Simba is no more.
Bye bye Simbu …. You will stay in my heart for ever. You took away one of my reasons to be happy when you left, leaving a hollow space in my life. I ll miss you.

Bcity traffic

2010-11-26T13:18:00.001+05:30

“ … I like the way you walk, I like the way you talk… Oh Suzy Q” I sang as it played on the player. It was an old song by Creedance Clearwater. I was stuck up in the exit passage of the parking lot at my work place. The security guards were trying their best to manage the traffic. The man in the car next to my smiled at me and gave an expression which read ‘ I guess we are stuck here forever’. I was at the same spot for the past 15 mins. It was not the first time that I was stuck up in a maze of vehicles.
B city traffic has been this way for a while now. The upcoming Metro, which is supposed to make traffic management easy, has created a mess out of the Bangalore city. The construction is being done at a very slow pace. Roads are dug at various places which has lead to a blockage of the traffic flow. Apart from these, Flyover construction at certain other spots has created a hassled environment.
Three wheeler drivers drive on these roads as though they are driving on a free lane. Disregarding the presence of other fellow drivers, they squeeze in every opening and gaps that they can find in the traffic. Unavoidable deep water filled pits welcome us everywhere. Bikers add to the blockage by riding on the wrong lane.
Rain fall acts like sweet poison. While travelling in a car, if there is a rain fall, you can do nothing but drown along with the entire city. Where as a bike ride in these cases often lead to a fever or cold. It is impossible to stop somewhere once you get on to the main road. The only option you’ll be left with would be to get drenched for an hour or two.
There is no way to avoid this mess. If one travels during post-office hours, they are bound to get stuck in this traffic. I just hope Metro brings in joy and satisfaction to the vehicle users in the Bcity.

The October fest- Day 3

2010-10-26T10:52:00.002+05:30

That was not the first time I was carrying that look on my face. I felt lost even though I knew right where I was standing. People strolled past each other like the people before them were invisible. Loud music geared up the people who were in their early phase of intoxication.

I quickly checked my pocket to see a message from dip. She was supposed to meet me there. As I walked with family pack (my x colleague) piercing the crowd, I could see people wearing weird hats which read Had KF?. Now, who in their proper sense would wear something that unfashionable? Soon I could see the lot. 80% of the crowd were proudly presenting themselves with the KF hat. Some had devil horns and some angle ring.

Wow!! I exclaimed.
My face still reflected the same expression as it did earlier. But this time I was standing in the crowd near a counter, waiting for my long lost friend.

“…nu….” I heard someone say. Dips was walking swiftly towards me with her usual grace. As we hugged each other I realized how the distance, that we had all this while, never mattered. Meeting her after such a long time brought back old memories.
“I missed you” she said. Soon I could see guys behind her. She introduced me to those friends of her. I could not get their names, but it didn’t matter as I knew there wouldn’t be a need for the same. With a special request from dips, I had to make a guest appearance to the ‘Super Loo’ (this is not my idea of a name, the toilets was named so).

We started our usual drink, a can of milk. We never forget our values & where we come from. In our childhood, we were taught how milk is nutritious and keeps us healthy. To boost out morale we all got one can each.

Once we were done we walked around swaying like daffodils. William Wordswoth, in his poem Daffodils, describes the bliss of solitude he feels when he finds an array of Daffodils beside a lake. In this context, we felt like the daffodils, swaying around with stupid hats on our heads talking to strangers who greeted us like long lost friends.

I was still in pain because of my lower spine problem. But the can of milk provided me sufficient energy of overcome it. I managed to stay put on the mechanical bull for 45 secs, which was appreciable. Then I took my chance with the artificially set rock climbing task. It was a piece of cake. I was glad to see dips make it to the top. Guess the milk gave her strength to overcome her fear.

After enjoying the fire show and the violin performance, we decided to go to the main ground for the Lacuna coil live. I have been a Lacuna coil follower for a while now. Ever since my cousin Nit shared a video of the band, I’ve fascinated to be at their concert. So this was a dream come true.

We still had 15 mins left. We met a group of German guys. They told us about their experience in India, why they were here and how different the fest over here was. One guy put a rose on my hair. It was funny and weird. We finally said our goodbyes as Christina spoke.

There I was tearing my way through the crowd, desperately wanting to reach the first row. Once we were there, I got into the trance and started enjoying the music. She started with the song ‘down’. The entire crowd sang along when they performed ‘Heaven’s a lie’. It was beautiful.

I was offered a bite of burger. The people around me were enjoying their burger as they were listening to the music. I took a bite and realized that it was not a Mc D burger; it was some other brand, with extra cheese. Still I continued to enjoy the music, head banging for a while. My friend family pack stood there beside me throughout the band’s performance.

I went back and joined the rest of the group once the performance got over. We sat there and enjoyed our Flavoured Mega Burger, the one without cheese. As me and dips watched a group of guys dancing near a table, one of them actually on the table , we walked straight to them and acted like people who s throwing money at them. Then we got on the table and danced for a while.

It was stupid, but we still enjoyed it. We spent some time chatting and dancing. Once we struck the height of boredom, we decided to leave. We enjoyed a decent meal at Empire after which Family pack dropped me home.

As I went off to sleep that night, I realized how happy small arbit things make me. I enjoyed that night and will always cherish this memory.

The Team outing

2010-10-23T14:51:00.002+05:30

“Its past 4.30”, I heard Ms Mumbai say. “Why don’t you shut down your system, Ms Lotus is waiting for you”.
It was a Friday evening and my colleagues and I were all set for our team outing. I was not really enthusiastic about it as we were all set to go for a round of bowling and dinner.
‘What’s the point’ I thought, ‘I can’t play’. Not that I sucked at bowling, but due to my recent mishap I had a minor back injury which ceased me from lifting any heavy object or from bending. And to my luck Bowling constituted both these No’s.
I reached the venue with Ms Lotus, the friendly and sweet girl from our counterpart sub team. Apparently I had to travel in a mosquito, the 3 wheeler vehicle. Why do I call it mosquito? Well I’ll update that in my next post.
Anyway, the ride was bad. I had not taken my vehicle as I was scared of causing discomfort to my back. But the mosquito ride put my usual ride to shame. It was the heights of discomfort. The driver made it a point to drive on every pit on the road. I thanked my stars as we safely got out of it.

Tosh and his reviewer (veggie) were at the entrance of Amoeba. It felt really good to meet the guys from our other office. “Where are other” I asked Veggie. From nowhere someone tapped on my head. I turned to see Smokey and my reviewer (well now this is really hard; I can’t find a suitable name for my reviewer) walk away. Probably they were out for a sutta, I thought.
We went upstairs to find many familiar faces. It was quite formal for a while but the all wear pretty geared up for the game. I was playing the role of the boring person in the group who looks after all the ladies bags. That was strange, as I had never been in those shoes. I was always at the other end wondering why some people stood back and just watched others play.
I sat there, feeling like a loser till the DJ played my numbers. Well that surely made my day. I was sitting there tapping my foot lip-syncing every word that was being played. Not that I was sitting there alone, I had my buddy there, sitting next to me. We were watching the two teams play.
“Only if I could play, I would have surely added to the score,” I told buddy, “I would play in HK’s team, just like the last time”.
Buddy thought otherwise, he thought that it was better if I refrained from playing till I could get a proper diagnosis done.
We chatted for a while, till the game got over.

We then had a photo session. I didn’t know most of the people from the counter sub team. Our interaction was limited to just exchange of smiles.
For the first time I saw my reviewer in a new form. He was not the snub serious person whom I interacted with on a daily basis. He was different. That just reminded me of how I used to call him an un-cool person, and he used to tell me that he is not the same when he is at work and otherwise. He was not lying.
He was jumping around like a kid at the carnival, enjoying every single bit of it. So true, first impression is never the last impression.
Café Masala, the restaurant where we had our reservation, was on the 5th floor of Eva mall. I stalked around the mall with buddy. I could get a proper look at the camera I was intending to buy. We also checked out few keyboards (musical instrument) and apple laptop.

After a while it was time for dinner and we went upstairs. It was quite strange to enter Café Masala, with a different group of people. Normally I go there with my other friends after a visit to Vaayu, the next door hangout place.
But for a change, I actually got to see the interiors of Café Masala. It had a nice ambiance. The sight of UB city enhanced the beauty of the night. The table was set for 25 people. It reminded me of a train, though there are passengers at the other end going to the same destination, you never really know what might be going on at the other end of the train.
I sat adjacent to Ms Mumbai who kept telling me how hungry she was. She made me realize that there were mice playing football in my stomach. Buddy sat opposite to me and Smokey placed himself next to him. My senior sat next to me and Veggie on his other side. That was it. I was ready to attack the food. I did not know what was going on at the other end of the table. Colleagues from the other sub team were seated opposite to HK RJ and GH. PP sat diagonally opposite to Ms Mumbai at the farthest end of the table.
It was quite funny to watch Veggie eat. As she was a very careful about the food she had. We were engrossed in random conversations like, Veg food, Smokey not drinking as it was Friday, why Buddy was in formal attire, How Ms Mumbai would be going back home, Why Tosh was sad of late and the pure veg item- Green Chilly.
Buddy and Ms Mumbai left early and their seats were occupied by Tosh and Veggie.
I watched my reviewer eat the green chilly with ease. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. Realized how stupid it was of me to try it. It was strange, to be just a spectator for a change, watching Tosh behave like a (……… sorry I can’t describe it), my reviewer talking and acting like a kid and Smokey actively participating in all the conversations.
Amidst all this PP gave a small speech on public demand, which was barely audible at our end. Smokey was trying to capture it on Veggie’s cam. Was I deaf? I could not hear anything that was being spoken at the other end, how could the camera record it??
Anyway, we waited for Tosh to finish his last piece of Cake, which was offered by GH. Someone around thought that GH was upset only because he was not allowed to drink. Lolz

We walked out realizing that Café Masala, would never make any booking on my reviewer’s name, after what they witnessed that night. The booking was for 25 people, but I am sure that the food consumed was for more than 50.
Outside the restaurant, there was another photo session, after which we parted our separate ways. Thanks to my reviewer, I reached home safe and sound. We had to travel with the car windows down lest we die of lethal gas. The way RT and my reviewer were commenting on every one on the road was damn funny.

That night I realized lot of things:
- being a spectator is not always bad
- First impression can be wrong
- Tosh can eat a lot.

The Journey - Part 2

2010-10-21T11:54:00.001+05:30

Its amazing how small things in our daily lives bring back childhood memories, the tingling sensation of fresh grass at the feet, the adrenalin rush caused while chasing your kid brother in the backyard or the sand gust at the beach. What was it about that place that made me fall in love with everything around, the wind, the lights and also the people?
I was on the roof of the Chabi. How did I end up there? Well that is where it all begins.
A smile stretched on my face as I stepped out of the Motel. We were heading back to B-city. I walked with heavy steps towards the vehicle. Of course I was glad that I was going back. But just the idea of leaving Hassan terrified me. I wanted a vacation, away from pollution, away from the constant bickering of people around me, away from work and mainly away from dreadful thoughts. The time off at smiley’s wedding was coming to an end; and that was breaking my heart.
The drive back was like having an ice-cream; smooth and relaxing. I feel bad when the ice-cream in the cup reduces after few scoops. The trip was just like the cup of ice-cream, it was coming to an end.
Lot of things happen during the return trip; we touched out previous record and raised it to 165kmph, Well Garu tried to capture the moment, but was unable to do so cause of the speed, I learnt to identify a White-Browed Wagtail, had an annoying time trying to avoid the baldy in Alto, took the wrong route twice and also had a pit stop at the CCD.
The return trip was like a Hollywood movie, there was no dragging of time and it provided us an instant gratification. Time flew by faster than our speed.
Soon we reached the station, where Garu was supposed to board the train to H-city. After 2 long and beautiful days, I did not have the heart to leave Garu at the station. It was an emotional departure. But sadly, destiny called.
As we reached the city, Birdy checked with one of his friends if we could drop by at his workplace to drop off the vehicle. The vehicle was a rented one. Birdy’s friend Jerry helped us get it using his influence. Once Jerry gave us thumbs up, we headed towards the hotel Chabi, the place where he worked as MOD.
I was visiting the place for the first time. The hotel was beautifully designed, mainly for the business class. Jerry took us around the place acquainting us with the configuration of that place. He also offered us scrumptious dinner. The best of all was the roof. Bcity was at its best. Displaying the night lit beauty of the deserted, but otherwise crowded street and the wind adding to the pleasure.And finally I was there, at the top of the world enjoying every bit of it. The last bit made my day and also the trip. As I left the place I had the same smile stretched on my face, which I had earlier in the morning that day. :)

The Journey- Part 1

2010-10-06T18:18:00.001+05:30

As I was rummaging through my bag for my wallet, I heard Birdy say, “let’s go!”. It was weird how things were changing so hastily around. The number of people who were to make through the trip had fallen from 9 to 3. But somehow it did not make much of a difference to me. All I knew was that, I wanted to reach Hassan on time.
Little did I know back then that this would be more than just a travel from Bangalore to Hassan; it would be a journey.

I often find it hard to frame my thought. But Birdy did that for me by describing what made a trip, a journey. “Travelling”, he said, “is when the destination is more important. A trip is when the journey and not the destination, is important”. Well, those words said it all.

I sat there in the front seat like a dreamy li’l kid watching Birdy and Garu talk about lenses, apertures and focal lengths, which actually took me back to my College days where I had to study the types of microscopic lenses. I shook my head and thought that Greek or Latin would be easier to understand.

But then the topic changed. It was more about roads and mile stones.

Two and a half out of the three of us were starving. Well, I count my appetite as half as its well known that I cannot compare with other’s. The growling noise that our stomachs made would have put Lions to shame. All we had with us was 450 bucks. Unable to find any ATM at a stretch of few miles, we decided to suffice our craving for food with the little food that we could afford. That is when we found heaven on earth - Manoj Dhaba!!!!!

The best dhaba I have ever been to. We did not eat a great variety. All we had was dal and roti. And believe me when I say this, the food was scrumptious. I had 4 roties in a row, which has never happen before, ever. Altogether we had 16 roties and 3 dal curries.And the whole lot fit well in our budget.

And, the journey continued…..

It’s strange how something’s in life just falls into its place. This trip described that phrase well. It was so easy going. No one offered us any unsolicited advice, no differences of ideas, no one snagging or cribbing about anything totally irrelevant and also no bee stung faces.

It was peaceful just like it was supposed to be. The roads were good. Though it has an “Indian” aspect, displaying lot of ‘Take a diversion’, ‘road under construction’, and also vehicles following a US lane drive pattern, we could effortlessly touch 150kmph.

We talked about random things, Garu’s discovery a-Deiti , Indian roads, cars; and also about how strange it was to see 2 of our friends getting married. Birdy tried his best to teach me to identify cars by the way they look. Well I did learn a little. Throughout the trip I kept trying to name the cars that crossed us. In fact I guess I learnt a lot …

We had a pit stop at some place an hour away from our destination for a cup of tea and another one to watch the sunset. It was a serene scene. The sky portrayed a painter’s imagination beautifully displaying a field behind a huge tree and few distant tiny windmills at the far hill under the multicoloured sky, which reflected the colour of fresh grapes and oranges. The beauty described itself.

The last hour of the drive was not as eventful as the rest of it as we knew that the drive would end soon. Also the city roads which were best suited for bullock carts gave us a tough time.

But finally we were there… destination Hassan.

where there is a will, there is a way

2010-02-09T15:53:00.003+05:30

As I was scrolling down, reading the highlighted terms on the PDF file, I pondered over a term that my eyes sited, 'psychopharmacological society’. Nicolas Rose beautifully encapsulated his ideas about the society where people modified their thoughts, mood and conduct by pharmacological means.

‘Human subjective capacities have come to be routinely reshaped by psychiatric drugs’, read the next line. The paper mainly described about the impact of the psychiatric drugs on the society. How people tend to depend on drugs for every minute psychological predicament of theirs and how psychological issues are treated as an ailment. Drugs are taken as the only solution for every phase of the mood cycle, which is pre-analyzed by the psychiatrist.

It was very thoughtful of my friend to send me the article. Considering my past encounters with psychiatric drugs, she knew that this article would be of my interest. And it surely was. The article not just helped me understand where I stand, but also encouraged me on relying on an alternate solution for any psychological fix.

I am never particular about ‘wrong usage of words’ in casual discussion. But there is this one term, which I am very particular about, ‘Depression’. I’ve often come across people who use the term ‘depressed’ as a synonym to ‘sad’. Though the dictionary says the same, the definition of the two terms differs significantly.

‘Sadness’ is a mood which is caused due to unhappiness or grief, whereas ‘Depression’ is a chronic disorder (not illness) which may or may not be a resultant of unhappiness. Google surely provides abundant links to the symptoms, treatment and reasons for depression. Science has taken a great leap over the past couple of years. Research has gifted human with psycho pharmaceutical products which has helped us control our mental equilibrium.

Well those words sound really good; but are these drugs actually that effective???

The answer is a simple, YES; these drugs are really very effective. But like its known, every good thing comes at a huge price. And in this case its compromise on one’s health. The drug surely helps a patient through their phase of depression, but at the cost of his health. The side effects of these drugs are way more deteriorating than the disorder itself.

At the end of the day, one has to question himself, should I rely on drugs or look for an alternative way? Remember, where there is a will, there surely is a way.

Mysterious Stranger

2010-01-24T17:06:00.001+05:30

It was a windy night. The moon was fast asleep cuddled in the blanket of clouds. As I rummaged in my handbag for my wallet, the sharp edge of my file etched a deep cut on my finger.

“Ouch” I yelped.

It was my first month of training at my organization and I was very particular about the stuff that I carried. So in other words, my handbag not just contained my basic amenities, like compact, eyeliner, eye shadow, eye gloss, lip gloss, lipstick, face cream, face wash, and my cards; but also contained a study manual, a file and pen. So I always prejudiced and put the blame on the manual for burdening my shoulder.

It was already late and here I was at the ATM waiting to reload my nearly-empty wallet with ‘the human’s most precious invention’. Ever since I understood the concept of cards, I irrevocably followed a routine of keeping an empty wallet.

“Damn it!!” I said when I saw this young guy entering the ATM. I loathed waiting outside ATMs, and how unfair, I was only 2 steps behind him. ‘Why don’t these rich brats carry money with them’ I thought as I saw his car parked on the road beside the foot lane. ‘Must admit, beautiful car’ I thought as I saw the ‘W’ sign embedded on the front of the car. I have always been bad at identifying cars and its logos, so I didn’t give a second thought about the features, price and brand of the car. My only concern was the withdrawal.

As I reached the door I realized that the ATM center had 2 machines in it. ‘Awesome’. I inserted my card once at the entrance, and entered in. The door shut behind me. I walked up to the ATM and swiped my card.’

“What the…..” I said out loud as I realized that I was standing in pitch darkness. I looked around to confirm the presence of the guy. Yes, he was there, could see his vague figure. A power cut!!!! Now!!!

‘Lord!!’ I thought and walked towards the exit. To my surprise the door was locked and my strength was not playing its magic.

“I tried it. It’s not working. Apparently we are stuck inside” said the guy.

“uum ohk” I said. It was pouring cats and dogs outside. I could see it every time the lightning struck.

I took out my cell from my pocket and dialed my roommate’s number.

“Bad reception, I tried that too” he said.

I could see him watching me. Though it was dark, the lightening surely did a good job of lighting the room. I leaned against the wall.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” he asked.

“er…. Yeah surely I do. Please don’t smoke, am allergic to it. Moreover, it’s not allowed” I said.

He gave a hearty laugh which lasted for 2 minutes. I was sure that I didn’t crack a joke. Either the guy had a poor sense of humour or was mentally ill.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Nothing …. Please don’t feel offended” he said in his not so Indian accent. “It’s just that you r so bloody freaked out”.

“What makes you think so dude? It’s not I who wanted to smoke” I said.

“It’s not I????.... Wow!! You Indians still follow the ancient English” he said.

“You mean the real English” I said. “And ‘YOU’ Indians???.... Hey you are racially Indian too!!” I exclaimed.

“Only racially. Not culturally” he replied. Ya Ya… the same Russell Peter’s dialogue I thought

If I had the financial strength, I would have bet for a million dollars that the bloody Alien smirked while saying those words. The guy surely must not have realized the impact of his heavy words, but I was burning with rage at his words.

It’s a well known stereotype that Indian Aliens come down to India and criticize every single thing that we do. I was often targeted by most of my alien cousins as a walking talking joker. I didn’t want that to happen. Not here, not now and surely not by this guy. I was not going to stand there let alone this guy mocks my culture.

“I love being an Indian; there is so much to learn. Family bonding, love and integrity” said the person whom I had developed hatred towards just a while back. My jaw dropped.

“Then why are you criticizing me?” I asked

“Oh no no no… that was not my intention. I was just being friendly” he replied.

“Wow!! Dude, next time, try being friendly to a stranger by not making a racial comment” I exclaimed.

I sat down on the floor, exhausted and a little scared. Vivid picture of my roommate came to my mind. She must be freaking out. She had warned me not to go out at this time of the night. But my born stubborn character refrained me from doing so. And here I was, sitting in this ATM center with a stranger.

“So are you a student” he asked.

“No, I work.” I replied.

He was still standing. Well actually, leaning against the wall. He walked swiftly towards me and sat beside me. For an instance my heart beat increased. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my neck. But somehow I managed to stay calm.

“So you work, that good. Where? I am still a student, in my final semester of MBA”.

“Hah” I smirked. All this while, I was too busy thinking about other stuff, that I didn’t acknowledge the fact that this guy standing before me was a ‘kid’. I was probably a year older to him as I had completed my post graduation six months ago. ‘A kid, immature and is talking like a grown up brat.’ I thought.

“What??” he asked.

“Nothing…… So which college are you graduating from?” I asked. Somehow I knew that the answer would be a big-shot college. But I waited for him to brag.

“London Business School” he replied.

I raised my eyebrow in disbelief, but didn’t want to make him aware that his reply made a big impact on my judgment about him. “Wow!! That’s nice.” I said. “So you are here to attend the seminar on ‘Impact of ultra structure development on microeconomics, huh?” I asked.

I had read it on the morning’s paper that LBS was organizing this seminar in IIMB. Had also checked if I could sign-up for the same, but my financial crisis ceased me from doing so.

“Wow, you are good. I must admit. How on earth did you know about that.” He asked.

”I just completed my MBA in the month of June, and I keep myself updated with such news” I replied.

“So are you gonna attend it…. the seminar??”

“The registration dates are up, and also its way too costly” I replied sincerely.

“I can get you in!! I know the organizers.”

Though I loathed the subject micro economics, the idea of attending this seminar appealed to me. But I hardly knew this lad.

“Why do you wanna help me” I questioned him.

“Is that important? I mean, can’t you just thank me and accept the offer?” he said in a child like manner.

“Sure thank you” I replied.

“I wanna get outa here” I cried out.

“Well I don’t. As a matter of fact this encounter seems like the best part of my trip to India. I can tell everyone about it” he responded. “Such incidents never occur to anyone normally”

I looked at him in disbelief. Sadly he couldn’t see my face.

“You are such a kid man!!!” I exclaimed.

“Kid! Don’t call me that” he said.”I turned 23 this June”

I made a mental note that the guy sitting next to me was a fully fledged adult and was a year older to me.

‘He had to burst the bubble!’ I thought.

“I am cold, hungry and wanna go home” I said. Like a reflex action he took off his leather jacket and put it around me.

“Chivalry …. Not bad” I said.

He smiled. I could see his face clearly as the lightening struck. He was very handsome, a little child like though. His while complexion reminded me of a horror show.

I was not sure if I was sane, but I had fallen head over heels in love with this stranger. Just then a thought struck to me, ‘he s the kinda guy who goes out with gals with killer looks, why the **** will he remotely be interested in a gal like me’

As I was being drifted away by my thoughts, he intervened.

I looked at the time on my mobile. It was 1.45 AM.

“I am doomed. I won’t even get a rick now” I said in a panicked tone.

“What was that?” he asked in a confused tone.

“Cab!!! I was referring to cab” I said.

“I can drop you home” he said.

“I don’t accept lifts from strangers” I replied in a naive manner.

“Ya, a stranger whom you spent the last 2 hours with” … “honey! In that case you better pray for us to be locked in here till the morning, that way you’ll get to go home safe, and I’ll get to spend more time with you”

“And why exactly do you wish to spend time with me?” I asked him.

“Because, before I leave this room, I am gonna make sure that I ask you out and u accept that offer”

My jaw dropped. I shook my head in disbelief. “Stop joking dude” I said.

“Stop being skeptic about my intentions” he replied. “What is wrong if I put forward my aspiration?”

“Aspirations???? Whoa!! Kiddo, you are walking way past the line” I said and laughed out.

“Line??? I don’t see one” “Oh you mean the hypothetical line”.

“Dude, stop it. You are making me uncomfortable.”

“I thought you were already uncomfortable in here”. “Relax I was just pulling your legs”

I punched his bicep.

“Ouch, that hurts” he said.

“That’s what I meant when I called you a kid”

“Ohhh so what you mean to say is that adults don’t feel pain? Hmmm that’s a new theory that you have come up with. I should probably ask my government to carry out research on this theory”

“Adults have increased strength because of their leveraged hormonal action. Especially men, Androgen plays an important role in the same. And research has already proved it. So you don’t need to walk an extra mile to do that.” I replied in a smug manner.

“I don’t speak Greek and Latin” he replied.

“Then I suggest u to keep your basics strong. They might expect that from you at LBS”

“Yeah I know that I sound too dumb. Could never figure out, what played role in my admission. The lump sum amount that dad paid, or my sheer luck”

“Doesn’t matter as long as you keep your grades up” I replied.

“I am trying my best to”

“Well in that case, that’s what matters. At least you have not taken it for granted”.

“Thanks” he said after a long pause.

“For what” I asked.

“For not calling me a spoilt brat. That means a lot to me” he replied.

For a minute I considered telling him that ‘brat’ was the first word that came to my mind when I judged him the first time. But why hurt someone. So I thought otherwise.

The silence played its role well; I was feeling really uncomfortable. Once again I explored inside my hand bag, this time a little more carefully, for my ear phones. It took me less than half a minute to put it on my ears and set a song on my cell phone.

‘Avenged sevenfold- Afterlife’ read the display on my phone.

My passion for music was getting me high.

‘I don’t belong here… we gotta move on dear…. Escape from this afterlife….’

As I realized that I was humming the tune, I forced myself to remain silent.

“Do you like The Ministry of sounds?” he asked.

“huh? No… I mean Yes I like em’ but not a follower”

“So Who’s yer’ Fav?”

“You dun wanna know” I replied.

“No! Tell me…..”

“I like soft music…. Bryan adams, punk style…. Kurt Cobain….”

“Whoa!!!! You are a Nirvana fan…… Didn’t know whom I was dealing here with”

“Do you mind elaborating your implication sweetheart!!!?” I exclaimed.

“Nothing” he said.

“Whom do you worship?” I asked.

He replied the names of a few rock bands. I had never heard of any of those except pink Floyd of course.

“I like PF too, the lead in few of their songs are really good”

“I agree” he said. “Some old songs never lose its identity”

The Lights turned on. I was extremely happy. “YES!!!!!” I screamed in relief.

In no time it went off again.

“No! No! No! No! No!” I exclaimed as I struggled to pull the door open.

“Why god! Why!” I cried.

“Gal! Live with the fact that you are stuck here with me” he said.”C’mon am not boring you with my talks, am I”

“It’s not that” I said “My roommate gets scared if left alone in the room, I don’t want her to freak out”

“You are the one who should be freaking out, not your roommate” he answered.

“Why should I freak out” I asked.

“Honey, you are the one stuck up in an ATM center with a total stranger in the middle of a night like this!!” he said pointing a finger at the glass wall.

“You are not a stranger exactly” I said.

“Oh, is that so…. What’s my name?” he asked.

“Hmmmm that’s something I should have asked. What is it?”

“Neeraj…. ”…. “n urs?”

“Palak” I replied.

“I thought that was a vegetable” he smirked.

“That’s paalak” I refuted.

The lights turned on, this time I was quick enough to insert my card and unlock the automatic door. A pulse of relief ran through my body.

“So palak…. Mind giving me your number?” he asked.

“Sure” I said as we walked out of the room. “Give me yours first”

As he told me his no, I saved it on my phone and returned him a call.

“That’s me” I said.

“So how are you planning to go home” he asked.

It then occurred to me that I didn’t have any means of commuting.

“Hmmmm…” I said.

“Would it kill you once to take a favour?” he said. “Come, I’ll drop you home”

He walked me to his car and opened the door for me. The trip back to my home was not so eventful. We only exchanged glance and listened to Radio Indigo. It was easy to direct him as the roads were deserted.

We big farewell with a hug and I walked inside.

I had a tough time dealing with my roommate who as I expected had freaked out in my absence. Though she remained quite as I narrated her my experience.

“So you spent a night with a cute stranger in an ATM center?” she said after I was done with the narration.

“Handsome… to be precise” I replied.

“And you hav his jacket” She said.

So it was the jacket that was keeping me warm.

I was already tired and went off to bed. I opened my eyes to the sound of a msg beep.

“It was a nice experience being with you, stranger from the ATM center” read the msg.

I smiled and fell asleep.

Birdy to the rescue....

2010-01-23T10:31:00.001+05:30

With all the commotion about the prejudiced team allocations, I just feel that my workplace is a glorified version of the movie Zeitgeist. People come out with theories with a reference from ‘the reliable source’, which seldom makes sense.

As I stepped out of the room to avoid the conversation, I realized how dynamically these issues left an impact on my mind.

No wonder I hate Philosophies. It hits on me like a quicksand. Once I get in, I can’t come out without a helping hand. Normally, that is when my bird lover friend comes into the picture.

It’s strange how a single word encapsulates an esoteric concept, ‘Friend’. When you are in the deepest dilemma, you know the exact thing that can help you get your mind off things. Well in my case it was just the mere voice of this friend, and it worked magic. Just two simple words, “what’s wrong” from my friend and I was out of the quandary.

My bird lover friend is an exceptionally gifted person. He is borne with the gift to love nature, a dreamer in fact; Dreamer, because he dreams beyond the heights of impossibilities. This guy dreams of a pollution free place for animals to dwell which is nothing but a history. Sometime I wish I had that passion in me, not for Birds or conservation, but for animals and music. My passion for anything eventually fades off. That is one reason I respect this guy.

Getting back to my story, I am just happy to have a confusion-reliever friend like him. He surely came up with the same solution that my other friends had suggested me, but coming from him, it surely helped me understand the pros and cons of my decision.

So ultimately, I was feeling much better when I went off to bed

my dirt biking experience

2009-12-06T22:06:00.001+05:30

Sober

2009-11-05T19:03:00.000+05:30

I have tried to look beyond the horizon over and over, but never was i able to find what's in store for me. Every step that I took to understand the path that I was walking on, felt meaningless. I push myself too hard to reach the point where I can see my future. But again, its all meaningless. Of Lately, I have been following a lifestyle which I would never have opted if I was asked to last year. Its like, I am working hard to live a life which I detested. I am losing my identity and turning into some kind of a heartless inhuman monster. I have reached a crossroad and I am apprehensive to make my choice. I am no longer the person I used to be a few years back. This is not me, and I don't want this stranger to take any decisions in my life, which could possibly impact my future. I just want this person to 'Be Gone', even if that results in my nonexistence.

Interpreting dreams

2009-10-28T18:43:00.000+05:30

My dreams are not just dreams, they are nightmares. I have been having disturbed sleep issues ever since my childhood. Normally it’s just day to day activities that I dream about, and on rare occasions I foresee the future. When ever I have any exams or something important coming up, I just dream of the upcoming day.

There have been times when my dreams came true in the exact way that I had depicted them in. Like, when I hear a friend talk about something, I feel like it’s a déjà-vu only coz I had earlier dreamt of the same thing. I often wake up at the owl hooting hours because of my nightmares.

When I mentioned about these dreams to a friend of mine, he mentioned all philosophical stuff that I can consider; like ‘dream interpretation’.

Last night I dreamt that my calculator rang in FD’s session and I had a tough time switching it off. Come’ on! What am I supposed to interpret in that dream; that my calculator has an extra feature, or that I need to do intense research on ringing calculators.

Only if I knew how to control my dreams, I wouldn’t be dreaming of ‘Ringing calculators’, ‘Being chased by snakes’, ‘death of my close ones’, or ‘the cute waiter from the restaurant Mast Kalandar’. With the latest updates on the world coming to an end in 2012, I have been redundantly dreaming on ‘flood survival’ and ‘ways of saving my dog’.

I only hope that someday I stop dreaming these things so that I get peaceful dreams and to avoid an appointment with the dream interpreter.

Meaningful things in life

2009-10-28T18:40:00.000+05:30

Its human tendency to dream beyond their reach. As a kid I always aimed for the fruit on the top most branch. But it was not the fruit that mattered, it was the extent to which i was ready to stretch to reach that fruit. A few days back I went out for a long drive on the airport road with Baggy, Mr Sensitive, Lawyer and her roomy. It was fun. It was then that I actually understood the essence of my ACE training when Mr Sensitive Quoted "its not the destination that drives me towards it, its the journey".
In my ACE training (a training that every new joinee has to undergo when he/she first joins my organization), I was mentored on various aspects of managerial effectiveness, and the possible ways of achieving them. 'Setting up goals' was one of them. The session mainly dealt with the various steps of achieving short term and long term goals. The whole session ultimately implied that one has to set some goals in his life so that he can achieve them at later point of time to gain the joy of success.
WOW!! Now the question that bothered me was, WHY?? Why should I set some goal, achieve it, and then be happy. I can find the same joy in every single activity that I do. I am a happy person.
Then the idea of Pension Fund occured to me. Maybe people set goals in their life and work towards it so that they get secured happiness at a later point of time in their life. There are many things that I want to accomplish in my life, a certain certification being one of them. But is it really that important to me???
Well, the answer to that lied in my own passion, the passion to reach out for things that are hard come in my grab. It was again the same old story of the fruit on the topmost branch, just that I had to reach there in a much more organised way

bcity experience

2009-08-27T22:51:00.003+05:30

"arre, this is nothing!! This is just a honeymoon for you guys...". These words kept ringing in my ears. I remember that evening, like it was yesterday.My shoulders were giving up. I was in terrible pain, all thanks to my accident prone nature. 'curse that bloody BMTC bus'. I did speak my heart out to boss though about how i loathed the bcity because of the traffic. Everything had changed. I changed. I can hardly recognise the tanned person in the mirror. The dust had done injustice to my skin and my hairstyle was a fashion disaster.

If this was a 'honeymoon', I wonder how my work would be henceforth. All the work that I had done in the past 3 weeks went down the drain when I was informed that I had been relocated to another depot, 50 kms from my old office, for another post. Interesting!! It did make me happy. I love exploring new stuff. So guess this will keep me entertained for a while. but relocating!!! hmmm thats not good. I love the locality where i currently reside. Love hanging out with VJ and Ms Lawyer. Baggy was a whole new person. I didn't like change in her. But tried my best to stay update on her fast... really fast moving life. She was my main concern. My presence didn't help her find her way out of nowhere. But I am sure that it did give her moral support. Guess relocating is a good thing. I don't want to turn into a party animal. Resuming my simple old lifestyle is not going to be easy, but hope it remains simple.

I need to update my blog on many more things like- my trip to skandagiri hill, the KO factor, hyderabad, Baggy's bday chaos, out in the rain.

my latest hobby

2009-06-07T14:33:00.003+05:30

Painting bottles is my current hobby. Well not just any bottle, beer bottle.
Recently I brought home a bottle of beer, and used it as hair conditioner. I am not crazy, it actually works. My kid brothers laughed a me and found it stupid. So did my dad.
Well its ok. At least I found a new hobby.

the guy next door

2009-05-14T23:52:00.003+05:30

I used to spend my free time with my kid brothers in my childhood days. They were like 2 lil puppet and I was the puppet master. My instructions were their command. Wow!! Those were the days.
It was the year 97, my summer vacation, also the mangoes season. A neighbour had come home with his little boy namy, who apparently was also studying in my batch ( but in a different school). That noon I couldn't find my kid brothers around, so I went out looking for them. After a while I realized that they were sitting on the water-outlet platform outside my room. This was our common hideout place. The advantage of that place was that, only 3 people could climb to that place, me and my 2 kid brothers. We used to climb a water pipe to reach that place.

So when I climbed up that pipe, to my surprise i found namy there with my kid bros. Wow!! he could climb that pipe too. I joined them. We ate raw mangoes with salt any chilly powder. After a while we came down, played for a while, and then he went home.

But he came back the next day, and the day after that, and every evening .

We were a group of 4. we had so much fun together. Every evening we went out looking for trouble and called it adventure. Like
The monkey adventure (oh that was when a monkey bit meehan's head)
the graveyard adventure
the haunted lake
the snake hunt
the lost world
the banyan tree adventure (that day we also sang 'hum saat cat hai')
the beedi experience (when we tried beedi for the first n last time)
the falling garage roof
driving tempo and bike
the hanging on rod, climbing the house roof (which was very very very dangerous and foolish)

many many many many more..... the list is never ending..... I miss those days as much as I miss my friend. the story changed after 2002 as I joined a hostel and my life was totally different. Though i met him when I came home on vacation, but it was not the same. I can never forget the golden age me and my kid bros spent with him. My childhood wouldn't have been so much fun if it weren't for namy. He was a nice person and also a wonderful friend.

just another stupid song (not poem)

2009-05-01T15:54:00.003+05:30

Every time, i close my eyes, to see you around
to hold you, and feel your breath and live where i belong.
I know my heart s a trifle, and so are my words
and i aint got no fortitude, to say these words to you
coz you r vetoed to break my heart and I can't live thru' the pain
I didn't wish to deceive you, but i ended up doing so
now I cant write a love note or a graceful rhetoric to win your heart back.

Exam fever

2009-04-30T13:25:00.003+05:30

The exam fever in this context refers to 'my strange behaviour' during exams. It is a normal thing when people fall sick during exams, Baggy always does. But its a little surprising when a person develops intense sleeping habit during exams. I am not referring to the disease sleeping sickness (which is a resultant of the trypanosomial infection; mainly found in Africa).
Here I am only referring to a strange fever, which affects a small group of students, causing excessive sleep during exams.
Baggy is not a patient here. But me and smiley surely are. My routine during study vacation is as follows:
- Wake up at 10 am ( as there is no way to continue sleeping with the constant bickering coming from Ranju and baggy reminding me every now and then that my preparation for the exam is insufficient, Friends calling me up to make sure I am not wasting my time).
- switch on my laptop (DC++) to find an array of interesting music files and sitcoms (used to be scrubs during my 1st sem exams, HIMYM during my 2nd sem exams and Gossip girls, X men cartoon, Southpark, 8 simple rules and Russell peters during my 3rd sem exams)
- Constant bickering from baggy, who tries her best to enlighten me every now and also helps me to open my books
- Discussion with smiley, bout who has studied the least.

- sudden urge to write stuff into my diary, or to play music, resulting in careful investment of my precious time on stuffs that I think matters a lot.

- chatting on google talk for hours and hours, till the other person forces me to read.
- and sleeping...................

My routine was so interesting that, by the end of the exams, even baggy started to follow my routine. She got addicted to Gossip girls and also started playing the song 'didi' by milk and honey once in every 15 mins.

When ever I tried to take things seriously, and opened my book to read, Ranju used to barge in , hum a nice tune and leave. And that was it. I continued the song that she left unfinished for the next few hours.

Even on the day of the exam, I never felt nervous or scared ( like Kutti and baggy, who always felt they would flunk, but somehow managed to score an AA or AB ).

So no matter what people say, exam days were the best days of my college life.

the group fight

2009-04-30T00:39:00.005+05:30

"They are participating, I heard it, heard them sing" Sallu said as she bustled in. "Wat ?" I asked groggily as I stretched my hand to pick my toothbrush from the lot. It was 8.10 am and the breakfast bell was due any minute. "Oh!! you ll know.... " she replied.
I dragged myself all the way across the corridor to the washroom. Dreamily I was following my daily morning schedule, when I heard 'THEM' sing.
"WHOA!!!! wtf" I said to myself. Wasting no time, I rushed back to my room.
"you don't need to tell ..... I heard it!!!" Chits told me when I opened my mouth to speak. Smiley was still lazing off on her bed. She walked out clueless regarding the discussion that was going on around her.
After a while she walked in and announced," People!! there is a bad news!! They are participating in the competition".
"Seriously yaar.... do u even hear to our talks??" sallu asked her.
"oh so you knew bout it!!" she replied sadly.
" I cant sit here and watch them win this thing" I conceded. "No matter what, but I am not willing to sit and watch our reputation being tarnished in such a ****** way"
"Lets participate too" said Sallu, who loved to sing as much as me."lets sing and win this thing" she said exuberantly.
" Ha ha ha ha, I can imagine us winning if I sing" replied chits in her sarcastic tone.
" same here" added smiley. Ume murmured something in fast malyalam which I was unable to grasp. Then she smiled and left the room.

In the above stanza, 'They' refers to our group rivals. Back in 2004, during our HSE, my friends and I had a fight with some other co hostelers (who were also our classmates), which gave rise to groups within the hostel. The 2 respective groups showed constant antagonism to each other. So it was really important for us to beat them at every thing. Academic performance was not an issue, as chits was the top scorer. And the rest of us were equally good too.

So finally after a long discussion sallu and I managed to convince Smiley, Ume and chits. The competition was on the next day at 4.30 pm, and we had only few hours to practice, as we had practicals that very day and also the next day.

We chose to sing 'neele neele ambar pe', as it was the only song whose lyrics was available at that moment. We practiced for hours in the night. We were so tired that we couldn't get our butts off the bed the next morning. As usual we got dressed up in our regular outfit (some stupid t shirt and jeans) and left for college. The competition was at 4.30 pm , so we came to the hostel a little early from the lab; ie, 4,25 pm. To our surprise all the other teams were dressed uniformly. we were the only odd ones out. 'They' were dressed up in yellow salwars.

"WTF man!!!" I whispered into sallu's ears. "Look at those gals!! How can we ever beat them at presentation".
I had heard them practice the song in the classroom, thought it was a kannada song (and I couldn't understand it) I had enjoyed it.
"We ll just do fine man!!! dun worry" smiley said.
I could feel the tension in her voice though. Chits was conspicuously nervous and I could see her fidgeting next to me during the first teams performance. Ume was quite the whole time.
Amid this whole mess, Sallu found the time to go brag brashly about how good we were when compared to 'THEM'. War, who was the meanest girl from our rival group said something rude in her malicious tone.

I wanted this never ceasing fray to end as soon as possible.

Soon it was their turn to perform. I must admit, they were good. But there was this final year degree's group who had given a terrific performance. Also another group, out juniors who were good too.

We gave our best shot. And were hoping to secure the third place.
We were quite sure that there the 1st place would be given to the final yr degree group and the 2nd to our juniors. Any other groups weren't that great. So the compitition was for the 3rd place.

So we sat there praying for a positive result.

finally it was time. The 3rd place was secured by our juniors. We lost the little hope we had.
"its ok yaar, there is always a next time" I told sallu.

"The second place goes to ........ " we heard them announce.
"Sallu and party"......

Whoa!!! that was unexpected. but we weren't jumping in the victory mood, we wanted be sure that the first place was won by the degree gals. And yes, We were right.

There!!! That made our day, actually our year.............
We were overjoyed. Loved every minute of it. That wasn't our only victory, we surely won the group fight.

The scooba split

2009-04-24T15:28:00.003+05:30

hip hop style of dancing has always been my favourite, though I could never successfully learn to hip hop like a pro, it always helped me to buoy my sagging spirit. I never enjoyed the perquisite of learning the art of hip hopping. Though I learnt fascinating varieties of other dance forms, like Jive and salsa, it was Hip hop style of dancing that conquered my heart.

I got a few tips on HH from a flamboyant friend of mine. And that day I shifted my magnifier from music to dancing styles. The tips on hH surely confused me at times. " be blunt with ur body movements" ..... Now 'whats that supposed to mean ?'

Days turned to weeks, and then to months; I never practiced what i was supposed to.

Just a few days back, when I was going through some videos on youtube, I found this group performing hH for a body swaying music. Well I put on my dancing shoes and started imitating their moves. It was quite easy.

I was excited, and wished to learn more. So then I found this video in which a boy demonstrated the scuba split ( a hH move). It was simple, except for the split.

So I tried the scuba move. Continued doing so. I wanted more, wanted to learn the scuba split.
But in an attempt to learn it, I hurt my little finger and now i find it hard to move it (i can still type though).

So no more scuba splits......

The BEP syndrome

2009-04-21T22:56:00.005+05:30

For those who are unaware of this syndrome, BEP syndrome is a complex neurological and psychological disorder in the presence of normal cognition in young adult individuals. The symptoms include highly increased mental performance and spontaneous action. the susceptibility to this syndrome depends upon the individual's taste in music.

It was a sad day for me and Baggy. The Black Eyed Peas were giving a concert in blore and we were not able to go there cause we were stuck up with classes.
"Man this sucks!!!" I said as we entered the class at 7.55 A.M .
As usual the First bench students were missing. It was business law class and that was the only subject everyone loved to bunk. So following my daily schedule, I fell asleep at 8.05 after my name was called out for the attendance.
"Excuse me sir!!!" Came a voice from the back. It was 'miss late comer' , surprisingly she was only 15 mins late. I was dreaming about the concert. "Damn it!!" I thought.

I leaned sideways and whispered it into Baggy's ears,"Do you think we can still make it to the concert?". She looked at me with an "I dunno expression" on her face. Somehow I survived the class. The next hour was supposed to be fun. It was my favorite subject, not coz i loved it (Man!!! i hated it) but the lecturer who was taking the class, Rush-me maam, was really good at her work and she somehow managed to make it interesting. She is not just an amazing lecturer but also a very sweet and understanding person.

She entered the class, read out the names of the students from the attendance register, walked to the board and wrote "BEP".

"WTF" i heard baggy murmer. "Is she a fan too?" Wow the class was getting more and more interesting.
"Break Even Point" said Punch bag aloud.
" wat the F*CKIN Hell is that" I asked Baggy. "I have no idea" She replied.

'Its easy yaar, I ll teach you" Punch bag told me 30 mins later. Though those words were supposed to sound comforting, every single time punch bag told me that something thats meant to be hard to understand, was actually easy, it made me more nervous.
Kutti who was sitting in the 2nd row, turned back and gave a an expression conveying "Its gonna be ok, dont worry".
Then the class continued. Rush-me maam repeated the abbreviation BEP more than 50 times. After the bell rang and she walked out of the class, I stood up and asked," people.... I am going to Blore for the BEP concert, Anyone wanna join???" I got an instant yes from Archie and Baggy.
"Hey the concert is at 7.30 yaar. We ll never make it on time." said Punch bag. " I am not going to sit here and dream about the concert. I don't care if we don't reach on time, but i want to go, U wanna come , please do" said baggy. That was the first time I had seen baggy all set up in a mood to do some mischief. She had never bunked a class in her life nor had she done anything like this ever. She was a free bird now that she was staying at the hostel.

" so what??? shall we go ???" I asked kutti, smiley, Bird and punchbag. Got 3 NOs and one yes from punch bag.

So me and baggy rushed to the hostel, put on some hot outfit and went to the near by city(which was 340 kms far from blore) with archie and punchbag. We checked make my trip.com to see if any flight tickets were available. But unfortunately it was way beyond our budget. So finally we found ourselves standing in front of KSRTC bus.

We just couldn't go back to college. Our own classmates would mock us.
"now what" said archie, "It was your idea na. Lets go to Goa. Lets go anywhere, but not to college. It s gonna be embarrassing... F*ck Man!!"
' I didn't force you to come" i claimed.
"make up your mind, the bus to blore will leave in 5 mins" Said punch bag intervening the fight.
"lets go" said baggy. "but..... " i said goggling at her.

"cmon, move on .... get in" she said and we followed her instructions.

We were in the bus. Last seats. Supposed to be an AC bus, but then where was the dust coming from!!!

We spent hours in that bus discussing about the concert. The tickets were arranged and everything was going to be fine, if we reached there on time.

It was 7.30 P.M and we had not reached blore yet. We were some where in the outskirts. I was gazing dreamily at the passing street lights. It looked beautiful. We were all excited.

Finally we reached the ground where the concert was being held. Baggy, archie and I were not acquainted with the city. So Punch bag had to take the lead. We reached the ground, had a nice time.
The rest is history.

We boarded the bus back to our coll at 11.45 P.M. Reached our college at 10 AM next day. We were so tired and messy. Went to the hostel and took a shower. We had to cut our nails to get rid of the dust accumulated in it.

Finally we met up again near the coffee shop outside the girls block to discuss further plans of dealing with our HOD. We took religious advantage and told the HOD that we had to attend some Pooja. Though he didnt believe that, he didnt punish us either.

Thats it!!! tat was my strangest concert experience.

Art work

2009-04-18T13:22:00.001+05:30

Earlier today when I was going through all my old college stuff, I found my painting. There was a time back in my high school days when I was amused by my sister's talent. She was artistic; especially with her paint brush. I loved her work as much as I loved her. Her paintings could express itself. I really don't know what that last statement means, but all i want to say is that, she was amazing with a paintbrush.

When I was in 2nd year of my graduation, my sister was working in Mumbai. So we hardly met each other. One evening, I called her up. I told her that I had taken her paint brush for some project designing purpose. "oh nice!! atleast someone is using it. Paint something with it" she replied.

So i sat there in my room, wondering what to paint. And started painting all vibrant colours on the paper. I didn't care what the end result looked like. After a few hours, my roomy entered the room.
"WOW!!!" exclaimed Dipsy. "U can paint".
"Well of course i can" I replied. 'Only if she could see any of my sister's paintings' I told myself.

We pasted the painting on a wall right opposite to the door. so every time someone entered the room they complimented me for my work. well that surely made me happy.

But today, it looks like a childs work to me. Shabby art work .

Dbird and the beach

2009-04-17T15:54:00.000+05:30

It was mid july and the sky looked like a magnificent piece of modern art. It was camouflage green with tinges of old lavender, lilac and steel blue. Drizzling rain drops and the smell of wet mud evoked an excitement in the air. It was my first week at the college. And I was already in love with the place. Man loved the ambiance.
It was a Wednesday. We took a longer route to the hostel. Walked past the CCC, dispensary and the basket ball court. My friends were tired and they wanted to rest their butts in their respective rooms. But me n baggy wanted to go to the beach. So we gave our books to those lazy bugs and took a diversion route to the beach. when we walked for 5 mins, we heard Dbird's voice.
Dbird was our classmate. We hadn't seen her mingling much with the others in the past 3 days. but since we had already met her at the hostel on our first day, we knew her. And we had already classified dbird into the 'gal wit a nasty attitude' category listening to some rumours.
"hey tussi kithe ja rahe ho" she asked. "Off to the beach!!!" replied Baggy in her excited tone. "accha.... " she said with a confused look on her face wondering if its a good idea to join us. "hey join us na" I said. She considered the offer for a few seconds and she joined us.

Since it was my first week at the college, i was a little apprehensive about approaching new people. But with Dbird, it was different. she was damn friendly. We walked to the college entrance of the beach. We had to sign on a book before we enter. We cooked up strange names on it. The beach was beautiful. It reminded me of my school days when I used to sneak out with my friends and go to the beach nearby.

We played in the water for a loooong time. And when we stopped, it started to rain. We got drenched, but it felt good. I was glad that Dbird was with us. I realized that first impression is not always right. And learnt that i should never ever believe any rumours .
Dbird was a dynamic person and in the 2 years of my college life, never once did i feel any personal dislike towards her. Thought there were times when there were group conflicts, but as an individual i always admired her.

That was the experience of my first visit to our college beach.

Dissection experience

2009-04-17T13:40:00.001+05:30

Though i have many other wonderful topics to update, i prefer to put up this particular one. If there is something that has contributed to my inhumane character, i would say that this experience is surely one of those.

Finally the day had arrived. I was standing outside the zoology lab wit a few other friends who were busy discussing about their new dissection box. Karle was narrating the recent updates on a TV show 'kahin to hoga' to a few enthusiastic listeners which included smiley and sweety. Though KTH was my favorite show (i used to love Ekta Kapoor shows then, mainly this one cause it featured the most hottest guy on the Indian TV , Rajeev Khandelwal, Whose popularity went down when he quit the show), I was not paying any attention to the whole discussion.

I could feel the heat in the air and the smell of formalin was making me dizzy. I was cursing myself. "Why!!!! Why the hell did i choose Zoology over Botony" i told Dipsy. I knew that she was thinking on similar lines, not because I could see the nauseous look on her face, but because i knew that the idea of chopping a rat seemed far ruthless. Dipsy hailed from a brahmin family. but unlike me, she remained a pure veggie. So I also pitied her for what she was about to go through in the next few hours.

I have been friends with Smiley for a long time and I was sure she could handle this experiment with an ease. So my only concern was Dipsy.

Our Zoology lecturer was a handsome young bachelor and most of the girls from our class had a secret crush on him. Ya i know he is smart and handsome, but 'GALS!! He s our lecturer. We are not supposed to hit on him'. My friend Karle, had taken the pleasure to name him Zooby.

I could see all my friends in the White Lab coat. Some were flaunting their coats around like they were damn doctors. 'Grow up people!! the close you can get to a doctor is on your visit to a hospital or if you earn a phd, and thats a looooong way to go'.

So with a smirk on my face i rummaged my lab coat pockets for the chocolate that i had saved for the right time. I always believe that chocolate is an effective remedy for anxiety. So i keep one with me every time. Eat one before every exam. My friends knew that, and so they didn't bother to ask me a piece of the chocolate that i was about to have. I never share chocolates. When i buy one, i see to it that i buy an extra, so that i don't feel a need to share my bar of chocolate with anyone.

After a few bites, i could feel the adrenalin being pumped into my brain. Wow I love chocolates so much. Zooby walked out of the lab and asked us to enter. I had to hasten and gulp the last bite of the chocolate.

I walked towards a table next to the window. Dipsy occupied the seat next to me. The lab was newly built and it looked beautiful. There were pictures of many famous zoologists. Charles darwin, James Albert, Frederic Moore....etc.... I could hear a classmate of mine saying " If it weren't for these ******** life would have been much simpler." His words made no sense at all, but still i turned back and smiled at him and replied "very true".

The lab assistant entered the main lab and placed a piece of wooden plank on the table in front of everyone. Then he placed a Swiss albino mouse (not rat, people mistaken it for rat ) on every single plank.

I turned around to get a glimpse of smiley's face. She looked terrified. We were made to witness a mouse being brutally dissected by Zooby. As we walked back to our seats i secretly wished for some mishap to happen so that our classes get suspended. But nothing happen. I sat there staring at the mouse that laid dead before me. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. Poor mouse. If it were not for me, it would have been alive today. Somewhere living a happy life. Or i would have kept it as a pet. Tears were rolling down my face. Well, something that i tried to but couldn't control.

I could see the box of mice on the table next to mine. It was for the next batch of students. Only if I could sneak in at night to help them escape. Well!!!! these were the thoughts disturbing me at that very moment.

"I would have allowed you to just take your time, but unfortunately we don't have enough on our hand. So I think you should start the procedure" I heard Zooby say. I could see the concerned look on his face. There were few other students too who were finding it hard to start the procedure.

I took my forceps and scissors and made the incision. I was careful enough not to touch the mouse with my bare hands. I had a cut on my hand. But to my surprise, almost all my classmates were using their hands to touch the organs of the mouse. 'Do they even read the safety manual???' i thought. Oh come on .... you are not supposed to touch the experimental specimen wit the bare hands.

Deep was doing the experiment just like me, only using the forceps and the scissors. My friend Babu who was hitting on Dipsy, showed us his concern by playing pranks using his specimen. But instead of entertaining us, his tricks seemed to make us more nauseous.

We had to display the head, thoracic and abdominal organ of the rat. After i pinned the last display lable, Zooby announced," The dissection is not yet over, you are supposed to display the Urogenital system of the mouse too". I turned around to see the look on Dipsy's face. She was staring blankly at the kidneys of the mouse which she had chopped off just a while back. She was angry that she had to do the whole procedure again on a new mouse.

After about an hour, we finished the experiment and walked out of the lab towards our hostel mess. It was a relief to walk out of the lab and breathe fresh air. We were very hungry but we couldn't eat for the next 2 days. Every single time we tried to eat something, a displeasing image of the disected mouse flashed before our eyes. I thought that was the worst lab experience. But I was wrong. Soon we had to dissect cockroaches, prawns, leeches, and Drosophila larva. That was just the beginning to 3 years of misery.

The Imli tree

2009-04-03T02:09:00.000+05:30

Back in my childhood days i used to be a ... er.... 'wats d word again ' ... ya .... tree inhabitant. Well actually i used to spend most f my time on trees, either climbing it for fun or for plucking d fruits.

Der were many trees in my school n i luved to climb 20% f dem ...sadly rest were coconut trees.
Me n my frnds used to pluck jamun, chambakai, n also imli .

The imli (tamarind) tree stood at the back of our school building n it used to be everyone's fav. I luved to climb tat tree. It ws sumthin tat made me happy.

The school authority warned us not to climb d trees. But they never caught me at d act.

Dis incident took place on d evening f 14th Aug 1996. well i remember d date really well coz it ws d evening b4 independence day, when i ws in 4th std. Me n my frnd *******, whos shares my nick name, were killing tym doing nothing, after our cls hours. It ws raining cats n dogs.

she suddenly felt this urge to eat imli. so we went out. now d prob ws tat my frnd hd never mastered the art of climbing trees. so we decided tat i ll be the one to climb d tree n she would be the one to watch out for any trouble.... by trouble i mean, any teachers.

since it ws raining.... the branches were really slippery. n my white shirt ws no longer white. I ws somewhere nearing the top of the tree when from nowhere i heard someone shouting. To my surprise, it was the high school Hindi teacher, Mr Mishra. He ws standing under the tree holding an umbrella n ws shouting at me. I cud see my frnd running away . I was scared, confused n upset too. All i cud hear ws " Kaun hai wahaan upar.... Abhi neechay ayiye..... " . but i ws too scared to cum down .... so i waited on the tree for 15 mins, hoping he wud leave. But he didnt. So finally i had to come down.

Mishra sir scolded me for sumthin like 10 mins. I ws really happy tat it ws raining tat day, coz I didnt want him to know tat i ws crying. Den he realized tat i ws gettin drenched in rain n also tat my hands n knees were bleeding. so he took me inside n asked me who my partner in crime ws. I didnt answer his question so he asked me if i had any siblings studying in the same school. I told him tat i had a bro n sis studyin in d senior classes. He took their names n left.

I rushed to the wash room n found my frnd waiting for me. My frnd ws scared. she apologised for wat happen n den started helpin me out to get the mud stains off my clothes. I was nt mad at my frnd for leaving me that day. The first thing tat i spoke to her was... oh forget it... its ok ....
I ws a lil scared but still i pretended to be just fyn.

Tat ws me !!! in my childhood days. When i look back nw .... i realize tat i am no longer the same person anymore.
I ws a sweet kid back den ..... but today .... i am selfish .... hav an ego , n look for a reason to blame others for my mistakes. WOW ..... i wish i cud go back n live like a 9 yr old.

the monkey's tale

2009-04-01T01:51:00.000+05:30

first of all i admit the fact tat i am nt sure wat creature we encountered the other day. Whether is ws a langur or a monkey. Since it ws all white n black in colour.... n also had a long tail , we decided to cal it langur.

this incident occured to us (by us i mean me n kutty) last summer during our internship at a reputed oil refinary. Myself, kutty n baggy(who s my close frnd n also my roomy at d hostel) hd rented a house near the workplace. The duration of the internship ws a month so i had borrowed ambu's scooty. Every morning we did triple ride on the scooty n went off to work . We discovered many new routes to d workplace n spent a lot f tym in an abandoned CCD der.

The Manufacturing unit also consisted f many other outlets n covered a vast region ..... *** acres i guess..... :)
once we crossed the first checkpost of the unit.... we had to maintain a speed limit of 20kmph.
Duh!!!! we slowed down only at d places wher der were vid cams, n since we were quite acquainted wit d place in a few days, we knew exactly wher d vid cams were placed. But one day d guard complained tat we weren't allowed to travel trips inside d unit territory ,.....

nw tat ws a prob ..... we struggled a lil to overcum tat prob by taking longer routes to reach d place, avoidin d guards. n we were successful in doin so.

one fyn day .... baggy fell ill n we hd to take her home. d next morning it ws only me n kutti. so we decided to take the shorter route to the unit. for a change we were goin at a speed f 10kmph .... just to kill tym ... coz we were a lil early tat day. from nowhere.... a big branch landed right in front f our scooty. we were a lil confused n shocked...we stopped d scooty n looked up .... there ws a huge langur der.... n for sum reason he looked mad at us.

we just left the place in no tym . after sumtym my frnd kutti spoke " CG.... tat bloody langur tried to Kill us' ...... n in her regular tone she continued ' OH my God!!! did u see tat .... it threw a branch at us ' ....

we had a really interesting day ...... n for sum reason we considered d langur/monkey as our lucky charm. we had few more encounters wit the same monkey .... n everytym its tail seemed to look longer n longer.

well baggy surely missed tat scene .... but thank god she wsnt der .... varna she wud hv screamed n tat wud hv scared d hell out f d poor creature

my bucket list

2009-04-01T00:00:00.001+05:30

try ice skating
wear a beautiful gown
straighten my hair
watch bryan adam's live performance
dance ball room dance in a beautifully candle lit room
walk on d beach at mid nite listening to soft music
visit disneyland
ride a swedish warmblood
go to tirupathi
sing in a club for a small audience
walk d ramp
shop in paris
do bungee jumping
also scooba diving
a bike trip
do water rafting

My s@ga

2009-03-31T13:38:00.000+05:30

this blog is the result of an inspiration from mr dear frnd , Mr M frm Pune. who claims to be 'a lady's man ' .... a charming , dashing, spectacularly awesum person........ so gals ... pls contact him at ' 9945**24**' ..... pls do cal .......

the title f my blog site says it all ...... My saga.......
I ws born in a cultured family as a third child. As a child i ws the most naughtiest kid in the neighborhood.... i loved everything about my home town ....the people, the places n the ambiance. i had good frnds, a wonderful family n also luved my community.

Life ws just so easy ..... I lived in a Joint family.... Grandpa, Grandma, dad uncle mum, aunt, sandy (my bro) , pishini (my sis) , ambu (my cousin sis) , Rky n Vky (my twin-kid- cousin bros) , Indr (our nany) , a cow , calf n 2 dogs....... Happy family.

our family is nothin like 'the typical Ekta kapoor ' type f joint family. We luv each other n things r totally fyn. Touch-wood.basically our family is into business. we had a gud reputation in d town.

The best thing tat occurred to me ws my admission in the best school ever.... KV no 1. Wow !!! i luved my school .
my cousins did their education in another rival CBSE school by d name meanin 'gud evnironment' . we hated tat school. Me, my sis n bro were proud to be KV products.

my siblings were ntn like me..... we had totally different nature. My sis ws a poise, charming n naive person . Her looks complimented her attitude. As she ws the oldest chld in the family ..... she had a lot of restrictions at home..... she always compared her life with mine .... n told hw unjust it ws. well i guess she ws right.....
its diff nw ..... she s happily married n she hs a beautiful baby gal ....

my Bro ..... Sandy...... wow!!! i dun think i hav enuf words to describe him .... he s an awesum person .... (n i dun want him to read dis blog) . the mischief tat he hs done in his childhood makes him a unique person .....
well m not gonna write anything bout him in dis post....

He s my inspiration. My totally kool awesum bro. I wud blindly agree to his decisions. I hav never made any right choices in my life.... I look up to my bro for help ... n he offers it .
But we express our 'luv' by verbal n physical fights...... well tats all i can write bout him ....

Ambu .... my best frnd.... n sumtyms my last resort..... she s smart, witty n at tyms boring....
in her school days she used to be an introvert, but not anymore..... these days she babbles a lot.

Rky- Vck ..... man!!!! m not gonna write anything bout dem in dis blog ......... one post is not enuf to describe dem....... so i ll keep dem aside ...... for d tym being.

well rounding up ..... tat ws all bout my family......

A walk to remember

2009-03-31T02:37:00.000+05:30

This post has nothing to do wit the movie 'a walk to remember' featuring Mandy moore
This post is abt my recent experience..... acually a walk .....
its abt ... an interview, my high heeled boots, an eco park n an apple....

It ws the 24th of March ..... d day i hd been dreadin f since a week.....
ever since 'Punch bag' informed me that he hd successfully managed to get us an interview cal frm a reputed investment bank .... i ws preparing myself for a hardcore finance interview....

n d worst part f d whole interview ws tat it ws being conducted at their office in blore.....
I hated blore..... In my childhood days ... when i ws given an option to choose wher i wanted to spend my summer vacation .... i always selected mumbai .... though its a polluted place .... i still luved mumbai .....

I used to be a Caged bird durin my visits to blore...... so i hated d place.

But dis tym it ws different..... I stayed over at my cousin's place.... who ws not worried bout sendin me out alone like my other relatives...... n der ws no curfew timing.....

wow !!! tat ws heaven ..... i instantly fell in luv wit blore.... ya its a diff issue tat nw my sis Ambu fears tat i ll turn into a pub animal if i get a job in blore.....

ok!! coming back to the 24th f march......

my day started wit a dilemma......

whether to wear cream pants wit white shirt or dark blue shirt wit black pants........ i had to try on both the outfits to make up my mind......

i ws so nervous tat i decided to skip my breakfast ( i luv doin tat... i hate eatin breakfast)
well .... but my cousin , out f concern , packed an apple ... it ws pretty hard to fit it in my purse....
coz it ws a tiny purse.... n ws filled wit all d necessary items.... like................. my compact, eye base, eye shadow, eye liner, pink touch, kajal, lipstick, lip gel, 2 extra ear rings, 2 pens, a small piece f paper, a cell phn, cash, cards license, pendrive n a chocolate.

well i had to take out all d cosmetic s frm my purse to fit d apple in.

after i made up my mind n wore my high heeled boots ( boots not shoes) we left home .....
It ws pretty hard to travel in d city bus wit a purse, a file ... tat too wearin high heeled boots.
But Ambu, my sis, ws kind enuf to offer me her seat in d bus......

We met my frnds Punch bag n kutti at silkboard..... Kutti who ws well acquainted wit d place told me we had nothin to fear as she knew the place Marathalli pretty well.

so Punch bag left wit my sis to no-man's land after we boarded the rite bus to Marathalli.
when we took d tickets to M, i requested the bus conductor to inform me when i hv to get off d bus. den i spent d next few mins goin thru the finance page f Economic times.....

unfortunately d conductor forgot to remind me n we missed d stop..... Den we got off d bus n caught a rick to d so called Eco park Opp J P Morgan ..... we walked towards d Eco park only den we realised tat we were at d wrong place..... der were sumthn like ... 4 eco parks der.... n we had to walk almost 3 kms to find d rite park..... the scorching sun ws torturing us.

we were hungry, thirsty.... n my feet were killing me..... D forbidden fruit acted like Nectar.....
when i took the first bite of tat apple .... i promised tat i ll kiss my cousin's hand when i reach home..... n my frnd Kutti asked me to do it twice on her behalf too ... when she took d next bite.

sum hw we reached d Bank .... d interview ws a lil strange ....der ws a GD round, 1st interview, Written test.... they were all elimination rounds...we had lunch at 3 n kinda fell in luv wit tat place....
after d last round f interview .... the HR ppl told us tat they cant recruit us rite nw as we were still in our final sem.

A lil disappointed we walked out f tat place in d evening.....Eventually d day ws bad.... but sumhw is ws fun too .... i spent sum tym in punchbag's apartment... n also got a chance to drive his bike.... n tats when i decided.... tat one day m gonna write about dis in my blog.....

My dilemma

2009-03-31T01:26:00.000+05:30

I wake up every single day facing a new dilemma. sometyms its bout my facewash n sometyms d outfit for d day. Rite nw , its bout my first blog...... wow!!!! My FIRST blog!!!!!! it has to be sumthin really kool .....
hmmmmm hw bout , My best frnd.... or perhaps my hometown ..... or Dogs....
nah .....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it has to be sumthin tat i luv .... admire.... n live on ....

How bout oxygen!!!!!
DUH!! tats so silly .....
but cmon ....... it wud sound kool....

These r d words echoing in my mind rite nw...... but again .... wats it gonna be ???
i turn around 4 help ....n der she ws.....
Ambu , my cousin .... sis... , who ws lazying around readin d novel 'The Da Vinci Code' for the umpteenth time..... " Ambu!!!!!! help ..... suggest me a gud topic for my first post!!!!"

" put ur feelings in words" .... well tats d answer tat i get in return !!!!
hmph.... only if i knew wat i felt........

tym to seek help frm my blog guru ..... i sign in gtalk .... n der he ws .... PHOENIX

" hey the sky is the limit"..... wow ... didn't those words just add on to my dilemma.....

FINALLY...... i found d solution ...... my first blog post !!!!!!