Its just a silhouette

For a friend!

2012-01-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

Some people walk into your lives and manage to make a place that no one else can fill, if they leave. I am always lucky to meet people who teach me the biggest philosophies thru their life. This piece is dedicated to one such person. A person who lived in the shadow of death for almost a decade and yet managed to live a life fuller than many others.

Her dad's death was probably a big blow and what seemed to be headaches owing to the sadness was later diagnosed as brain tumor. The innumerable treatments saved her life but not without taking away her vision. Saved from death to never see the world again! Was it worth it? Well, each one of us may have doubts but not she. She lived on to complete her graduation and post graduation and it was here that I met her. All my doubts about 'Is this life worth living' were laid to rest then and there. This beautiful, fair, waist length haired girl taught me never ever to take the 'routine' things of life for granted. It took much more than dedication and hard work to record lectures, listen to them and then give her examinations thru a writer. How many of us have cried when our portable cassette player didn't work? She would almost skip a few beats if hers didn't, because for her it was not a means of entertainment. It was her biggest ally. One who would fulfill her dream of being a post graduate! "Just because I cannot see does not mean I will make candles, I will at least try and see if I can write code"- the words are clearly etched in my memory. Those were the words of a delicate looking but feisty girl out to challenge destiny. She inspired many on her way. Our department head fought with the university to let her write exams with normal (really?) people. Yeah, she finally achieved her dream from on the most reputed colleges in the city.

Just when you thought that things were turning out to be ok, her tumor relapsed and she had been bed ridden since. A few days back when I had called up, her voice was not audible on the phone because of her weak state, but deep down I felt that she would come back just like she always did. We would then again pull her leg about growing fat. But she didn't!

She taught me to see the beauty in routine and feel blessed about it. She lived her life to the fullest and taught me what that phrase really meant. I am sure she would inspire many others en route to the other world.

Rest in Peace Yogini!

Humming.......

2012-01-18T21:15:00.001-08:00

Sunte the hum yeh zindagi
gham aur khushi ka mel hain
humko magar aaya nazar, yeh zindagi woh khel hain
koi sab jeete, sab koi haar de
apni toh haar hain
yaar mere.....haan yaar mere....

sach mere yaar hain
bas wahi pyaar hain
jiske badle mein koi toh pyar de
baaki bekar hain yaar mere ...haan yaar mere

Saagar/ SP Balasubramaniam / RD Burman / Javed Akhtar

Truly Tempted

2011-12-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it - Oscar Wilde

Why is there such a strong affinity for something that is out of bounds? Is it because it is out of bounds? Probably yes! Anything that is immoral or wrong and with a high degree of repercussion is more simulating to our senses. Right choices are – “Aah! So bland”. But then the basic question - what/who defines right and wrong? That judgment usually comes from elements who contribute an iota to your existence. Why then are we always worried about appeasing these elements?

A paradigm that makes more sense to me is the one where your choices are based on people. A choice that hurts someone and in return makes you feel uneasy about your judgment - that is morality in its true form. It cannot be based on gospels and sermons because its much more than that.

So when faced with a choice, stop fretting over making the right one. It’s anyways easy to be God; what’s tough is being human!

Puneri .....once again

2011-12-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

A friend's conversation at a famous diary in Pune. The taste of this conversation is in marathi, so keeping the conversation language as is.

She: Dahi aahe ka? Kitila?
Shopkeeper: 12 la
She: Majhyakade 11 aahet.. 1 nantar deu ka?
He: (thankavun) NAHI
She: Bara.. taak?
He: (again thankavun) SUTTE 5

Kahihi mhana, tya puneri maaz chi majaach vegli!!!!!! I miss it.

Defining Moments

2011-12-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

What does it take to enjoy a movie? A good theater, a good movie...Naah! It needs an exam, rather, exams. A bunch of papers that kill you as they pass by, giving you a sigh of relief on just the last day....and that’s the perfect moment to watch a movie. No other criteria come close to that moment of finishing up your paper and heading towards the theater with your gang.

Someone was tad too perfect when s/he said that Life is nothing but a bunch of moments. Everything between those moments, well, who cares about them anyways?

Roses make no sense until the moment you have someone to give it to as you are popping the question. For that moment, nothing but a red rose would do. And irrespective of the answer to your proposal the red rose and the moment become an inseparable part of your life.
You may attend a few thousand parties in your lifetime but the party you threw with your first pay stands out from the rest of them. After all it defines a moment you were proud of yourself irrespective of the self skepticism you carry otherwise.

After adding a lot of inches to your waistline and accumulating a fortune, you may buy a Mercedes, but still it cannot beat the first Ambassador your dad bought home for the family. The moment is too precious which your accumulated fortune cannot replicate.

Most of the times we are so busy worrying about the future that we let go many such moments in the present. So the next time you think you have a defining moment just hold on to it, for it would be past soon.

Aptly said by Gulzaar -

Ek baar waqt se, lamhaan gira kahin,
wahan dastaan mili, lamhaan kahi nahin.....
thoda sa hasake, thoda sa rulake, pal yeh bhi jaaane wala hain....................

Quote

2011-09-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

The unlucky are nothing more than a frame of reference for the lucky. You are unlucky, so I may know that I am not. Unfortunately the lucky never realizes they are lucky until it's too late. Take yourself for instance; yesterday you were better off than you are off today but it took today for you to realize it. But today has arrived and it's too late. You see? People are never happy with what they have. They want what they had, or what someone else has.

........If you haven't seen the movie do watch Lucky Number Slevin, atleast the starting 45 minutes

Friendship

2011-08-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

Which is the most generalized relationship in the world? Think! Think!....... Friendship! It can just walk into any other relationship and stay harmoniously with it. Even if the original relationship fades away, friendship can stay and maintain its own identity. Truly something different, isn't it? We all get introduced to friendship long before we spell R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N and we tend to stay in friendships long after we have understood, tried, succeeded and messed relations. With the Friendship Day approaching I thought it would be cool to write about people who make up a big part of each one of us.

When I was a school kid we had this tradition on birthdays that the birthday girl could choose her best friend and take him/her around to distribute sweets. I always so eagerly waited for my friend’s birthday, because I assumed that on those distribution rounds the best friend got extra chocolates. So I distinctly remember when one of my best friends did not choose me for the tradition, I sulked for weeks to come. Come to think of it today it sounds cute but childhood friends evoke a strong passionate reaction amongst many. You had to be loyal to your friend, loyal in sharing lunch boxes, not getting too friendly with someone else and making sure that your friend was always the first to be invited to your birthday party. Since you almost grow up together in an era where other distractions have not yet taken priority, these friends are probably the most treasured (for many people).

In college, a friend is someone who rides pillion with you to college, bunks lectures and hangs out because you think the lecture is boring and completes your file while you try to impress the opposite sex. A friend lies to your mom that you are studying at her place when you are actually out with your date. A friend is the first person your mom calls up when she wants to make sure that you are indeed going on a safe trip. Everything 'extra' is promptly fulfilled by your friend without nagging you about it. It may be extra money for movies, extra time for completing your notes, extra butter-polishing so that you get to attend the lab session and many such extras.

As we all step into the adult world, this relationship quietly steps aside to make way for others. You become a professional, get hooked, become parents and go onto add many other feathers to your relationship cap. All this while friendship just exists! At times, you forget to invite it into your happiness, forget to share your grief or a momentous achievement but it never sulks. It definitely comes a long way from the childhood friendship we all adhered to. After the initial glitz and glamour, when the newness of many relationships wear off, we all cater to the neglected but still strong bond of friendship. You may have not spoken for years but just drop a mail and see the way your mail thread grows.

Friendships are like that, they do not really need a lot of attention; once the bond is set, it seems to exist forever. Anyone who makes you feel good about yourself, reminds you of your past and makes you laugh, feels happy about your present even if s/he is no longer a part of it deserves a special pat. So this friendship day raise a toast to all your friends with the age old yet contemporary proverb by Albert Camus -

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Happy Friendships Day everyone!

Help!

2011-07-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

He: What's the difference between a semi sleeper and sleeper?
Me: The semi sleeper is just a more comfortable chair.
He: But then why is it called a semi sleeper? Why not simply call it a chair?
Me: Its not a chair...it's more comfortable and reclining.
He: But it's still a chair...
Me: Alright.....it's a chair..

I get back to my work and approximately 5 minutes later he screams.......

He: I understood the difference!
Me: Ugh! what?
He: Semi sleeper chairs have a maximum angle of 135 degrees and sleepers are 180 degrees.....
Me: .............................. (Lost for words)

Whoever asked me to marry a geek!

Good Morning

2011-07-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

On the way to my hubby's office early morning today I came across a plethora of views. Views that exist always but are missed in our everyday running-to-office-state! Since it was my officially laze around day I decided to stop and look around.

Newspaper folks were busy distributing the papers according to their customer's taste. The milkman was in a hurry carrying the containers of milk. Mom and Dads in their sleepy night gowns waiting for the school bus for their wards. Their wards on the other hand excited to talk to the friend standing just beside them. Women surrounding the hand-cart vegetable seller to buy some fresh vegetables to pack tiffins or for the breakfast. Men with handbags for some early morning shopping to help their wives - milk, veggies and newspapers probably.

A bunch of freshly bathed people waiting patiently outside the temple as the priest completed his prayers. The deity decorated with beautiful marigolds and the incense sticks spreading more than just the fragrance all around. The small shops were all open and the shopkeepers all set to cater to the early morning urgent needs of their customers. The big shopping malls were still in deep slumber. The eateries were full of people who probably had no one back home to cook a sumptuous breakfast. A bunch of guys on their bicycles carrying lunch boxes and chatting amongst themselves as they rode to work. By this time we reached his office and I saw the IT professionals all set for their early morning stand-up/scrum meetings.

Mornings bring in a lot of things other than just than a new day. It brings in hope. It brings in the thought that yesterday, however it was, is gone, and today will probably be the day that sets everything to what I want. Good Morning!!!

:)

2011-07-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

It poured suddenly and I could not ride any longer, so I just parked my vehicle and stood near a shop. I saw Mr.I (Mr. Important) coming. Why that name? Well, he wore an important black tuxedo with important leather shoes and carried the even more important BlackBerry. And his driver carried an umbrella to shield Mr.I as they both walked towards where I was standing. So maybe that's not a good nickname but in the context, it was definitely apt.

Their conversation told me that Mr. I's car had broken down and so he was stranded. Probably too important to just hail a cab I guess. He waited fidgeting with his lapel and phone simultaneously when two middle aged aunties walked to him and the fun started.
The aunties: Aren’t you Chinnu? (If that was indeed his name/petname then my nickname was better, wasn't it)
Mr.I: Excuse me.
Aunty 1: Oh, see, look at him. He is so big that he cannot recognise us now. Arre we were your neighbours when you stayed at GM (someplace I couldn't catch).
Mr.I: Oh Ok, but I am really sorry I don't seem to recognise you.
Aunty 2: Aren't you Vandana's son. How is she?
Mr.I: Mamma is fine. Whom should I say asked for her?
Aunty 2: Oh, Chinnu you cannot recognize me. I know you since you didn't know how to wipe your flowing nose.
At this point I burst out as did a few others.
Mr.I (embarassed): Hmm, Aah, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Aunty 1: Chinnu, this is very bad. Ok tell mummy that you had met us. Radha Akka and Meena Akka. (Akka means sister). And don't loiter in the rains or you will catch a cold. Saying so they pulled his cheeks and left.

Mr.I was maroon red with embarrassment and I just couldn't stop laughing. Whoever you are, aunties always behave the same way I guess.

First Impressions - Bengaluru

2011-06-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

Staying in Banglore for some days now, the one word that comes to my mind to describe this city - Leisure! May be the hard core Bangloreans would disagree but being a new entrant I really think people have lot of time in this city. The best justification for my observation would be the houses here. Most of them are independent houses and are huge....I have been to quite some places in almost a week...People here really seem to put a lot of thought into building their dream-homes, if I can call them that. Most often than not I see a new idea implemented with respect to some aspect of the house; be it the main gate, the sidewalk in the garden, etc. Coming from Mumbai, where the only houses are flats and with rates that burn your pockets this is indeed a welcome change. Pune too boasts of some areas with great bungalows but the frequency is definitely less than Banglore.

Another beautiful aspect of the city is its climate. The climate is wonderful and for a person who prefers a cooler environment this is heaven. And another impressive thing out here is that many locals can converse fluently in English. Thanks to the IT sector I guess!

But as a newcomer my top 3 glitches would be-
1) I miss not knowing the local language. All my life I was in places where I was good with the local language. Sometimes when my questions draw a blank stare I feel so lost and bad too.
2) Multiplexes are oh-so-costly. After the bad reviews for Cars 2 I didn’t dare go watch it . They should atleast drop the prices for the morning shows for stingy movie buffs like me
4) Local Trains - If you are from Mumbai you have to miss the railways yaar!

But I think the glitches are too minor and once I become the proverbial Roman in the city of Rome they would cease to exist. Cheers to that!

Etiquettes anyone?

2011-06-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

I was travelling to Nasik in a semi luxury bus and long bus rides are something that I do not really look forward to, unless absolutely necessary. Anyway, this time I had decided to make the most of my journey and had equipped myself with some movies. My journey started and so did the first movie on my laptop. I was watching Omen - yeah the old one. "Mi pahila tar chalel na (Would you mind me watching?)" - the man sitting next to me asked. He was a villager dressed in the typical attire of white dhoti and a semi white kurta. "Mala sanagamner la utraycha aahe. laambcha prawas, tevdha picture baghitla ki kalnar nahin...chalel ka?" (I have to travel far and watching the movie would be a good timepass). I hate intruders in my book reading or movie watching sessions but the man had so earnestly asked me that I could not refuse him. "Pan tumhala sound aiku nahin yenar......", i told him showing him my headphones. He retorted, "Vanda nahin.....aamhi faqt picture baghu..."(No probs, I will just watch the movie). I was wondering how he could enjoy without the sound but I just it let it be because I didn't really have a choice. A few hours into the movie and I got bored, so I decided to change the movie. As i was about to start another one, I suddenly remembered that someone else was watching it too.....I looked at him and he signed me to go ahead and change the movie. This time I started “To kill a mocking bird" (Yeah i was in mood for some oldies).......I loved the movie and was completely immersed in it when suddenly I felt the nudge. I looked at my co-passenger and he was smiling. I put down my headphones and he said..... "Aaala sangamner...picture baghta baghta kevha aala kalalach nahin bagha.....dhanyawaad tai". (My stop has come, thanks for the movie sister). Saying so, he got down.

I kept looking at him. All through my journey I had not given him a second glance. Yet while getting down he had the etiquette to thank me.......and thank me for what...an english movie that he watched without the sound. I smiled........we spend a fortune trying to teach and learn etiquettes from our elite schools...and I wonder if we really do learn anything.

Quote

2011-05-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favourite quote -

Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience.

Happiness for rupees 10 ;)

2011-04-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

He walked into the shop a little confused.

He: Perk kitne ka hain?
Shopkeeper: 10 Rs.
He: Kitkat?
Shopkeeper: 12 Rs
He: 5 ka kya kya hain? [Anything for 5 Rs?]
Shopkeeper displays him various options but he is not impressed.
He: Pepsi cola kitne ka hain?
Shopkeeper: 2 Rs.
He [with a glad smile]: 4 pepsicola dena aur 4 eclairs.
Saying so he removed a 10 rupee note and gave it to the shopkeeper. Just as he got out of the shop, 4 ultra enthusiastic kids jumped on him and finished the treat he had just bought for them.

It was just amazing to see 10 rupees giving so much pleasure to so many people.

Power of faith

2011-04-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

It was a Saturday.She was sitting next to the Hanuman temple and selling oil in small glasses. Hordes of devotees came to her, picked the oil glass and went inside the temple to pour the oil on the deity. The payed for it and returned the glass only on their way back. There were approximately 200 devotees at any given instance, wanting to please the lord with the oil offering. She sat quietly, accepting the money; murmuring only occasionally when someone asked her the price of the oil filled glass. As I went to pay her I couldn't help but ask if people really paid her and returned her glasses. Her reply, "Do saal se yahan baithi hoon aaj tak kabhi gadbad nahin hui. Koi agar bhool gaya toh agle shaniwaar aakar paise de jaata hain" (Since past 2 years I have never had a problem with my accounts. Even if someone forgets on a Saturday they come back and pay the next time they come)

Ain't it cool in the era of 2G scams? Tightens your belief that everything is not yet wrong................

2011 World Cup is ours!!!

2011-04-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

Not a cricket freak at all but no one can stop me from savouring the moment. India is the new cricket world champion..............The icing on the cake, as almost all the players said, we won the cup with Sachin Tendulkar in the team! He definitely deserves it, as do the billion other Indians who eat, sleep and live cricket.

Congratulations!!!!!! Let the party begin!!!!!!!

Mood Cricket

2011-03-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

Aah! It’s great to feel the vibes of anticipation in the air. Everybody is looking forward to probably the greatest clash in sporting history. India vs Pakistan always evokes this kind of euphoria. Irrespective of the outcome it’s amazing to watch the two nations go hammer and tongs to fulfill the expectations back home.

You can't help but be affected by the mood today!!!!!!!!!!

Update:
India won this match and even the generally reserved public figures couldn’t contain their excitement. I will never forget the way Sonia Gandhi's arms flew up in the air after we won. It was heartwarming to see the always reserved leader open up a little ;)

:)

2011-03-04T01:10:00.000-08:00

In the movie, Italian Job, Charlize Theron, who is a safecracker has the habit of listening to music in her headphones when she is working on her complicated jobs. "It makes me feel I am alone" is what she says when asked about the peculiar habit. I never thought about it until recently when I seem to have developed the habit too. Yeah and the argument too is the same :)

:)

2011-02-09T22:35:00.001-08:00

My friend, Anu would always taunts me that no matter where I go, however new the place, I always end up meeting old friends. However, ever since I came to Mumbai it was not the case. Although I knew a lot of people here somehow I never bumped into them.

This week however I met 2 old friends - one at the train station and another, a classmate, recently joined my project. The look on her face when she saw me was worth a dekko ;)

Lovely Lines

2011-02-07T01:20:00.000-08:00

Fabulous lines.............

Why ponder thus the future to forsee,
And jade the brain to perplexity?
Cast off thy care, leave God's plans to him
He formed them all without consulting thee.

-Omar Khayyam

Utilization of time

2011-01-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

Looking at her certifications the interviewer was a little perplexed, so he asked - "Madam, you have been married for 5 years, have 2 kids and yet you have 3 Java certifications, six sigma certification as well as a correspondence MBA. How did you manage it?"

Her reply - "I stayed at Ambernath and worked at Andheri. My travelling time is 3 hours one way, out of which I spent almost an hour at the traffic congestion at Gandhinagar flyover. So I could manage all what you see in my resume"

That's called turning the tide in your favour ;)

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T04:47:00.001-08:00

Now that 2010 is soon going to become past tense here's a toast to the future - Welcome 2011!
Happy New Year everyone.

One for the Little Master!

2010-12-21T20:39:00.001-08:00

Even a complete off-cricket person like me is waiting for the Little Master to perform the miracle of fifty 100s and hundred 50s in One day internationals. So when he completed his fiftieth century knock in Tests against SA, I had to write something about him. Words fail short and I found a fabulous piece from Gideon Haigh’s book - 'The Sphere of Influence' -

"In his sheer constancy, Tendulkar unwittingly obscures just how completely cricket has been transformed, to the extent that it is almost impossible to imagine his fame being replicated. Who in future will play international cricket for twenty years, losing neither motivation nor mastery? Who in future will master all three forms of the game, capable of spontaneous spectacle and massive entrenchment alike? Who in future will excite us simply by walking onto the field, just a man and a bat, and disappoint so seldom?"

Just his name evokes so much of inspiration!

The Bigger Picture

2010-12-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

Some people have the knack of making others feel good about situations in specific and life in general. This happened long back but I am jotting this down when I came across someone exactly opposite to the main protagonist of this tale ;)

Walking down the aisle of a reputed, typical multi storied IT company, we were 3 scared professionals. One of us was a little extra disturbed and he had been in a state of nervous breakdown for quite some time. There came a beautiful HR and asked him for some documents. The nervous wreck that he was, he fumbled and dropped his entire file contents onto the floor, much to our dismay. We expected a blasting from the HR or at least a disgusted look. Instead the lady smiled, bent down and as she helped him collect his papers commented - "Why are you so nervous? It's just an interview, an extremely miniscule entity to something much larger - your life. Never forget about the bigger picture and start worrying about such short films". Saying so she winked! I could see the effect on the guy as he regained his composure.

If I ever own a company, I would love to have someone like that represent the face of my company. Swear the lovely lady just made my day!

New era for Bihar

2010-11-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Beating the anti-incumbency factor, Nitish Kumar's JD-U won 4/5th majority in probably India's most talked about state. Looks like finally the state can look forward to development rather than caste based politics.

:P

2010-11-12T02:04:00.001-08:00

My life almost represents a fairy tale. Everything that can go wrong does indeed go wrong and everything that can go right, never does. That's why I said almost ;)

Religion - The universal binder?

2010-10-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

As I went to Prabhadevi's famous Siddhivinayak temple for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice a few idiosyncrasies that faith and religion brings in.

Tuesday being Anagaraki Chaturthi(a special day for the elephant headed lord) the MNS folks were operating a free trip to the temple from Dadar station. The queue for this free trip amazed me and I am sure they won quite some hearts there. The temple premise was under heavy surveillance and you can’t help but feel sorry for the number of police force posted there in the scorching Mumbai heat so that the common folk have a safe meeting with the lord. The footwear stand was managed by a north Indian guy who had an amazing Punjabi dialect....they have this amazing Hindi diction that’s not heard anywhere else. A few steps later I saw a Bihari guy serving water bottles to the devotees. The darshan took almost 2.5 hours but friends told me that it was still quick considering the day; ideally it should have taken 4-5 hours. Wow! And I thought that the world was turning atheist ;). After a little pushing around near the main idol I was mesmerized by the flower decoration. I stand by my view that the most exotic jewelry for lord are fresh flowers. The gold, silver and diamonds are no match for the multi coloured gerberas, orchids, roses and the ever smiling marigold! After my darshan, I was thinking about a way back when there came a Muslim taxi guy who needed one person to complete his Dadar round. He told us that operating Dadar to Siddhivinayak on Tuesdays is one of his most preferred routes.

Religion must be the primary cause of so many conflicts worldwide that instances like this make me feel it also has the capability of being a great leveler for humankind. If only we were more tolerant.......

Any time, Party time :)

2010-10-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't have noticed him if he had not been wearing a shirt that crossed his knees. That reminded me of a cousin's kid who looked cute whenever he wore exceedingly long shirts, so long as to safely forget wearing pants or knickers ;). This kid looked adoringly cute too, inspite of the rags that he was in. He was in a local train in Mumbai selling the railway timetable.

He went and sat near a blind lady and voiced his pleasure a little loudly - 'Aga pahilya pheritach 50 rupaiye zala bagh' (I earned 50 rupees in the first round itself). The lady, probably his mom, smiled and asked him to count.
He took out the money, all 10 Rupee notes, and as he counted each note, he handed it over to his mom. She checked the note, feeling it probably and understanding its denomination and making sure her kid was not making a mistake.

As I watched both of them counting and re-counting their treasure I called the kid and asked him to give me a copy of the timetable. His delight was worth a million bucks. He darted off to his bag and promptly gave me a small booklet. I handed him a 10 Rupee note and he went berserk as he looked at his mom and beamed - "Aga atta tar saath rupaiye zale; chal na kahi tari khau ya aani mag dusrya ferila jau ya." (Common Mom, now we have 60 Rupees, let’s go and eat something before we come for the next round). And off they went as if to a party!!!

Since I have been upset for many days now, I suddenly felt at peace at their happiness. As someone rightly said - "Life may not be the party we hoped for but while we are here, we might as well dance".

Ayodhya verdict today!

2010-09-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

As the country gears up for the Ayodhya verdict, the mood in Mumbai cannot be missed. Lets hope peace prevails!

A very thought provoking poem that I read in an article. Wish everyone thought on similar lines. Sigh!

Mandir to ban jaayega
Par Ram kahan se laaoge?
Uss masjid ki deewaron ko
Kya paak kabhi kar paaoge?
Jis chaukhat par log jale
Ram wahan na jaayenge
Jin galiyaron mein khoon gira
Maula kya reh paayenge?

The article is here.

Poem - Invictus

2010-09-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best poems ever written -

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~William Henley

Quote for the moment

2010-09-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them."

...........

2010-09-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Is a known devil is better than an unknown angel?

Wish I would know the answer.

Nadal wins his career grand slam

2010-09-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Nadal is the new Career Grand Slam man! With only the US open having eluded him for sometime, this time he made no mistake. A title well deserved!

p.s. Federer lost to Djokovic in semi finals and it seems like age is catching up. I would be the happiest to see him make a comeback (I can never help my optimism). After all, he has had quite a long stretch of a career.

The wining argument

2010-08-26T01:47:00.000-07:00

You wake up from a deep sleep to go the bathroom. You glance at the watch - its 0445. You remember that you have set the alarm for 0500. The conflicting arguments of going back to sleep or staying awake has always had one winner in my case - I go back to sleep even if it is for 15 minutes ;)

Brand Tata

2010-08-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

In India, chances are you could spend an entire day using products created by Tata. You could take Tata Indica (or a Tata bus or a truck, if you’re adventurous enough) to the Taj hotel, turn on the Voltas aircon, watch TV bought from the Croma retail store, use TataSky to do so with electricity supplied by Tata Power, wear clothes from apparel retailer Westside, read books while lounging on cushions from multimedia and stationary vendor Landmark, check the time on your Titan watch, surf the internet with Tata Photon and make calls with Docomo, sprinkle Tata Salt on your grub using crockery and cutlery made by Tata Ceramics while sipping Tata Tea and drive out to a Taj beach resort for the weekend on a bridge constructed with Tata Steel. All this while you drink water from their Himalaya brand.

That's from an advertisement I recently saw in TATA premises.

A century old brand that is still going strong. Commendable, isn't it?

Ramblings

2010-08-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have boarded a fast train from Kasara to Mumbai CST. As Thane approaches, I plan to get down with my heavy bag. Regular commuters would tell you that 9 in the morning is not really a good time to alight at stations like Thane, Dombvili, etc (but then i wonder when exactly is the right time?). As I am praying to the almighty to let me down in one single piece I get a nice push. I turn back and the man comments, "Aila ladies hain". (Yeah, a single lady too evokes the plural noun form). The uncle to my right comments, "Idhar kahe ko chadha, ladies compartement mein chadhne ka". I smile and look at my hubby in front. "Acha, navra hain kya.....arre saab biwi ko aage lo na aap....warna woh utar nahin payengi". My poor hubby was getting the bashing, it was infact my stupid choice to get into the genral compartment because the ladies one was empty at the first stop.

For the next 3 minutes, there is no pushing so that the 'ladies' can stand in little comfort. I must say i am impressed by this chivalrous effort but as soon as the station is in sight there is such a commotion that my I am blinded by the rush. I do not remember anything except that after a few seconds I was on Thane station with my scarf in one hand, my bag on another....and yeah I am in one piece.....but hell! I just don't remember using my legs to walk a single step!

I look back at the train and I can see smiling faces as if to say "Welcome to Mumbai Mam".

;)

2010-08-20T04:39:00.001-07:00

A completely drenched lady gets into the compartment. Another lady, probably her friend, asks "OMG, you are all wet. Was it raining?"
"No, I just took a full body wash in the station bathroom", retorts back the drenched lady.

Quote

2010-08-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection!

From the book - Eat Pray Love

Song

2010-08-08T22:49:00.001-07:00

One of my all time favourite anatara (urdu for the middle stanza) -

Barbadiyon ka shok manana fizul tha...
manana fizul tha....
barbadiyon ka jashna manata chala gaya....
har fiqra ko dhooein mein udata chala gaya...

Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya
har fiqra ko dhooein mein udata chala gaya...

Rafi's magical voice, Sahir Ludhianvi's perfect lyrics and a good looking Dev Anand on the screen for the movie 'Hum Dono'

Three cheers to the Mumbai local

2010-08-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Whatever it is, I stand by my previous thought - this city has a quintessential charm! So let me pick the first charming thing about the city that every newcomer always raises a toast to - Mumbai locals!

As I crossed the 3 suburban railway lines to reach office I couldn’t help but notice that there were thousands others who did the same. But it was only me who was worried, everyone else was busy doing something on the journey. Everytime I had a confused look while switching the railway lines, in would come a good samaritan and narrate the plethora of options that lay before me. It isn’t really exciting to listen to someone talking in the native tongue - "1017 ko andheri se fast local jaati hain, usase dadar chale jaana, phir central line mein switch maaro aur Kurla jaakar wahan se Panvel chale jana. Itna mushkil nahin hain". You thought that the native tongue was marathi...no its locals! Mumbaikars eat, sleep and breathe locals ;).

Any other city probably would just have 2 options with respect to a local train - time and destination. Mumbai's railway network has probably the largest set of reserve words I ever thought was possible - fast, slow, central/main line, western line, harbour line, 12 car, 9 car, ladies special. The introduction of metro is just gonna add to the list I guess.

The cities that allow you to switch between the railway networks, example - Kurla, Dadar; one should probably hold a contest here at peak hours to check who manages to actually walk down or up the foot over bridge. Because in the 2 weeks that i tried you cannot choose to walk, you glide with the wave of passengers along. And if you glide in the wrong direction, no choice, curse your stars and start again!

Inspite of all this, its probably the best network I have ever seen. Every single point on the map is connected by the rail network with the trains running on perfect time. A 0717 hrs means just that, its never 0720 hrs. There is a train every other minute although you get a feeling that the rush in each of them is much more than the previous one.

The sheer magnitude of people travelling by the Mumbai railways can overwhelm you. As a newcomer you would detest the close proximity with which people travel. You wish you could be in a place where the density of population was lesser and the crowds thinner. But just when you are about to miss a train and are running towards it, out come many hands to pull
you in and remind you that this proximity is what keeps people human here!

:(

2010-07-27T09:39:00.001-07:00

I want to write so many things but somehow, I am not finding the time to sit down and actually write down anything. Uff! I really wish my hectic schedule slows down a bit so that I could write down about a wonderful city called Mumbai!

Free voucher

2010-06-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

I won a Radio One voucher today. The question was simple - Which of the 2 songs 'Aanewala pal' and 'Rimjhim Gire Saawan' would be played as the 13th song on the radio station. I answered 'Rimjhim', another caller - Ekta answered 'Aanewala pal'. Luckily I won! I get a voucher for the Little Italy restaurant in Pune.

I have never ever done anything like this...When my brobs heard my sound on the radio, (we were busy doing shopping), he freaked out. Probably both the songs are my favourites; so I just subconsciously chose a song and sent the sms. An unplanned move that earned me a free voucher :D

Soccer fever

2010-06-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

The soccer fever seems to have caught the young and the old like :) What got me into the groove, however, was the promotional song for the 2010 FIFA world cup. K'naan's waving flag seems to be just right for the event. The mood, the tempo all fit beautifully and creates a beautiful melody. Yeah, they have modified the original song to remove the dark portions of the lyrics and its rightly called the 'Celebration Mix'.

Give me freedom, give me fire,
give me reason, take me higher
See the champions, take the field now,
you define us, make us feel proud
In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration, it surround us, every nations, all around us

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag
When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag.......

p.s. Check the original song here.

Nadal wins French Open 2010

2010-06-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted Soderling to capture the Roland Garros but the king of clay proved his mettle and beat Soderling to regain his favourite trophy. Yeah! he also too back the world no. 1 spot with that win.
The grass courts beckon my favourite! Eagerly waiting for the original lawn tennis tournament - Wimbledon

Foot in the mouth

2010-06-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

Nikhil (exasperated): Who the hell has written this piece of junk? Unnecessarily complicated the simple workflow.
Mahesh(who happens to be Nikhil's boss): Me. What happened?
Nikhil: Nothing man!!! Watched a late night movie yesterday, so didn't sleep well. Even simple things seem to appear complicated today.

Moral:Thou shall be careful with those who earneth a higher basic pay ;)

Federer out :(

2010-06-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

Soderling did it again! Federer's clay performance hasn't really been inspiring but let's see if Soderling manages to upset the king of clay - Nadal, as he did last year.

With my favourite out even before the quarters I am hoping Justin Henin does some magic. After all she is one of the most successful Roland Garros player.

Update: Henin is out too, I had missed the match :(

:)

2010-05-13T21:15:00.001-07:00

How happy I was when Bhai was born.....I had someone to tie rakhi to ;) That’s all what i wanted him for.... I didn’t like taking care of him especially during my play time. I honestly declare that my brobs has probably been the most bullied sibling and I do not apologize for my acts. On this special day I just thought I should probably write down one of my favourite anecdotes during my childhood when my brother was just a tiny toddler.

Mom: You better take him to play
Me: No, he is such a slow player, I lose my game.
Mom: You are an elder sister; you should be protective of your brother and look how mean you are!
Me: Of course I am protective....just keep him home so, no one gets to do anything to him. Now isn’t that protection?
Mom: Shut up and take him along with you.

I fretted, cried and tried all the possible ways to let my displeasure known but moms can be pretty adamant you see. I gave up and took him along. As he tagged along on my way to the playground, the cutie pie (he was quite a looker) gave me a nice smile to which I devilishly said -

Me: Stop smiling, do you know why mom takes so much care of you?
Bhai: Because I am her son.
Me: No you idiot. You are not her son, in fact you do not belong to the family. Once mom went to throw the garbage and saw you lying there. She got you home.
Bhai:(Too stunned to react probably)
Me (continuing in my patronizing tone): That’s the reason we all try to love you and mom loves you more

He stopped and asked me to drop him back home. I was so happy....my ploy worked. I dropped him home saying that he didn’t want to play. Mom didn’t ask any questions. I was glad to have my time but when I returned from my game I saw that tiny bundle in my room full of tears. His eyes were swollen red and his cheeks flushed. He refused to believe mom who was trying to convince him that he was indeed her son. When I entered, she looked at me and sharply said "You better tell him the truth or you will have it from me." I went to him and told him that I had lied and that I was just teasing him. He made me do a 'God promise' before believing me.

The tables have turned now; he is no longer the cutie pie that he used to be but a 6 footer who has a sharp wit, a sweet tongue but a teenage temper too. However, I still bully and blackmail him to my heart's content....that hasn't really changed ;)

Happy Birthday bhai!!!!!

Song

2010-05-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

....

Shart lagi hai mar jaane ki
Jeena hai toh pyaar mein
Deh kahin bhi ho vo mera
jaan rakhi hai yaar mein jaa
….beh jaa
hai sagaar ka kehna
beh jaa… beh jaa
hai nadiya ko behna

behne de ghanghor ghata
behne de paani ki tarah
saagar mein jaa girna hai
behne de nadiya ki tarah

Gulzaar's beautiful poetry with Rahman's music for the upcoming movie Raavan

Dissecting my bag ;)

2010-05-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

"You had to come like this", fumed my mom. I was attending her close friend's party (no idea what it was for) and aunty had insisted that I come along. The ever busy me decided to drop by on my way from office but my mom's question just when I was about to enter her friend’s house took me by surprise. I was appropriately decked up according to Keralite standards - a bangle instead of my adorable bracelet, a pair of mini chandeliers as ear-rings....but yet all my pain staking sacrifice seemed to have done nothing to please my mom. Her singular, focused and undivided attentive look on my backpack let me into the secret....I was carrying a backpack instead of the more feminine purse. It was pure sacrilege!

That evening, after lending me an earful of gyaan she did the unthinkable. She confiscated my backpack and began questioning me about its contents. Here’s how it went -

Mom: Why do you have to carry this file?
Me: I usually hate folding papers, so in case of unforeseen circumstances where I receive sheet(s) of paper(s) I could keep them in THAT file instead of folding them.
(Gives me a dissatisfied look and continues.)

Mom: What are these - comb, kaajal pencil,.......(I don’t wish to name my make up kit)
Me(frust): Mom, those are a woman's birthright!
(She quite agreed to that;) )

Mom: Why are there two wallets?
Me: In case someone steals one, I do not have to call you up for help....I will have some reserve money with me :P
(Hmmmmmmmmm look)

Mom: What is this book for?
Me: Reading......I have some leisure time to read in the bus and.....(she didn’t bother to listen the next part)

Mom: What’s this second book for?
Me: Oh that! the first book is about to get over....in case it does, I don’t have to stare at my fellow passengers, I have another one to start immediately

Mom(putting her hands up): Where the hell is your laptop?
Me: Hey! I don’t have to carry it everyday...I have a different system in my office and...
Mom(cutting me short again): You mean you carry this big backpack for carrying novels.....
Me (Grinning): Yeeeeeeeeeessssssssss

That did it! She stormed out of the room leaving me alone with my idiosyncrasies :D

Peppy track

2010-04-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

My mind had been thinking so hard since yesterday that I was in a state of despair when i got up in the morning. No matter what i did, I just felt hopeless. In this state I got to hear an old hindi pop track. Years after it was released, I think it is still peppy (I can see my hubby frowning on my choice).....but i am out my blues with 'que sera sera' attitude ;) all thanks to this song

hawa hawa aye hawa khushbu loota de
kahan khuli haan khuli zulf bata de
ab uska pata de, zara mujhko bata de
main usase milunga, ek baar mila de...
yaar mila de.....dildar mila de.....

zindagi ki dhoop ko saaya kar gayi
aaj mere paas se woh guzar gayi.....
usne joh kahan tune bhi suna
yeh baat aur kisko na batana....

Pakistani singer Hassan Jahangir had barged into the music scene with that song and years later it probably still rocks all parties and dance floors.....

Another to-the-point reply

2010-04-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

I wonder sometimes if my blog is turning into 'Pune PMPML Bus diary' but I think I shouldn't bother too much about it.

The bus depot near Pune Corporation is a crowded junction with too many bus stops and no proper pointers. A beginner generally has a tough time identifying his stop and if he cannot speak the local dialect or worse, has a flair for the Queen's language, he is in a big trouble.

It was just another normal working day that had come to an end. Everyone in the bus was busy waiting for the driver and glancing at their watches. Being the start location it wasn’t really crowded. The conductor was distributing tickets. In walked a guy; he wore a 3 piece suit; obviously all eyes turned towards him with a 'did-your-car-breakdown' look. He had a backpack and a separate laptop case which meant he had obviously strayed from the nearby IT jungle.

The gentleman: Excuse me Mr. Conductor. Will this bus take me to Kalyaninagar?
(With that line every single soul onboard who understood English probably LOL.)
The conductor: (Does that convey his blank expression)
The gentleman in the matrubhasha mode: Conductor ji, aap batayenge yeh bus Kalyaninagar jayegi?
The conductor: (Repeat act by the conductor)

The gentleman was all lost now and was looking at the nearby passengers to guide him to appease the lord...I mean the conductor. Finally the lord spoke.....

Conductor: Neeche utarneka, left ko turn leke seedhe jaaneka...
The gentleman: Wahan pe Kalyninagar ka bus stop hain kya?
Conductor: Nahin, Enquiry counter.

If you appreciate sarcasm you will find music there ;)

The brilliant reply

2010-03-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Colleges are like that! Looking back, most of the things that we did (rather THEY made us do) make absolutely no sense now, but yeah, they make a part of some fantastic memories.

Ours was a batch that was unanimously horrible with UNIX. We had been working on windows and we have had quite a few visiting lecturers refusing to teach us because we were novice of the first order. What did they expect? Why would a person with a Torvalds DNA structure sit for a lecture on the first hand! Finally we managed to get hold of a professor who would come, ramble in the class and leave. The teacher and the class were unanimously indifferent to each other!

It was this afternoon lecture, hardly a time to learn UNIX or VI, but the professor was busy bragging about VI and its features. Nobody in the class cared a damn. What difference did it make to us? Suddenly he raised his voice (he probably realized that the class was fast asleep) and asked loudly - "Do you know we use the h, j, k, l for navigation in VI? If so, how the hell do we actually type the alphabets h, j, k, and l?” No response. Nobody had probably even heard the question. He suddenly looked at Ashish who had the same 'disturb-me-not-look' as he always had. You there, can you tell me?
What sir, asked the thoroughly confused Ashish. "If we use h, j, k, l instead of the arrow keys in VI for navigation what do we do when we have to type those alphabets?" asked the professor. "Use the arrow keys Sir!” came the brilliant and unadulterated reply.

Never again, as far as I remember the professor asked any questions in our class ;)

p.s. As with most of my posts, names changed :)

Anecdote

2010-03-10T21:04:00.000-08:00

It was already 11 and our turn to register our group. But there was no sign of Ravi. Sid, Neeta and me were worried. He had the project reports and without submitting them we would have been disqualified immediately. It was one of those college competitions where a win ensured you could bunk classes for the next 20 days on the pretext of being tired. Obviously! Winning a competition is no mean task even if it’s sponsored by your local chaiwallah. A win is just what it is - a win. And yeah, it nurtured our adolescent egos too.

Our worried faces searched every moving object in the room to catch a glimpse of our 4th partner who seemed to have suddenly disappeared. Frantic searches lead to a dead end and just as we were about to give up, in walked Ravi with our reports and a bunch of girls with worried looks. Until that moment we thought we were the only ones with a question mark on our faces. "Can you guys help?", I heard him shout and looked towards him. "Neha here has lost her purse. She had lots of money in it. We have been trying to locate it visiting every place she went to but no use. Can you guys pitch in for help?" So there lay our answer! As we 3 idiots were finalizing our strategy, our cool-as-a-cucumber partner was busy skirt chasing.....he had probably got introduced to Neha half an hour ago but he spoke of her purse as if it contained his hard-earned money. We were too angry probably because none of us spoke for full 10 minutes. Finally, Neeta blurted out, "Let’s get a horse". We all looked surprised...Horse, what for?, asked Sid. "Yeah, so that the knight in shining armour can ride a horse, locate the missing purse and rescue his damsel in distress", said Neeta to deliver the knockout line and drill some sense into our partner.

Till date we have a field day watching an embarrassed Ravi run for cover whenever we remind him of the incident :)

:)

2010-03-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

When in despair and sadness, wear something new, buy a gift for yourself and see the change.

Advertising (non)sense

2010-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

A beautiful model walking out of a water body in a flaming red bikini. Can you guess the advertisement? Let me give you some options -
A) XYZ Beauty Soap
B) IJK body lotion
C) OPQ Hair shampoo
D) ABC bikini makers (I have never seen them but still!)
E) None of the above

The right answer - E. It’s an advertisement for JK cement. Yeah! As Sachin knocked us all crazy with his double ton I couldn’t help but smile at the JK cement advertisement that were being played on air. Will somebody explain the connection between the bikini girl and the product? I couldn’t figure any.........but I think they got what they wanted....I will never forget this ad. After all it takes a different kind of genius to dole out that kind of crap!

p.s. Meanwhile hail the god of cricket...he makes even an unenthusiastic cricket person like me to move to the corner of my sofa seeking divine intervention.....even the gods would have been busy watching him yesterday!

Poetry Time

2010-02-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

I had posted this before but most probably it got lost with my Yahoo 360 blog. One of Ogden Nash's gems and a personal favourite.

Love is a word that is constantly heard,
Hate is a word that is not.
Love, I am told, is more precious than gold.
Love, I have read, is hot.
But hate is the verb that to me is superb,
And Love but a drug on the mart.
Any kiddie in school can love like a fool,
But Hating, my boy, is an Art.

The perfect reply

2010-02-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

Gift of the gab with the correct quantity of wit and sarcasm thrown ....I hardly know folks who have that trait. It's sheer pleasure to listen to such people.

Was talking to Nikhil after a gap of years.....

Nikhil: Life's cool...US is being good,it held onto me inspite of the recession...that wasnt really easy ;)
Me: :). Hey, by the way hows Niharika?

Prolonged silence made me realize that I had struck a wrong note......Damn! I thought. I should not have asked that question......The errie silence continued before Nikhil delivered the knockout line that said eveything -

"You never marry the person you first watch Casalanca with"

Inspite of the sad undercurrents I ended by doing a WOW.I really couldnt help it!

A sweet ordeal

2010-02-01T04:24:00.000-08:00

I was travelling from Pune to Mumbai and inspite of waiting for 45 minutes when my bus didn’t turn up I realized something was amiss because usually the buses run on time. On enquiring with the conductor of another bus he told me I had booked the wrong ticket. I had booked the tickets for morning 05:45 instead of an evening one. Imagine a 24 hour time format lover like me making such a stupendous mistake! There wasn’t any time to lose, I decided to fret over it once I had figured a way out to resolve my stupidity. Thanks to Anu who dropped me immediately to the main bus depot I caught a bus just as it was about to leave. But there was a catch! There weren’t any vacant seats, if I decided to take the bus I had to travel standing for the 2.5 hours of my journey. I opted for it. Usually a decision haunts you only after its taken….sigh!!!!!!

So began my journey..err...standing journey.

15 minutes into my journey a teenage girl walked up to me and asked me to occupy a seat reserved for her sister who would have got in late. Happily, I obliged. That saved 30 minutes of standing. When the girl's sister walked into the bus from another stop I reluctantly vacated the seat. As I was standing, a very old grandma looked at me and smiled. I smiled back too. I was now in the self-abusing mode, cursing my stupidity about overlooking such a simple fact while booking the ticket (Yeah, I had delegated this task when I had more important things to do). As I cursed myself in all the languages I knew, the smiling grandma opened a Tiffin box and gladly offered me a paratha as she added "You might be tired standing. Why don’t you have this?". I was flabbergasted and again I obliged. Now a paratha wasn’t a bad offer for I needed all the strength I could gather ;). Just as I finished having my paratha an auntie nearby asked me to sit on her seat's hand rest. I muttered a thanks and declined but she wasn’t to listen. I HAD to sit. She asked where was I going to get down and why hadn’t I booked a ticket? I told her my destination and the reason cleverly disguising my stupidity as urgency. By then we were almost 2 hours into the journey. The bus took a halt and people got down for their various businesses.

When we all assembled back, a mid-aged uncle walked up to me and asked me to occupy his seat as he was finding it inconvenient to sit in the small seat since he was obese(he told me exactly that). I argued till I lost. I am not exactly fond of chivalry but then how many times do we demean ourselves to make someone else comfortable? Not unless we are sure to score a point and increase our self-deprecating-sense-of-humour quotient. But here was man who was offering me his seat because he thought I was too tired to stand. Reluctantly, I did as he wished. Fortunately it was the last leg of my journey.....because I couldn’t help but feel guilty.

Finally my destination arrived and as I got up to leave I thanked all those good Samaritans who just made my journey memorable! I got a feeling that people are essentially good and this goodness manifests in such experiences :)

16th Grand Slam win!

2010-01-31T04:30:00.000-08:00

Murray's hope of creating history after Fred Perry were laid to rest by Roger Federer as he won the 24 point tie breaker to lift the Australian Open.

A fab start to the year for the new dad ;)

What's best about Mumbai?

2010-01-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

The victorian buildings:Nothing beats this one. I loved those buildings at their first sight, the stone walls, huge wooden doors, those french windows, corridors that seem to be never ending...... if i ever stay anywhere between CST and churchgate, I would take a walk everyday to imbibe the sheer magnanimity that these old age buildings seem to disperse.

Trains:Just when you thought that there isn’t an iota of space to keep another pair of feet, in come hoards of people and they still manage to fit in. You may curse and abuse the system but you could never miss that commuter who has a bag pack on his bag and a newspaper which he reads in leisure as if seated in a five-star dining room. You need to just look around to find a thousand faces that make you appreciate everything you have rather than cribbing about what you don’t!

Yeah! I know there are issues that plague this city but manmade issues cannot stop me from adoring a city that spells life and dreams for millions of people!

~ from the eyes of a newbie

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T19:47:00.000-08:00

As I tried writing about 'Top 3 things of 2009' I ended up writing 4 things. I inevitably tried to think of another thing to make my blog 'Top 5 things of 2009'...but again ended by having 7 things....so i retorted to start the year's blog with a conservative yet effective(the narcissist me thinks so) way -

Happy Ney Year everyone!

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

The motivational factor

2009-12-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

A normal conversation in my office cubicle -

Me: How were the rounds? Any interesting candidates?
Anish: Yeah, two of them.
Me: I hope they are well versed with jdk1.5. Did you check that out?
Anish: No
Me: What did you ask them then? Servlets, jsps?
Anish: No
Me: Arre phir poocha kya?
Anish: General aptitude questions.
Me (irritated): But that round is already done! You were there to interview candidates for our Java requirement and if you thought they weren’t fitting the bill why didn’t you send them to a different interviewer?
Anish (3 times irritated): Because they were real good looking girls and the project is in need of some dire motivation.

The male fraternity in my team stood up nodding their heads in complete agreement while the female fraternity burst out laughing.

God in small things

2009-12-21T04:59:00.000-08:00

Another one from my bus-diary -

Travelling by bus, you should be carrying exact change lest you meet a moody conductor who gives you a sermon about his ‘change’ problem.

Another normal day when the bus conductor was abusing an elderly man 'coz he didn’t have change. He was using extremely foul language but nobody dared to interrupt him because everyone knew that it would simply complicate the matter. The old man probably thought the same, for he just stood patiently, handling the verbal assault with a calm disposition. Soon the bus passed a small temple and the conductor subconsciously became silent and religiously folded his hands and prayed. It was amazing to see how a stone elicited his respect but not a person in flesh and blood. After his revered gesture to the almighty he continued with the abusing. All this happened in a matter of seconds and was almost mechanical. The old man who had observed all this coolly said, “Aadhi disnarya mansaanshi neet vagayla shika magach tya na disnarya devapudhe haath joda” (Learn to respect people in flesh and blood before you bow before that invisible god).

The line had its effect for the conductor just went away to handle other commuters but this time, his mannerisms had mellowed down.

Sycophancy

2009-12-08T01:43:00.002-08:00

UPCC president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi's comment on how sincere Rahul Gandhi was when he forced his pilot to land in zero visibility so that he wouldn’t miss his commitment of meeting people would have had most of the sensible people in splits. Who would override the pilot's decision about safe and unsafe landing? Not sensible folks atleast! In her attempt to (probably) appease the high command she ended up in quite an awkward position because within minutes the junior most Gandhi quickly gave a press statement saying he had done no such thing. In his own words - "I am a pilot and I am absolutely aware of the dangers of flying in low visibility conditions. I will be the last person to do it."

I have been waiting for the UPCC president's next remark but so far none have been forthcoming.

Movie Review: Paa

2009-12-08T01:43:00.001-08:00

One word for the movie - Lovely!

To begin the review skeptics who are comparing it to Benjamin Button can take a back seat. The movie is refreshing and definitely an original. Balki's previous movie 'Cheeni Kum' was a nice one too. The reason I liked that movie was for its dialogues and Paa, you have a lot of satire and wit to keep you glued.

The story of Auro, a single mother's son diagnosed with progeria is a heartwarming one and far from being whining. He leads an almost normal life surrounded by amazing characters including his best friend, Vishnu. I especially liked the scene where the 11 yr old Vishnu talks about his dad explaining the similarities he shares with him......witty convo. Auro steals the scene and yeah! not for a moment you would feel that it’s a 67 year old playing a 12 year old kid. Amitabh is one lucky man! Even at this age he continues to get scripts that are written especially for him. But nobody can deny his hard work, he pulled it off amazingly too :)

Just one hiccup, but with the song that is rocking charts. The music of the song 'Gumsum Gum ' is a direct lift from a very old Malayalam melody (all I know is the singer there was S.Janaki, details later....). When I heard it I was a little disappointed that someone of the music director's caliber could also do that without a proper credit.....but you can’t help it.

Great performances by the rest of the cast, especially - Arundhati Nag as Vidya’s mother but little Auro is the child of the moment! My favourite actor has done it yet again!

Anger management anyone?

2009-11-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

For a person who is generally crystal clear about most of the things when I get stuck in the 'this-or-that' state I hate every moment of it. I am terribly upset and angry over something. One part of me says to shout loud and make my disagreement public. Another part says to just keep quiet and strike when the iron is hot. So far, the later is winning. What is the correct approach when you are angry? Is it to shout from rooftops and let the concerned people know about your displeasure or would it be to rather wait for an opportune moment and catch them unaware.

Public displays have an inherent advantage of making you feel better because you have already exhausted a lot of your emotions in trying to state and re-state your cause. However, at times you lose track of the final target and get more concerned about belittling someone else. Also, most often than not words used when you are angry have bitterness than rationality associated with them. That probably is the reason we have always been advised by elders to drink a glass of water whenever we are angry. It is actually to buy time and organize your thoughts before you start a verbal assault.

Staying (atleast trying to) calm and waiting for the opportune moment has it’s own benefits too! You do not risk speaking harsh thoughts which you would not be able to erase off even if you wanted to. You organize your thoughts; contemplate the problems at your end before raising the accusing finger. In all, this looks better but then you have a whole lot of emotions stacked inside you which would have been better off if released. It creates a dilemma and you are left wondering if this is indeed the correct approach. You just want to speak out, it takes too much efforts to keep quiet.

Not really sure what’s the best way out but staying quiet without actually giving up seems more tempting to me!

Hypocrite - To be or not to be

2009-10-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Long time ago when I had filled me orkut profile I had added an entry in the 'Turn Offs' section – Hypocrisy. I haven't yet edited it (not atleast till the time of writing this blog) and so when I realized how contradicting this was with my everyday life I thought why not just put this down.

Hypocrisy for the all years I have known it has had a negative existence but many a times it just works right. Come to think of it how many times do we just speak the plain truth. We always twist and turn the obvious to make it sound more amiable and less offending. Its not wrong either! Someone comes and asks you to comment on his/her new dress. You think its pathetic, the color is too loud and the design is boring but you say none of these. All you say is “Its nice” or the less hypocrite may say “I would have never chosen this for myself but it looks nice on you”. I do this all the time. Come to think of it what is the point in saying the dress looks horrible to someone who is probably just wanting a nice compliment. Common! It isn't a life threatening situation. Its an everyday one where most of us choose a practical and less offending solution. Often its more advisable to just say nice things even when you don't feel like it, not because the truth would hurt but because the truth may not really do something extraordinary. A false compliment might just light up someone's dull day whereas a true statement might worsen the already worst day of his life.

There are situations, however, where nothing but truth helps. There are people too who would expect nothing but an honest answer when they turn to you. That, I think, are the only situations and people with whom you should never be a hypocrite. Say the truth even if it hurts, simply because the person is much more important and deserves nothing less than the truth. If you mess up that time you mess up many things and lose much more than just a friend :)

As someone had rightly said - “Its alright to be honest as long as you know when to be honest”.

UP - Movie Review

2009-09-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

Pixar's new release in association with Disney is a treat for one and all. Do not miss this 1 hour 45 minutes treat :)

US open 2009 - DelPo and Clijsters Days out

2009-09-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Many asked me why didn't I have any comments on my favourite losing the grand slam. They thought I was feeling very sad. On the contrary I am not. It was a well deserved win by DelPo against Federer. I hadn't updated my blog because I couldn't watch the tournaments. I just managed to savour the highlights on their website. But yeah the semi final against Nadal was a clear indication that DelPo was not playing like an underdog. The world no.6 beat world no.2 and world no.1 to clinch the US open.

The woman's singles too saw some surprises as new-mom Clijsters won the grand slam and her 2 year daughter holding the cup was essentially the highlight at flushing meadows...........the most photogenic moment probably :)

Choose whom you follow

2009-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Many a times you are racking your brains for some logical reasoning to a situation and it eludes you for days together. Then all of a sudden everything falls into place.For days now I have been feeling helpless and probably frustrated about many things in my life. I had been trying to reason the mediocrity that I seem to be surrounded with and getting no answers I was irritated. It was during such a state that this small incident happened.

Riding thru Bhandarkar road I was following an auto rickshaw driver rather diligently. I am a typical Puneri rider and I always find a way out of any traffic jam , so my friend Neha was surprised when instead of overtaking I seem to follow this driver who was driving very slowly. Tired of my slow speed she retorted loudly -”Abe tujhe follow hi karna hain toh aage wale Fiat linea ko kar na.....rickshaw ko kyon kar rahi hain” (If you are so intersted in following why dont you follow the Fiat linea instead of this auto rickshaw?)

Bang! There in I had my answer. If you think you are following mediocrity synonymous (with due respects) to the rickshaw, its your choice because you have chosen to turn a blind eye to a better option (in this case Linea).

The mediocrity in my life is my own making and I cannot get frustrated about it. Moving ahead with an inquisitive and ready-to-learn mind is what I should be doing. I have to choose whom I follow :)

p.s No ways I am trying to say that a rickshaw holds no importance against a Linea. Its just that I associated these 2 vehicles with 2 different states of mind probably because anything that is costlier automatically becomes desirable for humans :)

What an idea Madamji ;)

2009-08-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes an idea is so ridiculously simple, yet its taken an eternity to implement it. Two such things that always had me perplexed saw the light of the day in the past few weeks :)

1) Security code for a credit card:
When i started using a credt card, the first thing that came to my mind was - Why isnt there a security code that I choose and no one else knows about? I mean a credit card is used at so many places, especially for online transactions. Everything they ask you to furnish is readily available on the card. So anyone who has your card can do a transaction with/out your consent. So the obvious thought is why not have a code that you select and is nowhere on the card. If you share it with anyone you know what you are getting into! Very simple idea but I think quite effective.

Yeah, if you have seen the latest directive from RBI every credit card now should have a security code associated with it. No transactions without it.Period.

2) Changing the mobile pulse to seconds:How many times have you fretted over finishing the last call at 2:01 minutes? You are left wondering that for a second more why do i pay for the whole pulse of 1 minute? Today with cheaper rates its no big deal but still I know we all crib at a few extra seconds on the pulse. I had always thought why not bill per second or atleast change the pulse frame to a lower window say 5 seconds per pulse?

And now, Tata Docomo is advertising that it plans to do just that.

Maybe there were valid reasons for these two ideas to not take shape earlir. If anyone knows about it drop a comment. As of now let me feel happy that I had some practically viable ideas boiling inside my head ;)

Joke

2009-08-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

The vector was walking down cartesian drive when he bumped into a confused Scalar.
The vector asked him what was wrong and he replied, "Help I have no direction."

Techie one....but cute ;)

Puneri - To the Tee

2009-08-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

I was near this shop waiting for a friend when there came a man and asked me the route to reach Mumbai. I didnt know it and I told him so. He looked around to see if anyone else could help him. There came 3 young men who gave him many different routes. They seemed to be very helpful as each one of them drew maps explaining why one route was better than another one. However, the man who had asked the route seemed to be worried about something or the other and kept saying things like "he tar khoop laamb aahe, ugach petrol kharcha honar" (This one is a long route, I will waste the fuel), "Ithe khoop traffic jaam asnaar"(This route genrally has traffic snarls), etc.

Hearing this the shopkeeper resorted to an irritated expression and blurted out loudly - "ek kaam kara, chalat suta......petrol hi vachnaar aani traffic jaam hi nahin lagnaar" (Why dont you just start walking, you wont face any snarls and no petrol needed either). Everyone burst out laughing as the poor chap got his dose of Puneripana ;)

Wrong profession ;)

2009-07-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

Many public transport drivers have a bad habit of not stopping the bus at the bus stop but many meters before or after the designated stop.
One such driver who had stopped the bus far away was being reprimanded by an elderly uncle when in popped another old man with a remarkable sense of humour. To add zing to the humour was his amazing Urdu dialect. He pacified the elder uncle by saying , "Arre bade miyan jaane dijiye. In sahab ko toh desh ka Olympic coach hona chahiye....kamaskam khiladioyn ko dauda daudakar jeetaynge aur desh ka naam roshan toh karwayenge....hain na miya?"

The driver's embarrassed face was worth a dekko!!

Whacking myself :(

2009-07-23T04:08:00.000-07:00

Feel like whacking myself for such a blunder. Thats the reason I hate being online when I am working, I cant handle it.

I was online on a chat messenger and amid debugging there popped 2 chat windows - from A and B. I was discussing some contradictory stuff and as you must have guessed it I pasted the wrong contents on both the windows. All efforts to rectify it where lost.....somehow TCP/IP does not allow you to recall packets (I really wish technology would have allowed me that). So this moment I am just angry at myself...grr!!!!!

Pearls of Wisdom :)

2009-07-16T00:06:00.001-07:00

My grandmom wasn’t keeping well and so I took her early morning breakfast to her room. The maid was busy wiping the floors and I smiled at her as I woke up my grandma. She got up reluctantly and I could see that she was in a bad state. Before she ate her first morsel she looked at the maid and enquired what did she have for breakfast? The maid replied since it was too early she was going to finish the work and then go and have one.

On hearing this, my grandma asked me to get another plate for her. The maid's continuous pleas, that she was alright was of no use and my grandmom made her eat a plateful before she took her first morsel. For my confused look she simply said - "How can you have your food when someone else working for you is working on an empty stomach?"

It’s for these amazing righteous acts of hers that I dismiss her silly superstitions and tantrums and just let her be :)

shayaris ;)

2009-07-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

Haathon ki laakeeron pe par vishwas nahin karna chahiye
kyon ki taqdeer toh unki bhi hoti hain jinke haath nahin hote

Sochta hoon in saagar ki laharon ko dekhkar
kyon yeh kinare se takraa kar chali jaati hain
karti hain woh kinaare se bewafai ya sagar se wafa nibhaati hain

Been long since I have met or spoken to someone who could just rattle off mirza ghalibs and khayyams in the correct context and leave you stunned. Probably the missing creed in a system dominated by software engineers, MBA holders and too techie folks :)

The new world number one :)

2009-07-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

In the longest ever last set played at Wimbledon, Federer beat Roddick to win his 15th grand Slam title. Approximately at 2300 hrs IST Federer found Roddick's serve in his comfortable zone and dispatched a fabulous forehand winner........and history was made!!!!

I was planning to skip the match for I thought it would be a 3 setter and not so interesting. I am glad I didn’t! Roddick was definitely the better player had it not been for his last 2 services. My favourite was at loss for he couldn’t just break his opponent's serve. Reminded me of last year's Wimbledon final where Nadal had overshadowed Federer both physically and mentally. Although lost on many occasions Federer wasn’t down and he delivered on more than one occasions. Roddick played the match of his life and gave Federer quite a scare, but, the new world number one knew exactly how to get him around. I think he loses his amazing determination only to Nadal.....no one else has been able to ruffle him. Many take him down but are unable to keep him there....exactly like yesterday.

The centre court at Wimbledon was inhabited by the greats of Tennis - Pete Sampras whose record Fed broke, Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver.

Federer had won his first Grand slam at Wimbledon in 2003, quite a co-incidence that he won his 15th Grand Slam at Wimbledon too. 6 years of amazing tennis where he has been the world no 1 for maximum weeks, is only the 6th man to have a Career grand slam, the only person to have 15 grand slam titles.....and many more such records. It’s amazing to be so consistently good and motivated. He definitely deserves all the laurels!!

p.s. The court erupted in a chant for Roddick after the match although it was Federer's big day. That conveys the general sentiment. He played too good a match. Bravo!!!

None

2009-06-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes some people unknowingly become such an important part of your existence long before you even realize. I think it has been like that with this friend of mine. Not in a mood to name her, so let’s just use pronouns :) Today is her last day in my office and I am left wondering - Have we really been together for 4 years?

We probably learnt everything together. Infact there are so many 'firsts' with her that jotting all of them down would be impossible. We took our first salary together; we both sat down and learnt how to do tax calculations, every minute details of it. We analyzed our tax reports, sal slips, promotion lists, everything.

We called each other at odd hours stating 'I am bugged - let’s meet'. Not every time the other person would make it but definitely asap. There was an amazing clarity about the relationship. We both always had similar thoughts, similar emotions given any situation which just became stronger each day. We have shared countless hours after office discussing and gossiping. I could trust her with anything and I always will. Some people are so upright in life that you need no warranty for their uprightness.

This blog is out of the blue........I don’t usually allow anyone to venture into my private territory but as has always been the case with some people I thought let’s make an exception :). I am going to miss the immediate calls, mails and meetings, now that she is going far. I will miss knowing her colleagues, her managers and giving code names to them. But I know something we will devise some way of bettering this relationship. Distance is simply going to alter the dimensions :)

:-* ...as always

Pet names

2009-06-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Do you know where Mr.Chopra lives? Nopes, I answered and the stranger who had spoilt my book reading session left. He must have just covered a few paces when realization dawned and I opened the door again and yelled back at him "he lives on the third floor". Surprised, he mumbled a feeble thank you and changed his course to go upstairs. I am sure he must have thought I was a moron but only I knew the problem. I had never known Chopra uncle by his name, for me he has always been 'Daewoo' uncle for he was the first person in our society to have bought the huge "Daewoo Cielo" back in the 90's when marutis ruled the roads (they still do).

Pet names - the ones that your parents give you or the ones you acquire over a period of time because of your ability or foolishness always stay with you, come what may! Traditions make parents name their child as "Vyankatesh" and practicality/fondness changes the name to Venky. My childhood, I remember at least 10 sonu(s) and equal raju(s) in my society. To complete the pet name bouquet there were others like chikku, minti, munni, monu, dinky, tillu, babu,etc. Every time an aunt called my friend chikku, she would cringe but answer and every time we called her that she would throw a tantrum and go away reminding us her real name. Parent's too acquired a pet-name as a result of their kid. I mean Mr.Walia was never known by his name but always as chikku's papa. These are pet names as a result of fondness or as some general rule because the names were too long.

But there were others that were acquired because of a habit. For example we named Manish 'hanky' after his constantly overflowing nose and his eagerness to wipe it off even when he was supposed to pick up a catch. Debashish became 'ducky' after his amazing capability to imitate 'Uncle Scrooge'. Nidhi became 'popo' after her famous rickshaw driver act in one of the society plays (She had imitated the rickshaw's horn extremely well). Mandar was nicknamed 'Dhonya'(long time back....no way related to M.S.Dhoni) because he would either hit a six or get out (‘dho deta tha’).

I once knew of pandit uncle and his nameplate read (Sirish Patwardhan (panditji))...for everyone knew him as panditji because he knew every shloak, mantra in the Hindu tradition and was the lead man in all traditional activities. Garage wale uncle, I can still point his house and tell you his whole family tree but ask me about Mr. Surendran Nair, and I would probably tell you I don’t know him. I too gave the weirdest pet names to people and they too readily accepted it. BCS aunty (she had filled my BCS form), Dabba uncle (he had made my school dabbas when my parents had to urgently go out of station), Line wali didi (because the first time I met her was in a queue and had fought with her), the list is just endless.

Times have changed and I am no longer in touch with many of these old folks but I am amazed how the memory of their pet names never fails me. The name immediately rings a bell and brings back a gust of memories. And I guess it will always be so :)

Probably nothing summarizes my fondness for pet names than this line from Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake - "Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated". Perfect, isn’t it?

Federer won :)

2009-06-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

Finally Federer ended his dry run at Roland Garros and became the 6th man to win a career Grand Slam as he tied up with Pete Sampras for the most grand slam titles, 14 in all. He definitely was the better man at the finals yesterday and all though Soderling played well he was no match for the experienced Federer who won 3 straight sets 6-1, 7-6, 6-4. The second set was unarguably the best of all.

With Nadal ousted quite early this was perhaps Federer's best chance and he made no bones about it either! He played his natural game and with his characteristic attitude. I vividly remember the first time I saw him play. It was the 2004 US open finals. I had never been a tennis freak and it was his amazing game that made me follow tennis and yesterday as I saw my favourite achieve what had eluded him 3 times, I couldn’t help but shriek. And who better than Agassi to present the trophy to Federer!

The French open 2009 has been quite unpredictable with all the favourites except Fedex being shown the exit by relatively lower ranked players. Even Federer had almost missed it against Hass in the semi finals. Safina again returned empty-handed, this world no 1 is still without a single grand slam title :). Leander Paes again pocketed a French-Open but this time it was without Bhupathi. He is one man who just refuses to give up and we are not complaining. Keep them coming Paes!

Wimbledon is round the corner and if last year's marathon final between Fedex and Nadal is anything to go by, we sure are gonna have a great time :) [Although a different result is what I am expecting...Ouch! I know I am biased]

Angels and Daemons : Movie review

2009-05-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

Caught an early show to avoid disappointment, but I found it better executed that Da Vinci Code. I can find negative reviews about the movie but its not as bad. And I am STRICTLY talking about the movie. Overall, its a good film with lovely chases around the whole Vatican, and the ever happening debate between science and religion.

Its a dampener when compared to the book and I would never forgive them for messing the 5th ambigram. The story is a little changed but I think it's ok because it was too mammoth a task to recreate the book's enigma.

But of what I saw I liked it. Its good to see the places you read in the book and Langdon being enacted thru' Tom Hanks ;)

A nice line that the book and the movie reminded me - "Faith is a gift, not everyone has it"

Watch it with no expectations against the book!!!!!!

quote :)

2009-05-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again.

(From Shantaram)

Kids can be ruthless!

2009-05-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever realized what’s so endearing about small children? I think its the fact that they are oblivious to the so called society norms. If you teach them a rule they will abide by it and let you know when you don’t. No one can beat them when it comes to being straight forward. Again one of my everyday anecdotes :)

Just as my bus was approaching Deccan I saw a mother hurriedly going towards the exit door with a 6 year old kid. On reaching near the door, she told him to hold tightly onto the side bar lest he falls down.The kid was too busy looking outside to listen to her. She reiterated it again but to no avail. Finally she raised her voice and admonished him firmly. This time, reluctantly the kid put his tiny hands around the bar,not without giving her a 'why-do-you-preach-so-much' stare.

Just then the driver applied brakes and caught many of us unaware. It included the mom who stumbled and dashed the person in front. To this, the kid shouted at the top of his voice - "Mala pakad pakad mhanun saangtes...swatha pan pakad ki"(You have been telling me to hold tightly so many times, why cant you do it yourself)

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud...Fortunately the mom laughed out too :)

Changing times

2009-05-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Nitish is back in power in Bihar, the Left have been routed in Bengal and Patnaik is all smiles in Orissa. South Block remains Manmohan's stronghold for the next 5 years. Looks like finally democracy is starting to make sense! The electorate seems to have rejected anything and anyone that had no future and was incapable of standing on its own. Too huge a statement but look carefully at the 2009 election results and it’s correct.

Statements, allegations, deals flew thick and fast just before the elections. Everyone seemed to have an air of arrogance and importance. And now what do we see? Unconditional support to a rival to keep the secular forces out (Don’t they make a mockery of our system??). Accepting mistakes when just a few days back you were roaring about something called the 3rd front. The common man seemed to have humbled every politician. Although the likes of Meera Sanyal, etc lost out overall democracy won!

Two successive upper circuits in these dire financial times, a clear mandate to atleast some party, divisive politics shown the door and the LTTE losing ground in Sri Lanka.......times are really changing...and for the good, so it seems!

Upsetting the lord!

2009-05-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

As I am planning a trip to my native place I suddenly remembered an incident that happened the last time i was there.

I was watching 'Pirates of the Caribbean' on star movies and it was around 2030 hrs. My grandmom had already paid 10-12 visits to the living room and I sensed she wanted to tell me something but hadn't done so because i was all glued to Captain Jack Sparrow. Finally I looked at her and asked what the matter was. She told me she wanted to watch a serial at 2100 hrs. I smiled and told her that the movie is about to get over and she could watch her serial for I didn't plan to watch anything else. The movie was not done by 2100 hrs but I happily relinquished the remote for I didn't want to interrupt her and I had anyways watched that movie umpteen times. At 2105 hrs her serial started and it was some Malayalam serial about Lord Krishna. When it started I just left the room. Now was the fun!

She walked upto me and asked why did i do something like that? I was zapped! I had no idea of what I had done! She told me there was lord on the screen and I had walked away from him, inspite of being seated there for the past 2 hrs.....just when Shri Krishna came on screen I had walked away. I could sense that she was upset. I smiled and I told her that if she wanted I would go the temple to apologize to the lord but I would no ways go and apologize to her idiot box :) Anyone else in my place would have got a sound thrashing but I have always been her pet and she knows that I never do things as a rebel and somehow she always understands my rationale. I explained her that it was just some nut enacting the scene, so there was no need to follow a human so faithfully. She left it at that. The next morning I really did get up and go to the temple......I didn't want to upset her. Not because I was scared but at times when the person in front takes one step ahead there is no point in staying where you are. You need to walk probably 3 paces so that finally you both meet at a common point.

The generation gap is always going to be there, but I think if everyone just lets the other person be the gaps are narrowed down to a great extent. They have a very basic understanding of faith and we may call them superstitious but we can't let them not follow their faith :)

just like that

2009-04-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Talking to an old pal(?) made me realize that even if you try hard to maintain a camaraderie with a long lost friend, at times a bruised ego dosnt allow it. I think its practically very difficult for people to let bygones be bygones. Although you accept the present and intend to carve a different future the past always catches up and leaves you dumbfounded. And I think we should just let it be! There is no point in reveiving a friendship thats gone sour. Rejoice in the fact that are some beautiful moments and memories left but no friendship. There is a limit to every effort and the limit is even smaller when the effort is one sided. You should probably seek solace in the fact that you tried and it didnt work. Off late I seem to have developed an 'anti-midas touch', everything I seem to touch turns it to something of even inferior value. But I am not complaining. There is an antidote to every person and phase in life. That much I have realized!

Probably this post is just to reiterate the fact that you cannot let anyone ruin your sense of being. The following lines just came to my mind....

Ek baar waqt se,
lamha gira kahi
wahan dastaan mili,
lamhan kahi nahin.......

ho sake toh ismein zindagi bita lo, pal joh yeh jaanewala hain...................

In love...... with what i do

2009-04-18T03:42:00.001-07:00

Almost everytime i crib about my deadly schedule and think I am doing nothing apart from work, comes a moment that makes me realize that I would have preferred it in no other way.

A module that should have been checked in ages (read 2 days) ago is still on my machine because the scripting guys are stuck with a problem of their own. As grep cannot do a pattern matching spanning multiple lines we probbaly have to go with sed/awk/gawk. Exactly 24 hours ago I knew nothing about them and just knew the theorotical functionality of grep. But now I have written a small shell script and have tried grep and awk already. Now we are to take a call on having awk(or whatever we choose) installed during our rpm installation as it is not preent by default on linux system, unlike grep.

Ok so my post is not about that technical issue, it is about the fact that I should not really be complaining about my over the top schedules which have stayed like that for many months now. The past 24 hours made me realize(once again) that i wouldnt want it any other way. I can simply occupy myself with anything......grep, awk, reflection, palak paner, custard pudding, masakali,........absolutely anything!!!! Being in this field has probably taught me to be occupied and happy at the same time. Does not mean I do not indulge in whining; but I am resilient faster ;)

Walking the talk

2009-04-18T03:38:00.000-07:00

It’s really good to see people not just complaining but actually lending a helping hand and doing their bit for the upcoming elections.
In the image you can see Anu holding a banner and urging people to vote……Well done anu!!!!

I hope each one of you takes some time out and gather information about the candidates in your constituency and vote for the most promising one. Let religion, caste and party take a backseat. Its only the individual’s performance and credibility that should matter! So go ahead……and VOTE!!!!!!!

What a day!

2009-04-01T08:10:00.001-07:00

As I walked into my cubicle, my manager said he wanted to talk something urgently. Realizing something was amiss I went to the conference room where he declared - "Prameela, you are moving to the Goa office for 4 months". I was shocked and too stunned to react. After 15 minutes of deliberations I decided things wouldn’t change unless I create a hue and cry and decided to talk to all the seniors against this abrupt decision. All of them seemed to be hell bent on moving me to Goa.

I wasn’t really against the idea but I did not like the way they were choosing things for me. I mean I should at least have been asked. But times are bad and I was obviously concerned that I couldn’t do anything if these folks were serious and adamant. Finally I got a call in the evening from the seniors and we decided to meet for the final discussions in the conf room. They explained me their point of view while I put forth my own. Deliberations and arguments flew thick & fast and within 10 minutes there was chaos. Soon my team (and few other folks) walked in and shouted "Happy April Fools' day Prameela"

Oh shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s all I said.

Now there is a video showing my not so nice reactions with people, my mails etc that are being forwarded and making me feel like a pucca IDIOT

Why the hell don’t I remember dates?????????????????

Dignity of labour - better explained

2009-03-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

I was planning to write this one for long, but its finally now that I actually do.

I had known Sharma uncle only as Arun's father and Arun and me weren't best buddies, so naturally the interaction was limited to some general talk. It was only when Arun moved to Canada and asked me to run a few errands for his parents that I got to know this lovely personality. He doesn't read blogs, else would have whacked me for this one.

Sharma uncle was a Delhi based businessman and quite a amiable one too . I had helped him in a few market research presentations and thats how I got to know him better. He is horrible with the computer and he is what you would call a call center's 'NIGHTMARE'. I still remember his discussions with a poor call center executive over his newly bought and not working printer. He was fuming over the horrible 'piece of junk' the reputed company had dared to sell him for such a steep price. It hadn't been working and he was all set to sue them. I just happened to be there when his temper had reached a crescendo and he was all set to knock the poor call center executive's head through the phone. I happened to read the manual and realized that there was actually a switch that had to be turned on. When I did it for him he thought i was a genius and thats how it has always stayed. Naah!!! I didn't take efforts to change that either :D. And yes, he also apologised to the poor exceutive on the other end for his inexperience in handling the 21st century kids and gadgets. :))

He had opened a new office in Pune and it was fully functional for 3 months. However he hadn't yet visited the office so when he came down to Pune to do so he asked me if I would join him. I agreed and reach his office (very close to Magarpatta) just on time for he would have killed me if I would have been late. I met him getting out of his car and as we were about to enter the premises the guard stopped us. He asked us for our credentials to enter the building premises. I obviously didn't have any. I looked at Uncle and the look on his face told me that he didn't have any either. The guard refused to let us in. I tried to reason with him but he told me point blank - "Koi bhi aake kuch bhi bolega toh hum maan lenge kya?" (Do you think I am gonna listen to any tom dick and harry who walks in). As soon as he said that I thought there was gonna be something horrible happening, I mean the guard was stopping the owner of that god damed office. I looked at uncle apprehensively and he was cool as a cucumber...he didnt react at all and was infact smiling as I tried to talk to the guard(s).

After about 20-25 minutes there came another man who was the branch head and the guard promptly saluted him. Mr. Akhil (I dont rem his name..but lets christen him with that), the Pune office's head started shouting at the guard. He told him that Sharma uncle was the big boss and he had committed a crime. The guard's face lost its color and he stood meekly facing Uncle.

But you know what this Delhi based, owner of so many offices did? He patted him on his back and told him - "Sahi hain! acha laga yeh dekhke ki aap apna kaam sahi tarah se kar rahe ho. Aaage bhi aise hi kaam kaarna. Agar aap aaj humein andar jaane dete toh humein sochna padta ki guard ki zaroorat hain ya nahin humein." (I am glad that you didn't let me in else I would have second thoughts on having you as a guard to my office.)
Saying so he took out his wallet and handed over some money to him. The guard's face regained its color as he went back to his proud posture again. Mr. Akhil was dumbfounded by the change of events.

And me, I will never forget the lesson. The Pune branch has now been merged with the Mumbai one and is no longer operational. I haven't met uncle for many months but I often get mails about his company's announcements. I know why is he so successful at everything he does, he respects everyone and is so very honest to the term - dignity of labour

humming....

2009-03-02T17:07:00.000-08:00

tujhe kya gam tera rishta,
gagan ki baasuri se hain,
pavan ki guftagu se hain,
suraj ki roshni se hain......

If you dont remember the lines you are not in sync with one of the most amazing music albums in recent times....its from Masakalee of Delhi-6
Sounds a lot like Gulzaar, but its not...its Prasoon Joshi

Identifying a true reader

2009-02-27T00:12:00.001-08:00

How do you identify a true reader. I just gave an alogirthm to my friend Vikas.

1)S/he never has the best books of any author.

2)When S/he plans to buy this best book, s/he thinks, “I have read this book. Let me buy something that I haven’t read”

And so S/he never has any best books of any author :D

p.s - Vikash's comment on such a well written algo
"this happens when a software programmer becomes a bibliophile :P
They see algorithms everywhere :D "

Just for me ;)

2009-02-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

Have you ever kept your ego, insecurities aside and do what you thought was impossible for you to do? I just did 2 things and believe me I didnt care about the result. I knew if i hadnt done it I would have repented. The first outcome has been rewarding and I am happy for it. The second outcome was ok but I am hoping it turns to be good in the coming days.

I would love to elaborate but maybe sometime later...As of now these two moments, all to myself :D

Chattering to a stranger

2009-02-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

Travelling to office using a public transport has always been more of a choice than a necessity for me. It allows me the leisure to read anything I want and I have completed many books on my way to some destination. For all detractors who think its not a good habit, I agree, but i refuse to relent.

As usual today morning while travelling to office in a PMPL bus, I was engrossed in my book when there came a lady and sat next to me. I would have never realized her presence if she wouldn't have confirmed the destination of the bus. That was the beginning of an amazing conversation I have not had in years.

She: Are you studying medicine? she enquired looking at my book and the sun coat.
Me: Nopes, I am working.
She: Have you done your graduation?
Me: Yes, I have done my Post grads.
She(in an awestruck tone): Graduation nahin kela????? (Haven't you done your grads)
Me(in no mood to justify): Yup have done it in computers
She: Hey even my son has done MSC-IT. Do you know he earns 15000 per month?
Me: Hmmm!
She: Even my daughter is working as an assistant to a senior advocate
Me: Alright
She: We are looking a guy for her. The last one who came was not at all good. We didnt like him although he was very rich. We are going to say no. Whats the point if the girl doesn't like the guy...thats all that matters ,isnt it?

By now i was like, What the hell? How am i supposed to react to something like that. She was talking too earnestly and not responding with atleast with an occasional nod would have been rude. And my nodding was being misinterpreted as interest probably for she continued

She: Wait I will show you the photo!
Me: Hmm.....Hmmmmm.............Hmmmmmmmmm. (Does that really convey my hestitation?)

She actually took out her daughters and the guys photo and asked me to comment on what i thought.

Now I was in a fix!!! I do not venture opinions about nouns (yeah any name, place, animal, thing) unless absolutely necessary. Here, I was being asked to do matchmaking and give a rating to some girl and boy.

She: What do you think? Bol na lavkar
Me: I agree with you completely. Go ahaed with your decision. (Now that was not really my opinion but when in doubt always use words stuffed in your mouth. Saves your gray cells you see)

She: See I told you , even you agreed.(as if i had a choice)

By now, we were well past half way my destination. I had closed my book and had kept it back in my bag. I was enthusiastically talking to her now.
In the next 20 minutes I got to know why her sis-in-laws daughter refused such a high-profile marriage proposal, how she had been a teacher and had quit after her operation, how she planned to get down at Swargate at go to Kolhapur, etc, etc

When i reached my stop and bid adieu to her she smiled and said "Kalji ghe haan bala" (Take care child).

Somehow every methodical and logical conversation that I generally have seemed lackluster with respect to the senseless chatter i had with this lady.
As I walked towards the gate I realized there still exist people who are not conscious about talking to a stranger. And its not always that you meet such oblivious-to-the-norms kind of people :)

When everything goes wrong

2009-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

One of my most depressing weeks...anything i do, say, dont say seem to be going against me. I am just tired of explanations and I just feel like shutting myself off which is what i precisely would be doing.

I know, this too shall pass!!!!!!!!

On a brighter note, bought a lovely new cell W595, plan to do some clicking and will surely post it here. Hoping for things to become better

Insecured, are we?

2009-01-20T07:43:00.001-08:00

The recent backlash against Slumdog Millionaire's portrayal of India did not come as a surprise. The same overtones were heard when Arvind Adiga won the booker last year.

Why are we so distressed when being discussed? Is it an insecurity that stems from being subdued for many years? Or is it simply a lack of competitive spirit? Why do we get angry if someone shows us the mirror and more so if the person is not an Indian? Getting back to the movie, can anyone say that the portrayal was incorrect? So why crib saying that it did not depict the complete India, modern India, etc. The fact remains that Mumbai hosts both Lokandwala and Dharavi. The sooner we turn honest the better for us.

Slumdog was all about story telling and the only point is garnering maximum audience.
Boyle took an Indian's book and converted it to a motion picture and he did it brilliantly.
I have no second opinion about it. I am not even perturbed that he showcased India, rather Mumbai, thru slums and beggars. That's a truth about my country and I want to change it not deny it.

In my review blog I had accepted that I did not think Rahman's music for the movie to be his best but that does not mean I am not happy at his Golden Globe win. Neither do I want to think why doesn't any other movie, with a better Rahman music win the coveted prize! For me, the music is great and I am glad it's recognized even if it's not his best.

I personally feel that people all over the world connect to the concept of hope triumphing over odds. Have you seen the 2004 Hollywood film Crash? If not, pick a DVD. The movie clearly shows the racial discrimination issue in the US. Didn't that movie dent the image of our so called Big Brother. No, it does not! It showcases a fact about a country in the form a story and ends it with a warm feel good climax. That's what movies should do. They should end on an optimistic note. It makes you feel good.

Aren't we as a country changing every minute? We are no longer the land of snakes and elephants. We are a country that's elected women to the two highest offices of our country. We are a country that's built an IT sector strong enough to have the firangs crying hoarse. I know we have our set of problems but we will solve them.

Let's not bother why the jury chose the movie. They may have their own logic, their own prejudices too! Lets just rejoice for an Indian(for god's sake 80% of the film was Indian, the cast, story, music, etc) movie making us proud. Let's not raise fingers or question their intentions. Let's just be confident and accept the accolades as they keep coming.

As Eleanor Roosevelt rightly said - Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-14T08:02:00.001-08:00

Slumdog Millionaire, the latest flick making waves, deserves every bit of praise it seems to be accumulating with every passing second.

The last time I saw such superlative performances and meticulous direction, was in 'The Dark Knight'. Not to forget, Rahman's music. Do I need to even say anything about a man who just lets his music speak for him. I personally didn't think that the music was awesome, but come on folks, I think so because when you compare Rahman, you compare him against himself. The westerners aren't used to this wide range of instrumentation (not a music expert but just my take) and probably thats why they are finding it awesome. For me, I think its fantastic but not his best.

The story is the life of 2 brothers, Jamal and Salim depicted in three distinct phases. Each phase is enacted by 3 set of actors and my personal vote goes for the first phase. The kids were amazing and not at all loud. They were precisely what they should have been - kids.

Jamal goes on to win a game show and every question in the show unfolds his life for the audience. A life which has probably seen every single human emotion. And these everyday emotions (as Pratik pointed) is what appeals the most.

Watch the movie folks and if you have the patience wait for the theatrical release on 23rd Jan. I am sure you will enjoy every moment.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

As I stand on the brink of starting a fresh year I cant help but look back at things/events/people which made the year the way it was. I will jot down 5 things that come to my mind immediately as I write -

1)I learnt a new sport and my backhand has improved considerably. Yeah! I can confidently say I am a decent TT player.
2)I took efforts to cling to friends I thought I had lost and its paying slowly :)
3)I learnt that whenever you say 'Never ever', you probably would soon end up contradicting it. There is nothing thats forever - good or bad.
4)I still pause, rewind and listen to the lyrics of many songs.
5)I learnt to deal with stocks and mutual funds although the former is still in its infancy.

Wishing everyone a grand year with everything and everyone they hope :)
“Life is unsure ...have your desserts first!”

Damn!!!

2008-12-28T08:40:00.001-08:00

Damn!!!! I yelled as I clicked on the delete partition option. Following the Murphy's law as soon as I had messed up my laptop, that instant, I realized what a moron I am. (I mean what I realized after clicking the button, had I realized a few seconds earlier it would have saved me my Sunday and you guys this blog)

For the uninitiated or the confused I deleted a logical windows partition after installing Fedora 9 on my laptop. And no sooner had I done it than I realized that my system is gone and I would have to install everything again. Simply because th grub refuses to load any system if you alter the configurations later.

I have done this so many times that I should probably be given an award for repeating this mistake so consistently. But the time frame between these mistakes is long and so I forgive myself every time (Not that i have any other choice)

So here I am, wasting a Sunday's sleep to get my laptop work properly again :(