Getting bored ?

Is there life beyond football?

2011-03-10T15:57:00.000+05:30

http://wheneverigetbored.blogspot.com/2007/01/football-meri-jaan_17.html

Yes there is!! Yes there is a life beyond football! But, it's a nightmare, it's the worst the life can get, it's was beyond my imagination 1 year back, but it all came true. Every single second, every moment I felt my blood stream losing its energy, losing its red color, becoming lifeless, colourless.....

Getting up in the morning, daily routines, office work, food, drink and an unrelenting desire of playing, and a guilt of becoming so weak, that going out and playing seemed like a big task! How could I ever think like that?! Lots of introspection, lots more of guilt but not a single game......

The dry month of May 2010 was to be cursed for getting me to this state. But, alas came an angel, to drown me and several others in a ocean of joy....

The sight of goals and ball rolling was enough for each one of us to jump with joy, run around like wild animals let loose; of course some of us were alike wilderness tamed, what else is marriage synonymous for? ;)

9 men went on to play the game that they loved, kicking around the guilt of past, dribbling around the daily routines, saving the best moments from getting lost ....For an hour, each one of us got lost in another world. Each one of us lost the bad memories, and the child in us came out in full force. I could again feel blood rushing through my legs, mind and heart. The sweat poured on us, as if from the heavens to cleanse us of the rust we had put on in the past months.

An unsaid pledge was taken by us, not to go back to that black hole of life! To live a life and not just the usual "Chal raha hai..."

Glory of an Inch

2011-02-18T14:24:00.000+05:30

In a material world such as ours, few measurements have more selling power than the inch. Cars sell on the basis of mileage, the more the kilometers per hour the better the selling proposition. The closest that comes to inches is kilograms. It is able to sell from vegetables, rice, noodles to nutrition programs. They trigger the horde to move from “more-is-less” to “less-is-more” paradigm. But, nothing even comes close to the almighty inch, which is an inch away from glory than all the others! My notebook has a quote boldly written on its face:

“Inches make champions!”

Well, inches make billions too! Only the inch is responsible for billions of dollars and crores of rupees in sales for fitness machines, weight loss programs, penis enlargement, bust reduction or augmentation, height, sexual paraphernalia, food and god knows what else. In fact most of advertisement channels won’t work, if not for the sake of inches!

When someone invented the measurement system, then little would have that person thought that inch will become the most important metric. No other measurement is as malleable in its applications to sell.

All the fitness programs promise one unique thing, one can lose fifteen inches from waist or increase two inches in biceps. In weight loss programs, remember the before and after? The before and after are again bound by an inch tape draped around the belly! Of course the famed Body Mass Index (BMI) depends on the measurement of body weight and height and build. And then the penis enlargement, well its self explanatory because rarely if ever will one see anyone wants to trim anything from their pole vault. Breasts are for the ones from Venus, but they too want the inches added on. The search for the perfect bust can last several years thanks to the sheer materialistic excellence of plastic surgeons saying less is more and more is just wonderful. In fact, some of the corner-eye advertisements show busts which can shy away watermelons. For height, heels are sold to varying degrees thanks in part to the size of their heel and size dictates needs, tastes, trends, and personality. Men don’t stray too far behind because often times they need that inch, in height (Come on! we have moved on from the Penis) to look reputable.

Food is altogether a very tricky category. When the packaged products show the calorie count, they tend to show the minimal. A low fat food product is always eye catching to even the slimmest of the persons. And while we were busy reading this, some markets must be busy in making something “extra low fat”. But, when it comes to pizzas or subs, then, the more the inches the better it is.

But the obsession over the almighty inch when it comes down to genre is just awe inspiring. If you’re not too keen to accept this hypothesis, then by all means tell me what you think about when I mention 36-24-36. If you’re thinking about the person whose phone number it can be, then you have a problem. Most likely you’ll think of those fictitious Savita Bhabhi or Pamela running around on beaches or better still the pretty famed Sheelas. If I happen to say 6 to 10 inches, what do you think about? Odds are that something meaty comes to mind, and I’m not talking value menu items.

The funny part is that in the obsession competition, I really don’t know who wins. I don’t know if the freaky looking penis enlargement programs win. I don’t know if at all given free to someone, will he take such a program? Cause, who will want a prick that sometimes reaches one-arms-distance??? And for girls, I am not sure if someone wants a trolley to carry the watermelons!! Of course, the waist line inches may be approachable, and I think it will be the biggest category of “inch” product selling in the market.

What’s best is that the base reason for the obsession is the same. Call it vanity, self pride, self worth, confidence or what have you; the quest for the perfect inch is something that crosses demographics, religions, boundaries, race, age, gender, etc. I’m not saying everyone in the whole world is obsessed with inches, but what I am saying is that inches are somewhere in the top of our mind and rising inch by inch….

Fill in the Spaces

2011-02-14T15:54:00.000+05:30

I hate the spaces between my fingers,

I hate the air flowing through my hair,

I hate the rainbow with just seven colours,

I hate the smell of all the perfumes,

I hate the best food that I have,

I hate my tears for they won't stop flowing!

Fill in the spaces...

Flow through my hair...

Be the colour...

Be the smell...

Satiate my hunger....

Wipe off my tears!

Noise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-29T01:09:00.041+05:30

कितना है यहाँ अपना ही शोर |
गाड़ियों का, गालियों का, अपनों का, अंजानो का, मेरा, तुम्हारा, जीत का, हर का |

कितना है यहाँ अपना ही शोर |
सुबह को, शाम को, दिन को रात को , अन्दर भी, बाहर भी |

बेचैन हम घूम रहे हैं
खुद ही शोर कर रहे हैं |

दूसरों को दोष क्या दें
हम खुद कहाँ निर्दोष हैं |

एक दिन चौराहे पर बैठ,
मैं यूं ही सोचता रहा,
क्यों नहीं है शांति किसी ओर ?
क्यों मचा रहे हैं सब ये शोर ?
क्यों हैं सब इतने विचलित ?
क्या नहीं मिल सकता दो पल का सुकून किसी कोने में ?
क्यों बदल गयी है दुनिया इस तरह से ?

आँखें बंद कर, रखा मैंने अपने कानो पर हाथ
तब जा कर सुना मैंने अपना यह शोर |
शोर एक तूफान का, एक उफान का

दुनिया को जीत लेने के अरमान का |

मैं भी, तुम भी, हर कोई लगा है इस दौड़ में

फिर क्यों ना हो शोर हर मोड़ पे |

आखिर समझा मैं

थम गयी शोर कि वो गर्जन

शायद समझ जाएँ बांकी सभी जन |

कितना है यहाँ अपना ही शोर |

आओ प्रयत्न करें कल हो एक शांत विभोर ||

मैं आज़ाद हूँ ( I am free)

2011-01-23T21:41:00.001+05:30

मैं आज़ाद हूँ
मैं परिंदा हूँ
मैं आसमान को छू सकता हूँ
मैं धरती को चूम सकता हूँ |
हर रोज़ मैं निकल पड़ता हूँ एक नयी मंजिल की खोज में
हर खोज घरोंदे से ले चलती है एक नयी दिशा में ||

एक नया आसमान
एक नयी धरती
कुछ फासला और
कुछ उम्मीदें नयी |
हर रोज़ मैं देखता हूँ एक नया सपना
हर रोज़ मैं बनाता हूँ एक दोस्त अपना ||

एक नया अजनबी
एक नया यार
कोई धोखा
कोई सहारा |
रास्ते कठिन, कई ठोकरें, मोड़ कई, मुश्किलें नयी
कुछ अजनबी यार, कुछ यार अजनबी ||

ज़िन्दगी आसान नहीं होती
जीवन ना है बुजदिलों का खेल |
बस बड़ चलो अपनी दिशा की ओर
बस बड़ चलो कुछ फासला और ||

तू cockroach की मौत मरेगा |

2011-01-18T12:38:00.000+05:30

I came back from office, drained of every bit of energy. I felt like just crashing on the bed. I badly needed a cup of coffee. So, I put the water on boil, picked up my coffee mug, put in a tea spoon of coffee, another tea-spoon of sugar and water. Off, I headed towards my durrie grabbing a pack of biscuits and some chips along. I sat down like a king munching on the chips. The first sip went down like energy booster, and I felt better. I took out my laptop, opened media player and put on a random play list. And, had some of my blues playing....

Suddenly, I saw some movements on the top right corner of my room. Another king strolled out on my floor, straight heading to my durrie. I almost forgot the annoying feeling that I had whenever I saw one of these, since this was the first sighting in this room! This is not cool! The two fangs were swaying as if, they were tracking my coffee smell, or maybe the chocolate biscuit smell, or maybe the chips. I don't want to part ways with anything, for this. Cockroaches have always been criticized for being all over the places kitchen, toilets, bathrooms, almost everywhere. People make efforts to any extent to get away with them. But, they are always there, boldly walking everywhere, as if there is no fear of dying. In fact, they are so irritating, that Lakshman ji wanted not just Sita ji to be out of their reach, but the whole humanity to be safe from them. That's why we have Lakshmanrekha available in every Kirana store

But, whatever, this is my room, at least clean to some extent, and I didn't want this cockroach to invade it. I did not want to squash the beast as well (Don't know what all will spill out of it!!!) So, I picked up the broomstick and kicked it out of my room, down to the farthest point, out of my room, out of the house, out on someone else doorstep, go bug someone else! ;)

The bloody cockroach made my coffee go cold! The music played on, the chips were still inviting. So, again, I sprawled on my durrie and munched on my chips. Thinking of changing some music, I picked up my laptop and looked around for new songs. But, couldn't get the cockroach out of my mind. So, off I went around looking for cockroach facts.

I didn't know that cockroaches have been around from the time of dinosaurs. Famines, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, lakshmanrekhas....damn everyone on this earth tries it's best to get rid of it and still can't! It can live for 2 months without food, 2 weeks without water and 40 minutes without breathing. That is survival at it's best! What more, it can survive without its head for more than a week. Well, a human will look so creepy, without a head.....but the plastic surgeons will have a gala time....
"Doc, I need a new head....I lost the old one...This one is a 2nd hand and not looking so good. Please take my measurements, When shall I come for trails?" OMG!

Or better still,
"Doc I want a head with Android, 4 sim card slots and extendable memory" :D

I was wondering what else will a person look for in a head, when once again the devil was doing its round. The antennas were rolling around, again. I could see the bold walk, no fear of anything, after all it can survive the extremes. Maybe, it is the perfect contender for Roadies X.0. But, this pissed me off...how can it be!

I picked up my slippers, squashed it, then and there itself! That must have hurt and killed a small thing like a cockroach. But, it was just upside down, it rolled over and again started walking. A king's walk! This took my anger to the next level. I could see that it was still heading for the chips.
Thadd....
Thaadd....

This would have woken up the neighbours too. And the cockroach was down. It was upside down and not moving. Finally, I had my own little victory. Myself being a photographer, I could not resist picking up the shutterbug to capture the moment. I clicked a few shots. And there kit was moving again, its antennas were again in motion!
Thadd
Thaddd
Thadddd....

The fight for life put up by the cockroach was amazing....I put down my camera and watched the great cockroach for some time. The fight was gone. The antennas were down, the cockroach had finally given up.
Some people say in anger, as an abuse, "तू cockroach की मौत मरेगा |"

I say, if this is how a cockroach dies, fighting the world, fighting all the odds....fighting everything the life can throw at it, then it is a life worth living. People tend to give up so easily, one set-back and they are down so badly, that everyone around them tries to revive their spirits. If they are alone, then they feel lonely, they feel the life is not worth living. And here, the great cockroach fought alone......I have no hesitation in giving a salute to this devil.

I picked up a newspaper and swiped the cockroach off the floor. I threw it in my dustbin. The legs were again moving.......It was still alive.....It was beaten up, but only physically, its spirit was still alive....it would again fight....fight for survival.....fight to live the life to its fullest......

Desperate Males on House Hunting

2011-01-07T15:12:00.001+05:30

I did not realize the desperateness of the male species till I started looking for a room on rent. The moment I searched on the innocent looking website for rooms on rent, I came across hordes of advertisements for female species from the desperados! I smiled at the first one, laughed out loud at the next one but could not stop rolling on the floor for the ones that followed.

“Amaan” demand was simple:

“a north Indian female roommate preferred”

“Abhi” was a bit more “sharing”:

“Hi,

I am looking out to share my flat with a female partner, open minded.. free individual..

All amenities included in rent, have a car also, can share.

Regards, Abhi"

“Pradeep” was more straightforward,

“Looking for north Indian girl only”

An unnamed male wanted,

“URAGRNT NEED!!

FEMALE ONLY. NOT ACCEPT COUPLE OR MALE.”

“Salman” got way too excited and expressed all his needs in a few short lines,

"Urrrrrrgently needed! Open minded Punjabi girl. North Indian negotiable. No Smoke. No drink. Fair, beautiful and very open. Sharing everything. Bathroom, Toilet, Rooms, Balcony, Fridge, Internet, Maid, Milk, Food, Bike.

2 Bedroom Apartment.

If more girls interested. Welcome."

Wow!! That was awesome! So, this must have been written in the heights of the man’s desperateness. And then whil writing the “gentle”man must have realized that just in case he is getting one, why not more! And while I was reading it, the sharing of maid looked “ewwww…” :D

And point to be noted my readers; “open-minded” seems to be the most abused word online. As soon as someone writes open minded, people think that it’s an “open” invitation as well to check out the “open” buttons maybe ;). They think that all the gates to heaven have been opened by the “girl”.

And while crawling the www and coming across such blatant invitations, I also came across a fact that, if the male is looking for another male flatmate then I get to see all sorts for nationalities being asked for, “only telgu”, “only north Indian”, “only Jains”, “only Mallus”; but, if a male is looking for a girl, then it will definitely be "a North Indian" or a "fair girl"!! No wonder Fair and Lovely shows increasingly more sales as one moves from North to South.

What's your password?

2011-01-04T16:12:00.001+05:30

Yes I accept that I am not good at remembering numbers, names and passwords!

When I started using the mailing systems my passwords were as simple as abc123, helloworld, ankushsamant, iamankush and the likes. But the happy days didn’t last long. Soon I was introduced to the world of credit cards and debit cards. I tried my best to simplify this world too by making my passwords (2222, 1111, 1122, 2908 (My birth date), 1983 (My birth year) ) easier for me to remember. And once again, the quote, “And then they lived happily ever after!” failed miserably!

RBI came up with more circulars. Companies like Yahoo, Facebook, Orkut, Gmail came up with stricter password setting rules. Banks came up with their own security measures……BTW the banks’ login name itself is no better than a password, it is a whole 9 digit awkward number!

I still remember the good old password setting rules:

1. Password should be between 6 to 12 characters

2. Password should not contain any special character.

The rules have now changed to something which can give nightmares:

It should not contain your name.
It should not contain a common dictionary word.
It should contain one or more numbers.
It should have both upper and lower case characters.
It should be over 8 characters long.
It must be different from your old passwords.

These seem to be so much easier on me when I look at the password policy of my bank:

The Passwords are case sensitive i.e. Upper Case e.g. PASSWORD123 is differentiated from Lower Case e.g. password123.
Your Password should be alphanumeric i.e. should contain both digits and alphabets.
The Password should contain a minimum of 6 characters and a maximum of 28 characters.
Spaces are not allowed in the Password.
Your new Password cannot be the same as the existing Password.
Only the following special characters !, @, #, $, %, (, &, *, ., ), +, =, ? are accepted as part of the Password.
All characters in the Customer Id should not be present in your Password e.g. If your Customer Id is 000011120, the Password abcd012 is not a valid Password.

By the time I kept a password, noted it down in my diary and remembered it, the red alert message slapped me hard. The season changed. The sun set down. The password expiry policy came up!

Then I came up with a clever idea of keeping the same password in a season for every login. But, if only the life would have been so simple!

Banks started asking 2 passwords, the login password and the transaction password! If I was lucky enough to remember both the passwords then I was asked for a TPIN every time I called up for an assistance on phone!

Now, I have a diary full of passwords….my transaction passwords, my login passwords, my email passwords, my social networking passwords, my TPINS…….my old passwords, my new passwords……..

I just hope my friends, my family, my girl… do not start asking for a password….

Honda Design Philosophy: What we can learn

2010-12-29T10:36:00.000+05:30

One of the world’s most successful car companies: Honda.

The lessons that one can learn from such a success are innumerable! Here, I would like to highlight their design philosophy and how it can help us in our work.

It is the design which lifts up the imperfect to something attractive or beautiful. In addition, true design means a design which perfectly satisfies the need for practicality.

-Shoichiro Honda, 1977

Many a times the requirements that we get are imperfect and vague. The customer is sometimes not even in a position to define what is required. It is up to us how we design the business case, the technical architecture, the user interfaces and bring out the best value possible. But, we should not forget the practicality of the solution. Nonetheless, the practicality may not be understood by all, therefore, it is our responsibility to keep it in high priority.

Design has to be a symphony for our eyes. Individual positions must be designed one by one while maintaining a good overall balance. Having said that, if we worry too much about overall balance, there is a risk of making it a please-everyone design with no unique characteristics.

-Shoichiro Honda, 1977

We can re-phrase the line to, “Design should be a symphony to our senses”. The way we work and the work we do should give us a good feeling. Even a simple work such a making a ppt is sometimes ignored by many. We should realize that every small step towards a project builds up the image in the customer’s perspective. Hence, every detail should be designed well to maintain an overall balance. It is important to note that our objective should not be to get a please-everyone design but to get a good overall balance while giving attention to details.

Man Maximum, Machine Minimum

How many times, we notice that we depend a lot on jargons and technical terms. These jargons and technical terms are no more than machine parts for us. They are necessary but not in excess. In the end we should ask, have we conveyed our idea to the consumer? A consumer for a BA can be the technical lead or programmer. A consumer for a consultant can be the client. A consumer for a UI lead can be the end user.

(Link: http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/auto-insight/honda-r-d-co-ltd-a-lesson-in-design-philosophy/7257/1)

Marching towards extinction

2010-12-28T09:01:00.000+05:30

"Only 1411 left"

When we saw this, we all wondered what was it all about. And then we were enlightened that India is left with just 1411 tigers, and if we don't do anything about it, then in some time, we will be able to see them only in photos and videos.

The long Christmas weekend was enlightening for me as it brought such thoughts to my mind. There was just a small difference, I was not thinking about tigers, rather, I was thinking about Bachelors. The species of bachelors are being eliminated at such a rapid pace that by the end of 2011, I don't think there will be a single one left.

This year the most tragic month was November. Every single day, my hand used to shiver when opening my FB account. One or the other mutilation story was up there. There were nightmares of a world without Bachelors. What will the world look like?!

Interestingly, the world around disguises itself to make us feel better. In one of the discs, there were a good number of "Bachelorettes". But as one inched closer to them the ever honoured Sindoor nicely touched up by the make up was in your face. I could see a live example of how Lakshmanrekha would work on Bachelors. There is no better repellent that a simple vermilion.But my full sympathies go for the species of my kind. Where else do we go?

The few of the kind left in this wilderness, find no peace on the weekends. They wander about in shopping malls, movie halls, FB, gtalk or they huddle around in closed group booze parties. They keep away from their phones and never think about going homes to see their parents. They know that they will be slaughtered at the first sight! They keep hearing news that another relative came down with a proposal from a neighbor. When they call back home, out of guilt for not calling for long, only one line gets repeated invariably every time:

"अब तो तू settle हो गया है | लड़की देखना शुरू करें ?"
("Now that you are settled, shall we look for a bride?")

They worry about what will happen if they agree to lie on the deathbed. They ask around in hushed tones.
"How is the married life? How is it going?"
And they get the answers in even more toned down voices,
"Everything is great man!" (As if We don't know!)
"Life is good. We went to @$$%$#& and had loads of fun!" (Ya ya, no daru, no ladki. You have always been a naturalist!)

And then they give us the impression that they are really enjoying their life. So, just as old friends we invite them over a party on weekend. And as usual we get the replies of why not, see you over the weekend! But friends change a lot.....

On Saturday morning you get the msg: "Not possible, got some work"

So, on monday morning on a gtalk chat you ask what happened and you get the reply:
"यार महीने का सामान लाना था |"
"उसके मम्मी पापा, चाचा मामा, बड़ी बहिन, छोटा भाई......आ गए |"

You sort of get the feel of the life to come. And you start wondering how long before you will also be caught....Just then you see the municipality van coming to your neighborhood. Someone must have complained about the increasing number of stray dogs menacing on the streets. The municipal worker chases the dogs, puts a ring around the head of the dog and ruthlessly pulls it towards the standing van. The dog gives the best fight possible, but the metal ring only gets tighter, tight enough for not even the bark to come out. The van finally leaves, and the dog looks back at the streets, only a few minutes ago the dog was running around jumping with joy!.....

The feeling lingers on for the day......And then you get call form one of the rare species,
"आज रात कहाँ पार्टी है?"

You forget about the weird feelings. You don't dare check the FB status messages for the fear of getting another bad news or the same old rhetoric question,
"When are you getting married?"

You just put on the fist T that comes to your hand, pull out one of the jeans from the to-be-washed clothes pile, pick up the bike keys and leave for the streets...............

Snippets from Life

2010-12-09T10:38:00.000+05:30

I was super excited to meet my Di and her hubby for the first time after marriage. But, the last minute invitation left me wondering what to take along as a small gift. At last I thought that a tie and cufflinks would be the best gift easily available in any big clothings store. So, off I went on my bike to get them. The tie was easy to choose. A black tie always works well for any man! And then I asked the sales girl "Where can I get cufflinks?". Salesgirl says," What are cuff....". Alright, I explaied to her that cufflinks are like buttons of shirt to be worn on the sleeves. She says, "Sorry sir, we are a big shop". I said, "So what?". She says, "Sir, we are a big shop, we don't keep buttons. Please go to a tailor shop to get buttons!!"
...
...

The whole idea of becoming a BookFish Champion for Bangalore chapter sounded like I won a title of sorts. But, it was not long before I realised that this fish has long been out of water and almost everyone was a champion! Anyways, so we kickstarted the activities again. One of the first sessions was on India After Gandhi. We got some 15 serious peopple for our book dicussion. And the whole topic was vibrant enough to keep people engaged beyond the 1 hour sessions. So, we decided to go ahead with one more session on the same. But, the real "champions" woke up from their slumber and growled at us:
"I propose it is better to avoid topics that can be associated with politics, religion, sex."
...
...

Meeting with IIM Lucknow batchmates after a period of 6 months was refreshing. The interesting moments were watching Ballu depressed, Mooli excited and "mysteriously" dissapearing, Ashu puzzled over million of invitations, Anshul wondering who the "girl" was, Roshan diplomatically answering "hmm" and Ayan fantacizing his loliness in his one room set. Ballu made some fingerlicking chicken specialities and promised to serve us in many more parties. But, the best part was the gambling on the floor over Teen Patti. Ashu took over 5 hours to convince everyone that Poker was a better game than Teen Patti. The game lasted for just 4 hours. And yes, like any gambling many a people lost their entire earnings on the game, and other walked away with the booty. Well the whole booty was a matchbox full of matchsticks!!! :D

intezaar

2010-10-22T22:49:00.000+05:30

अब इंतज़ार नहीं होता |
हर पल साल जैसा लगा करता था, उन बीते दिनों में,
अब इतना इत्मीनान नहीं होता ||
गुमान था हमें अपनी सहनशीलता पर |
अब उस गुमान का मैं वजूद खो बैठा ||

Towards Financial Inclusion

2010-10-05T10:09:00.000+05:30

India has been sleeping for long, but not anymore. One initiative after the other leads to one conclusion, that India is yearning to leapfrog the world leaders.

The latest initiative is the new system in place that allows free funds transfers. (Although a couple of us already knew about it through the discussion with Viral from UID office). National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) is leading this initiative which will enable 24-hours payment system
allowing free remittance to any account across India.

We know about a couple of mobile fund transfer facilties functional around the world:
- M-paisa in Kenya
- Wizit in South Africa
- Smart Cash in Philippines
- Intra-bank in US and UK

How does this differ from the present payment gateways?
The system in place will work in collaboration with banks and telecom companies. This will not tie up the systems with any banks or telecom operators, hence giving it the required flexilbilty to scale up. Seconly, it will be free to use ulike the Visas.

What will happen to the Visas and Master cards?
Time will tell!

What do you all think?
I am waiting to hear.

(http://www.livemint.com/2010/10/03194721/New-system-that-allows-free-fu.html?atype=tp)

Delhi : There is always place for one more!

2010-04-19T10:40:00.004+05:30

Delhi is daily explored by millions of eyes, perceived in new ways by every mind and thousands of articles, books and blogs try to frame Delhi in their own words. So being in Delhi for long, I could not stop myself from writing a short ode to this great place in my own words.

For me Delhi has never been just a place but a living organism. I know it is an organism for many but then the personality of this organism is what defines Delhi for me. It’s daring, it’s individualistic and above all it’s “accommodating”. “Space for just one more” defines Delhi for me.

The up and down going lifts are so omnipresent in Delhi malls and the housing societies. You get into one, suddenly 2-3 more people press the open switch and get in. Then some more get in while the life is just about to lift. Then, some more… Then the 2-3 earlier people realize that the lift is going up rather than the way they intended it to go: “down”. In such a pressed situation, they find humor and say, “Koi nahi, baad main jagah nahi milegi!” And then 2-3 more try to get in, although they find no space except shifting vertically or just accommodating by breathing in! As the lift cries “overweight!!” the new entrants look around for those who are not able to bear the press and body heat. And definitely they get a few mere mortals who alas think of using the stairs to go up using the stairs.

Driving in wide Delhi roads is a pleasure, but the real fun is down the narrow bends and busy streets. Even the cycle riders drive with so much passion for speed and thrills that it is a must watch. The rickshaw pullers park their vehicles with pride on the middle of the roads just to get his hourly dose of Gutka. There are surely more daring stuntmen on Delhi roads than on the X- Games till date. And amidst all this one has to maneuver the car with the best skills at hand. Suddenly one may find someone bringing the car from the opposite side (I mean the wrong side of the road :) ), but it will not be his fault since he was only trying to save some petrol (One has to understand since he was driving a gas guzzling SUV all alone!!). And you may be at fault if you try to show anger or don’t give way to this another simple Dilliwalla, since you are not trying to adjust. Try to give some space yaar!

Metro is a real boon for Delhi. It is such a delight to enter an air conditioned medium of travel for going around to places in this sweltering heat. Gone are the days when killer buses were the main mediums of traveling besides maintaining a population check. With the metro, the least expected was some decency. And one is not disappointed; surprisingly Dilliwallahs do show some decency once on the metro platforms. After listening to the repeated announcements, the crowd does allow the people getting down, the first chance. But then, the impatiens creeps in, in milliseconds. Some people try to squeeze from the sides and others try to make a tunnel through the outgoing crowd. I learnt about the tunneling in VLSI, but it was here that I actually got to see it :P. And not to mention you will again be the culprit if you come in between with these innocent travelers, cause they are only making the way by offering you the first chance.

Another repeated announcement is that, “Please leave the seats reserved for women and elderly passengers”. And yet another accommodation! An elderly woman asks a male passenger sitting on such a seat to please let her sit, and the request doesn’t go unnoticed. She is given a seat :O but only after the man asks his adjacent passenger to shift a bit and make some space :D. Now what’s wrong in that? After all he is such a nice and accommodating Dilliwalla.

Hum jahan khade hote hain line wahin se shuru hoti hai. Another live presentation of this statement is seen everywhere right from the morning Mother Dairy crowds to the PVR movie ticket queues. If there are 10 people, then, not surprisingly 10 lines will be definitely there. The great Q manager is handled no better than the wooden stick on an ice cream, although here is holds nothing. And if at all there is a queue then there will be a body right behind one who is pressing to such an extent that you can feel a second skin on your back. The idea of space between two people, remember the one arm’s distance in school parades, is still unheard of beyond those school parade grounds.

Then there are millions of other instances on every corner which demonstrate this unique personality of Delhi. Two cars stopping right in the middle of the road to discuss something. A truck reversing on the great 6 lane fast traffics; yet another moment of glory for the Schumacher on the Delhi roads to maneuver clear of these obstacles. Traffic police ignoring the cycle riders jumping the red lights. And the greatest of all according to me: zooming the car right in front of a renowned dhaba, calling the vendor with the flick of a hand, ordering a Butter Chicken with 2 Tandoori rotis, rolling back the car windows with AC running on full, putting the Punjabi hip hop music on full blast, rolling down the windows again and shouting, “2 Thumps Up aur ek tandoori bhi laga do”, space for more?? And you got to experience the Surround sound by standing right at the center of all this, that is at the dhaba stall, with around 20-25 such moving discotheques around you. But there is always space for one more :)

Temple of Worship: 2

2010-04-03T23:53:00.003+05:30

Boredom on a Sunday morning took us on a small pilgrimage to another temple of worship. This one was in one the busiest places in Delhi and for those who are not aware of busy streets in Delhi it is like walking against the tide with hands and legs tied down. But our will power was just strong enough for us to move ahead and execute the plan. We were in the vicinity of the place looking for a place to park our car, when some one (that too in Delhi!) informed us that the place had its own parking place. We felt luck already in our favour as this was not likely in such a rush hour, our worrisome faces turned upside down into wide grins.

Much to our amazement the parking was not just available but it was free! Now that is what I call a grand welcome in such a place. As we interested the compounds of the temple, we were asked to deposit our shoes in either of the two shoe collection centers. Yet another surprise awaited us as we saw well educated people and old ladies on these counters who not just collected our shoes for deposit but touched them on their foreheads as a worship of gods.

Once we had parted away with our shoes we moved forward towards the temple. A jet of water on the entrance cleaned our feet. And pieces of cloth were made available to us to tie on our heads as a mark of respect. We moved with the other people, and they were not heading directly for the temple but towards a stall. We moved with them and found that prasadam was available to be given as chadawa inside the temple.

Finally we made our way to the main entrance of the temple with our hands joined together in due respect and prasadam held in between. We were hypnotized by a faint music being played inside as we reached the doors. It was not just the coolness of the air inside but this aura emanating from an omnipresent magnetic source that pulled us apart in all directions. What was left with us was just kindness, love, compassion and respect for everyone and everything around. We moved around aimlessly and sat mesmerized by the music for unknown number of unforgettable moments.

As the temple musicians stood up, we realized that the music had come to an end way earlier. It was just the smiles and the laughter around which kept the rhythm flowing. As we stood up we were directed by some people to have some food in the common room. And here we saw astonishing scenes as we sat among hundreds of fellow humans, all looking to share joy and good life rather than just eat food. A surge of around 100 more people was not a problem for this place as more carpets were rolled down and more plates were put forward. No one was denied the entrance to this feast. It is difficult to please the taste buds of everyone, I was sure that everyone would be left asking for more. But I was again in for a surprise as no one was left without having a stomach full and some even had their Tiffin full for those at home.

We returned from this trip to find a new life in our selves. I cannot define what was so great about this place. Sometimes one cannot feel where one is, or what one is there for, or what time of the day it is, or as a matter of fact what one actually is. One is left as a fearless spark of life capable of lighting up the world with it power of love. I came out of this place believing I was one such spark of life!

Temple of Worship: 1

2010-04-03T23:51:00.000+05:30

We entered the premises of this place of worship and were welcomed by knowledgeable children running around asking them to be hired as guides for the tour. Surprisingly, it was the school hour and these children were, may be, too knowledgeable for the schools too. Helplessly and with exactly the same reasons we go for free credit cards, we had to hire one of these buzzing children to guide us. And the results were almost the same, we got not one but 2-3 guides free alongside.

The main temple was not to be seen without bowing our heads to various other temples on the way. Surely, India has millions of gods, and may be the highest in terms of gods per square kilometer too! The key people of these temples of worship were excited to see the first disciples (or the first customers) of the day. Suddenly they into action! As if the Maharaja himself was on the rounds, we were given utmost respect and were asked our names. Surprisingly, next in their questionnaire was the name of our hometown, place of birth, mother’s name, father’s name…. Our confusion ended with the end of his chant, “And now Shrimaan Ankush will pay Rs. 100 as prasadam”. I said,”…”. Yes, this had me speechless, I had only heard about this, now witnessed it first hand. I said, “I don’t have it.” He asked, “How much do you have?” I said, “Rs. 20”. Another chant and I was lesser by Rs. 20 in my wallet. The priest felt victorious, after all his gods really pleased “him” for the day.

Meanwhile, our guides were running around playing hide and seek. As we asked them to take to our main destination, we were again taken aback. The guides pointed to the direction and said they are not allowed there, so we have to now cover the rest of the enlightening journey by ourselves. Thankfully we were guided not to take in our cameras and mobile phones inside the main temple. And of course we owed them the fees. Now, their faces now seemed to emanate the same aura as the priests inside.

As we walked on, we felt that the journey was yet to begin. We were suddenly surrounded by a feeling of fear. There were policemen all around, some smiling, some just chattering around sipping tea and some chewing gutka. And, we had some eyes following us down to the corner of the street.

The security check-post was another beginning. First we passed through our classic metal detectors. I think they are made up of 2 things: an old door frame which was found inappropriate for houses and a beeper which beeps whenever someone passes across. Some technology! And when there is a detector, the next security person surely passes his hands around on your private parts. And the awful feeling is not because of the feeling of the hands but rather because of the smell from his mouth which is a fermented mix of gutka, tea and the aloo paranthas of yesterday. And, God only help you, if he doesn’t burp straight into your mouth.

I thought the worst was over. We were herded into a metal cage tunnel. It was a long tunnel made up of metal mesh of around 7 ft. height and 4ft. wide. The twists and turns took us into another security check! Again, the metal detectors. And, again the hand frisking! I tried to clam myself as I thought that this is nothing to visit the greatest holy place. This time my wallet was also to be tortured. Toilet paper was examined by the security personnel as if I was about to blow the place with it. And finally he decided to throw it away. And we were pushed further into the maze of metal mesh.

We had a great view in sight now: an army, many more policemen, and some old ladies who could not walk fast and were fat enough to block the 4ft wide metal tunnels. Although our minds resented the idea of coming to this place, our hearts were full of compassion and love for god to overcome all this. We heard the ladies chanting slowly and we tried to join in and motivate them forward.

And, here it came, the 3^rd security check! I felt like running back but to my dismay I could see the metal tunnel on my back. Metal detectors! Hand frisking! Wallet checking! And this time, my driver’s license in a plastic cover was an issue. The license was Indian so it was passed across but the plastic cover could be “a potential weapon” so it was retained back. Move on…

We moved on with the crowd. Now, all points of discussion were also over between us. And, finally came the moment of enlightenment. As the metal passage expanded from 4ft wide to around 10 ft wide our attention was caught by the big artillery pointing toward us from our left hand side. There was also a big security of around 15-20 men and women pushing people further. We heard them shouting to the group of ladies before us, “Idhar kya dekh rahi ho? Right mein dekho aur Badte jao. Chaliye maaji, keval aapke liye nahi khola hai” (What are you seeing here? See to your right, and move on. Move on mother, this is not open only for you”). Yes we were also “privileged” to see the “God” on our “right” with our own “worldly” eyes. God was visible for only about 1-2 seconds but it such was a “glorifying” experience!

I

2010-03-31T00:10:00.000+05:30

I swam across oceans,

I crawled across deserts,

I trekked the highest peaks,

I crossed great rivers,

I ran bare on fire,

I walked naked on ice,

I have been a king,

I have been a prostitute,

I killed many,

I killed myself,

I create my gods,

I wear my religion,

I am a great friend,

I am a bit better, enemy,

I lived for ages,

I died million times,

I followed the sun,

I was outrun by the nights,

I stopped....

I let the darkness to prevail....

I thought....

I meditated...

I introspected....

I stopped fighting the lies....

I was in the darkest of the nights...

...

Faint light within, then shone on the mighty me,

I now knew, why stars are not visible in the electrified city,

Truth was again facing me,

But, I fear the cycle to repeat.....

My will power suppresses the fear,

I wipe away my dry tear,

Hope has kept me alive,

So I know, hope will again show me the light....

1 Hour 30 Minutes

2010-01-02T23:54:00.005+05:30

The time on my watch is 5:30pm. The class is just 1 hour 30 minutes long. (This is me, the real me)
1 Hour!! 30 minutes!!! (This is me, the inner-self)
You mean 90 minutes!!!!

What are you going to study?
A subject called ATSC.

Creepy. Isn't it?
Not quite, after doing 5 semesters of MBA studies, ATSC doesn't seem to be all that scary. ATSC is just Applied Theory in Strategy and Competition.

So no funny expansions for ATSC? You guys are famous for those.
Who has time for expanding everything. And then you can burn your gray cells for thinking of some expansions. Gray cells are valued assets not to be wasted on matters of zero ROIs. And don't disturb me! I have made up my mind to concentrate a bit on the game theories and transactions costs. I want my full worth from the MBA program!

:D
Fuck off!

..
Some theories explain cause and effect in different contexts. Example are perfect competition, duopoly theory, monopolistic competition, TCE, agency theory, game theory, real option theory, RBV, KBV of the firm etc. (This was the teacher......With all due regards, I don't know why teachers always sound similar to cheaters........almost replaceably!!)
..
..
..
..
..

The time on my watch is 6:00pm. My eyes have been following the average cost function, the total cost function and every curve on the slide. Now, the other part of me.....

That's me! :P I will take over now!! :D lol! ROFL......ROFLMAO
Nooo!!!!! I won't let it happen. Take deep breaths. Deep breaths help to increase the oxygen supply to the body and in turn keep oneself awake.

Why do I see everyone turning back ?
Everyone looks at the watch on the back wall to check what the time is? Everyone is damn bored after studying the same damn strategy for 2 years. It started off with the first class in hel(L). And I think the last class will end with it.

But dude, they already have watches on their hands!! Then why are they looking at the wall clock? Is there something special?
I look at the wall clock and at my own watch. I repeat this foolish exercise twice to answer. No, there is absolutely no difference in time. Maybe a difference of 1 minute. But that is it! Then why? I try to apply theories and globes......

When you looked back twice to observe the time on the wall clock and then match it with the time on your hand watch. What did you do? You exerted pressure on your body (you craned your neck back and forth) and mind (calculated the difference between the observed times). So, you kept yourself from dozing off to that another world. Wow!

But there is something romantic about the way things go even in this boring class. The way people around you look, back and forth. You again look at the watch. Do you remember your love? M.... :) How do you feel? You always get lost in her eyes.

Her eyes, black, pitch black. Almost like the black holes of the universe. Un-noticeable. Negligible. Ignorable. But when you see closely, or get tooo close, they attract you. You move into them powerlessly, like a weakling, defenseless, frail, paralyzed and vulnerable.

You again look at the watch. You again think about her. The pain of parting was not enough. The expectation of someday meeting her again keeps you alive in an even more excruciating pain, making you feel debilitated. You again look at the wall clock. Maybe the wall clock has the answers. In your own words....

घडी घडी ,घडी पर नज़र।
कैसा है ,ये तेरे प्यार का असर।

You are crippled. And you are crippled by a force which has an increasing rate of return. That's love! You can't plead for death. Running away was never the answer. You can only plead for life. Since, life will bring along moments. Moments to remember her. Moments to expect her. Moments to see her again.

But you can plead for something else too....

घडी घडी ,घडी पर नज़र।
कैसा है,ये तेरे प्यार का असर।
ना मचा तू इतना ग़दर।
अब बस कर, बस कर, बस कर॥

So, tomorrow we will do the case on Bird's eye and UK frozen food industry. Thank you.

So the class is over?
Of course! See it was that easy to attend the 90 minutes of this distressing class. I told you. I am trained to beat these tortures. But, why don't I recall anything after 6:00pm? Anyways, it was all globe. But what happened?

घडी घडी ,घडी पर नज़र।
कैसा है,ये तेरे प्यार का असर।
;)

What was Europe like? : People

2009-12-27T19:29:00.004+05:30

I traveled around Europe in 90 days. Made great friends. Loved some of the places. Hated others. Found my love. Realized it was too unrealistic. Lost my love. Partied hard. Was sad like anything on my way back.
But the big question which everyone asked back home was, "What was Europe like?"
And my answer, "It was great!"

But is it that simple to define the experience? Now, that I have lots of time to think about it back at my hostel room, I think not just about the places, but specially the people that I met. I started my journey not with the purpose of having fun, but experiencing every bit of life in every nook and corner of Europe that I went to. And as every strategist says that the vision defines the actions and the outcomes, so it was in my case :)

Here are some of the people who touched me in some way or the other in no order of preference ;)

Alix: The captain of our boat called KPI (Kot Partenaires Interculturels). Compassionate. Caring. And cool :) She was the one who looked after my room allotment and ran like anything from one corner of university to the other just to get my work done. She is really energetic! Wow girl!

Vincent: The serious guy with a smile :) Always remains on the back with a serious face. But only till someone pokes him, then, he is like smiling and saying something fast and then......serious again. Mano says, "He never gets angry". I agree :) He can't....he is just tooo serious! :D

Florence: Fake American accent :P "annnkussh" :D and I love that! She eats a lot.....and then stumbles a lot. Kicks something here and then pushes something there. Holes in her jeans are awesomely funny! And then she makes a big face, big eyes! OMG.....great.....

Claire: Strange smile ;) to start with......but when she starts laughing.....everyone follows. Her laugh is contagious. And the strange smile looks so beautiful. Pity that my camera could never capture it, but my memory did! :P Oh! I forgot....how could I???.....She is the one who made me drunk for the first time! "Gold strike" :)

Crok: She comes to me quiet often and....and.....tries to speak in English "Are you alright?". Then she shows her thumbs up. I reply, "I am doing great!". She smiles and heaves a sigh of relief. She is the most caring girl I have even seen. I didn't know french and she was never able to understand my English. My fortune: language barriers are not for friends! I felt her eyes speaking to me.

Manoelle: My techno dance teacher. My french teacher. Top dancer. Energetic! Always on the top of her moods. Always happy. Sarcastic. "Oh p......" and "Excellent" her favourite words out every 2 minutes. And..... she was actually the one who is responsible for something big for me. I met.......let's keep it unsaid!

Cylaine: Mysterious girl. Her smile was a puzzle to be solved. I always felt that there was so much to be understood about her. She always seemed to be close and distant at the same time. But, it all changed while we served together at the bar. She was honest. She had nothing to hide. It was all clear, it was just a mist to be wiped by the hands of time.

Cedric: Naughty! Naughty! Naughty! Always flirting. I have had so much beer with him. "I have some friends at the bar, come let's get some beer." He would hold my hand and off we go towards the bar. There he gives me 4 glasses then 4 more and says, "Drink fast! We need to refill!" He deserved the superman underwear! :D

Sean: One drink and he is OK. 2 drinks and he is dancing. 3 drinks and he is on the table, or on the chair, or anything which can make an Irishman taller ;). He works hard and parties harder. Sincerity is what defines him!

Hubert: Anthropologist from the French speaking province of Canada. Quebec. Interesting. Great guy to speak to. Great haristyle. And surprisingly he was everywhere and knew everyone. interesting.....

Olivier: I met him on the voyage from Greece to Italy. On the first look I took him as a fraud. Then we talked. Ship journeys are long. But, pleasant if the skies are clear and it is sunny. It was exactly that sort of a day when I met this person. From fraud to friendship in just 2 minutes. We talked like age old buddies. He going on 35+, I am going on 26 and we talked like we were 18. He was painter, graphist, poet, singer. I was a globetrotter (in every sense!) Together we were free friends. He defined french people for me. He took me through his experiences as a poet and a photographer. We experienced together his plight as a singer who sings to earn money just so that one could prevent hunger! We explored Paris together. Paris which was far away from romance in every sense and yet made great memories for people. Paris which was a hell made up of rude people and angry stares. He took me through the vineyards and forests on the west coast of France. He gave meaning to my feelings for France.

Christine: Aha.....zoom goes her hand over her forehead and she smiles! She smiles and I smile. She asks, "Why do you laugh at me?". I reply, "I love it when you do that". She smiles even more! She blushes....:) Cute. She told me what China was, what it is and what it will be. She was frank. China was no more the same for me after I met her.

Jamie: Progressive yet traditionally rooted. Appreciative. She asked weird question for which I scrambled for answers, "I have seen Indian women in movies and in pictures of some friends. I have even heard that they really beautiful. But I don't see them in Europe. Where have you guys hidden them? Why don't I see them?". She is truthful in every sense.

Drunkard at the Czech bar: Loud. Friendly. He was falling all over the place when we called him over for beer with us. He spoke only German, we spoke only English. He spoke in German and we spoke hindi! :D And then we had so much fun.....he was a nice guy. He worked in another pub and was there with his friends to party. And then he clung to us like anything. We were leaving the pub and he forced us to sit for just another drink, the drinks being on him... :)

Lady at Fragonard perfumery: The best French girl I think I will ever meet. She was the "french" girl who I always imagined in dreams! She explained every detail with such enthusiasm and interest that 1 hour passed like 1 second. She selected the perfume for me after knowing all about me ;). The glint in her eyes while saying goodbye.......

Prof Semal: ha ha ha. He was the "naughty professor" jumping around the class. His cute screen-savers popping out frequently were a sight. One of them being a bat! And he told, "That bat is in my house for years" :D Teaching while making fun of everyone was his forte. No one felt like sleeping in his class. Apart from that he was a great knowledgeable person with superb personality.

Prof Gaily: If Semal was funny, Gaily was strict. His mails were also funny, although only for him. His subject line for an assignment mail, "Gift from Santa Claus". His first lines in a class, "Some people come to me and ask for deadline extensions. I already told you to take liberty in extending the deadlines. But, please don't submit the assignment late as I am not interested in your freedom. Some people mail me asking this and that. I am not your personal assistant. Hire one!". And then he would politely say, "I have to do all this before saying good morning since this is my job". His looks could easily get him roles of deadly vampires. His terminologies were even more sarcastic than his comments: MBS: Management Bull Shit. BS: no not balance sheets but again Bull Shits. And his favourite line, "An investor is one who marries you to divorce you one day"

Aydan: I did not know what belly dancing "actually" was before meeting her.......wow!! She grooved to the music like OMG! It was an art which I would have never known if I would not have met her. She has made me add another country in my wishlist "Turkey". Although I always want to go to Istanbul, but, now I want to go around Turkey not just Istanbul. Hope she is there to take me around the maze of belly dancers :)

Liliana: "Grazie"...."Italiano"....No, she is not Italian. She is instead from the country with the largest Christmas tree. And the country known for being laidback. She had to reach the bar at 10:00pm. She reached at ... 10:00pm. Portugese time. Actual time was 11:00pm. Yeah she is from Portugal. She said she was "shy". Ask anyone else and one will laugh. She acted Italians better than Italians themselves. :D...Lili.....

True Berliner: 21....She was studying history in Berlin. She called herself a true Berliner. She ate lots of fats, she loved my pictures, she loved to sit on the stairs of the giant architectures and she loved the warmth of cold Berlin. In just 2 minutes we were talking like chaddi buddies. We smiled, we laughed, we shouted, we kissed and we departed, leaving it to destiny that we meet again......

Vicky: Masti from China. She was all fun to be with. She was one of the best company to be around, be it factory visits or La CASA. And she made good food. Although, Jamie is to be credited for food too when I mention food here, since she did most of the hard work. But Vicky weaved magic on some of the dishes.

Denis: Bacchha from Russia. His smile widened like it would tear his face, he would even blush, when he heard the name of Russia in any conversation. He was partying around on Russian scholarships. And when I threatened to spill the beans...I got beer.....So I also partied on Russian Scholarship :)

Emily from Singapore: :D That is how she introduced herself to everyone. Elegant (if she didn't speak a word) I think she knew it, that is why she "tried" not to speak much. But then she was so talkative that she had to open her mouth. And then she went on and on and on.

Emili: US girl who was highly influenced by India. She accompanied me in most of the Erasmus parties when I was alone. She shooed away the buggers who made even one joke on India. She was the elusive girl who showed up like Spider(wo)man only to rescue me from boredom in big parties.

Mr. Joseph: Kaleti hostel is situated around 100 mts in front of the Budapest railway station. The hostel is in a very bad shape. But being so close to the station makes it good for 1 night stay. But what makes it very special and worthy for staying much longer is Mr. Joseph. He would receive you on the doors, then take you around the hostel explaining everything like you are his grandchildren. He was caring, polite and modest. He spoke with such humility that I can't imagine anything wrong going with him. When he coughed, half the hostel came out to ask him for any help. He held his pipe in his mouth, smiled and said, "No, I feel great. I will have some wine and it will be alright". Great man!

Lady at the souvenir shop in Athens: We go inside the shop and ask the price of a souvenir. She replies, "Where are your from? India? Then why do you buy anything from here? India is great....." And then she goes on for another 2 hours. We talk. We talk about everything from Greece to India. Form the Indian millions of gods to the 3 major Greek gods. The resemblances and the differences. She praises India for left to right. Then she becomes sad, she asks, "Why do you have so many caste systems? Why do you look down upon some of the castes? Why don't you abolish the bad things?".....talking to her was a tremendous experience of what people actually think about us. We took it upon us, the young generation to change India for good. We told her, "We are going back to change India. You will find it as the same heaven but without the filth!"

M____: This was the girl who I was in love with. Her smile took away my breath. Her killer dance moves were amazing. If I still look at her pictures then I can't sleep for hours. She had that innocence in her voice that is only comparable to those sounds of the sea waves. Her eyes resembled galaxies of unimaginable depths with two sparkling stars. The dimples on her face were the most exciting things to look out for when she smiled. I feel lost and confused when I even imagine about her. I could never have the courage enough to go and ask her out. If I think of getting another chance I don't know if I will still make it. I will surely be spellbound.................

SOM rus

2009-08-01T23:30:00.003+05:30

Thursday, Friday and Saturday in hel(L) are meant to be the JD day in this semester. The subject has been taken very well. Each funda is imbibed with great logic and thought. Deep thinking will permit you to appreciate this "SOM rus" as spread by god himself.

"If you think you can stay away from data, I have some bad news for you! Data can't stay away from you"

"History reflects future"

"Don't lose heart! Even if you do you have your Excel along with you :) "

"Smart heuristics can make life easier"

"The numbers look rosy on a spreadsheet"

"Work hard! You might be known tomorrow as a stand alone person who is a wiz kid with numbers"

"Life still begins with means and standard deviations"

"I am not a powerpoint person"

"I can sleepwalk thorugh Excel"

"Honeymoon period is much longer if the processes are not in place."

The best one is yet to come:

"How do you calculate the length of an arc?
You simply have 2 choices:
1. Pay someone else to do it
2. Do it yourself. Now how to do it yourself? Simple. Divide the arc into small segments so that they look like pretty staright lines. Now, you measure each line with a scale. Add all the numbers and you have the length of an arc."

Wow!

Matrix in real world

2009-05-20T13:57:00.007+05:30

I am not the "ONE"!

But then for some people I am the only one, for others I am someone and for the still few left I am noone :), I am happy (fullstop)

But then I was elated, overjoyed, ecstatic, jubilant and jumping when one dear friend said good things about me. Particularly this pic was praised :P, the compliments are saved for life!

"My" life which runs like a matrix for me.

Sometimes I feel like everything around me is running in a fast mode. Everyone and everything is moving around very fast. I am not in sync with the rest of the world. But I am not worried at all, I am in my own world. I will give an example from today morning. I was initially running....jogging to catch the 9:15 bus. Exactly 5 mins into the run I realize "kahan ke liye?"!

Why am I running? I relax. I see around. I watch the puddles of water from last night. I see people rushing to office. I see motorbikers coming out of all small alleys and gelling into the astoundingly fast traffic. They seep around like a big funnel with its mouth at every junction and every stopover. There the next funnel opens its mouth to suck them all!

The cars, autos and buses rush around like there is no tomorrow. Recklessly they splash the filth around. I see splash leaves ripples in the water...ripples reflecting the morning sun light. Then another splash wakes up a sleeping dog :). The dog takes a long time to realize, "It's morning :) , again :D".

The bus :...it leaves just in front of my eyes :( I have no problems.. I will catch the next one :) I see people behind me running hard to catch the same bus. They do. I have made up my mind!

I see young boys running behind their father pulling a cart. The smiles are contagious. I see a man selling stickers of gods to autowallas. He comes to me too. Says something which I can't understand. I anyways buy a sticker for Rs. 2 obviously with a smile. My eyes search for an auto which has the least smoke. They are all like dragons, coughing out like anything. I am getting angry! I am getting disgusted! I find one....an auto with almost no smoke. I hand the sticker to him and tell him to keep it up! He is happy, the most auspicious thing happened to him this morning.

Happiness is contagious!

And time passes quickly! Another bus comes up. What was the need to rush for the earlier one? I get on the bus with a smile (again) :)

But then at other times, I feel everything around me is moving slowly.......People moving in slow motion.....things moving around like they have been played in replay mode of an IPL 3rd umpire screen. Extremely slow! The bus is about to leave. I am walking normally but the bus door takes hours to close....I jump in the bus....the bus moves on slowly......

Someone on my back is asking for change. The conductor is saying no change - no tickets. He has just a Rs. 500 note. Oopss! Can happen to anyone if that anyone is careless :D. He is too slow to ask for a change. I hand him Rs. 50 and tell him to return back soon. What has happened to me!!!! :O

He thinks twice ;) he who is getting the money :D He takes it and gives me his phone number. Takes down mine and says today itself. He works in the same place as I do. EGL, Bangalore.

And a traffic jam. Every car, every bike, every auto is moving as if they don't want to move ahead. I get down and start walking. It is good to walk down, one can see so many things. A group is playing a gamble. 3 hundred rupee notes are out. I watch the game. It is exciting. A person won Rs. 300. Wow! :) I congratulate him! Big day for him. I move ahead. Still the bus is behind me. Poor traffic :))

I feel like there is so much to see, so much to listen to, so much to do and so much to experience. I have done so much yet so little. I have so much to do and so less a time. Who believes in god??? Who believes in rebirths?

I believe I have just one life! I believe I have the god within! I believe one has to decide for one's own self. I believe the destiny is not destined for anyone, but the person paves the way ahead for one's own destiny. I believe I should be happy to reach my destiny. I believe I will find sorrows on every corner of the way ahead.

But I believe that sorrows can't face my smile. I believe that the sorrows will either be too slow or too fast to catch up with me.

I believe only the happiness remains with me. Happiness brings smile.

Smile is contagious :)

Bangaluru: Shoes from US

2009-04-22T15:08:00.002+05:30

Place: Microsoft Office
Time: 10:00 am
Serious stuff going on all around. People checking mails, orkuts, tweets, last night's IPL matches, Wall Street movements, Redmond activities everything. I hear voices of conversations from everywhere. The work places are heating up and people are buzzing with life. Moving all around to find what will the next move of the customers so that they move with the moves to keep abreast of their purchase decisions. This is the Sales and Marketing floor of Microsoft.
On my left:
Hey Venkaaat!! What is this yaar? Where are the updates from the Rajasthan Royals vs Bengal Tigers match? We have to get on that asap. Put on some more Microsoft banners up there.
On my Right: We got to create 70000 Ids for the teachers. It will work. The teachers would log on for the Teacher's award and voila! This will definitely work. What else do you propose? No your idea is a bit.....
Diagonally opposite: Sir, are you able to connect to your live chat? Yes, now switch off the video, it's taking too much of the bandwidth.
On the office entrance and slowly moving inwards: AArvind!
Evil in formals!
Came in shouting....Hey all I got shoes from US. Finally! See......Yeeesss they are white in colour. Hey I lost them there. Then I filed a complaint in the Hotel. They really liked me so searched for it and now I have them.
Wait I will wear them and show them to you. (Amazingly) He raise his leg (astounding!) over the 5ft cubicle walls!! (Just to show his shoes!! wow!!!)
Then we walks all around the floor. One foot with black leather formal shoe and the other with white gleaming shoes imported from the states.........That's Aravind!

Bangalooru: Making the rotis!

2009-04-13T18:31:00.004+05:30

Well well! bangalore....bangy.....bangalooru....whatever one says its is one hell of a city....:)
And the closest hell mates here are DK, bhoda and hary. People have changed....but not these 3.....still the same old.....like wine in old bottles.....
Scene: DK's home
Situation: Dinner has to be made. There has been rice made for the last 2 years. Once before an attempt was done to make rotis. Sadly it failed :D. The rotis were hard enough to play freesbee. :D
Problem: Now the hunger for rotis was again up! But who would again try the long process? And the pointed fingers, all five of them for : Me!!!

Easy task! ha ha(this was DK laughing!)

Its the toughest!
Step 1: The mashing up of the atta itself is herculean. I think even Herculeus made his muscles by making the doughs on a regular basis. No gyms required thereafter!

Step 2: Use the dough to make rotis. (I forgot to tell that rotis are round in shape.) I know perfection is difficult to attain! But close to round would have sufficed. But :(( they were of all shapes bu round!

Step 3: Put on the tawa on low heat and put the rotis on it after it warms up.

Step 4: When the roti seems to be a bit cooked, take it off. Put it directly on flames for final finishing touches.

Walla! You have the rotis ready.

Yes agreed that they didn't look like rotis. They were maps of different countries around the world. I particularly liked Sri Lanka coming up nicely. :)

But in the end what really mattered was that they were SOFT!!!!
We enjoyed the rotis! Aur DK ke ghar main saalon baad roti ban gayi! what else does a contended man wants !
:)

Love of Traveling

2009-02-04T00:18:00.004+05:30

I love traveling. I love traveling on trains. I love traveling on trains in India. The sounds of people all around. The local languages buzzing my ears. The salesmen and saleswomen pestering every person to sell their products is unique ways is amazing. The sights of our diverse India from the barred windows is rejuvenating.

Well, I got pretty bored of studying. I have to do that cause 2 quizzes tomorrow and mid terms starting from the day after should be reason enough to start studying! Study!
But I needed a break. And what could have been better then seeing the pics while I was traveling to Ahmedabad from Lucknow recently on a sports meet Sangharsh.......

No journey is a travel into the unknown, rather it is an exploration of possibilities........Ankush (4.2.2009) :)

busy man....

2008-10-19T18:58:00.000+05:30

everyone is saying in some way or the other "now u are a busy person"....yes i m.....loads of things to do.....tons of reports to be made.... everyday begins by running and ends up in running.....and i have just 24 hours in a day......
so after a long time i decided to put something up on my blog.....just aise he....so that my blog does not dies of neglect...
But i have come up with something good to keep my blog alive.....that is i will important things that i learn about besides putting up some other facts of life as and when time permits me....
The mobile handset has been declared to the fastest growing consumer product in history. Though the industry took its own time about 12 years to gain the pace. The first billion mobile subscribers came up in 12 years. But I had no idea that it took just 3 years to reach 2 billion. And now every mobile manufacturer is eyeing a portion of the next billion. But i guess this is going to be different....

MAN(I)ACed

2008-07-23T19:12:00.003+05:30

HOOO HAAAA!!!
Yeah!!! I think it was the first time and (crossed my fingers) should not be the last time that I was able to crack open a manac quiz. But wooh!!! It wasn't easy, although the quiz turned out to be very easy for most of us, the tension was too much. I had already flunked badly in my first quiz and if I goofed up this one then my confidence would have been all time low. And that too just before the mid-sems next week.
S what better way to celebrate the occasion than remembering the dialogs from the God himself. (God and Devil are perfectly substitutable words in a hell)

"Look at the enthusiasm in the people to attend a manac class. The frog is hopping around to participate in class discussions". (pointing to a class who was having a bad day)

A fellow student's cellphone rang up. So??? Its hell baby!! cellphones ringing in class can attract a fine of Rs. 5000. Hmm....so the student's cell phone rang up.....
"Sir, check to kar lo who is calling. It is important, and it is worth checking since that call was worth Rs. 5000. I can allow important calls in class. It may be from the President of India.......Come on, try to control your cellphone, switch it off. This is the first time and the last time that I am forgiving you. Arre bhai mobile phone control nahi kar paoge to kal shaadi ho jaayegi phir kya karoge???........."

Just before the second quiz, when we were all tensed up:
"I will give easy quiz. If you attend my classes you will be able to sole the questions. Aakhir main ek acchha aadmi hoon. I wake up every morning, do some yoga, relax and tell myself that main ek acchha aadmi hoon....."

Completed a month in hel(L)....

2008-07-23T02:05:00.002+05:30

2 quizzes: LAM and MAN(i)AC
One assignment submission: MAN(i)A:( again .......
already 2 in the night....and I am stuck with with bad debts...couldn't ask for more "bad" thoughts.....but then it strike me that I had completed one whole month in hel(L)....

"Move on", a voice exclaims.

"Do I have a choice?",
my mind strains.....

Let me innovate

2008-07-12T13:20:00.002+05:30

I was able to recall something from the class....at least I was able to....:)....otherwise it was like a with eyes wide open.....
The lecture was about innovation. It may refer to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services. WOW!! that was straight off wikipedia. But how does one innovate? The answer was right there in the next slide of the professor. The three Bs. Necessary but not sufficient.

BED--you take rest, go to sleep and dream and dream and think of something out of the box...:)...this suits me the best....
BATH--you take bath...no no...u decide to take bath.....turn on the tap and while u think about getting the first drop of water on your body, walla!! The excuse of not taking another tiring process of cleansing oneself motivates one to innovate and shout out loud "Eureka"...and what...yes you have started the process of innovation....:)
BUS-- you travel on a bus....long journey and you again doze of and again innovation process begins.....

hmm.....interesting......so lemme try the one that suits me well......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fundas of economics

2008-06-28T11:29:00.002+05:30

Just coming back from an economics class. And damn it!! I haven't seen someone better than the professor at lullabies.
The only time that I woke up was to have some laughs over this:
"Once a physicist, a chemist and an economist were hungry and pondering over how to open a can of food.
The physicist tried first to open the can. He said he knew a technique to apply force which would crack open the can. He applied force to it and failed.
The Chemist tried next. He said he knew a chemical to melt the can open. He too failed.
Finally the economist smiled with confidence. He said lets assume that the can is open........."

Yes the joke is over!

Meri pehli class

2008-06-26T14:09:00.003+05:30

So the classes started....the first one being MAN(i)AC...or so is the outcome when a person undergoes this course.....Management Accouting......not taking much time here are the teacher's chosen remarks in the class:

"This is a very exciting course....." (well the remark is fine except for the sadistic smile which can't be reflected in just words!!!)

"You have come late today. Welcome. But I am very good at spoiling the moods of people in the morning when they come late."

"If you are caught in the class talking to someone else, you are out the next moment. Generally you will talk when there is an opposite sex sitting beside you. But you should talk to me instead in such cases also." (here he goes again! remember the smile....:( )

I am onto something fast...

2008-06-26T01:05:00.003+05:30

The heat is on....i m on something fast....something really fast.....that makes me sweat and leaves just about time for a bath which relives me of the sweat in the hel(L)ish heat.......
on a run....here are the first few glimpses of the life to some....
This one if the first step in Lucknow with anoher loving pet named 'tintin"...named just because the first day he was sighted he was wearing a bell round his neck sounding tin tin....:)

The view from my room.....lucky me...he he noooo.....the flash shows the sunlight effect.....otherwise its all dark out in the forest....anyways i have to get used to the jungle sounds....;)....

Bloody hel(L)....10 books 6 photo copied books just for the first semester besides loads of other assignments........:( or :).....thats sweat after carrying all that stuff from library to room.....I am already feeling the weight of things to come.....:)
The close up view may give a better idea....

sweating again......going for a bath.......

Something to keep one going......

2008-06-13T09:52:00.000+05:30

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!

Please take head injuries seriously.....

2008-05-22T16:14:00.002+05:30

18th July 2005: Shashi joined STMicroelectronics with me
6 May 2008: Gave resignation. Was very happy. And feeling on top of the world like me.
9th May 2008: At one of his friend's place fell down in the washroom. There was a hit on his head when he fell down, and he took it as just a bad day. Went to sleep. Woke up feeling nauseated and was getting fits Friends gave him a glass of water and took it lightly as similar fits happened to him earlier also.
(afternoon): Went into coma, admitted to AIIMS. Put on a ventilator. Doctors not able to diagnose the problem.
Parents came down to see him. Parents in shock after seeing their happy child on ventilator. Doctors clueless about the real problem. After many rigorous tests the problem diagnosed to be a blood clot in brain.
22nd May 2008: Lost my friend......

Life before IIM

2008-05-20T15:13:00.004+05:30

Passing time in office was a hell of a task. All through my preparation I had this scanned print out of my hand put on my work space. Although I don't know anything about palmistry but I was trying to search where my destiny lines will take me. I experienced all the possible day dreams and the daymares (well the nightmares during daytime !! :) ) .

Now the results are out and I am heading to Hel(L). The journey through IIM L or Hel(L) has not even started and I am already wondering about the things to come. The following link is proving to be very good at giving a glimpse of the future:
http://iimhell.rediffblogs.com
My notice board says it loudly:

Someone asked, "what does BDTG mean???"
I said, "Guess buddy!"
He guessed, "Ummm....Is it Bad days to go? Hai na?? Well your smile is saying it all!!"
Me,"Yes!!!!".....:)

I am feeling all the excitement, the exhilaration, the blues of departing with friends and the fear.....the blues and the fear...overpowering......but then I knew it subconsciously, still I am unable to prepare myself.....I feel the rush coming......I see my picture below and I am unable to find all the feelings.........I just smile helplessly and wait.....

Meeting DK

2008-05-18T10:43:00.003+05:30

It started with a dust storm. The rains followed. Quiet unexpected after a day of open skies and blistering heat in delhi. I was on my way to mama’s house. And coincidentally “mama I am coming home” was blaring from my speakers. Gaurav Adhikari Apartments. Room no 303. Jhonny was sitting in the chair proudly showing off his lean figure with swollen up biceps. Mama was lying down on the floor with the peculiar smile. Dk was laughing out loud. He has grown fatter. Cheeks are all swollen up. His neck is completely hidden behind the bulging big chin. The tond part has got enormous and hard. Homo jumps in from najafgarh. All sucked up after having loads of cigarettes. And the masti begins with the usual arbitapa. Pulling of legs is a usual. And then the news broke out from mama and jhonny.

Jhonny was more definite about his marriage in November or December. He was all loaded up by his father-in-law. A gold chain, two silver earrings, one silver ring, a gold ring and a wrist watch are all small presents from the girl’s father.

Mama is also ready for the marriage after all the one night stands. And the talks are already up. Mama has got the love thing started with the girl’s pic on his mobile phone. The kundli matching exercise is on now days for mama. And the strange part: only 3 gunds are matching for mama and the girl. Well no strange thing since mama has as such got no gunds J. Then the debate started on the necessity of matching kundlis, the 36 gunds (actually homo was in no agreement for this part also). The pundit’s comment for mama is pathetic; he had never seen such low number of matching gunds. But then mama is now in love with the girl as already disclosed by mama himself. And the boasting by mama began at this point….(let’s leave the crap J)

Dk was as the same as he was 2 years earlier. In the best of the spirits he was rolling all over the place. He had just reduced 8 kilos and still weighed 80 kilos. (BTW he told that Rapi in Bangalore is much ahead of him in the competition, he just clocked 110 kilos!!!). The khattas were free flowing from him. (Question: Who is a girl who gives gaali? Answer: Bengali!).

It was great to meet him after such a long time. And we together remembered the cherished moments from IITG days. I miss the masti with him and I don’t know when I will meet him again. But I think I will wait cause it is worth it…..

R2's last day....on our way back from office.....

2008-05-02T15:49:00.002+05:30

My defining moments (part 2)

2008-05-02T15:36:00.002+05:30

Remember Shawshank Redemption??? I remember the movie down to the very moment that the two friends finally meet on the beach side. And the present moment seems to me like the one when Andy Dufresne comes out of the shit hole. Well I reember the lines: "Andy crawled to freedom through five-hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want too."

And I also do remember the narration some time early in the movie : "And that's how it went for Andy - that was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him, and I also believe that if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him."

How I like that movie that I am thinking on the same lines, "And that's how it went on with me-routine- hard work, politicking, false promises, backbiting....I do believe that the first two years were the worst for me, and I do believe that if I went on working in the same way, this place would have got the best of me."

But alas.........only the shit needs to be washed up now....:)....I don't regret it.....I don't have time for that ;)

The blue bus

2008-05-02T15:08:00.001+05:30

My India : Udaipur trip.....

2008-04-16T11:01:00.002+05:30

Colours and Sun: that's how I will define Udaipur in the month of April and I love every bit of it......Keeping words to the minimum and letting the pics do their magic here are my few favourites:

Perceptions of an intellectual mind....

2008-04-10T09:41:00.002+05:30

A recent discussion on coffee break getting into a real arbitapa! And the interesting turn of the discussion let me on to come back to my forgotten blog; so that while recollecting the happenings I ponder upon it.....once again.....:)
Sandy: What is color??? It's not a thing. It actually just a perception that we get.
Me: Yes it's really nothing but depends on the selective absorption of the things that we see...
Sandy: Yes it's is really a phenomena attributed to the cones in our eyes.
Me: May so is our life...our earth....each one of us human beings.......just a phenomena ;)......he he :) so it started off with a khatta! Isn't it possible that we all are nothing but just a great imagination......we all running around in a cycle of life and death with intermediate joys and sorrows....just like a blockbuster movie with a beginning and an end??
Sandy: Matrix!! Yes that was around a similar far fetched idea...
Me: ......hmmm.......(thinking)....wasn't "The Truman Show" quiet thought provoking.....Can't it be possible that we are puppets in the hands of someone??? Maybe some kind of guinea pigs.....maybe someone gave us all a big set "the world and the planets around" to explore and play around....What do we do when we make a new program or a chip set??? We give test inputs to see how it all works. Simple enough!! Can't we all be the inputs given to a rather big program or experiment (again my perception!! since the experiment may be a small glitch in the hands of the GREAT ONE!)
So what shall we do?? Shall we abide by the system??? Shall we just go around in the setup??? Shall we wait for the experiment to get over or the GREAT ONE to push the restart button.......

My defining moments......(Part 1)

2008-02-08T18:24:00.000+05:30

Well well I haven't been that bored for a long long time......in fact not long enough to sit down and update my blog.....
But today Iam totally stressed out....coming back from IIM Lucknow GD/PI round....woofff!!! totally drained out....
GD topic: "If you are being a part of a majority then it is time for reform(fullstop) ".
he he....and as the moderator said "Start", I hadn't seen a quieter room than ours......eveyrone intelligently lokked at everyone else for a start! and then the moderator had to push the start buttom again......he he......someone started with the mojority thing......but it went on well......

I am still not able to asses my interview. Some questions asked were:
--> What is a layout in chip desiging?
--> What is the difference between GSM and CDMA? I had no good idea about it!
-->What is communication?
-->What are the different kinds of communication techniques?
-->What is the difference between a manager and an entrepreneur?
-->Who is out telecommunication minister?
-->If you would have to change one thing about BJP what would that be?
-->What are the technological advancements in "NANO"?

Well that was it.....it came to an abrupt end....I answered some questions...rest went unanswered.....This is what I call arbitapa at its best........:)
next stop : bombay!!! I hope the MNS group is calmed down by the time I land there ;)

Chussu's party......

2007-07-27T10:05:00.000+05:30

Football meri jaan..

2007-01-17T13:12:00.000+05:30

Someone said 'football is more important than life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'. Yes thats what I also said to one of my friends when he asked me to come over for a movie on a sunday evening. And I think I will say that every time I have a game to play.

There are players and then there are artists in football. For the players football will remain a game. And for the artists it was never a game but a passion; an undying one. Actually only a man of the latter kind can understand what I am trying to imply. This is so because to understand this, one should have a ball on the upper left corner of his body dedicated to kick off for football.

Some of my real life friends who fall into the great category are sanky, pandit, DK, bacchhha, anurag, bhuppi, jhuppi, jassi, sugla, VNS, bony, fido, loco......

"soccer", "footy", "footer", "football".....many names, one sense "game on"

I'm still here

2007-01-15T21:03:00.000+05:30

Sometimes the feeling is so great, so strong, so exhilarating yet so crushing............. I am stuck on this poem for the past 2 hours and still thinking to do something else.....move on....but I am still here.......
I been scared and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
But I don't care!
I'm still here!

Enough.....

2007-01-10T11:54:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered "how much is enough???"....well I have been forced to wonder over this intruging question for the past some time, in fact a long time and I can't even remember when I got even one satisfactory answer.

Maybe satisfaction is a momentary illusion, to fool a person. I think satisfaction became extinct at the instant a human was born. Or maybe Eve ate that too....;)

Getting back to "how much is enough???". Well we get to see a variety of people around us. Some rich, some poor, some like us who don't know where we stand. This is the fact, almost everyone, I mean almost everyone around me fall in this category. But 14 years of school studies, 4 years of college studies, 1 year into the job and I am almost back to square one. Like an infant watching the world around and wondering "Why all this??". I am getting my food, I am getting the weekly dose of entertainment in the multiplexes around, I have my friends around, I even have great parties in between. Maybe the zeal to do something is missing or maybe my enthu has gone hibernating.

The moment I think of buying a good bike like Bullet (Rs. 80,000), I think why don't I get a car instead. Maybe a Swift(Rs. 4,50,000) will do, sporty looks within my budget (budget is extended for the youth after the easy loans :) ). But then I think maybe some more earnings and I can got for a Honda City(Rs.7,00,000). But then again my eyes have been on Innova(Rs. 9,50,000) also. If Innova is possible then Ford Endeavor or Skoda Octavia (Rs. 15,00,000) are not far behind. And from the corner of my eyes I see many other options ;).......

Many things besides earning more have the word "enough" linked to them. I have said, "enough of drinking, now no more!!" and my friends comment:
"launda bigad gaya hai!!"
"Senti ho gaya hai!!"
"Galat baat hai...."
"arre kya ho gaya hai tujhe"

India's population is more than enough, news channels in India are much more than enough, corruption is enough, reservations are enough.....and now my crap has been enough....

a thought.....

2007-01-05T15:48:00.000+05:30

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

arbitapa series: its like.......

2007-01-05T15:45:00.000+05:30

its like hanging on a bed of burning coal, with nothing else to hold on but a
sharp sword. thoughts are there flashing in the mind but its too painful to even
think about then twice.

its like jumping from the highest point and just before touching the ground a
realization that maybe you should have told. maybe you shouldn't have.....maybe
it was all a mistake or maybe it was all just another illusion. maybe it wasn't
meant to be.

its like running away, away from all the confusion, and finding oneself deserted
in an endless world. every eye is staring at you, but the stare gives sympathy
and nothing else. but is it sympathy you were looking for. never........

Oh I planned it out!!

2007-01-01T20:27:00.000+05:30

At last I two great opportunities to get out of the daily routine and get on a trip outside delhi. And yes, alas my "plan it out" (read the previous blog for details) can be boasted to others, now I can prodly say, "Oh I planned it out!!"

I went over to Amritsar and then to Agra. The trips were great and here below are some great pics from my digital shutterbug.

Amritsar 23 to 26 December

Agra 30 to 31 December

Plan it out......

2006-12-22T16:26:00.000+05:30

Me: Oye kya kar raha hai for the forthcoming long weekends ???
****: Nothing decided so far.
Me: Kuch karte hai na....
****: plan it out and i m game for it.....

This triggered the planning process in my mind in the well defined process as can well be expected of any person after speding well over an year in the ever inspiring corporate world ;).

Checked my mailbox in between and already the New year and Merry Christmas mails are flooding the mailbox. But this particular one is worthy of being called the best among them all.

Hi all,
I have some (good/bad) news for you.

I know that it is something that you people would not have expected this so soon from me.... although I was thinking about it for quite a while. I am telling this news to you in advance.

I'm leaving by the end of this month.

Hope u enjoyed with me. If I had done anything wrong that hurt u, kindly forgive me n also forget it.

Hoping u will always remember me...

All the best to you all for your future endeavors........

UR'S LOVINGLY,
Year 2006.

Just when I was about to pick up the phone to call that person asking him where is going to, or just when did he start the planning. I saw the last 2 lines. I forwarded the message. And belive it some people do call back to ask just the same ( "So you are going....!!where to???" )

Anyways I was planning.....

So here were some of the plans that came up on my mind after some investigations on net and other friends who were also busy planning it out!!

Plan 1: Go home, sleep, wake up, eat, sleep......(This is sick....)

Plan 2: hear to the rock bands.....some blues ho jaaye......
-23rd Dec (Saturday) -Lou Majaw's Back Again To Play with Lou Hilt And Sam Shullai, 8:30pm onwards.
-24th Dec (Sunday) - Blues Band 'Soulmate' With Rudy Wallang On Guitar, Tiprity On Vocals & Guitar, Ferdy On Bass & Sam Shullai On Drums. Show Starts At 8:30pm.
Venue: Haze Blues Bar & Restaurant, Vasant Vihar.

Plan 3: Go to a freind's place in Amritsar and chill out.

Plan 4: Just got this invitation. A group of friends leaving for Rishikesh tomorrow morning.

Ok so....what to do now....let me think on the plan I want to follow, so let me just think some more and plan it out.....
hmm......

Blues.....

2006-12-11T21:07:00.000+05:30

The terrible feeling of being alone in a crowd and being trapped under the open blue skies. Its so much more amplified by everything going on around one's self. The mind goes numb, the thoughts freeze.

At times like these there is nothing better than a pink floyd. Maybe these magical words can best relate to my mind......

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Surprised!! Why there is no media highlight now???

2006-12-08T21:00:00.000+05:30

Oh is that correct???? But I just got the biggest news on the TV that "dada is back!!". Isn't that the latest and the most influencing news!!

Well now I know why a TV set is known as the idiot's box. And a TV set with a news channel on is like idiot sitting on a shit-pot daydreaming. Yes its very much like that in fact I have censored some of the last lines.

Have a look at the link below.

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=WZPA,WZPA:2006-24,WZPA:en&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&ncl=1111727552&hl=en&scoring=d

Oh so the OBC quota thing!!! Thats a news of the past. Look carefully and one may see that all the assurances and promises of excluding the creamy layer have been dumped. Where is the media attention now, the same media (the same &$%# media) which took it so seriously.

Stealth missile. This is what it is. The day is not far behind when there will be a need for a reservation for the general category.

arbitapa

2006-11-14T20:53:00.000+05:30

This blog took me a long time, in fact such a long time that I don’t even know when the first thoughts materialized into words. Thoughts kept coming over, events went on about me, and the experience grew and grew into a chaotic mess, which I will never be able to sort out. But I think this confusion is relieving though not satisfying as I will be in a search for more answers.

It all began with the lonely night, me alone in my car returning after a night out with some friends and the song on….

"Yaroon dosti badi hi haseen hain,
ye na ho tho kya phir,bolo ye zindagi hain,
Koi tho ho raazdaar,begaraz,tera ho yaar,
koi tho ho raazdaar,
Teri har ek burai pe dante woh dost,
gum ki ho dhoop tho sayaa bane tera vo dost,
yaroon dosti badi hi haseen hain..."

Well it’s the strangest of all things known to me if not to all of the others. It makes me sad, laugh, angry, all in all it’s a riot of emotions.

A person’s identity is nothing but a virtual fact. I read somewhere that a person is well defined by his friends and foes. In fact a person is a just a coordinate in this infinite space, a coordinate defined by those who love him and hate him. That means that any person that we hate tries to repel us and the person we love attracts us, trying to change our very existing coordinate. I think that a true friend is one who is quiet different in this simple coordinate system. He is the one who doesn’t try to change our very existence, but add a totally new dimension to our lives.

This new dimension is cherished by us all. But we miss out something; we miss out on the existence of that new dimension and the person who brought it along. We may take those very moments as “just another happy moment” in life. This ignorance is what kills me at times. I am not afraid that the friend will stop loving me, but I am afraid what if I stop loving my friend. What if I fail in my commitments???

Yet again, it involves a great degree of vulnerability that makes all this so uncomfortable.

I will never be able to say some things, and this succumbs me to the very extreme. I feel like my mind will blast off to pieces, there are no tears in my eyes, no shouts, no sobbings. Only a faint smile comes over. The ones who don't "know me" take that as the "usual". This maks me happier in such a moment of distress and sadness cause I know that my friend will be listening what I m trying to say. This feeling of assurance is my only possesion. I am willing to lose everything for this possesion.........

Recent pics

2006-11-06T20:30:00.000+05:30

Diwali

Ahmm ahmm, maybe my next pic for the orkut profile...

Bittal in his new avtar

Is there something wrong with the Chasma or the face??? Keep guessing, thats chussu with cheeku.

Left to right: Bittal, Cheeku, Ant, Myself and Funky. And chussu behind the scenes. Total arbitapa at the dry fountain of PRIYA's.

Nothing, almost nothing!

2006-10-24T12:41:00.000+05:30

Relaxing, dozing off, mailing, reading arbit stuff, wondering, dreaming, thinking...
PL suddenly comes around and asks: "to kya chal raha hai??? "
Mein: "kuch nahi" ------translating------> "nothing"
PL : " kya kuch nahi!!"
Mein: "nahi aisa nahi hai, i mean i m reading the specification document and......" ---------translating-------> "almost nothing"

Times like these do happen when you come face to face with NOTHING, mathematically a null set, physically a black empty space, in general terms a vella and in my own terms arbitapa!

That Nothing. Nothing with more qualities than nothing else. Just think about God logically...Every single thing that exisits outside god's capability, was created by God (i thinjk thats what a god is for!). Even the word "creator" was created by him. But did he create "nothing", or is it just the lack of creation whihc led to creating "nothing". So we have something that is seriously attributeless which we know of as Nothing. (Dimaag ghooma naa.........mine has already taken a full turn!!)

Eastern Philosophy says that "Stillness of Mind" can only be achieved by concentrating on Nothing (at least I have something to report to my PL, i have got stillness of mind!). There is no such thing as nothing in the real world (forget matrix!!). Even black colour and black space is something. So according to them the only place where nothing can truly exist in this whole wide infinite universe is in Your Mind. I have just begun to meditate on Nothing and lemme tell you thinking about it is hard. I am at black empty space as big as a stadium as of now.

I got hold of something else too: "He who knows that he knows nothing is the Wisest". So the guy who knows NOTHING, knows it he is the wisest. Isn't that strange, when he knows that he is wise, then he knows something, which implies that he must not be knowing nothing, then how can he..........^%*&^%#&$ (i m going mad.....)

I will call up one of my dear friends now,
tring tring.....
tring tring....
"hey hello..."
"hi"
"what are u doing???"
"nothing yaar!!"
...
..
.
nothing!
almost nothing!

Dominoes

2006-10-16T20:56:00.000+05:30

Land of diversity: India will always remain so and that’s one of the reasons I love it.
A recent conversation over the coffee went something like this:
Friend 1: Yaar there is only dominoes pizza in greater noida. It’s so disgusting.
Friend 2: yes dude who would like dominoes.
Friend 1: ya, pizza hut is so good. I don’t know who goes for dominoes. It has got such a bad crust. Thick and tasteless and less of cheese.
Friend 3 (enters the scene): Kiski baat chal rahi hai???
Friend 1: pizza ki baat chal rahi thi.
Friend 3: haan yaar, dominoes is the best…….. (we just stare at him…..how can he!!) Uski crust to mast hoti hai. Aur pizza hut kitna ganda….cheese hi cheese……

This is just one instance which we have benchmarked to showcase the diversity of opinions on any topic.

Snippets from the last month

2006-10-09T20:56:00.000+05:30

Me: so what happened to your delivery???
****: delivery??? Please be clear….
Me: Delivery bhai!! …..after noticing the stare getting bigger project delivery, of course!!
****: should make that clear ;)

Me: who was that girl that you were chatting to???
Frustu phattu: Kaun?
Me: The one you had the breakfast with.
Frustu phattu: acchha woh!! I don’t know her name.
Me: How can that be?? You were having a nice chat with her.
Frustu phattu: arre haan yaad aaya, her name is ****. But suna hai that she has proposed someone else.
Me: what do you mean by “propose”???? Define it please.
Frustu phattu: (a very sick statement)

An Investment banker’s biography: what to do and what not to do in Hyderabad. This story will be disclosed in the coming pages after proper authorization.

Two new members join our coffee table brigade: G ji and SJ (yet to have an offical name). G ji doesn’t like our insensible talks and not even my khattas.

Expenses for the weekend:
Movie tickets: Rs. 600
Drinks: Rs. 120
Food: Rs. 200
Masti: Priceless
Movie: Worthless, mat poochna kaunsi, have a guess!!

Reading now a days: Crossings by Daniel Steel
Felt to be very boring in the start but has come up as an engrossing novel. It takes one along the journeys across the Atlantic in the most luxurious ship as well as on a ship about to be sunk by the German U-boats anytime.

Saw Notting Hill for the 20th time this weekend and found it even more romantic.

Rands giving the news that he/she has already given the resignation and then coming to me after a coupla days and telling me not to tell that to anyone. Strange!!

Ankit back from a trip to Italy, with a bottle of wine.

Meeting pussy

2006-08-18T21:28:00.000+05:30

Our very own brand ambassador of HAPPY DENT WHITE GUM was over here from amrica.
And for the meet came out rands, boobs (not in this pic), varwal, jhuppy, funky and myself (well kah lo yaar, G!!!).

Loads of news came out from each one of us. Boobs is now placed in Lehman and will soon move out to Bombay. Jhuppy is already preparing for the masters in football (oh and a bit of study of VLSI too) in Southampton, UK. Varwal’s CAT preparations are going strong. He is regularly attending classes and getting good scores too (Source: kuch gupt sutr). Funky is also trying hard to get a job change. He is even more frustrated after OM ji, who shifted along with him some time back, has also started dating and god knows what else. Besides funky’s own bro screwing some girls in the same house.

NOTE(may be of interest to some): OM ji go out to Sarai Kale Khan at peculiar times like 10 at night or 5 in the morning, and usually come back after a night stay at that place. He has also started body building. kalyug aa gaya hai doston.

Rands was on a date with a girl named “Anna” (funky’s old school friend and a part of friends list of many on orkut eg. takel). In the end of the date the baniya inside rands woke up (after spending a day’s salary) and said “agli baar paise tu degi!!”.

Finally its my turn, I am doing good at job. I am not giving CAT. I am not giving interviews for job change. I still have no girlfriends. But yes, I still do play football.

About pussy, he is almost the same but his voice is now really heavy. His oozing out teeth even whiter. In fact we didn’t even have to put the flash on for the pics taken. lol!

He showed us some great pics from amrica. Matwari is almost a rock star now. Big flowing hair, girls all around jumping with joy and asking for more of the guitar. (Just think of the AXE ad with the guy on guitar and girls shouting out loud at every move). Caution for matwari: In every pic we got the impression that torch was trying to get near his girlfriend.

But when the turn came for pussad to show the pics of his own girlfriend he immediately logged out. After much insistence (by us “frustu” junta) he logged in again. His head bowed down, his teeth returned back inside like a tortoise shying away inside its shell.
Leaving rest to the imagination..........

Ciao, Ankush.

Cola bubble

2006-08-14T15:19:00.000+05:30

The Brits came, ruled, looted and fled. The Americans are coming, looting, giving pyaar ki jhuppies (Americans read it as: diplomatic talks) and god only knows that they will never flee.

An instance from the past:
The Britishers made the Indian farmers to grow Poppy crops on their fields. The fields got ruined of their nutrients and the farmers were paid a pity amount. The Poppy was sold at very high prices to China and when China put up a resistance, a war was waged at the expense of Indian soldiers.

An instance from the present:
The cola companies set up their plants in India calling it foreign investments; manufacturing bottles full of pesticides and insecticides. And when India tries to put up some resistance in the form of bans in some states, the Big Daddy shows the anger:

Isn't there a good sort of correlation between the two instances???? Except the fact that India is now 50+years old "free" and "sovereign" nation.

Is America ready to consume each and every drop of cola manufactured in India???

Maybe if someone from India gives a drink of cola to an American citizen, then it will be termed as a terrorist attack, an inhuman behavior, a conspiracy and what not.

Better still, maybe if this cola bubble "manufactured in India" bursts over America then the next days' headline will be something like this:
"Chemical warfare by India"

A Dreamer's world

2006-08-05T12:26:00.000+05:30

Once there came from the desert to the great city of Sharia a man who was a dreamer, and he had naught but his garment and staff.

And as he walked through the streets he gazed with awe and wonder at the temples and towers and palaces, for the city of Sharia was of surpassing beauty. And he spoke often to the passers-by, questioning them about their city -- but they understood not his language, nor he their language.

At the noon hour he stopped before a vast inn. It was built of yellow marble, and people were going in and coming out unhindered.

"This must be a shrine," he said to himself, and he too went in. But what was his surprise to find himself in a hall of great splendour and a large company of men and women seated about many tables. They were eating and drinking and listening to the musicians.

"Nay," said the dreamer. "This is no worshipping. It must be a feast given by the prince to the people, in celebration of a great event."

At that moment a man, whom he took to be the slave of the prince, approached him, and bade him be seated. And he was served with meat and wine and most excellent sweets.

When he was satisfied, the dreamer rose to depart. At the door he was stopped by a large man magnificently arrayed.

"Surely this is the prince himself," said the dreamer in his heart, and he bowed to him and thanked him.

Then the large man said in the language of the city: "Sir, you have not paid for your dinner." And the dreamer did not understand, and again thanked him heartily. Then the large man bethought him, and he looked more closely upon the dreamer. And he saw that he was a stranger, clad in but a poor garment, and that indeed he had not wherewith to pay for his meal. Then the large man clapped his hands and called -- and there came four watchmen of the city. And they listened to the large man. Then they took the dreamer between them, and they were two on each side of him. And the dreamer noted the ceremoniousness of their dress and of their manner and he looked upon them with delight.

"These," said he, "are men of distinction."

And they walked all together until they came to the House of Judgement and they entered.

The dreamer saw before him, seated upon a throne, a venerable man with flowing beard, robed majestically. And he thought he was the king. And he rejoiced to be brought before him.

Now the watchmen related to the judge, who was the venerable man, the charge against the dreamer; and the judge appointed two advocates, one to present the charge and the other to defend the stranger. And the advocates rose, the one after the other, and delivered each his argument. And the dreamer thought himself to be listening to addresses of welcome, and his heart filled with gratitude to the king and the prince for all that was done for him.

Then sentence was passed upon the dreamer, that upon a tablet about his neck his crime should be written, and that he should ride through the city on a naked horse, with a trumpeter and a drummer before him. And the sentence was carried out forthwith.

Now as the dreamer rode through the city upon the naked horse, with the trumpeter and the drummer before him, the inhabitants of the city came running forth at the sound of the noise, and when they saw him they laughed one and all, and the children ran after him in companies from street to street. And the dreamer’s heart was filled with ecstasy, and his eyes shone upon them. For to him the tablet was a sign of the king’s blessing and the procession was in his honour.

Now as he rode, he saw among the crowd a man who was from the desert like himself and his heart swelled with joy, and he cried out to him with a shout: "Friend! Friend! Where are we? What city of the heart’s desire is this? What race of lavish hosts?-- who feast the chance guest in their palaces, whose princes companion him, whose king hangs a token upon his breast and opens to him the hospitality of a city descended from heaven?"

And he who was also of the desert replied not. He only smiled and slightly shook his head. And the procession passed on.

And the dreamer’s face was uplifted and his eyes were overflowing with light.

Think of the dreamer and one finds out that there is nothing wrong the dreamer did. A nightmare for one belonging to the city itself, who understood the language, turns out to be the dream of the other. The only thing he was incapable of was understanding the words of the rich.

I am thinking…………am I not the dreamer??????

A novelist, essayist, poet, painter.......

2006-07-22T20:55:00.000+05:30

I was deep in thoughts about all the going around us....the bombay blasts, israel bombing lebanon, kashmir always at war.....

Always and always the weaker dying at hands of those having the power. Isn't it true that it is more of a sinful act of these cowardly ministers ruling our nation which calls itself democratic. Do I need to elaborate this uwritten truth????

Israel bombing Lebanon and it is more of a practice session and testing of their firepower over the weak "Lebanese" which dose include people from various other nationalities too: canadians, indians, sri lankans, thai and many others. India has put forth the biggest evacuation for their own people and so must have all the big nations. But who will save the innocent lebanese???? Where does UN stand when all these atrocites are happening?????

Talking of Lebanon always reminds me of Kahlil Gibran besides the Lebanese food. A novelist, essayist, poet, painter....his teachings may not be acceptable by everyone, not even me at all the times. But they are really compelling and fascinating. Two of the recent ones I read and liked are:

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love; let is rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

Its raining in delhi......almost unbelievable

2006-07-09T11:59:00.000+05:30

Finally the rains.....
Oh what a tormenting place delhi can be for a person returning from a place like guwahati after 4 years. The rain gods surely don't like the visits to delhi.

In guwahati it was like the black clouds following the rains, with the waterless white ones pouring their heart out even before the black ones had a chance to show their own capability. But Delhi, its the desert like sandstorms and thunder gods who rule.

Anyways I am enjoying the weather today after a long long time.......

World Cup - Opening Ceremony

2006-06-09T20:47:00.000+05:30

9:00 pm Indian Standard Time: The opening ceremony just finished; and here I am totally vella between the hour of opening ceremony and start of the opening game between Germany Vs Costa Rica posting pics from the ceremony.

The first of the pics is of the great world cup, the ultimate prize for the football lovers.

And the pic following is of the great man himself. PELE!! leading the ceremony.

The comes the home team:

And then one of the favourites of this world cup. Although, football lovers know it well that Brazil has never won the world cup playing as favourites.

And now rest of the pics of the ceremony:

Yes I know I could have got more pics, but due to the rush and the crowd I was just lucky enough to get these pics clicked. ;o).

Signing off,
Ankush,
Kal Tak reporter,
Sabse tez!!!

Rework!!

2006-06-09T15:44:00.000+05:30

The first of the mails started 2 weeks back, somewhat in this fashion: Kindly consider some of the following minor chnages in the specifications required.

Leading to some mails from our side: These minor changes will change our design drastically.......
Please consider a re-evaluation, as it will lead to a lot of rework, a lot of efforst have already been put into it.......

Mails from their side: Ok we are considering the changes, please send us a report on the impact of the changes...... (Not to mention this lead to more work on our part, and more reports!!%@#%$#)
We can't help but change as they are important for the customers and no need to worry about the impacts they are fine with us. (Didn't they realize earlier what the customer required......)

Alas.....not boring you more with the still on going mail exchanges, here is a snapshot of what I had already done on the layout. Note: I am not mentioning the changes in circuit design, as it dosen't look as attractive to look at in a small snapshot ;).

ciao
(Another @#$#$@%@#$% word in the end of each %@$%#@$%# mail from them)

"Activist in me"

2006-06-05T17:08:00.000+05:30

I hate rape,
I really, really do.
I hate it in the a.m.,
I hate it from the blue.
a moment with a girl,
that should be pure and true,
in a flash turns ugly,
and instead is very crude.
A joining that is sacred,
has now become so rude,
as the girl,
now women,
finds all she had to lose.
No means no,
or so was always told,
but today's men take,
have always been so bold?
A girl is only meat,
or so to me it seems,
and nothing they can do,
will muffle all their screams.

So what happens now,
to this girl who we abused.
should she be now cast out,
and given to be used?
Nay,
I say.
Stand beside her in her need,
you out there can never know,
when it's your turn to bleed.
For I hate rape,
I always, always will,
it is a crime,
that makes my heart be still.

It is only love.....

2006-06-05T16:55:00.000+05:30

Not the person you were,
nor the town where raised,
never the pain suffered,
will make you grow aware.....

It is only love,
that makes you so alive, so worthy,
some one dear to hold at night, in darkenss, in momnets of fear,
to share all that is to life.

Do try this at home

2006-05-24T21:22:00.000+05:30

Ya ya long time since I wrote a blog. The reasons: I was unusually busy with work at office.

But again the tsunami of boredom hit me at home this time; with my family out on a holiday leaving me alone with my dog hanging around. When boredom strikes, it really makes one go mad. Its not khaali dimaag shaitaan ka ghar (empty mind = devil’s workshop). It’s the Bore-dome which is the palace of the devil.

So, I began surfing through my kitchen (did I tell that boredom also leads to hunger, and hunger for good food). And, I placed my hands on the couple of bottles of rum, whiskey and vodka of my father’s small hidden personal bar.

Now, eggjactly now, the devil strikes his venom. So, I started with my cocktail.

Caution: Please try this only at home.

So here are the ingredients to get it right (my way):
- Two shots Vodka
- One shot brandy
- One lemon’s juice
- Orange and apple juice in equal quantities
- Crushed ice
- “Teri deewani” by Kailash Kher in infinite loop

Mix them well and relax in your rocking chair. Well any chair will tend to get rocking once you have a couple of this “recipe”.

Preet ki lat mohe aisi lagi,
Ho gayi mein matwaari,
Bal bal jaaoon apne piya ko,
Hey mein jaaoon waari waari,
Mohe sudh budh nahi rahi tan mann ki,
Ye to jaane duniya saari,
Beebas aur laachaar phiru mein,
Haari mein haari, haari mein haari…...….

Teri deewani teri deewani….....

PAARO - Are you from mars????

2006-05-13T10:59:00.000+05:30

The story to be follwed up soon, but here is the ultimate pic:

I am what I think I am

2006-05-01T12:20:00.000+05:30

Guess what????
I am what I think I am
I am happy, cause I think I am happy. I can be irritated too, if I think that I am getting irritated.

But at this moment I am getting bored!!! First of all its a Monday, my mailbox has no more new forwards left. Whatever there were have already been read a dozen of times. So I start dozing off (of course with eyes wide open and an attentive look on face), and start recalling my last week......

"I am engaged!!", so another one falls, and its terrible when thats a GIRL!!

As I turned on my seat to look around, she stood before me, and the dialouge followed, "I am engaged".

I was stunned!!

My audible voice: "Congratulation, what a great news!"
My inner voice: "Damn you!! why???"

My audible voice: "Who is the lucky one??"
My inner voice: "I will kill him."

My audible voice: "Oh, that smart guy with whom you take walk after lunch?"
My inner voice: "Oh!! GHONCHU!! Couldn't you go for a better deal? Couldn't you find a better guy?"

Anyways, lets cool down, lets think of something good, since I only just said "I am what I think I am".

One of the employees was leaving the company, and sent a goodbye mail, and I had a good smile after reading it. First you must read the mail:

Hello All,

Though Its tough ending 6 years old bonding,
However, Time has now come for me to move on.
I am leaving ST and my last day is today.
In the due course of assignments so far, I have been lucky enough to have
worked with all of you.

Thanks for an enriching personal and professional experience.I wish you all,
the best possible success in ST.

It has been wonderful experience for me working with several of you all over
the last six years.
I thank you all for all the support & assistance provided. I wish you
goodluck in your endeavours.

All the best !!

Now comes my interpretation:
F**k you All,

I am immmensly happy to get freedom after 6 years of rigorous imprisonment.

However, time has now come for me to move on. (I didn't chnage this line cause this line perfectly fits here too, lol!!)
I am leaving ST and my last day is today.
In the due course of assignments so far, I have been lucky enough to survive.

You made my personal and professional life a hell.
GOD save you all!!
Best wishes from the devil herslf!!

How Arsenal reached the final

2006-04-26T10:11:00.000+05:30

Villarreal: Barbosa, Venta, Pena, Alvarez, Arruabarrena, Riquelme, Josico, Senna, Sorin, Forlan, Franco.

Arsenal: Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Campbell, Flamini, Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Ljungberg, Reyes, Henry.

Flashback: Read the build-up from down to up:

2136: FULL-TIME Villarreal 0-0 Arsenal (agg 0-1)
Arsenal have done it - Arsene Wenger's side will play in Arsenal's first European Cup final, where they will play either Barcelona or AC Milan on the 17 May in the Stade de France.

The Gunners lived on their nerves throughout the game, no more so than when Jens Lehmann saves Juan Riquelme's penalty in the 89th minute.

2134: Three added minutes are signalled as the game enters stoppage time. Juan Riquelme's penalty miss has knocked the stuffing out of the Villarreal fans as a hush descends on the El Madrigal stadium.

2133: Great drama as Jens Lehmann saves Juan Riquelme's penalty - throwing himself to his left to save the Argentine's poorly placed spotkick.

2132: Villarreal win a penalty in the final two minutes as Jose Mari is ruled to have been fouled by Gael Clichy.

2131: Kolo Toure throws himself at the ball to block a Diego Forlan shot.

2129: Villarreal's Guillermo Franco goes to ground in the box as he desperately tries to win a penalty.

2128: Arsenal are desperately close now - just five minutes to go in the El Madrigal stadium.

2126: Villarreal have begun to lose their composure and are starting to concede silly free-kicks.

2125: Villarreal make their last substitution in one last bid to change the game as Roger replaces Rodolfo Arruabarrena.

2123:Ten minutes left in the game as Fredrik Ljungberg makes a surging run into the Villarreal area.

2119: Villarreal have lost some of the previous zip and Arsenal are looking very comfortable defensively.

2115: Fifteen minutes to go and Arsenal are edging closer to the Champions League final.

2114: Juan Manuel Pena cynically blocks a run from Fredrik Ljungberg, leaving the Swede writhing in agony.

2113: A second substitution for Arsenal as Robert Pires replaces Jose Antonio Reyes.

2112: Villarreal's Mexican international Guillermo Franco gets the ball in the net but is ruled offside.

2107: Villarreal striker Diego Forlan sidefoots the ball well wide with the goal at his mercy.

2104: Arsenal win three corners in quick succession and on the third set-piece Gilberto gets in a header.

Villarreal make their first change, bringing on forward Jose Mari for defensive midfielder Josico.

2100: Jens Lehmann comes a long way to punch clear a Juan Riquelme free-kick.

2059: Sol Campbell needs treatment for a head wound.

2057: Another close escape for Arsenal as Guillermo Franco heads narrowly wide after reaching Marcos Senna's cross.

2054: Arsenal are finding it almost impossible to threaten Villarreal goalkeeper Mariano Barbosa.

2051: Guillermo Franco continues to trouble Arsenal, going close with a thumping header.

2049: After a brief delay Arsenal kick off the second half.

2048: A protestor delays the start of the second half, running on to the pitch, before handing Thierry Henry a Barcelona shirt.

2032: Jens Lehmann spills a Juan Riquelme free-kick but gathers the ball at the second attempt as the half-time whistle goes. Arsenal are now 45 minutes away from their first ever European Cup final.

2030: Jose Antonio Reyes is injured and Villarreal sportingly kick the ball out.

2029: One minute of stoppage time is signalled.

2025: Guillermo Franco is denied by a superb reaction save from Jens Lehmann as he blocks the Villarreal midfielder's header with his chest.

2023: Rodolfo Arruabarrena claims a penalty after getting tangled up with Alexander Hleb but play is waved on.

2020: Gilberto lashes out at Guillermo Franco, but the offence is missed by referee Valentin Ivanov.

2015: Thirty minutes of the game have gone and Arsenal have yet to really get going. Villarreal are moving the ball well, but have yet to seriously test Jens Lehmann.

2006: Thierry Henry drops back into his own half to make an important tackle on Guillermo Franco.

2001: Jens Lehmann makes his first save of the game, clutching the ball to his chest after Juan Pablo Sorin shoots.

Villarreal playmaker Juan Riquelme is starting to dictate the play for the Spanish team.

2000: Fifteen minutes into the game and Arsenal are coming under increased pressure with Villarreal dominating possession.

1957: A second chance for Guillermo Franco and for the second time the Villarreal midfielder skies his shot.

1955: Gael Clichy makes an immediate impact as he sprints down the Villarreal right, though the Spanish side manage to get the ball away.

1953: Seven minutes into the game and Arsenal have to make a substitution as Matthieu Flamini limps off holding his hamstring.

Flamini is replaced by Gael Clichy, who has not played a game since November.

1951: Kolo Toure reacts quickly to stay close to Diego Forlan and concedes a corner.

1948: The first shot of the game goes to Villarreal, but Guillermo Franco's effort is high and wide.

1946: Alexander Hleb is poleaxed by Quique Alvarez's heavy tackle.

1945: Arsenal's semi-final second-leg against Villarreal is underway with the Spanish side kicking off.

From here and there

2006-04-17T12:38:00.000+05:30

Scanned the network for some good stuff, found pdfs in hindi in a folder named "masti" and read one or two pages from them; found out that the person sharing them may be a g**. You can guess what kind of masti articles they were.

Looked around my cubicle: Cluttered. Spent some time getting it arranged.

While lokking around, saw an inverter drawn on my whiteboard. An inverter has two CMOS transistors, one is PMOS and the other one is NMOS. A MOS transistor has four pins: SOURCE, BODY, DRAIN and GATE.

Now, I am also feeling like a MOS transistor with my BODY and SOURCE connected to the DRAIN, and DRAIN itself connected to a deeper DRAIN. And....... a stick on my GATE, that is my ass in the real world!!!. The stick is of course my boss!!!

Got 32 missed call from 9811167508, if someone can tell who this is, I will be grateful!

This reservation policy that Indian government is working on will setback the devlopment of the country by almost 50 years. I think after some time the general category will be itself in need of some reservation quota. I am feeling sad that a foolish person like Arjun Singh was the one as chief guest in my Convocation Ceremony! I really regret getting the most important degree of my life from the most despised person.

Something went wrong in my other side of life. :(

I am planning for a trip to Ladakh and Leh this summer. I hope something works out and I get the leaves.

After all the record breaking recruitments at IIMs and some of my friends getting through the toughest exam in the world "Belling the CAT" I am sick and tired of hearing my mom say, "Why don't you also go for MBA ?". Is it all that necessary that I follow the crowd?????

2 good snaps taken in SURAJKUND MELA

2006-04-15T13:59:00.000+05:30

Rishikesh Trip

2006-04-12T14:40:00.000+05:30

Ok I will start with this pic. Although much had already happened in the trip:
We started around midnight from Delhi. "We" includes me, Abhishek, Sourav, Mohit and Sandy. See how the story unfolds and the new names come forth.

We headed towards Mussoorie and on the way passed by Roorkee and Dehradun. Feeling too sleepy the driver took a break at a dhaba. No not a tea break but a nap. And with him on the first seat, sandy on the second, the reat of us were left with just 1 seat to share.

So we came out of the stuffy place and rolled out on the cots down there for the truck drivers. Dekhte hi dekhte it was bright blue sky. And we moved forward on our journey.

Now, Mussoorie is a quiet a place, "not worth vising even once". Everywhere ther is commercialization. And the place has got no tourist spots but just shops. Only spot where one can have some fun is Campty Falls.

Then we headed for Rishikesh by evening and the pic below is taken on our way to the camp where we had a night stay.

The we had a small volleyball match on the Ganges river bank. Everyone being a novice in this game, the ball was uncontrollale. At last we decided on a better game: "football" using "volleyball" but not before we captured our skills on the shutterbug.

The night stay at the camp was really great, and the moments can't be captured in my words. We had some vodka arranged for the night, only some. And loads of kurkure and namkeen. The atmosphere and ambience was great. Bon Fire alongside and the silent sound of the river flowing added to the pleasure. Every one of us swept away from the real world.....

This is myself and Katy (katy since his last name is katihar, although I like calling him HULK) infront of our camp.

This is when we reached one of the rock heights.

Just before the rafting session started we were in really high spirits.

In between the session we had to ask for some breaks (some of them for peeing, we just could't let it loose in ganges!!!). we were all dead tired, but the spirits I was talking about kept us going.

The ultimate thriller was the cliff jumping. Before reaching the height we were bus itna saa, and upon reaching the height we almost froze......

This is the chosen pic of all the pics taken throughout the journey:

Ah I forgot about the cheer up songs we had on the raft:
Oh Baby
Oh Baby
Oh Baby
oooooooooooooooo....(and then a splash of our oars into the water)

This trip was really a great one. My companions on this trip were:
SSC (Sandy Sleeper Class)
Jandi
Katy
and Mohit Sex Hai Naa (he is actually mohit sexena)

GOOD BYE

Holiday season

2006-04-05T17:17:00.000+05:30

The checklist for our rishikesh trip:
1. T-SHIRTS – FOR RAFT & CAMP
2. SHORTS (QUICK DRYING FOR RAFT)
3. WINDPROOF JACKET/PARKA (THIN)
4. CHANGE OF CLOTHES FOR CAMP
5. JERSEY/WARM JACKET FOR CAMP
6. FOOTWEAR-2 PAIRS
7. TOILETRIES/TOWEL/SOAP ETC. FOR PERSONAL USE
8. TOILET PAPER – OPTIONAL.
9. FLASHLIGHT – VERY IMPORTANT
10. SUNSHADE/CAP
11. SUNSCREEN LOTION
12. SUNGLASSES
13.CORD FOR SPECTACLES & SUNGLASSES
14. CAMERA (OPTIONAL)
15. SWIMSUITS/TRUNKS
16. PERSONAL MEDICATION (IF ANY)
17.Liquor & Cigarettes ( We do not serve any).

Typical Console View

2006-04-03T15:24:00.000+05:30

My typical console view looks something like this most of the time:

This may give you an idea of the pathetic rate at which the simulations are completed. But this is one of the better status. Look closely at the medium and the short queues, which are genrally pending with around 10000 jobs and running none!!

Police Station

2006-03-29T12:48:00.001+05:30

Well a good discussion on Jassi's blog was going on Eve Teasing-Street sexual harassment.

As the comments flew in from all over the last comment by Raghav went something like this:

went through quite a few blogs of that stuff………and a few things on orkut also……..girls are sad helpless creatures……….this isnt what i say, this is what most of those girls believe….how many times has even one of hem went forward and slappped the concerned person, it might not be always possible and someties its better to run than to slap but whenever they do get a chance its upto them to return the favour to guys…..if they dont do so they themselves are encouraging such a behaviour.
and yeah last but not the least eve teasing is a legal offence, how many times have these girls went to the local police station to register a complaint ???

ps : im not saying that its the girls fault or something, im just posting some stuff which i believe has not been touched in all those blogs.

Well the word police station got my attention, and I thought about our local police station.

Think about it....What does your own local police station look like, or any other that you have seen looks like??

A strange place with the overhanging police station board rusting away. A cot outside for the policewallahs to relax in sun duing winters and nights during summers. A small entrance, beyond which one can see faint light coming, or sometimes pitch dark. Usually the policemen in their undershirts and khakhi pants yawning and coming out for fresh air.

The place gives a creepy feeling. Leave aside the look on the policewallahs themselves, which is as if they are ready to harass anyone. They give a feeling of criminals in uniform, on the prowl. Till date, I haven't met even a single policeman who seemed to be giving a "feel of safety".

So how can anyone even think of getting near them for a complaint; getting inside that dark, dingy police station is a far-fetched idea.

Movies over the weekend

2006-03-27T16:57:00.000+05:30

What does one do when the jobs are not running on the LSF, that's the term for Linux Server Farm.
The queue position is something like this:
crnd-short pending: 41600
crnd-medium pending: 4000
.....
...
..

In such moments of impatience, and too on a monday one can only think about how the weekend passed away so quickly!!

Well if I start thinking.....

My weekend started with a great movie on friday evening, "SPACE STATION". Know more about this terrific 3-D movie made in association with NASA on this link:
http://www.imax.com/spacestation/

The theatre IMAX itself is huge in size and the service staff over there is really upto the higher standards. The voice quality is one of the best, and the sheer size and clarity of the picture will bring one back to the theatre time and again.

The next movie was the Oscar winner "CRASH" on saturday afternoon. A great movie which presents the racial discrimination in day today life in America. The sequence of events confuses one in the beginning but as the story unfolds the real truth come forth.

The best dialogue of the movie:
"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

Then on sunday morning it was "Syriana". Another good movie, with George Clooney striking again this time with his acting skills. Syriana shows one of the reasons why I hate America!!

The movie goes about the ways which America takes to strike a successful oil deal, and the hardships people involved in the industry have to face because of all the confusion created.

And finally on sunday eve it was "Being Cyrus".

I wasn't expecting much from the movie, but still reached 3C's Lajpat Nagar.

I was here for the first time and the hall here is terrible, it smells slightly, has got a very small screen, but luckily we got a good seat.

BTW the movie is a directional debut of Homi Adajania that spins around the Sethnas, a parsi family.

The movie was unexpectedly good. There were great dialogues and acting by Saif, Naseeruddin Shah , Dimple Kapadia, Boman Irani, Simone Singh and a couple of others. The parsi touch to the movie made it all the more interesting. The comedy was excellent, and got everyone laughing from the kids in the back row of the hall to the grey haired junta besides us.

In the end the movie was quiet different, and makes it a good movie to be see at least once.

So, 4 great movies in just a weekend..................life is good.

Meeting Bittal

2006-03-21T12:45:00.000+05:30

Nishant Bittal came over to noida this saturday, along came Rands. And for the next 3 hours we had a lot of chit-chat and a bit of shopping.

In the pic below, going left to right one can find rands, myself and bittal. The bags in rands and bittal's hand may give you an idea of the shopping we were up to.

Koutons is doing a great job giving huge discounts of 50%+40%, so that hum bhookhe nange bachche bhi kuch pahan sakein.

Chit chat was the usual idhar ki baat udhar.

Most of you must be by now familiar withidhar ki baat.

Well I heard some couple of interesting udhar ki baat.
(I don't guarantee the validity of the events that I will be telling over here, as I have myself heard them from bittal)

Five of my junior friends including deva went out for a couple of drinks in the village behind our campus. They drank some, got drunk and bought some more.

At the bar they had a fight with one of the locals and of course it led to fist fight and our 5 heroes overpowered the local and beat him up. All smiles they were returning to the campus with loads of beer along.

Suddenly the police came out from nowhere along with the local. Getting the right opportunity 3 of my friends fled with the beer.

The police caught up with the remaining 2 including deva. But our heroes were still in the dreams and broke out a fight with the police too. After some punches landing here and there the police overpowered them, but one of my friends also succeeded in fleeing away. Again deva left behind!!

The police took out its anger on deva and beat him black and blue in the station; till dihing's caretaker came to him rescue.

Bittal found him sometime after midnight roaming on the corridors of kapili with cream all over his face. Thinking he must have got really drunk,
Bittal asked: "jyada pee li hai kya?"
Deva: "Nahi yaar, Saalon ne bahut maara"

lol!!!

The story doesn't end here.
All five of them have been detained for 8 months by the DISCO (not the usual cool place to chill out but the much feared Disciplinary Commitee).

Deva went home just after the decision to recover from the shock. The DISCO dispatched the letters of their decision to the defaulters home. Someone informed deva about this action, and deva told "main sambhaal loonga yaar".

Deva caught up with the post just in time and hid the letter. Everything was under control. Deva went off for sleep....zzzz.....

Only to be woken up by his father....the letters had also reached the home of the other 4. One of the parents got worried and thought this was too hard a punishment, and rang up deva's father to support him for requesting pardon.

lol!!
Deva al last got caught in his own web. Best of luck deva!

Another news is that Vamsi fell out from the 3 rd floor as told by bittal and got his leg broken seriously. Supposedly he was drunk and slipped.

Towards the end of our meet we also went to an Adidas store. Saw this great looking official world cup football which is worth possessing. The cost : Rs. 4500.

Bittal told me that its much cheaper in Europe, so I request anyone who is heading in that direction to get one for me.

Bye,
NCR reporter.

Something from Home

2006-03-20T20:40:00.000+05:30

Well I talked about my friends and colleagues and what not in my blogs but missed my cute little tuffy.

The breed is Lhasa Apso, age is almost 8 years but young at heart, barks and gets mad for every male species around, but gets cozy and wags his tail for any female ones around; kind of eve teasing. lol!

2006-03-17T20:22:00.000+05:30

SATTO's VISIT
Sorry I didn't get the time for the story to follow each pic because of an unusual working day!

2006-03-14T15:56:00.000+05:30

Rights of a Pro

Recetly I came across prostitutes fighting over for their rights, gays fighting for their own, movies being released to support the idea and what not.

Then I came across this "abla naari" (helpless bitch) whom we call Rands. The demand of this lolita can been seen in the hungry eyes of anpad and valli.

Caution: Don't get naughty with the pic.

2006-03-14T10:42:00.000+05:30

Have a great Holi

I start my wishes with a great message for the workaholics.

The moral of the passage for those who couldn't even get the time to read it:
"Live life to the fullest, enjoy every moment to come. Even god is not sure whether there will be a tomorrow. And read the passage it won't take much time."

Now the colourful wihses,

2006-03-10T19:31:00.000+05:30

Takel's Visit
So at last Takel visited Delhi, and at last after months we all NCR region people had a purpose to have a get-together.

Well although we ST (my company) junta dosen't need a reason to do so, but its not the same with all the others, "they have got a job to do yaar!!".

And the venue none other than right under booba's belly!!

I meant at his house. He also had a sad story. Just a few months into the job, Booba was having his so called team building training. His team was running against time and he was the person who had the responsibilty in the end to take his team to the winning position. So he took a giant leap in the air and landed with a seriously injured foot. Later to be diagnosed as multiple fracture.

Well now what we think is:
Booba was the person who was runnning the last lap of the race. suddenly he hears the most desirable girl of his office shouting with all her energy "come on booba come on!!!!! u can do it!!!". Hearing this booba pushed the accelerator to the limit and dived towards the finish line. That was the end.......

Anyways, one shouldn't laugh at his story, he will feel bad. He is almost recovered. Doctors have told him to put his partial weigth on that leg. (What will the other leg think lifting the rest of 80kgs alone!!!). Yes he has gained 10 kgs in all those days.

Not boring you all any more here are the pics sequentially put.

As always Booba was on phone, very busy......In the pic other than boobs in orange, u can find me, rands, deepok, funky, cadi, bhuppi and takel.

The new entry here is jonny or ZON.

Yes this is the pic in which every one is so happy beacuse cadi is cut out from the pic. Poor cadi, he gave one last attempt to get his face in there.....lol!!!
Anyways he is the riched of us all with a saving of 1 lakh in PPF and more than that left out.

Jhuppy joined us late in the evening. Then we went out to have some drinks and watch out for girls at Priya.

Inside the Bar.

And yes Rands really savours the taste of hard drinks now. Returns home drunk and falls down on his bathroom floor. Has also made his mark on his manager (More of seduced him with his G); in the recent appraisals got an expected A.

Bhupee and myself.

Delhi roads.....

But anywhere, anytime takla had his way through to the peeing sessions!!

Finally the night at Jhonnys place. Didn't had much to drink. Just a peg of Teacher's whisjey and that too in steel glasses.

The whole night takel spent chatting with funky. I was feeling too damn tired so dozed off somewhere around 1:00am.

But my sleep was frequently broken by funky's laughter, and whatever i heard was their frustation with job and girls.

So in the morning I was told that really they were discussing girls the whole night. And finally they have decided to try their best to get a girl by this year end, otheriwse they will be off to Bangkok and loose their virginity!!!
Lol!!!!

2006-03-02T16:07:00.000+05:30

My Appraisal

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Bangalore station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase "appraisal letter" on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body's neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on whic h the appraisal details where typed in flying colours. Thund! ers broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed.... My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying "no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death"... As a fellow worker in the same industry , I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee's name in the appraisal letter... hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy's name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name.... it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind......... splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, "wake up man. Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready"

2006-03-02T10:23:00.000+05:30

Indian police at their best

No, I am not talking about the Jessica Lal case or even the Salman Khan case. I am talking about our recent interaction with Indian police.

As our office bus was passing through a congested area, it banged into a car.

The bang woke up a few of the sleeping passengers including the conductor. And his first reaction was same as ours, of surprise. Although his job was to look at the rear side of the bus; he was found most of the time looking but with closed eyes. The victim of the accident was a taxi. The driver came rushing out of his taxi screaming abuses to the driver.

The morning show (post-accident drama) had already started, a large group of people came over at the road side PVR.

There can be various kind of persons found in such a crowd, some of which were noticeable to me:
* Curious kind : these are just curious to know the extent of damage
* Victim: of course the victims of the accident
* "nothing else to do" kind
* lets have morning exercise kind : these are ready to beat up anyone. Just a start is required or a shout "maaro maaro", which is just what I was trying to do.
* lets have fun : many of us including me and my colleagues.

So except fist fight everything else was going.

Soon the taxi driver's companions came up from somewhere. I think he called them up on mobile. All of them in blue jerseys were ready for a brawl. Our side also grew strong with all of us getting out of the bus. A third party materialized much fierce and much stronger than either of us. They were the local jats!!!!

At last the fourth party reached the scene "Indian police", laughing all the way....they shouted at some, showed their rusty guns to some and after some peace and order restored began "investigating".

The taxi-man was demanding a hefty 3000 bucks for just a rear view mirror. the driver was asking for some time so that his contractor could come and settle the matter. The police was getting restless to get their hands warm.

So it was decided that a policeman will accompany us on the bus to our office, where we will be dropped as we were getting late, and matters will be resolved with the contractor.

The taxi men followed us in 4 taxis for the next 20 kms.

After all the debates and damage analysis, the police decided that the bus contractor pay Rs. 400 to the taxi driver and 200 to them (their reward for solving the case so quickly).

So, three cheers for Indian police. They made their morning wages. The taxi drivers returned in anger as they had already spent more petrol than Rs. 400 could buy, leave aside the damage. The driver was relieved. The conductor got a good verbal bashing for sleeping off while on duty.

And I went on for the office quiet happy and amused by the event. Obviuosly, some amusement was because I reached office late with a valid reason and a long story to narrate.

2006-02-23T16:36:00.000+05:30

AT LAST

But first of all the main stage:

Friends you waited impatiently for this, and I waited impatiently to get such an opportunity.

At last, here it is:

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Scene: Our company party. Ankur almost drunk, and my friend and his ...... "Nishtha" trying to stop him from drinking more.

This pic is back on my blog after strong oppositions from Rands.
He again came to "harass" me on 27/2/2006, Monday. I ask the world is there no right for a freelance journalist like me to exercise his right of publishing explorations like this.

Now, me and my team members, going left to right: jandial, sandy, mohit and myself.

And yes, Rands was really drunk, "didn't know his limits".

Finally, sab yaar dost ek saath,

2006-02-21T12:49:00.000+05:30

BEWARE!! BIRD FLU AROUND

But, still, we boredoms of the office found a nobel technique yet to be patented to save birds from the dreaded disease. Please forward it to the concerned. :D)

2006-02-20T08:58:00.000+05:30

GREAT INDIA ROCK
After I spent my saturday night at a party given by the office (the first big thing), at the JP greens golf course; I was dead tired. The party really rocked to the tunes of Bollywood from the latest to the oldest remixed ones.

Wait for the pics to be posted up soon.....

But sunday evening was something else. The Great India Rock show. I had just heard about it. But now having "been there and done that", I don't want to miss it ever again. Its just great.

The cover of the to be album on GIR X

Everyone must have heard some great rock music, but hearing original compositions by Indian bands in something. Firstly, you are hearing something new and refreshing and that also by your fellow Indians. The night was rocking. If you like the music, bang your heads in ecstasy and if you don't like it then just shout it out. Its that simple.

The swedish band Freak Kitchen also played some head banging stuff leaving aside their crappy jokes or khattas or pajjads (alll synonyms).

In the end it was all very goodie goodie as "freak kitchen cooks" would have called it.

2006-02-17T14:51:00.000+05:30

MESSAGE OF THE DAY

2006-02-16T17:16:00.000+05:30

Still in search of I

Having just returned from a OR;Operational Review, I was wondering in the boring moments of the presentations: what am 'I'?

'I' The most strong letter to be used in the most common places.

Or as Ayn Rand puts it; in the most sought after lines by a lover, "I love you", love is not as important as "I". Everyone can love, but only a few can dedicate their whole "I". And one can do so only when he can explain "I".

The first thought that goes on in my mind as an employee is "I" am a resource as every big person in the office says.
My definition of a big person: A usuallly fat male/female, usually married, usually carrying a laptop and usually the diguised unemployed person of the company.

Although I had to write a lot on this, but once again, my thoughts can't be put here in so little time so less a space and by so little of a thought such as mine.

Maybe I will think about it sometime more, and express my thoughts once again.

2006-02-15T14:56:00.000+05:30

MP3 Blogs
Just as I thought that I had listened to more than enough number of times each song on my playlist, I bumped to yet another blog. An MP3 blog.

For those who are unaware of such a phenomenon, as I was just a few days ago, such blogs post MP3 songs of varied genre.

Such a blog is capable to stream audio or enable you to download songs too.

One of the MP3 blogs that I liked is: http://blackballoonmp3.blogspot.com/
It serves quiet a unique variety of songs. A mix of hard rock and blues and much more.

I will be looking forward to more such MP3 gatherings......

2006-02-15T14:14:00.000+05:30

What DK did on V day??
I kept nagging him to tell me what he did on the first V day (Valentine's Day to clarify the too dumb ones reading this) after job.
So, at last he got so fed up, he opened up in his mail which I just recieved.
Read the full text below to see how witty his reply was.

Hi,
so u wanna know how was my day?

it was the same tuesday till 5 pm. then anjali pandey called me up. she is working in wipro .her office is just 2 km from mine. so we decided to go together to some
place for hangout.

we landed in "the forum" big shopping mall in bangalore. lots couples like us were having fun.some kind of programmes were organised in order to engage the crowds in the mall.we headed for pvr cinemas. i made an assumption that couples would not go for movies like us on V day so i thought that we could get movie ticket.

but she said thats wrong lots of couple go for movie as they have nothing much to say each other but still want to have time with each other ,so those people will go for movie.

ya she was right. tickets were sold out all...
then we went to pizza corner, no seat there too..then to pizza hut...
ya plenty of space..sat there ..had pizza that too veg as u know she was veggie. and i am both. omnivorous..

then headed to her appartment ..to download liquids from our body.and watched one or two songs in tv and played few overs of cricket..in hall. had some cake as she had cleard her GRE with score of 1320.that what written on cake.then we headed toward NGV builders club. u have table directly under the sky.it was getting cold. we ordered for chilli chicken and gobi amchurian and two bottle of bear one for each.

then came a missed call from rinchin my friend from kottayam medical college. he said he was in tivadrum hospital to see some of his friends relatives who
had met with an accident.

then i said goodnight to her and said to keep in touch and said if possible
shall meet at lunch time office hours.

so that was my V day..

finally one simple clearification anjali pandey is nitin pandey my iitg
football mate..we met after three months..even though we were in same city..

have nice day

2006-02-15T09:44:00.000+05:30

'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man'
--George Bernard Shaw

2006-02-14T14:27:00.000+05:30

Love, Freindship and Respect do not unite people as much as a common Hatred of something.

2006-02-14T09:38:00.000+05:30

Another one of my yesteryear pic

Going left to right you can find me(too damn sleepy), VNS, DK, Fido, Pondy, Boney and Sanky.

2006-02-14T09:14:00.000+05:30

If there were no words,
No way to speak
I would still hear you.
If there were no tears
No way to feel inside,
I'd still feel for you.
And even if the sun refused to shine,
Even if romance ran out of rhyme,
You wuld still have my heart until the end of time
You're all I need,
My love, my Valentine, where are you??

2006-02-13T20:53:00.000+05:30

"I always believed there were two kinds of men in this world, men who go to their death screaming & men who go to their death in silence,then I met the third kind… Men who laugh their way to immortality”
Found this dialogue of Rang De Basanti in one of my friend's blog, and felt like thinking over it again!

2006-02-13T17:01:00.000+05:30

Valentine's Day

Keep Smiling (even if you are in the office on this great day) as the other fellow will think what you are so happy about!!

2006-02-09T09:22:00.000+05:30

IIT Guwahati Footi Team

In some of the past boring hours I came across my pics from the days at IIT, when we used to venture out for some football matches, with some of the best known teams across India. (This may seem exaggerated to some but its nice to say a statement like that).

The pics posted here, although don't sail you through all the emotions, they may give a glimpse of what our team and team memebers were like.

Place: Guwahati. The journey started from the best transport which IIT could offer us.

Place: The same guwahati bus. The complete picture. The desperartion in some eyes, the look of anger in some (Ok! Ok! Anger is evident in the eyes of just the pink shirt man) and embarrasment in others.

Place: Outskirts of Guwahati. DK at one of his best moves ever.

Place: Chennai. Isn't that a perfect pose for YUVA, courage infront of a prison walls??

Place: Chennai football ground. A variety of emotions after losing losing a match.(well just not "a match"). Feeling dejected, powerless, lost......

Place: Calcutta Mall.

Place: Chennai Cineplex. People there just got more interested in our group than the posters behind us. No one wanted the movies anymore. At last the cineplex staff, feeling a danger from our presence, shooed us away.

Place: Chennai beach. So what, if we don't have girls in our group. We do have the enthusiams for ball room dance. This is DK and myself dancing away the match blues on the Chennai beaches.

Place: Chennai Beach. So, this is what its all about fun, masti and a happy ending. We gave our best, played our best but the other team was just better than us. We don't regret losing, we appreciate and cherish the efforts put in by everyone.

This is me(Ankush) signing off with (see left to right) bachcha, pondy and DK.

2006-02-06T16:43:00.000+05:30

Cheap shots

Before joining the corporate world, I had just heard about it, but now I am damn sure how cheap and mean can a company be......

Firstly, one of the best links ever, either, to kill off time or, to just chill out and keep in touch with friends all around the world, "www.orkut.com" was banned.

The following headline started appearing on the webpage:

Internet Usage Policy

Sorry, access to the requested URL is denied.

After much abusing, cursing and trying in vain to find alternative methods to open the weblink failed, we sat tired, damn tired.

Discussions over coffee tables were heating up on the issue. people were even thinking of giving a "supari" for the devil who made such a terrible decision.

As the time passed on, our volcano of anger was coooling down, just then "i think the final blow" was made. All the cricket sites were blocked. Suddenly, the life stopped for many die hard fans of cricket.

Well, now I am eagerly waiting for a soul who can take up an intiative just like in YUVA or RDB (thats what my friend calls Rang De Basanti as)......

2006-02-02T12:38:00.000+05:30

"Komilla the great"

Yeah really, didn't I tell you earlier about Komilla in our group. Well the name itself gives you an idea. Didn't you get a smile or a laugh after just thinking about such name???? Well, to get such a feeling, be honest and close your eyes for a moment, speak the word komilla. Doesn't it give you tingling.

Now I will take you to her work space. She works hard the whole day. Her workspace looks something like this:

Monitor infront of her with the screensaver going nuts after running for maybe hours.
Keyboard put aside to avoid clutter (didn't anyone tell you she has attended all the training to be ever offered including the 5 C one, which said that cluttered workspace leads to cluttered mind. So to increase efficiency remove the unwanted elements from your desk.)
Phone infront of her placed ergonomically for better handling.
And seat adjusted for resting and talking on phone for long hours.

After hours if she gets any work, her usual dialogue would be "Why don't I get any serious good work?"

We would just nod in agreement and say "Ya"

Then she would again call up her husband, and talk about the lot of work she gets.

Meantime her friend comes up and asks for tea, which she definitely can't refuse, after a tiring day. And God oh God she leaves her cell behind. The cells rings up in its loudest volume, a hand picked ringtone by her,"elephant walking" (this is what we have named).

Some of the neighbors get up and start yelling about the annoying tone and to keep it shut. But on and on it goes. At last, someone makes the phone on silent, so that it can at most make a buzzing noise, no more.

Too much of this hefty thing komilla will make your mind crazy, so rest sometime soon.