No stag entry :)

In our office one of the rest rooms has the entry board as on the right.

Are only couples allowed ?

faith on fate

"maine kaha thaa naa, maine kaha tha na ... " is what kajol is saying on the tele-idiot box and shahrukh in his kkkkiran style trying to convince the punjab gang in their own den to take away the soon to be bride without violence, how impractical but it is only the impractical and unconventional who make a story I think.

I think you have guessed the above movie right and please try to relate this introduction and what I am going to write below at your own risk.

I remember days when I would start my day with no water in the overhead tank due to the guy next door, who shared the tank with us, had left his tap open and left for his hometown. The way out was I'd go upstairs use a pipe to steal water from neighbors tank into our own or carry bucket from top floor to our own. I leave for office late and find that breakfast is finished. Settle down on your desk with bhookha pet and one strong coffee down when I plan to start work Manager informs me
that whatever code changes I had applied yesterday are undone because the person sitting in US has changed the whole code library. I would sit through the whole day to do the whole setup again which means 4-5 hours worth of rework. That done when I reach back home in the evening only to find out that we do not have electricity at home because the check that I deposited bounced. Imagine my plight with special emphasis on the helplessness of bechara me.

There are times when things would just not go well for you for no fault of yours. It has happened to me many a times though mostly the unfavorable happenings could be very insignificant.I have become so pro that i very soon realize when I have fallen into this vicious circle of helplessness (VCH). Typical symptoms of VCH - unfavorable incidents happen back to back, none of them has any longish impact, an overdose of helplessness and only time can cure one VCH.

The defense mechanism that I have developed is to identify when I am in the middle of one VHC and just to hang in there and swallow all the harmless insults thrown at you by fate. If possible share it with someone, lets say your blog readers. I am undergoing another VHC less intense but running a lot longer in duration I guess.I am not able to enjoy the most important day in life - today, each day :D ...

P.S. : One of my friends had asked for a bada saa post so here it is, interesting or not ;)

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

ying and yang

Usually, when two hearts meet they come with their own baggage, their own agenda, their own morality and thoughts. They may merge and become one or may be not. What decides their amalgamation and what tells them to walk apart and never venture into each other's path. She says it is because they are destined to go different paths, he thinks it is because she never wanted to take a risk. she says not that she never wanted to take risk but because she had different plans and she viewed each person differently, he said it was never like this, he should have been given a chance, she thinks that guys say things only because they have to, he thinks if one doesn't take a step then journey would never begin, she says she wanted freedom, he wanted commitment, she thinks he never came and talked when she needed him the most, he says that he wanted to talk and she would cut short all her conversations with a hmm... or haan, one day they would be laughing endlessly over trifle things, the next day they would feel uneasy over slight provocations, he asked her out and she was happy with the worst veg momos they ever tasted, the next day she was irked by the extra butter he had put in her pao bhaji, she says she waited whole day for a compliment and you came with one over the sms only at 12 in the night, he thinks that he was thinking of her only at that point of time ...who are they ?

They are one of us and in the above scenario if you try replacing the "he" with the "she", the story still remains the same, sometimes it is said that opposites attract sometimes the like minded get together .. it is indeed a weird world :) and the worst part is when nat geo or discovery try to explain the human sexual relations with the help of genes and ages of human evolution when females get attracted to the broad chest and perfect height, males to the perfect bosoms and shapely rears. Every scientist would know that whatever theory he comes out with is going to get refuted in one instance or the other and he would excuse himself by saying that exceptions are always there. I think exception is what life is, to each his own, kind of :)

can't stop my feet

Welcome to the new entrant in list of chippad songs :D

White white face dheke dilwa beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare reeee eehhheeee

Aarre
White white face dheke dilwa beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare re
Ohhhooo
White white face dheke

Aahh…
White white face dheke dilwa beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare re
Oh very… oh very…
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re
Dil dance maare dance maare
Dil yeh dance maare
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re

Oiye can't stop my feet
can't stop my feet, julmwa kare hai zalim beat

Hai can't stop my feet
Julamwa kare hai zalim beat
Kadakti heat mein ban ja dheet
Nainan se nain mila re
Baath dil kin a chupa re
Oh aaja mujhko tu baata re
Oh very happy… happy… happy
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re
Dil dance maare dance maare
Dil yeh dance maare
Oye happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re

Hoo rose ki jaisan pink pink, humre gaal gulabi
Sky ke jaisan blue blue hi tohara nain sharabi
Bhola chehra jaise moon,
Kali zulfe jaise cloud
Ab na aur chupya jaye, dhadkan ho gayi very loud
(Dhadkan ho gayi very loud) — 2

Hoiiii… tohare dil ka theatre ma aaa….
Tohare dil ka theatre ma
Dil deewana booking advance maare re
Aaaa..
Humre dil ka theatre ma
Dil deewana booking advance maare re
Oh very … oh very…oh very
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re
Dil dance maare dance maare
Dil yeh dance maare
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re

White white face dheke dilwa beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare re
Aahh…
White white face dheke dil wa beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare re
Oh very… oh very…
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re
Dil dance maare dance maare
Dil yeh dance maare
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re….

Opinion Poll

• VT or CP
• wada pao or chole bhature
• time bound BEST or erratic DTC
• infinitely populated Local or air conditioned Metro
• in an auto stuck in bail baajar or in shahadra
• JJ flyover or Nizamuddin Bridge
• Bade Mian ki paneer bhurji or Chandni Chowk ke paranthe
• incessant rains in july or chilly winters in december
• bina soche auto main meter down yaa punjabi praaji se mol bhaav
• Gateway per pani poorie or India Gate per gol gappe
• chilled beer at Bandra or Friends colony
• Hiranandani or Greater Kailash
  
• hutatma chowk or iffco chowk
• linking road or ansal plaza
• borivali to churchgate or DU to indraprashth
• dadar or rajiv chowk
• weekend at friend's place in Sector 62, NOIDA or Vijaynagri, Thane
• Outing at Lonavala, Harihareshwar, Matheran or Shimla, Nainital

PS : Do take your pick as a comment to this post and you sure can add some comparisons of your own but you must know both saadi dilli and aamchi mumbai to be able to do that :)

The journey

It is said that the journey is more important than the destination :)

How have you been ?

How have you been ?

This is an excellent phrase or rather a question with which someone not only asks you about your well being, but rather complains about not being in touch. Its not a "how are you".

It has been said that 150 is the average number of people each of us knows and has in our address books. I know the first thing that you would do now is check your mobile address books and the orkut friends list and start bickering about my inaccuracy. I know the statistics is a little dated, but all of you would more or less at this figure. Is it not possible or just not feasible to stay in touch with all the folks you have known in life ?

I remember books in my study room back home, once I go back (which is once in 6 months or so) I make sure that I flip across some of their pages. There is one called 'Ek tha sheher' about partition of India in which the city of Layalpur comes under Pakistan and the whole lot of Hindu families have to move to India. The plot still comes alive in my mind whenever I think of it. The wicked village baniya, the lecherous lady whose husband had left her and the ideal hero of the plot who was probably also the narrator. There is another book with some Russian stories, one story is about an aged mare which would turn the fortune around for the whole family, it gives birth to a healthy foal and once things were looking bright and sunny, tragedy befalls the family and the foal is killed and carried away by a pack of wolves.These books remind me of old times and friends.

I want to say hi to a lots of lost friends but not able to do it for several reasons. This blog and my 2.5 readers (I know its an optimistic figure, the 0.5 is for those who will click on the link and won't last till here) are some such friends. Would sure stay in touch and would be writing more soon.
P.S. Read the articles on Atheism I stumbled upon (interesting way to find good web content).

heights and fears !!!

I was watching a documentary on NatGeo last time I was home. The documentary was about an insanely passionate guy (otherwise why would he be on NatGeo, smirk ;-) ) who was into rope walking at extreme heights. He was shown practicing all alone in serene jungles first with low lying ropes just tied across two trees and then once across a serene lake with the rope barely 5 feet above the water surface. He is fond of doing it all with barest of equipment, just a waist belt preventing him from falling is what is visible.

He then climbed on the rope tied across two huge hills and started walking across trying to balance himself through the use of his body movements and carefully placing one step after the other in dance like rhythm. One can easily see the amount of courage and concentration that goes in here and people with humanely sense won't even dream of doing of this act. In the background this guy spoke one excellent line which rings in my mind every now and then. "I had practiced the same moves trying to walk over the rope on ground at two feet height, I was doing perfect and now when I am trying to do the same at several thousand feet, I feel the jitters and the journey becomes so arduous. At the height nothing else changes it is the same rope but it is I which has changed." How true !!

boys will be boys

Today in the class I happened to notice a notebook left by someone under the table. Just the usual notebook with pages covering notes from every subject till date scribbled carelessly. I think the owner was tired of carrying the same notebook for more than a year. All his efforts for finishing the 100 odd pages of the notebook had gone for a toss, inspite of it being used in all 3 trimesters probably for 4-5 subjects and finally he had to abandon it under some table. It all sounds like the start of a movie where hero is abandoned in the pram of a decrepit orphanage with just a gold locket around the infant shining bright in dark night, and the camera zooms in on the arm of the child where his father's name is engraved. This name is the only pehchaan of our hero and will help him being recognised by the goon leader who had killed his father (I happened to get to this link while searching for the above plot of a typical bollywood movie).

All this may be a little far fetched and the owner would take back his beloved notebook the next day, the story is not about the notebook but about what was in the notebook. I happened to frisk through the last pages. Don't you remember how since childhood you have been using the last pages of your notebook to calculate compatibility of some girl's name with your name (the one who accompanied you to school daily in the cycle rickshaw and you could never get a chance to sit next to her because of her nose dripping kid brother) or played zero kaanta (don't know the angrezi name) with your friend or passed messages to your beloved girl and stared at her handwriting for an infinite time back at home. The last pages of notebooks have always been a witness to the art showing professors, teachers and peers in their best (comical, sleazy ...) form. I know you would be thinking of going back to your school notebook and reliving the memories. The protagonist of our story (the notebook) too had some words of wisdom depicting desperation or just pure fun, the words were mocking someone in rythmic lines (I wanted to reproduce the lines here but some sense of public responsibility or just the fear of repurcussion restrains me).

The essence is what the title here says, boys will be boys, whether they are studying in primary school or graduating from an elite institute. Though unrelated to what those lines depicted, I am reminded of all the songs of the likes of 'hatheli per tumhara naam likhte hain mitaate hain ...' etc. The pictures of sonu loves geetu embedded on rocks in matheran, the tetrahedrons on marine drive, under shah jehan's takht in red fort or engraved on the college desks formed a collage in front of my eyes. Am not sure if only guys do all the writings, but usually the public engravings are courtsey to them. At least the kissas that I am aware of, all started or at least accenuated with these writings on the wall / desks / notebooks, Should all this also come under the purview of the debate on public display of affection ;-) ?

just another story

Rohit was watching the trees passing by from the window of his compartment. He was finally going back from mumbai to his home forever. He had seen a lot of life in these two years, the girl he had been talking to every night for the last two years does not belong to him or may be she does or may be she never did. He was never sure of their relationship for the last two years, may be there was no need to know the kind or type of the relation they ever had, they were just talking, she met him only thrice in these two years in pune which in itself is a place to excite the most impenetrable souls, he did want a relationship but it never developed. This is the problem with two different souls (though it's true there are only two different souls in a relationship always), they think differently. It does not happen the hindi cinema way in which they just met once and love at first sight was never to keep them apart.

He thought as in the hindi movies, she will not ever deviate from her indian nari self and even if she is meeting someone she is supposed to shy away from the real relationship or divert his boyfriend's attention to the innocent bunch of roses on his dining table when he only wanted
her body and nothing else. He knew it does not happen like this, but there was something hidden in him which wanted him to stay hopeful, you can call it the spirit of indian heroes of the likes of akshay kumar of namaste london or ajay devgan of hum dil de chuke sanam . He thought he would win her over, but somebody from inside shouted "get real dude" !!!

He thought the real love in his eyes can never do bewafai to them, but they were talking on phone and she could not see the truth in his eyes. He did propose to her in the most traditional ways possible: in front of a mandir, on her birthday, he tried to bring in the real emotions into his eyes and told her what all he could. He does not even remember if he ever told her the whole truth. He thought he did.

He did not get any answer and not even a single chance to meet her again, to show her his truthful eyes. He was very much impressed with her innocence and honesty, she never talked about his job, his status, he was what he talked only and nothing else. He never thought that it was necessary to wait and watch for the nice occasion ... he wanted to say, so he did. He never thought she had her own life and a group of friends, they were not important to him. Her last birthday when he proposed to her had changed their life. She did not accept neither did she reject him but they were no longer the same. He does not even remember what it was like to be friends with her. For the past one year they were only exchanging the duniyadari walaa hi hello, how is work, both of them knew something was missing.

Yesterday he called her probably for the last time, it was his habit to call her in the wee hours of the morning when he could not control his emotions. He usually would not get any answer and would talk the next day over gtalk, again the same hi, hello, why did you call etc. This time he did get some words from her, she wanted him to call her the next day. Probably yesterday was the last time, he was not expecting any answers now. He was tired of this relationship.

He was not sure of what was to come in future. He did not want to talk to her anymore and probably he won't. He had planned to not call her on her birthday even, but I know he will. These words stood out from the song running on his winamp ' ham koi waqt nahi hain hamdam, jab bulaaoge chale aayenge ...'

'Loved and lost' or 'lost and loved'

She was like a fresh whiff of fragrance from first drops of rain, had the rythm of a ripple created when a child pops a stone into unsuspecting water of a pond and the depth of a clear blue sky with a lonely bird flying in the distance. she was always a little shy with a permanent smile on her face and the way she looked at him, it sent shivers down his spine. She had that unmistakable marathi beauty and her permanent smile revealed a somewhat irregular teeth structure which reminded him of yesteryear's cine actress mausami chatterjee.

Their conversation started with a fight over bad infrastructure in mumbai and why should one travel for one and half hours fighting one's way out amongst the madding crowd. He was trying to tell her what it means to travel to school by a fifteen minute ride on a bicycle and go out in a cycle rikshaw for buying vegetables with parents. As she was born and brought up in mumbai, she was trying to boast of the clockwork discipline with which local trains run in mumbai and how they have enjoyed their days on local stations with friends. The friendly banter did not last long and soon they dig their heads back into the laptop screens and started hitting keys modifying their respective excel sheets. He had joined the organisation on a temporary assignment and she was an analyst working here for the past one year or so. They talked very irregularly then onwards and just exchanged furtive glances now and then. He knew there is no point taking things further as he would be gone back in a month or so and he could never gauge what she was thinking. Before leaving he wanted to at least ask her for a cup of coffee but either she was occupied with her friends or he was just short of words and ended up asking her about the weather or location of printer on the floor, and could never ask her email id or any other contact. May be he wanted it that way, to just remember her smile, her hands carelessly brushing against his own, her presence sitting on the chair next to him, or he was short of courage or just did not want to disturb her sanctity, thinking that he would not be able to have her. The last day of his assignment came and went. He left Mumbai. They never met again.

Not every love story has a happy or sad ending, it is better to just leave some meetings at a beautiful juncture.

transition

All my bags are packed and am ready to go (to the other hostel ). The news is that summer internship is about to come to an end, rains are here in mumbai and I would be gone home for a week or so before the next round of match (the second year) starts (don't try to relate these pieces of information). There has been a lot of learning and unlearning in this 2 month period and discovered some of the poshest and rarest of eating joints in south mumbai, more about that in some other post.


Here is the view from my new room ( I know it is something that you should feel envious about :-) ).

Egg jam !!

This is one slide of the infinite numbers of presentations that we are supposed to study in a matter of 5 days (on paper we are supposed to understand them in lectures spanning a 3 month period but the effective 5 days of exams are the only ones we can spare). Though we were not supposed to reproduce this diagram verbatim but it being in our course itself cries out some message. Today was the first day of the grind and by the time we finish up the marathon sessions we should be out of energy. What is the efficacy of this whole exercise of examination. I know the philosophy behind teaching but can there not be any other effective way rather than making one go through two years of classroom lecture sessions, case study discussions, project and presentations, followed by a fast track examination session. Make people read subjects of their own choice at their own pace, rate them on the basis of only innovations and new ideas generated out of the whole cauldron of varied subjects. Professors should be there to guide them, inculcate spirit to study and that's it. Why should one study what all and every thinker on this earth had to say about a concept.

Sorry folks it's time out now !!! I have to go and cram what Mr Gary Dressler has to say about "Scientific selection models", "Motivation" and "Appraisal". Meanwhile you can ponder on this :

"ERPII is an application and deployment strategy that expands out from ERP functions to achieve integration of an enterprise’s key domain-specific, internal
and external collaborative, operational and financial processes" ... but why ?

Glass is half full or half empty !!

Just some random pics picked without consideration of chronology or alcohol content (% v/v). There are many more but am sure you can't handle more than this in a day !!

Pictorially ... continued

The Vihar Lake is a property of the entire Mumbai city but this view is our proprietary !!!

Top view of our campus !! The smoke is not coming out of our mess chulhas but somewhere else.

And to add randomness to the collage, here is one more. The location of the pic is not important I guess.

Pictorially yours !!!

Not my creativity but that of the autorickshaw driver. I dunno if some hesitant guy/gal used the visual clue as an innuendo for his/her partner.

Taken by my artistic friend (;-)) at Prabhadevi.

Intezaar

I was standing in front of the gate which was throwing off a constant whiff of cold air, not sure if the sole purpose was to keep me cold in the mumbai heat or just to keep off the flies and mosquito or (here comes the real one) just to keep the temperature difference maintained without putting undue pressure on the air conditioning inside. There was a policeman sitting on the chair and his sole duty was to ensure that this door is just a one way track, he was asking all the jovial kids and pareshaan aunties that they will not be allowed in once after they left through that door. There were constant bargains happening at this door by aunties and also the people who had come to recieve their loved (hopefully!!) ones, please I have to take that trolley from my daughter, can you please call my uncle who is standing there. I just now noticed that the doors were automatic and were trying to perform their duty of closing every now and then but to no avail, the flow of humans kept the lid opened forever.

One weird thing was that there were two similar gates for the exit at terminal 1A, obviously the sole purpose is to ensure smooth flow, but then if the driver is standing with placard on one gate and the guest leaves from the other one the whole exercise of pick-up goes for a toss. In order to avoid this the democratically inclined waiting junta had decided to give all the recognition to one gate, if you want to feel important and pretend by reading all the placards that there is someone waiting for you, you must take that particular gate. There was NDTV on TV just above the other deprived gate. I was appreciating the strong financials of Indian corporates and trying to grab the rates from the scrolling red and green arrows depicting the fall and rise respectively of the stock when I noticed a small kid in tattered clothes keeping a vigilant eye towards the floor looking for empty mineral water bottles. He was totally oblivious of the fact that Stock had fallen 200 points on a single day. He then went to the red colored local call booth hanging nearby and just casually sifted hand through the coin holder to look for some leftover coins. He did not get anything, even he must be cursing how careful the folks had become. He left into oblivion only to come back after a 10-15 minute stint.

At Airports,one sees loads of emotional partings and reunions. The saying 'To part and then to meet is a part of life' gets incarnated. I had gone to pick-up a friend at the airport and not to compare the stark red color of each and every Kingfisher's crew (why they only have air hostesses and no stewards or may be I am selectively blind) and think that this one had a brighter dress and tighter hair-dos (u didn't get it, right !!) as I ended up doing for a good one hour. My friend did land up a little later.

P.S.: In bollywood an actor is as good as it's last friday release. Same is the case with blogs, you are judged with what you said last.

just random

My friend told me "Nobody loves you does not mean nobody ever will ... ", nice thought but then it is also said "Justice delayed is justice denied" .

:-)

Crib Crib Crib ...

There are times when one feels that the whole world is on the kill for you, for no particular reason or fault of yours. From the heavens of recognition and comfort I've fallen into the terra incognita amongst the bunch which seeks happiness in shooting from the lips alone and as it happens in all the zombie movies once bitten the person falls prey and joins the rat race. ( writing this post is a proof ;-)).

Kabir (not sure) had said (loosely translated below) :

Keep your demeaners near you,
dwell them in your own backyard,
Without much effort,
it keeps your character clean and sparkling.

Need to look inside my own girebaan for reasons ... may be ...